THE EIGHTH [han solo]

[2.03]

They were at war. The single thought rattled through Octavia's head as she swerved her ship to the left, giving Toni the perfect angle to shoot from. It was a dangerous game that they were playing, dodge, shoot, fly, shoot, dodge, fire, shoot, fly. They were almost killed multiple times, more ships fell down around them and Octavia had a hard time keeping her straight face. Just wanted everyone to be safe. She loved fighting and setting her own life on the line, but she didn't want any of the young innocent to loose their lives. Speaking of young innocents,
"Octavia, I've lost my gunner. You'll have to make this shot. I'll cover for you. Set your harpoon. Follow me on the next pass." Luke told her, and she shifted in her seats, ready to follow Luke.
"Rogue Leader." Octavia replied with a nod.
"Steady, Rogue Two." He said, an edge to his voice that wasn't there before. Octavia raced through the legs of one of the monstrous walkers, plummeting then pulling back up, her style dangerous but affective.
"Activate harpoon." Octavia said to Lilly, who relayed it to Toni. They both reached for the firing switch to activate the harpoon. The harpoon flashed out, and speeded towards the receding legs of the walker. There was a moment of tense silence, until the harpoon embedded itself into the leg of the walker. Octavia let out a breath of relief she didn't know she was holding in.
"Good shot Toni." She said, Lilly relaying it in Sign. They cheered for a second, before Octavia began spinning around and around the walker, tangling the legs as best they could without compromising their position, it was essential that they didn't get hit by anything at this stage, or everything would be over.
"One more pass?" Lilly asked?
"Coming around. Once more." Octavia told Luke. The Lighting skidded left to right infront of the giant legs, going as fast as it would without jumping to hyper speed, pulling the tangled cable behind it.
"Once more." Lilly said. Octavia swung The Lightning between the legs of the giant walker.
"Cable out! Let her go!" Toni signed to Lilly, who relayed it back to Octavia.
"Detach cable." She ordered. Lilly clicked a button, and the cable dropped from the back of the ship, who was speeding around violently.
"Cable detached." Lilly smirked, feeling proud of herself. The Lightning zoomed away into the distance, making a victory lap, Octavia was whooping into the comsline and Toni was signing quickly to Lilly, who was cheering.
"Don't get cocky now, we still got a job to do." Octavia said, smiling as she looked out of the window as the tangled legs of the ginormous war machine attempted to step forwards, but due to the cable, they were tangled. It couldn't move, and now that it had lost its balance, it wobbled precariously for a few seconds, that felt a lot longer to the apprehensive troops. It kept wobbling, then with a deafening boom, it crashed the the floor.
"Good job Vie!" Luke said over Comms.
"Told you I'm the best pilot in the damned Galaxy."
"Yeah, you're in the running." Leia joked, and Octavia breathed a sigh of relief. She was worried that the base had been taken.
"Thanks to Toni and Lilly too." Octavia added, grinning. The ground troops all began running towards the fallen Walker, Octavia circled around, ready to help them from the sky if needed, as they neared it, the walker exploded into a million pieces, the force of the explosion and the fireball sent ten or more troops flying backwards, some got up, but others didn't. Octavia smiled with tight-lips.
"It's not over yet boys." She said, shooting down at the rubble, incase of survivors. It wasn't likely, but covering all bases was something Octavia took pride in. There was a sudden yell from somewhere in Luke's general direction.
"Whaddid I miss boys?" Her words were slurred and unbalanced, but Ruby, Luke's gunner was conscious, not dead.
"Ruby I could kiss you right now!" Luke exclaimed happily, and she smiled.
"Save all that for later, we have a battle to be won." She said.
"Oh no, you are not doing anything like that, Octavia, cover for me, I'm getting Ruby to a transport."
"No way in seven hells Skywalker. I'm staying."
"Now is not the time. If Ruby wants to stay, she can. We have a battle to fight. Get back to it." Octavia ordered, taking over for a second. Luke sighed and rolled his eyes, and recouped himself.
"Right." He said, and swung his ship around. "There's only three of us left in the sky, from my squadron. One of us can't fire, and two of us can. I'll cover for Rouge Two, and Octavia you can handle yourself I assume?"
"You assume correct Blondie." She grinned. They may be at war, but war was where Octavia worked best.

The battle below Octavia raged on, it was violent and bloody, and as she swooped low she could see too many bodies to count. Luke's speeder and The Lightning flew in formation, banking from right to left and flying above the erupting battlefield.
"Tavia, are you all right?" Luke asked as her ship shook from an explosion near her, she swooped around and pulled back up.
"Peachy. Perfect. Everything going as planned." She said through gritted teeth.
"We'll set harpoon. I'll cover for you." Luke told her. Octavia nodded, pulling back, racing towards the giant walkers.
"Coming around." Octavia notified Luke.
"Watch that cross fire, boys." Luke said, absently into his comlink.
"And girls, we don't want any ladies getting hurt. Set for position three. Steady." She added the last bit, blowing a stray hair from her face.
"Stay tight and low." Ruby said from Luke's ship. Luke's speeder moved in formation with The Lightning, when suddenly it's hit by a large lazer.
"Damnit! Lilly, return fire!" Octavia yelled, hissing and pulling controls to keep her ship in the air. "This is a new ship too! Damnit why does this happen to my ships!" She yelled, Lilly and Toni returned fire, and Octavia managed to keep the ship into the air, but she was headed towards a looming walker. "Blondie! I'm gonna need some help over here!" She yelled, as the ship rocked dangerously back and forth in mid air. She pushed a couple of buttons, and shook more hair out of her face, desperately working to keep her crew alive, she had never felt more anxious, the knot in her chest tightened and tightened, then, the worst thing happened. As Luke flew towards Octavia to help her, his ship was hit in an explosion. Luke struggled with the controls with a look of terror on his face. The speeder filled with smoke, and electrical sparks jumped about the cockpit.
"Ruby, I've been hit!" Luke exclaimed.
"You don't say. I'm in this damned speeder with you." She replied.
"Octavia, we have to bring our ships down."
"I'm not abandoning my damn ship!" Octavia yelled, swerving and ducking lazerfire.
"Damnit Octavia you're going to have to!" Luke yelled, managing to set his ship down relatively safely. He pulled himself out of the smoking cockpit, and grabbed Ruby from her position. "How hurt are you." He asked her.
"I can't feel my right leg, I think my collar bone is broken, but other than that I'm fine." She said, touching the gash on her head that had stopped bleeding.
On the battlefield, Luke watched as a walker foot rises and moved over him and Ruby. He picked Ruby up with one arm. She huffed and allowed it to happen. He looked up at the underbelly of the huge walker, passing overhead, and was suddenly struck with an idea, a terrible one, but an idea nonetheless. He ran beneath the monstrous machine, and fired his harpoon gun at the walker's underside. A thin cable followed the projectile from the gun and the magnetic head and cable attached themselves firmly to the metal hull. They were not coming loose anytime soon. Still running under the walker, Luke attached the cable drum to his belt buckle. With his hand free, he pulled Ruby into a bridal style lift. Soon the both of them were pulled up by the the cable and hung dangling mid-air underneath the walker. The walker's giant feet continued to pound onward across the frozen snow, headed towards the base. Stray laser bolts whistled by Luke and Ruby as he retracted the cable, so it pulled the both of them up to the hull. There, lay a small hatch, just big enough for the both of them to get through. Hanging precariously, Luke cut the solid metal hatch with his lightsaber.

Octavia refused to land. She could, and would not bring the ship to the ground. Not while she was breathing anyway.
"Do either of you know how to fix this kind of ship?" She asked. Lilly shook her head.
"I don't, but Toni does."
"Tell Toni to get below deck and try fix this up. I am not landing this thing on that battlefield. We'd die within minutes. The best chance we have is to get into Hyperspace, but I don't think it would be safe, unless-" Octavia trailed off, not wanting to think about that possibility. She had the force, she could use it to propel them away from Hoth, and maybe she could get all three of them to safety. Then she saw Luke, being stupid as per normal, with Ruby clinging onto him.
"Make that seconds." She muttered to herself.
Luke took a landmine from around his neck and threw it inside the Imperial machine.  Quickly, Luke started down the cable and crashed onto the icy ground far below. He lay unconscious as a giant rear leg passed by - and just missed him, Ruby was lay on top of him, but she was conscious. She stood up, and yelled down her comlink for help. The giant walker stopped in mid-step.  A muffled explosion came from within, and then the walker's mechanical insides spewed out every conceivable opening.  The machine sat dead in its tracks, smoking like a train on stilts.
"Octavia, Toni say's she's fixed it as best she-" Octavia didn't get to hear what the rest of that sentence was. She never heard Lilly's voice again, never saw Toni's small hands making signs. The thing was, that she didn't really know them that well, but, as the comlink turned to static, she knew that they were gone. The Lightning started plummeting to the ground, and Octavia thought that it might be the end for her. She took one last look at the picture on the dash, and closed her eyes pushing them shut, and let her body feel all the pain, and then feel nothing at all.