The Empire's Snare: A Rogue One Fanfiction

Hope Falls

    "You all have a something I need. Something the empire needs." Mara Jade said, her tone in likeness to a snake. She readied herself behind her ship's controls, and then turned around to look at them, her blaster in hand. "Except for you Mandilorian. All you and you and your family has ever given the empire is trouble." She fire her blaster too quickly for anyone to stop her or defend against it.

"No!" Blaze shouted as Rau fell to the ground. They had become brothers over their training and the past 24 hours. Blaze held Rau him in his arms as he died. Only he heard his last words.

"Too bad. So sad." Mars Jade started to set her course.

Jyn and Cassian exchanged another quick glance, right before Jyn charged at the cockpit.

"Really darling?" Mara stood.

Jyn punched Mara Jade in the face, then ducked to miss one from her. She was able to get her once more, in the gut, before the agent of the empire struck her down with a head to head hit. To which Jyn fell to the floor clutching her forehead.
Cassian picked up where she left off, and was only able to smack her across the face with his hard restraints once before she got the better of him.
As Jade shoved Cassian to the wall, she quickly dug a knife in his shoulder. "You're a little too pretentious for my taste Captain." Jade pulled out the knife and cocked her hand back for another stab, when she was hit on the back of the head.
Blaze stood over the downed assassin with a cargo container in hand.

"Thank you Blaze." Cassian said clutching his shoulder, and stab wound.

Jyn got up and quickly went to Cassian's shoulder injury, forgetting her own. "We've got to cover this up, and fast."

No sooner a smile came to Cassian's face, did the ship get shot down by Slave I. The bounty hunter had managed to get up and fire back, faster than anyone--besides Mara Jade--anticipated. Since they were near the atmosphere of a nearby planet, the ship of the Empor's hand promised a crash landing onto an unknown planet.

The crash was rough, but it could have been rougher still. Cassian managed to pull him Jyn and Blaze under the cockpit dash before the impact. Mara, even unconscious, had managed to sustain no fatal injuries as well. They quickly realized that they needed to flee the scene of the wreckage, but Cassian stopped to take a closer look at their second captor.

With her eyes closed, and her sleeping state, she showed her true age. She was so young. Only a teenager, a girl younger then the two of them but older than the cadets. Cassian had planed to finish her then and their, but seeing her age and understanding that her innocence had been stolen from her at a young age, much like himself, he left her there. He also left a women with a vendetta against him and his traveling companion, alive and well able to find him in the future. He didn't use to be that man, the one who let people live just because of a moral code. He had changed in the past few days, into someone he liked much better.

They left the wreckage of the ship, and Rau's corpse, to find themselves on a planet that was a literal war zone. Blaster fire flew from every which way. But it wasn't Imperial, or even Rebel blasters that were being fired. It was an all out war on this planet. Clan against clan, creatures that looked like insects were shooting at anything that moved or wore a different colored armor then them.

They ran into a general of the red armored clan, and he decided that he wouldn't kill them. Jyn made a deal with him to fight for his battalion for a secret attack, then they would be supplied a small freighter to leave the planet with.

As they snuck through rocky terrain, entering blue enemy territory, the group of 3 travelers and comrades at arms now felt the weight of the dead one of them they left behind. No one felt the burden as much as Blaze however. But it was to be expected, and there wasn't much Jyn or Cassian could do. They just followed the orders of their battalion leader, with their blasters drawn, and their eyes attentive.

    Jyn had Cassian's back and Cassian had her's. They exchanged weary smiles as they neared their intended attack location. The leader dropped his arm and the attack began.

    The blaster fire erupted the scene. The crew charged the blue clan's operation station. But there were more blues than the red clan expected. Cassian was nearly shot by a small native, when Jyn shoved him forward to the ground. She finished that opponent, and the two of them ducked to cover behind a crate of blasters, besides Blaze who was so in the battle that he wasn't by them for long.
  
    "We've gotta get to that sniper on the ridge." Jyn shouted as they watched red quickly become the minority.

    "I've got it." Cassian started to switch his weapon into the sniper configuration. "Get ready to cover me."

   Jyn nodded, then looked over her shoulder.

    Coincidence, fate, or the force. It mattered not how they met, it only mattered that they were allies now. Trusted friend, with an inkling of something more. Yet they didn't know each other all that well. It had only been a handful of days since they first met. But the trust they shared was incorruptible and true. Thus Cassian felt that they should get to know each other better.

"Jyn." He yelled through the noise of explosions and blaster fire not too far off.

"Yes" She shouted back, with worry on her face.

"You grew up on a farm?"

"Yes." She looked confused. "How is this relevant to our situation?"

"Jyn, we've hardly known each other three days. We know each other pretty well, but not well enough. So you were born on a farm?"

Jyn smiled. "No. I was actually born in Separatist captivity. My family moved all over after we got out, then we moved to the farm. That's the place I consider my home, where I grew up. The planet Lah-mu."

Cassian looked thoughtfully to the death filled battle about them. "And it was a peaceful upbringing? You enjoyed being a farmer's daughter?" He peeked his eye through his sniper's scope.

"It was. I enjoyed it as much as any girl would, who loved her family. Nothing else mattered because of that. So you can imagine what it was like for me to watch my mother get killed, and my father get taken by the empire. Our house was even burned to the ground. I found that out years later. But yes. It was a peaceful upbringing. My fondest memories are from that place."

    "Now." Cassian peeked his head over their cover and shot the sniper, as Jyn covered their position.

    "Nice shot Andor. Where were you born?"

    "They have our potion now, we'll not be safe here for much longer, let's go left."

    Jyn nodded.

    "And I don't know where I was born, I just know I grew up in a war zone. I too watched my mother die before my eyes. My father's death too. But then I was given a purpose, and a drive that helped me survive and serve the rebellion well. But my real home is the rebellion. Yavin 4."

    Jyn placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, as she saw the disparity from those memories fill his eyes. 

    He grasped her hand on his shoulder. "Let's go show these bugs what we're made of." He uttered, and then they rejoined the fight.