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THE Imperial cargo shuttle lurched as it left the grip of hyperspace, the pink and white hues of space melting to replace the fragmented sapphire of lightspeed. Centred in the viewports main window was an ocean-shrouded planet streaked with whispers of clouds and sand. For a moment Kit wondered how a planet so peaceful from this distance could hold the secrets of the Empire's planet-killer, when the only signs of occupation was the ring-shaped orbital station above the planets northern-hemisphere.
"Okay," Bodhi said, "We're coming in." The former Imperial sat at Kit's shoulder, with K-2's hunched figure hovering in the space between them.
Without a backwards glance Bodhi waved his hand, and Jyn melted from the shadows behind them, squeezing herself in between K-2 and Kit. The droid stubbornly refused to budge and instead forced Kit to shift to give her sister space.
"What am I looking at?" The older brunette asked. Kit glimpsed the silvery glint of a ship descending through the centre of the planet's orbital ring, and she noticed a glimmer just outside the stations border.
"There's a planetwide defensive shield with a single main entry gate," Bodhi said. "The shuttle should be equipped with an access code that allows us through."
"Assuming," K-2 countered pessimistically, "the Empire hasn't logged it as overdue."
"Or stolen." Kit added.
"And if they have?" Jyn asked.
"Then they shut the gate," Bodhi said, shifting his elbow like she was shrugging, "and we're annihilated in the cold, dark vacuum of space."
Kit's lips slanted upwards in the beginning of a grin. She liked Bodhi like this — comfortable, confident, even cynical. It was refreshingly familiar.
"Not me," K-2 declared boldly. "I can survive in space."
Had it been any other day Kit might have mustered some kind of witty remark to Cassian's droid. But something about the impending sense of death that hung over them sewed her lips into a thin line, muting any thought that came to mind. Instead, she dug her fingernails into the beds of her palms as the shuttle began to veer towards the gate.
