War Child--Rogue One

XLIV

We circle around to the far entrance.

I am pleasantly surprised to see that all of the guards were normal Coruscant ones, not stormtroopers. It's only a matter of time though.

We dismiss the team and hurry inside.

According to the plans Red has, we have to climb twenty flights of narrow stairs. Fortunately, everyone on a mission team is required to pass a biweekly fitness exam, to ensure that everyone is fit and in good fighting order. We run up the stairs easily.

All of us break a sweat and pant, but we're ready to continue as soon as we are at the top. There is a handful of guards outside of the door. Ciara and I take them out quickly, with our blaster silenced so none of them know they're being attacked until they are dead.

"Let's go."

There's an official looking man inside, but before he can hit the alarm button, Red steps forwards and knocks him out.  He lowers the man gently to the floor.

"Five minutes," I whisper.

The walls are lined with old metal cabinets. We each take a wall and work through the plans, tapping each holopad to see what shows up.

Linami ends up finding it. "Got it!"

"Hand it to me." I take it, put it on the ground, and shoot it.

She puts it back and we head back down.

It's a clean mission for us. We've lost two soldiers, but none since then. In, out, home.

My wife is safe, I'm safe, almost everyone else is safe.

"Andor!"

"Come in, Kubamanu."

"Stormtroopers!"

"Where?"

"All exits."

I curse and turn to the other three.  "Alright.  We're going to the entrance closest to the ship."

"May the Force be with us," Linami whispers.  Ciara and Red nod.

"Let's go."  I switch my blaster to combat configuration and we start down the hall. There's a break room full of workers that we sneak past. It seems like the whole place is on lockdown, because we encounter nobody in the halls.

When we get to the door, we can see the stormtroopers marching back and forth.

"I'm going to snipe some of the bastards," Ciara says.

I nod and switch my own blaster back to sniper and attach the silencer.

A half dozen fall before they notice their comrades have fallen. When they do, they line up and start shooting.

We all begin to fire.

I hear Red cry out. "Red!"

"I'm fine!" he grimaces. He's not fine.

"Status?"

"Wound to the arm."

"Which one?"

"Left. I can still fire."

"It's nice that they're lining up for us," Linami says with a smile.

"So considerate." I fire a blast of a dozen shots.

The stormtroopers disappear.

"I'm going to check it out," Linami says.

Before I can protest, she's poking her head out the door. A metal ball, with a blinking red light, bounces into the doorway.

Bomb.

"Linami!"

It's too late. The bomb explodes.

Linami is thrown backwards by the blast. She hits the wall, hard and goes down.

"Linami!" I scream from my stomach.

"Let's get out of here," Ciara yells, holding Red up by his good arm.

"I have to get her!"

"No!"

I sprint across, ducked low to keep out of the firing, and reach her. She's breathing, barely, her chest rising an falling, a strand of brown hair moving back and forth. I scoop her up.

"Stay with me!" I yell into her ear as I sprint towards the entrance to the hangar.

Red and Ciara run next to me, flinging the heavy door open so I can get her up onto the Ghost as quickly as possible.

I bang on the bottom of the gangplank.  "Open the bloody door!"

The door opens and I step back so we don't get crushed. Rees looks stupefied.

"Don't just stand there! Help me!"

Ciara has more medical training than me. She shoves me aside and gets to work.

Rees touches my shoulder. "Andor! You have to fly!"

"I can't leave her."

"You're the only one who knows how to pilot the Ghost. The faster we get back, the faster you can get help for Linami."

I lean past Ciara and plant a kiss on my wife's forehead.  Then I go to the controls.  Rees sits next to me, where I would normally sit.

The door above us opens as soon as I fire up the engines.  Thank the Force for the inside man.  A handful of TIE-Fighters chase us, about a half dozen, but they can't follow us once we jump to lightspeed.

As soon as we land, I sprint out of the gangplank.  "Find a medic!"

"Who is it?"

"Linami!  Captain Andor!"  I can't think.  I have to find her help.

I run to the medbay.  "We need a medic at the Corellian Ghost.  Captain Andor is in critical condition."

The dozen human medics jog out to the ship, and I go with them, wondering why they can't go faster.

"I've stopped the external bleeding," Ciara says, stepping back so the medics can ease my wife onto the stretcher.  "I believe there is internal bleeding, probably a severe concussion too."

One nods and thanks her quietly, then Linami is rushed off.

I sit down heavily on the bench Linami was just on and rest my head in my hands.  It's no use chasing after them.  I'll just get kicked out anyway.

All I can do is sit and wait for news.

Everyone leaves silently to report.  I know I should be there.  I know I should regretfully tell the friends and family of the two men who died about their heroic acts.

But all I regret is letting my wife go out and look.

I should have gone out there.

As the leader of the mission, it should have been me.

I should be the battered and bloody form on the stretcher.

I stand and kick the wall, groaning at the shooting pain in my toe.  It doesn't even compare to the pain she must be in though.

I go back to the cockpit and sit in her chair and cry.

I haven't cried this hard since Fest.

I cry because everyone I love ends up dying.  My father.  Theron, Lac.  Kai.  Mother.  If Linami leaves me too...

The ship jerks and I look up, startled.  The Ghost has been hooked up to a pair of trucks, and they're towing it to the hangar.  I don't think they realized I was on here before they started pulling.

Maybe it's for the best.  Maybe if I hadn't been in those people's lives, they would still be alive.