The Mechanic

XXV

XXV The Battle

Rey

Everyone burst into action around me, readying for the attack that was no doubt coming. I was an idiot. What was I thinking stealing Aelin's ship? There were plenty of other ships to choose from and I chose hers. I'm going to die. Nobody stopped to greet me as they rushed around gathering weapons, no one but yourself to blame. I did it to get back at her, I supposed. No, it was the nearest ship, Jedi don't do revenge. I am a Jedi. Jedi don't do revenge.

Aelin

We're going to launch a full scale attack. End this war. One problem, she stole my ship. With my weapons. I'm going to kill her. It's been a long time since I've had to deal with an injury as severe as my leg, so I'm trying to attack the rebels at, maybe, half my capability. At least until I get into the swing of things, I learnt to fight with injuries right after- you know, I got caught. It can mean life or death, fighting with an injury, so I learnt to do it. You should take advice from me, I should write an autobiography: How Not to Die by Yours Truly and the thrilling sequel: I'm Dead, What Do I Do Next. Okay, shut up Aelin. You need to focus. I grabbed two large blasters from my workshop and an array of different explosives. They'd have to do, until I could get on my ship.

~~~

"Copy that, I'm going in,"

"Aelin, no," Ben's voice came over the comm.

"Aelin, yes. Besides I need to get to my ship, I have two modified blasters here, I'll be fine," Ben started to protest but I switched the comms off. I initiated the landing sequence and grabbed an ear piece. Immediately I heard angry shouts of my name. I took it out.

I stepped off the ship guns blazing, not really looking where I was going, just heading in the general direction of the rebel base. All around me I heard the battle begin, the ground shaking thumps of the AT-AT walkers and deafening blasts of various explosives.

It's difficult to describe what happened next. Chaos is the word for it, complete and utter chaos. The battle had been raging for well over an hour now and I still hadn't got to my ship, I was surrounded by a constant onslaught of fire and was get annoyed. That was my first mistake. I decided to make a mad dash for my ship and use every explosive I had to get there. I started to run flinging bombs behind me and running as fast as I could with my leg. Apparently, that wasn't as fast as I thought and whoever the hell was chasing me was catching up. The ship, I could see it and broke into a sprint. I was metres away when I caught sight of Ben who was of course fighting Rey. He was losing, badly. I looked around and saw that all of the First Order was losing, badly. I can still do this. That was my second- or was it third? mistake.

Suddenly there was a sharp jolt of pain in my bad leg and I fell to my knees, twisting around I saw Poe. He had kicked me in the leg! He grabbed my weapons and shouted at someone to get some handcuffs. Ben looked at me. I tried to give him an encouraging smile, but it was too late. Rey punched him and he fell to the ground. The battle was over. We had lost. What happened next? I got what I deserved.