Star Wars - Hoth Scenario

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An alarm blared through the hangar, a constant reminder of the Empire’s approach. Although everyone expected it, the sudden shriek of alerting noise made Eilen Jath shudder and her exposed fur stand up as she ran into the hangar. Her ears couldn’t quite fold down low enough to block out the noise, but she wasn’t about to slow down on her own account. There was going to be a battle, and her heart pounded at the thought of the part she would have to play in it. Whether it beat from excitement or fear, she couldn’t quite tell, nor did she have time to figure that out at the moment.

Eilen’s assigned T-47 Airspeeder was at the far end of the hangar, leaving her twisting and sliding past just about everyone else trying to board and prepare the other ships. Her orange-and-white flight suit still wasn’t fully on, with her left arm out of its sleeve and wrapped around her helmet. It was a problem she could resolve when she was certain her own vehicle was ready. Thankfully, it seemed her gunner had arrived much sooner.

As if she sensed Eilen’s approach, Kaydee looked over as soon as the furry girl came into view. “Where the blazes have you been?”

“You know,” Eilen called up to the Ishi Tib, “suit stuff!”

Kaydee growled with some frustration as Eilen tossed her helmet into her seat. “If you were as bad at flying as you are at getting dressed, we’d crash at the first hill out the hangar.”

Eilen shrugged and lept deftly onto the left wing of the speeder. “I get it from my dad.”

“Hey, don’t bother getting in,” Kaydee added, slowly flexing her fingers. “We’re not flight-ready yet. We’ve got a malfunction, some… disconnect on the starboard power couplings.”

“Do we?” Eilen’s ears twitched backward as she climbed across the speeder onto its right wing.

The paneling was already unlocked and removed from the coupling with a few tools scattered around it, leaving its inner workings exposed. From a first glance, a few small scorch marks indicated something had burned. The coils had no signs of major damage, but had no solid connections between them.

“The mechanic just ran off to fetch replacement wiring,” Kaydee added. “Meanwhile, some of the ship’s systems are gonna need a hard reset. I’ve already got to recalibrate the rear blaster’s targeting system from scratch...”

As the Ishi Tib continued, Eilen fished out what wires remained and judged their lengths. An odd idea crossed her that might work to get them airborne, though it wouldn’t be a permanent fix by any means. She turned her head for any sign of a mechanic approaching, but among all the commotion in the hangar, it didn’t seem anyone was directly moving their way. The other speeders were already beginning to lift off, one-by-one, without them.

“No time,” Eilen muttered. Without hesitation, her clawed fingers dug at the bindings on her suit’s small life support box.

“What the-” Kaydee’s beak hung briefly, puzzled and frowning. “You haven’t even gotten fully suited, and you’re taking it off? This isn’t the time, Eilen!”

“I just need... this!”

As the box came free of her suit, she grabbed one of the tools on the wing and ripped into the back of the device. Inside, a power supply, some small chambers, and wiring made up a mess she certainly couldn’t read very well. However, all that mattered to her at the moment were the wires, which she unceremoniously ripped out. Chucking the box aside, Eilen bent back down to the power couplings and began picking through her new selection of wires, trying to find something to match the coils.

“That box was the only thing that’ll keep you breathing if the ship has another failure,” Kaydee warned, her eye stalks lowering.

Eilen nodded without thinking about it too much. Her tail flicked behind her as she found the matches she needed. Each wire was quickly tied between the split ends, re-linking the coils in scrappy fashion. Perfect solution or not, she was determined to jury rig this speeder to fly here and now. “Is that gun calibrated yet?”

Kaydee sighed in obvious frustration. She flexed her fingers carefully, again. “Almost, but-- Blast it, Eilen, that’s not gonna hold. Those wires aren’t the same grade; if it gets too heated, it’s gonna blow mid-flight.”

“That’s what the cold is for.” Her makeshift handiwork done, Eilen bit the collar of her suit and pulled her loose arm into its sleeve. “Ih’wwast wom f’ight, I’wshure of ih.”

All Kaydee could do was blink. “What?”

With her arm in place, Eilen spit out her collar and began re-securing her suit’s flak vest. “We’ll be fine!”

Kaydee grumbled, but grabbed Eilen’s helmet for her as the furred girl climbed into her seat. Now fully suited, Eilen gritted her teeth as she tried to power up the speeder. Lights blinked and flickered, letting her worry for an instant, but ultimately, the ship whirred to life. A confident chuckle escaped her as she quickly scanned the screens for any further issues. Sure enough, the sensors had reset and the nav computer needed a full recalibration, but the power couplings were holding for now, and that meant the speeder would fly.

“Alright come on, we gotta get out there,” Eilen said with haste.

Before she even had to ask for her helmet back, Kaydee pushed it down onto her head, slightly crooked.

“...If we crash, I’ll kill you myself,” Kaydee said in a tone somewhere between scorn and playful banter. A sharp exhale followed, and she allowed her fingers to flex once more.

Eilen’s nose wrinkled as she adjusted the helmet to make room for her ears. Like a lot of non-humans in the Alliance, it had to be custom made to fit her, and would only sit right at exactly one angle. As soon as it was straight, she retorted with a smirk, “Then I’ll have to crash rear-first. But, may the Force be with us so we don’t, right?”

“Force be with you,” Kaydee said with little emotion. She shook her hands loosely, scratched at some flakes in her skin, then reached for her helmet. “You’re the one with foresight or whatever. I don’t like this, but I’m trusting you.”

Much as she appreciated the thought, Eilen knew her connection with the Force didn’t exactly predict the future. “That’s not really how it works…”

Looking back at her, Eilen’s brow slanted as she noticed the flakes forming in her skin. A creature like Kaydee needed to submerge in water fairly often to keep her body from drying out with severe side effects, the first of which was already showing.

“Hey, you alright there?” Eilen asked. “...When was the last time you were in water?”

“Yesterday.” Kaydee didn’t hesitate, and situated a uniquely designed helmet of her own. A sudden tone of assurance took over her voice. “I’ll be fine, Eilen. Just get us going.”

In spite of the task they had, Eilen felt a twinge of concern for her amphibious partner, especially in the dry, cold climate this planet offered. Either way, it wasn’t anything they could fix now. “You better be.”

It was the last comment they’d each have time for before take-off. Kaydee pulled the canopy closed over their heads as Eilen gave lift to the accelerators. Moments later, the speeder rose and ignited its repulsorlifts to chase after the rest.

The entryway that had merely been a wide, bright light quickly grew larger as Eilen sped out of the hangar. For a second as she passed through it, the world went white, bright enough to blur Eilen’s vision momentarily. As her eyes adjusted, the view didn’t change much: white, everywhere. Fields and hills and mountains in the distance created a jagged and uneven natural scene, all blanketed by snow over layers of ice. Only the sky itself began to colorize in her normalizing vision, but even it wasn’t much above the hazy horizon. Hoth was barren, but for a wasteland, Eilen had always thought it was somewhat beautiful. For a moment, she almost wished she could see the view from the tallest mountain on the horizon.

“Hey, snap out of it,” Kaydee said, catching Eilen before her mind drifted too far.

Eilen winced and locked her eyes forward with a nod. “Yeah, I’m here…” Her view drifted only once more, briefly toward the speeder’s status readings. Nothing had gone wrong yet.

Several more speeders dotted the snow in front of her, bobbing and weaving as they raced forward at low altitude. Eilen wasn’t going to catch up to them at this rate, but a sudden static noise from the speakers told her she was close enough. Intership comms flared as each speeder in the squadron sounded off, and Eilen followed suit as “Rogue-Fourteen” when her turn came. For the time being, they held a loose formation, keeping their trajectory locked toward the Echo Base shield generator.

The plan was simple, but that didn’t make it easy by any means. The Empire was undoubtedly making a push for the shield generator. If it went down, they’d have a chance to blow away the entire Alliance from orbit. As such, any and all soldiers in the fields beyond Echo Base were tasked with defending the generator, with their lives if necessary. If nothing else, they had to slow down the assault, to give the Alliance time to evacuate. As a respective airspeeder pilot and gunner duo, Eilen and Kaydee had the task of taking on Imperial vehicles, and judging from the reports coming in, they’d be facing walkers - massive AT-ATs and lesser AT-STs.

As the squadron of speeders passed the shield generator, it was evident the Alliance had given everything they had to put up a solid defense with ground soldiers. Unfortunately, if those walkers got within range, nothing would be able to stop them. Though it was still quite a distance from here, the battle would have already begun, and Eilen could only hope the other outposts had managed to slow down the Empire’s assault. The speeders only had to cross over one more hill to give them an answer.

By the time the larger, four-legged walkers came into her view, Eilen already knew there were several on approach, signaled by the ships long ahead of her. The squadron was already forming a plan of attack by the time she was flying into the field, evident as the speeders broke into groups of two and three in front of her to take on each of the four-legged walkers.

“Rogue Squadron, this is Rogue-Fourteen, I’m right behind you,” Eilen signaled forward.

“Jath,” her commander quickly responded, “those-- Ah, blast it… Jath, those ground troops are under fire, they need a shot on the smaller walkers.”

“I’m on it, sir,” she responded confidently. As chatter continued between other squad members, Eilen briefly turned back to her gunner. “That thing better be ready!”

“Good as it gets,” Kaydee responded quietly, preparing the rear gun. “Get me a damn shot.”

The speeder shot over the ground troops’ heads and hung low as it curved toward a pair AT-STs that had run ahead of the larger walkers. The two-legged walkers managed to knock out one of the cannons firing back at it before Eilen came within range. With a jolt, she opened fire with the speeder’s forward guns. It wouldn’t cause any major damage, if any, but that wasn’t her immediate intention. As she’d hoped, one of the walkers’ heads raised and rotated to face the oncoming speeder. It only had time to shoot once before Eilen raced the speeder past it and arced around.

“Fire!” Eilen shouted.

Kaydee had squeezed the trigger before she’d even spoke, the gun drowning out her voice as it blasted behind them. Four shots fired before they were out of range, though the walker still stood. Its head spun around to chase them, but not fast enough to get another shot of its own lined up.

“It’s still kicking,” Kaydee muttered.

“Not for long.” Eilen was already spinning around for another pass.

As the speeder arced back to face the AT-STs again, Eilen spared a moment to glance out at the starboard power coupling again. The internal mechanisms were still exposed, as she’d left them, but as far as she could tell, that was at least keeping the heat down enough to not blow out her rig. A part of her wondered if it would have worked on a planet that wasn’t frozen solid, though this wasn’t the time to entertain the thought. Her attention came back in time to hear something over the comms about strong armor and using harpoon guns. Before she could ask for a repeat, a sudden, separate feeling of danger overcame her senses.

As if on cue, Kayde shouted, “Jath, evade!”

She didn’t ask what from, and pulled the speeder right immediately. Judging from the sound of massive weapons fire, one of the larger walkers further back in the field was firing at their backside. To keep its targeting off of her, Eilen quickly spun the ship left and arced the other way. As she did, two other speeders heading toward the walker shot by only meters overhead.

“Damn it, girl, watch it!”

“We’re fine,” Eilen tried to assure, glad her gunner couldn’t see the wide-eyed look on her face at the moment. “Coming back around, that two-legger’s gotta go.”

An explosion sounded off behind them as Eilen re-adjusted her approach toward the AT-STs. Much as she wanted to see who’d blown up who, the two-legged walkers were already firing back at them, putting Eilen’s maneuvers on the defense.

“I’m cutting it close,” Eilen warned.

“Just pass them!”

Eilen swerved the speeder from a left-side approach to the right, evading another burst of shots. With one wing close to the ground, they flew down and around the first walker again, soaring back toward the trenches in the ground. The walker’s head spun to follow them, again not fast enough to keep up with the speeder at such a close arc. Kaydee fired back as they passed it, landing two hits: one on its head, and another on one of its unarmored legs. The shot to its leg blew a gaping hole near a joint, leaving the walker stumbling until it collapsed on its side. Alliance cannons let loose on the downed AT-ST, sending its remains into a fiery burst. Meanwhile, the second walker now had its sights set on the fleeing speeder.

“That got their attention,” Kaydee assured.

A sly grin crossed Eilen’s face. That was all they needed to do to give the Alliance soldiers enough of an edge to fight back. “I’ll circle back, keep up the pressure.”

Although Eilen’s trajectory was set for another pass, the chatter amidst the comms suddenly signaled their speeder. “Rogue-Fourteen, regroup! We’re losing speeders - we need everyone on those AT-ATs!”

Eilen glanced out the side of the canopy at her previous target. A quick look didn’t give her confidence, as the walker was already bringing its attention back toward the ground troops. She almost ignored the order to help them further, stopped only by the nagging voice in the back of her head that it would all be for nothing if the AT-ATs reached the shield generator.

“I copy,” she responded, somewhat reluctantly. “We’re on our way!”

The voice from before came back through the comms as the speeder turned sharply off its course from the two-legged walker. A plan was just being relayed, when suddenly power to the speeder flickered. Eilen’s heart skipped a beat as the vehicle sputtered, shook briefly, then lit up again. She heard Kaydee curse loudly as she desperately fumbled at the power switches. The comms came through with some breaks, not enough to make out the attack plan. With enough altitude to last a few moments, Eilen’s eyes double-checked every screen in the ship before she dared to return her full attention to flying it.

“I didn’t read that,” she said with concern. “Repeat!” Her eyes began darting between the controls and the open power coupling as the the communicator was steadily restored.

“I said, pr--are your towing c--ble!” The voice was robotic, but clear enough. “Go for the legs!”

Eilen nodded somewhat frantically to nobody in particular. “Kaydee, get tow cable prepared!”

“Your blasted rig is breaking on us, Eilen! We can’t stay in the air like this!”

“Just do it!”

Kaydee snarled, frustrated. “Damn it, Jath!”

In spite of her discomfort, the Ishi Tib set the rear gun to fire its tow cable on command. As Eilen flew them on a course toward the massive, four-legged walkers, two other speeders circled around to fly alongside them. As the other two kept their altitude, Eilen flew low to the ground, bobbing her speeder as they crossed over the small hills and drops within the snow.

There were four AT-ATs ahead, each getting dangerously close to the foot soldiers’ trenches. It didn’t look like any of them had even been scratched - that was, until Eilen caught a glimpse of a speeder in the distance flying out from around one walker’s feet. The speeder must have done its job well, because only moments later, the walker tripped forward, falling onto its head and exposing its neck. One of the speeders over Eilen broke off to make an attack run on the downed behemoth, sending the entire machine up in flames at its shots lit up the walker’s neck.

Eilen cheered for the small victory, and quickly curved her ship to face the next nearest walker. “Get ready to drop this bastard, Kay!”

“Mind the feet,” Kaydee warned in response. “Sucks for him, I can’t tell him the same.”

The walker saw them on approach, and fired its lower cannons at the speeder. Eilen dodged the moment she saw its head turning, leaving the walker’s shots in the snow. Although it missed, the speeder rattled briefly as the projectiles zoomed past, almost too close. As she drew near the walker’s legs though, something seemed off. The speeder suddenly began leaning right, and not under Eilen’s control. She tried to compensate before they would miss their chance, reducing speed as she passed the AT-AT’s feet.

“You good there, pilot?” Kaydee asked, having clearly noticed their sudden dip in control.

“I-- Yeah!” Eilen didn’t want to think about what would happen otherwise. “Fire now!”

Kayde released the cable, landing a hit against the walker’s ankle. Eilen tilted the controls left to fly around it, realizing as she did that the speeder wasn’t turning as sharp as it should. The ship made a wide arc around the AT-AT as she tried to compensate further, only barely making the first full pass around its legs.

Then she saw it. Sparks, coming off the starboard wing, beginning to burn from the power coupling. Before Eilen could even react, the speeder’s power went completely out, still rocketing forward in unregulated rotation with its cable wrapped around the walker.

Eilen could already feel the speeder tilting, beyond her help. “No no no nono!!”

“Oh, you have GOT to be--”

The two were both thrown left into the canopy as the speeder was yanked into the opposite rotation by the cable, now at its end. It snapped, leaving the vehicle to spin through the air as it fell toward the ground. They could only hold onto their fasteners as the speeder tilted in its spiral, and hit the ground wing-first. Upon impact, its wing crumpled and broke. The cockpit continued forward by momentum and kicked up a mound of snow as it collided and slid into the ground. The speeder finally came to a stop, the fire on its right wing still burning.

Eilen was unconscious, her helmet’s visor cracked, and her left shoulder clamped between the broken metals along the left side of the canopy. Kaydee groaned, agonized from undeterminable damage she could feel in her back. Broken glass littered both of their flight suits. The Ishi Tib took a few moments to get a breather before daring to try to move.

The sounds of mechanical stomping, flying engines, and endless blaster fire continued from all directions around the crashed speeder, yet all of it seemed distant as Kaydee lifted a shaking hand. With the cold, dry air of Hoth blowing over them now, her flaking skin was beginning to crack. She shuddered at the thought that she might soon feel the same cracking on the inside. Between the cuts from the glass, however, it didn’t look much worse on the surface just yet.

“Eilen,” Kaydee muttered weakly with a cough. She let out an agonized groan as she tried to turn around in her seat to face the pilot. It took some effort, but she raised an arm and bumped her elbow against Eilen’s head. “Eilen!”

On contact, Eilen gasped suddenly awake, breathing heavily and rapidly. Wide-eyed, she scanned everything, quickly realizing the ship was on the ground in shambles. Eilen barely heard Kaydee mutter a thankful note as her attention was suddenly taken by an overwhelming sting throughout her left arm. A pained groan escaped her when she tried to remove it from the metals trapping it.

“Blast it,” Kaydee said through another cough. “Stay still, girl…”

The Ishi Tib’s beak hung loose as she reoriented herself in her seat, clearly taking a lot of effort to move just that much. Kaydee soon had an arm braced on Eilen’s seat and a grip on the metals pressing into her shoulder.

“Deep breath,” she warned with a strain. “...Wanna show off those powers you’ve got?”

Eilen gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. As Kaydee dug into the metals around her, it took a lot of focus to keep from crying out again. Her gunner had a point, though. There were a few tricks Eilen had learned to control with the Force, and at the moment, they seemed useful. Eilen’s nose wrinkled as she wrestled her other arm free and held it up to her trapped shoulder. She took a deep breath, attempting to gather her focus and pour it into the remains of the ship. Her jaw clamped and her fingers twitched as she called upon the Force. A tremor was felt through her hand, and with Kaydee’s help, the metals bent back just enough to release her.

Exhausted and in pain, both of them just sat limply for a few moments, catching their breath. Eilen’s shoulder still ached fiercely, the pain almost drowning out the sounds of battle around them. Although nothing was shooting at their downed ship yet, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t be spotted moving beneath the wreckage before too long.

Intent on getting the both of them out, Eilen used her good hand to remove her helmet and get a better look at herself. More shards of broken glass slid off and cracked on the floorboards and shattered control panels with every movement. Though Eilen was no medical expert, her shoulder looked out of place.

“That’s gonna need a fix,” said Kaydee between heavy breaths, likely checking her pilot’s shoulder as well. She nodded to herself and reached forward over the seat again. “Don’t move…”

As the gunner’s hands lowered, Eilen saw the breaks in her flaking skin amidst the glass cuts. “...Kay, you need water…” At this point, the Ishi Tib probably needed more than that. “You need a doct--”

Eilen was cut short as Kaydee jolted her arm against her shoulder. Another shriek flew out, accompanied by a rough rocking noise beneath her skin and a sudden feeling of proper placement. Her arm felt better and worse for it altogether.

“Better?” Kaydee asked, dropping herself loosely over the seat again.

“No,” Eilen moaned. “...You?”

Kaydee shook her head, her words still weak. “Back’s seen better days.” She sighed, then fell silent for a few moments. “...Some rig, Eilen. I told you it wouldn’t last.”

Eilen grumbled, and quietly argued, “What was I supposed to do, sit on my tail while people got killed?”

“Probably better than sitting on it now without a way to get us or anyone else out of this mess.”

Eilen couldn’t find much to say back. The two remained quiet, the sounds of battle still around their crash site, until her breathing had finally calmed. “...I tried. I’m sorry.” She grunted as she tried to move her legs. They didn’t seem too beaten up, thankfully.

A sudden explosion nearby made both of them shudder. Looking up, they spotted an AT-AT blowing smoke from its head and a volley of holes, as if it was destroyed from the inside-out. The four-legged mechanical behemoth buckled its legs and fell right, sending a small shock through the ground as it crashed down. Two speeders flew overhead, making an arc around its remains, but only one turned around as the other was shot out of the air.

Eilen was breathing heavier again, and leaned her head back in what remained of her seat. The reality of where they were was sinking back in, the sounds of battle seeming louder than before. Fewer blasters were firing, a sign that someone was retreating, and it certainly wasn’t the remaining walkers. Their mechanical legs still stomped. The sounds of flying speeders were few and far between. A small fire still cackled and sent electric sparks into the air from the starboard side of their ship. The stomping was growing louder.

Eilen’s ears twitched and raised. A crooked looked crossed her face as she turned her head up to see an AT-AT approaching their crash site. It wasn’t pointing any guns at them yet, but it was obvious playing dead would get them stomped into the snow.

“You’ve got to be kidding...”

With some effort, Eilen pulled a foot into her seat and began to push herself up. The last of the glass shards on her flight suit clinked and cracked on the floorboard as she straightened herself out. The walker fired overhead at something behind them, though she hardly noticed as she grunted in pain and turned to help Kaydee.

The Ishi Tib’s skin was cracking all over. Her beak hung loose, wordless but still breathing. Eilen was down an arm and certainly didn’t have the muscle to carry her, but she had to try something.

“Eilen, I’m done,” Kaydee muttered. “I’m not getting out.”

“The hell you’re not,” Eilen retorted.

Kaydee shook her head. “Gonna be bleeding on the inside within an hour… If not already.” She sighed and coughed again. “I was wrong… Your Force won’t save me, now.”

Much as Eilen didn’t want to admit it, their odds weren’t looking good, at the moment. Very few Alliance speeders were still in the air, and the ground troops were being annihilated. Trying to call for help right then, much less get to safety, was a longshot at best. Eilen ached from the crash, Kaydee was dying for all either of them knew, and they certainly didn’t have a back-up plan.

And yet, Eilen refused to surrender. Making up a plan one step at a time was better than waiting to die, and the first step for now had to be getting Kaydee to move.

The mechanical stomps were drawing very near. A loud blaster almost overhead went off, accompanied by a few others not much further away. Only a moment later, her ears twitched at the sound of a massive explosion in the distance. Judging from the size of the fiery burst on the horizon, they’d destroyed the Echo Base shield generator. With that, the Empire would certainly win the battle. All that mattered now was escape. Concern lined Eilen’s face as she turned her head back to the AT-AT approaching. They didn’t have long to get out of its way.

She looked back down at Kaydee, and closed her eyes. With her good hand raised, Eilen summoned her powers once more, trying her best to shove out the pain in her injured arm. She felt her expression cringe, her injury pulsing, the cold air blowing against more than just her thin figure, and then the speeder’s remains beneath her feet. The fire, the shattered glass, the bent and broken metals, it all became present within her mind, as did the feeling of fading, pained breathing, and impending death within her arm’s reach. There was more - danger, anger, fear, victory, loss, creaking machinery, and volleys of heat sinking into everything that moved. The snow that surrounded it all, the massive machine stepping closer; it was there, but it was beyond her cares. Eilen focused on the form of her gunner, hung weakly on the back of her seat, and willed that it move. Her fingers trembled as she began to lift it.

Eilen could feel aching throughout Kaydee as she slowly levitated. A groan of pain from the gunner echoed in her mind, and for a moment, Eilen winced with her at it. She could not falter now, though.

Eilen stepped back, her feet dragging against the wreckage and lifting at every bump and break. Kaydee floated back with her, until Eilen’s feet struck snow. The feeling of walking on crunching, frozen flakes was a bizarre transition, and as she nearly slipped, Eilen let go. Kaydee dropped with a thud onto the snow, grunting in agony as another wave of pain shot up her back. Eilen’s eyes flicked open as she staggered.

Upon snapping back to her surroundings, Elien sensed that something was immediately off. Between the gunshots, the fly-by ships, the overall sounds of war, something was missing, and she had a bad feeling about it. She cranked her head around, still seeing the assault in progress, the walkers marching onward, when suddenly it hit her. The stomping so very near moments ago had ceased, but the AT-AT’s joints still grinded with movement. Eilen whipped around, and felt her entire body lurch as she realized the walker’s head and all of its weapons were lowering toward them.

There was no time to say anything. Eilen called on any willpower with the Force she could muster in the moment, and shoved Kaydee across the snow on her back, out of the way of the walker. With her ally safe for the moment, she drew the blaster at her belt, aimed high, and fired three diminutive shots at the mechanical behemoth’s head. It wouldn’t do anything to hurt it, not even by chance, but Eilen was counting more than anything on just drawing it away from her helpless friend.

Whether or not her attempt at a distraction had actually helped was debatable for such a small force, but the walker’s head and all four of its guns did indeed point toward her. Despite falling into place as she had intended, Eilen was now faced with the next problem, which was exactly that: there were four immense guns pointed at her.

Running away at this point would only put her in its sights faster. Attempting to fight back would be no different from the quarrel between a bug and a boot. And so, Eilen kept her injured arm tucked and bolted forward, toward the walker’s feet.

A deafening double-blast put a small crater in the ground where she’d just been standing. The force of impact was enough to stagger Eilen, though she caught herself on her good hand and kept running forward. Whoever was piloting the walker would have none of this, however, and the machine’s frontmost leg suddenly hoisted into the air. Eilen skidded on her heel and darted left just before its foot came down, again shaking the ground upon impact and nearly knocking her off her feet. The walker’s right foot would have a go at her as well, albeit less accurate than the first as Eilen slipped directly beneath the AT-AT and out of its pilot’s sights.

The hulking machine's pistons and gears hissed overhead as Eilen ran at its back feet. Whatever its plan to counter her was at that point, it began walking forward again, shoving its back foot forward in a blind effort to slam or crush her. With nothing to repel its attack, Eilen dove out of the way.

The shock from its next stomp knocked her off her feet, with a hard landing onto her wounded shoulder. Eilen grunted in agony, and for an instant, realized she was vulnerable. By her luck though, something new was approaching, and the AT-AT turned its attention elsewhere.

As the mechanical movement droned on above her, massive blaster fire sounded off again, at something in the other direction. Whatever it was, it must have hit, because an explosive sound followed. Eilen looked up in time to see an airspeeder rocket past the walker. The ship left a trail of thick smoke in its wake and spiraled out of control toward the wastes left behind the Imperial front. With a nose-first dive, it hit the ground upside-down and burst into a plume of fire, joining the rest of the burning scraps in the snow.

Eilen heaved herself back onto her feet and continued running, while the walker turned back to the battle and marched onward. It certainly wasn’t going to waste its time on one straggler when so many more of its targets were fleeing. The thought was morbid, but Eilen knew it was the only thing that would keep her alive, possibly through the end of this assault. There was no stopping its victory, now.

The AT-AT pressed forward, leaving behind Eilen’s crash site. Safe for now, she stopped to catch her breath, then made for the speeder once more. Eilen wasn’t entirely sure where Kaydee had ended up when she threw her, and thus kept her eyes peeled for her body in the snow.

“Kay?!” she called out desperately. “Kaydee?!”

The body couldn’t have gone far, and sure enough, Eilen soon spotted an orange-suited mass partially buried in the snow. She made a dead sprint toward it, and dropped to her knees as soon as she reached the Ishi Tib. Kaydee’s eyes were barely open, and her beak hung loose, but she was still breathing.

“Kay!” Eilen quickly brushed off the snow and grabbed her shoulder. “Kaydee, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, I had to! Ar-are you okay?!”

Kaydee’s head stirred slightly. A quiet grunt escaped her.

“Oh, come on!” Eilen shook her friend’s shoulder. “Don’t do that! Stay with--”

An indistinguishable blurb came out from Kaydee.

“Kay?”

Kaydee’s head rocked slightly. “...I’m…” Her voice was strained, but she continued, “...gonna… skin you and make a coat.”

As worried as she was, Eilen couldn’t help but grin for the moment. “Don’t go anywhere on me now.”

Kaydee coughed again. “No promises…”

Eilen nodded, concern written on her face again. She turned back, looking at the remains of the battlefield once more. The Alliance forces had all either fled or been decimated by now. Very few ships were still in the air, and the walkers marched onward, obscuring anything on the ground that might have been left. They didn’t have much of a chance to get out by now, but Eilen had to at least make an effort to call for help.

“I’m gonna need your helmet,” she said quietly.

Kaydee blinked, looking at nothing in particular. “Mind the eyes…”

Eilen’s fingers twitched as she reached toward the helmet. Kaydee grunted quietly as she fumbled to take it off one-handed, and growled briefly as Eilen’s hand rubbed against her face before finally removing it.

“Sorry,” Eilen muttered. Pinning the helmet with her knees, she carefully pulled at the communicator inside the helmet, set it to an open channel and held it close. As it drew near her ears, she could hear some chatter still going between the remaining pilots. With a deep breath, she spoke, “This is Rogue-Fourteen, can anyone hear me?”

No immediate response came.

“This is Rogue-Fourteen.” Eilen waited again. “...Hello?”

“Hello! Yes,” a voice said on the other side. “I read you, thought we lost you. Where’s your ship?”

Eilen nodded instinctively. Whether it was the cold or the after-effects of adrenaline, she was beginning to shake slightly. “It’s gone. My gunner is in critical condition-- W-we need a medical evacuation.”

There was a pause before the other voice came back. “I can’t promise anything,” it finally said, “and it won’t be quick. We’re trying to hold back the walkers for the remaining troops to get out of here.”

Eilen exhaled shakily. “...I understand.”

“Stay-- Whoa!!” Another pause. “...Stay put, Jath. We’ll do what we can.”

With that, Eilen dropped the communicator. Kaydee’s cracks were growing worse, and she was growing shakey as well. For a minute, Eilen just sat, watching the battle on the horizon, so far out of her control. Without a doubt, they had lost. There was no guarantee help would come, but on the off-chance it might, she had to find a way to prolong the time they had for it.

Kaydee spoke up again, barely more than a breath. “You got any tricks left I don’t know about?”

Perhaps there was. Eilen scoured her memory of what lessons she’d been given on her powers. There was something she’d been briefly taught that came to mind, nothing that would put her friend back together, but perhaps it could keep her from falling further apart.

“...I hope so.”

Eilen slowly unfolded her injured arm, and lightly grasped Kaydee’s hand. With her other hand, she lowered it onto her friend’s chest, and closed her eyes to concentrate. She could once again feel the fading life force beneath her, the wounds that were taking it, and how much more they could break. In that moment, Eilen could feel Kaydee’s cracks and injuries, a spinal issue among slowly leaking fluids within her. Eilen drew her focus upon these breaks, and with all her will, she tried to close them.

The world around Eilen faded, her exterior senses no longer active. There was only this broken body, its wounds, and the conscious effort to keep them sealed so that it would not die. She could not mend Kaydee for good, not with her lesser talents and the rate at which new cracks were forming, but as long as she was there, Eilen believed she could keep her alive.

And so, she held her focus, and waited.