Rebellion's Calling

    After the ex-cadets, Jyn and Cassian made it to a spaceport, and onto a suitable ship, the main question was raised. Should they go straight back to the rebel bace on Yavin 4?

    "I want to join the rebellion. I want to fight the empire." Rau confessed with passion. He was ready, although week, to join the rebellion.     But Blaze was a different story. He felt that the empire was just too much to take on. Thus he asked to be dropped off at the nearest and next port.      Jyn and Cassian even doubted going back to the rebellion for a moment. Their friends were dead, and were also dead themselves. That is in the eyes of the Rebellion. They were also both growing tired of the fight. Not the fight itself, but the consequences of the fight. It had taken nearly everything away from them. But they quickly brushed away the doubt.    Rau had asked to join, and they had to bring him to the rebel base. It was their duty, to the boy, and to the rebellion. Although the rebellion had taken everything from them, it had been the only home Cassian or Jyn had known. It was just that, imperfect as it was, home.

"Cassian," Jyn placed a hand over Cassian's, that was currently setting their corse. "We're branded to the rebellion, we died for the Rebellion. (Nearly) I'm proud of what we fight for. I know you feel the same. And I'd frankly like to know if the plans got into the right hands as soon as possible. It's been eating at me since Scarif."

"I thought you said you knew someone had gotten them. You said 'I just know'."

"I did, but I wasn't certain that it was the right hands. Not entirely." She closed her eyes as if to check the back of her eyelids over. As if the answer was there.

"In that case. We're going to Yavin 4." Cassian said with a smile.

    "Did you say Yavin 4?" Blaze asked, walking behind Cassian's chair.  He bore a concerned look on his face. 

    "Yes. And you were not suppose to know that. I'll have to kill you now." Cassian said starkly.     Not till Blaze looked truly distressed, did Cassian let out a smile. "It's alright. You'll just have to come with us. I don't trust you just yet. But don't worry." Cassian patted the boy on the back.

     Suddenly the ship took a hit, and everyone was flung out of their seats. The blast shield broke open, and they were all sucked into the vacuum of space. If Jyn could've screamed, although she would have liked to. Their breaths were running out and the four of them were scattered around the wreckage of their ship. It would only be a matter of seconds before they all lost the ability to breath.    There were a couple of portable air masks that hung just inside the cockpit's ignition storage. Jyn and Cassian both looked to each other, then to it. Cassian quickly took out his blaster and started shooting away from their ship to gain what momentum he could, to closen the distance between him and the ship. Rau, Blaze, and Jyn followed suit.  But only one of them made it to the cockpit, still conscious.     Jyn quickly strapped the mask over her face, and took a deep breath in. She grabbed another blaster from inside the ship. Jyn then jumped out of the ship and shot both of the blasters rapidly, using them to move her across space. It did seem to work well as a improvised jet pack, to get to Cassian, and then Rau and Blaze. She naturally went to Cassian first, and was relived when his eyes opened after she placed the mask over his face. If things had been different, she didn't know what she would have done.    Not till after they had revived the ex-cadets did they look around to see what had shot them down. A ship sat just fifty yard away from them just waiting, ominously. It was a rusted and paint peeled green, red and metallic colored Firespray-31 class attack craft. But more infamously known as Slave I. The ship of the dreaded bounty hunter, Boba Fett.

    It didn't take long for them to land themselves aboard Slave I. There was literally no where else to go. The helmeted bounty hunter welcomed them aboard with cuffs and harsh orders to sit on the back wall of the ship. They seemed to all understand their situation well enough to not say a word. No one spoke until Cassian tried his hand at negotiation. After which, Jyn concluded that he was a much better assassin and captain, than diplomat.

"You're mistaken Rebel." Boba Fett replied harshly. "I'm not here for you. This boy's a tribe prince on Mandalor. He's no good to me dead, but you're lives are of no concern to me. So watch your mouth."

Jyn quickly glance at Cassian who didn't seem the least bit concerned with their predicament. Not his first party. She reminded herself. Cassian and Jyn's minds both turned to escape mode. They each thought up ten different ways to take out the Fett and escape the place. Yet eight out of those ten plans failed their hypothetical run-throughs. There was just no way to insure defeating him, due to his old but effective, mandalorian armor. Even if it was four against one, he had multiple advantages over them that they couldn't dismiss. Home ship advantage was at the top of the long list. It would be hard to take over a ship from a captain.   But it wasn't impossible.

During this time, Blaze started asking questions that an average being would ask in this situation. "You're a prince of Mandalor Rau?"

    Rau sighed, and shook his head. "Well, I'm the technical prince of one tribe of Mandalor."

    "But you're still a Prince?"

    "Yeah"

    Rau went on to explain to them that his father had sighted their tribe's allegiance over to the empire. A shameful thing to do in the young Rau's eyes. But his father had done it just the same, and as a result of this, to keep the tribesmen happy, Rau's father sent him to the imperial academy.

    Before the bounty hunter could shout at Rau, the natural story teller, to shut up for the tenth time, Slave I was hit with something that shook the ship silly.

    Boba Fett rushed to his cockpit and yelled curses through his helmet as he, presumingly, tried to fight back at the problem. Before the rebels and cadets could breath a question, the ship shook suddenly, then started to take a steady corse.

    "Tractor beam." Jyn and Cassian said simultaneously, and they both stood up.

    The bounty hunter rushed to the back of his ship, near the loading ramp, his blaster draw, and thermal detonator in hand.     The loading ramp's exhaust valves started to let out white steam as the ramp lowered. One woman stepped through the ramp to the other side. She walked right up to Fett and stopped.

    This woman, was a young and attractive human being, with long red hair, and dangerous eyes. She had one blaster on her hip, and long black sleeves, and blue boots that screamed elegance.

    Boba Fett quickly deactivated his detonator, and lowered his blaster, but kept it close. "To what do I owe this pleasure? Emperor's hand."

    Jyn and Cassian exchanged a glance of shock. They knew what that meant. The Emperor 's hand, meant trouble. And although Boba had set down his gun, the tension in the ship had reached a concerning caliber.

    "Boba, I've told you before, call me Mara Jade." She said with a smile, one that seemed too real to be genuine.

    "What do you want from me? Have you come to steal a bounty hunter's hard earned living?"

    Jade laughed. Then, quicker than a flash, she drew her blaster and shot at Fett, he in turn shot at her. She dodged his shot with ease, and he was hit with hers. He had been shot the only place  his armor held a weakness. His neck.

    Jade walked over to the bounty hunter's downed figure. She poked at his chest with her boot. "Nothing personal bounty hunter. You'll live, and that's your gift from the empire."

    Mara Jade walked back through the ramp to her ship, and simply stated, "You're to follow me."

    After seeing what she was capable of, Rau and Blaze went without hesitation. Jyn would rather try her luck on a bounty hunter's ship than the ship of a galaxy-renowned, assassin legend, that also happens to serve the empire. But Cassian pulled at her hand to follow him to the Emperor's hand's ship. "Trust me." He said.