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III)
It was a normal day.. for some people, most people, in this universe, it was. This was all Jyn could think about as she huddled closer to Cassian, the both of them hurting and dying and lying a beach somewhere in Scarif. Unable to speak a word aloud, she idly wondered how long a day in Scarif lasted. Twenty-four hours ? More ? Less ?
Her time - hers and Cassian’s and whoever was still alive on Scarif’s - was numbered in seconds and minutes. She could not hear anything bar Cassian’s irregular breathing and the general howling of the still-raging on battle taking place behind, above, them. In front of them was the sea, and looming further above, the Death Star. She could almost hear the laser that would wipe them out ; see it in her mind’s eye.
Now everything sounds distant. Jyn feels a pang in her chest at the thought of her having become deaf, and she feels overwhelmed, a fit of something that is half-sobs, half-giggles taking over. Why does it even matter, for she and Cassian are about to die, blown to smithereens by the planet-killer ? She cannot hear anything bar Cassian’s irregular breathing, yet she is starting to hear a noise that is getting ever-louder. Cassian thrashes around in her arms before wheezing that Jyn, someone’s come back for us. She turns around too quick and it hurts, but it’s an Imperial carrier she sees, the same model who got them through the shield and into this hellhole. She believes for a moment that it’s just more, more, more Stormtroopers, and braces herself for the multiple blaster impacts that would end them - but the ship opens up, close enough to the ground, and Baze Malbus jumps out of it, bellows them to COME IN, THE PLANET WILL GET BLOWN UP IT’S A MATTER OF MINUTES.
She rises up as quick as she can but Cassian is dragging her down. He cannot get up. She gets back down, slides an arm around him and pushes the both of them back up on their feet. He yells but they keep walking towards the ship during what feels like an eternity of pain. Baze grabs Cassian first, then her ; and they rush in, and the ship closes, but not before Jyn catches a glimpse of green lasers converging towards a focal point. She yells to Bodhi that they’ve got to get off planet, and she collapses on the hard metal ground, next to Cassian, wondering whether it’s even Bodhi who’s flying the ship.
II)
Amidst the surrounding chaos, Baze runs up to Chirrut. He looks like a disheartened puppet of a monk, lying like he is on the sand. Blasters are still firing around them. Baze picks Chirrut up, he knows he’s still alive - otherwise, wouldn't he, Baze Malbus, the most devoted guardian of them all, feel it through the Force? He has found again his faith, even if just for a moment. Chirrut on one shoulder, a blaster in his free hand, he trudges through Stormtroopers, slaughtering them all. He sees one with a grenade in his hand and shoots him before he can even push the button. Baze decides that today is not the day he will walk through a wall of fire.
He sees Bodhi’s ship, or the ship which he believes is Bodhi’s - but it’s taking off.
Insanity takes over his mind for a second, is every living soul fleeing this planet all for him and Chirrut to get stranded and die ?
But the ship comes to them, or so it seems, and Baze fires two shots in the air which go up like scarlet fireworks. Troopers are rushing towards the ship as well, not paying attention to Baze and Chirrut anymore. Baze does not need to look up to see the monstrous travesty of a planet above them. The sunlight is declining ; that is enough of a sign that the Death Star is aligning and getting into position, almost ready to make hell rain down on them.
The ship lands and Stormtroopers rush to get in. Baze opens fire. Fifteen of them collapse on the ground, dead. Remorse is far from his mind ; maybe he can save Chirrut, who has gone limp on his shoulder, a dead weight now.
Bodhi yells at them to get in, and they do. Baze tiredly sighs at the obvious absence of Jyn, Cassian, the droid.
« We have ten minutes to find Jyn, Cassian and the mouthy droid before the planet-killer fires. », says Baze as he puts Chirrut down, carefully as though dealing with the finest and most fragile of treasures. Right now, he is.
I)
Bodhi turns off the comm, feeling relieved beyond words. Wasting no time, he runs to the cockpit and engages the automatic closure of the cargo ship’s door.
Something clangs against the closing door from the outside, and an external explosion rocks the ship. Some alarmed beeps and a siren ringing in his ears - but nothing vital has been damaged, as Bodhi quickly surveys the ship’s main functions on the dashboard.
The plans had been transmitted, the Alliance had been listening. Bodhi’s thoughts turn sour at the mere thought of his companions in hardship. The ship gets off the ground, and Bodhi watches intently for any Rebels still alive on the battlefield. He can only see corpses.
Rebel corpses, Stormtrooper corpses, all strewn on the ground ; ships, Alliance and Empire alike, that had crashed and burned on the ground, most of them looking like the smoking carcasses of huge metal beasts.
That is when he sees them. He recognizes Baze from afar by his red metal armor. He fires two shots up in the air. Yet he is carrying someone, and Bodhi’s blood runs cold. He is too far away to be sure, but he knows, deep down he knows, that it is Chirrut on Baze’s shoulder.
He stirs the ship towards them as fast as he can.
IV)
Bodhi gets them off planet as destructions rains down on Scarif, a strange feeling of déjà-vu tightening his throat to the point where he is having trouble breathing.
Once more, they are leaving a planet that is collapsing on itself in their wake. He tries not to think of the countless casualties this battle has caused.
He just hopes the ship is able to make the jump to hyperspace to get them back to Yavin IV.