Lance watched the four troopers and the girl disappear into the farmhouse, his attention already sliding toward the shuttle parked in the yard.
Stealing from ordinary farmers would have bothered him.
Stealing from clone troopers didn’t cost him a moment’s hesitation.
Call it collecting on a debt.
The second the door shut behind them, he moved.
Grogu in one arm, low and fast, R4 pumping its wheels hard to keep pace behind him.
Minutes later, he reached the shuttle.
“R4, get the hatch open.”
He pressed his back against the hull, eyes locked on the farmhouse.
Beep.
R4 found the data port and extended a probe from its chassis.
A few seconds of turning gears later, the ramp began to lower.
Beep.
“Nice work.”
He kept his voice low, though something eager crept into it anyway.
He slipped inside and made straight for the cockpit, dropping into the pilot’s seat with a grin, fingers already flying across the startup sequence.
Nothing happened.
His grin froze.
He double-checked his input and tried again.
Still nothing.
The system was locked.
“R4.
Hurry.”
R4 rolled back to the data port and started over.
The lock cylinder spun a few times, then it turned toward him.
Beep beep.
“How long?”
Beep.
“A few minutes?
Keep at it.”
Slicing had never been his strength.
All he could do here was wait and let the droid work.
Back inside the farmhouse, an alarm chirped from the panel strapped to Tech’s waist, and the room went quiet at once.
Tech grabbed the panel.
“Startup alarm.
Someone’s trying to fire up the ship.”
“Given that we’re all standing here…”
Hunter was already on his feet before Tech finished the sentence.
“Someone’s stealing our ship.”
He turned to the girl on his way out.
Then he was already moving, the rest of the squad falling in behind him.
Cut and his wife exchanged a look.
He reached for the weapon hanging on the wall while she crouched down to kiss both children on the forehead, telling them firmly to stay inside with Omega.
“Su.”
Cut handed her a sniper rifle and kept the blaster for himself.
Neither of them needed more than a glance to fall into rhythm together.
They followed the squad out the door and caught up quickly.
The shuttle came into view a moment later, hatch already open.
Hunter waved everyone to a stop and laid out the plan fast.
“Tech, Wrecker, Echo, with me.
Cut, you two hold position outside in case this is a setup.”
No objections.
The group split, Hunter’s team drawing pistols and closing on the ship, Cut and Suu tucking behind a low rise to watch for anything else.
Aboard the shuttle, Lance felt the auras closing in through the Force.
They found us.
Was this a trap the whole time?
He glanced at R4, urgency creeping into his voice.
“How much longer?”
Beep.
“Faster.”
They were only a few meters out now.
No time left to wait this out.
The only real option was cutting them down before they got inside, buying R4 whatever time it needed.
He set Grogu on the pilot’s seat, pressed himself flat against the wall by the hatch, blade ready, waiting for the first one through.
Outside, Hunter’s foot had barely landed on the ramp when something hit him hard, a wave of pure danger crawling up his spine like ice water.
He threw a hand up, halting everyone behind him without a word.
Confusion flickered across their faces, but nobody made a sound.
Hunter’s eyes stayed locked on the hatch.
He signaled a retreat, and the whole squad slipped under the wing out of sight.
He pointed at Echo, then at the data port.
Echo understood immediately and moved forward, raising a forearm that had been rebuilt into something mechanical, a thin metal rod extending past the wrist.
He slotted it into the port.
The lock cylinder started turning again.
Inside, R4 jolted, a burst of hurried, irritated beeping following, and picked up its own pace in answer.
Man and machine, locked in a silent duel of code.
Lance stayed frozen against the wall, holding his breath.
But the enemy wasn’t rushing in.
He tilted his head toward R4, voice dropping to a whisper.
“Why isn’t this done yet?”
Beep.
Beep.
Seriously?”
That distraction cost him.
Two smoke canisters clattered through the hatch.
Clang.
Clang.
They rolled a few times before erupting into thick plumes of smoke, swallowing his vision whole, the air turning sharp and acrid almost instantly.
Lance held his breath and braced.
A thin trail of smoke reached Grogu first.
“Cough, cough…
waa…”
Grogu coughed and broke into crying almost immediately, the smell too much for him.
Something twisted in Lance’s chest, torn between comforting him and watching for the attack he knew was coming.
He used the Force to yank both canisters up and hurl them clear of the ship instead.
Shapes broke through the smoke a heartbeat later.
A vibroblade lit with a yellow edge stabbed straight at him, while on the other side a heavy fist swung for his head.
Lance stayed steady, reading both attacks clearly through the Force.
He turned sideways, letting the fist sail past, and ignited his blade in the same motion.
Hum.
The blue edge swept up and cut clean through the vibroblade.
Hunter’s face went pale.
“Jedi!”
Seeing the lightsaber continuing its arc toward him, instinct took over, and he threw himself backward, the blade grazing his cheek by a hair.
The swing kept moving, carrying toward Wrecker beside him.
Hunter kicked out at Wrecker’s knee in the same instant, throwing him off balance just enough to clear the strike.
“Wait!
Everyone, stop!”
Hunter shouted the order and hauled his team back with him.
Lance stepped forward, blade still up, ready to press the advantage, only to find them already clear of the ship.
“Wait.
I think this is a misunderstanding,” Hunter said quickly, then unclipped his weapon and dropped it to the ground, waving for the others to follow.
After a beat of hesitation, the rest of the squad laid down their weapons too.
“Jedi, we mean you no harm.” Hunter kept his tone level, open.
“We cut ties with the Empire a long time ago.
We don’t serve them anymore.
Everything I’m telling you is the truth.”
Lance held still.
Through the Force, nothing about that read as a lie.
He hesitated, eyes moving between the four of them, but he didn’t lower the blade.
His gaze swept the hill in the distance, then the fields around them, before settling back on the squad.
“And you expect me to just believe that?”