//------------------------------//
// Escape 
// Story: Star Toons: Stories Across the Stars 
// by Turbo the Brony 
//------------------------------//

Somewhere above Tatooine

There is a planet where the desert lands and rock spans across the planet, and they say that if there’s a bright center to the universe, they’d be on the planet that’s farthest from that.

Tatooine is a desert planet that exists in the outer rim of the galaxy, however, due to this, there is not quite enough water on the planet, thus resulting in moisture farms to be stationed across the planet, as water was drawn in from the atmosphere.

The planet is also one of the many planets controlled by the Hutts, an alien mob family who have control over several star systems, planets and even asteroid fields, given the name of Hutt Space.

Just then, Allura’s ship and the accompanied X-Wings arrived out of hyperdrive, as they arrived to see the planet they were just passing by.

“Jump out of Hyperdrive complete.” one of the pilots spoke up.

“Good work,” said Allura, “where are we, currently.”

“We are currently passing over the planet Tatoonie,” said the second pilot, as he looked at monitors for info, “a small planet, seems peaceful and… it’s seems to be controlled by the Hutts.”

“Those Space Gangsters!?” Coran cried out, before looking at Allura, “Princess, you know well as I do that your father and I have come across these Hutts while you were young. They’re bad news, and if the Dark Order try to come in contact with them, we will have even more difficulties if they join up!”

“I understand on that, Coran.” Allura said, before giving out a command to the captain, “Captain, have your men set a course for Altea and get ready to charge up the hyperdrive again.”

“Right away, ma’am.” the captain obliged, but before he could, an alarm went off.

“Princess Allura!” cried the first pilot, “It’s the Dark Order, they’ve just appeared out of hyperspace and they’re onto us!”

Sure enough, the Finalizer soon appeared out of hyperspace, seconds after Allura’s ship.

“Prepare to fire back and alert Astrid and the others,” Allura ordered the pilots and Coran respectively, “have them help us buy time to get the hyperdrive ready, if they fail… we’re done for!”

“Roger that!” Coran said, before communicating to the pilots of the X-Wings, “Astrid, the Dark Order are gaining on us, you and the others must try and get us time so we can jump to hyperspace!”

“Copy that, Coran!” Astrid responded.

In her X-Wing, Astrid communicated to the other pilots, “Alright, guys, you heard Coran. If you lot know your Star Destroyers, we have to take out the heavy weapons!”

“Roger that, Stormfly!” one of the pilots replied, calling Astrid by her pilot nickname.

Soon the X-Wings made a U-turn, before flying towards the Finalizer, as it made its way towards the ship.





The Finalizer, command bridge

Shadow and Catra looked to see Allura’s ship coming straight to them on a silver platter, the latter smirking with interest while Shadow remained stoik.

Soon, another figure appeared to join them, the one known as Darth Deranger.

The sith was wearing a hood cloak, but had his hood up, revealing his red hair, cut short and stuck up, and a short, shaggy beard. He also had two tattoos of three lines like claw marks, one across his left eye and the other on his upper right arm (though not shown whole due to his cloak).

He also wore a dark brown and metal tunic as the cloak was connected to.

“I hope I’m not late for anything?” Darth Deranger asked.

“Actually, you’re right on time,” Catra replied, “the princess’s ship is within range.”

“It seems that her escorts are coming at us as well, Dagur.” Shadow added.

“Oh, goodie,” Deranger, or as he was trully named, Dagur, said, letting out a disturbing giggle, before giving out the order, “now, swat those flies and fire a warning shot across her nose!”

The were followed and gunners open fired on the princess’s ship, while also attacking the X-Wing fighters as well.

“Time for the fun to begin.” Astrid said to herself, before giving out the command, “Alright, guys, follow my lead and try to take out those turrets.”

As they were halfway to the Dark Order ship, a dozen Tie Fighters began to fly out of the docking bays of the ship, charging towards them.

“Stormfly, we’ve got Ties, incoming!” cried one of the fighters.

“I see them, Ringo!” Astrid said, before muttering aloud, “They never make things simple for us, don’t they?”

Soon the fight began, Astrid and her band of fighters charged towards the Finalizer, dodging blast fires left and right from the ship and the Tie Fighters as they went.

As the Tie Fighters attacked, the X-Wings opened fire on them, all the while trying to evade them to get to the Finalizer to take out its defences.

Luckily enough, Astrid had been one of the finest and the best starfighter pilots known in the Rebellion, with her expertise and skills, she was able to out maneuver some of the Tie Fighters that were trying to blow her up.

Astrid flew her X-Wing forward, and fired onto four Ties, taking them out in a row, before she got word from one of the pilots.

“Stormfly, I'm gonna try and get to the Star Destroyer, but this punk’s on my tail!” 

“Hold on, Gemi,” said Astrid, “I’m coming!”

Gemi was flying towards the Finalizer, however, she was having trouble as a Tie Fighter was catching up to her.

As the Tie Fighter pilot prepared to lock onto her, Astrid swooped in and shot the Tie down.

“Thanks, Stormfly!” Gemi replied, thanking Astrid.

“Anytime, Gemi,” Astrid responded, “now let’s get rid of that Star Destroyer’s accessories.”

“Copy that.” Gemi replied, as she and Astrid flew to the Finalizer.

However, as they tried to lock on, several more Ties flew in front of them, trying to shoot them.

“Dang it, fall back!” Astrid cried, as she and Gemi evaded the fighters, but continued doing what they could to stop them, but with the Finalizer also firing at them, it made things more difficult.

On Allura’s ship, the crew were having the same problems, as despite having the ship’s defences, they were still no match against the Finalizer, until suddenly, one of the blasts from the Star Destroyer hit the ship.

Inside, a lovely white unicorn with a stylish mane, dressed in a lovely white gown, was frantically looking for the Princess, when she cried out in alarm as a tremor from the blast caused her to tumble over.

BB-7 was currently with another droid, a silver protocol droid with blue optic lenses, as they felt the tremors done by the fire blasts, until they spotted the unicorn as they tried to help her up.

“Are you alright, Miss Rarity?” the protocol droid asked.

“Oh, I’m fine, Wheatley,” Rarity replied, though the tone of her voice showed signs that she was scared, upset and annoyed, “but I just hate having to be caught in these crossfire space battles. These tremors from getting hit do a number on her dress!”

Another tremor shook the ship, making the three of them worry.

“Did you hear that?” Wheatley asked.

BB-7 beeped and squeaked in worry.

“I think they shut down the main reactor!” Wheatley explained.

“We’ll never be able to use the hyperdrive!” Rarity panicked “We’ll be destroyed for sure if they keep attacking! Of all the worst things that could happen… this is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!!”

At the same time in the control room, Allura, Coran, the captain and the pilots felt the tremor as well.

“Damage report! Stat!” Coran ordered.

“The main reactor had just got blasted, sir!” The second pilot explained, the worry shown in his voice, “Without power from it, we won’t jump to hyperdrive!”

Allura and Coran looked worried upon hearing this.

“This is not good…” said Allura.

“I hate myself for saying, Princess,” Coran said, looking to Allura, “but whoever is working on the guns must be an ace shooter!”





“CAREFUL, YOU IDIOT!!” Shouted Dagur, slamming his fist on the control pad, “I said across her nose, not up it!”

The gunner who was working on one of the turrets turned to the trio, revealing him having crossed eyes, “Sorry sir, I’m doing my best.”

Dagur and the others were dumbfounded seeing him, until Dagur grabbed hold of a nearby officer by his collar, and grumbled aloud, “Who made that man a gunner?”

“I did, sir.”

That reply got the trio’s attention, revealing the person who replied to be a man who had similar crossed eyes as the gunner as he added, “He’s my cousin.”

Dagur looked back to the officer and asked, “Who is he?”

“He’s a Moron, sir.” the officer replied.

“Yeah, I know that,” Dagur said, “but what’s his name?”

“That is his name, sir.” the officer explained, “Moron. Major Moron.”

“Whoa-waitaminute, that’s his name?” Catra said, having overheard this and then asked, “And his cousin?”

“He’s a Moron too, ma’am.” the officer replied, “Gunner’s mate, First Class, Philip Moron.”

“Wait,” Dagur then asked, “how many Morons have we got on this ship, anyhow?”

Upon asked, almost all the workers on the bridge cried out, “YO!!”

The two (minus Shadow) were dumbfounded as they looked around, before Dagur stated, “I knew it. I’m surrounded by Morons.”

Deciding to roll with it, Dagur then cried out, “Keep firing, Morons!”





Meanwhile, down in one of the hangers of the Finalizer, LRS-0504 was currently escorting Kieth (while making sure that they weren’t caught or spotted), luckily, with the fighting going on at the moment, the soldiers, pilots and engineers were currently occupied, though Kieth and his unlikely ally couldn’t be too careful.

“Ok…” muttered LRS-0504, “stay calm, stay calm…”

“Don’t worry,” said Keith, “I am calm.”

The trooper looked to Keith as he said, much to the latter’s baffleness, “I’m talking to myself.”

They continued walking, passing by several staff and guards, “Not yet…” LRS-0504 stated, making sure it was clear.

Then finally, they were close to the nearby Tie Fighters, and no one was around, the trooper finally gave the signal, “Ok, go!”

Soon, Keith and LRS-0504 hurried into one of the Tie Fighters.

There were two types of Tie Fighters, one were the usale one seated, and the other were made especially for two people, one to pilot and one shoot, the two of them headed into one of the latter.

Once inside, Keith looked around as he and LRS-0504 seated themselves.

“You know,” he said, “I always wanted to fly one of these things.”

Keith then turned to the trooper helping him (who had just taken off his helmet) and asked, “Can you shoot?”

“Blasters, I can.” LRS-0504 replied.

“Ok, same principle,” Kieth said as he explained, “Use the toggle on the left to switch between missiles, cannons and mag pulse, use the site on the right to aim, triggers to fire.”

LRS-0504 looked at the controls he was told about, a little nervous as he said, “This seems a bit complicated.”

Soon, Keith managed to get the Tie Fighter to take off, however, as they tried to fly out, the fighter lurched, as one of its wings were still connected to one of the cable hooks.

“Hold on,” Keith said, “I’ll try and fix this.”

As he tried to get the fighter detached, what was happening didn’t go undetected, as within the control room of the hanger, one of the technicians noticed what was going on.

“We have an unsanctioned departure from bay 2.” The technician said looking at his readings.

Hearing this, the colonel gave out the orders, “Alert Force Captain Catra and stop that fighter.”

Upon getting the orders, down below, guards and Stormtroopers approached and surrounded the Tie Fighter and opened fire.

Seeing this, LRS-0504 used the controls that Kieth told him about, and returned fire, attacking the Stormtroopers and sending them flying from the blasts while Keith continued to try and get released. The rogue trooper continued firing the fighter blasters, as he began shooting down several of the docked Tie Fighters and even destroyed a part of the control room, sending the staff flying, knocking them out and killing most of them.

“Got it!” Kieth cried out, as he finally got the Tie unhooked from the hook cables, allowing them to escape. The Tie Fighter, upon release, soared out of the hanger pretty fast.

“Whoa! This thing really moves!” said Kieth, impressed by the fighter’s speed.

As they began to escape, the Tie soared underneath the Star Destroyer’s belly, as Keith then said, “We gotta try and take out those cannons and turrets as we can! Or else we won’t get far!”

“Got it!” LRS-0504 replied, as he got the cannons ready to fire.

“I’m gonna fly us into position,” said Keith, “Stay sharp!”

The duo continued to fly until they were nearing the lower cannons, that were currently firing on them.

“Up ahead, you see it?” Keith called out, “It’s a clean shot!”

LRS-0504 checked on the targeting system, and soon, once the target was locked, he opened fire with fighter’s blasters, destroying the turrets.

The duo cheered excitedly, though LRS-0504 was quite excited, “Did you see that?!”

“I saw it, buddy!” Keith said, as he continued to keep them steady before saying, “Let’s keep it coming!”

Meanwhile, at the same time with Astrid’s group, they were currently in a tough spot.

With the Ties chasing down their tails, the rebels lost one of their fighters, and Astrid was currently caught in a dog fight with one Tie Fighter after her.
“Guys, I lost Navo and now I have a Tie that’s not leaving me anytime soon!” Astrid cried out, just as she got a hit from the Tie Fighter.

Looking at her controls, she realized she was in trouble, as she tried to fire but nothing was happening or working, “Nonononononono! Dang it! Can anyone hear me, my weapon systems and that Tie’s getting me cornered!”

She then spoke up to her droid, “R5, try and work your magic and get the systems back up and running!”

The droid bleeped in response and instantly got to work as fast as it can.

The Tie Fighter pilot, meanwhile, was ready to take aim, one more hit and the rebel was toast.

Until, suddenly, as they were flying almost near the lower parts of the ship, Astrid saw a small explosion that occurred on the Finalizer’s belly.

This caught the Tie pilot’s attention too, as the two other pilots were too far from the ship and the one he was after didn’t fire, the thoughts were cut off as his fighter was then destroyed, with him in it, by Ringo.

“Good shot, Stormfly!” Ringo cried out, “We finally got a hit!”

“That… that wasn’t me!” Astrid stated, still surprised, until she saw a Tie Fighter fly by the explosion, then, to her shock, saw it fly towards another turret and shot it down, as a surprised thought went into her mind as she said, “I think… that Tie Fighter did that!?!”

“What?!” said a stund Geni.

Back in the hijacked Tie, Kieth looked through the pilot’s window and noticed Allura’s ship, as well as some of his X-Wing fighter pals.

“Hey, it’s Princess Allura’s ship!” Keith pointed out, “We have to help them out, fast!”

“You’re with the Princess?” LRS-0504 asked.

“That’s right,” Kieth explained, “and I think we’re gonna need your help too once we get out of this!”

The trooper had a small bit of thought, he was a bit scared of the Dark Order after what he saw earlier, but if he can help Kieth, he can maybe help him find some way to go far away.

“Hey, what’s your name?” Kieth then asked, cutting the rebelling Stormtrooper off his thoughts.

“Uh… LRS-0504.” the trooper replied.

“LR… what?” Keith asked, a bit baffled.

“That’s the name they gave me.” the trooper replied.

“Well, I don’t think we’ll use that,” Kieth spoke back, thinking aloud about the first letters of the trooper’s name, “LRS, huh?”

Then an idea came up as he said, “How about, Lars? I’ll call you that, okay?”

“Lars?” the newly christened trooper thought of it, and began to smile as he replied, “Yeah. Lars. I like that!”

“The name’s Kieth, by the way.” Kieth introduced himself with a small grin.

“Good to meet you, Kieth.” Lars said.

“Good to meet you too, Lars!” Keith replied.

Soon the duo were nearing Astrid's X-Wing, allowing Kieth to hijack the communications to contact his pilot friends.

“Here there, Stormfly,” he said with a cocky grin, “hope you don’t mind us joining the party a little late.”

“Keith?!” Astrid called out, “You’re okay!”

“Sure am, Astrid.” Keith replied.

“Astrid, what’s going on?” Coran’s voice came out, “I thought I was told a Tie Fighter was firing on that Star Destroyer.”

Astrid then contacted both Coran and Geni as she said, “Guys, it’s Keith! He made it out okay!”

“Keith’s okay?!” Geni asked.

“Yep, and I brought a new friend too!” Keith explained, “Long story, but I’ll tell you when we get back!”





Meanwhile…

“What do you mean a Tie Fighter destroyed our lower turbolasers?!” Catra cried out, as she and Dagur couldn’t believe what they’ve just heard.

“How did this happen?” she asked.

“What is going on?” another voice got her, Shadow and Dagur’s attention as Ryker popped up.

“Oh, I’ll tell you what’s going on,” Catra exclaimed, “we just got word a lone Tie Fighter made an unsanctioned departure in Bay 2 of one of the hangers and destroyed our turrets!”

“What?!” Ryker asked.

Shadow had a bit of thought, before asking, “Was it the prisoner? The rebel pilot?”

“Yes, sir.” one of the lieutenants stated, “and he had help… from one of our own.”

“Wait, what?” Dagur was next to be shocked and angry, “A Stormtrooper just helped the prisoner escape?!”

“Y-yes, sir,” the lieutenant replied, “they escaped in the Tie Fighter, not before doing damage in Bay 2, several are dead and others have serious injuries for medical attention.”

“Like who?” Ryker asked, “Any of our officers?”

“Um… oh, yes, those injured are Hamill, Ford, Fisher… oh, and Lars #2.” the lieutenant explained.

“Eh, they’re expendable…” Dagur said, like he didn’t quite care, “all four of them, including #2.”

“Lars #2 is my cousin!” Ryker said sternly.

“Whatever!” cried Catra, as she then ordered, “Charge up the ventral cannons to knock those fighters out of the sky, then check the registers to identify which Stormtrooper bailed on us!”

“The one from the village.” Shadow spoke, getting everyone’s attention, “LRS-0504.”

Soon, one of the lieutenants spoke up, “The ventral cannons are online.”

Dagur looked to the lieutenant and gave the order, “Fire!”





Soon, the Star Destroyer fired the ventral cannon lasers, as they homed on to both the starfighter X-Wings and the Tie Fighter.

Lars just discovered what was happening and let out a warning, “Watch out, homing blasts coming at us!!”

Keith, Astrid and Gemi noticed the alert signals and heard Lars at same time, then instantly made evasive maneuvers to avoid getting hit.

“Guys, brace yourselves and get and get back to the ship, quickly!” Keith cried out.

Gemi was almost towards Allura’s ship, “Guys, hang on tight! I’m coming in ho-!”

A sudden explosion cut her off, causing her to scream as she got hit by on the blasts.

“Gemi!” Astrid cried out, as she now had one heading right towards her.

“B5, hope you got those weapons back online!” she panicked.

B5 frantically bleeped, as the droid was doing it’s best and going as fast as it could work.

Meanwhile, Lars was doing the very best he can to fire onto the homing blasts, though he only managed to hit one.

“Astrid, Keith! Get back to the ship right now!” Allura cried out.

“We’re working on it!” Keith yelled back.

Astrid, meanwhile, noticed the bogie nearly approaching her.

“C’mon, c’mon!” Astrid said, waiting for the weapons to get back on.

The missile was getting closer…

And closer… closer…

Systems came back on in Astrid’s pilot controls, as weapons finally came back on!

“Now!” she cried, as she instantly fired at will.

Unfortunately, as she fired, the missile was quite a bit close to her X-Wing, causing it to explode right behind her, which resulted in the back part of her starfighter taking heavy damage.

“Astrid!” cried Keith, as he watched the X-Wing plummet out of control towards the planet.

“Keith, incoming!” cried out Lars, as the Tie Fighter also took a hit, as the blasts destroyed a part of the wing, causing the Tie Fighter to also spiral downwards to the desert planet, in a different direction.

“Astrid! Keith! Can you read me?!” Coran’s voice cried out, but with no reply from either starfighters.





“We lost all contact, Coran.” the second pilot stated.

“Oh no…” Coran said, feeling that they’ve lost, until the ship jolted.

“Now what?!” Coran asked.

“The Dark Order have just activated a tractor beam,” the first pilot examined, “we’re being pulled in!”

Sure enough, the Finalizer slowly descended towards Allura’s ship, as it’s tractor beams brought it into one of the hangers.

“Everyone, prepare to be boarded!” Coran spoke out, as the troops got ready to fight back any who would try and attack.

The resistance all gathered around and across the passageways, as they then stationed themselves towards the door the intruders would get in.

Wheatley and BB-7 looked around as they witnessed what was going on, as the former worriedly said to the latter, “Sorry, BB-7, I don’t think there will be any chance of escape for Princess Allura this time.”

BB-7 let out some nervous beeps, until clanging sounds echoed around the ship.

“What was that?” Wheatley asked.

Though one seemed to answer, as everyone looked around and heard the noises everywhere.

Allura’s ship was finally inside the Finalizer, as inside, the nervous rebels looked back to the door, ready to fight back.

“Wait… what if they come through a different door?” one Rebel asked.

Suddenly, the door instantly blasted open, as Stormtroopers soon stepped out into the smoke-covered passageway, resulting in the rebels to open fire, though the Stormtroopers were also doing the same.

The insides of the ship soon became an indoor battlefield, as Rebels and Stormtroopers shot from left to right, striking most of one another down.

Wheatley and BB-7 had to make a quick getaway, as they wandered around the ship, it was like going through some sort of maze, all the while avoiding getting shot at too.

Meanwhile, the Dark Order forces began to overrun the ship as several more troopers and officers began to enter.

“Finally some real Rebel-Busting!” said a Stormtrooper in a female voice, as she and a few others stopped for a moment upon entry, though their uniforms had different shapes.

The female Stormtrooper took off her helmet, revealing to be a female teen with orange hair and a little bit long neck as she continued, “This is why I joined the Dark Order in the first place.”

“Yeah, Candance, we know,” one fo the troopers said, taking off his helmet, revealing himself to be a short, anthropomorphic raccoon, “You haven’t stopped talking about wanting to get into the action since Boot Camp, and we didn’t do anything after that.”

Another trooper took off his helmet, revealed as a blue jay bird, “Rigby, that’s because we were training and following protocol, instead of slacking off like you always do!”

“Whatever, Mordecai,” Rigby said, not actually in the mood, “I don’t see how finding some data chip is so important, anyway.”

“Dude, that chip contains all the stuff that the Dark Order have for personal gain to help bring peace to the universe,” Mordecai explained, “most of it even sounds awesome!”

“Yeah, Rigby,” another stormtrooper agreed with Mordecai, as he took off his helmet revealing his green face with shoulder-length hair, “and you know who else contains stuff for personal gain to help bring peace to the universe? My mom!”

“Good one, Muscle Man.” an Stormtrooper said, though was an odd one as it looked like a 5” ghost with a helmet on, and had an arm and hand sticking out the top of his head/helmet, as he then gave Muscle Man a high five.

“Alright, guys, quit screwing around.” one of the officers of the Stormtroopers spoke up as they approached them.

The first officer that spoke looked like a walking, talking gumball machine while the other officer was a naive, lollipop-shaped man.

“Listen up,” said the gumball officer, “this is our chance to shine, people. Our prime objective is to seek out and find the Dark Order data those Rebels have stolen from us.”

“And when we find them, we bust some Rebels, right, commander?” Candance asked.

“Indeed, Cadet.” the officer replied.

One of the Stormtroopers, also short, took off his helmet halfway, revealing to be a young boy as he said, “I’m so excited, I can barely contain myself!”

“I toldja ta go before this raid, Baljeet.” another short Stormtrooper said, halfway removing his helmet to reveal another young boy.

“That is not what I meant, Buford!” Baljeet stated, then paused as he said, “But now that you mentioned it…”

“Look, the orders are simple,” the officer explained, “find the data, then hand it back to the Dark Order.”

“And don’t slack off this time!” he then said as he looked to Rigby.

“Why do you always look at me when you say that?” Rigby asked.

“Dude, because you totally slack off all the time!” Mordecai pointed out, “Like when you slacked off when filling in the forms at bootcamp!”

“We got them signed, didn’t we?” Rigby asked with a smug look.

“I got them signed, you went to get a soda!” Mordecai arguely corrected Rigby.

“Well, well, well. If it ain’t Benson and the C-Squad.” another voice spoke up, getting the squad’s attention, Benson groaning as he recognized the voice.

“What are doing, Gene?” Benson asked as he turned to see another officer, Gene, who was a walking, talking vending machine.

“Why, I’m part of the mission of retrieving the data from the Rebelion, my dear Benson.” Gene said smuggly.

“Which is what we’re doing too.” Candace stated, only to be laughed at by Gene.

“You?! Puh-lease…” Gene said rudely before explaining, “You incompetences are supposed to be on chore duty as you were assigned to do. Such as looking for socks for Dr. Eggman.”

“Ugh…” Rigby groaned, “Chores? Isn’t that something for a droid to do?”

“All Stormtroopers have different positions, Cadet Rigby,” Gene pointed out, “even sanitation. It said so in the papers you signed.”

“I didn’t actually see that part.” Rigby confessed.

“Dude, that’s why you shouldn’t have slacked off!” Mordecai pointed out.

Gene soon headed off, chuckling as he said, “Well, I better catch up with the rest of my troops. Keep up with the work, Chore-Squard.”

Once he left, Benson and even Candance groaned with annoyance.

“This is totally a waste of my potential!” Candance angrily stated, “I was assigned to bust Rebelion armies, not sock duty!”

“Oh, dear Candance, no need to be in a spot of bother,” the lollipop-shaped officer said, “I’m sure that finding the socks could bring good luck for us to bring us great fortune.”

Benson sighed as he explained, “Pops, I told you that they treat us like trash, ever since bootcamp, we’ve been trying to get the respect we deserve, but it’s always ‘chores’ this and ‘chores’’ that. I just want, for once, to finally get the recognition we all deserve!”

“We hear you, Benson.” Muscle Man said.

“Yeah,” Mordecai said, before having a small thought, “you know, we should maybe, perhaps, divide and conquer.”

Benson had a thought on that, then said, “You know, that could work…”

“Alright then,” he then said, “we’ll try and do that, Candance, you, Mordecai, Rigby and Baljeet go with Pops, while Muscle Man, High-Five Ghost and Buford will come with me, if any of you get spotted, let them know you're ‘looking for socks’…” Benson said the last part by quoting with his fingers.

“But we’ll actually be finding the data,” Candance got what he was saying, “very clever, Commander!”

“Good, get going and let me know if you find anything.” Benson ordered Pops' group, who saluted, putting their helmets back on and headed off, Pops following them.

“Alright, let’s do this!” Muscle Man said, putting his helmet on with the others, then Benson’s group headed off.





“Coran, the Stormtroopers are everywhere!” cried the captain, “There’s too many of them and we’re losing men fast!”

“Try to hold on and fight back as hard as you can!” Coran ordered, as the captain obliged and hurried to join the fight.

Coran let out a worried sigh as he spoke, “Princess, we have to get going to the escape pods, with a bit of luck we’ll be-”

Coran turned to the Princess as he spoke… only to see she wasn’t there!

“P-princess?!” he cried, as he looked around frantically, “Where’s Princess Allura?!”





Back at the entrance where the Stormtroopers came through, as two checked on the wounded and/or dead, Darth Zarkon entered through the door, as he looked around the aftermath of the infiltration.

Soon he headed off to seek out the Princess, the two Stormtroopers followed… though stopped a little as they heard a little bit of complaining.

“Oh, really, guys?” Dagur asked as he looked around, “Look at this mess. ‘Hey Lords Deranger and Zarkon are coming, should we clean the place up? Nah, leave it they won’t mind’, really.”

Dagur soon hurried on to catch up with Zarkon, a little miffed of no respect for the Sith Lords for a proper welcome.





“Your majesty, we have to hurry!” Rarity said, as she and Allura were hiding out in the darkest corridors of shuttle, “The ruffians may find us any moment!”

“Don’t worry, Rarity,” Allura assured her, as she got out what appeared to be a data stick, along with some sort of cube, “if they do find us, what they’re looking for would be long gone.”

Rarity looked to the Princess as she asked, “Are you certain we might find a Jedi, especially this one you’ve been telling me about?”

“I know,” Allura replied, “this Jedi was once one of my father’s closet friends, and I know that he’s still alive out there somewhere, even on this planet, and if anyone can get all the info to him… it’s our little droid.”

She turned back and kneeled down… as she placed the data stick into BB-7.





“I can’t understand why we were assigned chores for the headhonchos.” Rigby said as he talked to Baljeet, as Pops’ group were patrolling the ship, “I mean, what color socks do you think these guys want?”

“Um, black?” Baljeet answered with a question.

“I’m just saying, right,” Rigby replied, “everything these guys own are black, or sometimes very dark grey!”

“It does make sense of a trend there…” Mordecai a little bit agreed.

“Oh, good show,” Pops said, “I believe everyone has a favourite trend of color! Mine is butterscotch brown.”

“Like lollipops?” Baljeet asked with interest.

Suddenly, Candance signaled the group to stop.

“What’s up, Candance?” Mordecai asked.

“Hold up,” she replied, “I think I heard something…”

Candance then gestured to Mordecai to follow her slowly and carefully, as they walked up to a corridor entrance and peeped to see what was happening.

At the sametime, at another corridor, Wheatley was looking for BB-7.

“BB-7! Where are you?” he called out, as he heard the battle still going outside while looking around.

Just then, he heard a familiar beeping sound, then turned to see a figure (Princess Allura) seemingly placing something inside BB-7, while looking around for some reason.

Wheatley looked to see what was going on, of course he wasn’t the only one, as Candance and Mordecai were witnessing the same thing.

“What do you think they’re doing?” Mordecai asked.

“I have no idea,” Candance replied, “but I know that they’re busted!”

Stepping away, Candance said to her group, “You guys wait here, I’ll get Commander Benson!”

She then hurried off, singsongy saying, “Oh, Commander!”

“Guess we’re not getting the socks.” Baljeet said.

“Don’t worry, I got some.” Rigby said.

Baljeet looked to him as he asked, “Really?”

However, Rigby replied, “Right here!” before doing a puncie on Baljeet’s arm.

“Ow!” the young Stormtrooper replied.

Rigby then got punched by Mordecai as the latter said, “Dude, not cool!”

Rigby looked up to Mordecai as he said, “Ow… that hurt, man…”

“Rigby, you’re wearing armor.” Mordecai explained.

“Yeah,” Rigby groaned, “but it’s plastic…”

“Now you know how I felt.” Baljeet replied.

Back with Wheatley, after witnessing what was happening, he saw the figure leave, while BB-7 soon rolled over to the droid.

“BB-7, there you are.” Wheatley said with relief as BB-7 rolled up to him.

The protocol droid gestured back to the door that led back out as he explained, “They’re soon heading to this direction. If they find us, they could have us scrapped at the Spice Mines of Kessel.”

BB-7 soon beeped and rolled passed Wheatley, which left Wheatley a little confused.

“Wait a minute, BB-7, where are you going?” Wheatlet asked as he followed his counterpart.

As they left, Allura looked back to the leaving droids as she whispered, “Good luck, BB-7…”





The Dark Order forces had taken the remaining survivors prisoners, along with the droids working for them.

Coran, meanwhile, was being held captive by Darth Zarkon and Dagur, as the former was holding the captain tightly by the neck, the Altean looking very worried, until two Stormtrooper scouts approached the Sith Lords.

“The Imperial plans are not in the ship’s computers.” one of the Stormtroopers stated.

“We have learned that the Princess of Altea has something that belonged to us,” Darth Zarkon said to the captain, as he continued to further his grasp on the captain’s neck, “what have you done with the data plans?”

“We received no data transmissions,” the captain tried to sugarcoat with lies, while he was struggling to breath and get loose of Darth Zarkon’s grip, “this is a consular ship, on… a… diplomatic mission…”

“Really?” Dagur asked in a sarcastically playful way, “Well, if this is a diplomatic mission… then where’s the ambassador?”

Darth Zarkon continued to strangle the captain until a snap was heard, resulting in the armored Sith to throw the captain to the wall and slump to the ground, dead.

“Commander, tear this ship apart until you find those items and bring me all the passengers, I want them alive!” Zarkon ordered with an aggressive tone to the Stormtroopers.

Coran looked to the two Sith Lords as he said, “You’ll never get anything from me, even if you have any painful plans for me!”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Dagur said, “we won’t be doing any harm on you… for now.”

Dagur turned to two Stormtroopers, “Guards, take him away.”

The two imperial soldiers obeyed and took Coran away.





One group of Stormtroopers were searching the corridors for any rebels to take prisoner, looking through each passageway.

Allura and Rarity, who were hiding in one of said passageways, peeked a little to see the Stormtroopers, then quickly pulled back to avoid getting caught.

However, they weren’t fast enough as one Stormtrooper spotted them, “There’s two, set to stun.”

Allura instantly fired her blaster, striking the trooper who gave the order.

“Hurry, Princess!” cried Rarity, as she and Allura made a break for it, but it was too late, as one of the Stormtroopers set their blaster to stun as ordered, then fired a stun ray at the both of them, knocking them down to the ground.

“They’ll be alright,” said the trooper as he and the others inspected them, “inform the Lords Zarkon and Deranger that we got the Princess.”





Meanwhile, again…

Wheatley followed BB-7 as they soon arrived at the room where the escape pods would be released if needed for abandoning ship.

“BB-7, wait!” the protocol droid called out to his counterpart, “We’re not supposed to be down here! We could get in trouble!”

BB-7 reached one of the escape pods, though the droid was not large enough to activate the doors, luckily, BB-units always come with grapple features, allowing BB-7 to pull himself up, and pressed the door button with one of his robotic arms.

Once the door was opened, BB-7 swung into the pod, before turning his head to Wheatley, who was just outside the pod and bleeped to him.

“Come with you?” Wheatley asked, having a nervous thought then replied, “I was told that if I ever go into an escape pod, I will die! Deactivated for good!”

BB-7 then beeped again, which surprised Wheatley from what he said, “Secret mission? What plans?”

The BB-unit blooped.

“I told you, I can’t go in with you!” Wheatley said.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Candance had returned with Benson’s group.

“You are certain that figure may have had the plans, cadet?” Benson asked.

“Absolutely, sir,” replied Candance, “they’re just down here.”

As she reached her group she saw that it was just Baljeet and Rigby.

“What are you two doing?” she asked.

“And where’s Pops and Mordecai?” Benson added.

“Right here!” Mordecai called out, as he returned with Pops, “Sorry, Pops started to wander off and I had to get him.”

Candance held in a groan, before relazing as she said, gesturing to the corridor where she and Mordecai saw the figure (Allura) install something in the BB-unit.

“The enemy and the droid are down there, sir.” she said.

As she and Benson looked, they realized it was empty.

“What the-!? Where did they go?!” Candance asked.

“I thought you said they were there!” Benson exclaimed.

“I did!” Candance exclaimed back, before looking to her group, “What happened? Where are they?”

“Guys, relax.” Rigby spoke up.

“Relax?!” Candance cried out, “Our biggest break has just disappeared!”

“It’s alright, whoever it was up and left, but you can calm down. The droid went with a metal man and went down that way.” Rigby explained, he then pointed with his gun in the direction he was referring to… only for the gun to fire.

It was there that the fire blast almost struck Wheatley, who panicked before deciding to get in the escape pod with BB-7, muttering aloud, “Oh boy, I think I’m going to regret this!”

Once the droids were in, the escape pod doors closed, allowing the pod to take off out of Allura’s ship and away from the Finalizer.

Inside one of the gunner controls, orders were made to fire on anyone trying to escape via escape pod, though they managed to take down a few, they spotted the droid’s escape pod.

“There goes another one.” the gunner said, getting ready to shoot.

“Hold your fire,” said the officer, “there’s no life forms, probably short circuited.”

“‘Hold your fire?’” the gunner asked, looking to the officer, “What are we, paying by the laser now?”

“Hey, you don’t do the budget, Terry, I do.” the officer explained.





As the escape pod hurtled away, the droids looked out to see the Star Destroyer they managed to escape.

“Huh, the damage doesn't look that bad out here.” Wheatley stated, as BB-7 beeped in agreement.

“I just hope this thing is safe…” said Wheatley, as BB-7 bleeped, as if he was saying ‘Me too.’

The two droids sat back and contiued to look out the window of the pod, as the escape pod continued to plummet towards its destination: the planet Tatooine.





Tatooine

“Whoa… is that a Star Destroyer?”

A lean 18 year old teenager, with light brown skin, short brown hair, thin eyebrows, blue eyes that were notibally shown as small irises and pupils, short and flared outward hair bangs and two strands sticking out, was currently looking up to the sky via binoculars, as he was previously doing a bit of work, but then noticed something appeared above the planet’s surface.

As he looked, he thought the object that appeared looked like a Star Destroyer, and that there were several small, tiny flashes that rapidly appeared around the object.

As he tried to get a good look, someone called out to him.

“Yo, Lance!”

Lance stopped what he was doing and then looked to see who called him.

Nearby was a 19 year old, heavy-set teenager, who had medium brown skin, black hair and brown eyes with thick, square-shaped eyebrows.

He had a round face with a short, rounded nose, and his body was full of muscle and fat; having thick muscular limbs and a large belly. He also wore an orange strip of cloth tied around his forehead, long enough to reach his mid-back, that kept his rather cut short hair out of the way, but allowed his bangs to frame his face.

“What’s up, Hunk?” Lance called out to Hunk.

“C’mon, we gotta get going or we’ll be late for work!” Hunk exclaimed.

“Oh, okay!” Lance replied back, he then took one small look back up to the sky, before hurrying on to join Hunk to help out at work, not realizing that what he just saw was the battle between the Rebels and the Finalizer.

And as the two left, they did not notice three different falling objects that were falling in three different directions, each one having a different story to tell…