Chapter Eleven

Star Destroyer Retribution, 34 ABY

Zay came to when she heard the sound of her mom's voice calling her name. Her ears were ringing like crazy and the back of her head hurt like hell.

"Zay! Zay! Honey, talk to me," her mom sounded slightly panicked. "Can you hear me?"

Zay groaned. "Yeah, Mom. I can hear you. You can stop worrying about me now."

"Thank god."

"How long was I out?"

"Thirty seconds max. Can you move?"

"Yeah, give me a second." Zay unbuckled herself and looked around at the wreckage of the TIE Fighter. The wings were completely torn off and the main cabin was a complete mess. They looked to have crashed somewhere close to the engines. After her ears stopped ringing and her head cleared, she crawled out of the wreckage and saw her mom standing over her with her hand outstretched.

"You broken?" Iden asked.

"Other than my head hurting like hell, I'm good. Thanks, Mom" Zay said as she grabbed her mom's hand and was hauled to her feet. When she was upright, her mom crushed her into a tight hug.

"Thank the Force," Iden whispered as she squeezed her tightly. "For a second there I thought I'd lost you. I've already lost your father... I don't know if I could've continued if you didn't make it."

"Hey. I'm fine, Mom. Stop worrying about me."

"I know... I just don't want to lose you too."

"You won't lose me."

"How's your head?"

"It's fine," Zay replied dismissively.

The two pulled apart and Iden eyed her skeptically. She narrowed her eyes and said, "I know that tone of voice young lady. I know it's not fine. Show me where it hurts."

"Mom, seriously. My head is fine."

"No, it's not. Show me."

With a sigh, Zay turned around and presented the back of her head to her mom. She pointed to the area and said, "This is where it hurts."

Her mom shifted her hair out of the way to get a better look. "Hmmm... I don't see a bruise at the moment, but one will appear soon enough."

"See? I told you I was fine."

"I guess you're right. After this is over, I want you to put something on it to reduce the swelling. Are we clear?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Now grab your gear. We need to move."

Zay looked around and spotted the targeting rifle in the wreckage of the TIE Fighter. It must've somehow flown off her back in the chaos. She picked it up and inspected it. Miraculously, it was undamaged and didn't even have a scratch on it. She then checked and confirmed that all the power packs were still in her jacket and her Glie-44 was still in its holster on her hip, also unscathed

Once Zay gathered her gear and slung the targeting rifle on her back, she turned to her mom and asked, "Where's Shriv?"

Iden pointed to a crashed TIE Fighter close. "Over there. That has to be Shriv. Follow me."

As they got closer, they saw Shriv's boots sticking out from underneath one of the TIE Fighter's torn-off wings. When the two reached the crashed TIE, her mother said, "Come help."

Iden and Zay each grabbed an end of the wing.

"Ready?" her mother asked.

"Yep."

"One... two... three... lift."

They lifted the wing off of Shriv and he groaned. The two each grabbed one of his arms and hauled him to his feet.

"Shriv! Hey," Zay said with a slight laugh as she patted him on the chest. "Didn't die huh?"

"Yeah..." he said and started to pick up his gear.

"Come on," Iden said as she made her way towards a door that led out of the area that they were in. They entered another room and saw a locked door in front of them and a side hallway off to the left.

"There's gotta be a computer terminal somewhere," Shriv said.

"We should split up and regroup when we find something," Iden said as she glanced at Shriv.

"I'll just go on my own then," Shriv said as he turned and started walking down the hallway.

"Dio, slice the door," Iden ordered.

The droid popped out of its holder and began doing as ordered and the two Versios' readied their weapons. Zay unslung the targeting rifle while her mother pulled out her F-11D blaster rifle.

Dio beeped when he had finished slicing the door and it opened with a whoosh. They walked into the next area and stopped. Ahead of them was a dead end with two short hallways to the left and right. However, their route on the right was blocked by some crates. On the left, two Stormtroopers were facing each other and luckily they hadn't spotted them yet. At the end of the hallway, there was a room that had several screens and it looked like a surveillance room.

"We need to access the ship's logs," Iden said quietly as the two took cover behind a nearby wall. "Data hub, communication center, whatever we can find first."

"What kind of information are we looking for?" Zay asked.

"At this point, anything that might help the Resistance."

"Area clear," one of the Stormtroopers said. "They must be on the move. Fan out and locate the intruders."

Iden pointed to one of the Stormtroopers. "Dio, go for the shock."

Dio zipped past the duo and shocked the Stormtrooper on the left. Then, he quickly zapped the other one before he could call for backup. After that, he turned back to the mother and daughter duo and beeped at them.

"Good work, Dio," Zay said as they hurried over to the droid and she patted him on the head. The droid beeped happily.

Iden pointed to the surveillance room. "Slice, please!"

Dio quickly sliced the console and one of the screens lit up. It showed a room off to the right that had a lot of weapons hanging on racks and cases ranging from blaster pistols to rocket launchers. Inside the room, there were two Stormtroopers and an officer.

"Let's go take them out," Iden said as Dio returned to his holder. "They don't know we're here yet."

Zay holstered the rifle and pulled out her blaster pistol as they walked towards the door. Right before the duo reached the point where the door would open, Zay raised her pistol, looked at her mom and nodded, silently telling her that she was ready. Her mom nodded back and the two approached the door. It opened and one of the Stormtroopers turned at the sound.

"Hey, who are-" his words cut off as Zay put a blaster bolt through his chest.

Before the officer or the other Stormtrooper could call out for help, her mother took them both out with her blaster rifle.

"An armory," Zay said as she looked around the room. "We can use the First Order's weapons against them. Stock up."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Ha, ha, ha."

Zay watched her mom walk over to an open weapon case that held a small minigun inside it and picked it up.

"Whoa," she exclaimed. "That looks heavy."

"Something tells me heavy is going to help."

Zay holstered her pistol and grabbed a few more power packs and several more thermal detonators. Then she took out the targeting rifle once more.

"You good?" her mom asked.

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Then let's go."

They exited the armory and walked up a small set of stairs. After going through another door, they hit a crossroads. Suddenly they heard a shout to their left. The two turned to see a squad of eight Stormtroopers in front of them at the end of the hallway. One of them looked heavily armed.

"Hey, over there. Intruders!" a Stormtrooper shouted. "Open fire!"

"Uh oh," Zay said.

"Take cover," her mom ordered. "Give me some suppressing fire or a distraction at the very least."

"Roger. I'm on it." Zay took cover behind the wall at the corner of the hallway as the Stormtroopers opened fire. She grabbed a thermal detonator off her belt, primed it, and lobbed it blindly around the corner.

"Grenade!" a Stormtrooper cried out right before it exploded. It was followed up by several more shouts.

Zay leaned around the corner with the scope of the targeting rifle to her eye. She put the reticle on one of the Stormtroopers still standing and squeezed the trigger. Her shot hit the trooper in the center of his chest and he went down with a cry of pain. She quickly sighted another and killed him as well. Meanwhile, her mom spun up the minigun in her hands and sprayed the hallway with a hail of blaster bolts.

"Well, if they haven't figured out that we're now they do now," Zay said as soon as the last Stormtrooper went down.

"You're right," her mom said. "Let's keep moving. There should be a control room nearby."

They continued their way through the massive starship and came into contact with another squad of Stormtroopers, but this time there were a dozen of them. At the end of the hallway, there appeared a room of great importance if a dozen troopers were guarding it.

"Don't let them into the control room!" one of the troopers shouted.

"They don't want us getting in that room!" Zay said as she took out one of the troopers with the targeting rifle.

"Keep pushing," Iden said. "We're getting in that room."

"Yes, ma'am."

Iden let loose a hail of blaster bolts down the hallway. A couple of the troopers got caught in the open and went down. Zay hung back and started picking off the Stormtroopers that dared to peak out in a vain attempt to fire back.

"That's all of them. Area clear," Zay said as soon as she took out the final Stormtrooper. They walked up to the locked door. "Wonder what's in here."

"Something worth protecting." Iden activated her commlink. "Shiv, I think we found the place. Sending you our location."

"On my way," he replied.

Iden threw down the minigun she was carrying and it landed with a loud clang on the metal floor. Then she pointed at the control panel next to the door. "Dio, need a slice. Make it quick."

The droid flew over to the control panel and began doing what he did best.

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