The brave trio's escape

Ria took a deep breath as she reached into her pocket and took out the key card that would open up the doors to the cell that the Jedi Master was being held in. General Odet had informed Ria that all of her (admittedly paltry few) belongings were being placed on the Jedi Master's barge, which was acting as their escape craft. Behind her, Serenity had not one, but three lightsabers concealed in her robes that General Odet had given her, with those being her own, Master Tyandas's, and an additional one that had apparently belonged to Serenity's old Master, Paren. One of those lightsabers would be at Ria's throat pretty soon, which she was not looking forward to.

Wearing her dress uniform without even a blaster at her hip, Ria was definitely violating several protocols by escorting prisoners in the dungeon. However, Odet had felt that highlighting her femininity would decrease the odds of one of the soldiers taking a risky shot to try to hit one of the Jedi, or worse, intentionally shooting her so that they could then light up the Jedi. Apparently Odet felt that stormtrooper armor's dehumanizing properties were riskier than it's protective ones. She had also said something about plot armor, which Ria hadn't understood.

Here goes nothing…

Ria held up the key card and the door began to open. She had informed the gaoler that she was taking Serenity to chat with Anto, after which she had "accidently" dropped a mug full of coffee, which the gaoler was busy cleaning up instead of watching over her shoulder as he probably would be doing otherwise.

Once the door was open, the Jedi wasted no time putting the plan into action.
As the door slid open Anto Tyandas appeared and walked out of the darkness, back straight, steps confident and purposeful. He’d arrived at the prison submissive, not one to cause trouble, but the Jedi that emerged from that cell was so different that he could just as well have been a different species. Fear gripped the gaoler, he dropped the cloth he’d washed up with and backed into the wall, eyes wide open staring, shifting from the Jedi master, to the Jedi apprentice and finally to Ria, expecting the trooper to do something. At that moment Serenity quickly tossed Anto’s lightsaber to him. She then turned on her heel with a quick fluid motion she grabbed Ria wrist and twisted her arm behind her back. Her free hand healed the lightsaber that was now held at the stormtroopers throat. The blade buzzed inches away from her. “You're coming with us,” Serenity said calmly.

Ria gulped. There definitely was something about these laser swords that was terrifying as hell. She nodded… carefully. Getting half-dragged back down the hallway, Ria caught a glimpse of the Jedi Master subduing the gaoler by using his creepy force powers to throw the man at a wall, causing her to wince.

“Do not worry” The Jedi master told her “He will wake up soon, he has just fainted.”

They had almost made it to the elevator before the alarm was raised. Soon, stormtroopers were flooding the area, one of whom even took a shot at Serenity's back before Anto deflected it and promptly informed the assembly he and Serenity would kill her if they didn't cut it out.

And so, they made it to the elevator in one piece, and using the keycard Odet had given them, overrode the security protocols that otherwise would have prevented the elevator from working.

"I have an itch on my neck like you wouldn't believe," Ria moaned as the elevator rose. "Could one of you guys use your powers to scratch it for me?"

Anto gave an amused sneer, and Serenity could not help but giggle at that statement. “Or I could move my light saber and let you scratch your neck with your free hand” she said. She moved her lightsaber away from Ria’s neck so she could reach the itch and scratch it before they got off the elevator.

"That seems a little mundane when you're getting kidnapped by a bunch of sorcerers," Ria retorted, nonetheless taking advantage of the opportunity to give her neck a good scratch. That only made it worse. Oh well, it appeared she was going to have to live with this for the time being.

Odet had provided them with very thorough directions for how to get to where the Jedi Master's ship was parked. So ideally, this would go pretty smoothly…

They made it through the lobby without too much trouble, only three people pointed blasters at them while the receptionist screamed for backup. Still, nobody outside of the gaoler had gotten hurt yet. That wasn't too bad.

Serenity made big show of how she had Ria in an iron grip and her lethal weapon so close to the stormtrooper’s throat that she could probably feel the heat coming off it. Anto moved around them, making sure that he and his yellow blade was between the duo and any blaster he could see. It seemed to do the trick, and the armed soldiers merely followed them cautiously.

And then they got outside. Whew boy…

There were a lot more than three blasters pointed at them now. Was that an AT-ST?

"Freeze Jedi!" an officer yelled.

“Never” serenity said. There was a growl to her voice. She let go of Ria’s arm. Thow her lightsaber blade was still held close to her, she thought she could not get away even if she wanted to. She reached out with the force picking up several rocks throwing them at the window of the AT-ST. She then quickly grabbed Ria’s arm and twisted it behind her back once again.

The AT-ST as cracks spread up the window, it fired, missing by a fair margin and causing pandemonium as troopers got out of the way of the explosive shot. A sniper shot rang out from atop a nearby building, but Anto deflected it at the officer, who cried out "Aaagh, my knee!!!"
“Keep moving, we cannot stay here” Anto half yelled to be heard over the soldiers, a bead of sweat clearly visible on his forehead from the strein of keeping track of so many weapons and the effort in intercepting a sniper shot.

In the ensuing hubbub, the Jedi dragged Ria through the crowd, waving their lightsabers towards anyone who got too close. Soon they were weaving around buildings as more soldiers appeared and officers tried to regain control of the situation. They made it to the hangars, but time was clearly running out.

"There she is!" the Jedi Master declared out, recognizing his ship from a distance away. As he led them toward it, several pilots and a handful of other troops saw them, some of whom fired at them. They were getting desperate. As he made his way to the ship Anto did his best to scare the soldiers by either straight up blocking or deflecting the blaster shots back toward the shooters. But he had to choose between moving quickly and parrying perfectly, so he had to trust his new disciple to know what to do.

"Maybe I should have put on more makeup," Ria scowled, now rather skeptical of the General's argument for not wearing armor as a blaster bolt whizzed over her head.

Serenity reached out to the force as they continued forward. “Breath Ria we won't let anything happen to you” she whispered.

Troopers were now pouring into the building, but it was too late. With a wave of his hand, Jedi Master Tyandas lowered the gangway and soon they were onboard. The Jedi Master quickly made his way to the cockpit and turned on the engine.

Once the ramp was raised serenity let Ria go and turned her lightsaber off.” that's better now we just need to get off this planet and into hyperspace in one piece. If I were you I would find somewhere to sit” she said. She then turned and headed to the cockpit to help Master Tyandas fly the ship.

In the cockpit Anto was pushing buttons and pulling levers as fast as he could manage. Ria entered and sat down in the co-pilot seat, causing the Jedi master to promptly stop.
“What are you doing?” He asked.
“Helping us take off, I have some flight training, we can get out of here much faster…” She started, but the Jedi cut her off.
“There is a bomb somewhere on this ship” He reminded her. “Getting airborne won’t matter if we can’t get away from the planet. You’re a soldier. Go find it and get rid of it.”
“Oh crap, I forgot about the bomb, where is it?” Ria, newly appointed demolitions expert asked.
“Heck if I know. I just fly this thing, wouldn’t even know what a bomb looks like. It’s probably standard ordinance so it should be familiar to you.” He said and resumed flicking switches.
“But… This ship is huge and it could be anywhere. It could take days to find it. Can’t you just, I don’t know, use the force and something?”
Anto Tyandas once again stopped what he was doing. Blaster fire was hitting the ship, but even an old junker like the Nameless was sturdy enough to stand up to that. Though he did know that they only had minutes until the armoury was opened and the bigger guns were brought out.
“They said that it would go off in hyperspace, leaving no trace. I don’t have a better idea than to start searching around the hyperengine. Just don’t pull out any cables we need.”

Ria gulped and pushed herself from the chair. "Alright I'll see what I can find."

And then she was thrown back into the chair as they took off. "We were out of time," the Jedi Master grimaced. "You will need to get back there once we get through the atmosphere."

Things were tense as they dodged pursuing fighters and ground fire on the way up. However, they were able to get through the atmosphere with little damage. Once their momentum stabilized, Ria immediately got up and sprinted toward the back to find the bomb, stopping briefly by her belongings bags and pulling out some tools that Odet had generously seen fit to provide. From there, finding the engine didn't prove to be too difficult, but would the hyperspace engine be nearby?

A blast rocked the ship and caused Ria to stumble and bash her elbow painfully against a wall. "Oww, can you tell these idiots that I'm still being held hostage?" She yelled to the cockpit.

"I don't think they care anymore," Anto shouted back.

Grumbling under her breath, Ria opened up a few compartments until she finally found something that looked like it could be the hyperspace engine. Taking a look around, she quickly noticed something that was out of place.

"I found it!" she declared.

"Good, because the shields can't take much more!"

Gritting her teeth, Ria studied the device. Thankfully, she had years of experience of messing around with mechanical systems, so she recognized a good number of the components she was looking at. "Alright, if I were this bomb, what would I use as I trigger to explode," she murmured under her breath. If it was hooked to the hyperspace engine, the triggering mechanism would ideally be stimulus from said engine, so…

Ria carefully detached the wires that hooked the bomb to the hyperspace engine. Once the last one was pulled away (and she didn't experience a sudden fiery death) she shouted, "Alright, we should be clear!"

"Great! Hold on!" Anto replied

Ria threw the compartment doors closed and fled to a nearby room and slid into a chair as the momentum began to shift. She closed her eyes and desperately hoped that she hadn't screwed up and that the bomb wouldn't go off...

As soon as the jump was set they disappeared into hyperspace. The stars vanished turning to star lines and they left the tie fighters behind. After they were in hyperspace Serenity left the cockpit to find Ria. “Are you ok” she asked when she finally found the women.

"Yeah, I think my neck has a sunburn, but otherwise I'm doing pretty swell," Ria joked, catching her breath. Whew, that was close. I'm not sure whether to thank you for getting me out of that in one piece or to say 'you're welcome' for being a willing hostage for you guys."

Serenity giggled. She looked at Ria’s neck carefully as well. “ I think you will be ok, if you are burnt it's only superficial. It should heal in a few days . We're headed to Jakku. I hope that will not be a problem” she said.

As they pulled out hyperspace over the planet, the Counselor to the Empire Gallius Rax's fleet could be seen in the distance. "I think I'll be fine," Ria replied. "I should be able to find some of my own there." She winced after looking upon the sandy planet they were diving toward. "I think a lot more than my neck is about to get burned through."

“ You're probably right, I think we are all about to get sun burnt.” she said. She pulled her master's lightsaber from her belt. She looked at it for a moment then healed it out to Ria. “I think this is safer in your hands than it is in mine,” she said.

Ria's eyes widened, "Do you really think so? I'm not one to say no to free stuff, but well…"

“ Yes Ria I do you dont end lives without reason in fact you try to protect them you had plenty of opportunity to Kill me over the past twenty four hours and you didn’t. You are kind and gentle unlike the other stormtroopers who would have jumped at the general's offer to let them kill me. I think Master Paren would be glad that his saber was in the hand of another who knows the value of life.” she said.

"Just don't play around with it like a kid with a stick," Master Tyandas interjected. "A lightsaber will take off a limb in a second with a flick of the wrist."

"I will be careful… super careful," Ria promised.

They landed on the outskirts of a decent sized village somewhere on the planet. Once they landed, Ria began to collect her belongings.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay with us?" Master Tyandas inquired. "I would be happy to teach you how to use your lightsaber, although I don't sense much force potential in you. And we could use your knowledge of current events to help us get established."

"I'm sure. I have a duty to fulfill to my people," Ria replied, hoisting her bags with her stuff over her shoulders. "Also, I have basically no clue what's been happening for the last year anyway, so I doubt I'd be much help."

“ I'll miss you please be careful” serenity said. There were clear hints of sadness in her face. “ are you sure you don't want any help finding them” she asked.

Ria walked over to Serenity and put her arms around the girl (being careful not to poke her with the bags), "I think I'll miss you too," she sniffed. "Don't get yourself killed now." Cracking a smile, she added, "I'd hardly want my valiant self-sacrifice for you guys to be in vain."

"I don't want you guys risking yourselves further on my account. I'm sure I can get some locals to point me in the right direction."

"Alright Ria, be careful," Anto called out over the sound of the cabin depressurizing as the gangplank lowered. Ria nodded, took one last long look at two people she'd never thought she would become friends with, then turned and walked out into the sun and sand...