Private Black Box

[Valery Noble]

Dantooine

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Aldric Laurent

While Valery picked up on the agitation that was sparked by her questioning of the rebel preparations, she made no comment about it. A part of her knew that they had likely spent far too much time preparing, but someone without emotional attachment or involvement with the cause had a perspective that could poke at potential flaws more easily. But it seemed that they had what they needed, were determined, and also willing to adjust their plans if necessary.

That's all she needed to be sure of.

"That all sounds good to me. We'll call you guys in when we're ready." She dipped her head to the group of rebels and after Trask got them all out, she turned to Aldric and shrugged.

"It's risky, dangerous and we're handling the hard part with only the two of us..." she started but she didn't want to sound too negative. "So...basically just another mission for us. We can handle it," she added with confidence as she began to make her way out of the rebel hideout with him, so they could start heading towards the facility.

"How are you feeling about all of this? This was your past, so does it feel the same or do you feel different about things now?"

 

[Aldric Laurent]

Aldric looked up for a moment, and pondered her question, "We were a bit more cavalier back in the day. Probably why Garang was such a disaster for us. That said, Trask seems anxious to get going which feels… a bit too familiar," It was understandable. They had kept most of the operations these last few years on the downlow. Something big like this would do alot for them, but also bring the rebellion back into the spotlight. And the last thing they needed was getting into trouble they couldn't get out of. He pursed his lips, then seemed to resign, "But he cares about the cause. If he's spent this much time rebuilding, I don't think he'd jeopardize it now." Hopefully he wouldn't be proven wrong.

"Nothing new for us though, right?" Aldric circled back to Val's comments, managing a slight smirk, "We'll make it work." A smaller recon team is better, after all. Together they walked back down the tunnel so they could prepare and head off for the designated coordinates, "Any particular ideas in mind? I figure if we can figure out where specifically the weapons are being held, then using whatever is the most straightforward path there is going to be best." There was always a chance it would be more complicated than that, but if they could help it, they had to be as discrete as possible.

Valery Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

Dantooine

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Aldric Laurent

"Might be a good thing that we're the first ones to go in then," Valery said in response to his comment about Trask's eagerness to get the mission going. "I doubt he'd compromise anything, but his excitement also affects the other, possibly less experienced men fighting for him. If we set the pace to be just right without unnecessary risk, I think we can bring a lot more of them home." She said that, knowing that a mission like this was almost guaranteed to have casualties.

She hoped it wouldn't be the case, but she was always going to remain realistic.

Looking back at him, she noticed the smirk and chuckled softly in response to his comment, "Nothing new and I'm confident we can pull it off. It's just... not the easiest mission we could have been handling here." Storage facilities for weapons and ammunition were always protected very heavily, so it was a challenge.

"As for ideas... I raided an imperial weapons facility a while ago. It was a building with walls around it that were constantly guarded, and within that building was another room more heavily reinforced. That's where the weapons and ammo were stored, and I have a feeling it'll be similar here," she explained as they finally climbed out of the tunnel, and back into Edeth's home. She looked around for the woman for a moment, before turning back to Aldric.

"They're not expecting anybody to even try something here, so I figure we can get over the wall and maybe set off an alarm. It's what I tried last time, and cleared out a lot of guards. Then we open the gate and the fight will begin." She let out a soft sigh and raised a hand up through her hair while she considered other options.

"Alternatively, I use my Shadow skills for the deep infiltration, and you give me cover from the wall. But then I'll be in the middle of it alone." She eyed him for a moment, "I'll leave the decision to you."

 

[Aldric Laurent]

Aldric furrowed his brow pensively. It had been left unsaid until now, but there would undoubtedly be casualties in the coming mission, some of them possibly deaths as well. It was a simple fact of what they did. Basic math. He could only do his best, and hope that the odds swung in their favor, "Well, with us leading the way in, hopefully we can do just that. Set the pace."

This would likely be the biggest test many of these rebels faced yet. For years they had remained quiet, only picking off low priority targets that wouldn't draw much attention. But this would definitely put them on the map, whether they wanted it or not.

Unless it failed, in which case they would all be dead or imprisoned, and promptly forgotten.

Probably not the best train of thought to go down. Aldric shook his head and mentally returned to the present. Valery gave them a few options as they came up into Edeth's house. She was sitting on the couch with a cup of tea, and looked at them from the side, "Busy day ahead?"

"That about sums it up," Aldric said, walking past his mother and giving her a kiss on the head before heading to the door, "We'll have to talk some more when all's said and done."

Edeth nodded, "Stay safe, and good luck, Aldric. Valery," She gave the woman an encouraging, if barely-perceptible smile.

Once they were out, Aldric resumed their conversation, "Let's go for Plan A. Use their negligence to their disadvantage," Valery was right. Out here, in the middle of Imperial space, they wouldn't expect anything. The mere thought of someone trying something seemed an impossibility. They would be scrambling to catch up, and if all went to plan, they would be too late by the time everything was said and done. And, it would keep Valery from going in solo.

"We've got a speeder, right? More low-profile than taking the ship."

Valery Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

Dantooine

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Aldric Laurent

While Aldric walked over to the couch to kiss his mother on the head, Valery waited at the door and looked over at Edeth with a faint smile of her own. If she had been in the woman's position and it was her kid who would be going out there on a dangerous mission like this, she'd struggle a lot. Edeth of course trusted her son and he hardly needed anybody's protection, but it couldn't be easy, right?

But Valery knew it was impossible to protect them forever and keep them in a safety bubble. One day, she'd have to let Vera go the way Edeth let her son go to fight the Empire.

"We'll be back soon," Valery assured her with a dip of her head before she pushed open the door and stepped outside with Aldric. It was likely for the best they didn't discuss details in the room with Edeth, but now that they were on their way to the ship again, the discussion continued. It seemed that Aldric preferred the first option she had proposed, and it was certainly her preferred plan of action as well.

"Sounds good to me. We'll approach from a blind spot and I'll use the Force to get us on the wall. It'll be quieter than using equipment," she said, still with a more serious, mission-focused tone. But when he mentioned taking a speeder to their target, there was a fiery sparkle in her eyes.

She always loved to take her speeder out.

"I've got my bike on the ship, so we can take that and we'll be there in no time." She grinned a little to herself and lowered the ramp of the ship. After stepping into the cargo bay, she turned on the lights and showed off the black with red highlights speeder bike that one wouldn't really expect to see from a Jedi, but definitely from her.

This was her favorite part.

"I'm driving so...you'll have to sit at the back and hold on a little. This thing doesn't know slow." She chuckled, kicked her leg over the bike and fired up the powerful engine. The roar and tremors made it easy to forget about everything for just a second, so when Aldric finally got seated and secured, she blasted off towards their target.

 

[Aldric Laurent]

Aldric grinned, “Guess I’m just gonna have to get used to being carried around by you, then,” He followed Valery up into the cargo bay; In the back was a dark speeder, earning a raised brow and a smirk from him. He took a step forward, when she skipped ahead to take the driver seat. His smirk widened, “Alright.”

Aldric hopped on, settling his arms around Valery’s waist, “No time to waste, then. Let’s get a move- woah!” He was cut off as the speeder rocketed out into the Dantooine plains, unfettered by obstacles and free to go at its fullest speeds without fear, “You weren’t kidding,” He chuckled.

Valery Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

Dantooine

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Aldric Laurent

Valery blinked at his response and turned to look at him, "As long as you don't mind it," she chuckled and guided him over to her bike, where she made it very clear who was driving today, and luckily, he did not argue it at all. He got seated, moved his arms around her waist, and she took off with a burst of speed.

Perhaps it wasn't really necessary to go as fast as she was going, but this was one of those rare moments where she could channel her inner adrenaline junkie without risking the mission or bringing them into too much danger. She knew what she was doing and had a lot of experience driving speeder bikes, so she could just enjoy the feeling in her gut and the rush of wind blowing through her long hair to make it wave along its currents

"You really thought I was joking?" She asked with a slight smirk and a shake of her head. This was Valery in her element, so there were likely no surprises about what she was doing, and how much she enjoyed it.

But soon enough, her grin of joy from the ride began to fade as a large structure appeared in the distance. It meant she had to focus on the mission again, and the first thing she did was figure out an approach vector that wouldn't reveal their presence. "This one is a lot bigger than the one I took down recently," Valery called out over the noise of her bike and the powerful wind currents.

It was going to be quite a fight to take this place on.

"I'm sure I can get us in but do you think Trask and his men can take this on?" She asked as she stopped the bike on a hill under a tree and squinted to get a feel for their guards and routines from afar. "Did you bring binoculars or the glasses I gave you? Maybe you can see something that will help us?"

 

[Aldric Laurent]

“Just didn’t realize it would be this fast!” Aldric called out over the rushing wind, sputtering a bit of Valery’s hair out of his face. The ride was a nice distraction from the upcoming events, and from all the other things that they had been struggling with lately. A small, but meaniongful gap of time where the mission was merely a destination along the journey. He let himself admire the dancing fields of long grass, the breeze on his skin, until they came to a stop.

The facility was bigger than he expected from the image. But Aldric steeled himself, reposturing a little taller now, “If we play our cards right, we’ll get out of here,” He trusted Trask, and by extension the other rebels. Now, they just had to deliver on that.

Aldric smirked, and flicked out the shades Valery had given him. He put them on and activated the Rangefinder, “I see a few patrols. Well-equipped. Well-manned,” No surprise there. Hopefully the element of surprise would carry them through the disadvantages laid before them, “Hang on, let me try…” Aldric trailed off, activated the thermal scanner, giving him a cleazrer view of some of the moving figures. And, a particular mass of heat that seemed to radiate from one of the buildings within the complex. The amount of heat that would be given off by a stockpile of energy weapons, “Here we go… Down there. That’s where most of the weapons are being kept.”

Valery Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

Dantooine

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Aldric Laurent

"I'm not too concerned about us getting out of there," Valery said carefully in response because she felt like she had been questioning the rebels a lot. But a Jedi and a well-trained and experienced special agent could handle a mission like this any day of the week. Now that it was getting more and more difficult, she worried about the rebels and if they could as well.

They would get a lot of them back home, but the casualties could be higher. How much were they willing to accept for the cause and how much impact would the sacrifices really have?

For now, she dropped it and watched as Aldric pulled out his shades to take a better look at the facility. With its range finder, he was able to spot various patrols and that visual confirmation helped her lock in on them with her senses. "Worrying but not unsurprising and we'll get passed them," Valery said confidently before he got an idea and switched the type of vision be used.

Soon enough, he spotted the heat signature of the weapons storage, and Valery frowned a little, "If you can see it through those thick walls, they either have something really powerful in there, or just a lot." Either way, a jackpot for the rebels, but that too was a little concerning to her. "How do you think Trask and his men will use these weapons? If it's just guns, it's nothing interesting but...they have a lot more than pistols and rifles in there."

Some rebels were not beyond using heavy weaponry in questionable attacks with a lot of collateral damage they were willing to accept for their cause. Valery was a lot more cautious about helping such groups.

"But stay low and let's go, I think I see an opening," Valery said as she moved downhill and approached the facility, which was built at the foot of several larger hills as well. The tall grass helped conceal them along the way and there weren't a lot of guards looking over the walls - there was nothing out here so they rarely felt a reason to really be on guard. "I'll get you on the wall first. So when you're ready..." Valery trailed off after reaching the outer walls closest to the weapons storage.

Whenever he was ready, she'd lift him up for a careful look on the wall before setting him down.

 

[Aldric Laurent]

"I'm not saying just the two of us," Aldric reaffirmed. He was confident in Trask's leadership, but deep down the struggles just weren't something he wanted to dwell on much either. There was too much riding on this.

Valery made a note of the heat signature's strength, and he nodded, "Mm. Some explosives, maybe? Hard to say without seeing for ourselves." Her follow-up question just earned a shrug, "…I don't know, Val." He hadn't been involved for years. Aldric hoped it wouldn't be anything extreme, but clearly all these years had made his mother a bit more hardened. Whose to say Trask hadn't been similarly affected? All the doubts Val raised made Aldric more antsy to get things going.

They slid down the hill to the facility, stopping along the wall where Valery then lifted him up for a look, "Clear," Aldric confirmed, quickly scaling down the wall to avoid any unwanted attention. He crept behind the corner of a building, watching as a trooper passed by a bit too close for comfort. Once they passed, he spoke again, "Okay, let's-" He turned and froze, seeing another guard post up behind them. He hadn't noticed the intruders yet, but all he had to do was turn around and they would be ousted.

Valery Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

Dantooine

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Aldric Laurent

"…I don't know, Val."

Valery shot him a look that made it clear she wasn't entirely convinced. He had been with these rebels for a long time before he joined the SIA, so surely he'd know about what kind of things they were capable of, right? At the same time, even his mother had gotten more extreme, so perhaps he actually didn't know. That thought only bothered her even more because it meant she wasn't quite sure what to expect.

It made her doubts grow, and she wanted to keep voicing them, but she noticed the effect it had on Aldric.

The last thing she wanted was to get him distracted or even agitated right before going into the dangerous part of the mission, so she dropped it for now and focused on getting him up and over the wall safely. Once he gave the clear and was on the other side, Valery jumped up and over without making a sound and landed next to him. Together, they hid behind a building close to the walls and escaped one patrol being able to spot them.

But as they planned to make a move, Aldric suddenly froze and Valery turned to see the guard behind them, who was slowly turning their way as he went to reposition. Without wasting even a second, she closed the distance and drew her weapon. The hum of her blade turned into a sharp hiss as it connected with the guard's neck, and it was all over instantly for them who became the first casualty of his mission.

But what should have offered relief quickly turned into a problem, as his body hit the floor and his blaster pistol went off. The shot struck the wall, thereby staying cleared from Valery and Aldric, but the sound echoed through the facility. Valery's eyes widened in shock and she looked up to see an entire patrol spotting only her because Aldric was still behind her a bit and using the structure for cover.

"Stay hidden!" Valery called out before she rushed forward to draw their attention. They knew a Jedi was in here now, but they didn't know about Aldric, and she wasn't going to compromise him. He'd either find a way out or a way to get the rebels in to assist. She was going to face the consequences either way, as she charged into a brutal fight.

 

[Aldric Laurent]

Aldric had been in the field long enough to be desensitized to violence, but there was something about the sheer suddenness of the trooper's death that made him blink. Perhaps with so little time to react, it was all he could manage before the deed was done. But what should have made their job easier, only proved to be a complication, as the blaster went off and alerted the facility. So much for a stealthy extraction.

Valery assured that the troops had only seen her thus far, keeping Aldric hidden, which at least still afforded him the element of surprise. Watching her charge headlong into a scrap was hardly comforting, but he grumbled and pressed on.

[Trask. We're in. But Valery is compromised.]

[What? Already? Is she alright?]

[For now. There was a complication. Dumb luck.]

[Damn. Well we're heading in now. Do you have an infil point for us?]

Aldric looked around, and sighed, [...Yeah. But you're not gonna like it.]

With that, he turned off his communicator, and crept for the front gate. With most of the garrison distracted by the rogue Jedi in their base, he was able to sneak up the watchtower undetected, and grab the guard up top. After a brief struggle, he got the guard into a headlock and choked him out, grabbing his key, and opening the gate.

Valery Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

Dantooine

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Aldric Laurent

This was it.

Everything about this situation made her feel like the worst day of her life again. She was alone, outnumbered by Imperials and she could feel a powerful desire in all of them to kill her. A desire that grew with each bolt she deflected and each soldier she killed. It was almost overwhelming to her senses but her own desire for survival kept her focused and this time, she wasn't going to allow anybody to sacrifice themselves or get hurt to protect her.

Not again.

With her eyes burning intensely and her two violet blades dancing in patterns that couldn't be tracked with the naked eye, she moved through the enemy ranks and one by one, the stormtroopers fell to her blade or the bolts she reflected. But with the sheer amount of blaster fire targeting her, it was only a matter of time until something would go wrong. Now, it was the sound of salvation that sparked it - as the gate opened to let the rebels inside to join the fight, Valery found herself distracted for less than a second.

But it was enough for a bolt to slip through her defenses and strike her left calf. A yelp of pain escaped her lips, and the shock she felt opened her up to a 2nd hit, this time burning the back of her right shoulder. Valery hissed at the pain but bit through it and jumped up into the air with explosive force.

The second she came back down, she slammed her fist against the soil and released a powerful Force Wave that lashed out at everybody around her. Those closest to her were unlikely to get up anytime soon, and those further away were just knocked off their feet.

Either way, it gave her some time to recover, and the rebels hopefully an opportunity to advance.

"Come on then! I'm right here!" She called out as she continued the fight, her voice far more intense than usual.

 

[Aldric Laurent]

Aldric fired a shot at the guard on the opposite gate tower, just as the rebels' vehicle charged in through the open entry way. They skidded out to where Valery was fighting the bus of imperial forces, and one of the rebels; a towering Kaleesh man, posted up on a mounted machine gun in the back of the speeder, unloading a volley of blaster fire on the troopers. The vehicle then launched off and crashed through the large doors to where the weapons were being held.

Aldric caught up now, ushering them in, "C'mon! Let's move!" The rebels spilled out, some providing covering fire while the others set to raiding the stockpile. There were crates of guns, but sure enough, explosives as well.

Trask caught sight of one such container, "Careful with those, fellas! Don't need ourselves blowing up on the way back!" The Bothan chuckled, and drew a pair of pistols and joined the fight.

"Val!" Aldric called out, finally catching sight of her in the middle of the fray, "You okay?!"

Valery Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

Dantooine

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Aldric Laurent

Within seconds of Valery slamming most of the Imperials against the ground, she heard a vehicle burst through the open gate at high speeds. It skidded to a halt close to her, and from its rear, a heavy machine gun opened up to make sure the Imperial soldiers weren't ever going to get up again. Valery used the relief they offered to fall back a few steps, and channel the Force through her body so that her injuries no longer phased her.

At this rate, she could keep this up for a long time.

It was only when she spotted an entirely new group of guards, all armed to the teeth, that she rushed forward again and pressured them up close. It did make it a little more difficult for the rebels to shoot them, but she felt confident that she could maneuver her way around their fire support.

"Val!" Aldric called out, finally catching sight of her in the middle of the fray, "You okay?!"

Valery looked over her shoulder in his direction, her expression cold, intense, and focused, but she managed a nod before charging back into the enemy lines to keep up the pressure. But as the fight was turning in their favor, the Imperials grew more desperate to keep the weapons out of rebel hands, and one of them fired a missile with a hand-held missile launcher toward the vehicle.

Valery watched it fly off with widened eyes and extended a hand, hoping to project a barrier strong enough to shield it just in time. "Watch out!" She called out, "You need to get out of there!"

 

[Aldric Laurent]

The initial assault stagnated into a back and forth firefight, each side trading shots from behind cover. The rebels, though fewer in number, were able to take out significantly more troopers than the other way around. Their guerrilla tactics and careful methods of attack largely kept them out of the heaviest crossfire, while the imperials were more focused on simply overwhelming them statistically. This proved to be ineffective, and given the suddenness off the attack, they were still scrambling to apply a more cohesive counterattack.

"Watch out!"

Aldric snapped out of his battle trance, to see the shift in the odds. A missile launcher was hoisted up by one of the troopers, and launched. The rocket whistled towards its intended target, and exploded. But Valery's barrier was just enough to stop the ordnance from doing significant damage. The cloud of flame and more shook the ground, and toppled the vehicle over onto its side. Very unfortunate, but manageable.

Or at least it was, until Aldric saw one of the explosives that had been loaded in, rolling out and primed for detonation, "Look ou-!" He could hardly finish the warning before a cluster of grenades went off, cascading into an even larger explosion that engulfed the truck, and a couple rebels. Aldric dove out of the way, grabbing Trask as they just barely got away. Aldric was spared much damage, but Trask's left arm was badly burned. The Bothan howled in pain, while their medic came over to try and help his injury.

"Dammit…" Aldric growled, wiping his face to find that it left blood on his hand. Perhaps he wasn't perfectly unscathed. He grabbed an assault rifle from the ground and laid down more covering fire. They were going to need a new vehicle now, if they had any chance of getting out of here.

Valery Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

Dantooine

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Aldric Laurent

Valery could feel the strain against her barrier as the rocket exploded, but it held long enough to deflect most of its lethal energy away from the vehicle. What remained was enough to knock the thing on its side, but she felt confident that she could pull it back up for their escape with the Force. That plan, however, quickly faded when she felt even more danger and heard Aldric call out that something was off.

A grenade exploded, and Valery's eyes widened when she felt a tremor of pain from the rebels echoing through the Force. As more grenades exploded in a violent chain reaction, this feeling got much worse, but she couldn't allow it to distract her. So while they recovered and tried to scramble back up to their feet, Valery jumped between them and the advancing Imperials to physically shield both Aldric, Trask, and all the rebels.

It meant a lot of enemy fire was briefly focused on her, but her deflections kept her safe, and soon enough, her allies applied suppressive fire again to offer her some relief.

"We're getting the hell out of here!" Valery called out before she pulled back enough to safely bring up her comm device. <R-6, take the ship to our location and prep the cluster missiles.> she told him, and after a quick response, she shouted back, <Yes, all of them!>

Valery's eyes then shifted to Trask and Aldric, who were both injured but still kept on fighting, "My ship will be our evac, and we're leveling this place! Get your men ready to move!" she yelled, mostly directed at Trask but he likely needed Aldric's help to coordinate that. Valery then jumped straight into the fight again, hoping that her fiery fighting spirit could help inspire everybody to give it their all.

They only needed to hold out a little bit longer.

 

[Aldric Laurent]

With Valery's aid, Aldric was able to get Trask behind cover, who slowly calmed as his searing wound was coated with a cooling batch spray. As calm as one can be in an out of control firefight, anyway. "But-!" He nearly protested. Another look around, however, forced him to change his mind. Commandeering a new vehicle and restarting their raid on the stockpile was simply too much time. They could only do one or the other, and only one would be getting them out of here alive. As bumbling as the trooper force was up until this moment, by then they would almost certainly have regrouped and overwhelmed the rebels, "…Dammit!" He growled, hitting the wall with his good arm in frustration. "Get ready, team. We're leaving this place behind."

One of the nearby rebels spoke up, "B-but sir-!" No doubt they all wanted this to go down differently.

Trask just shook his head, "We'll get another chance. Besides," He leaned back out from behind cover to resuming firing, "If we can't have it, neither will they!" Technically, that was one of the win conditions they set for themselves, but it was also clearly the less preferable of them. A last resort. With Valery back out in the fight, the rest continued to fire on the encroaching troopers, who were kept from pushing too far ahead by the ever present distraction of a Jedi master dashing through their ranks.

Valery Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

Dantooine

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Aldric Laurent

Her breathing was heavy and she could feel the strain on her muscles and pool of energy, as she continued to fight with the ferocity of a Vornskr. She knew it was necessary to keep the Imperials from organizing, and by extension, it allowed the rebels to pick off targets far more easily. But this intense focus was incredibly demanding and she knew she wasn't going to be able to keep it up forever. The mission, from the rebel perspective, was only going to be a partial success. She couldn't hear them complain about it behind her, but she had a feeling they would have preferred a different outcome.

"Fall back!" Valery eventually called out, as her vambrace signaled the approach of her ship.

Up above, the light freighter roared by low enough to almost deafen the people down below. The Rebels were expecting it, but R-6 made the fly-by to scare off the Imperials even further. Then, a series of loud explosions began, one at a time and they carved a path between the rebels and Imperials, but it also meant separating Valery from her allies.

"Get moving, now!"

The attack had left the enemy disoriented, and clouds of smoke, dust, and debris were making it much harder to spot the enemy. But that also meant they were not able to see the rebels, as they hopefully began their retreat toward the gate. R-6 brought the ship back around with a sharp turn and transitioned into a descent with the rear ramp already lowered, allowing the first to reach him to quickly climb their way on board.

But only when Valery believed that all of her allies, Aldric included, were moving back and were ahead of her, she began the sprint for safety herself. With everything she still had, she channeled the Force through her body and rushed towards the ship, which was hovering just above the ground with several Rebels out on the ramp to pull others on board.

Come on... come on...

At the last moment, she jumped and hoped that those on the ramp were ready to catch her and help her onto the ship.

 

[Aldric Laurent]

The rebels were able to hold out just in time for Valery's ship to flyby, strafing the imperial forces and creating enough confusion to keep them from mounting a stronger pushback. Under the cover of a wall of dust, the rebels made a retreat back to the front of the facility, where the freighter was waiting. "Come on! We're leaving!" Aldric , with the help of the medic, escorted an injured Trask on board, with most of the rest joining them. He peered through the clouds of debris for some sign of Valery, muttering under his breath, "Where are you…"

Then, she launched out, and made a jump for the ramp as it hovered off the ground. Aldric was the first to scramble for the edge, reaching out to grab her hand just in time, "Gotcha!" A few of the other rebels reached down to grab him and keep him in place, helping pull them both up as the ship raised higher up. A few troopers down below managed to fire a few shots up at them, but it was largely futile, as there was simply too much distance to make any accurate shots with their standard issue blasters. With the extra help, both Aldric and Valery made it back onto their feet, "You good?"

Valery Noble​