JYN FOLLOWED Cassian through the streets of Jedha until they reached the Holy Quarter in the heart of the ancient city, and her disaster radar instantly went off. She glanced about and saw a number of things coming together at once.

A cargo shuttle dropped out of the sky, racing from the Star Destroyer hovering above and blocking out the sun. At about the same time, a treaded Imperial assault tank turned onto the street, coming to protect the shuttle.

People started scurrying about, which was a perfectly natural reaction to such a display of Imperial force. To Jyn’s eye, though, some of the people weren’t fleeing. They were gathering closer.

“Tell me you have a backup plan,” she said to Cassian.

“We’ve got to get out of here.”

It wasn’t much of a plan, but Jyn was all for it. She didn’t want to be anywhere nearby when whatever was about to happen happened.

But it was already too late.

One of the people who’d been attracted by the tank’s arrival plucked a grenade from somewhere and hurled it at the tank. It went off with a bang that set Jyn’s ears ringing. The blast destroyed the tank’s treads, and it came to a grinding halt.

Many of the others who’d been creeping closer produced blasters and opened fire on the stormtroopers escorting the tank down the street. Most of them were human, but one was a Tognath soldier with tubes snaking out of the breathing mask he wore over his mouth.

The stormtroopers returned fire, and the street transformed into a shooting gallery.

Jyn and Cassian pressed themselves into a doorway. Jyn drew her blaster, happy that Cassian hadn’t tried to confiscate it from her before. “Looks like we found Saw’s rebels,” she said.

She didn’t recognize any of them, of course. It had been years since she’d seen Saw, and soldiers tended not to survive in his outfit for long. They had, after all, committed to the most dangerous cause in the galaxy: struggling to free it from the Emperor’s grasp.

The tank might not have been able to move, but that didn’t mean it was defenseless. Its side cannons swiveled, hunting for a target as rebels on a nearby roof fired down on it.

Jyn spotted a young girl huddled in front of the building, and she realized that the tank was about to fire at it in an effort to blast the rebels off the roof. Without thinking, Jyn darted forward, ignoring Cassian, who called after her. She hunkered down over the girl and shielded her from the blast as the tank’s first round went off.

The shot smashed into the building, blasting away the front of it. As the debris tumbled down around her, Jyn scooped the girl up and found the child’s mother already racing over to take her away. Jyn handed off the girl to her grateful parent and then dove after them, trying to avoid the tank’s next shot.

Cassian, to his credit, opened fire to give Jyn cover. She just wasn’t sure at first what he was shooting at, as his shots seemed high. She glanced up to see a rebel toppling off the building, a fresh grenade in his hand. As he landed among his fellow rebels, the grenade exploded, killing not only him but several others.

Cold as it might be, Jyn could only think, Better them than me. She ran up to Cassian and was about to thank him when she saw another grenade rolling toward the tank. She dove forward, taking Cassian to the ground with her. They avoided the brunt of the blast, which transformed the tank into a smoldering hulk.

Cassian leaped to his feet and raced away, and Jyn followed straight after him. He led them into an alley and then came to a skidding halt when he saw an entire squad of stormtroopers blocking their way.

He spun on his heel and ran back the other way, passing Jyn. “This way!”

Jyn had already had enough of running from the Empire. After facing down one of their tanks, she wasn’t about to let those clowns in their fancy armor run her off. She pulled a pair of truncheons from her jacket and set to work.

With the stormtroopers’ attention on Cassian, she was able to take down the first two of them before they knew she was a threat. The next two required a bit more effort, but they proved no match for her. She attacked them the way she preferred: fast and strong, before they could hit her back.

The last two, though, were smart enough to back up a bit and ready their rifles. While they were still waiting for their compatriots to get clear of her—or fall at her feet, as they soon did—she drew her blaster and began firing.

As Jyn took down the remainder of the stormtrooper squad, she heard something stomping up behind her. She spun about and spotted an Imperial security droid looming over her, and she took it down with a single shot to the chest.

The droid toppled over, smoking from its wound and revealing another security droid behind it. “Did you know that wasn’t me?” it said.

Realizing that the second droid was K-2SO, Jyn lowered her weapon. After a perhaps too long moment, she answered, “Of course.”

Cassian returned then to chew the droid out. “I thought I told you to stay on the ship.” He stared at the stormtroopers scattered about the alley. None of them stirred.

“You did. But I thought it was boring and you were in trouble. There are a lot of explosions for two people blending in.”

Cassian seemed ready to lay into the droid again, despite the thing’s logic, but K-2SO cut him off. “The Imperial forces are converging on our present location.”

Jyn didn’t see one of the downed stormtroopers reach for a grenade on his belt and activate it, and neither did Cassian. Fortunately, though, when the trooper threw it at her, K-2SO plucked it out of the air as if he and the trooper had been playing catch. The droid then tossed it back at the stormtrooper, and the grenade put an end to any worries about him or his squad mates getting back up again.

“I suggest we leave immediately,” K-2SO said. Jyn couldn’t think of a single reason to argue with him.