CASSIAN, JYN, and K-2SO strode up to the railspeeder and boarded it. The guard standing at the train car’s doors barely glanced at them. Somewhere out there on the island, the team Baze and Chirrut were leading disappeared into the jungle while the doors closed behind Cassian.

Jyn gave him a nervous look. They had a long way to go, and so many things could trip them up.

K-2SO broke the silence. “I have a bad feeling about—”

“Kay!” Cassian said, scolding the droid. He’d reprogrammed the droid himself, but he’d not been able to work out how to keep him from being so blunt.

Jyn frowned at the machine and softly said, “Quiet.”

“What?” K-2SO said, clueless as ever.

The railspeeder carried them directly to the Citadel Tower. It rose in the distance until it loomed over them. As they slowed to a stop in the station, Cassian remarked, “We need a map.” Otherwise they’d wind up wandering around lost until someone shot them.

“I’m sure there’s one just lying about,” K-2SO said. Cassian couldn’t always tell if the droid was being sarcastic or not.

“You know what you need to do.”

The droid didn’t seem to like that, but Cassian wasn’t asking. He led the way to another Imperial security droid, which everyone else seemed to be ignoring, standing guard in a corner. As the machine began to say something to them, K-2SO reached out and disabled it, quietly and efficiently.

Sometimes being blunt came in handy, Cassian thought.

Cassian and Jyn turned around, their backs to the altercation between the droids. They blocked the view of anyone who might be curious while K-2SO took down the twin droid and linked himself into a data port in the back of his victim’s head. Then he began to drain data from the fallen machine.

When it was over, K-2SO turned around, seeming a little dizzy, as if overwhelmed by everything he’d had to absorb. “Kay?” Cassian asked him, concerned.

The droid shook off the effects of the process. “Our optimal route to the data vault places only eighty-nine stormtroopers in our path. We will make it one third of the way before we are killed.”

That wasn’t going to work. They were going to need help.

Cassian pulled out his comm and spoke into it quietly. “Melshi. Talk to me.”

A long moment later, the rebel sergeant replied. “Ready, ready. Standing by.”

Cassian turned to Jyn for confirmation, to make sure she was ready. She gave him a firm nod.

“Light it up,” Cassian said into the comm.

Since the moment they’d disappeared into the jungle, Melshi’s team had been sticking explosives all over the complex. At Cassian’s signal, Melshi detonated them.

The rebels had been busy. The blasts went off in every direction. Alarms sounded soon after, and everyone in the tower went on alert.

A massive patrol of stormtroopers came charging down the hallway, heading straight for Cassian, Jyn, and K-2SO. They all had their rifles out and ready, and Cassian couldn’t help holding his breath as they rushed toward him.

A moment later, though, they rewarded his patience by marching straight past. They were headed for the atrium behind Cassian, from which they could head to the beach and challenge any attackers.

Cassian and Jyn didn’t have to wait long before the rebels opened fire on the stormtroopers, picking them off one by one.