BODHI HATED explosions. As a cargo pilot, he knew that when things started blowing up, everything had gone wrong.

Still, he felt pleased to hear the bombs Melshi and the others had set. They didn’t even need to hurt anyone, although Bodhi didn’t think the rebels would mind if they did. The explosions just needed to grab Imperial attention and keep it focused outside of the Citadel for as long as possible. That was the kind of chaos Cassian and Jyn needed if they were going to get into the Citadel, much less all the way down to the data vault.

Bodhi watched through the cargo shuttle’s viewport and saw blaster fire lighting up the air. One of the rebels had brought along a rocket launcher, too, and they’d fired it into the stormtroopers, wreaking even more chaos.

An officer in the Citadel’s central command screamed out orders over their comm system, and people on the pads—either officers or stormtroopers—answered. She couldn’t make sense of all of it, but enough of it came through loud and clear.

“Pad Twelve! Close it down!”

“Taking fire!”

“Coming on your flank!”

“Pad Twelve!”

“Pad Fourteen requesting assistance!”

“I need numbers!”

“Unknown! Unknown!”

“Pad Fourteen, what’s going on down there? Status, please!”

“We have rebels everywhere!”

“All pads report in immediately!”

To Bodhi, that sounded like an invitation to help sow chaos. He activated his ship’s radio and started shouting into it. “Pad Two! This is Pad Two! We count forty rebel soldiers running west off Pad Two!”

Of course, Bodhi was actually on pad nine, and there was nothing of the sort happening on Pad Two. He’d watched the rebels run into the jungle, and he’d done his best to track them from there. They might have set off an explosion at Pad Two, but none of them was still there. If the stormtroopers raced over there to help out, they’d find no rebels to attack.

Anything he could do to waste the Empire’s time.

Bodhi handed the ship’s microphone to Corporal Tonc, one of the rebels who’d stayed behind in the cargo shuttle.

“Tell them you’re pinned down by rebels on Pad Five.”

Tonc smiled at the order and set straight to it. “This is Pad Five! We’re being overrun!”

The commander in the Citadel responded as best he could. “Pad Twelve! Pad Ten! Pad Eight! Please confirm! Confirm and report! Get reinforcements down to pad five immediately!”

Bodhi had to smile at that. To think, they could destroy the Empire’s response to their attack with just a few well-placed words.

He worried, though, about what would happen when the Empire turned its blasters toward him.