BODHI HAD never been so scared in his life. Not when Galen Erso had approached him about betraying the Empire. Not when he’d finally defected to join the rebels. Not even when Bor Gullet had probed his mind.

The battle on landing platform nine raged about him. Blaster fire whizzed so close he could feel its heat on his skin.

Corporal Tonc tried to be brave. He stood up and started firing back at the stormtroopers. For his courage, he was shot dead.

Bodhi gawked at the young man in horror. Just a moment before, he’d been fighting against the Empire, and then he was gone. The only thing Bodhi could do was hunker down with his still unconnected communications cable and hope it all ended before he took a fatal blast, too.

Then Cassian started shouting at him again through the comm.

“Bodhi, are you there?”

The pilot’s heart leaped with hope. Cassian had saved him before. Maybe he could do it again.

“I’m here. I’m here! I’m pinned down! I can’t get to the ship.”

He stared at the Imperial cargo shuttle he’d stolen on Eadu. It wasn’t actually all that far away. A quick dash, and he’d be inside it for sure.

But blaster bolts filled the air between it and him. The same kind that had cut down Tonc, a trained soldier.

“I can’t plug in!” Bodhi said, trying to explain.

“You have to!” said Cassian. “They have to hit that gate! If the shield’s open, we can send the plans!”

Bodhi cringed. Cassian wasn’t coming to save him. The man was going to get him killed instead.

Still, Bodhi knew Cassian was right. If he didn’t get that cable plugged in, it would all be for nothing. Tonc’s death. The rest of the commandos’.

Even—when the stormtroopers finally caught up with him—his own end.

It would all be in vain.

Bodhi couldn’t let that happen, not without giving that cable his best shot. He gritted his teeth and braced himself.

He charged across the open space between his hiding place and the shuttle. Blaster fire singed him from all sides, but not one of the shots struck true. He made it back to the shuttle and slammed the unattached end of the cable home.

Bodhi didn’t have time to collapse in relief. He snatched up the ship’s radio and turned it on.

“Melshi! Melshi! Come in, please! Anybody out there?”

No one answered.

“Rogue One! Rogue One! Anybody?”