BAZE MALBUS had seen enough violence in his time, and he had come to hate it. That was one of the reasons he’d stuck with his friend Chirrut for so long. The monk helped keep him centered, even after he’d lost his own faith in the Force so long before.

Now, though—with Jedha City gone, along with everyone in it he had ever known—Baze had decided to embrace violence once again. He gloried in every stormtrooper he shot dead. Firing a rocket at an AT-ACT thrilled him, even if it hadn’t brought the beast down.

Still, the battle rang hollow to him. They weren’t trying to destroy the entire facility. They weren’t even trying to kill stormtroopers. Their only job was to distract the Imperial forces long enough for Jyn, Cassian, and that turncoat droid of his to get their job done.

Baze wanted to make the Empire hurt. The only chance of doing that was in Jyn’s crazy plan, but this battle felt more like a sideshow to him—right up until Bodhi called them for help.

Baze heard the ex-Imperial pilot yelling over Sergeant Melshi’s comm. “They’ve got the plans!” he said. “I’m tied in at my end.”

That news lit Baze up. They weren’t trying to buy time for a doomed operation any longer. Jyn and Cassian had actually succeeded! Now they just needed to help them get the plans out.

“Rogue One!” Bodhi called. “Can anybody hear me out there? I’ve got my end tied in! I need an open line!”

Melshi grabbed his comm and shouted into it. “Hang on!” The rebel sergeant turned to Baze. “The master switch! It’s out there at that console!”

He pointed to the console station right in front of them. They’d been trying to reach it, but the stormtroopers hadn’t given them a centimeter. The air around the thing sang with blaster fire, and venturing into that would be inviting death.

The highest ranking of the rebel soldiers—Lieutenant Sefla, a man who had impressed Baze with his humility and big heart—charged toward it anyway, in a desperate attempt to do his duty. After only a few steps, incoming blaster fire cut him down.

“Come on!” Bodhi’s voice grew more desperate through Melshi’s comm. “Come on!”

Melshi wasn’t the kind of commander to order someone to do something he wasn’t willing to try himself. After Sefla had fallen, no one else stepped forward to take the man’s place. It was up to him.

Melshi steeled himself and then dashed out into the open. The other rebel soldiers tried to offer him covering fire. Baze joined in, and Chirrut—who was hunkered nearby—assisted with his lightbow.

Melshi got farther than Sefla, but he still fell short of reaching the master switch.

Baze didn’t know what to do. He expected one of the other rebel commandos to give it a try next. Or maybe they should all run at the switch together and hope that one of them managed to get through?

Before he could suggest anything, though, the choice was taken from him.

Chirrut rose to his feet and began chanting. “I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me.”

Then he stepped forward and began walking toward the master switch. “I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me.”

“Chirrut!” Baze shouted after him. The blind fool was sure to get himself killed!

Chirrut strode forward as if he were crossing the street. As he went, he juked this way and that, dodging incoming fire he couldn’t even see. The entire time, he kept chanting his mantra. “I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me.”

“Chirrut!” Baze pleaded. “Come back!”

Baze was sure that Chirrut’s luck would run out sooner rather than later—well before he reached the master switch—but he kept going. “I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me.”

Chirrut reached the console and fumbled around its surface, feeling for that elusive master switch. When he found it, he pressed down hard.