As the least damaged freighter climbed, its sister ship, the one it had pushed to the ground earlier, did, as well, albeit much slower. Jax watched as the Osprey moved to get clear of the valley walls as it lobbed two more missiles at the nearest freighter. Explosions rocked the ship but didn’t bring it down. The ship returned fire with its blasters, raking the hull of the much smaller ship. Until the Osprey could get above the other ships, she was limited to missiles. The most powerful weapon the infiltrator had, the particle beam cannon, was mounted on the underside of the ship.
“Hi!” Kori said as she and Steve reached Jax and Naomi’s position, their prisoners in tow.
The one-handed man growled when he saw Jax. “You will suffer greatly for this betrayal.”
In the distance, the sound of engines, lots of them, was building. Ships were inbound.
Jax looked at the man, his face serious. “Look, I don’t care what you flower power assholes get up to out here on the Edge, but you came to me, at my home, and lied to me.” He stepped right up to the man, their chests an inch apart. “Your boss tricked me into robbing mom and pop operations. Independent operations. That hurts me,” he pushed the man away and tapped his chest, “in a special place.” He leaned in so that his face was inches from the other man. “Oh, and then you all were going to kill us.” He stood and turned away from the man.
Jax looked off in the distance at the approaching ships, now very visible, and very Imperial. He looked to the one-handed man, then to his friend. The second man’s shoulder was a blackened mess of burnt fabric and skin. “I’d give you a message for your boss, but well, I don’t think you’ll be seeing him anytime soon.”
The more damaged freighter, likely seeing it had nowhere to run, turned, bringing its weapons to bear on the small party standing next to the ore module. Steve and Kori registered the danger a split second before Jax and Naomi. Jax was about to swear, when a powerful railgun round struck the already damaged freighter. Another, then another, then a fourth round struck the ship. Pieces of the damaged vessel rained down on the valley floor. One of the blaster turrets that a moment ago was about to vaporize Jax and his friends crumpled inward and exploded.
Jax saw the smile that had formed on both prisoner’s faces fade as they realized they would almost certainly be arrested, alive.
The Imperial ships roared overhead: three assault shuttles, a full wing of victory class starfighters, and a troop transport.
The starfighters moved to surround the fleeing freighter. It opened fire, destroying one of the nimble fighters. The remaining five opened fire, quickly destroying the weapons systems, then engines, driving the freighter to the ground, where it landed in a crumpled metal heap. The troop transport landed a few hundred meters from Jax and the others. He looked at his friends, making a motion that caused Kori and Steve to toss their pistols to the ground.
The side of the transport opened as the heavy assault shuttles circled over the other two freighters. Twelve shock troops filed out, followed by a young man in a crisp crimson officer’s uniform. Jax and the others remained where they were, waiting for the approaching entourage.
Once the immediate threat of the fleeing freighter was handled, the fighters moved to encircle the Osprey . Jax watched as the ship gently sat back down on the dirt two hundred or so meters away. Rudy or Skip—both, likely—were playing nice. That was good. Jax hoped that Baxter would remain hidden until this was over. There was already a lot to try to explain. A combat droid with heavy ordinance was not something he wanted to add to the list.
The troopers moved to surround the small group, their blaster carbines held at the ready. Naomi looked at Jax, who shrugged.
The officer arrived. Jax figured the haughty-looking officer couldn’t be much older than him. “Which one of you is in charge?”
Jax slowly raised his hand. “I guess that would be me. I’m Jackson Caruso.” He hitched his thumb over his shoulder, toward the Osprey . “Captain of the independent transport Osprey .”