Hotshot - A Star Wars Story

Chapter 7

Has Jaycob ever been shot before? No. Has he ever participated in a mutiny before? No again. Had he put himself in a bad predicament? Definitely. The vice admiral was holding a blaster directly at his face, and he didn't think she cared if it was on stun or not.

"I should've had you on my radar a lot earlier. You're basically another Dameron."

"I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or not."

"You shouldn't. I will give you this though, you lasted longer than he did."

Jaycob flashed a stern look onto his face.

"What do you mean?"

As if it were planned Poe, unconscious, was rolled out on a gurney and positioned at the bottom of a transport's ramp. Jessika was then hoisted up onto a stretcher of her own, and placed right next to him. Jaycob crept up to both of them and examined sadly. While they fought, Jaycob ran away. He wondered if it were better to just get stunned along with them. And with the situation he was in, it seemed like that was exactly what was about to happen. But surprisingly, Holdo lowered her weapon.

"This little mishap of yours, just made us lose one of our transport pilots. Can you fly one?"

Jaycob took a glance at the U-55s and gave a shrug.

"I'm pretty sure I can. But, I was just part of this mutiny. How can you trust me?"

"Because if this Resistance is going to live, I need everybody on the same side. I'm trusting that you know this is bigger than just the two of us."

Jaycob recalled the same words uttered by Leia on D'Qar. They were right. He couldn't let his emotions get in the way of his responsibility, not again.

"Yes ma'am. I'll fly. But on one condition."

"You're really in no position to make demands Commander."

Ignoring this, Jaycob looked back over at Jessika.

"She flies with me."

(-)

Jaycob would be lying if he said he wasn't surprised that his request was accepted. Jessika's limp body was carried onto Jaycob's U-55 transport along with some large cargo crates probably housing computers, weapons, and medical supplies. Any pilot that survived the hangar attack and the mutiny was tasked with flying the slow, unshielded slugs of a ship. The officers and army personnel would be riding along with the cargo in the hold tending to the wounded and who-knows-what. The pilots were the heart of the operation, or at least that's what Holdo said.

The pilots were all called before the Vice Admiral in the hangar, forming a small huddle. Looking around, Jaycob could see that not all of the pilots were actual pilots, meaning they weren't part of the starfighter corps. For example, Pamich Goode. She wasn't a pilot, she was a dispatcher, yet she was tasked with flying the transport that Poe would be riding in. But, seeing the recent losses the Resistance endured, they needed all the help they could get.

"Pilots, you are the heart of this operation. You have been tasked with transporting the remainder of the Raddus' forces to the planet Crait, an uncharted base from the days of the Rebellion."