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THE GROUND shook with each booming step of the walker. Adrenaline coursed through Natalia's veins as her and the Mandalorian ran out of the woods and towards the village. She had lost track of how many times she'd almost died to reach this point after the third shot from the AT-ST.
"This is it!" Cara yelled as Natalia and the Mandalorian ran behind the wall where the other villagers stood ready. "Once that thing steps into the pond, it's goin' down."
"You sure this is going to work?" The Mandalorian asked as he turned to Natalia.
"It better." Natalia said as she watched the trees shake to clear space for the huge walker. Natalia's heart began to hammer even more in her chest as the red eyes of the walker became visable through the trees.
"Weapons ready!" Cara yelled.
The mere seconds it took the walker to emerge from the trees felt like hours to Natalia. Her eyes eagerly watched it step closer and closer to the pond they had set their trap in. But it appeared fate was against her today because not even a step away from reaching the pond the walker stopped.
"No." The words came out as a mere whisper from Natalia's lips.
"It stopped." Cara said in disbelief.
"No. No. No." Natalia cursed as she stared at the walker in horror.
"Get down. Get down." The Mandalorian spoke as quietly as possible as the gears in the whirred in the AT-ST.
A light was suddenly casted upon them from the walker. One by one the villager all quickly dropped down behind the wall as the light moved around the wall. Natalia felt her heart stop as the walker stopped it's scan a few feet away from her. Before anyone could react a blast was shot out of the walker and hit one of the huts closer to the wall.
"Holy shit." Natalia cursed as she tightened her grip on the blaster.
"Hold your positions!" Cara yelled to the panicked villagers.
Shouts and battle cries began to erupt before them and Natalia peeked her head over the wall to see an army of Klatooinians charging their way. "We've got company!" Natalia informed.
"Open fire!" Cara yelled.
Chaos was quick to break out in the fire. One by one bodies dropped on the Klatooinian's end and in return they received shots from the AT-ST much to close for Natalia's liking.
"We need to get that thing to take a step forward." The Mandalorian said.
"That's what I'm thinking." Cara agreed.
"I have an idea."
"What do you have in mind?" The Mandalorian asked as he looked to Natalia.
"If I told you, you wouldn't like it." She said as she handed him the blaster he had given her.
Natalia was never one to dip into the force. Luke had told her many times that she was force sensitive and that he could train her to become a Jedi but every time Natalia had declined. She adored the stories of the Jedi but she was not one of them. She would never be one of them. But her decline of the Jedi title did nothing to prevent the fact that she could still use the force.
Natalia let out a breath and looked up to the clouds in an attempt to calm her nerves. She'd seen Luke do this before and figured if anything it'd be worth a try. "Be with me." She whispered.
"What?" The Mandalorian asked.
A small sigh ran past Natalia's lips as she turned back to the Mandalorian. She honestly didn't know if it worked or not, she hasn't ever exactly tried anything with the force. So she just assumed nothing happened. "Give me the pulse rifle."
The Mandalorian hesitantly handed the rifle to Natalia. "I'll cover you." He said with a firm nod.
"I'll hold you to that." Natalia said as she grabbed the rifle and stood up from her crouching position. "May the force be with me." She mumbled before taking off into a sprint towards the walker.
The Klatooinians quickly took notice in Natalia's presence and thankfully the Mandalorian was quick to shoot down anyone that came too close to her. The walker's light suddenly switched from the village to Natalia, causing her ever growing panic to spike.
"Oh shit. Okay." She spoke, pushing herself to run faster. Shots from the walker began to fire down upon her, hitting the grass beside her. "Be with me. Be with me. Be with me." Natalia recited the words like it was a prayer until she finally reached the pond. She jumped into the pond, a shot hitting the ground where she once stood immediately after she hit the freezing water.
Natalia rested her back on the mud wall of the pond. She clutched the rifle tightly in her hand, breathing heavily. This was by far the stupidest thing she'd ever done in her lifetime and that was saying something, she used to smuggle with Han Solo. With a deep breath she peeked out from the wall and aimed the rifle up at the walker and fired.
"Shit!" Natalia cursed as the walker fired shots rapidly at the ground before her.
Natalia quickly ducked down and pulled herself as close to the wall as possible. A small smirk began to form on her lips as she heard the loud boom of the walker taking a step. Once the firing stopped she peeked out from the dirt once more and fired another shot, this time hitting one of the eyes of the walker. Her smirk only grew wider as the Walker took another step, this one landing on the edge of the ground and the pond.
"Timber." She said as the Walker crashed into the ground, it's foot now emerged in the water next to Natalia.
A splash suddenly sounded next to her and Natalia turned her head to see the Mandalorian standing next to her. "When did you..." She started but she was cut off as the Mandalorian threw his arms around Natalia, using his body as a shield for the explosion that soon followed.
The firing around them began to cease and cheers were quick to replace battle cries as the Klatooinians took off running at the realization their big gun was down. A small laugh erupted from Natalia as she wrapped her arms around the Mandalorian's neck, pulling him into a hug.
"We did it." She said as a smile began to form on her face. "Oh, we did it." Natalia's smile only widened as she caught sight of a faded figure with an unmistakable glow a little ways in the distance. One she made out to be her father smiling at her.
"I take it that the plan?" The Mandalorian asked as the two pulled away from one another.
