You know where to go don't you Lyra asked Jyn nodded Trust the Force Lyra said as she hugged her daughter and somehow Jyn knew she meant good-bye Despite her orders to run and hide Jyn refused to leave her parents behind She covertly trailed her mother back to the house and watched as her father confronted Krennic What is it you want Galen demanded The work has stalled Krennic said I need you to come back I won't do it We were on the verge of greatness We were this close to providing peace Security for the galaxy You're confusing peace with terror You lied about what we were building You wanted to kill people Krennic shrugged You have to start somewhere Lyra stepped forward then Mystified why she would show herself against the plan they'd drilled Jyn watched in horror horror When the death troopers spotted Lyra they turned their weapons on her but Krennic ordered them to hold their fire That's when Lyra revealed the blaster she was carrying and leveled it at Krennic You're not taking him she said Of course not Krennic smiled I'm taking you all You your child You'll all live in comfort As hostages Lyra said As heroes of the Empire Lyra refused to lower her weapon You'll never win she said Krennic came to a decision Do it he ordered the death troopers 2
The elite Imperial soldiers shot Lyra down but not before she got off a shot of her own which struck Krennic in the shoulder shoulder Jyn knew though that the Imperial officer would recover Her mother never would Galen caught Lyra as she fell Her weight and his grief brought him to his knees They have a child Krennic said to the death troopers through teeth gritted in pain Find it Jyn fled She knew where to go just like they'd done in their drills But she didn't know if she could get there before the death troopers found her She ran without looking back She reached a cave in the rocky hills behind her house and she dashed into it There she lifted a concealed hatch and slipped through closing it behind her She stayed there gazing out at the daylight through a crack in the hatch When the death troopers hunting for her came close she held her breath and went as still as a statue When they finally passed by she crept deeper into her hidey-hole and waited just as she'd been told She remained there for hours alone She smelled smoke in the air from a fire she later learned was consuming her home At one point she thought she heard the shuttle leave but she knew that she was to stay put until one of her parents came for her But what if that never happened If her mother was already dead and the death troopers had taken her father no one would ever come for her She would be on her own She huddled in the dark as night fell terrified and unsure what to do A storm came raging through and she startled at the sound of thunder 3
4 She lit a lantern and tried to keep her spirits up Eventually Eventually she would have to defy her parents orders but when Not until the storm had passed for sure Before that happened though she heard a noise above and froze This was not thunder but footsteps coming closer Someone had entered the cave A moment later the hatch opened and the man Lyra had been talking to on the comm unit stared down at Jyn Saw Gerrera Come my child he said as he offered her his hand We have a long ride ahead of us That had been many years before A lot of things had happened happened since then More things than Jyn cared to count They'd all added up to put her where she was now rotting away in an Imperial prison and wondering how she'd fought so hard and long just to wind up there
5 CHAPTER 2 CASSIAN ANDOR had done a lot of horrible things as a member of the Rebel Alliance all in the name of helping put an end to the Galactic Empire Rather than tossing him in prison for those crimes his Alliance commanders had promoted promoted him to the rank of captain and given him even more impossible missions He sometimes wondered if they secretly wanted him to fail so they could wash their hands of him but he remained too determined to give in to such wishes For his latest assignment they'd sent him to Kafrene a pair of gigantic asteroids that spun in tandem through a field of smaller rocks floating in space Long before someone had joined them and used them to establish the scummiest trading post in that horrible part of the galaxy There Cassian met a spy named Tivik who supposedly had some explosive news the Alliance needed from Jedha an ancient place known for worship of the Force They met in a dead-end alley Every bit of Tivik twitched except for his bad arm which hung limp at his side He seemed so nervous that Cassian wondered if he might bolt before he started talking but once he began everything spilled out An Imperial pilot one of the cargo drivers he defected yesterday Tivik reported He's telling people they're making making a weapon The kyber crystals That's what they're for He brought a message He's got proof
