Sai took a deep breath. The plan seemed straightforward enough, but any good smuggler knew that a plan lasted as long as a man did in bed. Pre-flight checklist looked good, as expected; Sai kept Drifter IV in top shape. Hopefully everybody in the back was settled in, since Sai expected this to be a bit of a bumpy ride. "Hangar Control, this is Drifter IV. We're out of here." Silence on the other end. What the hell? She just wanted permission to depart. "Hangar Control? I'm taking off. I'd like to not be crushed by the hangar shields, thanks," Sai shot into the comm.

A grunt on the other end. Kriffing idiot was taking a nap, Sai realized. "Uh, yeah, you're, uh, good to go," Hangar Control reported back. Sai swore to punch that laserbrain in the face when they came back. She gently pulled Drifter IV into the air and out of the hangar. She took it slowly, waiting for the Providence-class to begin firing on the Imperial Destroyers. That would be Sai's cue to book it towards the planet surface. Until then, Drifter IV was caught floating around with its figurative pants down.

It was only a few seconds, but those seconds feel like hours when you're waiting to start a battle between two destroyers right over your head. As soon as Drifter IV registered the first shots from the Providence-class' weapons, Sai began accelerating her freighter towards the planet's surface.

There was a trick to this kind of planetary approach, especially when there was a kriffing [i]Star Destroyer[/i] waiting to blast you out of the sky - sure, you wanted to go in fast and hard, but you [i]never[/i] went in a straight line. Sai had learned the hard way that you were just about broadcasting your flight projection to anyone that wanted to target you. The serpentine maneuver, while made popular by many holovids, was just as predictable, as Sai found that just about every pilot serpentined in an almost perfect sine curve. No, years of experience taught Sai that you wanted to break up your flight pattern as randomly and hectic as you could make it. Of course, that made flying itself a little uncomfortable, but it was a lot better than being spaced.

So Sai did just that - in as irregular a way as she could, Sai shot around in just about every direction towards the hole, avoiding any kind of weapons lock. Fortunately, the irregularity of her flight only had to last as long as Drifter IV was at risk of being fired upon.

Wait - something on her console started beeping. Sai glanced at the beeping for a split second, before shouting behind her, "TIE Squadron! Someone get on those laser cannons and keep them off of us! Evasive maneuvers only work so well when I'm trying to avoid a blasted lock from a Star Destroyer."