The first droid emerged from the row of booths and immediately took a stream of plasma to the shield, cracking it. They retreated back behind cover. The old lady laughed triumphantly. “I have them trapped!” Then an even larger energy bolt knocked her off her feet. The plate glass windows on the back left side of the building shattered as an ugly black aircraft fired through with two undercarriage cannons. The entire kitchen they were hiding in was drummed by energy fire, with crockery, utensils and shards of metal flying everywhere. Two of the soldiers coming up to the kitchen area were hit bad before the rest took cover.

Light squawked in surprise and squeezed himself into a tight cubby under one of the solid counters.

“MA!” The man shouted, scrabbling along the floor to grab his floating mother.

“What happened to ma-ma?” The little girl whimpered, sitting back up. The guy immediately forgot about his mother and scrambled back to her. He cradled her face in his hands and kissed her forehead.

“Oh sweetheart, you’re alive! Thank the Seven Signs of the Cosmos! Don’t worry about ma-ma, she’ll be fine. Just look at me, ok princess?”

The heavy weapons fire moved on, targeting another floor, and the man looked up at Senjen.

“Ok, lets get the fuck out of here. Grab the repeater and my mother and let's hustle!”

“Yes, that sounds like a good plan, no offense but I hate this place!” Light croaked, popping out from his cubby just as the droids re-emerged from the aisle. One of them was missing an arm, so had ditched their bulky assault weapon for a pistol. Both their fronts were covered by shield drones, and they put suppressive fire on the position the grandma had been firing from before. This was essentially right next to where they were right now. Several of the soldiers also popped out from behind cover and began firing back for some distance away.