Senjen’s heroic rearguard action spurred the other troops to fight. Another soldier leaned out of the hatch with him and laid down cover fire. Others did the same off their own back in the second truck behind them, though they were at much higher risk of being overrun. The two droids chasing the trucks weaved between other parked cars, drawing their pistols to shoot back at the same time. They were only about twenty meters away now and gaining.

“My battery is dead!” One of the soldiers in Senjen’s truck announced.

“Don’t they keep armaments in here in case of hijacking?” Another replied, spurring a burst of searching for secret storage.

As she floated back to the dark star, Liu-Jien fired a stream of wafer-thin metal slivers at the advancing droids, shaved off one large block. Their shield coverage wasn’t total, and she scored multiple hits on limbs and bodies which created small rectangular holes in their armour. The droids shot back though, hitting her exosuit several times and singeing the flesh underneath. She yelped in pain but thankfully crashed into the side of the dark star opposite the enemy so she was covered for a moment. The droids didn’t shoot at the object but wordlessly began to flank around it.

Light took a corner hard and scraped a row of vehicles.

“There’s the exit!” The boss pointed; straight ahead a couple of hundred metres was a ramp with a large corrugated sliding door at the top. Two sparkling points of light were slowly working down either side.

“They’re outside!” The bodyguard growled.

Light cursed - this just got even more difficult.

“How do we open the door to get out?” He asked.

“By pressing this button.” The boss leaned forward and prodded a point on the dashboard. The door didn’t budge. He tapped it again a few more times, then swore.

“Those laser cutters must have severed the connection!”

“Oh, perfect!” Light warbled.