The mess of covering fire slowed the droids approaching the dark star enough for Liu-Jien to reach up from behind cover and place her hand on its control panel while blind firing wildly with the other.

“Directional dark star rearmed. Please proceed to a safe distance.” The device began flashing again, faster and faster. The commander took her hand off to push off after the escaping trucks.

“Directional dark star disarmed.” It was as though she’d been punched in the stomach; a tear lifted out of her eye as the realisation hit her. Gulping as her main gun ran out of ammunition, Liu Jien let it drift out of her hand. She overrode the weapon’s counter to the final five seconds, drew her side arm and stood up while still holding the panel. She locked everything except her right arm solid and managed to get a few shots off before plasma fire battered her exosuit and burned her alive.

The droids rushed to pry her loose of the dark star but couldn’t budge her melted metal armour from the panel. The countdown reached zero and the floor began shifting, pulled into the underside of the pill-shaped object. The robots sprinted away from it towards the trucks except for one whose foot got stuck underneath. They struggled mightily but couldn’t free themselves, and they slowly slid underneath the object. A dusting of plaster fell from the pillars scattered around the garage.

-

“I guess we’ll find out!” Senjen replied before putting as much power into the thrusters as possible. The truck lurched forward, heading straight for the doors. 

“Hang on!”

A plasma bolt struck the soldier on the other side of the hatch from Senjen, lighting them on fire. They yelled in terror and dropped their weapon and writhed around patting themselves as their flesh melted away. The other occupants either rushed to help or pushed themselves back against the walls to stop the fire from catching.

The other truck followed suit, though they may have been doing it to try and stop the pursuing droids from latching onto the sides. They were not successful, and the droids hopped aboard, making themselves an attractive target for shooters from the first truck.