"Return to base, Fulcrum. We'll meet you there."

Cassian Andor flicked the com switch up harder than he ought to have, ending any further communication with the twi'lek captain. He sucked a deep breath in through his nose, closing his eyes for a short moment. The droid in the pilot seat glanced over his shoulder.

"I take it we are not going to the Ryloth system, then?" K-2SO asked.

Cassian's dark eyes glowered at K-2, his jaw tightening as he dropped into the co-pilot's seat. "Set a course for Base One."

"…if you say so."

It's for the best, Cassian told himself. A human on Ryloth would only prompt suspicion during these tense times. It would hamper any information he or others on the planet could gather. As it was, Cassian's plan had been to use K-2SO to observe the area. It was risky; no doubt the droid would draw the ire of the locals, still covered in Imperial paintwork. But it was the best plan he could come up with on short notice.

But now they were being diverted. Again.

When did these things become so complicated? Cassian liked to tell himself he was used to the whiplash of assignments, the uncertainty of being a spy. That was how the Alliance worked. The less everyone knew, the easier it was to cut off the people the Empire interrogated. Maybe, later in his life if the Empire ever fell, he would know the comfort of remaining in one place for more than a day.

"Oh well," K-2SO sighed, "No breaking of bones this week, then."

Cassian turned his gaze to the droid once more, a slight sense of concern edging across his eyes. "Do you think about these things before you say them?"

"Yes."

"And that still sounds perfectly okay to you?"

"Shouldn't it?" K-2 tilted his head unit. "We engage in a lot of bone-breaking."

Cassian's voice took a higher tone as he thought back to their last mission. "I don't believe we do, no."

"Hm. My mistake."

Do they engage in a lot of bone breaking? Cassian preferred combat with a blaster then he did anything else – usually it was K-2 that… oh. Breaking of bones made sense, now that he thought about it.

Well. Maybe it was a good thing Cassian didn't let him have a blaster.

"They don't want to risk us," Cassian grumbled. "The situation on Ryloth is so public, Syndulla doesn't see it worth sending a second pair of-"

The ship shuddered, the pilot controls lurched out of K-2's grip as a bolt of lightning(?!) retracted from the Rogue Star.

"We are being pulled into some kind of electrical storm," reported the droid as he wrestled the controls back.

Cassian looked through the front window into space. A grey mist was stretching out directly ahead, distorting the starlight. A flash cracked through it. "Kay, turn us around."

"Flight controls are non-responsive."

Cassian's mind went into over-drive. Non-responsive. Not an issue with the thrusters or handling, but with the electrics. The lightning must have short out their electrics.

He could send K-2 to fix it-

No. K-2 had a superior response time. Cassian had never flown in a 'lightning storm in space' before – he could hardly predict the conditions and wouldn't know how to navigate the environment. K-2's processing power allowed him to make far quicker piloting decisions. Cassian had to handle the engineering problem.

Cassian launched from his chair, feet taking him toward the engine compartment. "Can you tell me the cause?"

K-2 found time to sarcastically tilt his head at Cassian as he passed. "…could it be caused by an electrical fault?" Before Cassian could snap at him, the lights in the cabin failed, plunging them into darkness while the Rogue Star hurtled toward the cloud. Lightning flashes reflected from K-2's optics as his attention returned to the controls. "We are being pulled in."

"I can see that, Kay!"

The Rebellion spy pulled a covering panel from the electrical controls. The circuit panel sparked at him, burning his hand. "Life support systems failing!" called K-2SO.

The many cables connecting the ship's computer to its various systems appeared scorched, some of the fuses popped. He shook the limb, airing off the burn, and hurriedly removed his jacket to hold over the exposed skin of his digits and tried to replace the cabling – the panel continued to spark at him.

"We've entered the storm!"

The Rogue Star lurched to the left, to the right, and shuddered hard enough to knock Cassian off his feet. "Kay, try to keep us steady!"

"Oh, yes. Keep us steady with no flight controls! Why didn't I think of that?"

"Not now, Kay!"

The electrical panel shot sparks out, igniting the lid of a cargo container – he'll deal with that later. Cassian made it back onto his feet while the ship continued to rock violently. He tried (semi-successfully) to brace himself against the bulkhead, ignoring the electrical sparks. He snagged hold of a loose cable, locating its rightful socket, and plugged it in.

"Flight controls have returned!" called K-2SO.

"Get us out of here!"

There was a pause as Cassian made his way back to the cockpit. "I don't think I can."

Cassian was forced to hang onto the metal frame of the door to keep himself upright against the unstable ship. "Just swing us around!"

"I can navigate us forward through the storm with controls restored. We risk unnecessary exposure to further strikes if we attempt a reversal. Is that smoke I'm detecting?"

The spy glanced behind him – flames had risen from the cargo container. Ice shot through his chest for the moment it took for him to smack his jacket against the flames, suffocating the mini blaze. "How long until we pass through the storm?"

"Not long-"

The right wing of the Rogue Star collided with an object of some kind, sending the vessel and its two occupants into a right-hand spin. It blew Cassian into the opposite bulkhead, the metal garbling deafening him. K-2SO was rattling off damage reports, locked firmly into his seat. Next to Cassian, small pieces of debris began to float. His feet lost contact with the deck plating, hovering above the floor.

No gravity. The ship had no gravity.

"KAY!"

"We've cleared the storm! I'm shutting the engines down. Hang on!"

The whirring of their stressed thrusters cut out. Cassian was dropped unceremoniously back onto the floor, head still ringing.

He crawled to the cockpit, his hands catching onto anything of purchase to get him upright and back into the co-pilot's chair. A little dazed, he peered through the window past K-2. While not on fire (thankfully), their right wing was a mess, debris peeling off as they drifted through space with no engines. The grey mist of the 'lightning storm' had dispersed.

Cassian sucked in a deep breath, leaning against the head-rest of his chair.

"Well that was exciting," K-2SO said dryly. Without moving his head, Cassian's eyes glowered at the droid, but the KX droid had already turned his attention away. "What's that out there?"

The human sighed, shoulders falling at the prospect of something else trying to kill them. He peered through the window. A familiar shaped craft was being shadowed by a near-by planet. "Is that an X-wing?"

"It appears so. But I do not recognise the model."

"Keep this distance, Kay."

"There may not be need for alarm. From what my scanners can tell, the craft appears disabled."

Cassian ground his back teeth. Could it be coincidental they found an X-wing on the other side of a death trap? "Tractor them."

"Engaging winch…"

Cassian rolled his eyes, hauling himself up from his chair. "Can we dock?"

"Possibly."

"Yes or no, Kay."

"…yes?"

He stepped out of the cockpit. With careful steps, he avoided the mess of the cargo hold to their docking claw.

The claw hooked over the starfighter's cockpit, pressurizing successfully. The ladder extended across, allowing Cassian to make his way to the canopy of the strange X-wing starfighter. Looking at the starfighter gave him a strange feeling. He couldn't pin-point exactly what was wrong with it. For the most part, the X-wing looked in-tact. Its hull was smooth, its canopy clips familiar to his fingers.

The unconscious pilot inside wore a familiar insignia on his orange jumpsuit and helmet – the Alliance starbird – but the red flag for Cassian was that he couldn't put a name to the man's face.

Cassian popped the canopy of the X-wing, slipping his hands under the pilot's arms. He called out to the cargo bay. "Kaytoo!"

The droid's head and torso popped into view. "Yes?"

"Call the nearest base. We need an I-D for this pilot."