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Playing With Fire

Disclaimer: Star Wars and RWBY are the intellectual properties of Disney and Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth. I claim no ownership.

Yang's few years as a smuggler had taught her many things:

If you can't pay a debt, get a fast ship. At least you can outrun them.

Shoot first. Honor is for those who don't mind dying.

Don't haggle too much with someone fixing your ship. They're the ones tinkering with the bits you don't understand.

And most important of all, keep your eyes on the prize. Never take unnecessary detours or try to scrape in money on the side of a delivery. Pick up the cargo, drop it off, get paid, then do whatever you want.

So when her crew had picked up a distress signal, she didn't hesitate in her decision.

"Ignore it. It's none of our concern," she said, giving the seated crewman's shoulder a firm pat for emphasis.

Said crewman, a Gran she had picked some standard weeks ago, looked back at her with bewilderment.

"Are you sure, boss?" he asked hesitantly.

Yang glanced at the Gran and pointed at his screen, "Look, see that? That's an Imperial identifier. Even if this isn't a trap - and it almost definitely is - we can't let nosy Imperials onboard while we're carrying stuff for the Alliance."

Considering the matter closed, the blonde stood up straight and made her way to her seat in the bridge. Her crewman thought otherwise.

"But boss, what if there's someone important on that ship?" he called out, bringing her to a stop. "We could sell them to the rebels when we drop their cargo off."

Yang slowly looked over her shoulder at the man, regarding him with inquisitive eyes.

"Bolk...are you the captain of this fine ship and her crew?"

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence as Bolk realized he had overstepped his bounds. The two other members of the crew present in the bridge resolutely stared at their respective screens, determined to not put themselves in Yang's sights. He averted his eyes and slowly shook his head while trying to keep his nervousness from being too apparent.

"N-No, boss...sorry..."

A look of shock crossed Yang's face and she held her hand up to her mouth, "Oh! You're not? I could have sworn you were with the way you were trying to tell me what to do."

"Sorry, boss...," the Gran repeated.

Deeming Bolk suitably chastised, Yang looked away from him and took her seat before speaking to the pilot.

"Plot a set of random jumps. After that, we'll loop around to the secondary meeting point. If there's an Imperial ship this far out, that means they know something's going on. Let's not make their day."

"On it, cap'," the pilot responded.

Suddenly, all of the monitors and lights in the bridge died.

Yang closed her eyes and sighed, "Someone go tell Dasyn to fix his screw up before I pound his face in."

"That wasn't me this time, boss."

The young smuggler spun around and met the eyes of Dasyn, their emergency mechanic. The Lorrdian was standing awkwardly in the bridge entrance with an apprehensive look on his face.

"Then what- " she began to say before there was a muffled thud and the ship shook. Yang put two and two together immediately and snarled.

"Kark! We're being boarded!"

There was an explosion that could only be the enemy blowing the airlock open. She strode over to her chair and yanked her ACP Array Gun from its position. She then turned to her terrified crew and barked her orders.

"All of you get out your blasters and dig in here. I'm gonna go greet our guests."

She cocked her gun and then ran out of the bridge, her way lit by the emergency lights. It didn't take long for her to run into the boarders. As she rounded a corner, she came face to face with a trio of Imperial Stormtroopers with their weapons ready. Reflexes honed by multiple close calls jerked her arms up and she blew off the head of one Trooper. She slammed her weapon into the face of another and kicked the torso of the last one. The hard plastoid jarred her leg but she gave herself enough breathing room to load another cartridge and fire again. The array of particles killed both troopers instantly.

Yang racked her weapon again and made to move forward before her instincts screamed at her. She threw herself into a roll just as the sound of blaster resounded behind her. She came up from her roll and spun around to fire her weapon. A small leg lashed out and kicked it from her grip. Before she could react, she was staring down the barrel of a...parasol?

The weapon pointed directly at her face indeed looked like a metal parasol. The umbrella was missing, leaving only four wide arms which were currently retracted. Yang followed the weapon up to its owner and was met with the face of a girl that couldn't be more fifteen. Her hair was an odd mix of pink, brown, and creme. Her clothes were oddly refined. They seemed more suited to a stroll in the park than for a boarding action. Though youthful, her face was set in an elegantly smug grin more suited to a woman twice her age. She wasn't about this little schutta be all high and mighty with her.

"Aren't you a little young for a Stormtrooper?"

The girl's mouth twitched, telling Yang she had struck a nerve. She grinned and kept at it, hoping to make her slip.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you're probably just really short, aren't you? Haven't been drinking your blue milk?"

The grin broke into a glare before immediately morphing into a psychotic smile. That was as good a sign as any what was about to happen. Yang threw her head to the side and batted the parasol aside just in time to avoid the bolt. She dove for her Array Gun and and fired from her position on the ground. The girl jutted her parasol out and the arms flew open, bringing a shield to life and blocking the particles from shredding her.

Yang wasn't discouraged and continued unloading on her in the hopes of overwhelming the shield. A series of blaster bolts shot from the tip of the parasol forced her to stop firing and seek cover around a corner.

"That's a pretty neat toy," Yang called out as she reloaded. "Did mommy get that for you because it matches your cold heart?"

There was no response. Fighting Imperials was always boring. None of them wanted to exchange witty banter. She spun around the corner and fired two cartridges before she realized the hall was empty. She looked over her shoulder only to see emptiness as well.

The lights suddenly came back to life and a voice come over the intercom.

"Boss? You there? We drove 'em off. Dasyn got one of our turrets working and it put some holes in their ship. They retreated before we could destroy it, though."

Yang let herself relax and slammed her fist on the button of a nearby intercom.

"Good work. Tell Dasyn I owe him a drink. Now get us the kark out of here."

There was no response but she knew they would get it done. Yang looked over the cooling corpses of Stormtroopers to where her adversary once stood. Something lying on the floor caught her eye. As she walked up to it, it became apparent that it was just a simple white card with something written on it. She picked it up and read the one word, scrawled elegantly in Basic.

Neo

A/N: Made this for Oneiros on RWBYForums. Or as some of you probably know him as, OneirosTheWriter.