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Author	Topic: Shifting Loyalties [challenge-vignette]
Sekotian_Jedi Registered: Feb '05	Date Posted: 12/18/05 5:10am Subject: Shifting Loyalties [challenge-vignette] - Date Edited: 12/30/05 9:45am (3 edits total) Edited By: Sekotian_Jedi
	Title: Shifting Loyalties Story type: OC Story Dueling Circle challenge-vignette Time Period: Post-ANH Challenge: Going about their daily lives, something happens to an OC that completely changes their view of the world and how they want to live that life. Beta-er: Tyranus230 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The center of the security door started to glow a bright red as the remaining personal took whatever cover they could behind computer consoles. As they trained their weapons on the melting blast door, they prepared themselves for the inevitable. Each and every one of them knew there was no chance of escape, all they could do was bide time for their comrades and the valuable data that they carried. The Empire had been hunting them mercilessly since the battle of Yavin 4, tearing through every plant and safe haven the rebels had. Burning a brilliant white, the durasteel door finally gave away, blasting into a million bright fragments of light and flooding the room with a thick grey smoke. Pulling back on the triggers, the rebel troops open a barrage of blaster fire on their assailants, but were quickly overpowered by the more numerous stormtroopers. As the smoke settled, a single officer, by the name of Mira Kinree, entered the room. Stepping over the corpses of a rebel commander Mira felt a small twinge of satisfaction and, yet, remorse. This was a moment her life had been building up to, ever since she had enrolled at the Imperial academy on Gernova 5. Somehow, the glory of her first field assignment was not shaping up the way she had once imagined it from the simulations she had done: it wasn’t the same impersonal numbers and reports that had become so familiar to her during her time in the intelligence department on Coruscant. Out here, her entire view and reality was nonexistent. There were no statistics, only people. Pull it together Kinree, she thought as the captain pulled a dead officer off a functioning terminal, leaving behind a smear of blood on the screen. Mira cringed as she saw her reflection, her trimmed brownish-red hair and hazel eyes taking on splotches of vivid red hemoglobin. Tapping on a key she watched with relief as her reflection was replaced with maps and statistics, something far more familiar to her. Mira silently traced the numerous pathways with her eyes, hunting for anything within the layout that would suggested where the rebels were fleeing. Apparently that direction was downward, but that somehow didn’t seem right. Going downward was a seemingly dead end path, at least according to the map. But what wasn’t on the map? That was the question and answer to her next choice of action. “What is our next move, Lieutenant?” The emotionless and mechanical voice of the stormtrooper captain asked. “We’re going down.” “Very well, Lieutenant.” The captain responded, with enthusiasm that somehow managed to be heard through the helmets speaker, as he locked a new energy-cell into his blaster rifle and addressed his troops, “Load up boys, there’s rebels for the hunting.” =-=-=-= Making headway through the large underground complex was more difficult than Mira had first assumed. As part of her training for this assignment, she had read up on reports from recent raids. The actual experience was far more complex than the writing had suggested. As it was, her small division had been bloodied in the nose by small pockets of resistance that had set themselves up to cover their retreating companions. Firing her blaster she watched with that same mixed feeling as a trooper fell, causing the other trooper to be momentarily distracted as his friend slumped back against the wall. Taking advantage of the situation, Mira fired another shot from her position behind the doorframe. She watched as the energy bolt hit the rebel square in his chest, sending him reeling back as several stormtroopers entered the room, stepping on the smoldering remains of a fellow trooper as they did so. “We can’t be far behind,” The captain said as he kicked one of the rebel corpses out of his way. “The scum is sticking to the ground for a reason.” “Agreed,” Mira said as she consulted her datapad. “According to the schematics, there should be a service tunnel heading directly down…there!” She pointed to a scratched and worn durasteel hatch that lay to one side of the room. Motioning to two of the troopers, she watched as they quickly and systematically unlocked the hatch, there was no sign of emotion in the task, no love or hate of it, just a cold will to do it. Peering down the long dark tube, she could not make out where the long descent ended, nor if all the rungs were still intact. Grabbing onto the ladder and slipping into the service tube, she found herself overwhelmed by a sense of claustrophobia as her arms scrapped against the dark inner linings. “This route is too small for your men, captain. I’ll head down and try to stop as many officers as I can; you find another way down.” “Understood.” The stromtrooper’s voice echoed as she made her way down through the dark shaft. As the light from the hatchway retreated and the monotonous action of climbing rungs started to set into her mind. Everything she had seen so far contradicted what she had read. But that was to be expected, writing never did truly match action. That wasn’t the part that nibbled at her mind. It was the question of why some of the reports so bluntly contradicted the field experience in key aspects. Why? Any good intelligence officer knew that all writing was naturally endowed with at least some of the author’s biasness, even in the most neutral of reports. The Rebellion was discarded by many arrogant officers as rag-tag group of anarchists and discontents. They were poorly wrong. The rebellion was a threat, a threat with structure, loyalty and a cause that attracted many. To Mira that was the one big question mark in the puzzle. Why did so many planets break away from the structure and safety of the Empire to follow a self-destructive cause? Her question was interrupted by her foot hitting solid ground. She had reached the bottom of the tube, and as she climbed out onto a catwalk she managed to survey the area. From what Mira could tell, the room seemed like a large self-sufficient power-plant; the type found in subterranean military bunkers. Most of the humming power-cell columns that poked between the crisscrossing catwalks were clean and well maintained, many of them bearing the official emblem of the Laerian Government. A few meters bellow her, she noticed mining equipment tucked away in a corner of the room. As her eyes tracked over to the other side of the room she found what the mining equipment was for: a tunnel. The tunnel was about two meters high and had smooth edges, suggesting that it was made with care. It was unlikely that it was a recent addition by the rebels, more likely, from what Mira assumed, the entire subterranean bunker was a bomb shelter connected to the main government offices. Hoping that there were still a few personnel obscured from her view Mira quietly descended a set of stairs. Though stealth quickly gave away to ducking as she accidentally kicked a small piece of metal that hit the duracreet floor with a clang, giving away her position. The few remaining rebel officers and troopers quickly open fired as they made a frantic run for the tunnel. Unlike her, their aim was horrible and randomly hit objects around her. All she could do was squeeze off one shot that hit one of the lagers, a Bothan, in its calf. The Bothan hit the floor with a thud and yelped. “I wouldn’t move if I were you,” Mira said as she stepped over to him with her blaster in hand. “Go ahead, kill me, I won’t tell you anything.” The Bothan stated, before adding as an afterthought: “At least I would get to see the face of my executioner.” “You will talk, there is no other choice for you.” “You say those words like you believe them, but there is something about you, something different.” The Bothon mused as he surreptitiously pulled a dark object from a pouch. “You seem like one that looks and examines, not listens. You are like others I have met, others I know…perhaps all that differates you from them is that you are blind to the outside world?” Trying to hold her arm and aim steady, Mira caught a glimpse of something the Bothan was trying to pull out and she found every logical sense telling her to pull the trigger. As impulse after impulse hammered her finger, ordering it to do the action that would terminate another’s life, but she found herself caught unable to do it to a person whose eyes she looked into. Milliseconds later, a single shot rang out and caused the Bothan to go limp. The dark object fell from his hand, revealing itself as a mute grey datapad. Mira turned to see two stormtroopers stamping their way down the stairs towards her. Gently forcing the datapad underneath the Bothan’s body, Mira hoped that the stormtroopers wouldn’t find it and turn it in. Part of her was curious to what the Bothan had meant, and was interested to see what the datapad contained. It was with relief that she watched the troopers pass the Bothan with indifference to hand her a comm unit without even noticing the pitifully hidden datapad. They probably weren’t even interested in seeing if it had actually been a blaster he had been pulling. “Lieutenant, we’ve managed to setup a relay up top, we should report in on our success.” Mira was temped to ask, ‘what success?’ They had accomplished nothing except causing death and destruction. Taking the comlink, she flicked it on and waited a few seconds as the static cleared and the voice of the Stardestroyer captain became audible. “Sir, this is Expedition Group A44, Lieutenant Kinree reporting in.” “Status of the raid?” The voice of the naval officer inquired. “A partial success: we managed to purge the facility of rebellion cohorts, but we were unable to capture any of their leaders. They escaped into an excavated duct.” “Any idea to where they may have gone?” “Partially, sir. It is most likely that the tunnel leads to the government centers. I request permission to collect my troops and continue the pursuit.” “Negative, Lieutenant. You have twenty minutes to withdraw before orbital bombardment.” “Orbital bombardment?” Mira asked as she felt your heart go cold. “Sir, even if the Laerian government is involved, which we have no actual proof of, there are countless numbers of civilians within the city.” “The Learians have provided shelter for the rebellion. Such an act is treason, and shall be dealt accordingly with.” “Sir, with all due respect…” “Are you disobeying the direct orders of a superior?” “No sir,” Mira muttered dejectedly. “I am merely trying to point out that…” “Your objection has been noted. You have twenty minutes.” With that the sound of idle static took over again. Mira looked over to the stormtrooper. The emotionless helmet simply stared back at her, waiting. “Return to the shuttle.” She said in a shaky and hushed tone, “I’ll be there momentarily.” The trooper nodded and signaled to his identical friend. As soon as they were out of sight, Mira bent down and picked up the datapad. Replacing her own, imperial issued, datapad with the new comer. She then started up the stairs, every step sluggish and forced. Nothing she could think of would alleviate the dull pain in her head and heart. =-=-=-=-= Laying back in her bunk on board the stardestroyer as it lazily made its way to the next port of call, Mira found herself unable to sleep. Whenever she closed her eyes she found herself bombard with questions or the sounds of turbo-laser cannons raining death down on the Laerian capital. Had this been the way every planet she had found harboring rebels ended up? Part of her knew that it possibly couldn’t be like that, but then there was the other part that asked ‘what had happened to the others?’. As that question crossed her mind she looked over to the datapad that sat, almost as if waiting for her, on the bunk-stand. Picking it up, she flicked the ‘on’ switch and watched as the screen activated, flashing the red emblem of the Rebellion superimposed over the Imperial logo. The image quickly disintegrated away into a list of data entries, all simply stating a planet and a date. The few that did follow a semi-proper titling system required a password. Entering the wrong one would probably cause the datapad to purge itself, she gathered. Those she would see about those later. Many of the planet names listed were familiar to her, as they had passed by her desk during her time on Coruscant. Reading through the entries she found herself horrified by what they said: everything from subversions of government to bombardment of defenseless settlements. Some of the entries were even before the disaster at Yavin. Looking blankly at the screen, she felt as if someone had just taken a laser-shredder and destroyed all her good credentials. Had in someway she been indirectly the one who had caused some of these atrocities? She couldn’t say. It was ironic that her first active field assignment, her reward for dedicated patience and loyalty, was the thing that destroyed her faith in a system she had come to believe in and perpetuate. Scrolling down to the bottom of the list, the last entry simply read: HAWKBAT’S NEST. Mira looked at it for a second and tapped on the entry. The words ‘NO COMM.’ flashed across the screen. Apparently it was some sort of automatic command that encoded a comm channel for secure use. She had always wondered how the rebels could send messages without leaving behind a transmission-code, now she knew. Getting up from her bunk, she walked over to the large communications console in her room. Connecting the datapad she quietly wondered what she was doing, why she was doing this. She knew that if she was caught she would probably be sent to the dark mines of Kessel. Tapping the option again she watched as the screen flashed black before reappearing a simple sound-wave indicator. “Tou’Per? Calling a bit unexpectedly don’t you think?” The voice from the datapad voiced. “Unfortunately your Bothan friend couldn’t call back, sorry about that.” “Sorry to you, too.” The voice said in an unsympathetic voice. “Wait!” Mira said desperately, hoping the link hadn’t been severed yet. “If you’re trying to buy time to track or decode the signal, you’re wasting your time.” “I’m not, infact, I’m willing to return your friends datapad and offer my services...if you can intercept my shuttle at Lannik.” The voice perked up for a second. “Interesting. You have yourself a deal, but remember, if this is a trap you won’t live to see how it ends.” The datapad went quiet. Suddenly there was a beep from her door. Mira froze as worst case scenarios ran through her head. Had they traced a signal to her quarters? Gathering her confidence, and her blaster just incase, she walked over to the door and tapped on the open button. The door slid away, not to reveal several stormtroopers, but rather, a single ensign with a slim holo-recorder. “Anything wrong, Ma’am?...Did I forget something?” “No,” Mira said as she took the slim piece of fiber-optics and closed the door behind her. Looking down at the words etched around the holo-emitter that read: ‘CONGRATULATIONS, MIR.’ she felt a stab of coldness in her heart. “Sorry, Halan, but my path isn’t returning to Coruscant, anytime soon.” Placing the holo-recorder down without playing the message, Mira layed back down on her bed and closed her eyes. The sounds still haunted her, but somehow, they were less intense. What ever challenge laid ahead, Mira hoped she was ready for it, now that she was fighting for the right side… -----signature----- There will always be someone to recognize another's hard work... [=-=FanFics=-=] http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=19833992&replies=0 [updated: Dec 23] http://boards.theforce.net/Message.aspx?topic=22645782&brd=10476
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Tyranus230 Registered: Feb '05	Date Posted: 12/18/05 5:18am Subject: RE: Shifting Loyalties [challenge-fic]
	Excellent story, SJ Your detail and all the other aspects are fantastic. -----signature----- He has something special planned for them. We only need to keep them from escaping.
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Rogue_Pilot_2347 Registered: May '05	Date Posted: 12/19/05 7:43am Subject: RE: Shifting Loyalties [challenge-vignette]
	That was a cool story. I liked the characters, and the storyline. Mira was a believable character, with real doubts and second thoughts. Good job! -----signature----- The Ultimate poetry Challenge: http://boards.theforce.net/Message.aspx?topic=26190468&brd=10304&replies=6 Two Halves of the Same Whole: http://boards.theforce.net/Message.aspx?topic=27517831&brd=10476&replies=0 *For the 2nd drabble challenge
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Meredith_Kenobi Registered: Jul '05	Date Posted: 12/19/05 7:49am Subject: RE: Shifting Loyalties [challenge-vignette]
	I agree with the other two. Wonderful storyline, lovely characters, with real emotions...an all-around wonderful story! -----signature----- Proud to be ZaraValinor's Padawan Delighted to be brodiew's Master
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VaderLVR64 Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Feb '04	Date Posted: 12/19/05 7:51am Subject: RE: Shifting Loyalties [challenge-vignette]
	Loved it! Your characters were amazing! I'd really like to see more with them! Hint, hint... -----signature----- R.I.P John, Alex, Jason, and Christian Never forgotten Soldiers' Angels http://soldiersangels.org/ 2114 soldiers waiting for someone to care
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correllian_ale Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jun '05	Date Posted: 12/19/05 4:47pm Subject: RE: Shifting Loyalties [challenge-vignette]
	Hmmm...curious aa to how this turned out. Mira seems like she a very realistic, and potentialy complex character. Good job Sekotian_Jedi, and great submission to the challenge! -----signature----- Consider this my "throw back" jersey... I govern my life around my own personal code of ethics, and I suggest that you do the same.
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Lola64 Registered: Mar '05	Date Posted: 12/27/05 6:30pm Subject: RE: Shifting Loyalties [challenge-vignette]
	Chiming in to say I'm joining the "I like Mira" fan club. Excellent answer to the challenge. This is probably how most had defected. The injustices of the Empire. Marvelous writing talent you have. I look forward to reading more of your work. -----signature----- Kyp/Nurse Lola: the new ship I stalk people. It's a Lola thing. Been gone and is now back. Did you miss me?
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Healer_Leona Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jul '00	Date Posted: 12/27/05 6:56pm Subject: RE: Shifting Loyalties [challenge-vignette]
	Superb entry for the OC challenge and wonderful OC's -----signature----- Break away from everybody Break away from everthing If you can't stand the way this place is Take yourself to higher places
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Lovely-in-Orange Registered: Apr '05	Date Posted: 12/27/05 11:08pm Subject: RE: Shifting Loyalties [challenge-vignette]
	Great story and character. I liked how you potrayed her doubts and emotions as she sees the Empire at work first hand. -----signature----- Ms. Star Wars 2009 Ties of Loyalty: http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/23926858/ - Imperials/OCs/Quinlan/Khaleen A Boy and His Droids: http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=20555406
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