Saga - Legends Dark Forces: Rogue Mission (Kyle Katarn, Jan Ors, Ysanne Isard, OCs) Completed 7/11/16. Ch. 19 & Ep.

Interesting ... What's happening with the toothbrush.
Loved the talk between Kyle and the pilot

 

That's a very interesting Q, I mean question...

I liked writing the talk, as well. Balancing it with Tarrin's thoughts of "Oh by the Force, I'm losing my career over a bad dream..." to "Hey, that sounds kind of like what Commander Skywalker says happens. Maybe something is up."

Final editing of next chapter is happening now, and I really do owe you some updated notes.

 

CHAPTER 11

The spacelanes around Coruscant were backed up to its furthest moon, the multiple lines of freighters, tugs and personal yachts each waiting for their turn to enter the atmosphere of the planet. In the middle of one of the lines, sandwiched between a flat-topped Lantillian Short Hauler and a herf-shaped BFF-1 bulk freighter, was the Moldy Crow.

"We've been sitting here for almost an hour..." Tarrin Datch's voice was filled with boredom. The pilot sat in the rear seat of the freighter, his hands firmly on the control yoke and throttle.

"Enjoy it," Kyle Katarn said. He looked around the cockpit's viewports as the spacecraft to their side moved a few meters before stopping. "The ride out of here's going to be a lot more fun."

"That's going to be a lot easier said than done." The younger pilot scanned the area. "It should still be possible."

"We can lose them." The sensor consoles emitted a series of fast beeps, showing in a neutral yellow the multitudes of civilian ships and freighters the single red shape of an Imperial craft. Kyle zoomed in on ship and brought up the holographic form of a forked corvette nearly ten times the size of the Crow. On the tips of the two forks were large spotlights. "We've got a customs corvette coming our way."

"Think they'll stop us?"

With the punch of a button, the blank hull directly in front of him was filled with a flat holo of the spaceway ahead. The corvette moved down the row, its spotlights moving from one ship to another. "It's supposed to be random unless they scan something suspicious onboard."

"And there's nothing suspicious about that armory you have back there?"

"The first thing that I put in it was the sensor scrambler that Jan gave me. It shouldn't raise an eyebrow." One of the spotlights on the corvette shone towards the Moldy Crow, the large viewports instantly polarized as the light hit them.

"That's good for the sensors." The light shined through the cockpit, the dark transparisteel cutting out the majority of the brightness, but still illuminating the cabin. "What if we're picked?" His hands gripped the throttle tightly.

"Let me worry about that," Kyle said.

Tarrin scoffed. "What are you going to do, talk them nicely into leaving us alone?"

Kyle pulled out a number of brightly colored rectangles from his pocket and showed them, five dark faces reflecting the light from outside of the ship. "No, but Emperor Palpatine will..."

"Will that work?"

The credits went back into Kyle's pocket. "A quarter of their monthly paycheck in a day? Most will take it."

Tarrin shook his head. "We better hope that the captain isn't one of the honest ones, then. Rare as they are..."

The light that had been shining through the viewports vanished off into the distance and the open comm system buzzed. "Lantillian Hauler X3S003572, please divert from the lane and submit for inspection."

"There's that," Kyle said. As the custom's corvette pulled its latest prey away from the other ships, the traffic began to accelerate towards the planet's surface.


Coruscant's skylanes were less congested compared to the narrow entry point into the planet's surface. A kilometer above the roofs of the tallest skytowers the Moldy Crow soared amongst airspeeders and other space-faring ships. The many spires of the tallImperialPalace rose nearly a hundred kilometers in the distance. A chill ran down Kyle's spine as he looked at the capital of the entire Galactic Empire, still large and imposing even from this distance.

With a few simple presses on a datapad, the overhead map of the area zoomed out. "The Academy should be about 50 kilometers from theImperialPalaceto the northwest of here.

"Patch it through to my console." With a quick movements, Kyle sent the coordinates to Tarrin's computer. To the west, Coruscant's star had began its descent through the large cloudcutters, peeking through the gaps between them. The lights in the large buildings steadily turned on.

"Are you thinking about a night attack?"

Kyle looked out the port viewport of his ship at theImperialPalaceas Tarrin passed it. "Don't have the time tonight and I don't want to wait another day to get this done."

Tarrin shrugged as best he could while still piloting the ship. "That works for me. You've been here before; did this place give you the creeps the same way it does me?"

"Not until I was ready to get out."

"I don't want to think about that part right now. There it is." The freighter slowed as much as Tarrin dared to avoid raising too much suspicion as he could. Two kilometers away from the craft was a large blocky building with two globular shield generators on top. A kilometer to the west of the shielded tower was a simple multi-storied building that stood out amongst the many courtyards and single leveled offices.

"There's a landing pad on the roof." Kyle turned and gestured to Tarrin. "That's your extraction point." The agent pointed to another building nearly half a kilometer away, under the skylane. "And that's where you drop me off."

"What do I do if they think that a freighter stopping to land on a random building seems suspicious and sends in a couple of TIEs?"

Kyle shrugged. "You'll only be at a full stop for a few seconds, at most. There shouldn't be anything to worry about, but if there is state that you had a brief power fluctuation in the starboard engines."

"And that'll work?"

"Long enough to get out of here."

The Moldy Crow had exited the area and was flying around a small entertainment district. "If that's what I'm going to get, I guess that'll have to do." The ship banked north towards a seedy looking spaceport. "Now to keep your end of the promise."

"I've still got their numbers programmed into my comlink."

***

The stormtroopers's hands gripped tightly against her arms sent fire along her limbs as they dragged her through the hallways. She hung limply in their grasp, mind still foggy from the interrogation drugs that they had pumped into her system in a vain attempt at making her talk.

The toes of her boots scraped along familiar floors as they neared the detention cells. There was no bothering with alternate routes now, not with how out of it the prisoner seemed to be. The walk from the interrogation room to the detention center took only minutes without the costly detours along the way.

The floor rushed towards her as the two guards threw Jan Ors into her cell. Agony rushed through her body as her sensitive nerves overreacted to the sensation. The small doses that she had voluntarily subjected herself to while training in Intelligence had prepared her for the droid's toxins, but the reality of the full dose compared lightly to that brief taste.

"Here you go, rebel, the Commander wants you not to stink up the room when you do decide to talk." The stormtrooper's voice was followed by a loud clatter next to her right ear and the always odd sound of laughter filtered through a headset.

The door slammed shut behind them and Jan slowly rose to her hands and knees, blocking out the pain as best she could in her mind. "Step nimbly onto stage. Croisé into plie of the knee and follow with a..." Her whispered words faded out and she continued her mother's choreography mentally as she reached the toothbrush on the ground. A slight smile filled with weariness crossed her face as saw it. Her hand closed on the device as she moved herself into a seated position along the metal wall.

She sat there for minutes, holding onto the toothbrush carefully as she waited for the door to open again and all of it was revealed as some cruel joke upon her. They hadn't noticed, her brain raced. Both Daam and Tascel had examined it and hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary save for the slightly oversized power cell.

The panel on the toothbrush opened easily, revealing the plasteel cell cap and the inner workings. The bristled brush head was loosened and twisted off next, the metal clamps inside of the stalk retracted from the thin tab on the end. She scooted the brush head away from her and turned her attention to the power cell's shield. It was a simple white rectangle designed to keep the power cell from leaking into the delicate circuit board in case of corrosion.

She held the plate by her burning fingers and pressed down on it, using the floor as leverage. "Come on..." The plate snapped in two along the diagonal edge the sound of the cracking plasteel ringing loud in her ears. Through blurred vision, Jan Ors inspected the straight line of the plate. It had been designed years ago by some intelligence agent that she couldn't recall the name of, though she felt that she should, as an easily concealed weapon for agents behind Imperial lines. The end of the wedge fit perfectly into the empty slot where the bristled end of the brush had once been set. The side panel of the converted weapon was replaced quickly and the agent turned the vibrodagger on.

The blade hummed as the powerful motor inside moved it quicker than the eye could see. A tired grin crossed her face as she lifted her booted foot up onto her leg. She slowly brought the vibrodagger down on the corner of the boot's heel and watched as the hard bantha leather was shaved away in a small chip.

With the slide down of the normal switch, she turned the dagger off. The hum ended in an instant as the blade stilled in its housing. The agent pushed the pain away as she stood up, legs nearly collapsing under her weight. She leaned against the cool durasteel wall, using it as a crutch to reach her cot.


An hour. That thought was a beacon inside of her mind. The drugs would clear out of her system in about an hour. She laid down upon the metal bed, clutching her homemade vibroblade close to her side opposite the door. An hour before the pain of just breathing ended and a day, maybe a little longer, before the stormtroopers arrived to take her for another interrogation session. Her eyes closed despite the bright light and immediately opened as the blaring of the motion alarm sounded.

 

Great plans. I hope Kyle will reach Jan in time

 

It certainly is a race against time, although not in the way that Kyle thinks. He's just wanting to bail Jan out from a jam she's in, while with each interrogation session that happens, she becomes closer and closer to breaking. Of course, she has her own plans for escape...

***

CHAPTER TWELVE

"How is our prisoner?"

Her guest shifted almost unnoticed beside Ysanne Isard as they walked the walls of Lusankya. Around the two, transparisteel panels along the walls showed row after row of prisoners.

"The first session provided the predicted results, Madame Director." Leco Daam followed each one of her footsteps, looking through the windows. Isard smiled.

"This is your first time visiting the reconditioning area of Lusankya, isn't it?" The two stopped in front of a room and viewed the interior. A young man was strapped into a thin chair, various images flashing before his held-open eyes.

"It is." Daam looked uncomfortable watching the scene before him.

"This disturbs you?" There was an almost mocking tone in Isard's voice.

"I know great strides have been made at this, but sending in rebel prisoners to be sleeper agents for us? It seems so perverse..."

"Afraid of losing your job?" Isard gave a short laugh before pointing towards the prisoner. "This is one Lieutenant Kupelo. Captured on Hoth by our forces and brought here, he's been in this program ever since."

"Is the process always this slow?"

"How long it takes is entirely dependent on the individual. Kupelo here breaks easily. Your prisoner, on the other hand, sounds like an intensive case. She'll require far more work."

A somewhat skeptical look appeared on Leco's face. "So, they do break and will be perfect sleeper agents: how do you get them back to the rebels without arousing suspicion?"

"How would you do it?" Isard's smile was a challenge, each meeting between them a test as always.

Leco paused to think for a while, staring at the rebel prisoner in the conditioning chair. "Leak a report about a prison ship being near Rebel space. They'll jump onto it and rescue their comrades, including our agent."

Isard's mouth betrayed her icy front with a slight upturn of a smile. "Good. That's how we've been doing it for years and the rebels have been none the wiser. You're beginning to think like the general that you need to be for the future."

"You made me do a lot of thinking over the last week."

"And that was your conclusion? That you need to think about what's on the horizon?"

Leco cleared his throat and looked around the hallway.

"Every camera in here is mine, Commander," Isard said. "I appreciate your caution, however."

"Yes, Madame Director. 'The Emperor is old and has no heir.' I want to help when that day comes."

The words coming from another voice sounded so very pleasant to Isard's ears. Even if Soontir Fel had rejected her offer, she was still in a good tactical position, especially with the Super Star Destroyer under her feet. "I need all the good help that I can get when the day comes, and those who come to my aid will be rewarded heavily."

"Your post will be open..."

Blue and red eyes shined in perverse merriment. "You are ambitious." Leco gave her a look that suggested that it couldn't hurt to try. "Those who are of use will be rewarded heavily, and those that fail will be punished severely." His face sank at the implication. "Now, when will you try next to break Ors?"

"I was thinking about bringing her in for another round of interrogation tomorrow morning."

Isard continued her walk down the halls of her private prison, passing the hapless Kupelo and several empty chambers on the way towards one of her many offices. "I want progress this time, Commander. Some little scrap of information that might prove useful to the Empire."

"Of course, Director Isard." Leco's voice had the slight shiver of a nervous whisperkit within it. With another word, she dismissed him and watched as he walked out of the corridor and towards his waiting shuttle. He was a good teacher and just as good of an interrogator, but he was squeamish when it came to some of the more necessary tactics that was needed to get information.

Inside of her office, the large holographic map was filled with even more hotspots of rebel activity in the galaxy. She could just as easily march up to Daam's academy and take over interrogation, letting each and everyone of his students and himself see a true interrogation master at work. She'd get information before the end of the day. The small planet representing the planet Bakura lit up and she pulled the information up. One of the rebels crack starfighter squadrons had just liberated several prisoners from the space prison orbiting the world. If only she wasn't so busy...

***

The hotel's conference room, if it could be called that, was a squat rectangle five meters wide and twice that long. A long table with rounded edges sat in the middle, several chairs around its perimeters. Cracked holoscreens showed nighttime views of severalImperialCenterlandmarks: the Imperial palace in the distance from the base ofMonumentPlaza, the mushroom shaped dome of the now-abandonedSenateBuilding, and the sights of the Corellian Quarter.

Kyle Katarn sat at the short edge of the table, he and Tarrin Datch facing across the table at a light-furred Bothan. The canid humanoid scratched at his snout, his dark eyes scanning the area. "I'm taking a big risk meeting you two here."

"Trust me, I don't think anyone's watching us..." The hotel was as dilapidated as the area around it, cracked durasteel bricks poorly painted to conceal their flaws. It had been sheer luck that they even had a conference room, as small as it was.

"So you say, Agent Katarn, but the Emperor's eyes are everywhere." The Bothan looked around the room, pausing at the locked door leading to the main room of the building. "Especially with this topic. If Iceheart hears about this, we're finished: you, Lieutenant Datch and my cell."

"We've checked this room for bugs about ten times, Soth, I think we're able to speak safely." Kyle couldn't blame the being for his paranoia, annoying though it was. One didn't get to be the head of the largest rebel cell on the Imperial homeworld by being careless.

A slight growl of frustration escaped Soth's snout. "Fine. You wanted to know about your partner, 'Outsider'?"

"You were on a contact list of ours a couple of years ago," Kyle said. "We were there for a job around the same region, so I was hoping that you had some news."

"The Imperial Security Operations building, yes." The fur around Soth's neck crinkled just slightly, a gesture that Kyle couldn't recognize. "We've helped with so many Alliance projects here on Coruscant and your friend's latest is one of them."

"Was there any distress call put out by her?" Tarrin was quick in his question, and the young man looked nervous at any answer.

"Outsider never contacted us regarding any trouble she was in. Our last contact with her was five days ago." Tarrin sank back into his chair and covered his eyes with a hand, rubbing at his temples.

"What did she contact you for?" Kyle remained on point. "Assistance, pick up?"

"She requested a sniper rifle and gave us a location to place it. We didn't hear anything about it after that." There was a hitch to his voice. "I sent an agent to pick up the rifle just yesterday. When she returned, she stated that the building had been ransacked and the blaster rifle gone."

"So, she was in danger?" Kyle turned towards Tarrin and shot the pilot a look.

"I can't say for certain, but it looks that way."

The blaster on Kyle's left hip seemingly grew heavier at the news and he tempered the feeling that he needed to leave at exactly that moment. Tomorrow would hopefully be soon enough. "Do you know anything about the layout of that place?"

Soth shook his head. "May none of my group ever know what the inside of that place looks like."

"Make it up as I go along, same as always."

 

Isard and Leco are sure scheming to twist Jan.
I hope Kyle will come with plans to help Jan escape

 

Have I mentioned how fun it is to write Isard? Seriously, just letting her be the schemer she is was one of the great joys I had while writing this story.

As for the latter, imagine the look of surprise on his face if Jan's already gone?

***

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Jan's legs burned with overexertion as she leaned next to the door, shoulder digging into the durasteel wall that led outside. All sense of time had been lost since she woke from her latest microsleep and the one before that, a constant in that long time was the small hum of the Jawa-rigged vibrodagger in her right hand. The motion detector's alarm sounded its jarring siren, the only other constant in her vigil.

She licked her dry lips, tongue nearly sticking to the parched flesh. The ambush that she had planned was now in the most tedious portion: the waiting. It was near suicide; that thought was constant in her foggy mind. The only other option of waiting until they finally broke her was far less preferable to at least attempting to make a break of it. There were airspeeders in a garage a few levels down and if she could reach one...

***

The armory of the Moldy Crow was as cramped as the rest of the ship. It had been a cargo bay once and despite the racks of weapons on the starboard side, it could still reasonably perform the freighter's original purpose.

Kyle pulled the large blaster pistol from his holster, opening up a small port in the umber-colored barrel and replacing the power cell. Throughout the numerous missions that he had been on, it had remained the single constant. The blaster had been a rifle once, but had been drastically shortened by his father, Morgan, and presented to him as a gift before he had left for theImperialAcademy. It was the last time that he would see his father alive. The side panel showed green and the rebel replaced the blaster into its holster.

The dark body army was removed from its rack next. It was bulky and it limited his movement just slightly but the heat absorbing panels meant the difference from a serious blaster wound and a fatal one. Coupled with the personal shield generator on his belt, it created an aura of protection that several Imperials that had heard of him mistook for invincibility.

Two E-11 blaster rifles were next, followed by enough power packs for two reloads apiece. He strung both rifles over his shoulders on opposite sides of his body and returned to his armory. His hand hovered over one of the long blaster pistols that Jan preferred but passed over it; space was at a premium so she'd have to do with just the blaster rifle, along with any weapons that she'd scavenge along the way back to the ship.

On the right hand side of the armory was a large cannon that took up the majority of the space. It had two barrels, side by side, and a glowing red energy pack that curved toward the rear of the weapon. It had been the primary weapon of the Dark Troopers and one of the very few of the weapons that had survived the destruction of the Arc Hammer. It was too bulky to take with him, especially with the walk that he'd have to take to get inside the academy.

"You're already here?" Tarrin Datch's voice carried through the open door from the airlock as the young pilot stepped into the ship.

"When I said that I wanted to get this done early, I meant it." Kyle grabbed the belt of thermal detonators out of their protective cubicle and secured them around his waist. "You've got your part in this ready?"

"Come and get you on the roof once you comm me and say you've found Jan," Tarrin said. "Wait on the roof and leave if I haven't heard from either of you in twenty minutes."

"That's it." Kyle walked the length of the freighter to the cockpit and paused at the back of his chair. He picked up the leather longcoat hanging from the headrest and threw it over his shoulders. He took a seat and ignored the grips of the blaster rifles as they dug into the padded armor on his back.

"You're insane, you know that?" Tarrin sat down in the rear seat of the ship and pulled the borrowed pilot's goggles over his eyes.

"You aren't the first person to tell me that."

***

Jan Or's ambush spot wasn't the best that she could hope for when it came to killing people with a knife. The agent knew that but also knew that beings in her position couldn't afford to be picky. Every different scenario had ran through her mind in the past day before she had chosen this one. Feigning unconsciousness on her cot would bring her intended victim deep into the room before she struck, but it also easily opened her up to a counterattack from his partner. The second Stormtrooper that came to take her to the interrogation was a constant foil in all of the other schemes for escape.
Either way, she'd have to move quickly after the first strike, assuming that it would even be fatal. If. Maybe. Possibly. Her escape plans were littered with those three words, but they were the only thing that she could rely on at the moment.

The door hissed open and in the second that she had paused, reflexes dulled by fatigue, the first stormtrooper had taken his first step into the room. Her left hand moved up and grabbed the white breastplate of the soldier and holding it as hard as she could. The blade in her right hand hummed as she brought it to the captive Imperial's throat.

The blade met the slightest of resistances as it encountered the airtight bodyglove and dug into the skin below, choking the soldier's startled cry. Blood ran warm and red down the white armor and her fingers as she sliced downwards. She blinked as the spray of the severed artery showered the area and her face.

With a shove of her shoulders against the dying soldier's midsection, Jan pushed the struggling stormtrooper out into the hallway, right where his companion had been the last time. A cry of surprise mixed with the clanking of a blaster rifle hitting the floor. "Prisoner esc...!" The filtered voice drowned out the other sounds in the hallway.

The agent moved quickly, dropping her blade and racing for the fallen blaster before the other gun could be brought to bear upon her. The lone stormtrooper began to push his fatally wounded companion off of his body and grabbed for the dark blaster rifle at his side while Jan's swiftly aimed at him. The red beam of energy from her blaster struck him in the head, instantly killing him.

Jan collapsed against the wall, breathing heavily, eyes peering down the hallway for any more Imperial troops. The dying stormtrooper kicked feebly at the ground, a hand up to his mangled throat as he futilely attempted to hold his life blood inside of him even as it puddled crimson on the gray floor. The rebel raised her blaster rifle, aiming at center mass, and gave him the mercy that he would never show her.

Taking the utility belt from one of the dead troopers, she looked around the area for anything else useful. The medpac on the wall caught her eyes, a large box with a red cross stamped above the Imperial logo. She hurried as best she could towards the wall, blaster raised in case the reinforcements that the dead stormtroopers had tried to raise were on their way.

With a swing upwards, the medpac opened and revealed the bandages, antiseptics and plethora of drugs within. Years of experience in both Intelligence and field missions let her know what each and every one of them did and how to administer them. She grabbed one of the many hypodermic needles and removed the cap. Despite her blurry eyes, she read the label as quick as she dared.

"BioTech Adrenal Stimulant..." She muttered the words aloud. "Remove cap and inject in thigh. Effects last for four hours... User will suffer from possible adrenal system crash at end." With a quick movement she jammed the needle into her thigh and felt the automatic injector send the serum out into her bloodstream. The stim worked nearly instantly, clearing her mind from the fog that the sleep deprivation had pulled over it and filled her with the energy that she had days before.

"Four hours." She picked up her makeshift vibroblade and jaunted down the walkway towards more familiar settings. "It should be plenty of time."

***

The traffic in this district of Coruscant was heavy at this time of morning. Numerous airspeeders and larger ships made their daily commute from one area of the ecumenopolis to another. The Moldy Crow shifted easily into another lane, moving in between the floating beacons into a hole in the speeders.

Kyle stood in the airlock of his ship, holding on to a restraining strap that was secured to the wall. Days of worry and hours of as much preparation as he could do had led to this moment. The meeting with the rebel cell leader had done much to comfort his mind. He wasn't insane and it wasn't just worry: she had been uncovered somehow and was likely being held prisoner.

"We've got about five minutes if this traffic holds." Tarrin's voice came through clear in Kyle's earpiece.

"I copy." Kyle replaced his comlink back onto his belt. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths to calm himself. The ramp of the craft opened with the press of a button, the warning klaxon sounding as the floor in front of him lowered. Air rushed into the airlock, pulling at Kyle's coat and filling his ears with a loud roar. Half a kilometer below the freighter was a maze of buildings and walkways, long trenches designating streets on the temporary surface erected between the buildings.

The speed of the craft reduced and the freighter dipped below the current traffic lanes. The buildings on the ground grew steadily larger in his eyesight until it seemed as if Tarrin was trying to skim the freighter's belly onto the very tops of the cloudcutters.

"Tarrin, be careful, I don't want my ship to crash..." He shouted over the wind, hoping that the pilot could hear him.

"Don't worry, I've got plenty of clearance."

The amount of detail that Kyle could see on every rooftop that the Crow passed begged to differ. He shook his head at his own discomfort. An unfamiliar pilot--despite his reputation-- taking the controls of his ship was enough to make anyone paranoid. It could be Han Solo and Chewbacca themselves at the controls of his ship and he'd still be feeling the same way.

"It doesn't look that way!"

The freighter slowed to a crawl and dropped just slightly. Kyle could see every detail in the red sand that served as traction on the durasteel roof. He jumped off of the freighter's ramp and raced across the roof towards the service door. "I'm down," he said.

"See you soon, I hope. May the Force be with you." With those parting words, the engines of the Moldy Crow whined in acceleration as the freighter soared off back onto the skylanes. Kyle watched as his freighter merged back into the lines of speeders and disappeared into the distance before opening the unlocked door and entering the building.
Gloved hand gripping the barrel of his blaster rifle tightly, Kyle stepped into the dark building. The rebel removed the short field lamp from his belt and switched it on. Dust and other debris from the walls and ceiling littered the floor, looking as undisturbed as they had been since the day that they fell. It was different than any other "abandoned" cloudcutter that he had seen and been in before. It was too undisturbed and the walls were clear of graffiti. Even the word "abandoned" had been a bit of a misnomer, as vagrants frequently found shelter in the dark buildings. Then again, he thought, an Intelligence district in Coruscant was bound to be a hell of a lot different than Nar Shaddaa.

The trip down the stairwell were uneventful as he passed doors long sealed and unlit security holocams that hadn't seen use since before he was born. He paused before the door to the level, the walkway leading to theSchoolofTorturersstill a level or so down. The glowlamp in his hand caught sight of several sets of footprints in the dust: the small depressions of a woman in boots and the numerous large boot prints of men. The male footprints were obviously stormtroopers, the near unyielding plasteel covered leather preventing most movement of the foot itself. Kyle had always hated the damn things despite the protection that they offered. The woman's feet were another mystery. Were they Jan's feet and she'd been captured as she went to retrieve the blaster that had been placed there? Perhaps they belonged to the rebel cell member who had gone to retrieve it just a few days prior and found it missing. His hand hovered over the controls for the door before turning back and heading down the stairs once again. No matter how intriguing the mystery was, it had nothing to do with the task at hand anymore.

"Spast." Kyle cursed as he reached the door to the Academy. The trip through the abandoned building and the open walkway had been perfect and uneventful until now. The door leading into the school was locked, accessible only to those who had a specific security code.

The agent examined the door as best that he could, studying the edges where the sliding metal met the walls. As best that he could tell, the door wasn't that thick and could easily be breached with a large enough explosion. Cursing that he had left his sequencer charges back on his ship, he removed the next best thing that he did have, his thermal detonators.

He sat three of them down by the door, each one set to its lowest burst setting. Kyle activated the last one and raced down the walkway, setting up outside of the safe zone with his blaster rifle held high. "Five... Four... Three..." he counted down the seconds left on the detonators, nervous about what lay on the other side of the door.


The spherical super powered grenades exploded with a groundquaking blast, causing Kyle's ears to ring as he peered through the smoke. As the dark grey fog cleared, the burning metal opening in the door glowed brightly. Walking quickly into the opening, Kyle was finally inside of the academy.

 

Love how Kyle is preparing himself (just like playing the games with him in the lead) And nice to see Jan escape

 

I based that off of a cut intro in the original Dark Forces game, as well as most action movies in the 80s and 90s. I also wanted to make sure that he wasn't carrying too many weapons that it bordered on the unrealistic. Jan's escape was interesting to write, as I wanted to really convey the act that she did without making it too gory for the site.

***

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

What was taking those stormtroopers so long? That thought ran through Leco Daam's mind as he sat inside of the observation suite. They had left to pick up Jan Ors in her cell five minutes ago with the specific instructions to return directly to the interrogation room. He checked the chrono on his wrist and slapped the table in frustration.

"SV-300, SV-210, where are you?" The comlink remained silent. He repeated the question again and received the same response. With the flick of a switch, he opened the comlink to everyone in the building, student and stormtrooper alike. "Possible prison escape, I repeat, possible prison escape. All stormtroopers report to their assigned positions. All students, shelter in place."

"What do I do, commander?" Cedral stood near the door, already locking it via the console. Always the timely one, he had been the first to arrive for the interrogation session.

Leco walked towards a secured cabinet in the wall across from the door and pressed in his command code into the lock. The panel of the cabinet slid open, revealing three round-barreled blaster pistols with a small energy cell clip near the opening of the barrel. He checked the power level of the blasters before handing one of the scoped pistols to Cedral.

"I'm heading to my office to coordinate the search for our prisoner." He motioned towards the door as he readied his own weapon. "You're with me."

Cedral balked slightly at the order. His record as an intelligence agent had been exemplary, Leco recalled. The agent had infiltrated a rebel base a year before and had been responsible for its destruction and the capture of several important prisoners. Despite his record, the young man had never fired a shot in anger in his Imperial career. "I need someone to help me coordinate the efforts and get to my office safely, Cedral." Leco kept his voice calm despite the situation around him. "You're the only one here, so it has to be you."

Cedral opened his mouth as if to say something but shut it quickly. Holding his blaster pistol up in the air, elbow crooked, he opened the door into the hall. "Yes, sir," he said.

The two walked through the door, Cedral taking point as they moved into the hall. "It's clear."

The klaxon of the fire alarm sounded through the hallways and warning lights flashed. Daam looked around in confusion before voicing it into his comlink.

"Commander, we've got a fire alarm in Section 12," the voice of his head of security sounded clearly despite the noise.

"Send a team to take care of it, Bennett." Leco shook his head and gestured towards Cedral. "I swear, the tide is high when the hurricanes come."

The younger intelligence agent frowned in confusion. "It means that bad things follow bad things," Leco explained and continued down the hallway.

***

"Now what?" Jan Ors spoke the words out loud as she jogged down the hallway. Throughout the base, red warning lights flashed and sirens sounded. Leco Daam's orders had just come through the spare comlink on her stolen belt, as unhelpful as they had been to her.

A corner loomed up ahead, two forks in the path. Her mind struggled to remember what path was the right way to go, the mental acuity restored by the stims fighting against stress and relative unfamiliarity with the layout of this section of the academy and losing.

Pressing her body as close as she could to the wall, she leaned forward and surveyed her surroundings. Around the corner was a squad of stormtroopers running heavily towards her position. Jan moved back behind the corner and ran back where she came from. If the stormtroopers had seen her, they had made no mention of it. She opened a nearby door and ducked into the room, closing it as quick as she could.

Jan leaned against the closed door and took a few deep breaths. For the moment, at least, she was safe.

The sound of a tool dropping alerted the rebel agent, followed by a familiar voice. "By the Emperor..."

She turned quickly to meet the higher pitched voice, blaster raised. She found herself staring at a man with light brown hair down to his shoulders. The corners of his thin goatee curled slightly in alarm. Donlat Tascel, she thought, one of the other prospective interrogators in the academy. His hand was placed on the comlink on his belt, finger just near the small cylinder's "on" switch. The deactivated droids in the room remained silent, the one that Donlat had been working on a mess of wires out of its midsection.

"Hands off the comlink." Her finger cradled the trigger of the blaster, ready for any movements that he may make.

Donlat's finger didn't move. "Let's not get hasty." He began to circle around the table, free hand raised in a peaceful gesture. "I'm just going to..."

Jan raised the rifle up, aiming down the durasteel sights. "I said 'hands off the comm,' so do it!" She circled around from the door, never letting the Imperial getting too far behind any cover.

Donlat gave her a nervous smile. "Now, let's just stay calm and..." He made the move to dive behind the workshop's bench. Jan fired off a shot that slammed into his stomach as he made his leap. With a cry of pain and fear, Donlat collapsed against the wall and the comlink rolled away, propelled by either his injuries or a sudden movement to throw it, Jan couldn't tell which.

When Jan rounded the corner she found Donlat leaning against the desk. A bloody hand clutched at the large wound in his stomach. The honey colored eyes filled with anger and hatred moved to face her, legs struggling to push himself away from his killer. He had no weapon, at least none that was obvious. A frightened sigh was his final actions, eyes stilling in their death glare at her.

Jan stood over Donlat's body for seconds. The man had been one of the very few decent Imperials that she had met at the Academy and now he was dead by her hand. He had been diving for cover, scared out of his wits by her very appearance. His hand had been on his comlink and the possibility that he was going to alert the guards to her position had been too great to risk.

She walked over to the comlink where it had landed, a meter away from Donlat's lifeless hand. Her eyes darted from the device to Donlat's body and then back to the comlink. Her boot smashed into the comlink, leaving nothing but chunks of plasteel and exposed wiring on the dirty floor.

***

Standard Imperial procedure for an unexplained explosion was to send a squad of soldiers in to investigate, followed closely by a team of emergency techs. Kyle knew the procedure, had drilled for it in theImperialAcademyon Carida, and was prepared for it. He sprinted down the hallway, taking a corner to the left, hoping to draw the majority of the Imperial's attention to his impromptu distraction and away from his real destination. Wherever that was.

He headed down the hall and stopped at the depression of a door as he heard boots stomping around a nearby corner. Kyle slowly raised his blaster rifle up and thumbed the fire selection switch one notch forward from semi-automatic to a full burst mode. Shifting his body to gain as much cover from the door's well that he could, Kyle leaned his head and blaster out from behind the wall and waited.

The first two stormtroopers in the column paraded past the corner and turned to face Kyle, followed by the second row. The rebel squeezed the trigger of his blaster rifle, pouring red bursts of energy towards the enemy. The front line of the white-armored Imperials fell to the blaster fire, black scorch marks smoking in the gray hallway.

"Find some cover!" the now leading Stormtrooper called out to his depleted squad. He hit the ground, using his fallen sergeant as a crude form of cover. The stormtroopers returned fire, forcing Kyle to retreat completely behind the door.

He couldn't stay behind the cover forever, that thought was foremost in his mind as he fired a burst of blind fire down the hallway. The recoil shook his hand badly and threw off every single shot that he took. At least it made them keep their heads down, he thought as he surveyed his situation. He pressed the control console for the door and heard the solid thudding noise of a secured lock. Heading back the way that he came would put him in the line of fire for the stormtroopers ahead and staying there would just allow them to strengthen their numbers enough to outflank him.

Kyle pulled another one of the thermal detonators off of his belt. He cursed at the thought of using half of his detonators within the first five minutes of the mission, but tossed it back into his palm like it was a childhood toy. Allowing the rifle in his hand to swing by the strap against his shoulder, he modified the detonator to the right specifications: medium blast radius with a six second timer.

Kyle sprang loose from his cover and tossed the thermal down the hallway. The metal ball bounced on the floor with a clink. The stormtrooper on the ground either didn't see the movement or ignored it as he opened fire. A slight stinging sensation slammed into Kyle's arm as the sizzling sound of the energy bolt impacting upon his personal energy shield combined with the green flash of light that it emitted. Returning to the cover of the doorway, he picked up the blaster rifle and waited.

The sound of the explosion through the halls echoed off of the walls along with the reverberation of its shock wave. Kyle moved quickly after the explosion, speeding from the doorway and into the passage. The prone stormtrooper that had shot him was dead as was another Imperial just at the corner. Their five remaining squad mates were fleeing away from the blast and about to recover. Kyle opened up on them, catching two in the back before they even knew that he was there. The others ran towards other openings in the wall, searching for cover.

Another burst fired towards them, range, recoil and the notorious inaccuracy of the E-11 conspiring against the rebel. The plethora of blaster fire peeled off around the soldiers and impacted against the far wall. The next shot was on point as it caught a shooting Imperial in the right shoulder as he leaned too far out. The wounded soldier dropped his blaster and sprawled to the floor, no longer a threat. Two left.


Kyle advanced down the hall, letting the blaster rifle drop and pulling his pistol from its holster. The stormtroopers saw their opening and fired, a single shot hitting his shield and fizzling out. The more accurate pistol shots didn't. His enemies vanquished, Kyle removed the nearly depleted energy cell from the shield generator on his belt and replaced it with the sole one remaining.

 

Now I hope Jan will find Kyle very soon and I hope both will make their escape

 

It's going to be an action-heavy escape, that's for certain. And we're all hoping that they'll be able to find each other.

***

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Jan Ors was pinned down behind a bank of computer consoles. Blaster fire screamed around her, filling the air with acrid smell of burnt ozone and the sizzling of electronics. She fired above the console, blindly shooting in the enemy's general direction to keep them down.

She had emerged from the droid workshop that would be the resting place of Donlat and walked soon after that into half a squad of stormtroopers. Taking cover and fending them off had been the only thing that she could do. Firing off another controlled burst, she snuck a peek at their numbers. Somewhere along the line, one of the five Imperials had been hit and he was currently dragging himself by his injured leg behind the line of his compatriots. She ducked back behind the line as another salvo of fire headed her way.

"Can't you give a girl some space?" she called out, taunting them. Another volley hit the console behind her, too close. At least, she thought as she shot another blind burst at her opponents, Daam and Isard had the sense to not give their stormtroopers under their employ the standard thermal detonators. Her elbow brushed against the stormtrooper's utility belt around her waist as she shifted her weight around. Not arming them with thermal detonators or grenades also meant that she didn't have them. A pity, she thought as she reloaded her blaster rifle, because she certainly could use one right now.

She broke cover for a second and aimed a burst of blaster fire at the uncovered soldiers, taking two down before falling back.

"Fall back!" The filtered voice of the stormtroopers sounded over the blaster fire. Jan kept firing, defending herself against a possible ploy before finally risking taking a look. Three stormtroopers lay on the ground, dead or wounded, as the other two stepped backwards in retreat. Her way out of the predicament presenting itself, she broke from her own defenses and ran down the hallway, away from the Imperials. A few scattered blaster shots headed her way and exploded on the walls around her. Turning the corner, she allowed herself a brief respite and slowed her pace to a brisk walk, occasionally turning her head to check behind her for any sign of pursuit.

The hallway took her past the dormitories, the door inside closed firmly and likely locked. The closest stairs were near to her now, only about 100 meters away. Then it was a walk down two flights and a quarter of the building. She sighed and walked faster towards her destination. Holding her rifle in front of her, she opened the door to the stairwell and found it empty.

She stepped into the flight of stairs and descended, taking each step slowly as she went. With a pause at the landing, she peered down towards the next one and the door to the next level; empty. Jan repeated process down the next pair of steps, cautious of any patrolling Imperials along the way.

One of her feet had just touched the top step when she heard it: the explosion from somewhere beyond that door. Jan paused, foot returning fully to the landing where she stood. All of the stormtroopers that she'd encountered so far hadn't carried any explosives of any type, and if they had they wouldn't be using them on a level where she hadn't even stepped foot on. An impossible thought invaded her mind. There was no way that Kyle could have known about her capture, but that very thought, that hope was the first thing that came to her. It was a trap, it had to have been! The Imperials were using her partner's MO to lure her exactly where they wanted her to be.

Against the better judgment on that last thought, she walked to the door and opened it.

***

The office of Leco Daam had been silent for the past two minutes, the owner sitting in his chair staring at the images floating in front of him with a look of shock upon his young face. Eyes stinging, he finally remembered to blink, sending the excess tears down his cheek. Jan Ors had escaped and had already taken out six of his and Director Isard's stormtroopers along with one of his pupils. On a screen between two still hallways, Donlat Tescal's body lay against the bench of the droid workshop. The young Giehlan human had been an expert at programming droids for surveillance use and had signed up to learn how best to program them for interrogation purposes.

The death of Donlat and the escape of his prisoner wasn't what filled the intelligence agent's mind with despair and fear. The screen that his eyes were trained on featured only a single man, short-haired and bearded with a long coat covering the majority of his body. He'd seen the same man before, on brief still images captured during the ISO building massacre. Leco knew that the rebel was human, would bleed if shot and would die if they hit him in the right place, but that still didn't stop his blood from running cold.

Leco's eyes moved to the camera on Jan Ors. She had made her way off of the third level of the building and had been moving down, perhaps towards the speeder garage, but she had changed her position on the way. He looked at the camera number on the screen with her on it and the one featuring the other rebel. "Kriffing hells, they're on the same level..."

The commander forced the anxiety away as best he could. He picked up the comlink and switched to specially coded frequency. "All soldiers, intruders on level 2, sections 5 and 8. Opposite sides of the building, squads Aurek and Besh engage the escaped prisoner in section 8. Cresh and Dorn, you have our intruder in Five. Engage him with caution. Repeat: engage with caution." Leco paused for a second. It was a risk, but one that he needed to take. "Break out the thermal detonators."

"Yes, sir!" Vanet's voice was clear in the office's speakers. In the lower frames of the holographic screens, the young officer's platoon was already beginning to split up. Vanet took personal command of Cresh and Dorn, leaving the other two squads under command of the senior Sergeant-Major Harmat.

Leco watched as the two squads entered the locked down turbolifts and travelled down to the level of the two rebels and then back to the screens they were on. Both of them were currently engaging a number of Isard's complement of stormtroopers, trading blaster fire without doing much of anything.

"Do you think they'll get them, commander?" Cedral stepped away from the door, keeping his blaster pistol handy. The agent ran a hand through his tightly curled hair and paced around Leco's desk.

"Vanet's young, but he scored high marks at the Academy." Leco watched as a stray shot slammed into the camera monitoring the battle with Katarn, clearing the holographic screen and leaving a gap of reality through the projection. "He has to..."

***

Kyle ran as fast as his feet could carry him down the hallway, away from the stormtroopers that were pursuing him. The lack of proper cover in the area added on to their combined firepower had been too much for him take, at least where he was. Ducking around another corner, he pulled out his last remaining thermal detonator and set the bomb to explode upon contact with the ground. "Dead being's switch" it had been called on numerous worlds and useful for ensuring your safety in a potentially fatal situation.

"Hey buckethead, catch!" Kyle tossed the sphere as the first stormtrooper rounded the corner at a run. The rebel dived backwards and covered his head with an arm as the explosion rocked the area around him. The sizzling sound of his energy shield filled his ears just as the smell of burning leather assaulted his nostrils. Kyle raised the arm that had been shielding his head with and saw the sleeve of his jacket smoldering in the light. He patted out the red hot embers the best that he could in the silent hallway.

Kyle stood from his prone position, his ears ringing. He checked the shield generator that had just saved his life. The generator was a bisected circle with a rectangular control panel connecting the two halves. Carefully lifting the hot device, Kyle opened the pale covering for the controls and looked inside. The green light was blinking quickly underneath the unlit red indicator. Almost at half strength would have to do, he thought as he replaced the cover.

The sound of blaster fire erupted in the distance. Kyle paused and listened for it again. Durasteel walls were notorious for reflecting sounds, making a whisper as loud as a scream one of his fellow cadets at theImperialAcademyhad said. Another crack of blaster fire sounded and Kyle ran towards its source.

It didn't take long before he turned another corner and ran into a white wall of armor five meters ahead of him. He was facing their backs, each of them opening fire on someone taking cover up ahead and returning each shot. Kyle regained his senses and steadied himself into a firing stance. The stormtroopers were too involved in their current target to notice him and he would only have one shot before they knew. A concussion rifle would have come in extremely useful at the moment, the agent thought, but he had left it behind in the Moldy Crow's armory like so many other weapons that would have come in handy. He aimed for center mass at the Imperial on the far left and opened up. Three blasts hit the first Imperial and he moved on to the second soldier.

Kyle shifted his aim to the third and squeezed the trigger for another burst of fire.

*click*

"Oh Sithspit..." he cursed.

The third Stormtrooper turned, blaster rifle held at waist height and fire a single shot towards him. Kyle felt like he was punched in the gut by the shot as he stumbled back a meter before falling onto his back. A frantic beeping filled his ears as the epicenter of heat at his midsection spread radiantly through him.

Kyle's boots pushed his body across the ground, left hand grabbing the blaster pistol in its holster and pulling it free. Instinct guided him even as he struggled to breathe. As his target adjusted his aim to fire, Kyle fired a quick shot from his off hand, hitting the side of the stormtrooper's armor. It was enough.

The stormtrooper cursed out in pain and shock as the blaster bolt hit him, giving the rebel agent enough time regain enough composure to roll around the corner. Kyle propped himself up against the wall, each and every breath a struggle. He took a quick inventory of himself as he readied the second blaster rifle upon his back: the shot had knocked the breath out him, that part was readily obvious. The pain in his stomach was still there, a burning sensation that thankfully didn't feel that deep. Nowhere near fatal and that was all that counted at the moment.

A metallic clinking sound hit next to the wounded rebel as a cylindrical object rolled into view. Kyle reached for the fragmentation grenade, each and every desperate thought in his mind to push it around the corner and away from him. The grenade was still rolling as Kyle stretched his arm out futilely, fingers still centimeters away. The explosive stopped its roll and then reversed, rounding the corner where it exploded harmlessly.

"What the?" The stormtrooper behind the wall cursed what had to have been an invisible tilt in the building's floor. Kyle stood up, adrenaline pumping through his system. He closed his eyes for a second, intuition telling him where each and every one of the remaining stormtroopers would be. He fired a few blind shots, hearing a single telltale cry of pain before leaning out and firing a burst.


The head stormtrooper fell to the ground, followed by his remaining compatriot. The exhausted rebel walked out into the corridor, silent to remain undetected by any remaining stormtroopers. The familiar sound of an energy cell being slapped into a blaster clacked from behind another junction up ahead. Raising his blaster, he slowly stepped around the corner.

 

exciting action for Kyle and Jan. Now escape before the imps get what they want.

 

Yet the fight still isn't done! As for escaping, these two aren't exactly the ones to leave grudges be at this point...

***

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The sound of explosions and blaster fire around the corner ceased, giving Jan Ors a much needed chance to reload her stolen blaster. Boots thudded next to the edge of the wall, prompting the escaped prisoner to hasten her movements.

She raised her loaded blaster rifle just as a familiar unarmored man stepped around the corner, blaster pointing at her. Jan immediately lowered her blaster, a warm grin on her face. "Kyle, we have to stop meeting like this."

Her partner lowered his blaster, his body language suggesting that he'd like to do far more than just lower his hand to help her to her feet. "You pointing a blaster at me or me pointing one at you?"

Jan accepted his hand and pulled herself up from her crouched position. "Both." She could see him look at her face, at the still wet blood from the first of many stormtroopers that she had killed. "Don't worry, it isn't mine."

"Good," Kyle said. He pulled a few spare power packs that he had collected from fallen Imperials along the way and handed them to her. "I'd hate to run into the guy if it was."

"I don't know how you found out I was here, but I'm grateful."

The two began to walk down the hallway towards the stairwell. "You looked like you were handling yourself well."

"I was pretty well on my own," she said with a cocky grin. She looked around the building, walls scorched with carbon scores that scarred the grey metal. "Do you have a way out, or am I in charge of that--like always? There's speeders a level below."

Kyle grabbed his comlink from his belt and thumbed it on. "Tarrin, this is Kyle, I've found Jan."

The name stirred a memory from nearly four years previously in Jan's mind. They came through a haze as thick as the morning fog on the planet Oulanne. She had taken ill on the planet and was injured. Their mission done, her crew had taken off to find some medical help from her while they hid her in a cramped storage locker. A 17 year old boy found her and fled the system with their ship when the Imperials finally caught up with him. She hadn't seen him since she gave him a recommendation for being a pilot on Dantooine, but had always remembered his piloting during the chase. "Tarrin Datch?"

"See? I do listen to your war stories."

"I copy, Kyle, I'll be heading your way now." Tarrin's voice over the comlink was hazy.

Kyle pointed towards the ceiling. "We go up."

***

Ysanne Isard watched on her private monitors as stormtrooper after stormtrooper was mowed down by the two rebels. The two traitors were steadily moving closer towards the other with only a few of Daam's and her soldiers between them. One after the other, each of them died between the combined resistance.

Her eyes turned to the center screen, Leco Daam in his office "coordinating" the defense of his facility. He was panicking, planning on sending wave after endless wave at them until he finally managed to overcome them. Commander Stinnett had made the same mistake when Katarn had invaded his own building. That had cost him his life when Vader found out about the massacre, and it was the last straw.

The Director of Imperial Intelligence pressed a yellow button upon her command chair, the pale light shining in the dark room. "This is Isard to all of my stormtroopers. Report to the speeder garage and pull out. Do not engage the rebels."

The affirmatives from her personal soldiers sounded through the office as the white-armored troops began to fall back on her cameras. Isard disabled them all save for one, magnified as each additional camera screen disappeared. Commander Daam was still in his office, directing soldiers with impassioned gestures towards the screen. He stopped mid point, his screens showing her soldiers beginning their retreat. The younger man shook his head in shock. Isard crossed her arms in front of her chest, the slightest curve of her lips tugging upwards at the sight.

She flipped a switch at her left and then pressed the yellow button once again. "Commander Daam." She kept her voice even. He turned to her holographic projection in his office, face filled with confusion and despair.

"Director Isard." His lips quivered as he stumbled across his words. "W-what are you doing?"

"When I make bad investments, I get rid of them, commander." She glared at him through the holoemitter.

"No, you don't understand, I'm going to get them! I just need your soldiers!"

"You're wasting stormtroopers that aren't yours on a battle already lost, Commander. I will not allow you to waste resources that I need." He pleaded some more, begging for help that he would only botch.

"I have already given you enough chances. I could order Cedral to kill you right now." Daam's face turned to the other agent in the room. Cedral had already began to cross the distance between the two, hand tightly gripping his blaster. "But I won't." The latter agent stopped in his tracks and turned his attention back to the door.

Isard gave Daam a false smile. "I think I will give you one more chance, commander. Jan Ors remembers you and your torture droid and now she has the means to get revenge." Daam's mouth fell open as his eyes went wide. "Survive the day, Leco, and I'll only demote you so far down that you'll be watching the HoloNews for treason."

***

Leco Daam collapsed in his chair, sweat beading upon his forehead and dampening the base of his hair. The screen went blank, an ultimate finality to everything. When he had woken up that morning, the dreams of being the head of Imperial Intelligence were still in his head. Now those dreams were gone, dashed and salted by two rebel agents. Two kriffing agents! He buried his head in his hands, tears coming unbidden but silent.

"Commander?"

He leaned back into his chair at Cedral's question, hands coming up to straighten his uniform. "Yes, Lieutenant?" His voice was weak, but filled with conviction.

"What do you want us to do?"

"Leave if you want. Drop your blaster and your comlink and head back to your quarters. I don't want what happened to Donlat to happen to anyone else."

Cedral nodded and dropped his blaster onto Leco's desk, followed by his comlink. "Good luck, sir" he said. The lower-ranked agent ran towards the door and headed out. Now even his students were abandoning him.

Leco held his blaster in his hand, his wrist moved downward almost involuntarily so that the barrel was pointing at his head. His finger moved off of the trigger guard, holding tight to the grip as he laid the blaster down upon his leg. It would have been so easy to have just pulled the trigger and ended it. His rebel "friends" that he had betrayed after infiltrating them could have done that, as well. They could have surrendered to the Imperial Raider corvettes that he had summoned, but they had died fighting. They had died as warriors, and he would do the same if that was to be his fate.


Cedral's blaster was picked up from the desk and placed on the floor, along with the blaster that Leco had picked up for himself. He flipped the desk, spilling datapads and a desktop computer to the floor. Leco kneeled against the desk, grabbing both blasters and aiming them towards the door. The weight of both weapons in his hands was cumbersome and he supported his arms against the edge of the table.

 

Jan going for Leco? Or is she just escaping with Kyle?

 

Well, I can certainly imagine that she's really ticked off at being tortured...

***

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

"What the hell?"

Discarded blaster rifles littered the abandoned hallway, power packs stripped from them. The doors along the sides of the corridor were locked tightly. Kyle and Jan walked through the hallways, blasters still at the ready but their minds wondering.

"It looks like they were in a hurry," Jan said.

"This isn't standard Imperial retreat procedure." Kyle rubbed at his bearded chin in confusion. "It isn't any standard trap taught at the Academy, either." He walked down the hallway, alternating his vision between the path ahead and the blasters on the ground. "They wanted us to know they were fleeing, that's certain."

He shrugged his shoulders. "On to the roof, then." Kyle turned to look at Jan. She walked down the opposite end, determination in her eyes. "Unless you have unfinished business here?"

She turned her face towards him, a trace of suspicion in her eyes. "How did you know that?"

"I'd want to kill the rodder, too."

The two paused before the stairwell. "I was sent here to do that anyway," she said. She hesitated for a moment, thinking about something. "We should have enough time before the stims I took wear off."

"We better finish what you started then, shouldn't we?"

Jan nodded in affirmation.

The silence of the halls was broken up by the sound of footsteps racing along a perpendicular path. Kyle held up a hand, fist closed, signifying quiet. The two took the best defensive positions that they could, moving up against the wall and aiming their blasters towards the sound.

A dark-skinned human male ran out into the junction, hair cut short with a short beard on his triangular face. The grey Imperial uniform that he wore was covered in sweat under his armpits. He was unarmed, the belt around his waist empty.

"Halt!" The Imperial complied, stopping so suddenly that he nearly slipped on the floor. He stood where he stopped, hands high in the air. "You have a com on you?" Kyle held his blaster rifle on the Imperial.

"It's Cedral," Jan said. "One of the other students."

"N-no..." He looked nervously from one blaster rifle to another.

"He might know something." Jan approached the Imperial, blaster lowered to her side. Her eyes narrowed as she closed the distance between them. "Where's Leco?"

Cedral stammered out a few inconsequential words. Kyle slammed his forearm into the Imperial's chest, pushing him into the wall. "She asked you a question."

"He's in his office!" Cedral's grip on his forearm loosened as the defensive mechanism gave way to sense.

"Is he guarded?"

"It's just him?" Cedral's voice was stammering with fear. A deep sigh of relief escaped as Kyle stepped back from him.

"You came here to study interrogation? Consider that a free lesson." He switched the setting on his blaster rifle to stun. "And I really can't let you tell people where we are." A blue ring shot from his rifle and into the Imperial, the other man seizing slightly before slumping down onto the floor.

"They kind of frowned upon 'good agent' and 'bad agent' here." Jan hefted her blaster rifle back up, a grin beaming on her tired face.

"How are they on torture droids?" The grin disappeared, making Kyle wish that he'd never even said that. "Never mind, let's go. Where's Leco's office?"

She gave a long and winding set of directions that led through the labyrinthine building. The halls were empty save for the scurrying mouse droids that raced away upon seeing any sentient life.

"This isn't right..." Jan looked around the hallways, searching for the stormtroopers that weren't there.

"Tell me about it," Kyle said. The pair neared the final corner and Kyle raised his arm once again to call them to a halt. "You think Cedral was lying and they're all there at the office?"

"I wouldn't put it past Leco to surround himself in case we stopped by." She peered around the corner. "Empty." She returned to her original spot, face turned in confusion.

"They never taught anything like this at the Academy." Kyle turned the corner himself and confirmed the long empty hallway ahead. "Cedral was certainly in a hurry, though."

"Mynocks leaving a space hulk?"

Kyle shrugged. "I guess, you're the one who knew these people more than I do."

"Everything about this just seems odd..."

They stopped outside of the door to Leco Daam's office. Kyle on the right side of the door and Jan leaned against the gaudy sign listing several of the administrator's titles and accomplishments.

Jan's hand readied next to the console of the door. "Open it up and close it to take a peek?" Kyle nodded at her suggestion and stared around the corner of the door well. The door opened and revealed a moderately large room filled with holoscreens and cases filled with holobooks. A desk lay in the middle of the room, overturned. A blaster shot screamed past him and forced him to return quickly to cover.

"Looks like it's just him," Kyle said. "He's behind the desk in the middle of the room, a blaster pistol in his hand, maybe two." He fired a blind burst around the corner. "He's dug in pretty good, too."

He took another quick look after another quick burst of blaster fire to force Leco to keep his head down. "There's a bookshelf I can use to get some cover from him. Keep his head down while I'm on my way."

Jan double checked the power level on her blaster. "Ready," she said.

The blaster rifle dropped back to Kyle's side and the agent adjusted the strap around his shoulder before unholstering his blaster pistol. His back was against the wall, the thermal detonators that were there at the beginning of the day no longer an option. "Ready."

Blaster fire sounded through the mostly empty hallway as Jan fired a constant stream of bolts into the office. Kyle gripped the handle of his blaster tightly, hoping that if he was really lucky Jan would actually hit the commander with her blind burst. The loud staccato of shots ended and Kyle took that as his cue. The agent's legs pumped as he raced into the room, blaster pointed in the general direction of the table. Daam was nowhere to be seen as Kyle reached the bookcase and hid behind it. Switching his blaster to his off hand, he motioned towards Jan in the doorway.

He fired a series of shots at the table, letting each one slam into the wooden surface, taking small chunks out with every shot. Kyle jammed the sky with his free hand and heard Jan run out to the other side of the room.

***

The sound of his desk being shot rang loud in Leco's ears and scrambled his already frayed nerves. They were keeping him down and slowly sneaking up upon him. The obvious fact that his assailants had no grenades was a mixed blessing to the administrator; he was still alive but completely at their mercy. He shifted around his desk and popped up quickly, barely giving himself enough time to even get a shot off before ducking down. The male agent was close and thankfully too concerned with shooting at his desk to keep him down than shooting at her personally.

Squatting on the ground, Leco quickly assessed his situation: he would have no chance against these two in a blaster fight. He was outnumbered and outgunned so he would have to take the blasters out of the equation. He dropped one of his blasters on the ground and reversed his grip on the other.

His legs exploded upward and Leco noticed Katarn begin to move his own blaster pistol towards him. Snapping his hand forward, Leco released his grip upon the blaster and rushed the man. The smell of burning ozone rushed behind him as Ors missed her shot and Leco thanked the Emperor for the first time in his life that E-11s could be notoriously inaccurate. The thrown blaster missed Katarn's head, but made him duck, bringing the blaster away from Leco for the second that he needed.

Leco shot his forearm towards Katarn, connecting solidly upon the agent's jaw. The joyous sound of a blaster pistol hitting the floor was the sweetest symphony that Leco had ever heard. He followed up the forearm with a punch to the Rebel's stomach. His fist hit its target and Leco felt the hard cushion of a blast vest upon his knuckles. The agent reacted just the same to the attack, bending over and crying out in pain. Leco looked down at where his fist had connected and saw the dark carbon scoring on the armor.

Katarn's hands closed around Leco's shoulders, shoving him away from the rebel just enough to throw a punch. The impact hit his stomach, sending a brief wave of pain throughout his midsection. Leco staggered back and immediately closed the distance between them, throwing another punch towards the rebel's injured midsection. The closer he stayed to the rebel, the far less likely that his partner would risk taking a shot at him.

A low hum filled his ears as another punch sent Katarn back a few steps. Leco turned around and watched as his former prisoner lunged at him with an odd form of vibroblade. Hands came up nearly automatically and deflected the blade away from his body. He grabbed her wrist and used her own momentum to send her across the room on her stomach. The makeshift vibroblade skittered across the floor. A weight slammed into Leco's chest as he watched, sending him and Katarn over the upturned table and sprawling onto the floor.

A gloved hand slammed into his stomach and he coughed the air in his lungs out. The very same hands wrapped around his throat, throttling him. Leco panicked, grasping feebly at the fingers slowly compressing tighter and tighter. A faint buzzing in his ears began to steadily grow louder as his vision began to slowly fade. The knife, he thought as he searched around the area for something, anything to release the death grip upon him. How'd Ors manage to get the knife back so fast?

Leco's fingers closed around a cold cylinder on the ground. They closed around it and he swung feebly towards the agent's head. The grip of the blaster slammed into Katarn's temple, releasing the rebel's grip and sending him collapsing to the ground. Oxygen filled his lungs and Leco drank it in deeply, each and every breath he took tasting as cool as fresh spring water. He crawled on all fours away from the scene, the blaster pistol forgotten as he struggled to get back to his feet.

An explosion of pain erupted from his base of his back as a foot slammed deeply into it. Another kick from black boots aimed just under the ribs grazed him as he rolled onto his back. Leco looked at his attacker and saw the rage filled eyes of Jan Ors staring down at him.

***

She stood over her captor and watched as he moved to quickly reposition himself. Beside him, Kyle was hunched over on the ground, clutching at his head where the blaster had hit him, dark droplets of blood spattering onto the floor. Jan approached Leco carefully, eyes darting to the discarded blaster on the ground. None of the two dared to go for it and leave themselves open to an easy counterattack.

Leco had raised his legs in a guard position and kicked at her legs whenever she got too close to him. Her mind raced as she looked from her opponent to Kyle and then back again. Keep stalling, kriffer, she thought. Keep stalling and it'll be both of us against just you.

An opening appeared in Leco's defensive ring as one of his feet snagged a datapad while backing away. Jan lunged towards him, right leg aimed squarely for his gut. Her booted foot smashed a datapad as her target moved away and brought his leg out under her knees. She landed on her back hard and immediately moved to get up.

A jab from Leco grazed her jaw, its follow up ramming into her shoulder. She stumbled slightly before raising her hands up in a defensive stance. She threw a punch at the approaching commander, durasteel hand impacting on his jaw. A follow-up jab with her left hand glanced off of his raised hand. The riposte sent her tumbling into a slowly rising Kyle.

Leco spat a bloody wad of spit surrounding a tooth on the floor as he approached. The breaths of all three combatants came in short bursts. Jan was up first, the stimulants that she had injected earlier filling her bloodstream and mixing with her own natural adrenaline. She parried the Imperial's strike with her right arm and followed up with a left that hit him square in the chest.


Kyle raced in from her right, swinging slow but devastating blows towards the Imperial commander. Leco blocked or dodged them with little effort and sent a quick kick her way. It caught her on the side of the chin and sent her stumbling away, crashing into the overturned desk. Jan landed hard on her back and was slow to get up. Her watchful eyes moved from the still fighting Kyle and Leco, both of them too far into the battle to notice her.

 

I hope Jan and Kyle win this battle

 

It was a fun battle to write, especially as I decided to do just a few instances of 2 vs. 1 and then have one of them taken out so Leco could at least have a decent chance of it. I hope you enjoyed reading the fight.

***

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The rebel had a weak spot. That thought filled Leco's mind as he targeted it mercilessly, sending any punch that he could to towards it. Most were blocked by Katarn, the rebel having the sense to keep a hand close to the wound to defend it. One of the many punches got through, doubling the rebel over.

Leco glanced ahead and grabbed the agent's large coat and shoved him with all of his might into one of the many bookcases on the walls of his office. Shelves cracked and holobooks rained down upon the downed rebel.

They both paused to get their breath. Something jogged his memory, a similarity in the rebel's fighting style. "Was Gresko your fighting instructor?"

Katarn slowly stood up, his eyes flickering just slightly to the side. "He taught me almost everything," he said. Leco began to turn to look where the rebel was staring. "Even this!" The rebel grabbed a holobook off of the ground and threw it towards him like a child's disc toy. Leco felt the air around the book displace around the object as it brushed past him.

His back exploded in fire as a punch slammed into him. He could feel the vibrating blade of the dagger as it pierced through skin and muscle, tearing through them as if it were as soft as fabric. The floor rushed to meet Leco as he collapsed, knees hitting the soft floor and sending another spasm of pain throughout his body.

"Thanks for distracting him for me." Ors' voice moved from behind him to the front.

Leco looked up at her and her partner, bruises forming on their faces along with a trail of blood from the blaster butt that had hit Katarn. "I should have..." The words took almost all of the energy that he still had left to spit out and they slurred and frothed from the blood leaking from his mouth. "Should've given you to Isard when I had the chance."

Jan Ors leaned down and picked up one of his discarded blasters from the ground. She checked the setting and aimed down the scoped sights at him. Leco stared back at her, each ragged breath bringing more pain.

"Your mistake," she said. Leco watched as her finger moved from outside of the blaster's trigger guard to the trigger itself. The finger began to move...

***

The blaster shot echoed through the room, followed by the sound of Leco Daam's body crashing to the ground. Jan stood over the commander's body and dropped his blaster to the ground. Her imprisonment and torture, as brief as it was, was finally over and her captor and assassination target lay dead at her feet.

"Let's go," she said.

They picked up their discarded weapons in silence, walking around the destroyed room. What was once an immaculate office now appeared to have been the epicenter of a miniaturized Base Delta Zero. The opulent desk was now on its side, numerous blaster shots marring the finely polished surface. Datapads and holobooks littered the floor, their discarded forms cracked on durasteel-blue carpet stained with crimson blood.

"Tarrin, this is Kyle. Where are you?"

"Almost there. I'm surprised they haven't rolled out the welcome for me, yet."

The pair stepped out of the office, walking down the deserted hallway. "Is it always this quiet after you've visited a place, Kyle?"

"No. Usually they double down and try and stop me." He wiped a bit of the blood off of his forehead and cleaned his fingers on his body armor. "I don't know if I should be relieved or worried."

A nagging thought about Daam's last words dug at her. "He mentioned Isard. This could be her doing..."

Kyle answered her question with a shrug. "I don't know much about Isard, but what I do know that I wish she was here, too."

"You and most of theAlliance." The two reached the stairwell in peace and were soon headed onto the roof.

"You never did tell me how you knew I was here," she said.

"You just said that you were grateful."

She chuckled. "Grateful and curious."

"I don't know..." He walked up the stairs at a slightly slower pace, the blaster wound he had beginning to get to him. "I just felt like you were in trouble."

"Felt it? That's it?"

"That's it." He opened the door to the Academy's roof access. The Moldy Crow was already there, hovering meters above the roof. Jan looked at the ship and despite the cramped living quarters, refresher station so small that it could barely even fit one person and the still lingering smell of Anoat sewage, saw a palace.

Her feet ached slightly as walked about the corrugated ramp, hours of running and standing with no rest finally beginning to take its toll upon her body. She sighed as she handed Kyle her blaster rifle and he took them back into the armory.

Rapid beeping brought her back to her senses. "I'd get up here now, because we're going to have company!" Tarrin's shouts sounded throughout the hull of the ship, prompting Jan to race into the cockpit of the craft. Tarrin Datch sat in her console, wearing her flight goggles and staring at a sensor screen filled with TIE fighters in the distance. Kyle ran into the cockpit and strapped himself in to his own station, quickly turning on the ship's weapon systems on his controls.

"Let's get out of here."

The Moldy Crow accelerated forward off of the roof of the building brought her "beak" up to the sky. Jan strapped the standing crash webbing around herself and resigned herself to just watching, as risky as flying would have been to her when the stims she'd dosed herself with could wear off any minute.

"Divert most of your weapon power to engines and shields," Tarrin ordered. "We're not going to be able to fight our way out of this."

Kyle flipped a few switches on his console. "Done."

The freighter flew through the large cloudcutters ahead of them, weaving from one of the large structures to another. Green lances of energy arced past the viewports and into the building in front of them, exploding durasteel and viewports outward. Jan viewed the sensor screen over Tarrin's shoulder. One of the TIEs was just outside of effective firing range and thought that he could get a hit early.

"How fast can this thing go?" Tarrin broke away from the cloudcutters and into open sky, pointing the nose of the craft towards sky once again.

"Not fast enough to outrun them," Jan said.

"Full shields to rear, then." The craft straightened out and rocketed towards a large "plateau" of buildings acting as a base for a large entertainment district. "I'm going to try and lose them before I break for sky."

The ship rocked as an Imperial fighter's shots were absorbed by the Crow's shielding, throwing Jan against the restraints across her shoulders. The ship ducked to avoid a walkway between two of the cloudcutters and swung onto its side to squeeze between two narrow buildings. One of the TIEs attempted to follow the freighter's movements, the inefficient rectangular wing-panels throwing the fighter into the walkway. It's torn solar panel rent away from the main hull, it entered a death spin before exploding down on the streets below.

"A few are breaking off." Kyle's voice rang clear over the roar of engines and passing buildings. "But not many..."

Airspeeders moved aside as the freighter and her pursuing TIEs soared through the district, weaving in and out of skylanes and between buildings. Another shot impacted upon the shields, jolting the ship. In the skyline ahead and above them, lines of speeders and freighters began to angle upwards towards space. "There's our break."

The Moldy Crow angled upwards a minute later, joining the rest of the line. The TIE's followed, firing at the freighter and missing. The errant shots impacted on a Wayfarer-class freighter, turning the unshielded cargo container to the side of its cockpit into a ball of fire. The 30 meters of detached, thick durasteel tumbled to the ground a kilometer below, cargo crates and loose material spilling into the sky.

"There wasn't this much collateral damage the last time," Jan said.

"These TIEs are a bit more pissed off than that assault shuttle."

Jan smiled as she clutched the restraints around her tighter. "Kyle and I have that effect on people. Mainly Kyle..."

He turned from the computer console. "Hey, you're the one who just killed an Imperial commander..."

"This time."

"Can you please not distract me while I'm trying to SAVE ALL OF OUR LIVES?!" The Moldy Crow's engine banks groaned under the strain of acceleration as Tarrin pushed the nose of the freighter down to avoid a Baudo yacht. The guts of all three of its crew were shoved downwards as the pilot immediately corrected the course.

"Another one of them's pulled away," Kyle reported.

"That leaves three." Tarrin pushed the freighter to its limits, engines nearing the red line on their scopes. The pursuing TIE fighters weaved along the skylanes after the Moldy Crow as the Corellian-built freighter dodged shot after shot, pleasure yacht after bulk freighter. Errant shots hit the ships beside the craft or flew off to dissipate in wild space while some managed to hit home against the shields.

"Hang on and get those guns ready." Tarrin flipped the ship onto its back and pulled the flight stick back. Inertial compensators strained to keep the massive gravitational forces from turning the occupants inside of the freighter into mush. Jan's vision grayed as Tarrin pulled the ship out of its loop, two of the three TIE fighters now in front of the ship.

Kyle fired the blaster cannon underneath the bow of the ship, catching the first TIE in between the two ion engines that gave the starfighter its name. The explosion tore the craft apart, sending small specks of debris scratching the hull of the Crow. He moved the flight stick again, the redirected controls moving the gun to target the other. A burst of fire followed the TIE as it evaded until severing the left wing off.


The final Imperial fighter swayed in its position behind the freighter and fired another burst of shots at the Crow. The TIE veered off of its course and disappeared into the sky. "There it goes," Kyle sighed, slumping back into his chair

 

love the escape and Tarrin flying the Crow

 

There was so much in the escape that actually hit the proverbial cutting room floor, including Tarrin flying the Crow through one of the building tunnels seen in AOTC (cut due to me not being able to determine whether or not the Moldy Crow could actually fit through one of them). Still it was a fun chapter to write. Thanks for reading, as always, earlybird.

 

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The medical station of the Moldy Crow was a misnomer. The small ship could barely afford the space for a full med suite and instead it was comprised of an extensive closet filled with medical supplies. Kyle sat at the edge of his bunk, head pounding like an angry Gamorrean and the blaster wound in his stomach burning with every move that he made.

The hatch leading to the cockpit opened and Jan took a step inside. The exhaustion on her face was exaggerated by the shadows but still painfully obvious. "Do you need any help?"

"I think I've got it. You?"

Jan shook her head and sat down on her own bunk. "I'm pretty sure that the stims are wearing off. Still, I don't want to mix them with pain meds."

Kyle undid the straps on his armor and tried to lift the bulky vest over his head. Pain erupted from his gut as he did so.

"You're sure about that?" One of her eyebrows rose up and she seemed to be suppressing a laugh.

"All right, maybe a little." Kyle slowly pulled the front plate away from his stomach as Jan lifted the heavy fabric up.

Kyle rose the bottom of his shirt up and examined the wound. Eight centimeters above his navel was a deep circle of deep crimson that slowly faded away into an irregular circumference of peeling skin. "Good thing I brought the armor," he said.

"We'd probably both be dead now." Jan reached into the open medkit and pulled out a bandage soaked in bacta and pressed it over the wound.

"It's a little more than a heat blister, though."

"I'm still not letting you get out of repairing the Crow this time." She secured the bandage to him with a few strips of medical tape, before cleaning the drying blood from his face.

"We'll make Tarrin repair it, he's the one who couldn't dodge a few TIEs."

She laughed and produced a small glowlamp from the kit and shined the bright light in front of his eyes, her voice turning serious in an instant. "Do you have a headache? Confusion?" He followed the light as she moved it from one corner of his vision to another, answering each question negatively.

Silence followed as they both packed the medkit away and they both stared at each other. Words formed in the back of Kyle's mind but were pushed back almost immediately. "Thanks," was all that he allowed himself to say.

"Well, you've already turned me into a pilot," Jan said. "Why not add field medic to the list?" She yawned deeply, eyes sagging shut. She mumbled something about the stims wearing off before slowly laying down upon her cot, not even bothering with pulling the sheets back.

Kyle watched her as she slept, his own experiences using battle stims at theImperialAcademyconfirming that she was going to be fine. Nathan Donar, one of his bunkmates at theImperialAcademy, had a similar reaction. He left the medical scanner by her bed, watching for long minutes as her vital signs slowed down to the sleep cycle, but remained normal.

He stood from his own cot and rummaged through the overhead storage, finding and removing a heavy blanket. The blanket had been in there for years, barely needed ever since the mission to the frigid world of Anteevy. He placed the warm covering over her, softly tucking it under the cot as best he could without waking her. He threw on a spare shirt over the bandage.

He walked out of the crew cabin and back into the cockpit. Outside of the viewports, the lines of Hyperspace moved. Tarrin was sitting at his borrowed console, going over something on a datapad. "Well, what's done is done," the young pilot said.

"Everyone's still in one piece and so is the Crow. Not bad." Kyle sat at his own station and locked it from any further commands.

"There's still the question about how High Command's going to react to this little mission." The worry for his career was heavy in Tarrin's voice.

"I'm going to take all the blame for it, so don't worry." Kyle leaned back in his chair and placed his feet on top of the console. "Mon Mothma will believe it, she doesn't like me anyway."

"I wish that you had something more than that."

"Well, Jan'll vouch for you. Other than that, it's all you've got"

"It was still worth it, though," Tarrin said.

"That it was," Kyle said. He pulled the coat that he had left on the back of his chair over him. It smelled of blood and burnt leather, but it still made for a decent blanket. "Go ahead and take my bunk for the rest of the trip."

"You're sure?"

Kyle adjusted the coat over his body, fatigue already creeping through his body. "I'm not going to let a guest on my ship go without one." An amusing memory of Moff Rebus screaming in the rancid decontamination shower popped into his mind. "Well, unless you're an Imperial."

 

Well, it's been a while since I first started writing this in March of last year. I can't believe that it's finally finished. Thanks for reading, it's been fun.

***

EPILOGUE

Mon Mothma's office aboard the New Hope was more crowded than it usually was. Around the once opulent room were some of theAlliance's top beings. The leader of the Rebel Alliance wore one of her many white gowns so common among Chandrilans, this one nicer than others with a red trim along the folds. She was flanked by the Crix Madine, the reddish-blond haired general sitting in his standard dress uniform, and Admiral Gial Ackbar, the Mon Calamari commander of theAlliance's navy. Carlist Rieeken joined them from Starfighter Command, as did General Cracken from Alliance Intelligence.

Tarrin Datch sat before them, dressed in his gold jacketed pilot's dress uniform. He looked each of them in the eyes as Mon Mothma cleared her throat. "Lieutenant Tarrin Datch, please stand." The pilot stood up as directed, straightening his uniform.

Mon Mothma glanced down at her datapad before standing. "In the charges against you: partaking in an unauthorized military exercise, it is in the opinion of this court-martial that you are not guilty." The pilot struggled to contain his relief and Jan was happy that Kyle's excuses had been believed for once.

"In the matter of Prevaricating to a Superior Officer in the manner of your leave, we find you guilty."

Carlist Rieeken stood to join Mon Mothma. "Lieutenant Datch, you are to be stripped of your current rank and privileges and returned to the rank of Flight Officer. Your combat flight status is stripped for a period of five months, to be evaluated in three months time. Do you understand the sentence, Ensign?"

Datch saluted the assembly before him. "Yes, sir."

"If I may say something," Airen Cracken said. The 50 year old Director of Alliance Intelligence stood from his seat while the others sat down. "The rescue of anAllianceintelligence agent from behind enemy lines was a courageous act, whether you knew it to be authorized or not." There was a slight glint in his eyes, and Jan knew that he had seen through the ruse. "It was because of that act that I was able to reduce your sentence, and have you avoid time in the brig for it."

"I'm grateful, General."

"Now, make me and the rest of us grateful and don't let it happen again." Cracken took his seat and Datch was dismissed from the room. The others left save for Cracken and Madine, filing out as their jobs in the matter were finished.

"Captain Ors," Mon Mothma said as they both stood from their seats. "This court-martial thanks you for your testimony, and for your completed mission. I dislike the very notion of assassinations, but I was outvoted. The safety ofAlliancepersonnel and secrets throughout the galaxy is safe because of you."

"I appreciate that, Mon Mothma, but I couldn't have done it without Tarrin and Kyle."

"Perhaps you're worried about what will be done with your partner?" Mon Mothma's tone had turned motherly, the same way that it did whenever anyone in theAlliancehad an issue that needed her help.

"I am."

"His situation is a difficult one, doubly so now. He has never officially joined theAlliance, but has worked with us constantly for the past four years. He purchased the ship assigned to him, but still has quarters on board this ship."

"The fact is, as untrustworthy as he is and dangerous his actions, we don't have anything to charge him with, save for theft ofAlliancefuel, and as petty as that is, we're going to drop that matter." Her blue eyes looked towards the table where she had left her datapad. "Furthermore, an additional complication has come up. While he was off rescuing you, Madine and I received word of an important mission to be done in the D'rinba system. Madine assigned General Shelvay to lead it and Corwin specifically asked for Kyle. He goes on this mission and the matter will be considered permanently closed."

Jan allowed herself a slight smile at the news. "I'll let him know."

***

Stormtroopers moved through the chaos that was once the Imperial Academy of Interrogators, flanking the dark-haired woman in a red uniform. Ysanne Isard had seen numerous bases destroyed throughout her years in Imperial Intelligence, but the sight of one of her own in such a state hardened her heart.

The dormitories of the building had been a separate story. Other than the results of the unfortunate shootout that had captured the Rebel spy, it had remained completely untouched. The two remaining squads of Leco's Stormtroopers stood at attention next to the dozen that remained of his students.

"I take it that it's been an exciting term this year." Her statement caused many of the students to murmur nervously amongst themselves. "You've seen the price of arrogance in Imperial Intelligence: your instructor is dead and so is one of your own." She looked at one of her guards, who whispered a name into her ear. "Donlat Tascel could have been a great use to us, but now he's gone as a result of the arrogance and inadequacy of Commander Leco Daam."

She walked over to the lead Stormtrooper near the students. "What is your name, soldier?"

The filtered voice at the other end of the helmet stammered heavily. "Sergeant-Major Harmat, Director Isard."

"My surveillance indicates that you fled from the battle with the entirety of your garrison after Lieutenant Vanet was killed."

"Yes, ma'am. We fled when your stormtroopers got your order to pull out."

Isard glared at the soldier, her eyes reflecting off of the black eyepieces of his helmet. Her glare could unnerve even the Emperor himself, she bragged, so the Force only knew what it was doing to the officer. "Were you ordered by your own commanding officer to flee?"

"N-no, ma'am."

Isard walked back to her own soldiers. "As I thought." She gestured to her own soldiers and their blasters raised in unison. A single blast of blaster fire cut through the line of Daam's soldiers. The agents around the dead or dying troops reacted in many ways. Those closer to the slaughter screamed out in shock and fear, a natural emotion that Isard didn't fault them for. Others hid their fear behind a stoic mask.

"You." She pointed towards Cedral, who dutifully stepped forward. The nervous bunch of students behind him quickly hurried away. "You were with Leco as he failed to protect you and your colleagues. Until the end... You ran away and were captured briefly by the rebels. What did you tell them?"

"They wanted to know where the commander was, ma'am. I broke." Any fear that the young man had was hidden well behind a stoic face.

"Why were you even in that area? Did you flee once it was apparent that the school could not be defended?"

"No, I mean y-yes, I mean..."

Isard used her unnerving glare again. "Make up your mind, lieutenant. Yes, or no?"

Cedral swallowed hard. "Commander Daam told me that I could either stay in his office or leave. I left."

"I don't expect my agents to be stupid, Cedral, you may return to the others."

"Thank you, ma'am."

Isard walked in front of the remaining agents, surveying them. "As I was saying, your instructor is dead and this facility is in need of a new one. Until such a time as one can be produced, I shall be taking over."

***

Kyle Katarn walked down the busy hallways of the dreadnought New Hope, Jan Ors and himself shuffling through the teeming crewmembers. The bacta patch treatments on board the Moldy Crow had reduced the pain of his blaster wound to a mild discomfort at its very worst.

"So, one mission and Mon Mothma's dropping the whole thing?"

Jan slowed down to allow a fast moving stomach droid to move down the hallway. "That's what she said to me."

Kyle scoffed at the notion. "What's the mission? Head back to Coruscant, sneak into theImperialPalaceand kill the Emperor?"

A slight chuckle escaped Jan. "Dangerous, yes, but not that dangerous. At least that's what I gathered. She didn't really give me a lot of details."

"So I take it that you're not going to be part of it."

"Mon Mothma says that General Shelvay already has a pilot for the mission picked out."

"General Shelvay? Have you ever heard of this guy?"

The two neared the door to the Mon Mothma's office where the meeting was to take place. "He's supposed to be some sort of Force-user, though he didn't pull off any spectacular stunts when I was on a mission with him."

"This is where I leave you, then."

Jan pointed a finger at him, playfully poking him in the chest. "Whatever you're doing, be careful. I don't want to have to do the same thing you just did."

"Come on Jan, you know me." He thumbed the door open and began to step foot inside.

"I do, that's why I said it!"

Mon Mothma was absent from the room, replaced by Crix Madine. "Welcome, Kyle." The general walked around the table, past a graying man in a simpleAllianceuniform and a dark-haired agent near Kyle's own age. The third person in the room was a woman dressed in an orange jumpsuit, a captain's rank insignia upon her breast.

"May I present, General Corwin Shelvay, Commander Erling Tredway and Captain Shira Brie."

Madine activated the holoprojector, the image of a half constructed sphere appearing before the assembled group. Kyle viewed the image as it turned, a maze of turbo laser emplacements and hangar bays, the giant superlaser on the northern hemisphere: it was another Death Star.

"As we speak, this second Death Star is moving from its construction facility to the Moddell sector. Agents in the D'rinba system have begun stepping up activities to attempt to lure the battle station to the planet. That's where you come in." Madine clicked a button on the holoprojector, shifting the view to the large superlaser.

"You will insert yourselves onto the station and disable the superlaser, both to save D'rinba IV and to keep it from pulling off another Alderaan while we plan further offensives against it."

"Further offenses?" Shira's green eyes seemed to light up before she regained her composure.

"Nothing duracrete at the moment, or concerning any of you."

The meeting continued on for the next several minutes, detailing all thatAllianceintelligence knew about the second Death Star and their mission to plant several explosive devices at key points throughout the quadrant of the massive battlestation.

"Another Death Star," Shira Brie said as the meeting adjourned. "I never thought I'd see the day."

"I'm not exactly thrilled about it, either." Kyle stared at the hologram of the sphere as he prepared to leave for the group's shuttle.


"Don't worry." Shira smiled broadly. "I'm certain that all of us will do our duty."

 

Love the entire story and now with the epilogue a new one beginning?

 

I thank you for your readership and support for this story. As for the ending... Well, I love sequel hooks. Nothing set in stone as of yet, but you never know.