Beyond - Legends On the Run: The Journal of Mark Devlin, DDC 2014

Jedi_Lover, windu4

March 15th, 21 ABY​

My apartment​

​

I woke up with a whopper of a backache. Since I only have two guest bedrooms, I let my parents stay in my bedroom, and Laya and Rani are sharing one room, and Fena’s got the other, and I’m sharing the living room with Kor. We’ve been alternating the couch and floor.

I hate the couch.

Groaning, I sat up and rubbed my head. It was 2:00 AM, blast it. I’d never get back to sleep. Standing, I pulled on a brown shirt and a pair of utility pants and silently left my apartment, leaving a note on the table in case one of my family members woke up and saw I wasn’t there.

I took my speeder down to NRI HQ and wandered around for a bit. I practiced some with the bow but I’ve gotten used to it now, so it’s not as fun as it was. Then I just roamed the halls. Only a skeleton crew was there and they were all too drowsy to talk to.

Before I knew it, I had gone over to Starfighter Command. I must’ve taken a wrong turn; somehow I was swamped with orange pilot uniforms. With a sigh, I just decided to let my feet take me where they would. I ended up in a terminal overlooking a landing field with X-Wing fighters on it. I sat down on a chair in the terminal–it was more comfortable than my couch–and fell asleep.

I awoke to find someone standing over me, arms crossed, a deep frown on his face. He was probably in his mid-forties, handsome, with dark eyes and hair that was just beginning to show flecks of gray.

“You aren’t one of my pilots, are you, son?” he asked.

“Uh…” I muttered. It took me a moment to remember where I was. “Oh. No, sir, I’m not. Sorry.”

“Then why are you in this terminal?” he asked. He did not seem rude, just confused, maybe even amused.

“I’m an NRI agent, sir. Got lost because I was so tired and just crashed here. Sorry.”

He smiled. “No problem, son. Want me to take you home?”

“Um…no, that’s all right. I’ve got a speeder. Name’s Mark, by the way. Mark Devlin.”

The man extended a hand. “General Wedge Antilles.”

My eyes widened. “General Antilles?” I got to my feet. “An honor, sir. You’ve always been a hero of mine.”

Wedge smiled. “Thanks, Mark. So would you mind telling me why you were wandering around HQ at this unholy hour?”

I checked my chrono. Oh, blast, it was 6:00. I’d been gone four hours. I hoped no one had gotten up yet; if so I’d have some explaining to do. Rubbing the back of my head, I grinned sheepishly.

“My family’s in town, sir. I’m getting married in just a little over a week.”

“Congratulations. Family in town, huh?” Wedge’s face seemed to droop a little. “I wish I had been able to have family in town at my wedding. Enjoy it, son.”

“I will, sir.”

“Now go get some sleep, okay?”

I nodded. “Thanks, General.”

I ran back to my speeder and hopped in, all thoughts of sleep forgotten. I’d just met Wedge Antilles!

 

How absolutely cool is that! You got Wedge just right and Mark's reaction too.

 

Jedi_Lover, windu4

March 26th, 21 ABY​

Coruscant Balance Chapel​

​

The rehearsal went off without a hitch; we got a Prophet of the Balance to perform it so the surprise of Skywalker officiating tomorrow wouldn’t be spoiled. After it was all over, we gathered outside the chapel.

“So,” said my father, “the dinner.”

I braced myself. Ana was correct; her parents wanted the Manarai. Luckily my father didn’t even blink. We all got in our speeders and headed that way. Normally you needed weeks-in-advance reservations for the Manarai, but for a wedding party they made exceptions.

Ana’s parents are nice people; they’re from Bakura, apparently, and they follow the religion known as the Balance. It is basically about how if you do something really nice, something really bad happens to someone, somewhere halfway across the galaxy.

I guess if that’s true, then some poor bloke across the galaxy must’ve just gotten filthy rich considering how much money my dad had to shell out for dinner. When we paid, my siblings and I chipped in when no one was looking, because that was just a ridiculous price. We said our goodbyes to Ana and her parents and returned to my apartment.

I probably should’ve gotten a lot of sleep but I had pre-wedding jitters so I stayed up and watched a holovid with Kor. The girls and Mom and Dad were already in bed; we turned the volume down low and just watched until we fell asleep.

I woke up at ten ‘til midnight and stared at the clock. In ten minutes it would be my wedding day. Ten minutes and I’d be a married man. Married. I stood and paced the kitchen, the living room, even the ‘fresher. I just had to walk. I had no doubts but it was a plain scary thought. I finally plopped down on the couch and stared at my chrono. Three seconds to midnight.

Two seconds.

One second.

Beep.

 

DON'T DO IT! Just kidding. I'm sure you will be one of those couples that live happily ever after and don't want to kill each other after 25 years of marriage.

 

Great update and showing his understandable jitters. Ana is the one he has been waiting for all his life; that will reach a new level band the journey will intensify is all. (Yes, I'm an unabashed romantic)

 

nice entries showing his 'jitters' at meeting Wedge and his marriage

 

Jedi_Lover, windu4

March 28th, 21 ABY​

Coruscant Balance Chapel​

​

Wouldn’t you know, the one day that I needed a good day, and the powers-that-be chose yesterday, my wedding day, for it to rain? So we delayed it to today. I stood nervously in the back room of the chapel, fiddling with my bowtie.

“Relax,” Kor said. “You’ll do fine.”

Dad patted me on the arm. “Ready to be a married man, son?”

I gave a nervous grin. “Yeah, think so.”

He grinned back. “I felt the same way on my wedding day. Trust me, you’ll be fine.”

I checked the chrono. “Well, looks like it’s time…shall we, gentlemen?”

We walked out onto the platform together. Skywalker stood in the middle of the platform. My sisters stood on the other side of the platform. I stood beside Skywalker and looked out at the audience. There were a bunch of my friends from the military on one side, a bunch of Ana’s model friends on the other. At the front of the auditorium I saw a familiar face–Redian Galos, the Jedi from the lower levels. I looked at the door at the back of the auditorium. I couldn’t wait for the doors to open and Ana to walk through…

Eventually, she did. Wearing a beautiful dress, she smiled at me and walked down the aisle. My stomach began to do cartwheels in fast motion. I grimaced a little bit. I’d never been this nervous. Not on any mission I can remember. Never.

At least I wasn’t alone. When Ana caught sight of Luke Skywalker, her eyes widened to the size of chestnuts and her pace began to falter. She finally stood beside me and took my hands. She glanced at Luke and back at me.

“We are gathered here today…” Skywalker began.

“Luke Skywalker?” Ana whispered to me.

“You’re welcome,” I replied with a tight grin.

The ceremony went off without a hitch from that point on. We said our vows and exchanged rings, and then lit a three-pronged candle, a tradition of the Balance religion.

“You may now kiss the bride,” Luke said.

I did.

The reception went well; we had some delicious food and then danced for a while. After a few hours, Ana and I finally got to go to our hotel room.

I won’t record what we did after that.

 

Woohoo! SQUEEEEE! So happy all went well ... I just know Ana was ecstatic. Mark definitely was the happy recipient of her gratitude, among other things

 

Jedi_Lover, windu4

April 9th, 21 ABY​

Muunilinst​

​

The fist descended so hard that it made my ears ring when it slammed into my cheek. I stumbled back and reached down to my belt instinctively, but I could not reach for my weapon before a boot landed in my gut and sent me staggering back into the duracrete wall behind me. The fist returned, hitting me in the chest and then the left side of my jaw.

I groaned, feeling blood trickle down my chin from my lip. My vision blurred, and all I could see was the black-armored figure in front of me, raising his fist for another blow. I blinked in pain and lunged forward as he swung. I didn’t make it far enough; his fist connected again, and I hit the ground hard.

“Enough,” a voice with a clipped accent said. “Well, Mister Halden, it appears you’ve passed our test. Stand him up.”

I felt a hand grab my shoulder and haul me to my feet. I shook my head to clear my vision. The black-armored figure was holding my shoulder firmly. The man in front of me was gray-uniformed in the classic Imperial style, with close-cropped blond hair and piercing green eyes. He smirked at me, and it was not a pretty smirk.

“You’re tougher than you look, Mister Halden.” He stepped forward and shook my hand. “Welcome to the Empire’s Fist.” He looked at the black-armored figure that stood beside me. “Give him his weapons.”

The guy let me go and walked over to the corner. He picked up my bow and quiver of arrows and handed them to me. I slung the quiver over my shoulder and folded the bow down to half its normal size so it could fit in my belt pouch.

“Interesting choice of armament, by the way,” the blond man–a recruiting officer named Varzo Klan–said. “I have never seen anyone use an actual bow before.”

I shrugged. “Before I left the Stormtrooper Corps I took archery for an extracurricular activity. I got so good at it that when I retired I just took it up as my standard weapon.”

Varzo nodded. “Well, we’ll make sure you put that weapon to good use. Come with me, we’ll give you a tour of our command post.”

We walked into the back hall of the warehouse. I gritted my teeth, wishing I were back on Coruscant with Ana. We’d only been together for two days before I’d been shipped out on my mission. I’d only now earned the trust of the Empire’s Fist. I’d had to go through a lot of tests, many of them as bad as being beaten up just now.

In any case, the sooner I join the Fist, the sooner I can get back to Coruscant and my new wife. Wish me luck.

 

Good luck!

 

Yup, need more couple time. Looks like the first phase of infiltrating went smoothly.

 

Jedi_Lover, windu4

April 22nd, 21 ABY​

Muunilinst​

​

I checked the bearings on my bow and arrows. Under my Halden identity, I, along with a squad of the Fist’s most elite shock troopers, were about to strike at an Imperial warehouse and steal supplies. I wasn’t crazy about the idea, since I’d likely have to kill some of the Imps to prove I was on the Hand’s side, but it had to be done.

Commander Klan was on the op with us. Clad in black armor that was a mixture of stormtrooper gear and old Clone Wars-era Phase II clone trooper armor, he checked the charge on his E-11s sniper rifle and nodded to me.

“Lieutenant Halden will lead you in,” Klan said over his helmet comm. “You’ll eliminate the Imperial traitors and secure the facility. Then you’ll wait for our speeder trucks to arrive and load the supplies.”

There was a chorus of acceptance, and we moved forward. I led them in, casting a glance around the fenced-in area of the warehouse. In addition to my bow, I had a short energy shotgun, a pair of blaster pistols, and a vibroblade. It would be enough. I saw an Imperial Army trooper, clad in gray, patrolling the fence. I drew back my arrow. The red-light rangefinder lit up and a bead appeared on the Imp’s back. I released my arrow and it shot down the slope, killing the man silently.

I apologized silently and sprinted down the hill. I grabbed a keycard off the corpse and nodded to my second, Sergeant Xara Seels. Xara, one of the only women I’d seen in the Fist, was tough as nails, and had made no secret of her attraction to me–which I was having a tough time diverting since I couldn’t tell her I was married; “Halden” was supposed to be a widower.

“Clear,” Seels said.

I nodded. “Move in.”

I swiped the keycard, and the gate rattled open. An Imperial guard saw us approaching and raised his DH-17 carbine. Seels’ SE-14r sidearm came up and fired, cutting down the guard. The troopers behind us moved in, their DC-17m rifles trained on the warehouse door. Suddenly, the spotlight at the far corner of the gate began to shine in our direction.

I had my arrow out in an instant, and I fired. The arrow stabbed into the spotlight, causing it to explode, showering sparks and shards of glass to the ground. The guard in the tower manning the spotlight jerked back, and in that time I had another arrow notched and flying. It caught him clean in the chest and he fell from the tower.

“Nice shooting,” said one of my troopers.

I nodded in thanks and we moved in. Two troopers opened the warehouse door and Seels and I walked in. There were dozens and dozens of crates inside. One of my men, Corporal Vaza, opened a crate and nodded. He pulled off his helmet and grinned.

“Check it out,” he said appreciatively. “Top-of-the-line E-16 rifles, plus some DLT-19s. This is a nice load.”

I nodded. “Take it all.”

I looked outside and saw the speeder truck coming down. Vaza and the other men began carrying crates to the entrance. I sheathed my bow in its quiver along with the arrows and was about to help load crates when I noticed something in the far corner of the warehouse.

Frowning, I walked in that direction, feeling uneasy. I saw it a minute later–a small, blinking device. My eyes widened. They knew we were here. Which meant–

An Imperial gunship swooped down and blew the speeder truck apart. I fell to the ground, my bow clattering away. Scowling, I whipped out one of my pistols, a SE-14r like Seels’. A moment later, white-clad stormtroopers began to rappel into the warehouse.

“Take ‘em out!” I ordered.

My other pistol was in my hand an instant later and I fired with both weapons, cutting down one stormtrooper instantly and catching another in the thigh. That trooper stumbled, right into Seels’ finishing shot. Unfortunately, the other stormtroopers were more lucky. Vaza and two of my other men went down instantly.

“This mission’s a bust!” I growled. “Fall out!”

Seels nodded and she and the rest of the men headed for the exit. Sudden sniper shots–no doubt from Commander Klan–started tearing through stormtroopers, covering our retreat. I holstered my left blaster, picked up my bow with that hand, and sprinted out, covered by Klan’s shots.

I reached the top of the hill and found that Klan and the others had already fled. Snarling under my breath and cursing their cowardice, I sprinted out into the open fields where I could just see their retreating backs. The stormtroopers had apparently decided not to pursue us, but there was still that gunship. We couldn’t risk being followed. I cast a quick glance over my shoulder. Everything looked clear. From all appearances, we were not being pursued. Sighing in relief, I doubled the speed of my run and caught up to my “comrades.”

“Well done,” Klan snarled sarcastically. “Led your men right into an ambush, Halden!”

I ripped off my helmet and looked him straight in the eye. “Not my fault, Klan. Someone tipped them off; there was a transmitter active in that warehouse. They were waiting for us.” I cast a glance around. “There must be a spy amongst us.”

The scary thing was–it was another spy other than me, because I hadn’t tipped off the Empire. So now, not only did I have to take out the Fist, I also had to watch out for a spy working for someone other than the New Republic. Great.

 

Things just became waaaaay more complicated.

 

very complicated for him. Intense entries

 

Two spies...hmmm...interesting. Of course now everybody is going to be on edge. It just makes his life harder.

 

Jedi_Lover, windu4

May 7th, 21 ABY​

Muunilinst​

​

It had been fifteen days since I first figured there was a spy in the organization working for the Empire, and I still hadn’t been able to weed him–or her–out. What I have done is a whole lot of bad stuff to the Empire that will make for a lot of sleepless nights once we get home, I’m sure.

I’ve so far managed to get to the point where they trust me to come in to war room meetings and actually help strategize missions. This is good, because it means they’ve stopped suspecting me; apparently enough time has passed since joining that I’m in the clear now.

I haven’t managed to send a message to Coruscant in over a week, but that’s okay, because Drayson told me he’d expect long periods of radio silence. Unfortunately that could also mean I’m lying in a gutter somewhere and bleeding my life away, and he won’t come find me because he’s assuming I’m under radio silence.

“Hey, Halden,” said Seels. “Heading to the mess. Want to come with?”

I winced. Seels had been coming on to me more and more since the mission to the warehouse and I was slowly running out of ways to tell her no without flat out turning her down–which I couldn’t really do, again because I’m supposed to be an edgy widower.

“Yeah,” I said. “Sure.”

As long as other members of the Fist will be there, I don’t think it’ll be a problem. We entered the mess and grabbed two trays of food. She reached for a fork, and my eyes narrowed. Her hand…there was a tattoo of the Imperial logo above her thumb.

I schooled my face into impassivity and grabbed a fork, myself. We walked over to a table with two empty chairs and sat down. The other soldiers greeted us and we replied in kind.

“So, Lieutenant,” said one of the men–Donnelly. “When do you think our next op is?”

“I’m not sure,” I replied. I decided to test my theory about Seels. “Although word from Commander Klan is that we’re almost certain to be making a big move in the next week or so.”

Seels’ eyebrows perked up. “Really.”

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s what he’s hinting at. Says the Empire’s really going to get it with this one.”

She licked her lips and nodded absently. “Really…I see. Interesting.”

I smiled inwardly. Interesting, indeed. Maybe I had my spy.

 

AHA! I think he does indeed ... unless Seels is also undercover Drayson would really be sneaky having a second operative in there.

 

Hmmm...the plot thickens!

 

I've just caught up with this. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

 

Thanks Space_Wolf! Glad you're enjoying it. Jedi_Lover, Nyota's Heart, windu4

May 15th, 21 ABY​

Muunilinst​

​

I have a plan in place to draw out the spy–or at least find out for sure whether Xara Seels is the spy or not. I found her in the armory, cleaning her twin blaster pistols. I walked across the room, pulled my bow from its place on the rack, and slung my quiver of arrows over my shoulder.

“Come on,” I said.

“What?” Seels asked. “Where are we going?”

“I just got orders from the commander. I’m supposed to take you out on a mission. Top secret. Can’t tell you anything about it until we’re out in the field.”

She hesitated, and then slowly nodded. “All right. Give me a minute.”

“No, we need to go now. Sorry.”

Reluctantly, she stood and holstered her blasters. “Fine.”

I led her out of the armory and to the turbolift that took us out of our underground HQ. We came out inside the abandoned warehouse and walked outside. I threw my bow into the back seat of an armored Arrow-23 speeder and walked around to the driver’s seat.

“Can you tell me where we’re going now?” Seels asked as she climbed into the passenger seat. “Or is the inside of a speeder not secure enough?”

I powered the speeder on and shot out away from the warehouse. I took us out several kilometers toward Muunilinst’s capital city, Harnaidan. I pulled the speeder off of the main road and drove out into the field. Then I popped open the canopy.

“Still not talking, eh?” Seels asked. “I kind of need to know what to do if I’m supposed to help you here.”

I gave her a longsuffering look. “All in good time, Sergeant.”

I hopped out of the speeder, retrieved my bow from the back seat, and walked over to a hill overlooking the main road to Harnaidan. I knelt on the hill, checked my bow’s scope and other automatic systems, and nodded to myself, satisfied.

Seels crouched next to me and checked her own weapons, apparently still not sure what was going on but willing to follow my lead. Finally, I decided to test her reaction.

“Okay,” I said. “We’re here to ambush a convoy coming out of Harnaidan. There will be two armored tanks in the lead, followed by a speeder carrying an Imp official. We’re going to take him out.”

“What?” she exclaimed. “I mean, I–I wasn’t prepared to pull off an assassination. And don’t we usually pull ops like that at night? We’re in broad daylight here; we’ll be cut down in seconds!”

I nodded. “Those were mission parameters, I’m afraid. Need to take a walk and think about it?”

Seels blew out a breath. “Yeah…yeah, I think I’ll do that. Be right back.”

I waited until she was out of earshot and then reached up and activated my earbud comlink’s listening device, which let me hear anything within a hundred meters. I cupped a hand over my other ear so I could focus on her conversation.

“Agent Andrea Gorle here,” she said. “You need to reroute the convoy leaving Harnaidan now. The Fist is planning an assassination.” She paused. “Yes, I know it’s short notice. I only just found out. No, no I–yes, I’m sure. You have to listen to me!”

That cinched it. I deactivated my listening device, notched an arrow in my bow, and turned and walked back toward the speeder. Seels–or Andrea Gorle–put her comlink in her pocket and started to walk back toward the hill. She froze when she saw me with an arrow pointed straight at her chest.

“Halden?” she asked in surprise. “What are you–?”

“Don’t insult me, Agent Gorle. I know you’re working for the Empire.”

Andrea gave me a withering glare. My arrow tip was mere centimeters from her heart, so she wouldn’t be stupid enough to–

I miscalculated. She knocked my bow aside, causing me to release my arrow right into the dirt. Before I could react, she lunged and punched me in the jaw, knocking me to the ground. I rolled and came up with my SE-14r pointed at her.

She lunged forward and swung. I discharged my blaster, but she knocked my wrist aside and punched me in the elbow. I grunted and dropped the blaster. Okay, I can play hardball too.

She swung another punch at my jaw, and I raised my left hand, deftly blocking the blow, and sent a punch at her midriff with my right hand. She groaned as the blow connected and stumbled back, but then she recovered and leapt into the air, spin-kicking me in the side of the face.

That hurt. I hit the ground hard, rolled to my feet, and swung. My fist connected with her left shoulder. I swung my other fist, too, which she blocked with her right forearm. I snap-kicked, and she leaned backwards, letting my foot pass centimeters from her nose.

I pulled my foot back, but she grabbed my ankle and shoved, sending me off-balance and toppling to the ground. She stepped forward and punched downward. I rolled aside, barely avoiding the blow, and scissor-kicked her legs. She dropped to the ground too.

I leapt to my feet and reached for my belt, pulling out a small vibroknife. I jabbed at her, and she caught my wrist and pushed me back. I jabbed and slashed again. She avoided the blows. Then she roundhouse-kicked, and when I ducked to avoid it, I dropped my knife.

Blast it.

I jumped to the ground and clambered for my blaster. I got a grip on it, turned–and found myself staring down the barrel of one of her blasters. Wincing, I released my hold on my own weapon and sagged to the ground.

“Oh, you’re good,” I said.

“I’m very good,” she said quietly. “Give me one reason I shouldn’t put a blaster bolt through your head right now.”

I blew out a breath. “I will. Okay? I will. Just…just let me stand up, okay?”

“Fine.” She kept her blaster trained on me. “But don’t pull anything funny.”

I nodded and pulled myself to my feet. Standing there, I panted for a moment, running a hand over my jaw. I really had a lot to consider here. Really, though, my only option was…

“I figured out you were an Imperial Agent,” I said, “because I’m a New Republic Intelligence agent, okay? I’m undercover, trying to take the Fist down, just like you are.”

“Really.” Andrea’s eyes narrowed. “How do I know that I can trust you?”

I dropped my Imperial accent. “Well, for starters, I normally sound like this. Obviously that won’t be enough to convince you, though, because anyone can change their voice. So, give me anything to test me and I will do it.”

“If you’re an NRI agent, then you’d know that the Imperial official that’s coming out of Harnaidan is on a mission for Admiral Pellaeon himself. What you might not know is–”

“He’s your father.”

“What? How did you…?”

“Director Drayson fed me that information about the Imp official leaving Harnaidan. The official’s name was Gorle. Not that hard to draw the parallels.”

“I’m still not sure I can trust you.”

“That’s fair enough, because I’m not sure that I can trust you, either.”

“So what do we do from here?”

“I’d recommend we continue as if none of this ever happened, except maybe we won’t have to work at cross-purposes anymore. We both want to take down the Fist, right? I can give you my information, you can give me yours, and maybe we can do this thing that much faster.”

She lowered her blaster microscopically. I knew she was considering it. Truth be told, I didn’t like the idea myself, because I wanted to do this thing myself. It would be cleaner, less chance of getting caught if the other person got captured. But I didn’t see any other way to make sure one of us didn’t have to kill the other–namely her killing me.

“Okay,” she said. “Get your bow. We’ll try this for a while. But if you get in the way I’ll take you down so fast you won’t be able to blink.”

“That’s okay,” I replied, “because I’ll do the same if you cause me a problem.”

 

Doesn't anybody shoot first and ask questions later in the GFFA? Nice update!

 

Dude, you know how to write stellar hand to hand combat. I think that is a sensible arrangement between the two of them, for now.

 

Work together. I like that. And again nice updates

 

Space_Wolf, Jedi_Lover, Nyota's Heart, windu4

Classified Entry 1​

​

Warning: All further entries will be​

Strictly encoded, and not dated.​

My cover may be strained. I have to take​

Every precaution.​

​

The past month or so has been very good for my mission. Working with the Imperial spy has allowed me to cause harm to the Fist in many ways without their knowledge, and the movement seems to be floundering.

It’s coming close to time to assassinate the Hand’s leadership. First I’ll have to take out Commander Klan, and then I can go from there. Agent Gorle seems to have an idea to take out some of the other leadership, ending with whoever is the big boss.

First things first: take out Klan. That’ll be fairly easy; all we have to do is arrange an accident on our next mission. Klan dies in combat and no one will ever suspect us in the act. Of course, I’ll have to forego using my bow for that, because suspicion will instantly turn to me.

Our chance came soon. The Fist was doing a commando raid on a TIE Fighter hangar near one of the Imperial military bases. Klan would be leading the mission, and both Andrea and I would be involved in it. Good.

Night fell, and our raid began. Andrea and I, along with our squad, were on one flank. I could see Klan’s squad moving toward the hangar from the other side, toward a pair of stormtrooper guards. I pulled an arrow back and trained it on one of the stormtroopers.

Andrea winced almost imperceptibly. She didn’t want to kill the stormtroopers, I knew; she was just as loyal to the Empire as they were, and she held nothing against the stormtroopers. Unfortunately, there’s nothing to be done for it.

I let the arrow fly; its tip pierced a weak spot on the stormtrooper’s armor and he dropped. The second trooper reacted in surprise and knelt down to inspect his comrade’s body; when he did, I pressed a trigger on my bow, and the arrow exploded.

“Move in,” Klan said.

Now was our chance. I knocked another arrow and aimed it at a spotlight on the guard tower. I fired, but missed intentionally. The guard in the tower jerked in surprise and grabbed the spotlight, turning it out to pan over the airfield. The spotlight caught Klan’s squad. An alarm sounded.

“We’ve been spotted!” I growled. “Open fire!”

My men jerked into action, carbines firing, as guards and half-awake pilots poured from the barracks. I snapped my arm back, grabbing another arrow, and opened fire. I nodded to Andrea–she headed for Klan. I took knee or shoulder shots whenever possible, trying to disable instead of kill the Imperials.

After I fired my next arrow, I jerked up my pistol with my right hand and rolled aside, allowing my men to pass me. Much as I hated to do this…well, no time for that. I shoved my bow into its sheath and took my blaster in both hands.

Systematically, I killed every member of the Empire’s Fist under my command. Panting and regretful, I charged across the field and found Andrea. She, too, had killed most of the Fist’s forces; only Klan remained, and she was engaging him hand-to-hand.

“Halden, she’s a traitor!” Klan called. “Kill her and I’ll pay you double your normal combat rate.”

I froze, both hands on the grip of my blaster, pretending to think. Andrea jerked back, presenting an open target. Klan reached for his blaster…I fired, catching him in the shoulder and spinning him around. He reacted with shock, trying to train his blaster on me.

Andrea pulled a vibroblade from a wrist sheath and stabbed it into Klan’s chest. The commander coughed up blood, grimaced, and dropped to the ground, dead. There was dead silence, and then the Imperial guards surrounded us, blasters raised.

It took several hours for us to work things out with the Imps, during which Andrea explained her identity and her mission. The Imps seemed doubtful but after a call to Bastion, they let us go.

Surprisingly, Andrea seemed content to let them think that I was one of her subordinates; she didn’t mention anything about the New Republic, not once. For which I was immensely grateful.

I–uh-oh.

Wait. Hey–!

 

Woot, successful carrying out of strategies and super teamwork. Until -- what was that?! Maybe Andrea's courtesy in omitting Devlin's true allegiance was really a trap?