Saga The Making of a Rebel -- fast-paced action vignette. Reads like an episode of '24'

The Making of a Rebel


The men were getting restless. I frowned at their slight movements and shuffling, even though I couldn?t blame them. Our quarry was almost a standard hour late. I was beginning to think that my contact had lied to me, and I started picturing exactly what I would do to the thieving Quarren when I found him again in the morning. The fierce burning rage I felt in my gut turned to ice in an instant as I heard a footstep crunch on a broken bit of duracrete close by in the darkness.

From my vantage point at the lip of a pile of shadowed construction materials I could see all seven men as they passed by in front of and below me. No, not all men. My eyes started to pick out details from the shadows and I could tell there were at least four humans, one Sullustan, one Wookie and ..... our Quarren trailing the pack. Beside me, Jojanas tried to silently shift his rifle to better cover the group below us, and in the process sent a small rock sliding down to the ground. I cursed the rookie silently and promised myself that if he spooked the rebels before they were completely in the ambush area, he wouldn?t be a rookie COP for very long. But the only one who even glanced our way was our informant, who looked especially nervous.

As the group of seven rebel saboteurs reached the steel door, I saw one human bend over the access panel as the rest turned around and set up a reasonably military-looking perimeter facing outward. Not that it would do much good against overwhelming force that had the high ground like me and my men. The man trying to hack the access panel turned his head slightly and I caught my breath. It was Slate Bridger, poster boy and leader of the local rebel cell. So he decided to head up this mission himself, huh? I thought. I could tell my ambushers were tensely waiting for me, so I decided that the time was as right as it would ever be. I triggered the hidden floodlights and brought the microphone up to my mouth.

?Attention Rebels!? My voice boomed out over the seven saboteurs frozen in the sudden glare. I took a moment to scoff at them silently. They would have had a chance if they had run for it the moment the light came on. ?This is the Imperial Center Police! You are all under arrest! Put down your weapons and put your hands over your heads!? I could see them look at one another for a moment, then in unison they each selected a floodlight and blasted it out, leaving the entire area in darkness again. I assumed they thought that left them with some sort of an advantage, but my men and I hadn?t had bright lights in our eyes, and could actually see them in the darkness, while they were effectively blind. I yelled out to my men surrounding the rebels. ?Fire! But leave Slate alive! That was the deal!?

Of course, that last part was just to confuse any potential escapees. Even as the trap was sprung and twenty blaster rifles began converging on the group below, our real informant, Qua?leg, was slipping back out the way he came. My fellow policemen had actual orders to let him go, then seal off the exit. A blaster bolt struck a rock right below my eyes, sending duracrete chips into my hair and making me duck back. Even though we had the high ground, and cover, these terrorists could still hurt us, and me in particular, before we subdued them. To underscore that point, Jojanas screamed out beside me as a bolt hit home. I cursed and fired a couple shots in the direction of his shooter. Soon enough the return fire and general screaming died down to nothing, and I sent a team into the pit to search the bodies and look for survivors.

I stood up and scanned the area, keeping an eye out on the work progressing below me. It looked like Jojanas was the only injury, and he had a medic working over him with the not-quite-hurrying pace that years in the service told me my rookie was going to be fine. The rest of the officers were carefully probing the rebels, and chatting with one another with the relieved air of men who had just successfully completed a mission that went exactly according to

 

Leave comments por favor. Good bad or ugly? My first piece in a long time and I want to know if it's any good, or if any of these characters (really, there's only one) has a future here.