Saga - Legends Dark Forces: The Start of Something - Pre-Mission Vignette, Kyle Katarn, Jan Ors

Title: Dark Forces: The Start of Something
Author: whiskers
Genre: General One-Shot
Characters: Kyle Katarn, Jan Ors
Summary: Before heading to the attacked Tak Base, Jan Ors is exasperated at something that Kyle said during the briefing.

***

"I can't believe that you actually said that to Mon Mothma..." Kyle Katarn was already in the front seat of the Moldy Crow when his copilot Jan Ors entered the cockpit.

He finished up with the preflight checklist, acquiring the permission to leave the hangar bay of the New Hope after the dreadnaught's starfighter patrol finished launching for their patrol. "I don't know, it seemed kind of right to say at the time."

There was a small creak as Jan sat at her console. He turned around and watched the Alderaanian agent pull her black hair back and secure it with an orange tie. "Really? 'I should have kept working with the Empire' seemed like something you should say?" She buried her face in her gloved right hand and shook it in frustration. "What am I saying, it's you, of course you'd think that."

Kyle shrugged and watched as the third A-wing lifted off from the deck. "Honestly, it was either that or mumbled gibberish, did you hear what happened there?"

Jan's voice turned serious. "Mon Mothma called me in after you left. It sounded horrible." Her brown eyes narrowed at him. "That doesn't excuse what you said, though. She already doesn't trust you."

"Let me guess," Kyle said. Mon Mothma's distrust of him was a long standing issue between himself and the Rebel leader, stemming from his very first briefing for the Alliance when he had lied about not recognizing a friend from the Imperial academy in the surveillance images from the Danuta base. "You're to trail me like on Danuta and kill me if it looks like I'm going to return to Imperial service."

"That's pretty much it, yes." Jan reached for her pilots goggles and pulled them over her head. "Honestly, Kyle, I don't see what your problem with Mon Mothma is. She's a nice woman if you don't antagonize her."

"Tell her that," Kyle said.

Jan sighed and took over the flight controls, transferring the power from the front console to the rear pilot's station. "All right, fine. She's a nice woman to everyone on board this ship except you. And that's somehow her fault."

"You don't think that she'd lie to protect a friend?" He glared at his copilot, the winning phrase for this small argument/debate already fired.

Jan's face remained stoic under her goggles. "I don't know," she finally conceded. "Some people will and some people won't. The head of a million-being revolt against the Empire isn't really the person to do it to, though."

Kyle slunk back into his chair and stared at the ceiling of the New Hope through the transparisteel viewport above him. What he had anticipated to win the argument had been riposted back into a way that couldn't be blocked. "All right," he said. "I'll try not rile her up in the future."

Ahead of the Corellian-crafted freighter, the final reconnaissance A-wing lifted off and headed out the magnetically sealed door. Kyle secured himself in the craft's crash restraints and waited for the Crow to lift off. He thought over the briefing for the mission: Tak Base on Talay was under attack by a new class of stormtrooper and was destroyed swiftly. Yet there was something that Jan said as he walked out of his briefing and she went in for hers.

"What did you mean when you said 'mission hopping, just like the old days'? We haven't been on a mission together since Danuta."

Jan stammered somewhat as she lifted the Crow from the deck. "Well, it was just small talk, you know..."

Kyle pressed on, his gut instinct telling him that she wasn't being truthful. "No, that wasn't why. You meant for me to understand that, your tone was..."

"All right, I'll tell you. I already knew that Mon Mothma wasn't going to believe that a decorated Imperial cadet was just going to defect, even if the Empire killed his father."

Kyle's heart stung at the mere mention of his father. Morgan had become a rebel leader after he left for the Imperial academy, fighting against the very Empire that Kyle was learning how to serve. When Jan had told him about the way his father had died, and the graphic footage of Morgan's severed head rotting on a pike at Fuel City, that had been all that it took for him to renounce his service oaths.

"So?"

He turned around to see Jan's tan cheeks flushed red. "I, um, exaggerated some details about us working together..."

Kyle burst out laughing, his stomach quickly protesting the action. "Miss 'You shouldn't lie to the head of the Rebellion' told her that?"

"I'm getting real regretful about not pulling the trigger on you back on Danuta..." Jan said through gritted teeth.

"All right, all right..." Kyle stopped laughing. "What exactly did you tell her?"

"Well, a lot of half truths to be honest. I met you on Carida during my days infiltrating Imperial Intelligence and used you as a somewhat unwilling source of info on Imperial training techniques. You expressed some doubts about the Empire and you did a few minor sabotage missions on my behalf."

Kyle looked interested at her revelation. "We met on Carida?"

Jan shrugged. "As far as Mon Mothma is concerned, we did. Besides, I know I visited the Imperial Academy sometime while you were a cadet there. Hell, we may have bumped into each other in a hallway sometime."

He shrugged. “You’d think I’d remember running into someone so...” He paused, catching his words. “Distinctive,” he finally said.

Jan chuckled. “I’m a spy, Kyle. Distinctive is something that gets you killed.”

“So...” Kyle said. “Do you think we actually saw each other on Carida? I thought, when I first saw you on that listening station, that you looked kind of familiar.”

“I don’t know,” Jan said. “Maybe.”

The Moldy Crow jolted slightly as she increased the throttle. “And I thought that the Truly Sorry was bad,” she cursed. “I thought you told the dockmaster to fix her up after Danuta.”

“I did,” Kyle said. “And then it started acting up again three weeks later.”

She shook her head. “I’ll have to have a talk with him...” she groaned. “All joking aside, what the hell are we gonna do if whatever attacked Tak Base is still there and you need a quick exit?”

“You’ll show up just in time,” Kyle said. “Just like on Danuta.”

“I wish I had your confidence in this ship,” Jan said.

It’s not in the ship, Kyle thought, but kept his mouth shut. “I haven’t been let down yet,” he said.

“And your optimism,” she added. She punched in the last few commands into the ship’s computer. “Well, speaking of optimism, let’s hope it’s just some really experienced special commandos waiting for us there.”

Kyle shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Deep in his gut he knew it wasn’t that simple. The stars expanded into streaks as the Moldy Crow lurched into hyperspace.

***
[spoilers=Author's Notes]
* Holy crap, I can't believe this thing was 90% finished and just laying in my writing folder, waiting to be wrapped up.
* This mission takes place before Mission 2 in the Dark Forces PC game, and expands on material found in Soldier for the Empire, and the Dark Forces Saga web articles.
* The mission to Danuta was the first mission, and involved the theft of the Death Star plans.[/spoiler]

 

Great banter and teasing between Kyle and Jan. I love these characters. I have the books and played the games

 

They are absolutely a ball to write, and I love these characters as well. Thanks for reading!