Quick Author's Note

What is this you might be asking? Well, I'm not very sure myself. I got some inspiration from the Rebels TV Show, with the intention it would: follow the concept of new, original characters in an unexplored time space; it would be serialized; and it would be more adult-themed like Clone Wars. I'll be honest the result so far hasn't really been a serialized piece since I found it difficult to condense whole stories into a chapter, but I think you'll be able to put together the story just as fine anyways.

I was going to release this after The Last Jedi so I would have a further understanding of the First Order, but Dave Filoni's announcement that Rebels was ending, and the speculation the next animated show would be based in between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens- which is when this story takes place- has made me decide to start it now so it doesn't look like I'm either stealing potential plotlines or riding the hype train. That's all, hope you enjoy!

XXX

Opening Crawl

Twenty-two years ago, the Battle of Endor saw the destruction of the Second Death Star, the Emperor, and his right-hand man Darth Vader. A year later, the Imperial Fleet was defeated at the Battle of Jakku. The New Republic replaced the Galactic Empire as the dominating force of the galaxy as the remnants of the Empire either bunkered down or fled into parts unknown. Overtime, an era of peace borne on the sacrifices of the Rebellion and it's heroes, came to be.

Now it's the present. The memories of the Galactic Civil War are a distant dream for some, and nonexistent for others. In the Core Systems, a generation has grown knowing only the free, if often corrupted, reign of the New Republic. But in the Outer Rim, there remains those loyal to the old ways of the Empire. Decaying but still living, the Argos Alignment survives as one of the last remaining fiefdoms of the Galactic Empire.

Inside it's territory, the planet Ommas remains isolated and ignored even by it's ruling Imperial government. But all that is about to change as new events begin to unfold on it's surface...

XXX

Gallis Iscander

Over the planet Ommas, the distant star they called the Sun gave a last look behind the towering gray mountain before finally dipping behind it. The light remained behind, reflecting off the hood of the police speeder Chief Folen sat in. For a while the officer watched it, and in turn Gallis Iscander watched him behind the corner of the Galactic Trader Market.

Not that he was watching the other for his reaction to the sunset, but rather to see when he would resume his patrols. When he did, that would be their time to move.

The revving of the speeder's engine started; Folen was beginning to make his rounds again. Gallis watched him leave with faint curiosity; what was it about sunsets that made the Chief stop her everyday?

"He gone?" Gallis turned; his brother Magnus had slunk over from the backdoor of the Market.

"Just leaving. Is everyone ready?"

Magnus shrugged. "I guess. Time to see if that lockpick Kennex got was worth anything."

Gallis frowned. "I don't think that friend of his would cheat him. If she said it would work, then it would. Besides, what would she have to gain from lying to us?"

"You and I both know the answer to that. Everyone in this blasted town knows."

The police speeder was long gone now, Chief Folen no doubt having gone to South Tip, where the town's marble mine was. It was a large place that had never attracted him, even though it was really the only place of work nowadays. No one owned it, people just went there to dig up marble to sell when the traders would come, and they would sell it for some credits to eventually try and get off the mountainous rock of a planet they were trapped on.

They had tried, Gallis and Magnus, really had to try and get off. They had saved their credits since when they had had been abandoned by their parents. They had sold scraps from some ship that had crashed on planet years ago, slowly building their worth.

And when they had had enough, the transport they had paid left without him. Robbed them, two orphans left to the merciless surface of Ommas.

Gallis smiled tightly as he followed Magnus to the others. Ironically, it was that traumatic event of what life was like outside of Ommas that had brought him here.

Their group leader, Kennex, waited calmly by the door. He was the oldest, a tall and skinny Firrerreo with unkempt coppery hair that flowed down to his shoulders. Gallis always found it strange how he looked human, but in fact was not. The way he talked was different as well; smooth, almost hypnotic behind needle-like teeth. People around the settlement liked to call him Kennex of the Stage, because his words were always so soothing, and it seemed he could talk himself out of anything. He also had strange pale skin and orange-flecked eyes, something Gallis had never seen on another human, but nevertheless something he had grown used to. He was also the only one of them not a child; he had told them his parents had been giddy-happy rebels who had consummated the victory at Endor by making love on Ommas, and then proceeding to abandoned him as a baby when the war, in fact, carried on.

"Folen's gone," Gallis reported, feeling adrenaline fill him.

"Good, means we got about thirty minutes until he comes back," Kennex grunted, throwing Lysander a mocking smile. The other looked affronted, which made the others laugh. It was the same joke, recycled.

"Just because he's my dad doesn't mean you don't have to give me that look every time," Lysander said irritably, brushing his gleaming brown hair back as he always did when he felt nervous. Of all them, he was the one dressed the best, groomed the finest. Well fed, well nourished, athletic and strong from his time playing rocketball at the public school

He was also the only one who still had a parent. Ironically, the very person he was right now disobeying. Gallis wondered why he bothered coming with them on these little outings

"Don't take it so bad," Cecilia said teasingly, and Gallis felt himself warm, even though she wasn't even talking to him this time-

Get a grip, he commanded himself. But in all fairness, she was just stunning. She was the one who had brought him and Magnus into the group after their disaster with the spacer, and since then he had felt a sort of kinship with her. Her skin was flawless, her black, almost blueberry flowing about her despite the gritty life, and her face delicate like a flower… but beneath all that he knew she was a hardy fighter. On Ommas, there was no place to be weak and dainty. Though he certainly wished he could have just one- just one!- day alone with her where for once they didn't rob stores for food and credits, but maybe watched a sunset like Chief Folen…

But the galaxy didn't work that way. Certainly Ommas did not. Kennex pulled out the lockpick he had gotten and jammed it into the security lock of the backdoor.

Gallis stomach growled uncomfortably. How long had it been since they'd had a good meal? Two, three days? His mouth watered just thinking about what they would find inside.

"Doing alright?" Magnus murmured beside him. In the darkness, Gallis could hardly see his face, but he had grown accustomed to seeing his older brother's consistently worried look.

"I'm fine, just hungry. Like always."

The last member of their group cocked her head from Kennex's concentrated side. "I have a few more food wrappings," Adelia said with, if possible, even greater concern than Magnus which made Gallis role his eyes. She acted like the mother group, probably because she was the second oldest. At that, though, she was only seventeen in human years. In Duros years, she claimed to be twenty-four, older than Kennex, but they had dismissed that fairly quickly. Her mother had been a herbologist until drafted by Governor-General Rellius to serve in the Argos Alignment's medical core.

Gone without a word to her daughter, leaving behind only a herb book which Adelia had kept as her most treasured possession. Even now, she held it at her side in one of her pale blue hands, although it would have little use in the coming situation.

"I'll be alright," Gallis assured her. "There'll probably be foodstuffs inside, anyway."

"I'm not sure," Lysander said eagerly. "I heard my dad talking with Commander Vash about another food shortage coming up, there might not be anything we can take without it being obvious-"

"Oh, are you sure the Commander didn't tell you that himself, Cody?" Kennex said loftily. Even in the darkness, Gallis saw the police chief's son's face darken as he blushed in silent embarrassment as the use of the nickname the garrison commander gave him. Something about Lysander 'becoming as a great as a leader as the man who taught me!'

"Commander Vash isn't that bad of a man," Lysander protested when the chuckles died down. "Definitely nicer than my dad, if he caught us here."

"Anyone can be nicer than your father," Cecilia drawled. "He's as stiff as a pole and unapproachable as a slazer cat. Next to him, Vash looks like a marionette."

Kennex clucked his tongue. "Less chatter, I don't want anyone hearing us. We're fortunate enough the owners don't live in the shop, unlike Jarrel's place."

"Mad old man," Magnus whispered, and Gallis silently agreed.

They sat there in silence, Gallis's stomach rumbling two more times. He was beginning to think the lockpick was, in fact, not going to work, and they were being swindled like him and Magnus had before-

With a click, the security lock turned green, and the metal door groaned open.

"After me, tread carefully," Kennex whispered. He entered first, as he normally did in these small-time robberies. Other times, he allowed Cecilia, perhaps the most hardened fighter after him, to go first.

This time, however, they weren't expecting any trouble. Just grab a little food here, a blanket there, and small hold of credits from the register to build their slowly growing amount to one buy buy passage off Ommas.

Personally, Gallis found it all very exciting, even after eleven years of it. They had entered the main market section straight from the backdoor. Meats stood in their coolers, and dried vegetables to the counter opposite of them. Gallis pocketed a few in his filthy pocket, then took one more to eat on the spot. Enough that the owners wouldn't notice, enough that they could survive a week without having to go to another store to survive.

Each went to their own area that Kennex had prescribed so not to waste time; they had already decided to avoid going to the second level where the fine jewels and marble works from the mines were displayed, for the security cameras would pick them out in an instant.

Magnus and Cecilia were grabbing a pair of worn sweaters from the To Be Disposed Soon! Section, to his mild jealousy. He had never questioned if his brother felt the same way about her.

A chink chink grabbed all their attention. Kennex rolled his eyes at them from behind the register. "I know I said be paranoid, but don't get ready to pounce on me," he said behind needle teeth. He went back to trying to pick the lock.

There was a mirror by the exotic clothes section that he stopped at, where some of the wealthier patrons of their town shopped. Of course, "wealthy" was just a marketing trick to make people who went into the section think they were posh. There weren't wealthy people on Cindra, let alone Ommas. All who had enough money quickly went to Argos Major and Minor, the capital of the Alignment.

He stopped in the mirror, eyed himself experimentally. "Short for a sixteen-year old," was how the wife of the mad old man Jarrel had called him. And he had to agree; even though Magnus was only full year older, he stood only at his shoulders. The only family resemblance laid in their light blue eyes. They were different in all other ways; Gallis had inherited straw-colored hair and a leaner, tanner face and body while Magnus had grown muscular and paler-skinned, like the stormtroopers.

They always mocked Commander Vash and his stormtrooper garrison, but in private, Magnus often talked about that if they never got enough credits doing this, he would join the corps. And sometimes, Gallis found himself agreeing. But with a sigh, he knew they would not accept how he was basically a skeleton compared to Magnus…

Not to mention they would arrest me on the spot if they knew I was apart of the gang doing all this.

He turned away from the mirror, and jumped as the glowing orange eyes of Adelia nearly scared him half out his wits.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," she whispered.

"Yeah, well it's okay," he grumbled. He saw Lysander behind her, holding some sort of hydrospanner in his hands nervously, no doubt contemplating whether he should steal it or not. Gallis turned back to her. "What is it?"

The female Duros gestured to the mirror with a playful smile. "Liked what you saw?"

He shrugged, putting on a smile. "Just trying to imagine what I'd look like in some of that stormtrooper armor," he chortled.

Adelia sized him up. "Too short, I think," she said with her best impersonation of Commander Vash's authoritative tone. "You'll be drafted to janitorial service, I think."

"I believe mopping the prison floors seems more foreseeable," a much more realistic impersonation of Vash's voice said above them from the second level.

The second level, where none of them had gone. Gallis's eyes shot upward while Adelia slowly turned, her orange ones wide.

No, it wasn't an impersonation at all. Commander Vash, in his old Imperial field armor, gazed down at them from the banister railing of the second level, two bone-white stormtroopers on either side of him.

XXX

Kennex

From the register, Kennex gave them all quick looks before coming around it, arms held at his side like birds taking to flight. Talk, just talk it's what you're good at. "Hello, Commander," he said with respect he would have never bothered with in any other conversation. "This is all a large misunderstanding, you can imagine-"

"I can imagine quite a lot," Vash interrupted quietly but sternly from above. He and his men moved away from the banister towards the stairs that fed into the main market.

"Make a break for it," Cecilia hissed, but it must've carried for they heard the garrison commander sigh.

"I wouldn't try. I have the garrison's walkers and corps positioned outside all the exits. Quite the handiwork with breaking through the security lock, I might add. A gift from that merchant friend of yours, Seron?"

Damn it. He hesitated, now in the center of the room while Vash and his men finally reached the bottom floor. Kennex could hardly believe this was happening to them, now of all times. They had never been caught full in the act; always there had been a reasonable explanation, a loophole they had been able to exploit. This time, there was just no way to talk out of it. Not with the goods stuffed in their grubby hands and pockets.

The olive-gray uniform of the garrison commander grew clearer as he stepped towards Kennex. The stormtroopers stood at attention as he spoke. "All these thieveries over the past decade and a half," he said in that quiet voice. "Police Chief Folen and I had it figured for a group of thieves trying to make a fortune off the miners early on. Never had we guessed it was the group of orphaned children left behind on this miserable rock." He almost sounds… relieved, Kennex thought.

"But the pieces started to click together," he continued, a hand coming up to adjust his combat helmet. Kennex stole a quick look at Magnus and Cecilia across the room. The blueberry colored beauty was listening with rapt attention; he imagined he would be able to hear her heartbeat if he was closer. Magnus, by contrast, had a small frown on his face. Drawn not towards Vash, but towards the four armor-clad stormtroopers.

"The marble shipments were untouched, the very thing we suspected would be starting to vanish under us. But that wasn't the case at all. Small things, like food and clothes and water… simple things, not the work of someone looking to get rich. But no, rather the work of people struggling to survive." Vash shook his head, and he looked around at all them. He paused on Lysander, who refused to meet his gaze.

The old garrison commander sighed. "I'll let this go, this one time," he said, not unkindly. "Now that I know we're not dealing with actual criminals, and just kids looking to survive…"

"I am not a child," Kennex said suddenly, coldly. Always the same thing, being associated as a child because he led a group of them. When anyone else would?

Vash gave him a humorless smile. "You're right, you're a man, aren't you? Then why don't you go work in the mines and earn your wages like a real man, instead of doing this with these kids? They're too young to work, at least they have the excuse."

"You think you're so high and mighty," he said, his voice tightly controlled. The familiar hostility he felt towards the other was returning, being so close to him now. "When we all know outside of this stupid rock you're nothing, the Alignment is nothing-"

"Don't mistake my generosity for weakness," Vash said, his voice with tangible threat now. "I came to catch criminals, and instead I caught the most pitiful group of children I've had the misfortune to lay my eyes on. Now get out of here, and don't let me catch you here again."

Kennex immediately backed down, feeling his neck hairs raise. Stupid, stupid, stupid! What use would it do them if I got arrested? "But what are they supposed to do?!" Lysander suddenly cried out, his hand coming off his hair. "There's no work for them, no way to make money-"

"That shouldn't be your concern," Vash said indifferently. "Why are you here, Cody? You, the Chief's son?"

"They're my friends, I can't let them do this alone," the other said stiffly, and Kennex snorted. Good excuse, rich boy. One of these days, I want to hear the real reason.

Still, it brought up a good point. "What are they supposed to do to survive?" he challenged, though this time he made sure not to sound so aggressive.

The old commander sighed, and Kannex thought he saw genuine tiredness in the other. Not that he cared, of course. He motioned something with his arm, and the four stormtroopers left in quiet murmurs, Magnus's eyes following them.

When they had left, Vash exhaled, put a hand up to adjust his combat helmet again. "I said don't let me catch you again," he said finally, averting his eyes. "So… don't let me catch you again."

Kennex got it, but gave the other no acknowledgment. Gallis didn't seem to understand at all, he was looking crestfallen and helpless, while Adelia gave an unreadable look; he had still not been able to read the faces of her species yet.

"Come on, Cody. I won't tell your father about this, but I'm taking you home, alright."

Lysander gave them a helpless look; Kennex waved him away nonchalantly. The others shrugged, silently saying, "Well, are you going to refuse the garrison commander?"

"Coming," the young boy said dully, then followed at Vash's heels. They came right after, Kennex pocketing one more dry vegetable on the way out.

The commander hadn't been joking; one of the two creaking AT-ST walkers was outside the backdoor, spotlight trained on it, as was half of the forty garrison detachment. Vash waved his fingers at them again, and the spotlight fell away and the men relaxed.

Kennex grabbed some of the others and steered them away as quickly as he could as they retreated to their little hideaway on Cindra's outskirts.

"That was a close call," Gallis said breathlessly when they arrived in the broken down home. "I thought for certain he would book us!"

"He was awfully generous," Cecilia said as she dumped her goods on the dusty wooden table that sat in the middle of their crude chairs. They all deposited what they had stolen; a good haul, enough to last them a week or so.

Kennex threw in the one dry vegetable he had gotten. "Didn't get into the register to snag any credits," he muttered, disappointed with himself. Got to be quicker next time, or how will we ever get the credits to get us into space?

"Don't feel too bad," Adelia said reassuringly. "We'll get enough, sooner or later."

"And sooner or later, Vash won't be able to make excuses," Magnus said in a rough voice, drawing eyes to him. "Lysander was right: Vash is kinder than we give him credit for. But his father, the Chief… we all know if we're caught by him we know we won't get another chance. We've been lucky Vash has been the one investigating this so far. What'll happen when that changes?"

They were silent for some time. Kennex brooded, before eventually picking himself up with a, artifical smile. "Enough feeling sorry for ourselves," he declared with earnest bravado. "How about a midnight swim in Moonless Pool?"

Gallis gave a toothy smile, while the others all gave grateful nods, and Kennex smiled inwardly. Kennex of the Stage, indeed.