Chapter 1

They finally entered the planet's atmosphere. Buck sat in the small transport cruiser with the rest of his Stormtrooper squadron dressed in white armour. He looked around and his comrades were either checking their weapons or having short nervous conversations. Buck was as quiet as usual but unlike all the other missions he had been in, his silence was not to prepare him for the upcoming battle but it was questioning his part in the upcoming battle.

Their mission was to infiltrate a compound of a mega-million tycoon named Ru' Bik who was believed to be helping and housing rebels. They were to infiltrate and if possible capture or kill all rebels. Buck had no problem with dealing with rebels but he did have a problem with attacking Ru' Bik in any way. The man is a kind being. He is well-known as a philanthropist; he scoured the Core Worlds and even some of the Outer rim planets helping people from poverty. Buck knew this very well for he was one of the many people that Ru' Bik had helped. He helped to raise him out of extreme poverty and helped educate him. It could easily be said that Ru' Bik had saved his life and now he was one of the people tasked with not only destroying his home but also arresting him.

There suddenly was a loud bang. Buck looked out of the small carrier window. The green skies of Raline were littered with Stormtrooper carriers and laser fire from the planet surface, which he guessed probably came from the compound. One of the carriers was hit and a part of it burst into orange flames before it plummeted to the ground. Buck looked at his companion who was sitting beside him and had also seen what he had just witnessed.

"Don't worry. Those rebel scum won't take us down that easily." He said through the white helmet.

He nodded to his friend. He did not need to see his face to know him. Corporal Canoe, Buck's long time friend. They both entered the service of the Empire as rookies at the same time and both survived many missions together and on the way became good friends. In the whole squadron he trusted no one more than Canoe.

The carrier dropped in altitude and for the first time Buck saw the compound. When Buck heard the word compound he expected to see a mansion with a few informal settlements but instead he was treated to a hexagonal skyscraper multiple stories high.

"Hard to believe one person could own that." Buck said to no one in particular.

"Tell me about it. Even if we worked for a 100 years we still would not make half the money it took to build that!" Canoe said. "No matter, soon we'll infiltrate it and if any of it is still standing when we're done, it will belong to the Empire."

"That's right men!" Their commander said. "We hit this place quickly and with precision. Shoot first take prisoners later! A building that big will probably have a small army of rebels; luckily for us we have a big army of Stormtroopers. And remember if any of you encounter Ru' Bik, take him alive. The Emperor wants him to pay for his crimes after a public trial!"

Buck involuntarily gulped. They wanted to make an example out of Ru' Bik.

"Get ready—" The commander said as the carrier stopped and hovered in the middle of the skyscraper, a few feet away from a window. "Now!" He said when the carrier doors opened. One of the troopers threw a spherical bomb which blew a sizable whole through the building. The Stormtroopers jumped out of the carrier and into the building.

As soon as all the members of the squadron were safely in the building the Commander began leading the way. The squadron cleared each room they came across, ensuring that there were no rebels. They moved through the corridors two men wide and in a straight line. Canoe and Buck were side by side in the middle of the group. All around them they heard explosions and people screaming. The battle seemed to be raging on all around them except for the place they were currently at.

While moving forward Buck thought he saw something whizz beneath his feet. Canoe was in the process of checking a room when it happened. Someone shouted, "bomb!" and Buck was barely able to shove Canoe and himself into a room before the explosion went off. There was a blinding light of yellow fire that engulfed the corridor. The two Stormtroopers were barely able to escape as the forced of the explosion propelled them deeper into the room and sent them crashing onto the floor.

Buck did not know how long he had been out but he came too to Canoe shaking him awake.

"Buck! Buck! You okay?"

Buck got up and held his blaster. "Yes."

"You sure? You saved me and risked yourself. Don't do anything that stupid again!" Canoe scolded.

"Yeah yeah." Buck said before leading the way out of the room. He was surprised by the carnage that awaited them. The bomb had ravaged most of their squadron. Those who were closest to the bomb had pieces of their bodies scattered while others simply lay lifeless. The Commander was still alive and did a quick inventory check of his men, there were only six of them left.

"Okay men, we continue our mission. We'll meet up with the other Stormtrooper squadrons for back up!" He said before leading them onwards. The squadron saw a group of people moving along. When the Commander ordered them to stop they opened fire on the party. One of the Troopers fell to the laser fire while the rest scrambled to get cover. There were approximately three people firing at them while the others continued to flee. They were able to take down one in retaliation for their fallen comrade.

"These guys are just stalling us! Buck, Canoe, cut the other group off. I don't want any of them escaping!"

Buck and Canoe found an alternative route while the rest of the squadron covered them. They moved through the corridors to cut them off and stop their group. When they crossed paths with them Canoe fired at them which prompted one of their members to fire back but Buck was able to quickly take the shooter down and also take a few of his companions too. By the end of the skirmish the other group was dead while Buck and Canoe were the only ones left alive. Buck approached the mass of multi-coloured dead bodies. He noticed that only one of the bodies had a blaster.

"Most of these people were unarmed." Buck said.

"Focus Buck! We're in a conflict zone. Collateral damage is normal." Canoe said before activating the communicator on his forearm. "Commander, we were successful in cutting off the rest of the group. They're all dead though."

"Good work soldiers!" Buck heard the Commander say. "Stay together and clear that area while moving west. We'll meet at the West wing of the building."

"Roger that!" Canoe said before ending the transmission. "Looks like the fun continues." Canoe said before moving off and Buck following closely behind.

They were moving deeper into the mega building. The lights began flickering on and off which was easily noticeable deep into the building. They encountered a few Rebels but through team work were able to shoot them down, even when they were outnumbered four to two. Their training and understanding of each other gave them an edge over the disorganised rebels.

"I think we're off course" Buck said after some time. "We should have met up with the Commander and the rest of the squadron by now."

"Yeah, we're definitely lost. I say we split up." Canoe said before stopping at a section of the hallway that forked.

"How's that going to help us?"

"We'll be able to clear more of the area and we'll meet up at the front, closing any enemy we encounter in a pincer movement."

"That would be a great plan, if there weren't only two of us!" Buck complained.

"Come on! We'd still able to cover each other's backs by using our communicators…" Canoe said holding up his forearm to gesture the communicator built in the armour. "So if any of us gets in trouble, the other will be able to help."

Buck did not like the plan but if it meant that they could meet up with their squadron sooner, then it would have to do. "Okay, stay alert." He said before they both fist bumped and split up.

/

Buck moved along the corridor with great speed. He was taking in any corners, any unusual movements in order to determine if there was any danger. As he moved through he heard a sound down an adjacent corridor. He looked at it knowing that going down it would delay his meet up with his friend. He thought about moving on but his sense of duty as a Stormtrooper compelled him to investigate. He checked the rooms he came across to find them empty until an assailant suddenly appeared at a room ahead of him.

He was able to dive to the side in time to doge the blaster fire from the new combatant and returned a volley of shots of his own. He got the Rebel in the neck killing him instantly. He moved forward to where the body lay. It was a young dead Twi' lik. He carefully stepped into the room from which the dead Rebel had come and saw Ru' Bik. The Vultan man, in a maroon robe with gold trimmings and gold robe, looked just as surprised to see the Trooper. Buck saw something moving from the corner of his eye and quickly turned to shoot it down. He saw a body fall and Ru' Bik scream: "No!"

Buck looked down and noticed that he had just shot down a Vultan female, most likely Ru' Bik's wife. He took off his helmet; revealing his dark brown skin and lips, hazel eyes and black hair; and bent down next to the female Vultan while her still living husband ran to her. Ru' Bik took his wife's lifeless hand in his own.

"You… you killed her!" He said with tears in his eyes.

"It… it was an acccide… I… I didn't mean to." Buck said while uselessly checking for any, even the smallest signs of life. However he knew that she was dead, he had just killed the wife of the man who has shown nothing but kindness to him.

"Liar!" Ru' Bik said before lunging at him.

Thanks to his Stormtrooper training, Buck was easily able to fend off Ru' Bik's clumsy attack. He was able to push him back onto the ground. Ru' Bik slowly got up while the Stormtrooper kept his blaster trained on him. Buck had a lot of adrenaline running through him.

"Why did you make me do this?" Buck shouted.

"How did I make you do this? Huh?" Ru' Bik shouted back, struggling to keep from crying.

"You became a Rebel sympathizer!" Buck said. "You were a good man! Why would you betray the Empire?"

"Because the Empire does things like this…" Ru Bik says as he gestures to his wife's body.

Buck looked at the body and his guilt welled up at the sight of his handy work. "I'm… I'm sorry."

Ru' Bik was taken aback by the unexpected apology. Who was this Stormtrooper? The sound of a baby crying filled the room. Buck looked over to the far side of the room. In the scuffle he had not noticed the baby in the room. He guessed that the baby's cry was what he had heard, that lead him to this corridor and that it most likely belonged to Ru' Bik.

Ru' Bik looked at the Stormtrooper in hope. "If you truly are sorry, you'll help me and my daughter escape."

"What? I… I can't do that!"

"Then you may as well kill me now…" Ru' Bik said as he began walking towards the soldier. "…because if the Empire get me and my daughter they'll use her to get all the information I have on the Rebels."

"What information? All you did was house them in this compound." Buck said.

"No," Ru' Bik said shaking his head. "I am even more deeply involved with the Rebels than you know."

Ru' Bik had been continually moving forward. Buck raised his weapon higher. "Hey, don't take another step!"

Ru' Bik ignored the warning and continued to walk forward. "If you truly are sorry then you must make a choice: help me and my daughter escape…" Ru' Bik was now close enough to grab Buck's blaster and place its barrel onto his chest, "…or kill me."

Buck was having an internal argument with himself on what he should do. His trigger finger, for the first time after he killed Ru' Bik's wife, went to the blasters trigger. He was preparing to shoot Ru Bik, a man he looked up to. A man that had helped so many people living in poverty that he did not even remember the Trooper standing before him with a blaster pointed at his chest. He realised that he could not kill him.

"Even if… even if I help you, you would not be able to escape. Stormtroopers have covered the streets and there is heavy trooper presence in the spaceship hanger."

Ru' Bik's eyes began to shine with hope. "There is secret ship hanger in the compound that I built for me and my family in situations… such as this. I also have family on the planet Cirasso. They will hide me and my daughter."

Buck was quiet for a moment. He did not believe that he was even considering this. "Get your daughter and follow closely behind me." Buck said before putting his helmet back on.

Ru' Bik quickly took his daughter. He began following the trooper. He picked up the bag, with all the things his baby daughter would need, that lay beside his wife's body. He stopped for a moment to look at her. Was he betraying her and her memory by working with the man who killed her? This question ran through his mind. No, his wife would have wanted him to do whatever it took to ensure their daughter's safety, he thought to himself before he ran out of the room.

/

Buck and Ru' Bik were entering a busier section of the compound. There were many more Stormtrooper squadrons in this section. By using his communicator to eavesdrop and decode their messages and with Ru' Bik's guidance, Buck was able to avoid meeting with any of them. Suddenly Canoe appeared out of a corridor.

"Buck, that you? Of course it is, no one else has those dents in their armour." Canoe looked behind him and saw a Vultan male holding a baby. "You caught Ru' Bik!" Canoe said walking closer to his friend. "Well done, let me call it…"

"No!" Buck said pointing his blaster at Canoe. This had been a very bad and turbulent day for Buck. First he had killed his saviour's wife and now he was pointing his blaster at his dearest friend.

"What's going on?" Canoe said raising his hands in surprise.

"I'm not turning him in."

"What? Why? Did he buy you?"

"No! You… you wouldn't understand."

"Try me." Canoe said before suddenly throwing a round house kick which caught Buck's blaster and knocked it away from him. Using the element of surprise Canoe tackled his friend down and used magna-cuffs to handcuff Buck's wrist to a pipe that was near the floor.

The move was so quick that Buck did not notice that he had been cuffed. He only realised when he tried to get up but was pulled back down by his restraints. Buck realised that his friend had used his own cuffs to bind him. He had forgotten how fast his friend was, he had forgotten that his friend was a former pickpocket.

"I don't know what's going on with you but you'll thank me when you come back to your senses." Canoe said before pointing his blaster at Canoe. "Ru' Bik, you are under arrest for conspiring to overthrow the Empire and for housing wanted fugitives."

"Please… I… I have my baby." Ru' Bik said.

"Then you better put it down if you don't want it to get hurt." Canoe said coming closer to his target.

While Ru Bik placed his daughter on the floor, Buck tried to escape. He used his strength to desperately twist the metal pipe he was bound to in order to dislocate it from the wall. The pipe began to quietly moan as he twisted it and finally was able to displace it. After he freed himself he charged at his friend who had his back turned and used all his strength and momentum to hit him at the back of the head with the pipe he had recently been cuffed to. Canoe was stunned and fell face forward into the ground causing the baby next to him to cry.

Buck could hear a Stormtrooper squadron coming up their way from the adjacent corridor via his communicator. "Let's go!" He said.

"I can't." Ru Bik said lying on his butt on the floor. He raised his arm and noticed that Canoe's arm also rose. Canoe had cuffed Ru' Bik to him! Grinding his teeth and swearing, Buck dived at his friend's body looking for the keys to the magna-cuffs before the Stormtrooper squadron was upon them.

"Trooper, you need to take my daughter to safety! Take her Cirasso, look for the Bik family and they'll help you."

"I… I…" Buck did not know what to say. A part of him was still hoping that he could still keep all of this secret; a part of him still hoped that he could help Ru' Bik escape and still keep his job as Stormtrooper. But if he takes his daughter and delivers her himself, there will be no returning to the service of the Empire as a Stormtrooper or anything else for that matter. It would be difficult to explain his sudden disappearance from the battlefield and reappearance days later. If he did this he would kiss his career as a Stormtrooper goodbye.

"Please, Trooper." Ru Bik begged over the sound of the incoming troops marching steps and radio communications.

Canoe had begun to stir again and Buck quietly swore again and took the baby and Canoe's blaster before running off. Canoe came to just as the Stormtrooper squadron appeared.

"Corporal Canoe! You've caught Ru' Bik." The Commander who had joined another squadron said.

Canoe looked at the Vultan then looked around for Buck who was no longer there. "Yes… I… I guess I did."

/

Buck ran as quickly as he could. He knew he was close to the hanger but was stopped in his tracks when two human Rebels appeared in his path. One was a female who had skin as dark as his, long braided purple hair and hazel eyes and wore a green outfit. Her companion had lighter skin and neck length black hair and startling green eyes. They were both young, probably close to the end of their teenage years.

The young woman pointed the blaster at Buck. "Is that Ru' Bik's and Si Bik's baby? What have you done to them?"

"Ru' Bik has been captured. He gave me his daughter to deliver to safety."

"Ru' Bik gave a Stormtrooper, whose here to arrest him and destroy his home, his baby? What kind of fools do you take us for?" The young man shouted before he raised a white and silver cylindrical device that was in both hands. Suddenly a green laser blade sprang from the device. Just after, below the base of the green blade of light was a green halo made of the same energy and colour as the blade.

Buck had heard of such weapons. They were relics of an old order of people. "Wait, you're a Jedi!"

The man began running at him with his blade held up. Buck was inexperienced in dealing with Jedi. He shot at the charging man and was amazed when the young man used his lightsaber to deflect his shot away. Buck could not believe what he had just seen. He had never seen or even heard of anyone fast enough to deflect a blaster shot. The man was now upon him and swung the blade at him. Buck, and the baby he held in one arm, was able to narrowly escape the blade by jumping back. The man summersaulted over Buck and landed some distance behind him. Buck moved away from the man as quickly as possible. If the man had landed closer he could have easily have struck Buck down.

The man pointed his lightsaber which he now held in one hand at Buck. "Give up the baby! You're surrounded."

Buck looked around and saw that the man was right. On one side there was the woman with her blaster pointed at him and on the other side was the young man with the lightsaber. "Listen, all I'm trying to do is protect this baby."

"You expect us to believe that." The man said.

"Well… yes, considering that I'm not the one pointing a blaster or swinging a laser sword at the man who has a baby in his hands!" Buck said looking at both of them.

"I guess he has a point." The dark skinned female said.

"No he doesn't… does he?" The man with the lightsaber said.

The compound alarm immediately went off. Buck looked above him. "Listen, the Troopers have begun the lockdown procedure of this compound. We need to escape while we still have the chance. Let's escape first and then finish this later. I have knowledge of Ru Bik's secret ship that we can use."

The young man with the lightsaber sighed before sheathing the green blade. "Fine, lead the way, Trooper."

Buck nodded and began running. He saw the woman raise her blaster but ignored it as he ran past her. He ran ahead while the two Rebels flanked behind him. They came across Stormtroopers which the woman shot down while the boy activated his lightsaber and cut down the rest. It felt strange to Buck to see his comrades being killed and he doing nothing to defend them.

Buck reached their destination but it was a dead end.

"Huh, you lead us to a dead end. I should have known." The man said.

"No! No! Ru' Bik said it would be here!" Buck said desperately feeling around the wall with one hand for something.

"Maybe we could double back," the woman said. "Try to get to the spaceship hanger."

The man shook his head. "There'll probably be too many soldiers there for us to take on."

A section of the wall that Buck pressed collapsed and the wall began to slide open in either direction, revealing a ship. The three ran into the ship and fired it up. A section of the compound also slid open giving way to the ship to make its escape. The ship started up its engine and flew off. It escaped the planet's atmosphere and Buck saw the ship that brought the carriers and the Stormtroopers to this planet. This was not how he thought he would leave the planet when he entered it. The ship entered hyperspace and disappeared on its way to Cirasso.