It was four years before the battle of Yavin. Ben Jekurra was sitting in a shuttle that had just left the cruiser of Commander Montari. He'd finally finished up his time at the academy and was now a recognized Stormtrooper, though a PFC. This wasn't a concern to him, he just needed to ensure that the benefits of serving in the Imperial army would support his family back on Mandalore.
"We're nearing the upper levels of Coruscant. We'll be at the Federal district soon, no worries." Said the pilot, a very feminine voice for a man. Ben sat there in his seat in a uniform, it was black of course. Oh man, if he'd been good enough to have been an officer! Imagine the benefits then!
"Alright," The young man said as he began looking over the papers in his hand, ironically, Commander Montari was extremely old school. No datapad or anything, just paper. It had his instructions to go to the Imperial Stormtroopers Corps headquarters. There, he'd meet with a Lieutenant who'd give him his assignment and his assigned squad.
The ride there was sleepy. He looked out at the Coruscanti scenery. It was night time, but there was so many neon lights out there. It was almost blinding. The brown headed boy took his eyes from the window of the shuttle. Soon enough they'd arrive at their destination.
After another hour or so, he heard the pilot issue his final address, that they'd arrived and then the landing sequence began. After a slight rustle of the ship, then a bump, the exit opened and the ramp protruded out. He stood up and stretched, then stepped out and onto the large landing platform they'd arrived at.
What appeared as an important officer marched up to him and requested his datapad. "I uh, don't have a datapad, Commander Montari just give me these papers…" He held them out, signed of course by said Commander.
The officer took them and looked them over, "Very well. Come along with me, you'll get sorted out." He said and gestured for the other to follow.
They entered into the building and into a massive hall. After around thirty minutes of walking, they made it to an office where the officer sat at a desk, gesturing again for Jekurra to sit across from him.
"I see, so you're Ben Jekurra. Stormtrooper Corps. Home planet of Mandalore… are you Mandalorian by ethnicity?"
Jekurra shook his head, "No, my family was resettled there from Corellia before I was born."
The officer nodded, "I see. Your age is of 18, yes?"
He give a slow nod, wondering how long this would take.
"Registration number 00214891. Human. Brown hair, blue eyes. Intelligence score of 160. No sources of income, how did you fund yourself at the academy?" The officer looked up from the papers again.
"I applied under the full disclosure and malleable enlistment act signed by the Imperial Senate back three years ago."
He nodded, "I see… I see… let me check the rest of your records."
The officer went to the computer next to him, looking at the terminal with intensive observation and detail.
After around ten more minutes, he give Ben a datapad with all sorts of information.
"Report to barracks number 501-T. Congratulations, you're a member of Vader's Fist."
Ben stood in front of the door of the barracks, his hand reaching up to press the console to open it.
Was he really in the most dangerous battalion the Imperial Army possessed? Under direct command of Vader?
He pressed the button on the console and entered inside the large barrack room.
There was eight other men within, most of them were older than him, some grisly, among other tough traits. "Hey… uhm, I'm Private Jekurra, your new recruit."
They all stared at him intently for a moment or so, then went back to what they were doing.
Ben stepped further inside, walking to his locker, pressing the console for the ray shield to open up, he put what few belongings he had inside it, namely a carving of a phoenix, a small power cell, and a combat knife. His new white shiny armor was already encased in the locker.
"You're gonna need to put that on." Said one of the others, he looked around, while he'd been putting his things away, they'd all dressed in their armor, albeit without helmets.
"O-Oh…" Mumbled the new recruit before returning to the locker and taking the armor out, putting it on. "Damn… this is light… really light." The group snickered, "It's supposed to protect you and allow you to move good. I say it's a damn lie. It's good no doubt, but it ain't perfect. Take a hit to the chest, you're going to go down regardless. Maybe not die, but you'll go down. It's mainly just for looks." Said one of the taller blonde headed members, before putting on his helmet, "I'm Sorn Corso, by the way. Don't expect yourself to stay in this squad for long, most in the 501st don't last long. We're the best of the Empire, but we die daily."
Great… that's definitely encouraging.
"So… what's our next assignment?" He asked, his datapad hadn't given him a lot of information, just a location. "Ask Pax, he's over there." The blonde pointed over at a white haired fellow with a scar across his forehead. He looked especially dangerous. "Sergeant! Care to let the new kid know about the thing on Kashyyyk?"
"Kashyyyk? Yea, Lord Vader got word about a rebel cell there. We're going to shut it down. Mind you, when we get there, not a god-damned word about those fucking Wookiees. Say something to 'em, they'll rip your arms off." Pax said, a deep and hoarse voice coming out of his mouth.
So they were off to Kashyyyk next, eh?
"Alright, you lot. Get suited, we're leaving in ten minutes to board the shuttle." Yelled Pax to the group, who quickly put their helmets on, as well as utility belts and grabbed their rifles.
Ben was quickly, though slowly failing to finish up his own suiting in the white armor, eventually getting it onto himself, then finally placing the helmet on his head.
Once he'd turned around, the room was empty. He nearly panicked before grabbing his rifle and quickly exiting the room, looking both ways and finally seeing his comrades walking off. He ran up and joined in their ranks, letting out a silent sigh of relief.
Once the group of nine arrived at their destination, they entered into a shuttle.
The ride up to the Star Destroyer was quite talkative. There he finally met the rest of the squad, Renn Proctor was the engineer, Corso was the explosives specialist, Miko Damarcus was the sharpshooter, Mossi Doha, Rafi Eldin, and Deke Scutu were infantry, Terras Gisk was the medic, Ben and Tel Mekesa were to be weapons specialist until further notice.
Once the shuttle arrived the hangar bay, the squad exited immediately heading through to the end of the hangar and entering into a long hallway in uniform organization. Once they'd reached their destination, a section officer met them. "You're squad 501-T-7, yes?" He asked, Pax nodded at the officer in the grey uniform. "Very good, you'll be reporting to the platoon officer soon, Sergeant. Your squad may go to their barracks under the same name of 501-T while you do so. We'll be making the jump to hyperspace within a few minutes. Lord Vader says to make post-haste." Pax nodded and took the datapad the other give him while a black protocol droid approached the group and led them to their barracks.
Once there they unsuited themselves and headed to the mess hall.
There the squad got their food, Ben being the last as he took his tray of what was most definitely processed meat, perhaps some vegetables, and a piece of bread.
He took his tray and sat with his squad, who didn't appear to be too talkative now. Or too friendly, exception of Corso and Mekesa.
"So, where you from, kid?" Asked Corso, being inquisitive about the other's background.
"Mandalore," The private said dryly, taking a bite of the meat with his utensil.
"Oh boy, so you're Mandalorian, right? Like the warrior clans?"
Jekurra shook his head, "No, no. My family was resettled from Corellia, we're just normal humans living there."
"Oh…" Corso seemed to lose his enthusiasm about the other, "So.. what kind of skills do you have? To get into the 501st you had to be good at something, right?"
"Yea, uh… I aced the interrogation challenge course, as well as the stealth course, and the weapons designs courses." The young stormtrooper said, taking another bite with haste.
"Well damn, so I guess if you get caught, we don't have to worry about you spilling the beans, huh?" He chuckled taking a bite of his own tray.
"Heh… yea." Ben replied, again dryly as he continued eating.
The jump to hyperspace hadn't taken to miserably long. Once the Star Destroyer was at Kashyyyk, the squad was already prepped and ready to go. They'd be split in sub-squads of three.
Ben, Mekesa, and Corso would pair up, Proctor, Rummel, and Scutu would, then finally Elden, Doha, and Demarkus. Gisk would remain with the shuttle until the others returned.
"Alright you all." Yelled out Pax, "We're searching the wookiee village for any signs of insurgent activity. You may question the villagers, you may search them if you have probable cause, we have warrants. Contact us through your transmitter if you need support and give us your location. We're searching for a Twi'lek male somewhere around here. Goes by the name of Rodric. He's blue skinned. Spread out."
The sub-teams spread out, Ben's headed into the village and began scanning the area for any information or clues.
"Why did we have to get stuck with the stinkiest planet in the Galaxy to find rebels?" Corso asked, "I can smell the crap through my ventilation system, it's terrible."
"Just give 'em a break, and plus you're not supposed to call them rebels. They're not, they're insurgents. Terrorists." Responded Mekesa. "Anything on your end, Private?"
Ben give a quiet "No," before he walked behind one of the huts on the ground that belonged to a Wookiee architect. "I'm not seeing a whole lot here at a-"
Before Ben could finish, an explosion was heard a few yards away down the main path through the village. The three gathered up as the other two sub-groups were yelling through their transmitters about it, "Shut up!" Yelled Pax through it, "It was an explosion on the North side, everyone head that way, stay alert and don't stay in the open!" The three of them heard and abided by the order. They quickly and safely made their way to the Northern part of the village, staying behind trees, rocks, and huts as they went, advancing fast.
Once close enough to the explosion site, there was several injured Wookiees groaning in pain, it had been a shop that had exploded, the wood was still burning hot. "Corso, know what did that?" Asked Mekesa, waiting for the explosive specialist's answer, "Thermal detonator, possibly imploder. High powered, that's for sure. It packed a big punch, so it's gotta be a newer model."
"Check it out, Jekurra, you see to the witnesses, I'll alert the Sergeant."
Ben nodded as he went to the nearest Wookiee he could find and asked it a question, "So, uh… do you remember seeing what happened, aside from the explosion, what happened before?"
The Wookiee stared at him for a moment, before the massive thing growled out, "Rrrrrruurgh! Arrggg!"
"Uhh… o-okay… sorry to bother you," He said turning around, entirely confused on how to speak Shyriiwook to the natives… "C-Corporal Mekesa, sir?"
Mekesa's helmet turned to face him, "What is it, Private?"
"I don't understand these guys, I can't speak Shyriiwook." He said, as if ashamed.
Mekesa waved it off, "No worries, we'll get a translator down here pronto and let the survey team deal with it. Just search for clues." Ben nodded and went to do so.
He went around the back of the now destroyed shop. "Damn, this is harder than I thoug-" Before he could finish his own sentence, a blaster bolt flew past him, he immediately dropped to the ground, "Incoming fire, incoming fire! I'm behind the explosion site, send back-up!" He yelled through his intercom, "We're headed that way, hold on Private!"
Ben grabbed his blaster and held it tightly before crawling to a rock and crouching behind it, he raised his blaster up and set it on the rock to support his aim, then he saw it.
There's over a hundred insurgents. Twi'lek, Wookiee, Human. What's worse is most have explosives strapped to them.
"Fire fire!" yelled one of the rebels in the small army.
"Requesting air support! There's over a hundred of them! Help! They're advancing on me!" Just then, his communicator was disconnected, the left side of his helmet had been shot, luckily the armor absorbed most of the energy, but it was enough to short it out.
He stayed behind the rock, keeping his head down as he fired with precision.
If he'd learned anything, it was good aim. Pulling the trigger so many times though, it got harder with each pull.
Once they were shot, they collapsed, but the one next to them would detonate their bombs, setting off so many explosions.
What happened next was even more maddening, a Y-Wing bomber flew overhead, something that hadn't been seen since the Clone War!
It dropped what appeared to be a gel. It hit the ground and was lit aflame.
Ben stood up and quickly ran the opposite direction of the army, staying low but retreating ultimately. He ran as fast as possible until reaching his sub-squad, who was now regrouped with the entire squad.
Pax spoke first, and loudly, "I'm told the 501st is sending two more platoons, the 212th is sending in a squad, and the Navy is sending a squadron of TIE-fighters. Those 'over a hundred insurgents' you said, that's a small damn number. I'm getting reports of thousands in this section of the continent."
Mekesa spoke next, "There everywhere. What are we supposed to do? We're getting surrounded rapidly!"
Pax thought for a moment more, "Set up the portable energy barriers. Set 'em up fast too, we've gotta hold the line and minimize civilian casualties until backup arrives."
Once the barriers were up, the squad of 10 took their places in cover and waited.
Then it came, the wave of insurgents came pouring around. "Imploders, detonators now!" Yelled someone, Ben honestly couldn't tell from all the noise, before a moment's notice though, explosions were going off all around them.
He fired his blaster, killing with each shot. He had no trouble with blaster. It was all the activity at once that frightened him. The insurgents looked like they were out to kill just for any or no reason.
Pax raised up to take a shot at who he thought was Rodric, the leader of the insurgents and took a shot to the arm, Mekesa set him down behind cover and took his place, "Ahhh! Damn it! Get that bacta!"
While Gisk was getting a swab of bacta-gel, Ben was hunkered down behind the cover, returning fire to the insurgents as they did the same. The problem was, they were advancing closer and closer.
When it seemed that all hope was lost, the shrieking of TIE fighters was heard.
Not long after that, explosions were going off in the enemy ranks, then not too far away, AT-ST and AT-AT walkers were coming in. A truly thankful sight for the squad. Their lives were put on a thin line, but they'd held out.
The TIE fighters swooped and fired, killing hundreds of insurgents before they were away, then made another run, effectively bombarding the enemy with their green beams.
Ben could see it through his visor. Beautiful, his saviors. The team's saviors. The village's saviors as well.
Once the walkers had arrived, the enemy was in retreat, then two platoons from the 501st, and one from the 212th arrived and were sent in after the insurgents. Pax was helped up by Gisk after the gel was applied. Ben removed his helmet, looking out at the destruction that had just ensued, over simple terrorists.
Was this the rebel cause?
The rebel cause that claimed to be fighting for freedom?
Destruction and pain was their cause when one looked at this.
Chaos.