HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

Ten Years Prior:

This was supposed to be a cease-fire, Lance Corporal Mitra'llis'eeronudo of the Imperial Army thought to herself as she took aim through her rifle's scope. Mitra'llis'eeronudo, better known to her comrades and commanders by her core name Allisee, was an athletic Chiss woman with dark blue skin and short black hair pulled back into a tail, dressed in black and gray body armor. At this time, she was laying prone on the ground, scanning for a target through her sniper rifle's electro-imaging scope. Instead, we're on this Outer Rim mudball preparing for a fight. What are the Sith up to this time?

She and her spotter, Private Tark Sterkal, a Human with dark skin and brown hair, were atop a grassy knoll on the planet Dantooine, looking out at a column of Republic AT-APC walkers.

"Easy there, Allie," Sterkal told her. "You don't have to be Sith to feel how tense you are," he explained after she looked over at him and glared. "You're more tense than a kath hound sniffing out a pack of females in heat."

"Thank you so very much for that mental image," she told him coldly, turning back to her scope.

"Three kilometers," Sterkal mentioned. "Wind gauge reads ten krill-pesh-herf from the southwest."

"Let them get a little closer," she muttered. She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them. Adjusting her rifle slightly to the right, she squeezed the trigger twice.

Just shy of three kilometers away, the lead walker suddenly lurched to a halt; the first shot penetrated the walker's thin transparisteel driver's side viewport in its head. A split second later, the walker exploded, as the second of her shots hit the rocket munitions it was carrying.

It was to Sterkal's credit, as he watched the results through his viewfinder, that he did not hesitate for more than a few seconds.

"I..." He paused. "I'd heard you were the best sniper in the unit, but this..."

The sound of ion engines screaming through the air cut off what he was going to say next, or her reply. A trio of Republic Talon fighters buzzed overhead.

"Kriff me," Sterkal breathed.

Allisee felt something pass through her. She rolled over onto her back pulling her rifle off the bipod and aiming it at the sky.

"They ..." Sterkal said, as Allie fired twice. The lead Talon exploded.

"... spotted ..."

Allie adjusted slightly, trusting in that feeling, and fired again. The second Talon exploded above her.

"... us."

Squeezing off a final pair of shots, Allie relaxed, as the third Talon exploded. Sterkal just gazed up at the sky as the three Talons were hit with a series of shots far too quick and far more accurate than he ever expected to witness, all three of them exploding from their engines getting hit before he could finish his sentence.

For her part, Allisee found herself breathing heavily as that sensation left her, a silly grin plastered on her face. "Like clearing out mynocks!" she exclaimed. Somehow, Sterkal managed not to leave his jaw laying on the ground as Imperial assault shuttles and Sith Interceptors roared overhead.

Now:

Lt. Allisee Skyrunner strode down the corridor on the Sith Star Destroyer Emperor's Glory in full dress uniform, not a crease on the black suit out of place. She paused outside a door, adjusted her cap slightly, and hit the chime on the side. The door slid open, revealing a typically austere Imperial office. An older Human man with a colonel's insignia and graying hair sat behind the desk. Allie saluted smartly. "Lieutenant Skyrunner reporting as ordered, sir."

"At ease, Lieutenant." She slipped into a parade rest stance. "I've been reading your record, Skyrunner. Interesting choice of name, for a Chiss." Allie forced herself to not react to the patronizing tone in his voice.

"It was my mother's ex-husband's," she explained. "It is my understanding that my full Chiss name is difficult for those who don't speak Cheunh. It was decided by my recruiter when I enlisted that I choose a name more suitable for Imperial tongues."

"Yes, it says that in your file." He set down the datapad he'd been reading. "In the past twelve years since you enlisted, you've received twenty seven commendations for valor, racked up an impressive number of kills, including – and I must say I've never seen this in anyone's file before – three Republic Talon fighters in a matter of seconds while on your back during the Dantooinian Feint just days prior to the Sacking of Coruscant, and removed numerous strategic targets across the contested regions from Balmorra to Taris at ranges most career snipers would hesitate to consider, without once missing your target."

"Just doing my duty, sir."

"'Just doing my duty'," the colonel sneered. "Lieutenant, your actions during and after the Great War have spoken volumes. Therefore, I have to ask: can you feel the Force?"

Allisee barely hesitated. "No sir; it's all skill and timing. And, I must add, a good deal of luck."

"Our Sith masters would say there is no such thing as luck," he growled. "As it is, the Dark Council has ordered medical tests for everyone in the military, focusing on those with extraordinary service records such as yours, and to transfer those with high midichlorian counts to Korriban for Sith training." As nervous as she felt, Allie managed to maintain her calm and passive exterior, fixing her commanding officer with the emotionless calculating stare the Chiss were infamous for, hoping to unnerve him. "Therefore, I must ask you again: Are you Force-sensitive."

"No, sir," Allie replied automatically.

"You're obviously lying," the colonel sighed, leaning back in his chair. "The blood tests will show. Oh, and don't try using deathsticks to kill the parasites; we're testing for that as well. Dismissed."

Allie saluted, turned on her heel, and left the office. As soon as the door closed, she sighed and leaned up against the wall, ignoring the patrol of black-armored troopers marching past her. "Sithspit!" she swore.

"And that's the issue, Jaek," Allie told her half-brother over the holo later that day, speaking in her native Cheunh. Jaek Skyrunner was a Human slightly taller than average with close-cut hair and an obvious cybernetic eyepiece replacing his right eye. "Unless I can hide my affinity with the Force, I'll be sent to Korriban to die being trained as a Sith. You've seen me with a lightsaber; I'd chop off my own head in my first fight."

"You could always leave," he told her, replying in the same language. "Transfer to the Expeditionary Defense Force."

"You've always been more of the ideal Chiss than me, little brother," she told him, smiling softly. "I never felt at home there; I don't think I could handle the Ascendancy military the way you did, even as young as you were."

"Then come join me on a hunt."

"It's tempting," she admitted, "and if I can't find a solution I may have to take you up on it, though that will certainly put a death mark on my head in Imperial space, hopefully insignificant enough to not warrant a bounty, I'd imagine."

"The only thing I could think of that would work," Jaek told her, "is to trade out someone else's blood. But of course, I'm not suggesting that."

"Of course not," Allie agreed. "That'd be unethical."

A warship in space isn't bound to the passage of day or night like on a planet. Instead, time is measured in 8-hour shifts: one for one's primary duties, a second split between secondary duties and personal time, and a third intended for sleeping. Warships on all sides tend to carry enough crew to enable all three shifts to operate at full capacity. Contrary to popular opinion, at no time is a warship quiet, even during the third shift.

Despite this, there are still areas that are not used during the ship's third shift and are only lightly guarded. The medical lab of the Emperor's Glory was one of these places, guarded only by a pair of uniformed marines who lacked even basic combat armor. Allie noted this three Galactic Standard days later as she slid up next to the door between them, her stealth field generator belt concealing her presence as she pressed a hypo against both guards' necks at the same time, causing them to crumple to the floor unconscious.

Remembering she only had a few minutes before the guards asleep at their posts would be noticed, she entered the med-bay, switching her stealth field generator off in order to conserve its power cell after the door slid closed. Heading to a cabinet, she came upon a number pad on the lock. Pulling a small sensor from her belt, she held it over the keypad; a holographic display lifted the numbers used, gauging the sequence by the residual heat. Smiling, she pressed the sequence with a gloved hand.

"Pure pazaak," she whispered in Cheunh as the cabinet door slid open, revealing the blood samples that had been taken earlier during the ship's second shift. Quickly scanning the names on the vials, she found hers in the back. Grumbling, she reached in and pulled it out, replacing it with an identical vial, pocketing the original.

The tech drawing her blood frowned. "I could have sworn I had a label for this vial," he said. "It'll just be a moment to print out a new one." Allie smiled, reassuring him that she was in no rush, as she slid the barcoded label she'd palmed into her slacks.

Allie's attention was drawn to a commotion outside. Sithspawn, she thought, someone came by early. Switching on her stealth field generator, she quickly closed the cabinet door and waited just inside the door as she prepared a grenade. The door slid open, and a pair of soldiers in standard shocktrooper armor entered, blaster rifles drawn.

Despite appearances, the visor on an Imperial shocktrooper's helmet was never meant to be functional. Instead, the inside of the helmet is equipped with a holographic HUD, designed to respond to the user's eye movement. Sensors on the helmet provided the soldier with a complete view of their surroundings; far more than any ordinary helmet could provide. As Allie knew only too well, the sensors and other electronics in the helmet were designed and built by the lowest bidders contracted through the Sphere of Logistics. This led to a few known glitches: visual artifacts, malfunctioning targeting systems, etc. But most importantly, it meant that the electronics were not shielded, making them as vulnerable to ion weaponry as any droid.

And Allisee, a veteran of the Great Galactic War, knew their weakness, and had prepared for it. (It was also, she later reflected, why she never wore her helmet in the field.)

A pair of small ion charges flew through the air, attaching to the troopers' helmets. A second later, the charges went off, blinding the soldiers as their helmets' electronics suddenly stopped working. Allie used that time to slip between them and out the door. She made it back to her quarters with time to spare, which she used to toss the stolen blood sample down the trash chute.

Three days later, Allie was once again in her commander's office, standing at attention as he fumed and paced around her.

"I don't know how you managed it, Skyrunner!" He practically spit in her face; she forced herself to maintain her emotionally detached Chiss demeanor. "Your results came back negative! Clearly, it's a false negative, but you're in the clear for now. Furthermore, thanks to your record you've qualified for the rank of Lieutenant First Class." He barely restrained his disgust at this statement. "I'm assigning you to command of Gamma Company's Shadow Squad, effective immediately. Dismissed."

"Thank you, sir." She saluted sharply, turned on her heel, and left the office as the commander slumped back into his chair.

"She is Force-Sensitive, Commander," a deep and menacing voice stated, as a towering bald Sith Lord in black armor appeared in a corner, his lower face obscured by a breather mask. "I could feel it, though I don't think she felt me. Her talents are untrained, but useful."

"Then take her to Korriban, Lord Malgus," the commander growled, "and get her alien filth out of my hair."

"No, commander," the Sith told him, "she is far more useful with her talents and a rifle than she ever would be with a lightsaber. I have foreseen she has a role to play in the future, though its nature eludes me, and it is with a blaster, not a lightsaber." Malgus looked over at the door. "She and her siblings are much alike, but very different."

"Her siblings? The agent, or her step-brother the bounty hunter?"

Malgus seemed amused, almost smiling behind his breather. "No, neither of those."

"Her file said nothing about other sibli–"

"Do not concern yourself with it, commander," Darth Malgus told him. "It is a Sith matter."

Author's Note: As much as I despise the idea put forth in The Phantom Menace that the microscopic midichlorians are responsible for the Force, I found they serve a purpose in giving physical evidence of who is Force-sensitive. Therefore, I decided to go with the idea put forth in the novel Darth Plagueis that the midichlorians are attracted to Force sensitive individuals (with an added benefit of slightly retarding the aging process in those strong in the Force).