Chapter 2
Dara Tarask was pacing around her training room, observing the combat skills of her students. They all had excellent forms, though some were weaker than others. She was proud of most sudents, but some were lacking in most areas.
She moved over to a group of friends who were particularly low on skill, but not too low. A little clumsy, but not unacceptable. They were aparring with each other, but were trying too hard. As they swiped at each other, they spun themselves around and knocked themselves off balance.
"Sloppy." Dara said. "You're not trying hard enough."
"We're trying as hard as we can!" One of them complained.
"You're focusing all your strength in your fists; you're supposed to use the force to help channel all your might from your shoulder, through your arm, and to your hand. It'll exert more force. Heceowa, get your friends in shape." Dara said.
"I've been trying." Heceowa told her.
Dara sighed. "You need to seize this essential; you're supposed to leave to join Exar and Ephraim on their mission soon."
"What is their mission?"
The two shadowy figures dashed through the fields to arrive upon the base. They spotted it and began forming their plan.
"This place is locked and loaded. What are we doing until Heceowa gets here?" Exar asked quietly.
"We take out the big guns." Ephraim said, jumping down to the base.
"Wait! What are the big guns?" Exar loudly whispered.
Ephraim jumped down into the middle of the base, startling the Resistance troops; he jumped again up to the cannons on top of the base, before he was fired at.
Exar jumped down behind the troops; he grabbed the back of one of their heads, delivered a hard punch to his face -knocking him out-, and threw him into the pack.
"We're surrounded!"
"Keep at it!"
Exar kept discarding the soldiers until the squad was no more. Ephraim worked on disabling the guns over the base.
Several more soldiers approached Exar and surrounded him. "Put your hands in the air, now!" Ephraim knew what to do, and ducked.
Exar grinned, then slowly raised his hands; the officers went over and cuffed him. "Intruder is apprehended." The soldier commed the base.
Then one of the giant guns on the base was then thrown down into the crowd, crushing many troopers. Exar jumped and pulled his hands from behind himself, then ran and kicked other soldeirs down; he choked one to death with his cuffs. He picked up a pair of keys and used the force to easily unlock himself.
Ephraim jumped down and joined him. "I took care of the guns up top. Take care of the rest inside; I'll keep a lookout." Ephraim said before taking off, but he didn't leave without noticing the green mist eminating from his fingertips.
"This is Resistance Base number 032. We are under attack. Repeat, we are under-" The door to the command center opened, then Exar stepped in.
"Hello boys." Exar said smugly. The Resistance soldiers raised their weapons at him. "I'll give you a chance. Drop your weapons and surrender, or die horrifically." He ended with an expression that read, 'I don't give a crap what happens.'
The Resistance soldiers seemed unphased, and pulled their triggers; no blast emitted. Then they started fearing as they kept trying, but still nothing happened. Exar had his eyes closed, and his hand -which wasn't being used- was wide open; he was using the force to clog their blasters.
The Resistance soldiers tried retreating to other rooms of the compound to call for backup, but Exar used the force to close the doors before the soldiers could reach them. Exar stepped towards them to slaughter them; the Resistance soldiers tried their blasters again, and were successful. But as they shot, Exar ignited both sides of his double-bladed blue lightsaber and deflected the bolts back at them.
They were all hit, and they stumbled to the ground. A few made it up; the others were dead. Exar reached them quickly and cut them down. One on the ground was aparently still alive. Exar approached him and raised his blade; the soldier was backing up as best as he could.
Exar then saw the look of pure fear and horror on the soldier's face, and hesitated. He didn't let go of his tough face; he thought he had to keep the intimidating factor up. The soldier's terified face seemed to disappear as he reached for his blaster swiftly and shot at Exar. Exar's instincts made him deflect the blast back to the soldier.
Exar remained standing in the empty room for a moment as the battle continued outside. He heard the explosions and battle cries, yet still he remained. He hadn't truly experienced being feared until this moment. He loved being friends and having friends; he enjoyed having people who loved being around him; he didn't consider that his actions in the field would put out a sense of fear in the galaxy.
'Are we... bad guys?' He asked himself.
He had been told that he was fighting the bad guys, but never thought about it. They were fighting the Resistance, but what were they resisting? The Resistance does what they think is right, and they were against the First Order. There must have been something bad in the first place in order for there to be something to resist.
They fought the First Order, and he was fighting the Resistance. It seemed like he and the First Order were on the same side. And what he was doing was inducing fear and terror. All of a sudden, Exar began having second thoughts.
'Are we the bad guys?'
"Exar! You done in there?" Exar heard Erk shout as he entered the room.
"Uh, yeah. I am."
"Well our ride's here, and I rigged the charges. Come on!"
They ran out and boarded their auto-pilot pickup ship, and flew out of range. Once out of range, Erk activated the detonator, and the entire base exploded, and Exar watched as that happened, and it provoked his thoughts even more.
"Exar? What's up?" Erk asked as he deactivated auto-pilot and started flying the ship.
"Oh, no-"
"Don't say 'nothing.' " Erk commanded.
Exar quietly grunted, then said, "It's not important."
"Well if it's bothering you as much as I sense it is, then it's worth discussing."
"I've uh, I've... been having second thoughts."
Erk was quiet for a second. "What about?"
"Our way of life."
Aren sensed a disturbance in the force, and it caused a disturbance within him.
"Does he want... to betray us?" He asked himself.
"Aren!" Jecht called his attention. "Our hackers intercepted Resistance picture from a secret camera."
"What kind of picture?" Aren asked as he took it.
"Enough that they can put out a warrant."
Sure enough, it was. They had a crystal clear picture of Exar striking down Resistance soldiers.
"Did you stop this from being sent?" Aren asked.
"I'm afraid not." Jecht replied.
'We know what we have to do then.' Aren thought. "Get everyone together." He commanded.
"Yes, sir!"
Aren had the leaders gathered, and tried making his point clear and short before the attack team arrived back at the base. "We may be entering hard times soon. We have found out that the Resistance is able to identify attackers. More specifically: us. We've gone a long while without being reported, and we don't want that cycle to break."
"What do you suggest we do?" Ora asked.
"We need to find wherever it is they receive those images, and blow it to pieces."
"Are we going to send our attack team? They'll need time to recover." Dara said.
"No. We will restrain from attacking until all is clear. Then we will make our move. They may see it coming, but they're still no match for me."
"I get your point. I do. It's, thought-provoking. But Exar, you're crazy if you think you could escape under Aren's watch."
"I know." Exar said, pausing for a dramatic moment. "But he won't always be there."
Ephraim thought about that for a split second. 'Ooooh kriff no!'
"Exar, that's bat-dung crazy!"
"Aren never passes up the opportunity to undo compromise."
"What. . . Compromise?"
"He'll do anything to keep our life a secret."
"What did you do?"
"I used one of our cameras to send an image of me in the base."
"What?!"
"They'll be on the lookout for me, maybe the most powerful student. Then, Aren won't let us go out. He'll take out the base so the Resistance has no clue about us. When Aren's gone, I'll make my move."
Ephraim was silent again. "Not to put your spirit down, but. . . I think I might be the most powerful." Ephraim bit his cheek, knowing how cheesy that sounded.
Exar knew he wasn't bragging, so he asked, "Why's that?"
"I wasn't supposed to tell you; but I thought I should now, in case you do leave. . . Or in any other case: die. I had a meeting with a couple of the leaders, and, they, told me I'm. . . an elementeer."
"An elementeer?" Exar stressed the term.
"Yeah." Ephraim answered quietly.
. . . "Dang! Uh, do. . . you know which element?"
"Not yet."
A droid approached his Resistance commander with a report.
"Sir. I have received a transmission from a base in the Outer Rim."
"Bring it up." The commander said nonchalantly.
The droid plugged into a computer, and the commander looked at a screen. He saw the orange Zabrak cutting down a soldier.
"I know those blades. It seems we have a rogue force-sensitive." The commander said. He turned to the droid and said, "You know your job then, droid?"
"Yes, sir."
"But, wait on my word!"
"Yes sir." Then the droid went off; the commander kept his eye on it.
A Resistance captain approached him and said, "You ought to put more trust in that droid. He's thousands of years old, so he's not as capable as he used to be."
"I can't help it, captain. Do you know much about HK-47's?"
"I do, but like I said-"
"I understand."
"Very good. As you were."