"No, no! That's, uh… not necessary, I mean..." Luke held up a hand, panicking, his other hand gripping the rifle. "You… you don't want to inform an officer about this," he said in desperation, lamely waving his hand and ignoring the fact that a weak mind wasn't the same as death-dealing programming.
"Officer, there is a problem in this sector," the droid said into the speaker on its arm. "Send assistance for — "
Luke ducked and then dodged out of range of the droid's weapon. He brought out his own blaster and aimed at the droid's voice-receptor, damaging it, and the vents were set with a blazing ring. The droid let out incomprehensible electric noise as it attempted to speak. Luke shot again, and in a matter of seconds the arm that wielded both the gun and communicator was dangling from its robotic body, scorching and releasing white sparks.
The droid didn't take long to react. It brought out another gun from its other arm, and unleashed a rush of blasterfire at Luke, who drew back in response. He headed towards the door, the plastic armor restraining his legs from stretching far enough to run efficiently, while his ears filled with the sound of lasers hitting durasteel.
He whirled around to shoot back. He missed, and hit the panel of the opposite entry door instead, inadvertently locking it. After this a red beam nearly hit him on the chest, and he winced from the heat and sparks, and stumbled backwards.
The droid wasted no time to take advantage of this. It fired again, and this shot hit closer to the unprotected side of Luke's neck, just burning through the black material he wore underneath. He grunted from the hot sting of pain.
He let loose a few random shots, hitting the valve of a canister that jettisoned a leak of steam. Another shot, and he hit an air filter that was installed on the ceiling. The heavy metal frame broke off immediately, and crashed on top of the droid's square head, blocking its view. Luke took this moment to slip away, dash to the other door, and smash his palm over the access button. Hunching, he dove through the door as it opened, stray lasers still pursuing him.
After crossing through, he turned and shot at the door's activation panel. In another instant, the barrier closed down and had locked itself automatically, shielding him from further harm.
Luke scrambled away as he heard the continuing blasts and chaos coming from behind the door. It dawned on him that the droid was trapped on the other side now, with all means of communication destroyed... As he inwardly thanked the Force, he let a flush of satisfaction rise in his chest. He grinned.
Still... someone was sure to come to the droid's call eventually. He had to flee. If he met up with the other troopers, maybe he could blend in long enough for them to reach their destination before anyone found out what had happened...
Luke came to his feet, one hand on the raw burn on his neck, and the other clutching the gun in his hand. As he hurried away, he considered that maybe feeling like a Rebel in this situation wasn't so impossible after all.
—
—
Luke had stayed out of sight of anyone since his run-in with the sentry droid, telling Thanoth about the encounter when he met up with him and Artoo in the cargo room.
The inspector was less than pleased.
"Uncouth," he said with a bitter shake of his head. "Utter uncouthness."
"It's not my fault," Luke objected, holding his helmet at his side and jabbing his finger at Thanoth. "You're the one who gave me those directions!"
Thanoth pinched the midline of his nose and sighed. "But I did not tell you to start shooting at sentry droids. Perhaps you've forgotten that we are stowaways? That we are supposed to be on a covert mission?" The lines around his mouth stretched behind his mustache. "I know you Rebels are a trigger-happy lot, but you realize you've jeopardized everything just so you could play hero in a little action scene, don't you?"
"What?" Luke shot him a wide-eyed look. He numbly began shaking his head. "You can't... That thing was shooting at me! I had to do something! If I hadn't —"
"Your reactions were understandable, Luke, but this is a retrieval transport, not a warship. Those sentry machines make false reports quite often, and if you complied with the arrest and identified yourself, the officer likely would've just dismissed the whole thing and let you off. Your chance of avoiding suspicion would've been considerably better."
"How in the name of nebulas was I supposed to know that?" Exasperated, Luke waved out an arm. "Identify myself — as who? How should I have known about any of this?"
"Perhaps if you allowed me a comlink, I could have advised you." Thanoth leaned himself against a crate and set his gaze on him. He held his eye-piece between his fingers and twisted it. "And it just so happens... there is an ID chip in your armor, hidden to the naked eye, but I can pick it up with my monocle. You are... Trooper SV89-T57. And... ah..."
He pulled out a small datapad from his belt pouch and typed into it. He handed it to Luke.
"...There, no reason to blame me this time, it's all right there. You'll need to memorize that ID and this code number. It's how they check the stormtroopers for their scheduled identifications, which you should be due for soon... But perhaps you'd have already known all this if you called me for help."
"It was your so-called 'help' that got me lost in the first place," Luke snapped at him. At his side, Artoo let out an affirmative ring, his blue lights blinking. "And you're insane if you think I'm giving you a comlink."
Thanoth shrugged. He turned away and faced a power grid installed on the wall. He opened a compartment of it, revealing a set of circuits.
"Not taking the advice of an Imperial who's on your side? You're the one who decided to bring me with you on this expedition, need I remind you."
"Believe me, Thanoth, if I didn't need you to get into the Devastator, I wouldn't have." Luke grimaced as he ran a gloved hand through his hair, which was damp from sweat; he still hadn't figured out how to turn on the helmet's cooling system. "Soon as we get to the spaceport, we find an Imperial craft that can get us into that Star Destroyer. If you're really Vader's adjutant, you should be able to get us aboard his flagship no problem... right?"
"I should, yes. But in the meantime, I think it would be unwise to not have communications between us. Especially now. Thanks to the commotion you caused, the whole ship will be put on high alert and there will likely be a sweep of the hull, as well as an interrogation of the troopers." He tipped up his head as he peered at some entwined wires. "We've heard nothing yet, but it may only be a matter of time..."
Luke was about to protest, but huffed in and merely glanced away. Here the inspector had found fault with his actions, and he thought he'd handled that particularly deadly situation rather well. Now Thanoth's logic was starting to sink in, and he was left feeling disconcerted by what he'd done... mortified, even. If what Thanoth said was true, if there was a search and they were caught and everything fell apart now, before their mission had barely begun... he would be the one responsible.
While Thanoth was still examining the grid, Luke reluctantly reached into one of his belt packets. He brought out his spare comlink and pressed the sync buttons on it and his helmet, then placed the small device on the container top. He put his helmet back on and left without a word.
Thankfully, Thanoth seemed to be wrong about the upped security. Luke found that all the hull quarters remained quiet, almost vacant as he passed through them. He tried to turn on the built-in comm in his helmet to get it to work, but stopped when he heard a sound.
There were a few stormtroopers walking together. He hid behind a wall and turned the dials on the outside of his mask, trying to strengthen his audio pick-up.
"... Engineers complaining about being overworked, like always," he heard one of them say. "But the higher-ups won't stand for any more delays. They know that."
"Have they uncovered anything significant about the base, you think?" asked another. "It was just a small refueling base, so I don't get all the expense."
"Not a major operation, but it was still a site for Rebel activity. And Lord Vader was involved, heard he slaughtered a ton of Rebels there. Even survived an X-Wing collision with his TIE."
One of the troopers made a muffled laugh under his mask. "I don't know how those Rebels can stand it. How useless they are."
Luke felt his blood boil and hunched his shoulders in resentment. Again he remembered the battle on Vrogas Vas: all the pilots getting shot down, his own squadron about to engage in that pointless pursuit... They hadn't understood — it was Vader who was controlling that TIE. He had felt that unmistakable presence, a vaporous darkness in the Force, anchoring down the air around him. And he'd felt compelled to end that evil the only way he thought was possible...
But Vader had survived. At the Death Star, on Cymoon 1, over Vrogas Vas... with every encounter he had with the dark, mechanized man, he survived...
"At least this trip's almost over," he heard a stormtrooper say in a hollow voice. "We should be dropping out of lightspeed in two hours. Least, that's what the captain says."
At this welcome bit of news, Luke set his anger aside. As the stormtroopers walked away and their forms blended into the colorless floor, he recalled what Thanoth had told him about the mandatory identification. The group continued on its way, and he carefully began edging closer to them. As they turned a corner, he managed to approach them seamlessly from behind, and was soon trailing after them as if he'd always been there. He waited to hear any other specifics about their destination, but none of them spoke again.
When they arrived at what he assumed were the navigation decks, each of them were stopped by a small droid at the entrance. He recited the numbers of his ID and security code that he'd memorized, and the droid let him pass.
The troopers who had been standing guard before retreated, and Luke, following the example of the others, merely stood at a designation in one's place. He realized he was an extra of the four troopers who had entered, but fortunately the droid left without a pause, and the navigation crew was all preoccupied, practically glued to their monitors. Again none of the other stormtroopers spoke or glanced his way.
It had been an uneventful but incredibly tense couple of hours, being surrounded by so many Imperials for so long, worrying if any would somehow see past his disguise, or if an alarm would go off. To his disappointment, he couldn't view or understand much of what the Imperials were doing. The decks were dark and spacious, and the uniformed men were constantly murmuring to each other, their lit screens containing colored star charts and abstract figures he had no idea how to read.
Finally the doors opened and the next group of stormtroopers came in, meaning his "shift" was over. He left with the same group and walked with them until they reached a long corridor, where he managed to slip away. He jogged into an empty hallway.
"SV89-T57, do you read me?" Thanoth's husky voice fizzed through Luke's ears and he started, hitting his jaw on his vocoder mic.
After an irritable exchange in which the inspector pressed him about his current location, and Luke resisted answering, the young man finally confessed that he was once again lost. The inspector readily gave him directions, and also mentioned that he'd managed to make their comm signal undetected, a detail Luke hadn't even thought about.
Luke listened as Thanoth rambled on about his gripes with distracting noises, and something about his cane being broken. Luke had almost begun to tune out his voice before the ship's announcement system interrupted.
"Attention: we are now out of hyperspace. We will be landing in fifteen standard minutes."
Luke made his way back to the passage that led to the storage room, where, according to Thanoth, the stormtroopers were expected to arrive to carry out the cargo.
Thanoth's voice surfaced in his ear. "Have you reached the door?"
Standing behind a wall with his eyes peeled on the entrance, Luke responded, touching the button on the side on his helmet. "Yeah. No sign of anyone else yet... And you're sure this signal can't be traced?"
"Positive. With what you've told me of this ship's interior, its systems aren't equipped to detect re-set signatures, and I've applied the secure signal to your helmet's integrated comm. How fortunate for us that a few tweaks can work wonders."
Luke merely made a hum in response. Begrudgingly, he felt a wave of gratitude. The inspector had expertise and foresight that he lacked, and as much as he wanted to find something to criticize, he knew he wouldn't be here without his help. He felt indebted to Thanoth... though he wasn't about to let him know that.
A faint chirp was heard though the call, followed by a grunt.
"Yes, droid. You did provide most of the technical work, and thus deserve some credit... both for that, and for destroying an old man's walking stick for no reason."
Gibberish bleeping came through the comm.
"No, blast you and your maker, you outdated, cacophonous little — "
Luke pressed his lips in a smile, imagining Artoo and the inspector, cramped in the cargo room and bickering in the dark.
"Okay, Thanoth... if what you said is true, the inventory droid should get here to lead the troopers out to the hangar," he said, now trying to work the smile off and focus. "Guess we'll see if you're right about that or not..."
"Once we've landed, just follow the others as they carry out the cargo," Thanoth urged. "They will stack it onto an automated hauling unit that should go into the port's depository. Stormtroopers don't process the cargo, so you'll have to sneak your way there to retrieve us."
"Great," Luke murmured. "Should be a breeze." He then fell silent; there were shadows in the distance approaching.
"I think they're coming," he said quietly. "You two just stay hidden and stay silent, got it? Wait for my next call."
"Understood."
There was a solid silence before a blue-plated droid scuttled into view, several stormtroopers following it from behind. Luke recognized the droid as the one that had accounted for all the crew and cargo before takeoff. It stepped tidily forward to the door.
"We have landed," the announcement voice said through the ship system. "All troopers report to begin unloading cargo. All other personnel, report to the bridge."
Finally, Luke thought with relief. Now to just blend in long enough, then slip away once I get the chance...
Luke trailed the stormtroopers and the droid into the cargo room. The room lit up, and he went immediately to the crate he knew Thanoth and Artoo were hiding in. The inventory droid activated the opening rail and it descended, ushering faint light into the room when it fell. A few other troopers helped him with the crate, and they all began carrying their loads to the outside.
As Luke carefully stepped off the rail, he took in his surroundings: the ship was settled on the grey platform of an orbital spaceport, and ahead was a large building that extended a long way to the distance. There were many ships docked with numerous people and droids walking, carrying goods that were being traversed to and from the shipyard. The unmistakable emblem of the Empire was on the fronts of all the gates and towers.
"What are you doing?" said a stormtrooper, who was making extra effort to lift his corner of the crate while Luke, in his distraction, had eased up on his side. He immediately took hold and pressed on with the task.
A pair of flat hovering vehicles had approached, ready for hauling the cargo. They all lifted the crates onto it, and Luke kept his attention on continuing the gruntwork along with the others, carrying and packing the crates as the blue droid entered its data and observed them.
When they were done, the captain appeared. He stood firmly and called for them to file up to be identified again. Luke clumsily ran into another trooper and inwardly cursed himself, and then stood as straight as he could beside the others.
Again he recited his number when the droid asked him, speaking clear and facing forward. The droid's beaming eye-lights passed over him and its body turned as if it was about to pass him, but then it paused.
"Trooper SV89-T57. Your body glove is damaged," it said in its bland, electric voice. It lifted a mechanical hand and touched the air-tight black collar around Luke's neck. "I detect orthofabric deterioration from a plasmic source."
Luke froze up; he remembered the small burn injury on his neck, and wondered how in the galaxy this droid had spotted it past the bulky sides of his helmet. He tried to stay composed, to think of some explanation...
"It's nothing," he said. "Just a misfire while we were patrolling on Vrogas Vas."
The droid retracted its arm and made a nod, then stepped to the next trooper in line. Swallowing as if he'd just inhaled dust, Luke stayed in place and faced forward like all the others.
When the stormtroopers began to return to the ship, Luke dragged at the end of the line. He eyed the droid. It was distracted, reading the datapad it held, and wasn't looking his way. Slowly, gradually, he backed up.
He eyed the hauling unit that was starting to retreat. He eyed the droid, which was still facing away.
Deciding to just go for it, he made a blind leap towards the hauling unit. He nearly tumbled onto it, making a soft thud. He settled his soles on the steely surface and then ducked behind the pyramid of crates, trying to sit himself at an angle that could best hide him from all sides.
Luke huddled awkwardly in his inflexible armor. He heard nothing from the droid... it must not have noticed anything, he thought. He felt the hauling unit move, hovering on automatically, with him blind to where it was taking him.
This will never work, Luke thought to himself.
Then he heard voices; servicemen and droids that were listing names and numbers. They were checking the imports — of course, he had to pass through security...
He gripped his blaster rifle, tried to mentally prepare himself to fight once he was caught. Beads of sweat ran down his brow, into his eyes.
"Ninth line of shipments from Vrogas Vas. Retrieval mission. Class-four container transport." The voice of a man stopped for a brief moment. "Very well. Proceed."
With that, the automated unit shifted underneath him and he was moving again.
A charge of relief ran through him, almost numbed by an equally intense feeling of confusion. In a matter of minutes, he had hitched a ride on this hauler and passed through an Imperial security center without a single problem... Was it a fault of the scanning equipment? Had Thanoth done something?... Whatever it was, he was slipping by.
And they think we Rebels are the ones who are useless, he thought. Perhaps his mission to infiltrate a Super Star Destroyer wasn't as ludicrous as he thought.
Staying crouched in his position, he overheard the rush of crowds and machinery. The rattling of motors, the vibrations of racks, the traffic of working conveyors. It filled the air around him until it slowly but surely faded away, the haul continuing through a number of doorways. Then it reached an area that was quiet and seemed large enough to carry far-reaching echoes. The unit came to a stop, settling on the ground, and shut itself off.
After listening and waiting a moment, Luke loosened himself from his cramped position and carefully brought himself up to stand. He peeked from behind the containers, and saw he was in a dark aisle. It had several stock levels and storage areas that led up to the ceiling. The lighting was reduced to the glowing of some fusion furnaces set in the corners.
He stepped onto the floor and looked around. There was no sign of anyone else, but it was too dark to know for sure. Luke pressed the buttons on his helmet.
"Come on, come on," he muttered, until finally a headlight came on. He searched the area over with the scope of light. There was nothing but more aisles filled with more racks.
"Inspector, do you hear me?" he whispered to his comm, not pausing to wait for a response. "We're inside the facility. I don't know where exactly, some kind of storeroom. Your crate's at the bottom of the pile, I'm going to have to get these others off first... It might take a while."
"Proceed, Luke. But do so quietly."
Luke was already pushing at one of the stacked containers, which nudged only slightly; it was no wonder it took four stormtroopers to lug them at a time. He checked the doors every so often as he continued, struggling to move the crates and trying to not make any loud sound while doing so.
Finally, he'd shifted the last one off and slowly rolled it aside. Breathing feverishly from the exhaustion and the helmet's suffocating heat, he grabbed at the helmet and yanked it off. He inhaled the air, wiping the sweat from his face. Luke slanted on the crate for a brief moment before he stood up straight, then reached out to unlock the clasps.
There came a sound in the distance — the soft hiss of doors opening and closing.
He turned with a start, heart pounding in his ears, and he shone his headlight toward the entryways. He saw nothing. He looked at the walls, the massive shelves of organized stock, the farthest angles of the room. The darkness yielded nothing.
Before his brain had comprehended it, he became aware of another presence, one that was close by. He reached for his blaster.
"Freeze," he heard from behind, followed by the push of something against his neck.
Luke stood completely still. Then he heard the faint but unmistakable sound of someone laughing.
"Idiot," the voice said. "You thought you could actually get away with this."
The voice was a man's, and was vaguely familiar, not only because it carried the usual Coruscanti accent of an Imperial...
"Captain," Luke confirmed quietly. "You... what are you..."
"Yes, Rebel, the captain." Luke then felt fingers against his collar that quickly snapped away, as if picking something off. "I had that droid put a tracer on you... Did you really, truly think no one would see past that sorry disguise?"
Luke breathed in, and dread seized him. He began to slowly move his hand to his rifle, but the point of the blaster pressed harder to his neck.
"I suspected something was off about you... but when I received word from Vrogas Vas that an X-Wing was found abandoned, that a stormtrooper had been reported missing... That, coupled with the ship's surveillance footage... Well, you were practically shouting it for all the universe to hear, weren't you?"
Luke scrunched up his eyes as if they stung. He stood there, his heart racing.
The other man continued, his words seething. "I let you think you had us fooled. I got you through port security and arranged to have you placed here. I got you here, alone. I wanted this opportunity. No capturing, no questioning, no torture. I wanted to kill you myself."
There was a long stretch of silence.
"Rebel scum." His voice was now almost shrill with anger. "You dare to put on that armor? The armor of a soldier, a protector who fights for the Empire and the good of the galaxy? You Rebels, all you do is try to break the peace we bring, you try with all your might. The Death Star wasn't enough for you, was it? You come back for another target, and another, and another..."
Against his neck, Luke felt the blaster shaking in the man's hands.
"My brother — he was a stormtrooper, a real stormtrooper. He was defending his outpost, Rebels invaded. He was blasted three times before the Rebels set off a self-destruct. Most of the troops didn't survive, but my brother did. Now he's sitting in a repulsor-chair somewhere, inarticulate and brain damaged, thanks to you Rebels!"
Staggered and at a loss for words, Luke lowered his head. He was struck by the man's story and he wanted to say something, though knew there was nothing he could say. He remained silent, coldly stuck to the spot.
"Thank you for sneaking aboard my ship," the captain said hoarsely. "A lowly transport captain like me wouldn't get a chance like this everyday... I think a few good shots to the head should do it. A dead Rebel for a debilitated Imperial. That's what I call justice."
Luke compressed his lips, his chest crammed with panic, his muscles shot.
"Die, Rebel."
Luke jutted out his elbow. He hit the man in the chest, and grabbed at the blaster, trying to wrestle it out of the man's hands. The captain groaned as he struggled to keep hold and fight him off, and in the dark Luke could see he was still trying to aim at him. He shot several times, hitting things on the shelves, metal releasing bits of light on impact. Unknown items clanked and fell.
Luke finally let go when his shoulder plate took a hit and he stumbled. Another dart of blasterfire missed his ear by an inch. Luke blindly dodged the shots as one of the higher racks was hit and damaged, the suspension broken. The bulk of the shelves started to cave in.
"Stay still!" the man yelled desperately. "Stay still and die, you — "
Luke took the barrel of his own rifle and drove it across the man's face. He was knocked to the ground, and Luke hesitated at seeing him on his stomach, scrambling and reaching out. He was trying to grab his gun again.
Luke hurried and tried to kick it away, but the other man had already snatched it. He slid on his side and aimed the blaster straight up at Luke's face.
The narrow light of the helmet now cast on the man. Brown bangs clung to his face. He looked at Luke, livid, unblinking, and his bloody lips slowly formed into a smile. He pressed at the trigger.
A red laser struck him in the neck before he could fire. He dropped, face first, to the floor.
—
—
The crate unlocked.
Thanoth rose out from his confinement with difficulty. Artoo, upon seeing Luke, lit up and whistled a greeting. It was followed by a series of questioning bleeps and hums, which Luke made no response to.
"Quite an ordeal," Thanoth said as he stood, shoving off pieces of cracked duracrete from his shoes. He observed the damage and debris on the scorch-marked floor, then looked at the lifeless man lying by the hauling unit. His lidded eyes blinked at the sight and he stepped over the body.
"Well, we'd best leave this place, Luke. Find a ship in the hangar. Shan't be too difficult, I think. Any light freighter will do."
Luke remained silent.
Thanoth studied him for a few seconds, and then added, "Quickly, Luke."
Luke nodded, but stayed where he was, as if grounded there. He felt withdrawn, left in a daze. He saw the stormtrooper helmet still shining its light over the floor, over the form of the fallen captain.
Luke leaned down and took the white helmet in his hands, and turned off the light. He looked at the plastoid facet for a moment. It glared back at him.
"Let's... let's get out of here," he muttered, and he adjusted the helmet back over his head.