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Chapter 7: Empire Day Prelude

Coruscant, Core Worlds

Empire Day

Time not Specified

3648 ATC

Archangel P.O.V.

"Audio log number 4382. Today is the day that the Empire takes time to celebrate its birth. It a very festive time and billions upon billions of citizens across the galaxy come to celebrate and salute the Galactic Empire. On Coruscant The day begins with massive parades, huge gatherings of people in the streets, watching on as the Empire displays its great strengths, massive numbers, and impressive power. Every type of warrior from simple Imperial Stormtroopers to the Emperor's Imperial Guardsmen arrive and parade. Though differing in rank, name, and skill, they are all the same in the manner that they are rigid, lifeless, and mindless servants of the Emperor. There are few with even the mind to think beyond what is ordered of them and what is in their training. In this way, they are painfully predictable, and that provides me with a window of much opportunity. As I speak, the parades occur, and I watch from one of the apartment towers.

"Although I myself am not capable of clearly witnessing the going-on down below, I view it with the same disdain as I have before, not only that but also pity, but not because they chose the wrong side. I pity them all because they did not choose in the first place, The Empire does not give choices. The Empire forces individuals against their will to do what they desire, and it is even more shameful that most people do not have the ability to muster any sort of courage and spit back.

"It truly is a sight to behold. Billions of afraid people with no idea as to how to oppose the Empire, but the ordinary and normal citizens of the galaxy are not meant to understand. It is a melancholy existence for them, but I am also aware that while some are warriors, others are doctors, politicians, teachers, financialists, traders, scientists, careers that shape the galaxy just as much as war, battle, and combat does, and perhaps even more. I do not berate the galaxy for its inability to fight because I cannot. They do not have the proper skills nor the proper mindset to become warriors. Does that make them inferior to me? Absolutely not. As I have explained, they are skilled in their own way.

Why do I speak of this? How does it pertain to the Empire and this celebration? The answer is this: the citizens of the galaxy are the heart of the galaxy. To be without them is to be without purpose. The galaxy would be an embodiment of nothingness without the people in it. These people do not need the fear of the Emperor in their hearts to hamper their progress. Freedom is a sacred, I believe. All people have great potential, and I know that given the right motivations, the right resources, and a bit of intelligence, the galaxy could actually become prosperous, thriving, and far more than what it is now.

"Many people, politicians and the likes, believe the old Galactic Republic to be thoroughly corrupt and vile, and was ultimately a failure, to which I know that is an absolute lie. The Galactic Republic has had a history of over 25,000 years, a lifespan far longer than that of the fifteen-year-old Galactic Empire. In its time, when corruption was resorted to, it was out of desperation, out of need, when people were not thinking rationally enough to see what they were doing. In the waning years of the Republic, there had been many events in the Galactic Senate that changed the balance of power. The Senate willingly and without question handed power to the former Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, which can only mean that somehow the Sith had managed to gain a foothold in the Senate long before the Sith took power.

"The Rule of Two dictates that only two can exist: a master and an apprentice. One day, if the apprentice is worthy, the apprentice will rise against the master and kill the master. The apprentice shall then become the new Sith Master and take their own apprentice, and so the cycle continues. Darth Bane was the Sith that created this rule, and in doing so, he ensured that over the course of almost a millenium, the Sith would be unseen as they slowly and discreetly undermined the Republic from the inside out.

"The Senate is now all but useless. The Emperor's rule makes their authority and power ineffectual at times. To make matters more sour, the Senate is gradually becoming the spitting image of the Emperor's lust for power. Although many senators that served before the Empire's rise still retain their seat, they are but a few, and the one that does dare to speak out, his name being Gall Trayvis, is now an exile, and rightfully so if he is aware what is best for himself. Now no one dares to speak out, at least not openly, but I have reason to believe that some of the Senators will eventually declare an all-out rebellion when the time is right.

"As we speak, there will be hearings and speeches given at the Imperial Palace by some of the most influential and esteemed senators, all loyal to the Emperor to a fault. I think it is time that I make a bold statement and interrupt proceedings. Archangel is already wanted for the murder of thousands of stormtroopers, sabotage, infiltration, theft of top-secret intelligence and data, raiding the Jedi Temple, killing several Shadow and Imperial Guardsmen, and the destruction of two Imperial Star Destroyers. I might as well make an even more audacious stab in the Empire's back by disturbing the peace on the fifteenth anniversary of the Galactic Empire. Not only will the bounty on my head go up, but Imperial Intelligence will apply more assets into taking me into custody.

"And at times like these, I need allies, now more than ever. I do not know what the future brings, and as I look back, all the people that have come and gone in my life were the best things that happened to me, and because of my carelessness and underestimation of the Empire, I led them to slaughter. In response, I devote myself more to fighting, and now, I feel that I have learned my lesson enough times to know how to find friends and collaborators without endangering their lives. Force knows I will take the punishments and failures that I have done to my death. Perhaps that is a fitting fate for one who kills and maims and causes a great deal of suffering all because he believes he is doing right.

"This is Archangel, signing off."

Empire Day is a day which I have both hate and both love. I hate it because I hate the Empire; that is rather self-explanatory. The memories are buried in the past, but that does not mean I feel no pain when they are brought up. I try not to think about it much. It serves me no purpose. I shove away those times. The future waits for no one, not even me.

I love it, per se, because I find great opportunity to further Archangel on the Empire's frustration and anger against me. Already I am wanted for so many charges, but today, I am about to attempt perhaps the most suicidal and daring mission that I have even embarked upon. It is suicide because where I wish to strike is heavily fortified with an entire legion of protection, including but not limited to walkers and snipers. It is a fortress, and it is called the Imperial Palace, where the Emperor himself resides when he is not travelling the galaxy.

This mission will begin towards the dawn of night. There are many steps I must take in order to secure my escape. and I will only get one chance to do this. Any errors, even the slightest, could wind up with me dead or worse, so naturally, I spent the better part of the morning and midday to plan this. First off, I need to disable their communication locally. A temporary jammer placed on one of the Imperial Palace's high towers should suffice. It will disable all Imperial signals within a five kilometer radius. The second step involves rigging the walkers guarding the area to detonate. That part will be more difficult because I will not be bringing my cloak with me. The third is to divert some of the stormtroopers towards the city areas in order to lessen any tailers. It's difficult enough to play a game of cat and mouse with TIE Fighters. Extra blaster fire and grenade tossing is great to be more challenging, but the entire point of this operation is not only to complete the mission, but to assess if my stealth abilities are as good as I hope they are. If they are, I can virtually leave the Empire jaws open trying to figure out how a single assailant could even hope to penetrate the numerous defenses guarding the palace.

It is now mid afternoon, and the parades are still going strong as the Empire parades throughout all the major streets and squares. Where am I? The best view possible, atop one of the numerous skyscrapers that Galactic City houses. Countless of billions of lives are visible are far as the eye can see, all of them scared, lost, and confused. It is the way of the Empire to ensue these emotions in the people, and I feel it is my responsibility to remind the galaxy that the Empire is not invincible, and that like any other government, there will be someone to rise up, and once weakness is shown, people will grow more courageous. The people already have the ire and animosity for the Empire, but they simply have need of a means to guide and project them in the right direction.

I do not smile, nor do I frown. I have not really smiled or frowned for a time. I do all my emotional expression in my mind, and right now, I am anxious and excited. Pulling my hood over my head so that only my mouth and chin are visible, I check to make sure that all my weapons, equipment, and gear are in optimal working order.

Because this is a stealth operation, I am traveling light. Instead of wearing full armor, I opt for a pilot's outfit, a cape draped over my right arm. In my belt is my trusty blaster equipped with a scope increasing effective range to 120 meters. Also concealed in my belt are poisonous darts, three flashbang grenades, two sonic detonators, and two fragmentation grenades. My metal foldable bow is on the back of my belt, ready to unfold in exactly 1.83 seconds. I have only two arrows because I hope to only use it against critical targets. My wrist gauntlets house my cable launchers, flame throwers, and retractable wrist knives. The final piece is my tactical macrobinoculars, equipped with a rangefinder, tactical heat vision, and target indicators. It's a light load, and it will allow me to be fast, nimble, and agile.

Balancing at the top of the structure, I began to scale down the building, never using my magnetic gloves and boots because I know that at the rate I am moving along the surface, I do not need to remain in the same spot for more than a second. My motion is fluid and constantly on the move. I'm using the Force to guide myself, and also lifetimes worth of training. Because of my dark colors I am wearing, I am not visible to anyone's eyes. I begin to slide down some glass, making sure that my boots don't snag on the frame holding the glass in place. I then release my grip from the surface and jump, keeping my body straight and my focus on my path downward. For ten seconds, I allow myself to fall, my speed rapidly increasing. I then will myself to do a frontflip against the wind resistance, landing roughly on my feet, the impact slightly painful, but only slightly.

I look at the ship that I've landed on, and find out that it's a light freighter, so I may or may not have alerted the pilot or someone on the ship to my presence on top. I need to ride this direction for at least thirty seconds before departing east. I have time to do so, no need to be in a rush. Without my helmet, it is a bit disorienting trying to discern certain sounds from the other, but I should be able to hear clearly if anyone was to go checking for signs of danger, I steel myself to prepare for the worst. I count down the seconds till the next jump, eyes narrowed. I hear the sound of muffled voices, and I still have eleven seconds left to the end. At seven seconds, I hear a hatch open and out come two thugs with blasters. I do not tense up. They see me and they raise their blasters at me. I simple turn away from them and do a head dive off the ship. I plunge fifteen meters before coming into contact with another ship heading the way I want. I do a roll and come to a stop, the ship with the thugs long gone.

I sit down cross-legged. This ship is far too big for anyone to know that I'm here. Anyone who has probably heard would immediately dismiss it. I'm okay for now. Now I stare into the distance. I only have a few minutes, but I'll take those minutes and use them to the fullest. The memories can now fuel these next few hours.

Something that kills me...it makes me feel alive

00000000000000000000

Sabine P.O.V.

Sabine was somewhat shocked. No, that wasn't the right word. She was overwhelmed, for many reasons to top it off.

Today was Empire Day, a day that everyone hated because they all fought against the Empire, all for different reasons, but for the same goal. Sabine's reasons were due to her family. Those memories were painful, and more often than not, she didn't think about them. It was too much to think about.

Everyone had their pain. Sabine knew that Kanan was once a Jedi, and the Sith wiped out his kind. She didn't really know how he felt personally about it, but she could make guesses. Hera had not explained her reasons, but she supposed that maybe discrimination could be a possibility, but who knows. Hera answered questions without giving answers, and that wasn't about to change anytime soon that Sabine could see. Zeb's whole species was destroyed to the point of near-extinction. That, itself, would be justification enough for Sabine to make sure those son of a huts payed two fold. Ezra had lost his parents to the Imperials, and no one but Tseebo knew where they were.

Ezra Bridger. His situation should've been no better or worse than everyone else's situation. He lost people that were important to him. Losing parents to anyone can do that to a person. Sabine didn't doubt for a moment that his anger and despair came from it. His self-dependence also came from that as well. She knew what it was like to lose people close to you, maybe not in the way that he did, but still losing family just the same. Yet for all the reasons that Sabine tried to rationalize that Ezra's anger was a bit too much, it wasn't. for some reason, his situation seemed more tragic than everyone else's. She couldn't find the words to describe it other than that.

What was even more astonishing was that Ezra didn't seem to be in any hurry to do anything about the possibility that his parents could still be alive. If it were her, Sabine would jump at the chance, even if it was small. Ezra, by contrast, was really reluctant and maybe afraid, but why should he be afraid? They're his parents. There's nothing to be afraid of. Sabine, for a moment, came to see Ezra as less of a kid and more of a person who was caught between a rock and a hard spot. She felt bad for him.

Her attention was brought back to the disk that was currently being cleaned up. It was the one from Ezra's old place. Apparently, he didn't think it was anything important, but she wasn't so determined to give up yet. She wasn't one to waste anything. This disk had to have something on it. This was some old tech compared to what the Ghost packing. This disk might have been the standard of tech maybe ten or so years back, but not now. Her motivation to defrag and clean this disk was more than simply finding something useful. She thought that maybe she could use it to somehow comfort Ezra. Force knew the kid needed it. She wanted to do something for him because she could sympathize with his ire for the Empire.

She never thought she'd ever be doing anything for that kid. He was stubborn, naive, and stupid sometimes. It seemed that he always found a way to attempt to hit on her. At first, it had annoyed the living daylights out of her, but she had learned to ignore it, or deflect it back at him. It's not that she didn't like him, but she didn't like him that way. He still did it, and she found amusement in keeping him left behind in the dust in the game.

The disk was now coming together, and Sabine could now make out what the disk was all about. What she saw filled her with a small smile, and a bit of sadness. It was what looked to be a picture of Ezra in his childhood years, along with a man and a woman. They were his parents.

If anyone caught the song that was mentioned in the chapter, then props. I don't think it's too difficult to figure out.

Anyway, REVIEW because they're love, and they're what keep me writing. Apologies for the short chapter, but I've been coping with my recent surgery that had four wisdom teeth removed. Next chapter will be quite an undertaking.

Hope you all enjoyed. Thanks for reading, and remember, the measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.

Peace out!