Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me; all of this is property of George Lucas, Lucasfilm, Lucasarts, and Disney. This story is also inspired by the film Goldeneye, which also does not belong to me. Goldeneye belongs to Eon Productions, MGM, and United Artists.


—8—

At the observation station's kitchen the ceiling ventilation grate still smoldered. There was a creek from one of the cupboards as Lahid crawled out from one of them.


The three TIE Fighters zoomed over the mountains of Balmorra, closer to the distressed observation station.

Beta Two, one of the three pilots in the three TIE Fighters headed towards the Balmorra station, watched as his squad leader pulled ahead of the rest. The observation station came into sight along with the large rectangular weapons factory and the smaller huts surrounding it.

As they blew over it Beta Two said, "Negative so far. Everything is normal."

He checked his radar and saw a man shaped blip. Beta Two spoke again, "Beta Leader? Reporting a Dark Trooper model of some kind. Neither a Phase One or a Phase Two. The computer doesn't recognize it."


Lahid heard the sound of a beeping alarm echoing throughout the observation station's bunker, a red light flashed in the main control room. He stared around at the dozen fallen bodies of the people he used to work with. Flimpsiplast documents, spilled caf, and blood was everywhere.

A louder alarm started—one repeating whistling sound. Lahid looked up. He saw three blips on the main viewscreen headed towards the station. He looked down toward one of the consoles and read on it: TIME TO TARGET. At the bottom of those words was a timer with four seconds remaining.

Four, three...

He gritted his teeth.

Two, one...

He ducked his head.


The Dark Troopers finished their march to the observation station and stood with the wind whirling around them. They stood still, lights blinking off of their bodies and weapons. Statues in a museum. Pieces on a holochess board.

The patrolling Stormtroopers close enough to see them stopped and stared at them curiously.

All at once they raised their weapons and fired. Lasers and missiles flew off in different directions but all of them centered and aimed perfectly. Lasers tore apart the bodies of patrolling Stormtroopers and missiles blew apart bunkers, warehouses, and factories—even the Lambda-class shuttle on the landing pad.


Lahid, surrounded by fire and sparks, the ground quaking violently beneath him, stood up, dashed across the control room, and leapt underneath the staircase leading the kitchen. The kitchen detonated in a fiery explosion—littering the main control room with giant, blackened chunks of debris. The viewscreen shattered, glass flying in every direction. The quad-linked monitors on the ceiling sparked and exploded, adding more glass to the devastation. Several adjoining offices erupted into flame at the same time the primary control panel in the observation room did.

Lahid screamed.


The viewscreen in Home One's briefing room showed several explosions lighting up the area of the Imperial observation and heavy weapons factory—then the entire area was a blackened, hulking ruin.

An object flew from the wreckage, a trail of vapor behind it. The viewscreen winked out and turned into static.

Mon Mothma, Ackbar, and Cheato stared.

Ackbar turned to the Chief of State, "What was that?"


The Dark Troopers, unseen by the radars of Beta Squadron, hustled over the debris and flames surrounding them, and stepped into the surrounding fields and mountains away from the wreckage of the observation station.


The three TIE Fighters of Beta Squadron made a U-turn and continued on a new trajectory toward the observation station.

There were two brief flashes of light from the darkened ground.

WARHEAD LOCK appeared on the screen of Beta Two's HUD—just one second before the missile hit his ship. The missile's collision explosion blew apart his starboard solar panel. This sent the TIE tumbling to starboard right into Beta Three's TIE Fighter. Both blew apart brightly in Balmorra's night sky.

The second missile detonated prematurely above Beta Leader's fighter—this sent his ship careening towards the ruins of the observation station. His TIE hit the surface, tumbling and bouncing like a skipping stone across the ground. The ship hit one of the buildings, crushing it into nothing, pieces of debris rising up and blossoming into the dirt on the ground. The TIE tumbled through another small building before it connected with the large factory. The explosives inside the weapons factory detonated. The entire radius of the base was engulfed in red flames.


The ground shook even harder and the engineer screamed again. He leapt up from underneath the kitchen staircase and bolted across the control room. He tripped on a chunk of the ceiling and tumbled onto the floor. A group of quad-linked monitors snapped from their cables in the ceiling and fell—stopping a tenth of a meter above his body.

The engineer stared at the cracked and shattered monitors. He could only hear himself panting.


The weapons facility was completely emptied out after the previous explosion from the TIE Fighter wreck. The roof still held together. Several cracks formed and the support columns to the building shuddered.


Lahid found the body of Aran lying on the floor as if he were asleep. Aran's body was surrounded by blackened debris and blood trickled from his mouth. He took a tarp from a nearby storage container and placed it over Aran's body. He stared at him for a few minutes before sitting back and staring even longer into nothing. He looked around the room. There was only fire, ash, and bodies. He walked to the once-transparisteel gate—now there was only the durasteel grid of the gate and glass littering the floor. The control panel on the wall at the opposite side of the gate was crumpled and sparking.

"Engineer Lahid," he said to the device.

It started smoking.

Lahid grabbed the gate's frame and screamed at the device, "ENGINEER LAHID!"

A cloud clang came from the observation room's ceiling behind him. He turned and looked up. He stepped back into the observation room and looked around—more clanging came from the ceiling but from all different directions. He kept listening and looking until he saw several ventilation grates in the ceiling next to one of the broken quad-linked monitors. He looked around again for a ladder. He began walking to the storage room.

The entire ceiling came down in a flaming wreck, crushing the remaining desks and bodies scattered all over the observation room. Lahid ducked into a hallway and waited for the thunderous noise to finish. After the sounds had subsided he stared at the wreckage. Criss-crossed durasteel beams had fallen in with the weapons factory above. The beams resembled a ladder that led through the newly-opened hole in the ceiling.


Above the entire base burned ceaselessly, no building left untouched. From the burning wreckage of the weapons factory climbed Lahid, panting, covered in even more soot and ash than he had been in the bunker. When he finally got his feet on the ground he observed the damage around him—nothing but endless fields of fire and ruined structures. He picked a direction and began walking and stumbling, calling out, "Rix! Rix!"