After giving 161 and Lana their objectives, Otto climbed up the stairs of the mansion to reach its highest floor. He requested assistance from one of the servants to lead him to the quickest way up. She humbly obliges him and within 15 minutes he was on the top floor. "Here you are, sir. Is there anything else you need?" She softly asks him.
Otto moves to the balcony overlooking the courtyard and upper city. He looks down at the golden railing and takes his gloved index finger to it. He slides it along and then looks at his finger. No dust could be seen, it's just as polished as everything else within the palace. "Nothing more. Resume to your duties," he answers her in his usual monotone. She bows to him, even though he's not looking, "Of course, sir."
The servant girl turns and leaves while Otto begins preparations. The imperial agent lays his rifle bag down in front of him and unzips it. He pulls out his slughthrower and begins reassembly. Once finished, he leans it against the railing as he rummages through his things.
Otto gets the macrobinoculars next and latches it on his belt. Next was his his long ammo belt containing about 100 slug rounds. He looks over to the paintings down the hallway and an idea arises. Otto walks over to two of the nearest wellmade paintings and takes them down.
He pulls out the nails suspending them and returns to his ammo belt. He pulls out his vibro-knife and uses the pommel to hammer the first nail in the wall on the right. Afterwards, Otto grabs the ammo belt and hangs its end on the nail. The agent drags the belt as long as it could go down the hall to estimate where to put the next nail.
Once he has it, he puts the belt down and begins hammering the other nail in. Otto sheaths his vibro-knife, picks up the belt, and hangs its other end on the second nail. 519 makes it to the top around this time and salutes Otto. "Sir," is all he says before taking a spot on the two-seated stool in front of the stairs. Once situated, he waits patiently for further orders.
Otto ignores the stormtrooper, and takes a step back to look at his handiwork with his hands on his hips. He nods and thinks to himself, 'That'll do.' He returns to the railing and his slugthrower. He goes through his bag again and slides the rifle's stands in place. He makes sure they're screwed on tight.
Otto later puts his tools back into the rifle bag and moves it to the left wall. Lastly he takes out his vibro-knife again and plants it in the left side of the railing. The knife hums violently and the railing shakes upon impact before settling down. He pulls the macrobinoculars up and surveys the upper city for any signs of: rebel activity, lawbreakers, defacement of imperial property, people not following imperial regulations and protocol to the letter, aliens, etc.
His gaze soon locks onto two children - one Rodian and the other Human - with a large, rolled up poster. The Human boy appears to be on lookout while the Rodian kid walks to the side of a building. As the Rodian unrolls the poster to prepare setting it up, Otto could see the rebel trefoil at the edge of it.
Otto puts his macrobinoculars back on his belt and readies the slugthrower, unfolding the stands and turning the safety off. As he lines up the shot, Otto pauses and looks over to his ammo belt. He refocuses on his slugthrower and pulls the bolt handle.
Otto takes the slug he had in the rifle and leans the gun against the railing again. The agent turns to his ammo belt and looks for the explosive slug. Once he finds it, he replaces it with the standard slug round.
Otto returns to his rifle and loads the explosive slug in. He repositions his line of sight to those two kids who're still working on hanging up the propaganda poster. Anxiousness and fear prevalent in their every action. Apparently the Rodian messed up in hanging it the first time, and he shakily tries again.
The Human boy looks over to him and gestures urgently for the Rodian to finish. Otto positions his intended shot in between the the two children and fires. A loud crack echoes pass the palace and into the nearest parts of the upper city.
The sound waves shake objects within the hallway and startles nearby birds. The kids stop what they're doing and yank their heads around to see where the noise came from. Shortly after an explosion goes off in between them.
The duo and their poster are engulfed in flames. Parts of the Rodian child flew all over the place. Drops of green colored blood dotted parts of the street and the side of the building. The Human child didn't receive the brunt of the hit, but was pushed back from the blast and is covered in fire.
Otto could see the boy screaming in agony as parts of his body have been split off and more of his flesh burns off. The unrecognizable form tries getting back up and putting out the flames to no avail. He soon crumples to the ground, his lungs filled with cinder and smoke as his body begins charring. "Burn," Otto softly says with the same placid look on his face.
519 looks over to Otto and immediately comms his squadmates just after the explosion. "Disregard that, Seventeenth squadron. It's just Agent Mateen up top." 161 answers back, "Copy, 519." The channel closes on both their ends soon after.
Otto pulls back the bolt handle and the slug's cartridge flies out. He hears Lana on his comm-link soon after. "Otto! What was that!?" Otto takes the comm-link from his belt and dryly replies, "I'm cleaning the planet." Otto pockets the comm-link, places his slugthrower against the railing and moves to the left wall.
He pulls the vibro-knife out of the railing and carves two talleys into the marble. After a long pause, the Kiffar comms back utterly confused. "Wh-what? You're blowing our… what are you doing? What're you shooting… is something wrong? Was someone coming?" Otto passes the vibro-knife to his right hand and plants it back on the railing.
He pulls the comm-link back up and only says to her, "This needs to be done. Keep the channel clear." He hangs up on Lana soon after and walks towards the ammo belt.
Lana turns her comm-link off when she hears static. She looks to 161 and says to him irritated, "I'm going up there." 161 nods to her and she runs towards the mansion. Once inside, she asks the servants for the quickest way to the top floor. They direct her accordingly and she runs to the top. When she gets up there she sees 519 sitting with his blaster sniper rifle placed next to him.
Upon seeing her, he sits up straight and salutes her. Lana nods and jogs past him to where Otto is. She sees him with macrobinoculars raised. The bounty hunter stands next to him and pulls out her own to see where he made the explosion. It doesn't take too long to find the site, and she sees what's left of the two children. The planet's local vermin currently taking what they want from the corpses. Lana drops her hands to her sides, anger and sadness etched on her facial features. She snaps her head to look at Otto and shouts, "Children!? Really!?"
Otto keeps looking through his macrobinoculars when responding to Lana's outburst. "They became traitors and instigators against the Empire the second they obtained enemy propaganda. This planet's inhabitants have become complacent and disrespectful to those ruling them. The quickest way to correct that is by instilling fear back into the populous."
Lana sighs and wipes her forehead with the back of her right hand. She can't really say anything to stop him, and she wasn't going to risk giving orders to Tharan's squadmates again. She looks at him and says, "C-could you at least keep the noise down, please?" "No promises," Otto plainly answers. Lana breathes a small sigh of relief as she turns and leaves. She didn't say the wrong thing this time and wouldn't face Tharan's wrath again.
As she goes down the mansion's stairs, Lana hears B'el Sah over the in built comms. "All maintenance and worker droids within the vicinity, would you kindly meet with Officer TK-161 at the courtyard?" Lana decides it best not to think too much of it. When she exits the mansion and sees the courtyard, another shot from Otto went off and she flinched at the cracking sound.
Lana sighs again and sits herself down to see what the stormtroopers are up to. She sees rows of 40 or so army troopers standing at attention. Nearly all of the worker and maintenance droids in the palace were standing off to the side.
Her captors' stormtroopers encircled the army troopers with blasters at the ready. TK-161 stood in front of all these troopers with the former captain on his knees next to him. 604 stood next to the demoted trooper's right with his blaster rifle pointed at his head.
161 addresses the army troopers with deadly authority, "Your captain and Moff have failed their duties towards Taris, and more importantly the Empire. Instead of doing anything about it, you all allowed yourselves to be inactive and ignorant of the planet falling apart around you. I don't want to hear your excuses of just following orders. Every single one of you are held responsible for the dissolution of Taris. For over 10 years, you've never reported to high command for your commanding officers' detrimental actions, and have allowed them to undermine imperial authority here! As such, we've been given direct orders from ISB to undo the mess you failures have caused."
One of the army troopers at the far right, more agitated than the others, slowly goes for his blaster pistol. 557 sees his movements despite the other troopers crowding, and fires a stun bolt on his right hand. The force of it was enough to break several bones, tendons, and veins in the trooper's hand. To pour salt on the wound, 161 had them turn off their stun setting's instant numbing feature.
He kneels to the ground and screams in pain. The other army troopers give him a wide berth with their hands raised. 161 says to the army trooper with increased anger in his voice, "You're lucky we need the numbers private, or I would have you killed alongside this insult to commanding authority! Any more stunts like that from the lot of you, and I'll turn this into a firing squad execution! Needed numbers be damned!"
The army troopers tense up in both anger and fear. The injured army trooper gets back up and uses his stimpack to help fix his swelling, discoloring hand. The demoted captain cries and snivels to himself as the tension grows thicker between the two trooper types. "None of you have authority anymore. You adhere to us now, specifically me on the orders of the ISB. You have a problem with that, I'm sure its agents will be more than happy to give you an audience. Now, you will split into two groups that'll be of actual use."
161 raises his left hand and figuratively cuts the group down the middle. "The 10 on the left will be guarding the inside of the mansion. If you can't shoot, you better make yourself a good shield for the civilians and guests within. The remaining five over here will be stationed on the new emplacements." "The 15 on the right will be stationed at the back of the wall. You'll be rearmed with the majority of missile tubes available, all sniper rifles, and the E-Webs. All seven FWMB-10s stay as the new turrets." "Thank you God," 626 mumbles to himself. "Do these objectives right troopers, and once order comes back to this planet, you will all be pardoned by the Empire for your crimes of neglect." Shortly after 161's speech, 604 steps aside for his CO. 161 walked behind the demoted captain, raised his blaster rifle at the back of his head, and fired right when he tries screaming for mercy. The trooper's body fell unceremoniously to the tiled floor as blood and gray matter sprayed from the headshot. 161 looks back at the crowd of army troopers. "Any sudden acts of retaliation from here on out will be met with lethal force by all of the 17th Squadron and the droids generously given to us. Don't underestimate your guests as well. You'll stand by and wait for further instructions by an assigned stormtrooper. Dismissed. Get out of my sight."
Lana couldn't hear most of what 161 was shouting from where she was at, but she could see where this was going. After the demoted trooper's death, the army troopers split off into two groups. One group went to the back with sniper rifles and missile tubes in hand, and the other headed towards the mansion with only blaster pistols to their sides. Lana got up and walks past them to where 161 still stood. She could see him talk to three stormtroopers - the only different looking one was the one with a datapad in their hand. They saluted 161 shortly after and ran off in different directions. Three other stormtroopers pick up the body of the ex-captain and begin the necessary cleaning procedures.
161 turns to see who's coming after resetting his blaster to stun and activates the safety. He sees Lana approaching and stands attention. "Got the place secure," she asks him, trying to distract herself from what she saw at the balcony.
"Nearly there, ma'am," TK-161 nods to her. "We just had to redirect our new assets to their objectives before finishing up our own tasks. 902's readying the droids Agent Sah procured to their new duties at the back of the wall. 604 and 557 are sorting out the cannon fodder as well." Lana nods, paying only half attention. They hear the clanking of droid feet against the tile soon after.
At the corner of her eye she sees a boy - 14 or 15-years-old - sitting on the edge of a nearby fountain with a datapad and a stylus in hand. She turns her head fully to where this teenager is and notices that he's looking back at them. When she gets a better look at him, she sees that he's dressed in fine clothing. Not nearly as ostentatious as the assistant, but far more intricate and brighter than the tunics her captors wore.
She couldn't tell what his eye color was at this distance, but Lana could see his short, wavy hair was a brighter and fuller shade of blonde compared to her dull, pale coloration. He briefly squints at them and puts his head down to proceed in whatever he's doing. Lana turns over to TK-161 and asks him while pointing towards the boy.
"Do you know who that is and why he's here?" 161 shakes his head, "No ma'am." The bounty hunter looks back at the teenager and then gestures to 161, "Follow me." 161 does as told and walks beside Lana to the fountain.
Once she's 90 centimeters (2 ft) away from this boy, Lana gets his attention. "Hey, what're you doing here?" The boy raises his head from the datapad, and stares at them with an inquisitive look. Lana walks a little closer and leans forward to get a look at what he's doing.
The boy tilts the datapad towards his chest and glares at her with suspicion in his blue eyes. "That homework? This really isn't the best time for that. It's not really safe to be out here, kid," she says somewhat friendly. He scowls at her and glances over to 161, and then to the stormtroopers at the gates.
He looks back at her with the look of disapproval still on his face and finally speaks. "You're the people my father said were coming, aren't you?" The teenager asks with obvious disgust in his voice.
Lana puts two and two together fast and answers the Moff's son, "Yes, we're here to discuss things with your father." She can see the boy had his guard up and made sure not to escalate things. The boy's glare intensifies at her, "You don't look like any imperial officer I've seen." Lana plainly says, "That's cause I'm not."
He responds to her with a pompous air mixed with his distrusting attitude, "Who are you, then? You have to tell me: I'm the Moff's son." Lana suppresses her sneer at the teenager, "Ah, you know what, I think that you should follow orders. It's not very safe out here." He snorts at her, "Of course it isn't safe. You people are here. What will you do if I don't comply? Blast my brains out in the middle of the courtyard like you did to Captain Apell? Or have your sniper blow me up like he did to whatever poor sod that was out there?"
Lana gives a heavy exhale and thinks to herself, 'Well, shit. He's a spoiled, snobby rich boy, but he's sharp.' Lana thinks carefully in how to coerce this imp boy. She nicely says to him, "We're only doing what's best for everyone in the palace's safety. That includes you. Just please go inside till everything's settled, and we'll explain everything. Promise."
The teenager glares daggers at her and says with venom in his voice, "Don't patronize me, woman. I'm not a child. You don't have authority here: none of you can tell me what to do." "Tch," TK-161 softly blurts out while still standing attention.
Another shot from the balcony reverberates and echoes throughout the palace. Lana stands back straight and gives an exasperated sigh. She checks for her comm-link and decides it best to message Tharan. "Sir, I believe we have the Moff's son out here. He refuses to get inside. What do you want me to do?"
Tharan comms back with jubilation in his voice, "The Moff has a son? Oh, oh… you must bring him to me." Lana inwardly shudders, knowing Tharan has that wide, uncomfortable looking grin on his face right now. On top of that, despite the gleefulness in Tharan's voice, there's biting authority underneath his words. 'Can't turn back now,' she thinks to herself. She replies before Tharan gets annoyed by the pause, "Understood, sir."
Lana looks back at the teenage boy and says, "You're coming with us. Don't make this difficult for yourself." The boy huffs, "Like I said, 'peasant,' you don't have authority over me. And your cloned lacky may be an officer, but he's of no 'high standing'." He stresses greatly on how low their status is compared to him.
Lana clenches her fits out of irritation of this smug brat bad mouthing his elders. The boy sees this and snorts at her, "What are you going to do? Use force to get me inside? If you two so much as touch me, my father will-" Lana suddenly punches the boy square on his nose, not allowing him to finish his sentence.
His head snaps back with his eyes briefly showing shock before rolling up. He loses his grip on the datapad and it falls to the tiled floor with a cracking sound. The boy falls backwards into the fountain with a splash. Another crack blasts from the balcony.
TK-161, instead of grabbing the unconscious teenager out of the fountain, turns his head slightly to Lana. "Nice punch, ma'am," he says with a hint of satisfaction from the bounty hunter's action. Lana cracks a smile and chuckles at 161, "Get him outta there before he drowns."
161 follows his orders and Lana goes over to pick up the datapad, now with a crack across its screen. As she scoops it up, the datapad's history flies through her mind's eye. Feelings of anger, frustration and sadness pour into her from the datapad.
Detailed, hate filled messages the boy had written, describing how his father has been treating him, and that he'll no longer take it. He intended to send them every time, but they were always deleted shortly after being made.
Many saved, beautifully made sketches pass by in her head. The last one showing a fully made, detailed, full body sketch of TK-161. Next to it is an unfinished sketch of Lana from the torso up: it has most of the scratches on her armor plates, the small wrinkles on her jumpsuit, the exposed strands of hair from her hood, the vertical lines on her half mask, the ergonomic grip on her vibro-longsword, and even her Qukuuf was done right; in spite the angle and distance he was at. Behind the two well-made sketches was a rough outline of the courtyard with other stormtroopers in it, and the body of this Captain Apell. 'Pretty good likeness,' she thinks.
161 holsters his blaster rifle and picks up the unconscious teenager. He slings him over his left shoulder and waits for Lana to direct him. The splashing of water and the pitter patter of droplets snap Lana out of her thoughts of what she saw.
She can't look at this kid the same way now. 'He's a punk… but…,' she thinks conflicted. It was just easier for her to think of him just as some imp's privileged son who liked to run his mouth.
The mother in her instinctively thought about getting him out of here, but she had already sealed his fate when telling Tharan about him. She has a vague understanding of what he'll do to this kid, and that breaks her heart. "Let's go," she says to 161 with no feeling into the words. The Kiffar maintained a stone face when talking to 161, but once she turns around she quickly pulls her half mask back up. Otto fires another shot.