Chapter 37: Infiltration
Once the last trooper left, she ran out of the ship, as it was sitting on a hilltop in the deep night just outside of a forest. She saw the troopers load her father onto an Imperial Shuttle and she watched it depart from the atmosphere. It was useless for her to yell after them, because they could not hear her, just like they could not see her. After she lost sight of the shuttle, she turned to bright lights that illuminated the overall landscape of the industrial city that the Empire has called its main base.
Keira was panicked, confused, horrified, curious, anxious, angry, and acting within her own self-conscious instinct. She sprinted downhill and was able to sneak her way into the industrial city. While running down the roads and alleys of the power plant her sight was immersed with massive Imperial structures, such as walkers, weapons, star destroyers, fighters, as well as cannons and turrets under construction.
She looked forward to see a duo of Storm Troopers walking toward her direction. She screamed in fear and drew her light saber at them. When they got close enough, she aggressively swung at them, but the blade never touched them.
"Did you hear something?" The first trooper asked.
"Nah," the second trooper replied, "it's just the wind."
This made Keira remember that she was transparent to the ones that were physically there on the planet at the time. While she noticed there was a Storm Trooper riding a zoomer that carried a large crate of what appeared to be dark eco in tow, Keira was curious enough to follow him. She crept and tiptoed behind the vehicle and followed it to see two more troopers riding zoomers that carried similar dark eco crates, and a two-legged Imperial Walker operating in front of them.
They all converged inside a massive elevator that had a large gate on one side that shut once they all walked in. On the other side, another gate opened in front of them, and it opened up to an underground warehouse at the center of the Imperial Complex. It held several more crates of dark eco, as well as an immense, skyscraper-sized dark eco crystal that was held by two massive security clamps on the floor and the ceiling of the warehouse.
To her surprise, she saw one of the troopers take off his mask, and she discovered that it was Torn underneath the suit. Soon thereafter, Ashelin and Jinx removed their helmets as well, and Sig hopped out of the Imperial Walker he was operating.
"All right, that should be the last of 'em!" Torn declared.
"That rickety old heap of junk sure was hard to navigate!" Sig complained about the walker that he used.
"Let's light 'em up!" Jinx commanded, as they carried bags full of small, remote bombs that they plastered all of them on every single crate of dark eco, as well as the crystal. Once they were all finished, they all rushed to the elevator from whence they came from.
As Keira looked on, she thought to herself 'Hmm…maybe Jak was right. Maybe they could pull it off. Everything is FINALLY going great! So far…'
Jinx then pulled a detonator out of his pocket that would diffuse all of the bombs. He declared, "Okay gang, lets blow this Imperial junkyard sky high!" He pressed the button on the detonator once, twice, then several times rapidly, frustrated that it would fail to respond.
"An excellent idea!" A voice growled behind them, "I'd love to join in on the fun!" And then they turned around…
"ERROL!" All of them shouted in surprised, as Keira can only gasp and watch. The apprentice of Darth Vader used The Force to disable Jinx's detonator, and shocked them all with powerful dark eco force lightning. They were stunned as they were cuffed by oncoming Storm Troopers that held them up on their knees.
"Jak didn't tell me you came back…again!" Ashelin shouted.
"Oh, so sorry he didn't care to tell you!" Errol quipped in sarcasm, "So sorry he abandoned you and left you to do a suicide mission! So sorry he left you to die so that he could defeat me all by himself!"
"It was a good plan…" Sig grumbled.
"Until now." Errol finished.
"Wow," Torn chuckled, "you've never changed since the Krimzon Academy, haven't you? Always power hungry…"
"And you," Errol responded, "were always weak, for leaving the force when it got hard."
"I quit because I didn't want to put innocent lives in danger like you wanted!" Torn retorted.
"And now look at you," Errol scoffed, "fallen into this damn idealistic crusade of trying to save 'innocent people' when the one that is leading your cause is now leaving you here to die at the hands of The Empire!"
"Jak is more of a man than you are," Torn growled, "We all are, because unlike you, we have the balls to lay down our lives for what's right in this universe!" Errol then turned to strike him with his iron fist, rendering him unconscious.
As two troopers took Torn away, Errol shouted "DOES ANYONE ELSE WANT TO SPEAK LIKE A RAT TO ME!?" and then he calmed himself down, and paced, "or does anyone want to cooperate and tell me where your friends are?"
"Look who's tryin' to be a rat." Jinx grumbled.
"What was that?" Errol turned to him. As Jinx bit his lip and trembled, "You're the most talkative one of the bunch and yet you haven't said a word this whole time. I think you have something to say, and I'd like to know what it is…"
Keira watched in complete horror as Errol opened the palm of his hand, and moved it close toward Jinx's head, preparing to torture his mind with The Force. As minutes passed, the more agonizing it came to be for Jinx. He eventually screamed at the top of his lungs as if his limbs were being pulled apart from his body.
"I am running out of patience…" Errol growled as he drew his light saber at his head, "NOW TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE!"
Then, Jinx finally gave in and shuddered, "K-K-Korriban. T-T-They're all on Korriban."
Errol stood himself back up, withdrew his weapon, and ordered the troops, "Take them away." The three detainees were then stood up, and forced out of the warehouse with little resistance and utter silence. The room went completely dark as Errol placed his communicator on the ground. As Errol bowed, Keira marveled at the towering holographic image of the Sith Lord Darth Vader.
"The criminals from Eco have been detained, My Master," Errol began, "The nearly destroyed our shipments of dark eco, but thanks to me there were of no avail. They have also revealed to me the location of Jak and the others: They are all currently residing on Korriban as of now."
"He's there to learn the ways of the Dark Side," Vader postulated, "because he's too weak to face us on his own." He began to congratulate, "You have done well this time, My Apprentice. I will report this back to The Emperor. I'm sure he'd be most pleased with your redemption. Now, take the prisoners with you to the Precursor Vessel right away, as it will be set around the orbit of Korriban when you arrive, and deploy the fleet so that none of them on the planet now will escape the atmosphere without being brought forth to me."
"Very good, My Lord." Errol affirmed as the hologram vanished. There was a dark, cold silence that Keira felt shivering through her veins, as fear crept into her soul once more; her nightmare was about to come to a violent end again.
"Hear that, Keira?" Errol sensed her presence eavesdropping him as she tried to draw her saber. Once it would not ignite, She pressed the ignition button several more times out of anger, frustration, panic, and desperation.
Errol then shouted as he spun backwards with his weapon drawn, "I'M COMING FOR YOU!" The blade then landed, and then a fear-mongering cry exploded out of her vocal cords like an erupting volcano.