))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Camp 1138, Chryse Planitia, Imperial Occupied Mars
))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Jason Bogan, the lost college kid from Boston, was usually one of the first troopers of the Imperial work camp's day shift of troopers to rise every morning. He hit the sonic shower while the first rays of the sun were emerging over the Arabia Terra to the east.
The only thing that mattered to the east was the New Jedi Temple and Jason's ex Ashla, and it was a quarter of the way around the planet. If only Cherek Squad hadn't been reassigned to this shit hole, Jason thought, maybe I could try to find Ashla and work out our issues. In her own way, she had been trying to protect him when she had interfered and prevented Cherek Squad from being sent to Earth. Maybe he had blown up at her when he had found out but he'd had the chance to cool down and think about things. Now if only he could get the chance to fix things.
Even more than his love life, the thing that angered him down to his very core was the place he was in. Not the trooper billet showers, but the labor camp he was assigned to. He had been here before almost a year before. After he had been abducted from Hawaii and thrown in here as a slave laborer he had befriended the aliens, Brakatak and Frip. They had been rescued by Ashla who had initiated a massive riot to cover their escape.
That riot had unintentionally resulted in thousands of his fellow earthlings being killed as they ran past the death marker that surrounded the camp. Past that line, the explosives surgically implanted beneath their skin detonated gruesomely, decapitating them by the tens of thousands. Jason rubbed the spot on the back of his neck where Ashla had removed his own explosive device, using her mysterious Force to stave off detonation. The last he had saw of this camp had been from the distant hills to the south as a huge plume of smoke emerged from the hundreds of barracks going up in a fire that had burned two thirds of the camp to the ground.
Jason emerged from the barrack refreshers clean and smooth shaven from depil cream. Jason still wasn't used to ultrasonic showers that vibrated him clean and missed a hot water shower. A good majority of his fellow troopers had said they never experienced one and the Empire certainly wasn't going to ship water out here for anything more than drinking and cooking. Camp 1138 was deliberately built as far away from anything useful. Even the nearest agricombine or work site was over fifty miles to the south. Jason knew this because on many days he escorted the prisoners to some of those sites for agricultural work. The big project they had been working on lately was the hydroelectric dam Moff Kuat was constructing in the Valles Marineris. Any other time, Jason would have been fascinated by the novelty of being in the deepest canyon in the solar system but after witnessing the misery the Empire put the workers through it took all his might not to put a blaster in his mouth every night.
Jason went to his bunk and donned his body glove. Baobab and Quan were starting to stir as were the other six remaining members of Cherek Squad. Soon they would have to replace their counterparts on the night shift. Jason slipped on his boots and went to the duty roster board. He wasn't expecting anything surprising.
He got what he was expecting. Camp 1138 was garrisoned by four companies of Shore Troopers who had not only been here longer than Cherek Squad but had helped build the camp. They had been the ones that had put down the riot that Jason had escaped from. As such they were very protective of their duty assignments. So Jason wasn't shocked to see their operating numbers assigned to the cushiest positions; Perimeter Duty. The Shore Troopers would man the fortified E-WEB bunkers and towers that ringed the camp. They would ensure no prisoner got too close to the death fence that separated the camp from the real world, usually with a well-aimed blaster bolt to the head. The towers were equipped with Holonet radios, caf makers and air-conditioning and so were the preferred assignment to whittle away the day in Camp 1138.
Jason found his operating number, ML-3393, along with the others from Cherek Squad on the board; Camp Patrol. They would have to go inside and patrol the streets and maintain order. No one enjoyed being among the Earthlings, the biggest complaint was that they smelled. Well what did the Imperials expect, Jason thought, it's not as if the prisoners were given the option to bathe. The other thing troopers hated was the sense of danger that was all around. It was no secret the rioters had killed the troopers who were on camp patrol that day. Some had been found stomped as flat as pancakes with every bone in their bodies shattered.
Quan would be happy, Jason thought, not that he ever wanted to see that bastard smile. Quan was a sadist and he had fallen in with a group of the worst guards and kapos inside the labor camp. Jason knew Quan had personally killed several prisoners inside the camp. Camp policy called for no overt killings. It was rare when a camp leader was made example of publicly. If someone was rebellious you pulled them out of the camp to the administrative building where they were dealt with quietly out of sight. Camp 1138 dealt with about twenty prisoners in such a manner every day. It was the closest it came to being a death camp like Auschwitz had been. The bodies were dumped in a hole somewhere out in the desolated Kunowsky Crater leaving the rest of the camp to guess as to their fate. A few more prisoners were sniped from the towers every night for being outside their barracks. Troopers, guards and kapos didn't go into the camp at night. Any one found outside the prisoner barracks at night was fair game to the night shift snipers.
Quan had gotten in the habit of pulling out a prisoner or two from the morning role call and taking them into an empty barrack. There he and his kapo cronies would stomp the poor fellow to mush. Quan usually used his prized Z6 riot control baton for such matters. They didn't always kill the prisoners outright, but the crippled figures they had become didn't last long. Quan didn't mind Escort Duty either, when the workers were taken to labor sites all over Mars. Those were the biggest killers on Mars. Hundreds of prisoners were literally worked to death every day to build the Empire. Quan loved nothing more than shoving an unaware prisoner into the gears of a machine or off a cliff. In fact he had been reprimanded for it at the Valles Marineris when engineers had complained that bodies falling into the duracrete would compromise the integrity of the dam. They told Quan he would have to swim through the setting duracrete and fish the next one out himself if he continued. That just made the shithead find other ways to off prisoners. The evil fucker had taken to carrying fingers he had clipped off prisoners tucked into his utility belt. You would notice them if you looked hard enough at him, which made Jason wonder how long it would be before a prisoner with nothing to lose grabbed a brick and tried to brain Quan. If Jason was around when it happened he was going to take his time rushing to Quan's rescue, if at all.
The kapos, Quan palled around with were always assigned inner camp duties. They had their own camp attached to the main camp and their barracks were only slightly better than the earthlings. The kapos, most of them aliens, came from the criminal class of the Empire and the majority of them were from the diminishing Black Sun, which had been abandoned by their Underlord. Jason smiled when he thought about the part he had in helping Brakatak run them off planet. Camp 1138 was their last stronghold and they meant to keep it that way. Everything else on Mars was run by the Gran Kajidic but the Black Sun terrorized Camp 1138. Each Kapo was charged with a barrack of five hundred prisoners. Their camp salaries and food rations were determined by how many laborers they turned out every morning not how many came back every day. Their losses were replaced quickly by new prisoners arriving from medical screening on Earth's moon. For the past few months prisoners had stopped arriving from the Pacific region and been replaced by minorities and refugees from what Jason remembered as the United Kingdom but was now called the United Protectorate. The Kapos didn't care where they came from. They went over their charges with a fine tooth comb. If any Jewelry remained it was seized and gold teeth were smashed out upon arrival. The Kapos would stay in the camps during the day. They weren't allowed out, since technically they were criminals, but mainly because they would have been targeted by Brakatak and his gangs if they ever showed their faces outside the camp. So they mainly ran the administrative functions of the camp such as the property warehouses, cook houses, motor pool, and camp administration buildings.
Between the perimeter troopers and the Kapos were the civilian camp guards. Jason figured there were anywhere from six hundred to a thousand of them. Most of them were too young, old or crippled to have been drafted for the Army. Some had experience serving aboard the slave barges that had been a part of Tarkin's Fist during their transit to the Sol System. They were primarily used in transporting and overwatching the prisoners at the labor sites. They would be called into the camp in the morning and evening when prisoners were being moved. They protected the camp's service buildings and the new durasteel foundry on the west side of the camp. They performed the executions of unruly prisoners and made sure the Kapos didn't steal too much of the good stuff from the prisoners. The best loot went to the commander, the Chief Warden of the camp who was always escorted by a pair of heavily armed guards. As far as Jason could tell the camp was protected by three to four thousand Kapos, about fifty civilian office droids and workers, another thousand guards and just under four hundred troopers, who were tasked with keeping nearly eight million prisoners in line.
Warden Molec, an ex-Zygerrian slave master, was the taskmaster who ran the camp with an iron fist. Jason had been warned about complaining to the man as it would fall on deaf ears. A firm believer in the Tarkin Doctrine, the Zygerrian believed he was helping build the Empire from scratch and that prisoners who were taken in combat were not even worth the contempt he felt for them. Molec could be found in the camp nearly every day. A few weeks ago he had been called to the capital where it was rumored the Empress had told him to stop singling out pregnant prisoners for something called Operation Stork. It had been the first time anyone could remember that Molec had been away from his station. Molec liked to travel among the prisoners and he did this from the comfort of his personal Light Infantry Utility Vehicle. The hovering LIUV was ideally situated to plow into any large gathering of unruly prisoners. Jason figured the thing was a lemon because the Warden had to refuel the thing every other hour. During that time, Molec conducted camp business from the refueling pad or handed out punishments for his minor dislikes upon any hapless Earthling that was nearby. He usually did this with his personal electro-whip which he kept coiled and strapped to his back. Jason shuddered when he remembered what the weapon could do as it glowed gold with electrical current and slashed into a slave's back.
One other thing that Jason noted on Molec, was that the Zygerrian carried an advance datapad wrapped completely around his left forearm. Once during an altercation between several, now dead, prisoners over denial of daily rations for their barracks a dozen of them had charged the warden. His escort got the Warden out of danger before anything could happen, but Jason had seen one of them place himself between the mob and the Warden's device rather than Molec himself. Jason had even heard Molec tell the guard he had done an excellent job when the incident was over. When Jason had asked other troopers about it, they guessed that was where Molec controlled the slave detonators from. After that Jason hardly ever failed to keep an eye on Molec's whereabouts.
If Jason couldn't get back to Earth to help his people then he was going to do what he could for them here. There had to be some way to get that datapad off Molec's arm, if just for a few minutes to look it over. It had become his focus ever since learning about it.
"ML-3393, get your shebs over here." A gruff voice called from behind him, which Jason recognized as the day shift's duty Sergeant.
Jason turned and approached the NCO who was in the process of donning his Shore Trooper armor. Jason looked over the other man's gear and was glad he had been issued First Order-version armor. The Shore Trooper gear did little to protect the legs and a more sensitive region. "Yes, Sarge?"
"You got Kiwi hunting duty today." The Sergeant announced. A decree had come down not long ago that the camp was to be scoured of all prisoners that belonged to the territory known as New Mandalore. The traitorous clones had worked a peace treaty out of the Empress because she was too busy with the Earthlings to deal with them properly. In the meantime they wanted their captured people back from Camp 1138. No one really wanted or cared about the duty. The average trooper or guard had no idea what a New Zealander was. Jason didn't really know either. He had only met one, a fellow student at MIT named Sarah, who had been in his calculus class, and she had hardly given him the time of day. Other than that, his experience with them had been negligible. He wasn't sure if he could tell one of them apart from an Australian or a Canadian or a South African if his life depended on it. But it had been an opportunity to help a few Earthlings escape the nightmare of Camp 1138, and Jason had jumped on it. His first day on the job he had turned up with almost four thousand Kiwis, who had been promptly shoved aboard a New Mandalore freighter and shipped back to Earth. After that he was hooked. He'd even received a commendation for it. Since no one else wanted the job he was often given the duty. So far, he had not only sent the forty thousand suspected New Zealanders inside the camp back to Earth but had tacked on another thirty thousand other Earthlings on top of that.
"I serve the Empire." Jason responded flatly even though he wanted to laugh in the Sergeant's face.
"Word came down from the Warden. No more than two hundred today." The duty sergeant informed him.
Jason couldn't argue. It would get him in hot water. "Yes, sir."
"He's starting to suspect we are running out of those clone sheb-kissers. Best if you slow it down before he starts to suspect you've got a soft spot for Earthers."
"Yes, Sergeant. You're right they are getting harder to weed out." Jason lied. The Empire had no clue what a New Zealander was and Jason could basically point to whoever he wanted and call them a Kiwi. No prisoner was ever going to argue with a free ticket back to Earth. "I remain diligent in service to the Empress."
"See that you do. Now get your ugly face out of mine." The duty sergeant dismissed him.
Jason returned to his bunk and opened his locker. Baobab was already back from the freshers and was half dressed. At the moment her body glove was only pulled up to her waist as she donned her leg and hip armor. The only thing different from her and Jason was she wore the Impie version of a sports bra, which Jason had learned was highly uncommon amongst the Imperials. There were virtually no bras in space evidently. Once her armor was on there was no way to tell she was a female. When the white plastoid armor went on male and female were taken out of the equation just like everything else. Jason wondered why it took the Earth so long to adapt females in combat roles when the Empire had been doing it for millennia.
He started placing his own armor plates to his body glove when Quan returned and ripped an obnoxious fart in Jason's direction. Several troopers in Cherek groaned. Jason just glared at the other trooper who glared back an invitation for Jason to try something.
Baobab picked up a pillow and threw it at Quan. "Shove a cork in it next time and get dressed."
"Who made you the boss?" Quan growled at the femtrooper.
"In case you don't remember I'm the only one in the squad that's a Trooper First Class. The rest of you are all just 2nd classers." Baobab pointed out. Quan hadn't forgotten, in fact he loved to challenge her spot in the pecking order. Cherek Squad had been without a corporal ever since Corporal Sotil had been arrested for dereliction of duty along with several other troopers at the Christmas Martyrs Massacre in Tarkin's Square a few months ago. Anyone capable of replacing their corporal was sent to Earth rather than some backwater prison guard detail.
The barrack alarm chime sounded twice loudly. Quan and Baobab broke off their staring contest and grabbed the rest of their gear. Jason holstered his blaster and threw on his helmet. He ran out the billet door with the rest of the company and filed out into the barrack's parade ground. Spotlights lit up the open space in the predawn darkness.
The troopers, Army troopers and Shore Troopers alike, fell into formation. They placed their left hand on the right shoulder of the trooper next to them and dressed their lines leaving plenty of space to move. When they were set a platoon sergeant from the Shore Troopers led the mixed unit in morning physical training.
Jason didn't mind the exercise. Army trooper physical training had gotten him into the best shape of his life and PT kept him fit. Plus it left him limber and focused for whatever came his way inside the camp. The prisoners exercised too, but theirs came through the pain of heavy labor. Which didn't mean a malnourished eighty pound Indonesian couldn't cave in Jason's skull with a power shovel. It paid to be alert.
The sun, or as Imperials here called it, Sol, was starting to rise when they filed off the parade ground and into the chow hall for a heavy breakfast of ronto sausages, arterial blocker pancakes and scrambled kaadu eggs. The troopers greedily stuffed their faces, while prisoners refilled their blue milk glasses and removed empty plates. The prisoners had worried looks upon their faces. If a single trooper came down with food poisoning then every prisoner working in food services would be executed out of hand. Jason left extra on his plate. He knew the prisoners in the chow hall would eat whatever they scraped off the troopers' dishes.
He exited the dining hall with several other troopers from Cherek Squad and made his way to the Camp's east gate with connected 1138 to the trooper billet area. Quan was already there laughing at a joke with a group of Shore Troopers.
Jason couldn't figure why he got along with them so well, maybe it was just that nobody in Cherek Squad could really stand Quan. Quan was one of those troopers who liked to kill so he enlisted before his draft chit came up. He longed to go to Earth just as bad as Jason did. He wanted to kill dozens of Earthlings so that the Stormtrooper Corps would accept him for training. But Ashla had gotten all of Cherek Squad stuck here on Mars and Quan had been cursed with a blood lust that had gone unsated day after day. Even during the Christmas Martyrs Massacre their squad had been delegated to the rear and Quan had only been allowed to kill the wounded and dying. Sloppy seconds as Quan had called it later. Jason could still picture the Bothan Christian he had personally finished off, especially when he slept. Now here in the camp Quan was finally able to let lose. Jason had no idea what the other trooper's body count was by now but if it wasn't in the triple digits Jason would be surprised.
The Shore Troopers on the other hand were professionals but they came across as slackers. Shore Troopers had been created on a special basis to guard vital parts of the Death Star project on some Home Galaxy world named Scarif. Since Tarkin's Fist was originally designated to protect the Death Star as well, it was no surprise some of these guys tagged along. Most of the original Shore Troopers had transferred to the Stormtrooper Legions and were fighting on Earth. This unit however had attached itself to the 41st Legion's 2nd Battalion and been filled with important officer's relatives and never-do-wells that were the favorite of some officer or another. The vast majority of them were glad to be out of the war on Earth and more than happy to man quiet towers on perimeter duty where all they had to contend with was sniping a prisoner who wandered too close to the death fence.
A murderer and a bunch of shirker scum, Jason thought. He ignored the fake bravado coming from the jerks and instead went to the gate house. Several other troopers were already there drawing melee weapons. Jason checked out a standard stun baton and holstered it on his belt along with a pair of stun cuffs.
The perimeter details started moving away to their duty stations causing Quan to rejoin the rest of Cherek Squad. He grunted a greeting to them across their squad comm and Jason was pretty sure Quan was glaring at the rest of them out of a disproportionate sense of contempt. Quan was a bully and made sure the rest of the squad knew he thought he was better than them. If they ever got to Earth, Jason wondered if he'd be the first to blast Quan in the back or if Baobab or another trooper would beat him to it.
A pair of AT-RCT walkers lumbered up behind the troopers as they made final checks to their equipment. The Occupier hover tank that was permanently positioned at the gate started its engines with a choking stutter that filled the area. The TX-225 GAVw backed up and then slid to the left to allow passage as the gate creaked open.
The voice of their duty sergeant cut across their comms. "All squads report to designated sectors. Turn out in ten minutes. Peth and Trill Squads report to Admin building. Enth to the motor pool."
Baobab waved them forward. "Let's go Cherek Squad. We've got barracks to turn out."
"Oh, what fun." Quan replied sarcastically though Jason suspected Quan was looking forward to rousting people out of their bunks
"Cherek proceed to Sector Eight."
"Roger that, Command." Baobab responded.
The designated squads approached the gate which was just now fully ajar. The massive structure reminded Jason of the one from Jurassic Park. The nine Cherek troopers along with several hundred more troopers and guards entered the Camp. The AT-RTCs slowly strolled past the marching infantry.
Camp 1138 was laid out in an orderly Imperial fashion. Each barrack was identical to the ones next to it and laid out in rows that stretched onto the horizon. Each building was designed to fit a hundred prisoners but in reality housed between five to seven hundred Earthlings crammed together like sardines. The buildings were made from green ferrocrete. There were no forests on Mars, hence the buildings couldn't be made from cheaper wood. For some reason Jason hadn't deduced, ferrocrete was as flammable as wood which is why several dozen of the buildings had been burned to the ground during the camp uprising. Most had been replaced but there was still a row of gutted barracks on the south side of the camp.
A brick thoroughfare ran down the center of the camp, laid out by the prisoners themselves. The bricks had to be constantly replaced as the walkers would knock one or two of them from their place whenever the machines moved faster than a meandering trot. The streets that ran to important buildings like the cook house or the durasteel foundry were also lined with the bricks. The streets that went between the billets were made up of nothing more than the red mud of Mars. Luckily, it hadn't rained lately or the streets would be several inches deep with mud. Jason didn't relish cleaning his armor after a day stomping through red muck.
Troopers from the night duty were moving towards them ready to get some rest in their bunks before having to return to the camp. They had their own nocturnal civilian guards with them. From the criminal compound the Kapos were emerging in a much more disorganized fashion than the troopers. They moved towards their designated sectors or duty stations and waited for the squads to join them. From the camp kitchens prisoners rolled out great drums containing a mix between gruel and a vegetable soup made from Earth crops grown specifically for them here on Mars. For the prisoners it would be the only meal they got until they returned to the Camp at sundown. Elsewhere Shore Troopers climbed skinny pylon towers scattered around the camp. In the distance smoke started rising from the massive Durasteel smelter as it was warmed up for the day's work.
The Warden was already on the parade ground talking with several of his most trusted camp guards and eating a ripe Hanava fruit. He leaned against the side of his LIUV as if he didn't have a care in the world. Jason wanted to rise his blaster and cut the smiling slaver down were he stood. Of course Molec, would just be replaced and when the guards found out Jason was an Earthling they'd probably kill half a million prisoners in reprisal, most likely while forcing Jason to watch.
"Fall out muster in one minute." An announcement sounded across the camp's public address system followed by an alert ringing that sounded like a collision alarm. Troopers positioned themselves as the first of the prisoners started emerging from their barracks.
Most of the prisoners ran with a purpose to fall into shoddy ranks in front of each barrack. The prisoners were dressed in their red utility suits along with their black gloves, boots and stocking caps. Some had stuffed their suits with whatever they could find for added protection against the Martian cold. They were half starved and emaciated. Many of them showed scars or signs of malnutrition. Troopers and guards harangued them to move faster. Quan grabbed a woman in the doorway of one building and yanked her forward. The woman stumbled which just caused Quan to laugh. He shoved the next man from the building with the butt of his blaster to the man's back.
Other troopers were doing the same though for the most part they just yelled. The sector they had been assigned was populated by prisoners who had been in the camp long enough to know what they were expected to do. Jason stood near the doorway of one barrack and just waved people forward as if he was a traffic cop back in Boston. "Let's go. Move along. Move along." He said in the most neutral tone he could manage. What he really wanted to say would have got their explosive detonators set off if they acted on it.
When the rush was over the Kapos and a few guards went inside each of the buildings to check to see if they were empty. Some buildings had lingerers who were beaten and kicked out of the billets to join their comrades outside. Some Kapos came back out and called for several of the prisoners to return. Jason dreaded those calls. The prisoners went inside and soon emerged carrying the bodies of prisoners who had died in the night. Each barrack had a plastoid sled about the size of what Jason thought an ox-cart should be. The dead were piled on the sleds and pulled away by the prisoners.
A whistle went up from one of the Kapos, a Lakaru, who had emerged from a nearby barrack. Jason gulped as he knew what the whistle meant. Baobab jogged over to the Kapo who said something to her. She then followed the alien inside. She emerged several minutes later. She had her hand to the side of her helmet as if she were talking to someone on a different comm channel.
Jason walked over to her. "How bad?"
"About a hundred. Gamorrean Mumps or another weird Earth one, Typhus, I think." Baobab said quietly. Already the Earthlings in the ranks were watching what was happening. "Medics are on their way."
"Not ebola then?" Jason asked. Baobab shook her head. "Good, then the medics won't have to do it out here in front of everyone."
"No kidding. The abos get jumpy when the see our medics in action." Baobab said.
There was the sound of boots on the dirt and rattle of armor as three 'medics' rounded the corner. In Camp 1138 the word medic was synonymous with Incinerator Trooper. "This the one?" The lead flame trooper asked Baobab. An EVO Trooper accompanying the medics started spraying a liberal cloud of blue cloud Paravaac dust on the gathered prisoners to kill any parasites they had living on them.
"Yeah. You want to give us time to move the rest of these guys out of here?" Baobab asked.
"Doesn't bother me one way or another." The Incinerator Trooper replied. "I'm on the Empire's credit after all."
"Aren't we all, and not enough of it for this poodoo." Baobab pointed at the prisoners in formation and spoke to Jason. "Let's get this scum moving."
"Sounds wizard." Jason said and then signaled to the nearest Kapo to get the prisoners moving. Jason escorted the group of nearly a thousand. He had no desire to stick around and watch the 'medics' perform their 'cure' of the infected prisoner barrack.
Without the rest of Cherek noticing he was doing it he had slipped away from his fellow troopers. Not that he was alone, there were troopers and guards all along the route to the main parade ground. He tried not to take notice of several Earthlings edging closer to him in the formation. One of them was a towering pacific islander who reminded Jason of that old actor who had run for President, Dwayne Johnson. Halfway to their designation the rough looking bunch was within arm's length of reaching out and grabbing him. Instead of looking for help, Jason turned the volume of his vocoder down.
A skinny Asian guy who looked about ten years older than Jason walked next to him. "How many, Boston?"
"Two hundred." Jason said softly.
"That it?" Spiz asked.
"They're cutting back. Word is they suspect the Kiwis are almost all gone." Jason reported.
"They pretty much are. We can get those numbers easy. Drop in the bucket compared to how many they're bringing in every day and how many the medics are burning up. We've got two Aussies who will speak for them. Should fool the freighter crews. The ETs can't tell the difference anyhow."
"They don't even care. Something happened on Earth that made the Empress give these guys up. No body questions anything she asks for."
"So the Warden is just following her orders. Interesting. We will pass that along back to Earth."
"He is. He only cares about labor quotas for the big Impie companies and the Army of course. You really trading info with Earth?"
"We don't know for sure. The prisoners we ship back are allegedly going to New Zealand but fresh prisoners coming in say that country is now in bed with some Imperial faction or another. Word is that place is locked down tight."
"Gotta be better than here." Jason admitted.
"No doubt. That's why most of the Kiwis you're going to uncover today will be kids and wounded again." Spiz told him. "You ought to find fifty or so by yourself to add to ours. That way it looks like you're still discovering them naturally."
Jason still didn't know what to make of the CIA agent that had uncovered his secret identity. For the first part, he wasn't even sure if his real name was Spiz or if the other man was using an alias. He said Jason was the only one from Earth that had even come close to 'passing' and blended into Imperial society, so well that he had been conscripted into their Army. At first, Jason had been afraid they would expose them but they had shown a willingness to work with him, especially with removing thousands of prisoners through the New Zealand loophole. How long that would last was any one's guess.
He suspected Spiz was part of a larger organization within the camp. Several of the people in the prisoner formation, including the large Polynesian looked like they were taking cues from Spiz. Spiz also knew about stuff that happened inside the camp when he was away on work details that Jason thought only the guards knew about. This only proved there was some sort of underground network at work in the camp. The only reason Spiz's guys didn't tell him more was because of the white armor he wore. If Jason betrayed them the Empire could only jump on Spiz and not uproot the whole organization. Smart move, Jason figured. Ironically, the only ones I truly trust on this planet are a bunch of pirates.
Spiz continued as they marched. "People are getting nervous. They know about you."
Jason looked nervously over the prisoners. All it took was the word of one traitor looking for more food or to be excused from a heavy labor detail and it was all over for him. "You're telling everyone about me?"
"No, only a few that need to know things. But we want action soon. We are talking about grabbing a freighter from the landing platform in the arrival processing area."
"Won't work. Warden will blow your heads off and even if he doesn't do that the Imperial Navy will blow you out of the sky before you even clear Phobus." Jason indicated the nearby moon racing past on its seven hour orbit.
"Yeah, but if we have a plan then it gives everyone something to focus on. If we have another general uprising then everyone goes up at once. Camp is getting near the boiling point. We need to do something and soon."
"People really know who I am?" Jason asked again nervously.
"You mean THE people? No, not in the way you think." Spiz said. "They know which stormtrooper doesn't dole out beatings. They know which one is getting them a free ticket back to Earth. We've had to dissuade, some rather harshly, with openly swarming you. Hard when people's kids are starving."
"I bet. I wish I could do more. I've already given you guys all the info I know about the Camp's layout and guard rotations."
"People are starting to call you the Mercy Trooper."
"That's going to get me arrested. Get them to knock that shit off."
"Get us close to Molec then" Spiz demanded.
"No one gets close to Molec. Well at least no one in a red jumpsuit anyway. Unless its one of his public executions." Jason said. He quieted down as a pair of troopers walked past the column traveling in the opposite direction.
Spiz watched them go. "He's got to have the detonator on that wrist computer of his. We grab that freighter and you can take him and his guards out with your laser gun. That will give enough time for us to get clear."
"Doesn't solve the problem with the fleet and where does that leave me other than with my head on the chopping block. You know they behead traitors here with a laser guillotine." Jason said.
"You, we get into the camp population. We strip your armor and you hide among your own kind again."
Jason shuddered at the thought. "Yo, man. I've been there. I ain't going back and you're not leaving me here on Mars to rot."
"Alright, 3393, then come with us. You've got to know more about the Empire than a million of us combined. What are we going to tell them? What kind of crops these aliens eat? How to pave a duracrete highway with our bones?"
"Like I said. You'll never break orbit. And even if we did what are the chances we'd get past the naval blockade around Earth. Do you even have anyone that knows how to fly an Imp starship?" Jason asked.
"We've been watching how their landspeeders work here in camp. We've got a hundred pilots in this camp that say they can figure out the controls if they have to."
"Big difference between a car and fucking space shuttle, dude. And how long are you going to sit on the landing pad with your thumb up your ass while every tower in camp trains it E-WEBs on you."
"Well we can't all sit out this war safe on our ass in the enemy's armor. Your people are dying, maybe your family is dead back on Earth. I don't know what kind of person could live with himself while that happened."
"The kind of person who is still here." Jason argued.
"Not really a person anymore are you? I guess you really are just the number they gave you."
"C'mon man. It's not like that."
"It's exactly like that." Spiz's voice was starting to rise. The other prisoners in the column were looking around nervously. "We are burying our kids every day in here. If we can't escape then you've got to help us fight."
"Resistance is futile." Jason replied. "They're too strong."
"Not with you on our side. You know them from the inside. We need your help."
Spiz's offer tugged at Jason's heart. He wanted nothing more than to free every person in the camp but it was suicidal. He'd seen the Empire from the inside. He knew what they would do to the Camp. It would be the equivalent of the entire Jewish Holocaust in a single afternoon. "I will keep passing on useful information. It's all I can do. Well that, and keep getting all the fake Kiwis out."
"I guess if that's all you can do we will have to come up with something else." Spiz said. Jason thought he was going to regret whatever it was the spy came up with.
"Hey, if it's going to get my ass thrown in the fire you can think of something else. I'm no good to anyone dead." Jason warned and pointed angrily at Spiz.
"You're worth more than you know, Boston." Spiz replied.
"Halt the column." A vocoder shouted at the prisoners from behind Jason.
Jason lowered his hand and straightened up as he recognized Quan approaching. Automatically he shouted at the prisoners as well, "Halt the column."
"Stand at attention you dirty womp rats!" The prisoners tried their best to come to attention for the troopers. Quan strode up besides Jason and looked up and down the column until his gaze fell on Spiz. "This sleemo giving you trouble, 3393?"
"No, he was just asking if they could get more rations for his barrack."
"Greedy scum, ain't you." Quan growled at Spiz. Spiz did not meet his eye. To do so would have earned him a beating. Quan came alongside the spy. "You look like the type of abo that would eat his own mother if she dropped dead in front of him. You a cannibal, scum?"
Spiz didn't say anything. Jason could see he was clinching his teeth in frustration. A trickle of sweat rolled down Spiz's cheek. Jason's finger slowly drifted to his blaster's firing stub and then away again. No matter who he blasted here he would be a dead man.
There was a slight growl from the large Polynesian standing on the other side of Spiz in the formation. Quan looked away from Spiz just in time to see the large man look away. "You got something to say, barve?"
Quan moved over to stare up at the monster of an Earthling. "You kriffing deaf? You're ugly enough." Without another word Quan smashed his knee into the man's crouch dropping the beast to the ground. Before he could recover Quan struck him across the back with his Z6 riot baton. "That will teach you to growl at your betters, scum!" Quan yelled at him. "3393, get in on this."
Jason grabbed the hilt of his stun baton. If he didn't join in he would become suspect. No doubt, Quan would report him for dereliction of duty by the end of the shift. After that the gig would be up for him. He looked to Spiz. Almost imperceptibly, the spy nodded for him to go ahead.
Jason swung his baton and caught the big guy in his left side. On his second swing he hit him across the back of his muscular thigh. In that time Quan had hit the man five times across the shoulders and head. Jason stepped back and holstered his baton. "That's enough. 5001. He's knocked out cold."
Quan straightened himself up. It was obvious he was breathing heavy. Jason waved over a pair of Kapos who had just arrived. "Get this prisoner to the infirmary." He ordered. The Kapos grabbed four prisoners out of the line and had them pick up the unconscious man.
"Alright, show's over. Get your shebs to the parade ground for duty assignments!" Quan yelled at the formation of prisoners.
"Move along!" Jason encouraged them to get moving. He made eye contact with Spiz one last time who simply mouthed the words, 'Be ready.'
Jason continued to escort Spiz's column until it reached the central assembly area. Once there, the Kapos that had been at its head received their work orders for the day. Guards and troopers moved in to kick and push the hapless prisoners towards the dozens of large gravtrucks waiting in the motor pool to disperse the prisoners around the planet. In the past some prisoners had protested and refused to move when they heard they were going to more dangerous work sites and procedure had been changed to keep them in the dark until they arrived at wherever they had been sent. Even the gravtrucks were completely blackened out to prevent the workers from knowing which direction they were going.
In his talks with prisoners in the camp Jason had learned that most of his fellow Earthlings had no idea what lay more than a dozen miles beyond the camp. Most thought the Martian capital at Amidala City was in the same region of Mars. Jason didn't have the heart to tell them that it lay over a thousand miles to the south.
Once Spiz's column was gone Jason escorted three more columns, each containing thousands of prisoners, from their barracks to the assembly area and on to the motor pool. He was fully aware that he was outnumbered several thousand to his one whenever he was among the crowds of humanity. Just as they were fully aware that attacking a trooper would result in tens of thousands of their deaths. The status quo of life in the camp always revolved around the explosive slave chips in every prisoner's neck.
The camp had quieted down by midmorning. Nearly a million prisoners remained inside the death fence during the day. Some served the camp in the kitchens, waste disposal, construction, warehouses, infirmary or even the camp administration building. The majority of them worked in the small shops attached to the camp such as the durasteel smelter refinery, Imperial uniform mill, vehicle upholstery, and even a subspace radio factory that was manned by children because it was thought their fingers were smaller and could more easily deal with tinier parts. Part of the camp patrol's duties was to prevent sabotage in the shops. This was mainly done through intimidation but beatings and killings were common. The whole business made Jason want to vomit every night when he returned to his barrack outside the camp.
Jason had an early lunch in the guard dining hall. He picked up three Shaak and cheese sandwiches and a tarsh maxer. He ate with several other members of Cherek Squad including Baobab who had escorted other columns to the gravtrucks and had come in from their own patrols. Thankfully Quan wasn't present, but even if he was Quan preferred to eat with Shore Troopers who had duty inside the camp. Jason only ate one of the sandwiches and the tarsh maxer. The prisoner who cleared his plate looked hungrily at the two uneaten sandwiches. Jason was positive the food would never make it to the camp's trash compactor.
Baobab was going to lead most of the squad on patrol through the barracks sectors. Jason excused himself from joining them stating he had 'Kiwi' duty. Nobody liked talking to the Earthlings enough to join him.
Jason decided to start his search off at the camp infirmary. The place was manned by prisoners with health backgrounds. The Empire wasn't going to spare medical droids on POWs. The patients in the infirmary were ones with injuries that wouldn't keep them out of the work gangs for more than a few days or sicknesses which weren't considered contagious or alien to the camp medics. The Empire tried to prevent shirking by not allowing the patients to be fed, Warden Molec figured starvation would get anyone out of sick call eventually. Despite this draconian measure, the medical facility always housed a few thousand prisoners every day.
The infirmary was a couple of miles from the mess hall and as always every path took Jason through rows and rows of barracks. On his trip he passed several work gangs up to their waists in red mud. The prisoners were digging sewage lines that ran to a fertilizer processing plant outside the death wire. When he was almost to the infirmary he ran into about fifty kids carrying large blocks of ice on their backs. The ice was the only source of water each barrack had during the night and children were used to haul the large blocks while the prisoners were out working. Jason's heart ached as the little workers quickly ran to the sides of the path to get out of the way of him simply because of his trooper armor. They all looked to the ground, too afraid to make eye contact, due to past violence that had befallen them from the camp administrators.
Jason felt his eyes water and gripped the handle of his blaster tighter. He'd give anything to do something for the kids in the camp but there was only so much he could accomplish without exposing himself. He knew he did far more for the camp underground in his current position, Spiz had told him so. Spiz had also told him to be ready for something big to happen.
"Mercy Trooper." Jason heard one of the kids whisper to another. Before he could spin around and see which child had said it they were on their way with their heavy loads once more. Jason watched them go for a moment then turned back to his task.
Jason arrived at the infirmary a few minutes later. He stepped inside to see about a squad's worth of guards watching the vidscreen at the duty station. The guards were paying more attention to the HoloNews story that was on rather than keeping an eye on the rows of occupied beds behind them.
Hey. 3393." One of the guards, a blue Pantoran, greeted him. "You see this poodoo about Juma on the news?"
Jason wanted nothing less than to make small talk with the civilian guards, but it was a small price to pay to keep his true purpose concealed a little longer. "Who's Juma?"
Every guard turned their head towards Jason and shot him a look as if he was crazy. "Um, Juma. The Limmie player. You know, the Juice."
"Oh, that Juma." Jason lied, still not having any idea who they were talking about.
"Yeah, big murder in the Bador and Ronay Executive Tower last night." The Pantoran explained. "Pretty posh place. Should get the HoloNews to stop talking about that massacre in the Negs finally. More interesting when stuff happens to the rich and this looks like Juma's human ex-wife got knifed along with some delivery boy. Bet you a hundred credits Juma did it. Never trust a Rodian, my mother always said."
"Yeah, you're probably right." Jason admitted, wanting to move past the guards. "I'm here looking for Kiwis. Have you guys come across any today?"
The guards sneered at him for an entirely different reason. Finding and releasing New Zealanders was a loathsome duty to anyone who worked in Camp 1138. To the Imperials it felt as if the Earthlings had found a loophole in the system and gotten away with something.
"None that I know of. Not that I'd care if I had run into of them." The Pantoran admitted. "You're welcome to poke around if you want." Just don't ask any of us for help, is what Jason figured he meant.
The guards turned their attention back to the HoloNews as soon as Jason walked away. He moved well down the ward until he was sure he was out of earshot from any Imperial eavesdropper.
The wards were like something out of a movie. Not quite as bad as say a civil war hospital with amputated limbs everywhere but something akin to a Korean War triage hospital from his grandfather's age. The Empire had captured hundreds of doctors and nurses who worked diligently to keep the place as sterile and clean as they could with the bare minimum of supplies the Empire had given them. Most beds were filled with lightly injured people. There weren't a lot of sick and the ones that had been severely injured on the worksites were usually put out of their misery before they were ever returned to Camp 1138.
When Jason was well away from prying Imperial eyes he went to the first bed. A nurse worked on a small boy who had both eyes heavily bandaged.
"He was blinded by a plasma welder in the Rothana walker factory in the military district." The nurse said.
Jason reached into his belt and pulled out a bacta bandage. "It's not much, but it will help him heal somewhat."
The nurse took it, recognizing what it was from evident exposure to other Imperials she smiled in gratitude. "Ben, the Mercy Trooper is here."
The boy perked up and looked towards the sound of Jason's voice. "Hey, kid. How are you doing?"
"Fine, sir." He said with a small amount of fear in his voice. The kid must have been no more than eight, Jason figured. He needed to get him out of here.
"Do you know who the leader of New Zealand is?" Jason asked.
The kid was quiet for a few seconds, "Um, Batman?"
Jason laughed. "Close enough." He pulled out his data pen and held it to the kid's hand. It marked him with a small number. He turned to the nurse and handed her a small orange chit. "Get him to the landing pads tonight. They'll get him out of here."
"I've heard there's not going to be another Kiwi shipment." The nurse said.
"What do you mean? Of course there is. I've got permission to get two hundred of them out of here today."
The nurse's eyes went wide as if she had said something she shouldn't have. "Sure, sure. You're right. Thank you for helping him. You are the only trooper that cares about us." She turned and walked away before Jason could say anything else. He had thought the exchange odd but decided it wasn't worth the time to make sense of it.
Instead it went to several more beds. It tried to make it random, so that it didn't look like he was singling out the heavily wounded or children. Some patients waved him past, knowing what he was up to, and pointed at sicker patients that needed to be extracted way more urgently than the rest of them.
"What's the capital of New Zealand?"
"Hobbit Town."
"What's the national rugby team?"
"The All Blacks." That patient got an orange chit.
"What is the native tribe of New Zealand?"
"The um, Australians?"
In the end Jason doubted he uncovered a single true Kiwi but he would be damned if fifty patients didn't have tickets for the next transport.
Jason entered a ward with only a few patients and a single medic. The medic stood as soon as she saw Jason enter and bowed her head to avoid eye contact. Thankfully she couldn't tell him apart from any other trooper in white armor. A large man noticed Jason and propped himself up in bed. Jason recognized him as the large Polynesian man that had been with Spiz. Already the bruises from the beating he had received were fading away.
"You." Jason's vocoder got the attention of everyone in the room.
"Keep it down, Boston. Don't want to attract the attention of any of your friends." The man said.
"You, ok? ML-5001 can be an asshole when he is giving out punishments." Jason lowered his voice.
"He hits like a pussy. You even more so. You shouldn't have held back. It might have given you away."
"I didn't want to hurt anyone." Jason said which made the man chuckle.
"You weren't going to. I've taken a lot worse growing up."
"Samoa, I'm guessing."
"Hawaii. I'm as American as you are. You can call me Panda by the way."
"That your real name?"
"No." Panda said in a way that told Jason he wasn't going to find out what the man's real name was.
"You look like a bear. So you working with Spiz?"
Panda leaned forward. "The whole camp is working with Spiz. My job is to keep close to you. When the time is right I'm to make sure nothing happens to you."
"Why? I'm not important enough to rate a bodyguard. And my whole gig is up if others see me going around with a giant polynesian monster."
Panda smiled. "You're more important than you know. A lot of people know about you."
Jason's worry grew. "Fucking Spiz. He needs to keep his mouth shut."
"And you need to step up. We are running out of time. We only got so long before the Empire works us all to death."
"I know." Jason knew better than most. He had been in this camp when it first started. Most of those that had come with him in the beginning were long gone. But at the same time he was only one man, a geeky sci-fi nerd, how much good could he do before the Empire had his head on the block.
"Just be ready." Panda warned.
"Everyone keeps telling me that. I need to know what you guys are planning."
"Ain't no one going to tell that to someone in that armor, kid. Just keep an eye on Spiz and you will know when the time is right."
"You tell Spiz I'm not getting stuck in this camp again. If that's your plan you can forget it. You guys don't know what the Empire will do to all of you. What it will make you do." The face of the Bothan Christian he had killed flashed before his eyes for a split second.
"Just be ready, Boston. Don't forget where you came from." With that Panda clammed up. Jason sensed he wasn't going to get any more out of the giant.
Jason pondered just what it was he was supposed to be ready for. Did Spiz's group want him to get close to Molec so they could make an escape with a few hundred prisoners? Did they want him to kill Molec? Steal the Warden's datapad detonator controller? The Empire would kill him. Was his life worth the lives of saving a small fraction of the prisoners here?
There was only one answer but Jason was still too afraid to voice it.
He left the infirmary via its loading ramp entrance. As he descended the ramp he noticed a repulsar trailer. The stench coming from the covered trailer is what hit him first. Jason had been around death ever since being abducted in Hawaii but he had never been around bodies that had been left out for a long time. He stepped into the red mud at the end of the ramp and approached the trailer. His unwavering curiosity prevented him from staying his hand as he flipped the cover tarp back.
The bodies were bloated and stacked like wood inside. There must have been forty of them crammed inside the trailer. Hundreds of Soka flies buzzed around the corpses. The swarm crawled on the bodies giving the skin the appearance that it was moving.
Jason felt his stomach rebel against him. He stepped back from the horror and grabbed at the unlocking tab on his helmet. He clicked the release just as the remains of his lunch spewed forth to mix with the mud at his feet.
"Excuse us, trooper." Someone said.
Jason turned to face two prisoners carrying a gurney with a covered body lying atop it. Jason was embarrassed that he had thrown up in front of them. The lead prisoner indicated the trailer. "Can we get by, trooper sir?"
Jason nodded. Not knowing what to say he just grunted an affirmative. The two men removed the body from the gurney and started manhandling it to the top of the pile.
Jason walked away but not before he looked back several times. How many times a week did they fill that trailer. Was it every day? What were they all dying from?
Then he thought about Spiz's plan again. Was Panda watching him even now from some unseen perch? Was he being followed by the camp underground? Were they waiting on him? One thing was certain. When the time came, Jason would be ready.
He didn't have to wait long.
Jason along with most of the camp's interior security was at the motor pool when the gravtrucks started coming back from the work sites. The sun was already low on the horizon. Jason could spot the drive lamps of the trucks miles out into the Chryse Planatia plains as they approached the camp. The perimeter towers turned spot lamps into the camp and flood lamps that would light the plain for almost two kilometers outside the camp at night. Overhead a medium freighter slowed as it approached the camp's landing pads. Jason wondered if that craft would be the one that removed the Kiwis he had uncovered or the one Spiz and his crew would try to steal.
Hundreds of thousands emptied from the transports and formed into their marching columns. Kapos and guards screamed orders at the hapless prisoners to get them to clear the motor pool to make space for the next loaded transport. Army Troopers like Jason and Shore Troopers patrolled the yard kicking and shoving any prisoner that moved too slowly for their liking.
The prisoners looked near death after a day of hard labor. Most of them were covered in red dust that blended in well with their red utility coveralls. Jason couldn't help but notice that some stared at him as they passed. Were they compatriots in Spiz's group? Were they expecting him to do something now? Here in the open? Jason couldn't see the point other than getting every one's head blown off.
Jason noticed a column that contained several prisoners Jason recognized as coming from Spiz and Panda's barrack. He quickly scanned the group as they marched by him but didn't spot Spiz. Jason grew concerned and grabbed the arm of their Kapo when he neared. "This group, where were they working today?"
The Kapo, a Mirialan, sneered at Jason's hand as he gripped the near-human's arm. "The AquaPower Dam site. What's it to you, trooper?"
"You guys have to reeducate any of them out there." Jason referred to clean slang the Kapos used to refer to summary executions of prisoners.
"Almost had to do the whole kriffing lot of them. We caught an instigator today. He was trying to rile up the scum." The Kapo explained. Jason figured the man was talking about Spiz. Dammit, why did the idiot go and get himself caught like that.
"Scum like that deserves the bolt you gave him." Jason said wishing he could put a bolt into every Kapo in the camp.
"Oh, we didn't kill him." The Kapo grinned. "We saved him for Molec. The Warden radioed that we were to line up all the slaves from the dam in the main assembly area for a special punishment from the man himself. Got a squad of Shore Troopers bringing the prisoner in when everything is set."
"That's a lot of prisoners." Jason figured almost a quarter million were assigned to the large dam project every day.
"Fierfek," The Kapo seemed to be realizing something. "Guess it is. Never thought about it before. But what are they going to do when they've all got kriffing bombs in their necks." He laughed.
Jason laughed with him, but only to dispel and suspicion the Mirialan had about why an Army Trooper would be asking him about such things. "All right get these schuttas moving or you won't get a good view of the punishment."
That thought didn't seem to have occurred to the Kapo either. He turned and started shouting at the prisoners to move faster. "If we don't get set up in the front I'm denying rations for the kriffing lot of you."
Jason accompanied several columns as they made their way through the massive camp. The trip from the motor pool was over two kilometers. Prisoners started to sense something was happening when the guards didn't steer them towards their barracks for the evening. Jason could tell the prisoners were worried chow would be late or something even worse was about to befall them.
They were lined up around the edges of main assembly area. Jason guessed a hundred thousand of them were squeezed in. The ones in the front would have to tell the vast majority of prisoners what happened here. Guards, kapos, Army and Shore Troopers manned a perimeter to keep the Earthlings from the center of the assembly area. More troopers and guards formed a rough inner circle inside the outer circle where Warden Molec waited atop his LIUV.
Jason spotted Quan among the inner circle troopers, which gave him an excuse to make his way out there as well. No one questioned him as he walked across the empty space between the two rings. Thankfully, Quan ignored Jason when he joined the inner perimeter. Jason was close enough to put a hand on the LIUV if he wanted to.
Jason wondered where the rest of Cherek Squad was and assumed they were still patrolling somewhere else in camp. Knowing Baobab, Jason assumed she would skip out on witnessing any type of punishment detail after what they had done to the Christmas Martyrs.
There was a low murmur from the masses of prisoners as they talked among themselves, trying to figure out what the guards were up to. Some of them would have seen what had happened at the dam and spread word that a prisoner was about to be punished as a provocateur.
The main avenue of the camp was kept clear of prisoners and from where Jason was stationed he could see a small party approaching from the direction of the motor pool. The last light of the sun finally disappeared over the uninhabited Kasei Valles to the west. Flood lamps filled the assembly area giving it the Friday night lights feeling of a high school football game.
Jason spotted Spiz in the center of the group as they entered the assembly area. The CIA Agent looked as if the guards had worked him over pretty good. His utility suit was torn in several places and there were horrible bruises on the spy's face and neck. Spiz was also wearing chains that wrapped around his forearms which surprised Jason as he half expected the guards to use fancy shock cuffs. Evidently Spiz was not worthy of anything more than the durasteel bonds they restrained him with.
Molec waited for the party at the edge of the center perimeter line only a few troopers away from Jason. The Zygerrian was grinning and Jason could have sworn he saw the Warden actually lick his lips in anticipation.
Spiz who had kept his head up the entire time in open defiance to his captors looked at Jason for a brief second and then towards Molec with absolute calm. Good, he knows he has a friend close by, Jason thought. It might be the only comfort Spiz will get tonight.
The head guard spoke to Molec first. "This is the Rebel that surrendered to us. Although he denies it, I believe there may be more of them, and I request permission to conduct a further search of the prisoner ranks." The guard held out a rolled up piece of flimsiplast to the Warden. "He was equipped with only this."
Molec took the flimsiplast. "Good work, Block Commander. Leave us. Conduct your search and bring his companions to me."
"Yes, my Lord." The Block Commander turned and left with Spiz's escort. Molec's two escorts moved forward and flanked Spiz.
Molec unrolled the flimsiplast and studied its contents. From his position Jason could see it was the cockpit schematics of some kind of freighter. Likely the one that had landed while Jason had been at the motor pool.
"We've been expecting this." Molec said.
"I figured as much." Spiz replied.
"So you've accepted the truth of your specie's subservience to the Empire?"
"I've accepted the truth that we are masters of our own destiny and that we will still be here when your Empire crumples into dust."
"Your continued existance no longer has any importance to us." Molec looked at the plan and grinned. "Planning on taking a trip were you?" He lifted the arm with the datapad and entered in a command. "Freighter Chain, this is Warden Molec."
"This is Chain." A voice emitted from the datapad. "Go ahead."
"Chain return to Amidala City at once, your services won't be needed tonight."
"Roger, Roger, sir." The pilot replied. Immediately Jason could make out the distant sound of revving sublight engines as the Chain slowly lifted off from the camp's landing pad taking with it Spiz's hope of a mass escape. The Chain rose up into the sky and then turned to fly away to the south.
"I guess you won't be needing these." Molec laughed as he tore the flimsiplast to shreds before tossing them in Spiz's face. Then the Warden spoke to the guards and pointed to the front of the LIUV. "Hold him down."
The guards grabbed Spiz and moved him forward. They unclasped his chains letting them fall to the Earthling's feet. Then each of them took a hold of an arm and shoved Spiz forward until he was bent over the LIUV with his back to Molec. Molec for his part had removed his electro-whip from his back and activated it. It crackled to life with a bright electrical yellow glare. The Warden performed some exaggerated arm stretches for the benefit of the crowd.
Jason could see the horde of prisoners beyond the outer perimeter circle were stirring. They feared what was about to happen to Spiz was going to happen to all of them eventually. Molec must have noticed their unease as well.
"Shut your gobs! Do you want me to explode your necks? Wouldn't cost me a lick of sleep." He held up his datapad and pointed to a large blue button. So he did control the detonator, Jason realized. With a stab of his finger he could murder millions. The power of life and death of his fellow Earthlings was mere meters away.
Molec turned back to Spiz. "Now tell me who your conspirators are or tomorrow I will start detonating one barrack after another until you betray your friends."
"Never. I will never betray the Earth. You've failed Warden, like your Empire eventually will."
"So be it . . . Earthling." Molec's glee turned to rage and he swung his arm back. The electro-whip snapped in the air before it arced down upon Spiz's back. Blinding bolts of energy flashed away from the weapon as it struck the spy.
Jason jumped from the ferocity of the blow. His grip tightened on his blaster. He tried to keep facing forward but other troopers were watching the punishment so Jason turned to watch Spiz squirm in pain as the two guards held him down. Molec hit Spiz again shredding the back of his utility suit and ripping a gash in the prisoner's skin.
"Rebel scum, only now, in the end, do you understand."
Spiz was almost unconscious when Molec's third strike hits him. He clutched at one of the guard's arms to keep from falling onto the ground.
Jason heard shrieks from the crowd as they watched one of their own savagely tortured in front of them.
"Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the Empire. You have paid the price for your lack of obedience." Molec screamed at Spiz.
Spiz writhed on the hood of the LIUV in unbearable pain. The spy reached weakly toward where Jason stood watching. "Boston, please. Help me."
Again Jason stood, watching Spiz. Jason looked at the Warden who laughed as he prepared to strike again, then back to Spiz on the hood.
"Now, Rebel...you will die." Molec pronounced.
Although it wouldn't seem possible the electro-whip glowed brighter as Molec increased its power setting. He extended his arm backwards preparing a killing blow.
Jason raised his blaster to his chin. The Warden filled his sights. His finger squeezed the blasting stub.
"No!"
))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Up Next - Tempest
