Ellidy stares at Hamlin "They have nothing to do with it. Please spare them" he begs. Hamlin sighs and beckons him forward. Ellidy does so and stands before Hamlin "Fire!" the death troopers shoot all the engineers dead. Ellidy closes his eyes but Hamlin slaps him causing Ellidy drop to his knees. Hamlin crouches down "How do I know the weapon is complete? Let me share with you some details". Elias watches with his binoculars when he spots Nicole climbing up the side of a platform where she throws a stormtrooper back over the edge. She then quickly hides behind a crate. Hamlin smirks sadistically "Shin, Harvey Who, his band of lunatics and their Holy City. The last reminder of the Shinobi all gone". Ellidy looks up at him defiantly "You'll never win" "Now where have I heard that before". Lyco is on another ridge with her blaster aimed at random troopers at the base. Leeta stands behind her "Sister, this is not what we came for. It will solve nothing". Lyco doesn't move "They destroyed our home. I'll kill them all. What else would we have come for? I am not a lacky of the Freedom Fighters". Leeta bows her head "The Force is with them. That was once enough for you". Lyco stays where she is with anger in her eyes but it suddenly softens. She sighs at her sister words and lowers her blaster.
Shard activated comms "Elias, can you hear me?" "I'm here. Did you make contact with Freedom Fighters?" as they were talking Larry was collecting equipment. "Yes, but we have a problem. There's a squad of fighters coming. You have to clear the area" "No! No! Tell them to hold off. Nicole's on the platform!". Shard quickly changes frequency "Captain Elias is requesting a delay on squadron support. Please confirm". A voice came from the other side "Negative, squadron has already engaged". Shard quickly turned to Larry "We have to go, now!". On the platform an alarm begins ring, Hamlin looks behind him and sees a squad of X-wings flying towards the base. They fire at the platform and kill multiple stormtroopers. Elias watching this quickly gets up and makes his way to the platform. "Return fire! Get fighters in the air!" Hamlin started barking to the remaining soldiers. Nicole runs out form her hiding place "Father!", Ellidy turns around and the two of them stare at each other for a moment before another fighter launches a torpedo behind Ellidy launching him forward. The blast then knocks Nicole out. TIE fighters take off from hangers and begin pursuing the X-wings.
On the ground Shard was running through the rocky terrain with Larry falling behind him "Shard, wait. I know where we can get a shuttle. You follow me" he grabs Shards arm making him stop. Shard glances at him "You're asking for a great deal of trust. I don't you". Larry thinks for a second before responding "You may not no me. But we are the same. We've both worn the Imperial symbol and yet now we are helping the Freedom Fighters". Larry reassuringly smiled "Look, Elias reprogrammed you, right? Well, Ellidy reprogrammed me. We can still get the information to the Freedom HQ. But you have to listen to me". After a few seconds Shard smiles "Lead the way". Hamlin is helped up by his death troopers and taken to his ship. He gives a glance to Ellidy's body and for a moment he looks regretful at the sight of his former friend before turning back to normal before the ship's doors close. Leeta meanwhile concentrates and raises her cane which has a bowcaster attached. She points it in a random direction and waits. An X-wind suddenly appears flying from that direction. A TIE fighter chases it and Leeta suddenly fires. The TIE Fighter ends up in just the right spot and it gets hit causing it to fly out of control and hit part of the base.
Nicole wakes up and sees Hamlin's ship takes off. She quickly gets up and runs over to her dying father. She falls to her knees and cradles him "Papa. Papa it's me". Ellidy near death looks up to her making Nicole smiling "It's me. It's Nicole". He weakly smiles and puts his hand on her face "Stardust". Nicole tries to hold back her tears "I've seen the message" "It-It must be destroyed". He lightly strokes her face "Look at you. There's so much I…" he begins to groan before his body fall down, lifeless. Nicole begins to cry "Papa. No. No! Come on!" she shakes his body. Two stormtrooper advance behind her but Elias appears and shoots them. He runs over to Nicole "We have to go. Come on" he grabs her arm, but she leans her head against her father's body "I can't leave him". "I'm sorry. He's gone. There's nothing you can do". Nicole takes a second before getting up and following Elias off the platform. They get chased through the through rocky path by troopers. A cargo ships suddenly appears in front of them and it begins firing on the troopers. The boarding ramp opens up revealing Larry "Lets go!". Lyco and Leeta run down the mountain and they all board the ship. It takes off and everyone but Shard are in the loading area of the ship taking a breath.
Elias puts his blaster on a storage rack and he then turns to see Nicole glaring furiously at him. "You lied to me", Elias turns away from her and begins looking through the ship's cupboards "You're in shock" he said coldly. Nicole stomped over to him "You went up their to kill my father". Elias glances at her "You don't know what you're talking about" "Then deny it", Elias didn't say anything. "You lied about why we came here and why went up there alone", Elias sighs "I didn't pull the trigger". "Well, you might as well have. My father was living proof and you put him at risk. Those were Freedom Fighter bombs that killed him" her eyes filled with water. Elias turned to face her "I had orders. Orders I disobeyed. But you wouldn't understand that" "Orders? Even when you know there wrong. You might as well be a stormtrooper". Nicole was about to walk away but Elias turned very angry "What would you know? We don't have the luxury of deciding when and where we want to care about something". He scoffs "Suddenly this is all real for you. Some of us have had to live with it. I've been in this fight since I was six years old" water began to fill his eyes, but it didn't stop his anger. "You're not the only one who lost everything. Some of us just decided to do something about it". Nicole scowled at him "You can't talk your way around this" "I don't have to" he walks past her towards the Larry who is on comms "We're going to Green Forest. Make sure they know we're coming in in a stolen ship".
Hamlin's ship enters the atmosphere of Flame Core, it follows a river of lave to a cliff top castle and lands on the platform. Inside the castle an panther in a cloak enters a room and kneels before a cylindrical tank full of some kind of liquid. Two guards stand on either side of the tank. "My Lord, Director Hamlin has arrived" the panther says as he averts his gaze from the tank. It begins to drain of its liquid revealing what's left of a badly scarred hedgehog. In a large room Hamlin is standing on a platform above a drop into a lava river. A door opens behind him and he turns around to see Eclipse standing at the door. The Raiju walks across a catwalk towards the pig who gulps as he approaches. Eclipse stands in front of him and stares blankly "Director Hamlin" "Lord Eclipse" he said bowing his head slightly. He was struggling to hide his fear, "You seem unsettled" Eclipse said as he glanced away from him. "No, not at all. Just pressed for time. There's a great many things to attend to". Eclipse quickly turned back to him "My apologies. You do have a great many things to explain". "I delivered the weapon the Emperor requested. I deserve an audience to make certain he understands its remarkable-", Eclipse takes one step closer to him causing Hamlin to gulp "Potential" he finishes.
"It's power to create problems has certainly been confirmed. A city destroyed; an Imperial facility openly attacked". He walks past Hamlin, "It was Governor Finitevus that suggested the test". Eclipse stops before slowly turning back to him "You were not summoned here to grovel, Director Hamlin. There is no Death Egg. The Senate has been informed that Shin was destroyed in a mining disaster" "Yes, my lord". Eclipse walked forward so he was now right in front of Hamlin "I expect you not to rest until you can assure the Emperor that Dr Ellidy has not compromised this weapon in any way" he said threateningly. He strides back across the catwalk as Hamlin arrogantly smiles "So, I'm still in command?", Eclipse stops but keeps his back to Hamlin. "You'll speak to the Emperor about-" he suddenly stops talking as he struggles to breath. He clutches his throat and falls to the floor. Eclipse turns around revealing he's holding up his right hand "Be careful not to choke on your aspirations, Director" he drops his hand releasing Hamlin before he continues through the door at the end of the catwalk. Hamlin gasp but then smiles.