As the Dark Times fade.
Disclaimer: Skymaster23 doesn't own anything of Lucasfilm, nor does he have a connection to anything on RL television.
This story will be a mix of legends and disney-canon.
Location: Planet, Chandrila. City, Emita. One week before Yavin 4.
Three uniformed individuals are in The Woozy Gronda tapcafe while a song by Umjing Baab plays in the background. "You heard anything more about Omonda's arrest?" One of them asks while pausing a holofilm.
"I did... One of Moff's Seerdon's people say that Mothma losing her little slice-hound is the better topic; it makes her that much closer to paying for G'rho." The other says, huffing at his Green Galaxy while a fourth exits the refresher, only to stop and point out a projection.
"-erial Center has declined to give any details on the withdrawal from Ord Biniir, citing security reasons, but we can safely assume that the ISN will regain the system before too long." The Mediacaster said.
"That they will. Agreed?" One of the four asks outloud, gaining several nods, some more enthusiastic than others.
"Indeed, even the Star Destroyer that friend of yours serves on may take part in it, Carlin." Another says.
"That'll be something to hope for." The one called Carlin replies as he holds up a glass. "Another round for we who serve The Empire at home and across the galaxy!" He adds boisterously.
"CCP Dispatch to any patrollers near quadrant 3, we've been informed of a stolen speeder in sector 27, last seen headed east." They hear from their headcomms.
"Or not...Patrollers Deler, and Imbru here; we'll check it out." Carlin says after rolling his eyes, and heads out with the third to investigate. The two board a Vornskr police interceptor*. After eight minutes flight-time, they spot the speeder. "There it... wait, a QH-7?"
"A what now; that's army property we're chasing?!"
Despite the new-found dread, the airspeeder dives down to forty feet above it. "This is the CCP. Decelerate immediately and exit the vehicle." Deler says, only to see blaster bolts pass by in response. "Shots fired; ascending to maneuvering altitude! Standby to ionize them, Imbru."
"Way ahead of you. Please don't get dented, please don't get dented." Imbru tells Deler, and himself. After they reach 106 feet, Deler noses down for the shot, but sees the target has crashed into one of the buildings. "Were they too busy shooting at us?" He tells his partner before calling for a med-skiff.
"You have a bad feeling about this, too?" Imbru asks him, but gets no answer. "...Carlin?" When they land, they find the speeder, and a bit more. "Oh, we are going to be dragged through thorns for this." Imbru says as they check the wreck before checking the bodies, of whom only one was human. "And what could have done this; it's still melting." He said next as he holds up half of an A-280 blaster rifle.
"The scanner says one human, one flea-bag, and...a Cerean?" Carlin replied. Finding a Bothan on Chandrila wasn't unusual, but as far as either of them was aware, the Cereans went extinct after the Clone Wars. The plot deepens when he lifts some debris off the first alien, and drops it back down when seeing she is missing her head... and any blood stains. They then see a speeder bike down the street heading south, followed by an explosion on the third floor of the nearest building it could have come from.
"Deler to Dispatch, send more units, now! There's been a bombing!" Carlin then shouts, and turns to Imbru. "Follow that biker, I'll check inside!"
As Imbru departs, Carlin pulls out his SC-4 and heads into the building, a droid repair shop. "CCP; are there any survivors?!" He asks outloud, and continues to check the first floor. Finding it empty, he goes up to find four bodies and a damaged R3-series astromech, then hears a noise in the corner. He turns to see a dark-skinned person with several bruises and a wound similar to the Bothan's neck on what's left of his right wrist. The area around him is strangely devoid of scorching from the bomb. "This is almost starting to make sense now... Chandrilan resistance." Carlin says as the person winces mid-breath.
"You d-don't... don't approve, seccer?" The dying man asked in an inner rim accent as he looked up.
"Not when you disrupt galactic order, or interrupt Miss. Starflare's latest holodrama, traitor." Carlin replies as he holsters his sidearm, and turns after hearing a vehicle approaching, but feels the man grab his hand.
"No time left, Carlin Deler. Know th... their deeds." He says as Carlin tries to pull away, and sees the surface of a planet he thinks he recognizes, but is unable to be certain as a green wave races over it, replaced by three individuals, although only two of whom he definitely recognizes before the scene goes dark.
Carlin blinks in confusion before realizing he's back in the room. "How did you know my first name-and what in Casnirin's name did you just do?" He says to the man, who starts gasping weakly as voices are heard downstairs.
"Find... in the force." The person tells him, and stops breathing.
"Hey, don't you... damn it." Carlin says, shaking the body just as two stormtroopers rush in. He begins to stand, but is shoved back to a crouching position.
"This is a restricted area, citizen. Move and you will be considered a combatant." The first one tells him while the second scoffs.
"They already killed twelve of us; let's just-"
"Let's just what, trooper?" A third voice said, which Carlin finds to be from an Imperial officer. "What do we have here?"
"Sir, we have five confirmed dead through-out the premises, plus this one; connection unconfirmed." The lead stormtrooper explained.
The officer glances at Carlin before nodding to them, then tells him to stand. "I'm Lt. Ulgant, of the Hanna City garrison; and you are...?"
"Cpl. Carlin Deler, sir. Air & land traffic division for the Emita branch of the Chandrilan Civil Protectorate."
"Deler, is it? That's the family operating Chandrila's most renowned holotheatre, if I'm not mistaken?" The officer asked while raising a brow. "We'll have to take you in for questioning on this incident before the media arrives and sees you here."
"Understandable; is Sakal being told this as well?" Carlin asks him, noting that neither of them indicate surprise at the rather unconventional manner that the rebels were killed.
"There was a second witness here?" Lt. Ulgant asks him with a more perturbed demeanor.
"Only to the speeder that escaped, sir; my partner Sakal Imbru is still following it."
"In which direction? How much does he know of this?" The Lt. demanded, to which Carlin, unable to shake of the possibility that a whole planet was now dead, only answers the first question. "TB-255, there's another patroller within the cordon. Send a squad out as far east as you can, and find them before sunrise!"
Once at the nearest Imperial base, Carlin is shown Imbru's status... and his partly burned corpse. "We located your assigned interceptor while you were on the way here, Cpl. Deler. Regrettably, it went down over quadrant 3-19. Our follow-up investigation found that he has made a number of calls from his residence to this terrorist cell."
"Sakal? He was one of the most dedicated of my class." Carlin told Ulgant. He gets the feeling that the Lt.'s being dishonest, but the whole situation keeps him from deciding what to do. Carlin, who had always supported The Empire as much as the next person, was experiencing something new.
Doubt.
Doubt in the form of a recently deceased member of a species which everyone was told had died out before the tenth Empire Day, and in each molten slash-mark in a room full of military-grade durasteel.
"We attempted to take him into custody five miles from the site, but he chose to crash his speeder to keep this spice operation secret. I'm terribly sorry." Lt. Ulgant tells him, and turns to another one of his men. "Pvt. Wallen, escort the Cpl. back to his prescient."
"Yes, sir."
"Wait; what do you mean, spice operation?"
"Hmm? I would think that obvious. By order of Moff Seerdon, this was a case of inebriated driving that coincided with an overloaded spice processor."
Carlin gives a furious glare to the Lt. daring to sully his partner's record, ignoring the stormtroopers aiming at him, and inwardly swears to hunt down the sack of Fecklen bile who must have been on the speeder bike until the last root withers, but agrees. "By the Emperor's will." He tells the Lt.; a pledge that hours ago he would have died for now couldn't feel more acrid.
He is taken to an ITT, and leans back in his seat as the transport takes off. "...You see the Limmie match against Ralltiir?" The stormtrooper asked after a few minutes.
Carlin only sighs and says nothing. Once back at the station, the other two from the tapcafe, and the chief are outside waiting for him. "I want you to know, I'll have a list of replacements for Cpl. Imbru on your desk in a few days; until then you can take tomorrow off." The latter tells him, and heads inside.
"Don't pay attention to him, Carlin." The female patroller says as she pats his back. "I tried to let Toln know what happened, but the Star Destroyer he's on is at Kessel. Should we head back to the Gronda?"
"The offer's appreciated, Fenla, but i have a report to make."
Three days after the incident, several riots after the dissolution of the Imperial Senate occurred, as well as another blow to Chandrila's reputation in the form of the execution of it's representative, Canna Omonda. Carlin is on leave, a bit too exhausted to acknowledge the greetings from the passersby while buying voice coils for the holoprojector in chamber 4 along with his younger sister, Nirame, and her boyfriend, Hallem Rossiker. "Hey, 'Lin, there's some refraction crystals on sale in aisle eight."
"We have enough back home, I'm going to pay for these and put them in the backseat. Don't keep me waiting like last time." He says, and walks off as Nirame scowls.
"Did you hear what he said about me just now, Hallem?" She half-complained.
"Hehe, he's just upset cause he's not as well off as we are, my dear." He tells her.
She is about to reply when she notices something projected behind him, and calls Carlin back frantically.
Both men turn around to see a Xof And Acquaintances announcement. "- ile all attempts to reconnect with the Alderaan system have failed, Imperial Center urges everyone not to speculate as to the cause."
Nirame is about to comment on it when she see's her brother collapsed on the floor. "Carlin!"
* A made-up newer model of the Police Airspeeder seen in the Clone Wars cartoon.
Carlin Deler. Born 22 BBY. The most i can say of his appearance is that his hairstyle is similar to ANH background character Moradim Bast.