Xeran inspected the remains of his ship.
Luckily, he had found no body, not in the cockpit nor anywhere else in the wreckage. Fin was alive.
He inspected the ground inside the narrow tunnel heading further underground and found a trail of tracks, but they disappeared after only a few steps. Once again, he had to rely on the Force. He reached out with his senses, trying to locate the captain among the various creatures he could feel inside the facility.
He sensed him. His life force burned bright, not wounded or dying, but radiated fear and urgency. He was in danger. The Zabrak ran as fast as he could, swiftly disappearing underground.
Shammus Fin was a soldier, born and raised. He was anything but unskilled in combat, even when he had just crash-landed his ship and was armed only with a blaster pistol. But he was out of his depth this time, and he didn't believe he could survive this predicament.
He was running in the tunnels, shooting behind him to cover his escape. He was descending further underground, as the route that went towards the surface, and his allies, was swarming with enemy soldiers.
He fell. He was tired, and his leg had been injured in the crash. He sat behind a boulder he could use as cover, still shooting at the enemies that kept coming closer. If that was going to be his last stand, he would take as many of them with him as he could.
Suddenly, he heard shouting, and more shooting. There were sounds of bodies hitting the walls, chocking, a liquid that he assumed was blood splashing on the walls. And the growls of anger and exertion of a very familiar Zabrak warrior.
There was silence. He heard light footsteps approaching. He held onto his gun, just in case, but, as he had hoped, it was Xeran who emerged from behind the boulder.
"Hello, captain."
"Sir, am I glad to see you."
"Are you hurt?"
"Just my leg. I'm gonna need some help, if you don't mind." Xeran offered his hand, and Shammus allowed the young Sith to help him get on his feet.
Their moment of relief did not last long. There was more shooting, and another wave of stormtroopers descended upon them. Xeran weighed his options. He could not risk a fight with Fin injured. He used the Force to hurl the boulder at the soldiers, then wrapped the captain's arm around his shoulders and helped him run.
They dodged one group of stormtroopers after another, running in the tunnels. Even Xeran was hard-pressed to keep all of them at bay. Eventually, he realized the injured pilot could not run anymore. He looked around and noticed a large, empty room, equipped with blast doors. He led the captain there and stood at the doors. He pressed the switch to close them. It didn't work.
"Find the terminal. If you can close the blast doors, they will buy us some time." He stood at the entrance, deflecting one blaster bolt after the other back at the enemy soldiers, until Shammus managed to override the security and close the doors.
Xeran dropped on a chair, exhausted. He looked at the older pilot. "We need to find an escape route. Check the computer for maps of this part of the facility."
There was silence as Shammus typed as fast as he could. Xeran's eyes were closed, his consciousness projected around him, listening to the whispers of the Force, hoping it would reveal a way out. But the Force was silent. The young Sith felt his hearts race and his adrenaline spike. He could not accept the idea of dying in an Imperial mine on a faraway asteroid, like a nobody. Not after everything he had been through, how far he had come.
Shammus broke him out of his thoughts. "Sir, you have to see this."
Xeran approached the computer. "Did you find an escape path?"
"No, and I don't think there is one. This door is the only way in or out. But I found some files about this place, about the reason for its existence. Something about a project, project…"
"Stardust. Yes, I know." The Zabrak fell back on his chair, disappointed. His odds looked worse every passing moment.
"So you know about this asteroid, then?"
"What about it?"
"It's no asteroid at all. This is a space station!"
Xeran looked at the captain. "What?"
Shammus made way as the Sith dragged his chair closer to the computer and looked at the screen. "The Empire is trying to build a superweapon of some sort, and the composite materials of this asteroid are useful to stabilize its immense power. The asteroid itself was turned into an experimental version of this weapon and, once the experiments showed results, they decided to mine the materials and study them further. They have mined a lot of the substance they need, and within the next months they were going to transport it away. Because of the attack, they are probably moving whatever they have as we speak."
Xeran felt the heat on his face, and he felt full of energy despite being tired a second ago. "So you mean to tell me we are inside an Imperial superweapon?"
"Capable of destroying ships, possibly entire fleets!"
Xeran got up, his determination to survive renewed. This weapon had to be his. He looked around the room, once more searching for a way out. Finally, it dawned on him. This place was a mine, deep underground, in an asteroid that had no atmosphere. Every room had to have oxygen, though, and therefore it needed…
"Ventilation shafts. We can escape through them. Check the composition of the network."
Shammus typed again for a while. "There is a vast network, connected to every room in the mine. Neither of us is particularly large, I think we can fit inside. Let me check the route to the hangar."
"That will not be necessary. Find the shortest route to the control room instead."
"The control room? But…" Shammus smiled as he realized the plan. "Right away, sir."
.
They were out of time. Burrsk ran towards the hangar, shooting everything in his path, with no regard for cover or safety. A stormtrooper tried to block the path of the raging alien creature with his body, only to be kicked in the chest and slammed on the wall, before he was shot in the head.
Burrsk held his rifle with one hand and raised the other. A wrist-mounted rocket was activated, blowing up the wall and enabling the shortcut he had devised. He entered the hangar just in time to witness the large transport ship taking off. He cursed loudly. The entire operation had failed.
The Trandoshan activated his coms. "Xeran. They have escaped. We failed."
"Not yet, Burrsk. I have a plan, and you are going to like it."
"What are you talking about? Have you found your captain?"
"I have. Right now, we are about to enter the control room of the facility, or, more precisely, this battle station, which can be used to destroy the fleeing ship, along with the rest of their fleet. Have the air teams delay their escape for as long as they can."
Confused as he was, the Trandoshan gave the order. Now all he could do was to stand in the middle of the hangar area and observe what was happening outside. He hoped his companion knew what he was doing.
The engineers in the control room knew about the attack on the facility. They had shut the blast doors and taken up arms, ready to defend themselves if it came to that. They were expecting the door to burst open any second. What they did not expect was an armored black Zabrak warrior to seemingly fall from the ceiling and start beating them mercilessly. The warrior brought the men before the console and made them kneel, still holding his blade, with violence in his eyes.
"The only reason you are still alive", he said, "is because I require your expertise to operate this station. You will do as you are commanded, and perhaps your lives will be spared."
As the engineers walked Xeran through the controls, Shammus had taken his place on a computer terminal, monitoring the battle outside. He saw the rebel ships and the Imperial defenders fighting, he saw their men losing, and he saw the fleeing ship being under attack, blocked from jumping into hyperspace. As he accessed the records of what had been loaded onto the ship, his eyes widened. "Sir, we have a problem."
Xeran turned towards his captain, annoyed. "What?"
"The cargo ship is transporting more than the materials. There were slaves working in the base, hundreds of them. They have been loaded on the ship as well. If you destroy the ship, they will die."
Xeran froze. Slaves…he had not expected that. If he destroyed the ship, he would deprive the Empire of a powerful weapon, at least for a time, but those people would die. But if he spared them, the Empire would use that weapon to bring terror and death on countless others. The decision was impossible. No matter what he did, innocent blood would be on his hands.
As he pondered his dilemma, the computer beeped. Xeran looked outside the window. An Imperial fleet was dropping from hyperspace, which started wreaking havoc upon their ships immediately. And at the head of the fleet, the largest dreadnought the Empire had ever created, which he only recognized by description. The Executor. Vader had come to reclaim this base, and to finish the young Sith who had escaped him four years ago.