Toja stood over a small box he had been avoiding for the past week. In it were his son's Stobo's belongings. There wasn't much inside: his favorite scarf for the cold weather, a transport pass to the capital, and a small orange kyber crystal. Toja picked up the crystal and inspected it. Where had his son gotten the rare crystal from? Mostly likely from the mines and mostly likely because of the Tersus.

Toja placed the kyber back and put the lid on top of the box. Picking the box up, he walked out of his home pod toward the trash. As he exited, he caught sight of Lenore Tersu lingering outside his door dressed in an Imperial Cadet uniform.

"If your first assignment is to check my identification, you'll have to allow me to go back inside and get it," Toja said. He tossed the box in the trash and dusted his hand off on his pants. He knew the Tersus well because of his son, but it was Lee he liked most.

"Toja," Lenore began, "I'm sorry about Stobo."

"Lee's already been to see me to relay your condolences," he said coldly.

He was devastated when he heard the news. But for Lee's sake he kept it to himself. The boy had taken on too much responsibility due to the recklessness of his father and the absence of his mother. As for his sister, he had thought she was Stobo's close friend as well and was disappointed she wasn't with Lee when he informed him of his passing. Seeing her standing in front of his home in Imperial attire irked him.

"I know," she said sadly. "I should have come with him."

"Yes," Toja agreed, as he turned to go back into his home. "Stobo always spoke fondly of you."

"Have you seen Lee?!" Lenore called out almost in a panic.

Toja stopped and looked at her. He knew the two siblings had quarreled over what to do about the debt their father had left them. Lee had come to him distraught asking for advice:

"She's already signed up. What do I do? How can I save her?" Lee pleaded with Toja looking for guidance.

"I don't think you can, Lee," Toja softly answered. "But take your father's advice. Leave Lothal."

"Come with me," Lee invited him. Toja began to chuckle.

"I'm too old to run my boy. And frankly I'm too tired to fight," he admitted.

"I'm not," Lee stated. "I'm going to join the Rebels."

"You're very brave," Toja began, "But I worry I won't see you again."

"I'll send word to you once I'm settled," Lee said. "If you need anything you can just call–"

"Lee, if you're planning on joining the rebellion," Toja placed his hand on his shoulder. "You'll need to focus on staying alive, not writing home."

"But if you're in trouble," Lee insisted, "you'll call, right?"

"I promise," Toja said, hugging the boy who had been so good to his son.

"You and I both know where he went. If he didn't give you the specifics it's probably for good reason," Toja said, concealing Lee's whereabouts and entering his home, shutting the door. He took a few breaths before there was a knock.

"Toja please," Lenore pleaded. "I did this for us. There was no other way. Lee and I would have been in a labor camp within the year. What was I supposed to do?"

Toja opened the door ready to scold the girl he had watched grow up essentially on her own. He could see the defeat in her eyes. She looked just like her mother before she left. He sighed and hugged her and felt her cling to him. For as much as he hated her compliance he knew she was only trying to make the best of the situation she had no part in creating.

"There's always another way," He said comfortingly. "But I think for you it's just a matter of time until you find it."

"I hope so," she said, rubbing her eyes. She wasn't about to let herself cry. Toja nodded to her and began to shut his door. "I get a family stipend. Once I'm in the Imperial Forces officially it increases. I want you to have it."

"I don't want your Imperial credits," Toja refused. It was a nice gesture but if he accepted he would be condoning her choice.

"Someone should benefit from this mess. Take it. Use it for the garden, or any of the residents here who need help. Hell funnel the credits to the rebels if need be. I just don't want my choice to be for nothing," she said.

"Alright," Toja reluctantly accepted, mostly to get her off his property as other Tarkintown residents began to watch from afar. She nodded and turned to leave. "I can get a message to your brother. If you need me too. If it's important…."

"I don't know what I would say. He's so angry with me," she admitted.

"Well when you do, just let me know," Toja said and closed his door immediately regretted the decision. He feared he had put Lee and his rebel friends closer to danger.

"Tersu," Denz called, walking over to him from a meeting that had just let out. Lee was cleaning a C1-series astromech droid with an orange dome and yellow detailing. "What are you doing?"

"Just giving Chop here a much needed cleaning," Lee said, patting the droid on the side. Chopper beeped with delight and rolled forward, gently nudging Lee in gratitude. "This guy's seen a lot. He should look his best since the base is named after him."

"You sure you're not trying to make up for your embarrassing introduction to the Ghost crew?" Denz teased. Lee said nothing and continued to clean the droid. It was true, the minute he saw the crew in person he was star stuck and had knocked over a whole palette of supplies. Luckily for him it was only tools and spare parts and not weaponry. Last thing they needed was a weapons malfunction.

"It was a mistake," Lee stood, placing his tools away. "You have no idea what those five meant to us in Tarkintown. I was a bit in shock."

Beep beep beep, Chopper was disgruntled from being left out of the count.

"I mean six," Lee corrected himself.

"They do have quite the reputation," Denz agreed. "Rya and I need to go to the other side of Atollon. We're vetting some new recruits."

"I'll get the speeder ready," Lee turned to jump into action when Denz stopped him.

"Actually it's just me and Ry. We need you to check the perimeter fence. Make sure all the sensor beacons are working. We're getting some interference as of now," Denz smirked. He seemed to take great pleasure in annoying Lee, especially since he could tell Lee had feelings for her. "Ry said you're handy with mechanics."

He walked off and joined Ry who was speaking with a few other higher ranked rebel leaders. Since they had arrived on Atollon she had little time for Lee. Denz placed his arm around Rya's waist and winked at Lee. He took every opportunity to annoy Lee, especially when it came to Rya.

Rya grabbed his wrist and removed his arm from her waist. She then clearly told him to keep his hands to himself and walked toward the speeder. Chopper laughed and rolled away as Lee smiled with delight knowing Rya could handle herself.

"Need a hand?" a teenage orange twi'lek girl asked. "If a sensor is out, kryknas are a handful."

"I think I can manage," Lee said, gearing up the speeder bike he was going to take.

"Oh come on," the twi'lek begged. "I'm bored. I've been here a week and all I've done is inventory on the supply hanger. You'd think there would be more shooting when you join the rebellion."

"You got a point," Lee said. "Where you from?"

"Ryloth," the twi'lek answered. "You?"

"Lothal," Lee said. "I'm Lee."

"Jules," she introduced herself with a sense of pride. "Just so you know I'm driving."

She hopped on the speeder bike as Lee took a seat in the attached sidecar with his tool box. They headed out toward the North perimeter of Chopper Base.

"I don't understand where the interference is coming from. Everything's working," Lee said, checking the sensors. Just as he finished his assessment an x-wing flew overhead toward the base's runway.

"You were saying," Jules mocked as the sensor gave no indication of the incoming ship.

"There must be interference further out. We can walk to the next beacon," Lee said, leading the way. As they approached the next sensor Lee decided it would be good to get to know his new partner. "So you've been here a week? What called you to the cause?"

"Oh please don't call it that," Jules rolled her eyes keeping an eye out as Lee knelt next to the next senor. "'The Cause'. We should just call it what it is."

"And what's that?" Lee stopped puzzled.

"War," Jules grimly stated.

She had seen too much in her young life. Her tone expressed the weight of loss and exhaustion of defeat. If she wanted to be open, she would have told Lee about how she saw her parents killed for speaking out against the Empire. Or how she saw her sister tossed into a rancor pit for refusing to dance for an Imperial bureaucrat. With her family gone, Jules knew her only chance at survival was to escape by walking as far as she could through the rocky dry terrain away from the capital city. Two days out she was extremely dehydrated and starved. But luck was on her side, as the Ghost crew had flown off course and caught sight of her laying face down in the open terrain. But she didn't know this Lothlite well enough to entrust him with her history. Not yet anyways.

"Afraid I won't be much good in this war. They haven't even given me a blaster," Lee tried to lighten the mood. He then saw the cause of the interference. The wiring had been chewed through weakening the signal. He had seen Lenore rewire devices a million times. He just hoped all his years of observations would help him now. "Here we go. Might take me a few moments, but I'll get it."

"What about you? Why'd you come?" Jules asked.

"The Empire destroyed my home and my family. It's time to make a stand." he said as he struggled twisting the old wiring off the sensor. There was a quiet clacking noise. Lee looked up and saw a small krykna staring at him a few feet away.

"Whatever it is you're doing, do it faster," Jules said, pointing her blaster at the creature. It slowly approached and curiously shuffled its legs. It then raised its front legs and hissed at them.

PEW PEW!

"Why d'you do that? It was just one," Lee said but grew quiet as three more much larger krykna approach. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Hurry!" Jules yelled as she began firing at the krykna one after the other. Lee fumbled through the wiring hoping one would work.

"Just when I could use you Lenore," he muttered to himself trying to stay calm as the number of Krykna grew.

"What's taking so long?!" Jules yelled. She turned as saw Lee was nowhere near connecting the wires. She pulled him up and shoved the blaster in his hands. "Here, Shoot!"

She traded spots with him and began to adjust the wiring. Lee took the blaster and with ease, aimed and shot krykna after krykna. He had been target practicing with Denz for the past week. He had to admit as much as he disliked him there were some benefits to knowing him.

"There!" Jules stood as the sensor rebooted. The krykna shrieked and retreated in the opposite direction as the sensors booted to full power. "Nice shooting."

"Thanks," he handed the blaster back to Jules.

"Keep it," she said. "I've got a few others back at base I prefer. This one suits you."

The two returned to Chopper Base knowing they could count on one another in a pinch.

"Hey. Heard you had some trouble with the sensors," Rya said, peeking around the corner into Lee's bunk room he shared with Denz. Lee had retired to catch up on some much needed sleep as he had been volunteering for midnight look out. But after today with the sensors he decided to swap with someone.

"Nothing that couldn't be fixed," Lee smiled. He was glad to see Rya. It was the most he had seen her all week. "Any new recruits?"

"Some," she sighed and entered the room adjusting her hair.

"That's good," Lee said, sensing something was wrong. "Isn't it?"

"Lee," Rya began, "I'm sorry I haven't had much time with you."

"It's alright. I understand," Lee assured her.

"I'm glad you do. But I'm afraid maybe I haven't explained the ins and outs of us being here."

"What do you mean?" He asked. Did she want to talk about the two of them? It was true they hadn't had 'the talk'. But seeing how dangerous things had grown, Lee figured it was low on both their priority list.

Rya held out a personal holoprojector to him.

"It's a message for you from Lothal," Rya said. Lee's heart sank. Was Toja in trouble? "I know you must miss home, but because of the Empire's increased efforts to find rebel bases, I'm afraid you can't be sending or receiving messages from now on."

"It's probably Toja, he's the only one I've told. He wouldn't tell anyone anything. We can trust him. I told him if he was in trouble to let me know," he explained.

"Then we better check and see if he's alright," Rya nodded and took his hand. Lee took a deep breath and played the message:

Lee, It's me, Lenore. I hope you're okay. Things here at the Academy aren't what I thought they'd be. It's a lot tougher, but it's not the training, it's because we're not talking. I always knew I'd be ok, as long as I had you by my side. But now I don't know. We've both made our choice. I won't ask you to support mine but I'm asking you to understand. It was the only way. Please don't shut me out. You're all I have. At least let me know you're alright.

The message cut out and Lee turned to look at Rya. She could sense his frustration and anger. He gripped the holoprojector tightly and threw it on the ground. How could she ask him to understand?

"Are you going to answer her?" Rya asked.

"No," he said. "I know Lenore. If I answer her, she'll think I am ok with what she's doing. And if I tell her what I really think, she'll dive deep into the Imperial Forces just to prove her point. The only way to get her to come to her senses is to let her find her own way and stay silent."

Rya placed her hand on Lee's shoulder and turned him to face her. She embraced him tightly and kissed him. Lee was surprised but held her close. He wanted to forget the day and the fact that he truly had lost everything on Lothal.

As he kissed Rya, he could feel the fire of hope burn in his heart. They were going to fight the Empire together and do whatever it took to bring about change.