"..."
"..."
"..."
"Have they always been this big?"
"Yes, Tangie."
"Really? I could have sworn they were smaller."
"That's just your imagination."
"Hmm…"
"Can you both stop standing around and help-Woah!"
CRASH!
It had been about a week and a half since their platoons little march through the jungle.
Zulu Squad was given a well deserved break with the rest of the Twin Star Platoon by doing busy work for Captain Lawrence.
If they weren't sleeping, eating, or scheduled for training, that is. At the time their current mission: stacking boxes and cataloging as much equipment in a set time of three hours.
They had done this in several other locations around the facility since their return.
So far-in there new location: a storeroom on the south side of the base-it has been twenty minutes.
In that time the six members of the Zulu squad had gotten a lot done. As after a week and a half of doing something such as stacking boxes and cataloging equipment the end result is always the same; you get good at it.
However not all members of Zulu Squad were hard at work.
Something has seemed to catch both Tangie's and Bruyere's attention. The object of their conversation was a deactivated Viper-class Probe Droid. They had found it against the wall after moving a few crates that blocked it when Tangie saw something reflect off the room's ceiling light fixtures.
"Ce`na!" Tangie and Bruyere shouted as their squadmate fell off the ladder she had been using to reach the top of the shelving units, dropping a box of power converters.
"By the Nine Corellian Hells!" Ce`na cursed. The Twi'lek landed hard on her side. Thankfully the box she was trying to get landed next to her spilling its contents and not on her. From the other side of the room Luke and Zachary came running.
"What happened? We heard a crash?" Luke asked.
"Yeah is everyone alright over here?" Zachary said concerned.
"No, no, everything's fine." Ce`na said sarcastically as she stood up brushing her uniform off. Turning around the Twi'lek glared at the two who were with her originally. "If you two were not messing this that hunk of junk-"
"Is that a droid?" Luke asked in interest-his inner mechanic awakening-walking over to the deactivated Probe Droid. Ce`na pinched the bridge of her nose.
"I thought we did well during the training exercise, why are we here?" She mumbled as she picked up the box of what seemed to be now possibly damaged power converters and walked away.
Tangie and Zachary turned away from Ce`na as she walked to the other side of the room. In front of them Luke had already pulled the deactivated Probe droid off its resting place and onto the hard metal ground.
"So Luke, will it live?" Tangie jokes, not expecting a real answer from the Sergeant.
"Maybe."
"Wait really?" Tangie said surprised.
"Yeah…' Luke trailed off, he opened a panel on the side of the droid off. The farm boy coughed as a small layer of dust was revealed to him along with wires and other conduits that the droid needed so it could function.
'Cough, From what I'm seeing it's in working order. The only thing missing in a power converter." Luke said as his eyes rapidly looked back and forth at all of the droid's inner components. Too bad we're not on Tatooine, I know that Tosche station sells them at a good price and quality. Luke thought.
"Well what do you know, Tangie was right." Bruyere mumbled.
"For once." Zachary added. Hearing the comment Tangie scowled. He knew that they were just poking fun at him. He did it to them as well. He was just mad because he felt like he was teased more often than not. Behind him Zachary noticed something on the floor. Bending down and picking it up he realized what it was.
It was a power converter. One that Ce`na must have dropped when she fell off the ladder.
He walked over to Luke and gave it to him.
"You mean like this?" Luke looked over to see the part he needed to fix the droid, and smiled.
"Yep! Thanks Zachary." He said taking the part that was needed. Neither Luke or Zachary noticed the small puncture in one of the power converter cells. Placing the part in the space that it was absent from Luke closed the panel and took a step back. "There, good as new!" He said as he wiped his hand of dust.
"Come on now, don't keep us all waiting. Turn it on." Tangie said.
"You sure? We could get in trouble." Luke said.
"I agree with Luke. I'm not sure if turning it on is a good idea. The droid was put here for a reason." Bruyere said.
The squad's resident history buff was against turning the droid on for two reasons.
The first was because he couldn't tell what model the droid was. The Separatist used the droid but they gave it only a light armament with a weapon that was as powerful as your average hand held blaster. The Galactic Empire was the same, not seeing the reason to spend thousands of credits to change an already reliable design. The Imperial State however uses it as a Heavy Mechanized Infantry Unit.
The Probe Droids used and manufactured by the Imperial State of Terra have shield generators that worked very well against blasters and theoretically could take the power of a thermal imploder head on as long as no shrapnel cuts into a important component that the droid needed for it to stay operational but were poor against high powered ballistic based weaponry.
They were also given a higher powered blaster that with the right angle could do major damage to light and when lucky medium sized and armored vehicles. The chances of it being either or was fifty fifty. While it was a base built and operated by the Imperial State of Terra, the Galactic Empire oversaw the security when it was under construction as well as the two years following until more resource efficient alternatives took over.
The second was that this droid was placed in storage for a reason.
"In trouble for what?" Tangie took a step towards a droid. "For fixing equipment? Please what's the worst that can happen?" Before anyone could stop him he pressed a button on the side of the droid.
"Famous last words." Zachary said. It began to power up with a small buzzing noise. It floated upwards until it was about a foot off the ground. Its large eye-like photo receptor began to glow red.
"I have a bad feeling about this…" Bruyere said. Everyone took a step away from the droid. No-one moved. Everything was silent for a moment before the droid began to chatter in its distorted voice. Looking between the cadets between it. Bruyere slowly reached for the small blaster on his belt. But the droid seemed to have noticed this as its 'eye' turned a darker red.
"Get Back!" Bruyere shouted as he pulled out his blaster. The four members of Zulu jumped away and behind the nearest box or crate that sat on the shelf. The dangling legs of the probe droid spun around and aimed at where Bruyere and Luke had jumped behind.
Its blaster made a loud high pitched echo that hurt their unprotected ears. The blast hit the crate that they hid behind leaving a large round mark of carbon scoring. Thankfully all it did was bump the box forward slightly due to the kinetic after effects that even energy based weapons have. "Oh thank the Emperor." Bruyere let out a breath. The Viper droid was made by the Galactic Empire. Luke however just gave him a look.
"What do you mean 'thank the Emperor!'" Luke said as he tried to make himself smaller than he already was. It was times like these that he liked being shorter than most. Less places to get hit.
"Well-" PEW! "If the droid was made by the Imperial State we would have been dead-" PEW! "-by now."
"Thank you, Bruyere. That makes us feel so much better." Tangie said. He and Zachary were behind a stack of boxes.
"Hey man, don't yell at Bruyere, It was you who turned it on!" Zachary defended Bruyere. Tangie turned to him and crossed his arms.
"Oh so it's my fault now?"
"YES!" All three of them shouted at once. Tangie looked down in guilt. They were right. If he hadn't turned the droid then they wouldn't even be in this mess.
"Your right." He said under his breath. If he got everyone into this mess then it was his duty to get everyone out. But what?
PEW!
CRASH!
Ting-Ting Ting
Both Tangie and Zachary covered their heads. It seemed that the droid turned its focus onto them. Opening his eyes he saw what the droid had shot. In front of him was a knocked over box of rebar steel. Extras that the engineers used when they had to fix the base after large storms due to the erosion of the cliffs.
"Guys I have a plan." He shouted.
"We're all ears!" Luke called.
"One of you has to get the droid's attention for it to work."
"Don't worry we will be fine. Just do what you need to." Luke assured the Zabrak. Tangie took a deep breath and picked up one of the longer pieces of rebar steel.
"Bruyere, draw its attention, now!"
"On it!"
CHU- CHU- CHU-
The EC-17 Holdout Blaster Pistol was a reliable secondary weapon that gave off a lot of power for its size. It was a beloved weapon by many officers and troopers alike. It's only downside was its short range of only seventy two yards. Thankfully the Viper Probe Droid was well within the range of Bruyere. When Bruyere broke cover he didn't actually think to aim the pistol. The result: he missed. Every shot.
PEW!
"Kriff!" The boy yelled as he ducked behind cover once more. Despite this he still got the droids attention. Tangie vaulted the boxes that he was behind and ran at the droid. Just as he got close enough to spear the droid through it turned towards him.
"Tangie watch-out!" Luke shouted.
PEW!
The Probe Droid crashed onto the floor. Its eye shattered and smoking. Tangie dropped his weapon of choice and fell to the ground shaken. He had almost died. The others turned around to see Jyn and Ce`na. In Jyn's hand was a smoking blaster. Ce`na moved around Jyn and ran over to Tangie carrying a first aid kit.
"What happened?" Jyn asked. Luke, Bruyere and Zachary looked at each other for a moment. However before any of them could respond Ce`na had begun to speak.
"I'll tell you what happened-stay still." She said sternly. Ce'na was trying to remove a few pieces of shrapnel from Tangie's face.
"Poor aim and suicidal idiot found this piece of trash earlier." The two frowned but stayed silent knowing that this wasn't the time to defend themselves.
"I fell off a ladder and dropped a box of power converters." The two now looked guilty. They probably should have helped the Twi'lek pick up the things that she had dropped.
"Luke and Zachary came over to see what was wrong. Instead of helping they saw the droid and acted like it was some new expensive speeder." It was now both Luke and Zachary's turn to feel guilty. They had originally come over to make sure no-one was hurt but at the sight of the droid they both got excited and forgot about her.
"I left and went to where you were but it seems that I didn't pick up all the power converters." Zachary turned away. In hindsight he probably should have just given the power converter to Ce`na.
"Mister Sergeant Engineer over here must have 'fixed' the thing." Luke rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. When he saw the probe droid it reminded him of his time fixing R5 and the other droids that his family owned. It was a hobby that he enjoyed and hadn't been able to indulge in since he arrived at Eriadu.
"Everything else we saw on our way over." She then turned to the only other member of their squad with a blaster and put a hand on her hip. "Also Bruyere, where did you learn to shoot? Storm Trooper Academy? Because Captain Lawrence would have skinned you alive if he saw that?" She added. Bruyere looked down in shame. He could have hit the droid. Why didn't he?
Jyn sighed and walked over to the box that Tangie got the rebar steel from and picked it up.
"Well, what happened, happened. Let's get back to work or we will fall behind."
"Your right." Luke said as he stood up stretching his back. "Tangie do you need to go to the Infirmary?"
"N-no Luke. Just a little shaken is all. I'll be fine. Give me a moment."
"Alright then just holler if you don't feel good." The Zabrak nodded. As the squad got back to work. None of them noticed the security camera in the corner of the room.
In the facilities security command hub was Captain Lawrence. At first glance one would think that he was displeased. But that was just what his 'thinking' face looked like. His eyes showed respect. If you were to trace a line to follow where he was looking, it would end on Privet Tangie Oto. The boy had come a long way from being a common wamp rat on the streets of Tatooine. He was becoming a soldier worthy of the title Imperial State Trooper. When the droid was activated it had sent a silent alert to security. When they checked the cameras they had called the Captain in as the ones that were causing a disturbance were his cadets.
"Play it again."
"Yes sir."
Once more he watched the events that took place in the storeroom. Every time the video played his eyes were focused on the Zabrak. As the video ended he smirked.
"That will be enough." Captain Lawrence said. The officer nodded and turned off the video feed. He was proud of the Zulu Squad. They showed that they can work together well.
Sergeant Skywalker asked those under his command for ideas and didn't reprimand those who gave one without asking.
Private Smith while laid back showed that he could get serious when the situation called for it.
Private Zor'n gave the team a great advantage with his knowledge on weapons and equipment used in the past as well as currently.
Private Oto shows that he has courage and can be counted on when he makes mistakes.
Private Ce`na has shown that she can take charge when the situation calls for it as well as give a stern reprimanding to those who need it, despite rank.
Last but not least Private Erso, while a little distant to her squad, can make up for it with her skills as a soldier and great marksmanship. He just knew that these six will excel wherever they go after training. He walked out of the room and made his way to his office. Sitting in his chair he turned on the holotable that was built into his desk. After a second the image of a man appeared. He was in his mid to late forties and wore a navy admirals uniform.
"Captain Lawrence, how are you? It's been awhile." The man asked. The Captain smiled a little. Taking a deep breath he spoke.
"Admiral Salem, I believe I have a Platoon that would do well in Operation Liberum Stella." Captain Lawrence said whispering the last two words.
Admiral Mathious Salem a full Terran from Earth and one of the highest ranking members of either the Galactic or Imperial State Navy was in his quarters on his flagship the Nova Prime, the only Bellator Class Star Dreadnought that the Imperial State of Terra owned leaned forward. "Are you sure Captain?" He asked.
"Yes. I am positive. They have some of the best scores that I have seen in the last few years." Captain Lawrence assured. Admiral Salem leaned back and narrowed his eyes.
"While I trust your judgement Lawrence I can't just accept them, especially since they have yet to graduate."
"I know sir. What about a test?" Captain Lawrence asked.
"A test you say?" The Fleet Admiral asked. "What kind of test do you suggest? I know of no test that any academy on the thousands of worlds that the Empire controls that administer a test that would qualify them for something like this."
"Well, more of a trial." The Captain corrected.
"Oh?"
"Two days ago ISB agents arrested Orn Free Taa after discovering his vast connections in the Galactic underworld. Because of this some of his supporters on Ryloth are in revolt and have pushed back our troops from the rural areas of the planet that house the Biosphere owned by the planetary government as well as many of the surrounding defenses. It is my understanding that the Imperial State of Terra had released the rebel leader Cham Syndulla from custody after he agreed to take over and lead Ryloth under Terran management."
Admiral Salem nodded along with what the Captain was saying. It was true that Orn Free Taa loyalists had begun to revolt on the planet.
Cham Syndulla was appointed as the Military Governor of Ryloth by the Imperial State of Terra and released from Imperial custody after he was arrested several months back. This was because looking into the planet's past, history has shown that the planet does much better under the rule of a fellow Twi'lek than an outside power.
The former rebel leader was only chosen because of his influence and the fact that if Orn Free Taa Loyalists joined up with whatever was left of the Free Twi'lek Peoples Resistance that Cham Syndulla led then the Empire would risk a full uprising of Ryloth.
"You wish to send them to Ryloth and help… pacify those who seek the Imperial State and Galactic Empire destruction?"
"Yes. That's exactly what I wish for sir." The Admiral nodded.
"Begin to write up the paperwork. I'll deal with any questions from Deep Space Station Stardust - 1. Have them ready to move out within three days. I have high expectations for them."
"Of course Admiral. They won't let you down." With that the transmission ended. This trial would test the Twin Star Platoon to its fullest.
But if they succeed then it will all be worth it.
Operation Liberum Stella was still only in its first stage.
At this rate it was only a matter of time.
(A.N. I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I haven't been updated because of Christmas and my parents birthdays that are three days apart from each other so I felt like it was a good time to take a break. I will be uploading a small 1,000 word chapter tomorrow morning as well. Remember that if you notice anything that is off like me misspelling a word do not be afraid to leave a review. All forms of help are welcome.
"The elusive Operation Liberum Stella is already underway. A direct cause of this has caused a up rising on the Planet of Ryloth after the arrest of the corrupt senator Orn Free Taa. How will the Twin Star Platoon react to this development? How will they fare in a real combat situation? Was this ending wrote because I wanted to end the first arc faster because I feel like if I don't then it will go on forever? WHO KNOWS! Find out next time on the Imperial State of Terra!")