Woo! Happy 1st birthday Tales from the Rebellion! Exactly a year ago today, I published a roughly 1,000 word chapter that started towards the end of the special. Look how far we've come!
It's been great getting to know both all of you, and the characters over the past year. I've enjoyed it.
The chapter might feel a little rushed, but I wanted to hurry to get it done for the anniversary. I'm not entirely pleased with how the end turned out, but what's done is done.
I hope you enjoy the chapter, and I'll see you at the end note!
As the electrowhip hit him again and again, Ferb bit his tongue to keep himself from screaming. He didn't want to give Kan Be the satisfaction of seeing him visibly express the pain he was feeling.
"One more time!" the psychopathic crime lord shouted. "Who are you?"
"I'm.." Ferb began slowly, struggling with each breath. "I'm...here for your sister. I hear she's only half as ugly as you."
It was mockery, the crudest form of insult, and not even a particularly good barb at that. He had heard it several years ago on Tatooine, when he was barely ten. But it had the desired effect.
Kan Be's face flushed a light purple; the Kaminoan's equivalent of a humiliated crimson. Some of the braver criminals even chuckled, and the Gotal thug burst out into barking laughter, although he was quickly silenced by a withering glance from his boss. The crime lord began to raise his electrowhip again, but paused when two grunting sounds, as though two guards were being knocked out, rang through the air, followed by the hiss of an opening door.
"I'd release him now if I were you, old friend." a new voice said. Every head present turned to face the intruder.
Ferb's jaw went slack in surprise; it was that enigmatic geneticist Doctor Tanmi.
"What are you doing here?" Kan Be snarled. "Shouldn't you be up there rubbing shoulders with that bastard Sith Lord whose men now run rampant over our home? You're no better then Lama Su and the others who sold us out during that Clone War."
"I'm not exactly here on Lord Darthensmirtz's business."
"Oh?"
"A bit of a personal endeavor brought me into your neighborhood, and since I was in the area, I thought it prudent to warn you-"
"Of what?"
"To warn you of the retribution you may face if you do not let the boy go."
The crime lord snorted. "That kid back there? Who is he?"
"No one of importance." Tanmi replied calmly. "Although I have a-"
"He's 'no one of importance'?" Kan Be interrupted. "Is he-he's not the one who's been the source of all this trouble, is he?"
Tanmi remained silent, not even a frown creasing his features. "The one who has the whole damn planet on lockdown, and crashed that gunship in the military hangar this morning? The one who's bounty-" Slowly realization dawned on his face.
"You just wanna be the one who brings 'im back to your boss." the crime lord announced. "Get the reward he posted and all that, maybe a bit of a pay raise thrown in." He paused for affect, his criminal associates shouting their agreements. "Have another perk added to the heaping pile you already live in!" An annoyed murmur rippled through the thugs, even the Gotal threw a jeer at Tanmi. It was obvious that there was some resentment at the treatment the doctor received compared to the rest of his peers.
"Not me!" he continued, drawing his blaster. Tanmi simply retained the bemused look he had been wearing when he walked in. "Ever since the end of the war, when the Empire stopped commissioning clones, when our banks nearly plunged, I've survived! I went underground, to look after myself and my people. And now, by bringing this one in, I'll finally have enough influence up there to get my smuggling transports to become unmolested as they deliver contraband!"
More and more of the mercenaries and thugs were taking their attention off of Ferb, focusing on the verbal exchange between the two men. Finally, the last one, that assassin droid, turned its photoreceptors towards the one-sided argument taking place on the other side of the room. Checking once more, Ferb turned back to the task at hand.
Maneuvering his hand into the right position, he closed his eyes and reached out with the force.
….
He could feel every heart beating on the room, and the emotions of those around him. The anger Kan Be felt at Tanmi, someone whom he believed had betrayed their world. The serene mask of Tanmi himself, hiding something else-irritation? Impatientness? Satisfaction?
He turned away from the gathering, focusing his attention on the table holding his weapons and AZI-3. His mind moved over the curves and angles of his wrench, through the cylinder of tibanna in his stolen blaster, even pausing on the Kyber crystal in the Torguta's lightsaber, still resonating softly through the force.
He continued, reaching the limp droid body of AZI. His mind moved inside the droid's processor. Slowly, he recalled the schematics of the surgery droid's model.
Suddenly, another memory rushed into his mind. This time, not from the lightsaber, but one of his own.
Ferb was five again, back in the apartment he and his father shared on Corulag. He was sprawled across the carpet, reading a manufacturing catalogue to various models of medical droids, and occasionally typing something into a datapad next to him.
The door buzzed and Lawrence stepped through.
"Cheerio!" he greeted warmly. Ferb looked up from his literary pursuit and smiled, but, as always, quickly began to worry. His father, despite the cheery greeting, was clearly stressed, as he usually was these days. Ferb guessed it was the same thing it always was; something his father and his friends collectively referred to as 'the empire'. Ferb did not fully understand who or what 'the empire' was, but as near as he could tell they controlled everything from permits to have your window open, to wether or not someone could be out after dark, to even granting the rights to leave the planet.
"What do you got there, boy?" his father asked, switching from trepidation to a very genuine fatherly interest into what his son was up to. "Coloring book? Children's Holo-Drama? Young Imperial's Newspaper?"
"Medical Droid catalogue." five-year-old Ferb replied. "I'm making a list of the galaxy's most popular models, and listing various inefficiencies and possible Kaminoan Surgery Droid"
"Ah, I understand." his father lied, ruffling his son's hair. Not for the first time, he began wondering if his boy's current school was fully prepared to provide him with a suitable curriculum.
Present-day Ferb mentally shook his head, trying to remind himself to stay on task. However, he could not keep down a brief surge of fury at Darthensmirtz, Yaami, Crefet, and that Krennic fellow for sending his father to labor on an Imperial prison planet. A lump began to form in his throat.
He returned to AZI, moving his mind past the restraining bolt attached to the outer surface, and inside the droid's metal body. He moved past the servo-motors controlling the movements of the arms, past the next joint connecting the 'head' to the rest of the body, and to the emergency power switch inside AZI's central processor. Stretching out with the force, he flicked the switch.
All of this took place within the space of ten seconds.
….
"-ust last week, before all this lockdown craziness began, one of my smuggling transports, a Corellian YT Model, was captured before it could reach a drop point-" Kan Be was saying. Tanmi, for his part, continued feigning interest as Ferb rejoined the world of the living.
The young Jedi looked down at his droid. Life-or electricity, rather-flickered back into AZI's eyes.
As the droid began to hover, rising ever so slightly, Ferb made a 'stay', followed by a 'Ssshh' gesture. The droid blinked, indicating he understood.
Ferb's attention turned to his next target, and he focused on it, closing his eyes.
He would pull that Togruta's lightsaber to his hands, he would dispose of Kan Be's thugs, and then, and only then, would he interrogate Doctor Tanmi regarding his hand in all this.
The moment the door opened, Candace shot the Navy Sniper in the back. He fell backwards, away from the window, and slumped to the floor, unconscious.
Isabella was the first to pick up the rifle.
"Okay, let's see…" she muttered. "How...to...shoot…"
"Oh, no you don't." Candace interjected, snatching the weapon out of Isabella's hands."You could barely shoot with your own pistol back down in the reactor room. I don't trust you to-"
"Oh, and you, a former grunt stormtrooper, are qualified?" the smuggler shot back, pouting.
"I'll have you know, I took several semesters of Sniper Training back at the Academy, and-"
Leia coughed, cutting their catfight short.
"I I may offer a solution," she began. Both Candace and Isabella smirked in the other's direction, each thinking the princess would give the rifle to her and not the other. "Captain Andor mentioned that K2-SO has long expressed a desire to test his accuracy with a blaster." To the extreme surprise of both teenagers, Leia removed the rifle from Candace's death-like grip, and placed it in those of the droid.
"Oh…" K2 murmured in anticipation. "This is going to be fun."
"Look, I only came down here to give you a warning." Tanmi continued. "But it seems that by now that is a moot point."
"What do you mean?" Kan Be snarled.
"Your prize is escaping." Tanmi explained, waving his cane in the general direction of Ferb; the boy had sliced though the ropes holding him in place, and was now wielding on removing AZI's restraining bolt.
"Stop him!" Kan Be screamed. Turning back to Tanmi, he growled; "I'll deal with you later."
Tanmi simply gave a smug smile, and a condescending nod.
Ferb for his part, despite his unique abilities among the combatants, was having a bit of a hard time holding off his foes.
He had shot several blasts in the vicinity of the approaching gang, a few even landed on one of the assassin droids, sending it down.
But again, he also had to worry about AZI; the droid was just hovering there, the partly removed restraining bolt limiting any major movement.
Finally the Stormtrooper rifle ran out of charge, and in desperation Ferb hurled it at the Gotal. The thug just grunted a laugh as the rifle thudded harmlessly against his bulk.
Ferb gulped, gripping his lightsaber in one hand, swinging his wrench with the other, and shielding AZI. There was no way he could fight them all.
He was in trouble now.
Armengoltiax Cluster Dismantling Station, Control Room
Commodore Brittho, and a few technicians, all armed with blasters, had Han kneeling, bound and gagged. Luke was lying cuffed and unconscious against the deactivated metal frame of R2-D2.
Cassian had to admit the scene was ironic at best, and catastrophic at worst.
Ironic because, as much as the Empire's top propagandists worked to portray the rebels as terrorists, the moment they lost control they were forced to resort to taking hostages.
Catastrophic because if they were not able to regain command of the control room, the whole plan would be sent straight to hell, with them following right after.
"Here's how this is going to go." Brittho said coldly. Despite the edge to her voice, she was clearly nervous. "The four of you are going to drop any weapons you have, and place your hands where I can see them, or the snarky guy here gets it." At this gestured to Han.
Slowly, Cassian, Phineas, Buford and Baljeet placed their blasters on the ground, their hands rising to rest above their heads.
"Well, now," the Commodore said smugly. Any trace of nervousness was gone from her voice. "That's a bit nicer, isn't it?"
Darthensmirtz strode down a central hallway in Tipoca City, his followers behind him, a pair of Death Troopers in front.
Next along the queue was Yaami, wearing not his regular officer's uniform, but rather a darker armor akin to that of a Storm Commando. The only major difference between his costume and the standard commando armor was that rather than the helmet, he was wearing his officer's cap, with the addition of a strap fastening it to his head more tightly. He carried a blaster pistol in one hand, a vibrolance in the other, and a sniper rifle was strapped to his back.
Following Yaami were two more Death Troopers. Behind them a pair of scout troopers, then four shock troopers, then a battalion of stormtroopers, a squadron of heavily armed KX-series security droids, and the final two available Death Troopers bringing up the rear (the other two still guarding Perry's cell).
Darthensmirtz's hand unconsciously slipped to his side to check that a lightsaber, and not a flashlight or an eggbeater. He was not going to make the same mistake a third time. Satisfied with the results, he looked up to find their path blocked.
By the Inquisitors.
"Lord Darthensmirtz," one began.
"Are you going somewhere?" the second finished.
"I...I do not report to you." One Inquisitor tilted its head, as though it was laughing.
"Of course not." it said, in a mocking tone. "Please forgive us. It is it not us you report to, but rather-"
"-me." Darth Diminutive announced, appearing dramatically from a doorway to the side, his Shadow Trooper loyally following. "Heinz, what are you doing?"
"Uh…." Darthensmirtz fumbled for a second. "Going to...lunch?" Diminutive arched an eyebrow.
"All…one, two...ten times four...forty-eight of you?" he asked.
"I think..?"
Diminutive sighed. "I warned you, Heinz. I told you not to go after the boy without my approval."
Darthensmirtz snorted.
"So what. He's just some kid. I can take him. I have my lightsaber on me this time."
"At least allow the Inquisitors to accompany-"
Suddenly, two snaps could be heard. The bulkier male Inquisitor grunted, the female one gave a small scream, and both crumpled to the floor, unconscious.
Two platypuses, dressed in Imperial jumpsuits, fell from the ceiling.
Darthensmirtz smirked.
"What just happened?" Diminutive demanded.
"Those are the clone platypus commandos being produced in my facility." Darthensmirtz said. "And they just incapacitated your 'oh-so-great' Impostor dudes-"
"Inquisitors." Yaami corrected.
"-your 'oh-so-great' Inquisitor dudes." Darthensmirtz continued. "If a couple of platypuses could take them out, they could barely stand against that kid. He's scary."
"Oh, like you can." Diminutive snarled, attempting to thrust his finger in Heinz's face. However, due to his height, he simply pointed to the taller Sith's crotch. Realizing his mistake, he gave an embarrassed 'ahem', and the Shadow Trooper bent down to pick him up, raising him to the level where the gesture reached its intended target.
"As I was saying," Diminutive continued. "You can't talk here. You barely survived your last run-in with him, during which he destroyed four thousand credits worth of Imperial Military hardware. You have one of the lowest historical midi-chlorian counts on record, and-" Suddenly, just as quickly as the tantrum had started, Diminutive ceased talking and started gasping for breath. He reached for his throat, and all eyes turned back to Darthensmirtz.
And his outstretched hand.
Darth Diminutive's eyes bulged, and he began to rise out of his bodyguard's grasp reaching eye level with Darthensmirtz.
"Does this look like something a man with a low-level count would be able to do?" Darthensmirtz seethed, the insane glint to his eyes returning.
"H-heh-how?" Diminutive said between gasps. "You-urk-have a count of-eck-tw-twelve!"
"Not anymore!" Darthensmirtz growled. "Yaami, hit the flashback swirling thing!"
Yaami gave a resigned sigh, and made a swirling motion with his hands.
"You see," Darthensmirtz continued "when I was a boy back in Gimelstoop, my brother-"
"Sir," Yaami interrupted. "It was after that."
"Oh. Oh, right! You see, when I was apprenticed to Jedi Master-"
"Not then either." Yaami replied, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Then when wa-"
"Just-urk-get to the point, Heinz!" Diminutive screamed, his face purple. Darthensmirtz rolled his eyes, releasing the shorter man back into the palms of the Shadow Trooper.
"So, anyway, shortly before that whole fiasco above Yavin 4, I had built this awesome machine, the Sith-Inator, that was finally gonna make me a real Sith."
Diminutive arched an eyebrow.
"But just as I was about to test-fire it on Perry the Platypus, out of nowhere this kid jumps in front of the beam and gets himself fried."
"I take it he's the one we're after?" Diminutive asked, now back on the floor.
"Yeah. Anyway, we go to refuel the machine, come back, find the kid is a Sith too. Kinda a surprise that the Sith-Inator turned a kid into-no what, never mind. That makes perfect-"
"Um, excuse me sir?" a Stormtrooper interrupted. "May I...go use the restroom?"
Darthensmirtz sighed.
"Yeah, down the hall and to your left." The Stormtrooper mumbled thanks, and darted of in the direction specified. "And remember to flush, ya bum!" Heinz yelled at his retreating back. "Yeah, we'll have to wait for him. So where was I? Right, so…."
Candace had to admit to herself: she was frightened by how accurate K2's shots were.
The droid did not miss, and every hit, save two, sent its target down immediately. Even Isabella offered a rare compliment, calling it 'impressive'.
They were beginning to slim the Imperial forces in the hangar, and the tide of the battle appeared to be starting to turn.
So naturally, things began to go wrong.
"The Tibanna cylinder is empty." K2 announced. "I cannot continue firing until it is reloaded."
"Okay." Liea replied. "Could-" The door exploded behind her, and the three young women ducked behind a bulkhead and started filing out the other exit. A blaster shot hit K2-SO's durable metal body, and he turned around.
"Rude. I think you-"
"Come on, you heaping waste of processing ability!" Candace groaned, dragging the droid by its arm through the door. "We need to go!"
Once outside in the maintenance passage, rather than the main one they arrived from, Candace shut the emergency hatch and blasted the control panel, sealing the door.
"That should slow them." she muttered.
"What now?" Isabella asked, though it was said with such disinterest she might've well been giving a half-hearted reply to a different question.
"We go back to the hangar." Leia said. "And finally initiate Phase Two."
When Brittho lined them all up against the wall, had her technicians pointing blasters at them, and launched into a rant about the chaos the rebels were spawning, Buford couldn't help but feel like he was back in the Principal's office.
Not that he would remember to well-most memories were deleted to make space for important stuff like who he was, who his friends were, pie, why his boss was a crazy fire-haired woman, pie, how much acting was overacting, and Baljeet's crazy and disturbing revelation that pie was somehow different occasionally. All important things.
"-people value safety and security! Not anarchy!" Brittho finished. She gestured with her pistol towards the computer stations, old Trade Federation console models left over from the Core Ship's days as a CIS warship. "Now, we have the passcode, but my tech support here can't turn off the security droids,or get the coms back online."
"Whoever reprogrammed the systems is some sort of savant," the ensign pointing a blaster at Phineas added.
"So I want to know where they are." the Commodore finished. "I want them brought here, and I want them to initiate a shutdown command in the rogue droids, and send a message to the guards to get back here."
Nervous glances were exchanged between the conscious hostages, and more than a few semi-discreet glances landed on Phineas. Finally the mustached spy guy whose name Buford hadn't bothered to remember-was it Carrion?-coughed.
"It was me." he said. "I'm the slicer."
Brittho eyed him warily. "You?"
The spy nodded. "Yes. I took a class at my university, and volunteered to do it for the mission."
Buford fought to keep himself from doing a facepalm; the performance was complete and utter shit; the face was too drooped, there wasn't enough regret at betraying the mission, and he didn't put enough emphasis on certain phrases. He was only angered further when Brittho and her cohorts bought it.
Granted, as an Intelligence agent, Cassian's little 'performance' was actually quite good, but from Buford's standpoint he might have as well been reading it off of holo-cards like a third-grader giving a report.
Cassian was unshackled and led over to a console. He sat down, and turned the thing off.
"Um, what are you-" an unarmed Navy Trooper began.
"Whoa, whoa." Cassian interrupted. "You want me to fix this thing or not? You," he pointed to the technician guarding Phineas. "Shoot him. He's distracting me."
"Ma'am?" he asked Brittho.
"You heard the rebel." she replied. "Do it! We can't have the likes of him clogging up this operation and distracting the slicer!"
The ensign gulped, shot his comrade in the leg, and stunned him to stop the screaming.
Buford had to keep a chuckle down; he recognized the theatrical tactic. Rather than actually have a certain prop onstage, instead create an absurd situation with the dialogue and movement to distract from the lack of said prop.
Of course, in this case, the 'prop' was Cassian's nonexistent computer skills.
The Stormtrooper who had left Darthensmirtz and co. for the bathroom exited the stall and moved to wash his hands.
"Hello." a voice said.
"Oh, hey." the trooper replied, turning towards the source. "How-"
The voice wasted no time in shooting the trooper with a tranquilizer dart to the neck.
The man stepped into the light. His dark hair was a neatly cropped crew cut, his eyes were a chocolate brown; and his cheekbones were, well, defined.
He was a clone of the Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett.
Slowly, the clone undressed the Stormtrooper, dragged the body into a closet, and put on the armor. When he was finished, he pulled out a comlink.
"Inform Lord Tanmi." he said. "I'm ready."
The turbolift doors opened and the trio of women, followed by the turncoat security droid, stepped through.
After being driven out of their sniper perch, the group had moved through the maintenance passage, climbed down an old ladder, and fought their way through a squadron of Stormtroopers reinforcing those in the hangar. All that so they could make it to a turbolift that took them close to the entrance to the hangar.
"Hold it!" a voice shouted, through the red glow of emergency power strips. "Which side?"
"Rebel." Leia replied. A silhouette of a man rose, and then moved to bow.
"Princess." he said. "Please forgive me. I w-"
"Enough." Leia said sharply. "What are doing out here?"
"Lieutenant Sniben thought it prudent to post sentries at entrances near our territory, and-"
"He did this without approval, then?"
The trooper coughed. "Uh, yes ma'am."
In the low lighting, Candace couldn't be sure, but she swore the Princess smiled.
"No harm done." Leia continued. "May we pass?"
"Of course." he said, moving himself and the barrier of crates in the hallway aside to allow them passage. Once they were there, one of his comrades opened the door.
However bad the hangar had looked from above, Candace realized it was nothing compared to the experience of actually being there.
The first thing that hit her was the stench. A mix of scorched flesh, blood, and smoking tibanna (imagine rotten eggs mixed with the B.O. of a guy who hasn't showered in a week and is proud of it), it invaded her nostrils not unlike an army pushing through enemy territory.
And down here, of course, the noise, the explosions, the screams, the familiar and disturbingly comforting sound of blaster fire was much louder in her ears.
"So all in favor of adjourning this part of the mission?" Isabella asked lazily.
"No." Candace said.
"Definitely no." The princess agreed.
"My self preservation programming makes my inclined to agree with the smuggler-"
"We're going." Candace interrupted.
"-but my obedience programming overrides that."
Doing so was easier said than done. The moment they stepped into the hangar bay, a walkway attached to the ceiling fell, splitting the group in two. On one side, within the safety of the rebel zone, were Leia and K2.
On the other side, in the chaos and anarchy of the no-man's land, were Candace and Isabella.
Director Krennic arrived at ISB Central Headquarters quite un-spectacularly in a speeder.
While on Coruscant, he had sent his shuttle in for repairs and upgrades, and was unprepared when he had been unexpectedly summoned to the the command center of the Empire's secret police. Fortunately, his luxurious Coruscant estate was equipped with a three-speeder garage, and he chose an older, pre-Clone Wars model, black with a red stripe decal that he had found in a black market auction half a decade prior.
He had insisted on driving, much to the chagrin of his security team, who had in turn insisted on having two men in the speeder with him, two riding modified police speeders ahead, another of the same behind, and the rest following with Jump Packs.
His arrival at ISB was less glamorous than he had envisioned it; despite the Death Troopers arriving via various modes of transportation.
He was not as well received as he was at the Executive Building, being relieved of his guards, and forced to wait in a line between a drunken Moff, and a Pantoran general with an arm in a sling.
After two hours of being redirected through a seemingly endless series of lines and waiting rooms, he was ushered into a darkened interrogation chamber. The ISB Agent escorting him stepped out the door, leaving him alone in darkness.
He sat back in his chair, and sighed loudly, hoping to catch the attention of whoever or whatever was watching.
"Hello, Orson." a voice said. A female voice. The light at the far end of the room turned on.
It revealed a woman, long-haired blonde with blue eyes, sitting in a command chair not unlike those Palpatine and Mas Amedda spent most of their time in.
His heart skipped a beat. Orson recognized the woman all too well.
"Adra." he breathed. He wasn't sure, but he could feel heat rising to his face. For the first time in thirty-something years, Orson Callan Krennic was blushing.
"It's Commander Drevin, now." she replied. "You've aged well." she remarked sarcastically.
"So..so have you." he said, honestly, before adopting the usual verbal sneer in his voice. "I meant that sarcastically."
"Of course you did."
"I thought you were still a desk jockey for an Imperial data analyst's office."
"I discovered and subsequently reported the Analyst's rebellious activities. They made me a Junior Agent over it, and I carefully worked my way up the chain."
"So I see." he remarked.
"I didn't call you here to reminisce and catch up, Director." she continued,'putting an emphasis on the impersonal title. The steel in her eyes, one of the many qualities Krennic had found..alluring...in her was visible.
"If this supposed to be my semi-annual ISB Loyalty Review, I can assure you-"
"You had it last month, I'm aware. No, this a specialty interview, one request specifically by the office of the Emperor."
A specialized review requested by, if not the Emperor himself, than at least one of the elite advisors? That could mean only one thing: he was getting a promotion. A major one at that, with increased security clearance.
"First question.." Drevin began. "In the event you and the Emperor are in an undisclosed location at the same time and are attacked, would you order your guard squadron to defend His Excellency?"
"I would say no." Krennic replied. Drevin's eyes widened, and her mouth nearly opened in surprise. To her credit she quickly regained the smug smile she was previously wearing, not even an air of nervousness or surprise about her. She had always been so good at hiding her good.
"Giving the Emperor my personal guard squadron, in a situation where his guards are fully able to defend him, would imply that I felt his guard were inadequate, which in turn would mean that I didn't trust His Excellency's reasoning when selecting the elite guardsmen. I would not,
however, forbid them from assisting me in my escape; their priority, and by extension, mine, would be to hold off or deter whatever threat is existing in this hypothetical scenario you have concocted.
"If his guards are unable or in insufficient numbers to defend the Emperor, then I would order them to ensure his safety."
A moment of silence. Krennic felt he had overstepped his bounds. Then; Drevin laughed.
"You still are good at this." she muttered mused. She did not elaborate, but it was implied that 'this' was his talent for dancing his way through trying situations. With a somewhat less than glamorous handle maintained on his temper. Krennic grumpily thought.
"Let's continue." she said, ignoring him. Krennic sighed.
"Okay, I'm through." Cassian announced. He was, of course, lying. The computer was on now and he has actually worked at it, but most of the officers and technicians were unconscious. Only the clueless Brittho and a single crewman remained
"Alright." Brittho said gleefully, fully believing she was still in control. "Now let me have the-GUAGH!" She screamed, and slumped to the floor, knocked out by a stun blast. Sent from the blaster of the remaining ensign.
"I-I'm defecting." he stuttered, dropping the blaster.
"Untie them. " Cassian remarked, already activating Artoo and releasing Luke. The Imperial nodded shakily and moved to comply, first untying and removing the gag from Han. The smuggler spat, trying to get the taste out of their mouth.
He groaned. "Next time I 'volunteer' for a mission, it's gonna be a nice, quiet vacation to an empty beach planet. Empty, save a bartender and a masseuse."
"Oh, that would be nice." Buford interjected. "And the bartender knows how to make the best pie…"
"...And slices of Jogon fruit on the drinks…" Han continued wistfully, while stretching his back. Cassian and the ex-Imperial were now unchaining the other rebels. First Phineas, then Baljeet, and Buford.
Phineas immediately began undoing Brittho's attempts at regaining the system.
"Are we still going according to plan?" Cassian asked.
Phineas frowned, and typed in a command. "The sentry droids are still on target with destroying the TIEs onboard, but our friends in the hangar bay appear to have been held back. It looks like the resistance from the bucketheads was harder than expected; little territory has been gained."
This caused some murmuring amongst the group, drawing concerned whispers from most, a confused expression on the defector's face, and a low whistle from R2.
"I have an idea." Buford announced. The group parted in front of him, allowing him the undisputed attention of Phineas, Luke, and Cassian. "But you only going to like it."
This last part was directed at Han. The smuggler frowned as eyes, and photoreceptors, turned to him.
He scoffed. "It's gonna-either indirectly or directly-benefit Liea. Of course I'm not going to like it."
The rest of the questions Krennic was asked were more of the same. Finally, Drevin snapped her notebook shut (she had always preferred to write on pieces of flimsy as opposed to a datapad), and set it down.
"We're done here." she announced. "This was fun, Orson. We should do this again sometime."
Krennic snorted. "Sure. I love it when the ISB randomly demands I show up and lay myself bare in front of them."
"I'm serious. I requested to interview you."
This gave him pause. Keeping his voice flat, he remarked; "Really."
"My place, ten."
"I have no idea where you live now."
She smiled. "No. But that won't stop you."
He laughed and walked out the door. Ten.
His escort rejoined him at the entrance, and after they checked the speeder to ensure that it was clean, he left ISB headquarters. His day was looking up.
"Sir," Pterro said, a hologram of the aide appearing in his speeder suddenly. "We have an emergency report from Lord Darthensmirtz's office on Kamino."
"Oh, Sithspawn." Krennic growled, trying to keep himself from ramming his speeder into another vehicle out of anger. "What has Heinz gotten himself into?" Pterro frowned and looked down, likely at a tablet.
"It appears that child has gotten loose. The one whose parents we delivered to Lola Sayu."
Krennic swore. "Have the shuttle ready to depart to the Kamino system. Coordinates plugged in. We depart immediately after my audience with the Emperor tomorrow. Are there any Inquisitors available?"
Pterro winced.
"There already are, sir. They just arrived less than an hour ago."
Krennic's scowl thickened. "What are they doing?"
"And so then I say to the girl 'Hey, you'll stretch the elastic!', but she ignores me and keeps going with swinging the sock and..."
They were still waiting in the hallway, Sith, Stormtroopers, Inquisitors, Yaami, and all. The trooper who had to go to the bathroom had returned, and the entire small army was patiently waiting for Darthensmirtz to finish his story. They had grown accustomed to the man's odd habits over the months.
Of course, Darth Diminutive and his entourage were not amongst that number
"Heinz," Diminutive interrupted. "Is there a point to all this?"
Darthensmirtz flushed, and appeared momentarily confused by the question. "Well, eventually Ferb's brother destroyed the machine, freeing the boy from the grip of the dark side.
"Or so it seemed. However, shortly after I arrived on Kamino, I noticed some force abilities displaying themselves."
Diminutive adopted as much of a thoughtful pose as a dwarf held by a Shadowtrooper could muster.
"I see."
"I was confused at first, so I had Dr. Tanmi and N0RM run some tests. Apparently, the wave of dark side energy that rolled over the room left its mark on all present." Yaami stepped in.
"Now, there were five beings present in that room; Lord Darthensmirtz, Mr. Fletcher, his brother, the agent Perry the Platypus, and a girl we believe or be related to the children."
"We did what we could with the data we had; the platypus, boy, and Lord Darthensmirtz were all put under extensive tests. We studied them when we could, risked the lives of some of the clone platypuses to recreate the scenario, and so on and so forth. However the girl and the other boy proved much harder to locate."
"Intelligence I reviewed on my way here suggests they are part of the Rebellion and amongst Skywalker's associates." Diminutive supplied.
"We're aware." Darthensmirtz said flatly. Yaami gave an uncomfortable cough and continued.
"Yes, well we hit a stroke of luck when we located the girl's medical records-she was once a Stormtrooper, you see. That data, combined with DNA from her genetic mother, provided us with enough information to build a copy of the second boy's cellular structure."
"What then?" Diminutive asked. The group was walking again now, down the hallway at twice the speed of before.
Darthensmirtz sighed. "We discovered that the explosion affected each of us uniquely. I, for example, received an increased force ability, and Ferb too, with the lingering taint of the dark side to boot."
"And the others?"
"Too little data to tell, even with the platypus." They came to another door, and Darthensmirtz turned to Diminutive
"Perhaps you should head back. Things are about to get ugly, and I wouldn't want to be so below the action." The barb found its mark, and Diminutive flushed a dark purple.
"Oh, I'm going. You can count on that."
Candace wondered why she was bothering to keep Isabella safe.
When the catwalk fell and separated them from Leia and K2, the two began to clamber over the wreckage. However, a group of Stormtroopers appeared, thus necessitating a tactical retreat behind a crashed shuttle.
Isabella had been less than graceful when running, and had nearly tripped several times before Candace gave up and threw her behind the wreckage, jumping in there soon after.
"Rude!" the smuggler insisted as Candace landed in a crouch.
"Shut up." the older girl replied. "I saved your life."
"You threw me! That was hardly needed!"
"Why you ungrateful, spiteful little-"
"Freeze rebels." Candace's heart skipped a beat, and Isabella's face visibly paled. A blaster rifle was pressed to the back of each head.
Her unprofessional attitude towards Isabella has led her to become distracted, and she was now captured.
Son of a Sith.
"If I can't change your opinion, Kan, I'll just be going now." Tanmi announced. Kan Be glared at him, but waved the geneticist aside.
Through the shifting throng of Kan Be's mercenaries, Ferb spotted the doctor exit through a side door. A twinge of anger snapped somewhere inside him. He was so close to getting one of Darthensmirtz's underlings! So close to getting someone important enough to allow him unfiltered access to the databases!
In a surge of rage, he lashed out with the force, throwing the thugs backwards several meters. Kan Be gave a yelp of surprise and threw himself behind a stack of boxes.
Ferb almost grinned, but decided not to pause and cater to his laurels. A bit of work with his wrench loosened the restraining bolt off of AZI.
"That was impressive!" the droid remarked. Ferb shrugged.
"I suppose so." the boy replied, grabbing some of the smaller, more
-likely-to-fit-in-his-hands, weapons off of the corpses and unconscious bodies of the criminals.
"So where to now?" AZI questioned as Ferb deposited a small satchel of credits in one of the medical storage containers in the droid's back. "Surely you did not intend to stay here? Unless of course you did, on which case I believe these men-er, Kaminoans, owe us a housewarming gi-"
"We need to get to the hangar bay. Find a ship, get offworld."
"What about your platypus friend, the one you said they're cloning?"
A momentary pang of regret speared Ferb's heart. "We'll need the support of the rebellion to get him out. There's nothing we can do for him at the moment."
An uncomfortable silence followed. Then; "I see. So how are you planning to get us offworld?"
"I have a plan." Ferb replied in a whisper, walking over to a grate. Unscrewing it, he motioned for AZI to get inside. "Go in there and keep moving until you're in whichever hangar bay they're keeping a seized Corellian, YT-model freighter. It belonged to Kan Be over there. Once you arrive, wait for my signal. If I find it first, I'll relay the location to you." The droid 'blinked' to indicate it understood, and slipped into the duct. Ferb sealed the exit behind him.
From behind his crates, Kan Be peeked out. Not even offering so much as a customary glance, Ferb used the Force to push the mob boss against a wall, knocking him out.
Through the Force, he could feel Darthensmirtz. The Sith Lord was close now, and getting closer. Other presences too. Dark ones.
Soon, Darthensmirtz would arrive.
The troopers escorted them back to the stockade the Imperials had set up in the hangar bay. A Lieutenant gloated, before having them bound to a pipe.
"Your fault." they each said in unison, to the other.
"Hold it!" a voice shouted. "Those prisoners have to come with me!"
The Stormtroopers and officers turned. Standing in the doorway, dressed in an officer's uniform, stood Han Solo.
"I swear, if I'm saved by Solo today…" Isabella growled.
"Uh, yes sir?" the Lieutenant replied, growing confused. "May I ask why?''
"Reactor leak." Solo replied flatly. "We're gonna send them to fix it, because-ok, you know what? I can't do this anymore. This was just a distraction."
"Wha-?" The Lieutenant remarked, his last syllable interrupted by a blaster bolt through his chest. Several more followed, cutting down the remaining Stormtroopers. The last few Imperials laid down their blasters, and surrendered to the rebels.
Leia, followed by K2 and a commando, slid down a hull plate on the stockade, marched over to Han, and promptly punched him, knocking the officer's cap off his head.
"Who the hell do you think you are, strutting around like one of them?"
Han winced, rubbing his face. "Um, ouch, Your Worshipfulness. And let me remind you I just saved your bodyguard, so…"
Leia sighed. "Never mind. The hangar is clear, that's all that matters." She pulled out a holo-com, switching it on to reveal Cassian.
"Captain Andor, the control and server rooms are secure?"
Cassian coughed. "After a few minor setbacks, yes. Also, it appears most of the troopers were assigned either to your hangar or the TIE bay, to contain the rogue sentry droids, after the fighting started. Those left in the construction modules were unable to suppress a slave rebellion in those sectors. I've sent Commander Skywalker to inform them of our mission and request their assistance. "
"And the turrets? Are they ready to-"
Suddenly, several turret blasts rang out, shaking the whole station. A dozen green beams made contact with the light cruiser, obliterating it.
"We made small ship go boom!" someone, likely Buford, shouted in the holo's background.
Leia smiled. "Excellent. Now we can finally focus on neutralizing that Star Destroyer."
Then, a new ship landed in the hangar. It was a TIE lander-a triple hulled TIE model that looked not unlike a TIE bomber with another module added to the bottom. It disgorged the roughly three-dozen Stormtroopers it was carrying, and they began firing wildly throughout the hangar.
Then something else exited the craft-six somethings, to be exact. Tall, sleek black metal bodies, with glowing red photoreceptors lodged in the armored head. Several blaster cannons were attached to their arms, and a small missile launcher was perched on their shoulders.
Known as Phase II Dark Troopers, these experimental combat droids were not to be messed with.
"I'm gonna go out on a limb here," Isabella remarked. "And say the general sentiment at the moment is along the lines of 'Shit'. Any argument?"
First off, the Phase II Dark Troopers here are the canon variant from Star Wars: Commander, not the legends variant.
More stuff with Doctor Tanmi's subterfuge. You'll see where that's leading soon enough.
Also, my condolences to those affected by Hurricane Harvey in Houston this past weekend. No one deserves to have their lives destroyed like that.
I look forwards to reading your reviews for the chapter. Here's to another year of Tales from the Rebellion!