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Other than Colonel Gerrard and Risé the pretty Twi'lek, all named characters are the property of Disney and/or LucasFilm.
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"Go With Me."
"Stay With Me."
Chapter 6
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From the pervious chapter:
The small and silent group made it as far as a large set of blast doors in the bulkhead leading from the docking bay into the bowels of the ship. However, when they were about to cut through the control panel, it suddenly opened on them. Before they knew it, they were faced with a dozen stormtroopers, half with pauldrons. They were lead by an Imperial officer.
"Well, well, well. Commodore Bonteri and General Gerrera. In the flesh. I expected nothing less."
Saw knew immediately who this was—
"Kallus."
—•—
It wasn't a Coruscant moment before the area was filled with streaks of blaster bolts—Kallus pointing with his arm for the Stormtroopers to charge the intruders, who were returning fire as soon as they found something to hunker behind. It wasn't long after that when the contingent from the Plo Koon, the Zabrack Marines and the Zouaves, entered the battle, rushing in from the Broken Horn.
Soon, there were so many bright flashes emanating from either side, that it seemed the entire ship would explode from all the energy being passed back and forth. Solid red for the enemy, blue or green for the group from the Plo Koon along with bright orange from the guns of Zeb and Hera and yellow from Sabine. Back and forth went the streams of colors.
Not rarely, there would be a red bolt returned to its Stormtrooper owner, ricocheted back by the white light sabers of Ahsoka, or, less often, by the blue blade of Kanan Jarrus. Like their soldier friends, these bolts returned by the Jedi would often find a mark, hitting a Stormtrooper hard enough to make him regret sending it in the first place—that is, if he was still conscious after getting hit, which didn't happen. This was the ultimate irony of this fight; the first for any of these troopers—to be taken out by your own ammo.
The commanders fighting against the Empire, Saw Gerrera, General of the armies protecting Onderon, Lux 'Terry' Bonteri, Commodore of the Bonteri Fleet based on Onderon and Captain Hera Syndulla of the Ghost, asked Ezra to lay still, however. The enlisted soldiers were as yet quite wary of the boy.
In the midst of this firefight, amazingly, Agent Kallus was nowhere to be seen. He was usually in the forefront of a firefight, Zeb remembered, in the midst of the fighting, not cowering behind a door—as it seemed he was doing now. Saw was getting madder by the moment.
"Come out, you coward Kallus! Come out and fight me!" There was much anger in Saw, his friend Lux and the others could see in the fleeting moment they could spare to notice him. Lux would say later that Saw looked to be getting unhinged. But still Kallus did not show himself. He was, instead, off to the side, hidden by a side of the door. He also seemed to be aiming wildly, high up into the air.
Across and back the bay the bolts went, almost becoming a wall of light. The crew from the Plo Koon and the Ghost were surprised there were no more reinforcements from the Relentless. The Stormtroopers, out in the open, were thinning out as the fight wore on. Those from the Bonteri Fleet and the Ghost were crouched behind some crates which afforded them some protection.
Soon, there were only two Imperials left standing. These two were so focussed on their fight that they didn't notice how exposed they were—nor what was coming behind them. Too bad for them. In a moment, Kallus stepped out from the doorway and stun-shot these two in the back—his own men. He then stepped back behind the door a bit and threw his bostaff onto the floor. It stopped in front of Hera and Zeb, huddling behind a crate close to each other, with Kanan just off to their side. Kallus then came out from the door, surrendering with hands on his head. Saw was about to shoot him between the eyes but Ahsoka was able to quickly grab his pistol and redirect the shot away from Kallus into the bulkhead inches from his head. Kallus didn't flinch.
This very same moment Lux gave the order to cease-fire. "Cease fire! Cease fire! Cease fire!" he shouted three times with a fist gripped tightly raised in the air above a bent elbow. Kallus immediately got on one knee. Saw was still in a state of shock.
"What's going on!? What's going on!?"
Then, just then, there was total and complete silence. For a score of seconds or so, there was only the breathing of the sentients—steady, but deep and noticeable. Saw was breathing deeply, in no state to deal with the situation.
Lux then took over, "Yes, Kallus, what is going on?"
"I give myself over to you, Commodore, to do with me as you see fit," he responded, still on his knee.
Saw burst in raising his pistol, "Yeah, well I'll put some 'fit' between your eyes."
Lux then went in front of Saw. "Saw, let's hear him out," he said as he put a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"It's a trick! A dirty trick!" shouted Saw, ready to kill Kallus.
"Saw," replied the Commodore, "We still have him where we want him. Let's just hear him out." Lux was trying his best to calm his friend down while Ahsoka was looking on.
"Please, Saw," she entered.
Saw then looked at Ahsoka, then back to his friend. "You didn't see what I saw, Terry, what this man did," Saw shouted while pointing towards Kallus. Then there was a pause, silent and taut, but calming. Lux was looking on to his friend of many years. "All right," the General relented a trice later with strain. Lux and Ahsoka looked on with raised eyebrows and eye-markings, respectively. "Umpf. Well that's a first," said the General, "Someone actually got me to back down twice in one day. Uh. If it was anybody else, Terry—"
Lux then smiled at Saw. It wasn't the first time he tried to have Saw back down—but, as Saw said, never twice in one day. He then turned to Kallus, now down on two knees as Hera ordered. "All right Kallus. Keep your hands on your head where they are and stand up. Stand up like a man."
Kallus did so very quietly and smoothly. It seemed as if he had been practicing this very move. As he stood, he could see he could not even make a move without endangering himself—told by the red dots from the laser sights of all the guns there, mottling his uniform; that if he even tried something untoward in a motion, that that would be his last move. He had too many guns aimed at all the parts of his body to deal with anything other than trying to stand very, very slowly.
"Get up, Kallus," ordered Saw, "And if you even think about making a move for that staff, I'll do something the Commodore will regret. Colonel Gerrard, sequester his staff."
"Yes, sir," that officer replied as he then went to the area in front of Kallus. He then bent down and took up the staff on the floor and gave it to an enlisted person. The Commodore was the next person to speak.
"Now, Kallus—" but he was interrupted by the Colonel about something a bit more serious than questioning a person under the Commodore's control.
"Commodore Bonteri, if I may. We need to make sure of our escape. It is certain that even now there are troopers on their way to detain us."
"Good point," was the rejoinder. "Captain Syndulla, can you handle the doors?"
Hera was about to respond, but Kallus interrupted her. "The codes have been changed recently. I know what they are." Then all the officers and the Jedi looked at each other significantly. 'Should we trust him,' was their common thought, along with frustration at the lack of time.
"I think we should trust him," entered Zeb. Kallus looked at the big Lasan, but didn't smile or say anything.
"All right, Zeb, we don't have the time to argue about this," offered the Commodore. Hera and Kanan then went to the door with Kallus, who was guarded by a duet of soldiers. Kallus knew that all it would take was one word from Hera that would end his life. So Kallus told Hera the codes, and when it was over, an announcement from the speaker by the door told of the conclusion, "Lockdown complete." They did this for another set of doors and when they finished, they then went back to where they were just a minute previous.
"Well," said Ahsoka, "there's one time I'm glad I didn't use my sabers."
General Gerrera needed to know what was going on. "All right, Kallus. You've shot your own men, now you're helping us to escape. What gives?"
Kallus then looked to Zeb, who was standing next to Hera where they were standing previous to locking down the doors. "Captain, may I?" he said as he motioned with his eyes—his hands still being on his head, to a small pouch he had attached around his shoulder.
"May you what?" Hera asked, wondering what was going on.
But Kallus didn't answer her. He was looking in her direction—not directly at her but to someone next to her. "Captain Orrelios, may I?" Kallus then said with a face Zeb remembered from the last moments on the ice moon of Geonosis, just as they had seen the Ghost arrive and they parted ways. Zeb understood suddenly what the Imperial agent meant.
"All right, Agent Kallus," Zeb hurried, "Go ahead." Kallus then started very slowly to move his hand and put it in the pouch.
"It could be a bomb!" Sabine shouted, causing the soldiers to perféct their already steady aim.
"I don't think so," entered Ahsoka with a hand lifted up to stop anyone thinking of shooting Kallus. "He wouldn't be so open about it otherwise. Let him finish this. But do it quickly, Kallus."
They then could see Kallus reach into the pouch and bring out a small rock, glowing a soft orange. Zeb knew what stone this was, the one he had given him on that ice moon of Geonosis. Kallus looked long at the rock. "This Empire, is cold. Very cold," started Kallus, who then looked up around him, "as cold as the durasteel it is made from," he said looking at the ship around him then to the assembled, "Cold to the heart—as cold as the bodies it has enslaved and genocided throughout the Galaxy. The one time in my life I have been warm inside was on that moon, Garazeb. I want some of that warmth again, even if it means going against what I have been brought up to become."
"Garazeb?" pondered Hera, close to Zeb.
"Uhh, Zeb. Is there something you're not telling us?" asked Kanan close to his other side in a whisper.
"But your friends, Kallus." began someone.
"I have no friends here," returned Kallus to the unknown speaker, "None at all. Friendship is not tolerated in the Empire. Only duty to the Emperor. And I have done terrible things just for that. It means nothing to me now. I have seen the Emperor in person—and was disgusted by what I was looking at."
"All right Kallus," entered the Commodore, "But before we go on, tell me one thing. You contacted Vizago to capture me. He somehow knew where I was and who I was with," he continued gesturing to Ezra. "How did you know that?"
"Wait a minute!" entered Ahsoka very suddenly and unexpectedly. It all came together now. "Do you mean to tell me that you got Vizago to capture Commodore Bonteri?"
Kallus only nodded. "I knew that Ezra had made a debt to Vizago to do anything he said. And knowing where Ezra was—"
"And that Ezra almost killed him to do that?" said Ahsoka seemingly not hearing the agent. A sorry look came from Kallus, but Ahsoka was becoming increasingly incensed. "Do you mean—?! Do you mean—?! Do you mean to say that for you to defect you almost got my—" Ahsoka was pointing angrily at Kallus, but stopped herself in time.
There was a sudden pause. Most of the Ghost crew were suddenly smiling with knowing looks.
"Care to finish the thought—Miss Tano?" said Lux jokingly.
Ahsoka turned her head to Lux and gave him an equally joking grin. Then she went back to Kallus, "THE Commodore killed?"
"I'm sorry, Commodore Bonteri, but this was the only way to cover my tracks. And Commodore, I know I made the right decision when I see what I see now—something I could never see in this Empire."
"Well, what's done is done. It can't be done away with. Now, Kallus, if you are true in this, you will tell me what you did and what I want to know."
Kallus then opened his mouth as if to speak, but then suddenly closed it again. He looked as if he felt sorry for the Commodore. "You won't like what I have to say."
"I already don't like it. Now, what—" returned Lux before he was interrupted by a comm link buzzer. Everyone was then looking to Kallus, from whom the sound was emanating. "Do you want to get that?" offered Commodore Bonteri.
Kallus then nodded and brought his arm around to the back of his belt, and then back to the front. He could see the red dots from the laser sights of all the guns aimed at him, following steadily on his arm as he brought it back around slowly. Chilling, but unsurprising considering whom he was dealing with. He then held the device face up and flicked the switch on. As soon as he did, the Commodore felt as if had been hit hard in the gut, knocking him back as if a blaster bolt had hit him square. He bent over, trying to breathe. Everyone could see why—for as soon as Kallus flicked on the device, the unmistakable image of Risè, an officer of the Plo Koon, rose up from it. Lux was devastated and he showed it.
Risè never saw the Commdore, looking at Agent Kallus as she started speaking, "Kallus, please stop—" but she never got very far.
"Aaaaaa! Youuuuu!" shouted Lux, looking so red in the face Ahsoka worried he would pop a vein. Risè turned to see the Commodore, and then a look of pure horror on her face. "Traitooorrr!" He then aimed his Naboo blaster at the disk, shot, and it flipped out of Kallus's hand. The moment before it was hit, Risè could be seen starting at a run. Kallus never recoiled as the comm device was shot and fell sparkling to the deck.
Hera herself was distraught. How could a sister Twi'lek do this? How? Why? She had believed that those from Ryloth, like herself, were unanimously against this Empire and the slavery it wrought throughout the Galaxy. How could this happen?
But her consternation was nothing compared the Commodore Bonteri's. Lux was bent over, hands on his bent knees, as if the very wind had been knocked out of him, in shame and anger, one feeding the other. Ahsoka came to his side and rubbed his back. She knew that was all she could do. As she looked at his face, she could see the violence of emotions—shame, anger, self-loathing. All she could do was try to soothe her friend.
As she was doing so, General Gerrera called to the Plo Koon to tell them there was a traitor in their midst. Now, in turn, he felt sorry for his friend. Lux had recovered enough to ask Saw to tell Captain Acham to handle it very quietly. Interestingly, that captain seemed sad at the news, not angry. After a short time, Ahsoka patted Lux's back and asked him if he was all right. He simply straightened up and nodded. He then asked Saw, who was still in contact with the flagship, for it to arrive at some coordinates nearby as quickly as possible.
There was no time anymore for doing anything other than the business at hand that needed to be done. General Gerrera broke out, "All right. Cuff him, Colonel and let's get out of here. He'll be good leverage later."
"Yes, sir," responded Colonel Gerrard as he brought some of his Zoaves with a set of cuffs. "Hurry men, they are probably looking at us right now."
"No they aren't," responded Kallus. "Look up at the cameras," while looking up to the ceiling of the bay. The Commodore and Hera did so as well, seeing that the cameras had been shot out.
"You did this?" asked the Commodore, pointing to the shot-out cameras above.
Kallus only nodded before replying while being cuffed, "To cover your escape."
"Speaking of escape," entered Kanan, "They are getting ready to blast the doors open right now. We'd better get moving."
"Get going!" shouted Ahsoka, "Me and Kanan'll cover the rear!"
"All right, let's move out," ordered General Gerrera. As this order came out, they could see the sparks flashing from around the edges of the door, ready to be blasted open by the sappers on the other side.
"Well, they certainly took their time," broke in Rex. "They've got nothing on the five-oh-first. Your doing?" he asked Kallus as they were running.
He nodded and then added, "But Konstantine is no idiot. We'd best hurry. But not that way!" said Kallus as the group was starting to move out on a run. "This is the way to the Broken Horn." There was no time to argue so they all followed Kallus's directions.
As they were rushing to the Broken Horn, Commodore Bonteri was calling the corvette for a quick evac, "Zatt Jazusa, this is Commodore Bonteri. Meet us one click outside the starboard aft of the Relentless at seven o'clock. We have a situation here. Make it pronto. Get the Plo Koon here as well."
"Yes, sir!" came the response from the comm device held by the Commodore. The boarding party went to the Broken Horn with Kallus giving directions here and there. When they rushed into the smuggler's ship, they noticed that the distance going back was a bit shorter than when they went in. Soon, they were all on the smuggler's ship where the captain had already started up the engines. The ship started to disembark while Ahsoka and Kanan were still on the ramp, when the quick closing of it almost threw them into the airlock. Fortunately, Ahsoka had enough mind to Force-close the airlock moments before leaving the Relentless and entering space.
The happy sight of the Zatt Jakusa where she should have been was erased by one look out of a viewport on the Broken Horn towards the Relentless. Those who saw what was happening in the other direction were stunned momentarily. Each and every viewport from that direction was filled with TIE fighters, rushing to the ships to prevent their escape. There were so many enemy fighters that it seemed the entire contingent of the Star Destroyer had been released to go after our heroes—and this was, in turn, confirmed by Kallus, still in cuffs. The Relentless as well was moving in for backup. It was apparent what the intention then was for all aboard the two ships, one with a very valuable addition. Capture was not the intention. Only one thing was the aim of the Empire—
Death to all in the cold of space.
—•—
Thank you for reading this. Short and not much action, but I hope you liked it. It was much shorter than what I outlined beforehand, but I wanted to get this up before the Star Wars Celebration. (I am waiting in anticipation of what will come out of it in relation to the Rebels show.) I had outlined up to dealing with Risè, and using the Tevarki whiskey they confiscated from the smuggler; which makes for a nice next chapter.
Ahsoka101. Thank you for your comment. I am happy to have you liking my stories so much that you want me to hurry up and finish them. Thank you for your kind comments. I also want to finish them as quickly as possible. Like I said, I do not plan on abandoning my other stories; but I would like to finish this one first as it seems most relevant to the Rebels story. I wish I could go into a log cabin in the Oregon wilderness like a professional writer could, but I can't. I will try to dedicate myself more to the stories.
That said, I was able to do some background reading for this chapter with the Force Unleashed and the new book, Lost Stars and I was able to add some new ideas to this chapter. I read them to help me with Kallus a little better. In actuality, Lost Stars had some very good perspectives (better than Force Unleashed: i.e., Juno Eclipse) on someone leaving the Empire and joining the Rebellion. Kallus's feelings upon seeing the Emperor were inspired by that book.
As for Saw Gerrera, you may have seen that he will make an appearance in the Rogue One movie. In the blurbs about him on the Star Wars website, he even worries Mon Mothma and Bail Organa with his 'aggressiveness' and that his methods were 'extreme,' so I don't think he is too OOC here.
I think there's an inconsistency with the duration Kallus was not cuffed. I think in the actual, real world, he would have been cuffed very quickly. But being cuffed with hands in the back would not have allowed him to pull out the rock. I think it was some stylistic license I needed for him to do that. In any case, he was so covered with weapons that I think he knew that he could not make a single move without getting plastered with blaster bolts.
That's about it. I like where this one ended, but it left me with a big research project on a large dogfight in space. I did one for Chapter 3 of my Oasis story that a lot of people liked (I think) and I will try to outdo that one. I guess here is where I am wishing I was more of a gamer—or maybe not. I will try to get the new chapter up as soon as possible. I will be able to devote all my free time to the story in a short time.
Take care and have fun in London,
johnt
PS. I'm already doing the outline for Chapter 7.
