The once short grass had grown into thick underbrush that seemingly devoured the heavily weathered permacrete buildings that had been left abandoned to Selvernos' elements for a standard decade. Cracks were appearing along the walls, and chunks that had been made before the building's abandonment had doubled in size. One support beam to the building was completely destroyed, both by the events of a decade earlier and the exposure to the temperate climate. It now lay in rubble on the ground, several indigenous insects nesting under it.
If he had his way, Jorec would have never seen this place again. The memories of that day rushed into his mind; the sound of the blaster fire still echoed through the clearing, the hum of lightsabers as they moved to deflect the oncoming bolts, the sound of the impact of a blaster bolt on humanoid flesh, the sound of a question being asked about the area…
"So this is it?" asked a blonde-haired woman in her mid-twenties. "This was the main base of operations during the Battle of Selvernos?"
Jorec turned away from the ruins to look at the speaker and her companion. They were tourists, interested in hunting the game animals in the forest like many were, and interested in the ruins of old Republic base that once housed the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars. The base had a few fans in the galaxy; historians and history buffs.
"Is it safe to actually go in the base?" asked the woman's husband.
Jorec froze for a moment. "I honestly have no idea whether it is or not. I've never actually been here before, and those who have been here have only really surveyed the exterior of the building." And add to that the fact that I really don't want to be here any longer than I have to, Jorec added mentally.
The "couple" sat in their shared tent almost a kilometer away from the ruins of the old base. Twilight had come across the planet a few hours previously, and with it both parties had retired to their separate tents.
"So, what do you think?" asked the woman, keeping her voice low so no one outside of the tent could hear what was being said inside. Out of her bag she pulled a datapad and thumbed it on.
"I went to check ten minutes ago, it appears that he's already asleep," the red-haired man replied.
"Good, we can't have him listen in on us and turn us in the local authorities. Now, about the planet…"
"Very little Imperial presence, just like the early intelligence said, many places we could hide the important stuff."
"What about the base, do you think it's safe enough to convert to our own needs?" asked the woman as she thumbed the datapad to life, bringing up a blue representation of the base in its original condition from the holoprojector.
The man shrugged. "I don't know, our guide seems reluctant to even be around the place let alone in it. Based on the outward appearance of the area, it seems OK to be around. A few patches to exterior support beams and it should be good to go. We'll have to provide our own hangar for the Y-wings, however. It seems that the Empire didn't leave much behind when they left the planet."
"Their efficient, I'll give them that. As for our guide, the people at the headquarters said he's one of the best they have, I have no idea why he's so skittish around the area. At least we know how to get here from Gevest so we can go in ourselves after we get back."
"Well, it appears as there aren't many other options to fully explore the area. That'll have to do…"
The Imperial-class Star Destroyer drifted above the obscure Mid-Rim planet that had once housed a run-down rebel base, its former staff now enclosed within various detention cells inside the monstrous hull.
With a hiss, the door to one of these cells opened swiftly to reveal a human male clad in a black uniform walking out of the cell. He was followed by a spherical droid floating less than half a meter behind him. He turned to a nearby officer, clad in a dark gray uniform, and snapped a salute.
"Report on your findings of interrogating the prisoner, lieutenant."
The black-clad man made a short motion to the droid behind him. "Captain, most of the prisoners were able to briefly fight the truth serum. However, the one we just finished with was more susceptible than the others were."
"Did he divulge the location of the leaders?"
The subordinate nodded. "Yes sir, the leaders of this cell recently traveled to the Outer Rim in search of a new hideout. Looks like they were a little late," he jokingly added. The expression of the captain remained untouched. "He said that they are currently located on Selvernos…"
The captain of the Star Destroyer nodded his head and reached for his comlink. "Thank you lieutenant, the Emperor will be most pleased with yet another band of rebels put to the blade."
Three days later, Jorec's red landspeeder cruised down the road nearing Lia's apartment complex. Despite the beautiful woman in the seat next to him, Jorec's mind was preoccupied with something else at the moment.
During the past year, Jorec and Lia's relationship had blossomed. However he knew that he would have to eventually tell her the truth about his past. There was another thought running in his brain as well, when and how was he going to propose to her? He had been thinking about it for a little over a month, gauging their relationship in his mind and getting advice from the few friends he had, before finally deciding to ask her to marry him.
Beside him Lia stretched her legs out in front of her seat, bringing Jorec out of his thoughts of the future and into the present.
"Something wrong, Jorec?" she asked as she turned to look at him as he continued to drive.
"Nope, everything's all right. Just thinking."
"About what?"
"About what happened on the last hunt, those were some really weird people I had to act as a guide for," Jorec replied as he turned off of the highway and onto a main street. "They seemingly had no interest in hunting at all, they just wanted to hang around the old Clone Wars battleground."
"History buffs probably. You wouldn't believe the amount of people who frequented that section of Kraat's…"
"Yeah, I would," Jorec laughed. "I was one of them about three years before we met." Jorec snorted in disgust. "Enough of them, I won't let a bunch of weird off-worlders ruin our time together."
Lia nodded her head. "I like that idea. So, the day after tomorrow is when you're free again?"
Jorec mentally mapped out his schedule; a short one day hunting trip with some local politician (and about a dozen assorted holojournalists) who's trying to show the rural voters that he's a man of the outdoors, and then a rare off-time of ten days. "Yeah, got a small publicity stunt I have to be an unwilling part of. Politics…"
A few moments passed in silence until Lia moved slightly closer to Jorec, putting her left arm on his shoulder. "I love you Jorec," she whispered.
He stole a brief glance at her and smiled. "I love you too, Lia." And something better than that, he mentally added. I trust you. And you really need to know the real truth about me. Next time we see each other, I'm going to tell you the truth. Just please don't kill me…
The apartment complex loomed in the distance now, showing up in the darkness as several beacons of light from occupied rooms. He turned the landspeeder into the parking lot of the building, and pulled up beside the main entrance.
"Well, I'll see you in a few days," Jorec said as he turned his head to face Lia. He brought his face down to hers and gently kissed her.
"Jorec," Lia said as she broke the kiss. "Would you like to come inside for a while?"
The halls near Jorec's apartment echoed with the sound of eight pairs of plastoid boots as the wearers marched towards their target. While the information provided by one weak-willed rebel had lead them to the planet and their mission, the rebel leaders had so far eluded them. The hallway lights reflected off of their white armor and the cold black of their E-11's as they approached their only lead so far, the person who had lead the leaders into the wilderness.
Despite the late hour, a few curious residents dared to sneak a peek at the source of the commotion, only to flee back into the safety of their homes after gazing into the black eyes of the helmeted soldiers.
SC-84 ordered his troops to a stop outside of the apartment, and stared at the door. He silently hoped that the two rebel leaders were in there, and a quick promotion would be bestowed upon him.
"Twelve," he said as he turned to another member of his squad. "Open that door, we'll cover you." He motioned to the four Stormtroopers closest to him, who quickly raised their rifles towards the door.
SC-12 pulled out a piece of computer hardware from his utility belt and placed it over the small keypad next to the door. Within a few seconds, the task was done.
"Be alert men! Twelve, open the door."
The slicer Stormtrooper nodded and pulled out his own blaster rifle. He then pressed the button, and replaced the hardware back onto his utility belt.
The four Stormtroopers watched as the door opened, and the three human recruits breathed a sigh of relief as no enemy blaster fire came pouring out of it. With their guns raised and ready to fire at the first sign of enemy movement, the eight Stormtroopers cautiously moved into the apartment. What little light from Selvernos' moons entered the apartment was picked up by light enhancers in their helmets, giving them the edge over any rebel that may have been hiding in the room.
"Sir, the apartment appears to be empty, and our backup team isn't picking up anything unusual over the civilian communications," said SC-12 as he walked up to his commanding officer.
SC-84 nodded and addressed his troops. "Five, Twenty-three, and Sixteen; check the kitchen and refreshers to make sure. Eleven, Three, and Eight; make sure no one's hiding in the bedroom. Twelve, have the backup team jam all non-military communications in a five-block radius. If no one's here, I want this place thoroughly searched for any signs of any anti-Imperial propaganda. We may have caught them out of this place, and I don't want them to be alerted."
His crew acknowledged their orders and went about the apartment to complete them. SC-84 began to search through the living room on his own, throwing some holos of a young woman to the floor as he checked datapads on a bookstand nearby. No sign of anti-Imperial propaganda, in fact it was completely the opposite. Most of the datapads on the shelf were decidedly pro-Imperial historical texts of the Clone Wars, several them detailing the Jedi Rebellion that had nearly taken the life of the glorious Emperor.
Several minutes passed until the unmistakably Fett accent of SC-8 came in over his intercom.
"Sir, we've been searching the bedroom of this place and we found something very interesting hidden here…"
SC-84 walked quickly into the bedroom of the place, where he found Eight holding a metallic cylinder.
"Sir, is this what I think it is?" asked the Stormtrooper as he handed his find to the commanding officer.
SC-84 pressed a button on the side of the cylinder, causing the object to fire to life with a snap-hiss. The room was then bathed in a blue light as the lightsaber activated.
"Backup team, this is SC-84. Alert the Captain, I think we may have a major discovery on our hands…"