38 woke up cold. It was night. His door was open. Had been since he had gotten home, he had forgotten to close it. He lived in a primitive shack, without any power.
Nothing was missing, 38 didn't have anything to steal. No holo-players, no droids, nothing. He was a merely a vagrant with a home.
He sat up. A cold breeze blew through his door. He looked out into the night. It was a nice night. Quiet. It reminded him of the quiet on The Prosecutor, before finding the scavenger droids and trandoshans.
Too quiet. Eerie. He had a bad feeling about it.
A blaster bolt ripped past 38's head, silently.
He hit the floor before the sound rang out seconds later. This was a far shot. Sev would have been hard-pressed to shoot at that range.
Stormtroopers appeared from nowhere, a squad of them. 38 pulled his blaster. Shooting a trooper would brand him a traitor to the empire.
Did he even have the right to defend his life at all, let alone from the Empire? Could the trooper he planned to shoot possibly be a brother?
"PUT THE BLASTER DOWN NOW!" the lead trooper yelled.
38 complied.
"Trooper RC-1138, you are under arrest for the murder of Klaatan Preshna!"
"He hit me first, it was self-" 38 started to reply, but the lead trooper smashed the butt of his rifle against 38's jaw before he could finish, knocking him out.