Chapter 5:
The volunteers arrived twenty minutes later in their basic, but clean uniforms with no helmets, or flight harnesses. Burmar arrived with them. He nodded to me taking on a more formal attitude towards my rank when he entered. The volunteers for the mission saluted me and I saluted them back as well. Burmar stood in the center of the ship's lounge surrounded by everyone. He then addressed us all.
"We have been ordered to take over an Imperial transport, that could be trafficking prisoners, and to infiltrate the Imperial station that Yaminul's recon team had just returned from. We take over the transport; transmit landing clearance to the station, and assault. I will be leading the main squad to board the transport, which will also be the main assault team. 1st Lieutenant Echobe will lead the second squad in the Starscream for the secondary assault. We," Burmar thumbed towards himself, "will be taking R2-L7. When the first squad, from now on referred to as Alpha, takes control of the freighter and successfully make it inside the station, the second squad, now Zeta, will be our back up once Echobe unloads you onto the station. He will then set up a perimeter and disable the turrets, and communications array. We will attack in a spider pattern. Do not release any discovered prisoners until the station is secured."
One of the soldiers raised his hand, interrupting Burmar.
"Search and destroy, sir?" asked the soldier when Burmar nodded at him.
"No. Do not kill unless necessary. Incapacitate as many Imps as possible." Burmar looked to me. I nodded in approval.
"As I was saying," continued Burmar, "kill only if necessary. When the station is secure, we will begin the recovery of prisoners and essential material, disable or destroy the station outright, and head home. Simple enough." Burmar looked around the room. "Any more questions?"
Everyone looked at Burmar in grim silence. I stopped myself from rolling my eyes in mocking of Burmar's nonchalance.
"Alright, we leave at 1000 tomorrow, dismissed."
The soldiers all stood, I stood with them. They saluted Burmar and me on their way out.
**********
I slept in the Starscream that night after completing a diagnostics with the help of the R2. It was late in the night by Alliance time when I finally fell asleep in the pilot's chair while looking over the Starscream's schematics.
I woke to Burmar prodding me in the arm.
"Time to get ready, Echobe."
Everyone else on the teams arrived shortly after Burmar woke me. Some carried T-21 rifles, and some only had blasters, all with lightly armored jump suits, and padded field helmets. After quick greetings were exchanged they took seats in the lounge. I went to sit in the pilot's chair, and Burmar took up as my co-pilot.
We received clearance from the tower after asking to disembark. I hovered the Starscream out of the bay accidentally knocking a Y-wing from its landing skids on the way out. After holding my head in my hands for a moment wishing I were dead, and being yelled at over the radio by the tower, and Burmar's head shaking in disappointment, I brought the ship into hyperspace a little too close to the Alliance station, but sent us on our way to our destination. I was glad to be speeding away from some of the embarrassment.
The trip took several hours. I was nervous the entire time, and my clumsy exit did not help my, or probably anyone else's confidence. My fur was standing on end, but I tried to push doubt from my mind and smooth my fur out. Burmar was kind enough not to make loud mention of my obvious anxiety.
When we got close to our destination, the Alliance soldiers readied themselves. The R2 unit was busy running a final diagnostic on the ship, and I was reviewing the mission in my head, muttering to myself, making sure I hadn't forgotten anything.
"Relax, Echobe. Everyone knows that most of the missions they are sent on are a gamble. Just do your best, lead your squad, and everything will be ok," Burmar said with a reassuring smile. That's when I finally let go, and relaxed. I loosened my grip on the controls and leaned back in the chair. I closed my eyes, and let my mind wander. After I had quieted my mind, I suddenly had a feeling of empowerment, something warm and comforting. I still can't explain it with words to this day, but I was suddenly in control, I felt connected with everything, and one with myself. When I let myself go, I could feel, and almost hear, the natural flexing of the hull under the pressures of travel through hyperspace. I dwelled on those feelings for several minutes and then opened my eyes.
The last minutes of the trip were quiet like the silence in between the claps of thunder during a storm. No one was in the mood to talk. It was as if everyone was preparing for death, a constant ritual when you are in the Alliance. The only sound that could be heard was the low, steady hum of the ship's engines. Somehow, I knew then I wasn't going to die. Just as I had realized that in my mind we reached our staging area, and according to the information the recon team gathered, a freighter was due to arrive at around that same time. I powered down the ship and made like an asteroid drifting within the gas cloud. We all waited relying purely on visual contact, as the gaseous cloud disrupted all sensors.
**********
An hour or so passed and we all were getting nervous. I looked back into the lounge often to see how they were holding up. Some did final checks on their rifles, some sat with their head hanging between their legs as if they were sick, one paced back and forth, but among them all, anxiety filled the ship. Burmar and I started contemplating contingencies should the transport not show up, or incase we were discovered. Returning to the Alliance station empty handed seemed just as bad as getting captured, and we knew that somewhere out there people were being held prisoner, and as nervous as we were none of us wanted to abandon out mission.
We were running through plans on our other options when the collision alarm came on and a red flashing light overcame all other lights inside the ship. The Imperial transport broke from hyperspace almost right in front of us, its subspace distortion made the Starscream shudder. I heard rifles clatter to the ground followed by colorful references to hell and excrement. I did a double take and almost accidentally fired off the forward laser cannons. The R2 squealed in surprise and almost knocked itself over.
Burmar hit my arm and yelled for me to "GO, GO, GO, GO!" jabbing his finger at the Imperial transport hovering just half a mile in front of us like it was adrift. I mashed the throttle, brought to cannons online, and jammed the transport's communications. We completely took them by surprise, as they did us.
They had no shields raised and couldn't even return fire until I had made a full strafe upon their hull and taking out one of their turrets. Burmar didn't even have time to gather his equipment off the floor beside his chair as I veered the ship around to hard dock with the transport. In my inexperience, I slammed into the hull of the undesignated Imperial transport knocking the Alliance soldiers from their feet. The transport finally started to fire back scoring only superficial hits on the hull of the Starscream. The shields easily deflected them
I was ecstatic to not have gotten us killed by my novice piloting ability. It was as if something else took over me. I fell inside myself, like I was watching someone else, and I only came back to myself as Imperials started putting up a defense.
"Go, go, go!" shouted Burmar again as he grabbed his blaster rifle and rushed out of the cockpit behind his squad, nearly knocking over the R2 that had just righted itself. Burmar and his team rushed into the airlock and over to the Imperial transport, closing the hatch behind them. It was a painful silence waiting for Burmar to report back. We could hear no weapons firing, no explosions, nothing. Several minutes passed until I heard Burmar's winded voice crackle over the radio.
"Echobe, come in," he said quickly, breathing heavily.
"I'm here, what happened?"
"We have secured the ship."
At that everyone in the lounge cheered. I looked back at them for silence, and Burmar continued.
"Send over the R2 so we can slice the databanks. I will begin questioning the prisoners. We have five captured two were killed. Everything looks smooth so far. They didn't put up much of a fight." Burmar paused a moment, yelling could be heard in the background. "There are no troopers onboard, just officers." Burmar finished, trying to catch his breath.
"Contact me when you have, um, sliced," I said awkwardly, "and are ready to proceed. Echobe out." I flipped a switch and cut the radio off shaking my head in spite of myself and then told the R2 droid to head over to the transport. I fixed my eyes on the yawning space around us half expecting the collision lights to come on again. Luckily, no other ships arrived. Which was a good thing, because I would have torn both ships to pieces I later realized, because the docking clamps were engaged.
I was leaning back in my chair fidgeting nervously with the controls when Burmar came back over the radio.
"Echobe, come in."
"Echobe here, what's going on?" I asked hurriedly.
"Almost finished up here, the R2 unit is downloading. There's something strange. We scoured the ship top to bottom, there are no prisoners here." A few moments of silence passed as we both contemplated what that could mean.
"Well, that's a good thing isn't it?" I shrugged.
"I'm not sure, just get down here and see what you can make of this," and he cut the radio off. I was a bit nervous after that ominous signoff. I went straight to the airlock and crossed over to the Imperial transport. A member of Alpha was waiting there on the other side for me. The soldier led me to the cargo hold where Burmar waited at the doorway.
"Take a look," Burmar said when I entered.
When I stepped into the cargo bay what I saw confused and worried me. There were drugs, medical supplies, and gurneys. Literally tons of medial equipment, most of it I couldn't identify. I turned to Burmar.
"They scanned all the previous freighters for life signs, right?"
"Yes, each one contained prisoners."
"There's something strange going on, but this is still our way in." I said. Burmar nodded in agreement.
"We proceed with the mission then," ordered Burmar. "Inform your squad."
I nodded, and went back to the Starscream, through the lounge to inform the waiting squad of the situation, and then went back to the cockpit and disembarked from the Imperial ship, remembering to disengage the docking clamps, taking note of my mistake and its consequences, hoping no one else noticed. The transport started to make its way to the base under Burmar's control while we waited for him to contact us again.
About thirty minutes passed before Burmar came over on the radio passively, telling us they had arrived at the Imperial station, to which he uploaded its coordinates to me, that that they were transmitting security clearance. Of all the waiting and silence so far on that mission, the next few seconds of silence dwarfed it all. We waited for our fates to be decided. I hovered my fingers over the laser cannon power-up sequence and watched the radio in anticipation when it crackled and Burmar whispered through.
"Code clearance accepted, we are entering the landing bay now. Standby." A few moments later, Burmar was yelling into the radio for us to proceed. Actually it was more like, "It's a go! Get here now!"
"Zeta team, we have a green light!" I hollered as I mashed the throttle against its housing and shot us off towards the Imperial station like a comet. We cleared the distance in moments after emerging from the gaseous cloud. The station, though small considering the Empire's desire for gigantic, oversized monstrosities, quickly grew to engulf my entire field of vision. It was rectangular shaped, one landing bay in the center, with a stem like structure underneath the main structure like an antenna. I quickly sent the Starscream spiraling at the station towards the landing bay hoping for things to proceed as planned, but wishing we had brought more soldiers.
I trusted to Burmar's timing and sped towards the landing bay doors, and they opened just before the collision alarm sounded. The automated Imperial turrets started to move coming online. I spun the Starscream into the landing bay so the cockpit faced towards the open bay doors and the entire squad poured from the opening platform and into the bay, quickly taking up their positions. I didn't wait to see what happened next, I throttled back out into space and started to work on my part of the mission.
Their defenses crumpled like paper as I bombarded them with blast after blast of cannon fire until they were all destroyed. The automated turrets scored superficial hits that hardly made the Starscream's shields flicker. I was amazed at how easy it was, but didn't give myself time to worry about the possibilities of the entire operation being a trap. Burmar came back over the radio breathing heavily. His voice was starting to fail the old Senator.
"Echobe, Echobe come in," said Burmar, in between panting into the radio.
"Echobe here." I responded after taking out the sixth and final turret that exploded in metal fragments and superheated dust.
"We have secured the bridge. I sent both squads to fan out and secure the rest of the ship. Do we have any company?"
"No, its all quiet out here, the turrets are gone, all seems well, and this seems a bit too easy."
"I agree. It is possible they were totally unprepared for any kind of opposition to their operation. Perhaps they were overconfident. We'll discuss this later. Secure the perimeter and then meet me in the landing bay. I'll have the Imp captures transferred to the Starscream" The radio then went silent.
I circled around the base a few quick times to make ensure I hadn't missed anything, and even did a scan sweep in the sector as far as it would go despite the interference of the obscuring gas cloud, and still nothing. I expected to see Imperial ships to come bursting through the cloud towards us with cannons firing, but nothing happened.
So, reluctantly, I circled back around and ducked the Starscream into the landing bay, set the ship down, and looked around the bay from inside the cockpit before heading to the platform. I could see Burmar coming down the stairs from the communications tower and towards the ship. I shut the Starscream down and went out to meet Burmar.
"The squad is still securing the base, they have yet to all report, but all seems well so far. Save for the few personnel, the station is basically empty. We are looking for the prisoners now," Burmar said, then turned back towards the communications tower, and then looked all around the hangar.
"I have a bad feeling about this, something's not right." I said, while looking around the unusually dark landing bay. It was like the station was a ghost ship. If we had stumbled upon a station in this state it could have been mistaken for abandoned. I felt strange, almost queasy, and had a claustrophobic feeling.
"I feel the same," started Burmar, noticing my anxiety, "it was too easy. The medical supplies, no prisoners. What the hell is going on here?" he asked as if questioning the air. I think he actually didn't want to say what he thought. That's when someone from Alpha came in over the radio.
"Sir?" asked the soldier on the radio.
"This is Burmar," he replied, taking the radio from his hip.
"We have scoured the ship. Only thing we found so far is a locked door."
"A locked door?"
"Yes sir, we need the R2 unit."
"Very well, we'll meet you there."
Burmar gave me a curious look then changed the signal on the radio and sent an alert to the R2 still waiting inside the Imperial transport. A few moments later the R2 rolled out of the transport and followed us through the corridors of the Imperial station to the locked door. It was more like a blast door. Several members of both squads waited next to it.
The R2 unit rolled up to the door, and started interfacing with the computer terminal connected to it. We all stood quietly and watched the R2 unit do his work to open the door whistling merrily as it sliced the terminal. The R2 exclaimed victory with a few hoots, and then metal door slid open from bottom to top. The door was unusually large, and thick like it was designed to hold something out, or in, I wasn't sure which. It slid open with the squealing of powerful servos that seemed to echo throughout the whole base, scaring away the silence that permeated the station as thick as the shadows