Star Wars The Redemption
Book: 3
Chapter 1:
WithMakaashyya's betrayal as the cave in the badlands of Tatooine, and the capture of many of those under his command, Echobe and those who remained were forced to leave Tatooine in the canvas of space for safer ground.
Echobe tortured himself for not acting upon the instinctual warnings coming to him of Makaashyya. He allowed the emotions and compassion for the lost Wookiee girl to cloud his vision. He knew of the convoluted darkness within her when he first sensed her presence within Jabba's cells deep in his stolen palace. Echobe took pity on Makaashyya because she was a Wookiee, and because of the guilt he felt within himself for his complacency on Kashyyyk that he believed resulted in the deaths of Ulchewbuk and the Wookiee girl he pulled from the fire. Echobe too felt a great sadness and bitterness just as Makaashyya did, but as terrorized as she had been by the Empire, she had chosen the darkside.
Echobe was forced to see her as an enemy, and did his best to push aside his feelings for her. His hesitation had cost lives, and had served as a boon of potential lab womprats for the Empire's miasma of sadistic experiments. Undoubtedly, Echobe surmised, it was widely known by the Empire what he and his small contingent of Alliance had been pursuing.
It ate away at Echobe that he had yet to free the remaining prisoners and destroy the Empire's prison laboratories. After the destruction of the first, he thought it would be merely procedural, that the pieces would fall into place with little heavy lifting on his part and it would all be over. It would not be so easy, Echobe realized, after his defeat on Tatooine at the hands of Makaashyya and her newfound Imperial allies. Fleeing to Mon Calamari felt more as returning to his corner of the ring to lick his wounds and less like any kind of triumph. Echobe needed time to gather his thoughts, his strength and figure out where to go and what to do next. He refused to abandon what he and Burmar had begun, and what so many had died for already.
Even though Echobe had accomplished much with his small command, there was so much more he felt he needed to do. The deaths of Ulchewbuk, his Mother, and Father, Desco, the survivors they saved, and Burmar, hung over him like a specter calling out for justification, and for a reason that they did not die in vain. Echobe did not want to put anyone else in danger, so he decided to find Makaashyya on his own and capture her, steal her back from the Empire, and through her, rescue the captured Alliance and bring Makaashyya to face the consequences of her actions. Echobe's superiors on Mon Calamari were reluctant for him to return to Tatooine without help. Echobe did not request it, even refused it. He had R2-L7, Desco's old loyal droid, and his counterpart Bilebelch, the unusually small, fiercely loyal, and uncommonly sentient rancor. It was all the family Echobe could ever have hoped for, and all that he felt he would ever need.
It had been over six months since Echobe's escape from Tatooine, and the Wookiee felt that he had regained his confidence and strength while serving with Alliance allies on Mon Calamari at Mon Mothma's behest.
Echobe woke with the sunrise breaking over Mon Calamari's watery surface. Echobe, not waiting to enjoy the spectacle, or pay any attention to the gleaming sea of diamonds as the sun reflected on the ocean planet's surface, he immediately went to the Starscream and busied himself ensuring that all the supplies he needed were stocked as he requested.
Bilebelch lay lazily on his stomach on the floor of the cargo bay of the Starscream. Although Bilebelch was unusually smaller than his kin, the rancor's thick, and sinewy body took up a large portion of the cargo-bay. The rancor's eyes gleamed, and he almost seemed to smile as Echobe walked into the Starscream and to the cargo bay. Bilebelch's mouth was agape, and his tongue lolled to the side as he cocked his head with curiosity. The rancor watched every move made by the contemplative Wookiee as he checked, and double-checked the cargo, the integrity of the ship, and everything on his mental checklist.
Echobe then stopped and looked about as if he had lost something or forgotten something, then noticed Bilebelch watching him. Echobe gave up his efforts and walked to the rancor and put his hand upon the animal's forehead. Bilebelch closed his black, pool-like eyes, and savored Echobe's touch and the connection that they shared. Bilebelch was ever ready for anything Echobe would put him through. The animal did his duty for Echobe out of love, being hardly aware of the greater struggle across the galaxy, or his significant role in it, and not needing to. The rancor was loyal without fault, and as brave and fierce as any soldier within the Alliance. Bilebelch's mountainous hide, that had been cratered and canalled with the scars by blasters, and more recently, a lightsaber's cauterizing blade, were ignored. Bilebelch thought nothing of it. The fight, and protecting those he cared about was all he knew. Bilebelch had become selflessly devoted to the Wookiee since Echobe had released the rancor from his cage and spoke to him in his mind, and provided the care that his slain mother should have provided were she alive. Echobe's fight was like any other for the rancor. He would follow Echobe into the Deathstar if Echobe was headed there, and like the many scars, he thought nothing of it.
Echobe affectionately stroked Bilebelch's bumpy forehead as the Wookiee thought back over the experiences he and the rancor had shared over the brief time they had been together. He worried about the rancor getting hurt again, he wondered how long it would be before he got him killed as the rancor followed him with blind loyalty.
Echobe pushed those thoughts from his mind, then left the rancor and went to the corner of the cargo bay. Bilebelch's eyes followed him as he opened up a crate, one of many, and scooted it over to the rancor. An assortment of meats, grains and milk sloshed around inside like quicksand. Bilebelch drooled with excitement and hunger, and lapped at the concoction. Echobe left the rancor to eat and went back to the cockpit. R2-L7, Desco's old droid, was connected to the ship's computer running a final diagnostic. The little droid beeped in welcome to the Wookiee. Echobe patted the droid on the head and sat in his chair and brought Starscream online. Echobe raised the platform not seeing Yaminul, one of the few Rebels that escaped with Echobe from Tatooine, a friend and loyal subordinate, jump into the ship at the last moment before the platform locked and pressurized.
Echobe took a last look at the hangar sprawling out in all directions on the watery planet of Mon Calamari, wishing that he could stay, but his drive to finish what he had started and to avenge those who had sacrificed already was too strong. Just then, Yaminul snuck up on the Wookiee bringing him out of his reverie, startling him. Echobe tried to hide shock, but couldn't help the smile from growing on his face when his Alliance colleague sat in the co-pilot's chair.
"Think you were to leave without me?" asked Yaminul in his implacable accent.
"I was trying to. Weren't you assigned to another squadron?" asked Echobe, feigning his disapproval of Yaminul's decision.
"I got someone else fill for me. I said to Mon Mothma I would resign if necessary. You not going to be able to have Bilebelch tag along with you at all time anyhow, so I think you could use someone of the human persuasion, and translator since no one knows what you're saying half the time."
Echobe laughed and slapped the human Alliance officer jovially on the back. Yaminul coughed and squinted his eyes at the pain, but forced a smile.
"Besides, I had some intel to deliver before you left."
"And what if I had left before you jumped on?" Echobe asked.
"I don't know. Good thing I made it on board, isn't it?" mused Yaminul.
The thrusters made the Starscream shudder with their immense power as Echobe mashed the throttle. The repulsor lifts activated, hovering the ship just above the deck of the hangar. Echobe spun the Starscream around and sped out of the still opening hangar doors nearly knocking Alliance personnel from their feet in the jet wash. The clouds opened their hands invitingly, accepting the Starscream as a child as it drifted into and beyond, and seconds later, miles into the atmosphere, and then into space. When they reached a safe distance from Mon Calamari, Echobe brought up coordinates on the nav-computer, and in the blink of an eye the Starscream entered the hyperspace tunnel to Tatooine.
Hours passed as they traveled through hyperspace back to that familiar, but dreaded territory. Echobe squinted, as if the twin suns were already blinding him as he watched the hyperspace tunnel, lost in thought. Makaashyya was well aware of Echobe hiding somewhere in suspected Rebellion space, but she was not aware that the Wookiee was on his way back to face her.
**********
"Makaashyya," said the Imperial Colonel, Banthsas Mur, the Wookiee girl's superior, sat behind his desk. "You are being reassigned."
"What is my assignment?" asked Makaashyya in the straightforward, cold manner she had adopted. Any warmth in her voice had been assimilated by the darkside-driven hatred festering within her. Makaashyya had come to understand her abilities and had become quite confident in herself, and had been totally blinded by it.
Her eyes no longer the emerald green of her youth, but now filled with spidery red veins, her pupils enlarged and rimmed in an orange-red, like a fire. She had given herself over to the darkside fully when she betrayed Echobe and his Alliance command, and she had accomplished much since their last meeting over six months ago. Her surrender to the darkside had imbued her with abilities she never thought possible, that Gethzerion her old master, never told her about. Since her betrayal of Echobe, Makaashyya had become quite adept at capturing other rebels and political prisoners, and sending them to her superior were they were then taken somewhere unknown to her, and equally of no concern to her as well.
The small contingent of Imperial troops she commanded had come to respect and fear her, more so the latter. She did not tolerate insubordinate soldiers under her command. She only once had to deal with a dissident soldier once before. The blasphemous presence of a Wookiee seemed to be the only thing able break the adamant will to follow orders possessed by an Imperial Stormtrooper. That stormtrooper did not like taking orders from a Wookiee. She left his body to decay in the endless desert. She gave him to the endless sands and whatever fortunate predators that happened along. Her superior was never made aware and the rest of her Stormtroopers were wise enough to remain silent on the matter
"There is a program under my responsibility that needs a new arbiter." The Imperial, Banthsas Mur, stood and approached the Wookiee. Makaashyya stood motionless, as if unaffected by the visceral, planetary forces that affected everything else. "This prison needs a new chief officer. Only you and I are to know its location. From now on you will be personally responsible for keeping its cells full."
Makaashyya had long since justified her actions, even though she was completely in service of the Empire, her original desires had become corrupted like her soul and she willingly submitted to its will.
"Where is this prison?" Makaashyya asked, now as an Imperial, as an agent of the darkside would, her desire for revenge had become clouded and turned inwards to suppress the pain, and outwards to inflict pain on the wrong people.
"It is deep within the Dune Sea." The Imperial brought up the holoscreen upon his desk and showed Makaashyya the exact coordinates, hundreds of miles from any known city, in the land of Sandpeople and womprats.
"It is hidden underground. You will take a shuttle there, travel only by night. I will upload the clearance codes to your datapad. I want a status report and then return to me, you are not to inform your command of this, or anyone else, do you understand?" He didn't wait for an acknowledgement. "You begin immediately in rounding up prisoners, I need non-humans most especially, Makaashyya. Dismissed."
The Imperial finished and sat back into his chair facing away from the Wookiee. Her superior's order for non-human prisoners did nothing to awaken the atrophied conscience within her. Makaashyya turned and walked away with potential prisoners in mind.
Makaashyya walked to her shuttle. A familiar triple-winged, white shuttle such as the one she used to escape Dathomir, a memory she pushed into a dark corner of her mind. But she could not push aside her nightmares. Each night for years she had a different variation of her original dream. Syymbacca and her family each time, and she would wake with renewed disappointment, turned to frustration, turned to hate, she let it fuel her. She thought of them as visions, not as the corrupting nightmares that they actually were.
She boarded the shuttle and took her place in the pilot's seat and took off, headed for the location of the prison using only her memory of the holoscreen image her superior had shown her. It was night, and soon she was far into the Dune Sea skimming across the surface of the sands. Temperature readings were still high. The sands still gave off heat waves that distorted the light of the moon on the horizon. When she finally made it to her destination, she saw no structure of any kind. No indication that there was anything around her but sand.
She passively transmitted her clearance codes as she approached the area where the prison lay, and a few moments later a gigantic platform, like a tongue, pushed up from the sands, high and wide enough to allow the shuttle to enter. The sands flowed like water off the back of the platform and into the prison itself and down through a vent grate built into the floor. The platform sealed airtight upon Makaashyya's entry. The winds took little time to cover over the bald spot left by the platform.
Makaashyya touched the shuttle down, and walked out with a translator in her hand. She approached the white-coated scientist that was coming towards her. He was human, his hair unkempt, his face unshaven, his uniform hardly regulation, his clothing bore no insignia. Makaashyya tossed the translator to the doctor and pulled back her hood, her lightsaber gleamed in the faint light on her belt. Makaashyya then spoke without hesitation to the scientist. The Wookiee girl, now an Imperial officer stood before the scientist with hate in her eyes. He was uncertain of what to think.
"I am here for a status report," said Makaashyya. The translator scrolled text of what she spoke. The scientist hesitated a few moments, looking from Wookiee to the translator. Makaashyya stepped forward looking down on the scientist, she was short for a Wookiee, but taller than most humans.
"Status," she repeated.
"Follow me," the human scientist stuttered. He led Makaashyya to the computer room and uploaded information to a data pad, and then handed it to Makaashyya. She nodded and turned away from the scientist. On her way back to the shuttle, she stopped and said over her shoulder that she was to bring more prisoners. The scientist eyes widened in anticipation, or horror, Makaashyya didn't care which. The scientist clasped his hands together and watched Makaashyya board her shuttle and she took off as quickly as she had arrived.
Makaashyya later delivered the data pad report to her waiting superior, Banthsas Mur. He promptly dismissed his aide when Makaashyya entered his office unannounced. Though, she kept her hood covering her face at all times it was simple tell she was a Wookiee when she revealed her hands, though the length of her robe successfully covered any other hint to her race.
"Very good," Banthsas said as he read over the information on the data pad. Ever since Makaashyya had disrupted Echobe's plans, things had gone quiet. Attacks on Imperial convoys and Stormtrooper security teams had all but come to a halt, and it seemed that his Wookiee underling had nearly quashed dissent on Tatooine.
Banthsas looked up from the data pad to Makaashyya.
"There is a shipment of prisoners coming in to Mos Eisley, Rebellion prisoners captured in a raid. You will transfer them to the laboratory, understood?"
"What port and what is the name of the officer in charge of the transfer?" she asked without remorse or concern of the fate of the prisoners, completely forgotten was that she shared their fate in the past.
"It will be bay 10-02, the officer's name is Major Trury Jinard. Collect the prisoners and deliver them to the prison."
"It will be done," Makaashyya said and quickly turned and walked out. She then contacted her small team of Stormtroopers on her communicator.
Makaashyya met her squad leader waiting for her, upon her orders, at the entrance to her shuttle. Her sergeant saluted her on her way inside. Makaashyya gently nodded, not even looking at him. She had become quite popular with the small squad under her command despite the fact that she was a Wookiee, unknown to all the Empire outside of her small contingent. She boarded the shuttle and at her command they took off, headed for Mos Eisley.
**********
Yaminul described to Echobe of the capture of Alliance soldiers a few days prior, and that they were conducting a supply raid on an Imperial convoy, and that no word had been heard from since their capture. The Imperial convoy however rendezvoused with an Imperial patrol on its way to Tatooine.
"So according to information, the best guess seems to be that our people were transferred to the patrol, and that means Makaashyya may be involved. It's our best shot," explained Yaminul. Echobe agreed and followed the directions given to him by Yaminul on their way back into Tatooine space on an intercept course for the Imperial patrol.
"So when is this patrol supposed to arrive?" asked Echobe.
"There is no word on that. Last report is that they headed back to Tatooine hours ago." Echobe huffed and crossed his arms, impatiently looking outside into space as the asteroid carried them tumbling in high orbit around Tatooine. Hours passed until a distinct blip came up on the Starscream's radar. Echobe almost jumped out of his chair and brought up a tactical readout of the new ship coming into radar range. Yaminul leaned over and looked as well.
"I think that is it. We better…" Yaminul began, but was cut off by Echobe who had the ship powered up and shooting like a laser bolt towards the incoming patrol before Yaminul could brace himself.
It was a single Imperial freighter, much like the one Echobe had first encountered on its way to the first laboratory-prison complex. The freighter had no escort, and minimal weapons that Echobe quickly destroyed while Yaminul jammed any transmissions. They quickly crippled the unsuspecting Imperial freighter. It lacked any official designation, which was a promising sign, but it was unmistakably Imperial. They hard docked and wasted no time in boarding the Imperial vessel. The Imperial's were clearly unprepared and not expecting any sort of problems on their way into Tatooine space.
Leaving L7 behind, Echobe and Yaminul suppressed the three Imperial officers inside without a single shot being fired, as they were too busy trying to contact reinforcements in vain. After they captured the Imperials on board and transferred them to the Starscream, leaving Bilebelch to terrify them, Echobe found and identified the captured Alliance soldiers from a few days before as Yaminul had detailed. All of them recognized Echobe, who then released them and they quickly took up the fallen arms of their captors. Echobe then went back to the Starscream flanked by the Alliance soldiers.
The freed Alliance soldiers didn't expect to see Echobe's rumored, and much-feared pet, to be standing there towering, and hungrily slavering over the three Imperial's sitting on the floor with their hands bound behind their backs, turning their heads away from the fierce rancor. Echobe checked the insignia on their uniforms and identified the commanding officer.
With Yaminul translating, Echobe questioned him.
"What is your name?" asked Echobe, allowing Bilebelch to edge closer to the groveling Imperial. Drool poured out from between the gaps in Bilebelch's teeth, draping the Imperial's face with thick, syrup-like goo. He tried to scream, but closed his mouth as the viscous slobber rolled down his face, leaving a trail behind. He shook his head to try and fling the drool off but it only rebounded with elastic tenacity. Bilebelch growled, and Echobe smiled, knowing that the Imperial was in no real danger of being eaten, but enjoyed the bluff nonetheless. When the slobber finally passed the Imperial's mouth and hung dangling from his chin refusing to yield to gravity, he spoke in gasps like he was out of breath.
"My name is Trury Jinard. Major Trury Jinard."
Trury Jinard then described his orders after a few more minutes of intimidation by the rancor.
Yaminul took Trury Jinard's Imperial uniform, and two of the Alliance soldiers took the other two Imperial officer's uniforms and assumed their roles. Echobe split everyone up into two teams. Echobe remained on the freighter with most of the freed Alliance soldiers. They continued the descent into Mos Eisley with the Starscream following closely behind. Echobe squinted his eyes from the light of the twin suns as he looked out of the cockpit, forgetting how bright Tatooine was, but he could not forget the whispers coming to his mind. The Wookiee expected to see Makaashyya, and he hoped that she wasn't expecting them as well.