Present, interrogation room aboard the Mon Cal cruiser Home One, Bilbringi Shipyards
"Do you ever do anything normal Commander?"
I looked up, my face a mask of innocence. "What are you talking about?"
She scowled, "you break your subordinate's limbs and lock them in their quarters, you allow fraternization amongst your crew, and now you're telling me that you took your CDO for a space walk when you could have died within the next few days drifting in space?"
"What's so wrong with that?" I asked, trying to keep the inevitable smile from crossing my features.
"No normal person is going to do that Commander," Deanna said in annoyance.
"Obviously you've been seeing the wrong men Lieutenant."
Her reaction to the jibe was much reduced from my earlier jokes about her personal life, but that was bound to happen sooner or later.
"Don't change the subject, what were you thinking?" She snapped.
"I just thought she might like the change in pace, you know how depressing it is to sit around contemplating your death? Russani taught me something very important, and that is that life is far too precious and fleeting to waste it fretting over whether or not you'll live to see it. If you live in constant fear of death, how can you expect to live?"
She gave me a disbelieving look, "so now you're a philosopher?"
I smirked, "I can also read and write, want me to show you?"
"Lets get back to your space walking on death's door, I can't wait to hear what you did since you obviously didn't die."
I chuckled and shrugged, "lucky for you, imagine how boring your life would be without me…."
Approximately five years ago, Outer Rim Territories, space
"What are you doing Garin?" Daru asked as she held onto the front of his suit tensely.
"Looking for something," he answered calmly, slowly rotating, his eyes scanning the stars around them.
"What can you possibly be looking fo—"
"Ah, there it is." He interrupted, "you'll need to let go of me Daru."
He felt her grip tighten and he reached down as they drifted slowly through the emptiness, "don't worry, I promise I won't leave you."
She nodded and released him, though she kept one hand firmly gripping his arm. He reached out with a hand and pointed to a distant point in the inky blackness.
"You see that yellow star?"
She followed his finger as best she could, trying to find which yellow star he was point at before finally nodding, "what about it?"
"That's Ryloth's star in the Gaulus Sector; your home is orbiting that point."
"I—oh," she said with sudden understanding, her voice softening over the intercom.
They floated like that for a while, besides one another staring at the point he'd indicated, finally she broke the silence.
"Do you think she remembers me?"
He took her hand, lacing their clunky fingers together as best as he could manage. "I'm sure she's there right now looking back up at you, wondering if you remember her."
There was another pause, and then he heard something strange over the intercom, he turned to face her, and realized she was crying inside her suit, the tears were floating in small droplets inside her helmet. He shifted, orienting their bodies close and letting her wrap her arms around him tightly.
"It's stupid, I've been through all of this, and now I'm crying like a scared child." She murmured quietly, "I must seem pretty pathetic."
"I don't know, home is a pretty important thing to most people."
She looked up at him, the top of her helmet clunking against his chin. "Where is your home?"
He stuck out his arms and fired his thrusters in opposing directions, rotating them around as he scanned the stars again, when he found what he was looking for he stopped their spin and pointed.
"There we are home sweet home, Coruscant."
"The capital," she said wonderingly, as if it were something special.
"No, I was born on the opposite side of the planet from Imperial City, got raised by my older sister and two cousins who worked in of the foundries. I spent my younger years racing swoops and air cars, quite a few of them stolen, to earn credits to get by. There weren't a lot of honest jobs for a pre-teen in my neighborhood.
"It sounds exciting," Daru murmured.
"Yeah, dodging armed and angry swoop gangs is a riot," Garin said with a snort. "As soon as I was old enough, I signed up for enlistment, got scouted for pilot training and here I am years later."
"Do you miss your sister and cousins?"
Garin considered, he hadn't seen any of them since joining Hades Wing, and only once before then, just after graduating and before being shipped out for Russani. He still sent messages, but they contained mostly things he made up, falsifications of what he was actually doing since he couldn't tell them about Hades or the operations that he participated in.
"Yeah, I suppose I do, my oldest cousin, Davina was a great cook, she really knew how to fill your stomach no matter how little she had available to her."
Daru pressed against him, "I think I'd like to see them with you."
He looked down at her; she was smiling her tears dried, "only after we take you back to Ryloth first."
"So I guess we can't die out here can we Garin?" She asked, her voice charged with renewed energy.
"Did you think I'd let that happen?" He said, even if he wasn't completely sure of their survival himself.
"Was Russani worse than this?"
He snorted, now she was reading his mind?
"Depends on your idea of worse, no one is trying to kill us out here, in Russani it seemed like everyone and their second cousin was trying to shoot us."
She nodded, "I heard about it from Lieutenants Sele and Reath talking about it when I was working on the missile boats once. It sounded terrifying."
"After a while you just got used to it and resigned yourself to the fact that you weren't going to survive."
Her tone was curious as she spoke further, "so what was different here?"
"For one, I'm your commanding officer; I'm not allowed to let you give up. For two, Russani taught me what despair is, and I never want to experience such total hopelessness again."
"I'm getting hungry," she said, sounding embarrassed.
Garin let out a laugh, shaking his head. "Of course, let's go see what the cook has for us."
He rotated them again, aiming towards the now distant whitewash of the shuttle hull and fired his thrusters, propelling them back towards the relative safety of the wreckage.
Present, interrogation room aboard the Mon Cal Cruiser Home One, Bilbringi Shipyards
"So what happened?" Deanna asked it was rather cute how she was leaning forwards like this was some kind of adventure story.
"We spent about three hours in total out there before we were finally rescued. I found out after being picked up that the station where the Knight was berthed was assaulted, hence the delay in mounting a rescue attempt."
She frowned, "no I mean…between you and Chief Kerrila."
"Oh, nothing, we went back to the shuttle, ate, spoke some more and then she fell asleep."
"In your arms," she asked expectantly.
"What am I supposed to be, some holodrama hero who always gets the girl?"
"You certainly make it sound like you lived in one," she said accusatorily.
"You're welcome to fantasize all you like, it was a war, strange things happened." I could already picture what she was imagining and the imagery, I had to admit, was quite funny really.
"So nothing ever came of your relationship with her? You never took her to meet your family, or to Ryloth?"
"Should I have? When did we have the time? Lieutenant, whether you've noticed or not, but there has been a near constant state of war for over a decade now, most of us haven't had the chance to take shore leave."
She glared at me, but I just shrugged, after all it was true. I hadn't been off of active duty since just before Endor, three years of combat takes a lot of effort. The closest thing to leave I'd experienced in those three years had been the lulls in the fighting aboard the Knight.
There was a low rumble and she frowned, tensing suddenly, "what was that?"
For a change, I was the one embarrassed "I'm hungry."
"Oh for the love of—you can't be serious. Does this look like a restaurant?"
I crossed my arms pointedly, "let's see, you aren't going to torture me so there is very little you can do to force me to talk. I've already got a glass of water, what's wrong with a little food? I'm not asking for anything fancy, MRE's work just fine if that's all you'll give me."
She stood up, slamming her chair against the table as she glared at me, "the guard outside will shoot you if you try to escape."
"I'll keep that in mind."
When she left the room, and I was certain that no one but the holocam in the corner was watching I put my hand on my belt buckle and depressed it, the low rumble sounded again, one long, two short, and then one long. I smiled, doing my best to keep from doing anything too bizarre, to the holocam it would look like I was just adjusting my belt. I almost felt guilty as I squeezed the buckle again and a final buzzing rumble sounded before it silenced, it would be unfortunate if Lieutenant Deanna Pardice was hurt after all she was a very accommodating, even kind, jailor. She returned a moment later with a tray, which much to my pleasure was not loaded with MRE's but with actual food even if it was military issued. I helped myself though I wasn't a pig, I even offered to share not that she took the offer. It occurred to me of course that there might be something in the food, but I was actually hungry, even if the sound she'd heard hadn't been my stomach.
"Finished," she asked as I downed the last bit of food with a gulp of water.
"Well unless you were planning on a dessert course," she glared at me, "didn't think so."
"So you reported back to duty three days after that incident, had the new beam weapons been installed by then?"
"In Hades Wing yes, it was very limited in deployment in the other units under Thrawn's command."
"Did it have the desired effect?"
I nodded, smiling, "Zaarin's pilots never saw it coming, one moment they were flying smoothly through space, the next they were being dragged around by our fighters like tethered balls. Eventually, as more of the fleet's units that could carry the beam weapon were equipped with it the tables really did start to turn, we were even able to knock out the command carrier ships for the Experimentals which took out a good third of Zaarin's forces."
"So the campaign was quickly coming to a close then."
"Not exactly, we'd hurt Zaarin yes, but he still had a good sized fleet at his command, and his flagship, the Glory was still intact despite repeated attempts to trap and destroy her."
"Zaarin wouldn't come out to fight a direct ship to ship action?"
"After we began turning the tide, he started playing hard to get, what had been a series of fleet engagements turned into hit-and-run skirmishes. Sadly, Hades was the only unit in the task force that had any experience in this kind of warfare though a few crews had dealt with similar tactics in the form of Rebel attacks. Zaarin got very careful when he realized our shifting tactics. Thrawn realized that simple battle prowess wasn't going to end the campaign so he began formulating a plan to trap Zaarin and defeat him."
Deanna frowned, "but you just said that Zaarin was being extremely careful, I don't see how he could possibly fall into a simple trap."
I smiled, "Thrawn pursued his usual course whenever he wished to defeat an opponent, he began studying him in depth, and he eventually found a major weakness that could exploited."
"And that was?"
Approximately five years earlier, aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer Admonitor, Outer Rim Territories
"Technology," Thrawn said simply, everyone around the briefing room exchanged glances, even Garin was confused.
Finally someone in the audience spoke up, "excuse me Admiral, but I don't believe I understand what you're saying."
Garin recognized the slow, calm, predatory smile that spread across Thrawn's face. He had something in mind, something that would sound completely obvious once it was revealed.
"Zaarin is a technophile. He cannot resist new technology; his force composition up to this point reflects that, as does his military career up to and after his rogue status."
Thrawn turned to the holoprojector and an image of an asteroid appeared, it took Garin a moment to realize what he was looking at exactly, a base built into an asteroid.
"This is To-Phalion Base, home to a special project developing a very special technology that I intend to use as bait for Zaarin. It will draw him out, and we will destroy him."
A man with Commander's bars stood up and joined Admiral Thrawn who motioned to him, "this is Maarek Stele, he will be leading a TIE squadron whose job will be to delay the Grand Admiral once he arrives, or failing Zaarin's arrival, to draw him out by frustrating any attempt to take To-Phalion. Once Zaarin is in evidence, we will strike and annihilate him."
"Are we to capture the Grand Admiral Sir," someone asked.
Thrawn's eyes darkened, "he is a traitor to the Empire, and he is to be given no quarter, even if it is asked for. I do not care if he comes to you prostrate upon his belly groveling like a worm. You are to kill him with extreme prejudice."
His gaze swept the room, "while we execute Zaarin, the rest of the task force will move to engage his main fleet, this should prove sufficient to allay any suspicions of a trap and allow us to ensnare him."
Another question was raised, one Garin was harboring as he eyed Maarek Stele appraisingly.
"How does a simple TIE squadron intend to stop the Grand Admiral's attacks?"
Maarek Stele looked at Thrawn, who nodded, the pilot stepped forwards. "I was one of the pilots selected by Lord Vader to fly against Harkov and later assist in preventing the capture of the Emperor by Zaaring at the start of this campaign. In addition, the Admiral is not being entirely frank, my unit flies TIE Avengers, and we will be more than a match for Zaarin when he comes for us, especially with the new beam weapon."
A silence settled over the group, any pilot selected by Vader was sure to have connections not only to the Dark Lord, but to the Emperor and that meant that anything said or done by anyone here could potentially find its way back to the most dangerous men in the entire Empire. Garin continued to watch Stele, and felt a shiver run down his back when their eyes finally met. This was a man who had killed and faced death repeatedly; he wondered what kind of person he was beneath those hunters' eyes.