Present, interrogation room aboard the Mon Cal cruiser Home One, Bilbringi Shipyards
"Wait, how did Azzameen even find you?"
"Hades gave him our comms frequency and since we had Lieutenant Sajuuk's Avenger on active scan he followed the trail." I lied easily without as much as a skip in my heart beat I was proud to say.
"I can't believe I never heard about this," she said, her skepticism was all but palpable.
"At the time I didn't know who he was, but Azzameen had an important acquaintance, Luke Skywalker, like I said I had no idea who he was then." I said this with a smile, later on of course I had learned very quickly who Skywalker was. "When Hades contacted the Rebel Fleet, requested Azzameen by name, and explained the situation he knew there was nothing he could do without help so he went to Skywalker and got a direct line to Alliance Command. Next thing you know there's a quiet operation to get two advanced fighters into Rebel hands in exchange for extraction of two Imperial pilots; and since Azzameen had his own transport there was no need to directly involve any other Alliance personnel."
"So he took you back to your unit then?"
I nodded, recalling the conversation that Ace and I had shared just before parting….
Approximately five years earlier, aboard the transport Otana, deep space near the Endor System
"Hey Garin, what are you going to do after this?"
Garin looked down at Ace, sitting in front of him in the pilot's seat; the pair had ousted Emkay out of the cockpit to allow Garin to take the co-pilot's position for the trip. Emkay had done so under protest.
"Meaning?"
"Are you going back to the Empire?" Ace said flatly.
Garin didn't even have to consider, "no, provided that my people cleaned out all our potential informers, we're going to direct our own actions from now on."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means that we're withdrawing from whatever remains of this war, Hades was recently ordered to do a lot of things that none of us are proud of. I think for now, its time to clean up our name and fight for the cause we thought we were fighting for all along."
"You aren't talking about joining the Alliance are you," Ace said, he sounded disappointed.
"No, I personally, and I think my people will feel the same, am tired of fighting a war for a cause we don't support. I have no idea if your Alliance is any better than the Empire, or just the lesser of two evils. What I'm talking about is dealing with the trash that will be cropping up while the Empire is reeling from this."
"You're going to fight local warlords and pirates now? Hardly worth your time if your unit is half as good as I think it is."
"Well that just means this will be much needed vacation time for us." Garin responded with a smile.
"Well good luck, just steer clear of the Alliance, Luke really had to press Command to let this deal through. If it were anyone else asking I'm sure they'd have just scooped you up and thrown you and your friend in a cell."
The Otana, Ace's transport, dropped from hyperspace, he did a quick scan of the area. "Those must be your people, not the friendliest welcoming committee I've ever had."
Garin was looking at the sensory readouts and smiling, yes, a shuttle being escorted by five blastboats was rarely a welcoming sight, unless you knew the people piloting those ships personally.
"Transport Otana, this is shuttle Corvinthus, do you have the package aboard?"
Ace looked up at Garin with a shrug that said: "they're your people, you talk to them."
Garin keyed the com, "Corvinthus, this is Lieutenant-Commander Durives aboard the Otana, permission to dock?"
He could hear the smile in the pilot's voice as he responded, "yes sir, docking request granted, Otana cleared to our docking collar."
When the two ships had linked together, and Garin had woken Vic'que, who went through the collar after Ace had courteously seen her off, the Rebel pilot turned to his Imperial counterpart.
"Listen Garin, we might be on opposite sides, though it sounds like that's not going to be the case from now on, but I want you to know that I don't see you as my enemy. I'd like to think that we could actually be thought of as friends even; considering that we seem to keep bumping into each other."
"That's good to hear," Garin said with a wry smile, "it's nice to know that I've got friends who will shoot at me from the other side of the line."
Ace snorted and shrugged, handing Garin a datapad. "My family runs a company, Twin Suns Transport Services; we operate a few repair yards and supply facilities in addition to our transport operations. If your unit needs anything just send us a com, my siblings and I will make sure you're taken care of."
Garin looked at the datapad for a moment before holding it out to Ace again, "you do realize you're offering to supply and arm a unit that may eventually rejoin the Empire."
Ace shrugged, holding his hands out to either side, quietly refusing to take the datapad. "I'm offering to help a friend," he said simply, "besides; if you rejoin the Empire I doubt you'd have need of our facilities anyways. Just keep the datapad, its not bugged."
"We should have it bugged though," Emkay muttered loudly behind Ace, "the Alliance would be very happy to be able to keep tabs on your unit I'm sure."
They both looked at the droid who trundled off without another word, Ace turned back to Garin. "You don't have to take me up on the offer, but its there anyways."
After another long moment, Garin tucked the datapad into his pocket, nodding his thanks as he turned and crossed the docking collar, Major Yvonne was waiting for him, in full armor, weapon drawn and wearing a scowl.
"I was getting ready to come over and start shooting sir;" she said tersely.
Garin snorted, "it's nice to see you too Sissir."
"So Azzameen turned out to be a reliable man after all," she said absently as they took their seats, the airlock sealing behind them. "I wasn't certain that Toth had his screws in straight when he came up with the idea, considering that we didn't even know if Azzameen was alive and with the Rebel fleet."
Garin fingered the pocketed datapad with a smile, "I think we've made a valuable ally thanks to his gamble," he looked over at the Major as she eyed him. "I'll have to thank Toth when we get back for giving us the opportunity."
The shuttle touched down on the hangar deck, around it the five Skiprays landed as well. The ramp lowered and the Major lead Garin and Vic'que to the deck where a crowd was waiting with a cheer. Garin immediately spied Daru, dressed as she had been that first night she'd come to him; seeing her on her feet despite the obvious bruises and the ginger manner in which she applied her weight sent a wave of warmth through his body. He walked up to her, took her in his arms and kissed her deeply; there was a pause in the cheering as if no one was sure what to make of this sudden display. The pause didn't last long as the cheering started anew; Garin broke the kiss, and spied Vic'que, looking surprised and dejected as she stood back by the ramp looking at Garin with Daru wrapped in his arms.
He was at a loss for what should be done about her really, then Kalan and Matrin handled the moment each jumping on either side of her and dumping what looked like some kind of champagne over her head. Garin just closed his eyes, unsure whether to wince or smile, but when he opened them again Vic'que had returned the favor to both of her fellow pilots and had accepted both a towel and glass from them. For a change she was smiling, Garin would have to trust that was what had needed to be done and that Vic'que would sort things out for herself.
"You know, I wasn't sure we'd be seeing you again." Toth said with a smirk as he patted Garin on the shoulder.
"What, you don't have faith in my ability to survive?"
"No," Harth said quietly with a faint smile, the big man nodded over towards Vic'que. "He was worried she might kill you."
Toth shrugged apologetically, "hey, you two don't exactly see eye to eye."
"I think we'll be fine," Garin assured him, Daru leaned up and kissed him softly on the neck as she leaned against him amidst the chaos of welcomes and back slaps. He stroked her lekku gently letting his mind escape for a moment in the rhythm of her breathing.
"So what next sir," Harth asked quietly.
Garin looked up and shrugged, "we replace our losses, reequip, rearm, and resupply. Then we go show the galaxy that not every Imperial is a cold hearted, power mad lunatic."
Toth, who had his arm around Sissir now nodded his approval, handing Garin a glass of whatever it was that had been making the rounds. "Now that is an order I can enjoy, when do we start?"
"You know, I never expected that you meant it literally when you said you'd come find me." Garin said, looking at Daru as she lay atop him in his bed.
She smiled, tracing her fingers over his chest, "I meant every word, remember what I'd said about Stelle and the Shrikes taking away my home here? I wasn't going to lose you as well."
She snuggled up against him and he adjusted the blanket wrapped around them to giver her more freedom of movement; he ran a finger along the side of her body, tracing her form fondly. She shivered and smiled, kissing him lightly as they caressed.
"Garin, what are we really going to do now? We don't have to fight for the Empire anymore you realize."
"We aren't, we're going to make sure that those who take advantage of the vacuum that's going to form with the Empire's disarray don't get out of hand."
She frowned and propped her herself up to look at him, "but why do we need to be the ones that do it? Haven't we all been through enough?"
He considered her for a moment, stroking her cheek gently; she took his hand and held it dearly. "Haven't we all suffered enough for the sake of others?" She asked again.
"This isn't about others Daru, this is about us, all of us, Hades, the Knight everyone in this unit. It's about what we can do, what we have the ability to do, to make a difference."
She nodded, though she didn't look convinced, he tried to draw her close but she kept herself away as she looked at him, "I want you Garin that is all I need. I don't care about anyone or anything else. Not the Empire, not Thrawn, not the Galaxy; you're all that's important to me…isn't that all you want too? Just me, aren't I enough?"
He nodded, unsure how he should tread here. They stayed there for a time being, staring at each other searchingly before he finally spoke again.
"This is what I am Daru, I am the commander of this unit, and we have the ability to make people feel secure in a galaxy that will be in desperate need of that security." He put a hand beneath her lekku, behind her head, stroking gently. "Don't make me choose between my duty and my love, I can't make that choice. I want you here with me, I need your help in this and I can't do it alone."
She considered him for a long moment, before pushing off of him and sitting up, "so this is more important to you than us?"
"It is equally important, yes" he replied, hating himself as he said it.
She opened her mouth again, tears in her eyes, Garin took the vulnerability and wrapped his arms around her, pushing her back into the bed and kissing her. She struggled, pushing up against him but he didn't withdraw. He was gentle, careful not to hurt her, just keep her from escaping. When he finally broke the kiss, he looked down at her tear streaked face.
"I love you Daru, I don't want to lose you. So please, come with me, help me."
Her lip quivered as she traced the lines of his face, she nodded quietly drawing him down to her again he brushed away her tears as she whispered to him.
"I love you Garin, I just wish I knew that you loved me as well."
He lifted her up in his arms, holding her tightly, "you should already know that I do. You're such an important part of my life Daru; I would be shattered if you left my side."
She nodded, looking into his eyes quietly as she spoke again, "I'll come with you, and you can show me your ideals, and prove that you do love me."
Daru leaned back into the bed and drew him down to her, and for the time being they forgot their misgivings and simply fell in love all over again.
Present, interrogation room aboard the Mon Cal cruiser Home One, Bilbringi Shipyards
"Relationship issues Commander? That doesn't sound like you."
I nodded with a faint smile, she could jest about it all she liked, truth be told the idea that I could have lost Daru was the most terrifying moment of my life, more than the fact that I might be killed on any mission. That Daru would feel that I didn't care for her, and leave me because of that…I didn't think that I would have had the will to continue on the mission I had decided to embark on then.
"Azzameen could get into a great deal of trouble for that gesture." Deanna said severely.
"Are you really going to harass him for something he did three years ago?" I asked with a rather mocking expression, glad to have the distraction "it isn't like he gave me anything that would compromise the Alliance or the Republic. He just offered Hades access to his family's facilities."
"You were an Imperial unit, his allowing that amounts to a violation of his oath of service."
I had to restrain myself from laughing, the fact that a Republic officer was saying that an independently owned corporation offering to help a rogue military unit that was engaged in pirate hunting seemed the height of hypocrisy to me; but who was I to judge?
"So," she began again after a moment longer, "what did Hades decide to do?"
"Hades took a hit at Endor, of our units, Shadow had lost two, Wyvern three, Gorgon five, Diamond two; the only fighter unit we had that took no losses was Mantis. In a bit of irony, three of Gorgon's loses and one of Wyvern's came from engaging the Shrikes rather than the Alliance. We'd also lost our entire trooper contingent on Endor's Moon. We needed to resupply and rearm in a big way considering the scale of the battle we'd just gone through," I leaned back, feeling tired as I stretched my arms up above my head languidly, "so we jumped to the nearest Imperial base and took what supplies we needed and submitted a priority request for replacements of our lost equipment, we didn't bother requesting more personnel from Fleet Command, instead we looked over the base roster and found people in the fighter garrison that showed promise. We didn't replace our trooper compliment since this was an Army base and not a Navy base."
"Wait, you just took Imperial personnel from an active base? Didn't the commander protest?"
"Of course he protested, but there was little he could do, we had the command codes that allowed us access to whatever we needed. We had those codes until Thrawn returned and the codes were finally changed."
She looked at me in surprise, "the codes weren't changed in five years? How is that possible?"
"Because our unit didn't exist; after Thrawn made Grand Admiral," which had been longer than she would probably ever know. "He created an entire set of codes specifically for Hades that gave us whatever we needed so long as we could gain access to an Imperial base; no one else had access to those codes. Not even Imperial Intelligence knew about them or us for that matter."
Approximately five years earlier, deep space, aboard the cruiser Black Knight, Outer Rim Territories
"Do we have everything we need?" Garin asked as he scanned the screen of Daru's datapad.
She nodded, scanning the list, "the hardest things to get our hands on were the Avengers and Defenders and their parts, plus the Missile Boat components were no mean feat. The Advanced and Star Wing Gunboats weren't nearly as difficult. Everything else we needed the base supplied, give me two weeks and I'll convert the Advanced frames into TIE/DBs and Harth can stop fretting over being under strength."
Garin nodded, reaching down and squeezing her hand, she tensed for a moment before gripping the hand in turn.
"You don't have to try so hard Gar."
"Yes I do, the first thing I did when I got back was make you doubt that we had something between us, I'm making up for it."
She smiled, leaning back against them as she looked over the hangar as the supplies were taken aboard and stowed, "if this is that important to you, then I'll support you Garin. I'm sorry if I made you think I wouldn't stay by your side."
He chuckled, kissing her neck affectionately, "don't think that will make me stop trying so hard, you wanted proof and I'll give it to you."