Lieutenant Mateen actives the missile's guidance system and pretends to shoot a warning shot at the pilot. The man ducks and gasps in horror, "We understand! You've made your point very clear! We promise! No tricks!" Lana sees what the lieutenant did and knows he would never miss such a clear shot.
She immediately sprints to the AT-ST, blaster pistol in hand. The bounty hunter repeatedly shouts at the top of her lungs for them to quickly get off the AT-ST. The imperial troops comply and begin climbing down as hastily and carefully as they can. The missile momentarily stops mid-flight, the guidance system turns it towards the direction of the AT-ST whilst falling. The missile immediately fires back up in full speed towards the upper right of the walker's front.
Meanwhile, the two imperial troopers safely dismount from the walker. Just in time before the missile grazes the top of the walker and slams into the ground roughly 20 meters away from them. Debris, ash and dirt fly everywhere as the rocket explodes. The two imperial officers duck and cover their heads upon the explosion.
Shortly after, Lana makes it to their location and points her blaster pistol at the imperial officers. Lieutenant Mateen sighs and tosses the missile tube aside. His team surrounds the soldiers alongside Lana. He walks up to them and stares at both Lana and the imperials.
"Tie them up," is all he says before turning around and heading towards the prison. Lana holsters her blaster and takes out her binds as the two rebels keep their rifles on the imperials. She takes their blasters and toss them aside before binding the copilot first. Flashes of the pistols being used only in training exercises and simulations pass by in her mind's eye. Once Lieutenant Mateen is at the entrance, he leans over to Officer Tallon and says to him, "You need to keep your dog in check."
He then enters the prison while Officer Tallon stays at the entrance with no emotional or facial reaction to the lieutenant's words. After Lana ties up the copilot, she moves over to the other soldier who starts to speak. "Ah, thank goodness you're here! W-we-we were going to surrender to the New Republic the very next day! It's been horrible here on this terrible planet..."
Before he could continue his sniveling, Lana finishes tying him up and shoves her boot on his back. Making him face the coal and ash laden ground. Afterwards, he annoyingly responds with, "Mph, yes. Yes, this is fair treatment. I-I'm sorry, we're j-just… just horrible, awful people. And… do whatever you think is appropriate. Thank you for sparing us."
Lana shoves her boot to the back of his head and applies pressure. She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose, "Shut up." One of the rebel troops leans to the other and whispers, "Can ya grovel any harder?" Lana pulls out her blaster pistol and sets it to stun just in case. "Y-yes, yes. Shutting up, ma'am. Sorry, I just… y-yes." The imperial pilot says whilst a trickle of fresh lava erupts out from the ground and slithers towards his face. He hastily starts blowing on it in the hope that'll cool down before it reaches him.
Lana sighs and pulls him back up by the back of his collar, "Ah, yes. Thank you. Um, sorry… quiet now." She takes the butt of her pistol and smacks it across the right side of his head in the hopes of it finally shutting him up. The copilot next to the imperial officer glares at him and shakes her head.
Lana's comm-link beeps and she answers it, hearing Officer Tallon's voice, "Need I inform you once again, Lana, that we are not the Empire. We are the New Republic, dear, and we do not treat people like that. Get them back on their feet and we'll put them where they belong – in a cell."
Lana looks at her gun and back to the entrance where Officer Tallon is patiently waiting, "But its set to stun." She answers back a bit confused while motioning for the troopers to get their prisoners moving. As the rebels, Lana and their new prisoners reach Officer Tallon, the copilot sneers vehemently at him. He only responds with a smile.
When the squad enters the imperial prison, they see a long gangplank that leads into all of the 30 stories worth of cell blocks embedded into the mountain's sides. The entire place feels as though it has been deserted for months, if not years; aside from their recent prisoner, there's no signs of any other imperial presence within the prison.
A portion of the cell block doors are deactivated, some of them containing nothing but rotted corpses and streaks of old blood. Many of the depot's lights have burnt out, short circuited or have imploded. The ones that remain are either dimmed or are flickering. Parts of the metal interior seem to have corroded from water dripping down from the walls and ceiling.
The interior feels blisteringly hot compared to the outside surprisingly. Meaning that the environmental controls have been shut off or have malfunctioned. Commander Po Har has all their men form up a defensive parameter while he has the prisoner's wound mended. B'el Sah moves towards what looks to be the main console. She begins deactivating the active barriers and orders the squad through comms to start assisting the prisoners. She also orders their technician to reactivate the environmental controls.
All of the prisoners get safely taken out of their cells, and are being tended to in the hallways. As that's going on, B'el Sah overhears a conversation the commander is having with one of the troopers. "Check all of them," he says sternly. "But which one is her, sir," the soldier asks. "Just bring them to me, I'll know which one," is all the commander says before turning away. "Yes, sir," the trooper says before going back down the halls.
This peaks B'el Sah's interest and she walks over to the commander hoping she can pry a little more out of him. "Don't suppose any of these prisoners are of high value, sir," she slyly suggests. The commander struggles for a second in what he wants to say, stroking his chin and hmms to himself.
With a sigh and a quick look around the area he tells her in a low tone, "We don't want the rest of the troops to know this because… command lines and imperial intelligence being what they are, we try to keep these things secret. But, we have a direct order" – he looks around one more time – "from Commander Skywalker."
B'el Sah's eyebrows are raised in surprise as he continues, "And we need to bring back one of these prisoners to him." The commander motions to a small space away from prying eyes and shows B'el Sah a hologram of a young looking Twi'lek girl – possibly mid-twenties. "This was sent from high command right before we left for this mission," he continues. B'el Sah nods and asks, "Do we have a name?" The commander shakes his head, "No.
We don't know her name or anything else about her, but she's important. Important enough for Commander Skywalker to entrust us with this and bring her back safely." "Understood, sir," B'el Sah says while saluting then walks back to the prison's main operating center. At the same time, Lieutenant Mateen enters the prison accompanied sometime after by: Lana who pulls up her goggles the moment they were inside, revealing her blue and green colored eyes; the other two troopers, their two new prisoners, and Officer Tallon.
The PR officer shepherds all three prisoners – whose binds were cut on his orders – into the nearest cell and reactivates it. The red plasma barrier instantly forms, flickering a bit as it does. The Stormtrooper – whose injury had been tended to – looks around the compact cell and comments, "Huh, never seen the inside of these before." The copilot snarls at the soldier, "Shut up."
While that's going on, Lieutenant Mateen walks over to B'el Sah and asks, "Found anything of note yet?" B'el Sah turns to face him and looks up from her datapad, "Indeed I have, Lieutenant." She hands him her datapad and he sees a young Twi'lek girl – serial number 54621 below the picture – with the words, 'TOP PRIORITY,' bolded and capitalized above her picture.
"Find her amongst those we've liberated and bring her to me," she orders. Lieutenant Mateen nods and hands her back the datapad before going into the crowded halls. In the hallway where there's no rebel troops, the lieutenant spots a peculiar sight amongst the disheveled, confused crowd.
A ragged looking human – the only human slave – and a blue skinned Twi'lek girl arguing loudly and standing as oppose to everyone else. The lieutenant decides to include himself in this argument and hears only a bit of the conversation. "You're crazy! T-th-that's not possible. Do you even hear yourself?" The Twi'lek shouts in basic. The human points accusingly at her with eyes wide, "You can't deny the truth! I saw it! I saw it with my own eyes!"
"Saw what?" The two stop shouting and look to where the voice came from, and see a tall man with piercing blue eyes and an exposed neck scare looming over them. The human walks up to the lieutenant – the smell becoming more prominent as he does – and points towards her again, "She's a sorceress! I saw it! I saw the guards bring her extra food! More portions than the rest of us! She's a witch!"
The lieutenant looks over to the Twi'lek who shrugs and – understandably – looks at the human like he's a delusional madman. Lieutenant Mateen smiles a bit and shakes his head whilst turning around and heads back to B'el Sah's location. As he leaves the Twi'lek speaks up again, "See Iren, nobody believes you." He shouts back with the same conviction, "Somebody will! Now that we're free, I'ma tell everybody!"
As the lieutenant turns to the next hall, he hears the sounds of bare feet and a familiar voice saying, "Hey, hey…" The lieutenant keeps his gaze forward and only says to her, "Follow me." She does and continues to try and get his attention, asking him various unimportant questions about who he is and where he's from. When B'el Sah is visible and within earshot, the lieutenant says, "Here's your prize." B'el Sah turns around and sees the Twi'lek accompanying Lieutenant Mateen.
Twi'lek girl speaks up, "So… to whom do I owe the pleasure? I've been trapped in here so long I figured I was gonna die in imperial prison." A thought then reaches the Twi'lek's mind and she glares a bit at everyone in the room, "Wait a minute… you're not bounty hunters are you?"
The Lieutenant draws out his blaster pistol, "I'm going outside to make sure we weren't followed." He leaves the two and B'el Sah walks over to the girl. She takes her hands into her own and gently says, "Your savior would be Commander Po Har." B'el Sah turns to the gangplank and shouts while waving a hand, "Sir!"
The commander hears her, leans over the railing to see, and immediately starts sprinting to their location. The Twi'lek's eyebrows raise, "Commander? So… rebels, then?" B'el Sah places a hand on the girl's cheek and smiles warmly, "You're safe now." As Officer Tallon and Lana come back from imprisoning the imperial troops, Lieutenant Mateen passes them by. "We found what we were looking for," he says briefly and continues walking towards the outside.
Meanwhile, B'el Sah goes over to the main comms of the prison, "All troopers and civilians, prepare for Evac. I repeat, prepare for Evac." Afterwards the commander arrives and the reconnaissance officer stands in attention. He says with an appreciative smile, "At ease. And thank you, Officer Sah."
The commander refocuses his attention on the Twi'lek, "Ma'am, we have special instructions to keep you safe. Someone very important is looking out for you." The girl sneers a bit, "What? Me? Why?" The commander shakes his head, "Can't say. Comes from high command, though." She then looks at him confused, "High command from where?"
"Well, the New Republic," he answers. The Twi'lek bursts out laughing, "What 'New Republic'?" Both B'el Sah and the commander look at each other and then at the girl. He asks, "You've been in here a long time, haven't you?" She doesn't answer him and looks away with a sad expression. After a while she nods. "Commander," B'el Sah says before bowing out of the conversation and goes to find Lana and Officer Tallon.
Everyone readies for the scheduled Evac: the troopers organizes line ups, they get the few functioning worker droids in the prison to carry and assist the more injured, disabled and malnourished of the freed slaves; the more able bodied of the freed assisting in the work effort, a quick burial and moment of silence for the trooper the squad had lost; confiscation of any and all imperial weapons, dismantling the interior of the AT-ST for any useful parts, etc.
Lana passes by the cell that holds the three imperial troopers. She stops to look at the copilot. The imperial officer glares back at the bounty hunter while the pilot grovels and embarrasses himself once more – his body pressed against the barrier.
"Y-yes, we-we've certainly learned our lesson! Best to take us out of this prison, an-and back to the New Republic for, uh, reeducation, yes?" Lana pulls down her half mask, fully showing the scar down her right cheek which widens as it goes further down; and a bold yellow, rectangular line tattooed on her chin.
As well as a fiendish smirk coupled with eyes that have nothing but malice in them. "Not a chance," she sneers before putting her half mask and goggles back on, and leaves the three prisoners. Bewildered, the imperial pilot continues shouting, pleading and hoping for someone to open the cell and take them along. The copilot huffs to herself, "Fuckin' typical."
As everyone heads out, Officer Tallon and Lana remain present in the prison. Lana stands outside the doors to make sure no one goes through. Officer Tallon goes up to the cell holding the three imperials, hands clasped behind his back. "Oh, thank goodness," sighs the pilot, "I knew you'd come back! I guess the Force is with us, huh?"
The PR Officer smiles and shakes his head at the ground. He looks back up at them, "It wouldn't be humane of us to let you starve." He moves his left hand to the barrier's control panel and punches in the unlock procedure. The second it turns off, Officer Tallon brings up his right hand, holding his blaster pistol; and shoots the pilot point blank in the neck.
He shoots the Stormtrooper in the head before he could react, and looks down on the copilot death glaring up at him. She gets up, pats herself down, and stands in attention with her head held high. "Rebel scum," she growls while not breaking eye contact with him. Officer Tallon chuckles to himself and sighs, "Loyal to the very end."
He aims and shoots her in the forehead; her body slumps to the ground. Lana flinched every time she heard the sudden blasts. She knew they were going to happen, yet she still reacted as if surprised. Officer Tallon comes to her side shortly after and says – all cheery again, "Come, Lana. We mustn't keep the others waiting." She meekly nods and follows after him.