Chapter 5: The Mantis
He's not a fool, at least. The Purge Trooper had to admit to herself as she and the Jedi proceeded cautiously through the last maintenance tunnel leading out of the base and into the open air. When she had made her offer to the Jedi a part of her had not expected him to accept, so she was both surprised and suspicious when he did and wondered how long could someone so trusting possibly survive against the Empire. However, as they made their way out of the mines her doubt was assuaged, for at no point did he let her get behind him or out of his view and he stayed beyond the range of her staff during combat. That earned him some of her respect, but she did not yet know what to expect from a Jedi. An Inquisitor might feign cooperation for a while, mostly for their own entertainment, only to attack unexpectedly.
How different are the Jedi from Inquisitors? She wondered as they cut down another platoon of stormtroopers.
Now, they approach the last maintenance crawlway leading out of the base and she enters in her codes to release the locking mechanism on the hatch. The hatch pops open, revealing a path only wide enough to admit one person at a time. The Jedi motions for her to lead but still has the lightsaber in his grasp, deactivated but ready. If I lead, there is nothing to stop him from attacking me from behind. She thinks, considering the risk. The Inquisitors drip with malice and deceit, it radiates from them in waves, but at no point has she felt that coming from the Jedi; only a sense of caution and curiosity. I suppose if I am ever to earn his trust I will have to offer some myself. She turns back to the tunnel and latches her staff to the fastener on her back alongside her DC-15LE then crawls inside, Besides, what's the worst that could happen? I could die and would that be so bad?
The tunnel is only about ten meters long but the passage seems to stretch on for ages. Beads of condensation slid down to slick, mossy walls or dripped from the low ceiling and added themselves to the thin stream of water running beneath her feet. She readies herself and waits for the strike, for the burning of the blade to plunge into her when the Jedi inevitably decides she has outlived her usefulness. Her codes helped him get out of the mines but wouldn't it be foolish of him to actually bring her back to his ship? Would it not be wise for him to use her access codes then discard her?
After what feels like an eternity waiting, she finally reaches the end of the tunnel and steps out into the open air. The Jedi steps out behind her and points up the valley, "My ship is that way. It's not far."
PT-152 removes her helmet and stares at him, bewildered.
"What's wrong?" he asks, surprised by the bewildered look on her face.
"I thought you would kill me by now."
"Kill you? Why would I do that?"
"Why wouldn't you?" She asks. "You're out of the mine. I'm a risk and you would bring me to your home?"
"That was the deal wasn't it?" he gestures matter-of-factly with his hands.
"An Inquisitor would kill me."
"I'm not an Inquisitor."
"Clearly," she responds, looking him over suspiciously.
Cal smiles and tilts his head in the direction of the ship, "Come on."
She puts her helmet back on and the Jedi and the Purge Trooper rush across the valley. Covered in morning dew, the grass appears more vivid than normal, almost glowing. Their boots knock the water off the grass as they run, leaving a subtle trail in their wake. The morning light brightens the valley as they turn into a nearby rocky ravine where the light of the day cannot yet reach. At the far end and out of view of the Imperial guard towers awaits the Jedi's ship, shaped like the head of a spear but with a fin as tall as the ship is long reaching up into the sky. The silver paneling still shimmers despite the wear of time and the dim light of the gorge. Remnants of old blue and yellow paint still cling to the sides of the ship and up the fin.
As they approach, an entrance ramp about a third of the way down from the nose of the ship slowly descends revealing the main door. The Jedi leads the way inside without hesitation and PT-152 follows. The first thing she notices as she steps inside is the barrel of a blaster pointed directly at her.
"It's alright, Cere." Cal says stepping between the Purge Trooper and the blaster, "She's with us."
The woman, Cere, stands on the far side of a holotable, closer to the front of the ship than the door they had entered. She has dark skin and black hair cut close to her head but the glare in her eyes is all the Purge Trooper sees. The glare and the presence behind it. A presence that makes the hair on her neck stand on end. It is similar to the Jedi but also different; somehow heavier, darker. It reminds her of the power that flows from the Inquisitors yet restrained as if the woman is holding it back.
What is she? PT-152 asks herself.
"With us?" Cere asks, trying to mask the panic in her voice, "A Purge Trooper's entire purpose is to kill people like us!"
Another woman dressed in red and black that contrasts strikingly against her pale skin, white as chalk, steps out of the cockpit and into the holotable room next to Cere. Her white hair is tied up in a bun but for a few strands that fall down in the front, partially obscuring the gray tattoo that crosses her face. Green flames grow from her hands as she approaches and readies herself to attack.
"Please," Cal says while his hand moves cautiously to the lightsaber on his hip, "Put the staff down."
By mentioning the staff, PT-152 realizes that he (and the threat of the lightsaber) is focused on her. For a moment she's confused as to why, since the others are the ones that have drawn their weapons. Suddenly she realizes that her staff is no longer safely stowed in the clasp on her back, but instead is in her hand and activated. She must have drawn it by instinct when faced with the threat. Afraid that she has risked any chance of gaining their trust, she quickly deactivates it and drops it to the floor, as if it had become incredibly hot.
"This is Cere," Cal continues, relaxing his hand away from the lightsaber and gesturing towards the woman who's blaster has not wavered from its target. "And this is Merrin," he continues, pointing to the woman in red. "They're my crew."
PT-152 cautiously brings her hands to her head and removes her helmet. Whatever the other women were expecting to see, it is not her: for they seem surprised by the sight of a young woman beneath the armor. The green flames slowly disappear as Merrin relaxes her hands at her sides.
"Cal," a nervous voice speaks up from behind PT-152 and she turns to see who spoke. On the opposite side of the door from the holotable room is a small alcove with couches and a low table. Beyond that is a galley raised two steps higher than the common area. At the top of those steps stands a person about half the height of the others but with twice the number of arms. He has a broad face rimmed in short gray hair only slightly darker than his skin. Judging by the red flight jacket he wears, he must be the pilot.
"Why do you keep bringing dangerous people onto my ship?" The Lateron asks and Merrin throws him a scolding look for that remark. He shrugs back to her as an apology.
"Greez, let me explain. This is..." Cal begins to introduce her but stops short and turns to her. "You know I never got your name."
"That's not important, Jedi," she replies coldly. "We must leave now before reinforcements arrive."
"Reinforcements?" asks Cal.
"The Empire suspected you were coming. That's why there were so many troopers below. That's why I was sent here. The orbital blockade will be in place soon if it's not already. We don't have much time to get past it."
"Blockade?" Cere asks as Greez dashes past them toward the cockpit to check the scanners. "There were no ships in the area when we arrived."
"They were waiting nearby in the nebula to avoid detection," she explains to Cere then turns back to Cal, "When you engaged the troopers in the mine the alarm went up. Those ships would have received the signal to get into formation long ago."
"She's right," Greez calls back, "There are three star destroyers in orbit."
"Three?' Merrin asks Greez in surprise.
"I can get you past them if you'll let me," PT-152 offers.
Cal stares at the Purge Trooper considering whether or not he should trust her, then makes up his mind.
"Cere, please?" Cal asks gesturing toward the blaster Cere still has aimed at PT-152.
"Fine, for now" she concedes, holsters the blaster and dashes to the comms station in the cockpit.
"Let's go, Greez," says Cal and the ship rises into the sky.
As they leave the atmosphere and enter empty space, they come face-to-face with the three star destroyers.
"Should I hide the ship?" asks Merrin.
"Too late," answers Cere, "we're receiving a signal from the lead star destroyer." She presses a button and the message plays over the internal comms.
"Unidentified transport, you do not have permission to pass," the commander's voice resounds through the ship, "surrender your vessel or you will be fired upon."
"What do we do now?" asks Greez.
"Open a visual channel and send it to this terminal back here," PT-152 says walking up to the holotable, "and do not be alarmed by anything I say" she continues while replacing her helmet.
"What does that mean?" asks Greez as Cere transfers communications to the holotable but PT-152 does not elaborate. A flickering blue projection of the commander appears above the holotable as he repeats his message.
"Unidentified transport, you do not have permission to pass. Surrender your vessel at once or you will be fired upon. This is your last warning"
"This is PT-152," she responds, her commanding tone made even more intimidating by the distortion of the helmet's voice filtering unit, "I have taken control of this vessel. You will let me pass." The Mantis crew exchange uncomfortable glances at the phrasing.
The commander is surprised to be answered by a Purge Trooper but maintains his position, "Unfortunately, we are under orders by the Inquisitor to not allow any ships to leave this system."
"Who do you think I answer to, commander? You are standing in the way of my mission. Allow this ship to pass or I will report your insolence directly to Lord Vader." She threatens, unaware of the tension that surges through Cere at the mention of that name.
The commander stutters nervously for a moment then concedes, "Oh, uh, yes sir. That…that won't be necessary. Please send your authorization code." She punches the code into the console and after a brief pause the commander speaks again.
"You are cleared to pass. My sincerest ap…" she shuts off the comms cutting the commander off in the middle of what she was sure would be a pathetic, blubbering apology then turns to Greez and nods that he is clear to continue.
"Entering hyperspace," Greez announces as he activates the ship's drives and they are away.
Once safe in hyperspace, Cal, Cere, and Merrin join PT-152 at the holotable, "Unfortunately," she says, removing her helmet yet again "that is the last time that trick will work. Once the Inquisitor receives word that my codes were used to get a ship past the blockade they will know I have betrayed them."
"Lord Vader?" Cere asks suspiciously.
"That was a bluff," PT-152 answers, "if I went to Lord Vader with something like that I would likely never speak again."
"You're a bigger gambler than Greez!" says Cere, "What if he had been on that ship?"
"He wasn't," she answers, frankly. "If Lord Vader was anywhere in that system I would have known. I would have felt it."
"What do you mean?" Merrin asks.
"She's a force user," Cal answers, and the crew goes completely silent and stares at PT-152 with surprise, "and you must be decently skilled to be able to feel his presence from another ship."
"I don't know about 'skill' but I have been in his presence often enough that I would know without a doubt if he had been there. Trust me."
"Trust you?" Cere asks sharply, her hostility growing with the discussion of Darth Vader. PT-152 winces at her own choice of words. "We don't know you. We don't even know your name."
"You do owe me a story," Cal says, hoping a full explanation will calm the situation.
"Does it have to be true?" she asks with awkward sarcasm.
"I would prefer that."
Greez finishes setting the controls in the cockpit and joins the others at the holotable as she lowers her head, closes her eyes and takes a deep breath to prepare herself. She would rather do almost anything than relive what happened. Since the day she was taken, she had never spoken about what had happened to anyone. Keeping it a secret is what protected her. To speak the words out loud felt as though she was an inviting disaster but she did make a promise. She releases her breath and opens her eyes but keeps her gaze fixed on the holotable.
"I don't have a name," she begins. "A few years ago my planet was invaded by the Empire, as so many others have been. We believed we were alone in the universe, or at least we had no evidence to the contrary."
"You're from an uncontacted planet?" Cere asks surprised.
"Yes, which means we had no defense capable of stopping them from culling the planet." She hesitated and took another deep breath before continuing. "They tortured us, injected us with some kind of drug that took our memories, then replaced our thoughts with theirs. They used us to acquire millions of loyal soldiers ready and willing to die for the Empire."
"Millions?" Merrin and Greez ask in sync.
"How is that possible?" ask Cal.
"I don't know the official story, if there is one. At one time I tried to find reports on the operation but they are highly classified. If I had made an official request it would have exposed the fact that it hadn't worked on me. At least not completely.
"The experience on the other hand was… surreal at best. They crammed us into these giant ships and pumped in some kind of sound that I can't even describe and I really don't really want to. It made you feel like you were going insane. We were packed in so tightly that… people panicked… many didn't survive. Those who did were just broken. That's when they gave us the drug. It clouded my thoughts, took away my memories… my name. I have tried to remember it since but I have not been able to. It's gone," she pauses for a few breaths before she is able to continue.
"Afterward, the others were, well, indistinguishable from any other stormtrooper. I don't how but they weren't able to take it all from me. I remained aware of what was happening and what they did to us."
"The Force," answers Cere. They all look at her curiously so she clarifies. "The Force can help protect against many kinds of manipulation. It's why mind probes don't work on Jedi." She turns back to PT-152 and asks, "How long had you trained in the force before this happened?"
PT-152 stares at her curiously, "Trained? I had no idea it existed. The Force was not a concept on my planet. You can imagine my surprise the first time I experienced it. I was terrified. I didn't know what this power was. All I knew was that the Jedi were traitors and I feared what would happen if the Empire learned what I could do, if they thought I was a Jedi."
"The Jedi weren't traitors," Cal says mournfully. "We were betrayed."
PT-152 looks back and forth between Cal and Cere and seeing the look on their faces realizes what she has done.
"I'm sorry," she says, "I didn't mean to accuse you…"
"It's okay," Cal says, stopping her. "I understand."
"The Empire has pushed that narrative for so long that most people today believe it," Cere says. "Please, continue."
PT-152 nods. "Well, I needed answers and the only way I could think to get them was to become a Purge Trooper."
"Wait, why a Purge Trooper?" Greez asks.
"A branch of the Imperial Special Forces dedicated to hunting Jedi seemed like the best chance, the only chance I had to actually make contact with one," she explains.
"It paid off," Cal says.
"Eventually," she agrees.
"How long have you been a Purge Trooper?" asks Merrin.
"Nearly two years."
"In all that time, how were you not recognized as a force user?" asks Cal.
"I rarely explored my ability. I pushed it down, kept it hidden away."
"Why didn't you reach out to the Inquisitors?" Cere asks, "You found force users, you found what you were looking for but you didn't join them?"
"The Inquisitors?" she asks then pauses for a moment before continuing, "Yeah, the Inquisitors I did not expect. Most stormtroopers never encounter one. I had never even heard of them till the day I reported for training and found myself confronted with these people who could do the very things from the stories about Jedi. They had an all consuming hate for the Jedi… for most people actually. And I knew immediately that I didn't want to be one of them so I just kept hiding."
As PT-152 finishes speaking, the Mantis crew stands silently around the holotable for a few minutes taking in everything she had just told them. Eventually Greez breaks the silence.
"Well I'm going to make some…food" he says awkwardly and walks toward the galley. He doesn't really understand all of this talk about the Force and Jedi and Inquisitors but the Empire, the Empire he understands. He knows they will stop at nothing to gain full control of the galaxy, so it does not surprise him at all that they would be willing to do what they did to her planet. But he has never heard of anything like that before. Could they really be capable of it or is she lying to them? Worse, if she is lying the others seem to believe her. They know more about this force stuff," he thinks to himself, "so maybe they have better reason to believe her. Cooking, however, has always helped him settle his nerves and sort through his thoughts.
"Okay. Assuming she's telling the truth about any of this," says Cere, causing Greez to breathe an audible sigh of relief from the galley. "Why should we be willing to have her on board?"
"You mean other than her being force sensitive?" asks Cal.
"And that she got us past the blockade," adds Merrin.
"Yes, she's a defector now," Cere elaborates. "The Empire will be after her which complicates our situation even further. It puts us all at risk," says Cere.
"We are always at risk," says Merrin.
"Go ahead," Cal says to PT-152, "tell them."
"After I completed training, I was assigned as a Seeker. My job was to investigate leads on possible force sensitives or surviving Jedi. I will give you the intelligence on the three leads currently assigned to me."
Cere shakes her head, "Wait, Seeker? That's what they called you?"
"Yes, why?" asks PT-152.
"Before the purge, Seekers were Jedi who searched the galaxy for force sensitive younglings and brought them back to the temples to be trained," Cere says, crossing her arms, "I was once a Seeker."
"I suspect," says PT-152, "that there are few things remaining in the galaxy that the Empire has not corrupted. I understand how you feel. They corrupted my people… and me."
Cere holds PT-152's gaze for several moments trying to read if the sympathy is sincere or a deception. She would like to trust this newcomer but considering what this woman is, how can she be trusted? The possibility of finding surviving Jedi or force sensitives, on the other hand, is far too important to pass up. Cere decides to believe the Purge Trooper for now but will remain on her guard. Cere's trust has to be earned.
"Okay, hand over the leads," Cere says.
"They're not something I carry. Because of the sensitivity of the information we are never given a physical copy of the data. We memorize it."
"You of all people should know there are many ways of getting information out of someone," Cere says with a threatening tone that surprises Cal. The hostility between them was more than he had expected.
"We are trained to withstand torture and Jedi mind tricks. We would die before we break," PT-152 fires back, "If you want the information you get me as well."
"No," says Cere. "You give us the information and we'll drop you off at the next port. You can make your way from there."
PT-152 shakes her head. "No. I didn't do all of this just to escape. I did it to find him," she says pointing at Cal, "and I'm not walking away now."
"I think it is a good deal," says Merrin, intentionally interrupting the exchange.
"Good," says Cal, "You already know what I think. What about you Greez?" Cal calls back to him.
"I just fly the ship," says Greez, hoping to stay out of that line of fire.
"What about you Cere?" Cal asks. "Are you in?"
"Okay," she agrees reluctantly without breaking eye contact with the Purge Trooper, "but I don't trust you."
"The feeling is mutual," PT-152 responds venomously.
PT-152 tears her eyes away from Cere and back to Cal. "May I?" she asks, pointing at the holomap.
He nods.
She presses several buttons, navigates to a view of the galaxy and highlights three planets, "The leads are on Savareen, Lah'mu, and Tholoth. Of the three, I believe Lah'mu is most likely to actually be a Jedi."
"Why is that?" asks Cal.
"Well…" she begins but is cut short.
"Woah, woah, woah!" Greez calls from the galley where he had continued to listen to the conversation while he cooked, "Lah'mu is on the other side of the galaxy!"
"So?" asks Cal.
"So," Greez echoes back to him as he walks back over to the holotable, a large bowl and spoon still in his hands, "before we start jumping around the galaxy looking for lost Jedi and such we need to take care of the Mantis! We're low on fuel, food, supplies and the ship needs repairs that we can't afford to put off any longer. We need to make a berth somewhere soon or we won't be going anywhere at all."
"Okay Captain," says Cere, "Where should we go?"
"Takodana would be good."
"Greez, that is almost as far away as Lah'mu," says Merrin.
"You just want to go to that castle again," says Cal, throwing his pilot a crooked smile.
Greez laughs, "Okay fine. You know you're catching on too fast these days, kid but I'll meet you halfway. That other planet she mentioned, Savareen. It's not far and there's a spaceport there. It's not a great spaceport, actually it's more of a dump than anything but it'll do. We can get what we need and get the Mantis taken care of while you go look for your Jedi"
"That sounds good to me," says Cal.
"Set a course Captain," says Cere.
"On it," he says, shoving the bowl into Cal's hands as he heads up to the cockpit.
They all watch Greez as he marches away with purpose and determination then Cal looks down into the bowl to find it filled with some kind of sticky looking gray goo that smells both sweet and savory. Unfortunately, the combination does not work well together and he scrunches his nose "What is this?" he asks.
Merrin leans over to look into the bowl. "I have no idea."
Out of curiosity, PT-152 also looks into the bowl from the other side,"It's… shimmering," she says.
Merrin and Cal both look over at her and she shrugs.