Na'tuna bumped into the imperial officer and attached a tracker in a fold of his coat.
"I'm sorry, sirs," he said, ducking away from them and hurrying further down the street. Only when he reached the next intersection did he look back. The group was heading back to the city centre, back the way they had come. Suddenly, the Scout Trooper turned around and zeroed in on him in a heartbeat. Their gazes met for a second before Na'tuna –outwardly calm– turned the corner and out of sight.
He immediately started running until he was several blocks away. How could he have been so arrogant? He shouldn't have attached the tracker himself. Now at least the Scout Trooper remembered his face and it wasn't like there were many other Twi'lek in this mostly Rodian colony. He had to be more careful. These were Imperials now and if he was correct, even ISB. His men wouldn't avoid them as easily as they had done the local garrison so far.
Na'tuna looked over at the tower that was the Senator's wife's residence and said more to himself, "Another time then."
Now he needed to find out what state his men were in. Nobody could have expected the Imperials to just show up out of nowhere. Even his usually so reliable source on Coruscant had been completely silent.
Several streets later Na'tuna turned into a small side alley and knocked at a door that looked like any other. Shuffling above and behind him satisfied him that the sentry was still in place. A small, green glowing sensor extended out of the wall.
When he pressed his thumb onto it, it buzzed and the door swung open. It opened into a small room, crowded with half a dozen armed men. In the back Deng, a young Rodian, sat in the former kitchen, operating their communications equipment.
The door closed behind him and plunged the room into twilight.
"How did it go?" Na'tuna asked the Rodian behind the comms.
"The surprise is waiting for you in the other room."
"Thank you, but I meant the freighter. Did it get past the Imperials?"
"TC-344 confirms the freighter worked as a diversion while our real cargo could escape. They should be at the base in a few hours."
"A costly diversion. A freighter, a military-grade Ion Torpedo and five crew members. Any survivors?"
"Our contacts rumour that the captain might survive but is deadly injured."
"Let's hope he dies. For his sake."
"But have you seen it?" Deng asked almost reverently. "They actually disabled one of the cruisers. It is all over the news. It had to be towed back the whole way. We must have destroyed something important. We can bring the fight to the Empire. We can win!"
"Not so quick," Na'tuna said, trying to dampen the excitement in the room. If this fool kept talking, the seven other men would charge out of the room with blazing guns in no time. "We have only disabled a lot of the electronics. While some will have to be replaced, most will eventually recover and if we had used it against the Star Destroyer, it would likely have done no damage at all."
"Are you saying we can't win?" he whined almost like a child looking up to his parents.
"Not now. You have been with us for almost five years and this plan has been in the working for much longer. We need only a few last components and these damn hyperdrive actuators. If I would have just bought it from that guy a year ago. It was overpriced but now with the Empire in town, it will be exponentially harder."
"So why did we even capture the Senator?"
"There is still a possibility that they give in to our demands. Admittedly the chance has become very slim with that Star Destroyer in Orbit but it is still my most preferred option. There are still a number of independent worlds out there. So why not here? Maybe we can revive the Confederacy of Independent Systems."
"Won't they be angry that we captured a senator and shot at them? I would definitely."
"Oh yeah. This was a risk we had to take. Captain Setaro is known to be very protective of her ships. She will have an iron grip on the orbit and shoot at anything that moves. We just need to distract them in every place we can. I want the Imperials only looking at this city, so they don't focus on our real operation."
"The population won't like it. Especially if the trade on the trade station is interrupted."
"Even better for us. Maybe we can use that."
"I have a few ideas for that."
"Great, but it'll have to wait. Can you call one of the covered speeders?"
"Sure thing, boss."
Na'tuna walked past the kitchen and into the former living room. He put on a cheery face, his best overly familiar tone and spread out his arms wide.
"Senator, what a pleasure to finally meet you in person."
The man, handcuffed to a pole in the corner with his three children huddled around him, wasn't very appreciative of his imitation of the Senator's usual false friendliness and scowled.
"Honestly, I didn't expect to see you so therefore I wasn't there to greet you personally. I had been supervising one of our shipments. If I would have known …"
"Are you the leader of this group?"
"You could say so."
"I have remembered your face and it is burned into my memory like nothing before. I will hunt you down to the end of my days."
"That requires that you are still alive when this whole thing is over, doesn't it? Otherwise, your hunt will be very short."
One of the girls started crying again.
"Oh, what am I doing? These are adult talks, not for children's ears. We will send your children to another more secure location, while the two of us are staying here to discuss the running of this planet."
"No, Dad, please. I don't want to go."
The boy's cry prompted a minute of crying and wailing from his siblings as well during which Deng and two of the armed men stepped into the room.
"The speeder is here, boss."
"Good, handcuff the children and then let's get them out of here."
"Is that really necessary?"
"So you're fine with kidnapping children but not tying them up?"
Deng looked at his feet and murmured so quietly that it was barely audible over the wailing of the kids, "I never said I was fine with kidnapping them."
"What did you say?"
Much louder, he almost shouted, "I never said I was fine with kidnapping. I thought we were trying to free our world and throw the Empire off the planet. I never thought it would involve this…"
"Did you think the Empire would just hand over the world without retaliation?"
"No, I'm fine with fighting soldiers but this is wrong."
"This is how we can win the fight against the Empire. We have to sculk about in the shadows, we have to plan every step meticulously. Only then do we have a chance to throw the Imperials out of this sector. And trust me, if you follow my orders for a few more weeks, maybe months, you will see that Star Destroyer that looms over all of us now fall down from the sky in flames."
Na'tuna was happy about his impromptu speech and it would probably have convinced them if it wouldn't have been for the annoying wailing of the children. Having had enough, he reached into one of the equipment lockers and retrieved three handcuffs.
The Senator fought with all his might to escape his bonds and the children squeezed more into the corner. But since they couldn't run anywhere, Na'tuna got a hold of one of the boy's arms and pulled him to his feet. He forced both spindly wrists into the handcuffs and avoided one vicious bite at his fingers. In retaliation, he slapped the boy, so hard that he stumbled back against the far wall.
Deng, the little mother hen, kneeled down next to him, looking for non-existent wounds. Na'tuna wasn't an amateur, he wouldn't hurt such a valuable hostage, at least not too much. He sighed and grabbed the next child.
A few minutes later, the children had stopped crying and were assembled at the door. The Senator was yelling from the back room.
"Let's go," Deng said and opened the door. Na'tuna grabbed the boy and yanked him out of the door. In the small alley stood a roofed speeder with enough space for eight people. He pushed the boy in and his sisters and three of his men followed quickly after. The boy gave him a deathly stare and Na'tuna just smiled. Confidence left the boy quicker than a popped balloon and he looked away.
"See you at base in a few days," Na'tuna said and closed the doors. He guided the speeder out of the tight alley until he could accelerate on the main road and headed south.
Suddenly a screeching sound that awoke primal instincts in him drowned out all other sounds. Before he knew it, Na'tuna was pressed against a wall, a blaster in hand and scanning the area for any hostiles.
A swarm of TIE-Fighters appeared over a nearby roof, heading right for him. Memories of dozens of battles and hundreds of comrades lost to these death machines raining terror on the battlefield. His heart was racing as he tried to convince himself that they wouldn't shoot in the middle of the city.
Then they were past him. Only then did he notice that they were flying too slow for an attack run. Every idiot could shoot them down at that speed. Putting his blaster away again, he watched as the fighters were followed by several shuttles and one massive Gozanti-class escort. Below it, attached with two massive clamps were the Empire's most terrifying weapon that could be deployed on the battlefield. One of the two AT-ATs alone could win a battle.
Na'tuna sank against the wall while in his head he already accelerated all their plans. He discarded everything that was not strictly necessary. There would be no mercy and no civility anymore now.
The Empire's occupation of Kuuniru, his planet, had begun.