Every one of these prefabricated Imperial buildings were bleak grey monoliths, filled with stifled bearcats and emotionless soldiers and always aggressively air conditioned. At first the cool air had been a much-needed respite from the beating summer of Saleucami, but now away from the sun all Elya felt was a deep, gnawing cold. It took all her focus to keep from shivering, her inquisitorial uniform did nothing to help her but she dare not show any kind of weakness. She needed to maintain her composure lest her comrade, the 12th son's interrogation be undermined. They stood in a spartan room, plain grew walls with a blocky desk in the centre. It only had one chair assumably for the officer to which this office belonged to. But the 12th son had forced the chair away. The 12th son was berating the commander, some local military bureaucrat, for his incompetence in allowing their quarry, A jedi padawan, to escape custody. As the 12th son continued his barrage of insults Elya caught the officer's eyes look down towards a newly flashing indication upon his desk panel. His anxiety transformed into a slight smirk. He leaned down and pressed a button even as the 12th son continued to chastise him. The room was washed in blue as an image of the grand inquisitor flickered atop the desk.
'Commander' the grand inquisitor's voice was cool and regal 'Have you received word from the 12th son and 13th sister?'
'Yes, my lord they are here with me' The officer knew that now it was the inquisitor's turn to be reprimanded, he could rest easy. That is all the empire was Elya thought glumly a series of scapegoats trying to shift blame or take credit. The image of the grand inquisitor turned on the table to regard the pair. Both Elya and the 12th son dropped to one knee.
'My lord' the 12th son stammered 'we had the jedi in our grasp, but the commander allowed them to escape.'
'Jedi?' A cruel playfulness creeped into the Grand Inquisitor voice, 'There was no Jedi reported on Saleucami, you were sent to hunt a mere padawan, a simple child.'
'Grand Inquisitor we-' The 12th son's excuse was cut off by a raising of a hand from his superior.
Something is wrong Elya realised, the Grand Inquisitor was being too playful almost dismissing their failure. The realisation hit her before the image projected above the desk changed. The room grew even colder, and a wave of nausea washed over Elya. Even from across the endless cold void Lord Vader's presence could be felt. Both Elya and the 12th son were paralysed looking down at the ground they dare not speak first.
Finally, the rhythmic rasp of the dark lord's breathing broke. 'You have one final chance, do not fail me.' He turned to regard the officer behind the desk who had reclaimed his chair from the back wall. He was now sitting and enjoying watching inquisitor's squirm. The commander shot up from his seat as Vader's gaze turned to him.
'Commander you are to follow the orders of my Inquisitors, their failure is yours I trust you realise this.'
'Yes my lord' the commander stammered as he bowed. The projection flickered and died. A sharp chill lingered in the room.
Elya felt sick, she was sitting in her barren room in the government building trying to meditate, to focus her energy, her fear. It was supposed to be power, but all she felt was sick and cold. She tried to ignore it to tell herself that she was being weak, that the empire was inescapable and that she was more than a match for a child. But it didn't help the more she tried to ignore her anxiety the more it clung to her like a sheet of biting frost. She breathed, there was only one way to get through this for now. She accepted the possibility of defeat. A sign of weakness, of a lack of determination to achieve victory at any cost. But nobody needed to know she had accepted in her heart that they could lose and now she felt better the ice receded a bit she could do this. The door to her room slid open the 12th son regarded her 'It is time sister'. His voice was bathed in distain, he and Elya had been paired up due to both of their lacklustre performances. But the 12th son remained unable to accept his own failure and now he regarded Elya as the reason for his dismal record. As Elya stood to walk past him, he stopped her.
'If you cause me to fail this mission, I promise you that before we return to Nur you will be begging to face whatever judgment Lord Vader has for us than to spend any more time with me.' He turned sharply and walked out ahead of Elya.
They had one final lead, A criminal crew in this system must have a hand in the escape of the padawan and are protecting him. He had last been seen entering a hanger on the outskirts between the city and slum. No ship had left the surface of the world none even attempting to test the blockade around the planet. The child was likely still hiding in the hanger, like a trapped animal with nowhere to run.
Elya and the 12th son walked up across the empty bazaar ready to assault that hanger with a detachment of storm troopers behind them. The hanger was ancient Elya observed, tattered sail clothes hung swaying in the breeze casting the yard before the door in a pleasant enough shade. New ones had simply been strung up between the hangar's entrance and surrounding buildings without removing their rotted worn predecessors whose carcasses now clung to the sides of the buildings. The hangar wasn't the sleek prefabricated metal of the government building instead a monolith of pale concrete marred with dark blemishes that appeared like stains or scorch marks.
A few hours ago, Elya had thought of how light her uniform is. Now however under the heavy sun the long sleeves and pants gave her no escape, the black material absorbed the heat and refused to let it go, black plasteel was the worst. Her pauldrons and helmet refused to let heat rise out of her instead trapping it all down within herself. The 12th son had donned his long cloak he slouched more than usual the heat obviously affecting him as well despite his efforts to hide it.
The wide front door to the hanger was closed behind a thin lattice. A booth sat in the wall next to the doorway a thick marked up window allowed the inquisitors to peer into the mess inside. A lone chair behind a desk and panel under the window were covered in refuse and litter. Only a single large red button peered out from the panel beneath the rubbish. As they approached a mechanical eye extended from a hatch above the door it regarded them, quickly realised who was approaching and withdrew back inside the safety of its little hole in the wall.
A door on the back wall of the booth grinded open revealing a fat latero he looked as rundown as the building his skin a similar pale grey covered by the similar black greenish marks as those that decorated the outer walls. His singlet stained and covered in holes and one of his four arms hung in a sling.
'OFFICERS, inspection day already?' his welcoming voice called out from behind the mirror, a speaker playing his words out for the inquisitors to hear. 'I have some uh... paperwork around here somewhere' he rummaged through the filth around him 'I'll tell you what, be glad you have that glass between us it smells terrible in here' He remarked as he threw a half empty food container over his head splattering against the back wall. Elya could feel the growing impatience within the 12th son he took a step forward, before he could overcomplicate things she reached out to the force and pressed the big red button. The door screeched to life and the lattice quickly collapsed upwards opening the way. The imperial party marched through the gate as the latero called out 'nonononon you can't just go in, our clients value their privacy'. They imperial party ignored his protests and continued their march.
The latero wasn't lying the inside did smell, although Elya imagined the booth probably smelt even worse. Inside was barely lit only a handful of windows in the roof allowed in a few of sharp rays of light that lit small pillars with burning luminescence but left the rest of the inside cast in dim shadow.
They trudged through the dank corridor. Faces checking who just entered quickly pulling back behind doors as curiosity gave way to fear with the inquisitors approach. 5 was marked in a big blocky numeral indicating the bay they were after. Elya leaned forward and tried the keypad, the door pulled open. 'Unlocked?' Elya thought to herself noting the strangeness. The bright sun met them as they entered the hanger flowing in from the doorway in the roof that allowed ships access. The walls were lined with tools, random pieces of junk and cargo lay strewn around the room as if ready to be loaded onto a ship. There however was no ship a large empty space dominated the hanger beneath the roof top entryway. The hanger was almost empty for people as well, save for a single human woman sitting behind some boxes, a tarp thrown over them to form a makeshift table. Her skin pale in the bright light and rough with age, her hair was grey and cut short. An eyepatch covered her right eye and her left arm was replaced at the shoulder with a prosthetic one, a size too large for the rest of her body. Her outfit was a casual flight jacket and jeans common for freighter crew and smugglers. Tied around her waist was a grey sash bearing the insignia of a captain from the old republic navy. She was scrolling through a data slate a cigarette half burnt in her mouth. Peering up to regard the imperial detachment she placed the slate down on the table and with her large robot arm carefully removed the cigarette and flicked it to her side away from everyone.
'How can I help you? My inquisitorial friends' She said grinning she outstretched her robotic arm leaving her natural one to sit on the table as she leaned in.
Elya knew instantly something was up, the women was too calm and sure of her control of the situation. She reached out with the force focusing her thoughts as she and the 12th son approached, storm troopers following behind them. The single women sitting before them was an overwhelming presence. Just enough so that it took Elya less the moment more than usual to realise there were two others obscured behind crates just behind the women and confusingly more in the middle of the emptiness under the roof doorway. She and the 12th son drew their sabres just in time as the women sprang from her seat drawing a pistol from beneath her sash. From behind her two bolts of energy charged forward from behind the crates. both inquisitors activated their red lightsabres, thin blades extending from opposite sides of the grip and circular guard, they parried the shots sending them back towards their source only to hit heavy boxes. The 12th son launched forward. As the inquisitors had been shot at an old loader droid with a warn yellow hazard paintjob had blarred to life behind them and their storm troopers. It knocked the boxes that had obscured it aside and produced a massive machine blaster. It sprayed into the unit of stormtroopers cutting them down before they could respond. It continued to fire towards the inquisitors, Elya darted between it and the 12th son and blocked the barrage her blades spinning along the circular guard to create an imperfect shield. As the stream of bolts poured against her blades Elya began to lose her guard the force of the bolts was quickly overpowering her. The onslaught jarringly halted, and Elya sighed to herself in relief. The droid had ceased firing and was now uneasily observing the 12th son.
'If you value the life of your comrade, you will all stop' the 12th son's voice was straining as he attempted to muster whatever menace he could. Elya saw this for the desperate play it was and knew the others in the hanger would as well. The 12th son had levelled his saber just beneath the chin of the women behind the makeshift table after slicing her blaster in half. Elya stepped back coming to be beside the 12th son, they had lost all the troopers and now what? They were pinched together one could defend while the other attacked the droid before it cut them both down but the two behind them made it an unlikely fight to win. The 12th son however sneered beneath his mask determined to play it out. 'A jedi was last seen entering this hanger bay, he never left, so you' he shoved his blade closer to the women 'are going to tell me where he hides.' The women stared back at the 12th son her gaze as sharp as his blade.
'No jedi here anymore inquisitor' she gritted her teeth leaning back away from the blade.
'So, you admit he was here! Where has he gone?' the 12th son was inching his blade to close the gap as the women leaned even further back. He was barely able to contain himself any longer. He was getting desperate, and it was showing in his voice.
A silence overtook the room Elya's eyes darted between where the pair behind the women had fired from and the droid. The 12th son fidgeted in place his footing adjusting. The blaster wielding trio around them all stood stoic the droid levelled its siege weapon at the 12th son while the other two aimed their blasters at Elya from behind their cover.
'Indeed the jedi is gone' the women said she remained calm but an edge to her voice gave away her unease. 'We took him off world, some couple of days back, empire won't be able to find him now. We specialise in helping people disappear'.
"Helping people disappear" the phrase hung over Elya, there was no longer any hope for her. She and the 12th son had failed and Lord Vader would not give them another chance. Maybe she could run she thought, but where would go? Where could she hide? Then the women's words reappeared in her mind "help people disappear". Maybe there was one final chance for her.
The 12th son's composure broke he roared in fury 'YOU ARE USELESS TO ME' he drew his saber up both barrels pointed at Elya shifted over and the weapon in the droids hand begun to spin to life but all were too slow the women would be dead before a bolt could reach the 12th son. In that moment Elya made a decision, she brought her own blade up to ward the women. The sabres clashed like thunder the 12th son was stunned, he didn't react as Elya brought hers around to disarm him. His arms and weapon fell onto the ground. In the next second all three weapons unleashed a barrage of bolts, and he was torn apart by blaster fire from all sides.
Elya stepped back and turned her blade off and let it drop from her grasp as she raised her hands. 'You help people run form the empire?' she pleaded. The women who had just been a hostage had totally shifted from the tension of the previous moment to total confusion. 'Then please, I need to run.'