"Back In The Saddle"

It had been about an hour since Lucy and Kyle departed from the Republic Base on Verdant, and in that time, they had parked their new ship in the vast void of space. Once they knew for certain that they were safe, they elected to conduct a quick inventory of everything that was aboard. There was quite a lot, given how small the ship was, but most of it was fairly predictable for a military vessel. Blasters, armor, food and water rations, power cells, cleaning kits, basically everything a soldier of the Empire could need to carry out their duties.

What was more significant was that absolutely none of it was of the models that they were familiar with. The blasters and armor were to be expected, but even the rations looked nothing like what they were familiar with.

The Inquisitor's personal quarters were sparse, and aside from some spare lightsaber parts, contained belongings no different from those of the Stormtroopers. Just about the only truly strange thing they'd found was a small collection of ID Tags for various Imperial Pilots somewhat carelessly hidden in a drawer. Lucy felt a great darkness emanating from the tags; the last feelings of their owners, preserved in the Force. Streaks of terror, anger, and shock echoed vibrantly from the metal chips.

It wasn't much of a leap to deduce who had killed the pilots. The Sith were notorious for killing their own men for a great many reasons. Although, Lucy found it hard to reason why exactly the pilots had suffered such a fate in particular. Kyle sought an answer by looking through the datapad of their now-captured pilot, and instead had come away with a technical manual for their new ship, identifying it as a Phi-class shuttle.

With the technical manual in hand, and a greater understanding of what they had aboard to work with, Kyle set about studying the ship's controls in a bit more detail. Lucy elected to stay in the seat right next to him in the cockpit, greatly preferring his company to any potential isolation. Behind them in one of the two other seats was their captured pilot, tied up and locked in place with some binders that she'd found. He was still unconscious for the moment, but would probably wake soon.

While Kyle was busy getting to know their new ship, Lucy tried to gather what information she could about the Galaxy around them using the ship's internal databases. To say that they had missed a lot would have been a terrific understatement. Around nineteen years ago, the Galactic Republic had indeed been defeated, reorganized into an Empire by one Emperor Palpatine. The Emperor was very obviously a Sith Lord, although curiously, Lucy couldn't find any instances of him being referred to as such. Even the name of the Empire was different, simply being called a "Galactic Empire."

As for how long Lucy and Kyle had been in stasis, it was hard to determine a concrete answer. There was no mention of the Sith Empire in any of the logs aboard the ship's computer. A similar search of weapons, equipment, and personnel that Lucy had encountered in the past yielded nothing. That wasn't to say she had nothing to work with; there were entries on a great deal of recent events and even entire wars, but again, she found nothing recognizable.

Just about the only lead that she had was the final Grand Master of the Jedi Order, Master Yoda. Predictably, Yoda was considered a fugitive and wanted by the Empire, but Lucy was able to glean some useful information from a file that the Empire kept on him in their records. There was apparently some doubt as to whether or not Yoda was even still alive, but according to the Empire, he was nearly nine-hundred years old. He was apparently the same species that Master Oteg had been, and given just how long-lived and rare they were Lucy was certain that she would've known about Yoda if he had been alive at the time that they had entered stasis.

"Find anything?" Kyle asked, interrupting her deep introspection.

She turned to face him and had to resist the urge to wince. He looked as though he'd aged years over the course of the past day. His Temple Security Force uniform was covered in small tears and cuts from the plants that he'd been thrown through during the fighting yesterday, and blood stained his clothes at various points. His eyes were noticeably unfocused, and for the millionth time that day, Lucy worried that he might've hit his head a bit harder than she'd thought. Briefly, she reached out through the Force and tried to sense if he was more seriously injured, but found that the only thing clouding his mind were doubts and fears.

Lucy could only imagine that she had a similar appearance. Truthfully, she still had a difficult time believing that what she was seeing was real, hoping that it was some kind of nightmarish Force Vision. Everything that she'd known was gone, her life erased in what had only felt like a moment. At every moment, she could feel the Dark Side exploiting her grief, subtly pulling at her and trying to draw her off-balance. The danger it posed was great, but not impossible to fight, which she did by focusing on who she had left.

"We've been gone for nine-hundred years, at least," she answered Kyle. There was no reason to hide the truth, painful as it might've been, especially when it was so important. She'd already shared a lot of bad news with him, but she didn't miss how he flinched when he heard how long they'd been gone. "Sorry." she breathed, prodding him with a gentle, comforting feeling through the Force. She knew that he must be reeling from the revelation, just as she did when she first learned the truth.

"Don't be, it's not your fault," Kyle quietly replied. He then took a deep breath, steeling himself before gesturing at the controls before them. "I think I've gotten a grip on what all of the basic controls do, and I can probably jump between systems, but I'm still not too confident about getting in a dogfight. This thing's a shuttle, not a fighter."

An idea had already been formulating in Lucy's head for some time, but at Kyle's remark regarding flying, she turned her head towards their captive pilot. "Maybe he can help you."

"A Sith Pilot?" Kyle openly, although justifiably, doubted. "I know he surrendered… but who's to say he doesn't just try to fly us into a star? Or try to break out and shoot us?"

Truthfully, Lucy had similar doubts. If this man was anything like the soldiers of the Sith Empire, he would be indoctrinated into their beliefs whether he realized it or not. Even so, deducing how much of a threat he posed was impossible while he was asleep. "Couldn't hurt to ask, see what he's like. Maybe he can help us find whoever's fighting the Empire?"

Kyle gave her a long look, before standing up and walking over to the pilot. Kyle grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him, gently at first, and then with more force when he failed to wake up.

When the Pilot did wake up, it was slowly and groggily, the effects of the blaster's stun round still clearly lingering. "Ugh…. what?"

He was a blond man, with hair much shorter and more orderly than Kyle's, but similar blue eyes. Kyle snapped his fingers in front of the man's face, getting his focus. "Hey, wake up!"

The pilot blinked furiously, before looking at Kyle, and then at Lucy, and then at the lightsaber on her hip. He tried to shift in his chair, only to realize that he was tightly-bound. "...Oh blast."

Experimentally, she tried to gently peer into his mind with the Force, but found nothing but confusion. Perhaps on a better day she could have seen more, but with her own unbalanced state and trouble focusing, it was like trying to see the bottom of an ocean. She could probably have taken a more invasive approach to probing his mind, but that was something that had always made her uncomfortable. It would likely also lose them any chance that they had of getting the pilot to help them.

Kyle nodded to her, before returning to his seat and letting her take the lead. Lucy leaned forward and looked the man in the eyes as she softly spoke. "Relax, we're not interested in hurting you. What's your name?"

Lucy wouldn't have needed the Force to see that the pilot was at least a little intimidated by her. "Uh… Captain Paulen Hanson, but you can call me Paulen, I guess."

"Paulen it is then. I'm Lucy, Knight of the Jedi Order. This is Kyle Harrington, one of the officers from the Temple Security Force," she said. There was a noticeable flare of objection through the Force from Kyle, likely over revealing their identities, but he said nothing. "Was this the only ship that the Empire sent to Verdant?"

"Verdant?" Paulen asked, before he made the connection in his head. "Well, yes, but… no. I can't talk, I won't be a traitor. I know you spared me, but I'm sorry, I can't help you."

Kyle swiveled his seat around to look at Paulen. "Look, Captain, I'll tell it to you bluntly. Whether you like it or not, your life with the Empire is over. If it's any comfort, you'll live much longer with us than that Sith. We found the ID Tags of enough Imperial Pilots in his quarters to confirm that he'd have gotten rid of you pretty quickly too."

Paulen didn't seem to react all that much, at least at a glance. Upon closer inspection, Lucy could see the color drain from his face a little even as Kyle returned to his work, but Paulen kept a stiff upper-lip regardless. "...I shouldn't help you, the Jedi are traitors." His voice was softer now, as if he were repeating the mantra as much to convince himself as to declare his belief.

"Traitors?" Lucy feigned ignorance. She'd read a bit about the fate of the Jedi, and through the heartbreaking recounting of every dead Jedi, she could see the way that the Sith had framed them as being traitors to the Republic. Even so, she wanted to hear it from Paulen, as the odds were good that he had a bit more to offer on the matter. "Traitors to what?"

"What do you-" Paulen began to reply, but paused, hesitating as he no doubt reconsidered what he was saying. "...The Jedi tried to kill the Emperor, back when the Clone Wars were ending, and take power for themselves. I'm sure you already knew that, though."

Lucy pondered it for a moment, mulling over how much she should tell him, before making her decision. "What if I told you that, until today, we've been in stasis for more than nine-hundred years? Likely far more than that."

Paulen didn't seem to react at first, his doubts obvious. After a few seconds of watching her expression, however, the tension on his face gradually slackened. "By the Force, you're serious, aren't you? How's that possible?"

"Admittedly, I'm not sure," Lucy answered. "We were only supposed to be in stasis for three days, not… however long it's been. Something must have gone wrong. We weren't awake for long before you, those troopers, and the Sith arrived. I suppose you know what happened after that."

The shocked expression on Paulen's face gradually shifted to one of conflict, before he let out a hefty sigh. "Alright, I suppose I can at least let you know why we were here. The Thirteenth Brother, the Inquisitor that you killed, said that he sensed a Jedi. We were already on another mission, and I had to make a blind jump based on where he said you were. I don't really know how he could sense you, but he was adamant about diverting to… well, kill you."

For a moment, Lucy took in what he'd told her, before nodding. "Thank you, Paulen."

"Don't mention it," he replied with surprising casualness. Then a more serious expression crossed his features and he added, "Seriously, though… I'd be shot for treason."

Out of curiosity, Lucy tried to reach out with the Force again to gently probe Paulen's mind. Again, she avoided invading his thinking, but rather tried to gain a simple sense of what he was feeling. In this particular case, it was a bit of fear, some confusion that lingered in his mind, and lastly, a small sense of relief.

That last emotion gave Lucy a bit of hope. Perhaps Paulen was a bit more than some simple slave to the Sith. It would take some convincing to prove that his loyalty to the Sith was misplaced, but perhaps there was still a chance for him to do something better with his life.

"Why were you flying for the Empire?" Lucy asked. "It seems like they didn't care for you all that much."

"They don't," Paulen agreed. "But I had to provide for my Mom somehow, and I always wanted to be a pilot… so it seemed like a natural fit. I was hoping to just get a dropship somewhere, maybe one of those old Clone Wars gunships, but I guess my academy marks were a little too high. I got picked up by the Thirteenth Brother only around a month after I graduated."

For a moment, Lucy felt a hint of doubt as to Paulen's story. He clearly didn't think that he was lying, the Force made it clear that he was being sincere. Even so, that didn't explain why a Sith Inquisitor would want a fresh graduate as his personal pilot. A grim sensation settled in her stomach as she made the connection between Paulen's selection, and the collection of Pilot ID tags that they had found in the Inquisitor's quarters.

"Paulen… think for a moment, about why you got picked for that role," Lucy told him. "Why would an Inquisitor want a pilot who was fresh out of training to fly them around? What kind of missions were you flying, were they secret?"

He paused for a moment, genuinely putting effort into it. "I'm not allowed to talk about much of anything that the Empire does, even this mission, so I guess you could say so. I had to sign these forms not to talk, take counter-interrogation training, I even got issued a suicide pill so I couldn't talk if I ever got captured."

Lucy grimly nodded. That was exactly what she was afraid of. "The Inquisitor was going to kill you, Paulen. Being his pilot gave you knowledge about what he was doing, knowledge that he thought was dangerous. That's why he had the ID tags of those other pilots. They knew too much, so he killed them."

She wouldn't have needed the Force to sense the chill that ran down Paulen's spine. "That's… that's not true," he protested weakly, "you don't know that."

"No, she's right," Kyle said, turning around once more. "For all that's changed since we were gone, it seems like the Sith haven't changed at all. They never cared about you or your mother Paulen, you're just a tool to them. Just like all of the other poor saps who flew for that bastard."

The color drained out of Paulen's face, and it was impossible for Lucy not to sympathize with him. She could see a similar look of sympathy on Kyle's face, and could almost feel his doubts about the danger that Paulen posed begin to fade.

"I… I don't…" Paulen stammered. "I can't believe it, you're right. How could they do that?"

"The Sith always betray their own, it's in their nature," Lucy told him. "Take a moment to breathe, I know this is a lot to take in."

Paulen did, spending a few minutes in relative silence. At one point, he asked to see the ID tags of the other deceased pilots, which Kyle retrieved and gave to him. After a bit of deliberation, and another careful probe into Paulen's mind to see if there were any hostile intentions within him, she took a risk and removed his restraints using the Force.

"Thank you, you… you saved my life," Paulen said in a hollow voice as he held the very evidence of that fact in his hands. "What's going to happen to me now?"

"Well, the Empire's probably eventually going to notice that the Thirteenth Brother has gone missing, and by extension, you. If you never show up, they'll probably just write you off as dead," Kyle reasoned. "I don't know what that means for your mother, but you could probably find a way to let her know that you're actually still alive, quietly, of course."

Paulen shook his head. "She would get a pension if I was dead, but… No, that couldn't work, the Empire has surveillance systems all across the Galaxy. They'd know that I lived, especially if I got in contact with her."

"Fake name, and something to cover the face," Kyle suggested. "A helmet maybe, or just a mask and some glasses. I could probably forge you some credentials too, if you show me what the Empire uses."

Lucy couldn't help but give Kyle a look of amused suspicion. For a man who operated as an aspect of Republic law, he'd come up with that plan worrying quickly. "Speaking from experience, Kyle?"

"Back in the Temple, Commander Miller had a bad habit of losing his security credentials," Kyle explained with a sly grin. "After a while I got sick of requisitioning new ones, so I just started making him forgeries. Master Satele cornered me about it once, but she ended up letting me go, I think she thought it was funny."

Lucy smiled at the thought of Master Satele, it wouldn't have been the first time that she'd shown a bit of leeway to her and Kyle. Indeed, it had been Satele who had permitted and even encouraged Lucy to form an attachment to Kyle, circumventing the Jedi Code. In Satele's own words; "So long as he stays in the light, then he can help you resist the darkness, you'll be good for each other."

So far, the Jedi Master's wisdom was showing itself in spades, and Lucy couldn't help the pang in her heart at the knowledge that Master Satele had almost certainly died a long time ago. Briefly, Lucy reached out into the Cosmic Force, hoping against all odds that she could sense Satele's presence. For a moment, she thought that she could sense something, but in her own unbalanced and distracted state, it was impossible to determine.

Paulen took a deep breath, seemingly thinking it over, before he shook his head. "I need to think about all of this. It's… this is a lot to take in. I don't know what to do."

"If you want to get some rest, the Troop Bay's all yours," Kyle offered. "But before you go, do you mind answering me one more question?"

"Go ahead," Paulen replied, albeit with a hint of lingering doubt.

"Lucy and I are looking for some of the Empire's enemies, and we're looking for leads," Kyle explained. "I don't suppose you'd know where we could find some?"

Paulen paused and thought for a moment, before an answer struck him. "The Thir- The Inquisitor was a paranoid nutcase, he kept everything on a need-to-know. I knew that we were going to Utapau, but beyond that, we didn't get to know anything else. He might've had his orders stored somewhere in the ship's computer, or maybe in his quarters somewhere, or his armor."

"His armor?" Kyle asked. "Give me just a moment."

Kyle stood up and walked out of the cockpit. About ten seconds later, he returned with the helmet of the Imperial Inquisitor that Lucy had killed. "I pulled this helmet off of his body."

Paulen nodded. "That might work, although I'm not even sure if it has a database. I just know that the whole suit needed power to run all the systems, and he never asked me to look anything up for him."

"Understood, thank you," Kyle said.

After that, Paulen departed to the Troop Bay, and Lucy could sense the continuing havoc in his mind. As soon as the door was shut, Kyle turned to face her, before sitting down in the pilot's seat once more. "What do you think, can we trust him?"

Lucy nodded. "At the very least, he's not going to try to kill us. I can tell you that for certain."

"That's all I'm really worried about," Kyle said. From the ship's command console, he pulled a length of data cable, which fit snugly into a socket on the Inquisitor's Helmet. He tapped a few keys for a moment until a redout appeared on the holographic display before him. "Well I'll be," he said with an appreciative whistle. "Looks like Paulen might've been onto something."

"What have we got?" Lucy asked.

Kyle typed a few commands in on the console, prompting massive lines of holographic text to appear on some of the displays. "Wow, a lot, apparently. Now then, let's see what this guy was up to…"

As it turned out, the Thirteenth Brother had been quite the busy man, and with his own personal log on display, Lucy and Kyle were able to learn quite a bit about where he'd been and what he'd been up to. Naturally, some of the reports were easier to read about than the others. Neither of them mourned the Hutt whom the Inquisitor had discretely killed, although they were a bit disappointed to hear that the Hutts were still around, and holding the same if not more power on the Galactic scale than back from the time that they had come from.

More depressingly, he'd captured, tortured, and executed a Rebel Agent on Malastare. The Agent had apparently been a part of a larger Rebel Alliance, an insurgent movement aimed at restoring the Republic and completely destroying the Empire. Naturally, making contact with the Rebel Alliance seemed like the best course of action for them, and after a while of searching for leads…

"Ah, here we go, his last set of orders," Kyle said after several long moments of poring over the available information. "Looks like he was heading to Utapau all right, hunting for a squad of Rebel Operatives."

A vague memory floated its way by Lucy's mind at the name of the world. "Utapau was one of the worlds that we lost to the Sith… although I imagine it's changed quite a bit since our time."

"Let's hope it's for the better," Kyle said. "I've never been there myself, but I remember hearing Commander Miller complain about it being really windy. Most of the people who lived there had to live underground in these cities that were built into sinkholes."

"That can't be very comfortable," Lucy commented, but soon enough, it seemed like she was going to have a chance to examine the living conditions there herself. "Does it say anything about an Imperial Garrison?"

Kyle scrolled through more lines of data, before frowning. "Yeah… and a blockade. I suppose we better hope our cover lasts. I don't suppose the Force can help us with that?"

Briefly, Lucy thought back to her training back at the Jedi Temple, before shaking her head. "Unless you're talking about Mind Tricks, I don't think so. I certainly never learned how to turn invisible."

"Let's hope we don't need to be," Kyle replied. "I'll shut down our video feed here; don't need any Imperials asking what the hell a Jedi's visiting for."

Sensing an opportunity, Lucy leaned in towards him. "And her boyfriend."

"And her-" Kyle was midway through repeating what she was saying when he stopped and furiously blushed. "I'll get you back for that."

"You make it too easy," She confidently declared with a smirk, before returning her focus to the important matters at hand. "Why don't we just ask Paulen to help us?"

A noticeable degree of hesitation crossed Kyle's expression. "Even if he's willing, and that's a big if, he'd be giving away the fact that he survived. Although…"

Kyle's attention glanced down at the helmet of the Thirteenth Inquisitor, an obvious idea formulating in his mind.

"Talk to me Kyle, what are you thinking?" Lucy asked.

Briefly, he gave her an overview of his plan. Once she'd managed to get her face out of her palms, she had to admit, it had the potential to work; albeit with a substantial risk of failure. It would keep Paulen's survival a secret, helping to keep him safe. It would preserve their cover until they reached the planet's surface, and potentially even get them a lead as to where on Utapau the Rebels were.

"Okay, but if this fails, I say we let Paulen take the wheel and let him fly us out of trouble," Lucy stated.

"Deal," Kyle said with a smile. "I'll go tell him the good news."

In spite of the vast stakes that weighed upon the success of Kyle's plan, and the undeniable anxiety that he felt, he couldn't help but find a bit of humor in his current situation. The inspiration had come from, oddly enough, the Inquisitor himself, and Kyle's own observation about the fact that the Sith apparently hadn't changed all that much while he and Lucy had been in stasis.

The inner workings of the Sith Empire back in the time that he was familiar with were a bit of a mystery to the Republic, but as best as he understood it, the Sith were pretty much allowed to do whatever they wanted. The Sith had their own rules that they were supposed to follow on paper, and a far stricter adherence to the word of their masters; but when it came to the rank-and-file of the Empire, and even a lot of the officers, the word of a Sith was law.

And it was that deference to the Sith that Kyle was counting on.

With a single pull of a lever, he brought the Phi-Class Shuttle out of Hyperspace, and was met with the sight of Utapau. Also in view were a handful of tiny specks in the planet's orbit, but as Kyle came closer to the planet, he was met with the hulking frames of two imperial frigates and a Star Destroyer. None of them were models that he recognized, but the Star Destroyer in particular was unmistakable in its role, not to mention utterly goliath.

Sure enough, one of the lights on his console began to flash, noting an incoming transmission. With a hefty breath that was mildly obfuscated by the helmet that he wore, Kyle pressed a key to open the transmission.

"Shuttle Lancer, This is the Tyranny," A man with a High Galactic accent addressed him. "We have you on screen now. Your arrival was scheduled twelve hours ago, state the reason for your delay."

With no time left to hesitate, Kyle keyed the reply, and spoke in the best Inquisitor-impression that he could manage. "Tyranny, this is Shuttle Lancer. My previous pilot demonstrated incompetence when faced with a Hyperspace Anomaly. I have since resolved the issue."

Kyle had practiced his impression of the Thirteenth Brother based off of what little he'd heard from the man for at least an hour. Paulen had been a judge of his acting, and according to him, his impression was "okay." Thankfully, the Inquisitor's helmet naturally garbled the speech of the wearer, helping to sell the ruse.

"Shuttle Lancer, our probes haven't detected any new Hyperspace Anomalies in his sector for over a week," The Officer replied. "Where did you encounter this anomaly?"

A mixed sense of fear and frustration flared up within Kyle. Somehow, he'd had the misfortune to be trying to bluff a man who was actually paying attention to his surroundings. Fortunately, he did have at least one backup plan.

"I did not come to discuss pleasantries with you, Captain," Kyle sternly replied, taking a vague guess at the officer's rank and hoping that it would give off the impression that he knew more than he actually did. "I am here on the direct orders of Lord Vader, and I have already been delayed long enough. My patience for your insolence wears very thin."

The mention of Lord Vader had been Paulen's idea. As he'd explained it, Darth Vader was not only the 'man in charge' of the Inquisitors, but the Emperor's Second-in-Command, and all signs pointed to him being the Emperor's own Sith apprentice. Paulen had also explained that the man had a reputation for summarily executing officers that irritated him, a habit that Kyle was hoping the Tyranny's Captain was familiar with.

The sound of a man clearing his throat shuffled over the transmission. "Shuttle Lancer, this is the Tyranny. Transmit clearance codes and we shant delay you any further," the Imperial officer answered him, sounding gratifyingly spooked.

The clearance codes were the easiest part by far, since Paulen had been able to provide them. In less than a minute, Kyle had the codes transmitted, and received another message.

"Shuttle Lancer, this is the Tyranny. You are cleared to proceed. Good hunting, notify us if you need anything else."

Sensing an opportunity, Kyle sent out one final transmission. "Tyranny, transmit any data you may have on local Rebel Activity in this sector to my personal database."

A moment later, he received a directed data transmission containing a swath of hopefully-useful information that, unfortunately, he was too busy to look at. Interestingly, the Imperial Officer made no attempt to contact him again, either scared straight or simply seeing no reason to.

After flying past the blockade without issue, and once their ship was free of the Star Destroyer's looming shadow, Kyle removed the stuffy helmet and yelled back to the Troop Bay, "All clear!"

The doors opened about a second later, and Lucy and Paulen walked in, both looking mildly amused. Lucy sat down and closed her eyes, no doubt looking through the Force for the Rebels they were seeking, while Paulen stood beside Kyle and gave him a winning smile. "Alright, so maybe that impression was a bit better than I gave you credit for. Nice work, and thanks for, well, announcing my death."

"Don't relax yet, we've still got a mission ahead of us," Kyle replied, before turning to face Paulen directly. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to lend a hand?"

For a brief moment, hesitation flashed across Paulen's face, before he nodded. "I might not be a Rebel, but I owe you one for saving me from that maniac. Let me fly, I'll get you where you need to go."

Kyle turned to Lucy who, in spite of having her eyes closed, apparently noticed and nodded her approval. The signal received, he turned back to the Pilot. "By all means, take the stick."

The two exchanged places, and Kyle couldn't help but notice the small smile on Paulen's face as he took the controls. "All right… where to?"

"I'm still working on that," Lucy answered. "Kyle, why don't you see if there's anything we can use in the data you got from the Empire?"

Noticing that Paulen was still looking for an answer, Kyle gave him one. "Just take us down into the atmosphere and keep a holding pattern over one of the major cities. Let me know if the Empire gives us grief, I'll put the helmet back on."

"Sounds good to me!" Paulen answered.

As their vessel descended into the atmosphere, Kyle opened the data that the Tyranny had transmitted to them, and couldn't help but sigh. It was a lot to pick through, and most of it looked like it was going to be useless. "...This is gonna take a while."

With a mild sense of frustration, he started his search, looking for anybody who might have a connection to the Rebel Alliance. Most of the reported suspects were petty criminals, mostly thieves, and a few individuals tied to mining strikes.

Kyle had been searching for about an hour when one individual in particular stood out to him. A Human woman, whose sheer volume of listed crimes managed to grab his attention.

"By the Force…" He muttered as he brought up the suspect's file. "Insurrection, Terrorism, Grand Larceny, Assault of Imperial Officials, Murder in the First Degree, Arson-"

Paulen gave him a doubtful glare. "Don't tell me, you wanna go find that one?"

"Well, it says here that she's apparently the leader of a Rebel Cell, last seen in Pau City," Kyle justified. "Your thoughts, Lucy?"

She opened her eyes, nodding. "It's the best lead we've got."

"Alrighty then, Pau City it is," Paulen confirmed.

Author's Notes: Been having a lot of fun for this one, and I'm starting to get a good few more plans already. Big thanks to AlphaSpartan117 for lending me his Pilot OC, Paul Hansen, and for his editing work. Similarly, thanks to BrownCoat for his own editing work. Also thanks to my friend CT-5555 as well!