It took Kyle two hours to catalog all of the Republic equipment that had survived the years of neglect within the shelter of the stasis fields. He had help in the form of Fawkes, Peter, Lucy, and Sarah, who were joined later on by Val and Paulen. All of them put together their own detailed notes on what they found, which they then forwarded to Kyle, who compiled it into a total stockpile.

While they didn't find as much as Kyle had hoped for, it was a relief to see their supply situation improve at all. While ED-3 and the Star Shield were the obvious highlights, other noteworthy finds included Republic-issue blasters, much-needed ammunition, and even some rather familiar armor.

Bearing a hefty weight, as well as a sharp paint scheme of white and orange, Republic Trooper Armor was something that Kyle had never worn, although he had great respect for those who did. The Troopers of the "Old Republic," as Sarah had informed him it was now called, were the defenders of the Galaxy. Rigorously trained and impressively tough, Kyle had personally read over after action reports detailing how they would go toe-to-toe with Sith Warriors and win. Some of them had even been his friends... but now they were all gone.

Maybe there's more Jedi out there somewhere, but I find it hard to believe there's more Security Force Officers out there. Not if the Temple was wiped out. Kyle grimly postulated. It was a recurring thought for him… not just that he was likely the last of his kind, but that everyone else he knew was dead. His family, his friends, his brothers and sisters in arms, all of the Jedi that he'd worked with…

He shook his head to clear it, ignoring the cold sensation that ran through his blood as he resumed his work. If he slowed down, let alone stopped, he risked falling into despair; and he owed it to Lucy to not let that happen. Currently, he was double-checking their inventory to make sure that nothing had been listed twice or overlooked.

While he'd been busy picking through Republic Trooper Armor and the blasters they used, the rest of the Rebels had found other, more immediately useful items. Clean clothes, rucksacks, fusion lanterns, first aid kits with bacta patches, and even things as simple as flashlights. There were, however, some more questionable finds listed among the rest.

10 Ration Packs, with… Gizka Nuggets? Don't remember that one on the menu, Kyle thought, unsure of what to make of the discovery but noting it down regardless. Just one left, a comms set with-

Kyle paused, frantically re-reading what Paulen had apparently discovered and noted down, before jogging over to the relevant table. Sure enough, there was a backpack-mounted Republic comms set, but far more importantly, there were a handful of seemingly innocuous metal chips that lay on the table beside it. Kyle hastily picked one up, shining a flashlight on them to see what was written on the chip, and couldn't help but break a smile.

"You finished?" Sarah spoke up from behind him. He'd been so caught up in the discovery that he hadn't even noticed her approaching. Taking note of his flustered expression, Sarah cocked her head curiously to one side and asked, "What, you find something good?"

Kyle held up the small metal plates for her to see. "Oh yeah, very good. Check these out, actual Republic encryption keys, and the algorithms to go with them. These'll do much better than what I cobbled together for us. Of course, we'd have to get them to the Rebellion and copy them a bunch, but this should be more than enough copies for just us."

Sarah blinked, eyes filled with a cautious optimism. "Secure comms would be a game changer for us… you think the Empire can crack it?"

"Probably, but I'm willing to bet they don't train codebreakers on encryption schemes that are three millennia old," Kyle reasoned. "At the very least, it'll buy us some time."

"Sounds like good news to me," Sarah confirmed as Kyle pocketed the encryption keys. "Are you done taking inventory?"

Kyle nodded, noting the discovery on his datapad before tucking it back under his arm. "I'll get a copy of this sent over to you." He paused for a moment, eyeing Sarah curiously. "Did you need something?"

"I do. I know it's getting late, but it's important," Sarah answered. "ED-3 and Paulen are taking a crack at that code cylinder I picked off of the Major back on Utapau. They've made some progress, but they asked if you could help them."

Admittedly, between exhaustion, the weight of depression, and the fact that slicing was far outside of his field of expertise, Kyle wanted to refuse. He recognized it was necessary however, and gave a short nod. "Lead the way."

Sarah led him back to the main hangar, and then aboard Paulen's ship. Val was asleep in the troop bay, and Kyle noted that she was the only Rebel who had chosen to continue sleeping aboard the ship now that arguably better sleeping arrangements were available in the hangar.

Kyle and Sarah did their best not to disturb her as they entered the cockpit, where they found Paulen in his pilot's seat and ED-3 on the floor beside him. ED-3 was displaying a very complicated holographic readout, which was likely an encrypted data file of some kind.

Paulen was silently reading through the mess of data when they entered, his posture slouched and dark bags beneath his eyes. When he noticed that they had entered, he jumped as though he were surprised. "Ah! ...Kyle, Sarah, good to see you. Eddie and I were just… uh, getting stuck, honestly."

ED-3 sadly beeped and booped in affirmation, shaking his tiny head as Sarah weighed up what she was looking at. "Look at all this… if I'd known this was what Imperial Security had in store for us, I might've let that bastard keep his head. Well, for a bit longer, at least."

Kyle had a look at the diagram as well, comparing the systems in use with his own knowledge, and immediately noticed a few looping patterns. "What are those recurring loops?"

"Scrambled data," Paulen answered. "We've already tripped three security measures, and each one deleted something. We've been going more slowly since then."

In response, ED-3 turned to face Paulen and grumpily let off a string of binary that Kyle didn't need to speak to understand; a lecture.

"Hey, I'm not a slicer! You're the one with the module for it!" Paulen defended himself hotly. It was evident that this was not the first time the pilot and droid had blamed the other for their misfortune. Paulen sent one last glare at the diminutive droid before looking up to Kyle. "Any ideas?"

Hand on his chin, Kyle read through everything again, then he did it again. It was tricky, as his expertise in the field of slicing extended only as far as the now ancient Jedi systems, and even then usually for whenever someone forgot a password. That being said, there was at least one idea that he had that had rather unbelievably worked for a few military systems in the past.

"Attempt login, admin, password," Kyle instructed ED-3, before receiving a single negative bloop in response. "Damn... Eddie, you tried running your slicing module, right?"

ED-3 replied with a lengthy response, that Paulen then translated and summarized. "Yes, but it didn't work, and he needs an extra set of hands to handle the data scramblers if you want to try it again."

Kyle nodded, pulling out his datapad along with a stray bit of data cable that he'd previously been using as a charge cord. Thankfully, at least for this particular instance, he didn't have to worry about mismatching sockets, since both ED-3 and his datapad were ancient. "You've got 'em now. Plug in buddy, let's do this."

With a connection established, ED-3 began a slicing routine, and routed any security issues to Kyle, which he attempted to deal with as quickly as possible. Each one that he couldn't stop would corrupt a part of the data, and the valuable Imperial secrets would be lost forever. It was far from his area of expertise, and one or two got past him, prompting a frustrated swear with each one.

ED-3 was a very different story, and the droid worked silently and with great focus as Kyle did his best to catch up. His hardware was ancient, his software even more so, but he still had a handful of key advantages. There was no Imperial Droid on the other end of the process slowing him down, and for as old as his hardware was, he still processed data a lot faster than even a sophisticated data storage device.

"I'll admit, I'm lost," Sarah commented after a while, looking at the rapidly moving holograms with a mix of bewilderment and annoyance. "Then again, I couldn't even change the HUD color on my armor without Val's help…"

"Don't beat yourself up ma'am," Paulen replied with a sympathetic nod. "I recognize all basic bits and... that's about it."

Kyle scowled, ignoring the distraction as he maintained his attention on the task at hand. Thankfully, the Empire of the modern period seemed to take a similar approach to electronic security as the Sith Empire, aiming their defenses against the greater threat posed by fast-thinking droids, rather than much slower organic beings such as himself. It was a good strategy, but one that came with its own vulnerabilities. Namely, a human's slowness could do a good job at keeping certain systems busy, in essence providing a lingering distraction for his droid companion.

After a few minutes of barely keeping up with ED-3's slicing, Kyle stopped receiving new security issues, and instead began a lengthy data download as ED-3 let out a happy chirp and beep. "Got it!" he declared, turning to his companions.

Sarah smiled at his confirmation. "Damn good to hear. What's on it?"

"Good question," Kyle half-answered, noting that the download would take at least half an hour. "It's… a lot, I'll say that much for certain. Eddie, see any highlights?"

In response, ED-3 forwarded him a broad spectrum of characters, both numbers and letters in long strings. At first, it seemed like nonsense, but the confusion didn't last for long, as Kyle remembered something very similar that he'd found very recently.

Kyle let out a low whistle of astonishment. "Imperial encryption keys... looks like they're for a command net as well. Nice work little buddy."

ED-3 gave a happy chirp, spinning his head around in circles briefly as Sarah leaned over Kyle's shoulder. "This is an Imperial Ship... Paulen, is your commset still online?"

Paulen shook his head. "No. Kyle shut it down first, but I made sure that the backup systems wouldn't restart it. I could switch it back on, but we weren't sure if the Empire could pinpoint our location using our signal."

Sarah scowled, clearly running the risk against the potential rewards, before she shook her head. "Then don't. We'll lift off in the morning and try tapping into their comms from somewhere safe. We-"

Sarah was interrupted, however, by ED-3 making a number of insistent beeps and boops. Kyle and Sarah both turned to Paulen, who translated for him. "Eddie's... got another idea. With the encryption keys, we don't even need to connect to their net, we can just listen in and attempt to intercept what we're looking for."

"Verdant is very remote, or at least it was, back when we got frozen," Kyle pointed out. "We'd have to be close to a major hyperlane if we're going to hear anything."

ED-3 gave a confirmative beep, taking the extra time to display a holographic starmap of the surrounding region, along with the major communication lines. Sure enough, Verdant was off the main hyperlanes, but it was also just close enough for most of its stellar orbit to pick up comm signals.

"Damn, you're a smart little droid," Sarah noted, to which ED-3 replied with an appreciative beep Sarah grinned at the little droid, then turned to Paulen and Kyle. "What about you two, think it could work?"

"For sure," Kyle confirmed. "A lot of it is just waiting around, so we should set everything up tonight before we go to bed. We've probably missed some important stuff already, and the longer we aren't listening, the more we'll miss."

"I can handle that, comms interception was one of the things I was trained in," Paulen said, his expression faltering somewhat. "I guess I just never really thought that I'd ever be intercepting Imperial Comms."

Kyle couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy for the former Imperial, who was no doubt still feeling lost after he'd narrowly dodged death at the hands of the very Empire he'd been serving. Sarah's face bore a remarkable stillness as well, as she no doubt remembered her own experience with being betrayed.

"We're damn lucky to have you Paulen," Kyle said, reaching out and putting a hand on the man's shoulder and putting on the most reassuring smile he could muster. "You definitely fly a lot better than me, that's for certain."

Paulen gave a small smile. "I'm glad you're willing to admit it, it's just... still hard to adjust."

Kyle nodded, understanding completely. "It'll get better, I'm sure of it. Do you want me to stay and help you get this set up?"

"Nah, I think I've got it covered, won't take me too long..." Paulen answered. "Although I'll admit, I wouldn't mind Eddie's help. It's his plan, after all."

ED-3 chirped and rolled over to the controls, plugging himself in and setting to work. For a moment, Kyle briefly wondered how he'd done so, given that his hardware was utterly ancient. That was when he saw the universal access data probe that ED-3 was using... the same one that Kyle himself had bought for Lucy as a gift.

Feeling a bit foolish and happy to blame his exhaustion, Kyle stood up and prepared to leave, now that he was seemingly not needed. "In that case, I'm going to go get some sleep."

"Same here," Sarah added. "Wake me up if something goes wrong and we have to move, got it?"

"Got it," Paulen said, turning to begin his own work. "ED-3, can you help me get this panel off? We'll need to make sure-"

Kyle didn't hear the rest as the door closed behind him. He and Sarah parted ways before Kyle made his way back towards the hangar entrance, where Lucy had set up a shared sleeping roll for them, widened with the help of some blankets recovered from the Star Shield.

Lucy was already fast asleep when he found her, and he gently slid into bed beside her, grateful for her company as he rapidly drifted off to sleep under the moonlight.

Lucy awoke just as the sun rose over Verdant to find that Kyle had joined her in bed sometime after she'd fallen asleep. As usual, he had his arms wrapped around her, and despite knowing that she should really get out of bed, she allowed herself to just enjoy the moment. For a few minutes, she allowed herself to rest in his arms, and rest her head against his gently moving chest as he breathed. Once she started drifting back off to sleep however, she realized that she had to get out of bed, and set about carefully untangling herself from his embrace without waking him up.

Once she was out of bed and was finished with her morning routine, she found that Kyle was still asleep, but that there were a few others already awake. The first three people she spotted were Val, Peter, and Fawkes, all of whom were gathered around and sitting on a few Republic military supply crates which they'd presumably dragged into the hangar. There was some kind of large mechanical device on a large hoversled beside them as well, which had certainly not been there last night.

Suitably curious, Lucy walked over to see Val pull a blaster carbine out of one of the crates, examining it with a look of great interest. Lucy wasn't sure about the model, but it was definitely one of the Republic blasters that they had found yesterday.

"Well, it might not be what I'm looking for, but it looks like a nice blaster. Almost reminds me of the E-11, a good bit heavier though..." Val commented, before noticing that somebody was approaching. "Hey, Lucy! I don't suppose you're looking for a blaster?"

"Not right now I'm afraid," Lucy answered, softly chuckling as an idea came to mind. "Although I think Paulen might be looking for a new one, and that one looks pretty similar to the Imperial models. Maybe he could use it?"

Val locked eyes with her for a moment, processing Lucy's unspoken message along with what she'd said, and giving Lucy a nod of understanding as she holstered the weapon. "...Good thinking."

"You two are smart women, you know. The fastest way to a man's heart is a good blaster," Peter dryly noted with the same lack of discretion he'd given Lucy and Kyle while they'd been celebrating ED-3's rediscovery. Fitting to Peter's words, he had a new blaster of his own, a marksman's rifle of some kind that he was inspecting.

Fawkes turned to face Peter with a look of perplexity. "Is that a metaphor, or a statement of fact?"

"It was... hmm..." Peter paused, as though he hadn't thought of that.

"You're gonna find out real soon if you don't mind your own bloody business," Val pointedly noted as she meaningfully glared at Peter.

"Just tryin' to help!" Peter chuckled, momentarily looking up to raise his hands in mock surrender. "Here, I'll prove it; check these out. There isn't a single pilot out there in the whole Galaxy who wouldn't love these…"

He reached into the crate before him and pulled out a pair of striking aviator sunglasses, which he promptly passed to Val. She looked at them for a moment, before smiling and pocketing them.

"...Alright, I believe you. Sorry if I was a bit harsh…" Val said before turning to Lucy. "Say Lucy, you wouldn't know where I could find spare parts for the Star Shield 's navicomputer, would you?"

I suppose that explains what that thing is, Lucy thought, looking at the contraption on the hoversled with newfound understanding. "I'm afraid not. I would offer up the one from my Starfighter, but, well…" she trailed off, blushing lightly and offering him a bashful grin. "I left it at the Jedi Temple a few millennia ago."

"Yeah... something tells me you're not getting that back," Peter commented. "Even Fawkes and I couldn't get through Coruscant's checkpoints, and that was before the Death Star was destroyed and security ramped up."

The Death Star. The words ran through her mind, and she felt renewed sorrow at what she had learned. Whilst they'd been working the previous day, Sarah had told her and Kyle about what the Death Star actually was, and how the Empire had used their planet-killing superweapon to destroy Alderaan. It had hit them both like a bullet, and Lucy was still having a hard time processing the loss.

Pushing aside her lingering grief, Lucy replied. "I actually meant the Temple on Tython, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that the Jedi moved back to Coruscant once they got the chance."

"I've never heard of Tython," Val stated, and a glance showed her that both Peter and Fawkes were wearing similar looks of confusion. "What's it like?"

Lucy sat down beside Val as she answered her question. "Very rich with the Force... my Master, Satele, taught me that it's the homeworld of the Jedi. It's an old world, with an awful lot of mysteries that we never got the chance to solve, at least, not as far as I know. It's also very green, kind of like Verdant."

"What about the temple you mentioned? Is it like the one on Coruscant?" Peter asked. He was sitting forward, eyeing her curiously. Evidently, her story had even captured the seasoned smuggler's attention.

"The Temple itself was built on the foundations of an old one," Lucy explained. "It was pretty small compared to the one on Coruscant, I had to park my Starfighter pretty far away to free up the main hangars. It wasn't a pyramid either, far more rounded."

Val nodded along to what Lucy was saying even as she resumed her search for spare parts. "Do you think that there might still be stuff for us to use there, like in this base?"

"What, is that thing not enough for you to tinker with?" Peter asked, gesturing at the sizable navicomputer beside her.

"This thing's astromech territory, I'm much better with engines, repulsorlifts, that kind of thing," Val replied with a roll of her eyes. Then she cocked her head and turned to Lucy. "Actually, come to think of it... Lucy, does ED-3 have astronav capabilities?"

Lucy shook her head. "He does, but it's not very good. He's too little to fit an astrogation buffer, so I'd usually just program in where we were going on my own with the navicomputer, and let Eddie double-check my work. After I met Kyle, he'd do it."

Val must have noticed her smile, as she shot a sly grin at Peter. "Oi, take notes flyboy. Fastest way to a woman's heart? A man who can pull his weight."

Peter paused, a look of mild annoyance flashing across his face, before a bit more contemplation took over his features. "...Duly noted. Now, what's wrong with your navicomputer?"

"Wait just a sec..." Val said, turning to reach into the device, before pulling out one of the few components Lucy would've recognized. A small cubic device covered in status lights and circuity, small enough to fit in a palm. "This. The starpath unit's not even powering on. It was probably broken even before they put it in stasis."

"They ran a preservation experiment on something that was already broken?" Peter rhetorically asked, gesturing for Val to pass over the device, which she did. He gave the device a soft shake, and what sounded like jingling broken glass could be heard. "Ah, there we go, broken Vector Crystal. No fixing that, we need a new one."

"I know that!" Val pointed out. "I'm just wondering where the hell we're going to find a new one… outside of a museum."

Lucy frowned upon hearing that, considering her own limited knowledge of starpath modules. They only needed a single crystal about a centimeter in diameter, which needed to be both reflective and shatter resistant. As fortune would have it, Lucy had a solution sitting in one of her back pockets, but that was precisely the issue.

The synthetic lightsaber crystal was one that she'd had plans for, especially after she'd destroyed the Inquisitor's Lightsaber. Her plan had been to make a new one alongside Kyle which he could use, and that she could teach him with. She could still teach him using her own, but it would be a far cry from him having his own.

While Val and Peter, with Fawkes' moderation, argued about whether or not the idea of finding another Old Republic-era Starpath was even possible, Lucy wound her hand down to take hold of the crystal between her fingers. It was lifeless, but strong. Likely grown in an Imperial Lab, specifically for the Inquisitor's usage, rather than being a natural crystal like a Jedi's.

A part of her wanted to be selfish, to retain the crystal for her own purposes... and scowled as she fought that desire down. A second lightsaber would be helpful, but not as helpful as the Star Shield , and the Rebels needed every ship they could get. A part of her was upset that she was even having the debate at all, as any other Jedi wouldn't have thought twice about it.

"Let me see it," Lucy stated. Peter obligingly handed her the device, which she opened. She flipped it upside down and dumped the shattered fragments of the crystal out into her glove, pocketing them as she replaced it with the Synthetic lightsaber crystal. The fit was a little uneven, and it was a little too big for the socket, but the extra material wouldn't likely cause any issues. It clicked into place, and Lucy handed the Starpath Module back to Val with a nod. "Try now."

Val and Peter looked at her with bewilderment, and as Val took the device and reinstalled it, Peter spoke up. "Where the hell did you get that?"

"Inquisitor's Lightsaber," Lucy answered. "There's two more on the other side of the hangar, but I don't think they'd work... too full of darkness."

Peter nodded, and against what Lucy would have preferred, immediately stood up to retrieve them. Her expression must have conveyed her feelings, because Peter shrugged as he walked to the other side of the hangar. "What? Not gonna let 'em go to waste..."

Fawkes also seemed to notice Lucy's attitude, and despite his inability to form complex facial expressions, she could see that he was a bit more concerned than Peter had been. "Are they dangerous?"

Lucy paused, considering her answer carefully. To her, holding those crystals had been like reliving the last moments of everyone the Inquisitor had ever slain with his lightsaber. To Peter, they were likely no different than any other crystals, albeit potentially somewhat ominous given their origin. He wasn't Force Sensitive, nobody else in the Lyons' Pride was, and that meant that he was all but blind to the evil contained within them. A small mercy, sharply undercut by the tragedy that he was equally blind to the light that the Force could have offered him.

It took her more contemplation then she would have expected to find her answer to Fawkes' question. Finally she just offered him a simple shrug and said, "Only in the wrong hands."

Fawkes nodded as a moment later, Val switched the navicomputer back online. Status lights came back to life as she smiled. "Huh… works perfectly. Thanks Lucy!"

"No problem," Lucy replied, smiling softly even though she did feel a bit of disappointment about the blow to her plan. I suppose I could help Kyle forge another... if I knew how.

Whilst she was thinking, she sensed a familiar presence walk up behind her, and she turned to see a very groggy-looking Kyle joining them. "Mornin'."

Peter returned to the group and spared Kyle a look of sympathy as he sat down again. "...You're not a morning person, are you?"

"No," Kyle answered, sitting down beside Lucy and leaning into her shoulder, a gesture which she echoed. "What'd I miss?"

"Lucy helped me fix the navicomputer for the Star Shield," Val answered.

Kyle gave Lucy a pat on the shoulder and a smile. "Nice work, you two. If that was the only thing that was broken, we just have to find a way to get it out of there..."

"I believe that Glade had a plan to burn away the forest above the door," Fawkes spoke up. "Although that could spread out of control. Perhaps cutting a path manually could be the best way, but it would take a great deal of time."

"I appreciate the optimism, but getting this base back online without a couple hundred extra pairs of hands is a fantasy," Val stated far less optimistically. "What we need is support, we can't do this on our own."

"It will have to wait."

Everyone around turned to see Sarah, who had a stern look of concern on her face. While Lucy had sensed that somebody else was approaching, she had been focused enough on the conversation that she hadn't noticed who it was.

"What's going on?" Val asked.

"I'll explain once Paulen gets here," Sarah answered. "He's getting Tristain right now, who'll get everyone else, but we've had a major development."

A few minutes passed as, slowly and steadily, everyone at the base gathered around Sarah. Even ED-3 showed up and quickly found a seat in Lucy's lap. Paulen was the last to arrive, settling in beside Val as the Rebel Leader pulled a holo projector out of her pocket.

"Last night, Paulen, Eddie, and Kyle were able to decrypt the code cylinder we pulled off of the scum-sucking bastard back on Utapau. They found a lot of information, including Imperial Encryption Keys. We set up a signal interceptor aboard the ship overnight, and we managed to pick something up."

There was murmuring throughout the group. Lucy felt a good deal of curiosity, accompanied by anxiety. She had a suspicion that whatever they had found, it wasn't good, and Sarah's expression only reinforced that notion.

"The bad news is that solar radiation and Hyperspace Anomalies killed a lot of what we were trying to pick up; but the good news…" Sarah said, setting the holo projector on the ground and turning on the device's playback function. "…is that we got this."

Two blue holograms steadily came into view as the device crackled, making unintelligible noise that slowly became more coherent. The garbled sounds of static became speech, and the holograms steadily took on the form of a pair of Imperials. One wore a uniform not entirely unlike what Paulen had been wearing; a drab, flat, unarmored uniform with a simple cap and bars denoting his rank on his chest, an officer of some kind.

The other wore armor very similar to the Stormtroopers that Lucy and the Rebels had fought on Utapau, but with a different helmet. It featured a protective sun visor, and a single unified black window instead of the twin eyes of the typical helmets. One of the Rebels muttered something about a "Scout Trooper," but this helmet was also adorned with additional markings, ones that Lucy didn't recognize.

The armored figure spoke first, standing professionally yet aggressively with a deep voice that was filtered by his helmet. "-...do not believe you appreciate the significance of our situation, Captain. A surviving Jedi is no laughing matter, and neither is a dead Inquisitor. I need more men."

The officer spoke in response, and Lucy immediately recognized the voice as the Captain of the Star Destroyer Tyranny . The same man they'd managed to bluff while arriving on Utapau, and still speaking the same obnoxious high galactic accent. "I appreciate your concerns, Agent Shepherd, but I have given you all the men that I can spare. You've seen the riots for yourself! I cannot divert men from their stations without leaving checkpoints unmanned and facilities vulnerable!"

"Then I need you to make do," Agent Shepherd sternly said. "I don't care if you need to call in offworld reinforcements and I don't care who they are. If we don't track down that Jedi, Lord Vader will be... displeased with us."

The Captain's expression shifted from indignant to somewhat sheepish as he replied. "You give me too little credit, Agent. I have already petitioned Lord Vader for assistance with this Jedi but he is... ah, attending to more important matters. You have an entire regiment of Stormtroopers and a flight of fighters, how can one man give you enough difficulty that such a force is insufficient?"

Man? Lucy thought, raising an annoyed eyebrow.

"I see you neglected to read the case file I've established for the suspect..." Shepherd grumbled, shaking his head in disappointment. "You're forgetting that I have to cover an entire planet, and Dauphin's Army Troops are just playthings for the insurgents we're already having to deal with. I have no idea what he was thinking, ordering that crackdown right after the mess with Alderaan..."

The recording unexpectedly began to crackle and distort, but returned quickly, seemingly at a later point in time.

"-suppose I should've known better than to rely on a Pendergast," Shepherd's tone was accusatory, his posture aggressive. "How much did that officer's commission cost your father? He clearly paid too little."

Despite his hologram's completely blue appearance, Lucy could tell that Captain Pendergast was red in the face. "And I should have known better than to expect professional conduct from the Investigations Branch! I'm surprised you're not out there groveling at the Rebels' feet, basking in their so-called strategic brilliance !"

Shepherd shook his head. "Unless you'd like to end up like Dauphin did, I suggest you stop underestimating our enemy. Perhaps you'd like to come down here and help my men look for the rest of him?"

Penderghast raised an eyebrow. "Our men protecting transfers to the labor camp are shorthanded, and you have your men searching for the remains of one officer? How do you know they weren't crushed underfoot by one of those beasts?!"

Through the Force, Lucy physically felt the chill run down the spine of every Rebel present, especially Kyle, not to mention herself. The crackdown had been ordered by Dauphin, but it had been their fault, and now the people of Utapau were being sent to a labor camp by their Imperial occupiers. A dark fury tugged at her mind, but she brushed it aside perhaps a bit more aggressively than she was comfortable with.

"His body is case critical evidence, and I have yet to determine if his code cylinder was taken. If it was, we're in a lot more trouble," Shepherd argued. "And my men are doing a lot more down here than the Troopers aboard your ship, Captain . Unless you're afraid that your Destroyer isn't going to stand up to a stolen shuttle?"

Pendergast narrowed his eyes. "I've had enough of this! And certainly enough of you, Agent! Your request for reinforcements is denied, I have nothing to give you! Now get back to work!"

The holo projector turned off a moment later, presumably marking where the transmission ended. Sarah faced them all with a serious look. "So, now that you're all caught up to speed, I'd like to brief you all on the plan going forward. We're going to be hitting that labor camp, but we can't be stupid about this. First off, Paulen? I'm going to need you and your ship to stick around, at least for the time being."

Paulen nodded. "I can get you where you need to go, but, uh… where's that?"

"The edge of the Fondor system. We're going to take the place of our relay satellite and get back into contact with the Rebellion, or at least with Cheyenne Company. We'll let them know that we're still in the fight, but that we need support, and that we've got a golden opportunity to hit the Empire while they're down," Sarah explained.

"Cheyenne Company?" Kyle asked, voicing the question on both his and Lucy's minds.

"Our sister cell. We were in contact with them before we were overrun on Fondor. I can't tell you who they are or where they're operating from, but I know they can help us," Sarah answered, before turning to continue her debriefing. "I'll be taking a few of you with me, but everyone else needs to start preparing for a fight. We're going back to Utapau and we're getting those people out of chains. No ifs, ands, or buts."

Judging by the silence in the hangar that met Sarah's words, and the steady sense of determination in the air, Lucy could guess that she was never going to receive any objections.

Sarah nodded, seemingly pleased. "Good. I'll have more detailed orders for you all soon, but go get your breakfast... there's no sense in taking on the Empire with an empty stomach."

The group replied with murmurs of agreement, gradually standing up and making their way over to the kitchen. But Kyle remained, and Lucy along with him, and she didn't need the Force to know what he was thinking about.

"We're going to make this right, Kyle," She reassured him, taking his hand into her own. "And we've got some backup along for the ride."

Kyle nodded, but his hollow tone betrayed his doubts even before his words did. "I hope so."