Finally! After weeks in the Imperial Stormtrooper Cadet program, we've passed the tests needed to get to this point. If Ezra and I pass one more test, we'll be inside the Imperial Center. We march along with the rest of our squad, most in two straight lines, I follow along behind in the center, before the squad leader calls out,
"And halt!" We stop and turn to face our squad leader as well as the Commandant. "Squad LRC-077 for your inspection, sir!"
"Cadets, you entered this facility as children. And in a few short weeks, you will leave as soldiers. By the time you complete your training, you will be prepared to serve your Emperor. Today, we will test your strength and resolve. Are you ready to become stormtroopers?"
"Sir, yes, sir!" we all say in unison.
"At ease."
We remove our helmets and I briefly glance over at Ezra before taking in my surroundings. Finishing my looked over path by looking down into the dark eyes of my cadet helmet. The only thing I see is my own teal colored eyes reflected back at me. It's unnerving, how dark and soulless those helmets are.
"Dev. Rune. Hey, Dev. Dev. Rune."
"What?" I ask, hearing Ezra ask the same.
"Dev Morgan, Rune Tajana, you in there?"
"Yeah. Dev Morgan's in here, all right. That's me," Ezra says.
I look up and give a half smile. "Yeah, I'm here."
"Wow. You two must really be feeling the pressure."
"Sorry, Jai," I ask. "Who's under pressure? Not the ones who've won every assessment."
"Yeah, but today I can taste victory," Jai says, bumping Ezra.
"You said that yesterday," both Ezra and I remind him, as the boys start to jostle each other, "and went hungry."
The floor starts to sink down. I force myself to not call on the Force to keep my balance because in order for this elaborate ruse to work, both Ezra and I have to be good. But nottoogood. As the floor continues to sink and the Commandant and Taskmaster Grint get higher and higher above us, the Commandant says,
"Cadets, you are descending into the Well and must climb out with all deliberate speed. You will be given the honor of serving as aides in Imperial Headquarters. Those who lose will be serving Taskmaster Grint and wish they'd stayed at the bottom of that well."
"I'm taking that prize," Jai says, then he gets pushed for saying it.
"Not today, Kell."
"Back off, Oleg," I growl out, pushing him away, Ezra knocks his fist against his hand behind me in warning.
"You too, Tajana. You're both going down, Morgan too."
"Actually, we're going up," Ezra reminds him. Then the two start grappling while I replace my helmet.
"The assessment begins in four," the other cadets replace their helmet, Ezra included, "three, two..."
"How exactly are we going up?" Jai asks.
"One!"
Tiles from around the Well start to fly out from the wall and move around the Well. Some of them go to the side, some of them go forward, and some of them go up. Some of them even come up from the floor tiles! I scan the floating platforms, mapping out a path to get me up and out while Ezra claps Jai on the shoulder and says,
"There's your answer, Jai."
We both get a running start, and I swing up onto one from the side that makes its way into my path. Just a split second behind me, Ezra makes the jump as well. Both of us continue to jump up, jumping onto a platform barely a few inches higher that our first. Before I jump up and grab onto a platform floating above me and hang on it like a Kowakian monkey-lizard. I use that to swing onto another platform.
"See ya at the top!" I call as I make a leap onto another, higher floating platform
"Yes, you will," Jai says, climbing onto a platform. "From below!"
We keep making jumps and leaps, mine and Ezra's considerably more graceful than Jai's, but we've both been trained, to a limited ability, to use the Force. But we keep jumping higher, nothing that would be outside the realm of possibility for someone without the Force, but the jumps we make are exceedingly easy.
As we rise higher in the air, the Commandant says, "Failure is not acceptable. This Empire has no use for weakness."
As Ezra and I jump up onto other platforms, Jai looks up and asks, "Morgan, Tajana, how do you do it? It's like you know the platforms are coming before they're there."
"What can I say? It's a gift!" I tell him as I do a quick jump up on the wall, catching the lip of a platform, before jumping onto another one and turning.
Ezra runs along the edges of the Well, and pulls Jai up onto one of the platforms. I float past them and we all three jump onto one that's just a couple inches above the platform's we're currently standing on. From behind us, I hear Oleg mutter,
"You lose, Morgan, Tajana."
"Jai, look out!" Ezra shouts, as he and I both leap forward, pulling Jai with us.
Ezra looks down at Oleg and gives a two fingered salute as Ezra and I both clamber up to the top of the wall together. Jai follows me, just a few moments behind. I push myself up to stand on the wall beside Ezra as returns and helps Jai clamber up onto the top of the wall.
"First again," Ezra and I say to Jai together, pressing the button that brings our visors up.
"Yeah. Well, I'll get you tomorrow."
"You said that yesterday too," Ezra reminds him yet again.
"Quite a finish, cadets," the Commandant says, clapping slowly. "It seems this trial was too easy. Morgan, Tajana, Kell, you three set course records. And is it Leonis?" he asks the cadet that climbed up just after us.
"Sir, yes, sir!"
"You four are today's winners. But rest assured, your next trial will be a great challenge. Follow."
The four of us follow after the Commandant, and in the hallway of the Imperial Headquarters, we pass Chopper in the hallway. Since Ezra's in the back of the line, I use my hand on the side that Chopper's passing on and use the battle sign that Sabine taught all of us to tell him that we're in and that we're working on it. He swivels his dome and beeps quietly in response before we both continue on our ways.
After we've received our assignments, as we exit the turbolift, Ezra and I go off together. His assignment is to deliver a datapad to Agent Kallus. The ISB agent who attacked us on Lothal when we had the two droids. My orders are to deliver a new datapad to Minister Tua as well as the message it contains.
So I hide behind the wall as Ezra approaches Kallus's office and he exits. Almost running over Ezra.
"Excuse me, sir," he says, trying to catch up. "I have your new datapad. I can leave it on your desk."
"No. I'll take it now."
Once Kallus has taken his new datapad, I sneak into the hallway with Ezra and we work on opening the door. It takes a minute, but soon the door opens and we both walk inside the office. After we're inside and the door has closed behind us, Ezra and I both remove our helmets before walking over to the desk.
We both set our helmets down on Kallus's desk while Ezra opens up a small console. He lets it boot up before typing in a few things, tech is more Sabine's thing, so I don't really understand it, but Ezra does what he needs to do, and I essentially serve as look out. Using my senses to make sure no one's coming.
Once Ezra says, "One decoder, as ordered," I relax my senses and pick up my helmet as well as Minister Tua's new datapad before we both run to the door. I punch in the code necessary to open the door, but as soon as the door opens, Ezra and I are greeted by the sight of Cadet Leonis. Ezra sucks in a breath leaning away, and I can't help but stiffen up.
"What do you think you're doing?" Leonis asks.
The three of us have a staring competition for a few moments before a buzzer sounds. Leonis and I both look to the side, not that I can see much, before he shoves Ezra and I back into Kallus's office.
Once we're all three inside and the door is closes, Leonis takes off his helmet. After he turns around to face us, he scrutinizes Ezra for just a few seconds before he reaches into Ezra's helmet. Where the decoder is.
"Hey, get outta there!" Ezra tells him as Leonis fishes out the decoder.
"Figured it would be something like this," he says.
"It's not what you think," Ezra defends, and I roll my eyes as subtly as I can. He's not fooling anybody.
"Ithinkthis device has a built-in sensor, which would trigger that." He points up, to a sensor above the door. "You two try walking out with this thing, the whole facility goes on lockdown."
Ezra and I both look up before looking back at Leonis.
"Wait," I say. "Are you trying to help us?"
"Do you two really want to discuss this here and now?" he says, holding out the decoder.
Ezra takes it and says, "Mmm. Not so much." He goes back over to Kallus's desk and slides the decoder back into the console. Then, all three of us head out of the office and while the two boys head down the hallway to the right, I take the hallway to the left. Making my way to Minister Tua's office. Appearances have to be maintained and all that. But tonight, I'll be free to meet up with the boys.
Once it's night and the rest of the cadets are asleep, Ezra, Leonis, and I sneak out of the bunk room. My years of sneaking out of mine and Sabine's room come in handy. Shehateswaking up early, but Kanan and I both like to have tea and have morning meditation or spar together before everyone else wakes up.
"What do you need that decoder for?" Leonis asks once we make it to the storage room.
Ezra and I look at each other before I respond, "Our friends need it to stop an Imperial shipment."
"How'd you know about the sensors?" Ezra asks.
"From my sister, Dhara. She was the star cadet in this place. She knew the entire Imperial complex backwards and forwards."
"What happened to her?" I ask as Ezra goes to lean back on some crates.
"Well, they told us she ran off," Leonis says, turning away from Ezra and I. "But I don't believe it. What were you doing breaking into Kallus' office?That's a great way to get shot."
"Long story, but we need that decoder," Ezra tells him.
"And we could use a partner who knows his way around."
"What's in it for me?"
"Do you really need a reason to mess with the Empire?" I ask him, sticking my hand out in an offer to shake.
"No, I don't," Leonis says, clasping my hand in his own.
"Good," Ezra and I say together.
"We have to finish in the top four tomorrow if we're gonna get back inside Imperial HQ," Ezra explains.
"Then let's do it. I'm Zare, by the way. Zare Leonis. And you're Dev and Rune, right?
"Yeah. Yeah, that's us."
The next morning, Ezra, Zare, and I give each other looks as we get ready to go back to the Well for today's challenge. We make it down into the Well without incident and everything goes just fine until the Commandant starts giving instructions.
"Today's assessment will be a little more challenging," he says from above us. "You will need to shoot the targets to activate the panels necessary to climb out." Targets for us to hit pop out of the wall with a blink of red light for each.
"Three, two, one!" Grint shouts.
We each begin shooting the targets on the wall and platforms begin popping out of the walls. We each start jumping onto the platforms and shooting higher as we go.
In mid-jump to one of the higher platforms, I see Oleg take a shot downwards, hitting the corner of the platform where Zare is standing. It wobbles and he falls, calling out to me and Ezra just as I make my own jump higher.
"I'm not gonna make it!" he says, opening his visor.
Ezra's platform is right next to my own and his visor is down, so I can see the look in his eyes as he makes the decision. I can also hear it as he whispers, "Sorry, Jai," before pushing the other boy down into the pit. Jai yells but I block it out, concentrating on my next jump. The jump that brings me from a platform to the lip of the Well.
"Cadets," the Commandant begins, "follow Morgan's example. There is no friendship in war. The only thing that matters is victory. Victory at any cost. Tomorrow's final trial will push all of you to your limits. The reward for success will be a training session aboard an Imperial walker."
Once Jai climbs up to the lip of the Well, he walks over the Ezra and grabs his upper arm, forcing Ezra to turn and face him.
"Dev, you sabotaged me!"
"I did what I had to do," Ezra says angrily\, and I can't help but frown. This place is taking its toll on both of us. Wehaveto get that decoder, and we have to get it fast.
"Good to know," Jai says, disappointment clouding his features and his voice.
We march the the barracks, and I make my presence in Ezra's head known to him, this way we can discuss a plan of action without anyone being the wiser.
Eventually, Ezra and I split off from Oleg with Zare. We find Minister Tua's office, or rather, I show the boys where it is, and as soon as she leaves, Ezra get's to work opening the door. We've decided that Ezra will assist Zare in being the distraction while I get the decoder since I have more Force training.
"How are you gonna reach anything from up there?" Zare asks once we get inside of the Minister's office and I climb onto the desk to get to the air vent.
"Don't worry," I tell him. "I've been training as a Jedi."
"Yeah, right. Who isn't?"
"You'll see," I tell him with a smirk, hanging upside down from the vent. Then I pop up and close the vent cover before I start crawling.
It doesn't take long for me to crawl from Minister Tua's office to Agent Kallus's, and just like the Minister's, Kallus's desk is right below the vent. Which make getting the decoder just a tad easier for me. I sit in the vent waiting for my distraction and once the door chimes and Kallus says for them to open the door, I get into position.
As I drift off into the Force, I vaguely hear something about podracer parts and how it must be a mistake. I take a breath that echoes through my ears. Then, I stretch my hand out of the vent and use the Force to pop the decoder out of the console. I see it pop out and then I call on the Force again to bring it up to my hand.
It floats gently through the air, I can see it in my mind almost as clearly as if I had opened my eyes. It floats into my hand after just a few moments, and as soon as I have the decor in my hand, I open my eyes, back up, and shut the vent. I take a moment to smile and take a celebratory breath, but then I start the crawl back to the barracks vent.
But while I'd crawling, when I'm just above a vent, I overhear the beginning of a conversation, involving the Commandant.
"As usual," he says,"the assessments have proven quite illuminating. I believe we've identified three cadets, Morgan, Tajana, and Kell, that meet your special criteria, Inquisitor."
I suck in a breath as quietly as possible at the mention of the Inquisitor. I strain to listen as well, trying to glean every detail that I can.
"Excellent, Commandant. Tomorrow, I will arrive on Lothal to test them myself If the tests are conclusive, I will take them into custody."
My eyes widen and I gently close the vent. I take a breath and put my focus on the mission at hand. Once I get out of the vent, I run and find Chopper and Ezra to give Chop the decoder and I tell Ezra what I overheard. We record a message letting Sabine and Zeb know what happened, then we send Chopper off and go the the barracks.
We both pretend to go to bed, but once it gets late enough, Ezra, Zare, and I both climb down from our bunks and Ezra goes over to Jai to wake him.
He shakes Jai awake, places his hand over Jai's mouth, then says to him,"Come with me. Jai, trust me. Please."
Jai gets up and Ezra runs over to the door with Zare and I. Then, all four of us run to the armory so we aren't overheard. I explain to Jai what I overheard and end it with, "And that's why you have to come with us so we can leave tomorrow."
"No. No way. This is just another dirty trick. You're trying to get me busted out of the Academy."
"Yeah. But not the way you think," Ezra says. "The Inquisitor..."
"Please. I don't believe this Inquisitor exists. And even if he does, then maybe it's a good thing. The Inquisitor trains me. I get a top rank in the Empire."
"Kell, you got a family?" Zare interrupts.
"Uhh. It's just me and my mother."
"And how would she feel if she never saw you again?" Zare then gets up in Jai's face. "My sister disappeared from this place. And I'm betting it was the Inquisitor who took her away. So unless you're ready to say bye to Mom forever..."
"Okay. What's the plan?"
"Simple," I tell the boys. "The four of us have to win tomorrow's challenge."
"Not so simple."
"How's that gonna get us out of here?" Jai asks.
"Because it gets us inside that walker, of course," I tell them.
We nod to each other and head back to the barracks. We have one chance to get this right, so do Hera and Kanan. May the Force be with us all.
The morning after we've gotten Jai on our side, we're down in the Well once again. We shoot at the tiles and begin jumping. Because of the conversation I overheard yesterday, I decide to tightly control my use of the Force.
The other two boys follow mine and Ezra's lead and he encourages them by saying, "Come on. Keep up!"
I land in a crouch on top of one of the tiles, Ezra on the tile beside me. Below us, I spot Oleg aiming a blaster at Jai. And while Ezra jumps, I call out to him,
"Jai, look out!"
Ezra takes the shot for Jai and Jai calls out after him, "Dev!"
"Keep going," I can hear faintly from a lower tile, and I can probably on hear it because of the Force.
But Jai continues to follow me, so does Zare. I jump up from the last tile onto the lip first, then Zare and Jai right behind me.
This is not good.
"Well, well," the Commandant begins. "Cadets Tajana, Kell, Leonis and Oleg win the day and the prize." He gestures to a large Imperial walker.
"You were supposed to be on the walker with us. Now what?" I hear Jai mutter from beside me towards Ezra.
"Stick to the plan," he mutters back. "I'll find a way to get on board."
I nod to Ezra to let him know I heard, then Zare, Jai, Oleg, and I was towards the walker in order to board it. I have no doubt Ezra will figure something out, however, what that something will be, I don't particularly care to guess. So I stick to my part of the plan. Figuring out how to drive the walker.
Because apparently, being a semi-decent pilot means I am the most capable person in our group to drive a walker. Whoopee.
I take a spot to the right of the driver, Zare behind me, Oleg directly behind the driver, and Jai to the driver's left. He shows us which levers control movement, so I lead with that. And here goes Plan C.
"So these control movement and this fires the cannons. But what are these?" I ask him, pointing to the things I've mentioned.
"Gyroscopics. Here, I'll show you."
The driver goes to show me the gyroscopics, and while he does, I see Zare pick up his blaster from the corner of my eye. He passes the blaster to Jai and the next thing I see is a flash of orange light and a cloud of black smoke. I smirk beneath my helmet. There's Chopper, Sabine and Zeb should be here soon.
"What was that?" the driver asks.
"My signal," Jai tells him, firing a stun bolt from the blaster.
"What are you doing?" Oleg asks, his head popping over the top of the seat.
Once he sees what's happened, he grabs Jai's shoulder and Jai turns around and shoots the boy, causing him to collapse back into his seat. Jai looks over at me and Zare as I take the driver's seat and says,
"Guess there's no turning back now."
"No."
I start moving the walker forward as the blast doors to the hangar begin to close. "Oh, Karabast," I mutter under my breath.
"Look!" Jai says, leaning down over my should. "Do something!"
I look around for a moment before I find the button that controls the cannons. I engage them, and while I miss a shot and land several on the doors, just enough manage to hit the other walker. Giving us a way out of the hangar.
A tank parked outside of the hangar though turns around and fires off a short volley, some of which hits the front of the walker. Which makes it shake, knocking the three of us around a little bit.
"Fire back!" Jai shouts.
"I'm trying to," I snap at him, shoving him away with my shoulder. I don't do well with piloting when I'm crowded.
I keep moving the walker towards the blast doors, and using one of the surround cameras, I see Ezra running alongside us, headed for a tall ladder. He scales it and jumps onto the leg of the walker, then he climbs up onto the roof. And, because it's Ezra, he then yells in my head.
'Let me in!'
'Shut up!'
The tank that shot us earlier, gets off another round of shots, this time aimed at the ankles of the walker. Causing them to blow out, which makes the weaker begin to fall. I vaguely hear Zare say something to Jai as I reach out into the Force in an attempt to slow our fall to the ground.
Our fall is less than graceful, but the walker lands below the blast doors, keeping them from closing fully. I shake myself once we're on the ground and then I give my instructions to Zare.
"Go bang on the door. If I've timed it right, reinforcements should have arrived by now."
He does as I told him to and bangs on the door while I extricate myself from the driver's chair. The door opens as I flip myself onto my hands and knees and Ezra and Sabine help the boys out before Sabine helps me out of the walker.
"You guys okay?" Ezra asks. I nod, and see the boys do it too.
"Yeah. Let's just get out of here," Jai says.
"Wait," Zare stops him. "Give me that blaster."
Jai turns around and hands the blaster to Zare, saying, "Sure. Why?"
"Because I'm staying."
"What?" I ask.
"It's the only way I'll ever find my sister."
I meet Zare's eyes and nod. Some amount of understanding passing between us. He doesn't want to stay, but he wants to find his sister. And this might be the only chance he gets to do it.
"May the Force be with you," I mumble to him as Sabine runs up to us and cries out a warning.
"We got bucketheads inbound!"
"We'll keep in touch," Ezra says as Sabine, Jai, Ezra and I run towards the speeder that swings around.
"Get in!" Zeb yells gruffly. We all hop in as Zare starts shooting at us, missing purposefully, of course, and Zeb zooms us away. Off the the rendezvous point where we'll get our pick up from Kanan and Hera.
With Zeb stepping on it as hard as he can the entire way there, it doesn't take us long to exit the Imperial Complex and make it to the rendezvous point out in the mountains. It's still several hours, so the sun is setting by the time we get there, but still, we make good time.
Hera is the first to talk to Jai, placing her hand on his shoulder and talking to him. "Jai, we'll take you to your mother, but you'll both have to go into hiding."
"Yeah, from the Empire. No problem."
"We'll help with that, too."
She takes Jai into The Ghost and Sabine and Chopper follow her while Kanan walks down the boarding ramp and stops in front of Ezra and I before we can even set foot onto the ramp.
"So how was it, kids?"
"Forgot what it was like to be on my own," Ezra says, looking at me.
"Either of you miss it?"
I smirk and say, "No grumpy robots, no smelly Lasats..."
"It's good to be back," Ezra finishes for me, I nod my agreement as Kanan gives a puff of laughter.
"At ease, cadets."
Ezra and I both jokingly salute and say, "Sir, yes, sir," before we follow Kanan into the cargo hold of The Ghost. It is indeed good to be home.
"If the plan doesn't work, change the plan but never the goals." -Unknown