As the snap-pops of laser fire grew more distant, the Togruta girl grew more and more breathless. Both she and Zak had sped as far away and as fast as possible from the Drop site of those black-and-red soldiers and that meant they'd been running for over thirty minutes by the time they stopped to take a break.
Dry-heaving and hunched over, the girl trembled with each breath. Each minute, a new small sun shined briefly above, thousands dying in flashes of gunfire as the orbital battle was very obviously not going in the Empire's favor. Thankfully, anyways, Zak thought. Meanwhile, though he, too, breathed heavily, he decided to post himself up in cover and aim his rifle, just in case those newcomers had decided to give chase.
The girl shivered, rubbed her eyes, then mumbled, "I heard him die…" weakly. Zak sighed, looking back at her. He understood that feeling. She shook her head, mumbled, "What did you guys drag all the way over here? Those aren't normal Imperial Stormtroopers. And I bet my behind they're not Rebels, either."
"No," Zak replied, "I don't know what they are, either."
"Then we're pretty much screwed," The girl sighed, rubbing her eyes, "They'll shoot us down the moment we break orbit or find us down here. Either way we slice it, we're probably not going to make it off Teth," before looking back as a branch snapped. Both of them drew their weapons and aimed, only to pause.
Bleeding, battered and bearing burn marks, Zara stumbled forward, dry-heaving thanks to a blaster shot that boiled away one of her lungs. She panted, collapsing against one of the trees as both the girl and Zak ran to her. Zak pulled out his medkit and said, "Hang tight, boss. You'll be fine in no time…" as he activated the various devices.
Zara coughed, then snorted and shook her head, "Nah… Bucketheads plugged me full of bolts the moment I started firing on'em…" as the man worked on her wounds. She paused, however, when she saw the girl and murmured, "Didn't think we'd disturb a smuggler… Sorry," only to yelp as the guy stuck her with a painkiller.
She approached and knelt beside Zara, then put a hand on her shoulder and replied, "I'm not a smuggler… Just a hermit," as she looked at the woman. Her voice was soothing as she spoke, "Stay relaxed. We're gonna help you through this…" before looking at Zak and stating, "Hand me that injection," while pointing at what seemed to be some sort of steroidal healing enhancer.
Zara put a hand on her wrist, shook her head and said, "Save everything for yourselves… Trust me," with her voice gradually growing weaker. She coughed, then asked, "You guys seen Mel? He hasn't shown himself yet… Not since Breaker squad got wiped out in front of us…" as she looked at them, light slowly draining from her eyes.
The two shared a disappointed glance, before Zak sighed and said to a confused Zara, "He was our mole," in a whisper. He saw her visibly tense, muscles straining. She grit her teeth trying to stand upright, but failed as she was held down by the Togruta. He shook his head and said, "For all we know, though, he's dead already."
"Bastard better be…" She breathed through her grit teeth as the Togruta girl kept her down. She looked at them again, then noticed their stares, with Zak continuously looking back the way she came from. She asked, "What's wrong, Zak…?"
"... One of the new guys carried a weapon that boiled one of the Stormtroopers alive," He whispered, "And that buckethead felt every second of it… Screamed all through it, too…"
"Kriff me…" She coughed out again, "Not a good way to go…"
"No. No it isn't," The girl beside them spoke. Zara looked up at her, confused as to why there wasn't anymore pain. Even medpac painkillers didn't usually act this quick. She felt, however, a slight tug toward the girl and had to look at her. A faint glimmer appeared in her blue eyes, to which the woman said, "Feeling a bit better…?"
"Least I'm not gonna die in pain," Zara quipped, smiling awkwardly. She said, "Them's some good painkillers," and she gave a quick wink to the girl. The girl chuckled, then nodded and patted her on the shoulder. She then said to the girl, "Get him outta here… Report to Command… They're gonna need anyone and everyone on deck…"
"We can try and carry you to one of the monasteries-" Zak started, but she raised her hand to stop him. He and the girl shared a glance, before both looked at Zara. She offered a kind smile to them, then showed them to go as she drew her pistol. The two only realized why she did when thundering footsteps echoed from the direction she'd come.
She tilted her head and said, "Go…"
Zak stared at her, then swallowed empty. She nodded and barked, "Consider it an order, Zak. Go!" before turning as the first silhouettes appeared and firing. The boy, though annoyed at having to retreat again, complied. He and the Togruta girl ran as far and as fast as possible as the thunderclap of blasters filled the air.
Once more, delving deeper into the forest until they reached a rising mountain. There, Zak tripped a little, stumbling forward, then looked down. The girl beside hip stopped, turning around, then sighed. She saw old black marks on the trees and ground and spotted the dirtied white of what Zak had tripped over. With a sigh, she knelt and pushed aside the dirt and fallen leaves, heaving T-visored helmet's remains out of the ground.
A single hole had been drilled into the helmet, melting the early plastoid plate. The black glass that once made up the thin visor was long-gone, shattered to pieces and probably buried beneath the ground. She ran a hand over it, then looked over the helmet for numbers. She sighed deeply, then said, "Clone helmet… From the battle here. Meaning…" She looked up at the Monastery above, "That's the one…"
"You fought here, huh?" He asked, shouldering his rifle.
"Yeah," She replied, memories flashing of the ascent up that very specific steep cliff. She could still see the marks of where her master… She shook her head, then stated, "Honestly, probably a perfect hiding place, though it's gonna take us a few hours to climb to the top, time in which we might get spotted," before she cracked her knuckles and stretched.
She told Zak, "However, it's big enough to house us and I've seen smuggler ships come and go from the area, meaning a ship we can steal to get off this rock might still be there. We'll have to be quick if we don't wanna get spotted, so you might wanna-" only to pause as she saw the boy lifting an ascension cable, a full spool of wire and wearing a smirk.
She rolled her eyes, then said, "Or that could work," then she chuckled and said, "Put it up," before watching the young man attach the launcher to the bottom of his blaster rifle and aim up. The cable was not going to reach their intended target with the force behind the blast, so she waited, heard the quiet chunk of the charge launching it, then, while Zak was not looking, gently lifted her hand and gave it a more kinetic nudge.
When it stuck, the line went taut and Zak smirked, stating, "How about that, eh?" to which she chuckled, a little glad at the enthusiasm. He breathed a sigh, however, then turned and listened, rifle ready. He tilted his head to her, showing her to go first, to which she shook her head and drew her own pistol.
They paused as they saw a silhouette approach again, stumbling forward, then took cover beside a few trees. Readying their blasters, they watched Melkor stumble forward, bloodied, but alive. He was being pushed forward by one of those soldiers, a forward scout. Said soldier spoke with ire in his voice, "Move, Xeno," as he pushed the barrel of his long gun into the Zabrak's back.
"I'm moving, I'm moving… Ugh, he's gotta be here somewhere," The wounded alien male spoke. The human soldier slammed the barrel of his weapon into his back, causing him to stagger, before he stopped and looked around. He turned around and said, "Could swear I saw them moving this way when you landed…"
"Hm. Stay right there," The human male ordered, then looked back. He put his hand up to his ear and spoke, "Primus Squad, Talbot. The Xeno has led me to a dead end. What is your ETA to my position?" and he paused. The com system inside his armor warbled and crackled with the reply, to which the man said, "Roger. And the alien? What do I do with him?" only to wait again. He replied with a cold, "Roger…"
He looked at Melkor, who paused as he saw the soldier clad in black and red draw his sidearm. Before he could protest, however, a laser bolt drilled clean between his eyes, causing the man to drop dead, much to Zak and the girl's horror. The soldier holstered his pistol, then walked over to the corpse and took a knee. He saw the grapple hook, realized something was here, too, then sighed. He then whispered, "It was not personal. Good soldiers follow orders…"
The girl blanked upon hearing that, then stumbled. Her own foot crunched a few leaves, causing the hostile soldier to swivel about and aim his laser rifle. He didn't get to do much, however, before she surged forward. He aimed and fired one bolt which narrowly missed Zak's head, but the bottom of her palm struck his helmet.
She then delivered a flurry of strikes to his chest, a roundhouse kick that caused him to double over, then she roared in anger as she sent him flying into the rock by just jutting her hands forward despite the distance between them, causing Zak to gasp. When the soldier hit the rock, he cracked it, causing a spider web pattern to appear on it.
An urge caused her to draw her pistol and aim it at the man, but she momentarily paused, seeing Zak approach her. She scoffed, holstered the gun, then said, "We either kill him or get the hell outta here… He shot your buddy," and tilted her head toward Melkor's corpse. Zak looked between the two, then hummed.
"... Yeah… But Melkor got everyone else killed," Zak rationalized it, "Much as I'd like to shoot the bastard, I don't think causing another hostile force to hate us is gonna work. We should take him prisoner, though. Up there," and he tilted his head up at the Monastery. He then added, "Best to get intel out of him before we leave him for his own."
"Right," The girl replied, surprised at his somewhat somber view of things. She didn't like it, but it made sense. She said to Zak, "Hand me mag-cuffs if you have'em," to which he did. She turned the man onto his stomach and tied his hands up nicely, before hefting him and looking up. She murmured, "Climb was bad even without the extra weight, but here we go…"
… Indeed, the climb had been something awful, but it thankfully didn't take as long as it would've to climb without the zip-line. When they reached the top, specifically the Monastery's landing pad, Zak removed the attached hook and did his best to quickly roll up the cable to them, tossing it aside. He then dragged their captured newcomer inside.
The two found some respite when entering the place, with the blast door separating them from the outside still operational. They closed it behind them, then hunkered down in a side room deep within the place. They'd put their prisoner separate and bound his feet with the cable so he didn't get up and walk out…
It was then that Zak finally had the time to process what he'd just seen. He walked over to confront the girl, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her to her feet and away from the equipment of the man, before accusing her in a whisper, "You're a Jedi…!" which caused her eyes to widen. He told her, "I saw you use the Force!"
She opened her mouth, then breathed a sigh and said, "Guess I was a bit too obvious when I heard that phrase… Kriff me," while rubbing her eyes. She looked at him, dead in the eye, and told him, "I'm no longer a Jedi. Haven't been for the past fourteen years of my life, ever since the Empire came to being. Even before that, I…"
She hesitated. He blinked, then said, "I get it… Sorta. No need to go further than that, but I'd like a name at the very least. It gets sort of weird, not being able to call out to you. Plus, you know my name already, so it only feels fair," only to watch her go through a myriad of emotions in a second. She settled on sighing, then nodded.
"... Ahsoka Tano. Call me Ahsoka, Zak," She told him, "It's hard to trust people. Hell, you saw what Melkor did…"
"Yeah," He shrugged, "I won't give you up to the Empire. Not that kind of guy, before you ask."
She snorted, "I can tell… You're like a lost kath pup," before turning and walking toward the weapons of the guy again. She hefted the long laser rifle, looked it over and said, "It almost looks archaic. Like some sandpeople slugthrower of some kind," all while Zak stared at her with a deadpan, as if she was just ignoring the 'kath pup' comment on purpose.
"And yet it still drilled a hole clean through Stormtrooper plate," The guy replied as he knelt beside her. He also looked at the pistol and said, "And this is just a smaller version of that. At least we know this isn't the guy with the other beam gun," before he set the gun down next to the rest of the man's equipment. Grenades, a rifle and sidearm and an advanced suit of armor. The soldiers of this new faction were well-equipped.
Both of them tensed when they heard a groan from the other room. Ahsoka showed Zak to wait, standing up and walking toward the door. She leaned against the door frame as the unarmed soldier slowly woke up, blinking away the concussion she'd given him… He was a fair-skinned man with a shaved head and various tattoos, but she could see hatred in his eyes the moment they settled on her.
She teased, "Good nap?"
"Xeno," He scoffed, "Release me at once," and he struggled with his restraints.
Ahsoka chuckled and said, "Sorry, not gonna happen. You'd just shoot us like you shot that Rebel double-crosser," before kneeling in front of him so they were face-to-face. She told him, "So why don't we start this friendship off on the right foot and talk a little? We really only have a few questions," to which the human soldier stared at her, ire filling his entire being.
Ire toward her, obviously.
She sighed and said, "Look. We don't know who you are. We want to learn. Now, I could've shot you and taken documents off your body," then tilted her head to Zak, who she knew was waiting behind, "But buddy-boy behind me convinced me not to. Says he figures it's best not to become hostile with your troops when we already have the Imps tailing us."
The man scoffed, "You're concerned about those fanciful white-clad morons," then he shook his head. He looked back at Zak and said, "And you're the last surviving 'Rebel' that these False Imperials hunt. Interesting, then…" before looking at the two. Ahsoka stared at him as if she knew he was gonna talk. He didn't want to, however, stating, "First two Xenos I encounter in this Galaxy and both you and that horn-headed one wear human faces. Why?"
"Mankind's pretty widespread here," Ahsoka snorted, "Who knows, maybe an ancestor decided copulating with whatever we looked like back in the day was feasible and we came out," before shaking her head when she saw his face morph into a rictus of disgust. She told him, "Can we not? I haven't been in the loop for years at this point and I don't want my first opening to the Galaxy to be some xenophobe glaring daggers at me."
"Get to the point, Xeno," He replied, annoyed.
She sighed deeply, then said, "Who are you? All of you, not just you. Your entire force that just popped up overhead and is currently slaughtering an entire Imperial task force? Ships and people don't just appear out of thin air and the gear you're carrying shows you aren't exactly from any familiar point in the Galaxy, either."
"Astute," He nodded, "... We are the Imperial Army, the military force of the Imperium of Man, leading the reconquest of the Milky Way to bring all human worlds under the light of a reborn mankind. One led by the Emperor, the father of our leader," and he saw the two staring at him, surprised. He told them, "Orders from my squad leaders were to capture him," and he tilted his head to Zak. "The Xeno I killed, the one who betrayed you all, was just to lead me to you."
"... Why do your leaders want me around?" He asked as he cradled his blaster.
He spoke, "A human can be enlightened. Those enlightened by our Truth can tell us more of this Galaxy. In exchange, they receive shelter, food and protection," and he shrugged, "We had hoped you would tell us more of this Galaxy, too, so we may understand what we face. Of course, you probably would not have come willingly."
"So you figured you'd, what, shoot my leg out and drag me to one of your shuttles," Zak spoke in a deadpan, "No, thanks… If you wanted to talk, we could've just talked," then he looked at a confused Ahsoka. She stood up, walked back with him into the other room and caused him to whisper, "What's wrong?"
"I don't like this," She said, "He's way too calm."
"Did we check him for trackers?" Zak asked. She blinked, planted a palm on her face, then walked over to the armor, rummaging through its insides. He looked over to the Imperial Army man and told him, "Hey, look… We just wanna get off this rock. One of the main reasons we knocked you out was so we don't get shot out of the sky when we try to."
"Hm," He hummed, "Release me."
"So you can kill her and take me prisoner? No," Zak replied, staring dead on at him.
He replied, "Should you keep me prisoner, my squadmates and the Imperial fleet above may receive the wrong message. If you wish to leave here without being destroyed, release me and allow me to speak to my squad leader. We can pass information up the chain… This is a new Galaxy. Killing potential sources of intel would be in nobody's best interest."
"You guys would track us, potentially to another Rebel base…" Zak was surprisingly distrustful. The soldier shrugged, then shook his head, but seemed completely understanding of Zak's apprehension. He looked at Ahsoka, then at him and said, "Here's how this is gonna go… You get back to your squad and we leave. If we find a ship, we get off this rock as fast as humanly possible. If we can't make it off-planet due to your ships, that's that."
"... Offering an olive branch by returning me to my comrades," He hummed, "Terrifyingly smart for someone who is friends with an al-" and he cut himself off the moment he saw Zak stare at him with a slight killer intent. He scoffed, "Psyker, then…" only to watch the girl twitch a little. She turned toward him, to which he told her, "I know how you took me down. Telekinetic capability, perhaps Epsilon class. I felt the air knocked out of my lungs, though I've certainly fought worse classes."
"Huh," She said, standing up straight, "I used the Force, not whatever a Psyker does, but cool."
"Right," He replied, "Whatever you call it to soothe your mind," and he seemed slightly less dismissive. He told them, "Would it not be saner to take me prisoner aboard your ship, whichever you may take as your own, anyways?" and he seemed to have a plan in regards to that, too. Admittedly, it was unsurprising, considering just how professional he seemed. Like he was part of an army made up entirely of Stormtroopers.
"Nope," Ahsoka replied, "Going by the fact you put a laser bolt clean between Melkor's eyes, I think your guys wouldn't hesitate to turn us to slag if we kept one of their own prisoner, regardless of if they cared for you or not," and she smirked, putting a hand on her hip and tilting her head to the right, "This way, at least, we've got some hope they won't send us crashing down."
"Very good," He nodded approvingly, "Then it is as you wish…"
Before long, Ahsoka and Zak had untied the man and handed him his equipment back, though with the rifle and pistol's power packs unloaded. As they approached the edge of the landing pad, the distant drone of engines filling their ears, the man turned and said, "Why not come with us, then!? Lord Lupercal is no stranger to Alien vassals and aides, nor are any of us!"
"I think I like being free!" Ahsoka quipped, grinning, "You take care of yourself!"
"I have not gotten your names!" He told them as he turned to face them. In the distance, the same Dropships that had brought his entire unit down resolved, while ascension cables stuck to the front of the landing pad. The former Jedi and the Rebel both looked at him, smiled and waved goodbye, to which he sighed, watching them disappear back within the monastery.
As the first dropship ramp touched the edge of the landing pad, the man turned to face his commanding officer. Clad in a more beautiful and ornate version of the average Headhunter officer's gear, he descended, his gaze fixated on the main building of the Monastery. He spoke, "I see no harm was done to you, Charon."
"Indeed," The man replied as he reloaded his rifle and pistol, "They are inside, attempting to make it to an escape ship, but they left me unharmed. They think it might carry favor with you and, by extension, the rest of High Command not to have shot at me or killed me, Lieutenant. They simply wish to depart."
He hummed, then said, "A human and a xeno, correct?" to which he got a nod from his soldier. He put a hand on his shoulder, then said, "Very well… They may be easy to track. The enemy's vessels use a different method of faster-than-light travel, but one that our Auspex suite can pinpoint. You did well, even captured."
"Thank you, sir," The man replied, then slid his helmet on, "What of the rest of the False Imperials?"
"One ship escaped, heavily damaged. Their command vessel," The man replied as they marched forward with the rest of the squad. He stated, "Were I less wise, I would presume Lord Lupercal allowed them to escape so they may deliver word to their False Emperor and the rest of their wretched Galaxy about us."
"Indeed…" The soldier replied as he shifted his lasrifle forward. They were going to pretend to give chase while the 'Force user' and human would escape, making them easy to track. He hummed and asked, "What of other Prisoners, sir," while he and the squad formed a wedge to advance and cover each-other.
"Taken aboard one of our few Black Ships for interrogation," The man replied, then hummed and looked at the ancient, rounded monastery. He spoke, "So, this is how ancient temples look here…" in a murmur. Iconoclast was common with the Imperial Truth, so he was not sure what would befall these alien monuments.
Regardless, their mission continued…