-Than-
As we descended and I heard the landing gear shifting, I felt my heart bump a few notches faster than before.
This could be a trap.
I rubbed my eyes. I was being paranoid. The Mandalorian seemed to be telling the truth to me.
I glanced at the few imps in the ship with us. They looked like those I had fought before, but they also didn't. Never before had I seen such distinct markings on their armor, much less unique markings per individual.
As I listened to some of the conversations they had, I realized something that I had never realized before. They were individuals.
This hit me in a way I didn't expect. I had always killed imps without thought, assuming them to be all the same. Mindless soldiers. Nothing like the Seyley on my side. But that didn't seem to be the case here.
The doors opened, and I saw the hangar bay of an Order carrier. But something was different.
"An Order carrier?" Ster muttered behind me.
"I know. I've infiltrated plenty before. But this one feels… different. Less militaristic," I said. I watched as the imps walked around and met others, and noticed that many weren't wearing battle armor at all.
Two more ships were near us, and I watched as imps came out, helmets off, and walked towards a door to the side of the hangar. Above the door, written clearly in Basic, were the words "Locker Room".
I heard a gasp and the Mandalorian rushed forwards, the electric baton imp following closely behind. I watched in interest as an individual in a large, rather unique battle suit came out of a ship carrying a body. The Mandalorian rushed towards them, and soon after a droid arrived and the individual and the body were whisked away with the droid. The individual raised their hand, signaling for her to stay here, and I could see her hang her head and her shoulders begin to tremble as they left. The electric baton imp guided her to a stack of boxes and had her sit on them.
"She is terrified," Bree's soft voice said behind me. "And she feels guilty." She took a few steps forward and said "She is different. She is like me."
"She's a Jedi," Ster said. "Saw her bring the debris down to allow us to escape."
I noticed the electric baton imp coming towards us, and that the Mandalorian was leaving.
I put an arm out in front of Bree and stepped in front of her. He noticed this and glared at me. I glared back.
The door burst open, and the individual in the battle suit came out, followed closely by a rather jittery Seyley.
"A Seyley?" Ster muttered as he watched him walk towards one of the ships.
"Hey," the electric baton imp said as he reached us. "Name's Q. Commander ordered me to make you feel at home." He said this with a slight hint of hostility towards us.
I narrowed my eyes at him.
Ster said "Thank you for the rescue."
Q looked to him and nodded.
"We have injured," Bree said.
Q smiled at her and said "We can arrange for a transport to bring them to the med-bay."
He pushed a button on his comm and a droid appeared. Q said "This little clanker here will transport your injured for you. I'll let you split yourselves however you like and one group can go with him and the other with me."
"We go together," I snarled at him.
He shrugged and said "M5 won't like that, but be my guest."
The droid quickly loaded up the injured and we followed Q as he led us through a few doors.
We walked down a hallway and turned a corner when Q stopped and said "Please wait a moment." He walked through the door, with the droid following with our injured comrades. We waited outside and some muted chatter came from the Specs.
There weren't many of us left alive after the siege. About 10 Seyley, not including myself, and 17 Burhaj survived. Two of the Seyley and four of the Burhaj were seriously injured, with many others nursing large scrapes and open wounds.
Q stepped out, along with the Mandalorian, who had her helmet on.
The Mandalorian asked "Are you the leader of these troops?"
I glanced at Ster and said "No."
She glanced at Ster and said "I need to talk to you two."
"Bree comes with me," I said.
"Fine. Fine. Q. Please take everyone except these two and the Mirialan and show them around. I need to talk to them. Follow me," she said as she walked off. We dutifully followed.
We arrived in a semi-circular room with a table in the middle of it. Fluorescent lights shone from the ceiling, and some pictures of flowers and rivers were hanging from the walls.
The Mandalorian took a seat at the table and placed her head in her arms.
Ster and I glanced at each other. We were on edge, neither of us trusting the lone figure before us.
Bree, however, shared no such worry. Tentatively, she asked "Are you okay?"
I gave her a sharp look, and she seemed to shrink a little.
The Mandalorian groaned, then said "I'm going to be asking you some questions, and I expect honest answers." She took off her helmet, and I could see that her eyes were puffy and red.
"First things first," she said. "Who the hell are you people?"
Ster said "We are simple folk, and w-"
The Mandalorian slammed her fist loudly against the table and yelled "DARIN RISKED HIS LIFE TO SAVE YOU, AND NOW HE'S FLOATING IN A BACTA TANK AND FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE!" She paused momentarily before saying "I am in a very bad mood right now. You WILL tell me what I want to know, or I'll make you wish that you died on Tatooine."
The lock on the door clicked behind us.
I glanced at Bree, then at Ster. We made eye contact, and he gave me a slight nod.
"I am Than Valum '' I said. "I hold the title of the Vindicator. I was one of Lord Terrias's most effective assassins, and made it to his inner circle." I nodded to Ster, and said "This is Ster Bureem. He is the Commander of the Specs, which is a small strike force that specialized in stealth and espionage. All soldiers that are with us are members of the Specs. We defected and are now being hunted by the Alliance."
Her face conveyed no emotions as she let everything sink in. "Who's she?" she asked, motioning to Bree.
"A refugee," I said, hoping that my answer would suffice.
She glared at me angrily, before nodding, then pushed a button on her comm, as well as on the table. Within moments, a hologram of a droid appeared, sitting on her side of the table.
"I have patients to attend to, so don't expect me to care too much about this junk," the droid said in a mildly inconvenienced tone.
The Mandalorian motioned for us to sit, which we hesitantly did.
Another hologram popped up seated next to the droid, this one of a young woman. She sat quietly and gave us a slight smile. A few moments later, a knock came from the door, and the lock clicked open. The individual in the battle armor walked in and took a seat by the Mandalorian. He removed his helmet, and I saw that a fair-skinned man with long hair wore the suit. He looked us over before asking "Why did this require all of us?"
"We need to vote on what we do with them," The Mandalorian said.
"Well, what do we know?" the armor man said.
"Seyley and Burhaj. Names I have are Than Valum and Ster Bureem. Both of them are extremely dangerous. He-" she pointed at me, "-is some bigwig assassin and he-" she pointed at Ster, "-is some bigwig commander. Don't know what the story is with the Mirialan girl. But these two are dangerous, and are being hunted by the Alliance."
"So you… aren't… Alliance?" the woman asked.
"We were. Then they tried to kill us."
"Good reason to leave, I'd say," the armor man said with a small smile.
"What's your plan?" the droid asked, to the surprise of everyone. It looked around and said "What? There's a reason I'm here."
"We don't have any plans," I said. "So if you could just let us go-"
"You'd be stranded, captured and killed within the week," the droid said. "You either fight back or continue running. Settling down isn't going to be an option for you."
"You can stay with us," the lady said helpfully. "Join our team. We have-"
A loud beeping from the droid's side interrupted her, and Sadie's head shot up. The droid, in a slightly panicked voice, said "I have to go" before the hologram cut out. The Mandalorian went to stand, but the man's arm shot out to stop her. He looked at her and shook his head. She pushed his arm away and stormed out of the room. The man quickly pulled up his comm and said "Q, I need you to contain Sadie. Distract her. Comfort her. Talk sense. Whatever. Thanks," before shutting it off and smiling awkwardly at us.
The woman said, "I think it best if you do accept our help. I've been doing my best to keep us off the grid and avoid both the Alliance and the Order, and we've done well so far. It's not often we find someone who won't kill us."
"What is the point of your little team here?" Ster asked. "You must have a goal."
The woman looked awkwardly at the man, who returned the awkward look before saying "Well, that's a… good question. Our goal right now is to survive."
"If you're trying to survive, why did you rescue us?" Ster asked.
The woman said, "Well, we're kind of like a… rebellion? I guess?" She looked at the man, who shrugged and said "Sounds about right." She looked at us and smiled sheepishly, saying "We're really new."
Ster raised an eyebrow quizzically. "A rebellion? Against what? Who? What's your motive?"
The man said, "Against… well, we're against the war between the Order and the Alliance. Most of us are originally from the Order, and while the Order isn't perfect, we believe that it can be better once the war ends. We are trying to help put the war to an end faster."
"The Order has done terrible things," Ster said.
"In the name of ending the war," the man said. "Haven't we all done terrible things to further our own causes?"
I nodded. "Fair point," I said, "What differentiates you from them?"
The woman said, "We value life. We try to save as many people as we can. We try to help the innocent people that have had their lives ruined by the war. We try to help. We want to take down the Alliance."
"Not the Order?" I asked.
"Well, no. The Order can be salvaged and turned into a peaceful government again. It has checks and balances," the woman said.
I snorted, but said nothing.
"So you're extremists?" Ster asked.
"No, no no no. Not extremists," the woman said. "We're more like revolutionists."
"How are you being funded?" Ster asked.
"We aren't," the man said. "We've been resorting to small scale attacks for supplies."
Ster nodded and said "So who leads this group?"
"We have a council, with everyone bringing something new to the group. Both of us, M5, the droid, Sadie, the Mandalorian, and Darin, who kind of kick-started everything," the man said.
"And how experienced is everyone with this sort of thing?" Ster asked.
"Well…" the woman said, "M5 is a rather new experimental droid. Sadie has virtually no experience leading. Darin has very little experience. Tag-" she looked at the man, "-has the most battlefield experience, but troopers aren't trained to lead things. And I'm fresh out of the Academy, so I don't have much."
"Kriff…" I muttered. "I hope you realize that your little group will fail."
"Maybe," the woman said. "But we're trying to do the right thing here. The Order and the Alliance have led to the slaughter of countless lives. The more people we help, the more support we get. Sure, we may lose in the end, but it's better than living and doing the wrong thing."
They had their hearts in the right place. That much was clear. But they would fail. Unless…
I looked at Ster, knowing that the same thing was going on in his head. He gave me a look that said your choice. I turned to look at Bree, and I made up my mind. I looked at them and said, "You have your hearts in the right place. We also support many of the ideas you seem to value. However, you are going to fail. You don't have the resources or the experience to even have a shot. Lucky for you, we can help mitigate one of those. While working alongside the Order doesn't sit well with me, I know full well that the Alliance is a broken system that is currently doing everything it can to prolong this war indefinitely. I am willing to give it a shot. Ster and I both have invaluable experience. We will gladly join your ranks, as long as Ster and I both become part of your council."
The woman's eyes widened slightly and she said "Why would we just allow you to join our council? We have no reason to trust you."
"And that's a fair point," I said. "But you also have no reason to distrust us. You've saved our lives, and we owe ours to you. We are fighters, soldiers, and tacticians. You need us. And, as much as I don't want to admit it, we need you. Our men are fighters without a home. We've all been wronged by the Alliance, and want revenge. I am sure that they would gladly join up with you."
The woman said "The troopers won't immediately trust you, you know."
"Then we will earn their trust," Ster said. He nodded at Than. "Like we've had to do since we came into existence."
She nodded. "Even though I would absolutely take your offer and have you join, we need a vote to do things like this. And unfortunately, most of our group isn't here."
Tag said "Darin is indisposed, Sadie is not in the proper mindset right now, and M5 is trying to save his life. How about we make you part of our council and treat you as such, but don't announce you joining the council until all can decide? You'd be part of us, just not official yet."
Ster nodded and said "That's fair."
Tag said "With that decided, how about I show you guys around?"