The Rebel Faction

Night still loomed over the landscape that folks had come to call Dosuun. It was nice out on this particular night. Some people may think this as a night to go fishing, camping, hunting or some other nice outdoors activity that families do. But this wasn't what I was doing. Not at all infact. My pod landed just outside a treeline at the base of the Chorrol Mountain Range, five miles East of Chorrol the city. I grab my gear and strap it onto my back, buckle my utility belt and check the power in my E-11 and DH-17 pistol. After making sure my two combat knives were secure and ready for use I step out and away from the pod and turn around pressing a button on a small wrist communicator I had. The pod quietly closes its door and its power systems shut down. After gathering enough bushes and such to conceal the pod I head out towards the mountain range. It was time to get down to business.

The camo on my face served its purpose well. If someone were to be looking around, all I had to do was be still and I could get by unseen. And I had enough experience to do well in a situation as such. But right now I was only here to take pictures, gather intell and set up a small temporary FOP (Forward Observation Post). I didn't want to find myself in an engagment of any kind. I wasn't afraid of being under fire, not at all. But this mission was about secrecy. The longer I stayed hidden, the better chance of success the later phase of the plan would have. And agian, not doubting myself or my men, I wanted every advantage possible because the more advantages one had, the less casualties would be caused on said side of the conflict.

That being said I didn't want my enemy to take to many casualties either. But that was part of war. Casualties were just part of it. They couldn't be avoided no matter how hard you tried. But for sure I was trying. There was no reason why this conflict couldn't be spared the lives of dozens of men. It was just a matter of how much intell was I willing to gather.

And gathering is what I was doing.

Upon entering the mountains I found many caverns and caves. Some with underground streams that seem to flow towards the city but the only way I could find out is by going down them. I didn't have said gear with me so if needed, this would be done at a later date. Further down in a large canyon that had been made by years of erosion by a river that once flowed through here, there was a very large cavern. Large enough to accomodate a ship no doubt. Further study of the terrain showed that the river that once flowed through the canyon was diverted by engineers. They diverted the river to flow down beside Chorrol, possibly as an energy source. Also I found several abandonded mine shafts that stretched deep into Dosuun's surface. Most of them were connected together and even one that had a sign that implied it ran, or at least at one time, ran all the way to Chorrol. The tunnel was made for transportation reasons to haul the mined ores and such back to the city. The railways seems in good order and the tunnel as well, not too much damage, but if it was clear the entire way to Chorrol would be to determine later. For now there was still much to check out.

Continued investigating revealed a small building. In it was a communication system that seemed to be hooked up to the mining shafts. Probably since all the shafts were so big and while working deep inside the mines one wouldn't know what time it was and the intercomm systems were used to call the workers up for chow and the tell them to call it a day. Further research of the systems revealed they no longer worked but the tech was still there and would be an easy fix if someone wanted to put a little effort into it.

At the break of daylight I found myself setting up an observation camera at the peak of the tallest mountain. The cameras watched constantly the area around the range. The purpose was two-fold. So I could have an advanced warning if someone was headed in this direction and the other reason was just to monitor the traffic flying in and out of the nearby city. The veiw over five miles was difficult to see even on full zoom but a computer system could pick out the images just fine.

For now I would crash and get a few hours rest and then continue setting up the FOP...

The grayish hued transport craft came out of hyperspace just before the point that it would get pulled out by the gravity well created by the planet seen through the forward viewport. Smoothly the transport's pilot transitioned to sublight drives and pushed the medium sized craft towards the revolving planet. This blue and green orb slowly began to fill the whole view in front of the ship until very little black space could be seen surrounding it.

At the center of the transport existed a lavish sitting area with some couches and lounge chairs. An oval table at the middle of the room had been positioned so that it could be easily reached from any of the seats that were placed inside the room. For the moment the table as empty as only one person was seated in the room.

A lone Zeltron woman sat on one of the couches and stared out the large nearby display beside her. She slowly raised her hand and brushed away some stray red hairs that had gotten in the way of her eyes. Once accomplished, her pink skinned hand went back to lay elegantly on her slender, yet muscular, crisscrossed legs. She was as beautiful as she was intelligent and this keen intellect was something that never ceased to surprise the people she interacted with.

Marcca Kolna knew fully the reason why she has been hired by Stellar Enterprises and did not have anything against it. She knew she had a body that many woman would kill for and she also knew that used with her superb mental ability, she could encourage people to do pretty much anything that was needed of them. Of course the fact that she was Zeltron and could project emotions onto others didn't hurt either in her line of work. All her skills would be put to good use on this first mission of her's.

"Ms. Kolna, we have been cleared to land on Dosuun. We'll be setting down shortly." Came the pilot's voice through the ship's internal communication system.

Marcca smiled and reached over for the button close by, gently pressing down on it with one of her pink fingers. "Very well, thank you for informing me."

She rather liked the pilot that had been assigned to her. He was both friendly yet very professional. Marcca also found the man quite attractive so that was a nice bonus as well. Inside she wondered if it would be wrong to sleep with him sometime. With her species ability to read others emotions, she already knew that he found her very appealing as well.

As the transport craft started its descent Marcca leaned back on her couch and let a slight smile crease her face as she thought about going to bed this pilot of her's. In the Zeltron culture there was nothing wrong with these sort of thoughts or actions. She, like most Zeltron individuals, could never understand why most other peoples regarded sexuality so timidly.

As soon as the shuttle settled inside the landing bay it had been assigned to, the hatch at the front slid open and a ramp extended down. Being so far into the outer rim Dosuun did not have the credits nor the need to construct larger spaceport facilities and as it was, the Stellar Enterprises transport craft had barely fit into the space. It was only do to the pilot's impressive skills that the transport had managed to land at all.

At the front of the landing bay, huddled together, stood a small greeting party that awaited the representative from Stellar Enterprises. They were all somewhat excited and at the same time very curious as to why this meeting had been scheduled. Their planet did not really have anything to offer a mega corporation like Stellar Enterprises, that they knew of. What they knew, however, was that they couldn't pass up the chance that something of gain could come to their out of the way planet. Since the Empire had left they had been all but forgot in the galaxy.

And so now they stood and waited as the ramp finished its extension and from out of the ship stepped out a beautiful pink skinned woman. Marcca smiled to herself as she looked towards these men that stood and looked at her. She found their surprised expressions very amusing, knowing inside that they expected a man to come and talk with them. With a slight smile she descended down the ramp, her long red hair held back neatly in a ponytail.

Once her feet hit the ground the gathering of men started to walk towards her. Inside she could feel their feelings about her and their slight nervousness. They probably did not know how to treat a woman representative. On Dosuun the old ways still prevailed and men were the ones still in charge of pretty much anything remotely important.

Deciding to start things off Marcca bowed slightly and put her hands behind her back in their custom. "Premier Glotiev, I am Marcca Kolna. Thank you for meeting me on behalf of Dosuun."

The Premier accepted the bow and replied only slightly in return. "Welcome to Chorrol. I much say, I was expecting someone else, but that matters not at the moment. Come we have transportation awaiting to take you to the State House. It is late at night so perhaps it would be better if we discussed business in the morning? Your guards may come as well if you like."

With that the Premier motioned to the group of four combat droids that had taken up guard positions behind Marcca. "Thank you Mr.Premier. It does not matter to me when we talk, but perhaps in the morning would be better as you say."

She could feel his emotions and knew that he wanted to think about how to deal with Marcca. He had not been prepared to deal with a woman in business matters and would probably need to consult with his advisers. Marcca was always amused with the different ways that cultures treated woman. As if they were so very different than men.

"Two of the guards will company me if that is alright." She turned back and motions to two of the droids. Both of which took a step forward and formed up behind her and to the sides.

"Of course. That would be fine. Please come this way." With that he turned, as did his whole group, and walked towards the exit.

As the stretched landspeeder set off down the street and away from the small spaceport Marcca sat in the rear and looked at the Premier sitting in front of her. She watched him carefully and made sure to not let him see her staring. Her eyes went over him as she sized him up, thinking about his weaknesses and how to get into his head so her job would proceed much smoother. He had already revealed one of his weaknesses, however.

Marcca could feel his apprehension as he sat there before her, never looking at her face. Many years of conditioning had made this middle aged man almost frightened of a woman in power like Marcca was. This man had lived on Dosuun his whole life and so every woman he had ever known was a submissive one who had been raised from birth to follow a man's orders. For the Premier, women had no business in what he thought of as a man's business and had no right to any sort of power whatsoever.

The pink skinned woman smiled to herself and slowly crossed her legs as she leaned back into the seat. She liked having this effect on the Premier, but was also a little disgusted that they would treat women like this on the planet. It was barbaric to say the least and deep inside she hoped that someday soon this would all change for the better.

With that thought she turned her head away from the man and towards the window beside her head, looking out into the dark night. For a large city such as this, Marcca was amazed at how empty the streets were. There was not a soul to be seen out side and most of the houses had their lights out already. Marcca figured that this could be some custom among the people and let the matter fade inside her mind.

The street was not the only thing Marcca could see in the window, however. As she looked out at an angle she could see the Premier's face in a reflection and watched his eyes run over her body. She was very sure the man wanted to get her into bed, but then again what man wouldn't. His eyes weren't that of want, though, they were of need. This was not a man would needed to court his woman, but only had to call for them and have them brought to him. In this society of men come first, Marcca had no doubt that the women had been trained to be submissive to all the Premier's demands.

For the moment she ignored these stares, not minding them since she was used to having men look at her body and enjoyed the effect it had on them. As the Premier admired Marcca's body, the woman looked out at the older looking building that made up the city of Chorrol. It was far different from her homeplanet where all the larget cities were bustling with life throughout the night. On Zeltron there were parties from morning till night and then all through the night into morning again. Everything had been created so that tourists and natives could enjoy themselves to the fullest. There was nothing at all wrong with enjoying your life and indulging yourself once in while.

It was in this moment of thought about her home world that Marcca had glanced up for a split second and seemed to have caught a blur moving from one building to another. As soon as it had appeared, whatever it was disappeared. Perhaps it was just her mind playing tricks on her Marcca thought, not putting much attention to it. Instead she just looked back at the reflection of the Premier's face and made it see as if she was looking at the streets.

"You seem a little uncomfortable Mr. Premier." Marcca said as she slowly turned her head towards the man and smiled. " I do hope that it is not me that is making you this way."

The man seemed to swallow hard, taken aback by this questions. "No no, of course not. I am perfectly alright. It has just been a long day that is all."

"Are you sure Premier Glotiev? I can not help but feel as if I have made you feel this way." Marcca continued, probing the man.

"No... well..." The Premier paused and looked up at Marcca, getting his composure back. "Frankly, I am a little surprised that Stellar Enterprises had sent you. You are probably very qualified thought for this situation."

"But a man would have qualified more, right? Because I am a woman I can not possibly do the job as well it could be done." Marcca asked as she looked the Premier in the eyes.

As she did, he eyes dropped and he looked out the window. The man did not know how to react to a woman that dared challange him. Marcca could feel the anger rising inside him as he thought about her questioning him. He was the man and was supposed to ask all the questions. How dare she have power to think on her own, Glotiev thought and fumed inside.

After the short round of words between the Premier and Marcca nothing else was said. Both sat in their respective seats in silence as the speeder made its way slowly through the night towards the Government Compound. A place that was off limits to all but the highest ranked officials and guarded accordingly. It was the only new looking group of buildings that Marcca witnessed during this little trip.

As they approached the tall gates that permitted their entry inside, Marcca wondered what the need for such security might be on this planet. Was the Premier in danger from others that would like to take his place or perhaps the man was truly paranoid about his safety? Marcca guessed that it was a bit of both, but what she didn't yet know was that the compound had actually been build to house the Imperial Governor that had ruled the planet for some years. The high thick walls had been erected for his protection from any hostilities that might arise from his harsh rule.

It only took a moment before they were past the large gates, but it was enough time for Marcca to eye the guards and size them up. While they were large men, they did not seem look very smart of very dangerous. To her it seemed as if they had been picked by their imposing size and not their abilities as solderies. This meant that while it was hard to penetrate the walls surrounding the Governmental House, once inside a skilled enemy could pretty much have a field day with the unexperienced guards.

When the speeder came to a stop at the main building, Marcca cleared her head and waited for the Premier to exit first. Once out, Marcca stepped from the vehicle and looked around slowly at the large building that surrounded the courtyard in front. Everything here was well lit, unlike the rest of the town, and all things looked as if they were cleaned daily.

"You have a beautiful home here Premier Glotiev."

"Thank you. However, now you will have to excuse me Ms.Kolna. I have some pressing matters to attend to, but I shall see you tomorrow. Those two will show you to your room." The Premier said and pointed towards two young women that stood beside Marcca, bowing towards Glotiev until he turned and left.

Both stood up and turned towards Marcca, looking for her bags, but saw there were now. She could feel their surprise and wonder at her being a woman and not having the Premier talk down to her or her bowing to his every word. This was not their culture and something they had never before seen. Every person that had attended a meeting with the Premier has been a man and so they had always assumed the rest of the galaxy had a culture similar to theirs.

As they walked into the build, the two women said nothing, only leading the way towards Marcca's assigned quarters. Behind her, the two guard droids walked rather quietly, scanning everything in sight for possible danger. If some was found they would surely react to it quickly and efficiently.

It only took a few moments of walking before they were all up the flight of stairs and on the second floor. A large set of doors was opened, revealing a multi-room suite that was somewhat lavishly furnished. It was not exquisite to the likes of states rooms in more wealthy parts of the galaxy, but still something to be admired on a planet like Dosuun.

The two women asked if there was anything else they would do and left shortly after Marcca informed them that she was perfectly alright at the moment. Once they were out of the suite Marcca could contact her ship and quickly did so by instructing one of the droids to open up a direct link using its built in power transmitter. She informed the pilot that she was alright and that she would report back every 10 hours after now so that he would know she was alright. When this was done, Marcca stripped off her clothes and walked towards the refresher to take a nice hot shower.