The Rebel Faction

Irtar was taken aback as she opened her eyes and gave that slight smile. Even though the rest of her body had been tainted with a black hue, there was some of this woman's beauty that couldn't be dimmed by the Sith's onslaught. And as quickly as she had came about, she fell back into the shadows. Irtar smiled softly knowing at least she was alive and should make it now.

“…tell the fucker we’re going to hold dammit! Those fuckers wouldn’t think of it after how much we did to them.” Came a familiar voice, as that soldier walked back into the med room. “Saw! Get your ass over here and tell me how much longer until you’ve got my troops back on their feet. The guy up stairs thinks they’re just regrouping.”

“Regrouping?” Irtar asked in a worried tone as he came over. He didn’t want to leave her side but he knew there was no way this troop could hold up. Especially since they’d be on a warpath after he took out their Sith. Who knows, maybe they’d just decide to blow the asteroid to bits.

“Yeah, are you fucking deaf? Those bastards wouldn’t come back after that shit kicking.” The soldier said with a laugh. “But just in case, I want to know how many men I can strap guns to.”

“What if they decide to just pulverize us from space?”

“Hrm? What the fuck would they do that? They get jack shit from it.”

“But now we’ve pissed them off. Sith aren’t like raiders or pirates. They might have been coming here for looting or another base before, but now they’re likely more obsessed with slaughtering us.” Irtar nearly began to shout.

“Sith? The fuck are you talking about?” The soldier asked, giving Irtar a serious eye now unlike before.

“Y’know… evil Jedi obsessed with death, carnage, power, and all that other crap that normally results in a pile of corpses. And I think we’ve just put ourselves in a position to become that pile!”

“Well ‘Jedi’. What the fuck would you suggest? We turn tail and fucking run? These fuckers could come back at any moment and I’m not getting caught with my pants down dammit!” The soldier said with a scold.

“We take the civilians and load them up on ships? Have the military personnel stay until they’ve loaded them up. And then we can jump to safe system that’d take in refugees. As an Ambassador for the Galactic Coalition I cou-”

“Frell no. Many of us live out here because we’ve got our problems with the big boys in the galaxy. You are in a place called Smugglers Run.”

“Right well…” Irtar began to think of somewhere else that he had any say at. Somewhere that he had any influence at all in. “How about… Naboo?”

Irtar really didn’t want to say it. He hadn’t been back there since his mother died and he gave up trying to embrace their Code. When he gave up on their being no emotion, and only peace. Because he knew there was no way he’d ever be able to disconnect at that point. But how would he be able to come back after all that?

“And what if they don’t come and you just waste all our time? That some pirates don’t come and set up shop?” The soldier asked, purposefully trying to push Irtar into a hard spot to argue out of.

“Well, then I’ll try my best to help you guys in retaking this place I guess.” Irtar said as he scratched his head slightly. He didn’t know what help he’d be but he had to try something. He had the odd sense if he did nothing his actions earlier would result in the death of many.

“Fine… I’ll talk to the station commander. But only because half this fucking station owes me credits for one thing or another.”

((Sorry, Finals kinda distracted me and had a brief relapse of writer's block))

It took a while before Irtar left the woman’s side. The captain made a couple of jokes about how easy it was to get a rise out of his lap and Irtar kinda shrugged it off. He wasn’t normally this easily attached but something had drawn him to her and something was still drawing him like a moth to the flame. The force worked in mysterious ways… Who knows? Maybe she knew the location of Dehoir and this would be the guiding grace to his coup d’grace.

Thankfully with most of the civilians still in the shelters, it made it far easier to rally them and start loading them up into transports. In the incursion by the Sith and his troops, many shuttles were damaged when they cut a swath regardless of everything. Irtar joined the mechanics working on getting some of the bigger freighters graded for hauling live cargo up and running.

The first civilians were piled into private ships as quickly as possible. They were first focused on getting families into any personal transports with hyperdrives. It was a slow, frustrating effort for the militia who suffered major casualties in the past battle. With the system patrol craft gone, they’d lost their only way of holding back the bloody tide until the civilians were all safely away so they had to work as quickly as they could.

Things quickly began to start to come apart. The militia at full strength couldn’t manage something like this. Irtar was arm deep in the grav-stabilizer of a freighter when he suddenly heard some loud shouting from out the in the hallway followed by some blaster fire. Irtar was quickly to his feet and charging out to see what the problem was. With lightsaber in hand, he exited the hangar to see a couple of militia men staring down an angry mob.

Their blaster held unsteadily towards the crowd, as a couple were in the arms of some of their families as people were screaming and yelling. There was blood. Irtar’s face became uncharacteristically stern as he stomped out of the hangar towards them. One of the guards aimed his guns at the now very non-Jedi looking Jedi. Covered in oil, with just a simple white shirt and brown slacks, it must’ve just looked like he was holding a tool of engineer in his hand instead of a tool of the Jedi.

Driven purely by instinct Irtar ignited the blade and was able to deflect the shot meant for him from the guard. The guard’s face suddenly went pale as he let go of the gun looking at the Jedi. The whole crowd stopped and he could clearly hear the gentle hum of the modulators in the blade at work. Irtar personally was shocked in his own growing abilities, since back at the academy he was always lacking. Maybe there WAS a chance with this whole Jedi thing….

“What the HELL are you doing!?!” Irtar yelled at the guard as he walked up the man, looking him square in the eye. With a hiss, his azure blade vanished and got to the man, grabbing him by the cuff. “Get the HELL out of here and tell the doctor what you’ve done and grab some medics!”

Irtar let the guard go with a push. The guard stumbled a couple of steps, befuddled and then ran off. Irtar ran toward the people who were shot. Three people in total. One just a flesh wound on the arm but the two had taken chest shots. He needed fabric or something to try and stop the bleeding.

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“We’ve got more reports of rioting in sectors C-3, C-4, C-5, and C-6.” One of the militia said flipping through some pages of reports. The captain stood on the opposite side of the control room with a grimace growing on his face. “We need to get people out more quickly before they tear the station apart before any mercenaries or Sith or whatever get back here to finish the job.”

“For fuck’s sake… what’s the progress report on those freighters damaged during the attack?” The captain asked, taking his eye from the monitors to cast a weary gaze to the lieutenant.

“Unknown. Rioting had just begun to spread outside of Hangar A when communications were lost to the area. Hopefully the crew bunkered in and the people aren’t really intent on getting in there. If they cause a pressure breach there, we’ll have to leave at least a quarter of the station’s population here. And that’s if we can have people in the other shuttles take forms the human body take.”

“For fuck’s sake… we can’t take men off of loading people on to send in as riot breakers. Have the men start loading people on faster. One man a ship if we have to but for the love of fuck let’s get these people moving so they can calm the frell down!”

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Irtar held his lightsaber nervously as the crowd surrounded the entrance to the Hangar. Angry shouts and otherwise were coming from the civilians surrounding him. He knew in a couple of minutes this was going to get ugly if he didn’t do something.

“EVERYBODY LISTEN! WE’RE TRYING TO GET THE SHUTTLES WORKING!” Irtar shouted as held his hands up, with the lightsaber turned off as a gesture of good will that would hopefully get through to the people. “NOW IF YOU’LL PLEASE GO TO THE OTHER HANGARS, THE GUARDS ARE LOADING UP CIVILIANS ON THOSE WHILE THE ENGINEERS WORK ON GETTING THE FREIGHTERS UP AND RUNNING!”

“BULLSHIT!” Came a shout from the crowd.

“YEAH! WHY WOULD A JEDI GUARD SOME ENGINEERS? WHO WANTS TO BET IT’S THE BIG UPS GETTING THEM ALL TO THEMSELVES AND NO ONE WANTS US TO SEE!” Came from somewhere else. A new wave of angry mutterings came from the crowd as they moved in closer.
“THERE’S NOTHING LIKE THAT GOING ON AT ALL!” Irtar yelled out, trying to sound as sincere as possible when all of a sudden a glass bottle came whizzing past his head. With a whelp Irtar dived through the door, slamming and hitting the lock in one swift motion. “Screw this!”

Irtar flicked his lightsaber back to life and used it to weld the door shut. It’d hopefully be enough to hold them back while he and the engineers got the friegthers fixed. And then he suddenly stopped. What would happen when he opened the door back up? Those people would tear these ships and each other apart and they’d be right back to square one. And with the comms down, there was no way to let the captain know their situation.

Irtar nearly slapped himself on the head as he entered the bridge to one of the freighters and flipped on the comm., tuning to the frequency the station was using.

“What the Hell is going on down there!?!” Came the frustrated voice of the captain.

“Well, there’s a bunch of really pissed off people outside the hangar. I’ve welded the door shut for now but you need to break these people up or else more people are going to get hurt.”

“Thank-you captain fucking obvious. But I need my men to load up the damn shuttles.”

“How about you send ‘em down when you’ve got the other shuttles loaded up? Then you’ll not need them for loading up shuttles now would you?”

“I was just about to say that smart ass. If you’re engineers can hold out, get the fucking job done and you better have someone near this damn comm.”

The line was cut at about that time in the Captain’s standard lovely attitude. Irtar sighed as he grabbed one of the deckhands to hang out at the comm. and to grab him when the captain of the militia gave them a call.

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As soon as the riots outside the hangar were pushed back, Irtar cut back open the hangar and threw on his robes over his oil stained clothes and made his way back towards the field hospital. The streets were still bloody, if not more than before. In their haste many of the corpses were simply pushed off to the side. And now there were some from the rioting that was cutting into the civilian population. Thankfully, the hospital was deeper in and most of the rioting was based around the hangars. There were very few people left in the hospital, just his Jane Doe and a man in a white jacket looking down at her.

The man looked up when Irtar entered with a small look of shock which quickly way to a small smile. “Oh you must be the Jedi that I was told about. I’m Doctor Foster, and I was just keeping track of her. The militia casualties were moved unto one of the first shuttles out and with everyone else gone…. Well, I didn’t feel like moving the girl without you being told and with the communication networks being down I decided to wait. I had heard she was your girlfriend of some sort and things are already so split up around here…”

“You mean you put off getting to your shuttle on my account?” Irtar asked, a hint of concern entering his voice. The doctor gave a slight nod of his head. “I… don’t know what to say. Other than thanks and uhm… well, if this place does end up become a Sith stronghold you should drop a line in the Raioballo sector. Come to the planet Sinsang and ask for the Ambassador, Irtar Mal’Gro.”

“Thanks for the offer, mister Mal’Gro. Might take you up on that if what they say is true.” The doctor said as he left the room with a nod. “Well, now that you’re here I think I’ll try to get myself out of here to. Well, I hope to see you later then.”

Irtar walked over to the strange woman who was looking a bit better now. Her flesh even looked less blackened. Irtar smiled softly as he brushed a piece of hair away from her face. And it was at this moment it dawned on him….

He didn’t have a way for him and her to get out of her.

“Nah crap…” Irtar muttered as he brought his hand to his chin in thought. “How am I going to get out of this one…”

Irtar was deep in thought when he heard the weary, dry voice speak up. He looked up from his hands to see the young woman looking up at him. He gave her a soft smile in return, for a moment forgetting what was going on. And then, within seconds it all came crashing back upon him like a wave of icy water.

"Uhm... hey." Irtar said with a bit of a sigh afterwards. How was he going to tell her that he was blind enough to likely get them stuck on a station where an army of angry stormtroopers were likely getting ready to bear down upon them?

"Well... how are you feeling?" Once more Irtar cursed at himself mentally. He was never good at talking to women. Or dealing with pressure. And talking to a woman while under pressure well... this was a whole new kind of fumbling. He took a deep breath, and just decided to push onward and forward.

“Well, I’m Irtar Mal’Gro. I’m a Jedi of sorts. Not really a Jedi since I kinda left the Order. It’s a long story and I’m sure you’re not in the mood and we don’t have the time. The stormtroopers could be back soon. Well, you see, I was here on business when the Sith attacked. I fought my way towards the hangar I felt this calling through the Force. Intuition served me right as I charged into the hangar. I came in on the Sith that tried to kill you and he overshoot on a jump at me and went flying through a window. So I took you, brought you here, and convinced the ruling body to evacuate the station just in case the stormtroopers that were with the Sith decide to come back and lay waste to us all for what I did.

So, they could be here any minute if they come at all, so we need to get off the station. If you’re too hurt to walk I can carry you. But if you’re healthy enough to walk then hey we can walk. But don’t stress yourself too much because you just nearly got fried. So maybe I should carry you anyway. I know there was bacta but I’m sure there’s limits to it. I’m sure all the muscle damage couldn’t be repaired. And now I’m rambling again so I’ll shut up now.”

Irtar gave a deep breath as he came to a stop and heaved a sigh. He didn’t like seeming like this all the time but he just couldn’t help it. Old habits die hard and many of his seem harder to kill than most.

((Hope you don’t mind if I skip us ahead a bit. It’s just the alternative would’ve ended at about paragraph number 2 :P)

"Well, a ship would help, but we took most of the working ones to work on getting civilians out of here." Irtar said with a sigh, rubbing his chin again. At least now he knew who his mysterious stranger was. Then all of a sudden, Irtar was washed by this sudden fear. Like a rat on a sinking ship.

"Well, where is it?” Irtar said as he shot up. “Because we really should get going. Come on, I’ll carry you. Don’t want to risk any more damage than we need to.”

Irtar offered his hand to Damalis and insisted to her until she finally agreed to him. Irtar had carried her all the way from the hangar before. Though that was with a wee bit more adrenaline than he currently had. Though his heart kept getting pushed harder from that fear that was pulling at him.

It was like that fear that as a child you always got when going to that part of the house you were always afraid of. The basement, or that side hallway. That creeping fear that you consciously know nothing’s there, but that one part of your heart is yelling to get out.

The station was largely quiet now. The corpses that still remained on the streets, though now pushed to the side, holding an eerie vigil. Irtar shuddered as it all washed over him. He couldn’t help it. He felt that all of them were still, even if they were nothing more than ash and shadow. And it was all amplified from the echo of his heavy steps upon the stone floors.

And so Irtar ran. Ran past the empty shops. Ran past the hollow homes. Ran through the blood stained hallways. Running to get away from it all. The further he got, the more that fear gripped at him and tore at his insides. It had begun to show on his face, as his pallor began to fade. And then finally, as if a shining beacon in the light, he arrived at the hangar. The hangar where it all began.

Weaving his way through the results of his earlier escapade, the pair finally made their way to the vessel. At least it was still here. But that meant that it didn’t work. With a sigh, Irtar made his way to the ramp and pressed the button to lower the walkway. Irtar’s first concern was to go and lay Damalis down somewhere. He found her bedroom and laid her down. He didn’t even take the time to check if she was alright, or ask any questions. He just kept moving, driven by this fear. He immediately headed to the cockpit, obviously troubled by whatever it was.

Irtar began hurriedly flicking various switches from the console, trying to get a result of some kind from the vessel. It didn’t seem that anything was operating at all. Irtar gave an exasperated sigh as he began to pull panels. Tearing his way around the bridge to find whatever short was causing problems. There had to be problems with connecting to the console. After several minutes of tearing his way around, Irtar made his way towards the core. Maybe something had happened to the power core and was causing the problem?

The fear continued to nip at him. It was now begin to crescent on panic.

It seemed something had happened to the core and was no longer operational. He began to fiddle with various levers and buttons to try and reinitiate the core. Unfortunately, he had no tech manual to help tell him what all these things did so he hurriedly made his way through what he knew of the ships he’d dealt with so far. Trying to remember exactly what made them tick.