The Rebel Faction

Bringing Leia outside..


"What are you doing?!" shouted Captain Vigor, as his patrol speeder moved to the location of where suspicious activity had been reported.

Bloody aliens sneaking all over the place!

"Tell me you left someone in there!" he pointed to area the stormtroopers, with their prisoner in tow, were leaving.

"No sir. We were charged to escort the prisoner to the nearest detention facility. AA-"

"-413," finished the Captain, "Yes, I know. But it doesn't take all five of you to bring this..." he looked at the masked prisoner and his voice trialed off. "Why is thing still wearing a mask?"

"The creature does not speak basic, Sir. By it's gestures we figure to do so would be hazardous to it's health."

"And when do we care about the comforts of criminals, Squad Leader?" snapped back Vigor. Then he brushed them off. "Go on and take it to the detention cell. Then get yourselves back here. This is a government building and an inspector needs to view the damage. Do you want an inspector to be allowed onto an unsecured site?"

The Squad Leader decided to respond with all due haste.




The Squad returned at the same time an inspector arrived on the scene and all missed the floppy eared alien sneaking out of the building intent on finding it's missing comrade.

Stormtroopers took positions outside and inside the building as the defacement was observed.



Room with a hole...


"Captain, your troopers said that the alien did not speak basic?"

Captain Vigor shrugged. "So they tell me."

The man from Imperial Intelligence looked up. "I will want to see this alien, of course."

The Captain nodded but couldn't help but say, "Sir, I do not see why Imperial Intelligence was called. A local civil defense inspector could have sufficed.."

"Captain," the agent said rather calmly. "Your soldiers were correct in stating that this was a government building. But do you know what government building?"


"No, sir."

"Around us are the remains of a Jedi Temple, Captain."

"Sir?"

"It's not common knowledge and the area has remained undisturbed for the most part but when a warning took too the waves of criminal activity on this site, better safe than sorry? With this building, as pretty much gone as it is, we leave nothing to chance even if the intrusion is petty pickpockets. Lord Lupercus would have our hearts otherwise so why take the chance neh?"

The agent grinned. "Be that as it may, I am glad to have come. Look here, Captain. This pile of debris. It is recent."

"Yes, sir. Probably from the hole in the ground." Captain Vigor replied keeping his voice cool though it still showed slight sarcasm.

"Careful, Captain." the Intelligence man warned, "What I wanted to ask you was, if this pile is part of the debris (and we can conclude a definite yes), why is it here and not on the ground of the floor beneath us? When you knock a hole into a floor of a multifloor building, it stands to reason that the debris would fall.."

"downward!" The Captain's eyes widened. "Emperor's Great Legacy, you are right!"

"There is no equipment I can see set up to extract the debris, soo..."

"The force?" the Captain asked, slightly incredulously.

"In light of this old ruin, a very real possibility." the Intelligence Man intoned. We must see to the prisoner but I would like another two squadrons called to this location."

"Sir?"

"The hole, Captain, the hole!" the agent pointed. "Where does it go!" He leaned forward, "And are the prisoner's friends there?"

"You think there are more?" the Captain asked, not figuring it out.

The agent slapped his hand on the datapad before him, "This report is accurate, yes?"

"Of course!"

"Then why would the prisoner have a personal commlink of not to contact friends?"


The Captain was reaching his limit in revelations. This was going to be a long night.




Detention Cell


Banyard yawned. His shift was up. Another person entered and Banyard grinned. "Right on the money!"

Coslo grinned as well. "Any excitement?" he meant it as a joke but Banyard answered. "Some alien was taken to 50-3b and an interrogator is in..." his mind was hazy... "200-3c.."

"Banyard, you must be more tired than you let on. There is no 200-3c.." Coslo quipped.


"Yeah well... " Banyard groped his mind looking for the data and came up emtpy. "I don't remember. There's an interrogator in there somewhere.."

"Ahh.. no problem. Have a good one, Banny."

"Later Cos."


*

As he entered his data starting his shift, he queried the log and noted why there was only one person on duty. Most of the squad was having trouble over at some old government building. No details.

He began to query the security system throughout the corridors and noted that the interrogator was not only strangely dressed on camera but was at Cell 050-3b. The new guy.


No worries there, he thought.


Then his com sounded. "Detention AA-413?" he responded.

"This is Intelligence 32. I am returning to interrogate the new prisoner. Please prepare for my arrival and requisition a droid if necessary."

"Sure thing, Intelligence." Colso complied, "What about the interrogator you've got there already?"

"What?"

"Yeah, you've got another interrogator signed..." he looked at the entries for visitors and found nothing, "ok.. not signed in. But I see him on the monitor.-"

"SILENT ALARM!," the man on the comm shouted. "Secure the detention facility and call for backup. Do not engage and DO NOT spook them. Silent alarm only! Keep visual conta--" the voice hit static, probably moving at a higher rate of speed with the patrol speeder.

"Oksa"

Frakutsk bound Leia, and pushed her out of the cell. He walked down the bleak hallways, back the way he came. It seemed to take longer this way then on the way in. Frakutsk passed rows and rows of cells.

Something was distincly wrong right now. As if it was too silent... but it was no silenter than logic dictated it should be.

Eventually, Frakutsk reached the security desk in front.

To his horror, there was a new gaurd.

"Uh, sir. You'll need to present proper identification in order to be allowed to pass."

Frakutsk digged for something useful to say.

"Yous don't need to see mys identification. Thisa is mys prisoner and I have higher orders ta take it to mores secure facility."

Again, Frakutsk was speaking lowly and slowly and trying to hide his Gungan Speech.

"Uh..."

Frakutsk moved his fingers unnoticably beneath his cloak.

"You want to let me out."

"Yeah... you know, I really want to let you out. Thing is, I can't... Theres this lockdo-"

The gaurd stopped, realizing he had said to much. But it was too late, he had already slipped.

Frakutsk's eyes darted nervously once from left to right. His mind raced.

Vodo needed time. They still hadn't cought Vodo.

"The Lockdown iss nothings to my aorders."

"But, Sir..."

Frakutsk broke into the mind of the gaurd. Apparently, the law clearly stated that under no circumstances was anyone to be allowed to leave a ordered secure area without identification. All these rules and regulations had been engrained into this gaurd's mind. Was this man nothing more than a drone?

It occured to Frakutsk that his 'prisoner' was actually a Jedi master. Was it time for Leia to take action? Frakutsk supposed she would do something when where and how she saw fit...

The gaurd was weakening... but could Frakutsk compete with the orders of whomever had issued the gaurd his orders?

"Nos buts," said Frakutsk, laboring to fight years of conditioning and engraining, "opens the door."

"I'd like to-"

"So do so."

The man's hand wavered over a few buttons on his console, and something flashed through his mind.

737U38UQHG10

Frakutsk's first impression was that the man was mad. But then he realized what that must have been.

"No, I can't"

Moving at extreme speed, Frakutsk darted over to the computer, force pushing the gaurd aside viciously. The gaurd swore.

Frakutsk punched in the code very quickly on the console, and the door unlocked.

The gaurd reached for his blaster, but Frakutsk was quicker. Frakutsk sliced the barrel in two with his light saber.

It took a moment for the gaurd to realize what had happened. The gaurd swore louder than before. "What the?!"

Frakutsk charged over and opened the door.

...But there was someone only a few feet away outside.

*


Room with a hole



The area was blanketed with stormtroopers now but none descended through the hole. That was not their purpose. They were only to secure the area.


There was someone else who was being bothered with this little emergency and they were not in the best of moods.


"I should have been on Corellia yesterday!" he grated through clenched teeth. "Probably have a couple of alien children playing catch the Rebel." he murmured but the trooper closest merely responded with 'yes sir'.


He smirked to himself sardonically. No personalities!


As he walked up to the hole he felt a flicker of something but it was so faint he almost believed he had imagined it.


Almost.


His smile left. One thing he did know... his new clothes were about to be ruined.


"This better be good." he murmured grasping the edges and lowering himself down slowly.





Prison Guard and a floppy-eared alien


The commands were carried out and the appropriate droid requisitioned as the image of the masked alien was entered into the query.

Coslo watched with confusion on the monitor as the 'interrogator' bound the masked alien and led it out of the cell and down the corridors. The cameras watching every move as it slowly dawned on him where they were going.

Elsewhere in the facility, a requisition order was received and the appropriate of the five prison interrogation droids was chosen. The image of the masked alien inserted into the visual imaging system of the droid. Unfortunately, the prisoner was no longer static and so the necessary route was plotted to give the droid the most efficient way to carry out it's function.

The silent alarm had been tripped but he knew of nothing else to do. Coslo decided to play it straight for a bit even as he noted a slight hesitation in the interrogator's step.

"Uh, sir. You'll need to present proper identification in order to be allowed to pass."


It was the first thing Coslo could think of and the interrogator simply stammered and for the first time, the guard saw that he was staring at an alien.


A slight "whirring" noise in the distance was heard.


"Yous don't need to see mys identification. Thisa is mys prisoner and I have higher orders ta take it to mores secure facility."


An alien with a speech impediment as the command was given rather slowly and diliberatetly.


But something else was tugging at his mind. Something loosening the strictures that governed it.


What is wrong with me?

"Uh..." was all he could he manage as little bulges moved to and fro under the cloak.


"You want to let me out."


Those strictures on his mind loosened even more...

Coslo was not thinking straight. "Yeah... you know, I really want to let you out. Thing is, I can't... Theres this lockdo-"


STOP! his mind reacted strongly, his training suddenly coming back. What the frell are you saying!?


The alien's eyes shifted and it was at that moment, in some far recess of Coslo's mind that the alien was not a friendly.


"The Lockdown iss nothings to my aorders."


Coslo felt his mind slipping even more. As if the structure of his mind was hastly being cut apart by tiny knives behind a motive of panic. He felt a sudden on rush of saliva in his mouth and could only mumble.. "But, Sir..."


And then the knives turned to bayonettes as the alien's mind tampering broke the shell of structure keeping Coslo whole.


Frakutsk broke into the mind of the gaurd.


There was nothing but his training to compensate and a weak compensation at that. A small gurgling sound crept into Coslo's throat as his heart beat suddenl became erratic.


"Nos buts," said Frakutsk, laboring to fight years of conditioning and engraining, "opens the door."

The weak compensation of training gave Colso a minor touch of resistance even has he began to drool slightly. "I'd like to-"

"So do so."


And the command was punctuated as if a mental blast erupted in Coslo's mind, memories beginning to flash before him.


737U38UQHG10


He was thinking of his mother, living in an Imperial Medical Institution. The Institution waiting for his next payment that would come from the extra hours put in to this hellish guard duty at the back end of nowhere. "No, I can't"


And the alien lept over the counter, the masked prisoner still bound, and pushed Coslo out of the way.

The mere tactile touch of the alien shattering what remained of his mental hold...


He giggled slightly as his hand dropped to his weapon but the alien flashed a Jedi weapon cutting it in half.


Coslo's eyes, unfocussed, did not seem to register the act at first. His anger at his toy suddenly being broken flared instantly, "What the?!" he roared, his mind reeling in it's insane state.

The droid queried it's target, with hands bound and distracted by the drama unfolding, and proceed to move.

The alien coward jumped back over the barrier and Coslo was about to shout as his anger reached a height he never imagined possible.

And he never would for in that moment, a blood vessel broke leaking the life of his brain all over the inside of his skull.


He fell down dead.


At that moment, the floating interrogation droid moving purposefully along stuck the arm of the masked alien with the needle and began the injection process. It's recepticles waiting for the 'interrogator' to begin his questions.

It was not the droid's place to make comment on where the interrogator chose to operate.


The cameras caught the entire act and relayed them to the appropriate monitoring stations.




The Imperial Intelligence Agent jumped out before the speeder could stop nearly losing his footing. He grimmaced in pain as he kept shouting instructions into his comm as the door began to open...

Oh... nosa...

This was all Frakutsk could think. He dared not even turn to look behind him. He hardly dared breathe. He was a Jedi deep in imperial space. He was an imposter and vandal.

And the clunk he had just heard behind him ment he was one more thing.

A murderer. The Imperial was dead. The poor man was just doing his job, and Frakutsk had killed him.

Oh, It wasn't intentional. It was a result of his actions. He was rash, foolish. Who was he to think he could just bash in to someone's mind and bang around without any consequences? The man behind him was dead.

But wait, what made Frakutsk think he was dead? Was it the collapsing clunk behind him? He could have simply fallen over, he could be nothing less than unconcious.

Frakutsk turned and looked, and what he saw made it worse.

In retrospect, Frakutsk realized he probably shoulden't have bound Leia so thouroughly. He hardly could think about that mistake, though, when the dead man still lay there, dead.

Could it simply be called a mistake? Was nervousness an excuse? No. Any Jedi knows that one must control one's emotions. Emotions, such as nervousness, hurridness, are not something you want controling your actions when you are tampering with someone's mind, like a surgeon shaking in fear.

Like a surgeon shaking in fear.

Worse yet, a surgeon who, while shaking in fear, makes an incision without concent of the patient, not for the patient's sake, for his own sake, and kills the patient.

But there was nothing he could do now, was there? The door infront of Frakutsk beckoned him to run though it. Maybe he could make it away in time, the security wasn't quite ontop of him yet.

Something always drew Frakutsk's thoughts back to the dead man. Had he just studied harder before this mission, he could have maneuvered in such a way to leave the man completely unharmed. Could he have? Perhaps a master could have, but what was Frakutsk? Frakutsk was a padawan!

The surgeon was an intern.

Sure, you could get a droid to do surgery, but Frakutsk was out of his league.

The door called again, it begged him to run. Leave the dead, flee before you join them. And, finnally, Frakutsk gave in to the begging.

Leia would follow, Frakutsk figured. With luck and the force, perhaps not both, they would make their escape. Vodo would have retrieved what they came for, maybe. They would be able to find eachother, maybe. They would be able to make a high-flying, heroic escape, maybe.

Frakutsk dashed outside and ran. He heard shouts and blasts behind him. In the dark of night, the cloaked Gungan was difficult to target. Not too difficult, however, that no imperial could hit him. Just as a blast was about to hit him, Frakutsk whipped around and deflected it. Perhaps he stayed turned around too long, because the time that it took to shoot a cold glare at the imperial in charge could have been used running.

Frakutsk dodged into a seemingly deserted building to his right not two seconds from the time he had left the detention ceter, not taking the time to read the sign that hung above its door. At least the speeders could not follow him there.

It was then that Frakutsk realized that Leia was not following him.

He did not have a plan for getting away from an entire squad of imperials on his own.

His improvisation skills were untested at the least.

The drugs were taking effect.


As Leia stumbled aimlessly through a dim corridor in a feeble attempt to escape the droid and it's imperial soldier friends in close pursuit behind her, the world suddenly began to spin... making her feel sick to her stomach.


World spinning.... can't breathe...


Panting for air, Leia leaned heavily against a wall for support and tried to collect her shattered wits. It was no use, her symptoms were only growing more intense...


The footsteps were getting closer, and Leia willed herself to keep going... however she succeeded only in shakily sinking to her hands and knees. A quick glance over her shoulder revealed that the Imperials had found her, and the interrogation droid was now steadily gliding down the hall towards her with a group of guards following close behind.


A cry echoed out through the Force, piercing her dazed stupor.


Leia!


Vodo...? she tried to answer back, hoping fervently that he wasn't in too much trouble... Frakutsk would need his help.


Leia helplessly rolled onto her back, only moments before she finally fully succombed to the drugs, and her body was seized by convulsions.



***



Captain Matt Dailry stepped past the interrogation droid of which he had just deactivated, and knelt cautiously beside the shaking alien.


There was something wrong here...


It was not long before one of his more outspoken suboordinates, a young kid by the name of Baker, soon spoke up.


"Uh, Cap? Why'd you shut off the droid? When Intel finds out that you've..."


"This is not the proper place for an interrogation droid to carry out it's business" Dailry interrupted, effectively silencing the young man. He reached out and thoughtfully placed a hand on the chestplate of the shuddering alien's suit. Judging by the wheezing sounds the alien was making, and the way it's body seemed to be convulsing, it seemed.... unhealthy? Dailry didn't know much about the specifics of the interrogation droid's methods or of this particular species, but something felt... wrong about the way it was reacting.


As had become usual, Baker couldn't help but speak up again. "So.... we takin' it back to it's holding cell or what?"


Ignoring the question, on impulse Dailry reached out and began to unfasten the latches that sealed the alien's helmet.


"Uhhh.... Cap, won't it suffocate in our air?" The guard asked, suddenly unsure of his superior's level of sanity.


The Captain was sure of his decision now however, and quickly slid the helmet off of the alien's head to reveal...


...a human female!?


There was complete silence as the group of guards collectively picked their jaws up off of the ground. Eventually Dailry broke the silence.


"Poor bitch, they OD'd her on drugs thinkin' she was Ubese or somethin. Come on boys, let's get her to the med center and report our findings."


Confident that they would be praised for their finding, the significance of the identity of their prisoner didn't seem to occur to any of them as they hoisted their prisoner and carried her off to the medical ward...