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| - Opening Scroll: 'It is a time of galactic unrest. The evil Empire has taken countless worlds by force. The only thing keeping them from complete domination of the galaxy is the Rebel Alliance. The Empire has recently overtaken the world of Uvena III, homeworld of the Shistavanen race. Hunter Squad, the finest Special Ops group in the Rebel Alliance, has sworn to defend Uvena III. Unfortunately for the squad, one of their members, the Shistavanen Aleeha Jors, is Force-sensitive. Her Force-sensitivity has allowed the evil Inquisitor Kallus to track the team's movements, recently following them to the ruined world of Uvena III, and from there can track them to their headquarters somewhere on the planet Malachor...' CRACK! A cortosis/duranium alloy slug flew through the air at four times the speed of sound. As it found its mark between the eyes of an Imperial Stormtrooper, alarms were triggered by the projectile’s motion. An arrow quivered in the chest of another man, and he went down. A hail of blaster fire rained down on the patrol on the perimeter of the outpost. When the fire ceased, only one man remained. As he aimed his rifle, futilely looking for the assailants, a Wookiee dressed in traditional Kashyyyk garb of bandoleer and headdress, crept up behind him and slid a vibroblade between his ribs. As he fell, four more beings crept out of the dense foliage. A female Shistavanen wearing a camouflage tunic and a sniper rifle on her shoulder came on all fours. A male Gand with a quiver of arrows and a bow, wearing the traditional clothing of the Findsman tradition strode proudly out next to a female Bothan in a black leather outfit and a short-ranged holdout pistol. A male Anomid wearing a Special Ops-type outfit flexed his six fingered hands in elaborate sign language. Understanding perfectly, the four other non-humans took up positions. By morning, the outpost would be theirs. 24 Hours Earlier, Malachor Base “This mission will be as simple as eating a sweet-sand cookie. Take over an Imperial Outpost on Uvena III, show them what Hunter Squad is all about”, stated the Anomid through his vocoder’s robotic-sounding voice. “Now, we want this outpost intact so we can use it as a base of operations in that sector. Once we have the base, the Alliance fleet can come and occupy it. Any questions? Good. Rendezvous at Uvena Prime at local time 0400. Dismissed.” The four non-humans seated around the holoprojector stood, saluted, turned, and marched out the door. When the door shut behind them, the Gand said in his nasal tone, “Uvena III. Just like going home for you, isn’t it, Aleeha?” “It’s not home when the Imps are there, Gogrom. They enslave my people”, replied the Shistavanen. “Aleeha, we all know you hate the Empire, but why so much? It’s not like Shistavanens are the only species oppressed by them. Take my species of instance. Those white hats have permission to shoot us Bothans on sight if they so much as suspect us of illegal behavior”, interrupted the Bothan. “It’s… personal, Olle. I want to destroy every last son of a narglatch of them”, replied Aleeha. The Wookiee held his translator microphone to his mouth and growled into it. When he stopped, a tiny speaker in it said “I feel the same way, too. Wookiees aren’t even considered sentient.” “Thanks, Miidbacca, but you still don’t understand”, replied Aleeha. Miidbacca grunted and growled some more, and the speaker said “Make us understand”. “Ok, then. I will”, replied Aleeha. “I was very young. Life was good. My village was prosperous and peaceful. My father was a fisherman, my mother a seamstress. My brother was learning to become a carpenter, and my older sister was going to become a medicine woman. My younger sisters were twins, which is considered a good omen in our culture. They were just learning to walk around. One day, an Imperial shuttle landed nearby, and a man who claimed to be a merchant came. He brought us small metal spheres that he said would bring us good luck. Our village elders believed him, and soon there was one of these spheres in every household. The very next day, our orb began to glow on the top. I went to the neighbor’s hut, and theirs was the same. A few minutes later, my mother sent me to a neighboring village to trade some shells for tools, but when I got there, the village was in ruins. There was only one survivor, an old man. I asked him what had happened, and he said that a merchant came to his village a few days ago, bringing orbs. The next day, the orbs began to glow. After a few hours, they exploded, killing everyone in the village. He soon died. I ran as fast as I could to warn my village, but it was too late. I came back to the ashes of my family’s hut”, Aleeha said. “To this day, I want the blood of the merchant who brought what I know now to be thermal detonators and deceived my village.” The other three were silent for a time, and then Olle went up to Aleeha, whispering “I’m so sorry”, and gave Aleeha a hug. Gogrom and Miidbacca joined in. Just then, the Anomid lieutenant walked out of the briefing room and onto the hugging team. “Oh… ah, I was just… um…” he sputtered. “Oh, Lieutenant! Come on, everyone, at attention”, said Olle. “At ease”, replied the flabbergasted Anomid. “Why, Lieutenant Ranvus, I’ve never known you to be at a loss for words before”, said Aleeha. “Don’t worry, sir. They were just comforting me over the loss of my family.” “I see. Well, then, my condolences as well. Carry on”, replied Ranvus. “Well… that’s that, I suppose”, stated Aleeha. Chapter 2 48 hours later "Now that we have the outpost, we need to make it secure. The Imp's log says that there are three scout parties on patrol until sundown tonight. We already dealt with one on the way in, but hopefully the other two have no idea we are here. At any rate, we need to be sure of the outpost's security. Aleeha, Gogrom, you're stationed on the roof. Take out anything that looks suspicious. Miidbacca, you're on the perimeter hidden in the forest. Olle, right inside the front door with me. Battle stations, everyone", barked out Lieutenant Ranvus. The other four aliens stood, saluted, then marched to their posts. By this time, it was rougly three hours before the patrols, but to be sure that they didn't come back early due to being called before the base was overrun, they posted guards early. "What do you think of all this deception, Aleeha? Gettin' the Imps good enough for you?" asked Gogrom in a whisper over the comlink. "Not really, Gogrom. Sure, we're freeing the surrounding area, but this isn't the only base, you know. There are four other outposts, and one command center. We're gonna need lots of help with that command center", answered the sniper. "That's why we're overtaking the outposts first. Ammo, reprogrammable droids, a place to land support", replied the archer as he fit an arrow on his string. "Hey, cut the chatter up there", came Ranvus' voice over the intercom. There was silence for a few moments, then Miidbacca's voice. "I see some Imps. Get ready, this is it." "Confirm", answered Aleeha. "Attack at will", came the reply from Ranvus. "Olle, you and I go when the fighting starts." "Yes, Lieutenant", answered the spy. Miidbacca waited for the patrol to pass, then leapt out behind them and quietly assassinated three with his vibroblade. Hearing the faint hum of the blade, the other five turned around and got out their pistols. An arrow found its mark in the back of their sergeant, while two fell to slugs from the sniper rifle. The doors opened, an Olle shot one dead while Ranvus took care of the others with a mini-rocket. Checking the perimeter and finding no one, they returned to their posts. A few minutes later, Ranvus had them all check in, but Miidbacca did not respond. "Aleeha, go see what the Chaos is wrong with him", ordered Ranvus. As the Shistavanen approached his post, she was fired upon. The scout party had incapacitated Miidbacca and were now firing upon Aleeha. She fired off a few rounds before retreating. Gogrom covered her retreat with a flurry of arrows, but one bolt found its mark in her hind leg. As she went down, Olle and Ranvus marched out and began firing. The arrows had stopped coming because Gogrom was out, and Aleeha turned to fire, but she needed to reload. As she struggled with the clip, another trooper approached her to kill her with a point-blank shot. He never got the chance, however, as Olle killed him with a well-placed shot in the chest. Ranvus' thermal detonator finished off the other three. He and Olle dragged Aleeha inside to be treated by a medical droid they found in the base, while Gogrom got a new quiver of arrows and went out to find Miidbacca. What he came across surprised him. Chapter 3 As Gogrom came to, he saw that, wherever he was, it was dark. Very dark. In the darkness, he could see nothing but the outline of light around a tall door. As his compound eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw he was in a large, spacious room whose walls were made of dirt. There were several tables that had some sort of cylindrical containers with tubes sticking out of them. There were large, leafy-looking things attatched to the tops, and there were more hanging from the ceiling. His hands were bound and there was a large lump sitting next to him. The wooden door opened, and Gogrom saw that those things were leafy, leafy plants. But he was far more interested in the being in the tall door. It was sillhouetted against the harsh light, and seemed to have long, dreadlock hair pointing slightly upward in a sort of mowahk. But what really grabbed his attention at once was the fact that the figure fully took up all the space of the doorway, which was easily ten feet high. A long, thin arm reached out and pushed a small section of the wall. A crack of light appeared on the ceiling and gradually got larger, 'till the whole ceiling was opened. The figure, now clearly visible in the noonday sun, was greenish in complexion, and the thick, ropelike tendrils on its head were reddish-purple. It had large, black eyes, no ears or nose, and a permanently bemused smile. It was wearing a plain white robe which fell to the floor. It opened its mouth, and spoke in a female, distinctly alien voice, but the words were incomprehensible to Gogrom. The figure took on a puzzled look, then tried again, in a different language. It took five more tries until, finally, it said in basic "Hello, Archer. You are most welcome in my humble abode. My name is Beschniawen Vellethopnue. I am a botanist. Ah, I see your furry friend is finally waking up. We had the most wonderful chat until he fell asleep. Hello, Mr. Miidbacca." Gogrom noticed for the first time that the lump on the floor next to him was a sleeping Miidbacca! Chapter 5 "I don't like this. Not one bit", lamented Olle, second-in-command on the team. "First Miidbacca disappears, then, when Gogrom goes to look for him, he disappears, too!" "They're both superior soldiers, Olle. They'll be fine", replied Ranvus. "But can't we send someone after them? they could be in trouble!" replied the flustered Bothan. Ranvus reclines in his chair. "And send more of us off to meet the same fate? Certainly not. When the rest of our forces arrive, we can send a search party. But for now, we must leave it is." "But..." began Olle "No buts, Olle. Leave it at that. That's an order, and if you don't follow it, it will be my obligation to have you cast in a cell until for a week for insubordination. Am I clear?" No reply came. "I said, am I clear?" "Yes, sir", mumbled Olle. She could tell by the look on the Lieutenant's face that he hated it every bit as much as she did, and she decided to keep quiet in order to make this tough decision as easy on him as possible. "Anything else, Captain?" inquired the weary-looking lieutenant. "No sir", came the reply. "Dismissed, then." As Olle walked out the door, Aleeha pulled her off to the side. "What'd the lieutenant say?", she asked in her husky, Shistavanen-accented voice. "He said that he could not send more out. Come to think of it, he never said anything about me sending a search party out... Aleeha, would you mind accompanying me on a rescue mission?" "Certainly not! How will we get away? It's not like we're a huge group that two wouldn't be missed from. Ranvus would be the only one left. He'd have a nerf! And what if we got caught? He'd skin us alive!" "Easy. We only work at night. Cover a couple miles each night, gradually getting farther and farther out, come back after an hour or two. Ranvus won't know the difference. And as for getting caught... we would be back in an hour or two. He;d be asleep and won't even notice our leave. And as for security footage, I can hack some pre-recorded images into the system that I've been saving for such a... rare occaision." "Olle, promise me that when you die you'll donate your brain to science", said the Shistavanen, who was entirely surprised that the crafty Bothan had managed to get her into this. "Does that mean you're in?" asked Olle with a wide smile across her face. "Yes, I suppose it does", sighed Aleeha. "Great. Seeya tonight at... 2300 hours, sharp. Bring your night vision scope for your sniper rifle", said Olle, thrilled. As the Bothan walked off, Aleeha sighed, still wondering just how she had been pulled into this. Chapter Six "Can I get you anything? The leaves of this plant, the Bespinian Floater, make an excellent tea. Shall I make you some?", asked Beschniawen. "Information, please. If you're so hospitable, why did you tie me up?" asked a very perplexed Gogrom. "I had to be sure that you wouldn't lash out at me when you woke up. You would injure yourself in doing so. Now, about that tea. Do you want it or not?" All of a sudden, Gogrom realised that, yes, indeed, he was very thirsty. He said yes, and the tall being busily got to work making it. "If you don't mind my asking... what are you?" asked Gogrom. "I am a botanist. I'm studying some native plant life here on..." began the scientist. "No, I mean what species", Gogrom interjected. "Oh, I am a Ho'Din. And what, pray tell, are you? I've never seen anything quite as... well, as... unique... as you." "I'm a Gand", answered Gogrom. "Oh, yes, i see. And what is your name?" inquired Beschniawen. "My name is of no concern", answered Gogrom. "Ophno Conserrn. Wello, Hello, Mr. Conserrn!" replied Beschniawen cheerfully. "What a nut job", muttered Gogrom. "Eh? Nuts? No, no, I don't grow nuts here... I do have some fruits, though..." As Beschniawen babbled on, Gogrom signaled to Miidbacca, and Miidbacca signaled back. They kept this sign language on back and forth until Beschniawen came bustling back with a variety of fruits. When the kettle whistled, Beschniawen set the fruit down, telling her "guests" to enjoy, and got the tea. "Shall you have some, too, Mr. Miidbacca? Here's yours, Mr. Conserrn. May I call you Ophno?" "Uh... sure. And thank you for the tea", replied Gogrom. "Rwaaa rggh rah ahhrah" said Miidbacca. "I'll hustle it right up, then, Mr. Miidbacca", said Beschniawen as she went off to get more tea. "Trust her? She's an insane 10-foot-high being with a mohawk and you want me to trust her?" whispered Gogrom, in reference to something Miidbacca had said earlier when they used sign language. "Rhh Gah Rawraaa Mrugh" said Miidbacca in a hushed tone. "Oh... I see." replied Gogrom. "See what?" asked Beschniawen as she come back with tea for Miidbacca. As she sat on the floor, a fruit fell next to her from a tree on a terrace above. She deftly caught the fruit without so much as looking at it before it touched the ground. As she contented herself with peeling it, Gogrom muddled for words. "I see that... that... that I should tell you my real name. My real name is.." began Gogrom. "Gogrom. Yes, I know. I knew when I rescued you from the other Imperial patrol", said the stately Ho'Din. "Because you're a Jedi. Miidbacca was just explaining that to me", said Gogrom. Beschniawen Velthopnue held forth about how she had sensed the Force in one of the group, but couldn't tell which. She had decided to watch them, and that's how she came to save Gogrom and Miidbacca from the Imperial patrol. Just as she finished her story by saying she had narrowed it down to the young Shistavanen female, the door was broken down. As Imperial troops charged in, they were met with the green blade of a lightsaber lancing from Beschniawen's hands. She struck down the first three, then reflected blaster bolts from the rest. As they fell, a red lightsaber sprouted from a shadow in the blaster smoke. "Inquisitor Kallus. So good of you to drop by", stated Beschniawen as she raised her lightsaber in Makashi salute, then lowered it in Makashi flourish. Kallus laughed, and then said "I brought you a present, Master Velthopnue. Oneness with the Force!" "Coincidence, I happen to have the same gift for you!" replied Beschniawen, even as she brough Miidbacca his blade and Gogrom his arrows with the Force. As they prepared to fight, Beschniawen yelled "Run! I'll hold him off long enough for you to escape". "What about you? We can't just leave you here!" "Just go!" she replied, parrying a blow. "Yes, run, cowards. Run!" said Kallus, laughing maniacally. Gogrom and Miidbacca ran for their lives. Chapter 7 "I don't know, Aleeha. I'm not getting any ammonia on my scope..." said Olle, uncertainly. "Maybe that was just some leftover traces from Gogrom's ammonia pod." "No, it was Gogrom's mask leaking. His ammonia pod's vapors couldn't reach outside. He's suffocating, Olle. I know it. ARGHHH!" Aleeha gasped in pain and doubled over. "What is it, Aleeha? What's wrong?" Asked Olle in an alarmed tone of voice as she came forward to catch the sniper. "No, stay back. It's not safe", replied Aleeha. "Are you ill? What's wrong?" asked Olle. "I don't know, Olle. There's just... there's a pain. Like someone stabbed me in the chest but i'm alive... I don't know." "Maybe we should rest", suggested Olle. "No. I'm fine. We should..." Began Aleeha. "Take a rest. You're looking ill. We should rest and then turn back", finished Olle. Aleeha took a moment to consider that, then conceded with an "ok". Meanwhile, Gogrom found it difficult to breathe. He and Miidbacca had been running for hours, stopping only to take short breaks for food, breath, and water. Gogrom had had to stop to breathe more and more often. At first, he attributed it to the rough terrain, but when the terrain smoothed out, he knew something was amiss when he still was short of breath. At the push of a button, his containment suit did a diagnostic check on itself. "Containment suit breached. Get to ammonia pod immediately. Containment suit breached", said the computer's voice. It repeated itself every couple of minutes. Gogrom's heart leapt up to his throat. Already, deadly amounts of oxygen were seeping in from the outside. If he didn't get to his ammonia pod soon, he would die. Already, as the ammonia leaked out, he felt himself suffocating. By his estimations they were still three miles from the base. As he and Miidbacca began to run again, Gogrom's legs wobbled, the the ground disappeared from under him as darkness descended over his consciousness... Aleeha finally felt well enough to travel again, and as she and Olle stood to return to the base, they heard a wild roar come from the wilderness. The two stopped and readied their weapons, when suddenly Miidbacca came roaring into the clearing with a large, lumpy object in his grasp. Upon closer inspection, Aleeha recognized this package as an unconscious Gogrom. As Miidbacca charged past, heading toward base, Aleeha and Olle ran to catch up. They made it into the base and to Gogrom's chamber. They opened the capsule that was his ammonia pod and set him in. They closed the door, and could hear the hiss of ammonia as it entered the chamber. Hours later, Gogrom emerged, his auxiliary suit on. After they all welcomed him back, Gogrom said he was very tired, and they all turned in for a night's rest. The dark side clouds everything. Impossible to see, the future is. Except a number, there is. Eight. A chapter, it is. In the near future, i see.
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