chapter eleven: the rebel
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Soyara Pov
The next morning, I woke up to the sound of blaring alarms and angry groan. We dressed in our flight suits and followed Lyra in what I assumed was formation to the hangar bay. She led us to our ships before pairing off into teams of two, with me as Gael's gunner.
As we rushed to our TIE's, no one said a word. I could tell Gael had his doubts about me based on his silence and unrelenting fidgeting, but that was understandable, given I had only been on base for mere hours. I sat in my seat, quickly familiarizing myself with the different controls. Never had I ever missed the comfort of my own X-Wing cockpit so much.Within moments, the TIE lifted off, racing out of the hangar at a high speed. When I let out a muffled gasp of awe at the speed of the TIE fighter, Gael chuckled, "Guess they don't fly TIE's like this back in the Academy, do they?"
I almost missed his comment as I felt my heart sink. In the distance, I saw the familiar shape of both A-Wings and X-Wings, out on patrol. They immediately turned to face Delta Squad, sealing their fate. Gael let out a laugh, "They had their chance. Their loss."
Lyra could be heard over the comms, "Gael, don't get ahead of yourself. We have orders, let's get them done. Sor, watch out for your pilot, he tends to be a little..."
"Enthusiastic," one of the other pilots called out.
"Exactly."
Gael spoke up for himself, "Hey, you can't say that you don't get excited to shoot down rebel scum, too. I just express it more...openly."
With each bit of banter, I sank lower in my seat. I was going to be shooting at my own allies. Worries filled my mind of accidentally shooting one of them, killing them in the process, the guilt of living with the death of a fellow rebel all for a cover, and the innumerable consequences of being found out by my new squad. I was torn between what was morally right and what was situationally right.
In fact, I was so caught up in my head that the I didn't realize my hands were already on the trigger, shooting at the A-Wing in my scope. Before I had fully come back to my senses, the A-Wing in my scope had burst into flames, exploding on contact with two green blasts that came from my own TIE. A hand flew from the console to my mouthpiece in horror as I took in the sight. Gael and another pilot let out a loud whoop as Lyra spoke above them, "Welcome to Delta Squad, Sor. You're officially one of us now."
When it became clear that this squad of rebels were outmatched, they made their escape to lightspeed, leaving nothing behind except the debris of three separate starfighters, one of them being my own fault. Delta Squad cheered and celebrated by showing off their favorite tricks all the way back to the Super Star Destroyer, except for me, who used the whole ride back to grieve the loss of my fellow rebels that I helped defeat.
"Alright squad, that's enough for now." All humor left her voice as she next addressed control, "Hangar eight, this is Sergeant Lyra of Delta Squad requesting permission for landing, over."
"Request received and accepted, proceed to hangar Delta Squad," the officer in the control station ordered.
When the TIE landed, I was the first to climb out. The knot in my stomach was threatening to come up, along with the small ration stick Gael had given me this morning after I told him that I had missed my meal time last night. As Lyra's second in command, he contrasted her in almost every way. Although he was confident in the cockpit as I had seen earlier, I found that outside his cockpit, he was just a soft-spoken boy, out of his element. He climbed out of the TIE right after me, worriedly checking on me, "Sorry if I spun you around too much. I forgot you are a shiny, but don't worry, it only gets worse from there." He chuckled softly at his own joke.
I nodded, holding my stomach to keep myself from hurling in my helmet. Lyra must have noticed my pain as she took off her helmet, "Sor, you good?"
I could only nod as I walked to the nearest refresher, just beyond the hangar entrance. There, I let myself become sick. I killed them. That was my shot that sent them up in flames, and I didn't even notice until it was too late.
When I came out of the refresher, I noticed Rafe, talking with Delta Squad, congratulating them on the small victory. His brown eyes met my grey ones as he beckoned me closer. "Hey Sor, I heard you took down your first rebel. Nice shot."
I managed to weakly smile at him, "Thanks, Rafe."
One of the other pilots spoke up before he could reply, "Alright, I'm heading to the mess to make up for the meal we lost because of that rebel scum. Anyone else wanna tag along?"
All of the others nodded in agreement as they began to walk towards the mess-hall. I however, lingered back from the group, hoping to slip by and find a new terminal to acquire the next set of plans needed: the weapons layout. Having the general layout helped, but since I only committed a small portion to memory, I once again found myself turned around. The hallways all looked the same to me, without any distinctive features. Finally, I located a larger terminal, but it was guarded by two troopers. Well, I wasn't counting on that. Maybe I'll be able to just slip in and out.
Determined to try my luck, I stiffly walked over to the computer, noticing the glances from the troopers in their white, pristine armor. They must be shinnies too. I can work with that.
"Trooper, this area is restricted to officer personnel and above only. What is your TK-number and reason for entry?"
My inability to use the Force was certainly irritating at this moment, but it wasn't an issue that a simple smuggler's lie couldn't fix, "TK-2187. Darth Malevolence wanted me to download a transmission that was intercepted from the rebels at this terminal and to bring it back to his quarters." Trembling just slightly, I showed them the cylinder, which they accepted without a second thought.
Once I was in the system, I found the weapons layout along with a log of destinations of each of its journeys. One particular planet made me pause. Endor. What is the Empire doing on Endor? It's an Outer Rim forest planet with little to none civilized inhabitants.
When the terminal beeped, alerting me that the information had been downloaded, I turned around, starting the long walk back to the mess-hall where I knew my squad and Rafe, would be waiting. However, there was someone else who was patiently waiting behind me. I spun around on my heel to say something to the trooper standing behind me, but I was cut off mid-thought as I stared straight into the golden eyes of Darth Malevolence.
He shook his head as he slightly smirked, "I told you, Soyara. You've never been very good at hiding from me."
Out from the shadows stepped out Rafe, with an evident smile on his lips. Clearly, he was proud of himself for ratting me out. I felt betrayal, but after a moment, I let the feeling pass. I guess that's what you get for trying to befriend the enemy.
From behind him came the rest of Delta Squad, the fearless pilots that had invited me in on such short notice. Sure, I had only known them for a mere day, but the hurt in their eyes reflected that of my own. They took me in, trusted me to keep them safe in battle, and had even officially welcomed me into their ranks all to find out that I was only using them as a cover. If given the chance, I would have happily brought them back to the Rebellion and flew with them myself. The chemistry of the squad really was unlike any I had known, but in playing the spy-game, I had taken advantage of that family bond that they so easily extended to me. It stung. Of course it did. Loyalty in the Empire was of utmost importance, something I had clearly broken in their eyes.
Darth Malevolence crossed his arms in front of him, "Commander Soyara Solo of the Rebel Alliance, did you really think your actions would go unnoticed? I sensed you the moment you landed, and with the aid of your 'friend', you fell right into my trap. Now," he grabbed the cylinder from my hand, "let's see what information you were planning to steal from the Empire this time."
He plugged the cylinder into the terminal as it brought up all the downloads. There it all layed out: the plans, layouts, and information on its journey log. He cocked an eyebrow, "It seems you had a bunch of good information to bring back to your little fleet, but now," he used the Force to make it float above his hand, "your efforts will be in vain." The cylinder snapped before falling into his hands.
I angrily glared at him, holding out my hand as if to throw him across the room with the Force, but Darth Malevolence chuckled as Rafe came behind me to bind my hands behind my back, "Something wrong?"
When I didn't meet his gaze, he cocked his head slightly, deep in thought. All of the sudden, his eyes widened in realization, "You cut yourself off from the Force, didn't you?"
I stayed silent, not wanting to admit that he was right. I had cut myself off, and it wasn't exactly like I could simply just flip a switch and bring it back. "I don't need the Force," I mumbled as I stepped back onto Rafe's foot, using my elbow to knock him to the ground as I started to make an escape. However, I didn't make it three steps before I felt a blast hit my chest. I gasped loudly as I fell to my knees. From behind me, I could hear Gael cry out loudly, "Lyra!"
She replied in a cold tone, "The only good rebel is a dead one."
As I fell forward, my eyes rolled back, causing me to black out before I hit the ground.