Star Wars: Rebellion

Baren Averros looked over Mos Eisley Spaceport from a nearby cliff with his rangefinder, looking over the small town slowly. "Odd. Why would Stormtroopers be all the way out here...especially in Hutt Space..." he muttered to himself as he saw the platoon of Storm Troopers greet the Imperial Army garrison commander, "Awful lot of them too..." he slipped his rangefinder under his cloak and threw the loose hood of the light fabric over his head as he stood. "This isn't good...They have to be up to something..." and with that, he hopped onto his nearby speeder bike and zoomed towards the adobe colored town, wanting to find out more before reporting back his findings.

 

Raene looked out onto the deck of the Firelance, watching as the crew scurried by. It was busy for sure, but it didn't compare to the activity pre-mutiny. The remaining intelligence officers on board had picked up encoded transmissions from Imperial Garrison on Tatooine, speaking of a Jedi. It sounded well founded enough to be true.

"Idle her in the nearby nebula. We'll take the shuttles to Mos Anek, to avoid arousing suspicion from Imperials, and take the speeders into Mos Eisley. If there really is a Jedi there, I want to find them. Captain Ansel, you're in charge until we get back."

The crew resounded with, "Yes ma'am!"s and everyone got to their stations. Raene made her way to the launch bay with enough personnel to fill up two shuttles. After a short gear check and a run down on the plan, they dusted off and made their way to Mos Anek.

Mos Anek was a run down spaceport, if you could even call it that. While it was as criminal as Mos Eisley, anyone who took their misdeeds seriously moved to Mos Eisley. In many respects, it was a dying town. However, that was what kept it out of Imperial interest.

A small group of "Stormtroopers" stayed behind to guard the shuttles, while the rest took speeders into the nearby city.

Raene shouted over the noise of the engines. "We're only 20 minutes out from Mos Eisley! A quick run-down before we enter! First, we find and kill the reinforcements before they reach the garrison! Then, we cause as much ruckus as we can in the city, and if I know Jedi, our target will come to us! A final note: The Exchange has put a very high price on Jedi, live or dead, so the area is likely to be swarming with bounty hunters. If any of them try to interfere, they are KILL ON SIGHT. Do I make myself clear?"

The group nodded, and began to talk among themselves for the remainder of the trip.

 

Zola Skar walked through the crowed streets of Mos Eisley. The area was no stranger to bounty hunters like herself, so no one paid her any mind. Not that she cared; she had a job to do. She had received a contract from none other than Jabba the Hutt himself, and very few bounty hunters were stupid enough to try to turn him down and live. Besides, if he paid well, what reason was there to turn him down?

But even bounty hunters needed to remain hydrated in the intense heat from Tatooine's twin suns, and Zola knew a place where she could get a good drink or two...

 

It didn't take Raene's group long to find the Imperials. They had passed their shuttle on the way there, and there would be no reason for the reinforcements to not take the shortest route to the garrison.

"Remember, they do not know we are traitors."

However, when they had caught up to the reinforcements, they had just entered the building.

"Damn! No way we can successfully assault that with our manpower. Alright, Plan B. These civilians think we're in with the Empire. Let's get them angry. Push them around, torch some buildings, throw thermal detonators if you have to. If we can incite a riot, the garrison will likely respond, and the civvies will fight back. With the reinforcements, some of they may die, but it will all be worth it if we lure out the Jedi. All of you, split up, maintain commlinks."

Raene took two "Stormtroopers" with her to the local cantina, knowing full well an Imperial wouldn't be well received in there.

 

When Baren arrived at Mos Eisley itself, the Imperial Army and Stormtroopers had already set up small checkpoints at all the entrances to the spaceport. He managed to slip in without issue after convincing the checkpoint he was a hunter back from a failed expedition and slowly made his way on his bike through the winding streets of Mos Eisley. He pulled over after seeing the platoon leader of the Stormtroopers, the garrison commander, and a few of each group chatting together in hush tones and moving quickly. Thankfully, the streets quieted slightly as Eisley-ians stopped talking long enough to glare at the Imperials, but even so, he could only pick up bits and pieces. Something about a...code 66Sierra-Delta, and a possible...Order...Three-Seven? Three-Eleven? He couldn't tell for sure, but if his memory was right about what those orders were from the Academy, that meant they were at least there to hunt down a Jedi, and they might execute order protocol 37 or 311. If it was 37...Needless to say, Baren quickly found an alleyway after the Imperials passed and slipped out his encrypted holo-transmitter.
"To all cells in and around Tatooine; This is Agent Overwatch. A platoon of Troopers has reinforced a company sized garrison of Army at Eisley. Possible Jedi sighting, possible atrocities planned to draw out Jedi." He said quickly and bluntly before turning off the transmitter
"Hey! You!" Baren heard yelled at him from behind, with the distinctive slightly-robotic sounding undertone of a Stormtrooper. Baren slowly turned around to see three Stormtroopers, blasters raised and pointing at him, "What are you doing there?! Hands in the air, now!" a trooper barked.
Seeing no way out of it, Baren slowly complied, raising his arms in the air in surrender and thinking to himself, whelp, it's been a nice run.

 

Raene ignored the malicious looks towards her and her men, and monitored the HoloNet feeds of the nearby area.

Reports of Stormtroopers throwing explosives indiscriminately, seizing legal goods from market stalls, and committing other crimes have started to come in. Over comms, she had heard one of her men was injured in a warehouse shootout with some of Jabba's goons.

"I'm sick and tired of these damn Imperials! We ought to do something about them!" One HoloNet user wrote. Everything was going according to plan.

 

Zola sat at the bar with her drink, attempting to ignore the Imperial presence nearby. She wanted to stay as low-profile as possible, and she didn't want to start a fight if she didn't have to. Besides, she was really thirsty.

 

Two of the Stormtrooper stepped towards Baren, blasters raised and at the ready the whole time as the third switched between watching the approach and shooing off any onlookers. "Take off your cloak." one ordered now that they were within 10 feet and clearly about to start a patdown. Baren noticed the third stormtrooper focus solely on the street as the two closest to him kept their blasters trained on his head. As Baren slide off the cloak, allowing the Troopers to get a full look at his face as well as revealing his blaster rifle and pistol, he noticed the guarding Trooper get into a heated discussion with a pair of other Stormtroopers before the pair stormed off. Baren narrowed his eyes, he knew protocol, and that didnt match...those Troopers wanted something, bad.
"Oi! Civvie!" One of the two searching troopers yelled at him, a whack to his gut snapping him out of his focus and doubling over. He was immediately pushed fully to his knees as he felt his weapons basically ripped off him, "What are you doing with weapons the rebel scum use?!" One demanded
Baren groaned as he looked up at them, "I-I am just a...hunter..." he breathed out, "These were cheap weapons...Just got em...couple weeks ago!"
"Yeah, we'll see about that." The other trooper scoffed, "Scan him, see if he pulls any positives." The other trooper nodded and pulled out a face scanner and Baren winced instinctively at the bright light before soon the facial recognizing emitted a loud alarm
"Got a match. Baren Averros. Wanted on 20 counts of murder, a count of desertion, 43 counts of assault, 31 counts of aiding traitors, and considered 'high risk' for being part of the Rebellion." The scanner trooper told the other
Baren chuckled lowly, "All that from escaping a 'training camp' that was little better than a prison? Hah. Surprised your little Empire didn't add more just for the hell of it, that's what they did to Alderaan after al-" He was cut short with a sharp whack across the face with the butt of a blaster.
"Quiet! We should kill you right here, but Lieutenant Worsal will probably like you to be made a...public example of justice!" one of the troopers said before dragging him to his feet. Baren tried to go for his holotransmitter, which he had rigged to explode if the right code was entered as a true last resort, but in his disoriented state, it was obvious, and he got whacked again into unconsciousness.

 

Raene looked up from her datapad and scanned the bar. Nothing out of the ordinary. Mostly just lowlifes coming to escape the heat. However, there was a person wearing power armour. Probably high-end stuff. She stood up from her booth, and walked over to the bar to get a closer look. She noticed the Mandalorian Insignia on their armour.

Sitting down next to the figure, she asked, "What brings a Mando out to this sector?"

 

"Bounty hunter," replied Zola, "I've got a job to do. Heard there was someone on this planet that Jabba wants dead. I'm trying to lay low and have a good drink in the meantime."

Zola lowered her glass onto the bar. "What about you?" she added, turning to face the apparent Stormtrooper.

 

"I guess you could say I'm looking for someone too."

Raene was certain this woman was after the Jedi.

"If I were you, I'd get on out of here. It's about to get ugly real quick. I heard some of the civvies are going to attack the garrison. Not that I don't think you can't handle yourself, but I have a feeling you don't want to be there when a certain someone shows up."

 

Baren woke to being dragged through the streets of Mos Eisley, but he found himself seemingly jumping from place to place. One moment he was looking down at the sand road of Mos Eisley, next he was being dragged up a flight of stairs. When he fully came to, his head was still feeling off, but he didnt know if he had a concussion yet or not. He took stock of the room he was it. It was your standard Mos Eisley adobe clad room. He blinked several times and tried to adjust himself only to feel his hands restrained. He looked over the side to see his hands hand-cuffed to the metal chair he was sat on. "Have a good nap?" A voice remarked sarcastically at him. Baren blinked and looked up to see a man in an Imperial uniform sat across him, with another in stormtrooper armor but without his helmet pacing behind the man. "Im glad youre awake. We have so, so much to do, and so little time before your execution traitor." the one in the uniform told him.
Baren looked a bit closer at the uniform, "I.I?" he muttered
"N.I.V. to be percise, Captain Taleon. And you're former Recruit Baren Averros, of Kuat. Codename Zemlja or Overwatch, depending on your assignment with your rebel friends. You're a long way from your home cell, aren't you?"
Baren shuddered as he felt an uncomfortable feeling sink into him, he knew what it was, truth serum. "Y-yes." He muttered, restraining against the urge to spill his guts about everything even remotely related to it.
"Can't we just kill him!?" the stormtrooper demanded, "If you already know this, what can this lowly scum possibly know! Shoot him!"
"Quiet Lieutenant. He could tell us so, so very much. Names, locations, even something as so small as his mission can tell us quite valuable information." Taleon responded, "Now...Averros. Tell us, what happened to your...accosiates you left the Academy with."
Baren fought for a few seconds before he felt the effects of the stinging truth serum dig deeper, encouraging him to just get it over with, to tell nothing but the truth and everything will be fine. But before he could open his mouth, a stormtrooper burst into the room.
"Lieutenant! We have a situation! There's a mob converging on our position, claiming we've been blowing up their town and beating every local in sight!" the storm trooper exclaimed.
"Impossible. I havent ordered such things! This is a search mission, not an occuption!" the lieutenant replied, a scowl coming across his face, "We have someone sabotaging us, somehow getting ahold of our armor. Fine! Form a defensive position, fire at will as soon as the mob starts to attack! Stun preferable, but dont hestitate to use kill!" the lieutenant ordered before storming out.
"Well well mister Averros, looks like we have a...new line of questioning." Taleon said, a sly grin crossing his face as if Taleon felt he was closing in on exactly what he wanted, and Baren knew it; where more rebels were, and names.

 

"Luckily for me, I've finished my drink," replied Zola as she paid for said drink. She didn't need to be in the middle of a fight at the moment.

"I was planning on getting out of here anyway," she added as she put her helmet back on, "Can't do what I came here for when I'm sitting on my ass in some cantina."

 

Raene grumbled, but before she could continue her line of thought, the cantina was rocked by the low rumble of an explosion. Raene looked to her men, who got up, and proceeded to walk out of the cantina. She turned on her commlink, and attempted to call one of her stormtroopers.

"Private Korr, come in."

The small disk flickered for a moment, before displaying a holographic projection of one of her men, Private Korr, in his stormtrooper armor.

"Ma'am! The mob has reached the garrison, and along with it some well armed scoundrels who aren't too happy the 'Empire' has started attacking them."

"Good work, Private!" She commended the soldier, before switching the commlink to communicate with everyone.

"The plan has worked! Before we engage the next step, I want scanning probes planted around the outskirts of Mos Eisley. That way, if our Jedi comes in, we'll know just when to go for him. Once that's done, I want everyone to rendezvous near the Garrison's backdoor, we'll enter, and launch an attack from inside while they're dealing with the mob. Release any prisoners you find, and if you think they might be useful on board the ship, bring them with you. If not, turn them on the Empire for some added chaos."

 

Through the walls of the Imperial garrison building that Baren was in, he could hear the indistinct yelling of the approaching mob, and the intelligence officer's new line of questioning based around the mob was proving quite beneficial, as Baren was just as clueless as the officer as to the instigators plan or identities. Indistinct blaster fire suddenly rang out, soon followed by panicked screaming as the platoon of stormtroopers alongside several Imperial army troops opened fire on the mob, dispersing it bloodily. "It sounds like the little problem is being...dealt with." Captain Taleon mused, "Really should just request this "city" base-delta-zero'd after we mop up." he said with a slight grin towards Baren, knowing he would know what the code meant.
"Y-you can't just blast the town! You'd be declaring war on the Hutt! And I kn-" Baren nearly yelled at him, but before he could continue, Taleon silenced him.
"You are lucky this backwater world doesn't have the devices available to ensure your servility, traitor. But yes, we can. And why should you care if this...spaceport, was eliminated? And if the Hutts truly cared about what happened here, why would they not utter nary a complaint about a permenant garrison? That's right, they don't. All they care about is the spaceport itself, and that would be easy enough to leave be while we turned every last citizen of "Mos Eisley" to dust. And who in the galaxy would care? A town of a few thousand, all of whom are guilty of some crime, demolished on the Outer Rim? No one...except..." Taleon slowed towards the end, letting the truth serum force Baren to finish.
"The...Jedi...that is possibly on the planet."

 

Raene's group navigated the garrison without much trouble. A small group of five stayed behind to cover the exit, while the rest easily strolled into the armory, which was criminally under defended. There, they stocked up on energy packs, thermal detonators, and most importantly - "The Corellian Window," a breaching charge that was quite impressive. It was incredibly simple to set up, and utilized a state of the art laser cutting system that silently weakened vulnerable points in a structure, before exploding with a blinding flash on the other side, giving the attackers quite the advantage in breaching a room.

Raene carried the briefcase holding the explosive to the crew's quarters, which was right next to the prison block. Thankfully, no one was resting inside. How could they with a riot outside?

She made sure she was facing the right wall, before opening the briefcase, and attaching the heavy cylinder to the wall with the powerful adhesive on the belly. Before pushing down the plunger, she turned to her troops.

"This is it. Once this thing blows, we'll have a hole wide enough for three of us to enter at a time, and a whole lot of smoke. We'll be taking them by surprise, so try and down as many you can before taking cover in the room. Remember, set your visors to thermal so you can see through the smoke. We don't want you injuring the prisoners. Now, we have fifteen of us. Line up in rows of three, and go in as soon as the row ahead of you clears the hole. The smoke won't last long, so we need as many of you to get through as we can, to lay down enough cover fire to get the remaining groups in safely. Let's do the Galaxy proud!" She proclaimed, before pushing down the plunger.

As the stormtroopers lined up, they could faintly hear the whirring of the mechanism in motion, before it came to an abrupt halt. Not even a second after this halt, a deafening boom tore the wall open, and the first row charged in, hitting the unlucky imperials inside with deadly accuracy, aided by their foes being blinded from the explosion. They took cover, and two more groups, along with Raene, went in before the smoke cleared. The Imps inside had taken heavy casualties already, but the blinding effects had worn off, giving them a fighting chance.

 

Both Baren and Taleon jerked at the sound of the explosion from inside the building and the sound of blaster fire. Taleon immediately pulled out his holotransmitter, "This is Captain Taleon to the corvette Nightlock, the garrison is under attack, probable rebels, rebels on mission to locate Jedi. I am evacuating immediately!" He said, storming out of the room through a door behind Baren and away from the sound of fighting. Baren swallowed as he heard the sound of boots running around, mixed between the plasticy dull sound of storm trooper armor, snd the boots of imperial army infantry running towards the blast. Judging from what he could hear, it sounded like a squad a stormtroopers had entered the building to reinforce those being attacked, along with several Imperial infantry. All he could do was sit and wait...

 

Raene ducked to cover, as a hail of blaster bolts came down around her. No casualties on her side yet, but it didn't seem likely the remainder of her forces could make their way into the prison. She shouted back into the hole, over the blaster fire. "HOLD THE LINE! REINFORCEMENTS WILL BE COMING, DON'T LET THEM THROUGH!"

The soldiers on the other side of the breach took defensive positions, and readied for the imperials to come through the doors.

Raene then raised her men covering their escape. "Change of plan, we're dug in at the cell blocks! They haven't turned on you yet, have they?"

"No ma'am."

"Good. Make your way to the generator room, and cut power to the prison block, then destroy the control panel so they can't fix it! That should lower the ray shielding keeping the prisoners inside, and they might just join our side!"

The soldiers on the other line nodded, before cutting comms, and making their way to the mission area.

The shootout lasted for about 10 minutes before the power was cut, with Raene's men on the other side of the breach taking losses.

The lights suddenly flickered, and the ray shields containing the prisoners in their cells was shut off. Those quick enough to realize this ran out of their cells before the backup generator kicked in. The escapees took the imperials by surprise, and wrestled blasters from their hands, overpowering a few and turning their weapons on them. Amid the chaos, Raene signaled for her men guarding the breach to come through. They did, narrowly avoiding blaster fire from the attacking Imperials.

Two had died defending the breach, and one was injured. However, it would be much easier to defend the prison, now that most of her men were in one place, and the room was clear.

"Watch that hole, and release the rest of the prisoners, see if you can't arm them with weapons from the dead!" Raene proclaimed, as she began opening the cells. She picked up an E-11 blaster rifle off the corpse of a dead imperial, and shot the control panel of what seemed to be an interrogation room. She walked inside, and noticed a young man, who was visibly bruised, hand cuffed to a chair.

"We're busting you out of here, along with the rest of the prisoners, cooperate, and we'll get along fine."

 

Baren looked up at the new arrival into his prison cell, raising an eyebrow in question, "Going to order me around eh?" he asked her, "Whatever, I need to get back to my squad. And you need to get out of here." he continued, "My interrogator ran out of here, a captain of Imperial Intelligence, demanding help. Considering what he said..." Baren shuddered a little, "They might base-delta-zero this entire city, especially as I believe the Hutts had ceded control of the city to them for some reason. That one Im not too sure about however.." He shook his head, "Get me out of here, and I'll help."