Chapter 1: Baptism By Fire

[Mara 29]

Suddenly Kaden realized he was famished. It had been a long time since breakfast before they went on their "blue milk run." He glanced at his chrono. He had missed lunch. All the chaos must have overpowered his hunger. That had never happened before, even in the worst battles he had flown in.

He shook his head and threw out some more debris. Kaden stood up, looking at everyone else left in the bridge. "I"m going to go find the mess hall... You're welcome to come with me..." He brushed off some dust off his flightsuit and headed out the remains of the door, now almost completely motivated by hunger.

[Drake 53]

Takeshi and Layla had given Nima the dress uniform that Jareth had stowed in his X-wing. They were now standing in the medlab, keeping Nat Riamor a little company while Nima cleaned Jareth's body in the other room.

Nat coughed and weakly said, "You did a fine job back there, Beskar."

"Thank you, sir" said Tak.

Nat nodded slowly. "If only we had done better. Perhaps we would not have suffered casualties."

Tak and Layla glanced uneasily at one another. He was about to say something to Nat when he received a comm call from Aeric Tunon. "Captain?"

"Tak, I want you to go back to the hangar," said the Captain. "Jaim has subdued an Imperial deck hand that must have hidden in one of the shuttles when we boarded and released the gas. Bring him up to the bridge and tie him up with the others."

"Copy that."

"Oh, and Tak...take your time" added Aeric.

Tak smiled. "Yes, sir." The Captain had just told him that he was free to question the deck hand. He probably wouldn't know much about important matters like the bridge crew did, but he might know things about the modifications to the shuttles that Jaim had mentioned.

"You go do your thing, babe," said Layla with a smile. "I'll stay here with the Lieutenant."

"Roger roger," said Tak while throwing a mock salute on his way out. "Take care, Lieutenant Blueberry."

[Mara 29]

Having a second thought, Kaden grabbed a rifle off one of the dead stormtroopers that lined the hall. He propped it up against his shoulder, walking casually through the corridor and looking for a working turbolift that he could take to the mess hall. He certainly hoped there were kitchen employees left.

[Princess 35]

Nima was in the middle of cursing out whomever had designed the New Republic Starfighter Command dress uniform in every language that she knew. "And I thought that this thing was hard to get on when you're alive. Sorry for all the manhandling Jareth, but this thing is even worse when you're dead weight." The bodystocking just did not want to go up. Finally, Nima gave it a tug and pulled it up over his hips. "Success!"

From there it was easy to pull it up over his chest and fasten it. In even less time, she had the jacket fastened and was checking all of his decorations to make sure that they were perfectly straight. Nima fussed a little more and was finally happy. She leaned forward and gave Jareth a gentle kiss on the forehead. "I'm so sorry this happened to you Jaerth. I would have liked to get to know you better." She stood there for a minute, thinking about the man that she knew so little about and then headed back towards Nat.

Nat was sleeping lightly. From the way that he was jerking, it looked like he was having a nightmare. Nima touched his arm gently. "Natri'amor, wake up, you're having a nightmare."

Nat awoke suddenly. "Huh? What?"

"You were having a nightmare. I couldn't let you thrash about like that or you'd tear out some stitches and have to spend even more time in the bacta tank." She paused. "I'm done with Jaerth, would you like a few minutes with him before you go into the bacta?"

Edited August 2, 2007 by Princess

[Drake 53]

His name is JARETH...not Jaerth.

Takeshi was beginning to know the ship like the back of his hand. He would certainly be glad to leave. The monotony of the Imperial vessel and the constant treks to and from the hangar bay were starting to bore him.

When he got to the hangar, Tak went over to the collection of modified shuttles and found Jaim's legs poking out from beneath one while he worked on the underside of the craft.

"Here for the prisoner," Tak said, announcing his arrival.

Jaim slid out to see who it was. He nodded and pointed in the general direction he had left the deck hand. "Over that-a-way." He slid back under and continued working.

Takeshi walked around the next shuttle over and found the deck hand hog-tied with dried blood under his nose. He was groaning through the gag in his mouth and looked like he was just regaining consiousness.

The deck hand's eyes bulged when Tak pulled out his dagger and knelt down next to him. He grinned as he pointed the blade at the captive's face just a few centimetres from his face. Instead of stabbing the young man, Takeshi used the dagger to cut his bonds free, then removed the gag.

"Don't try anything stupid or I'll brain ya," Tak said while brandishing the blade. "I just want to ask you a few easy questions."

[Mara 29]

Having been to the mess hall, Kaden came back out with a few more things stashed away in his sack. The mission hadn't been as fruitful as he had hoped. By now most of the regular staff had gone away and hid somewhere. The hall and kitchen were abandoned when he had gotten there. Kaden had taken advantage of this though, helping himself to a bunch of ration bars and other shelved foods. He didn't bother actually trying to cook anything.

Feeling full again and satisfied, he walked down the hall heading back towards the bridge. He had his rifle tucked under his arm as he walked, chewing on a ration bar. For this moment, at least, everything seemed okay. Kaden didn't think about sitting dead in space in an Imperial Interdictor or losing two squadmates or anything else that had happened earlier that day. He just ambled down the hallway impervious to a few scattered stormtrooper bodies here and there as he got a few hundred meters from the bridge.

He had taken another bite of the bar when he heard something up ahead. Something like scuffling. He stopped where he was and listened again, cursing himself for not having that blasted white helmet with the sensors. Not hearing anything more, he walked ahead again but slowly. Kaden kept his eyes peeled for any junctions with the hallway he was in just in case someone was hiding in wait or something.

[Rogue 4]

Nat was embarassed that she had caught him in that weak moment, a nightmare catching him offguard at a time like this. "Arni'soyacho, Nima'secura." he propped himself up, nodded. "I would appreciate that."

Sitting on a nearby bed, looking idly through some Imperial news on a datapad left int he med-bay (an obviously amusing thing when you knew how much they twisted the truth) Layla Nasrin pretended not to notice his nightmare. He didn't think she was blind enough to not see it, but she was obviously smart enough to stay quiet about it.

[Mara 29]

Passing further through the hall, he heard nothing more. Kaden shrugged and kept on, figuring it was probably just a small rodent or droid. Or both. He finished the ration bar and stuffed the wrapper in his pocket.

On his way, he noticed he was nearing the med-bay. He decided to look in to see what was going on, not because he wanted all his blaster burns checked out. They didn't even hurt anymore. He dropped down the rifle before entering; he wouldn't need it any longer.

Kaden stood in the doorway and reached into his pack, realizing that farther in Lt. Riamor was having a private moment with Lt. Daragon. He shook away feelings of his former roommate and wingmate, looking over instead to Layla, who seemed bored.

He waved a ration bar at her. "Hungry?"

[Rogue 4]

She looked up from the datapad to the dangling ration bar. Her stomach growled audibly, and she zoned out, thinking about ow wonderful it would be to satisfy that need for food. She took the bar from his hand, opening the packaging greedily. "Kaden Staal, I think I love you."

[Mara 29]

He couldn't help rolling eyes, but then he reached into his sack and pulled out a couple more bars, tossing them on the bed beside her. Kaden pulled another one for himself and bit into it.

"Seems all the kitchen staff left as well during the fight. I could only find some rations and odds and ends."

He felt the need to say something; he didn't just want to leave the food and run.

[Rogue 4]

"If you were a civilian would you want to get caught in the crossfire?" She asked, biting into the ration bar.

"So, Kaden, what are you going to do when we get to Coruscant, recieve medals of excellence for our sheer brilliance and bravery and get a nice little piece of vacation." At the look he gave her she laughed. "Allow me my delusions."

[Mara 29]

He shrugged. "I really don't know. I just had a... a vacation. I'd rather go back to action."

[Rogue 4]

"Well, with the unpredictable amount of time off in this job," Layla smiled at him. "I can't wait for an opportunity to go home, see my family. You know how it goes."

[Mara 29]

He took another bite of his ration bar before answering. "No, not really..."

Kaden's face softened and he tried a smile. "Well, I think I"ll see if the rest on the bridge are hungry." He picked up his pack and headed off to the bridge.

Once there he handed out some more ration bars to his hungry squad mates and left the remaining ones out so when the rest came back they would have something to eat. He sat down by the controls and consoles, once in awhile checking in with Artie and the other droids to see how they were doing on the coolant lines and other problems.

Edited August 4, 2007 by Mara

[Drake 53]

"Now, you look like a smart kid," Tak said to the deck hand. "Let's start with an easy one. How about your name?" He leaned up against one of the shuttles and absently toyed with the dagger.

The deck hand looked incredibly nervous. He took a big gulp and managed to squeek out a, "E...Ensign Ross...Ross Suder. Im...Imperial num...number 4390...."

Tak cut him off. "Let's pass on formalities, Ross. May I call you Ross? There's no need for Imperial codes or what-not. It just makes you another one of the faceless herd. My name is Takeshi, by the way, but you can call me Tak." He flashed Ross a grin.

Ross took a deep breath then repeated himself, "Ensign Ross Suder. Imperial number 439051...."

Takeshi's grin disappeared. Before Ross could finish, he strode over to the deck hand's sitting place and gave him a vicious backhand, sending the young man to the floor. Ross yelped in pain and surprise. He clutched the side of his face and looked up at Tak with fear in his eyes.

"What did I just tell you, Ross? No formalities, okay? I don't want your rodding life story." He knelt down and pointed the tip of the dagger under Ross' chin. "Let's come to an understanding, you and I. I will ask the questions and you will answer them. Sound fair?"

Ross was beginning to sweat profusely. He gave the slightest of head nods, fearing a slip of the blade.

Tak grinned again and pulled back the dagger. "Good!" He returned to slouching against the shuttle. "If you try pulling that number business again, I'm going to do worse than a little smack across the face."

Ross's cheek was beginning to turn red and swell as he sat back up. He was shaking and looked very unqualified to handle interrogation. Let alone an interrogation from a slightly insane Imperial-loathing Mandalorian with a flip-flopping mood.

Takeshi continued cheerfully, "Now I think we got off to the wrong start. First, I would like to inform you that you are now officially aboard the Revenant, the New Republic's brand new previously-enjoyed interdictor cruiser. Isn't that exciting?"

The young deck hand looked confused at Tak's methods but he nodded. "I...guess so."

"You're absolutely right, Ross. Oh, one more thing...you're a prisoner of the New Republic Defense Force. Sorry to break it to you but that's what you get for playing on the losing side. You'd think you would have learned after Endor." Tak shook his head. "So tell me...what's so special about these shuttles?"

[Rogue 4]

Layla smiled to Nima. "Well, it looks like Kaden's trying now...I feel bad for getting in his face yesterday, but...I guess it had some positive consequences."

"I should probably go find something useful to do..." She looked over to the room where Nat had been wheeled in by Jareth. "So," she smiled conspirationally at the Twi'lek medic.. "Should I leave you two unchaperoned?"

[Drake 53]

Ensign Suder gulped and kept silent for a long moment. Takeshi continued to smile back at him, patient for an answer. He continued to play with the dagger, making Ross even more uncomfortable.

Finally Ross said, "I...Captain Brax ordered us not to say..."

Tak stopped toying with the blade and held it loosely, pointed at Ross. "I'm afraid your beloved Captain is dead. You should see him. He looks a lot...thinner. So I guess that means your orders are moot."

The deck hand sighed in when seemed to be relief. "That's...too bad."

Tak raised an eyebrow. "I take it this Brax was none too friendly to the crew?"

"He was a tyrant in all forms. He interrogated the crew whenever someone made the slightest mistake. If someone even looked at him the wrong way, they were thrown into his personal torture chambers. And...it wasn't uncommon to find a crewmate...disappeared, if you know what I mean."

[Princess 35]

Nima looked over at Layla and stuck her tongue out. "Actually, I'm about to go set up the bacta tank and dump him into it. If I wait any longer, he's gonna have some nasty scars. The one thing that I haven't seen here yet though is a 2-1B droid, so I guess I'm not leaving til I find one because I can't leave him unmonitored in the tank."

[Rogue 4]

"If I find one in my travels I'll be sure to send him this way." Layla told her. "I was just going to head up to the communications center and see if I can be of some use."

[Princess 35]

"Thanks." Nima stood and headed over to the bacta tank. She stared at the settings panel for a minute and after punching some buttons, the tank started filling with the thick pink goo.

[Drake 53]

Takeshi nodded at Ross' revelation. "I see. So what did this tyrant want with these shuttles?"

Ross looked conflicted. He was torn between his loyalty to his Captain and the man who abused the deck hand and his comrades.

Finally, he managed, "We were under the command of Warlord Zsinj before he died. Captain Brax was always working on schemes to try to overthrow him and become Warlord. For years, the Captain had us secretly work on upgrading and retrofitting our ships to give us the upper hand. Now that Zsinj is dead, his plan was to turn our hidden arsenal against the remaining lesser warlords and eventually the New Republic."

"So what were you waiting around with your gravity wells on for? Did you know we were coming?" Tak asked.

Ross shook his head. "I don't think so, no. I don't know. I'm not privvy to that kind of information. I know I heard my superiors talking about another Star Destroyer that was supposed to be passing through the system. Maybe that was our target? Uh...I mean Captain Brax's target."

"Indeed," Tak said. "Who was on the Star Destroyer?"

Ross shrugged. "I don't know. I'm just a deck hand."

Tak started playing with his dagger again, making Ross nervous. "I think you know more than you're letting on. I think you know who was on that ship."

The young man took a nervous gulp. "Uhh...yeah. I overhear lots of things."

"So it seems," said Tak.

"I'm not sure who specifically but apparently it was someone important to the Empire. Zsinj was afraid of him."

Takeshi raised an eyebrow and pointed the dagger at Ross. "Him?"

Ross shook his head. "Yeah! All I know is what I heard and I heard that this guy was powerful. Zsinj and Brax were afraid that he would reunite the Empire."

"And that would have been a bad thing?"

"To the Warlord, yes" said Ross, nodding. "They wanted to control the Empire themselves and they didn't want this new guy disrupting their plans."

Takeshi leaned back against the shuttle. "You have been very helpful, Ross Suder, but I have one more question. Do you know the name of the man who could reunite the Empire?"

Ross looked scared. He had no idea, Takeshi knew. He didn't know if his failure would result in death by the blade.

"I...I think it...it was something li...like..." he sputtered and paused, racking his mind for a name, "Mi...Mitth...something. I'm sorry...I can't remember what it was."

Takeshi nodded and smiled. "It's alright, Ross. After all, you're only a deck hand. Let's head on up top and we'll tie you up with the rest of the bridge crew."

Ross nodded and stood. Tak pulled out a blaster and pointed it towards the door. Ross took the hint and started walking with Tak following behind.

[Rogue 4]

Layla took her time walking up to the communications room. She didn't see any 2-1B's on the way, but she commed Arlan to let him know Nima was on the lookout for one. He'd know better than she where they would be. When she got to the communications room she sat down in front of the console. Just as they had announced on the Bridge earlier, outbound communications were down.

She let out a sigh after running a diagnostics. Apparently the problem was external, which made it that much harder to fix.

Well, nothing I can do about it now.

She instead decided to do what she was best at: prying. Shifting anxiously into the chair, she ran her fingers over the control pad. Let's see who these guys have been communicating with...

Her lips pursed in concentration as she came across a list of heavily encrypted comm calls. "Well these must be important..." She pulled a small chip from the pocket of her flightsuit, slipping it into the panel. It was a program Sena had developed years ago for her solo missions. The program on it knew more Imperial codes than Layla could name, and after scanning hopefully it would be able to translate it.

She waited idly for a good twenty minutes before the console beeped. "Heh...what do you know. Our idiot Imperial Captain's been recording his conversations...and on holo too..."

A wicked grin spread across her face.

She copied the data onto her holorecorder that she had thankfully brought along. Once finished she also sent specific holo's of the Captain over to the EnhanceScan general purpose scanner she carried. The scanner took those holos, analyzing the Captain's body type, manerisms and voice patterns. Then it was all a matter of sending that information over to the Cq-3.9x holographic image disquiser for use.

She opened up her comm frequency. "Captain, I'm up at the communications center." Layla's voice came over the general frequency. "When you get a moment I've managed to decode incoming and outcoming communications record. There's also a few nice...surprises I'd like you to see, if you get a moment sir. I can bring them to you of course, if it's more convenient."

[Drake 53]

Ross led the way to the bridge with Takeshi following, blaster in hand. On the turbolift ride up, Tak took a pair of stun cuffs from his belt, that he had grabbed before heading to the hangar, and secured Ensign Suder's wrists behind his back. He set the cuffs to the lowest setting.

"I trust you won't try to flee," Tak said. "I am quite good at throwing daggers, you know."

Ross nodded nervously. "I'll be good."

"Good."

The lift doors slid open and Tak led the prisoner to the room where they were keeping the detained bridge crew. Ross gave a half-hearted smile and shrug then found a spot on the floor in the corner of the room.

Takeshi went over to Captain Tunon as he was speaking on his comm.

"...little busy up here, Three," Aeric said to Layla. "I'd prefer you come back with anything useful."

"Sure thing, Cap'n!" came Layla's chipper voice over the comm.

Aeric rolled his eyes at her cheerfulness. Tak just smiled.

The Captain turned to Takeshi and said, "Beskar. Find out anything useful from the deck hand?"

"Actually, sir, I did. It would seem that the Imperial Captain Brax was a subordinate of Warlord Zsinj. He was going to use his modified shuttles and weaponry to attack the other lesser warlords in a bid to take control of the remnants of the Empire."

"I see," said Aeric. "Well it's good that we stopped them, then. Another allied Imperial force would mean a significant threat to the New Republic."

Tak shifted and cleared his throat. "Well, Captain, that's not all the deck hand revealed. He said that he believed Captain Brax was waiting, with the interdictor, for another Imperial leader. Apparently, this man was powerful enough to reunite the Empire. The prisoner could only remember a first name. Does 'Mitth' ring a bell?"

Aeric shook his head. "Never heard of him. The Defense Force brass may, though. Good work in learning this information. Keep it up and I may have to promote you." Aeric immediately regretted saying that. So soon after Lieutenant Daragon? You idiot!

Takeshi frowned for a moment, then gave a tight smile. "Thank you, sir. I would be...honoured."

The Captain nodded then turned away, looking for something else to occupy his thoughts. He went over to Aston, who was halfway buried in the base of the console with cables and wires pulled out around him like a mass of snakes.

"Uhh...Kendall?" Aeric asked.

Aston jerked and a thud could be heard through the console, followed by a muffle that sounded like a fairly colourful word. The yound slicer poked his head from beneath the console. He was wearing a thick set of electrobinoculars that gave him a distinctive bug-eyed look. "What's up, boss?" he asked.

"First...what are you doing?"

"Oh, that," Aston said. "Just rewiring the security systems. When I'm done, they'll be 4.298 times more efficient than before!"

Takeshi spoke before Aeric could. "Our security systems are down?"

"Of course not!" said the slicer, with a grin. "They're live. I could get a fatal shock at any possible moment but I won't because I'm just that good. Trust me!"

Aeric sighed. "Right. Just...tell me what the situation on the engines and communications array is."

"Copy that." Aston took a step to his right and sat down at the console next to the one he was working on. After a few moments of trying to peer through his electrobinoculars, he flipped them up and got to work checking the systems. A few moments later he said, "Coolant system is back up. Engine efficiency is at eighty percent but within operational standards for a hyperspace jump. The comm array was damaged from the outside so main communications won't be up unless someone wants to go EV. The astromechs have brought up secondary communications so we're cool for calling Coruscant before the defense system blows us to atoms."

"Good," said Aeric. He turned to Kaden at the helm. "Officer Staal. Our engines are back up. Punch in the coordinates for Coruscant and jump. I want to go straight there."

Kaden nodded and carried out the order.

Captain Tunon activated the ship-wide comm. "Prepare for hyperspace jump."

The Revenant slowly turned to its new vector and launched into hyperspace.

[Princess 35]

Nima paused outside the door where Nat was sitting with Jareth. She hated to interrupt but it was time. She knocked. "Natri'amor, I don't want to interrupt but I need to get you into the bacta tank or you won't heal correctly."

[Rogue 4]

Layla grinned as she turned off her comm. She unplugged her gear from the console, strapping the holo-beltt around her waist.

This is going to be fun!

She braced herself as they entered hyperspace, and took the turbolift up to the bridge-level. Standing outside the door to the bridge she was grinning like mad as she commed the Captain. "Captain, I'm coming in now. I would appreciate it if you ordered everyone not to shoot, sir."

Aeric's voice sounded perplexed. "And why exactly would we shoot?"

"Well...you'll see in a moment."

"Just what exactly is going on?"

Layla reached down, turning on the holoprojector before pressing the key to open the bridge doors. But when she walked inside, Layla wasn't who they saw.

Instead the visage of Imperial Captain Brax, now a known associate of Warlord Zsinj entered the bridge. Everyone stared in shock and surprise as the bulky man who was supposed to be dead in the engine room stood before them in a crisp military uniform. He walked across the threshold, stopping in front of the Captain.

"And that..." his voice emerged, his face making the same manerisms as the man had in life. "Is why I said to make sure nobody fires."

***

"It's quite alright, Nima." Nat said, before saying a final goodbye wish to Jareth. "I'm done anyway."

He looked up at her as she entered the room from behind his head. "Thank you for letting me have this opportunity before heading into the tank."