Shadows of our Fathers - 2 BBY

[Silus Xilarian]

They were in hyperspace when Silus woke from his nap. His head still felt a size too small but for the most part his hangover was starting to subside. He rolled over and let his legs kind of lazily fall off the cot as he turned to sit up. A quick glance at the chrono on the wall revealed that he’d been asleep for about 4 hours. He slowly got up, stretching the stiffness out of his joints as he made his way to the front of the shuttle.
He found Bette in the pilot seat and dropped down in the co-pilot chair beside her with a thud. In his hand was a large datapad.

“Ok, let’s see here. Ensign Elizabeth Anabella Davis. Goes by Bette. Blah blah blah…”

He swiped through the screens quickly, as if he were looking for something specific.

“…here we go, let’s see. Cleared for flight classes A-F. Basic psyche eval…those are always fun…let’s see, flight scores, flight scores. I don’t see anything here on advanced hand to hand combat. That’s probably not optimal…”

He continued swiping screens for another minute or so until he hit the end of Bette’s file. A prompt came up on the screen and he angled the datapad slightly upward, letting it complete a quick retina scan. A few seconds later a screen came up with the word “CLASSIFIED” in big angry letters at the top, followed by a huge wall of text.

“Ok, here we go. Ensign Davis, you’ve been selected for a mission designated as classified under Imperial code 53748. All details of this mission are considered code 6A-246 classified. If you reveal any details of this mission to any person without verifying 6A-246 compartmented clearance you will be subject to discipline as outlined in Imperial code 53748 subsection 47. Per Imperial code 53748 code subsection 2 you are afforded the right to refuse this mission. If you do not wish to receive compartmented clearance code 6A-246 access, please report to Commander Keene on the ISD Annihilator…”

Silus paused for a moment and scratched his head.

“Huh, I was probably supposed to read that before we left…Let’s see, failure to report to Commander Keene within…..oh yeah, I was supposed to read this before we got on the shuttle…”

[Bette Davis]

Bette had spent a very long four hours on the cockpit waiting for the commander to wake up. Regulations stated that one pilot had to be seated at the console at all times, so usually a long flight like this one would have two pilots assigned.

Which, in a way, it did. Just one of them had spent the first four hours sleeping in the passenger compartment.

When Xilarian returned to the cockpit, used her middle name and started rattling off codes and clearance numbers, her mouth dropped open.

“Excuse me, what?”

Bette got to her feet, trying to get the blood flowing to her lower extremities after sitting for too long. She walked to the back of the cockpit, took a breath, and then turned and faced Commander Xilarian who still looked a little hungover.

”I’ll do it. Classified mission? Sure.” Bette threw her hands up. “Why not?”

[Silus Xilarian]

Silus started to speak, then paused and gave Bette a measured stare. His expression softened a bit.

"Ok look I'm gonna level with ya. I know I'm not the easiest person to deal with, and this is a lot to take in all at once. This is the game though. Even if it's not what you expected, this is it, this isn't a sim, and they wouldn't have selected you if you weren't ready."

He turned his chair back toward the console before speaking over his shoulder.

"I'll take over up here for a bit, head on back and take a break. Once you're clear eyed we'll sit down and go over the mission details.” He half turned and looked over his shoulder to make eye contact with her. “Deal?"

[Bette Davis]

She nodded, frowning slightly before turning back into the passenger compartment.

Despite the Lambda‘s ability to transport up to twenty people, there were only a couple actual bunks. Bette picked the one that wasn’t rumpled and smelling slightly of whiskey, and ducked into it with her boots on.

Hand-picked for a classified mission? Bette punched the pillow up and laid down on top of the blankets. She wouldn’t be a pilot worth her salt if she couldn’t fall asleep anywhere at nearly any time, and this was no exception. She set her chrono for an hour and a half, closing her eyes and breathing deeply, emptying her mind.

An hour and forty minutes later Bette walked back into the cockpit. She sat in the pilot’s seat, arms crossed, and stared at Commander Xilarian.

“Clearance code 6A-246. It sounds impressive. What exactly is this mission that I’ve been signed up for?”

[Silus Xilarian]

Silus finished stuffing a handful of rations in his mouth as Bette sat down beside him. He chewed for a moment then plopped the datapad over in her. He swallowed the food in his mouth and took a quick gulp of water.

"No clue, your clearance just went through though, so knock yourself out."

Silus went back to his food. As Bette swiped through the datapad, she quickly found screen after screen of redacted information. She looked over toward Silus with a confused look.

"You get used to that. Basically means we'll find out when we get there. I'm not supposed to share my mission briefing with you cause some rule, who knows, but honestly it wouldn't be that helpful. All I really know is that combat is supposed to be a last resort. Don't get too excited, sometimes these missions are to get a high ranking officer onto a planet quietly so the person they're replacing doesn't find out or something boring like that."

He met the disappointment on Bette's face with a grin.

"Could be fun though. When they know anything they say to us is compartmented info you sometimes get to hear some juicy shit."

[Bette Davis]

Bette scrolled to the end of the brief just to make sure she wasn't missing an unredacted word somewhere, and then flipped it onto the console. "So this is useless."

She eyeballed the commander, not quite understanding how a pilot who failed up was running some sort of clandestine mission. Not running. He said he was pretty much in the dark as well.

Whatever it was, the situation was not inspiring confidence. Maybe they were just the two most expendable pilots on the Annihilator.

With that comforting thought, the remainder of the trip passed in awkward silence. The shuttle reverted to realspace somewhere in the Core - from the coordinates Bette guessed they were near the Duro system.

A large freighter hung in the black nearby, and Bette flew toward it, entering the bay as directed.

”This is pretty much the definition of sketchy,” she said, to no one in particular.

[Silus Xilarian]

"At least it's not the definition of boring..."

Silus unbuckled his harness as the shuttle settled into the bay. Both pilots were up and out of their seats at the same time and heading to grab their stuff. Silus called to Bette from across the shuttle.

"Don't bring anything you don't need, stow whatever you don't take in your locker and it'll be waiting on you when the mission's over." He paused for a second. "But don't leave anything you'd be worried about losing..."

Silus grabbed a coat and a few small effects out of his bag as Bette did the same. If she was nervous - and he was sure she was - she was doing a good job of hiding it. Nevertheless, before he hit the button to open the door, he nudged Bette with his elbow and held a small metal flask in her direction.

"Knock the edge off?"

[Bette Davis]

She stared at him like he’d grown another head.

“We’re in the middle of a mission.”

Bette pushed the flask away as the shuttle opened, slightly rattled out of her carefully cultivated calm by his offer. She strode out of the shuttle slightly ahead of Xilarian, then had to pause for him to catch up.

A man in Imperial grey and no rank insignia was waiting for them in the cavernous cargo bay. Bette stood at ease, looking around for any clues as to what the mission might actually be. Her brain was starting to scream at her that she should have found a way to refuse this.

[Silus Xilarian]

Silus shrugged and took a quick swig off the flask before tucking it back into his coat. The man waiting for them at the bottom of the ramp was an obvious lackey. Though Bette arrived more promptly, the man barely acknowledged her and waited for Silus to catch up before addressing them.

"Commander Xilarian, Ensign Davis."

Silus rolled his eyes at the man. Good imperial agents were less responsive to rank and more to character. This guy would be greeting people at the bottom of shuttle ramps for the rest of his career.

"Yeah whatever, is that my envelope?" He gestured toward the large envelope in the agent's hand and snatched it away as it was handed to him. "Where's Kyris at, what are we doing here."

The man gave a curt nod, and turned on his heel before he began speaking. Silus nudged Bette with his elbow, meeting her attention with a smirk and a glance toward the imperial agent, along with a hand gesture that was...rude.

"Agent Kyris is on mission right now, a datapad with the mission details is in that envelope. It won't authenticate until you're off this ship."

Silus grinned wide and spoke at the man's back.

"I guess Davis and I are the only one's with a high enough clearance to know what's going on."

[Bette Davis]

She knew her face was starting to betray her anxiety, her eyes flicked around a bit too quickly, her breath a little too sharp.

Timid or cocky?

Always go with cocky.

Bette met Xilarian’s eyes and forced a grin, trying to match his smirk. She tried to think of a smart quip, but her brain was still in survival mode.

The Imperial agent, for he must be part of ImpIntel what with all this secrecy and mission redaction and security clearances, clucked his tongue but said nothing as he led them into the main part of the freighter.

”Strap in. We will be jumping to hyperspace in a few moments, then you’ll be at your destination. Fifteen minutes.”

Bette followed Xilarian’s lead and sat down what appeared to be a passenger area, fastening the seatbelt. The agent sniffed and walked out, and she could feel the hyperdrive spooling up through the vibrations in the deck.

She looked Xilarian in the eye and then meaningfully down at the envelope.

“This is actually a lot like jumping into a running sim,” Bette mused. “I have no idea what the fuck I’ve gotten myself into.”

[Silus Xilarian]

"That's good. As soon as you know what's goin on, you stop trying to figure out what's goin on..."

Silus opened the envelope and pulled out the datapad, dropping the rest of the items on the floor. As soon as the ship lurched into hyperspace the screen lit up and Silus began reading the information out loud.

"Agents, I hope this mes...blah blah formalities....Mission will take place on the planet Duro, ok figured that out...." Silus furrowed his brow a bit. "The hell is this? Rank redacted, name redacted has approached rebellion operations on the planet and has offered to defect. You will pose as rebel pilots and escort redacted off the planet. You will have redacted complete a hyperspace jump with the coordinates provided on the dataslip in your mission kit. At those coordinates redacted will be intercepted by the ISD Relentless."

Silus looked at Bette with a puzzled expression on his face then went back to reading.

"Alright let's see, at the coordinates provided, you will meet an agent of the rebellion. The callsign we intercepted is 'Tyranny' and the countersign is 'Perseverance'. Blah blah blah... Local imperial authorities are not aware of this mission and may treat you as hostile. That's interesting...In that respect, oh son of a bitch!"

Silus shoved the datapad over to Bette. He jumped up and bounded over to the lockers on the side of the ship. Upon opening the locker he found a blaster in a holster hanging off a hook at the top. He tossed it over to Bette.

"Non lethal weapons, just in case we get tangled up with locals... At least they left us some clothes. The only thing worse than strutting up to a rebel base with a stun pistol is doing it with a rank plate on."

[Bette Davis]

“That does sound ...less than ideal.”

Bette released her seatbelt and stood, reluctantly following Xilarian to the lockers. She opened the one next to him and found an outfit in several different shades of brown that looked like it might fit her.

She hung up the blaster he’d tossed to her and stripped off her flightsuit, stepping out of it and leaving it on the floor. Bette pulled on the tan pants and folded over the elastic waistband on her hips to make them fit better.

By the time she was dressed and lacing up the boots the freighter had reverted to real space again and they were coming in for their landing. Bette stood up, adjusting the stun pistol on her hip.

Impersonating Rebels on an Imperial planet to bring in a defector was ... not what she’d been trained for. She scrubbed a hand through her hair, trying to give her military haircut a little more life.

”I feel like I don’t have enough dirt on my face for this to be believable,” she managed to quip as she followed Xilarian out of the freighter.

[Silus Xilarian]

Silus was pretty much dressed in civilian gear as it was. He tossed his flight jacket in the bottom of his locker and removed the coat hanging inside. Per his normal request, there was a pocket inside the jacket that his blaster fit securely into. Bette didn't seem to concerned about changing clothes around him but he figured it would be gentlemanly to give her some space and busy himself with his back to her. He slipped a hand quietly into his jacket inside the locker and pulled an object small enough to palm in his hand. He casually tucked it in his coat and headed for the ramp. When Bette made a joke about not being dirty enough, he glanced over her way.

"You've never been here before. By the time we get where we're going it'll look like you crawled there.

The dock they landed at was normally used for loading and and unloading cargo on freighters, but it wasn't uncommon for companies to bring in workers with cargo dumps and pickups to save money on travel. Silus and Bette made their way through the station in silence. Once they made it out to the parking deck, Silus pulled a dataslip from his pocket.

"Alright, looks like we're on the right sublevel already. Yay for small miracles."

After walking for a few minutes, they found the parking spot indicated on the dataslip. A small civilian speeder sat on the darker end of the parking structure. The doors were unlocked.

"This is us. You can drive."

[Bette Davis]

“Damn right I can,” Bette muttered, sliding into the speeder. The starter was coded to her thumbprint, which threw her off for a moment. Engine idling quietly, she put it in gear and pulled out of the parking spot, through the other parked speeders and edged into traffic.

”I suppose we have a destination in mind?” She looked over at Xilarian, who seemed to be picking his teeth. Bette frowned, but took a deep breath and returned her attention to the road, waiting for him to speak up.

[Silus Xilarian]

"Yeah, we have some time though. Hit that drive through over there, let's get some food."

He wasn't sure but he swore he could hear Bette grinding her teeth together as she pulled into the restaurant's drive through. A few minutes later, they were out of the drive-through and sitting across the street in an empty parking lot with Silus fishing food out of a bag.

"Ok, here's the best I can figure. Local Imperials don't know about this hideout, and Intel's keeping them off the trail. They want to keep the place open and running to observe it. I'm guessing whoever the defector is they're going to be pretty high ranking, but not enough to kick the doors in on this place to nab them. So they get us to come in and get 'em out quiet like. Still can't figure why they'd redact the name of the person though, unless...."

Silus trailed off for a moment then started patting his pockets.

"Shit, I almost forgot. Take this..."

He handed over a small metal cylinder no bigger than the end of his little finger.

"If we get split up, this has a tracker in it. If we get lost on the mission they can use this to find us. Hide it well though, if you get captured and the rebels find this on you they'll not only know you're an imp, but that you're probably important enough to torture for info."

Bette took the cylinder and before she could say a word, Silus leaned in and gave her a hard look dead in the eyes.

"Where NO ONE can find it..."

Just like that, he was back to his casual self, talking over a cheekful of food.

"So anyways, yeah, the only reason I can figure they redacted the name is that someone with the same clearance as us isn't supposed to know who it is. Maybe intel's worried they've got a mole. That's probably not good, eh?"

[Bette Davis]

Bette’s eyes flashed dangerously at his suggestion, and considered stuffing the cylinder down his throat. Just as quickly, however, she overruled the urge and he was jabbering on about potential moles in ImpIntel through a mouthful of fries and nerf burger.

She put the tiny cylinder in a secure inside pocket of her jacket. “Sure. Sounds terrible.”

Bette snatched the bag of food from Xilarian and dug into it, pulling out a handful of fries. She ate them while maintaining eye contact with him.

”Dont worry, if we get captured I’ll make sure they don’t take you alive.” She smiled prettily and then let her expression go completely flat.

[Silus Xilarian]

Silus cocked his head to the side and lifted his eye brows in his best 'ok I guess you think you're pretty cute' look.

"You know, let me make something clear. At any point I could have pulled the plug on the mission on account of you not having one drop of combat experience, But I said to myself 'hey, you know what, try to show her the ropes, see what she can do' and this is the attitude I get in return. I even brought you something...."

Silus reached into his coat for a minute before pulling out a small switchblade knife.

"This was going to be my way of telling you 'hey, you're grown up now, and you're not gonna have anyone taking your toys anymore' but now all I can really say..." He dropped the knife in her lap. "Try not to poke anyone's eye out..."

He pulled his coat back in place and opened his speeder door.

"I'm done, we're scrubbed. Out of professional courtesy I'll let you review my report before I submit it. Good luck getting home."

And with that, Silus stepped out of the car and started walking away.

[Bette Davis]

He’d walked half a block before the speeder pulled up next to him. Bette had stared incredulously at the switchblade in her lap, her mind racing for a full minute before she’d fired up the engine and gone after him.

Bette popped open the door and leaned over the seat toward him.

”I don’t know what I did to piss you off, but you obviously read my file. I graduated top of my class, full marks for hand to hand combat training, took you down in the sims... if anyone should be side-eyeing credentials here it’s me.

”You’re just a guy who keeps failing up. I don’t know who’s dick you sucked to become a commander but you must be good at it. And,” she applied a touch more throttle to keep up with him, “You’re walking in the wrong direction if you’re heading for the spaceport.”

Bette pulled over, cutting him off. “Get back in and we’re going to finish this stupid fucking job, it’s going to look fantastic in my file, and I won’t bother you ever again.”

[Silus Xilarian]

Silus' face was a mask of half amused spite.

"You're a good pilot, I'll give you that. You're almost as good as you think, but actual combat's a little tougher than jumping in a running sim and grabbing a fresh ship when everyone else's shields are nearly gone..."

He leaned down to get eye level with her.

"And getting full marks in hand to hand is probably easy when the instructors are afraid to put their hands on you."

He let the challenge sit there, curious to see if she was hotheaded enough to swing on an officer who was twice her size.

[Bette Davis]

She bristled, but let the remark hang in the air between them. He knew what she’d been through, the cold facts of it, but he didn’t know what it was like.

Bette took a deep breath.

”There’s no reason to scrub the mission, sir.“

Had she really just said he had used sexual favors to gain his rank? Bette was suddenly aware of the thin ice she was standing on, as if it had just cracked and rang one crystalline note in her ears.