Star Wars Character Cafe - Redemption Chapter 1

Title: Redemption
Author: Emimar
Characters: OCs,
Era: Set during Return of the Jedi
Rating: PG –13
Category: Action
Summary: The Empire discovers the base of the Ackley.
Disclaimers: I do not own anything of Star Wars, all canon characters, locations aliens etc belong to George Lucas and connected companies and authors. I do not make any money from this story. All original characters belong to me and if you wish to use them in your fan fic, they must only play a minor part and please don't kill them off or do anything else drastic with them e.g. give them a love child or something.

REDEMPTION

CHAPTER 1

Flik Sivrak looked around at the assembled group of Rebels before him known as the Ackley. Zan, a human male from some unknown planet. There were many planets that humans called their homeworld and he never told anyone where he came from. There was Kaitlin Ros from the planet Chandrilla, a blonde haired human female and the youngest among them at seventeen years. The Cathor female in their group was called Artea Fen. Quan, the Shi'do male stood next to her and Cathos, the male Gotal. Then his gaze fell on Shiba Black, from the destroyed planet Alderaan, the love of his life. He had married her shortly after they had joined the Alliance. He turned back to the others.

"You all know what you have to do," it wasn't a question, more like a statement of fact. They had been over the plan several times before until everyone knew what part they had. He had not made it too rigid so that they could change it if the need came up. Being a former bounty hunter, he knew that sometimes the plan didn't work out and you had to go with the flow of the moment as it were and adapt and change to succeed. Even so, he rarely got himself into a situation without some sort of plan. They all made a gesture of acknowledgement.

He caught Shiba's eye just before they started. She smiled at him, the exchange sending a warm glow through his body. Quan Shape-shifted into a Barabel and made a hole in the fence that stood between them and their goal.

Flik passed through after Quan. He felt Shiba follow him through with his mind. He could sense her nervousness, but she was steady. She had done this sort of thing time and again.

Next came Kaitlin. It was her first mission and understandably she was the most jittery. He caressed her mind with the Force to reassure her. She was Force sensitive too and his touch calmed her.

The brash, cocky Zan passed through the gap next. He pretended he was cool and hard, ready for a fight, but deep down he was as nervous as the rest of them.

Artea Fen went through after Zan, calm and cool as always. She masked her fear well for a non-Jedi.

Cathos brought up the rear. Apart from Shiba, he was the only one among them who knew what Flik had once been. Kaitlin suspected him of being a Jedi, but she wasn't sure. Like many, she thought the Jedi were evil, otherwise, why would the Emperor had destroyed them?

Flik had rescued her from a gang of thugs a few weeks ago. He had recognised her potential instantly and it had taken him some time to persuade her to join them. She had been reluctant at first, until she witnessed a family of Omwatti she had befriended slaughtered by Stormtroopers. One of them, Shivron, had survived, though badly injured. Shiba had saved his life but not without the loss of part of his right arm. She could have replaced it with a prosthetic, but he had refused. He was younger than Kaitlin, at fourteen and had become a part of Flik's family. The kid was a good mechanic, in spite of the loss of his arm. At the moment, he was on Eriadu, at their base. Though Eriadu was an Imperial planet, the new Governor, Trin, was in fact a secret Rebel.

"Artea, Cathos, secure a transport to get us out of here," Flik said. "The rest are with me."

Artea and Cathos broke off from them and headed towards the docking bay of the Imperial Prison.

Flik shot a couple of guards with his blaster. Zan quickly donned the Stormtrooper armour and Quan shape shifted to replace the other.

"Do you think this'll work?" Kaitlin asked, a little nervously.

"It'll work," Flik told her as binders were put on him, Shiba and the young woman from Chandrilla. Quan reappeared from hiding the bodies before they continued on. They got about fifty paces inside the prison before they were stopped by an Imperial Officer.

Zan made up a cover story about apprehending a group of Rebels snooping outside the perimeter. With Flik using the Force to influence his mind, the Officer bought it.

They continued down the corridor until they came to a turbolift.

Zan inserted the access code that Intelligence had uncovered, the doors slid open and they piled inside. Zan then pouched in the floor number where the prisoner was being held.

***

A patrol found the bodies of the two dead Stormtroopers and an alarm was sounded. Intruders in the facility!

***

Artea and Cathos became aware that something was wrong after they had managed to get into the docking bay and seal it off.

Artea turned to her Gotal companion. "What shall we do?"

"Wait here until Flik and the others get here."

***

"Great!" Flik cursed as the alarms reached his ears.

Kaitlin, who had been hacking into the computer systems, found the cell number where the Rebel prisoner was being held.

"Cell number 988A."

"Got it," Zan said, going down the corridor that was lined with cell doors on either side.

"Hurry up. It's only a matter of time before they find us," Flik said. He already had his blaster trained on the door. He preferred to use his lightsabre, but he knew that would give him away as being a Jedi immediately. To all intents and purposes, he wasn't a Jedi anymore. He had forsaken being a Jedi when he had been forced to kill his son, Tek, who had turned to the Darkside.

He glanced across at Shiba. She gave him a warm smile that made his hackles stand on end, not in anger, but in anticipation of what would happen later.

Focus, Sivrak, he told himself. Now was not the time to let his personal feelings get in the way of the mission. The uncertainty had lifted from her, replaced by a readiness to fight and a cold determination to succeed. He sensed strong feelings of revenge pouring off her and it frightened him. Though she was warm and gentle towards him and her children, she also had a cold anger inside her over the destruction of her homeworld. It was much more potent than the fiery red-hot anger that she'd held before that quickly boiled to the surface.

Flik reached out with the Force to check upon the progress of the enemies' advancement, an ability he had not used in a long time. He glanced over at Shiba again and his heart filled with joy. He remembered her words to him around a year ago.

"If you ignore what you are, then you will be no better than them and Zak will never know what it is like to be a Jedi."

Ever since Shiba had said those words he had started using the Force again. He thought about Zak, his grandson and Shiba's two children, his family. One that he loved very much.

Most Jedi had never had a family, being separated from their parents and trained to be a Jedi from childhood. The Jedi Master who trained them was the closest thing to a family most Jedi ever had, father, mother, brother, sister. To the Jedi Master, the Padawan was his or her child.

He thought about his Master, Naja, who had been dead for more than twenty years. He realised he still missed him now, especially his love and his guidance. He wished he still had that.

He was reluctant to teach Zak the ways of the Force, after what happened to Tek. Thinking of him made him think of Auoura, Tek's mother, and his first mate, long dead.

The sound of blaster fire interrupted Flik's thoughts just as Zan returned, with the prisoner in tow.

"Good to see you again, Sivrak," the female Bothan said.

"We're going to have to stop meeting like this, Shara. My wife might get jealous."

"They're coming through," Zan said.

"Get ready," Flik ordered.

Quan morphed again, into a Barabel. Flik's hand shifted to his belt, but then thought better of it. He really didn't want to reveal the truth about himself, not even in front of his team-mates.

His gaze shifted to Shiba. As always, she was ready. No one would have thought that the Alderaanian doctor was a fighter if they didn't know her.

The door glowed red, then yellow, then white as blaster fire burned through. Quan swung a heavy fist at the nearest Stormtrooper, throwing him back into his comrades. Blaster fire ricocheted off the walls. Shiba and Zan managed to clear the doorway and they made their escape. Flik pulled Kaitlin behind him to protect her. He felt responsible for her safety and as the youngest of them, he was protective towards her. Shiba, he knew well enough to know she could pretty much take care of herself. As they fought their way through the corridors, Flik keyed in his comlink.

"Artea, are you there?"

"Here, Cap. Whaz up?"

"Are you ready with the transport?"

"We're waiting, Cap, but hurry. We don't know how much longer we can keep the Stormies out."

"We'll get there as fast as we can," Flik said, Shiba shot a Stormtrooper as he spoke.

Quan led them through the maze of corridors. Just as they turned the last corner before the docking bay, they were ambushed by a squad of Stormtroopers waiting for them. Quan being in front, was shot down. Shiba got Quan's killer with her blaster. The Stormtroopers met them with another volley of shots, Flik resorting to using his lightsabre to block the fire. Unfortunately, he was not quick enough to block the one hat had gotten Zan, but the armour he wore stopped him from receiving a life threatening injury.

Flik used the Force to distort the Stormtroopers' aim. They got pinned down as Shiba tried to help Zan and a fire fight with the Stormtrooper squad ensued. Shara and Kaitlin exchanged shots with the surviving Stormtroopers, but they were still pinned. Seeing no alternative, Flik used the Force to push the Stormtroopers, throwing them hard against the wall. The Stormtroopers lay still, unconscious but not dead.

Flik hauled Zan to his feet. The injured Rebel leaned on Kaitlin and the wolfman for support. Fortunately, no Stormtroopers showed up as they covered the short distance to the docking bay. As they entered, however, another squad of Stormtroopers appeared from a corridor different to the one the Rebels had come down.

Artea and Cathos were forced to protect them with cover fire. Shiba waited until they were halfway into the docking bay before she tossed a grenade into the mist of the Stormtroopers. The ceiling of the corridor collapsed during the resulting explosion. Artea and Cathos rushed up the boarding ramp to get them off the ground as Flik and Kaitlin hauled the injured Zan up the boarding ramp, with Shiba and the Bothan a pace behind.

The ramp closed, and Flik and Shara manned the transports' almost inadequate weapons, leaving Kaitlin and Shiba to deal with Zan.

After a brief but nasty dog fight in space, they managed to escape into hyperspace.

Flik punched the bulkhead in front of him in frustration - not only had they lost Quan, but they'd had to leave his body behind - not a good fate for a friend. He sensed Shiba behind him. "Zan's going to be fine," she said as she knelt down behind him and rested her head on his shoulder. Flik sank back into his seat, a sigh of relief escaping his lips.

Even when they succeeded, there always seemed to be something that marred their victory.