Getting Out (3/5)

“Fire! Fire! Fire! Go! Go! Go! Go!”

Imperial Stormtroopers and Army Soldiers alike spilled into the remote rural town, being fired upon by and returning fire with scorching laser bolts. Windows and shutters were flung open, revealing the barrels of even more black, metallic instruments of death.

Moving in formation, the invading Imperial forces quickly took the village square, cutting down various alien insurgents who tried to swarm them from the surrounding alleyways and rooftops.

Tim Gresch and his squad swept through one of the nearest households, ending the life of a dirty Sabat who screamed as he tried to ambush them from a closet.

It was thrilling.

Tim and his fellow rookies had signed up for the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps specifically for the prospect of exciting combat, and boy, had the Empire just delivered.

Their first and current assignment had been to deal with a rebel cell forming within a remote farmers community on the isolated planet Tenoo. A hundred soldiers had descended upon the small settlement in the early morning hours, quickly wiping out a guerilla force almost twice as large.

Their strike had been quick and their ferocity unwavering. Various Abednedo, Dresselians, Weequay, and even fellow Humans had fallen to the might of this newly established Imperial strike team, and given the speed of their assault the fight would soon be over.

Tim and his team had moved from house to house, checking every nook and cranny for signs of life, where they eventually found themselves at what looked like a clinic on the far side of the town. Inside, the four man team of Stormtroopers encounter something that made them all freeze in their boots.

Huddled towards the back of one of the rooms were about three dozen elderly, women, and children. Potentially the previous inhabitants of the village, or possibly even family members of the insurgents themselves.

The squadmates glanced from side-to-side, attempting to figure out what the correct move was. Their mission was to eliminate insurgents, but did the people in front of them really count?

Finally, one of the troopers cleared his throat and spoke up.

“Surrender to the Empire,” he yelled, waving his blaster around, while the other three kept theirs stiffly trained on the small crowd.

Some of the aliens yelled and waved their arms, clearly beckoning for them to go back out the way they came.

“Calm down,” another trooper shouted with a shaky tone.

“We need to call the captain,” Tim said, lowering his blaster and putting one hand up to the side of his helmet to stabilize it.

“Mooka!” an Aki-Aki woman cried out, pulling a small device from under her cloak. In an instant, she had reared back her arm with the clear intent to lob whatever it was at the white-clad men in front of her, although she paused, holding the stance, possibly in a bluff.

“Explosive!” one of the Stormtroopers cried.

At that moment, another squad member tensed his finger in a panic, and a bright red bolt of energy pierced the tentacled woman, causing her to fall to the ground.

Before anyone else could react, the object collided with the wooden floor, activating what must have been a button detonator. An instant later, the room erupted into flames.

Tim found himself lying on his back, another squadmate’s body limply sprawled overtop of him. It took only a moment for the young man to grab his weapon and scramble back to his feet, now realizing that he was the last remaining member of his squad still alive.

He turned to look at the carnage, bodies and parts of bodies now strewn all across the smoldering remains of the one-story clinic.

In the corner of his eye, he saw movement. Still reeling from the shock of the explosion, he instinctively turned and trained his blaster on a small figure crawling out from underneath the pile of bodies.

It was a small, bear-like creature, its blue fur singed and large eyes squinted due to the smoke. Like Tim, its life had been spared thanks only to the sacrificial shielding from others. And as the smoke began to clear, he could now tell, due to its stature, it was probably simply a juvenile.

Trembling, he kept his rifle aimed at the young creature. He had no idea what to do, and he felt like he couldn’t think due to the loud ringing in his ears. His face felt wet, although he could not discern blood from tears.

What he could discern, however, was the sound of his own voice, repeating “don’t move” over and over at the creature, followed by another chilling voice from behind.

Even in his disheveled state, he could make out the sharp inflections belonging to the strike team’s Imperial Captain, their words as cold and calculated as ever.

“No survivors, trooper.”

Tim tilted his helmet ever so slightly, catching a glance of the uniformed officer, weaponless and holding the side of his torso, his green clothing drenched in blood.

“Kill it. We’re done here.”

Tim briefly contemplated objecting, but it was to no avail, his years of training beginning to take root as he turned once more to face the fuzzy blue child in front of him.

Biting his lip and nodding his head furiously in an attempt to self-justify his own actions, Tim pulled the trigger, striking the whimpering creature in the arm.

‘It’s just an animal, it’s not Human,’ he repeated to himself as he was looked upon by a young unidentifiable alien trying to process a pain and fear that its brain was probably barely developed enough to even fully comprehend.

Tim pulled the trigger again… and again, and again, screaming at the top of his lungs all the while.

When he was finally sure the young would-be-insurgent was dead, Tim turned to the Captain for approval, only to now realize that he had been left in the building all alone.

With that, Tim dropped his weapon and fell to the floor.

What was he doing?  What had he done…?

This wasn’t the excitement he’d been promised.

Tim would later learn that only a dozen insurgents had actually taken up residence in that village; the other combatants they had come into contact with were simply farmers and merchants trying to protect their homes. Unfortunately, the Imperial assault team had been accompanied by a camera droid on this particular mission who was putting together a live news broadcast series covering the “Young Heroes of the Empire.”

Due to the unusually high level of exposure this failed engagement had garnered galaxy-wide, the Empire had rebranded the incident from a strike on an insurgency stronghold to the quelling of dissidence, the livestream had been altered on the fly, and no one was more the wiser. At least almost no one.

Given Tim’s lack of a squad and minor injuries from the blast, he had actually been left on Tenoo while the rest of the strike team had packed up and moved on to their next assignment.

He had been left in the care of the occupational garrison who had come in next to establish an Imperial presence on the planet and “discourage” any remaining insurgents in the region. Moreso, they existed simply to perform necessary damage control and prevent any neighboring villages from banding together after learning what had happened to their unexpecting peers.

After an incident with a wild beast while on patrol, the bastion’s Stormtrooper “C Company” had been in need of a new member, and so Tim had been promptly transferred in, albeit temporarily, his ship out date pushed back again quite substantially.

That was when he met Sergeant Fil Baker who had quickly taken the young man under his wing, and for the past seven months Tim had wished for nothing more than to leave his life with the Empire behind for good.

Fortunately, Baker had had the exact same idea, and he was already being proactive about it. Fate had brought them together, and Tim prayed that fate would allow their plan to go off without a hitch.

Two Stormtroopers from A Company waved at Tim and his fellow sentry Benny, officially relieving them of their post for the day. Tenoo’s lone sun was now peeking through the planet’s trees, relieving the twin pale moons of their nighttime duty in a similar manner to the changing of the guard.

The night had been long, but replaying the past year in his mind had helped greatly pass the time. The memories were painful and they made Tim feel sick, but it helped keep his thoughts from straying back towards the building anxiety surrounding their escape, as well as strengthening his resolve and dedication to Sergeant Baker’s plan.

Still stiff from his shift, Tim slowly made his way down from the wall, stowing his weapon and returning back to their living quarters. He grabbed a snack bar from the mess hall and made his way back to C Company’s barracks, noticing most of C Company had already gathered in the trooper lounge to kick off their elongated rec time.

He and Benny entered the barracks, taking note of the four other troopers still stripping off their armor. Among them were both Sergeant Baker and Corporal Salemi-l Poulty, giving Tim an instant sense of comfort.

After taking a quick shower, Tim made his way back to his bunk, dressing himself in his slacks. The other troopers had emptied out of the barracks, leaving only Tim and the two NCOs.

Poulty was laying in his bunk messing with something on his holopad while Baker subtly passed a note to Tim. Tim hoisted himself up onto his bed as always, making sure not to drop the scrap of paper on the way up.

Once he had situated himself comfortably, he unraveled the communique, deciphering the scribbled penmanship. The message was brief, but invigorated Tim while filling his stomach with nervous convulsions.

“Last of the explosives set. Three days time. Prior to jog. Come back here. Nod if cameras can be shut off. Shake head if not. Be prepared to lose a pinky.”

Once he had absorbed all of the information, Tim folded the paper and placed it on his tongue. As with all of the previous written messages, he disposed of it by chewing it into a pulp and then swallowing it. The paper had a bittersweet flavor, tasting of sweat, ink, and freedom.

He turned to glance at the Sergeant, nodding his head twice, receiving only an unwavering glare in return.

Smiling ever so subtly as he turned back towards the ceiling, a dozen new thoughts now flooded into Tim’s mind.

During their nearly 18 hours they had to kill time between their daily shifts, Tim had spent quite a bit of time researching various skills and had become fairly proficient in, first encrypting his holopad searches so that his history couldn’t be easily traced, then remotely disabling various security cameras from around the galaxy, including the very ones found within the base. These digital ventures had cost him a lot of rec time with his peers, but they wouldn’t matter soon enough anyway. Plus, Tim just loved learning new things.

This was one of a few reasons Baker had brought him onboard, aside from just his general desire to get out as soon as possible. He was now a crucial pawn in the plan, and they could not leave without him, even if they wanted to.

Unfortunately, Baker still saw his youth and inability to completely mask his emotions as a liability, and so he had not been made privy to their entire plan. What he did know is that Baker himself was also very skilled in a lot of fields, including the creation of explosive ordnance. He knew that the C Company barracks were located directly over the base’s gas pipeline, that there was a small crawlspace directly above it but below the floor, and that a few of the panels on the floor were ever so loose, allowing for the Sergeant to periodically stow homemade bombs in strategic locations under their barrack’s infrastructure.

The general plan was to eventually detonate the barracks and fake their deaths, although how they get out and the various details regarding their escape continued to elude Tim, and he was okay with that. Supposedly they had a contact on the outside who would smuggle them away, and if all went according to plan, the Empire would never suspect a thing.

The final statement about his finger did slightly confuse and concern Tim, but he hoped it was just a caution or code.

He glanced once more at the Sergeant, who was paying him no attention.

What a truly scary man. Supposedly he’d been a part of the Empire since its initial conception, and had been involved in a number of top secret programs before being hidden away here to avoid various audits and inquiries. He was no longer allowed to leave the Empire of his own free will, which was why he had finally decided to take matters into his own hands.

The same could be said for Poulty and Tim himself as well. The Corporal had apparently been some sort of “Inquisitor” working for Imperial Intelligence. Not the old kind with their flashy laser swords, but scary nonetheless. He had once mentioned that he was stationed here as a punishment, and he had seen too many things to ever be able to retire alive.

It was rumored that he was actually from the planet Bordello, a world renowned for producing some of the galaxy’s greatest warriors, swordfighters, and survivalists, and from what Tim had witnessed, he believed it. He had had the opportunity to spar with the Corporal exactly once, and he hoped never to have to do so again.

Of course, Tim did not seem able to leave either. He had put in two separate requests to speak to an Imperial Advisor on how to resign, with both being immediately denied. The first time he was simply told that he was outside of the reach of the “advisatorial domain,” and would have to wait until the next time he visited a base closer to the core to pursue his request further. However, the second time he had requested with an added note regarding his inability to move closer toward the Imperial Center, almost pleading to be given permission to resign, he received a rather ominous memorandum informing him that, due to what he had witness during the massacre on Tenoo, it would be unwise for him to interact with any galactic civilians and in his best interest to simply carry on with his duties as a Stormtrooper , seemingly indefinitely.

If he was already fully intending to brute force his way out, that correspondence had all but sealed the deal.

As for the final member of their troupe, Kaden Gressel, no one knew of his past or if he was able to leave, but those sorts of discussions would have to wait until after they had gotten out. At least, that is how Tim and presumably the two officers had silently understood it.

But it would very soon be made clear that Kaden had other ideas… something they all quickly learned as he violently burst his way into their room at that exact instant.

This was the moment their plan would begin to go awry.