Empire and Rebellion

by Snake Staff

62: The Trap (I)

The recently-renamed Palpatine Park of Denon’s Sinsun District was well-known as a place of peace and quiet. One of the very few remaining preserved spots of green in the planetwide city, it had long been a place where those looking for a little respite from the stresses of urban life could go to relax. Amidst the tall green trees and colorful flowering plants, citizens could relax and enjoy a small slice of nature in relative safety. Nothing of note had happened here even throughout the chaos of the Clone Wars, and people had come to expect that nothing much ever would. That was why it came as such a shock when a trio of Imperial gunships descended from on high.

The repainted Republic craft soared down swiftly across the length of the park, giving passing civilians plenty of time to look up and point as they approached their destination. Some of the more paranoid or perceptive simply scattered right away, ducking into the well-maintained forests. Many just gawked as the three ships came to rest over a grassy hill replete both lone visitors and families with children, all wide-eyed and frightened. The side door of one ship opened, revealing the familiar white armor of Stormtroopers and a less familiar quadruped in dark blue.

“Citizens of the Empire!” the blue figure roared through a speaker above the engines’ noise. “For your own safety, flee! A dangerous traitor hides among you!” She looked almost directly down. “Jedi.”

The appearance of armored military forces was alarming enough to those civilians just looking for a pleasant afternoon in the park. The announcement that a member of the treacherous mystics was there as well was enough to send most of the crowd into a state little better than blind panic. They squirmed, shouted, grabbed children, and simply ran almost randomly in all directions. It should have thrown off anyone’s sight, yet the blue figure’s gaze remained firmly fixed on one human in particular. Without warning she leapt out the opened door, plummeting more than forty feet to no visible effect.

“For conspiracy and treason,” she declared, “for evasion of justice and the brutal murder of Imperial personnel, I hereby place you under arrest, Jedi!”

The human that she was staring at rapidly became fully visible, those civilians not already running for their lives giving the doomed fool a wide berth. He was tall and well-built, with an athletic frame and slightly-thinning hair about his temples. He wore simple dark clothing that said nothing, but the expression on his face… that said everything.

Eyes wide and skin pale, the man didn’t even try to deny anything. He simply turned and ran in the opposite direction as swiftly as he could, darting away from the remaining civilians and towards the beckoning safety of the trees. He wasn’t fast enough – the other two gunships descended in front of him, disgorging squads of white-armored troopers. Behind the blue figure, her own gunship touched down with its own reinforcements.

The man’s eyes and head flicked this way and that, as if frantically trying to discover an escape route. But it was no good, he was surrounded by far too many men with guns and the treeline was too distant to have any chance of making it. With a resigned look on his face, the man reached down one sleeve and swiftly pulled out a small cylinder. The lightsaber hissed as its green blade flared to life.

The quadruped drew her own weapon from beneath a wing, its solitary blade a brilliant crimson. What few onlookers remained scattered for the trees as she flung herself at the Jedi. The exchange that followed was brief and to the point. Lightsabers clashed in spectacular flares of light, green and red locking against one another for a moment. Then the red blade broke the exchange and took a swipe at the man, which he parried. Swinging his green blade right back, he made to cut the enemy hilt in two.

A seasoned lightsaber duelist might have noted that the human was putting more power into his swings than necessary for such a lightweight weapon and overextending himself, as if used to dealing with the weight and balance of a physical sword. As there were none present, it was instead awe and fear that greeted the little duel. None questioned it as the blades clashed once, twice, three times more. The man lunged for the blue figure, but she caught his attack on her blade. He swung at her, she locked her lightsaber to his and followed the swing with such grace and fluidity that it tore the green blade right from his hands. It went flying, landing softly amidst the well-cut grass.

Before the Jedi had a chance to retrieve it, before he even had a chance to blink, he was caught in the back by a blue ring blast from one of the Stormtroopers. Several more stun shots followed from the man’s comrades, inundating the already-downed traitor with paralyzing energies. To the cheers of the more patriotic or savvy of the crowd, the man fell flat on his face and did not get up again.

After a moment, the blue figure nodded and her red blade vanished. The still-active Jedi lightsaber on the ground twitched, then flew straight to her. She deactivated that one as well, both left hovering beside her head. Two Stormtroopers strode forwards while their squads kept the traitor covered, seizing his limp body by the arms. They slapped a pair of handcuffs of the man, then dragged him none too gently toward the quadruped’s gunship. She watched them go carefully, and it was only when the man was chained to the floor and covered by half a dozen blasters that she deigned to follow them inside.

Almost immediately, the doors closed behind her. The troops deposited by the other transports were returning from whence they came as well, and as soon as the last trooper was aboard engine roared. Without a further word, all three gunships rose into the air and began soaring quickly to the east, leaving nothing but gawking onlookers with quite the story to tell.

---

“Well done,” said Luna to the Stormtroopers as their gunship lifted off and the doors around them closed. “Well done. A good show all around, I think.”

The unconscious human was lying in a heap at the troopers’ white armored feet. The alicorn took a moment to return her green and red lightsaber trophies to their place amidst her feathers, as he slowly groaned. The stun bursts had been at the lowest possible setting – it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes for a fit man to get back on his feet.

One of the troopers had a chime at his belt. The man reached down, checked his portable holoprojector, and then held it up to face Luna. The princess nodded, and her minion pushed a button. A moment later, the image of Commander Neeri appeared.

“We’ve received your signal,” he said. “And our agents have the footage that you ordered, my lady.”

“Good,” Luna nodded. “See to it that it is appropriately nonprofessional in appearance. Touch it up if you have to. Then I want it circulating amongst every lowlife and underworld element that you know of within a day. Every two-bit criminal on this world should know the Empire captured a Jedi today.”

“It will be done.”

“Begin the rumor campaign a few hours after the first footage hits. I’m sure some will start on their own, but ours should be largely consistent in at least one thing: the Jedi is being held at Akorage Prison not far from Imperial Security Bureau headquarters. Beyond that we should include something suitably horrifying being done or planned. Brainwashing, torture, imminent execution… use your imagination. Be inconsistent with the purported timetables.” The princess waved a hoof. “The important thing is that any Jedi who hears about this should feel like they have not much time before it is too late, and so must mount a rescue of their poor brother before the horrible Inquisitor makes a gruesome end of him.”

“Do you think they’ll come out hiding for that?” Neeri asked. “Is it possible they’ll consider ignoring the issue?”

“Trust me, Commander,” Luna said with a sly grin, “I know how would-be heroes think. If there is a Jedi still on Denon, their conscience will not allow them to simply abandon a fellow to a torturous and gruesome end. Not if there is anything that they believe they can do about it.”

“Your wisdom is great indeed, my lady.”

“I know.”

---

Akorage Prison was a broad, squad complex surrounded by no less than three solid and smooth walls in all directions, any part of which could be electrified at will. Built to house maximum security prisoners who did not yet warrant a transfer to a dedicated prison planet, it was buried deeply in a district controlled entirely by the Empire’s military and intelligence agencies. Dedicated troopers patrolled the exterior courtyards and the space between the layers of wall at all times, antipersonnel turret guns were mounted atop all four corners of the innermost and outermost walls. By design, there was no cover offered between the main building itself and the inmost wall. Few beings here were allowed outside of their cells, none for very long. There were no visitors.

There were also no gates or portals on the outermost wall, as that might present an avenue of escape. Instead, the broad roof featured a number of landing pads for gunships and supply shuttles, which represented the only way in or out. As the Imperial military had strictly locked down the surrounding airspace, only authorized craft were allowed anywhere near the prison complex. No one had ever left the place alive, or so the stories went. There were a hundred Stormtroopers on site meant to ensure that it stayed that way.

Yet, one dark and stormy night three days after the dramatic spectacle in the park, a regularly-scheduled supply shuttle arrived bearing a figure who meant to change all of that

Comments

[Weeb trash]

My consistent dose of pony star wars. Wonderful.

[badninja]

Well it looks like Twilight is going to spring Luna’s trap and find it all possibly for naut.

[zimmerwald1915]

8716890
Pretty sure the figure in the last snippet is not Twilight. How would she have gotten the information while roughing it on Dantooine? Why would she have been moved to rescue some random Jedi? And would Bastila have let her go?

[badninja]

8716916

Who do you think it is then? I doubt it would be Falcrom.

[zimmerwald1915]

8717069
A new player? Perhaps the person Luna actually came here to hunt? It's a big galaxy.

[Blue-Bolt]

I can't believe no one has said it yet so i'll do it for you

i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/mobile/000/000/157/itsatrap.jpg

[Dustchu]

Something something it's a tr-
*looks below*
Welp, got beat to it, consarn it!

I wonder who this is... no way it's Twilight, is it? Hmm...

I guess we'll see.

[Sweetblue]

Hrmm, more that i think about Ponies, Force and Harmony i wonder if Kreia and her deductions will ever become part of this story. Ponies had a living enbodiment of Chaos living with them on their planet as well as tree of Harmony, Discord in itself might have been something the Galaxy would have needed.

[Black Hoof]

I really doubt that jedi is Twilight. She’s a bit too far away and in a middle of her training. I don’t think she’s ready to fight Noctis properly yet, and I don’t see how she’d know of this and why she would rush to the false jedi’s help from the remote world.