For Whom The Bell Tolls [Flashback]

[Sreeya]

It wasn't till she heard her name that she broke out of her reverie, having been lost in her own forlorn thoughts. He had used her first name, a word she hadn't heard in years. As she watched him on the ground, her eyes widened. Kale debated what to do, but her body acted before her mind did. She sprang to her feet, approaching him quickly, alarmed at the sight of blood. She knew for a fact she hadn't hit him hard, and she couldn't fathom how he was injured so badly. Before she could reach him, two guards ran over, their blasters pointed at her. Kale raised her hands, gazing at them in exasperation.

"Now's not the time! Get me medical supplies! He's hurt bad!"

"What did you do?! You were the prisoner!"

"YOU WATCHED HIM FREE ME AND WALK UP HERE WITH ME! STOP WASTING TIME AND GET MEDICAL SUPPLIES!"

The guards looked at one another. One of them nodded and darted downstairs to gather supplies, the other kept his blaster trained on her. Kale made eye contact with him, glaring.

"If you see me doing anything wrong, shoot me in the head."

With that, she began to edge slightly closer to Bastele, maintaining eye contact with the guard. The man looked uncomfortable, unsure whether he was supposed to shoot her or if he would be in trouble for doing so. He kept the gun trained on her, looking over his shoulder every so often for the other guard. Kale crouched down next to Bastele, surveying the wounds. She removed the eyepatch slowly, where the bleeding was coming from. Kale gasped at the sight, almost reeling back. Trembling fingers touched the sides of his face. Even the guard was distracted by the sight, the blaster drooping slightly.

"What..happened to you, Nathaneau.."

Kale knew he couldn't hear her, but the words were whispered nonetheless. The other guard came bursting out, dropping all the medical supplies he could find near her. Kale swiftly got to work, patching up any injuries she could. From the looks of it, it wasn't her punch that caused this, but the fact that she had reopened many wounds. The bleeding gash on her leg was but a scuff compared to what she saw on him. Kale put a salve on the wound, wrapping bandages over his eye. A quick check on his vitals told her he was stable, but he was still not conscious. Kale glanced up at the guards.

"We will need to carry him to his quarters until he wakes up."

The guards quickly got to work, helping carry him down. She carried all the supplies, limping down the stairs behind them. Kale knew he wouldn't like that she knew where his quarters were, but this was a time of emergency. As they set him down, Kale collapsed on a nearby chair, applying some of the supplies to her own wound and bandaging her leg up. One guard stayed nearby, his gun still trained on her, though it was obvious he felt rather silly doing it. Kale looked down at Bastele, grimacing.

"You stupid..stupid son of a bitch.."

And so she would sit there across from him, ignoring the pain in her leg. Hours would pass by, the guard would fall asleep, and so would she. Right in that chair.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

The first thing Bastele felt as he began to stir was unimaginable pain, almost none of it physical. Whatever physical sensation he felt was mostly numbed by whatever drugs that he had been given after getting hit. Most of it was the pain of the real reopened wounds, the mental ones that left him traumatized after Coruscant. Kale condemned him earlier for being different, for being angrier, for being filled with rage. She didn't understand. She could never understand what he went through as the days, months, even years went by after Coruscant. How broken he was. How lost. All of those memories came flooding back.

He needed to dull that pain now. Just like he had done before, he needed to replace it with something. Something that made him feel in control, a control he felt he'd lost on Coruscant, when that grenade exploded in his face. As Bastele's eyes began to open, and he saw Kale leaning over him, he knew what it was. Grabbing her by the arm, he pulled her towards him and their lips met, interlocking into what, at first, was nothing more than an attempt to throw her off her guard. But for a moment, however brief of time, he felt a spark, a spark he first felt when he met her all those years ago.

And then he punched her in the face, sending her stumbling backward.

"Dumbass."

He groaned, pushing his hands on his bed to lift himself up, and said, "I know a couple of cripples too if you want to kick them or something."

 

[Sreeya]

As Bastele began to stir, Kale became alert. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she yawned and looked at him. He still looked miserable, but she was thankful she hadn't killed him with a single punch. That would have been rather anti-climactic, after all. Kale stood up to look over him, preparing to make a cocky remark. Before she had the chance to, he had abruptly yanked her down, pressing her lips against his own. All thoughts of sarcasm evaporated instantly, replaced with pure shock. It was an action she hadn't experienced in about a decade, if not more. She did not move, all rational thought leaving her. A part of her almost wanted to succumb to it, for reasons she could not yet fully understand. However, all of that went out the window as his fist collided with her face. The force was enough to send her stumbling back, and thanks to her bad leg, fall into a sitting position on the floor. Eyes wide with shock, they soon narrowed at his next words. Mando'a, along with Basic came out combined.

"Besom di'kut kriffing son of a bitch!"

She grabbed a nearby medpack and chucked it directly at his head from where she was sitting.

"How was I supposed to know you were barely stitched together? I bet that's how you stayed alive for this long. Talk big and whip out a handicap pass whenever anyone wants to retaliate!"

Kale spat out blood, as his punch had resulted in a small cut on the inside of her lip. The guard behind her suddenly woke up, heard the commotion and came barreling in. On his way, he tripped over Kale, who was still on the floor. Another huge string of profanities erupted, part of which involved Kale taking the guard's blaster and clobbering him on the head a few times. At the end of it, both managed to disengage and rise to stand, Kale barely balancing on her good leg. She scowled at Bastele.

"You're an ungrateful bastard. I could've thrown you over the roof when you decided to suddenly take a nap."

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Bastele stumbled off of his bed—that's what he liked to call the small slab of metal and barely cushioned-mattress he was laying on, a far cry from his luxury apartment on Coruscant—as Kale spoke, walking over towards the mirror on the other side of the room. He winced at the reflection he saw staring back at him, the grotesquely deformed man without an eyepatch. Normally his wounds were contained to the immediate area around his eye, enough to be covered with an eyepatch, but now it had spread to the entire right side of his face, albeit temporarily. Now there were veins spread across his cheek.

"If you wanted to kill me, you would've done it when you kidnapped me. But you didn't, you decided to show compassion."

He turned around, deliberately looking straight at her with his mutilated face. "A lot of good that did us, huh?"

 

[Sreeya]

Kale said nothing for a moment, gazing at his deformed face, hearing his bitter words. She met his eyes, not lowering her gaze.

"Do you wish I hadn't?"

She leaned against the wall, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Do you wish I had killed you? Do you regret being alive to witness the horrors the Sith unleashed? Would you have preferred to have died the oblivious diplomat?"

The guard shifted uncomfortably, slowly shuffling out of the room. The tension could be cut with a knife.

"You are alive for the same bitter reason I am. There is yet some path for us that we haven't walked yet."

Kale scowled at him.

"Where do we go from here? I'm just as curious as you about this Razik character. I don't think the Imperials are finished here."

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Bastele chuckled, a smug grin creeping over his face. "You saved me for a reason. I was meant to be here. The Empress took my Alliance. She took my planet. So now I'm going to take my bullets and put them in her face."

Pulling open a drawer beneath the mirror, Bastele looked to see if there was another eyepatch inside of it. But where he thought he would find one, he instead found dust. Perhaps that was for the best. He wore a patch to keep people from being unsettled, but part of him wanted Kale to be unsettled. He wanted her to know who he really was, to understand why he fought and acted the way he did. She thought she understood him. No, not even a little. She had to see it.

"I'm going to find Razik, and you're going to help me. That's the only reason you're still here," he said as one of the guards handed him a datapad. "Says here that Razik operates out of the Denendre Valley. What do you say, Briza? You up for a fight?"

 

[Sreeya]

As he spoke, Kale couldn't help but think he was slightly delusional. She had her own fighting spirit, but it was nowhere as insane as his. Kale rolled her eyes as he shot off commands, right after she herself had brought up Razik to begin with. She decided to play along, patching up her wound some more to ensure it wouldn't slow her down. As he uttered her first name, surprise graced her features. It was the second time he had done that. As far as she could remember, no one ever really called her Briza. She did not make a point to bring it up, acting as if she hadn't noticed the subtle gesture.

"I'm ready."

Kale looked down at her body and around, grimacing.

"I may need some weapons and armor. I trust you won't think that's a bit of a stretch.."

 

[Brandon Rhea]

The ex-Chief of State scoffed at the implication that she was ready. Oh, good on her, ready to go out into a fight right now. All that mattered was that Briza Kale was ready to go. Truthfully he was faking his indignation more than anything else. He was amused; she likely didn't mean that she was ready to go right now, but he was going to enjoy toying with her all the same.

"Oh good, you're ready to go, that's all that matters," Bastele sarcastically said. "Not like you just nearly killed me or anything, so no let's go right now."

He couldn't help but crack a smile. All he could hope is that it wouldn't take too long for them to get out into the field. After tonight, and after more covert actions over the last few months, Bastele was itching for a more direct fight against the enemy.

---------------------​

Three days had gone by, giving Bastele enough time to recover from his injury. But that just meant he was afflicted with an even more annoying pain: the sound of Kale's voice ringing in his ear, complaining over and over again about him keeping her in the compound. He couldn't exactly deny that she was more or less a prisoner at this point, forced into this operation against her will no matter the fact that she said she was willing to go, but she brought that on herself by working with the enemy, albeit inadvertently.

They were overlooking the valley now, with Bastele getting an initial look through binoculars at the Imperial base in the valley below. There were only a small handful of troops here, along with D'arva Razik, which was why Bastele had brought a few resistance fighters of his own, along with Kale. Taking a step away from the valley's edge, Bastele motioned for one of the soldiers to approach with a crate of weapons. The former politician flipped open the crate and pulled out two sets of blasters, a rifle, and a sword that he used on all missions—a sword just in case any Sith happened to be on a given mission.

For Kale, who had already been given her requested armor, he pulled out a smaller blaster pistol, far smaller than most others, and handed it to her in the palm of his hand. "Here you go," Bastele said with a knowing grin, realizing exactly what he was doing. "A weapon, as requested."

 

[Sreeya]

Kale simply gawked at the gun he was handing her. The exasperated expression on her face repeatedly asked, "this is a joke, right?". When he didn't seem amused, her jaw dropped, and she took the gun.

"This is ridiculous. It's a child's toy."

She surveyed the tiny weapon from all angles, wondering if any bullets could even fit in it. Kale grimaced, realizing that he was simply doing this to be a pain. She watched him unpack his weapons, pulling out a sword as well. Kale quirked an eyebrow, clearly amused.

"Are you trying to be some sort of space samurai?"

Kale decided he had seen one too many holomovies. She shook her head, grasping the binoculars and surveying the base. She scanned the horizon, moving away from it and scouting out some corners. In a crevice closer to them below, she spotted two Imperial guards. They were isolated, most likely placed as sentries to guard the outskirts of the base. Kale thought for a long moment, grinning.

"I think I have an idea...tell your guards to stay back. Come with me."

She slowly began to descend down the side of the overlook they were on. Kale had flipped on her helmet, using the HUD to scan all nearby targets. Outside of the two immediate Imperials, there were none others close to them. She motioned for Bastele to quietly follow her. Discretion was absolutely pivotal right now. The two men had comms on them, which meant the slightest bit of alarm could ruin the idea in one stroke. Kale crouched down behind a boulder, the men a mere 20 ft away. She spoke to him with signals, signals she remembered from her time with the Galactic Alliance.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

"Son of a… God damn it."

He may have been annoyed that she ran off without a plan, forcing him to at least try to place his trust in someone who had worked for the Imperials, had helped destroy the Galactic Alliance, and kidnapped him, but there may have been more. He may have also been annoyed that she ran off with talking to him first. This was not her operation. She was not the leader of the Corellian resistance, he was. He wasn't about to have something else taken from him. Not again. Not after this war.

Finally, he crouched down beside the boulder, stewing in his own annoyance as she began to flash signals about what she wanted to do. The signals she was giving him said that they should get rid of the Imperial communicators and then snap the necks of the officers, but that's not what he heard. He was never a military officer, despite being the commander in chief and having some combat training during his earlier years on Corellia, so he saw something completely different. Something Bastele, in his anger towards the Imperials, thought would be a good idea, but one that could have proven idiotic.

"I got this," he whispered.

He pulled out his blaster, set on silence mode, and nodded, likely making her think that he was ready to attack the guards. But he did something completely different. A muffled group of shots rang out from the blaster and hit the bottom of the boulder, which began to tumble down the hillside towards the two Imperials. The two men looked behind them, aghast at what they were seeing, but didn't have the time to call in for backup as the boulders knocked them over, crushing them beneath its weight.

As it rolled away, and no other Imperials seemed to have heard it or exit the base, Bastele stood up, with a smug smile on his face. "That was easy. Good call."

 

[Sreeya]

Kale nodded in approval as he prepared for the attack. She was sure he understood, as nothing in his body language suggested otherwise. He also hadn't signaled back for any clarifications. Impressed that he was so fluent in combat, Kale rose up, preparing to jump one of the men. However, that was when Bastele began to shoot at the boulder. Kale sprang back, completely baffled. She watched the boulder roll down, right over the two confused men. Kale slapped her own face above her helmet, resisting the urge to throttle Bastele, especially as he commented on the good idea like an oblivious idiot. She stormed up to him, gritting her teeth underneath her helmet.

"You kriffin moron-"

The boulder coming to a standstill had kicked up some dust. She detected movement in the HUD, suggesting that the further away soldiers were looking. Kale grasped Bastele and shoved him down, ensuring they both lay completely flat on the ground. The elevation would mean the soldiers could see nothing. Kale remained motionless for a few more seconds for good measure, until it was obvious the soldiers had decided it was simply the wind. She slowly rose up, inching closer to the two bodies, army crawling towards them to survey the damage. Thankfully the armor was mostly intact, but the bracer on one was crushed, and the helmet on the other was useless. There were a few cracks here and there, but nothing to make it completely useless. Kale glared at Bastele, whispering angrily.

"My idea was to subtly kill them and take their armor. You goofed that up, so we have to proceed with plan B. That means we still do the same idea, but with mismatching armor. Hopefully you won't be a dumbass next time and get us killed."

Kale quickly began to change, exchanging pieces of armor. The mistmatching looked odd, but it wasn't too striking. The Imperials weren't stormtroopers, which meant they did not have distinct armor. Kale turned to look at Bastele.

"Next time I give signals, SHRUG IF YOU DON'T KNOW SOMETHING."

Muttering something about dumb diplomats, she fiddled with the comms she had grabbed off the men. She tapped into the general frequency, hearing a few voices on it. From the sounds of it, there was no mention of the disturbance they had caused. Kale nodded.

"Right, I think we're good to go. And put that gun away. Act natural."

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Bastele shrugged his shoulders as Kale moved down the hill. "But I - ugh, whatever."

He followed her down the hill and mostly ignored her as she yelled at him about the armor. Bastele was no military officer. He had no idea what her signals meant, only the ones he and his troops used, but he wasn't about to get into an argument over it. Not here, not with so many Imperial troops nearby. They had a mission to accomplish.

Not that that kept him from being distracted as she began removing her armor, taking everything off down to her bodyglove. The foam tightly wrapped around her body, and he took note of every curve, everything that could possibly stand out as attractive, before he caught himself. He shook his head, playing it off as he started grabbing the other pieces of armor to put on over his clothes.

"Alright," he said. "If you're so smart, you lead the way."

 

[Sreeya]

Kale blankly stared at him through her HUD. She knew that line well, it came from prideful idiots that had no idea what they were doing. Kale rolled her eyes, sighing.

"Fine, I will."

Kale fiddled with the voice transmitter for a moment. She then walked towards a group of Imperial officers. Some of them paid no heed, but as they got closer to the base, two officers stood in their way.

"Shouldn't you two be guarding the outskirts?"

"Sarg. Bigsby commed us over. If you recall from his last general transmission, he was going to head to Beta base," Kale's voice came across in a default robotic, gender neutral setting, "and we were commed separately."

"Why does his armor look different?"

"Kriff, stop playing 20 questions and let me through before I pull a Vencu headbutt."

The Imperial said nothing for a moment, tensions appearing to be high. After a few seconds, the man burst out laughing, the other soldier joining in. All throughout the Imperial military, the Vencu headbutt joke had become legend. Behind her mask, Kale grinned, loosening up her posture to join in on the momentary mirth. The Imperials clapped them on the shoulders and let them through. Kale glanced back to make sure Bastele was following, entering the base. The building was set up like a warehouse, Razic having walked inside. From here, she could see Imperials at every corner, tuning into the general comm line to find her next cover story. Kale made sure no one could hear before turning to Bastele.

"Mission is to isolate the target. Then we'll incapacitate him and learn as much as we can. He's not working alone."

 

[Brandon Rhea]

A few awkward moments passed as Bastele stared at Kale and the guards, his face completely blank as the joke about the Vencu headbutt flew over his head. He had never heard this supposedly legendary joke; was it referring to something Corden Vencu did? Was it someone else in his clan? The most Bastele knew about Clan Vencu was that they led the charge against the Core, so the name did not bring him much joy. But as he realized he was sticking out like a sore thumb, and possibly giving up their identities, he let out a fake but hearty enough laugh, so loud that it drowned out the three others. It was obnoxious, and probably overkill, but no one seemed to mind. They were too busy feeling genuine joy over the name of killers and dogs.

The base was quiet as they entered, past the guards who were still too busy laughing to actually do their jobs. It's a wonder these people won the war, Bastele thought to himself. Yet despite the overall calmness of the base, there were Imperials walking throughout the corridors, completing their nighttime rounds and inspections before the bulk of the base would wake up in the morning. It ended up being what Kale said next that annoyed him more than the presence of Imperials.

"Hold on," Bastele whispered, grabbing her arm to keep her from moving forward, and pulling her out of sight of any other Imperials. "This is my mission, not yours. You're basically my prisoner until I can prove your loyalties are what you say they are. So I'll trust that you know what you're doing and that you can infiltrate an Imperial base, but at the end of the day, I give the orders here, not you."

He felt smugly confident in himself as he spoke those words. Kale thought that she could walk all over him, that he wasn't capable of leading this mission. Maybe she was right; he was just a politician who picked up a gun and decided to fight back, but that didn't give her the right to suddenly decide she was in charge.

"So here's what we're going to do," Bastele said. But not sooner did he speak the words did he realize what he was about to say, and how much of an idiot it would make him look like. "We're going to isolate Razik and then capture him. Got that?"

Bastele tried to brush off his repetition of her plan with some sort of smug, sarcastic grin, but he knew that he had lost this argument.

 

[Sreeya]

"But that's.."

Kale sighed, slapping the front of her helmet as she couldn't rightly facepalm. She stepped aside and dramatically bowed, extending her arm out to signal for him to step forth and take the lead. She followed behind him, taking in all her surroundings. She decided that she would purposely keep quiet on any plans and ideas. If he wanted to act tough and mighty, let him. Her own ego was massive and she wouldn't try to help until he began to see how much of a twit he was being. Kale listened closely to the comms. She spotted Razik up ahead in the distance, debating whether to say anything. After a moment, she caved.

"Razik identified at 11 o'clock."

He was surrounded by some of his cronies, and it was obvious that the two of them were a bit out of place. The only way out would be clever manipulations. However, Kale did nothing, standing behind Bastele.

"All right, boss, what next?"

 

[Brandon Rhea]

"Follow me."

His blaster rifle gripped in his hands, Bastele slowly started moving towards Razik, trying to keep his pace both deliberate and natural so as to not avoid the attention of any Imperials who might pass them by. This was his opportunity to show Kale that he wasn't the idiot that she thought he was. He had led the resistance for a long time before she came along, and to suddenly be undermined within a few days, by someone who worked with a known Imperial criminal no less, was not something he was taking kindly to.

As Bastele crossed over another hallway, two stormtroopers turned around the corner, and he bumped into both of them. His blaster rifle fell to the ground as he quickly apologized for his clumsiness, or at least thought about apologizing in his head. He tried to lean down to pick up his rifle, feeling the judgmental glare of Kale behind him, but the stormtroopers pointed their own blasters towards his head, forcing him to back off.

"What are you doing?" one of the stormtroopers asked as they saw his armor, recognizing it as being the same as the guards outside. "Why aren't you standing guard outside?"

He quickly said, "Oh, we're just on break. It's weird. This boulder… some idiot out there… you know how it is."

The stormtroopers looked at him up and down, and then turned their gazes towards Kale, and immediately noticed the mismatched armor on both of them. They looked to each other, with the lead trooper shrugging his shoulders, before turning back to Bastele.

"Who are you? What's your operating number?"

"Uhhh…," he muttered as he frantically looked at his uniform for a number, before grinning sheepishly. "V-Vencu headbutt?"

"You're under ar-"

Klonk!

Before the trooper could get another word in, Bastele grabbed them by their helmets and slammed them together, knocking both of the troopers out cold. It was a calculated move; he had already noticed that the surveillance camera, turning back and forth between different angles on the hall, was pointed away. As the troopers crumpled to the ground, Bastele dragged them both off towards a nearby storage room, before quickly beginning to change into their armor.

"There," he said to Kale. "Better armor. Happy? Now put this on, get Razik, and prove your loyalty."

 

[Sreeya]

Kale kept quiet, deciding to bite her tongue this time. Bastele was a walking disaster, and the more she stayed out of his way, the more he could screw up just on his own. While his method was horribly sloppy, he did manage to incapacitate the guards in their way. As he mentioned Razik, she sighed, realizing that she would have to do the real work. However, she was thankful that they would suddenly stop getting obnoxious questions about the armor. She made sure to keep the comm on, also thankful that these were higher ranked armors. As they walked down the halls, no one questioned them. Kale cast a sideways glance at Bastele.

"Remember your name and operating number this time."

Kale memorized her own, spotting Razik up ahead. She walked right up to him, nodding in greeting.

"Sir, we are in need of additional weaponry."

"So?"

"Sir they are weaponry and scouting equipment located within the base. Restricted access."

Kale pointed at her nameplate. Razik grimaced.

"Why do you need it?"

"Intel reports of activity on outskirts. Nothing urgent, but worth a scope."

Razik stared at her for a long moment, and for a second it felt as if their cover was about to be blown. He then looked at Bastele and Kale prayed to god he wouldn't do anything stupid. Seemingly satisfied with their get ups, Razik started walking down a narrow hall way, walking up some steps. They passed by multiple guards. Kale fell behind them in steps, turning to the guards on the way.

"Disturbance in base outskirts, all the way up near Beta base, Sarg said to go investigate."

The guards weren't about to defy the orders of stormtroopers. They hastily made their way down and Kale ran up to fall into step behind Razik. The entire time, Razik was muttering and complaining to Bastele about daily life and difficulties on a base. Kale had kept her ears trained on the comms the entire time, rapidly working up at which points to bring up a story. Razik stopped before a supplies room, sliding a card he had on him. He opened the door and gestured them to step in. Kale paused at the doorway.

"Sir, we are not authorized to handle restricted weaponry. Imperial protocol."

Razik looked surprised.

"An Imp that follows the rules? Colored me impressed!"

Happy to feel empowered, Razik stepped into the room. Kale shut the door behind them, whipped out her gun and slammed Razik on the back of his head. As he stumbled forth, Kale sidestepped and jutted out her boot, causing him to faceplant on the ground immediately. Before he knew what was going on, Kale had slammed down on top of him, twisting his arm and tossing any weapons on him aside and pinning him to the ground with a gloved hand on his mouth. His comm was also tossed aside.

"Make a noise and your brains will be splattered all over the place. The guards stationed outside aren't here. No one will hear you."

Kale pointed her gun directly against his head, glancing up at Bastele.

"I'll let you do the questioning. Make it quick."

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Satisfaction was etched across Bastele's face. He grinned the whole time he watched Kale manipulate Razik into doing just what she wanted him to do, knowing that his plan - yes, he considered it his plan - was coming to fruition. He honestly had no idea whether or not Razik was even a worthwhile target for the resistance at this point, but he had to know if Kale could be trusted. Truth be told, as much as he hated to admit it, as he watched her make her way through the Imperial base and manipulate their target, he knew that the resistance could use someone like her. He knew he could use someone like her, considering his lack of military experience.

Not that he had any intention of telling her that.

But for now, he was pleased that things worked out as he had wanted them to. Razik was in custody, though they would need to work quickly to find out information before they were discovered in this supply room, which would likely be well-travelled as the Imperial troops prepared whatever they needed for the bulk of their activities in the morning. Still, Bastele couldn't help himself in rubbing it in her face. He wasn't about to let this moment pass him by.

"And here you didn' think I could flush a toilet without your help," Bastele quipped, leaning up against the wall as he crossed his arms, smugly grinning at her. "Yet here we are, with this asshole in custo-"

Bastele's arm slipped to the right and inadvertently landed on a button, a button he knew was going to land them in serious trouble. "Uh-oh."

No sooner had he spoken did alarm klaxons start blaring, their deafening squeal echoing throughout the Imperial base, letting every Imperial troop know exactly where Bastele and Kale were. In a matter of seconds, the doors slid open again and stormtroopers and guards alike poured into the room. Bastele slowly stepped backward, raising his arms in the air. It was no use trying to pretend they were anything other than intruders, with Kale pinning Razik down and pointing a gun at his head.

Looking at Kale, Bastele smiled sheepishly and said, "Haha… Vencu headbutt?"

 

[Sreeya]

Kale had no words for how infuriated she was. She immediately dropped the weapon, jumping off Razik, who was barely coming to. As Bastele pathetically mumbled Vencu headbutt, Kale lost it. Without warning, she turned to him, lowered her body like a charging animal and slammed her helmet directly into his. The landing was perfectly targeted, hard enough to knock him out. The other guards were far too flabbergasted to do anything but watch as Bastele would no doubt slide to the ground, unconscious. Kale decided he needed a taste of the Vencu headbutt himself, raising her hands back up and calmly facing the stormtroopers. The two were instantly led to a cell, their armors and weapons removed and their hands in cuffs.

Kale sat at an end of the cell, gloomily staring through the bars. She was quite sick of cells by now, and this time it could have been completely avoided. Half of her wanted to beat up Bastele to a bloody pulp, but she knew it would do them little good. Their comms had been removed as well, and there was a no doubt a background check was being done on them. A few moments later, a blood sample would be taken from them to match against a master database to confirm their identities. She knew about Imperial rules quite well. Kale cast a sideways glance at Bastele, glaring.

"You make Jar Jar Binks look like the most fierce and efficient soldier in the history of the galaxy."

 

[Brandon Rhea]

The first thing Bastele felt as he came to was the immediate, knife-like stinging on the back of his head, from where he landed on the ground when Kale tackled him. He knew almost immediately that he had finally learned the meaning of the Vencu headbutt, through the especially hard way at that. He was getting pretty tired of Kale knocking him out cold, but even in his delirium, he knew where he was. He knew this wasn't the time or place to hit her again. Besides, if he did, something told him that she would kill him on the spot.

She still might, he thought to himself.

Bastele studied his surroundings as she compared him to Jar Jar Binks, and he said, "At least I didn't help anyone take over a galaxy like he did." He looked back towards her with a pointed, judgmental stare. "Can't speak for everyone in the room though."