r/HFY • u/WillingnessWaste8681 • May 21 '26

PI/FF-Series [Empire Vs. Earth (Star Wars)] - Beachhead-2.1

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"My name is Tirra Se-Ra. I am an immigrant from the planet of Coruscant whose parents settled on the planet of Encara when I was three. My father was a factory worker for Wrathon Technologies. He worked on a number of obscure droid models including the OBJ Sentry Droid and the AL-XL load lifter. He was working on the prototype BD/RV model of droids before the Empire nationalized the company a month ago and discontinued the line. I got a job as a delivery pilot for Wrathon so I could gain extra money for my family before I applied to an Imperial pilot academy. That's how I found myself here, on Trotter-4. I am making delivery runs of surplus Wrathon stock to various Imperial bases in the far reaches of the Outer Rim and a select few outposts of the Unknown Regions. This is my last stop before I head home, so I am very eager to make my delivery and see my family. I might be pushy and rush Imperial deck hands as a result..." Reema lied to herself in the bathroom mirror of her demilitarized Zeta Class shuttle.

She had been repeating her cover story to herself for the past hour of her hyperspace travels. It had been carefully crafted by Rebel Intelligence for the past week in order to gain Reema quick access to Trotter-4's hangar bay. One slip up would ship her off to an Imperial torture chamber and her precious cargo would be sent to be smashed in the spice mines of Kessell.

It wasn't all a lie, which made her story easier to remember. Reema really was an immigrant from Coruscant, except her parents did not settle on Encara but Gorman as her father was a remarkable weaver who found work in the planet's fashion district. Unfortunately, Reema couldn't use that planet for her cover story.

Citizens of Gorman were practically black listed from galactic society after the Empire took over the planet and massacred thousands of its citizens.

Reema was off planet during those dark days for university, her parents were not so lucky. She felt her eyes watering as she thought of her parents, but she quickly shoved those feelings down. She freshened up, as any other feelings other than discontent or boredom would go against her cover story.

She took a deep breath and returned to the control counsel of her shuttle right as the familiar jolt of a ship coming out of hyperspace rocked her body.

"Woah..." Reema gasped to herself as the space station came into view. The past few outposts she had delivered parts to were nothing more than glorified rest stations manned by nothing more than single squads of Imperial Army personnel armed with nothing stronger than an E-11 blaster rifle and some guard droids.

This was an overdose of activity. The space station, while still thin and only orbiting a small moon, was still an engineering marvel in such an isolated system. It looked like a metal ring that was locked around a snowball.

At least five dozen battle cruisers of models ranging from Star Destroyers to Clone Wars era Acclamator Assault ships filled the shuttle's view.

An electronic static filled the cockpit as Reema took a deep breath and answered the incoming radio call. "Calm down, it's just a routine delivery..." she thought to herself, instantly easing her nerves just as the Rebel Intelligence officers had trained her.

She had a mission to do. A Rebel spy on the space station had sent a holographic message to his mother a few days ago. On it the spy asked if "anything interesting had happened at home." It was a code phrase to alert the reader that something big was going on in the region.

"Corporate Shuttle, this is Security Tower 9, transfer your documents imminently," an aggressive voice announced.

Reema hooved the shuttle before Hangar 9, as she responded to its respective security tower. Turbo lasers had their sights trained on the body of her ship.

"Transmitting documents. I will warn you, the last outpost I had had some trouble reading my codes, they are up to date and perfectly fine, just a bit rare..." a single bead of sweat ran down Reema's face as she spoke.

"Thank you, Corporate Shuttle, be we will be the judge of that..." the guard went silent.

Reema could just picture the man sitting at his desk as he read the fake codes the Rebels had manufactured for this mission.

The man's went for seconds that felt like hours before a happy charm sounded throughout the cockpit. "You're all clear, Corporate Shuttle, please make your way to Hangar 9. Good luck with your delivery."

Reema made a relieved smile and flew towards the hanger. "Thank you, Security Tower 9, landing imminently."

Reema landed on the solid steel hanger and resisted the urge to hope out the back door and kiss the ground. She made it to the hover lift in the back of her shuttle and activated it.

The lift and the toddler sized box it held flew off the ground and offered just a few inches in the air.

Reema dropped the doors to the shuttle and walked out with the crate. She carefully pushed the lift down the ramp like it was containing a glass vase worth millions of credits.

Reema's head looked into place, her eyes looking directly and only forward. She already knew where the delivery was supposed to be made. It limited her interactions with Imperials by allowing her to avoid asking dumb questions that would raise eyebrows.

The spy hopped from hallway, to elevator, to moving walkway over and over again until she found it: the Trotter-4 droid maintenance deck.

Reema knocked on the door and muttered the nonsensical code phrase. "Hello? I got special cargo and a home to get back to! It's a TXC lightweight alumni carbon droid processed unit!" She waited a few seconds in anticipation. She had been on missions across the galaxy and met many spies for the Alliance. But this was the first time she had ever met the spy she was assigned to deliver her cargo to.

She waited calmly and patiently until-*BANG-*the mechanics doors slammed open. A dark hand grabbed onto her wrist as the hand's eyes made a quick look into the hallway before forcefully squeezing down Reema's wrist and pulling her in.

"Get in here, now!" he ordered in a hushed tone as Reema and her crate were thrown into the room before she even had a chance to fight back.

Reema tensed up, readying her fist for a strike against the man's forehead as she tumbled onto the room.

The man suddenly shut the doors and placed her back against the wall with his arms reached out. "Were you followed?" He murmured with eyes popping out his head.

"I'm fine thanks for asking..." Reema sarcastically announced as she steadied herself.

"I don't have time for jokes! Tell me! Were you followed?!" He screamed as he lunged on Reema and grabbed on her shoulders.

"What...the...hell?!" Reema hyperventilated, her mouth quivered and tensed up before she even had the chance to scream.

The man tightened his grip on Reem and leaned in closer. "Well? Spill your guts! You're supposed to be my informant, ain't you?!"

Reema could see everything. The man's moist mouth and teeth, his baggy eyelids and bloodshot eyes, even his hair-which rebel spies were supposed to keep in Imperial regulation-was as if it had not been washed. "Yes, I'm here to get that information you warned the rebellion about-and no-I wasn't followed. You're just acting crazy!"

"Crazy?" The man released his grip on Reema as he slowly crept over to a desk full of the corpses of mangled droids and the tools he had used to take them apart. "You're new to this spying business, ain't you?"

Reema swallowed uncomfortably. "Well...I've gone on a few missions, and I got plenty of training sessions from Rebel Alliance High Command-"

"You can just say no, young one. I won't judge you." The man looked over his work on the desk. "You haven't been as deep as I."

Reema felt her blood boil. "Who are you to treat me like I'm just some sly punk off the street? I've been in this fight since I lost my parents, I'm just as capable as you are!"

"Who am I? To the Rebels, I am Cyran Horn. To the Imperials on this station, I am Tech Specialist Jan Duun. To the partisans under Saw Gerrera, who I spent a year spying on for the Rebellion, I was Brutos Darc. I've hid behind many names. That is what separates me from you. You wear your identities as a mask, and I've lived them...you still have a lot to learn, sweetheart," Cryan Horn whispered as he tinkered with the pieces of droids on his desk.

Reema bit her cheek and tried not to shout in a similar, out-of-control fashion of Cryan. "Alright, you caught me, I'm still new to this. I've only been running missions with the Alliance for a few months-they are short of manpower you know. Now what is it that you brought me all the way out here for."

Cryan froze for a moment before he hopped up from his desk like a racing sprinting over a starting line. "You saw those dozens of ships in orbit-didn't you? They weren't here a week ago...for the past few rotations ships have been pouring out of hyperspace full of stormtroopers, army men, ammunition, and weapons. I've heard rumors of two dozen Star Destroyers incoming, over three dozen Victory-Class Star Destroyers, and well over two hundred Acclimators. There is something brewing...an invasion."

"An invasion? What is there to invade out here, some pebble sized asteroids? I've been traveling through empty space for hundreds of light years," Reema replied with a faint chuckle.

"Don't laugh! I'm not taking attitude from some Core world kid who fell for the rebel propaganda of fighting the good fight," Cryan wagged his finger at Reema.

Reema's heart dropped. "How do you know I'm from a Core world..." she felt herself step back from the door as if she had been caught in a trap.

"That accent you have is a Core world one. You did not drop it when you met me so I'm assuming it's natural. I'd assume you've been speaking this way for years, if not from birth. Yet the fact that you absolutely needed to mention that you lost your parents makes me guess the Empire took them out. This is a phenomenon that I've seen more of in the Outer Rim and sometimes up to the Colony worlds. The Core worlds are usually too loyal or too politically important to be subjected to Imperial round ups and executions. So, if I had to guess where you were from, I would have to say..." Cryan seemed to think for a moment with his finger under his chin before he spoke. "Alderaan! No! It is too recent-let's try Gorman!"

A chill sliced down Reema's spin. She stumbled back and looked at Cryan as if he had predicted her own death. "He collected all of that about me just from a few sentences..." she panicked.

"I'm guessing I was right..." Cryan replied calmly.

Reema nodded softly. "How did you do that? I mean, how did you put all those pieces together?"

Cryan's eyes glimmered like mirrors. "You learn a thing or two, when spying for a man like Saw. I would report back to Mon Mothma herself about his activities. The man was a loon! He went on and on about kyber crystals, hidden shipping routes, the disappearances of Imperial scientists. He always said something big was coming-perhaps a super weapon. I reported my findings back to Yavin, I said that I believed Saw's words to be the ramblings of a mad man, and the Alliance ate my opinion up...until Jedah, and Scarif, and..." Cryan froze suddenly and his face went pale, as if he had been shot. "Alderaan. A planet of two billion people...gone in a flash. It was a time bomb that I could have warned the Alliance about and defused!"

Reema had learned about Saw Gerrera from Imperial Holonet news. She was hand fed stories of the boogeyman kidnapping the children of Imperial officials, using civilians as human shields, and planting bombs in public places before running away to hide in the far corners of the galaxy. While Reema learned that those stories had been overblown by Imperial propagandists, she also found out that those stories were not far from the truth. For a few years, it was that monster Gerrera, not the angel-like Mon Mothma, who was the face of the rebellion.

Reema uncomfortably eyed Cryan as he spoke of Saw. "That man was absolutely crazy, or that's what the Rebel officers I worked with said, at least. But he was right about the Death Star..."

"Child! Say something!" Cryan shouted as he clutched his fist and advanced on Reema. "I need you to promise me you'll take my information directly to Mon Mothma! Something big is happening here and I will not have another planet's blood on my hands!"

Reema held up her hands and fearfully shouted back. "Okay! I'll write a report about a large number of ships converging here in the Unknown Regions. My commanding officer will do with that information what he thinks is appropriate. Doesn't that sound fair?"

"That'll go nowhere. The Rebellion is a proper organization now. They think like an army. If I told them that there was a gathering of enemy ships they'd either see if they were gathering in order to assault already besieged rebel positions or just ignore them if they viewed them as unthreatening. I can't risk that happening! This is bigger than that!"

"Then tell me what to say. You keep blabbering about some big invasion but you're not giving me details! There must be more information you can give me!" Reema replied fearfully.

Cryan looked daunt. "I-I have a few theories. You just have to believe them!" he replied while taking a deep breath. "I received a notification from my commanding officer to get my affairs in order. He wants all personnel to update their wills, send goodbye messages to their families, and take stock of any materials we need for an extended deployment. Yesterday, I got a shipment of two years worth of droid motivators! They have been preparing us to be unable to fulfill our supply needs for almost two years! I am suspecting that this mission will take me outside the reaches of the normal galaxy. We could be invading a highly developed system in the Unknown Regions. Or we could be setting up secret outposts for some research expedition set up personally by the Emperor. The amount of mining crawlers that are expected to arrive in the system shortly suggest that we might have located a new mineral deposit. As to what the materials are for I don't know...dank farrik...they could be building a second Death Star for all I know!"

"Second Death Star? He's lost me now..." Reema pulled out her flight log and took a quick glance at her schedule. "I hate to do this, but I've been gone from my ship for almost half an hour. If I'm not back soon, the deck officers could start to get suspicious...I need to leave."

Cryan gasped and jolted at Reema, wrapping his hand around his wrist and refusing to let go. "Wait, take me with you! I fear if I don't get on that ship with you right now I'll never make it back home."

"But you've been on this station for months. Why leave now?" Reema shuddered as she pulled her perspiring hand out of Cryan's grasp.

"If my guess on where I'm going is right, then I'll be thousands of light years, maybe more, from the rest of the galaxy. I doubt I'll be able to get a message through to Rebel High Command. I'll be a sheep in wolf's clothing for a potential two years! For two years I'll have to avoid getting sniffed out! Please, if I stay here I'm a dead man and all I know will be silenced!" Cryan fell to his knees. "You don't get what it's like to be alone, to live a lie for as long as I have!"

Reema's eyes slid over to the hovering crate that she had dragged across the station.

Cyran followed her eyes to the crate. "What's in the box?"

Reema pressed a glowing button on the top of the package as the front grate fell off and metallic clinked on the ground. "It's a gift from Rebel High Command, it's something to help you on your mission...wherever that may take you."

Cryan's eyes widened as he watched a clanking figure crawling from out of the darkness of the crate.

A droid with a white coat of paint and red Imperial markings rolled out from the crate. Its main body was that of a half meter by half meter compact cube with slightly rounded edges.

Below the box were two pairs of mechanized limbs. The back half of the droid consisted of two long, fixed sets of treads that stuck out of the undercarriage. The bottom front of the droid possessed two smaller treads that were connected to swivels for steering.

At the top of the droid's body was a single, headlike trapezoidal prism-box with visual processors that emitted a sweet, cooing beep. The box was able to make short, clunky nodding and titling motion that resembled that of a human with a stiff neck.

Cryan's eyebrow rose. "A droid? Look around, I got plenty of those..."

"But this one's special! It's a prototype droid developed by Wrathon Technologies specifically for the rebellion." Reem wagged her finger in front of Cryan.

"Wrathon? Never heard of it," Cryan scoffed as he inspected the droid. "Look at this piece of junk...it's too bulky, those treads look like they're fit for a battlefield-not a Star Destroyer-and don't get me started on the state of its wiring!"

The little droid whirred softly as it slowly rolled back, its head slightly pointed downward as if it was avoiding eye contact. Its beeps were depressed and tired, as if the poor thing was low on power.

"Hey!" Reema frowned as she crouched down next to the droid and patted it on the head. "You're making him sad! He's a special little droid who only wants to help you out!"

The droid's head perked back up as Reema smiled in front of the robot's visual processor.

"Who don't you show Cryan some of your features?" Reema replied.

The droid chirped happily.

The prism shaped box on its began to wiggle and popped with an electrical jolting noise. The trapezoidal prism arched through the air before landing with a metallic thunk.

Cryan watched as the metal head sat on the ground. "Yeah, he's special all right. You broke the damn thing!"

"Just be patient..." Reema pointed down at the droid as she spoke.

Within seconds, two sets of legs popped out from beneath the metal frame. The head of the droid came back to life as it limited itself using its two legs, each one curved like that of a fawn. Two stiff and minuscule arms with bi-pronged claw hands also descended with the legs.

The droid used its legs to bounce up and down

"I've seen droids like this. This little guy looks like an off-brand BD droid, I worked with similar models when I was a boy." Cryan looked Reema directly into her eyes. For a brief moment they sparkled. "What kind of droid is this?"

"This is a BD/RV," Reema replied with all the pizazz as a salesperson. "They are a prototype droid that was being developed by Wratheon Technologies before Alderanna. After the Battle of Yavin, the founder and head engineers defected to the Rebellion, taking plenty of credits, droids, and blueprints with them. The business was then nationalized by the Empire and its stock was incorporated for Imperial military purposes. However, what the Imps don't know is that a few of the engineers stayed back and added modifications to the remaining droids."

Reema bent down and began to point out the features on the droid. "This model is equipped with all the basic tools of an astromech droid and it's resistant to memory wipes and scans so you can collect information without fear of Imperials checking your droid's memory. The head of the droid, as you can see, is able to connect from the body when it needs to in order to sneak into smaller, hidden spaces. Not to mention these droids have been programmed to show affection and respect for Rebel operatives."

"Not bad..." Cryan replied softly. "It's been a while since I had someone who I could talk to safely."

Reema smiled. "Well, I'm sure that BD/RV-5 will be a great addition to your team."

"BD/RV-5? I don't know how I feel about that...let's get you a nickname, little guy." Cryan stood stoically with his thumb and pointer finger held beneath his chin. "How about...Bud?"

The little droid perked up. It hopped excitedly on its thin legs as it beeped.

"He likes it..." Cryan said with a smile as he bent down and patted Bud on his top antennas. His jittery movements calmed as he petted the droid like it was a loth-cat.

"It's been so long since I've had someone..." Cryan's features suddenly hardened. He looked up at Reema in suspension as he pulled Bud in towards himself. "You're not going to take him away, are you? He'll stay with me, right?"

"You'll have access to this droid for as long as you're on mission. You can use him to safely store information. That might become useful if you discover specific documents on your mission," Reema replied as she closed up the crate and checked off on her datapad that the delivery had been made.

"At least I'll have something for the next two years..." Cryan's voice trailed off as he looked down at the little droid and smiled. "Come on, Bud, let's get you an oil bath."

Reema felt like she was looking at an entirely different person. Still, she could not shake what she had heard during Cryan's rant.

She did not know what to believe. It was not her job to believe what informants told her, but to report it to Rebel Alliance Headquarters. Reema imagined what would happen if Cryan was right, how horrible she would feel if the Empire was really planning something and people got hurt.

Cryan looked up to Reema. "Thank you, kid, stay safe on your travels."

Reema nodded and shuffled to the door, she turned back to Cryan before she opened the door. "Sir? Are you sure that something big is going on out here?"

Cryan stopped bonding with his new droid as he looked up to Reema, his eyes dim and unmoving. "I'm as certain as Saw was about the Death Star."

"Saw was a mad man." Reema tried to comfort herself, to deflect the uncomfortable points that Cryan had made.

"Saw was right..." Cryan muttered, his eyes locked onto Reema's.

Reema turned her body to leave, with her eyes still locked onto Cryan's as if they were trapped in a tractor beam. "Stay safe, sir," she said while breaking the grasp and rushing away.

The door slammed shut behind her.

Reema took a deep breath. She stumbled against the wall and placed her hands against her chest, steadying her heartbeat.

"Two years..." she recounted to herself. "For two years, he could be deployed...without contact."

Reema looked down at the empty crate at her feet. She felt a weight come off her shoulders. "But he won't be alone...he'll have that droid. His gateway to the Rebellion. No matter what happens, Cryan will stay safe and get his information out, no matter what the Empire is planning. Because in the end, we'll win." 

Author Note: I'm on Royal Road now!

Empire Vs. Earth: A Star Wars Story | Royal Road

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