Onboard the Steadfast Admiral Ar’alani watched in the hanger as the non-descript outer rim shuttle was prepped for launch. They had just come out at the edge of Imperial Space and the ship was running at one step above dark mode. She had hoped that they would get a last-minute transmission calling off her youngest sister’s mission but she knew it would not come. The idea that the Grysks were already infiltrating into what was known as Imperial Space did not sit well with the Ascendancy. Command had decided that they needed more information and decided to send agents to learn what they could and other agents to be in place to help eliminate the threat. Ar’lissa was one of those first ones chosen. Ar’alani had at first wondered why, but as they traveled, she realized that Ar’lissa was very much like Thrawn in one regard, she believes in preemptively striking a threat rather than waiting for it to attack first. It was a way of exiling her without officially doing it.
Ar’lissa walked over to Ar’alani adjusting her clothing, even with everything going on she had a cheeriness about her. “This clothing doesn’t provide much protection does it?”
Ar’alani sighed, “The Chiss can’t be seen as actively interfering, so we can’t exactly let you take your normal uniform.” She glanced over to the shuttle as the crew finished fueling it up, noticing they were alone she lowered her voice. “You know they’re basically exiling you?”
Ar’lissa nodded, some of the cheeriness gone from her expression as she lowered her voice. “Yeah I know, at least there’s still a chance I could return. I know they didn’t approve of my actions but if I hadn’t done what I did a lot of people could have died.”
Ar’alani shrugged, “The end doesn’t always justify the means. Just remember that, because you won’t have any support once the shuttle drops you off. The Steadfast will be leaving Imperial Space as soon as the shuttle is back aboard at the rendezvous coordinates.”
The shuttle pilot came up to them, “Admiral, the shuttle is ready.”
Ar’lissa patted her older sister on the arm, “It’ll be fine. Warrior’s fortune be with you.”
Ar’alani gave a respectful nod, “With you as well.” As she watched as the pilot lead her sister down to the shuttle she couldn’t help shaking the feeling this could be the last time she would see her.
A few weeks later Ar’lissa steadied her aim, silently tracking her target through the sight of her rifle. She slowly let out a breath and held it as she squeezed the trigger on her rifle. The Rodain running for his speeder felt the impact just before the shot rang out and reflexively clutched at his back for a moment before bouncing off of the side of the speeder and collapsing to the sand, one hand still trying to reach for the wound. “Why do they almost always run?” Ar’lissa mumbled under her breath in Cheunh as she kept her aim on her target for a few moments longer to make sure he wasn’t getting back up. The crowd that had stopped to watch the altercation casually started resuming their daily activities once they saw that it looked to be over. Ar’lissa started walking toward her quarry keeping her weapon aimed at him, “You know if you had just come quietly when I asked you wouldn’t be bleeding on the ground.” She called out in her fluent Sy Bisti.
“Pantoran bitch!” he managed to grumble back at her in Galactic Common.
Ar’lissa couldn’t help but smirk slightly, switching to her accented Galactic Common as she stopped and took aim again. “There’s still a chance to explain your side to the commander. He would prefer it actually.”
The Rodain clutched at his shoulder with his visible hand while his other hand slowly started reaching for his backup blaster, “I’m sure he would.”
Ar’lissa fired again at nearly point-blank range and the Rodain stopped moving as the life slowly drained out of his eyes as she shouldered her rifle. “I said preferred but not required.”
Ar’lissa carefully slid the holdout blaster away from his hand with her boot. She started checking over the body pulling out a couple of data cards and his speeder key before activating her communicator. “Commander, this is Ar’lissa. Unfortunately, the traitor refused to come in and had to be neutralized, but I assume you knew he wouldn’t. That’s why you sent me to bring him in.”
A gruff voice on the other end replied, “Yep. Come back to the safehouse with anything of value. We have to assume he alerted the Empire to our location, so we’ll have to leave quickly.”
“He was kind enough to lead me to his speeder so I will be back shortly with his body and everything he was carrying.”
“Excellent, we’ll see you soon.”
Ar’lissa clicked off the communicator and began loading the body into the speeder. She noted the people around her still going about their business like a person loading a freshly killed body into a speeder was just par for the course. She was starting to warm up to these so-called Rebels, but her duty and loyalty is to the Ascendancy and she would follow their orders to the best of her ability.
