Locking the Back Door

-4:05 AM, December 30th, 2055-

A woman was distressed and yelling at her colleagues. "THEY'RE HERE! I'M TELLING YOU THEY'RE HERE! WE ARE FUCKED!"

A man standing across the table from her gestured towards the hologram between them. "There is no evidence of that. You can see it yourself. There is nothing that shouldn't be there."

Another man rushed into the room. "Sir, there's been an incident."

The man looked up at him impatiently. "Out with it."

The new man nodded. "A pair of Jedi killed Lords Furi and Thana."

The man grimaced and clenched his fists. "It's already too late. I was wrong."

I turned to Tomas. "Let's move in."

Tomas nodded and tapped his ear. "Clear to proceed."

The room we were currently in was round and had a vaulted ceiling. It was a meeting room in the rear of the town hall. The ground level of the room had a command table in the center which was lit up by a hologram of the city. There was a second level in the room with a balcony that extended all the way around.

As Tomas gave the order, Alpha team emerged from the darkness and rappelled down from the upper level. I opted to jump.

The new man raised his blaster and aimed at Reeves. I landed on the ground and pulled the blaster from his hands using the force. "LET ME SEE SOME HANDS!"

Seeing that they were now surrounded and heavily outnumbered, the three Forest members surrendered. With their hands raised, three operators moved in and tied their hands behind their backs.

I tapped my ear. "Overlord, stage is set. ETA on curtains up?"

Overlord quickly replied. "ETA 2 minutes. You have a new MO. Transmitting coordinates now."

I nodded. "10-4. Standing by."

After a few seconds, my wrist comm beeped. I tapped the button and a holographic map materialized. There was a blinking green dot about 2 klicks to the Northwest.

I sighed. "Coordinates received. What is it?"

Overlord replied. "Primary MO is locking the backdoor. Secondary MO is clearing an LZ."

I shook my head. This would the extremely challenging. "Affirm. Moving out."

I closed the channel and walked over to Tomas. "T, new mission. We are securing the spaceport."

Tomas clicked his tongue. "Fucking hell. We are done after this."

I nodded. "Yep. 100%. Toss those three in a cell so we can get moving."

I turned away and began walking towards the exit. Then, I tapped my ear twice. "Sirius, give me a SITREP."

Sirius responded after a few seconds with a whisper. "Can't talk, enroute to capital."

I sighed. "Fine. Be careful. There is a Dark Council member there."

After waiting for a few seconds, I stopped walking and sighed. There was no reply.

Tomas walked up to me as the other operators passed us. "Come on. Home stretch."

I nodded. "I know."

With my hands tightly gripping my rifle, I followed the team. We moved through the city hall and descended a few flights of stairs to reach a side entrance. This was the way we came in. The only enemies here were already dead.

Once we reached the door, we crossed the street and headed Northwest. Our night was nearly over.

-4:23 AM-

-Nabat Spaceport-

It was an odd sight. The spaceport was operating as usual. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Ships were taking off and landing, oblivious to the true nature of the circumstances.

I heard an explosion from the Southeast side of the city. It was faint, but I knew that the fighting had begun.

Standing on the roof of a building across the street from the spaceport, I could see the landing pad. Since I was so close, I was able to feel the emotions of those inside. Most of it was a mixture of typical emotions.

However, I could feel waves of pain and suffering from within. There were slaves being shipped here.

Tomas walked up to me. He had apparently known my pained expression. "Hey, you alright?"

I shook my head. "Only a Jedi can truly understand the drawbacks of being one."

He sighed and patted my shoulder. "Come on. I know you can handle it. I just need to know that you're not going to be a liability on my OP."

I sighed. "I'll be fine for the time being… I think I need to start seeing a therapist though."

Tomas nodded. "It works, man. HR hooked me up with one. Did you know that around 50% of executives see some kind of therapist?"

I chuckled. "Makes sense. It's a stressful job."

Tomas sighed. "Yeah… Come on. We need to move quickly."