Trooper

Visiting the Farm

"Sir, based on the manifest, it looks like they stopped at a farm and sold two droids yesterday."

Finally. As simple as these creatures seemed, they did manage to keep surprisingly well organized records.

"Any chance they have the coordinates for this farm in there as well?" I ask back over the comm.

"No coordinates sir, all it says here is 'Lars', whatever that means."

"Well, we are in a desert, how many farms can there be?" I ask, more thinking out loud than expecting an answer.

"Sir, there appears to be two moisture farms in range of this vehicle based on our timeline. However one of those appears to be almost exactly on this vehicles reverse course."

"That sounds promising doesn't it? Ok, I think we're done here, have the squad cover our tracks and prepare to move out." The last thing I want is a pack of natives hunting us down hoping to score our valuable Imperial hardware.

******

It certainly didn't look like much, unlike any farm I had ever seen, it was just more desert. No crops, no livestock, just an expanse of desert with these odd towers sprinkled about. Obviously I don't understand how moisture farming works, or how it could possibly be profitable out in a place like this. 

There didn't appear to be anybody around at the moment, but its possible some of the living quarters are underground. Based on the last few days I know I certainly wouldn't want to be living up here on the surface.  I hate deserts, have I mentioned that?

"Squad, fan out, check each structure and we'll converge at that larger dome over there. We don't know who we're dealing with here, if they're rebels we can expect them the put up a fight, so be alert at all times."

Silently my troopers spit off into pairs and started making their way across the compound. It's quite the thing to see really, such coordination can only come from hard time spent in the Imperial academy.

I joined a pair of troopers that were making their way toward a small building on the right. One of the troopers pulled open the door, odd that it wasn't locked... And yep, just what it looked like, a tool shed.

We moved to the next building, it was a bit larger but not by much. This one looked like it might be a workshop, a very organized one at that. I was starting to get the feeling that we weren't dealing with our typical rebel collaborators here, but what are the odds of our escaped droids just happening to arrive on their doorstep? There just *has* to be some sort of a connection.

I hear a blaster shot from outside the shed, not directed at us, too far away, but that just mean another squad found something. We busted through the shed doors and sprinted across the compound, I quickly pull ahead of my two squad mates who are obviously not used to a flat out run in their armour. I slide in behind another small shed, the blaster shots are coming from the next building over, but I need to check out the situation first. I peek out from my cover, I see two troopers next to a door when one of them pops out and fires a few rounds in a downwards angle. Ok, so we are dealing with an underground bunker after all. I watch the trooper move back to safety before a flurry of blaster fire erupts from inside.

One of the troopers notices me watching, he signals 2 targets. I signal back for a flash grenade, and that we're coming over then start moving in their direction. My squad mates have finally caught up and are beside me now. As we get closer I can see the trooper I was signalling reach around his back and grab a grenade.

"Noooooooo!" I yell, sprinting towards him, but it's too late, I see the thermal detonator flip from his hand and disappear into the opened door of the structure. An instant later a massive detonation explodes in the building. The force of it is strong enough that the other trooper next to the door is fully engulfed in flames and projected helplessly into the air. He lands on his head and doesn't move. Back in the direction of the blast I hear screaming, when I turn to look I see a humanoid shape stumbling up the stairs, fully engulfed in raging flames, and definitely not a droid. The figure falls to their knees on the dirt, before flopping to the ground. I can still hear some muffled screams from the burning mass so I fire a pair of blaster shots at it, no more noise.

I turn to look at the trooper that had tossed the detonator. He was frozen in disbelief that I could see even through his emotionless helmet. I hurriedly start marching towards him. I suspect if he could have seen my eyes he wouldn't have just stood there as he did.

"Sir... I'm sorry, I must have grabbed the wrong..." and then the upward force of my blaster caught him completely off guard, knocking his helmet clear from his head and exposing his stunned expression. I didn't stop. I swung a hard right-hook through his jaw, followed by a pair of blows to his abdomen with my blaster butt, keeling him over. I dropped my blaster, grabbed firmly onto the back of his head with both hands while launching my armoured knee upwards. The force knocked him out cold, his body went limp, but it took a moment for gravity to take effect and crumple him to the ground.

My squad had gathered around the explosion by then and had watched the whole thing. Not one of them had attempted to intervene, good.

"Finish the sweep, we need to find those droids." I order, and the squad silently turned and continued checking the few remaining buildings.

I stayed behind, first I checked on the trooper that had been blasted through the air. As I suspected, he had not survived. Not sure if it was the explosion, being on fire or landing on his head that killed him, but does it matter anyway?

I could hear the trooper I'd kicked the shit out of start to get himself back up. I turned and moved toward him, he had stopped trying to get up and was just sitting there in the dirt. He was obviously still somewhat stunned.

"Trooper" I said to get his attention.
"Trooper" I repeated after a second or two, which got him to look up to me.

"Can you stand?"

He nods silently.

"Good, before you screwed up you indicated there were two hostiles inside. Only one of them made it out after the explosion, go inside and bring me the other one."

He looked back towards the building he had destroyed, there was still some smoke wafting out the door but no more flames, and dropped his head.

I held his helmet out to him, which I had picked up on my way over.

"Keep your eyes open for those droids trooper, we still have a mission here."

When he finally reached up to grab the helmet I held onto it for a moment and caught his gaze.

"You'll never make that mistake again trooper."

He nodded silently, put on his helmet and got to his feet.

************

Thanks for reading!

I hope you've liked my story so far, it's been a lot of fun to write, even if it does take awhile between parts. I've got a lot of ideas for other stories to tell in this series, but guess what? I'm also taking requests! If you have a part of the Star Wars story you'd like me to write about, let me know in the comments.

I can't wait to hear your suggestions!