Amir moved steadily forward, unaware that an unfamiliar spaceship had docked next to his ship's access bay.
"Just as Senir said, the ship has stopped. We must act quickly." The five of them quickly entered the ship.
"Yes, we must rescue Jeda and Hak!"
"Asoka, don't rush over there. It will take some time for the space to stabilize, which should give us enough time to rescue them." A man wearing glasses said this to the person in front of him who was cloaked in a gray hood. The hood had two sharp horns protruding upward, and two curved lightsabers hung at his waist.
"Hmm," replied the Togruta woman named Asoka. She stopped in her tracks and observed her surroundings.
. . .
Amir felt uneasy and looked back. He had just passed a floating patrol robot, and according to his estimation of the patrol route, there shouldn't be any threats around him.
This made him quicken his pace. As he passed the occupied cells, he kept low to avoid being spotted.
The ship's cells were not full; many were empty. Even if there were people inside, most of them were too weak to look out. Amir made his way through without incident.
"Turn left first. I'm looking for someone," he said to the BD-4 hanging on his back. Then he turned left.
"Beep, beep, beep!"
"Someone's there?" According to the normal patrol route, they should have left a minute ago," Amir said, confused. He had just calculated the patrol route for this area based on what he had learned in the Empire.
"Zzzzz—"
Amir walked to the corner and quietly peeked around. He discovered a person in black armor walking away with his back to him.
"An Imperial Judge?!" Amir was startled. He hadn't expected an Imperial Judge to be on this prison ship.
Taking a closer look at the shape of the judge's helmet, he guessed that it might be the fifth brother.
Amir glanced at the middle cell, where the person he was looking for was.
He waited silently until he saw the black figure turn the corner. Then, he walked down the path.
He started out walking quickly but gradually slowed down until he finally stopped in front of the cell door.
"Long time no see, Mr. Ascot," Amir said. He peered through the slits in the alloy prison door at the old man inside.
The old man was still dressed in rags and sitting in the corner like a homeless drunk beside a trash can, his hair covered in dust.
He raised his head, his eyes clear.
"It's you. Here for an internship?" The old man looked up at Amir, who was standing by the window.
"Sorry, I dropped out of military school."
"Ha ha!" Ascot laughed like a rusty engine, but he always enjoyed laughing. "Quit military school? Military school isn't like fixing a broken machine—you can't just walk out. That's desertion!"
"I submitted my withdrawal request a long time ago, and they approved it." Amir was still unsure if he could actually leave, but since he was out, he didn't dwell on it.
"Agreed? Ha! They wouldn't just let you go like that."
"What do you mean? You said that going to military school would help me learn about my background, but I've been there for two years, and nothing has happened." Amir stared at the gaunt old man in front of him.
"Background..." The old man withdrew his withered smile and his eyelids drooped.
A few seconds later, he raised his head slightly. His eyes grew cloudy, like a drunkard's, and he muttered, "Amir, are you lucky or unlucky?"
"Click!" With a loud clang, BD-4 finally forced open the prison door.
"Go first!" Amir said.
"No! No! I won't go anywhere." The old man, who had been talking to himself, suddenly gathered his strength and shrank into the corner. "It doesn't matter where I go!"
"Go, Amir. Do what you want to do while you can."
"They will control you someday. It won't be long now. No one can escape!" The old man continued to mutter, but the fear in his eyes was impossible to hide.
"No matter what happens, leave here now!" Amir said patiently, but the old man, Boris, had already completely retreated into his own world.
Amir thought about how to carry such a large man out when red lights suddenly flashed around them. He recognized the lights immediately—they were the alarm lights!
"Beep beep beep!" BD-4 grew anxious, indicating that he hadn't triggered them.
Amir glanced at the old man one last time, but ultimately didn't linger. Before leaving, he closed the prison door to avoid arousing suspicion.
"Did someone else trigger the alarm?" Amir released the spider robot again. "Let's head straight to Senir's target location!"
Amir began to move cautiously. If the alarm was triggered, all the stormtrooper would rush to the source. Without knowing its origin, they would easily be discovered.
If they were discovered, and if he still wanted to infiltrate perfectly, he would have to knock out all the witnesses. Amir thought this, tightening his grip on the blaster gun in his hand.
Just then, hurried footsteps echoed from ahead. He looked around frantically but found no place to hide.
The Empire's minimalist, efficiency-driven design meant that most ships and bases were narrow corridors with clean walls and small doorways. The only hiding places were the ventilation shafts, but they were too narrow for him to squeeze through.
The footsteps grew louder. Just as Amir was about to knock them all unconscious with his ultimate move, he suddenly had an idea.
A group of stormtrooper quickly passed through the corridor, but there was no sign of Amir.
BD-4 jumped down from the ventilation duct above and opened a cell door. Amir crawled out of the cell and continued moving forward quietly.
. . .
"Sorry!" Asoka said helplessly, looking at the security robot split in two in front of her. She had triggered the alarms around them. "But Hak and the others are already close. Let's just charge through."
She grabbed her two lightsabers and charged forward after saying that.
The curved handles of the lightsabers emitted a white glow.
Most lightsabers were blue or green, depending on the primary component, the Kyber crystal, and the user's Force. Unlike Jedi lightsabers, Sith lightsabers were bright red because the Kyber crystals that rejected the dark side of the Force bled red under violent erosion.
After the Clone Wars, Ahsoka left her twin lightsabers behind and set out on her own journey. In a subsequent battle with an Imperial Inquisitor, she defeated her opponent and seized their lightsaber. Using her unique Force abilities, she purified the Kyber crystal tainted by the dark side, causing the lightsaber to emit a white glow.
Swiftly spinning her lightsaber to block incoming blaster beams, Ahsoka charged toward a newly arrived group of stormtroopers.
Faced with no chance of victory, the stormtroopers confronted Ahsoka's agile body and superhuman speed, having lost all hope of resistance.
More importantly, none of the blaster bolts could hit her—they were either dodged or deflected back at the attackers by her lightsaber.
Are we just that bad? We were aiming carefully! It must be because we ate too much earlier! Ah!