Chapter 8: Honesty

[Fel]

"Well, Captain, I have to admit we weren't totally honest with you."

"About the mission, you mean? Well, I got that impression, considering how well it went..." Fel's sarcasm was overlooked by Ilven.

It was easy to see how he might have arrived at that conclusion. The evacuation from the hyperspace point into asteroid field had been a disaster overall for the fighter squadrons. The TIE Interceptors had taken serious damage from the micrometeorites and debris. Their shields had been weakened by the fight against Daemon's forces, but fortunately they hadn't taken out too many of the Imperials.

There were a lot of ejections and a lot of lost craft. As such, Obsidian squadron had received some (unfortunately second-hand) X-Wings, which would work, at least for now.

"No, you misunderstand," she said. "I meant about the scientists. Well, they aren't really scientists at all."

Fel wondered about what was next.

"They're actually Force-sensitives."

Fel tried his best to contain his reaction, but the look on Ilven's face seemed to indicate that he failed.

"What? The Force is real, you know."

"I know it's real, but..." Fel trailed off, thinking it better not to finish that thought.

"It's not just an ancient religion, there's actually some basis to it."

Fel tried to be diplomatic about it, when he said that people have always vastly overestimated its effectiveness. He knew that if The Force were really so powerful as it was claimed, then it would truly dominate everything.

"Mind you, there are very very few force sensitives in the galaxy. In the Old Republic, there were some few hundred for all the trillions of beings in the galaxy," Ilven admitted.

That was something with which Fel had to agree with. The propaganda seemed to suggest that everyone and his brother could become a Jedi Knight riding through the galaxy with Skywalker, but this was a total distortion of the reality.

"Well," Ilven continued, "anyway, did you notice how the tales of the Force are always better far back in the times of the Old Republic?"

"No, I didn't really pay much attention to it..."

"Well, we think we have an understanding of why that is. Unfortunately, we had quite a bit of difficulty with the first group of Force users, but our plan is to try further, with a stronger Force User. Specifically, Kyp Durron."

Kyp Durron was well known from the Sun Crusher incident, something Fel had read about on the Holonet not that long ago. This Durron kid was reckless, thinking himself all-powerful, and went on a tremendous rampage. The details of that were all well-recorded, and fresh in everyone's memories.

"I take it you've heard of him," Ilven laughed. "Don't worry - he's back on the good side of things."

Right.

"We'll be meeting up with him shortly to take him with us. But, you're no doubt wondering why we lied to you before, and why we are being honest with you now."

"Yes, Captain," Fel answered, truthfully.

"To be honest, we had doubts about your loyalty, and considering the nature of the mission, it seemed like a good idea not to be too trusting. But now that we've seen you in action against the forces of your previous command, your loyalty has been more than proven. I apologize on behalf of the crew for this deception, but I imagine you would do the same thing in our position."

Fel laughed. "Yes, I can understand that, Captain. Your suspicion was not necessary, but understandable. Well, we won't take it personally..." Fel smiled.

It looked like the mission was going very, very well.

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TIE: Fiction
XvT: ERS218 http://www.empirereborn.net/files/cc/ERS218-XvT.zip
XWA: ERS219 http://www.empirereborn.net/files/cc/ERS219-XWA.zip
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