24 October 2004 – Second Daggerwolf mission

Aaricia felt anxious. This was her second time she ‘trained’ with the Daggerwolves, and again they went to some mission instead of standard military training. She tried to remember all the things that the commanders had told her and the other cadets.
Try to protect your binome at all cost, you are two halves of a whole.
Distract the imperials while the other two groups do other things. We CANNOT fail this mission, we MUST succeed!
They had to resque somebody from a small Imperial base.

While she lied in some bush, looking at the rustling leaves of the bushes and trees around her that were turning yellow as the autumn season had begun in this part of Talus, she heard her heartbeat pounding in her head. Through the leaves she saw her binome called Twino lying in another bush. The purple coloured Twi'lek smiled at her, she nodded at him smiling. Before she'd joined 101st Daggerwolf Company Aaricia had thought she would be one of the youngest soldiers, but some of them looked even younger than herself. While Aaricia herself would soon turn 21, Twino just looked like 15-16! And he also behaved a bit like a teenager. She wondered what had happened to him, that had made him decide to join this Specforce Company at such a young age.
To get back to herself Aaricia started checking the stimpacks that she had put in one of her pockets, which he had given her about an hour ago. If a firefight started and this time, again, it would, she hoped that she could keep him alive, that they both would return from this battle alive and as little wounded as possible.
She heard the Zabrak commander of her little group, lieutenant Cel’es, mumbling some things into his commlink, and wondered what they were talking about. She tried, but couldn't understand a bit of it.
Then, suddenly, he called. "Go go go!" and everybody jumped up from their bushes and started to run over the hill.
How big would this Imperial base be?
“You two go to the left!” Cel’es called to Twino and Aaricia. And the two ‘binomes’ proceeded to different directions.
While Aaricia ran between the rectangle formed, grey colored Imperial buildings she saw a whole squadron of stormtroopers appearing in front of her. They were standing in line as an Imperial officer was speaking to him from the front.
Crap, this is real.
She'd already let herself fall onto the ground, into prone position. Her hands started trembling but she tried to hold her pistol as steady as possible in them. She felt a lot of fear as barely trained cadet, with almost no experience in an army, but she managed to keep herself from turning around and crouching away.. this mission MUST succeed! If she wouldn't be able to do this, she wouldn't be able to save her family either. Because at that day, she would be going to take part in that rescue mission too. She would be leading it.

20 years old Aaricia had known what the consequences were when she'd decided to join the Daggerwolf Specforce Company. She could get severely wounded or die, but she had thought about this for a while. This was her destination, this was what felt most right to do: helping the Galaxy getting rid of the oppressive and depressing Empire. Fight for freedom!

“Attack TK-413!” Cel’es ordered through Aaricia’s commlink.
Then hell broke loose. The stormtroopers started shooting at Cel’es and Hareb’Arl, their other, wookie, superior.
Argh! Aaricia thought. They all look the same!
She started firing her weapon at the Imperials that were attacking her commanders. After only a second other stormtroopers started shooting at Aaricia and Twino, adrenaline rushed through her veins as she returned fire. But she felt pretty calm, and focussed. She knew what her goal was.
“This is going ok!” Hareb’Arl’s voice sounded through the little gadget in Aaricia’s ear.
Twino suddenly started running madly towards the last Imperials, yelling some battle cry, prolly in Twi'lek.
"Oh my god Twino.. crap!" Aaricia jumped up and started running after him, shooting at the last stormtroopers that still seemed to be in action.
"Get back from there, you two!" Voices shouted through her commlink.
Aaricia grabbed Twino's arm. He looked pretty excited, just like Aaricia felt herself, but they were standing in the middle of an Imperial base. If they wouldn't get away as soon as possible they would get killed, or captured and tortured and more of that stuff.
"Twino, we have to go now." Aaricia spoke to him, and she started dragging him away with force. "Darnit you really are too young for this!"
"No I am not." He protested, and started running with her. Back towards the buildings that formed the side of this small encampment they called an Imperial base.

Suddenly a lot of footsteps sounded all around her and her binome, and some heavy metal steps. Where the heck did that come from?
Panic almost catched her and she looked around herself wildly.
“O, o..” She gasped, as she and Twino just disappeared between the first few buildings. If she would manage to get out of this alive, preferrably not captured, she would prolly not be allowed to stay a soldier of the Alliance anymore. But that didn't matter for now.. as stormtroopers were chasing Twino and her.
“RETREAT!” She heard the voices of Hareb’Arl and Cel’es somewhere, but, hidden in the shadow of another of those buildings, she couldn’t see them.
Suddenly a laser blast hit her left leg and with a yell of surprise she fell on the ground. While she intuitively grabbed her leg she watched Twino trying to run away, chased by a couple of stormtroopers that were firing their weapons at him.
This is not gonna be my last mission, not already the second! And I still have to save my family too! Aaricia thought while biting her lip with a hatred look. The Imperials had surrounded her completely, and her leg didn't allow her to get back on her feet. The hatred because they had imprisoned her family provided enough strength to be able to crawl up.
Two stormtroopers appeared around the corner, clenching her teeth she put one down. She heard some funny noise behind her, and, turning her head quickly in kneeling position, noticed an AT-ST almost bending over her, it's big cannon was pointing right at her.
"Drop your weapon and put your hands in the air." A metallic voice came out of it.
Aaricia lowered her glance and started running towards the legs of the big metallic walker, when something hit her in the middle of the back, making it burn badly. She couldn't breathe, and everything started to blur. She tried to fight it as much as possible, feeling if she was falling into.. the black, the nothing.

Though this was not the end of Aaricia Silverstar. She was wounded to death, but the Imperials still wanted to question her as soon as possible. So they put her in bacta, in the cellar of the little base.
A headache brought Aaricia back to consciousness. She felt totally confused: where the heck was she? She discovered that her body was floating in some reddish liquid.. a bacta tank? Aaricia had never been in a bacta tank before, so this was a very new experience for her. Immediately she remembered the fight. She wasn’t dead! She looked around her through the light red liquid but saw nobody. Was she back in the rebel base, did they save her? But how could they-
Nothing looked familiar. Though, she didn't take chance, remembering horrible stories about imperial interrogations.. she had to get out of here! She still saw nobody in the room where she was floating in the liquid cylinder, and removed the cables that were holding her in the middle of the tank. She managed to grab the above side of the hollow bacta tank and with her limited force she climbed out of it.
Cautiously she looked around her, feeling shocked when she noticed a camera droid that was aiming it's lense at her. They might probably not have expected her to be recovered this soon, though they would probably already be on their way to the room.
Hurry Aaricia!
She found a small door. She expected it to be locked, but it wasn't. With the bacta fluid dripping off her almost naked body she tiptoed through the small corridor which was behind the door and into some outdoor place surrounded by walls. The sun was shining brightly, and pleasantly on her just a bit recovered body. Her back still hurted and she felt tired and numb, putting all her attention on staying alert. She saw imperial flags, and symbols. There were some guard towers where she saw white armored men: stormtroopers. Then some footsteps came closer to where she stood and bewildered she jumped in a small shaded corner while she saw two stormtroopers hurriedly entering the corridor she had just exited.
She tiptoed out of the corner, her back always keeping close to the walls, avoiding being in sight of the guard towers, and found herself in a maze of walls and imperial flags. Behind her she heard filtered men's voices, ordering to search for her.
In front of her there was an open door and she slowly walked into the little metal walled room. There was no one present in the room. But a commlink lied on the metal table. There was also a little closet, with officer's clothes. Feeling hurried and nervous, putting herself to calm, she put on these clothes. Even boots were there, so within about one and a half minute she'd transformed into a female imperial officer. She put the comlink into the little pocket on her breast, tied her hair, cleaned her face a bit and she was barely finished, when two stormtroopers entered the room.
"Have you already found the girl?!?" She spoke with a harsch voice.
For some seconds it was quiet, then the trooper on the right spoke.
"Not yet, ma'am." Came out a bit hesitantly.
Aaricia waved her hand.
"Then what are you waiting for! Go look for her!"
The troopers turned around, leaving the room at once. She waited some seconds, then left after them. She listened for footsteps on the gravel, moving from hiding place to hiding place. She felt like a blue squirrel, those little ones she'd often observed in Tibanna city. Running from hiding place to hiding place, gathering foods and little objects. They were pretty intelligent and able to use some objects in a simple way. And now Aaricia was running from hiding corner to hiding corner, having a comlink in her breast pocket. She noticed troopers running back to the room where she'd been in. It became a hide and seek game; troopers looking everywhere, Aaricia moving and hiding, using her instincts and intelligence to the most. She knew it wouldn't take forever.
She crouched into one of the last hiding places that she hadn't discovered yet, happy that she had such a small frame. It was a small ventilation shaft. She took the comlink from her breast, but then her attention moved to something else. A painful yell sounded and she'd recognized it at once: Twino!
Twino was there too! And so she started fiddling with the comlink and after a while she'd even managed to make a connection with the civilian part of Daggerwolves. After some code words Hareb himself came on the line, and she spoke.
"Twino and I.. captured, base with guard towers and maze like structure."
"We know. Buy time. Over and out."
Buy time.. were they on their way to rescue them?!
In her heart there came a spark of hope.
But immediately a loud voice spoke, echoing all around her in that little ventilation shaft.. the hiding place, the little safe base for her, the small blue squirrel.
"FEMALE REBEL! COME OUT OF YOUR HIDING PLACE AT ONCE! SURRENDER YOURSELF! YOUR HIDING IS IN VAIN.. WE *WILL* FIND YOU!"
As more footsteps passed by, Aaricia pressed her painful back against the back of the shaft, ready for the opening of the grid. But none of the troopers seemed to pay any attention to it. She felt delighted; this was a great hiding place!

Then she heard Twino screaming. The terror and pain of it made her cold to the bones. The voice started speaking again.
"REBEL, GET OUT OF YOUR HIDING PLACE IMMEDIATELY OR YOUR FRIEND WILL SUFFER MORE."
As a child Aaricia had seen Imperials ill-treat wookies, and nobody had done anything about it.. people had just watched! As a 5 years old little girl she hadn't been able to do anything..
Now she had.
And she crouched to the grid, opening it, climbing out of the small shaft that'd felt so safe and warm even though it'd had only metal walls. She put her arms in the air. Two troopers walked towards her and dragged her through the corridors. They put her in a small room in one of the buildings. Then suddenly one of them removed his helmet. Her mouth fell open and her heart jumped when Cel'es' face appeared. His glance was serious but also calm.
"Keep quiet." He softly spoke and then gave her a small bottle of water.
Aaricia glanced at the other trooper. Who of the Daggerwolves would that be? But this trooper didn't speak. They were in a hurry.
"We will get you later."
"Ok." Aaricia whispered, nodding.
Then they left the room, acting as if they were locking the door. She then heard other footsteps and a low pitched voice commanding something in a harsch tone. She couldn't understand it.
Feeling tired and weak, she turned around, overlooking the room. It looked like a stock space; metal boxes everywhere, piled up neatly. She sat down, waiting and resting. Drinking the water of the bottle, counting the boxes, getting her nerves when footsteps passed by, sighing in relief as they didn't open the door of this room. Biting her lip, paying attention to her breathing.
Then suddenly the door opened. Aaricia jumped up, but it was Cel'es.
"Are you able to run?" He asked.
"I think yes."
"Hell has broken loose. Here.." He threw a pistol towards her, then grinned, overlooking her. "By the way.. you look neat in this uniform. Now let's go! Go go go!"
She followed him. Her eyes blinked in pain when they left the little building.
"To the right!"
And there was the gate of the base, and it was open. Twino and Val-Tane Ricaud were there also. Twino looked wounded heavily. Running as fast as possible they dragged him out of the base, while an alarm started to sound. Aaricia's ears hurt.
In front of them there were some silhouettes, and as they ran towards them, these silhouettes started to start a gunfire with the people from the base, behind them. They were caught in crossfire and ran like hell. Twino tripped and Aaricia fell over him. Then Hareb’Arl jumped towards them from the bushes. He helped Aaricia up and pushed her towards the bushes. Feeling to the edge of exhaustion she reached them. The rest she barely remembered.