A Hero Lost: A Star Wars AU

Chapter 19: Divided

After what felt like hours, Deni and his father had finally reached another supply cache.

"Can we get a head count?" Deni yelled.

People were raising their hands, murmuring, or on the floor crying, but Deni managed to count them all up.

"Dank Farrik, that's less than half of us. How the kriff did they know we'd be here?"

"Perhaps they had surveillance at the mine entrance," Tandin said. "And... well, that Inquisitor was probably able to find it out from there."

"And where the kriff is Lux?" Deni said. "I haven't seen him since the cave collapsed."

"Deni, you collapsed that cave," another rebel said. "Neither of us can undo the past, but might I ask you to never do that again?"

"Sorry," Deni said.

"We're lucky there were so many nearby caverns, or else the cave roof would have come down on our heads!" Tandin said.

"Look, I'm sorry!" Deni yelled. "What do you want me to do, go and try to get Lux and get chopped into four hundred and forty-two pieces by that Inquisitor? And that's assuming I make it past the buckethea-"

"Calm down," Tandin said. "Maybe I agitated you a little myself, but we need to focus on getting out of here now. We had this mapped out ahead of time, so I know of another entrance to the mine. I suggest we head over there before either the Empire finds us, or they fill these caves with toxic gas."

"Let's wait a while," Deni said. "See if anyone shows up. If anyone gets left behind, then some archeologist a thousand years from now is going to be wondering why a skeleton is hundreds of years younger than its cave."

"Good point," Tandin replied. "But I'm not willing to stay here for more than an hour. The Empire will find us sooner or later."

They waited, and five minutes later, a female rebel came running towards the cache.

"We got someone," Deni said.

"Looks like you were right," Tandin said.

"I'm so glad you're here," said the rebel, "but I've got some bad news. They've captured a bunch of our men, and they've got Bonteri."

That was what they were all expecting to hear, but also what none of them wanted to hear.

"I... managed to catch a glimpse of that Inquisitor, and there was this purge trooper captain behind him with Bonteri over his shoulder. What are we going to do?"

"She didn't kill him?" Deni said.

"They're probably going to try to crack him, I-"

"Lux Bonteri would die before he let any rebellion secrets out of his mouth," Tandin said. "That was something he made very clear to me when he joined, and I highly doubt he will comply with interrogations. There must be a different reason. Putting my own two credits into the issue, I think they'll likely use him as bait for us."

"Well, we can't just leave Lux behind!" Deni yelled.

"Remember what you just said, son? Four hundred and forty-two pieces of freshly cooked Deni Tandin! I'm certain neither of us wants that. We are leaving now, and that is an order."

"Fine," Deni said.

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After hours of wandering through the dimly-lit tunnels, they finally saw cracks of daylight through some rocks.

"Looks like it caved in long ago," Deni said.

"Perhaps now is a good time to use your explosives?"

"You'd be right about that. Stand back, or else you'll either get squished or blown to bits."

Deni planted the charges on the rocks, primed them, and ran backwards.

"Hopefully this doesn't make it worse," Deni said.

"I second that," Tandin replied.

The charges exploded, and with a loud boom, the entrance blew open.

When the dust settled, they were relieved to see that there weren't Stormtroopers pointing their blasters at them. Instead, they had resurfaced in a large, empty valley.

"We must be careful," Tandin said. "We must leave immediately, in case that blast set off some Imperial sensors. We have some speeders stashed away near here. We'll meet up with another rebel cell about 100 kilometers north. It's not going to be easy. Move out."