Trooper

Pursuit

Weeks fly by like days. Has it been weeks? How many? I should be exhausted, yet I still wake each day at precisely the same time feeling surprisingly refreshed. Every day we're scavenging abandoned rebel bases, each providing clues that should lead us to our next target.

These rebels are worse than rats, each hole of theirs we discover and destroy only shows us how far they have dug into so many worlds throughout the galaxy.

So we chase, we dig up their nests, burn them down and repeat, and repeat. It's hard to tell if we're moving backwards or forwards. Most of the bases are in uninhabited areas, the rebels probably trying to protect the citizens of the Empire that they believe they're out to save. Unfortunately this leaves us relying on all the little clues to determine the recency of their visits. If there's a pattern to their locations then it is quite beyond my ability to discern, the randomness only works to increase my growing frustration.

Today we're on another world that I'll have forgotten the name of by the time we leave. Somewhat inhabited by small tribes of indigenous creatures that aren't much beyond throwing rocks and sticks. It would seem they've encountered Stormtroopers before as they appear to realize that we grossly out power them, meaning they leave us to our search uninterrupted.

This area of the planet is quite humid, I'm sweating like crazy underneath my armor. Rainforest and rocky mountains and the faint smell of a sea not far away, at least that's what it smells like coming through my respirator. The excessive rocks and trees provide a ridiculous amount of cover so we have to be extra cautious that we're not walking into an ambush, though it seems unlikely we'll be coming across any rebel patrols anytime soon.

As our squad climbs up a small ridge between the trees, I see the tops of a few buildings reaching up almost to the forest canopy. Great, another structure so old it's almost been taken over by its environment. What I would give to see a gleaming durasteel structure, at least that would imply some recency to its construction.

Fully peaking the ridge now, there's a bustle of activity around the base of the rebel structure. It would appear that the locals decided to help themselves once the rebels had moved on. Unfortunately this also means that whatever chance we had of obtaining new information is about as likely as one of these creatures pulling an x-wing out of its pocket and taking on our Star Destroyer. I also suspect they're going to be none too pleased with us when they realize what we must do to this place before we depart.

We push our way through the crowd around the main entrance, it only took one shove for them to realize our intention before they backed out of our way on their own. Good decision on their part I thought to myself.

Once inside everything looked exactly like all the bases we'd been through already. Dead data displays hanging from the walls, some seemingly intact, others shattered to pieces. Electricity has long since left this place, meaning my visor is doing extra work to amplify what little light there is while we navigate our way through the corridor to the main hall.

"Stay focused" I hear my commander order over the comm. "Lots of pinch points in here"

If I didn't know better, I'd almost think he was nervous with a comment like that, none of us would be on this squad if we ever let our guard down.

We continued through the base, moving in 2-by-2 formation, always with cover. I almost long for somebody to try something, just for that quick flash of energy that a battle brings, even if they wouldn't stand a chance.

As we enter a larger chamber we fan out like a rolling wave, maximizing our visual coverage and limiting our ability to be attacked all at once. The chamber is dim, but there is a light source glowing around a few crates towards the center of the large room. The light is on the opposite side, so it's impossible to determine the source, but I can tell my visor is struggling to keep up with the contrast between light and dark, constantly switching back and forth compensating too much in both directions. I toggle it to visual mode to avoid the distraction and it doesn't take too long for my eyes to adjust to the darkness.