Beauty in The Eyes Beholder

CHAPTER THREE

Sgt. Olyone can hear the faint sounds of a voice echoing around in her mind. They sound far away at first, but with each passing second gets louder and closer. It's not until she hears the word 'Jana' do her eyes slowly open. She sees a relieved Sgt. Tapalo, who calls over Sgt. Dzukya.

They slowly help Olyone off the ground and hold her up. As she works through the wooziness, she scans the area around her.

"How...," another wave of dizziness hits Olyone, "...bad?" Dzukya tells her the situation: many of the ship's crew are dead; no final count. The Leviathan is now scrap metal. As Dzukya continues to list off the bad news, Olyone looks over and sees Emperor Palpatine several feet away, with a couple of his Red Guard flanking him. He just stands there off to the side of the fray, like a contractor watching a building being built.

"Of course, he survived!' she thinks. A slight smile appears on her face but then disappears as quick when something dawns on her. She asks for Lenck. Tapalo gives her the news: he's alive but unconscious.

Olyone leans back and looks up at the gray bleak sky above her. "It's another beautiful day to be in the Corps," she says sarcastically.

A bandaged-up Capt. Verlund walks over to Emperor Palpatine and gives him a situation report. Verlund advises the Emperor that all resources need to be used in preparing for rescue.

A slight snarl appears on the Emperor's face. "No. The mission continues until I say it's over, Captain."

A sinking feeling appears in the Captain's stomach. He wants to object to the Emperor's decision but knows he doesn't have the rank nor the rarified air to even rudely disagree. The words, 'Yes, my lord' instantly come out of the Captain's mouth.

Emperor Palpatine looks over at the death trooper. "How much of your equipment was lost in the crash?"

"Surprisingly only 10%. All of the drones are operational, my lord," says the death trooper. Palpatine is very pleased. He immediately orders the death trooper to release the drones, maximum range. The death trooper gets on the commlink and quickly leaves. Emperor Palpatine looks around at the rough topography of the planet when he hears the faint sounds of that echo again. The duration of the echo goes on for a few moments until Capt. Verlund's voice breaks through.

"My lord, is everything alright?" Palpatine looks around for a moment then smiles.

"Oh...more than alright," he says. Although the situation is not good, hearing that echo almost gives the Emperor glee: This is where he needs to be.

While they stand just over six feet tall, it doesn't take long for the drones to be unpacked from their casings, powered up and rising up in the air. The handful of drones scatter in all directions, recording everything that their computer brains can see. Sergeants Olyone and Dzukya are watching the last of them disappear when a medic comes up to them with some good news: Pvt. Lenck has regained consciousness but is very woozy.

Hearing this bit of news brings some relief to both sergeants amid this bad day so far. As they head over to him, that same death trooper runs back to Emperor Palpatine to report that all drones are running at optimal levels, mapping out the land.

"Good, very good, trooper. When do estimate the drones will complete the scan of their areas?" asks Palpatine.

"At the speed their going, my lord, at best three to—". The death trooper is interrupted by a call coming from a fellow death trooper: Drone Number Eleven has discovered something in its scan. When the death trooper asks for more information about what the drone's discovery, the answer that's given is: 'multiple signatures, all metallic.'