[Completed Fiction] Deceiver

[Zaia]

*rubs hands together*

Ok, good stuff...now, bring on the last chapter, foo'! Let's go! Time's a tickin'!

[The Yosemite Bear]

*plays the Ramones really, really loud*

[weemadando]

Come on people! Discuss!

[weemadando]

"How are we doing?"

"Twenty minutes until we have the reactor fully stabilised and all essential systems fully functional again." They had been hiding on in the planets sensor shadow for hours, occasionally a scattered sensor sweep would hit them, but they knew that it would not return to its source. They were safe.

"Senior officers, briefing room. We need to formulate a plan." The officers begin to leave the bridge. Lotor turns and addresses the bridge pit, "Men, you've done a spectacular job today. It won't be long now before our reinforcements arrive."


-=-=-


"We can't keep control of the crew."

"We don't have to. We just have to keep control of the bridge. The bridge is the key."

"What if we lose control of the stormtroopers."

"Then, we are in a lot of trouble."

"So, what do we do?"

"We have to give up - The Rebel's weren't expecting us! What does that mean?"

"We can't give up. By now word of our betrayal will have spread. The Rebellion is our only option."

"I'd rather live out my life on Kessel than risk having the Rebellion deny our offer."

"You think that the Empire would give you that option? You'd be tortured and executed. Every man on this ship would be."

"Fine Noslen - but what about our families? Not all of them have already betrayed the Empire like yours!" Noslen glares at the officer, he was in charge of fighter operations, a smirk was on his face, or was it a sneer. Noslen was used to that kind of look, it would take far more than that to get to him.

"Be quiet. All of you. You knew the risks to yourselves and your families when you signed on for this. So don't try and bring that up now." Lotor looks over at the selected few men who he had recruited, "The key to everything here is the fact that neither side knows what is really happening. We can use that. We make for Rebel held space, maximum speed. Feed the crew another tale, tell them that we're joining a strike force there or something."

"Yes, that works. An incursion - What was it you were saying earlier today? A Rebel Fleet near Sullust?"

"So we make for Sullust - tell the crew that we are part of a coordinated assault - then what?"

"We 'accidentally' arrive ahead of schedule and are forced to surrender when faced with overwhelming odds."

"It's a possibility."

"We have to decide now. Do we have any other suggestions?" There is a general shaking of heads. "Then its settled. We make for Sullust as fast as we possibly can."


-=-=-


It had been months since their final meeting with their contact. Months spent researching all of the data given to them. It had all been true. The man had not lied about a single thing. They had both agreed on a course of action. Defection. Treason. Dereliction of duty. Lying to men who would entrust their lives to them. Theft of Imperial property. A host of other crimes. But what crime had been worse than watching thousands be slaughtered by pirates and criminals while the Empire chose to look away? The datacard had appeared in Lotor's pigeonhole at the barracks one day. It gave him a place and a time. A date. That he had chosen to keep.

"So, you've decided to join us?" The bothan was most likely just like all the rest. Sneaky, devious and Rebel to the core.

"I've decided to not take the easy road."

"Good for you." The Bothan reached into a pocket of his vest. "Here," he said, producing a small package, "Keep it hidden. Instructions are with it. Destroy them once you've learnt them."

"What happens now."

"What happens happens. But it won't happen to a good Imperial citizen."


-=-=-


The officers leave the briefing room, returning to their stations.

"TIE Flight NOZ-224, confirmed, this is VSD Deceiver."

"VSD Deceiver, hold location, wait one, we're receiving communications from command." The officers faces pale as one. "VSD Deceiver, this is TIE Flight NOZ-224. You are instructed to hold."

Lotor shouts from the catwalk at the lieutenant handling the communication, "Did you verify their codes?" The lieutenant looks uneasy, "DID YOU VERIFY THEIR CODES?"

"No Sir."

"We are under Con1 IntSec and you didn't verify?" Lotor looks down at the various stations beneath him, were they still believing him? "Assume that our location has been breached! Plot jump to buoy NTSA23893. Get the calculations running now!"

"But Sir -"

"BUT SIR NOTHING YOU FOOL! You know as well as I that the Rebel's have captured fighters. We are under the tightest possible security here! You should have checked!" Lotor wonders whether or not he was going to far, "I only hope to the Emperor himself that you haven't just killed every man on this ship."

"Computer has plotted the jump. Hyperspace jump checklist running." The voice of the TIE pilot interrupts the bridge once more.

"VSD Deceiver, deactivate your jump engines and stand down. Repeat, VSD Deceiver deactivate your jump engines and stand down!"

"Get us out of here!" Noslen screams, his voice cracking, sweat pouring from his every pore.

"Checklist complete. Jumping." The ship starts to speed towards the threshold, then abruptly stops with a shuddering jerk.

"What happened?"

"Interdiction field has just been deployed."

"The Rebels don't have interdiction fields . . . Has our backup arrived? What's happening?" The communications screen flickered to life. Showing the Captain of the ISD Indefatigable.

"You know perfectly well what's happening Lotor."

"No, I'm afraid I don't Mitek. Please, elaborate for me . . ." Lotor reached into his pocket and retrieved a small cylinder.

"Don't play the fool. Just surrender and we won't have to kill all of your men just to get to you. I know how much you care for each and every single one of them." Lotor depresses a button and drops the cylinder into the bridge pit. At the same moment he draws a blaster and fires at the man who it fell next to, toppling him from his chair, the bridge crew begin to react. He turns to Noslen, "Shut it down." A cloud of gas erupts from the cylinder, rapidly expanding and enveloping the bridge. Lotor presses a panic button next to his station, "Saboteur on the bridge!" Noslen and Lotor hold rebreathers to their faces. The gas rapidly dissipates, leaving the bridge crew dead, some still in their seats. Stormtroopers rush onto the bridge, just as Lotor and Noslen place the tiny rebreathers back in their pockets. The screen is blank, the silence terrible. The stormtroopers rapidly assess the situation.

"Medical crew required on bridge, reserve bridge crew required. Escort them the whole way." The stormtrooper bore the shoulder paldrons of an officer.

"NK435, we need you to maintain IntSec aboard this vessel. We are expecting to be breached and boarded, the Rebels have been chasing us all day. Expect anything, but if we are breached, take care of it. Do not let this ship fall."

"Yes Sir." The stormtrooper turned to his men and began reorganising the security of the vessel. Such blind obedience was a wonderful thing. Noslen leans over to whisper in Lotor's ear.

"We cannot keep this up Sir. I -" The viewports of the bridge are suddenly filled by a colossal dark grey wedge. "An SSD." A thought flashed through Lotor's mind. The gravitational anomaly, an SSD fit that profile perfectly. His mind continued racing. The report that stated that the Indefatigable was dead. That Bothan. Something about that Bothan.

"Kriff! Its been a set-up, all along." Realisation hits Lotor like an enraged Rancor. "Everything! EVERYTHING!" The bug-like shapes of assault transports begin swarming towards Deceiver. He shouts to the stormtroopers just outside the door. "How long until the reserves get here?"

"One minute Sir."

"Too long! Seal the bridge from the outside, we'll engage fully automated systems." Lotor grabs at Noslens datapad, "I need the channel and codes that those Rebel fighters were using! Get the automated defense system activated! Full override of manual controls!"

"Sir. I can't. I won't."

"Why not? After everything you just want to give up?" Every moment the assault transports drew closer. Lotor's eyes light up as he finds the codes and sprints from the catwalk into the bridgepit, pushing the body of a young communications officer out of the way. He begins entering the details of his message to the Rebels. A pre-emptive barrage from the SSD and the Indefatigable hammer the shields of the Victory class.

"I don't want to give up - but the men don't know what's happening! Isn't that why we started this whole thing? To give the average man a better life!"

"We started this for ourselves - don't you remember? We both wanted revenge, but it turned out that the best way to have revenge was to do the very thing that only a few short years ago would have made us BOTH feel physically ill!" The continues pounding on the inputs, frustrated. "Don't get high and mighty now Noslen. You're as guilty as any one of us and nothing can change that."

"I can." Noslen draws his sidearm.

"What are you going to do! Are you going to shoot me?" Lotor hammers out the last of the transmission and sends it.

"No. I'm going to hold you here. I'm not going to keep letting you play as blindly with the lives of the men aboard this vessel as I've let you play with mine."

"Don't delude yourself Noslen. You entered this willingly! I gave you a choice. THEN WE GAVE EVERY OTHER MAN A CHOICE!"

"You gave those who you selected a choice. But what about the crew?" The first of the assault transports hits the ship, their clamps seeking a hold while the docking collar s attempt to burn through the outer skin.

"The crew would have followed! The crew would have been happy!"

"The crew were never given a choice! That was your argument for this Lotor! 'What choice has the Empire given us?' You never gave your men the choice that you feared they might reject!"

"So kill me Noslen. Kill me and tell your story to the Empire. Kill me and absolve yourself of all your sins!"

"I won't kill you!" Noslen shouts back at Lotor.

"Very well." Lotor begins stalking back up onto the catwalk, back towards Noslen, "If you won't kill me . . ." He methodically approaches his XO, "Then I shouldn't have to kill you." He thrusts his hand at Noslen's throat, his thumb held wide, striking at the soft flesh. Noslen begins to crumble to the floor gasping. "Then I won't kill you." He kicks away Noslen's blaster, "I had such hopes, DREAMS, for this ship - its crew! We watched thousands of innocents murdered and now you want to save mere hundreds from a death in battle! WEAKNESS!" Lotor's eyes bulged, veins standing out on his head.

"They will come here first. They know. They know that we are the threat. Don't make them butcher our men just for prides sake!" Noslen slowly rose to his knees. Blaster fire began creeping towards the door. "They are coming Lotor! You aren't invincible! You can't stand by yourself!"

"I won't have to. The Rebel's know everything that's happened today."

"The Rebels will do nothing more than turn us into martyrs!"

"I thought martyrdom was what you sought Noslen! I once thought that you believed in bringing down the Empire for its crimes. No matter the cost!"

"Not at the cost of so many innocents."

"There is not an innocent aboard this ship and you know it! The ones to be saved are out there!" Lotor sweeps his hand across the field of stars in the bridge windows. "Every member of this crew would have willingly killed for the Empire! I have myself! I sought redemption! And I've failed!"

"You can still have your redemption! But not at the cost that you would incur upon every man aboard!"

"No Noslen. Its you who really wants redemption." Lotor leans back against a console, "Redeem yourself. Redeem your name. Redeem your family. Take it all. Extract your redemption from my flesh. Make me a martyr and yourself a hero." Noslen staggers to his feet. The sounds of blaster fire in the corridor stop. Outside the bridge windows a Rebel fighter wing sweeps across, trying to make some impact. Or to record the scene for the masses to see. Lotor was unsure which.

"It doesn't work like that Lotor. There's nothing between them and us now. There's already been enough death."

"They know who the traitors are. You said it yourself. Once we're both dead they have no reason to kill anyone but the others. The crew is safe. Your precious crew. All you have to do is kill me. Kill me and you set yourself free. KILL ME!" Noslen staggers to where his blaster lays and picks it up.

"Damn you Lotor." He fires, striking the captain in the face. The door explodes with a shower of sparks, white armoured troopers begin to come through, bodies of others collapsing from outside, dead from the final battle in the corridor. A single crimson bolt lances out and strikes Noslen in the chest. He topples backwards, his head falling to one side. His eyes focusing on the chaos outside.



***END***END***END***


It is finished.

Completed.

The circle is closed.

Fini.

Over.

And now y'all can vote it "Best Ending" as well as all the rest.

But in reality, I'm just happy to have it finished. I think it worked nicely in the end.

[Peregrin Toker]

I only have one little problem - the way the dialogue's written is slightly confusing to me. It can occassionally be difficult to tell who's saying what, but maybe it's just me who's grown accustomed to my own writing style.

(read the dialogues in my "The Wormhole War" and contrast them to the ones in this one - I also describe who's saying each line and how they're saying it. However, in my upcoming revision a lot of talking will be replaced by telepathic communication enabled by cybernetically implanted "thought transmitters")

Otherwise, a very entertaining story. It's definately one of the more well-paced fanfics I've read. Not to mention, of course, that it provides some insight into why people defected from the Empire.