Dawdling on Hoth

**[ In current context the year is 3 ABY and Jaden is 12 years old and a height of 4 ft 10 ]**

Jaden looked up from his datapad, peering around the room. The room was more or less of a square. The walls and floors were the typical white tiling that ran throughout the Hoth base. White comfy furniture filled the space- chairs couches, coffee tables, plants, a painting, and a holovision. A lounge. The small MSE droid in the corner did a tedious job of making everything look spotless. It was silent, almost eerily so. He shifted slightly, causing a creek in the couch’s leather that seemed almost deafening in the silence. Glancing to his right, he could see his friend, which didn’t seem to notice the disturbance and kept prodding around his own datapad. His ‘friend’ was an odd pairing to him. The man was 24- exactly double his age, wearing a standard grey Imperial jumpsuit with a black belt and boots. His name was Faze, an engineer, though Jaden had taken to calling him Z for short.

The boy let out an exasperated sigh, finally drawing the attention of his larger friend. “Somethin up?” he asked. Jaden leaned back against the couch, hitting it with a soft ‘thud’. “I don’t know how you work here. It’s so boring. I wish she could just finish with our business here already” Jaden ranted, staring at the ceiling. The engineer made an amused laugh, running a hand over his clean shaven face, “That all depends on the Republic, kid. Heard what the commotion is about?” he asked, setting his datapad down on the coffee table. Jaden stared ahead in thought before shaking his head. “Well, it seems someone’s gotten wind of our little intelligence base here and heard there’s a Sith roaming around it to boot” “Vi” “Yeah, well as I can guess, that’s a fat target painted over us” Faze explained. Jaden sat up, looking at him.

“They’re coming here? They know where this place is?” his voice was peppered with a rainbow of emotions.

“Ye-no-er-well ya see ah… They know we’re here yeah, but… not exactly where. Everyones been running around to make us more hidden. That’s why it’s so quiet in here” Faze made a wide array of motions with his hands as he talked. He smiled assuredly, “I’m sure we’ll be just fi-” a loud noise made Jaden jump up to his feet. A red light flashed over the door. Jaden looked to Faze, “What’s that?” “... The alarm” “From what?” Faze stood up and grabbed Jaden’s arm, pulling him along. “Step one to a long life in the military as a simple engineer: don’t stick around to find out what set off the intruder alarm. That’s someone else’s job. Alright let’s go”

He led Jaden quickly out into the hall where various soldiers scurried along in the opposite direction. “What are we doing?” he asked, having to jog to keep up with Faze’s long strides. “To do our job. Assuming that it is in fact our Republic friends, they’ll be wanting to get their hands on our data” he steps into Engineering, moving over to a console and locking the door behind them. “That means,” he continued, “we take all our data and put it on a portable drive so it can be moved somewhere safely. Then we wipe the consoles. Easy stuff” he spouted as his fingers ran along the keys. Jaden half nodded and moved over to the security cameras. The front doors were blasted down and a swarm of Republic soldiers poured in. A cloaked figure seemed to be within their midst. He stared at the screen with shock, denial, and then concern. He looked over his shoulder at Faze who was tapping his fingers impatiently on the console, waiting for the data to transfer.

Jaden moved to a supplies pile behind shelves of spare parts to try and find something of use for the situation. Faze suddenly ripped the datachip from the console, “DONE!” he yelled proudly. The door to Engineering slid open and Faze froze in his triumphant pose. The noise of the chaos outside filled the room as the cloaked figure stepped inside. He stood tall- at least 6 feet. His hood was now lowered, displaying short, brown hair and light brown eyes. His robes were unmistakable for their identity as a Jedi. It took a moment to register they were holding a blue lightsaber. The sound of its hum had been drowned by the commotion outside. When the door slid shut behind him, it became much more apparent. The Jedi’s eyes darted to the chip in Faze’s hands. “Surrender the data and you might live through this” he demanded. Faze instead reached for his blaster holstered on his hip.

Jaden looked around frantically, trying hard to contain small noises of frustrated thought as his eyes ran over the pile. They settled on an electrostaff propped against the wall and he quickly grabbed it, moving swiftly and quietly behind the shelves. His heart went a mile a minute, watching as Faze was force pushed into the console roughly. His pistol fell from its holster and he scrambled to grab it as the Jedi advanced on him. He raised his saber as Faze did the same with his pistol. Jaden rushed out from his hiding spot, igniting the electrostaff and running in front of the Jedi to intercept the lightsaber. The Jedi faltered in his swing out of surprise. Even so, the blow instantly sent Jaden to his knees. The staff groaned in protest as the Jedi rested his saber against it momentarily in shock. Most Jedi didn’t expect small children to come rushing at them in a military base.

He wouldn’t stay shocked for long- Jaden knew that. The Jedi already seemed to be recollecting his thoughts, staring down at Jaden with a hardening expression. Jaden felt a strong moment of regret as the Jedi’s face contorted back into its… displeased look. Emotions boiled up from his stomach- anger, sadness, fear. They raised into his throat like bile and exited him in a loud force scream, sending the Jedi off kilter once more. He followed up with a force push, yelling in aggravation. The off-balanced Jedi easily slid back, thumping against the nearby wall. Faze watched with his eyebrows raised to the max, “Holy shavit, kid. That was fantastic! But uhh… let’s go!” he climbed to his feet quickly, tugging Jaden along. Jaden dropped the staff, yelping at the sudden movement as he has been watching the Jedi starting to stir. Faze rushed them into the next room and locked the door.

“My lord, we have the data- where are you?” Jaden asked hurriedly over his comm. He took the data chip from Faze. “Bring it to me in the command center” she responded shortly. “Yes, my lord” he stuffed his comm in his pocket and looked at the door they’d locked. “Alright which way?” Jaden asked. “Out the other door obviously” “Will this one hold?” he asked. The bright blue beam of a lightsaber jabbed through the door suddenly, making Jaden yell out in alarm. “NOPE!” Faze yelled, grabbing Jaden again. The saber slid down the door seam like a knife through butter. It quickly reached the ground as they made for the other door, slamming open roughly as the lock was destroyed. Faze hit the panel and the door started to open.

A lightsaber flew overhead, making them duck as it obliterated the panel. The door was stuck only part way open. Jaden rushed through, being small enough. Faze managed to scramble through - barely- with Jaden’s tugging. “Split up” Jaden yelled. Faze nodded and they took off. The door slammed open the rest of the way and the Jedi stormed out, looking obviously ruffled. He turned to face Faze.

“HEY!” the Jedi whirled around. Jaden produced the datachip, holding it up. He turned and ran into the chaotic mess of people shooting, stabbing, and everything in between. Being small, he was able to weave around rather easily and for the most part, unnoticed. The Jedi had to pursue much more slowly as he drew lots of attention. Jaden made it to the command center and bolted inside, running to hide behind a console as the Jedi came in shortly after, confronted by the awaiting Vi.

Jaden kept hidden during the scuffle, waiting until the grunts and loud clashes of lightsabers ceased. He finally emerged from his hiding place to find the Jedi sprawled dead on the ground.