One lone Osokan makes it to the far bank, one of the Lodge Captains. Desperate, injured and lone, he makes his way into the eerily quiet jungle, away from the bombardment.
The quietness is strange. And indeed, instead of the normal jungle noises, here there is just one sound, a metallic breathing.
A red lightsabre ignites.
---
You're out of here. You have to wait to intercept the correct coded message, but your rendezvous is likely to be mobile.
Well, your contact- who you may remember is a young man0 meets you all presently.
"That's it for Lanzar," he says. "From what we here the Empire is beginning the systematic extermination of what remains there, and it seems the Senate will not protest much. Still, maybe there was little to be done.
"Senator, Rebel High Command did give you very specific orders. Do you have an explanation as to what happened?"
"I understood the grave importance of this mission, but I'm afraid it was simply unattainable. The Record was the most sacred thing to the Osokans; to let a non-Osokan view the Record would have meant death.
"On that note, my attempts to convince Guildmaster Drakkon to allow us to take information from the Records were futile. He was grateful for what help we were able to provide, but there was no bargain we could reasonably strike without him killing us.
"He also anticipated a thievery attempt, which I stupidly ordered the execution of. I put my colleagues in very grave danger. The moral implications of stealing a sacred item from a dying world were also very dire.
"In the end, we destroyed the Record ourselves, to prevent the Empire from obtaining it and to fulfill the last orders of Drakkon and Vasilik."
Sasha quietly fingers the Medallion that Vasilik gave her. Sasha Torvuellé, a Duchess of Naboo and the last Lodge Captain of Lanzar. How odd it sounds, a well-to-do human from a lush world possessing a title from the vicious jungle world.
"It was wrong to try to steal from them," Sasha says. "If we are to be a Rebellion against the Empire, we cannot act as the Empire would have done. If they had been after the Record themselves, they would have stolen it."
He thinks this over.
And here is where, as objective viewers of the story, we can contrast with those who fail to obey orders within the Empire.
"Fair enough," he says. "Tell the truth, I wasn't sure about it anyway. Besides, you know what the Jedi would have said. If it can happen, and we want it to happen, trust in the Force to provide the opportunity, rather than trying to bludgeon our own path. That said," he adds, warningly, "the Force helps those who help themselves. Don't expect answers to the Empire to appear if we don't ever try anything."
Although not much on Moral debates, Kyle finally speaks up. "So what, are we supposed to go in there expecting to lose? No kidding the odds are against us. But if the Aliance doesn't believe it can win it never will, whether we're right or wrong. Expressing frustration over a loss should be a good sign. Were you expecting us to come back here and say Well, we lost, but at least we had fun or something?"
"I'm not giving up! If anything, this whole fiasco makes me want to get back at the Empire even more! All I was saying was that his response of 'what did you expect' was ridiculous when put with his comment about his string of failures." He points a finger at the contact, "Just because you can't get a win doesn't mean we can't. If we don't expect we can achieve something, then we shouldn't bother! Were we really going to fight off the full invasion? Not likely, the Imperials made it clear that was their plan from day one. But there was a point we could have made, and we didn't make it this time. Next time we will, and people will start to take notice."