Imperial times- Dantooine

Tarik slept on a grassy hillock near the old rebel base. The sun was warm and his stomach was full. He�d spent the day hunting with the neighboring clan. They were more than happy to let him come along on their hunts, since he was most often the one who caught the most.

It had been a year since he�d come to live here, and he had become a completely different being from the scrawny, easily-frightened creature he�d been. The locals regarded him as some sort of wild nature-spirit, reverently keeping their distance from his encampment when he hadn�t invited them.

A small avian creature of some sort hopped through the grass next to his motionless head, pecking at the ground and peeping. Tarik listened to it hop past, not caring. He�d eaten well, he had no need to even think of chasing a bird right now.

The hollows of his near-starvation on Coruscant had faded with time and decent meals. The lines of bones and muscles were now nicely blended into the rest of his mottled green skin, which had also changed with time.

His dark green stripes had gotten darker from exposure to the sun, and the sallow tan of his chest had deepened to a bronze-tan that blended in perfectly with the surrounding dirt and rocks.

His striped tail twitched slowly as he slept contentedly. He even had a new loincloth and boots thanks to his friends� ingenuity at working leather from the native animals into clothing. Tarik was happy, he was glad he�d stayed behind, but he still missed the others.

A flight of birds overhead startled him awake, the high-pitched whine that had startled them drawing his attention to the field beyond his napping place. A shuttle craft was landing in the tall grass, with two more coming down behind it.

Tarik growled, this was not the kind of company he wanted right now. The strange feeling from a few hours ago haunted him again. No amount of basking in the sun could burn away that chill feeling. A glint of white armor and people coming down the shuttle ramps made Tarik crouch deeper into the grass.

Stormtroopers.

He growled, flexing his claws into the dirt next to him.

Stormtroopers, here, on his quiet planet?

For a moment he thought they�d finally come after him, but as he watched, they seemed more interested in the abandoned rebel encampments than they were in his own presence.

He crept closer through the grass slowly, watching the white-armored troops search through the base. He stopped in the shelter of a tall clump of field grass, close enough to smell the burnt ozone of their weapons.

The troopers sent messages through their helmet-comm to each other, but one came over to an officer and signaled toward the base while talking. Tarik crept closer, straining to hear.

"It�s been empty for quite some time sir. There�s signs of recent habitation, but it looks like the locals have been scavenging the bunker," the trooper said.

The officer nodded, "Very well, we�ll wait to see what the other teams report, but I suspect it will be the same." He sighed, "Lord Vader is not going to like this," the officer said, folding his hands behind his back and watching the Stormtroopers search the rest of the area.

Tarik turned away, creeping away silently. This was not good, Vader sent soldiers here looking for the rebels. Whoever had told him to look here obviously didn�t want him to find them though, so this wasn�t that bad.

He was so busy worrying about not running into a trooper that he walked right into a covey of birds, startling them from their hiding place. He yipped in surprise before he could stop himself as the birds swarmed away into the sky around him in a panic. He heard one of the Stormtroopers shout something, and knew he�d been seen.

He smacked at one of the birds and snapped his head around to look for the troopers. Two were coming toward him from where the ships were, and another from the bunker had binoculars sweeping the grass for him.

He growled, bolting off through the tall grass for the relative cover of the trees and undergrowth. He yipped in surprise again as a blaster-shot burned through the grass only a few paces away.

Looks like you got as complacent as the rebels, he chided himself, hopping off through the grass and into some shrubs.

He curled up defensively under the thicket, ears and tongue flicking to gauge where his pursuers were. The scent of recycled air and the snap of a twig far too close told him exactly where one trooper was.

"I saw it run this way," he called to the others.

"It�s probably just a native that got curious," the one who had followed him said.

Tarik growled, something in that one�s scent....

"Try over there," the first said, pointing to the clump of shrubbery Tarik was hiding in.

"It can�t have gone far," he said, checking his weapon as the second trooper walked cautiously toward the thicket.

"No far enough," Tarik hissed, startling the trooper as he stepped close enough to see the orange eyes behind the green foliage. He lunged out of the bushes, tackling the trooper to the ground before he could fire his weapon. He raked him across the faceplate with his claws, opening gashes in the plasteel and exposing stripes of the face beneath the helmet.

The second trooper nearly dropped his weapon in panic, then fought to bring his rifle to fire as Tarik turned toward him. He lunged with lightning-speed after the second trooper, snatching the weapon out of his hands and kicking him in the stomach. The trooper doubled-over with an �Oof� of expelled air and was met by the butt of his own rifle smacking him in the face.

The trooper was knocked to the ground by the impact, dazed. Tarik set a foot on the trooper�s chest, snorting at him. The familiar scent from the trooper made him curious for a moment. He ripped loose the helmet locks, pulling off the trooper�s helmet.

The human beneath looked up at him, terrified. The set of three long scars across his face revealed why he was so terrified. One of the troopers he�d attacked before, that�s why he smelled familiar. He dropped the helmet in the grass next to them, snorting at him.

"Trooper," Tarik said, hiss/snickering with his version of a sneer on his face. "Not know when no to chase yet," he said, watching the look of terror turn into stunned surprise that Tarik could speak.

"No learn, troopers never learn," he said, flicking his tongue at the trooper and standing.

The other had called for backup, and the white-armored figures were fighting their way uphill through the tall grass already.

"My planet," Tarik hissed at the unmasked trooper, jerking a clawed thumb at himself. "No catch mees here," he sneered, watching the others come within the range of their weapons and prepare to fire. He hiss/grinned, hopping straight up into a tree on the edge of the thicket he�d been hiding in.

Both troopers looked at each other in confusion as Tarik hopped off through the trees, safe from fire from the ground.

The reinforcements arrived too late, Tarik was long gone before they even reached the trees.

----------------

Tarik hopped from branch to branch, now certain that they would be coming after him since they couldn�t have the rebels. The trooper would tell them. He�d tell them what Tarik was, and that Vader had once ordered his capture.

Or not.

Tarik paused on a branch, thinking. The trooper looked scared, maybe he wouldn�t tell them. Maybe he�d keep quiet, afraid that they�d send him to find Tarik.

He hoped that would be it, that they wouldn�t tell the man in black where he was. He hopped off in another direction through the trees, coming to the edge of a clearing. He hopped down to the ground from one of the lowest branches, keeping in a half crouch as he sniffed the area. No troopers, no people, no nothing.

Wait, something, he corrected, he could smell metal and burnt air, the kind of burnt air that came from a droid.

An alarm sounded through the trees behind him as a probe droid floated up out of the undergrowth. He covered his sensitive ears and bolted for the trees.

A stinging blur of blue and a tangle of something sticky hit him from behind, dragging him to the ground. He looked back, fighting through the sticky web enough to see the probe droid retract a tube into a panel of its body.

He fought with the webbing, feeling the cool burning of a sedative in the sticky fluid starting to make him drowsy. A white-armored figure appeared through the trees, looking at Tarik confusedly, unsure of what to make of him. Another appeared from behind him, shoving him and saying something through his helmet-comm.

Tarik fought in the netting, tail thrashing angrily behind him as the sticky stuff picked up dirt and leaves with his struggles. The second trooper walked closer, studying him.

"Well, at least we know that stuff works now," he said, shrugging. He lifted his rifle and fired a stun-shot at Tarik, knocking the struggling green creature nearly unconscious. He whined slightly as he stopped moving.

"Come on, let�s get that cut loose before it wakes up," the trooper said. He stepped closer, inspecting the webbing.

"Hey, look at this!" he suddenly exclaimed, pulling a chunk of the net away from Tarik�s wrist.

Tarik had lost his wrist-band last season, he hadn�t thought he needed to replace it since the natives couldn�t read the imperial code numbers tattooed there. The locals wore enough tattoos of their own that they didn�t think twice about Tarik's. Stormtroopers obviously would, but Tarik hadn�t been expecting them to show up.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, he chided himself, immobile but still conscious.

"This thing�s one of ours," the trooper said, examining Tarik�s wrist.

"Must�ve hitch-hiked here with the rebels and been left behind. Let�s get him back to camp and figure out where he came from," he said, gesturing the other to help him carry Tarik. Tarik hissed, flexing his claws half-consciously as the sedative kicked in. The approaching trooper swore, stopping.

"It�s still awake?!" he said, surprised. The first pushed part of the net away from Tarik�s eyes, studying him.

"Wow, he is!" he said, amazed,"I�ve never seen anything take a stun-shot like that." Tarik grumbled and hissed as the two troopers picked him up and carried him back toward the landing camp.

He dropped into unconsciousness from the sedatives half way back to the camp. The imperials were preparing to leave already to continue their search when they arrived.

The trooper Tarik had de-helmeted identified him as the one who�d attacked them, but refused to say more.

"Let�s just take him back with us. Let imperial command figure out what to do with him."

----on to Part 2 of Chapter 6---

© 2000 Michelle Petrosky

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