Project Boussh: Reactionary Posture
by Nick Coghlan

Piggy watched from the beach as the shuttle angled in towards the flare
he had ignited. Retrieving his kit and the case of equipment from the
sand at his feet, he went to meet it, ready to board as soon as the ramp
touched down. Frustrated by his inability to find any useful
intelligence on anything except the now defunct Melbourne base, Piggy
was in a less than hospitable mood. The singular ineffectiveness of his
attempts to delve into the background of one Brad Corletti added a
certain bitter edge to his state of mind.

The shuttle settled to the ground, and the ramp came down almost at
Piggy's feet. Looking up he could see Nick waiting at the top of the
ramp. Beyond him, Piggy could see the familiar figure of Elassar Targon,
supporting what appeared to be an Imperial Major. 'Ah, yes', he thought
to himself. 'That would be the base commander they captured in
Melbourne.' Then Piggy realised just who the figure in the Imperial
uniform was. Abandoning his gear on the sand, he stormed up the ramp.

"WHAT IN SITH'S NAME IS HE DOING HERE?" The translator did its best to
match the volume of Piggy's voice. Its best was apparently pretty good.
Nick spun around to stare at the Gamorrean as he stopped in the
hatchway. Brad rocked back on his heels, as his mouth attempted to find
things to say.

As Piggy began to move inside the shuttle, Brad's expression suddenly
cleared. "I must go! Lives hang in the balance."

"Your own included. I see you don't even bother to hide your
allegiance." Piggy thought rapidly. 'Why was Brad in an Imperial
uniform? The others had said nothing about capturing Brad, just the
Melbourne base commander. Unless...'

Brad's voice intruded on Piggy's thought processes. "My allegiance is to
myself, not the Empire. This uniform is a means to an end."

'His allegiance is to himself. That's what I thought all along. Such a
shame. It would almost have been easier if he _was_ an Imperial traitor.
But then again, he somehow managed to convince that Melbourne base he
was their new commander.' "And what end is that?"

As the shuttle's hatch closed behind him, Piggy motioned Elassar away
with a small nod of his head. Smirking for some unknown reason, the
Devaronian headed towards the cockpit. Standing unsupported, Brad
continued "The successful completion of this mission."

'Yes, I'm sure that's true. But I doubt he's on the same mission as
everybody else.' "You'll forgive me if I don't believe a word you're
saying."

"Of course you don't. You'd rather have your assumption verified, and
you'll discard any and all evidence that doesn't point towards your
thesis. In your world anyone connected in any remote way to the Empire
is suspect, isn't that right?"

'So close and yet so far, Brad. My thesis isn't what you think and
you're just giving me more evidence for it.' "You're defending the
Empire?"

"Of course not. I know what they did to you. I know what they did to
Alderaan. I know what they've done to Rogue Squadron. I know what
they've done to people all over the galaxy. I put in my time with the
New Republic. I crewed on Home One. I bought a B-wing. It just happens
that selling droids to the Empire was much more profitable. You can
consider me an independent smuggler if you like. The Rebellion has a
long history of working with smugglers."

That little speech got Piggy's attention. Reflexively, he drew Brad's
attention away from his slip of the tongue. "You dare compare yourself
to General Solo?" Meanwhile, he was furiously considering some of the
implications of Brad's words. 'Selling droids to the Empire? If he's
talking about war droids like the one he used to drop the heavy end of
the hammer on us at the Ewok farm, it wouldn't have been hard to finagle
an Imperial commission. Perhaps something impressive enough to overawe a
bunch of troops on a planet so remote nobody's ever even heard of it.'

"I said nothing of the sort. You made that comparison. But enough of
this. I have information you want. You have something I want. Let's
deal."

Piggy almost laughed. "You want us to just let you go?"

"Yes. I have things that need to be done."

'And that, my friend, is exactly my problem.' "And what do you offer us
in return?"

"The location of the Imperial base on Terra."

'The location of the base, we know. Their Terran connection, we know.
The name of the ISD, we know. He can't give us details on the Mendellian
base. Anything he could tell us, we already know' Piggy drew his
blaster. "We already know that." His finger tightened on the trigger.
The bolt hit Brad square in the chest, sending him sprawling. "You're
offer is refused, traitor."

Nick still stood near the hatchway, having watched the entire exchange
in stunned silence. "But how, why, what ... didn't you know?" he
stammered out.

Piggy turned to face him. "There seem to have been a few minor, almost
inconsequential details left out of some of your reports."

"Ahh, errr, well, Major Defel is actually Brad." Being on the wrong end
of a Gamorrean death stare does not encourage smooth thought processes.

"Yes, I'd established that. Did you know he was selling wardroids to the
Empire?"

"Uhh, no. Josh beat him senseless before we could find out anything like
that. He didn't get his memory back until you arrived. I think that's
why Elassar was grinning like a maniac."

Piggy nodded. "That would make sense. Emotional shock is about the only
amnesiac treatment he would have had the equipment for."

"Uh-huh. Did we tell you the ISD in orbit was the Admonitor? And that
Major Defel lost his memory after being severely beaten when Josh went
stormie on us?"

"Yes. Those things you remembered. But, a tiny inconsequential detail
like the Major's unusual method of arrival..."

"Well, we kind of thought you already knew..." Piggy didn't say
anything. He just looked at Nick. "It was a pretty stupid assumption to
make, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was. Still, even Ooryl must have assumed one of you had already
told me, so even the best can still make mistakes." Piggy reopened the
shuttle hatch. Gesturing towards Elassar, who had reappeared with the
sound of the blaster shot, he said, "Help him with the traitor."

As the Gamorrean headed out the hatchway, something occurred to Nick.
"Piggy. Why do you keep calling Brad a traitor? As far as we can tell he
never betrayed us to the Imperials."

The Gamorrean paused briefly. "There's betrayal and then there's
betrayal. Brad has shown time and again that his own personal agenda is
more important to him than our mission here. Time and again he has put
the project at risk for his own purposes. That is what makes him a risk,
that is what makes him dangerous. Not the Empire."

With that, Piggy headed down the ramp to collect his abandoned gear.