Crime & Punishment

Waking up to the pain of yet another shooting headache he opened his eyes to the cold greeting of his holding cell. His body shot with pain as he sat up, on the solid metal bed. How he missed the basic comfort of a mattress. "When would the beatings begin today," he wondered as he slowly stood up.

"Ah, good you're awake," the familiar Trandoshan voice said.  The cell door opened and his two new 'friends' entered the cell. 

"What's on the menu for ..." was all he got out before one of his new 'friends' slammed a fist in his face. His head shot backward, his body following after it, slamming into the wall and his bed. His vision blurred and everything went black.

His face stung from the impact but this time it was an open-handed slap. "Wake up!" said a cold female voice. Painfully he opened his eyes. He could taste the swirl of fresh blood in his mouth and another broken tooth. Lifting his head up he saw it was indeed a female voice, but the voice of a female Imperial Officer! 

"Hey, listen. If this is about the data-chip..." he began to say frantically.

"Oh Jarvis," she cut him off as she placed a finger over his lips and leaned down, bringing her face close to his, "it's too late for excuses Jarvis. You see, I'm not here for that. I'm here to educate you. To teach you." She leaned in even closer, her lips brushing his left ear as she said, "And I do so enjoy helping my students learn." With that, she stood back up and motioned for his two 'friends' to lead him into the brightly lit room behind her.

-----

Watching the heads up display in his helmet, Mal took note of the guard placement in the hangar outside. The guards were placed rather poorly with an obstructed view of the aft portion of the resupply freighter that Mal and his squad were currently hiding in. He motioned to his men to carefully open the hidden hatch and watched as they each lowered themselves down to the hangar bay floor, taking up positions behind the resupply crates. As the last one exited, he quickly followed and moved to rejoin his men.  "These mercs are about to have a very bad day," he thought to himself, as he gave the hand signal to eliminate the guards.