Phaseera’s sun shown down, covering the landscape in a faint yellowish hue.  Cade waited with the rest of his unit for their orders, anxious to get on with the mission.  He glanced over at the commanding officer of the Gloom Walkers; Des was checking his equipment, as he did before every battle.  Cade, along with the rest of the unit, followed suit.  They had good reason to; he had seen too many of his comrades die due to some sort of malfunction that a simple equipment check would have prevented.  Des had saved their skins on countless occasions, keeping their casualty rate below what could be expected of any other unit in the same situation.  These men and women owed their lives to their sergeant, and they tried to show their gratitude every day.

It was understandable how Des achieved his current rank after only a year in sith ranks.  Battle after battle he had demonstrated his tremendous skill in accomplishing near impossible feats: Des had been known to diffuse extremely well hidden traps and take out snipers no one could see.  And knowing his sergeant, Cade knew something would happen again soon.
Cade noticed one of the other troopers run over to where Des was talking with senior trooper Adanar and excitedly inform him that lieutenant Ulabore wished to speak with them.  Des turned and smiled at his unit.  “I think we’ve finally got our orders.”
~ ~ ~
Standing at attention in Ulabore’s tent, Cade was stunned at what he had just witnessed: his sergeant knocked out his lieutenant.  Now addressing his unit, Des warned them, “What I've done here is mutiny.  There’s a chance anyone who follows me from here on in will face a court martial when this is over.  If any of you feel you can’t follow my orders after what I’ve done here today, speak up now and I’ll surrender command to Senior Trooper Adanar for the rest of the mission.”
Cade didn’t even need to think about his response, he did what he knew what everyone else would do; they saluted him in the way they always did: with their fist over their heart.  Cade could tell Des was proud.  They all could by the way he paused before he dismissed them to finally carry out their mission.
~ ~ ~
Cade was right.  Des had done the miraculous yet again, however this time it was even more than that.  It was impossible.
He heard it straight from the one of the only witnesses: “It was spectacular!” Lucia exclaimed.  She was the same trooper who informed Des of their required meeting with Ulabore to inform them of their orders, and was also the unit’s sniper; however she didn't actually do much sniping during the mission.  That was what Des had done.
  “That’s impossible,” One of the other troopers countered.  “No one can do that!”
“That’s what I said, but you can see the proof right before your eyes.”
Cade walked over to the slowly growing group of Gloom Walkers listening to Lucia’s account.  “What happened?”
“Sarge took out eight targets in less than three seconds,” Lucia excitedly recounted, “five of which were after a flash canister detonated while sarge was looking directly at it!”
Cade’s jaw dropped.  “What?!”
“You heard me.  If you don’t believe me go ask him yourself.”
Cade wasn’t surprised; he’d seen Des do some pretty remarkable things, but this took the cake.  The fact that Des had never used a sniper rifle before was enough to amaze, but while blinded?
He glanced around and spotted Des just as he was about to address the unit.
“Attention Gloom Walkers!”  Everyone fell silent and turned their attention to their hero.  “Congratulations on your victory.  However, we are needed back at the main camp, so I’ll leave a few of you here to keep the outpost secure.  Leema, Marx, Tera, Cade, and Bovi will stay here under the command of trooper Adanar, while the rest of you will return with me.”
Cade saluted his sergeant as Des and the rest of the Gloom Walkers left the outpost.
Little did he know that that would be the last time he, and the rest of them, would see the man they all owed their lives to.
~ ~ ~
Taking the Republic base was no trouble at all, with the outpost under sith control.  Everyone’s spirits were up, but no one seemed daunted by the fact that Des hadn’t been heard from since they took the outpost.  But it bothered Cade.  He knew it shouldn’t; Des was in charge of the Gloom Walkers and probably had some sort of report to file with the higher-ups involving the unit’s success.  Even still, something in the back of his mind told him something was up.  Not that he hadn’t considered the fact that Des had deliberately gone against Ulabore’s orders.  The success of the sith takeover of Phaseera was reliant on the control of the Republic base, which was only possible if the sith held the outpost, which the Gloom Walkers were able to accomplish because they disobeyed orders.
Naturally, then, any logical strategist would excuse the Gloom walkers because of their success.  But then again, no logical strategist would have ordered them to attack the outpost in broad daylight.  Besides, it was extremely rare for the sith to excuse disobedience, regardless of the situation.  Insubordination was a capital offense, and chances were high that Des would be executed, or tortured and then executed.
Cade grunted and pushed these thoughts aside.  He was a soldier and this was war; things like this happened.  Killing people is what war is all about.
But he still couldn’t shake his feeling, and if there was one thing he’d learned from Des, that was to trust your instincts, and if his instincts weren’t telling him that Des was facing death, they were warning him that the Gloom Walkers could be too.  They could easily be executed for following Des in defying lieutenant Ulabore, but even if Des had ordered them to follow, Ulabore outranked Des enough that they answered to him before Des and would have been expected to force Des to follow Ulabore’s orders.
He finally decided that it would be best to talk to Adanar about his concerns.  As he was formulating what he would say, while he was still a little ways away from Adanar, he noticed him talking with two soldiers each with military police badges.
He swore under his breath.  Too late, he thought.
He nonchalantly changed his course, appearing not to have seen them, but hoping they hadn’t seen him.  He made his way to the outpost and slightly quickened his pace as he entered.  He was thankful no one was around, and though it didn’t matter now, it would soon.
Once he found the small armory, he began checking off his mental list of essentials: he grabbed a backpack and threw in a few ration kits and some extra power cells for his rifle.  He dug around in some storage crates until he found a decent size vibroblade and a small set of emergency repair tools, and on his way out he grabbed one of the medpacs off the wall.
Just as before, no one was around, so he ran to the building’s “back door” leading to the landing pad.  He wasn’t quite sure what was on the other side of the door, but he at least knew a swoop bike or two was being stored there along with the Republic gunships the sith had commandeered, and a sentry was posted to monitor the vehicles.
Cade threw open the door.  As he had hoped, the sentry was right by the door.
“Sorry, friend,” Cade said as he shoved the butt of his rifle into the unfortunate man’s knee.  The unsettling pop of his kneecap being forced out of place was barely audible above his scream as he fell over.
Cade kicked the poor man’s weapon away as he bolted to the nearest swoop.  Ignoring the shouts of another soldier coming to investigate, he fired up the engine and blasted out into the jungle surrounding the outpost, simultaneously raising the speeder’s altitude to just above the tree line.
With nothing to crash into now, he looked back to see if he was being followed.  When he saw no one, he knew they wouldn’t be able to find him now; he could go off in any number of directions, and the sith had felt on need to put homing beacons on any of their small vehicles.
“Free,” he said with a smile, and disappeared into the wide, open world of Phaseera.

This work is based on and contains quotations and characters referenced from Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, by Drew Karpyshyn.