A snippet to be used in a round-robin.
==
Lieutenant Akula stood looking at his shoes as the sheep bleated to him on the monitor from the confies of his safe mine.
"Lieutenant, you have to understand, these men have been working down here for ten standard hours! They have to stop, rest, eat, sleep, see their families!"
Akula looked up at the monitor. In his mind he imagined his steely gaze transfixed the man with terror. That his voice carried the weight and authority of the Empire with it into the deepest parts of the man's soul. "I don't care," he said, "The quota has not been met. You will stay down in the mine or die there until the quota has been met."
"I am calling Commander Harkness, he'll-," the mining foreman started to say with anger.
"You will deal with me, Foreman!" Akula shouted. Several of the stormtroopers glanced around to see what had riled Akula but seeing nothing, they went back to holding the next shift outside the mine gates at gunpoint.
Akula straightened his collar and cleared his throat. He'd not meant to release his irritation ilike that. Admiral Tarkin always said that terror came from appearing immovably calm like a mountain rather than loud like an avalanche.
"If you want to resolve this situation, Foreman, I suggest you meet your shift quota. If you do not, I will be forced to take action."
The man looked at akula with contempt. He sneered and cocked his head. "Are you going to come down here and point a gun at me?"
"No, Foreman," Akula said calmly, "I am going to signal to the Sergeant over there and he is going to detonate the charges my men on the previous shift placed on the various supports and force field generators in the shaft. Then you and all of your dissident men will be buried alive. Then and only then will they be released from the obligation of meeting their damned shift quota!"
Akula replayed his last quip in his mind heedless of the fact the Foreman could see the self-satisfied bastard's lips moving as he relived his memory. "Lieutenant Akula, I wondered why you had personally taken an interest in our shift asignments. I figured it was just easier for you to watch all of those with enough integrity to oppose your tyrrany on one shift. I never suspected it was an attempt to assassinate all of us in one blow. I have to take my hat off to you, it is a masterful stroke."
Akula was surprised at the calm almost serene voice of the Foreman speaking to him. He wanted pleading for his life. He wanted cries of mercy for the men's families and children. He expected negotiation not this galling acceptance.
"This is what you should expect when trying to force the hand of the Empire, Foreman; swift and final rebuke!" Akula thought that sounded suitably dramatic.
"Drak," The foreman said with irritating familiarity, "You will learn that the universe has ways of making petty grubs like you pay in full for your evil ways. You might as well kill us, nothing we could do would ever keep you from finally doing us in when you finally tire of us. At least if you do it now, you will create another force against you that will be your equal in brutality. I do not envy you and I couldn't be bothered to pity you."
Drak snapped off the vid in anger and seethed for minutes as he clenched and unclenched his fist. The bastard had practically ordered him to blow up the mine. If he didn't all he could do would be let them go. If he destroyed them then he'd allowed himself to be ordered by that dirty laborer.
Akula bit his lip until he could no longer stand it. "Sergeant! Blow the mine!"
The seargant saluted and he could hear the rumble of the stone as it settled into the spaces beneath the crust. Behind him, the miners gasped in alarm as they recognised the sound of a cave-in. Alarms sounded and they rushed the fence trying to get to the entrance but the stormtroopers held the gate.
Akula slowly strolled down from the controller's booth and entered his staff flyer. He keyed his comm, "Seargeant , please wait thirty more minutes for safety reasons beore allowing the rescue crew and the next shift to enter the mine. Their primary duty is to be recovering the equipment. Any miner who is not carrying a piece of equipment or a load of ore from the mine will be shot. And Sergeant, just to show them I am not all bad, tell them their shift quota is only 30% of the usual due to the accident."
Akula sat back and began composing his report to the Commander: Due to sabotage by unscrupulous elements among the laborers, I regret to inform the Commander of an accident...
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