The Final Mission

The laser blasts were coming thick and fast but they had managed to make it to service corridor D4.
"Sergeant, we need to get to the communication room and be given 3 minutes to download the material. I need options." Darek shouted at his Sergeant-in-arms, keeping a close eye as the security forces moved under fire towards the rebel group.
"Sir, the only option I can give you is leave me Jarel and Gayyvel, we will give you time." The Sergeant didn't look back, he just returned constant, aimed fire upon the encroaching forces.
Darek hated this, he had already lost so many lives on this mission and now he was being asked to sacrifice three more. His courage nearly left him at that moment but then he remembered what they were trying to do and how many planets and systems relied on this communication getting out. He knew what he had to do but didn't want to make the order. The Sergeant saved him once more "Jarel, Gayyvel, you just volunteered to be hero's and legends in the history of the movement. Get some thermite grenades and your A game." Both moved with purpose and resignation.
Darek hated himself then, this was his plan, he had sacrificed a score of people on the diversionary tactics, he had even lost Garel. They had spent time in a security prison together, he wouldn't have survived his first week in jail without Garel. The fact that he had lost him to a random patrol still hurt, he had watched them drag Garel away, knowing that to try and save him would of lost the causes best chance but knowing that Garel had been left to die for the galaxy to be free.
Darek made it to the communication room with his remaining two guards. He left them outside the door while he began the download procedure. He knew this was a one way mission, he knew that even if he could download the files, the security forces would capture and torture him to death.
Darek aligned the transmitter antenna's and started to charge the emitter which would push the signal out into the void, along the security forces own emergency broadcasting system. It couldn't be stopped once the firewall had been breached, he had paid a hefty sum to make sure the signal would get through.
"Give me a situation update people." Darek shouted over the hum of the communication reaching the pinnacle of its power.
"Sir, the firing has quieted, maybe the sarge got them.....alllkkk" a laser blast caught the young soldier in the throat, shutting short her sentence and also her life. To the credit of her colleague, he didn't waste time shouting, whilst blindly firing down the corridor with one hand, the other slapped the door closing panel. Darek could smell the fused wires within the room as his last guard fired into the panel, sealing him inside the communication room.
Darek stood frozen to the spot, fear had rendered him immobile, as the door came under a sustained barrage of laser fire and the emitter chimed its readiness. Darek started to breath again. He didn't want to die but too many had died to get him to this point. Before he started the download system a impossible familiar voice came over the tannoy.
"Darek, buddy, there's no point." Darek had already started the download but once again found himself frozen but not in fear this time.
"Garel.....it can't be you...I saw you get snatched. That isn't you, this is a trick." Darek spluttered as he watched the progress bar indicate  the signal being downloaded into space.
"It is me buddy,  I hate to tell you this but what your seeing isn't the signal being transferred. Its a fake. Did you not wonder why this communication station was so poorly defended, just when you needed direct access to the emergency broadcast system." Garel said in his matter of fact tone.
Darek had already started to check the signal and quickly found what he feared he would, Garel was right, the whole system was a fake.
"Why Garel?" Darek shouted at the door. The response came after a long delay. Garel sounded like he was repressing a smirk "Well, money of course. I got swept along with your talk of revolution, your plan's, the hope but to tell you the truth, I didn't think you would get this far and I decided to cash out early." Darek barely contained his fury and desperation in his reply, " Garel, you saw the footage, the re-education camps, the forced abortions, the raping centres  and the death camps. For five hundred years they have ruled the galaxy with an iron grip, destroyed countless civilisations and absorbed the rest. How could you do this to them, to me?" Garel didn't even hesitate this time "Their not my people. What do I care if they are dying. I saw an opportunity to get out of this situation and make a little money. Their coming in to get you, I have convinced them not to hurt you but you need to tell them if there are anymore copies of the footage. Be clever about this Darek, you could get rich out of this as well."
Darek first heard the laser torch being used on the door, later witnessing its lance of pure energy protruded from the frame. He had maybe 4 minutes. He didn't intend to fight them when they stormed the room, he knew that the movement was going to die today and that nobody would try to rise against the brutal masters for a long time. He had made copies of the footage but there wasn't anybody left to get it out into the open. A realisation had dawned on him.
"Garel, can you pass on a message to your masters....fuck you and fuck them." a small wiry smile of defiance played across his lips as his laser pistol discharged into this temple. He realised at the end that it wasn't enough to fight a tyrant government, you had to fight the  tyrant inside yourself. As life left him he also was comforted in the last though he had, even at the end, it is always worth one small defiant act.