Title: False Truths

Timeframe: approximately 14 years after ANH

Characters: Rogues, OCs

Genre: Action, Drama, Romance – in that order

Summary: The Rogue's newest assignment intertwines with Hobbie Klivian's life before the Alliance when they are sent on a mission that throws them in with Intelligence.

Note: This story is completely independent of my Jesina stories.

Disclaimer: Star Wars is, quite clearly, not mine, and no copyright infringement is intended. This story is not written for profit.

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Chapter 1

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Hobbie looked over the woman standing before the Rogues. Mid-thirties, auburn hair, blue eyes – she might be attractive if she actually smiled. Apparently, she'd caught Janson's interest. He was making eyes at the NRI agent Cracken had sent over while Wedge and Tycho tried not to laugh at him – and Inyri stood behind him snickering silently.

The agent cleared her throat, narrowing her eyes at Wes, who squirmed uncomfortably in his chair. "My name is Lana Tierney. I'm a Major in New Republic Intelligence, where I've been since it was Alliance Intelligence. I was one of few Alliance personnel who escaped the assault on Ralltiir just before the battle at Yavin. And I know as much, if not more, about you than you do yourselves." She turned her attention to Wes. "For example, Major Janson, the woman you had dinner with last night won't be seeing you again."

Red-faced, Janson slouched down in his seat as half of the Rogues burst into laughter and the other half watched her with some concern. Hobbie was torn between both. He enjoyed seeing Wes get rejected from time to time – usually the man deserved it – and the fact that this rejection was delivered through a third party made it that much more entertaining. But the fact that she'd mentioned his home world had piqued his interest. He settled for smirking in Janson's general direction, but kept his eyes fixed on the woman at the front of the room.

He'd been sympathetic to the Alliance even as a teenager on Ralltiir, before he'd left for the Academy, though he'd rarely voiced his thoughts on the matter. That was a good way to get shot, and he wasn't too keen on that idea. He hadn't known any other Rebel sympathizers, though he'd known more than one person who strongly supported the Empire.

"I'm sure that you were all thrilled to hear that one of General Cracken's people was going to address you about a mission."

Thrilled is hardly the word I would have used, Hobbie thought to himself. More like…concerned, alarmed, terrified….

"The reason for that," she went on, "is that you're being loaned to Intelligence."

The relative quiet that had reigned over the room ended at that moment. Hobbie kept his mouth shut, but he could completely understand why the others weren't. Working with Cracken is bad enough…never mind working for him. He heard Janson exclaim, "Wedge, have you forgotten what happened the last time we worked for Cracken?"

Hobbie saw Wedge's mouth move but couldn't really hear the words. Apparently, Wedge realized he wasn't getting across to them because the next thing he heard was, "Attention!"

Instantly, the room fell silent – though the silence lasted only seconds. It was broken when Janson's chair, teetering out of Wes' rush to salute their CO, finally succumbed to gravity and hit the floor with a crash. Wedge shook his head, returned the salute, and motioned for them to sit down again.

"I have my reasons for agreeing to this," he said, focusing on each pilot in turn. "I'm not going to go over them at this point; I'm going to trust you all to trust me. If any of you have a problem with that, take it up with me personally. And kindly allow Major Tierney to brief you."

Hobbie was surprised at that. Wedge didn't pull rank like that very often – he was usually fairly open with the squadron. He couldn't help but wonder what was different about this.

"Your assignment involves a trip to Ralltiir, my home world. There is a lab there that was mostly destroyed when the Empire…took out its aggression on the planet. We know where it is – just north of the capital city of Cambrielle. The problem lies in getting inside it. Recently, a highly placed minister in the Secretariat – the current, New Republic aligned government on the planet – has ordered it to be guarded, refusing to allow our personnel inside. He's acting within his jurisdiction and the planetary president has elected not to get involved, especially considering we can't say why we want to get inside."

"Why do you?" Hobbie asked. This was his world, after all, even if he hadn't been back in over a decade. "What's there?"

She looked at him and tilted her head slightly to one side. Glancing back at Wedge for a second before returning her gaze to him she said, "Datacards. The information that they contain we can't discuss, but it pertains to other…operations…that we're conducting at this point in time."

"Why us?" Inyri asked. "Why don't you use your own people?"

"Yeah," Wes said. "What about the Wraiths?"

"The Wraiths would be perfect," Tierney replied. "Unfortunately, they are otherwise disposed at the moment. And we need people who can transport themselves on and off the planet – individually, if necessary – but who we know we can trust for such a delicate assignment. You've done good work for Intelligence in the past, and such activities as your roles in taking Coruscant speak highly of you."

"Does this information involve Ralltiir?" Hobbie asked.

She looked a little annoyed. "That's none of your concern."

He opened his mouth to reply but saw Wedge shake his head and shut it. He didn't like this.

"How are we getting on the planet?" Corran Horn asked.

"That information will be discussed in individual briefings at a later point in time," she said curtly.

"How do you know the information is even there?" Hobbie asked. "Ralltiir was leveled fourteen years ago and the Rebel factions weren't entirely successful in holding off the Imperials. A number of the planetary leaders and Alliance personnel were executed, as you mentioned. You said the lab itself was mostly destroyed. How do you know that the information actually is there and intact?"

"It was an Imperial facility," she replied testily. "Not something that they would have intentionally destroyed. They attempted to evacuate it but were halted in their efforts by a Rebel team. It was sealed at that time and hasn't been entered since."

"How do you know the minister there hasn't been inside? He's clearly displaying an interest in it," he persisted, not caring that all eyes were on him. This was his home they were talking about, and something felt wrong to him about this whole thing.

"We just know. I can't tell you any more than that." Her lips were set in a thin line and her eyes were narrowed almost to slits.

Catching sight of Wedge's glare, Hobbie elected not to say any more. If he wanted to find out more about what was going on, getting everyone angry at him probably wasn't the way to go.

"Now, we also need to find out why the minister – whose name you do not need to know at this juncture," she added, glancing toward Hobbie as if she expected him to argue, "has taken a sudden interest in this facility. My people have been working on that but have, as yet, been unable to learn anything of value. That also falls within your mission parameters."

Then, abruptly, she drew the meeting to a close. "That's all for now. You'll be told more individually, as your specific assignments warrant. Your commanding officer has the information pertaining to your cover identities, and you can rest assured that I will see you all again – several more times, most likely. Good day."

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Lana set a brisk pace as she walked down the back corridor away from Rogue Squadron's briefing room. All in all, that had gone rather well, with the exception of one potentially major complication in the form of one Derek Klivian.

Her assignment for the last month had been to monitor the activities of everyone in the squadron to best decide how to use them in this mission. She had to admit, sending one of her agents to get a feel for Major Janson had been entertaining. But nothing in what she'd learned about Klivian had suggested that he'd be nearly as persistent as he'd proven to be. Just the same, she knew enough about him – about who he'd once been – to not be surprised by his behavior.

She hoped Antilles could get him to settle down and go along for the ride. She had her old debts – that much was true. But this was her job and if he were to put himself in a position to jeopardize this mission, well, her job came before any debt she owed – no matter how old or dear to her heart.

Of course, if Antilles did his job and reined the man in, she wouldn't have to worry about taking care of Klivian at all.

In the meantime, she'd have to keep an eye on him – especially when he found out who the minister was. She began to mentally rewrite the plans she'd made for conducting this mission.

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Wedge grabbed Hobbie – literally – as the Ralltiirian walked out of the briefing room. "My office, now," he hissed.

He could feel the man tense and released his arm. Walking briskly to his office, he tried to think of a way to get through to Hobbie that he had to back off. When nothing came to mind, he elected to fall back on the fact that he was, after all, the squadron's commanding officer.

Once they were inside his office with the door closed, he didn't wait for Hobbie to speak. "Back off. From this point on, you only ask questions specific to what you are doing. Nothing general, nothing about why we're doing this or what they're looking for."

"Wedge, you can't expect me to not want to know what's going on! We're going to my home world! You wouldn't just sit there and take 'we can't tell you' for an answer if we were going to Corellia!"

Wedge sighed. Hobbie was right. He really was. But this…he was going to get himself into serious trouble if he kept it up. "You're probably right," he admitted.

"Probably?" Hobbie stared at him. "You know I'm right!"

"Okay, you're right," Wedge admitted. "I'll give you that. But there's a lot you don't know. And I can't answer your questions. You have to trust me on this. Back. Off."

Hobbie stared him straight in the eye for a moment before spinning on his heel, slapping at the door and storming out of the office.