So, this is the story I mentioned in the last chapter of Daydream Believer, and it was inspired by wavingthroughawindow's request for a Star Wars tie-in/AU. My first reaction to the prompt was literally "Fuck yeah," and from that moment plot ideas started popping in my head. I never planned for it to be just a oneshot, but at this rate I don't think it'll be a short story either - I've got a lot planned for this.
Just to clear one thing up: As far as I can tell, you do not need to have seen the Star Wars films to understand this fic. I am trying to write it that way, at least - I don't know how successful I'm being. But there are zero plot points that you would need to have seen SW to understand, nor are there any actual SW characters appearing in this fic - it's literally just the Grishaverse characters transplanted into a Galaxy Far Far Away. That's why I didn't class it as a crossover. If you do decide to read it and there's something you don't know or I haven't explained properly, just mention it in the reviews and I'll get back to you on that.
For the people who have seen the SW films, there will be a lot of references/blatantly plagiarised quotes/scenes. This began as a sort of rewritten Rogue One scenario, what with them trying to get the plans to destroy the Death Star, but it expanded into much more than that so. . . it'll certainly be an interesting ride.
Finally, I'm trying a new method for this fic where I type up chapters in advance without deciding on the divisions between the chapters until it's time to post them, so I honestly don't know how regular my updates will be. I'm going to try for once or twice a week, and I already have 20,000 words typed up for this, but how regular it will be after that depends on whether or not this new method or mine is a complete flop.
Sorry for the long A/N.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from the Grisha Trilogy or Six of Crows, nor do I own anything from the Star Wars universe.
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Part I: Planet-Killer
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Inej gritted her teeth as the sounds of blasterfire battered the back of the ship. She gripped the controls of the lambda shuttle and took in deep, steady breaths as she veered sharply to the left to avoid more fire.
These things were not built for manoeuvrability. Although she supposed that if the shuttle was still in Imperial hands - if she hadn't stolen it - it wouldn't have needed to be manoeuvrable, or fast-
It didn't matter. It didn't matter because Inej was in the pilot's seat now, and there was a datachip in her bag containing vital information, and she was the Wraith for Saints' sake; the best spy in the Rebel Alliance was not about to let herself be blown to ashes and stardust simply because the Imperials didn't build heavy-duty cargo ships with Rebels making speedy escapes in mind.
The comlink at her ear crackled with static for a moment before it resolved itself into Nina's voice. ". . .incoming TIEs, my right, your left."
"Aren't you shooting back?" Inej cried out in panic, head swivelling round to glance at one of the fighters out of the left viewport. She'd always thought they looked like eyes, TIE fighters - eyes, or swarming insects, delicate death-traps individually, but in hordes. . .
In hordes. . .
"How many?"
"A dozen, by my count. Two down." There was the rattle of blasterfire again, then Nina's smug voice. "Make that three. Have you put the shield up, yet? Plotted the hyperspace coordinates?"
"These things are much easier to fly when you have a co-pilot, you know," Inej muttered, half to herself. Nina's snort was only slightly louder than the static as Inej stretched for the switch, at the same time keeping an eye on all the whirring dials-
Another blast rocked the entire shuttle, and another TIE exploded just outside the viewport, its fiery remains streaked directly in front of them, so close they nearly seared a hole in the transparisteel. Inej was thrown forwards, the crash webbing temporarily cutting off her circulation as she scanned the controls-
"We've lost one of our engines, blast it, blast it, blast it-"
"Shield would be useful right about now!" Nina barked. There was a screeching from her end of the comlink and Inej pressed her lips together, firmly stomping down concern for what that was in order to focus on the here and now.
She lunged for the switch and slapped with all her might. "Done," she grunted, allowing herself a moment of relief as the whirring sound of the shield generator started up and the violent rocking receded slightly.
Ignoring the sudden influx of bright explosions in her peripheral vision - Nina must be really letting loose - Inej jabbed the navicomputer, heart beating in her throat like a starbird's wings, and couldn't contain her whoop when it completed its calculations.
It was not on her agenda to jump to lightspeed to get away from this mess only for them to get vaporised because they flew through a star.
"Stand by for hyperspace," she voiced aloud, not really paying attention to Nina's affirmative as she reached up to yank the lever down, and watched the stars dissolve into blue streaks around her.
"You did well, Captain," Galactic Senator Nikolai Lantsov assured Inej when he called her in later for her debriefing. "Retrieving the information we sent you in for and rescuing Lieutenant Zenik whilst you were at it? Impressive."
Inej stood to attention, upright and rigid. "Nina's my friend," she said stiffly. "She happened to be held in the same building I was infiltrating, and they were about to start interrogating her. The morale of the Rebellion would have suffered if our only Jedi were to be lost."
Lantsov nodded. "You did what was right, of course, even if you did potentially risk the data we sent you to collect. But I have no doubt your task was your highest priority, and that you wouldn't have attempted to rescue Zenik without reasonable confidence that you would succeed. I commend you for doing both."
Inej said nothing. Lantsov didn't seem to notice.
"The Wraith has struck again," he mused, more to himself than to Inej. She remained silent. She'd never particularly liked that she'd become a successful enough spy that her nickname was now widely used in propaganda - on both sides of the war - and she didn't like that her kills were broadcast as heroic deeds by the Alliance. She did enough penance for them as it was.
Senator Lantsov came back to his thoughts then, and moved towards the nearest computer in the debriefing room. He plugged the datachip she'd handed him into the terminal and sifted through the files that came up until he had a specific folder showing on the screen. "Have you had a good look at this information, Captain?"
Inej shook her head. "No, sir."
He drew up another page, this time filled from top to bottom with text in a language - or code - Inej didn't recognise. "Because here is your next assignment."
There was a moment of silence. Inej hesitated before querying, "Sir?"
Lantsov pointed his finger at the screen. A few words of grey text turned red, standing out stark against the dark background. "The slicers got into this shortly after you handed the information in two days ago. We have the general gist of the report - information on Imperial weaponry, troops, etcetera - but this is the part that's truly alarming."
There was a heavy sense of foreboding building in Inej's chest. Nina would probably call it the Force, but Inej just called it intuition.
"It says that there's a gaping hole in the Empire's economy and funding. It's all being sucked into a single project."
Inej, curiosity aroused despite herself, walked closer to the computer. "Does it say what the project is, sir?"
Lantsov shook his head. "No. Just that it's a 'planet-killer'." The bottom dropped out of Inej's stomach. A planet-killer? "And I'm sure you understand why that's concerning in and of itself. But the information here also leads us to believe that the scientist behind it is none other than Bo Yul-Bayur."
Inej furrowed her brow. "Should I have heard of him, sir?"
Lantsov glanced at her. "I suppose not. He was a well-known scientist on Coruscant and other major planets shortly before the rise of the Empire. You'd probably have been too young to have much of a vested interest in science around that time."
Remembering her two-year-old self to have had a fascination with sucking her toes, climbing on furniture and staring out of ship viewports, Inej was inclined to agree. "So why has Yul-Bayur been so under-the-radar for the last eighteen years, then?"
"He's been working on this secret project, I presume." Lantsov sighed, and passed a hand over his hand. "Captain, we know little to nothing about this 'planet-killer' despite the wealth of information you've brought us, and it's something we desperately need to know more about. And you're the best spy we have."
She didn't say anything - just waited for him to finish.
"I'm authorising you to gather a team and find out more about this project. We need to know everything - what it's called, what it does, how it does it, what weaknesses we can exploit. Put together a team of anyone you think will be able to help - I trust your judgement - and find these answers. We need them now more than ever. Is that clear, Captain?"
"Affirmative, Senator."
"Good. Whom do you have in mind?"
Inej considered it for a moment. "Lieutenant Zenik, sir, for sure; we work well in a team and I can attest to her composure in the field."
Lantsov nodded, looking thoughtful. "Come to think of it, you should take Van Eck as well." At her blank look, he elaborated, "A recent Imperial defector of ours. As I understand it, his father is an arms dealer and weapons specialist who got rich off the Clone Wars, before the fall of the Republic, and has been in the pay of the Empire since. He and his bodyguard may be able to provide some useful information."
"Yes, sir."
"Anyone else in mind?"
Inej paused. They would need to get past Imperial cordons, blockades - not that she didn't do that regularly, but she wasn't willing to jeopardise the secrecy of the mission by relying on her own amateur cloaking abilities.
"Yes, Senator. A smuggler." Lantsov raised an eyebrow. "I guess you could call him an old friend."
Van Eck proved to be even younger than Inej, and that, Nina thought, was saying something. Inej was one of the youngest members in the Rebellion - not that Nina was much older.
It was truly awful that the Empire had shoved all responsibility of peace and justice onto the shoulders of children.
Honestly, though. Was Van Eck even of age?
"I'm eighteen," he said defensively, almost the moment Nina stepped into his quarters. The door had been opened by a human male a little closer to Nina's age - about twenty five standard years, if not older. Blond-haired, blue-eyed and stocky, the man had scowled at her then and he scowled at her now, walking over to Van Eck's side and positioning himself half between the two of them. "I just look younger, that's all."
Nina shrugged. "My best friend's one of the youngest human women in the Rebellion. Age is irrelevant when compared to morals."
Van Eck swallowed at that for some reason, shifting uncomfortably. He made a valiant attempt at changing the subject. "My name is Wylan Van Eck, and this is my bodyguard, Matthias Helvar. It's nice you meet you." He held out his hand. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
Nina took his hand cautiously, shook it, and quickly let go. She wasn't used to someone with such impeccable manners and Van Eck didn't seem accustomed to showing them; his speech was slow, stilted, like he was reading from a script. "Lieutenant Nina Zenik. And I was sent by Captain Ghafa to inform you that you'll be participating in the next mission she and I embark on - we'll need you for it."
Van Eck's bodyguard - Helvar - looked suspicious. "Captain Ghafa? We haven't heard of her."
"Oh no, you almost certainly have," Nina replied pleasantly, "though I suppose Imperials would know her as the Wraith."
Van Eck's face drained of colour. "The Wraith?"
Nina nodded, still with a mockingly serene smile on her lips. Very pointedly, she shifted positions so her jacket hem rode up her side, revealing the lightsaber clipped there. "We're a team."
Van Eck stared at the lightsaber for a moment before his face paled even more, until it was whiter than a blank sheet of flimsi. "You're the Jedi."
The Jedi, Nina catalogued bitterly. Not a Jedi. One of the only ones left, after the Purge - and certainly the only one who would openly ally with the Alliance to Restore the Republic.
Helvar's face now tightened into suspicion and what looked eerily like hatred as he pointedly stepped between his employer and her. "My lord is not going on a mission with the Wraith and the Jedi."
"These are orders from Senator Lantsov himself, and the rest of High Command," Nina replied curtly. "Young Van Eck here should consider it his privilege to be able to help stop the Empire he was a part of for so long from destroying all hope for a new Republic to rise." Helvar stiffened at her tone and opened his mouth, ready to jump to defend his lord's honour, before Nina finished, looking directly at Van Eck, "And if you don't, then the consequences we're talking about aren't just the death of the Alliance. We're talking about the deaths of entire planets."
Helvar shut his mouth at that. And Van Eck, pale, glassy-eyed, shaky, ignoring the look his bodyguard sent him, rasped in a hoarse voice, "I'll do it."
Nina inclined her head towards the sleeping quarters of the young lord's living area. "Then I suggest you pack, lordling. We're leaving tomorrow evening."
It was the beginning of the next night cycle when Inej began running the pre-flight checks to prepare for their departure. She'd just confirmed everything was good to go when Nina finally deigned to climb the boarding ramp, dragging with her a teenager of minimal stature alongside a man with broad shoulders and the muscles to match. Watching them was odd; they were like two blond, mismatching bookends.
"Dump your stuff in the back and strap yourself in, we're scheduled to set off in a few minutes," she called back, flicking the switches to begin the start up sequence. The crimson light of Dantooine's setting sun bathed the hangar entrance as she lifted off and flew out into the atmosphere, exchanging a few words with the Rebels on lookout duty before she engaged the repulsors, hard, and they shot up into space.
Inej may have taken a certain satisfaction in the dim groan that emanated from the living area behind her, and a deep male voice saying, "I really hate flying."
After that, though, she tried to fly somewhat gently until she punched in the hyperspace coordinates and the stars turned to streaks around them. Only then did she stand up from the pilot's chair and go back to meet Van Eck and his bodyguard.
"What? Don't you like being on ships, Helvar?" she heard Nina ask mockingly. The larger man shook his head just as Inej stepped in and glowered at her friend.
"Be nice, Nina, they're our allies," she chided, though she sidled into the room somewhat hesitantly. Both men jumped when they heard her and turned to stare; the smaller one's eyes were wide, the larger one's narrowed. After a moment's indecision, she smiled at both and held out her hand; Nina had said that was the method of greeting that Van Eck had used, and Inej figured it would be best to make a good impression on the people they'd likely be spending the next few days - if not weeks - in the company of. "I'm Captain Inej Ghafa, but please, call me Inej." A little familiarity couldn't hurt, could it?
The smaller one's eyes began to resemble their normal size again; his shoulders visibly relaxed as he took her hand. "Wylan Van Eck, pleasure to make your acquaintance, and please: call me Wylan as well." As Nina had described, his tone was stiff and formal, like he was reciting lines for a play he had no interest in, but being in familiar territory seemed to soothe him marginally. "This is my bodyguard, Matthias Helvar."
Inej turned her best attempt at a disarming smile on the larger man, and though his eyes remained narrowed in suspicion, there was a twitch at the corner of his mouth that suggested an urge to smile back. "Nice to meet you."
She held out her hand and, after a moment's hesitation, he took it, squeezing firmly as they shook, and then let go.
"My apologies about the bumpy start," she added, directing it at both Wylan and Matthias, though she was fairly sure it had been Matthias grumbling. "I forget sometimes that not everyone likes going through turbulence as much as I do."
Matthias gave a gruff, "It's alright."
Nina shot Inej a smile, even as Wylan said, with curiosity in his eyes replacing the fear, "So you're the Wraith?"
Inej tensed up. She closed her eyes for an instant, smoothed out her features, and took a deep breath. She answered only when she opened them. "Yes. Yes I am."
She prepared herself for the barrage of questions - or maybe even a barrage of hate; for an Imperial defector, Matthias seemed pretty. . . hostile. . . towards Rebels - but all Wylan said was, "I figured you'd be taller. You're even shorter than me."
Inej huffed a laugh - half in relief, half in amusement. "Well, being small helps me get out of tight corners."
"Let's just hope we can get out of this one, then," Nina chimed in, bringing the fluffy pleasantries back down to earth with a bump. "Where are we headed again? And what are we gonna do there?"
Inej had to stand and lean against a wall for a brief moment before she answered, distractedly peering out through the open door to the cockpit, where she could just see the whirling tunnel of hyperspace beyond the viewports.
"We're headed to Mos Eisley, Tatooine," she said with a heavy sigh. She wasn't exactly looking forward to this. "We're gonna pick up the last member of this motley crew there." At Matthias's sharp - and slightly angry - intake of breath, she glanced over at him. "Don't worry, you, Wylan and Nina will need to stay on the ship; you won't be going outside. I'm gonna meet him there myself. I've already established where he'll be."
"You're going out into a cesspit like Mos Eisley on your own?" Nina asked incredulously. "Inej, you're a twenty-year-old, pretty human female, and Tatooine is a planet under the dominion of the Hutts - the biggest cause of slavery in the Outer Rim. Is that really such a good idea?"
Inej clenched her fists. "I know the risks. Firsthand."
She'd never told Nina about the "firsthand" part, but there must have been something in her voice to make her back off, because her friend didn't push that line of enquiry any further.
Instead, Nina said, "My master used to call Mos Eisley a 'wretched hive of scum and villainy'." Inej closed her eyes at the mention of Nina's late Jedi Master; she knew she didn't talk about her very often. "Who is your contact? Why are you meeting them there?"
Inej just looked at Nina, eyebrow raised.
Nina's incredulous expression faltered slightly.
"Him?"
"Him."
"But - why? Surely you're a good enough pilot and slicer-"
Inej shrugged. "He's the best chance we've got. I wouldn't trust anyone else to get us past those blockades effectively - and I'm only a passable slicer. If we don't want there to be the slightest chance that the Imperials will detect us on their scopes, we'll need him."
"I'm sorry," Wylan cut in then. Funny thing was, he did seem genuinely sorry - his cheeks flamed red when the women turned their gazes on him. "But who are you talking about?"
"Kaz Brekker," Inej replied promptly. "He was a. . . partner. . . of mine, back when I first found myself without a home or parents to turn to. He taught me how to slice, spy, etcetera, and in return I taught him how to fly. We're old acquaintances."
Nina cut in then. "He doesn't need to get involved."
Wylan looked between them in mounting confusion. Matthias was no doubt equally as confused, but he kept his face stoic - expressionless. "Why not?"
Inej barked a laugh that she supposed could be categorised as bitter. "Because the last time I saw him, Kaz called me a suicidal fool for joining up with the Rebellion. And now. . . He's the most infamous smuggler in the Outer Rim."
