A/n… Okay, so I forgot to put a note at the first chapter the Wraiths appeared in, telling you all that I had abandoned canon for these guys, more specifically, what happened at the end of Solo Command (not all of it, the major events still happen), the last of the Wraith Squadron novels. I won't spoil it, it doesn't affect the characters really, just what they were meant to be doing at the end of that book. And there's another big event that I WILL be spoiling, something that happened to a character called 'Lara Notsil', and I'm twisting that event to my will. :D And – this is the first of what will probably end up being several occurrences where I do this – rectifying a situation in the Wraith Squadron series that I wanted to change. And that will involve accelerating an actual event in the entire star wars universe… but I'll stop there, because you'll soon see! Well… by the end of the story, at least.
Read on!
Chapter 21:
"Rescue One has crashed, Sir." A communications officer stated, alarmed.
"What?" Wedge stood, walking towards the officer before forcing himself to stop. "Where?"
"About seventy kilometers from the Millennium Falcon." The officer said. "No reports on survivors yet."
Wedge gritted his teeth. It was a secret that Leia had gone with the Wraiths and Sarah to rescue Han, which would explain the communications officer's lack of real worry. He didn't know the President of their government was down there, possibly dead. Screw procedure. If they're still alive down there they won't be for much longer with those pirates gunning for them. He finished the journey to the comm. officer and hit a button on the console, to encrypt the transmission. "Wraith Nine, Rescue One is down. Repeat, Rescue One is down. Chief of State Organa Solo is down there with Wraith Flight One and a civilian expert." When it was revealed Leia was down there, there were multiple gasps from the people on the bridge, but Wedge ignored them. "You're to deviate from the battle and rescue any survivors. Priority is Chief of State Organa Solo."
"Request permission to return to the Mon Remonda to exchange out X-Wings for a boat, General." Elassar Targon didn't question his orders, for once. There was no reference to a silly superstition, or not having his lucky undergarments on. That itself told Wedge how worried the Devaronian pilot was about the latest development.
"Granted, but make it snappy. Flight Two is flying protection, but if the enemy gets wind of the precious cargo on the surface of the planet their job'll get a lot harder. We'll have a shuttle prepped for you. Remonda out." Wedge ended the transmission before ordering in a loud voice, "Jam external communications everywhere but here. All transmissions off of this ship are to be routed through the bridge, and only through consoles four and sixteen." He nodded to his two most trusted bridge crewmembers. All of the others had been rotated into bridge service at some stage in the past year, which, while it was the usual procedure for newer crewmembers to get experience on all areas of the ship, it meant he couldn't trust them as well as Lieutenant Saunders and Flight Officer Presans. "All vocal transmissions are to be re-recorded at console four or sixteen, and all text transmissions are to be reentered manually from an unconnected datapad."
There were glances from most of the crewmembers at the extreme orders, which effectively put the lives of the President, four elite pilots and one civilian in the hands of two crewmembers, and the rest of them in quarantine. It said a lot for General Antilles' trust in them, but everyone knew the story of Rogue Squadron's infiltration of Coruscant, before the Capitol was taken from Imperial control by the New Republic. Erisi Dlarit had had his trust, and she'd handed Corran Horn over to the Imperials, while blaming it on Tycho Celchu.
Wedge only hoped he hadn't misjudged Saunders or Presans. And he hoped there was a good reason Sarah hadn't teleported back up to the ship with Leia and the Wraiths.
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Donos hung from his restraints, trying to force air to fill his abused lungs. His eyes stung and watered, and it took him a moment to realize his console was letting off a small cloud of acrid smoke, directly into his face. He put a hand on the console to push himself back, leaning against the back of his chair, before looking around. Shalla was already out of her chair, pulling the emergency medkit from its position stowed away in a sealed compartment.
Face was in the process of undoing his crashwebbing with one hand. "Sound off injuries, Wraiths."
Donos coughed on the smoke, hacking for a little while before answering, "All fine here. Just a bit of smoke inhalation."
"A bit knocked around, Lead, but I'll be fine." Shalla replied. "But Chief of State Organa Solo's out, so's Sarkin. And from the way Gibson hit that bulkhead… I doubt she's in any condition to sit up, much less help get back to the ship and the action in any way. And I wouldn't count on her being conscious at all, or I'm sure she would have yelled at you for that landing by now." As she spoke, she removed a bandage, a bottle of hand sanitizer, a small flash light and a vial of smelling salts from the medkit. After making her hands as clean as she could, she moved to Leia's side, examining her pupil dilation quickly before wrapping a small gash on her head with the bandage, to stem the bleeding. Then she undid the cap on the vial of smelling salts, shying away from the scent herself, and held it under Leia's nose.
Leia gasped awake, jerking away from the pungent smell violently. She would have hit the back of her head on the headrest if Shalla's hand hadn't been there to slow the movement. That was when she noticed the headache. Leia only allowed herself to cradle her head in her hands for a brief moment, before straightening again and giving Shalla a nod. "Thank you, Lieutenant Nelprin."
While Shalla had been tending to Leia, Donos had moved for Tyria, shaking her awake gently. The blonde's eyes blinked open blearily, unfocused as she moaned softly. "Myn?"
"How you doing, Tyria? Well enough to protect us from your boyfriend when he finds out you were hurt on our watch?" He asked with a half grin.
She tried to return it, only managing a pained grimace. "I'm blaming it all on Face. You'll be fine."
"Hey!" The pilot argued. "It's not my fault. If our intelligence was better-"
"You're intelligence is questionable." Shalla muttered under her breath, interrupting the start of a rant.
"If we'd known there were squints, I wouldn't have taken a Lambda class shuttle on this mission." Face retorted. "We thought it was just Uglies and TIE fighters."
"And what kind of ship would you have chosen, Lieutenant Loran?" Leia asked, her voice mildly amused and pained at the same time as she watched him move towards Sarah, one arm hugged to his chest.
"An X-Wing, because I would have handed this mission off to Rogue Squadron, of course." He flashed her a grin, and she was briefly reminded of the man in his younger years, starring in films loaded with Imperial Propaganda. Still, she'd rather enjoyed The Black Bantha, one of his last holos. It seemed in light of their crash they'd decided to stop playing the part of proper officers, and start acting like they usually did. Which didn't necessarily include being very polite. Or watching their words about each other in front of her.
Face's grin faded as he crouched next to Sarah. He rolled her over, and a hiss of sympathetic pain snuck from his lips. "She's gonna have one hell of a headache when she wakes up."
"How bad is it?" Leia asked, gesturing for Shalla to help the man.
Shalla joined Face, testing Sarah for a concussion before sending a serious expression Leia's way. "It's not that good, Chief of State Organa Solo. From what I can tell, her concussion's pretty severe." She continued her examination, pressing around the injured woman's stomach, and wincing again. "And I think she's got some internal injuries, probably a bruised kidney."
Leia nodded with a sigh, standing despite the glare Shalla sent her. She tottered over to the small group on legs that shook, before kneeling next to her friend. Without a word, she held out a hand to Shalla. It took her a moment to realize what Leia wanted. When she did, she placed the vial in her hands, and Leia uncapped it one handed before lifting Sarah's head with her other arm, supporting her head and shoulders. Before she could bring the vial to Sarah's nose, Shalla placed a hand over it.
"I'm not sure that's such a good idea, Chief of State-"
"It's just a concussion, correct?"
"And a bruised kidney-"
"Neither of which will be worsened by waking her. In fact, if we can wake her, it would be better for the concussion, right?"
"Well, yeah-"
"Then trust me when I say it wouldn't be very good for any of us if we didn't wake Sarah. She'd be very angry with me. And we can get her medical attention sooner if she wakes – she can just transport straight up to the Mon Remonda." Leia reasoned, before gently freeing the hand that held the salts and angling it under Sarah's nose.
What happened next was a showcase of Sarah's multilingual talents. Her response to the smelling salts was to knock the vial away and shoved Leia away, rolling over, holding herself off of the ground with arms that shook. "Why'd you do that?" She asked plaintively when she'd gotten control of herself. There was more than a little pain in her voice.
"Lie back down." Leia instructed softly, pulling on her shoulder to get her to lie straight. "You're injured, and it's pretty bad."
"On a scale of one to ten, one being a paper cut and ten being the state I was in when you found me after Runorlan's lads got through with me, where does it rank?" Sarah asked pointedly.
"About a six."
"So not that bad then."
"When we picked you up after Runorlan had you and the kids, you were severely hypothermic, had several broken bones, internal bleeding, and one eye was swollen shut. Not to mention most of the bones in one of your hands had been shattered-"
"So not that bad then. Because if I remember correctly I was that injured when me and the kids ran through an enemy base, disposed of a bunch enemy guards, and stole an empty ship, before piloting said enemy ship out of the enemy base-"
"And breaking down in said enemy ship in the middle of nowhere. Or weren't you going to include that in your little tirade?" Face's mocking statement incurred a death glare from the knight, who forced herself to her feet despite Leia's protests.
She immediately regretted it, and leant back against the wall as nonchalantly as she could manage. When Leia tried to support her, grabbing her arm, Sarah sent her a warning look. "Just give me a minute." Her voice was tight, and a hand was unconsciously clutching at her stomach.
"You should transport back to the Mon Remonda." Leia suggested seriously. "You might be functional now, but your internal bleeding needs to be looked at, and your concussion-"
"I'll be fine until we can get a rescue. I'm not transporting back to the Mon Remonda. Not unless our lives are in immediate danger. I got this injured because you wanted this secrecy thing to stick, and we aren't going to throw it away by me appearing in the middle of the medbay with a bunch of doctors I don't know. We'll leg it to the Falcon and-"
"We're seventy klicks from the Millennium Falcon. You're welcome to start walking." Face retorted sweetly, before hauling her away from the wall. "Take a seat."
Sarah had gasped, doubling over at the rough movement. She didn't see the harsh look Leia threw at Face, all she knew was she had been guided to a chair. When her knees connected with the seat, she let gravity take over, and put her head between her knees for a moment, just in case. It didn't help the pain in her stomach, but the roaring in her ears disappeared. She'd handle a little pain if it meant she was still conscious to suffer it, and protect her friend.
Sarah sat up just in time to hear, "Is there any bactade in that medkit?" Leia asked Shalla. Her voice sounded tinny, and Sarah decided she needed to keep her head between her knees for a little while longer.
"Unfortunately not, Chief of State-"
"Call her Leia." Sarah groaned. "Please, if only until I'm not in the same place as you. I can barely handle titles and other crap like that when I'm at one hundred percent. If I have to waste energy not rolling my eyes every time you use that mouthful, I'll pass out before I reach the boarding ramp."
"You look like you'll pass out before you reach the boarding ramp anyway." Leia muttered softly before looking to Shalla. "But she's right. Let's drop the formalities, we're on an enemy planet without a means off of it. We're all sporting some injury or another. Let's just… drop all the formalities, at least until we get back to the Mon Remonda."
"Chief of State-" Shalla began, reluctant.
"Uh uh, no," Sarah shook her head doggedly, sitting up straight once more. "She said 'Leia'. Say it like 'lay' down, with an 'ah' sound at the end-"
"You're real tough for someone who can't stand up straight." Tyria's voice wasn't harsh like Face's might have been, and Sarah glanced up to see the blonde smiling at her. "Nice collision, by the way."
"Thanks." Sarah replied, a grin on her own face despite herself. "I do try. Not necessarily to get injured, but if I must I'd prefer it to be in showy bouts of sheer stupidity."
"You've got more in common with us than I'd thought." Donos mentioned offhandedly, Face scowled.
"Making her an honorary Wraith are we?"
"No. We're going to go find Han, Luke and Chewie and figure out a way to get back to the Mon Remonda without blowing my cover-"
"Sarah, just teleport!" Leia interrupted, exasperated.
"Leia, no." Sarah's tone was serious. "I understand the need for secrecy. Things like extra-dimensional travel aren't exactly big things for your scientists, but it's been achieved before. In fact, the people in the dimension my last official mission was stationed in have met dimension hoppers before. If I go public here, in the veritable cradle of technology-"
Face snorted at the implication that the barren wasteland they were stranded on was the 'cradle of technology'. Sarah ignored him and continued. "If I go public here, and the Empire or some upstart Warlord decided to do research into other dimensions, you could be in for some real trouble. So far the missions I've been on have involved nice people being the main power in the dimension, but I've go no doubt in my mind that there exist dimensions out there that are the equivalent of this… but with an Empire-like government in control. I'm the Gods Messenger, I'm supposed to help their chosen to guide the various dimensions in certain directions – but the last Messenger died millennia ago. A lot can happen in thousands of years and I can't be everywhere at once-"
"Well we don't think very much of ourselves, do we?" Face muttered sarcastically, and Leia beat Sarah to the punch. Literally.
She'd whacked him on his uninjured arm, a glare on her face. "She raises a valid point, Face. And if you've known her for as long as I have, it takes a lot of stress to get her to talk about herself as though she's important in any manner."
The casual way the Chief of State had dealt with Face's quip left the rest of the Wraith staring, allowing Sarah time to glare at her and reply, "I'll thank you not to talk about me as though I have some kind of personality disorder, oh wise and knowledgeable Chief of State. I know my own importance-"
"Which is why you took a blaster bolt for a woman you didn't know-"
"You're the President of a galactic government! You're death-"
"Did you know what I was when you saved my life?" Leia asked pointedly. "I could have been an evil dictator that, with my death, would have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands, or millions of people."
"Well… no." Sarah frowned. "I didn't know… but that just says something for my instincts, doesn't it!" She tried. "That, and Mithros wouldn't tell me to save the life of a violent dictator."
The Wraith had watched their argument with slightly disturbed expressions on their faces, now Donos stood. "Right. I'm going to go stand guard until we decide what we're doing."
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Elassar Targon, Lieutenant with Wraith Squadron, leader of Flight Three and self proclaimed master of the universe, tapped a foot impatiently on the deck as the service crew bustled around the new Lambda class shuttle, dubbed Rescue Two, prepping it for launch. "Hurry up!" He finally bellowed in an uncharacteristic display of dominance.
The workers stopped for a moment, staring, before resuming their tasks, albeit a little faster. It was a few moments later that, in his frequent glances at his fellow pilots, who were also waiting impatiently, he noticed three B-Wing Shuttles, larger variants of the versatile starfighter, sitting unused in a different section of the hangar. If the mechanics had followed proper protocol when scrambling to get the squadrons ready for launch in the wake of the trap they'd fallen into, they'd all scrambled to refuel and reload any missiles and torpedoes on every and any starfighter that wasn't already launch ready. Which would mean that compliment of three B-Wing Shuttles, which could each carry one pilot and two passengers, should be ready to go.
"Dia, head back to your X-Wing. Me, Piggy and Cam will take the B-Wing Shuttles-"
"I've never piloted a B-Wing." Cam Lostern, the newest Wraith, a pilot fresh from the Academy, interrupted him.
Elassar frowned. "What did I tell you about addressing me, Flight Officer?"
"Sorry, Sir, Master of the Universe, Sir." The Flight Officer rolled his eyes. "But that doesn't change the fact that I can't fly a B-Wing."
"Fine. You return to the X-Wing and try to make sure we aren't vaped before we can get these crosses down to the surface to save the President. Dia, you can fly a B-Wing?" He asked pointedly, and the Twi'lekki nodded. "Good. I won't mention how incredibly unlucky it is to pilot a ship when it's usual pilot is out with sickness, even more so when it's a horribly nasty case of the Endregaad Plague, although that's not as bad as when they're out with Chirgotta, because I expect you all know how unlucky it is. So everyone take a lucky charm-"
Piggy sent him a look that could only be interpreted as sheer amusement as he ignored the hand that held the lucky charms and hurried to a B-Wing. Dia just shook her head and followed suit, while Cam, whose hand had been out to take a charm just looked confused as to whether to continue the motion or abandon it. Elassar made the decision for him, tucking a charm into one of the many pockets on his flightsuit, before running after the other three Wraith Squadron veterans. He didn't bother telling the techs working on the shuttle – they'd figure out what was going on as soon as they took off.
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Face had joined Donos on guard duty shortly after Sarah and Leia had settled their argument. Now they both came roaring back up the ramp. "Incoming squint! We have to get out of here."
The Captain ran to Leia, grabbing her to drag her out of the ship, without giving her a chance while Donos moved to Tyria and Shalla to Sarah. But Sarah had other ideas.
She pushed Shalla away, putting a shield up around the exit ramp, trapping them all inside as she dug around in her pocket for something she had kept on her since before she'd dealt with Yahzed. "What are you doing?" Shalla snapped. "We have to get out of here, we'll be vaporized!"
"We'll be mowed down if we go out there. Just let me do this, I know what I'm doing." Sarah promised seriously. Now she dropped to her knees with the black opal held in a tight grip. She placed the stone on the ground, tracing an circle of power around it with her finger, leaving crimson in its wake. Next, she took a deep breath, and prayed to whatever Gods were listening that this worked.
Her head wound had scabbed over since she'd first woken. Now, she reopened the wound, rubbing blood on the opal to enhance the spell. There was a full, proper spell she could say – unfortunately that took quite a while, and she'd never done it before. Numair had told her of the mage Tristan Staghorn's attempt to usurp the crown, and how he'd tried. Sarah was going to attempt the same spell he had used to shield the value they'd been mining. She just hoped it worked.
She grasped for the words she needed in Old Thak, and shouted them loudly as she pressed the black opal onto the deck of the ship with one hand. She poured her Gift into the already full focusing opal, and a steady wind began to build, originating from what lay underneath her hands. When she finished her spell, the wind grew to the point it rocked her back onto her haunches, and she had to let go of the opal. When her hand was no longer obscuring the opal, she saw a crimson bubble build slow, with the opal at its centre. Shit. It's not building fast enough… screw it. She scrambled to her feet, pointing a finger at the slowly expanding shield, and yelled, "So mote it be!" While forcing most of her remaining Gift into the opal.
Sarah was knocked onto her back, whether it was from the shield passing through her suddenly – and the rest of the ship too – or using so much of her Gift, she didn't know, but she just lay there blinking. Leia's face appeared in her vision, and she tried to give her friend a nod to let her know she was okay.
Leia said something, but her ears were ringing, so she didn't know whether the loud crash and sound of shrieking was her ears, or something real. But from Leia's reaction, it was something outside.
The Chief of State half rose, staring at the ceiling, and Sarah forced herself to her elbows, glancing out the hatch. The crimson shield stayed in place, even as something flashed into vision for a brief moment. She could only see it very briefly, but it looked like one of the ships that had shot them down, spinning out of control into the ground. When Leia looked to Sarah again, she was a little pale, her eyes wider than normal. Sarah just sighed. It shouldn't have been so much of a shock to Leia – she'd split the ground in front of the Jedi Academy when she'd first gone through the 'prove it' stage. "Great. Now I've broken you."
Leia forced a brave smile and held out a hand to help Sarah up. The knight ignored the hand, staying on her elbows. "I'm not ready to get up yet."
"What did you do?" Face's voice was nearly a whisper. He was pale, and looked as though he didn't know whether to be terrified or in awe.
"And now it dawns on the flyboy that I'm not just some kid with a few magic tricks." Sarah muttered, rolling over so she sat on her knees rather than lying down. "I did a spell that I won't be able to do again. You can say your shields were still functional when you crashed and blame something for the reddish hues. I don't know, reflection from the sand or something."
This time, when Leia offered her a hand, she accepted it and allowed herself to be guided to a chair, where she once again put her head between her knees. "Well that was a spot of fun."
Leia sent her a soft smile. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah. I can't do that again." She repeated. "Just give me a minute."
"So what do we do now? Obviously a squint slipped past Kell." Tyria began, a worried look on her face.
"We need to find a way to get to the Falcon without making it too obvious-"
Sarah was cut off by the crackling of a comm. unit. Tyria blinked and pulled one out of her pocket. "-one read *kssh* -e. This is Wraith *kssh* -anyone down there?"
They hadn't heard which Wraith it was contacting them, but from the expression on Tyria's face, she was happy to hear from them. "Seven, we're here."
"Eleven! Are you al- *kssh* Everyone else?" Wraith Seven, Kell Tainer, asked, relief of his voice.
Sarah thought it was interesting he didn't ask after the Chief of State first, but didn't comment. "A few injuries, our civilian expert is the worst hurt."
"*kssh* shield? Where did it come from?"
Sarah sent Tyria a pointed look, and she nodded. "Our shields were still active, Seven. We need another shuttle down here to transport us off of this rock."
"What *kssh* the civil-"
"We need another shuttle down here, Seven." Face had taken the comm. from Tyria, and interrupted the question, smoothly covering up the pilot's original query with an assumption of what he had meant. "The civilian expert is injured, but she can sit, and walk, so we don't need any specialized equipment."
Seven took the hint. "*kssh* Three Flight are incoming. ETA three minutes- Sithspawn!"
"What? What happened?" Tyria asked urgently, stealing the comm. back from Face.
Donos had been outside, standing guard against further attack from enemy ships. Now he tore inside, saying, "There's some sort of ground based turbolaser in a compound to our west. It just fired." At the same time as Kell shouted into the comm., "Mon Karren *kssh* destroyed!"
Sarah was on her feet, snatching the comm. unit from Tyria before Face could. "Wraith Seven, please advise General Antilles that if the only reason he's still in orbit is to rescue the downed combatants, he should leave. Now. On order of the Messenger."
"Sarah, if Bane's Revival have a superweapon-"
"We've got to destroy it, yes, I agree." Sarah returned with a nod, interrupting Leia. "But we don't need a huge target up there to be destroyed. Now I assume that since these are pirates we're dealing with, that wasn't a warning shot, so they've got to wait for whatever battery they use to power that thing to charge up again. That's their escape window. They need to take it."
"Lead?" Kell's voice sounded over the comm. once more, asking confirmation on the order Sarah had given her.
Face took the comm., throwing a measured glance her way, before confirming, "The Messenger is correct, Seven. Please relay that message and get back to the Remonda."
"Yes sir." He didn't sound very happy with the order, but soon all they could hear over the comm. was static, as the X-Wing that had been circling their position started his ascent.
Sarah looked around, at the other occupants of the downed shuttle, before releasing the shield that protected them. When she checked the level of power left in the black opal, she paused. There was still half left. Shrugging, she drew it out and into her core, replenishing the near empty well. "Right. First stop, the Falcon."
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"All squadrons, fall back to the Mon Remonda. Repeat, all squadrons, fall back to the Mon Remonda." Lieutenant Saunders sent the message over the fleet wide communications system as the floating husk of the Mon Karren drifted through their view.
Wedge had received Wraith Seven's communication that 'the Messenger' had ordered him to abandon the battle. He had sighed in relief at Kell's report that everyone had survived, and given the order. Now his crew were looking at him like he was insane, taking an order from 'the Messenger', whom none of them had heard of. He was a General! He only took orders from higher ranking Generals, Admirals and the Provisional Council.
But here he was, taking orders from someone that was probably a high ranking NRI agent… but naval officers didn't take orders from New Republic Intelligence. Wedge knew all of this was going through his crew's head, but he didn't do anything to explain his actions. Sarah's order, from 'the Messenger' had been a blow to her cover, but it was one they could recover from with some creative spinning on his part. Which, he assumed, was the reason she didn't just come out and say 'Sarah Gibson says to leave'.
He made his way to Flight Officer Presans. "If a communiqué from General Cracken comes through, tell me and transfer it to my office. Don't announce it, just let me know that I have a communication waiting for me." He'd said it quietly, in a manner that was meant to be a secret, but he knew for a fact that the officer next to Presans was a notorious blabber mouth. He'd try to keep it quiet… but he'd slip. And then the rumor would be out, that he had expected a call from the head of New Republic Intelligence straight after following an order from an NRI operative. Hopefully, that would be enough.
Wedge still had some official business to take care of. "Tell Wraith Flight Three they need to provide Rescue One with any backup required. If they are advised they are no longer needed, they are to trust the ground troops and rendezvous with the group, on orders of General Antilles."
"Yessir."
Wedge settled back into his seat, and waited for the ship to enter hyperspace.
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"What does he mean, they don't need a rescue anymore?" Targon argued with the comms officer that had relayed the message.
"Those are his orders, Lieutenant."
The Devaronian pilot growled, and slapped at the comm. unit to shut it off. "You heard him, Wraiths. Form up in pairs, Twelve, you're with me. Take it slow – I don't have experience in a cross in atmo, and I don't want any of you showing me up."
Cam laughed as he and Dia jetted passed him, and Elassar sighed. Was I ever that pretentious as a new addition to the squadron?
He conveniently forgot to remember that when he'd first reported for duty, he'd stood on his chair and proclaimed himself to be the master of the universe. That would've ruined his self assurances.
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When the crew of Rescue One appeared in the entertainment area of the Falcon, Sarah was alarmed to notice a woman with red hair she'd never met before staring at them due to their sudden appearance. But what was more alarming was the… teddy bear? The three feet tall teddy bear pointing a knife at them. "Is that…" She frowned, glancing at Leia. "Where did your husband get a baby Wookie from?"
Chewbacca had just appeared from the cockpit, now he growled something in a hurt tone. "That's not a baby Wookie, Sarah." Leia explained staring at the teddy bear. "It's and Ewok."
"That means so little to me it's not funny, Leia." Sarah rolled her eyes.
Now, however, the teddy bear was speaking in a growling yet somehow melodic voice. "Kolot not Wookie. Kolot kill intruders-"
He jumped forward, knife pointed at Sarah, and she jumped back, alarm on her face. "Whoa, there, Winnie the Pooh, calm down. It was an honest mistake."
She was the only one who had jumped back when the Ewok had lunged – the others were all too shocked at his appearance.
"He… he talked." Face's voice was faint. He looked up to the redhead, and there was recognition on his face, mingled with shock. "Lara, you found an Ewok that can talk. You found a Kettch."
The redhead, who had looked just as shocked at their appearance as they had hers, let a small smile cross her face. "I go by Kirney now, Face. And his name's Kolot. He's my copilot." Now she turned to the creature, kneeling to be at his eyelevel. "These are my friends, the ones that I told you about."
Kolot turned to Face, and Sarah could have sworn the expression on his face was one of insolence. "Yub yub, Face."
If Sarah hadn't known any better, she would have sworn the pilot was on the verge of fainting.
A/n.
I HAVE AN EXPLANATION! DON'T KILL ME!
Yes, I know, Ewoks can't talk. WELL THIS ONE CAN! It's true, in the book Solo Command the character Lara Notsil comes across an Ewok that can talk. It will all be explained in the next chapter, so don't worry!
But I wanted to have Lara in this story, and Kolot is just too damn cool to leave out, haha. A talking Ewok! Of course I was going to include him!
Read, Review, let me know what you think of this new development!
AnotherChance