Revealed Identities

Chapter 2: Quick Cash

Luke couldn't believe his eyes as he read over the report that Leia had handed him. "There's got to be some sort of mistake." Luke rasped out, looking at the 100,000,000,000,000 figure in front of him. "Some sort of misprint. And why would they want me alive?" Leia shrugged her shoulders, wishing that she had some sort of answer for her friend.

"Does the entire Rebellion even have this much money?" Luke asked in wonderment.

"I sincerely doubt it," Leia sighed, clearly unnerved at the Empire's sudden interest in one of her best friends. General Nekem had handed the report to her, obviously shaken by it himself.

"Do you think it would just be better if we had it arranged so that I got captured and the Rebellion used the reward?" Luke looked at her, his voice and his face deathly serious.

"Are you insane? That might be exactly what they want us to do to set a trap. Either that, or you're more important than you know," Leia said, her voice dropping to a whisper. She didn't add that it was likely that the Empire had put out a preposterous amount that they didn't expect to pay. It wouldn't be unheard of for them to kill the very person who brought Luke to them to stop them from collecting the reward. But it was better to boost Luke's ego than to worry him.

"Still, why do they want me alive? To torture me?" Luke visibly paled.

"All the more reason we're not going to find out. You'll just have to stay hidden, Commander," Leia said, adding his new title. Luke blushed slightly; he still hadn't gotten used to that.

"Go get some sleep," Leia ordered.

"Yeah...I'll really be able to sleep after this," Luke mumbled, handing her the datapad back.

General Nekem looked at the report again. One hundred trillion credits! All of that money...think of what the Rebellion could use with it. General Rieekan, Dodonna, and Mon Mothma would likely refuse to give over one of their own, but the lives that could be saved with that amount of money. A plan formed in his mind. Yes, he would have that money; all he needed was the right time to capture Skywalker...

Luke got up the next morning feeling, and probably looking, like a bantha had sat on him. He sighed, getting on his flight suit for his first flight today with his assigned pilots, Rogue Squadron. He knew all of them already, but he didn't know them that well. Luke felt incredibly awkward as soon as he had been assigned to lead them. He was younger than all of them. Luckily for him, they were all nice. Well, sort of. They bantered, but it was welcomed. He didn't know how to react to the hero status he'd received from blowing up the Death Star. Killing lots of people, even if necessary, still didn't sit well with him. Joking with a bunch of guys: that he could understand.

"Ready Rogues?" Luke asked, gearing up into his seat. R2 beeped his own affirmative in the back.

All of them responded as the pre-flight scans ran.

Luke ordered them into the air as all of them hit the skies. He wasn't sure if it was because it was something that he knew he felt himself, but Luke imagined he could feel the elation and euphoria washing over his men as they ascended and soared over the base. Maybe it was his awakened awareness in the Force, but Luke felt a greater link to the men who shared his love for flying.

The planet they were on, Usherkan, had excellent weather conditions for flying in their skies, but for getting into the atmosphere surrounding the planet was another story. High in the atmosphere a small stretch of broken asteroids hung suspended in the sky. They had purposefully picked the spot below the natural satellites to make it difficult for the scanners to identify life forms below. It would be tricky to maneuver his X-Wing in between the planetary debris, but not impossible. Luke had decided to take his squadron out today to run some drills in order to prepare them for defending the base through the asteroids. Knowing their surroundings would give them a greater edge if they needed to make a hasty escape from the Imperials.

Lifting the nose of his ship about five degrees higher, he made a straight course for the clearest path. He instructed Rogue 2, Wedge Antilles, and Rogue 4 Derek Klivin, who he'd been told preferred "Hobbie" to follow him as they began simple formations through the asteroids. A transmission broke through his systems.

"This is the Young Runner, entering planetary shields. Who is coming from the other end?" A voice crackled through the X-Wing's speakers. They were tuned into their coded frequency which meant that it had to be someone friendly. But…there was just something nagging at Luke. Young Runner was not a ship he'd been aware of had access to land near them.

"This is an Alliance Squad out for a test run. Are you friend or foe to us?" Luke asked while he told R2 to get a reading on the ship's shields and weapons. R2 warbled in the back that they had blocked any reading of their systems. Luke frowned. He opened a private com to Wedge, the only pilot he felt he knew.

"What do you think Antilles?" Luke asked.

"Something about them doesn't seem right; they're blocking my scans. Yet they have our private squadron frequency." Luke was glad he wasn't the only one who had a bad feeling about this.

"Young Runner crew, what is your purpose?" Luke waited a few minutes, allowing them enough time to sort through their priorities, but something about them was giving him a very bad feeling. He slowed his X-Wing down until he could get a reading on that ship, or until he could at least see it.

"Rogues, line up in Gremming Attack formation." As the leader, Luke took point in the formation as he saw Wedge and Hobbie coming in on his scopes. But before the other pilots could follow his orders, Luke felt the hull of his X-Wing being pulled into a tractor beam onto one of the larger asteroids.

"Artoo, see if you can jam their tractor frequencies! We might still be able-" A blue energy beam blasted from seemingly nowhere, hitting Luke's X-Wing, disabling his mobility, and violently shaking him in his seat.

His body slammed forward, and it was only then that he realized his restraining straps had been tampered with! They no longer supported him with the necessary restraint. He lurched forward in his seat, the belt only restricting him far enough that it didn't send him completely careening through the glass. In the sudden lurch back he banged his head against the control panel, knocking him out on impact.

"General Nekem?"

"Yes?" The General looked down at his computer terminal, the information already scrolling across the screen.

"We captured the X-Wing you asked for." The man on the other end explained. Nekem smiled.

"He's alive?"

"As per your orders." After all, it wasn't as though Nekem wanted Skywalker dead. He respected the man, he did, but it was better for everyone this way.

"Your credits have already been transferred into your account sir." Nekem smirked. A hundred thousand credits for Skywalker's body seemed like nothing compared to what he was going to receive.

"Milord," Admiral Zephery stood before Darth Vader. Vader felt darkly amused by the Admiral's thoughts. He felt life was being unfair that he had to come in front of the Dark Lord twice in less than a week.

"What is it Admiral?" Vader wondered. If one knew the regular breathing patterns of the dark lord, they would have noticed that he had just inhaled a sharp breath. Vader felt what was coming next, before the Admiral even spoke it. He could feel the Force burning brightly close by. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small cruiser had just dropped from hyperspace into real space. The Force presence on board burned brightly.

"We have Skywalker."

"Bring him to me." Vader commanded.

"As you wish."

Luke groaned as he sat up. He looked around him, wondering where in the galaxy he could be. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary, that was until he tried to rub his head and realized that his hands were tied.

"This can't be good." Luke whined to himself, trying to tear at his bonds. He looked around the small room, noting that it was furnished rather nicely. Though he did wonder where he was, and why he was there. His head felt groggy, and Luke had the distinct impression that someone had sedated him.

It started to come back to him when the door opened up. Luke sat up straight on the bed he was lying on when he heard a very familiar, and very infamous, wheezing respirator.

"A pleasure to see you again, young Skywalker." Vader said as he walked into the room.

"Sir? What about the man who brought him?" Luke noticed a nervous looking Admiral standing in Vader's shadow. His own shock was soon wracked with not only nerves, but a terrible, overwhelming sense of fear. Vader had him!

"Pay him. We will track the money and find the location of their base. Also, send a transmission to one of our implants to inform the Rebels about Nekem's Imperial trade and cause discord among the leaders. I am sure that they will be most displeased to learn that he was the one behind the kidnapping of young Skywalker. Leave us." Vader commanded, and the Admiral all but scampered away. He turned his attention to Luke. The betrayal was subdued by his fear that he wouldn't live long enough to worry about General Nekem.

"I have a proposal for you."

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