Title: Inner Demons, Outer Evils

Summary: A tragic event sets Rogue Squadron on the path to the truth...and sends one of the Rogues on a collision course with himself.

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 16: A Genius Tactician

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"All right," Wedge began, addressing the pilots gathered in one of Lusankya's larger briefing rooms. The people there were Rogues and Wraiths, as well as command staff from every squadron in the task force, and members of the command of all three capital ships. "This is what's going to happen. Let me get through this and then I'll answer any questions."

"We've recently learned the identity of the Admiral who has taken control of Imperial forces. We've also learned that the independent operations being carried out on the planet have been compromised. Because of all this, we're taking a more...direct approach."

"In approximately three hours, the entire task force will head to Zhar. Once we arrive, those members of Rogue and Wraith Squadrons who are up here will head down to the planet, except for Corran Horn, who is still recovering. Those that remain here should expect to be confronted by Imperial forces – at the minimum an ImpStar Deuce and a Corellian Heavy Cruiser."

"You are not – and I can't stress this enough – not to engage them except to counter their offensive. Do not go on the offensive." He paused and glanced at the notes he'd made during his lengthy conversation with General Cracken. "You should also expect the arrival of an Intelligence team who are going to proceed to the planet's surface to search for the lab that the Imps are trying to find. They will rendezvous – briefly – with Lusankya before heading to Zhar to meet up with NRI agents who are apparently already on planet." The time he'd spent talking to Cracken had given him even more to fuel to the fire that was going to ignite when he finally got to see the good General face-to-face.

"Now for how things are going to go up here. As before, Majors Cracken and Jesmin are going to be in command of the starfighters. Captain Ackrand will again assume command of the task force in my absence, although he may still receive orders from myself, my wife Iella, who is the NRI agent on the ground, General Cracken himself, or Colonel Dreis."

"They are attempting to send additional New Republic military forces to Zhar to help deal with the pending threat from the Imperials, but we do not know if they will arrive in time, and are operating under the assumption that they will not. It may be necessary to retreat, especially if Admiral Hekrig has additional forces waiting. I'll discuss with Captain Ackrand what to do in that situation, but I want to make two things very clear to everyone right now. One is that retreat is to be a LAST resort. The second is that, should circumstances become that dire, no one is to jeopardize themselves or the task force by waiting for Rogue Squadron, Wraith Squadron, or the intelligence team."

He stopped speaking, and drew a deep breath. "Any questions?"

Pash Cracken raised a hand. "What's the Admiral's name?"

The expression on his face told Wedge that Pash had heard the name and recognized it, and was looking for confirmation. Wedge decided to give it to him. Now that he knew what they were doing, he felt comfortable telling everyone just what they were up against. He'd elected not to say much in their earlier, smaller meeting, but now he felt able to tell them about Hekrig.

"His name is Ytach Hekrig. He was a Captain in the Imperial Navy back around the time of Hoth. He was very young then, which spoke to his abilities.

Jesina, who'd stood back and watched through most of the briefing, stepped forward and spoke. "All of our information indicates that Hekrig played it smart after Endor, which is fitting, because he's a genius tactician. He retreated from the power vacuum that the Emperor's death created, deciding instead to wait it out and move in once all the other pretenders had worn each other down. Now he's back, he's very smart, and he's very dangerous." She stopped speaking before finishing her thoughts. What she didn't say was how personal this fight was about to get – for Wedge, Wes, and Hobbie, at least.

As Jesina finished speaking, Wedge saw Pash nod to himself, and saw a similar reaction from Iline. He wasn't at all surprised at the recognition in either of them. Pash was, after all, the son of the Director of New Republic Intelligence, and Iline had been with the Alliance since before the Rogues' first run-in with Hekrig.

He shook himself to keep from going down that road in his mind. There would be time for that later. Now he needed to wrap up this briefing and prepare to go to Zhar.

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An hour before the task force's departure from Tatooine, Wedge was sitting in his quarters with Wes and Jesina. "How do you know so much about Hekrig?" he asked Jesina.

"He was one of my first long-term assignments after I went over to Intel. When he kind of dropped off the map after Endor, Cracken wanted to know what he was up to. When it looked like he wasn't going to be a problem, he pulled me off it. That was at least six years ago, probably more." She paused. "Did you know that the details of your battle with him are classified at a higher level than even I had access to? Cracken would never tell me what happened. I don't even know what your losses were."

"Too high," Wes said. "We lost eight pilots, eleven ships. Tycho was the only one who made it through with his completely intact." He paused. I nearly died. Hobbie did too."

"It was the squadron's worst defeat. He knew where we were going to be, and came after us with a Star Destroyer and two Vics. He knew what he was doing, and he wanted to destroy us." Wedge frowned. "Do you know why it's classified?"

She shook her head. "I asked him about 300 times and always got the same answer: it's classified." Jesina shrugged. "My only guess is that he didn't want people to realize just how dangerous Hekrig could be." She shook her head again. "That's only a guess, though, and not a very good one."

"Well, it doesn't really matter," Wedge replied. "I just wonder why no one ever told us it was classified."

"They probably figured you weren't going to talk about it anyway." She sighed and changed the subject. "I really don't like this."

"What? Facing off against Hekrig?"

"No. Well, I don't like the idea of that, either. But it's more all the last-minute changes. It's on thing to alter a plan as complications arise when it's already being set in motion. But it's entirely another to keep changing things before anything's even really started." She hesitated and stared at her hands, toying with her new comlink. "I'm having the dreams again," she said finally.

The other two Rogues exchanged an uneasy glance. Jesina wasn't Force-sensitive, but she had strange dreams. They weren't of anything specific – at least, nothing specific that she could remember after she woke up. But they always left her in a cold sweat with a feeling of dread she couldn't shake.

"Well," Wedge said after a long moment, "We'll just have to be very careful."

"Wedge," she began, a strange look on her face, "I really don't think it's us. It's strange, but I have this terrible feeling that we aren't the only ones who have Hekrig's attention right now." She sighed. "Something's very, very wrong."

"Does Cracken know about your dreams?"

"He knows I have them, and that they're usually dead on. I haven't mentioned these to him."

"Well, do it, before we jump into—"

His sentence was interrupted by a beep from his comlink. "Antilles."

"Sir, you have a communication incoming from Coruscant," said the ship's primary communications officer.

"Route it to my quarters," he replied, as Wes and Jesina exchanged apprehensive looks. He stood up and walked over to the wall comm unit.

As he activated it, Leia's face appeared. "Wedge! Thank the Force!"

"What's wrong, Leia?" he asked as Wes and Jesina crowded in behind him.

"Your reinforcements are going to be delayed. They're being diverted to Coruscant."

"What? Why?"

"Because there's a Super Star Destroyer, and ImpStar Deuce, a standard Destroyer, and two Vics sitting right outside our shields."

Jesina found Wes hand and squeezed tightly. "Tell me this isn't happening," she murmured. Wes silently slipped an arm around her shoulders and smiled tightly as she leaned into his embrace.

"How are you holding up?" Wedge asked Leia, actually afraid of what her answer might be.

She shook her head, a confused expression on her face. "We're actually doing just fine. We're keeping shields up, and they aren't doing anything."

"He's playing with you," Jesina said suddenly, straightening up and pulling away from Wes. "He's not going to do anything. He's showing his strength, saying "I'm here, this is what I have, and I'm not afraid of you.' He'll stay there for a while and then leave. As long as you keep your shields up, divert incoming ships, and don't engage them, you may get off without shots being fired – this time anyway. If you engage them, though, expect a real fight. He'll fight – and fight hard – until the moment if even looks like the battle might be turning against him. Then he'll take off, and you won't be able to stop him."

Leia nodded slowly, taking in the former NRI officer's words. "That's essentially what General Cracken said, but Ackbar and Bel Iblis decided to recall our forces anyway." She sighed heavily and Wedge was struck by how tired she looked. "You really don't think they'll be a problem?"

All three shook their heads at once. "As long as you don't engage them, they shouldn't be – not this early on," Wes said. Having actually gone up against Hekrig, he had to agree with Jesina's assessment of the situation. "We need to extra help more than you do."

"That's also what Cracken said." Leia gave them an apologetic look. "I'll do my best to get you some additional assistance as soon as possible."

"You can try," Wedge said, "but unless you find someone close to this area, it won't be soon enough."

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Jesina stared out at the white tunnel of hyperspace. There were so many things going through her head right now, and she didn't know where to begin to sort them out.

First, there was Tycho. Part of her knew she had done all she could for her oldest friend. But part of her felt as if she should have been able to do more – as if, at the very least, she should have been able to foresee how he was going to handle shooting down the man that he – that they all – believed was Corran Horn.

Then, of course, there was the situation at hand. They all – all being herself, Wedge, Wes, and, she guessed, Hobbie, though she hadn't had a chance to speak to him about it – knew that Hekrig would bring a larger force than they had against Zhar. She fully expected that the task force would be forced to retreat, leaving them stranded on Zhar. And while she knew that Elscol would organize her people well, she had no illusions about their changes against Hekrig's forces. She wished desperately that Tycho and Horn were going to be coming along for this ride. Most people would say that, in a battle of this scale, two men wouldn't make much difference. But those two had proven that wrong time and again.

Jesina sighed audibly and blew her hair out of her face. It wasn't just the individual skills of the two men that the squadron was missing now. They'd all flown together for so long that removing any one of the squadron's core members – from Wedge and Tycho down to Myn and Inyri – threatened the unit's solidarity and cohesiveness. A huge part of what made Rogue Squadron as effective as it was was how well they all knew each other and how much they trusted each other. Taking away one of the members shook the squadron's foundations.

Thinking about all of that brought her mind to Cracken. She had grown more and more convinced that nothing that had happened had surprised the intelligence man. Right now she'd bet a year's salary that he'd known from the beginning – from when Tycho shot down the impostor – that it was Corran. He'd definitely known who the prisoner was from the time he'd sent them after the mystery prisoner. She wasn't sure that Cracken had known that Hekrig was behind everything, but she figured that if he hadn't known for sure, he wasn't surprised by the news, either.

And, he'd managed to complicate things for them – intentionally or otherwise – by assigning Vayl Lonciez to this project. She hadn't seen Vayl since the run-in that Face had so thankfully interrupted. For some reason, though, instead of putting her mind at ease, it made her more uncomfortable about his presence on the ship. Not that she had a reason to be nervous about anything. The only time she was alone was in her quarters, like now, and Wedge, Wes, and Face were being very protective of her.

That train of thought brought her mind to the last thing – person, really – that was plaguing her mind. Wes. They'd been friends for so long but lately things had been different between them; not strained, really, just different. She was attributing it to his kiss on Zhar, but she wasn't sure if she should be. Other than the protectiveness he'd been showing toward her – which wasn't new, really, just more extreme – he wasn't following up on it. And she wasn't sure she wanted him to.

The sound of the door buzzer brought her out of her thoughts. She answered it to find Face standing outside. "Wedge wants everyone in their fighters and ready to go before we drop out of hyperspace."

She opened her mouth to respond but stopped short as she saw a flash of light, and then watched Face collapse.