Author's note: Due to recommendation, I have made an account for myself on AO3 (Achieve of Our Own) in order to help spread my work to a bigger audience. I have uploaded this story onto it and I intend to be active on both sites.

Socorro

Luke clutched onto his side as he used the rock behind him to pull himself back up. His fight with Tuk'ata and his fight with Scylla were much more than he was used to and it made him feel exhausted and uncomfortable. Lifting his head up, he looked over at Ahsoka's fight with Scylla and found himself mesmerised by it. He remembered witnessing the aftermath of Obi-Wan and Darth Vader's duel during his escape from the Death Star, which had ended with his mentor's abrupt death at the dark lord's blade. But what he saw before him now was perhaps the closest thing to Jedi in their prime that he had witnessed thus far. Observing Ahsoka's moves, he noticed that it was not as streamlined as Scylla or Tuk'ata's styles and it showed signs that she may not have wielded a lightsaber in a long time; but at its core, he could see the signs of an experienced and skilled Jedi and it made him realise that she may be more ahead of him than he originally thought. Abruptly, R2 rolled up to him and beeped.

"What is it?" breathed Luke. R2 beeped in response. "What?" R2 beeped again. "Show me" As R2 turned around and rolled off towards the desert, Luke summoned all of his remaining strength and began following the astromech droid. Up ahead, Luke caught notice of the crashed remains of Wedge's X-wing which R2 was leading him to. At the side of the downed starfighter, R2-A3 sat beside it and moaned solemnly. As Luke and R2 got closer, A3 turned around and beeped urgently. Whilst R2 beeped in response, Luke made his way over to the starfighter and peered into its cockpit. "Wedge…" The rebel pilot lay seemingly unconscious in his seat, showing no signs of movement. Acting swiftly, Luke reached for the lightsaber on his belt, only to realize that it was missing and remembered that Ahsoka was using it. Breathing a sigh of frustration, he pulled the blaster out of his holster. "This would be so much easier with a lightsaber" Placing his weapon against the glass of the cockpit, he carefully aimed his blaster (in order to avoid hitting Wedge) and fired away. He then carefully reached through the shattered window and pushed up the cockpit's canopy. "Wedge!" He reached over to Wedge's shoulders and began shaking him gently. "Wedge, wake up!" Wedge breathed out and slowly opened his eyes.

"Ehhh…Luke?" breathed Wedge. Regaining consciousness, he pulled off his helmet and rubbed his forehead.

"Wedge, what happened to you?" asked Luke.

"Rogue Squadron and I were clearing TIE fighters out of the sky when we spotted you fighting that…thing by the river" replied Wedge "We tried to help you, but we were attacked by an advanced TIE fighter and I got shot down. The strange thing is; the pilot's flying and his aim, it reminded me of…well, of you. It was like…he could predict our movements" As he recalled what had happened, Wedge realized something that he had not considered until talking to Luke. "Is it possible that—"

"Yes, I think so" said Luke "They're force-sensitive"

"Geez…" said Wedge "What about you? What happened to you?"

"Well; long story short, Ahsoka and I found out the hard way that this was all a trap" said Luke "The Empire was prepared for us this whole time"

"Darn!" said Wedge "We should have known this was too good to be true! Have you…Wait, who's Ahsoka?"

"Ashla, I said Ashla" replied Luke. Wedge shook his head hearing this.

"Never mind, we'll talked about it later" sighed Wedge "Anyways, this is very important; have you contacted General Rur about this?"

"We tried to, but we got into a fight at the base before we could reach a secure enough area" replied Luke "We were forced to escape through the river and our comms were damaged by the water so we couldn't warn anyone"

"That's unfortunate" sighed Wedge.

"Wait, does your X-Wing's comm still work?" asked Luke. Wedge examined his X-wing's communications system.

"Damaged, but it looks repairable" replied Wedge.

"Well, I guess it's better than nothing" said Luke "We better get started right away"

Meanwhile

Ahsoka found herself having to concentrate hard as she clashed with Scylla. Having been raised by the Jedi, she had many, many years of training with a lightsaber; and having served as a commander during the Clone Wars, she had experience with fighting more powerful opponents and strategizing ways to outmanoeuvre them. But she had never used a lightsaber since the end of the Clone Wars, so all she had to rely on now was muscle memory and tactical awareness. Scylla however appeared to have trained regularly since he became an Inquisitor and appeared to be very experienced in combat and other vital skills which gave him the edge in this duel.

"I must admit, you're proving to be a real annoyance!" snarled Scylla in an almost mocking fashion "Perhaps Vader was right to spare you. Given the right training, you'd make a promising Inquisitor!"

"I'd never stoop that low!" said Ahsoka.

"Do I sense Jedi arrogance within those words?" smirked Scylla.

"The Jedi may have lost their way within the last years of the Republic, but that doesn't mean the Sith were in the right!" said Ahsoka.

"What is right and what is wrong is a point of view" said Scylla "To me, "what is right" means order and security; something that the Jedi and the Republic failed to accomplish. The Empire however…"

"Has done even worse!" said Ahsoka "How could you possibly glorify the Empire by highlighting the Republic's flaws?"

"I am telling you the truth of this galaxy: it needs order and it needs a unified government if it is to thrive" said Scylla "I am telling you this in hopes that you will see it. But if you will not come willingly, then I will drag you kicking and screaming to Lord Vader!"

"That's not going to happen" said Ahsoka.

"You seem very certain about that" said Scylla "Let us see if you can live up to those words!" Swiftly, he struck forward towards Ahsoka who was only just able to block his attack. The Inquisitor then reached his webbed hand forward, grabbed her by the lekku, and spun her around in the air before finally slamming her into the ground. Mustering up her strength, Ahsoka rolled to the side and pulled herself back onto her feet. "I'll break every bone in your body if I must!"

Meanwhile

As Fett reached the entrance of the Redemption's docking tube (where his ship was stationed), he placed the unconscious body of Mon Mothma down next to it and opened the tube. But as he was about to enter his ship, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching him from behind.

"Nice try; but stealth was never your strongest suit…" said Fett "…Solo!" Standing behind him, Han held his blaster towards the bounty hunter with his finger readied on the trigger. Chewbacca stood beside him with his bowcaster poised and baring his teeth.

"I forgot about your intuition, Fett" said Han.

"No intuition involved, you're just easy" said Fett as he stood himself up and turned around.

"As much as I'm enjoying this little reunion, let's cut to the chase" said Han "Hand her over!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that" said Fett as he raised his blaster rifle towards Han "Nothing personal, of course"

"Nothing personal, either" said Han "But I still can't let you leave with her"

"I heard you'd been working for the rebels lately, but I never expected this kind of commitment" said Fett "Have you told them yet that your allegiance is…variable?" Hearing this, Han raised an eyebrow.

"I'm…I'm not following you" said Han.

"You were involved at the Battle of Yavin and you've stuck with the Alliance since, but how long do you intend to stay?" said Fett "Last I checked, you have yet to pay up on that extra fifteen you owe Jabba" Han gritted his teeth at the mention of that name. "Just imagine the look on that slimy Hutt's face when he finds out you've been using the extra time he's given you to play "hero" in this war. You've been lucky in the past; but everyone has their limit, and you don't want to reach Jabba's"

"You don't need to tell me about Jabba" said Han.

"Then why join the rebels and why stay with them?" said Fett "Jabba aside; surely you should understand that it is unwise to become an enemy of the Empire, especially at a time like this"

"Time like this?" said Han "Maybe you don't know this, but the Death Star's gone. Maybe the Empire's not as unstoppable as you make out"

"Really?" said Fett "If your Alliance is as prevailing as you make out, let's see how far they make it without their leader!" Without warning, he shot down, grabbed Mon Mothma by the arm, and rolled into the docking tube in front of him.

"No!" exclaimed Han. Without thinking, Han leapt forward and dived into the docking tube in front of him. Chewbacca growled and attempted to follow in after him, but the docking tube closed over before he could reach it. In frustration, the large Wookiee banged his fists against the floor and let out a deafening roar in anger. Dropping down through the docking tube, Han landed into the cargo hold section of Slave I. As he pulled himself back onto his feet, he quickly caught notice of Fett who appeared to be preoccupied handcuffing Mon Mothma's hands up behind her back. Han attempted to take him by surprise; but the moment he took one foot forward, Fett sensed his presence, turned around at blinding speed, and fired his blaster rifle at the smuggler. Han rolled to the side to evade the shot and began firing back with his blaster, but Fett dodged the shot and began firing back wildly before retreating into the ship's cockpit and disappeared behind the closing door. Still feeling the heat of battle, Han felt compelled to follow Fett; but upon hearing the waking sighs of Mon Mothma, he remembered why he was there and turned around to check on her. As her eyes began twitching, Han kneeled down to her eye-level and waved his hand in front of her face to get her attention. "You awake?"

"What…Captain Solo?" said Mon Mothma as she opened her eyes "W-What happened? Where are we? Where is the bounty hunter?"

"I'll explain later" said Han "C'mon, we've gotta' get out of here" As he helped Mon Mothma back up, the two of them almost fell over as the entire ship around them shook for a moment before stabilizing again. "Damn it!"

"What just happened?" said Mon Mothma.

"It's that bounty hunter, Boba Fett" replied Han "He just disconnected his ship from the Redemption. We're trapped!"

"Is there any way out?" asked Mon Mothma.

"He knows we can't get out whilst the ship's in motion, which is why he disconnected as soon as he could" replied Han "We can't get outside until the ship lands, which will likely be inside a star destroyer filled with stormtroopers. I guess that leaves only option if we wish to escape"

"And what is that?" asked Mon Mothma.

"I believe the proper term is "commandeering", but it won't be easy" replied Han "Fett's no lightweight and he won't go down without a fight, so facing him directly is…well, suicide, to say the least. But since the only alternative is that we sit here and do nothing until he lands, I guess it's better than nothing" Suddenly, the doors to the cockpit shot open.

"Captain, look out!" exclaimed Mon Mothma. Han turned around to face Fett, who stood in the middle of the doorway with his rifle poised. In response to this, the bounty hunter quickly rose his weapon towards the two of them.

"Get behind me!" said Han. As Fett fired a stun blast at them, Mon Mothma quickly ducked to the side as Han evaded the shot and rushed forward towards the bounty hunter in front of them. He attempted to tackle Fett, but he proved too sturdy to push over and ended up grabbing and holding the Corellian smuggler by the wrists. Han still pushed himself forward, but the best he could accomplish was to stagger the two of them forward. As they stumbled their way into the cockpit, Fett gave Han an abrupt and painful headbutt which sent him collapsing down onto the ship's console (which appeared to have been set to auto-pilot). Han attempted to lift his blaster up to shoot Fett, but the bounty hunter quickly noticed this and pinned down Han's wrist with his hand. In the process however, Han accidently pulled the blaster's trigger and blasted part of the console.

"No!" exclaimed Fett. He pushed Han to the side and examined the part of the console that Han had damaged. "What have you done!?"

Meanwhile

From the bridge of the Accuser, Piett observed Slave I as it made its way closer and closer to the star destroyer. At that moment, an Imperial lieutenant rushed up to him.

"Captain Piett, the bounty hunter's vessel is showing no signs of slowing down" said the lieutenant "It is heading towards us at an increasing speed"

"What is he thinking?" said Piett as he reached for the comlink on his belt "Fett, come in!" There was no response. "Boba Fett, do you read me!?" There was still no response. "Damn it! Never trust a bounty hunter. Divert all shields to the front and send any available craft to intercept the bounty hunter's ship and—" Before he could finish his sentence, Slave I zoomed over the Accuser and disappeared into hyperspace. "What happened? Where has it gone?"

"The ship went into hyperspace, captain" replied an Imperial officer at the control consoles "Unfortunately, it left so quick that we were unable to lock onto its coordinates" A sense of frustration and dread washed over Piett as he heard this.

"Do what you can to track it down" ordered Piett "In the meantime, prevent the Redemption from escaping. Intercept any craft that—"

"Sir, the rebel ships are entering hyperspace!" alarmed an Imperial officer at the control consoles. Piett turned around just in time to see the Redemption and its accompanying rebel ships disappear into hyperspace.

"Captain, what is our next course of action?" asked the lieutenant.

"Track down both the Redemption and that bounty hunter by any means necessary" replied Piett. Subtlety, he gulped with a sense of anxiety. "With any luck, we'll find something before Lord Vader contacts us"

Meanwhile

"General?" said Luke's voice out of General Rur's comm device "General Rur, come in; this is Commander Skywalker, over" Rur, who laid on a large stretcher, reached to his side and pulled the comlink to his mouth.

"What is it, Skywalker?" asked Rur into his comm "What's happening?"

"I've got bad news, general" replied Luke "I'm afraid that we've fallen into a trap, the Empire was expecting us"

"What do you mean?!" snarled Rur.

"It's a long story and I don't have the time to explain it all, but I had a run in with two of Darth Vader's agents inside" replied Luke.

"Vader?!" exclaimed Rur "He's involv—" Before he could finish his sentence, he let out a devastating hiss and clutched onto his side in pain.

"What's happening?" asked Luke.

"We…We received numerous blows whilst holding…the line…" coughed Rur "I was badly injured…I'm not sure how much longer we can keep…the Imperials occupied until…until they can corner us and…finish us off…"

"Oh no!" said Luke "We have to get out of here. Can you provide us with a pickup?"

"I might be able to spare…something" breathed Rur "Can you provide a pickup point for us?"

"We're beside the river, not far from the base" replied Luke.

"Wait, you're not at the base anymore?!" said Rur "What happened?"

"Ashla, R2, and I got separated from the rest of the team when we encountered Vader's agents" replied Luke "We were forced to flee through the river, but they followed us"

"Where's the rest of your team?" asked Rur.

"As far as I know, they're still in the base and they still don't know what happened" replied Luke.

"Who's with you now?" asked Rur.

"Ashla and R2 were with me when we fled the base" replied Luke "We meant to contact you earlier, but our comms were damaged from the water. To make matters worse, Wedge got shot out—"

"Cut to the chase, who do we have to pick up from your position?" asked Rur.

"Me, Ashla, Wedge, R2-D2, and R2-A3" replied Luke.

"Very well" said Rur "I'll contact any available gunships to search for you and prepare for retreat"

"One more thing; Vader's agents, don't underestimate them" said Luke "They call themselves Inquisitors"

"I've heard of Inquisitors from Alliance intel, but I've never encountered one myself" said Rur "What should we expect from them?"

"They can use the force, just like him, and they wield lightsabers" replied Luke "Don't engage them directly or they'll kill everyone"

"I'll bear that in mind" said Rur "But considering you're the closest thing we have to a Jedi, we'll have to rely primarily on you to keep them at bay"

"I'll do what I can" said Luke "But warn your gunships to take care: there's an advanced TIE fighter patrolling the area and we believe that one of the Inquisitors is piloting it. It took out some of our fighters and shot down Wedge"

"Noted" said Rur "Watch the skies, Commander; the ships will come as soon as they can. In the meantime, I'll warn Admiral Ackbar of this…this discovery"

"Thank you, general" said Luke "We'll stay alert" As Rur placed the comm device down with a deep and heavy breath, a rebel soldier rushed up to his side at an urgent rate.

"General, we have an emergency!" exclaimed the rebel soldier "More Imperial support is incoming"

"W-Where?" breathed Rur

"It's—" started the rebel soldier. Before she could finish, Rur shakingly pulled himself up from the stretcher and onto his feet. "Sir, you're in no shape to—"

"I'm strong enough for this!" snarled Rur stubbornly as he limped over to her whilst clutching his side "Now, show me!"

"Follow me" said the rebel soldier. Leading Rur south of the battle lines, she brought him to a hill overlooking the desert. Off in the distance, a group of large, quadrupedal, beast-like figures marched towards them, shrouded by the desert's dust clouds.

"Hand me your electrobinoculars" said Rur. As the rebel soldier handed him her electrobinoculars, Rur pulled them up to his eyes and looked off at the objects in the distance. Lumbering out of the dust clouds came a group of All Terrain Armored Transports that marched slowly and steadily towards them. "All Terrain Armored Transports, huh? The spies said nothing about this. How long 'till we're at firing range?"

"Within a matter of minutes" replied the rebel soldier "General, we're unprepared for this kind of artillery. I don't think we defend ourselves against both these walkers the base's defences. What should we do?" Rur remembered what Luke had warned him of and the arrival of these AT-ATs seemed to make things even more complicated. Stroking his chin in thought, he came up with what he deemed to be the best course of action.

"Get me Admiral Ackbar" replied Rur.

Martin: Whilst my headcanon will be mostly based on the Legends timeline as an outline (with some flexibility), I do intend to integrate some canon elements that I like and that includes Canon-introduced characters. I don't want to give away too much due to spoilers, but I will say that Hera and Sabine are definitely on the list on characters to integrate.

scottusa1: Thank you for the review!

Anonymous: Thank you for the review! I wish I could update more frequently; but with everything that's been going on at the moment, I've found that taking my time with the chapters has been more beneficial.

Guest: This chapter took some extra assessing and checking to make sure it was done right, but I hope the wait wasn't too long.