He and his three Jedi Masters were led through the almost empty hallways to the war council room of the Resistance base on D'Quar.
Ahsoka following him with ease despite her age and her injury. He still half blames himself for the injury although he was not there, but if the First Order would have not advanced that day, Ahsoka would have not have to flee and in the process break her ankle.
The Jedi Master that doesn't consider herself as one, not since she left Yoda's Jedi Order, pointed forward and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
She was asking for him to pay attention of what will come next and not a her.
He respected her request and faced forward.
The headquarters base had a major upgrade recently such as new walls that prevented moisture to build up and ventilation, he realized as he looked around the hallways they were passing through.
The fresh air blew inside the hall and over his face. He hid his face under the hood as it was not healthy for an older man, such as himself to walk under the ventilation shafts, where the air blew like wind.
He would not risk getting sick, not while the New Republic needs him the most.
Their female guide that led them here, walked to the automatic door, it opened and she stood under the doorframe, keeping it open for them to enter.
In a small theater like room there was a round table in the middle. There were standing going clockwise from left to right: his sister, Princes Liea, Admiral Gial Ackbar via a hologram and some of his other Jedi Masters. There were also a green Twi'lek female.
It would seem that everyone was waiting for him, or at least he taught.
Upon a closer inspection he realized one of the human Generals from the New Republic and Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo were missing.
Some members were present in flesh while others were via a hologram.
He stopped before the table with a frown face.
"What's wrong?" his sister, standing next to him asked looking fearful and worried as well did the rest of the room.
The three Jedi masters behind him had no idea why he made such a face and so silence filled the room as the people present began feeling dread.
After a minute he broke the silence: "I hate the ventilations you installed." and a smiled slowly.
The room burst out laughing and began to giggle as they realized it's nothing serious.
He acted as if he had a bad cough and said: "They are bad for my health, Liea how dare you endanger the health of your Jedi Grand Master?"
Liea hit him in the shoulder feeling ashamed and happy, she hugged him.
He returned the hug and began to giggle.
"You're an idiot, I thought you lost Taanab." She said as she backed away with a smile and shaking her head.
"Well, can't win a war if I'm grumpy, can I?" he looked at the rest, who nodded.
"I left Bridger in charge of the ground forces on Taanab, if you are wondering."
He needed to leave a ground assault in the hands of a few years younger Jedi Master than himself. He just hoped that the Force would guide him well.
He traveled here in person as it was not safe to have a war council meeting across a hologram, at least not for a long time while having the enemy so close, who could be listening.
Now all of them were waiting for the two crucial members that asked for this meeting to even take place.
He looked around the room and noticed the new communication equipment in the war council room since he had last been here.
The whole table had been replaced with a brand new one and finally looked a proper table where they could conduct war tactics. The previous one had its' screen broken and looked worn out, because it was taken from a Venator on one of those junk yard planets, just like a quarter of their fleet, while the rest was provided by the Rebellion and the people that used to be Separatists and managed to bring back on line the CIS droid army that was shut down or has been hidden from the Empire ever since.
Wherever they lacked cruisers or corvettes they would ask the systems in the New Republic if they could 'borrow' their ships and sent them to the front line.
This was truly a bloody war, one waged by the remnants of the Empire and aided by the Sith.
Where is Force's name they came from he does not know, nor do the Jedi Ghosts. They assured him that Darth Sidious was the last of the Sith to die, but it seems they were wrong.
They waited in silence for the two members of their war council to appear.
The Jedi Grand Master glanced at the digital clock on the table that portrayed galactic time.
He began thinking that if the war hadn't begun, he would have been teaching the Jedi at his temple on Arch- To at this time, but a month ago when he returned to his temple he realized it was robbed of the Force artifacts he gathered over the years after he helped save his father, but upon closer inspection he realized his temple was not only robbed but the younglings were kidnapped along with a few Jedi Knights that were stationed to guard the temple. Those Knights fought back some physically strong opponents. At first he guessed it was the First Order that abducted the children, but there were no blaster or lightsaber wounds at the bodies that were left behind, there were only basic weapons such as swords, spears and exes.
Till this day he still thinks about that strange attack on his temple.
He remembered before the war how he done some stealth missions with his sister who was also a skilled Jedi, maybe not as skilled as Ashoka, but somewhere around those lines, but those days were gone, now only hard battlefields in space, air and land awaited everyone who dared to join the Resistance or his Jedi Order. He only hoped that more Force sensitive people would come out of hiding and help with the war.
He looked back at the battlefields he led his Jedi personally into hard to win battles and won, sometimes even against the odds, but the longer the war waged the more experience the enemy gets which results in better tactics and stronger attacks of the enemy, he knew.
Suddenly the two holograms of the General and Vice Admiral appeared.
"Well, since we are all present we can begin." Said Liea and turned on the map of the galaxy, which displayed itself upon the table.
The upper side of the galaxy, the New Territories were all colored in red, along with most of the Northern Dependencies, displaying the territory of the First Order.
The Borderlands were now the frontier of the war between the First order and the New Republic with the help of the Resistance.
The frontier line went from Serenno, to Yavin 4, then it went between Mandalore and Hydian way and it continued down to Taanab and furthermore where Alderan used to be, crossing the Hydian and the Corellian trade routes.
Luke deeply inhaled before he asked Holdo to begin reporting upon the situation on Serenno and why did they called for an emergency meeting.
He knew where and on what planet each of the members of the Resistance high command were, thanks to Resistance reports.
The holographic image of Holdo, who was sitting began reporting, fast.
She said that the Separatists sympathizers joined the Republic with their droid army a year ago and the intelligence officers that the Republic sent were of big help as they reprogramed the droids to be more effective on the battlefield and made the tactic droids more brutal as the enemy are using the same brutality.
All of her report till now this was nothing new to the council.
She also mentioned that the enemy are very fast on ground assaults and managed to push her into their base at Count Dooku's castle, as well as the capital will be assaulted. Her next words were said in very restrained panic: "Amazingly they are patiently waiting outside for us to surrender, of course we have a back-up plan to run to the city nearby, but that would probably get the rest of us killed… I'm asking for an escorting team to get us out of here, the Sith only gave us three days. Please hurry." She ended the call with a fearful smile. A few files were sent, containing images of Dooku's castle surrounded by all sides and the skies were full of the enemy fighters.
They were all shocked upon the news, but now knew off the urgency and why the two were late;
the two needed to establish a safe call that wouldn't be traced and listened to, at least for a few minutes.
Silence fell upon the room.
"Shit." Liea broke the silence, by slamming her fist against the table and yet she wasn't the only one who cursed.
"Let's calm down, we have a whole day to figure it all out." Said one of the Jedi Masters that came along with Ahsoka and him.
Liea began speaking: "Well since Amy reported, then I shall start my report… Yavin is still not reached, thanks to the planetary shield." The female Jedi nodded to Ackbar in respect.
"There have been many attempts in the last month to reach it, but our tight formation at the entrance of the shield held back all attacks… I have nothing more to report." She said proudly.
"Well I do." Said Hera, as the holographic image of the green serious Twi'lek leaned upon the table.
"The enemy has TIE Defenders; equipped with shielding, heavy cannons and a hyper drive. Grand Admiral Thrawn began producing them back in the Empire days and used them, although in low amounts in his campaign for the fragmented Empire. It seems somehow the First Order managed to retrieve the blueprints of a TIE Defender and are massively producing them. Now the question is where?" Hera was hopeful as she reported and Liea placed a chip in the side of the table, that displayed the images of the enemy's TIE Defenders.
She smiled as she remembered the old days when she fought the Empire and outmaneuvered the TIE pilots, but the pilots these days were no ordinary as they were Force users.
Luke knew Hera had an encounter with his father back then when he used to be Vader, so she had some experience facing Force user pilots.
"They are improving and we are losing." Commented Liea again, but Luke grabbed her hand and squeezed it once, but didn't let go of her hand.
She didn't respond and kept staring at Hera, with a disappointed look.
He knew that his sister wasn't disappointed at the General for doing a bad job, but at the overall outcome of the war.
"Oh, and Sabine wanted you all to know that Mandalore is stalling while 'deciding' on which side to fight on, so they could find a large enough army of Mandalorians to actually defend Mandalore… that would be all." She stopped leaning against the table and crossed her arms.
He inhaled deeply as he was up next.
"Well the last time I was there we still had three quarters of Taanab." His voice was positive.
"Speaking of Mandalorians I noticed the Sith have some lightsaber resistant armor." Luke pointed out.
"Yes I noticed too." Ahsoka spoke and was heavily leaning on a cane.
Her injury on Taanab was still effecting her, but it didn't stopped her from keeping up with the war progress.
"Could it be Mandalorian?" she asked Hera.
"No, Sabine looked at the pictures and said it wasn't and the enemy armor looks organic, unlike the smooth Baskaar armor." Hera answered as she pointed at the image of the armor that a Sith Lord wore upon a battlefield was now displayed over the map.
"Organic?" Ackbar was concerned.
"Yes." Hera as well as all of the Jedi in the room said it in one voice.
Ackbar backed off, his hands raised in submission, as almost all of the room turned towards him.
"So what do we know about it?" Ahsoka asked.
"It is resistant to lightsabers, blasters, grenades, looks organic, what else?" Liea counted on her hand.
Silence filled the room again.
"It can tank a shot of an ion cannon, but poorly." Admiral Ackbar eventually added.
Everyone in the room was now looking at the Admiral with wide eyes.
"Are you kidding me?!" Hera's voice was high pitched.
Ashoka smiled and shook her head in denial at admiral's information, as she didn't want to know how he obtained that information.
Her legs were beginning to hurt so she summoned a chair in her hand. She sat down as she heard the Admiral confirm the information and began saying how he noticed the enemy is using surprisingly low amount of Star Destroyers, although the Empire fled into the Unknown regions, with many more.
"Where does Snoke keep all the remaining Star Destroyers and why dose he not use them in the war?" Ackbar asked and Liea began typing down of these questions that would need to be answered by undercover agents.
The red skinned alien also added that depending upon how many small ships have been coming in and out of the Kuat system lately from the First Order's side he suspects that the ships might have had spies on them and the enemy might be preparing for a siege upon the ship yards, where he was currently located. His hologram twitching.
In an instant a blue light appeared on Lukes' left peripheral vision.
From the light came an apparition of a Force ghost.
"Obi Wan, nice to see someone in good shape." Ahsoka spoke up and smiled at the young man that Obi Wan was portraying himself as. Ahsoka claimed that he used to look like that back in the Clone wars and so since he looks more attractive like this than old Ben Kenobi that looked after him, the deceased Jedi Master decided to stay with the looks.
"Where's Anakin?" She asked in a moment as Anakin s' Force ghost was nowhere to be seen. Where ever Obi Wan went Anakin followed, though he heard from Ahsoka that it used to be the other way around back in the Clone wars.
"Went back on Mustafar a week ago. He claimed he felt a disturbance in his castle. I haven't heard of him ever since." The Ghost shrugged his shoulders.
"Oh, the ghosts." Hera said uninterested and rolled her eyes, while shaking her hands as if she is afraid of them.
Over the years of talking to Force ghosts with non-Force sensitive beings around him, he found out that they can't see or hear them, so everyone in the room that was not a Force sensitive only saw a few Jedi talk to imaginary friends in the middle of a War council.
"Truly, where did we came to?" Luke asked himself in his mind as he listened to the conversations further while observing the red colored map and wondered where in the vast First Order his nephew is right now.
Eventually Liea resumed control of the conversation and directed everyone towards the war.
Together in two hours they made a plan of the future missions they might need to take, while Liea wrote down on her data pad all of the missions and the targets they should focus upon and the people that would be responsible for overseeing those missions.
Her data pads' notes consisted of:
· Get Han off of his vacation and join Here upon a rescue mission on Serenno, Luke holds the line or distracts the enemy long enough for the mission to be a success. They inform Amy and the other guy to get prepared to hold the north frontier with back up.
· Prepare for a Kuat siege AGAIN- Ackbar, will put Ashoka in his fleet
· Inform the Resistance at the frontiers for a possible expansion of the First Order and get more of my allies to the battlefields.! North frontier ! - me
· Missions for the Shadow Cell: - Find out the First Orders' HQ, Investigate the organic armor, remaining SDs and the Fuckers' drive yards, his fuel stations and where in fucks name does he get all that money from? Ilum mined for the Eclipse class ?! and whatever else they manage to find.
Upon Luke reading her notes from behind her back he found that instead of the Supreme Leader Snoke being there she calls him Fucker, which confused him, yet the Force told him it had something to do with Ben's turn to the Dark side. He doubted his sister would lie to her brother, but since she runs the Resistance only the Force knows what kind of other secrets is she hiding from him…
There was also something else: The Eclipse. As good as he remembered the Eclipse class dreadnought was destroyed at the Kuat Drive yards, but why does she put a big emphasis upon the dreadnought? What happened to it after its destruction?
Well, he will have to find that out himself.
The meeting went on for another hour as they discussed future offensive steps and defenses they would put up on the frontier in case of emergencies.
Finally, the meeting would end and he could speak with his sister in private. He got a hold of her hand and lead her outside of the meeting room onto the hallway and into one of the storage rooms that were there.
Liea was not surprised as she felt it through the Force that Luke wanted to speak with her in private for a few hours now.
The door was closed and the two siblings were finally alone. Liea crossed her arms on her chest as his middle-aged sister looked him in the eyes.
"Yes? What do you wish to know?" she asked.
"Um…" he did not expect her to be cooperative so soon. He imagined she would deflect his questions and not want to talk to him as she is normally occupied with so much information around her that she could barely keep up with it, but it seems today he is lucky.
"Where to start?" he asked himself out loud.
He didn't want to ask her right away about Ben's turn, so he began with a confession.
"Eh, Sis during the meeting I glanced at your data pad …and." He stopped himself not knowing how to put the words right.
"and?" she repeated slowly still not knowing what he will ask her.
"and I saw… that you were concerned about the Eclipse. Why?" he closed his mouth. Luke listened and observed her response.
She scratched her grey hair, inhaled deeply before beginning to explain.
"My undercover agents discovered that Ilum is being mined, but they couldn't find where are they taking all the Kyber crystals as they were discovered before they could finish their missions." She said and bit her lip.
Nervousness came from his sister through the Force.
It was not a hard guess what the First Order did to the spies of the New Republic, either they were made into slaves or worse they were interrogated and killed later. It is possible she still hasn't heard or seen her agents and that is why she is feeling this way.
"Was it only one direction or multiple?" he asked.
"Multiple… that is why I'm concerned that maybe they are building a whole fleet of Eclipse class ships…maybe that now that they don't have the Death Star or Thrawn this might be their last resort or taking over the Galaxy." She started hyperventilating.
He pulled his sister into a tight embrace trying to calm her, but as she didn't used any of the breathing exercises that he taught every Force user he ever got his hands upon to control his or her emotions, but even as his presence didn't do anything as it normally does he began to use the Force on her to calm her down and give her a breath. She didn't resist and didn't even taught about putting her Force shields up to shield her mind from him.
"In that case then we better hit them with all that we have." He said determined and pulled his sister into a tighter embrace, which now with the Force helping, it finally worked. She hugged him back and the anxiety slowly went away.
The two siblings stood in an embrace for a few seconds while Liea was gaining her composure.
"Thank you, Luke." She whispered in his shoulder.
"No need." The Jedi Master shook his head "Everyone needs a hug sometimes, especially these days, let it be a civilian, a soldier, a General, a Jedi master, or a senator, everyone needs it."
He can't remember the last time he went by a soul that was broken from this Civil war and didn't gave a hug to a stranger or a comrade.
Everyone deserves to be understood by their loss especially Liea, whose son abandoned her and Han to join the Dark side.
That ungrateful kid.
He wants to be angry, he wants to be mad, he wants to lash out, release the pain, just to get rid of it. If only Ben would understand the pain he caused when he decided to simply walk away. Oh how badly he would wish to beat him up. If he ever gets his hands upon that kid… he was so lost in his thoughts and barely controlled his anger, that he failed to notice that Liea was peeking into his mind.
"You're thinking about Ben." She broke the silence and at the same time she stopped the storm in his head with a single sentence.
Her words snapped him back to the Light side.
"Yes." He was grateful to have her, but it would be even better if their father would finally show up.
Less than a second later, as if a bright star just shined upon him, his wish came true.
"Hello, my children." Anakin s' voice was heard out of the blue.
"Father!" both of the siblings said in one voice as they were startled. The two broke the hug and faced the corner from which the voice was heard.
Soon after in that corner a blueish ghost figure appeared floating in midair.
Anakin, their father, before he became Vader appeared dressed in black Jedi robes.
His curly hair flowing up as if it was weightless as he slowly fully manifested his ghost form and landed on the ground as if the gravity of the planet somehow affected him.
His face was happy for a moment but Luke will have to break it by asking:
"What have you been doing, Old Ben Kenobi said you went to Mustafar. We had a War council half an hour ago." Luke schooled his own father for being late.
Anakin wasn't disappointed for it, like he normally becomes after any of his children try to be clever with him, but no, today he was serious, dead serious to be exact.
"What's wrong father?" Liea asked, she was worried.
"I have a problem." He said glancing from one to the other. Eventually he stopped upon Luke.
"Son, do you remember what I told you about the attack on your temple and how blinded I was by the black hole in the Force that those savages carried where ever they go?"
"Yes…" Luke rose his eyebrow.
"Well, I trapped some of them in my castle." He crossed his arms on his chest and stood tall, proud.
"What?!" both of his children said in one voice again.
Hello, everyone. I know it took me a while to update but this is the chapter that hopefully explains some of the questions that rose up during my writing.
The Force ghost Yoda in the 8th movie: the Last Jedi simply broke whatever laws they had them holding back. A Force ghost simply became overpowered, especially in the Rise of Skywalker when Luke lifted the whole ship up and grabbed the lightsaber. So I decided to make some limits for them and will try to explain the other limits I believe a Force ghost has.
Yes, I know I pulled Eclipse and Thrawn out of nowhere but it simply explains the problems they faced during the 30- year gap between the Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. I will add a few things there in the next chapter, I hope I could write it in a week.
See you soon. LucyStormChaser.
