"So, you're saying you managed to not only recruit Sabine, but her brother and Rau too? How did you manage that?" Hera Syndulla exclaimed, a rogue smile on her face.
"Oh you know. My charm is irresistible." Kanan replied.
Rolling her eyes, Hera watched as a cheeky smile appeared on Kanan's face. They may have been talking via hologram, but even then Hera felt comfort. Comfort knowing that he was alive and well.
"Oh I'm sure Hera knows all about your charm Master Jedi." A new voice interrupted discussion.
Hera shifted her head from Kanan, welcoming the presence of the person as they sat down in the co-pilot chair of the Ghost. Miara Larte had volunteered to assist Hera, since they had agreed on teams of two for the recruitment stage. And to be truthful, Hera was grateful to have the company of the upcoming expert pilot that was Miara. Ever since Atollon, and the business with the Defender, Miara had held off any more flying, preferring to work on maintenance and other menial jobs.
Suffice to say that pleased Miara's sister, who had been worried sick during the Siege of Atollon.
Hearing a small chuckle from Kanan, Hera turned her gaze back to his hologram.
"So what's your plan Kanan? We still have a while before we agreed to meet at Raada." Hera inquired, ever the leader.
"We're off to acquire some high grade explosives for the mission. Kallus reported in and told us where two stockpiles could be found. I'll go check one, and I'll get Ezra to check the other." Kanan replied, his hologram shifting in his seat slightly.
It was a good plan. Even if they got onto the station, and got to the Kyber crystal, if they didn't possess a way of destroying it then it would have all been for nothing.
"Keep me updated Kanan. And be safe ok?" Hera's voice softened with concern, worry flowing through her mind.
"Will do Hera. Talk later."
And with that, Kanan cut to comm link, his hologram fading from view, leaving the cockpit of the Ghost quiet.
Hera suddenly felt very lonely.
Beside her, she felt a hand come down on her shoulder, giving a light squeeze.
"He'll be fine, don't worry." Miara encouraged gently.
Hera nodded, turning he attention back to the situation at hand.
Before Kanan had called, Hera had been piloting the Ghost towards Ryloth, her homeworld.
When the discussion of recruiting people to take down the emperor had first come up, a specific individual came to Hera's mind immediately. One who had been the target of an attempted assassination by the emperor before. One who had survived, and was more than willing to exact revenge on the emperor.
Her father.
The trouble was finding him. Despite the fact that they had patched up their relationship, Cham Syndulla often kept to the shadows in between major operations, ensuring that the empire lost his trail, giving him an advantage for the next strike.
It was a tactic that he had used against the emperor, one that had succeeded, despite the odds. It was very rare for the emperor to intervene personally, so for him to personally go after her father spoke volumes for threat that Cham posed to the empire.
And it was exactly that sort of person they would need for this suicide mission of theirs.
"So, how are we going to find your father?" Miara inquired, gazing out the cockpit window down at Ryloth.
The Ghost had exited hyperspace not long ago, and rather than descend into orbit, Hera had maintained position above the planet, monitoring all communications to and from the planet.
It was Hera's hope that by being patient, something would happen to identify her father's location.
"We wait for something to explode. That will probably be him." Hera replied with humour in her tone. Cham did have a knack for blowing important imperial installations out of the sky.
Miara pulled a peculiar face at Hera's comment, before going back to monitoring the transmissions.
Silence remained in the cockpit of the Ghost, no clue as to Cham's whereabouts surfacing.
In the meantime, Hera mulled on what was to come.
There was a very real possibility that none of them was coming back from this mission alive. For all Hera knew, they would become martyrs, whether success or failure.
But she trusted Ahsoka, and while her plan might be a little reckless, she was the only one willing to do anything about it.
So Hera willingly went along with the plan, orders be damned.
More silence passed between the two individuals, with still no sign of Cham.
It was then that Miara asked a question that Hera was not anticipating.
"So, how long has it been going on between you two?"
Hera turned to look at Miara, who stared back at the Twi-lek with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
'Oh here we go.' Hera thought. She should have expected this.
"How long had what been going on?" Hera asked, already knowing what was about to follow, or at the very least, presuming.
From the way Miara acted, particularly around her sister, Hera had a feeling that she liked to know all the details.
Even the more private ones.
"You and Kanan. You obviously like each other, maybe even more! Are you together already? Or does his 'Jedi code thingy' stop him from actually doing anything?"
It was a weird series of questions, ones that confounded Hera. Sure, she and Kanan were not exactly discreet with the way they talked to one another. But she had a commitment to the rebellion, not Kanan.
'Liar!' Hera's subconscious spoke, betraying her own mind.
Deep down, Hera knew that her subconscious was right.
Rather than outright tell Miara, Hera opted for the safer approach, one that had worked numerous times in the past.
"We're just friends. We've known each other a long time. It's only natural that we are close after everything we have done together."
Clearly however, this was not going to work this time around. Rather than nod and return to whatever it was they were doing previously, as most did when Hera replied with similar answer, Miara instead rose her eyebrows, a look of scepticism on her face.
Seconds later, Miara confirmed what she was thinking.
"Is that really the best you can do?"
Sighing, Hera sunk slightly in her seat. It was always awkward for her when people questioned, or even pointed out her and Kanan's relationship. Sure… Hera felt something for Kanan. To be truthful she felt a lot for him.
And as far as she knew, Kanan felt the same.
But neither had gone through with their feelings yet, either because of fear, or something else.
They were both committed to the rebellion, despite Kanan's doubts at the beginning. To them, that would always come first.
Still, it was clear that there was no deceiving Miara, so Hera opted to be honest.
"It's complicated."
And that was certainly the truth. If circumstances were different, if there was no empire to fight.
Then maybe, just maybe.
Miara understood, as she nodded her head, leaving the subject well enough alone. It was clear to the human that it was a touchy subject for Hera.
A few more moments passed with silence, slight tension in the air from the previous discussion.
Then once again, Miara spoke.
"Well at least you're more discreet than my sister."
Hera allowed a small smile to come to her face. She had seen the way Kaeden acted around Ahsoka. It was almost hysterical.
"What's the story there then?" Hera inquired. She hadn't asked about the background of the Larte's before, considering it seemed to be a rather personal story.
But since they were talking about personal things…
"Ahsoka came to our home planet about a year after the empire took over, calling herself Ashla. We didn't know she was a Jedi at the time, or former Jedi, whatever." Miara began.
Hera listened. It seemed that Ahsoka's post clone war story was similar, yet different than Kanan's. Whereas he had taken to a darker lifestyle, going smuggler and quasi-pirate, Ahsoka had opted to simply hide away and help those in need.
Miara continued on. "We eventually found out she was a Jedi, and after my sister got captured by an Inquisitor, Ahsoka went and broke her out. Took on an Inquisitor bare handed from what I remember."
Hera's eyes widened. She knew Ahsoka was a formidable fighter, but to take on an Inquisitor without a weapon?
"Anyway, throughout all of this, Kaeden pretty much spent the entire time ogling Ahsoka. It was pretty pathetic to be honest, especially considering how oblivious Ahsoka seemed to be about it all."
Hera chuckled. Despite being a dangerous threat to the empire, Ahsoka Tano was a bit oblivious about personal things it seemed.
But then Hera couldn't blame her really. She had been betrayed by everyone she had ever known. Why should she trust anyone these days?
Before either Miara could continue, or Hera ask a question, the dashboard of the Ghost lit up before Miara.
Springing into action immediately, Miara reached forward, her fingers moving over the various switches, before stopping to read something.
"Apparently, just moments ago, a group of Twi-leks attacked a fighter depot riding on something called a Blurrg. What the hell is a Blurrg?"
"Two legged beast. We use them for transport, as well as mounts during combat. Where did it happen?" Hera replied.
Miara moved her hand across the dashboard, bringing up a set of coordinates for Hera to enter.
"Sounds like some sort of secret imperial fighter yard on Ryloth. No idea what's going on there, but clearly your father thought it important enough to attack." Miara responded.
Hera had to agree. If her father was willing to openly attack a military complex, then the empire was up to something detrimental.
Grasping the flight controls of the Ghost in her hands, Hera directed her ship down into the atmosphere of Ryloth, heading directly to the coordinates provided.
A few minutes of careful and precise flying later, the Ghost found itself emerging from some thick cloud coverage over Ryloth's open plains. From her position, Hera could see nothing by empty landscape in all directions.
All except for one.
A large collection of rocks stood to the east, creating a maze like area. From above, it looked difficult to navigate, and there was nowhere to land the ship.
Hera could only imagine how easy it would be to get lost in there on foot.
So where she saw a brief glimpse of what appeared to be weapons fire within the rock maze, Hera's stomach dropped.
Of course her father would try to lure the imperials deep into something like that. He had hoped to either lose them in the maze, or confuse them long enough to dispose of them.
Clearly his attack on the imperial fighter yard had upset the imperial commander in charge.
"I'm guessing that's your father down there?" Miara quipped from beside Hera, awe in her tone.
Sighing, Hera navigated the Ghost towards the scene of the combat, hoping to assist those in need.
Cham Syndulla was having a bad day.
Not that it had starting out bad, in fact, all had gone according to plan.
He had attacked the imperial installation where they had apparently been constructing some new prototype fighter, and he had successfully sabotaged the assembly lines, destroying a vast quantity of equipment in the process.
And then, when it came time to retreat and hide, it had all gone horribly wrong.
He had attacked the installation with three other Twi-leks, hoping that a small team would be able to infiltrate effectively without being spotted.
They had succeeded, until one of his own had betrayed him, and revealed himself to be a spy sent by Grand Admiral Thrawn.
How Thrawn had managed to persuade the Twi-lek was beyond Cham, not that it mattered in that moment.
Seconds after the betrayal had been revealed, which had consisted of the traitor killing one of Cham's men, and a squad of heavily armed black troopers had shown up.
Cham had only ever heard about them from his daughter before. Apparently they were called Death Troopers, and were the elite of the elite.
And they had proved to be so, as they had forced Cham and his remaining ally back, killing his other comrade in the process.
So Cham had run, got on his Blurrg, and set off into the distance, the Death Troopers and the traitor Twi-lek in pursuit.
In a straight up fight, there was no way that Cham could win, so he had directed his Blurrg straight towards a maze like rock collection, hoping to ambush them in there one by one, giving him a chance to escape.
It was times like this that Cham wished his daughter was here to help.
"Come out come out wherever you are Syndulla!" A Twi-lek voice echoed through the maze, the voice of the traitor.
Cham's hand tightened around his blaster in anger. He was looking forward to killing that traitorous worm.
In his heart, he was glad that neither Numa or Gobi had accompanied him on this mission, otherwise they could have ended up dead.
Turning a corner in the maze, Cham was surprised. He had very nearly walked into the back on one of the Death troopers.
Said trooper had clearly not heard him, thus giving Cham an opportunity.
Holstering his blaster, Cham reached down to his leg and unsheathed a vibro blade that had been gifted to him long ago.
Now it would prove useful.
Moving quickly and with grace that not many expected him to possess, Cham moved behind the Death trooper, and brought the blade down in a gap between armour pieces.
The blade pierced through the undersuit instantly, the Death trooper giving out a sharp cry of pain as he collapsed to the ground.
It was less noisy than a blaster, and would be less likely to draw any attention.
Sheathing the blade back to his leg, Cham turned and continued down the path he had been going on.
He didn't want to admit it, but he was lost. He only hoped that the imperials were too.
Eventually, the maze turned into a staging ground for a game of cat and mouse. The imperial death troopers, and their allied Twi-lek hunted for Cham, little knowing that one by one they were being picked off by their target.
Cham was being silent but deadly, a rare feat for him.
Soon, unbeknownst to both sides, it was down to a three versus one.
Cham slowly moved down another passageway of the maze, still seeking both an exit and his foes.
Turning another corner, Cham found himself face to face with a pair of Death troopers, as well as the traitor.
No one moved or spoke for a split second. Instead, looks of surprise came across all faces, even those covered by helmets.
And then the troopers opened fire at Cham.
The Twi-lek narrowly avoid several fatal shots, sprinting back round the corner had come from. There was no way he was about to win a face to face confrontation, so he had to outrun his foe.
Behind him, Cham heard the footsteps of the pursuing imperials, as well as discharges from their blasters as they tried to land a shot on him.
Cham himself fired his own blaster behind him a few times, hoping to either slow his pursuers down, or if lucky, land a direct hit.
When neither occurred, Cham abandoned that plan and continued running, turning another corner.
Suddenly, Cham found himself in a wide open space. By running random directions from his pursuers, he had somehow escaped the maze inadvertently.
And now the imperials would follow him outside of the maze too, giving him no place to hide.
"Oh this is just perfect. Nice job Cham, well done." Cham muttered to himself.
In the moment he had frozen in surprise at discovering the way out, the imperials had caught up to him.
"It's over Syndulla… surrender!" The traitor spoke, his accented voice being somewhat dulled by the wind.
Turning to face his would be executioners, Cham raised his blaster for a final stand.
"I will never surrender you traitor!"
The Twi-lek traitor's eyes sharpened in rage, before raising his own blaster, killing intent evident in his eyes.
Cham braced himself for what was to come.
But it never did.
Rather than go down in a rain of blaster fire, Cham heard the sounds of a ship appear behind him.
Chaos reigned in the next few seconds, as the large cannons of the ship fired at the Death Troopers and their Twi-lek ally, cutting them down in seconds.
Cham turned on the spot once again, expecting to come face to face with one of his own ships.
Instead, it was to welcome surprise that he saw before him the ship of his daughter.
"Hera!" Cham called out, waving up at the cockpit in delight.
From her seat, Hera waved back, an equally warm smile on her face.
Lowering the Ghost to the floor, Hera opened the ramp to the ship, which Cham accepted, boarding the freighter and proceeding to the bridge.
He had missed his daughter.
"Was your father fighting a squad of imperial Death troopers by himself?" Miara commented.
Hera nodded, a smirk on her face. That was her father all right, always doing something that was insane.
She only hoped he would be willing to join Ahsoka's mission.
Behind the two, the door to the cockpit opened, and a tall orange Twi-lek strolled in.
Hera rose from her feet to greet her father.
"Hera, perfect timing. Thank you for the rescue." Cham spoke, wrapping his arms around his daughter in a fatherly embrace, one that Hera relaxed into.
"Anytime father. You ok?"
Both Syndullas pulled back from the hug before Cham replied.
"No worse for wear daughter."
Miara chose that moment to question something.
"Why was one of your people aiding the empire?"
Cham turned to look at the dark-skinned woman, his face one of confusion, which was understandable. He hadn't met her before.
"Father this is Miara Larte, a fellow rebel and pilot. She came with me to find you."
Cham nodded in acceptance, bringing his hand forward in a gesture of welcoming.
Miara shook the offered hand.
"To answer your question, he was a turncoat who was paid by Thrawn to betray us. I have no idea why or when, and I guess I will never find out huh?" Cham recalled the events of the day, clear anger in his tone. The thought of one of his own betraying him rested heavily on his shoulders.
"I'm sorry father." Hera offered,
"It's not your fault Hera. Now, why did you wish to find me?" Cham returned, his eyes looking directly into his daughter's with compassion.
Hera took a breath. This was going to be a hell of a discussion.
"We've got a mission, and we need volunteers. It's dangerous, but we have the chance to cut off the head of the empire in one move."
A look of trepidation, as well as interest covered Cham's face as he listened.
"What sort of mission?" The elder Syndulla enquired.
"It involves…"
Suddenly, the Ghost shuddered violently, as if hit by some sort of weapon.
Miara was in her seat instantly, analysing to situation at hand.
"Hera! We've got company!" Miara spoke with a raised voice, her head spinning in alarm to the two Twi-leks.
Hera moved swiftly, taking her seat back at the controls of the Ghost, prepping the engines and weapons for whatever was about to come.
"How many are there Miara?" Hera called out. Behind her, Hera felt her father slip into another chair.
"One contact, about to pass right over us." Miara replied, tilting her head upwards to look out of the cockpit window.
Hera stalled for a brief second. One contact? What was that about?
Looking upwards herself, Hera soon found out.
A single TIE flew over the Ghost, but its design was unlike that of any TIE previously encountered.
In fact, it looked an awful lot like…
A chill went down Hera's spine when she identified the ship.
Miara spoke first. "Is that what I think it is?"
Hera nodded in confirmation, before replying in a dark tone.
"A TIE Defender!"
Authors' thoughts
TO BE CONTINUED!
Surprise... two part chapter.
So yes, Hera's recruit is her father, big surprise there. That is if they escape the Defender that has just shown up. I wonder who is piloting it?
And yes, I am aware that it was the Emperor who was the subject of an assassination attempt by Cham, not the other way around. However, I doubt that either Cham or Palps would admit to failing an assassination attempt/being an assassination target respectfully, and since this stuff happened a while ago, assume much of the knowledge of what happened has been lost in time, and both parties are ust exaggerating for their own gain.
Also, from the response to the last chapter, a fair few of you seem to be thinking that Thrawn is going to defect to the rebels. Let's just say you are somewhat right, somewhat wrong. Muhahahahahaha!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this longer chapter. It was a fun one to write, especially the dynamic between Hera and Miara at the beginning.
Next chapter coming is one for you Hera fans out there, as she attempts to take on the TIE Defender.
As usual, comment and speculate at will.
Speaking fo which:
Mysterious Guest number 1: I'm glad you are liking this story so far. Hope you enjoy the rest of it.
Mysterious Guest number 2: I'm glad you enjoyed the imperial centric chapters. There are more of them to come.
Travis Middleton: I'm glad you liked my interpretation of Thrawn and Pryce's friendship. Since I have yet to read Thrawn, the comparison between this story and that novel is appreciated. And yes, hopefully Thrawn discovers the truth about the Eighth Bro soon. As for your questions:
1. Thrawn will be encounting Galen Erso for some reason. Why, you will have to wait and see.
2. I was originally going to do something like that involving Jyn, but then I sort of changed my mind. Her character will however be visited in a one shot, so no need to worry.
FossilQueen1984: The Thrawn/Pryce/Yularen trio is a fun one to write, as they are perhaps the only sane people on the Death Star at the moment.
WolveHulk: I do want to write Ventress one day. However it would have to be another story, since she is dead in this AU.
jamese765: If any of those defected, the Empire would be in serious trouble.
Mogor: Thrawn's reaction to the truth will be a thing of beauty, I assure you. He will be very opinionated on the truth. Only time will tell what he does when he discovers the truth.
No need to worry, more Ahsoka and Ghost crew are coming up.
LukeDude: I'm glad you are liking the shifting perpective in the chapters. I wasn't sure if everyone would be able to keep up with it, but so far it seems to be working. Yularen may be a spymaster, but even he would probably have doubts about the Death Star, hence why he hasn't been told about it, unlike Tarkin.
The fact that you think Thrawn is the best character I write is great. I was honestly so scared about writing for him because people have such strong opinions about the character, so I had to get him right, or else he fails as a character.
Now, questions:
1. Slavin was going to show up in this chapter, but I decided against it. That being said, he may show up elsewhere.
2. Since Jerjerrod did help build the first Death Star, it is reasonable to assume he is going to appear at some point.
3. More force-sensitives will appear. In what capacity, I can't say. But they will at some point. Nor can I say who either. :)