The space over Coruscant bustled with the activity of the fleet prepared for the offense on Yavin; two Imperial-class Star Destroyers and four Victorys were supported by ten Dreadnaughts. Each of the Imperial ships contained more than enough starfighters and assault vehicles to take the Rebel base.
From her hiding place on the Imperial-class ship Ravager, Mara Jade silently watched as Darth Vader's private shuttle neared the flagship of the fleet: Vengeance. Even though Inquisitor Jerec wasn't aboard the ship, the reputation of its captain was amazing enough, for an alien, to make her think twice about sneaking aboard that ship. She hadn't personally heard of this Mitth'raw'nuruodo before she had sliced into his records, and she had barely even heard of his species. The only other Chiss she had come across in the records was a Dark Jedi that had served during the Clone Wars.
This assignment is going to be easy, she thought as Vader's shuttle disappeared against the whitish-gray hull of Vengeance. It was going to be easy, but she wished that she could be on the same ship as her observation target. It wasn't that she was necessarily afraid of either Vader or the Chiss captain, but there were far too many unknowns about the flagship at the moment. The Chiss was a mystery to her at the moment, and that made him a threat.
Mara waited patiently as the last of the shuttles docked with their assigned ships, not caring when a strand of red hair fell free of her black hood. In her gloved hands rested a bag that contained her new identity for this mission. In a few minutes, Mara Jade would cease to exist, and in her place would be Lt. Renna Vicines. Her cover identity was far from perfect: Renna was a moderately scoring graduate of the Caridan Academy skilled in strategies involving the A5 Juggernaut. From her position, she could easily find out what exactly Vader was doing…
Darth Vader paced in front of the viewports of Vengeance several minutes later, anxious to exact his revenge on the rebels. He watched as several of the Dreadnaughts turned in the general direction of the Yavin System. It would all begin soon. The battle plan was simple: the Dreadnaughts would leap into the system first and would be quickly followed by the Star Destroyers. Several TIE squadrons would launch from the ships to escort and protect the landers carrying the assault vehicles and the Stormtroopers needed to take the base. After the landing, it would be a fifteen-kilometer journey from the landing zone to the Great Temple.
"Your talents are wasted with Jerec, Captain Thrawn," Lord Vader spoke to the blue-skinned Imperial officer sitting in a command chair.
"I do believe that my talents are not wasted at all, Lord Vader," Thrawn replied. "The Emperor has certain suspicions about Lord Jerec's motivations. I am not at liberty to say anything more." Thrawn rubbed his hands together. "It is in my view, that the fate of the entire Empire could one day rest upon me. You will see the Rebellion crushed, Lord Vader. You have my word on that."
"For your sake, I hope you are correct," Vader menacingly reminded the Chiss captain. "I will not tolerate failure in this operation." But Vader knew that there was no possible way for the Empire to fail now. There was the "little" surprise being finished at Fondor that would soon make its grand debut, as well as the project that General Mohc was planning on demonstrating in the next few months. The Empire would crush the Rebellion, but he would have his own revenge on Obi-Wan and the Force-sensitive pilot that destroyed the Death Star.
"All right Rogue Flight, you did well," Luke Skywalker congratulated the eleven other pilots as their ragtag mix of X-wings, Y-wings and Z-95 Headhunters flew towards the base.
"Very well," Wedge Antilles added. "Not a scratch on any of us."
In the weeks following the nearly disastrous rescue of the crew of the rebel outpost, the Empire had gotten into the annoying habit of having an attack cruiser show up in the system for a quick hit-and-run attack. The attacks were more of a nuisance than an actual threat, but Luke knew that that was the point. The higher-ups had told him that the Empire was more than likely trying to lull the rebels into a false sense of security, and then they would launch a major attack on the system. That was why the evacuation of the base would take place as soon as the major part of the fleet would arrive.
Yet Luke's mind was still preoccupied by the revelation that Ben had sprung upon both Leia and him.
It happened a few days after the mission that had served as the proof of the new Jedi Order's strengths. The wounded Chewbacca was about to be released from the medical center, and Ben had finally gotten the two of them into the same room at the same time.
"Luke, Leia," Obi-Wan Kenobi said as he entered the medical center. "I need to speak with both of you as soon as you finish visiting your friend." Obi-Wan looked at the Wookiee as he played another heated game of Dejarik with R2-D2.
"What do you need to speak with us about? Leia asked as she stepped into the medical center, a few steps behind the Jedi Master. The scent of bacta was fresh in the room. "If it's about me training, I still haven't changed my mind."
Obi-Wan shook his head at her refusal. "I figured as much, and I do respect your decision. However, what I need to talk with you about has very little to do with training. It has to deal with your heritages."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Leia asked as her voice distracted Chewbacca from the game, causing a move that could mean a victory to slip from the Wookiee's mind.
"It would be better if I told you both somewhere more private," Obi-Wan replied. "Meet me in the Jedi training room when you're finished with your visit.
Her interest piqued by Obi-Wan's vagueness, Leia Organa showed arrived in the Jedi training room fifteen minutes later. The Jedi Master was sitting in a simple chair next to a medium-sized holoprojector and Luke was already sitting on the floor, seemingly as puzzled over what was going to happen in this meeting as she was.
"This may be slightly hard for you both to hear," Obi-Wan began as he gestured for Leia to take a seat. "It is, however, the truth." From a certain point of view, he silently added. It had been hard for him to decide on what to tell the two and how much, yet he knew that there was no way that they could handle the full truth at this moment.
Obi-Wan rubbed a hand through his beard as he activated the holoprojector in the slightly darkened room. "I don't know if any of you recognize this face, it was the only one I could find on such short notice," he began as the image of a young man about the age of Luke and Leia appeared from the projector. He wore his dark blond hair short save for a long braid that ran down his head to his right shoulder, and he wore a modified version of the "standard" Jedi robes.
Luke was in shock at the familiarity of the holographic form in front of him. The image was shockingly similar to himself, and he didn't need to the see the lightsaber that was soon in view to realize the identity of the person in the image. "That's my father, isn't it?" Luke asked.
Obi-Wan nodded, making Leia begin to wonder why she was even here to begin with, forgetting Obi-Wan's cryptic response for a minute. "What does this have to do with me?" she asked angrily.
"This," Obi-Wan began as he pointed towards the image, "is Anakin Skywalker. You may not recognize him, but the next image may be far more helpful." He pushed a button on the holoprojector, causing the image to change.
Leia gasped as the image began to sharpen, wondering why Obi-Wan had used footage of her addressing the Imperial Senate during this meeting. Then the audio kicked in; a slightly unfamiliar voice began an impassioned voice to the Republic Senate. Republic Senate? Leia's mind raced as she tried to make sense of this new information, there was a woman that looked amazingly like her on one of the floating podiums of the then Republic Senate chamber.
Luke was also engrossed in the image. "Is that--," he began.
"My mother?" Leia asked, her question ending at the same time as Luke's. But how could this really be?
"You are both correct," Obi-Wan answered, his voice trying to sound calm and reassuring. Yet he knew there would be many difficult questions to answer. "Both of you are, in fact, siblings. Twins actually."
Obi-Wan watched as the faces of Luke and Leia began to show their confusion and embarrassment over having nearly fallen for each other. "If we are twins, why were we separated?" Leia asked.
"And what happened to my mother?" Luke added. "Did Darth Vader murder her, too?"
This is the very difficult part, Obi-Wan thought as he lowered his head. "The answers to both of those questions are connected," he began as the cover story Yoda and himself had concocted began to descend. "During the Clone Wars, Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker were close friends and pupils of mine. It was at that time that Anakin secretly married Padmé Amidala, a senator from Naboo."
"Why secretly?" Luke asked.
"They married secretly because at the time, the Jedi forbade attachment of any sort, including romantic attachment. Of course, there were Jedi who disagreed with the rule and broke it.
"Soon after Palpatine issued his Declaration of a New Order, Darth Vader betrayed the Jedi Order," Obi-Wan said with a low voice tinted with regret. "When it was over: most of the Jedi had been murdered, Anakin Skywalker was another victim of Darth Vader's wrath. As was your mother. She was pregnant with the both of you when she witnessed Darth Vader destroying your father, and she herself was wounded by him. In the end, she wasn't strong enough physically or emotionally to survive the childbirth. I attempted to save them both, but I was unable to save Anakin from Darth Vader…"
Obi-Wan stood up from his chair and brought the room back to its usual light level with a slight adjustment of the light switch. "Bail Organa had apparently witnessed part of Darth Vader's attack on the Jedi Temple in Coruscant, and he was very willing to help any survivors."
Leia had known that she had been adopted by the Organa family, but in that manner? "I… was just handed off to someone?" she asked.
Obi-Wan knelt down beside Leia and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Did he love you?" Obi-Wan simply asked. "Did he do everything in his power to make you feel loved, like a daughter?" Leia slowly nodded her head. "He treated you like a daughter, Leia, and I'm sure that he thought of himself as your father. He adopted you, he did so to keep you safe and hidden from the Emperor."
"Why did we have to be hidden?" Leia asked. "Why did we have to be 'kept safe from Palpatine?'"
"Your father was extremely powerful in the Force, any children that he would have had would have been nearly equal in power. You needed to be hidden because to Palpatine, you are a threat."
Leia remained silent as the truth began to sink in, and her feelings for Vader began to surface. Vader had murdered all of her parents, adoptive and biological, and had tortured her both physically and mentally on the Death Star. He had forced her to watch as Tarkin casually told a flunky to destroy her home planet, more than likely as he had forced her real mother watch as he murdered Anakin. Her hatred for the man ran strong and flowed off of her in waves.
"I know you are angry at what I have told you, Leia," Obi-Wan began, having felt the anger coming from the young woman. "I don't blame you for hating Vader at this stage, but you must let go of that anger before it consumes you as it consumed Vader. Hatred leads to the Dark Side, Leia. I know that it's hard to let go of those feelings, but you must."
"Ben, was that why Vader murdered my father? Because he posed a threat to the Emperor?" Luke asked his teacher.
The only thing Obi-Wan could do was nod, and hope that he hadn't made things infinitely worse…
From the viewports of Home One Ackbar looked out towards the few remaining pieces of the Death Star that orbited the planet of Yavin. Most of the giant space station had been vaporized during the explosion caused by the chain reaction caused by the rebel pilot that had made a seemingly impossible shot, yet some debris had remained. It had been a great victory for the Alliance, but Ackbar knew that the Empire wouldn't just roll over and die after a major victory. Not while the Emperor was still alive, at least. They would return to take their revenge, and when they did, the rebels would be ready to blast their way off of the planet…