I'm posting this early, because I won't have access to wifi for at least a week. Nor will I have access to wifi next Sunday, so I don't think there will be any update then, although I hope I'll be able to post the week after.


The sound of the speeder bikes was perhaps the only sound to be heard. Jesper found it suspicious.

"Where are the animals?" he asked Ruby when they'd stopped the bikes for a brief moment. "I can sense billions of life forms in the air around us: why aren't they making any noise?"

Ruby, despite seeming gruff and battle-hardened in appearance, proved to be surprisingly cooperative when it came to his strange, random questions. When she spoke, Jesper almost thought that she must have been very, very eager a decade or two ago, only for the reality of war to steal that from her.

But they couldn't steal all of it - as evidenced by the fact she answered his question. "I don't know about the insects and such," she said slowly, "but I know that the stormtroopers around here have been hunting the mammals. They've probably learned by now to keep quiet or to flee."

"Hunting them?" Jesper couldn't quite believe it. "I thought this was meant to be a Legacy world? A Sanctuary Moon."

Ruby just shrugged as she uncapped a bottle of water. "They blew up Alderaan." I doubt they'd respect any boundary a Legacy world would offer. She tilted her head back and poured the water into her mouth.

Right. Suddenly desperate to change the subject, Jesper asked the first question that came to mind: "Where did you get that tattoo on your face?"

Her left hand automatically touched the stark ink lines, even as she lowered the bottle and replaced the cap. "I served in the Clone Wars, in the Soldat Sol."

"The what?"

She looked at him for a moment, as if she genuinely could not comprehend him not understanding that, then laughed. "Right, you wouldn't know. We were a legion of volunteers who served alongside the clones, led by General Alina Starkiller."

A rush of cold went down his back. Did Ruby know about Starkiller?

"It's alright," she said, seeing his discomfort. "I wasn't with my general when she died, but I know she must have died a hero. I mean, it was the clones who executed Order Sixty-Six - and she didn't serve with clones. She served with us, volunteers. So if she died, she died alongside her troops, trying to protect other Jedi from their own. And if she's still alive," she smiled faintly as she shrugged. "Well, that's just even better, isn't it?"

Not if she's the one you're trying to blow up. But Jesper kept his mouth shut. If Ruby didn't know about Koroleva, then he wouldn't be the one to tell her.

"Anyway, I can't really remember why we chose the name Soldat Sol, instead of sticking to our number. We were the five-oh-first legion, but I guess we wanted a proper name. And," she rubbed her arm, "well, I guess we chose one that meant 'sun soldiers' in the General's native tongue because our insignia was the golden sunburst." She pointed at the tattoo on her face. "I was young and zealous, and I loved my brothers and siblings. I wanted to show it."

Jesper nodded. He'd heard of the 501rst in fact - they'd been legends during and after the war, as had their commander, and he'd heard a lot of speculation in taverns on whether or not they'd survived Order 66. "So, the tattoo."

"So the tattoo."

He nodded again, and had opened his mouth to ask another when a blaster shot suddenly rang out.

Ruby immediately showed her mettle. "Get down!" She drew her own blaster even as they both dropped to the floor, and before he could blink there were two stormtroopers face down on the ground with smoking holes in their armour.

He rolled behind a bush for cover and took aim, getting one clear in the head. He pressed further into the bush as a shot carved a crimson streak straight for his shoulder; it passed close enough that he could feel the heat begin the fray the threads of the fabric of his fatigues, but it missed all the same. He shot the shooter, then pulled out his lightsaber to deflect a few more.

Stormtrooper patrols were small. Before long, everyone was dead.

Ruby glanced around - methodically, left to right - then stood from her crouch. "Good shooting," she told him offhandedly. "But there's probably more of them." She didn't blink as his extinguished his purple lightsaber; he supposed she would have seen plenty of lightsabers just like it during the Clone Wars.

He stretched out with his senses - and felt an unusual concentration of life forms just over the next ridge. "There are," he said. "An abnormal amount."

"How many?" Her expression was calculating.

He stretched out again, and did his best to count. "A regiment, I'd say."

"Then that's their base. That's where the shield generator is."

Jesper nodded. There were too many troopers for it to be a patrol - far, far too many.

"Wait." Ruby looked torn between grinning that they'd achieved the aim, or frowning at the sheer opposition they would face. "An entire regiment?"

He nodded.

"But that's three thousand two hundred troopers."

He nodded again.

She swore. "We have twelve Pathfinders, plus your crew of five, and Tamar. That's eighteen people." She swore again. "Why would they send so many troops to defend a shield generator that's kept secret? Wouldn't that be conspicuous? It doesn't make any sense, unless. . ." She jerked suddenly, eyes blowing wide.

"Unless they know that we know," Jesper said gravely. "Unless they know that we're here. There was that whole kerfuffle with the clearance codes, where they kept digging for information, remember?"

"But if they knew, why would they let us through?"

He didn't know the answer to that. "To destroy us on the ground?"

"But why risk it?" She actually stood up now, and started pacing. "Why risk the infinitesimal chance that we would succeed and let us through? They could've blasted us up there. What have we done since arriving that they want us to do?"

There was a moment's silence as they considered it, then-

"We summoned the fleet here."

Ruby's gaze cut to his.

"Tamar sent the signal to tell them to jump to hyperspace," Jesper said, heart-rate increasing rapidly. "So they have us on the ground, only posing a threat should we overcome a hundred to one odds and take down the shield generator, while up there they have several capital ships and an intact shield, with the entire Rebel fleet flying right into the waiting bloodbath." He could feel the blood draining from his face, feel the panic coming on. "It's a trap."

"That's it," she said.

He looked over at her. "How- how can you be so calm?"

She met his gaze head on. "It's a trap. That's why they're here, and that's what their aim is. Now, Jesper," she placed a hand on his shoulder, "tell me how we can fix this."

He was silent. He didn't know what to say.

But Ruby did.

"We can do our job." Her breathing was coming quicker now as well, but there was a fire in her eyes, a fierce resolve that hadn't been there before, even though perhaps it should've. "We can take out the shield generator, and give them a fighting chance." She met him dead in the eye. "Despite all the odds, we have to win this."

"Never tell me the odds," he said weakly.

"Exactly." She patted him on the back. "Now, let's get back to camp and report everything we've worked out."

The ride was a grim one. Not a single word was said until Jesper glanced around the forest - all of which looked the same anyway, but that was beside the point - and commented, "This isn't the way we came."

Ruby didn't hear him over the whirr of the speeders, but by now he was sure he was right. He waved to get her attention, then shouted, "This isn't the way we came!"

She glanced around, but clearly she didn't disagree. "I'm tracking Tamar's homing beacon!" she shouted back. "Perhaps they've moved? That was the point of the beacon!"

Jesper shook his head and pressed his lips together. Something didn't feel right.

And something wasn't right, which became quickly evident when they came upon a glade where the signal was coming from, but Tamar was nowhere to be found.

"This can't be right. . ." he whispered to himself, glancing round and probing the area with the Force. There were no sentient life forms in the immediate vicinity. "No one's here."

"But they were." Ruby had crouched among the undergrowth, her eyes tracking across the ground. "Look. There was a fight here."

Jesper blinked, then looked again. Sure enough, the grass had been flattened and bent and uprooted in places, with bushes missing leaves and branches broken and bending inwards. Some act of violence had happened here.

Almost unconsciously, he bent down and pressed his hand to a spot of kicked earth. He stretched out his Force senses, feeling for the emotions left imprinted there in recent times. Pain, shock, desperation, and. . . He drew his hand back sharply.

Hate.

The Dark Side.

An Inquisitor had been here, perhaps? Nina had warned him on the trip here that they might encounter one. . .

He shook himself, and pressed his hand to the dirt again. Yes, someone wielding the Dark Side had been here (he wasn't skilled enough to discern much more than that) and they had taken Tamar.

Tamar and-

Nina.

He choked as he staggered to his feet, Ruby shooting him an alarmed look as he did.

"We need to find the others," he snapped. "Now."


When Nina came to, the first thing she was aware of was the humming of a ship's sublight engines.

The second thing she was aware of was the truly terrifying image of Koroleva's helmet surveying her.

"You," she spat out, wrenching herself forward out of the chair on the ship that she'd been bound to, only to find herself collapsing back onto it. Blast. Just how hard had Dunyasha hit her?

"Me," the Sith Lord said dispassionately, then turned away. Of course; she wasn't interested in Nina. She hated Nina, and that was it.

She was interested in Tamar.

Tamar, who was awake and bound and practically snarling at her. Tamar, whose golden eyes suddenly looked a little too close to yellow for her liking, even if Nina knew it was impossible. Tamar didn't have the Force, so she certainly couldn't have the Dark Side.

"Murderer," the general spat. "You murdering piece of-"

"Nice to see you too," Koroleva said, the tone of her vocoder almost. . . droll? She tilted her helmet towards Dunyasha, whom Nina hadn't even realised was standing there. "Leave. Go check on the pilot."

Dunyasha's lips pressed themselves into a tight smile, but she left.

Once she was gone, Tamar drew herself up - at least, she did as far as she could when she was hogtied to a chair in much the same way Nina was. "You killed Nadia," she said, voice rising with every syllable. "You slaughtered the order I respected, overturned the government I loved, and then you tried to kill me, my brother and Nikolai. Several times." She took a deep breath. "How the fuck do you expect me to greet you."

Koroleva just sat there, motionless. Nina tried to probe her with the Force, but her shielding was too strong; it was like poking a brick wall. "The Jedi were corrupt. The Republic was corrupt. I made something better. More effective."

"Right," Tamar drawled. "Because a totalitarian regime is definitely fairer than a democracy run by the people."

"I said more effective, not fairer." Koroleva stood then, and starting pacing around the room. Her balance was uncanny; the way she walked, one would never think she was on a ship that was shifting under her very feet. "The Republic was the rotting corpse of democracy, controlled by bureaucrats and companies that sought to use politics to turn more and more profit, at the expense of everyday folk who suffered because no one listened to their problems."

"And the Empire does so much better."

"The galaxy was ravaged by war," Koroleva said simply. "Mal," both she and Tamar seemed to flinch at the name, "did his best to organise relief aid, but again, the bureaucrats got in his way. The Empire eliminated such bureaucrats, and enabled direct action to be taken, without wasting months on nitpicking the details. Once all necessary aid has been distributed, and the galaxy is no longer at war, we will be able to reinstate some measure of democracy."

"You. . ." Tamar shook her head. "You actually believe that." There was no reply. "Alina, the Emperor dissolved the Senate."

Koroleva had tensed up. "Do not call me that-"

"Where is the humanitarian aid you speak of?" Tamar shouted over her. "Where was the aid when the citizens of Ryloth suffered in famine, only to be taken as slaves - by your Empire? Where was the aid when Kashyyyk was plundered and besieged, and the Wookiees taken as slave labour as well?"

"And where was your precious Rebellion in all of this," Koroleva replied, voice deadly soft, "when it was insurgencies on those planets that led to this suffering? Did they back down? Did they try to reduce the harm caused? No," she said before Tamar could, "they only made things worse."

"I'm not having this argument with you," Tamar said heatedly. "I'm not going to waste my time trying to convince a person who is being wilfully blind. You're a good person, Alina - at least, you were. You know that you're wrong. You just. Don't. Care."

Koroleva actually took a step back at that. "You're wrong."

"Take off your helmet." Tamar lifted her chin. "Take off your helmet, look me in the eye, and tell me that you genuinely believe that what you're doing is right."

Koroleva didn't move. The silence damned her.

"We all loved you, General," Tamar whispered into it. "All of the Soldat Sol - we all loved you. And we volunteered to fight because we loved the Jedi, and the Republic, and you. You weren't just a hero to the rest of the galaxy - you were a hero to us, as well."

Koroleva turned her head to look straight at Tamar for the first time in this whole conversation. "Then I guess you never really knew me at all."


"If Nina and the general aren't back in another two minutes, I'm going to look for them," Matthias said as he paced, nervousness written in every line of his posture.

Wylan didn't disagree. They'd only gone to investigate something, and they hadn't returned in half an hour. But. . . "You shouldn't go off alone. It's not safe."

Matthias turned back to Wylan. "I shouldn't leave you alone, either," he said.

"That's not what I was saying-"

"But it's right." Matthias sat back down next to him as he finished off the next charge. "I'm your bodyguard. I should stay here to protect you, send one of these Pathfinders," he gestured to the ones seated a little way away from them in the glade, talking amongst themselves, "to investigate. At least," he added, "I was your bodyguard. I doubt your father's paid me at all in the last few months."

Wylan had to laugh.

"But the sentiment remains," Matthias concluded as he ruffled Wylan's hair. Wylan ducked his head down, scowling - Matthias was only seven years older than him! - but was secretly pleased. He'd spent so much time building weapons and organising supplies and all in all being a responsible Rebel that he couldn't help but feel like nothing of his childhood was left in him. Especially since the hope his young self had always harboured that his father did love him had faltered and died with the man himself.

At least he still had Matthias - and not just because Matthias was paid to do it, because it was his job. Because Matthias was his friend.

And now his friend's face had become distant again, because was worried, because his (girl)friend had gone missing, along with the leader of this fool's quest.

"You love her, don't you?" Wylan asked suddenly, some freak idea taking hold of his tongue and moving it for him.

Matthias was as startled as him. "Who?"

"Nina."

If anything, Matthias looked even more startled than before. "Do I?"

Wylan laughed. "You seem to."

"Oh."

"Maybe you two should talk this through later," he suggested, suddenly realising that he should probably get back to building the ammunitions. "I'm sorry, it was a bad time to bring it up."

Matthias didn't answer. He still looked faintly perplexed.

Then he looked straight at Wylan. "What about you?"

"Me?"

"Yeah," Matthias said, narrowing his eyes. "You and-"

"Jesper!" someone shouted. "Wait for-"

They never actually finished their sentence - or at least, Wylan never heard them finish their sentence, because almost immediately Jesper burst into the glade, face flushed and beaded with sweat, in an utmost state of panic.

Wylan was on his feet and concerned almost instantaneously. "What is it?"

Jesper's wild eyes found Wylan's. "Tamar and Nina got captured."

"What." That was Matthias, also on his feet now. There didn't seem much else to say.

Jesper held up something. "All we found was this."

The homing beacon Tamar had shown them earlier.

Wylan took a deep breath, then another, then another. He needed to-

Needed to-

Think. Do.

Do something.

"Okay," he said, "so the Empire knows we're here-"

"Which means the whole mission's shot." One of the Pathfinders had approached to join the conversation; they didn't have a positive view on their prospects. "This entire prospect relied on our presence being a secret here. Now we're revealed, separated, and we've lost our leader."

"They knew about us anyway," the Pathfinder who'd come with Jesper - Ruby, Wylan remembered distantly - said. "This whole thing was a trap."

"I'm sorry," another Pathfinder said, coming up to join the conversation, "what?"

Ruby turned to them. "There is currently an entire regiment of stormtroopers guarding that shield generator. They leaked the information to us to bait us into coming, let us through the shield so we would send the signal to bring to rest of the fleet here, and then they're going to kill us and obliterate the fleet."

No one said a word. There wasn't really anything to say.

Except-

"We're doomed."

Ruby turned on the Pathfinder who said it. "Yes," she said baldly, "we are. But so is the Rebel Fleet if we don't get that shield generator down."

Her words of wisdom didn't seem to be inspiring her comrades, Wylan observed. Matthias still looked faintly green.

But Ruby wasn't finished yet. "These defences are formidable," she said. "Why?" No one answered. "Because the Empire doesn't underestimate us. They know how good we are. And I know we need that shield down. So don't tell me why we won't succeed. Tell me how we will."

"Did you just quote the Princess of Alderaan at us?" one of the Pathfinders mused.

Ruby gave a grim smile. "Yes, I did. But is she right or not?"

The Pathfinders looked at each other. "She's right," they said after a moment. "But we only have two hours at most to destroy the generator before the fleet arrives. The odds of that. . . How are we going to do it?"

Ruby glanced at Jesper. "Well, as my Corellian friend here says 'Never tell me the odds.'"

Wylan looked down at the charges he'd been building, and, not for the first time, thought of Inej. She should've been here to destroy it - she could sneak in anywhere; she could sneak in here. She could plant the charges and skedaddle before it exploded. And if they timed it right, and got all of the troopers inside the contraption when it did. . .

Wait.

Wylan frowned at his charges, then looked up. "I'll do you one better," he said. Everyone looked at him in surprise, but he was already barrelling on, forming the plan in his head. It may not be a great one. . . but it could work.

He picked up one of his charges. "If you can't beat the odds. . ." The saying was Inej's as well - well, it was a smugglers' saying, but she was the one who'd said it, all those months ago when they were planning the mission to Naboo and Wylan was to terrified to think. "Change the game."