My apologies for the delay in posting! This fic can also be followed on Archive of Our Own.

This chapter: Two rebels decide to be rebellious, Bodhi learns on the job, a certain Director is naturally suspicious and Jyn's troublesome cufflinks could foil their delicate plan.

Chapter Eight: Infiltration One

Bodhi had flown the sleek black action ship Sefla was proud to call their own along a different route to the facility than Willix and his aide had set course for. They'd been in touch with the other half of their team once, and in brief; in the form of a single text transmission reading emclear/em. Bodhi hoped the rest of the plan would play out as smoothly.

The ship's dashboard flashed a warning light for a scan radius it was close to entering, and he couldn't help but smile that their leads so far were right.

Good signs so far.

He steered them clear of the invisible barrier indicated on the scans and swerved to the other side of the canyon, lowering between the massive walls of smooth rock so the ship's hull almost skirted the ground. It was smooth, easy flying; they had some time to wait for Willix's shuttle.

The facility was located a good half-mile away where the canyon split into ragged, messy ends, perched on a vast but crude elevation of rock. And like many of the Empire's prisons it had no subtlety- it spread across a great area as loud, imposing black buildings that dared the planet's residents to offend their Imperial occupiers. It wasn't only high-value prisoners they kept inside.

How many people who didn't deserve it, Bodhi found himself absently wondering, were locked behind those walls? Jyn herself had suffered some long period in an Imperial labour camp. How many others like her, whom they wouldn't get to save?

Don't go there. Get yourself together.

Bodhi snapped from this treacherous line of thought at the feeling of a clap on his shoulder, and the wheel of the ship that was once again real under his hands.

"You okay?" Sefla asked, with as little real concern as the words could hold. Of course he looked okay. Probably like he was dozing on the job.

"Any contact from Jyn and Cassian?" he asked.

"Apparently we're not to engage the enemy until after they're inside," Sefla appeared unappreciative of the words he had to say. "Or get within the radius. But as we can all tell, that is a stupid plan."

Bodhi startled. "What?"

The Lieutenant looked over the dashboard to where the invisible border of the scan radius was a good three inches away from the dot that was their ship on the screen. "I'm thinking there's a way we can get closer. Close enough to be of help in case they need it."

But Cassian had clearly ordered-

"Ship's stealthier than we give it credit for," came Melshi's voice dryly as he appeared in the cockpit. "We have enough cover to ghost our way past the primary gate."

"Enough cover?" Bodhi asked.

Melshi jutted a finger at the viewport. "Plenty of cover."

Bodhi followed this general direction to peer upwards and strain, a little beyond the viewport's direct scope. They were gliding vertically on a rock face to his right, effectively hidden in the impending shadows cast by the strong Dimoran sun and the canyon ridges, while just at the very limit of his vision and a great distance off- there. A patchwork convoy of starships passing over the facility detection-zone they'd tried their best to avoid.

"Some part of local traffic's got re-routed here," guessed Sefla. "We can blend in, and this beauty isn't even going to get noticed because those are probably all private vessels."

"And we can use the ghosting function just to make a landing," murmured Bodhi thoughtfully. "If their scans are all set off anyway, we won't stand out. I bet we won't be the only ones landing if the traffic really was re-routed."

At the same time Melshi turned a raised eyebrow on his comrade. "Did you just refer to this ship as a beauty?"

"Isn't she?" retorted Sefla.

Bodhi slumped in his seat. "This is a dangerous amount of guesswork, though."

"She is not even ours for the keeping, not yet," snorted Melshi. "Captain plans to ask Logistics for something more discreet. Don't get attached."

Sefla looked personally scandalized. "He plans to what?"

"We weren't kept together for style, Taidu, we were kept together for results. Results like Scarif."

Sefla scoffed. "What we have been reduced to is Alliance propaganda, or some kind of bargaining chip for when things go wrong, Command's dirty backup plan. Might as well look stylish about it."

"Guys," prompted Bodhi, eyes never leaving the viewport.

There were more ships coming in, miniature and insignificant in the skies and the distance. He recalled from the morning's briefing that while the planet itself was unpopulous and laid-back, it lay across a well-commuted hyperspace route and there was a steady stream of passing ships over Dimoran's Eastern hemisphere. This wasn't the Eastern hemisphere, which meant these ships had indeed been rerouted.

"I still have a bad feeling about this," he admitted uneasily.

"So much about this mission is wrong already," Melshi shook his head. "But this looks like an opportunity bound to make a positive difference. What's the worst that could happen? Even if we're detected it won't look while we're up to something."

A slight frown creased the pilot's brow. "What do you mean so much is wrong?"

Sefla dropped into the co-pilot's seat and shook his head curtly. "You don't have to worry about that. Just get us in, tuck the ship somewhere discreet, and let us handle the explosives if there needs to be explosives."

You get us in and let us handle the explosives.

It sounded too much like their gameplan for Scarif.

Bodhi considered his options. There were too many things that were uncertain by this point, too many doubts and questions and niggling fears, and if he wasn't mistaken the matter of the way they got in had turned into a clash with Cassian's orders. But-

Sefla and Melshi were experienced soldiers, had years of decision-making behind them. Cassian would probably also take this opportunity if he were here. Probably. And if they were already close when the time came to double-swipe and ghost, it drastically reduced the risk of a late double-swipe.

"Okay," he said at last, wrapping his fingers around the controls. "Lead the way."

The Empire had dark secrets that even some of its most respected dignitaries and loyalists knew nothing about. With a network of power that stretched across the far reaches of the galaxy, casting a shadow over worlds of the Mid Rim and Outer Rim and unexplored sections of the Unknown Regions, dark secrets and shady operations were easy to keep well under the radar of Core World Imperial authorities with a taste for morality. Slavery and unethically cheap labour was guarded well enough. Torture as interrogation was a method frowned upon by most dignitaries and not permitted as per the Empire's policy on paper; but the military saw things differently from self-righteous Core World politicians and so while the occasional facility like Dimoran wasn't common knowledge, it wasn't a secret as well-guarded as slavery of Kashyyk natives.

Director Primeval Descon had just been notified that one such pompous bastard who believed torturing the enemy was morally wrong- or maybe he supported the idea, maybe he wanted to shower the facility with praise, but Descon didn't care either ways, the bastard be emdamned/em- had found about their operations and was keying in a shortly informed visit. Visit? The facility was a high-security prison, not a construction site. It could do without visits.

"Did Willix's background check come clean?" Well, that wasn't what he meant, really- no Core World politician's track record was spotless- but Descon was looking for something else specifically.

"As far as official records go, the guy's free of any real charges," Lieutenant Olson Creek answered, reading off a datapad he'd already gone through a dozen times. He was always eager to please his commanding officer- although, as second in command, there wasn't much room for advancement- and this was exactly the reason he'd been promoted to the spot in the first place. It had been a year in office and Creek was yet to grow himself an ego. "But his job never stays the same. He's frequently reassigned between Coruscant and Lothal, done some unspecified work on Ryloth, and has most of his tasks carried out by officers. He maintains contact with them from one of our trade outposts he's in charge of."

Descon deemed it too early to scoff and declare Willix a rebel collaborator, but he certainly hadn't been presented with less than it took to light a spark of suspicion.

"A trade outpost in which sector?"

"Bordering the Mid Rim off Haidoral Prime, Director."

Descon grunted without conviction. "A Core World Imperial of emCoruscanti/em origin assigned to some edge in the Mid Rim?"

"Actually, Willix's family originally came from the Mid Rim. Six generations ago they made a move to the Core Regions, recruited by a company for their engineering expertise. They grew from there onwards."

"And is he representing the Empire or Haidoral Prime with his job?"

"Reports say he's been very involved with establishing Imperial rule on Haidoral, sir."

"I'm not convinced with reports," Descon waved an impatient hand. "I want stories, personal opinions, tangible evidence. Any commendations from higher up about his work on Haidoral?"

Creek paused, recollecting the specifics of what he'd found. "Lieutenant Commander Aron Draft, in a few official reports."

Descon tapped his chin in thought. "And no one else?"

"No, sir."

Most interesting. "And what is Willix known to be like in person?"

Creek consulted his datapad. "Reputed to be intolerant. His last aide-de-camp was dismissed for not reporting for duty on time. Paranoid, apparently, with a KX security droid he bought for money at his side most of the time. Attends selected social gatherings. He's known to be a real charmer outside of duty."

"Married?"

"Briefly, then divorced. The wife died of a tropical virus two years later."

Descon nodded curtly, tapping at the empty space before him on his desk. "Leave your report here, Lieutenant. That'll be all."

Creek complied, but paused before drawing away. "What do you think, sir?"

The Director took his own time answering the question, allowing himself more room to consider his verdict. He spoke just before an uncomfortable silence could clog the air in his office.

"I think we need to keep our eyes open," he picked up the datapad, settled in his chair. The Director never spared time off his work to read reports himself, but he seemed quite intrigued by this one. "I think Willix's story reeks of convenient explanations for things that would give away a..."

Creek adjusted the cuffs of his sleeve uncomfortably behind his back. "Give away what, sir?"

Descon met his gaze with thought in the crease between his brows. "Just keep your eyes open."

Jyn fought down the urge to slump back onto the bench and refuse to move for the rest of the mission when the cufflinks of her uniform clicked open for the third time in the past half-hour.

"Are Imperial uniforms actually like this or are our forges just so bad?" she asked Cassian with a scathing look, telling herself that she was not /emcomplaining.

Cassian for the most part looked exasperated, but the left corner of his mouth twitched imperceptibly on reflex. He caught himself before she could notice. Sefla was already having a great time taunting him, and he did not wish to give his comrade any more self-destructive satisfaction in the future even if that satisfaction wasn't justified in the first place. "Do you see me having any issues with mine?"

Jyn eyed him unappreciatively, before looking back down at the offending cufflink and proceeding to fix it single-handedly. It writhed between her fingers like a fish caught in Lah'mu's mud.

Cassian reached across to clip it back together in one go. "Willix isn't supposed to tolerate disorder, Jyn. It won't help our cover if I don't dismiss you from duty as soon as you start looking unprofessional."

Jyn shot him a scathing glare. "Whose idea was this stupid Impeiral's personality anyway?"

"I don't have a fixed partner for the alias," replied Cassian matter-of-factly. "Willix having a tendency to dismiss his seconds makes that space readily available."

Jyn grunted indistinctly in acknowledgement.

"And that never gets suspicious? New faces all the time?"

Cassian reached up to swiftly button the collar of her uniform.

"I'm starting to think you really were given a bad fake," he muttered, pushing both palms against her shoulders to inspect her failing Imperial garb from a better vantage point. Jyn blew irately at a lock of hair that had crept from its careful bun and fell in her face now.

"The Dimoran facility sent us landing instructions," Kaytoo informed them, turning around the bend from the cockpit, looking cramped- hunched against the low ceiling- and sour about it. "We'll be there in thirty minutes and twenty four seconds. What are you doing? Is Jyn Erso not ready for her role?"

pCassian stepped away from her to answer the droid, but a skeptical eye remained trained on her collar. "Follow their instructions and keep Sefla's team posted. Jyn, do you know what you have to do?"

Standing straighter with her hands behind her back as previously practiced, Jyn flashed him a half-smile of completely assured confidence that she did not really feel. It did not show that she didn't really feel it.

What had he told Draven, back when they debated about her suitability for the mission?

She's been under different covers all her life. She hasn't been trained, maybe, but she hasn't been caught either.

I'll be surprised if Erso agrees to the technicalities of this mission, Captain. Will that be a problem?

Cassian had kept his face impassive and his tone neutral.

Whether she agrees or not won't be a problem, sir.

Now he briefly flicked his gaze her away before following his droid to the cockpit.

It wouldn't be a problem to the Alliance, or Draven, or anybody they had to please or work for.

He wasn't willing to acknowledge it in his thoughts, but those weren't really the people that mattered.

It was difficult to believe that they could be completely hidden from Imperial eyes at the flick of a single dashboard switch, but they would have to believe it to execute the next part of the plan. Getting into the airspace of the civilian vessels using the facility's land as a bypass had been easy- too easy- until Bodhi had caught sight of the lurking threat. Of emcourse /emthe Empire had security protocols for events like this. Mingling with the crowd of civilian ships were Imperial scouting ships that stood out as obviously as white stars in a blue sky, commanding authority and order. Demanding obedience. The civilian vessels seemed to move in a slow, careful quiet like prisoners with guns trained to their backs.

Bodhi made for a descent as casually as his trembling hands on the wheel allowed him, a move not entirely suspicious because a lot of the other crafts had landed as well, waiting out the traffic; if the scouts had been looking for them specifically, he felt...

Of course they're looking for us. They're looking for anyone who might be stupid enough to sneak in. They just don't know what we look like, or if we're actually here in the first place.

That gave him some small measure of reassurance.

Sefla swung around the co-pilot's seat to sit heavily in it, making Bodhi's nerves jump in shock. He quickly collected himself. He still wasn't over Bor Gullet, then. Maybe he had a longer way to go than he thought. Or maybe this mission was just fraying his nerves, maybe because they had already strayed from the original plan-

A plan which had been risky and much more likely to go disastrously wrong. They'd seen an opportunity, and they'd taken it. Sefla and Melshi knew what they were doing, he reminded himself. emHe/em didn't, not to the extent that he would say so out loud, but they did.

"I'm a genius, aren't I?" asked Sefla smugly, as if reading his thoughts.

"I...I guess so. Sir." Bodhi spared him just a glance, most part of his attention focused on the barren space in front of them and the canyon wall that wasn't being scaled by Imperial troopers trying to reach them.

"Just Sefla, please," the Lieutenant said, clearly not worried about their getting detected. "Unless you're presenting a report, or when we're around the big table at Base. Then it's rank and last name. Are you tense?"

"A little bit," lied Bodhi.

"But this isn't your first official mission."

"Well." The pilot thought about it. "It's my first real mission that's official."

Sefla chewed back a grin. "I see. You don't consider those scouting runs and such real missions?"

Bodhi wondered if Sefla knew the role he'd played in getting Kaytoo a new body after Scarif. He had just been a pilot, every time they searched, except when Cassian had finally agreed to let him accompany him on the ground. At the end of a long and explosive day, he hadn't regretted the decision.

"They're important," admitted Bodhi. "But they don't...feel...real, you know? Not unless there's something...difficult, or...or dangerous about it."

"You're a man of action as well," noted Sefla with a respectful nod. "It's a good thing you're assigned with us, then. Ever had to pretend to be someone else?"

Bodhi looked his way a little more clearly this time. "I don't understand."

"Of course you don't," Sefla stared straight ahead at the canyon wall for all of three seconds. "You decided to be a pilot and became a pilot?"

"Well...yes."

"Never tried your luck with anything else?"

"No. Not really."

"When I joined the rebellion..." Sefla sighed, like this wasn't a big deal to be narrating, but brought back painful memories all the same. "I didn't look like soldier material. Had never learnt to fly anything. Couldn't operate communication devices. Intel, maybe, they decided, so I was given a partner to do my job with until they could rely on me to be able to do it myself."

"My partner was the same age but he'd been around for a while. He was good at what he did, fit into a different skin easily. And I mucked up my first mission."

A minute smile tugged at his lips. "Spying wasn't for me. It tugged my conscience the wrong way. Then I enlisted for training with guns and found my place and lost my conscience."

Bodhi wanted to ask why he was being told all of this- it certainly wasn't a favour being returned because he'd never disclosed anything from emhis /empast- but before he got the chance to gather his nerves the dashboard radio cackled to life.

"Come in, Team Two."

Sefla sighed exasperatedly before lazily reaching over to push the intercom button.

"Really? You're going to call us Team Two?"

Cassian didn't sound amused on the other end of the line. "Hardly matters if you know who we're talking to. Get into position. I'll send the clearance code as soon as we get it, which should be any minute now."

Bodhi cast an uneasy glance the Lieutenant's way. "Uh, see, the thing is...we...we might have a better plan."

Cassian was silent for a second, but the frown on his face managed to transfer even over the comm. "Whatever it is you've thought of, it's a little too late to execute."

"It's not...it's not emall /emthat different from the original plan," amended Bodhi quickly. "We've actually just got closer to the facility so when you need us-"

"What about the secondary gate?"

Bodhi looked to Sefla for help, but the man was looking mildly amused by this conversation.

"We're already inside, just ten blocks after the secondary gate," he said, leaning over the dashboard comm casually.

Cassian's voice was somewhere between disbelif and scathing incredulity. "What do you mean you're inside?"

"There's traffic that's got rerouted here," said Sefla, dropping the playful look on his face. "All gates are open except for the ones directly leading into the facility itself. A lot of civilian ships are on the ground and probably setting off all their scanners, so the bet is that those scanners have been turned off."

"This is exactly the kind of opportunity someone wanting to break in would take," muttered Cassian, considering. "They're going to be keeping a careful eye on the gates that lead in."

"No chance of a double-swipe-looking-like-a-glitch working," Sefla agreed, as if he'd known this all along. Maybe he had, and just hadn't told Bodhi.

Cassian's tired sigh rattled through the speakers as static. "We'll need a different plan and quick. Jyn and I are almost in."

Sefla's lips quirked into a grin again, and Bodhi doubted his new comrade could keep a serious face for very long.

"Don't worry. Already got one."

Were these lighter circumstances, Jyn would have stopped a moment longer to appreciate just how beautiful this part of Dimoran was; even though it was the half that was Imperial occupied, even though it had looked harsh and fiery from space, up close the vast expanse of sand and stone was easy on the eyes. There was a massive canyon range that snaked around the landscape, casting great portions of the ground in shadow. The picture was painted in black, beige and hues of orange.

The Dimoran facility came into view, cradled by sand dunes, a falcon's nest in the desert.

There were ordinary prisoners, and valuable prisoners. The barrenness of the compound immediately surrounding the prison reminded her too much of Wobani.

Cassian emerged from the passenger compartment, where he'd been engaged in a call with the rest of their team on a secure line.

"Sefla improvised," he informed her from the low doorway, because there wasn't enough room in the cockpit for more than two people, and Kay was already firmly wedged in his seat. "There's civilian traffic rerouted over this place."

"It appears there is," commented Kay mechanically, calling Jyn's attention back to the viewport.

The skies, and much of the ground, were crowded, and up close she could see the dozen landed ships that had been hidden earlier in the shadows.

"They're going to be on closer guard because of this," she commented with a frown, her throat feeling strangely constricted in light of this development. "Are you sure we can double-swipe?"

Cassian coughed into a fist, casting his eyes down and twitching his lips behind his hand. When he looked up and spoke again, he'd lost his Mid-Rim accent, and sounded like the Coruscant-bred bloodline Imperial that Willix was.

"They have it figured out. We'll be setting down in a couple of minutes."

That was her call to slip into the skin of her alias as well.

"Incoming," said Kay. The dashboard radio cackled to life.

"This is the Dimoran detainment facility to unidentified vessel. Identify yourself, your purpose and clearance code."

Jyn kept perfectly still while Kay pressed the intercom and Cassian answered, accent crisp to the extent that for a single split second, she couldn't recognize the man standing in the doorway.

"Captain Ethen Willix of the Imperial Mid-Rim mission on an informed visit. Six-Two-Nine-Zero-Nine-Nine-Zero."

There was a brief pause on the other end of the line.

"Cleared, Captain. The Director will personally receive you at landing platform six."

Cassian's eyes flickered over to hers. "Very well." Kay took his finger off the intercom. "Transmit the code to the gate, Kay."

A gate closer to the base of the impending grey building slid slowly open- the primary gate- while he knew, were they following the original plan, Bodhi's ship wouldn't have been caught by the communications unit thanks to the ghosting function, and for this one instance the code to open any gate of the facility was the same thing. Their pilot would have to perfectly time his entrance with theirs to get through the secondary gate, ghost again, and tuck the ship in a canyon ridge inside the compound, switching off all detectable life support functions so even if they had turned up on the radar, they would have looked like a part of building, or scrap metal, or one of the numerous supply crates stored in the ridges. They would remain undetected right up to the moment the detained rebels were out of the building, get them, and get out before the secondary gate closed.

With the secondary gate open anyway, however, the Imperials would be on guard and shoot them out of the sky the moment they swept in to collect the prisoners, and the plan would only get so far if the break-out went undetected in the first place. So Sefla had come up with an alternative strategy.

The gate they flew through opened up to a space caged in dark walls, lighting provided by strips running along their lengths. Beyond the platform a broad corridor stretched into semi-darkness. Six armed stormtroopers stood in the aisles, the white of their armour clashing with the black prison interior.

When they set the ship down, Jyn positioned herself smartly at Cassian's shoulder as Kay joined him, adapting the posture that was Imperial regulation just before the shuttle hatch hissed open, releasing a thin cloud of white smoke that momentarily obstructed the path ahead and the uniformed figures standing on it.

The smoke cleared, and a man in white and rank plaques with greying hair and blue eyes stepped forward to greet Ethen Willix.

"Always a pleasure to meet a man of your authority," he said, voice cutting smoothly through the foreboding darkness.

Willix angled his head in acknowledgement, a barely perceptible smile tugging the corners of his lips. "Likewise, Director. The short notice isn't a problem, I hope?"

Cassian shook the Director's hand with an expression on his face that sent an cold jolt up her spine, and she couldn't remind herself not to be transfixed.

Descon looked too much like the man in her nightmares.