Chapter 8

Ahsoka had adopted the cover story of being a bounty hunter on the lookout for a human male, Corellian, brown hair, brown eyes, known to be a fast talker and ladies man. The supposed scoundrel was wanted for the theft of light-sabre components and ancient Ryloth Slave collars, travelling on a modified freighter with a Wookie for a sidekick.

She didn't know where the last part had come from, but it ensured that people constantly denied having seen anyone, if they talked to her to begin with and passed everything on. Sooner or later the criminal element would come crawling out of the woodwork, but hopefully it would also come to the ears of those she was trying to reach. If there was a rebel movement on this planet, then lightsabre components had to be raising red flags, because even out here everyone knew that the Emperor was trying to corner the market on them, as it were. It was an ongoing issue for the Order, because as yet some components could not be manufactured locally.

The slave collars... they were something she'd added on a whim, mostly because slavery and it's implements were, officially at least, the sole purview of the Empire. It was all a part of her personality as a bounty hunter who cared only for the credits the job brought.

People were just a little less reluctant to talk to her that way, given that the perception most people had of bounty hunters included them not being nice to people that annoyed them, doubly so on a planet that was covered in a civil war that was set to last decades by the looks of it. Of course since the quarry she sought did not exist and even the bogus hints made for the few credits she would give in return didn't really matter. The least-time approach to getting anything done here was to get the local criminal element to do her work for her.

In that sense she had failed after about a day of searching, but she'd been the lowest sort of dive you found on the lower levels of Coruscant, but she had yet to see any sort of reaction from the locals. In need of a break, she had decided to further scout the local situation and had gone into one of the more respectable establishments that catered to what passed for the middle class on this planet.

As usual, cantinas were the best place to pick up on rumours.

The planet seemed to have a pirate problem, that much she was aware of. What was new to her was that rumours were making the rounds that a rebel cell was rumoured to be using the chaos on this world to hide its presence, apparently hoping that it's activities in the surrounding systems and long the hyperspace routes were lost in the shuffle.

While on the whole a good idea, Ahsoka knew that they would have to be careful not to be too successful lest they attract Imperial attentions. Still, this was probably the best lead she'd had so far and she began to wonder why she had not adopted this approach to begin with. But Anakin had taught her to use such opportunities as they presented themselves. So she slowly shuffled closer to the two farm workers discussing this under the guise of getting another drink at the bar.

But there was a little more than that. The rebel group was supposedly located in three different places in the eastern mountains that shielded the statelets borders in that region, and fighting still raged in parts of that area where the last remnants of some political dissident group or other was being mopped up. In short, a very dangerous area indeed.

Not that Ahsoka was worried. She had been through plenty of dangerous spots during the war and since, being Rebel Scum wasn't exactly a safe way to spend one's days.

There would have to be proof of some sort for this, something tangible, because she couldn't afford to waste time on this. Rumours seemed to be everything she had to go on, and she had a deep sense of foreboding about this whole thing. With an impatient but silent sigh she threw enough credit chips for three times the booze she had consumed on the table and left the cantina. She did not notice that she was being followed by someone.

In a store she purchased a topographical map of the continent that was far more detailed than the one she'd pulled off the HoloNet before setting off on this mission and viewed it on her datapad. The region where the rebels seemed to be operating from according to the stories was not all that far away, but as she studied the increasingly decrepit road network in that area she sensed that taking the shortest route would be the most dangerous. Yet taking it off-road risked getting hit by the locals and she couldn't really afford the delay, not to mention that she would rather not get involved in the petty squabbles that had done so much harm to this world.

A fast speeder was what she needed. Earlier that day she'd seen an X-34, the closed cockpit variant, standing on the lot of a vendor who sold used speeders. She felt bad about having to steal it, but she couldn't afford to leave even more of an electronic trail for someone to follow, not when it was possible that she was getting closer to her target. The security measures around the fence and inside the speeder itself were laughably easy to beat, and Ahsoka noted that no one seemed to be bothered by her taking a speeder without paying. Crime seemed to be even more rampant than at first glance.

When she left the environs of the city behind and sped along the pockmarked and damaged ferrocrete surface of the road she saw a second speeder following the same stretch of road and keeping a distance that made it possible that it was entirely accidental. And yet, deep-seated caution induced by years of covert operations made her reach out in the Force, and when she sensed who flew that vehicle, she had to deliberately keep herself from going off-course. It could not be, and yet the Force had not misled her yet.

Two things could be the cause of this, either she was being followed for her bounty hunter cover or she was being followed because it was what she was looking for. Either way, she needed to get that person somewhere where she was in control of the situation.

Even with a fast speeder in reasonably good repair such as this one the transit to the region took her several hours.

Eventually she stopped her speeder next to an abandoned farm that had seen all but one of the buildings destroyed. It was the perfect place, so she hopped out and walked towards the damaged droid maintenance shed.

As soon as she was through the crack in the wall, she moved aside, looking for a way to the second level of the decrepit building. The wrecked droid maintenance supports were covered by layers of dust and bits of the ceiling, but with force-jumps she managed to bypass the destroyed staircase and hid behind the heat exchange valve of an automatic welding machine. Just as she had expected, the tall figure of the being tailing her coming in soon.

Ahsoka thought it was a testament to his skills that she hadn't spotted him sooner, after all Wookies weren't exactly inconspicuous. She recognized him in spite of all the years that had passed and rose to her feet.

"Fancy seeing you here, Chewbacca."

((I did not know it was you, young one.))

"I gathered that." she replied and jumped down from her perch. She approached Chewbacca and looked up at him.

"So why did you follow me?"

((I heard that someone was looking for Ryloth Slave Collars and even though this bounty hunter asking around about them turned out not to be a slaver, I figured that he would lead me to the people I was looking for.))

"And then you would... remove the bounty hunter from the equation, and do whatever it is you came here to do with the slavers."

Chewbacca nodded. ((Indeed. And you are probably looking for either the local rebels or the Jedi, I take it?))

Ahsoka showed little surprise. "Of course there wouldn't be a reason for a Jedi to come here other than that."

((Maybe we can assist each other. If you help me with what I have to do, I will help you with your mission.))

She was unsure. Chewbacca was certainly trustworthy, but could she afford to be distracted from her mission?

((If it is going to be any sort of incentive, what I am here to do is this...))

When he had told her of what he was here to do there was no question at all of her helping him.

((About seventy clicks from here, at the edge of the mountains there is a compound, probably an old facility of the planetary defence forces. Doesn't really matter. What does is that they take prisoners from all the factions and even some off-world captives and sell them to the Empire as slaves.))

Ahsoka wasn't speechless. Sadly this sort of thing happened all the time these days. Now of course there was no question of her not accepting this offer.

"How did you find out about that?"

Chewbacca gave what was a smile for his species. ((Everyone has his sources, Jedi. But let us just assume that this isn't the first shipment of slaves I have traced.))

That he had attacked and liberated said shipments went unsaid, but Ahsoka was certain that was what had happened. She'd known that Chewbacca was wanted by the Empire for it, having seen the wanted posters and heard the rumours floating around. It was not that surprising given what the Empire was doing to his home world on a regular basis.

She didn't have to use her Jedi powers to know that Chewbacca at least suspected that she was with a certain elusive rebel group on the Rim. In turn Chewbacca was sure to be experienced and smart enough to know that Ahsoka in turn could not reveal where she had spent the years since they had last met.

The two seized each other up, Ahsoka taking in the Wookie she'd met only once before but who had made a lasting impression, Chewbacca considering the changes in the young Padawan who was now a confident and probably very strong Jedi.

((How many of you made it off Coruscant?))

"Who says that I was there to begin with?"

Chewbacca smiled. ((Nothing, really. But rumour has it that at least one of the leaders of a certain rebel group that operates all over that part of the Outer Rim is Togruta. I would also believe that someone such as you would found her own rebel group instead of looking to join one if she was operating alone. You're just not the type, young one.))

That much was true. She wasn't the type to play hanger's on or act as some sort of super spy from the shadows.

So instead of telling Chewbacca a lie Ahsoka grinned and shook her head. "Well, you seem to have all the information you need. Now, in return I would want to say that your hunt of slavers seems to be going just fine."

((Fine enough. Chewbacca replied and sighed. The problem is that I am too well known on my homeworld and a Wookie stands out too much if he goes elsewhere.))

Ahsoka knew better than to offer him a place with the Republic, even though she was authorized to do so, at least on her own responsibility. Instead she clipped her lightsabre back to her belt.

"Let's get to it then. We both have something the other needs."

((Very well.))

The Jedi was once more in hiding. She had returned to this miserable world with her group, only to find that things hadn't improved in their absence. Quite the opposite, as it was hard to miss the Star Destroyer orbiting one of the outer planets. She probed into the force and though she did not sense anything specific, she had a bad feeling, and that was it. Her location was remote, yet the local wildlife ensured that she would remain hidden in the background of the planet's own living Force.

Slowly the tendrils of her presence sought out the others trained in the ways of the Force. Yet try as she might, she was unable to determine where that dark presence was coming from and who originated it, but...

The presence was very carefully hidden, and any less experienced Jedi or indeed anyone less familiar with that presence would have missed it since it was very carefully hidden, but to her it was there all the same. A bright, shining beacon of light in the darkness that enshrouded this planet. So familiar, and yet so different from the last time she had felt it.

Confidence, self-confidence and... happiness, the knowledge that the owner of that presence was not alone.

Not something that she would associate with Ahsoka Tano, not considering the circumstances they had last seen each other under. The Jedi knew that what had happened in the aftermath of the Temple bombing was to a great part her own fault, and she blamed herself for it. It was part of the reason why she did what she was doing and why she had cut herself off from the Force in this way.

That Tano of all people would be among the few Jedi to survive the purges wasn't all that surprising. The Empire may have wiped out those at the Temple and hunted down the Jedi in the Galaxy at large, but Tano had not been with the Order and probably just been far enough removed from events to slip beneath the Empire's scopes.

She was tempted to seek her out, but... no. She had a task to perform. If it was the wish of the Force that they should meet, then it would happen.

tbc

Chewbacca appearing in some fashion this early was something I wanted to do for the longest time. It's also kind of important to the plot later on in regards to a certain Corellian smuggler. It's also why I had Ahsoka learn Shyriiwook back in Episode II.

Also, in the future, when someone speaks Shyriiwook or any other non-Basic language that the Point of View Character understands, in this case Ahsoka, I would normaly be using those sideways chevron thingys, but apparently FFnet doesn't support those, and to denote it as non-Basic speech. Instead (( and )) will be used. As for why I use actual speech with Chewie.. well, one thing that bugged me about Legends EU was that all too often they ditched chances at character development for sake of not writing his dialogue, making it necessary to do hackneyed and stiff "Yes, I know he did X." or other lines of that sort, such as Han's line about Imperial design priorities for shuttles in ROTJ. While it kinda works in movies (being kept to a certain minimum), it always grated on me in books, especially the Han Solo Trilogy. The Black Fleet Crisis novels did it better.