Precipice by shadowsong26


Milestones: Chapter 2

Contrary to their collective optimism on Alderaan, it had taken a full three years for their rebel movement to reach the point of constructing a semi-permanent base. The delays had come from various directions, ranging from the inconvenient but costly-one of the sources Obi-Wan had hoped to use for shielding and certain surface-to-orbit defensive armaments had fallen through-to the outright dangerous-their first-choice base location had been compromised just as they were about to begin construction.

After that, Rex had suggested-with ready agreement from the rest of them, including all three Senators-that they take the time to investigate how that had happened before making any further moves. Fortunately, it hadn't been any kind of overt betrayal on the part of anyone they'd trusted; an ISB counterintelligence agent had been in the right place at the wrong time and gotten just enough of a thread to unravel everything.

But now, eighteen months later, they were back on track, with a base that was within a day or two of fully operational, hidden and secure on their second-choice planet; the vast salt plains of Crait.

While Crait was approximately as dry as Tatooine, it was, fortunately, nowhere near as hot. On the other hand, the glare of the sun reflected off the salt flats made it, at local noon, actually brighter than the desert that had been Obi-Wan's home for the past thirteen years.

But that, more than an annoyance, was actually an advantage-between the sheer white reflective surface, and the elemental composition of the reddish mineral deposits underneath, any sensors attempting to get imaging data of the surface would have to be very close indeed to find them.

It wasn't perfect camouflage, by any means, but it was the primary reason why he and the others had decided to settle here.

Of course, that camouflage came with its own trade-offs. Those same mineral deposits and iron-rich crust which helpfully confused sensors looking in had a nasty habit of doing the same to their own tech attempting to look out, not to mention making it difficult to establish and maintain reliable communications. Setting up a handful of relay satellites in the low atmosphere would've cleared the interference, of course, but also negated its ability to protect them.

Still, they were working on correcting the problem, and Obi-Wan had every faith that it was merely a temporary inconvenience. Though it did leave him a little bit uneasy, especially with Anakin and Leia off in occupied territory for what was, at the moment, a fairly risky mission.

But his personal comm was linked to the base system already, which would boost him past the atmospheric interference as soon as they had a working solution. Besides, Anakin had other ways to contact him-though he wouldn't, unless something had gone wrong-and Obi-Wan was planning to stick his head out, so to speak, if they weren't up and running in the next twelve hours. Just in case.

Apart from that, though, just about everything was in place. There were a few additional things he would like to have access to, but nothing they couldn't live without. Internal base climate controls, for one, were up and running and had been for a while-which was particularly vital for amphibious beings, such as his old friend Moonshot, who had been one of the first to agree to join them here.

While the hierarchy of their newly-organized movement was still somewhat nebulous, and far more fluid than the GAR had ever been, Moonshot had settled into a semi-official role as the base commandant, while Obi-Wan himself, supported by Anakin, Ahsoka, and Rex, seemed to have ended up in overall command. Of course, he didn't think that would last particularly long, as their movement grew and they hopefully recruited someone more qualified. But, for now, he would serve in that role to the best of his ability.

Those, of course, were problems for another day, and there were still a handful of immediate tasks to complete before the base could be 'officially' in use. Obi-Wan was assisting with those as needed-mostly where heavy lifting was required; he had something of an advantage there-and keeping an eye on how the gathered rebels were settling in.

Just as they'd planned three years ago, he and the others had, over the past six months, invited a dozen or so of the cells in their network to staff the base. They had put together their list primarily based on skillsets and location-they had a mix of primarily guerilla fighters with ground fighting experience, but had managed to scrape together enough pilots to put together two flight groups-but made every attempt to limit their selections to the ones likeliest to integrate into a cohesive force.

Not an easy task, when working with insurgent cells that had operated more or less independently for, in many cases, as long as the Empire had existed. If not longer.

Still, most were here now-having trickled in in small groups over the past couple of weeks, using routes he and the others had mapped out with help from their black market contacts. And he was pleased to see more cooperation than conflict, overall. It might not last, of course, as the setup tasks dwindled, but he hoped it would.

Rex came up beside him, interrupting his thoughts, and sketched a quick salute, which Obi-Wan returned with a nod; relaxing as they fell into a familiar, if long-disused, pattern.

It struck him as a touch odd, that it felt so familiar, despite everything that had happened. Or perhaps not odd, so much as a little-sad. Being back on an active military base, even a small, furtive one that wasn't quite ready for action, shouldn't...shouldn't feel quite so much like coming home.

It was a disturbing thing, that they'd all gotten so used to war.

"Sir?"

"Sorry," Obi-Wan said, flashing Rex a brief smile. "Lost in thought."

Rex nodded. "Think I know what you mean," he said, eyes flicking out over the crowd with practiced ease, scanning for anything that needed intervention from Command. "Didn't expect it to feel like this."

"No," Obi-Wan agreed, softly. "I'm not sure any of us did."

"Probably not."

Obi-Wan sighed faintly, and changed the subject. "Everything else running smoothly? Things seem to be coming together, from what I can tell."

"So far," he said. "Much as it can, at this stage, anyway. Shield generator's fully up and running as of about an hour ago, but we're still having some issues with comms. Moonshot's putting in the last few updates General Skywalker suggested, we're gonna try again in a few minutes. Hopefully, that'll do it."

"Good to hear," he said. "So far as I know, Senator Organa is still on schedule, and should be here some time tomorrow." Not that their base really needed an official stamp of approval, but it made things feel more connected. Besides, it would probably help with morale, for those gathered here to see they had friends and allies on Coruscant, even now.

"We might not be quite up to standard by then," Rex said. Then paused, considering, and added, "Depending on who's defining 'standard,' anyway. But we should have the basics going pretty reliably by then."

"Excellent," Obi-Wan said, feeling a slight tension he hadn't realized he'd been carrying leave his shoulders. Despite the strange half-familiarity of the Crait base-or perhaps even because of it-the last few days here had felt somewhat surreal. Hearing how close it was to reality helped, especially coming from one as grounded and as trusted as Rex.

"General Ben?" a familiar voice called from halfway across the hangar-Moonshot and some of his other contacts had yet to get out of the habit of using whatever alias they knew, as opposed to his real name.

Although, he supposed, he wasn't really in a position to comment, given that he still primarily thought of her as Moonshot, rather than Druthi.

"Yes?"

"We're ready for another test run," she said. "Care to join us?"

"Might as well," he said. "Rex?"

"Sure," he said. "Unless you'd rather have me stay and supervise in here."

He considered the room, then shook his head. "No, I think they can do without us for a half hour or so." He turned back to Moonshot. "After you. Which test are we running this time? Rex said you were still working on comms?"

"We are, and interference again," she said, dodging an unfamiliar astromech as it careened around a corner. "We think we've got it solved, in a way that won't overload the power cells and short out the crypt module this time. We have Blue Group running a CAP, making a manual scan of the system for any trouble that we can't see clearly from here. Goal is to make simultaneous contact with them and an out-of-system relay without frying anything."

"You've managed separate tests?" he asked. He felt fairly certain he knew the answer-Moonshot was careful, and thorough-but it never hurt to double check.

"We have," she confirmed. "About ten minutes apart. We thought about gradually decreasing the interval, but…"

"With any luck, that'd just be a waste of time," Rex finished for her.

"Exactly," she said, as the doors to the command center slid open to admit them.

The room felt somewhat incomplete-or, better put, still asleep-with half of the scanner panels still dim and deactivated, but apart from a few piles of cables that Obi-Wan carefully stepped over, everything was in place. Just waiting for the final connections and orders to be made to turn them on.

"General," the being on comms said-a thin-faced Twi'lek, one of Ahsoka's contacts; Obi-Wan couldn't recall his name off the top of his head.

So, instead, he returned the salute and said, "Carry on, I'm simply here to observe."

"Yes, sir," he said, then flipped a few switches. "Druthi?"

"We are a go."

"Commencing comms test 87, on my mark."

Moonshot picked up a headset-modified to fit around her tentacles-and started plugging in her frequencies.

"Three...two...mark," the Twi'lek on the main, local comms console said. "Blue Group, this is Base Command. Do you read?"

There were a few seconds of staticy silence; Obi-Wan resisted the urge to lean against the console and get in the officer's way, half-unconsciously holding his breath, until-

"Copy that, base," came the reply. "We read you loud and clear. Finally."

Half a step behind him, Rex sighed faintly.

Clearly, the Twi'lek communications officer-Liir Arend, that was his name-agreed. "Keep the snark to a minimum, Blue Four. You're on duty."

Obi-Wan bit back a smile and absently scritched behind the ears of a vulptex that hopped up onto the console, sniffing curiously at Arend's hand.

"Understood, Command," Blue Four said, sounding not at all sorry. "Minimal snark is a go."

"Blue Group," Obi-Wan cut in, because he knew from long experience where the conversation might go from there. "Finish your patrol and then return to base. Report in as necessary."

Another brief silence, before a new, more familiar voice answered.

"Copy," Blue Leader said. "Clear skies so far. We'll let you know if that changes."

"Understood. Base Command out." He set the local comms back on standby, and smiled at Arend. "Well, that part, at least, went well enough. Moonshot?"

"We are officially up and running," Moonshot said, with a grin, setting her headset aside and tossing her tentacles back. "The test message and response from a contact of mine in the Ivriid system went through, no issues. Even with the local messaging back and forth at the same time. Systems didn't throw up any overload warnings. No alerts from the scanners on either end, and the crypt modules worked like we hoped they would."

"Excellent," Obi-Wan said, as the vulptex, apparently through being petted, stood up and shook itself off before leaping down off the table and disappearing deeper into the base. "I think Anakin will be sorry he missed this." Though perhaps he would've matched Blue Four in irreverence, and the test would have taken twice as long. Even after I interrupted.

As if on cue, his personal comm chimed before Moonshot could reply.

Though it was not Anakin on the other end, to his relief-nor Bail or Padmẻ , though she rarely risked reaching out directly, even now.

"Excuse me," he said, and stepped aside to take the call; he felt Rex following him and stopping at a discreet distance, just in case.

"Kenobi!" Hondo Ohnaka's voice rang out from the commlink. "My very dear friend, at last. It has been too long, and I have been trying to reach you for nearly a day now."

"My apologies, Hondo," Obi-Wan said, catching Rex's eye and nodding briefly for him to come closer and listen in. Hondo generally only made contact when he had something he wanted to sell, which might be information-which might be urgent-or it might be materiel or other supplies. "I've had some technical difficulties."

"Ah, of course, of course," Hondo said, apparently unconcerned.

So, likely, whatever he has to offer isn't particularly urgent, Obi-Wan thought. Or he'd be playing up the delay a bit more. If only to drive up the price.

"But things seem to be resolved now," Obi-Wan continued. "What's going on?"

"I have a proposition for you," he said. "Can we meet?"

"That all depends," Obi-Wan said. "On the proposition, and the timeframe." While he'd prefer to be here when Bail arrived, he wasn't, strictly speaking, needed. Rex and Moonshot could handle things perfectly well on their own, and Ahsoka was due back on site in a few hours, as well.

"Let's just say that I have come across some items which might be helpful in your recent endeavors," Hondo said. "But better to discuss the details in person, I think."

Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow at Rex, who made a face, but shrugged.

Hondo, for a long, long list of reasons, was of course not privy to the actual location of the base, but he had been helpful when it came to outfitting the place. Besides, he and Hondo had an understanding, with a decade and a half of history backing it up. Even more importantly, the Force gave him no warning tingle of danger when he considered agreeing to the meeting.

Worst case scenario, he was probably looking at a day or so of wasted time. Possibly an attempt to wheedle him into helping the pirate with whatever his project of the moment was, but, again-Hondo knew his limits, so all Obi-Wan would lose was time.

"All right, I'll bite," Obi-Wan said. "When and where?"

"Ah, magnificent! I knew my very dear friend Kenobi would not let me down."

"Hondo."

"Yes, yes," he said. "The same place we met last time, twelve hours."

Obi-Wan ran some quick mental calculations, then nodded. "Yes, I'll be there."

"Excellent," Hondo said. "Until then, my friend. I bid you goodbye." With that, he signed off, and probably would have flourished in some way if this had been a full holocall, rather than voice-only.

"Mind if I tag along, sir?" Rex asked, as Obi-Wan was putting his commlink away. "Moonshot can handle herself 'til the Commander gets here."

He thought about it for a moment, then nodded. While there was no indication Hondo was leading him into any kind of trap, having an extra pair of hands and eyes along couldn't hurt. His pirate friend could be...unpredictable.

"All right," he said. "Send a message to Ahsoka, so she knows where to find us if anything comes up. I'll brief Moonshot. We leave in an hour." That should be enough time to pass the necessary information along and get his ship prepped, while still ensuring they arrived a little ahead of the scheduled rendezvous.

"Sir," Rex acknowledged and, with the ease of frequent repetition, the two of them separated to attend to the necessary last-minute details before an unplanned departure.


Original Author's Notes: So sorry for the delays! I will be on an actual schedule at some point in the not-too-distant future, I promise XD Thanks so much for your patience and for sticking around/stopping by! ~shadowsong