On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter VI

"Ready for this?" Luke asked.

"Nope, let's do it," Han replied.

"Quiet!" Leia hissed as she fiddled with a comm before it finally connected. "Father? Are you there?"

"Yes," Vader's reply came almost immediately.

"Good, we're all here. Everyone in position?"

Chewie responded with a yes.

"Yes," Vader answered dryly, obviously still not too happy with the arrangements.

"Waiting on standby," Threepio said cheerfully.

"Let's get this over with," Han muttered.

"Carefully, we don't want another Cymoon I happening," Luke responded. Chewie was in position somewhere on the ground; Threepio was on the Millenium Falcon, hopefully watching it; Vader was somewhere in system, probably planetside, Luke didn't know for sure because it had been agreed that no one would try to sense for anyone outside of their imedit area to hopefully not draw any unwanted attention if any of the Emperor's Hands were present; and Luke, Leia, Han, and Artoo were all aboard a stolen Imperial shuttle that Han was now piloting to the Imperial base below. The three of them were dressed as a loading crew.

With luck, they'd be in and out, leaving a destroyed base behind them.

~*~

Luna moved across the roof, taking in the area and finding the target. Ahsoka was on the Illusion which was hidden nearby, still cloaked. The cargo they were going to steal was on display, obviously preparing to be taken by the soon to arrive shuttle. Luna began to mentally tally all of the obstacles between her and the soon to be stolen cargo.

Problem 1: The cargo is locked down.

Problem 2: The locks look like they're of higher quality than usual.

Problem 3: There are over three dozen troopers guarding the cargo.

Problem 4: Droids are constantly surveying the area from the sky.

Problem 5: There is a wookie hiding in the shadows with a bowcaster trained on Imperials below.

Problem—Wait, wookie?!

Luna looked again. There was indeed a wookie. Chewbacca to be exact.

Blast it! Luna thought to herself. Where Chewie was, Han, Leia, and Luke were sure to be as well, and in extension of the twins, Vader.

"Uh, Huntress I to Huntress II, you there?" Luna asked in a low voice, speaking into a comm.

"What is it?" Ahsoka's voice asked.

"Did you, by any chance, know about the Rebellion doing a raid on this base today?"

"You're joking."

"I wish."

"Then come on back, we don't want to get caught up in whatever's going on," Ahsoka said. Luna noticed an Imperial shuttle coming towards them. Carefully, so if there were any Force sensitives on board they wouldn't notice, she sensed the shuttle and was only marginally surprised to find that Luke, Han, and Leia were aboard and that the twins still had yet to master the art of cloaking oneself from the Force, which both Ahsoka and Luna were doing, not that Ahsoka was really aware that Luna was doing it.

The Togruta's offer was tempting, but so was staying put to see what would happen. Who knew, maybe they wouldn't even notice Luna was there, and during the craziness of what was soon to happen, it may be easier to steal what she was beginning to suspect were high quality weapons.

"No, I'm getting that cargo, the Rebels can be a distraction," Luna finally said.

Also, in that way, if—Force forbid—something were to happen, she wouldn't be far off. Luna may have left Vader and planned on sticking away from the Alliance, but that wasn't going to prevent her from helping them if they needed it. She just needed to make sure she was long gone if Vader was nearby and came to help—Luna wasn't about to risk trying to sense for her old Master.

"Celestia, you listen to me. This is a weapons base, if Rebels are here—"

"They are here to destroy it. I know," Luna replied. Ahsoka obviously wanted Luna no where near what was going to happen soon. She had probably known about the Rebel's plans and must have misplaced the dates. Either way, unless Luna wanted Ahsoka to come marching on over to drag Luna away, she needed to bring the Togruta to her side and quick. "Why don't you go find their ship? I'm thinking it's a modified YT-1300 Corellian light freighter that looks like a piece of junk hiding somewhere in the garbage dump."

"Why would I—What?!"

"I think Skywalker and friends are here. The wookie that works with them, Chewbacca, he's here. I've got visual."

"Hold on, Luke Skywalker?"

"No, the Chiss children that guide ships through the Unknown Regions," Luna replied flatly. "Of course Luke Skywalker."

"O-kay," Ahsoka said, drawing out the word. "You're not planning anything stupid, like capturing him are you?" Luna almost rolled her eyes, she would have thought Ahsoka knew her well enough by now.

"No, if anything I'll help them if they need it. Otherwise, they don't need to know we're here."

"What happened to not joining the Rebellion?"

"You don't have to be a part of the Rebellion to help Rebels."

Luna heard Ahsoka sigh as she watched the shuttle land. "Comm me if you need help, I just remembered something that I have to do."

"No problem...."

~*~

Ahsoka pulled on her hood before activating the small communicator machine in her room. Within a few moments, it came to life. Ahsoka quickly typed in a code as she adjusted part of the settings to make sure her voice was unrecognizable.

Skywalker.

"Ready for this Snips?"

"Hey, don't worry about it."

"What matters is what you do afterwards, everyone makes mistakes."

"Ahsoka, this weapon is your life."

"Why did you leave....Do you know what I've become?"

Ahsoka blinked back the memories of her old Master. Why did that have to be Anakin's fate? How could he have done what Vader had done? Why did he turn? How could he turn?

Ahsoka forced the thoughts to the back of her mind. Now wasn't the time. Now, it was another Skywalker that she needed to help.

The comm connected.

"This is Fulcrum."

~*~

Fulcrum. Vader would have been ready to swear he had heard the name before.

Unfortunately, he couldn't recall from where, although he was willing to bet it had been from Luna at one point or another. Things always seemed to be.

However, from what he could tell, this Fulcrum person was part of the Rebel spy network. She had somehow managed to show up unannounced and become the eye in the sky having hacked into the Imperial network. Vader had been forced to be content with listening into the comm channel for regular updates without speaking due to her presence.

"You're in the clear for now," Fulcrum said.

"Copy that. Thanks for the help," Han replied. The team had made it inside and so far had managed to get by without drawing any attention despite their assigned jobs not really including them leaving the landing pad.

"No problem."