On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter XXXVI

"Come on, come on," Han muttered as he scanned for the datadisk that they were after. "Luke! Do you even have the general area it's supposed to be?"

"I'm trying! The list is code locked!" the Jedi responded. "Best guess is in—"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm already there and looking!"

"Boys, we're about to have company!" Leia called out from where she was standing guard at the entrance while using the Force to scan for any coming enemies—the only one of the three who still had her helmet on. "Just grab anything that looks interesting and get ready to move! I don't feel like getting trapped down here with an army of Hands and stormtroopers."

"As you say, Your Highness!" Han responded, quickly removing several datadisks from their compartments and tossing them out to Luke who had commandeered a bag from a wall compartment that had likely originally been meant for some other use. "At least they won't be able to say we left empty handed!"

"Yeah, yeah, let's go," Luke responded, zipping up the bag as Han exited the safe before shooting at the control panel to close and lock the door. The two moved out into the hall. Luke spread out his senses, even as he looked down the hallway they had come from. "We can't go back the way we came in."

"Isn't there only one turbolift down here?" Han asked

"There's got to be another way out," Leia responded, shaking her head, even as she pulled off her helmet, eyes scanning the hall around them even as her mind went back to the blue prints Valkyrie had drawn out for them. "Didn't Valkyrie say something about some of the vents—"

"Being big enough to crawl through," Luke finished.

"That doesn't help us get up a few floors. Ventilation shafts won't have anything to grapple to unless someone has something besides standard Imperial gear," Han commented.

"The Force?" Leia suggested, looking at Luke as he was still farther along than her when it came to any Jedi related activities. Her brother shrugged.

"Should be simple enough. Force lift up a few floors, turbolifts should be clear for the rest of the way."

"Great," Han deadpanned. "Why do I feel like I'm going to regret this?"

"Hey, I've been getting better at telekinesis!"

"Less arguing, more moving," Leia interrupted. "We need to find the entrance to the vents and get out of here."

It took a few minutes for the group of Rebels to locate a vent that was large enough for them to crawl into. After they'd made it inside, Luke relied on the Force to guide them through the darkness to the closest vertical shaft which would hopefully allow them to move up a few levels. When Luke finally felt his way to an edge he called a halt to their progress before maneuvering his deactivated lightsaber out into the open. For whatever reason, he felt as though it would be in his best interest to point the blade downwards before activating it to fill the shaft with a green glow. The moment his eyes adjusted, Luke spotted something hanging in front of him.

"You guys aren't going to believe this," the Jedi muttered.

"What? Don't leave us in suspense, Kid," Han's voice echoed from behind him.

"There's a cable hanging here," Luke responded even as he tugged on it to find it taunt. "I think it can hold our weight."

"So, no Force lifting? Wonderful!"

"Great to know you've got so much faith in me."

~*~

"They found you're present," Apollo reported as Luna continued to prep the base's power center for a power overload which would set the base for self-destruct.

"Good. Tell me once they get back to ground level...." the once Sith apprentice ordered, even as her thoughts drifted to the secondary group of Rebels. Luna continued on, hesitantly, "Padmé hasn't run into any more trouble, has she?"

"Not that I've seen. Shouldn't she be heading back to the ship now that her part of the mission's completed?"

"Technically, yes. But she may decide to wait to make sure the others are out. They are supposed to be comm silent until EVAC. Besides that—" Luna cut herself off as a siren suddenly blared as the lights turned off before red emergency lights took their place. "Apollo!" she yelled over the noise, scanning for the ghost—worried that whatever had just happened would have made him disappear completely.

"Still here!" he shouted over the shrieking alarm, though his entire form was so faint that he was nearly invisible. "Something just happened to the power grid!"

"It wasn't me!" the ex-Shadow responded, turning her attention to the datascreens, reading over the messages as she tried to ignore the alarm that was trying to make it impossible for her to think. "Oh no.... Oh no, this is bad."

"What is it?!"

"Palpatine stole Earth tech!"

"This is Star Wars for Force's sake—they're lightyears ahead of us! What the hell would we have that he doesn't?!"

"Operational atomic bombs!" Luna answered as her hands flew across the control console. "They were outlawed hundreds of years ago and the Jedi destroyed all known data of how to make them! No one's bothered looking into making new ones because of the after effects now that we have more accurate weapons! But if you want to take out a Sith or a group of Jedi, it's a sure way to do it! If the blast doesn't do the job, the radioactivity will!"

"Oh, come on!"

"The alarm's sounding a retreat for key Imperial assets—in other words, the Hands!"

"But that's stupid! It leaves a ton of Imperial troops!"

"It's Palpatine, the guy who wanted the Death Stars, remember?!"

"What do we do?!"

"We warn everyone!" Luna responded just as the alarm started dying down, allowing her ears time to recover as she began patching her commlink into the Imperial announcement system. "Let's hope the Imps still respect authority."

"Everyone freaks when an atomic bomb is mentioned."

"Everyone on Earth. Last time they were used on this side of the galaxy was during Darth Reven's time. Most people don't know what they are, let alone the destruction they are capable of—censored history and all. Only reason I even know about them is because Vader made sure ancient Sith history wasn't censored for me."

"Well, this is certainly an interesting turn of events."

"Glad my life has turned into entertainment for you," Luna responded dryly, partially glad for the distraction from the panicked adrenaline in her body as she finished linking up her comm. She took a deep breath and flicked it on. "Attention: This is Eclipse. The alarm that just went off was warning of an atomic missile that has been set to target this base—for those of you who don't know, an atomic bomb can level an entire city. I would suggest anyone among you who would like to live to see tomorrow start evacuating. The quickest way out of the blast and radiation range would be taking a ship. I repeat: If you value your life, do yourself a favor and get the hell out of here!" She turned off the comm and glanced at Apollo. "Think it'll work?"

"Darth Vader's Shadow just told everyone to run. Even if a missile wasn't mentioned, I think it'd work," he responded.

"Good, let's go," Luna responded, disconnecting her comm from the control console.

"Weren't you going to blow that up?"

"There's an atomic bomb headed towards us, Apollo."

"....I guess that would do the job for us."

"No Sith," she responded. "Let's see.... T-minus fifteen minutes." Luna set a timer on her crono before transitioning her comm over to another frequency. "Kaytee, I'm going to need a pick up.... And see if you can get in contact with the Millennium Falcon. They need to be leaving within fifteen minutes."