A Hero Lost: A Star Wars AU

Chapter 27: Rendezvous

Lux's TIE touched down in the middle of the Onderonian wilderness, with a small group of rebels on speeder bikes. Rubal was close behind him, landing as well.

He hopped out of the TIE and got onto the ground.

"Bonteri, man, nice to see ya!" One of the rebels said, holding his hand up for a high-five, which Lux promptly accepted. "I thought we lost you!" he continued.

"You have Rubal to thank for this," Lux replied. "I owe him my life."

Rubal hopped out of his TIE.

"Hey, you!" the rebel yelled to Rubal, "come over here!"

Rubal shrugged and walked over to the rebels.

"Bonteri here says you saved his life," the rebel continued. "Is this correct?"

"I was ordered to execute him," Rubal replied. "So I executed the man who gave me the order instead."

"Well, we managed to intercept some transmissions from the Empire that say that an Admiral, sent here by Lord Vader, was found drifting through space with a blaster wound in his heart. I take it that's the guy?"

"Well, you guys are more skilled than I thought," Rubal replied. "Yes, that was the guy."

"I can't imagine Lord Vader is happy. Some transmissions from command hint that he might just have that Inquisitor pulled off world and come here himself."

"Wait what!?" Lux's eyes widened.

"The Empire's not doing too god on Inquisitors right now, Lux. We've also got word that Second Sister and Ninth Sister went MIA a few days ago. I think Vader is growing impatient."

"Enough of this," Lux said. "Take us to Tandin!"

"Sure thing," the rebel replied. "But what do you want us to do with those TIEs?"

"Well, does anybody here have any detonators?" Lux asked.

"Sure thing," the rebel agreed. "I'm guessing you want to deny the Empire their TIEs and cover our tracks."

They spent a few minutes tossing Detonators onto and into the ships.

Finally, Lux mounted the back of a speeder, and so did Rubal.

"Alright, fireworks time!" the rebel said, pushing a button.

First, Lux's TIE blew, then Rubal's.

"Oh, I'll never get tired of blowing things up," the Rebel said. "Alright, let's get back to base."

He hit the throttle and the speeders sped off towards the base.

A little more than an hour later, the sun was starting to set and they reached the base.

It was yet another long-abandoned temple, however, this one was far more fortified. There was a lot more electrical equipment in this temple than the last one, such as holotables and droids, even the occasional small ship.

Tandin emerged from the crowd.

"Lux!" he yelled.

Lux ran to him and hugged him. Tandin was surprised, but hugged him back.

"How in the blazes did you even manage to get out of there?" Tandin asked.

"Rubal saved me," he replied, pointing to the former Purge Trooper he just mentioned. "We even managed to blow the Star Destroyer!"

"Well, you blow up one, they'll send five more," Tandin said. "I have a feeling that the Empire is so frustrated with our whole operation, they are considering... drastic measures."

"Not good news," Lux replied.

"And, Lux..." Tandin said, putting his hand on his shoulder. "Is it really her?"

A tear slid from Lux's eye.

"Yes," Lux said. "Yes, it's her. I... but she's still in there, I know it. But... I heard the rumors that she's being pulled back so Vader can take over, and I..."

"Well, Lux, you'll be glad to hear those suspicions have been shot down. We intercepted a signal a few minutes ago just before you arrived. It came from Tarkin, so we have reason to believe it was legitimate. It was sent to the Command Center, and it seems like it was going to the Inquisitor herself. We don't know for sure, we never got the outgoing transmission as well. He says that First Sister is to remain on Onderon for the time being."

"Good news," Lux said.

There was a pause between the two of them.

"Tandin," Lux continued, "I... I think she's... I think I can get her to come back. I know it. Vader seems to be wanting to watch her every move, and around me, she acted... odd. I know that if we can draw her out, and I could see her, I... I can get to her. I know I can do it."

"Lux, what you are asking for is... very ambitious, and more or less based on a hunch."

"We'll be drawing her out anyways if we launch an attack anywhere. Is there anywhere we can attack?"

Tandin looked back at one of his officers, who gave him a nod. He then turned back to Lux.

"An Imperial fuel depot about a hundred standard kilometers to the North," he finally said. "It's the closest Imperial installation to this base. After First Sister sidelined- er, actually killed Governor Gianturco, it has actually been left somewhat unguarded after First Sister's reorganization. However, the defenses were originally completely overkill, so there's still a good garrison left over. However, there is one key asset of the Empire's that we might actually be able to use to our advantage.

He pulled up a holo-disc.

There was the basic layout of the fuel depot, but there was also something else there: an AT-AT walker.

"We might be able to get you or someone else inside that walker if you have Ascension cables," Tandin continued. "I think we've got some old DC-15A blasters from the Clone Wars."

"I can comandeer that walker for you," Rubal said. "I was trained for some ridiculous scenarios, including hijacking walkers."

"Great to hear," Tandin said. "We'll use the walker to blast a hole in their primary defenses, then see if we can blow the fuel containers. We only have so much time before reinforcements show up, but I'm sure we can draw them into the jungle to pick them off. And that's when hopefully you'll be able to see her. But, if we don't manage to get out of there before reinforcements arrive, well..."

"We're toast?" Lux asked.

"probably," he said. "I'll have to go over this with everyone else before I get a greenlight. Could be a go by as early as Tommorow, and it won't take more than a week. I'd estimate we have two or three days before we strike. Let's just hope you and Rubal covered your tracks well."