Lady Obscura: Vader's Shadow [Star Wars | Luke Skywalker]

Chapter 5

It wasn't long before things started to happen. After arriving on the bridge, Athara had ordered all sensors to focus on the Rebel moon and, more importantly, the Death Star. So when dozens of small, one-man fighters were picked up leaving the atmosphere of Yavin IV, Athara knew the decisive moments were coming. The outcome of this fight would decide a great many things within the Empire and across the Galaxy.

At Athara's order, a number of technicians had set up a tactical display station that projected the Death Star's position in relation to the fourth moon and a projection of the time and distance remaining until the moon would be in range of the massive Battlestation. At another station, she had ordered several officers and technicians to scour the Death Star's schematics and read-outs in an almost desperate attempt to discern the Rebel's plans.

Athara did not shy away from battle. She never had. It had never caused her a moment of fearful hesitation. This battle was different. Anxiety plagued her as it never had before. The young Sith apprentice was hard-pressed to keep her normally well-disciplined feelings in check.

Barely able to keep her familiar, cool façade in place, Athara retreated from the projection, intending to check-in with the technicians on the far side of the bridge.

However, without meaning to do so, she found herself looking out into space, gazing absently at the swirling, undulating patterns that made up the planet Yavin's atmosphere. For the first time in what felt like days, her mind was filled with a stark emptiness that threatened to put her even more on edge.

On the other side of the planet, she could feel the battle begin, and some of her bridge crew had taken it upon themselves to relate the progress of the Death Star and the resistance against it. However, information was spotty. The atmospheric disturbances created by the gas planet they orbited interfered with the comm channels and sensor readings. Athara, though, was not so hindered.

She didn't know what it was, but in the last few days, her attunement to the Force and to everything around her was sharpened. Even now, as she watched the gaseous planet on the other side of the viewscreen, she could feel the battle, able to vaguely sense the movements of those clear across the system. She barely dared to speculate as to why. Perhaps it was her anxiety at the outcome of this battle or the fear of the fallout from her earlier loss of control that sharpened her perception to a staggering degree. Or, she thought, perhaps it was because of the depth of the rage and even grief and fear within her that Alderaan's destruction caused that increased the range and acuity of her senses. One thing she refused to attribute it to, despite the likelihood, was that the Destruction of Alderaan itself had fed her powers; strengthening and amplifying her abilities through the effect such a devastating event would have on the Dark Side.

One thing she did know for sure was that her eyes had yet to return to their natural dark blue-grey. She had realized that anew every time she had encountered a new face after stepping off her shuttle. The subconscious flinch of anyone who caught her yellowed gaze was unmistakable, and unique to the state of her eye colour. After all, her cowl was almost always up in the presence of others, to the point where very few even knew her features. It was only when her irises were the vivid, luminous yellow of full Dark Side immersion that her eyes seem to stand out from the shadow of her hood. It made those around her uneasy.

Beyond the planet, the Rebel fighters had engaged the Death Star and, after initially falling prey to the turbolaser towers that dotted the station's surface, were being picked off by the TIE-fighters that joined the fray. From what she gathered, both sides were suffering heavy losses, but the Rebels were effectively being slaughtered. They were simply no match for the sheer number of foes brought to bear against them.

Yet they were very obviously driven, and not just by a desperate bid to survive, though that was certainly a part of it. They had a plan; only Athara wasn't quite sure what it was. It wasn't until a trio of fighters broke off from the main fray that she began to clue into their strategy, especially when she sensed that her Master had joined the battle, trailing after the three Rebels.