A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far Away

Chapter 165

"Hurry up, we're coming out of lightspeed soon!" Luna called, racing to the nearest viewport. The Jedi had finally gathered everyone to return to Coruscant, and Luna was more than excited to be on a ship with access to a viewport, especially when they'd be arriving at such a busy planet.

She wanted to see everything.

Luna wasn't disappointed. She made it to the viewport just in time as ship lurched while coming out of lightspeed. There were hundreds of ships and satellites, mainly unnatural metal rather than natural stone and rock, among the stars surrounding the core world that could pass for something like a Death Star itself considering there was no real surface on the surface. It was glowing with light, like pictures of Earthen cities from satellites, but more intricate, more planned. There were lines, obviously the flow of ships was directed by some law or another Luna was unaware of, that had them twisting around the planet in almost lanes to ensure that no one ran into one another, not to mention a few larger ships that were hanging in orbit around the planet.

And the planet just simply hung there in the void of space surrounded by activity as it ever so slowly rotated on its axis.

The movies simply didn't do it justice....

In fact, Luna doubted anything could.

She had been in space before, but her access to viewports had been limited, given free rein on a Rebel ship wasn't about to happen, and she had been busy with other activities, not to mention never in close enough proximity to a planet to see it up close, save for when they left Ilum. Luna had ensured she was by a viewport for that last one.

There was nothing like rocketing out of the atmosphere on a ship. It was rocker than Luna had imaging it would be in this world, although far better than Earthen space craft from what the movies of the differing missions had showed, and she could even see some of the interaction between the shields and the atmosphere as the ship soared towards the stars.

One of Luna's most secret dreams was to be an astronaut, working in space and exploring the last frontier, but she knew she'd never be brave enough to try it when no one could ever completely guarantee whether or not the rocket would make it to where it needed to be or that there wouldn't be anything that'd go wrong.

Also, Luna's projected height for when she was full grown was going to be too tall. Closest she would ever get to working in space on Earth would be engineering for NASA or something similar. Unless she saved up enough money and the space tourism industry had begun to boom with an over ninety-five percent guarantee of safety, Luna would be forever stuck on Earthen soil.

Que Anakin, Padmé, and Obi-Wan's arrival on Earth and the proceeding trip to Bespin that caused the previously set in stone future prediction to change.

Luna was not the least bit upset.

"You know, you never get tired of the view," Anakin's voice said. Luna spared him a glance before continuing to stare at the scene outside.

"Then we both know I'm going to be hopeless. I was grounded five years longer than you were," Luna replied. "What's with all the activity? And the star destroyers? Is that amount normal, 'cause that looks like Imperial occupation amount to me."

"I guess a few fleets may have been recalled because of the Jedi leaving midbattle. It's possible a few teams have already been reassigned and that the destroyers are here to pick them up," he replied after a moment, frowning slightly. Luna didn't notice. "Just because it looks like the war's about over, doesn't mean it is. Obi-Wan said something about an attack on Mustafar, I haven't hear the reason behind it."

"That's were the Separatist Leadership Council is, but it's practically a death trap without the codes."

"What? Why haven't you said anything?"

"Well, Vader would have normally.....taken care of them by now," Luna explained somewhat apologetically as she glance at him. "It kinda slipped my mind."

Anakin just sighed. "Alright, how much of a death trap are we talking about?"

"I don't remember the exact stats, but within a hundred meters, you'd definitely be obliterated, and it's made to withstand an army. Without the access codes, I don't think anyone could get past the weapons systems. Palpatine might have the codes saved somewhere on his computer, but then we'd have to be hoping no one's changed them in light of recent events."

"Of course. I guess I'd better figure out if there's anything on Palpatine's computer."

"What would you be looking for on that?" a firmiluare vice asked, Luna tore her eyes from the viewport to glance at Obi-Wan before looking back out.

"Apparently we need the codes to a secret Separatist bunker that we need to visit on Mustafar."

"No! Get someone else to go. I'd really rather the two of you not go there," Luna told them, turning her full attention from the viewport to them. Anakin and Obi-Wan shared a look.

"Uh, why?" Anakin finally asked. Luna looked away from him.

"Let's just say everything goes downhill on Mustafar in the original timeline."

"Not good enough."

"There's a very good reason Vader's been stuck in his suit for over two decades in Luke and Leia's time period."

"And I'll stop you there, because in the end it's the Council that assigns these things. Besides, they already know and have assigned a group to the mission," Obi-Wan said.

"Lovely," Luna grumbled under her breath, looking back outside as they began to enter the atmosphere.

"What happened though? Vader had the clearance codes I'd assume," Anakin muttered.

"Anakin, please don't make me go into it. You don't want to know."