Luke and Leia - Rebels [2]

3: Family Ties

All was quiet, spare the sound of labored breathing made easier by the denser air in the meditation chamber. Vader breathed in and out slowly, his eyes fluttering closed and his mind stretching out past his body to connect with the physical Force around him. There were life forms everywhere, so many that a less experienced Force user would find it overwhelming. But Vader was accustomed to this sensation and instead ignored it like white noise, not letting it distract him from looking for something in particular.

Ah, yes. There it was. Leia Skywalker's presence was dimmer in the Force than was ideal, but still Vader was able to identify it. The mildly annoying fact was that he couldn't pinpoint her location based off of her weak signature, however that was no matter to him. Sooner or later the Empire would uncover each Rebel base and expose them like the rats scavenging under the floorboards that they were, and when he found Leia especially... He had big plans for the daughter of Anakin Skywalker.

Vader opened his eyes and his helmet was lowered back onto his head as the top of the chamber lifted to reveal the dark walls of the room. He stepped out and strolled into the corridor where several stormtroopers were practicing marching but screeched to a terrified halt as he did so. The Sith Lord didn't stop to acknowledge them but heard several "Lord Vader" greetings as he made his way, some more shaky than others. Imperial troopers had relayed to each other the idea that Vader had a tendency to take out his frustrations on those serving under him, no matter how far below, and this was an idea that he neither wanted to confirm or deny. Quite frankly, he enjoyed the fear and mystery radiating off of any subordinate officer or trooper around him because of it.

"Captain Needa." Vader greeted as he strode onto the bridge. "I heard you have updated whereabouts of Rebel nests."

"Yes, Lord Vader." Needa responded, crossing his arms. "Due to cross-referencing certain local comm frequencies and the specific galactic airways used for interplanetary communication by these frequencies, we were able to narrow a few locations down in this sector." He pulled up a holomap of a planet. "The strongest frequencies radiate from the planet Yaris, three or so parsecs from here."

"I believe we have a new target, then." Vader declared. "Good work Captain. I will give you free reign to go about capturing this planet as you please, however there must be subtlety involved. It would be most... Unwise of you to alert other Rebel bases to our presence."

Captain Needa swallowed hard. "Yes Lord Vader, of course. I will see to the proceedings immediately."

With that the captain was dismissed and Vader stared out the bridge windows to the stars beyond. His mind wandered to a topic that had been taking up much of its space for the past year: the mystery pilot who had destroyed the Death Star. As of now he had bounty hunters looking to uncover any information about the mystery flier, however they had all been dead ends except one who had a lead and was still searching.

However, the main reason that Vader was so interested in this pilot wasn't that they were so skilled, but that when he was in pursuit he had felt the Force surrounding this pilot. And for a moment Vader had dug deeper to found that the pilot was... Almost familiar to him. The pilot had definitely been stronger in the Force in that moment than Leia ever was, which was perplexing to him. Was the pilot a Force user? Possibly a Jedi who escaped Order 66? Vader was teeming with questions, and as long as none of them were answered he knew he'd never fully rest.

But none of that mattered now. Vader pushed both Skywalker and the pilot from his mind, bringing the upcoming assault to the forefront of his focus. Whatever the pilot was doing right now was surely not as important an event as this was about to be.

:-:-:-:

Artoo Deetoo swiveled his domed head around, beeping softly. "It's easy for you to say." Luke huffed. "You're not... The one climbing with... A bulky astromech... Strapped to your back."