Work Text:
Hide and Seek
“Instead of moving absolutely everyone, why don’t we send a small collection of people to find a new base.” Luke offered. “We know the Empire is systematically destroying previous bases so we don’t use any of them. We find something new. “
“Do you have any idea how expensive it is to build something completely new?” Madine started.
“It doesn’t have to be completely new, just new to us. Abandoned Mining outfits. Abandoned pirate bases. Abandoned smuggler bases. I mean just the mining is several million spots.” Luke continued ignoring the interruption.
“Actually you may have a point. I can think of several spots personally that were abandoned by pirates and smugglers that could be used.” Madine looked thoughtful
“Hondo Ohnaka left for the unknown regions but a lot of his bases are still liveable and empty. Most of the local pirates are too afraid of him coming back to set up shop.” Han offered
“If he does show up I can deal with him.” Leia spoke up from where most of the politicians sat. “He owes me big time. We still shouldn’t linger in them that long. We will be noticed but there are 2 I can think of that could end up being decent long term options. That said I agree with Luke a team dedicated to finding new spots to set up shop should be created. The Empire can’t be everywhere and there are plenty of abandoned bases of all types that we could utilize. We simply need to make sure they really are abandoned. Han on your way to pay Jabba can you check these two locations and let us know if they are abandoned?” Leia asked, jotting a few things down on a flimsy.
“Sure no problem. “ Han got up and took the papers from Leia. “Chewie warm up the Falcon.” Han left the briefing. Luke couldn’t help but to watch. It might be the last time he saw the smuggler. He made it very clear he wasn’t signing up nor was he planning on staying long.
The meeting broke up soon after. Luke was intent on a late lunch when someone snagged the back collar of his shirt. “Nope you get to come with me. It's leg day.” A shot of dread went down Luke’s spine.
“What’s leg day?” Luke asked as he was marched in front of Rex.
“I’ll make sure to change Rogue Squadron’s rotation so you have tomorrow off.” Dodonna said simply. Luke looked at the General in horror before being pushed out of the room.
Somewhere else…
“No sign of life at any of their other known bases sir.” Ozzel handed the data pad to Vader who barely glanced at it.
“They cannot have vanished into thin air. Send out Probe droids to increase the search area.” Vader seethed. Ozzel tripped over them repeatedly and now they can’t find them at all.
Tatooine…
Jabba saw the destruction of Alderaan and wondered if Solo was destroyed along with it. He sent out word to be on the look out for the Falcon if Solo was still alive then his clock was still ticking and Jabba was running out of patience.
Back in the Unknown Regions…
Luke collapsed onto the mat. “Nope, not done yet. Up and at ‘em.” Rex enthused. Everything Luke did Rex did except Rex was making it look easy. Like he could do this all day. Luke was ready to write out a last will and testament. He took a deep breath and dragged himself back up to continue ‘leg day’ Leg Torture lasted a further two hours after the initial collapse before Rex allowed Luke to crawl away with instructions on how to take care of himself when he got back to the barracks.
“What happened to you?” Wedge asked in alarm as Luke limped into the room.
“Something called ‘Leg Day’ more like leg based torture.” Luke complained not stopping, he was intent on the shower.
“Are you sure they’re trying to help you?” asked Dak
A few days later…
Luke was woken up and dragged out of bed for a boxing lesson. Luke lost but he made Rex earn it. He had grown up in Tatooine’s bars and cantinas; he knew full well how to throw a punch and avoid it.
“Good job. You have no idea how glad I am that you can throw a proper punch.” From the darkness a new clone emerged. Luke had not met this one yet. “Meet Wolfe.” a silent nod “He’s the drill instructor for the ground troops. I’ve been asked to join the search for new bases but I want to make sure you continue to improve while I’m gone. He worked with a Jedi Master known as Plo Koon.”
“Hello” Luke waved
“Pleasure to meet you sir. Looking at your schedule and mine we’ll mostly be doing our training in the late afternoon. Any questions?”
“Can you tell me a little about your Jedi too?”
“Absolutely sir.”
At the Command Center….
“It's Captain Solo sir.” The officer moved aside so Dodonna could answer.
“You have a report Captain?”
“First base is a bust. I came out of hyperdrive to Imperials pounding the area. Some locals had organized after Alderaan and called themselves the Rebellion against Tyranny. I’ve got some survivors with me. Any idea where to drop them?”
Dodonna closed his eyes in pain. He had not considered this. “Bring them back here please, we'll see if they’re interested in joining, if not we can make other arrangements.”
“Understood Solo out.”
Imperial March…
Darth Vader walked through his new ship. The Executor. Most of the officers were hand picked by Vader himself. Unfortunately Ozzel came with him. For now. Ozzel was not long for this world. His assistant handed him a data pad.
“Sir a ship spotted several times during the hunt for the Death Star Plans and during the battle itself was spotted during the destruction of a rebel cell near the Hapan border. It was generally believed that this cell was unaffiliated with the ones we are chasing but its appearance has made Intelligence question its judgement. It landed and successfully fled with a small number of escaping survivors.”
Vader looked at the data pad. There was no sign this group was anything other than mostly peaceful political agitators. They had been exiled off their home planet and set up in a former pirate base. The group had even opened their doors to official inspection by the Empire. No weapons or even a way off the small moon had ever been found. “This group was officially known as political agitators but were permitted to continue existing so long as they submitted to regular inspections. It should not have been targeted. That said, it is interesting that the vessel should suddenly show up.”
“Maybe they were conspiring with the Alliance after all?” Ozzel offered.
“No Admiral, every communication was monitored.” Vader tapped until he accessed the communications of the group going straight to the last few hours. “The captain of the Reckless deliberately targeted the group because his ex-wife and child were there. He was tired of paying child support and alimony so when the order came down he decided to improve his personal finances.” more tapping “The ship was surprised to see anyone in the system based on captured internal comm chatter. I want all the information you can find on a Captain by the name of Solo that flies that type of vessel. I will decide what to do about Captain Samuels later.”
A meeting of clones…
“Rex before you leave we all got questions about the shiny you adopted.” Hot Shot started.
“Yeah I figured you all would. He’s more than likely General Skywalker’s kid.” Rex said not looking up from building his pack.
“No…no…she let him get her pregnant in the middle of a war?” Virus blurted out in shock.
“General Kenobi was on Tatooine watching over him until the run up to the Death Star. The kid with true Skywalker luck ended up with the plans. R2 made a run for it trying to get to Kenobi. The kid followed while he was gone someone killed his aunt and uncle and set fire to the farm. So he left that dust ball with Kenobi and the plans. They hired Solo to take them to Alderaan only to get caught by the Death Star. The General was killed by Vader during their escape.”
“Damn Kenobi really was the smartest of the lot wasn’t he.” came from Virus. “Has anyone told Cody?”
“I left a message in his dead drop.” Rex told him. Cody was in deep cover in the 501st. Might be time for Cody to finally come home if he was still alive. No one had heard from him since the Death Star.
“So we have a brand new baby Jedi to protect.” Wolffe said.
“He has a lightsaber but I haven’t seen it. General Kenobi might have been watching him but he didn’t train Luke at all. I’m not sure why.”
“I’ll see what I can learn while you’re gone.” Wolffe promised.
The next day..
Luke didn’t bother taking a shower. Wolffe hadn’t worked him that hard, just more endurance work. He grabbed one of his remotes from his trunk and gestured to R2 to follow him. A single empty room he spotted on the way back to the bunks after dinner. Finally in the room he locked the door. “R2 can I have my lightsaber please.” Hidden door in R2’s dome revealing the lightsaber. “Watch the door” Luke turned off the lights and put the ski cap on, pulling it all the way down over his eyes before turning on the remote. He took a couple of shots before it started working he just suddenly knew where the remote was where it was going to aim. Eventually Luke successfully sent a bolt back to the remote ending the session.
“Good job kid.” Luke nearly ended up on the ceiling in shock. Ripping off the ski cap he found Wolffe. Glaring at R2 he found a restraining bolt on the back. Glaring at Wolffe he popped it back off. R2 immediately screeched and went after Wolffe with his arc welder. “Hey hey I mean him no harm just got a few questions. I’ll give you a hot oil treatment and fix your jets.” grumbling R2 put away the arc welder. Luke couldn’t help his smile.
“Betrayed by hot oil bath. He has jets?” Luke asked.
“Yeah they broke a while back hard to get parts. We actually found some but lost track of him. Kept them handy if we ever caught back up to him.” Wolffe admitted
“Why?”
“Cause he was General Skywalker’s. He might have been marching on but we could at least protect what he left behind.”
“Ok, ask your questions but I can’t promise to have answers.”
“Why didn’t General Kenobi train you?”
“He wanted to but Uncle Owen said no.”
“Really that's it he said no and Kenobi accepted that?”
“Yeah I don’t understand either.”
“So your Force training consists of?”
“About three weeks total with Ben between finding Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru dead and arriving in the Alderaan system. Mothma unlocked R2’s archive for me but I haven’t had enough alone time to go through it.”
Wolffe nodded. “In that case you’re doing amazingly. We need to work on your power of perception. I was here for nearly half your workout without you noticing. Don’t worry, I have a few ideas. What are your feelings about blasters?”
“They’re fine. I don’t like this one because it has a real high rate of firing failure. Not to mention how many times it's been known to blow up in people’s hands.” Luke complained.
“Command got them cheap.” Wolffe rolled his eyes. “Tomorrow after patrol come find me. We’ll go through the brother’s private vault of weapons and find you something better.” Luke grabbed the still floating remote and hid it in his cap. “Come on time for dinner. I’m told the protein gloop is a fascinating shade of purple with neon yellow spots.” Luke looked at him in horror.
The Executor…
Captain Needa was sweating as yet another failure was made apparent. The group using the former rebel base were smugglers. Not even interesting ones. They surrendered the moment the ship came into the system. They were smuggling food and medical supplies to a world under embargo. Darth Vader let them go with a warning to leave the base. In 24 hours another ship would be there to destroy it.
“A waste of time and resources. Have the probe droids come back with anything of interest yet?” Lord Vader demanded upon his return to the ship.
“Not yet my lord mostly empty bases and bases repurposed by what are obviously different groups smugglers mostly. Though we have found a group of Raiders that have been on ISB’s list of wanted.” Needa tried to keep calm. A person can get quite far by simply pretending that you were in control.
“We are hunting Rebels not Raiders. ”Vader ground out vocoder managing a growl. Stooping he pointed at his assistant. “Contact the Bounty Hunter’s Guild. I want their best of the best. It's time for the scum to hunt the scum.”
Tattooine….
Boba Fett was drinking in his room checking his mail when a new message popped up from his contact within the Guild. He smirked, “Jabba will be fascinated to hear this.” Popping on his helmet made the short walk to the Throne Room. Oola was dancing to a slow number. Knowing better he handed the mail to Bib Fortuna who after a quick read interrupted Jabba’s ogling.
“Go to the meeting. I want Solo Dead or Alive.” Fett nodded his head and disappeared into the crowd. Jabba in a rare moment of insight. “Before you go see what you can dig up on his passengers. The Empire was acting very strange that day. They might have been more important than we thought.”
Unknown Regions…
Luke was yet again woken at the crack of dawn but this time the entire room was shaking. Shouts of Alarm and panic. Distantly an alarm started shrieking. Vaguely remembering the Earthquake Instructional Vid Luke rolled under his bed. The shaking seemed to last forever. When it finally stopped the intercom came to life. “All base personnel Evac Plan Delta now in effect please get to your duty stations.”
“Ya think?”