On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter XXX

"No. I will not allow you to do that," Vader growled.

"We don't have a choice," Luke's holo replied, his tone saddened. The twins had managed to contact Vader, most likely to tell him about what was going on. To say they had been surprised when he had already known about what they were going to attempt to do was an understatement.

"He's right.... Besides, we're the only ones with a chance of getting in," Leia told him.

"Then I will join you," Vader told them.

"Father, you can't."

"Actually, I can."

"How do you even know about this?" Luke asked.

"Luna sent me a recording of your meeting with Valkyrie."

"WHAT?!" they shouted in unison.

"How did she even get her hands on that? The signal is always locked down, confidential, and sent from and received in deep space," Leia said.

"And Valkyrie's supposed to be in lightspeed for her call, isn't she?" Luke asked, glancing at her.

"I don't know—it's Rebel Intelligence's business."

"I couldn't tell you how it happened. Perhaps Valkyrie's end of the signal is not as encrypted or Luna happened to be at the right place at the right time," Vader replied. In all honesty, it was a decent question. He may have been relatively cut off from the rest of the galaxy, but that hadn't kept him from hearing about this Valkyrie person that had so rapidly helped turn the tide. From what he understood, she must have been a very high ranked defector from the Empire, most likely in the Navy division if the rumors of her supposedly unmatched piloting skills were true. Perhaps Vader might have even met her before.

It could possibly explain a lack in encryption skills, pilots were rarely involved in such delicacies for long distance, but if she were so central to the Rebellion, and had one of the Fulcrums (the Sith had learned about the station in Rebel Intelligence since the last time he'd happened to run into a Fulcrum) working with her, that wouldn't be likely.

In fact, it would be far more likely that Luna somehow personally knew Valkyrie, enough so that Valkyrie knew of Luna's connections to himself, and had gotten the recording to him that way. Valkyrie had obviously been apprehensive at the very idea of the plan and would have probably been willing to give the recording to Luna despite protocol just so Vader would help. The only problem with the theory was that Luna wouldn't have gotten near the Rebellion because of Luke and Leia. She knew that as soon as they knew where she was, Vader would know where she was. And if Luna was helping Valkyrie and Fulcrum, surely an unnamed third person would have been mentioned to someone by now. Besides that, Vader found it unlikely Luna would advertise their connection to any acquaintances she met.

"If she could get into it, could other Imperials?" Luke asked, sounding concerned

"Only on a lucky break, this is Luna we are talking about. Back to the point, you two are not going on that mission alone."

"We have—"

"If it's anything less than an army, I don't want to hear it," Vader growled, cutting Leia off. "I will be joining you, and that's final."

"Father, if you are seen with us—"

"Then we can make a point to both the Rebellion and the Empire. Besides, don't you think Valkyrie's intel may be a little outdated? With all the Hands running around, there are bound to be a few privately stationed there. Last I checked, Luna had to drag you out of the last situation that Hands were involved in. What if you find yourself in the same position without the luck of Luna being around? Neither of you are ready to face off one, let alone more."

The two went silent, obviously chastened.

"Now. Let's figure out a plan."

~*~

"deWEEP!"

Luna looked up from where she was updating her starfighter's guns at Kaytee's exclamation.

"What is it?" she asked.

Kaytee hurried through the explanation so quickly that the ex-Shadow was hard pressed to understand.

"What do you mean he's trying to contact us? I disabled—"

A series of beeps cut her off.

"He's contacting Valkyrie?!"

An affirmative whistle.

"Where's Ahsoka? Tell me she doesn't know," Luna said as she jumped up and began racing to where she went out and received communications, the R2 unit on her heels.

"Luna! You've got a call from someone!!" Ahsoka's voice called from the makeshift war room.

"Coming!!" Luna yelled in reply before lowering her voice to a whisper. "Kay, please tell me there is no caller I.D.."

She breathed a sigh of relief at the droid's response.

Slowing to a walk, Luna entered the room where Ahsoka had already set up the former's equipment.

"Thought I'd get it ready for you. Are you supposed to be getting a call today?" her friend asked.

"Not to my knowledge," Luna replied. Ahsoka frowned.

"That's what I thought. I don't recognize the number either."

"Not another Fulcrum?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Maybe, but I'd think they'd contact me, not you."

"Guess I'd better answer."

"Want me in here, just in case?" Ahsoka asked. "We don't know who it is."

"I'll wait for them to talk before I give away any information. I'll be fine," Luna replied, waving her friend off. "Not like they can track us."

"Still don't like it."

"A, let me handle it."

"Alright," Ahsoka replied after a moment. "I'll be in the cockpit if you need me."

"Gotcha," Luna replied as the Togruta left.

She waited a few moments after the door was closed before finally setting up to accept the message.

"There's no way he knows.... And even if he did it's not like he could track us down...." Luna muttered, trying to reassure herself as she put on her headset while she felt the ship lurch to hyperspace under her.

Moments later, the comm connected. Valkyrie's symbol floated in front of Luna and cast a blue glow onto her face as the sound of a respirator as familiar to her as her own heartbeat filled the room.

She waited for Vader to make the first move.