The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Ten

Chapter Sixty-Three: Unwelcome Developments

AHSOKA TANO

Ahsoka had been working nonstop since she got back to the Rebel fleet from Lothal, and any notion of sleep or even rest had become a distant memory.

Thanks to a series of Imperial raids, two of the calls for supplies had turned into major issues. One had been quick to deal with, but the other had been far more complicated... And then another three cells had come in begging for reinforcements.

Their forces were stretched so thin that Ahsoka had been forced to send Rex in the White Saber, her personal ship, to help out. Because of that, and with the whole of Phoenix Squadron away on a training expedition and no A-wing fighters to spare, she now had no way to get back to Cialone, despite the fact that there was nothing she wanted more than to go home.

Ahsoka downed the last few sips of what had to be her fourth cup of caf in the past two hours and rubbed her eyes. The words on the datapad in her hands swam before her, and the light was giving her a headache.

"I really need a team," she mumbled, her voice rough. "I have four kids, I'm administrating a Jedi Order on top of half the Rebellion, and I'm tired of doing this alone. Sure, there are other informants, but we need two Fulcrums; or three."

Ahsoka froze as an idea began to take shape in her mind. She snatched another datapad off her desk, this one a record of the Ghost crew's recent operations on behalf of the Rebellion, and called up the reports from their mission to Geonosis.

She skimmed the file briefly, a faint, tired smile coming to her face as she realized her initial suspicions had been correct. If Zeb Orrelios' log of his time on Bahryn was to be believed, perhaps there was someone else she could start reaching out to when the time was right.

But thinking of the frigid moon of Geonosis only drew her thoughts to Kaya Ti. News of strange Imperial activity in the system was one of the few pieces of intel Tseebo had managed to decode for her before his death, and thinking about it only reminded her of the fate that had befallen her apprentice, and the Rodian himself.

Suddenly, her transmitter began to ring, bringing her back to the present. She remembered in a flash how she had asked Senator Organa to call her around this time, and this had to be the follow-up. She pulled her chair closer to it and pushed the button to accept the call.

"This is Fulcrum," she said, suddenly very glad that the voice scrambler was there on the other end of the line to cover the tiredness in her voice.

"Fulcrum, it's Delegate," Bail said.

"And Valia," another voice, this one lighter and more feminine, added.

Ahsoka's eye markings lifted. Unbeknownst to the vast majority of Rebel agents, Valia was the call sign of the young Princess Leia of Alderaan. It seemed that Bail had decided to allow his daughter to sit in on the call as well.

"What's happened?" Ahsoka asked, deciding to skip the pleasantries.

Bail sighed through the voice scrambler, and Ahsoka could almost picture him shaking his head. "Saw's Partisans... they've broken away from the Onderon unit."

Ahsoka's jaw dropped. "What? But– but that's over half their forces! What the blazes is he thinking?"

"It's partly my fault, I believe. There was a disagreement between him and a few of the other leaders. They – I expressed the concerns that I think we've all started to have about whether or not he is fit to remain in command of his unit," Bail went on to say. "He decided to leave, claiming he knew we were going to oust him sooner or later, and his loyalists followed him. He 'no longer wants to be tethered to one place where his so-called friends can snipe at him'. The Partisans haven't left the Rebellion completely, thank the stars, but they'll be moving around to better strike Imperial targets, even if it's contrary to the wishes of Rebel Command."