Star Crossed

IX

Jo walked into the morning briefing with her head held high, or as high as one could when they had realized they just woken up from a six month coma.

She looked around the room, but stopped as she spotted the young female who had helped her when she first woke up. "Princess Leia," She greeted her with a kind smile. "It's so good to see you again."

"Thank you." She nodded politely at the young girl. Her eyes flickered down to the name plate fastened over her uniform. "Commander Ramble. It is.... nice to be back." She gave a forced smile. Truthfully, it was anything but nice to attend another meeting, but she had to appear completely identical to Leia in every way. That meant she had to attend meetings instead of coming up with a plan to bring Han back. 

"Shall we get started?" General Rieekan asked as he looked at Jo. 

She nodded and moved to sit next to Luke and Leia. 

When she was settled General Rieekan turned to address the whole room. "As we've stated before, it is crucial to keep moving to avoid the Empire's sights. Any planet we consider building a base on would potentially be destroyed. As of right now, our best chance of survival includes staying on this ship." 

Jo tried not to show any signs of disappointment, though that was all she felt. She longed to stand on grass and feel the wind through her hair. She hated living on a ship floating through space. It felt entrapping, more so than she already was. 

"What of our other bases? Are their locations safe?" Commander Willard asked. 

Jo blinked as she turned her attention back to the conversation at hand. 

General Rieekan pulled in a long breath. "We are not sure. The Imperial Guards were able to sweep through our base on Hoth quicker than we anticipated... some of our intel might have been exposed-"

A grand uproar broke through the room at that. 

"We are- WE ARE DOING WHAT WE CAN-" General Rieekan spoke over the crowd to gain their attention. "The Commanding officers of each base have arrived here to discuss new locations. Of course our first priority is to ensure the safety of our own."

"Each commanding officer?" Luke asked Jo. "Doesn't that mean-"

"Here they all are now-" General Rieekan motioned to the door just as it opened.

Jo, Luke and Leia all looked to see eight Commanders walk into the briefing room. Jo barely cared about any of the others as her eyes went straight to Benji. 

He looked good, just as good as she remembered. His hair grew out a bit, but he tucked it behind his ears to keep it out of his face. He wore his uniform, and carried himself as a true Commander would. 

His eyes swept over the room as he entered with the rest of the base Commanders, but they paused on Jo, and stayed with her for the rest of the meeting. 

"Thank you for coming, we'll try to make this meeting brief so you can get back to your posts." General Rieekan pressed a few buttons on a computer and pulled up a hologram of all the know systems. 

Certain planets within certain systems were glowing red while the rest were a dull grey. It didn't take Jo long to realize that the red planets were their current base locations. 

"These, are where you are currently residing." General Rieekan walked through the hologram to the other side of the room. "Before coming here, I asked each of you to scout out across the galaxy and find new resources and new allies that could provide us shelter. Was anyone successful?"

"Aye," The commander of Base Two stepped forward. "We have a small base within the Groud System. It's on a tropical planet. The atmosphere is thick, it's the perfect shield from the Empire's radars."