We settled in for the ride to Alpha Base pretty quickly, with the Rogues spending some time checking on their ships and their droids. Luke assured me that it was less about them thinking we might have messed with them and more that they each cared about their starfighters and droids, and wanted to make sure that they were doing well. I could hardly blame them for doing in-depth checklists of their ships after they had sat for a week.
Artoo was undoubtedly happy to see Luke again, having spent almost the entire time in the ship's hangar, under the watchful eye of Racer and several other people.
Once Luke and the Rogues were settled in, I decided it was time to properly take advantage of the time I had. I would take a chance and learn another Master level spell, despite having already gone on record and claimed I wouldn’t bother to attempt that away from Nirn. Attempting such a commitment in an environment that was so active was risky, but with Ahsoka on hand to keep an eye on me and keep people from bothering me, and nothing happening outside of traveling through hyperspace, I decided to give it a shot.
My willingness to risk it was due, at least partially, to all of the available spells. The day I spent in seclusion had been the first time I went over the spells in detail, and it was hard not to be excited by some of the more powerful and interesting options.
With the memory of my first master spell in my mind, I locked myself away in my bedroom, with Ahsoka taking up guard on the bench across from our door. She was looking forward to doing a deep meditation herself, something she didn’t get a chance to do very often. Thankfully, she would be able to keep an eye on the door, even when she was under.
If she, for some reason, didn’t catch someone coming by to bother me, we had several droids posted in the hall to remind people. They had orders to stun anyone who didn't have a sufficient reason for disturbing me. It was probably overkill, but considering the stunning would likely ruin my concentration, there had to be some sort of consequence.
I carefully sat into one of our room's chairs, with an extra blanket tucked under me for added cushion. After taking a moment to flip to the right page, I once again took a minute to take a deep breath, settling in for the long haul. When I was finally ready, I focused on the book in front of me, calling on my magic to begin the process.
Just as before, the process was a slow spiral into a miserable state, but I pushed myself through. Several times, I was tempted to try to use magic in my off hand to soothe some of my aches or give myself a stamina boost, but I was too worried about losing concentration on the spell.
Twenty-five hours into the process, I finally gasped and cast the spell, watching as my arm vanished, swallowed by the invisibility spell. I quickly cast it several more times, before finally jumping up to celebrate, only for my very asleep leg to give out from under me. I slammed into the ground hard enough to knock the breath out of my lungs.
I spent a few minutes on the ground, shaking out my legs and doing my best to breathe steadily, all the while continuing to cast Mass Invisibility over and over again, ingraining it into my repertoire. When I could finally stand and stretch, I did so carefully, wary of my ability to walk. Eventually, when I was certain that my body was at least mostly functional, I cast a stamina spell on myself, feeling some of the fatigue wash away. It would not last forever, but it would be enough for now.
I took a quick shower and changed, taking care of my business before stepping out into the hall, finding Ahsoka right where I left her. She was floating a few inches above the bench with her legs crossed, her eyes closed, several bits and bobs floating around her, including my comms device, which I reached out for and snagged. Before I could say anything, she smiled, settling back down before opening her eyes.
“Welcome back,” I said. “How was it?”
“Invigorating in a way,” She said, standing up without an issue, despite having had her legs crossed for more than a day. “It's hard to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced it, but… It's like being everywhere, feeling everything, being a part of it all. The will of the Force, the beating heart of the universe. It's both extremely humbling and empowering at the same time. Even in hyperspace, it is intense.”
“It certainly sounds like it.”
“How was your time?” she asked, stretching a bit, walking past me, kissing my cheek as she did, stepping back into our room.
“Miserable,” I said without hesitation, following behind her. “It's like spending a whole day trying to thread thousands of needles, over and over and over again.”
“That… sounds brutal,” she said with a frown. “And others will have an even harder time?”
“I honestly doubt anyone will get to master level spells,” I admitted with a shrug. “Perhaps some of the longer-lived sentients will manage it. But beyond that, I think it will be too difficult.”
Ahsoka was silent for a moment, quickly stepping into the sonic shower to clean herself. When she was done, she changed into something comfortable and picked up the conversation from where she left off.
“I think others might surprise you,” she responded as she clipped her lightsabers to her hips. “But it is unfortunate that they will have a harder time.”
“I think I can take certain steps to mitigate that,” I said with a frown. “Having a magic user on hand to heal and use stamina spells on students will make sitting for long periods easier, and I think with some thought I can solve at least the food and water issue.”
I was imagining a camel pack with a nutrient-rich liquid inside and a hose attached to something someone could easily latch onto. It would be a bit awkward, especially if they were doing this around other people, but the hunger pangs were seriously difficult to ignore, so mitigating them was worth a bit of embarrassment.
Once Ahsoka was done getting dressed, she looped her arm with mine, and together we left the room, heading towards the computer with some urgency.
We made it to the cafeteria, which was thankfully open and serving food since it was just about lunchtime. I filled a tray for myself, stacking things pretty high, while Ahsoka just got a regular meal. A few people raised their eyebrows as I sat down, but I was too focused on digging in to care.
Once I was fed and watered, it was time to learn the limits of my new spell. The cafeteria was quickly filling up for lunch, so I quickly snagged a few volunteers from the crowd, assuring them that the spell was perfectly safe. After playing around with the spell for a few minutes, turning a bunch of people invisible, I had a much better understanding of how it worked.
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Mass Invisibility spell turned everyone within a two-meter radius invisible, which, when we pushed, was about twelve people. This would be an even lower amount during missions, as fully armored people took up noticeably more space. Unfortunately, the drain on my mana was so high that the spell collapsed in seconds. It turns out that, while casting the spell was relatively inexpensive, it drained my mana to maintain it on other people. The most I could keep invisible infinitely was two, as my mana regen beat the cost. At three people, I could hold the spell for four minutes, and at four people, it was just three, the pattern continuing its downward trend.
Thankfully, it didn’t cost anything to keep myself invisible, so even if the spell dropped, I would stay hidden enough to cast again, or set up a secondary ambush should we need it.
After messing around with my newest spell for a while, we eventually went back to our room so I could continue to recover. I ended up sleeping for close to ten hours before waking up. After repeating my wake-up routine, still feeling a bit off, I headed up to the bridge, as we were due to drop out of hyperspace.
I wasn’t sure if I would be invited down to the surface, or if I would go if I was. I didn’t really have anything that I needed to talk about, so there was really no point for me. That said, I would need to be at the bridge to receive any holoprojection communications. I took a seat not far from the entrance of the bridge, watching as my people worked, though mostly it was just waiting. I had only been there a few minutes when the bridge Jedi, this time a human Knight, spoke up.
“Admiral… I’m feeling a slight tension,” He explained with a frown. “I’m almost certain it's not an ambush, but it's noticeable.”
“Are you certain?” I asked, quickly standing.
“Yes, sir. It's not an attack, but something is happening,” He responded, a confident, yet slightly concerned look on his face.
“Alright, keep up the good work."
I nodded and walked down the bridge, heading to the forward viewports, looking out into hyperspace.
“Wake up, everyone, we just got a minor omen!” I called out, startling a few people. “I want our pilots prepping for immediate deployment, and all hands to battle stations. Send a comms to our other ships and let them know!”
People were already moving before I finished, and when I was done I commed Ahsoka, who confirmed she had been feeling it as well. In fact, she had been on her way to our room to let me know, but was now heading to join me on the bridge.
We got confirmation that our other ships had heard and were preparing, just before one of the bridge crew started counting down to deceleration out of hyperspace. Ahsoka stepped into the bridge just as we dropped, emerging quite some distance from Alpha Base.
The space around Alpha Base was a flurry of activity. A massive fleet was stationed on the outskirts of the planet, with what seemed like hundreds of ships flying back and forth, most moving in formation, but many darting from planet to the surface. I could still see the standard defense fleet, pulled back into a tighter orbit around the planet. Surprisingly, it had been stripped of its largest starships, the capital ships added to the massive fleet that was further from the planet.
Tension was high for the first moments after we arrived, until it became apparent that none of the starships were shooting at each other, and despite their significant number, all of them belonged to the Rebellion. This included a rather famous capital ship at the core of the formation, one I recognized on sight, the Home One.
“Hmm. Looks like Admiral Ackbar is here…” I said, frowning as I examined the massive fleet. “I-”
“Comms coming through, Admiral, straight from Home One,” the comms officer called out. “It's Admiral Ackbar.”
“Put it up,” I responded, turning and moving back closer to the projector. Before I made it there, the projection of the Rebel Admiral appeared, cut off below the shoulders.
“Admiral Deacon, you arrived just in time,” He said. “Could you inform Rogue Squadron that they should report to the Home One, rather than down the surface?”
“Certainly,” I said, turning to nod to a comms officer, before returning my focus to the Mon Calamari war hero. “Seems like you're preparing for something.”
“We are,” He confirmed. “A target of opportunity has presented itself. In fact… I believe I have a proposal for you.”
“I am nominally interested,” I admitted. “Shall I join you on the Home One?”
“Yes, that would be acceptable,” He confirmed with a nod. “Sending clearance codes now.”
“Copy that.”
Admiral Ackbar nodded simply before cutting the connection. Once his projected image was gone, I turned to Ahsoka with a nod.
“Let Tatnia know we are heading to talk to the Rebels, tell her to head down to the Brick,” I said, my partner nodding in confirmation and pulling out her comms, while I turned back to the deck crew. “Organize a tighter formation, pull everyone together, and start running combat system checks. I have a feeling Ackbar didn’t invite me over for tea. Comms, send a message back home, hold outgoing missions to keep our forces ready, let me know if anyone can deploy with us. Captain, the ship's yours!”
My second in command for the Hope popped up from where he was keeping track of our forces and started coming up with a quick formation, while Ahsoka and I left the bridge, heading immediately down the hangar. We arrived just in time to watch the Rogues pulling up and out of the centerline hangar. Meanwhile, we pulled to the side of the hangar, heading off to where the Brick was landed. As we got closer, I spotted Tatnia, as well as Vaz and Julus, the latter two of whom were quickly putting on their armor. As we got closer, Tatnia explained before I could ask.
“You are our leader, you should have an armed escort,” She said. “When Miru finishes updating those Magna droids, they will be following you at all times, but for now, Vaz and Julus will fill in. I should have thought of it when you met with the Rebels before, but nothing I can do about that.”
“... Fine, fair,” I said with a nod. “Weapons stay strapped though, no openly carrying.”
“Deal.”
Julus and Vaz quickly finished getting dressed, locking their rifles on their back and stepping into the shuttle. There, I realized that Nal would be joining us as well, as our designated pilot. He was just wearing our standard uniform.
Once we were strapped in and ready, we quickly got clearance to leave by bridge, and we flew out of the hangar, making a beeline for the large modified. It was a bit slow to approach, as the area was pretty hectic, but nearly five minutes later, we landed inside one of Home One's four massive hangars.
We exited our shuttle and were immediately greeted by what I assumed was some sort of aide, as they weren't wearing the same military uniform as the crew. They guided us out of the hangar, through the ship, and directly to the bridge, where Admiral Ackbar was waiting. As we stepped onto the bridge, the aide headed right for the Admiral, who gave a few more orders before turning to meet us halfway.
“Admiral Deacon, it is good to see you in person,” He said, reaching out to shake my hand, which I happily returned.
“It's good to see you as well, Admiral,” I agreed, before gesturing to Tatnia and Ahsoka. “As I’m sure you know, this is Ahsoka Tano and my second in command, Tatnia.”
“Very good,” the mon calamari rebel said, shaking both of their hands. “Let's continue this in my office. We have a good chunk of time before we need to make our jump, but I hope to get your support.”
