On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter XLVI

Mon Mothma studied Valkyrie, keeping her face smooth. The girl was tall and had a blaster resting on her hip. She carried an air about her that would be better found on a general or other high ranking leader, not the humble pilot turned officer ranking Ahsoka had claimed Valkyrie held before she defected—though that was to be expected. No simple officer could do what Valkyrie had managed, even with the help of one of the few remaining Jedi in the galaxy. Paired with recent news from the front....

Well, Mon had her hunches. Suspicions that tied Vader and Eclipse's defection to Padmé's suddenly unrelenting insistence that she contributes to the war effort and Leia and Commander Skywalker's tendency to revolve around the woman ever since she showed up—not to mention the allusion Skywalker had made to Vader weeks ago—to the Rebellion's newest warrior who insisted on keeping her identity from all.

Suspicions that were not yet confirmed, and certainly ones she wouldn't be sharing with High Command or bringing up with her old friend until she was more sure of the truth. Perhaps then they could discuss what Skywalker had been trying to suggest in secret.

"I assume you will insist on the veil remaining on," Mon stated.

"That would be right," Valkyrie replied—it couldn't be her real voice, it sounded too much like the modified voice she usually used to communicate with them.

"Very well. Now that everyone is here, the meeting can begin. Fulcrum informed us of your actions which Commander Skywalker's team left out of their briefing," Airen Cracken, Chief of Rebel Intelligence, began. "You deliberately disobeyed the direct orders of your superiors and furthermore, convinced Commander—"

"I did not speak or otherwise meet with Skywalker or the other members of the team you assigned face-to-face. They were likely unaware I was present. If they failed to mention me, it was because they didn't know I was helping."

"They seemed to know someone had helped them," Ackbar grumbled. "And refused to tell us your identity."

"Perhaps they just thought I heard about the break in and was taking the opportunity to raid the place for weapons," Valkyrie stated with a half shrug. "I ran into them in that way before I joined the Rebellion. Doubt they mentioned me then either."

"So you know them."

"We are acquaintances. I didn't shoot them; they didn't shoot me; we all shot Imperials; that was about the extent of it."

"Why wouldn't they mention you in the report?" Airen asked.

"Like I said, I didn't speak to them. Maybe they thought Valkyrie pulled a few strings and got some old comrades to help them out—they can't explain good fortune if they didn't understand it themselves after all. Regardless, how would I know what they were thinking when they chose to withhold it?"

"I suppose you wouldn't," Mon allowed. "That still doesn't explain why you disobeyed my direct orders."

"With all do respect, Madame Chancellor, you were knowingly flying that team into a death trap. Skywalker is one of the last Jedi in this galaxy and is an asset to the cause. If you had lost him, the blow would have been deadly to the Alliance. I don't believe even I could manage to turn the war back around if that had happened."

Mon knew the girl was right—losing Commander Skywalker would have been a rather deciding victory for the Empire. Even with the now legendary status Valkyrie had managed to build for herself, the seeming prophetic ability she used, and the almost unstoppable team she and Ahsoka had created that had managed to drag the Alliance back from the line of extinction in a few measly months, losing Skywalker—even if he'd only been captured—would have turned all Valkyrie's hard work around quicker that they could stop it. And Mon was also willing to admit that she had underestimated the Empire's security on the base as well as the weapons and sacrifice the Empire was willing to take in order to rid themselves of a few high ranking Rebels.