SPACE AND TIME ━ oneshots

─── part one.

They were unconventional, but that didn't mean Lyra had been anything less than intentional with who she picked. Aliyah Teron, a strategist who also happened to be a former pilot within the spice trade, was the only one of the group that Lyra had known personally. Eden Feng was a fresh-faced Resistance recruit who had immediately been assigned to the squadron upon her enlistment, and Georgios Bera and Ellis Melamed were close to being discharged from the Resistance before Lyra stepped in.

And they were all being lead by a former First Order assassin, so maybe there was good reason for the rumors.

It was a chance she had leapt at to lead a team like this. Resistance intelligence was largely concentrated off-world, and considering half of the New Republic Senate refused to back the Resistance, General Organa decided it was time that they directed their resources toward a concentrated intelligence network. The whole of it was now at the Phoenix Squadron's disposal, but the opportunity also came with the daunting task of working to maintain it. Five people was barely adequate, but it would have to suffice. More eyes would also mean more ears and more chances for sabotage.

Modeled after the system that Cassian Andor had once perfected, the Phoenix Squadron would function as an intelligence team tasked with espionage and reconnaissance. At the heart of it, it was a necessary evil. But that didn't stop the rumors from abounding; murder squad was Lyra's personal favorite jeer.  

The door to the office slid open to reveal the face of one of Leia's strategists. "Commander Endellion, your presence has been requested in the command room."

"Of course," Lyra nodded. They turned to leave, and the door shut again.

The room around her was still largely empty. Eden had made some attempt at decorating with her heart-shaped magnets on the wall, but there was nothing else aside from boxes and a half-assembled holoprojector that Ellis was supposed to be working on.

Lyra walked out to find the command room in a quiet uproar. People were moving furtively back and forth. Ribbons of voices carrying worry and anticipation snaked up and through the air without cease.

And she was already behind. Her heart rate quickened as she walked down the staircase to central command, gut twisting at the thought of uncertainty. Was she supposed to know what was going on? Maybe locking herself away in a room to go through intelligence reports wasn't the best idea she had ever had.

Leia stood with Aliyah and a ground of strategists, one of whom was a well-trusted major. The major regarded Lyra with a skeptical side eye as she came around the table.

"Commander Endellion, good," Leia said. "We've received more information about the fuel tanker."

Lyra exhaled. This she knew about. "Yes, I was just looking through those reports myself."

The General nodded. "It gained more ground than we previously thought. The combination of First Order reports and visuals from Threepio's droid network must have given us enough information to cross reference with a map of the middle rim. Do you have any updates on the location?"

Lyra sucked in a breath. "Not yet," she said. The words she hated most to say, they showed her incompetence like a bad hand of sabacc cards.

"I have the location, we're just waiting on the diagnostics," Aliyah said, saving her in front of the group. The older girl sent her a short look of apology.

"Wonderful. Commander Endellion, you might consider speaking with your captain to make sure you're both on the same page," Leia said. The comment was lighthearted, but Lyra still felt the sting of disapproval.