╔═══════════ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑
'𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐨𝐟𝐟' ════════════╝
━━ -ˋˏ★ˎˊ- ━━
...D'QAR, ILEENIUM SYSTEM
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐒𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍 should have started fifteen minutes ago.
Lyra sat in a semicircle with the rest of Poe's pilots. Jess was at her side, looking tired and bored as she played with a thread on the edge of her sleeve. Snap Wexley, Poe's second in command, was chatting quietly with Karé Kun. Snap was more subdued than usual. He kept glancing Lyra's way like she might set something on fire.
Next to them, L'ulo Lampar stood in quiet solitude. The Duros was soft-spoken, but he was more battle-hardened than any of them and had flown in the original rebellion. L'ulo was kind, and most of all-wise. He had been part of the Green Squadron before Poe recruited him.
Lyra hated to admit it, but she stood by Poe's judgment on the selection of the people before her. Would she have fit in if he originally asked her to join? Probably not. Every single person there had one thing in common: they were friends of Poe Dameron. Trusted friends.
They were all still waiting for the Commander himself to show up. He wasn't off to a good start this morning.
"How have you been, L'ulo?" Lyra asked, catching his attention.
L'ulo stopped staring blankly and turned his attention to her with a small smile. "Good as I can be. I haven't seen you around much," he remarked thoughtfully. "The General always has you heading off-world."
L'ulo had been aboard Leia's flagship when Lyra defected from the First Order. He had known her for so long, and he always made a point of checking in on her. Guiltily, she realized how long it had been since she had talked to him.
"I've also been out training pilots whenever I'm not out on missions."
This caught Karé's attention. "You're crazy for taking over for Poe, Endellion. I don't know if I've got the patience to deal with those bantha-brains," she wrinkled her nose, like she hated even imagining it.
Snap laughed and poked her in the rib. "No, you definitely don't."
Karé swatted her boyfriend on the arm, but Lyra could see her smirk. Lyra didn't spend enough time around Karé to know her very well past her sense of humor. She was far less wary than Snap, who still looked like he was uncomfortable being in the same room as Lyra.
Karé grinned, showing off a mischievous smile that was complemented by her shock-white hair. "What's that one kid's name? The one who probably set the galaxy record for crashing an A-Wing?" Karé asked, a friendly grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. She was testing the waters, trying to get a feel for who Lyra was and why, exactly, she was there.
At the same time, Jess and Lyra exasperatedly said, "Dash Pellian."
"That's the one," Karé nodded.
"Still," Lyra mused, "If there's a chance for more pilots, I'll take it."
"There's always the chance for an underdog," L'ulo mused. He had seen years of dwindling support. It couldn't be easy for him to see the strength of the Resistance slowly wane. "No matter how many A-Wings we go through, there's always a chance we'll get another pilot out of it."
Poe finally burst into the room, terribly disheveled with his face twisted in a frown. BB-8 rolled in behind him like an orange and white shadow.
"Sorry I'm a little late," he began, running a hand through his hair. Something had shaken him, clearly. He had always been terrible at hiding his emotions.
Karé cut him off with her snickering. "A little? We've been sitting here for half and hour. What else did you have to do, Dameron?"
Lyra could've sworn he glanced up at her like this was somehow her fault. She glared back at him when he turned away again, not forgetting their last fight. Unprepared was the first word that popped into her head.
"Nothing," Poe told Karé, shaking his head. "Lost track of time."
Karé made an ambiguous noise of disbelief, but Poe ignored her. "So, Ovanis. We recovered hardly anything from the Creché tribe, but Terex also knows nothing about our true intent. Our next point of interest would be Grakkus the Hutt."
Thank the Force Lyra had asked Jess and the General about the mission. Poe didn't seem to care at all whether she was caught up or not.
Grakkus was next in line for information on Tekka, and he was being held on Megalox Beta, a large prison of a planet. Lyra wondered if Poe knew how they had come by the information on Grakkus. Or, that her hyperdrive had been busted because of it. It had taken a great deal of time to locate the cruiser. The Phoenix Squadron had spent a full day going over star charts and miscellaneous reports regarding the cruiser in preparation for their brief with the General, let alone jeopardizing the safety of her squadron after it exploded. She liked seeing that the information was being put to use, but it was taxing to never get any credit for it. Over and over again, her covert operations stayed in the background.
Your high-and-mighty gang of assassins.
"Grakkus is currently being held on Megalox, one of the private prisons with the highest security in the galaxy," Poe continued, not noticing the sour look on Lyra's face as she tried to keep her mouth shut. "It has anti-gravity shields, and it's self-governing."
"Self governing?" Jess interrupted. She scratched at her cheek, leaving a small red mark on her skin.
Poe stopped, more than happy to explain what was going on since it was one of his own who had asked. The dynamic was not hard to discern. "As in, the Twi'lek that runs it could care less what happens to the prisoners, so long as they don't escape. There are no rules set on the planet itself. Whatever happens between the prisoners stays between them."
"Cool," Jess swallowed.
"We've already secured a deal with the warden. They'll take us down to question Grakkus, then we leave," Poe said, voice crisp and without a trace of worry. "It's as simple as that."
"You can't possibly believe it will be that simple," Lyra spoke up. Everyone's eyes fell on her. She was risking too much for such a shoddy explanation. Getting the location on Grakkus had been hard enough. Having a civil conversation with a Hutt was next to impossible, and this one was also a crime lord.
Poe gave her an indiscernible look, something close to a glare as he tried to keep his anger under control. They locked eyes. Lyra raised her left eyebrow, daring him to say she was wrong. "I have to hope it will be, Commander Endellion," he answered, sounding convinced of it.
For a fleeting moment, Lyra saw something different in him. He was trying to lead, doing his best to keep his worries buried and hidden from his crew, just like she did. But she couldn't forget how foolish it would be to walk into Megalox blindly. Out of the six of them, she was the only one who knew what Terex would do to get what he wanted. An untrustworthy prison guard would only be another variable in a disaster.
"If it's self-governing, we need to be prepared for anything. No matter what the Twi'lek promised, she might back out," Lyra reminded. "She doesn't have a lot to lose. Hope is not enough, Dameron."
"It's a good point," Snap said delicately, putting his hand in front of his mouth as if to hide that he had been the one to say it.
Lyra nodded and leaned forward. "We'll need to make sure we have grav-belts, for one. If she can shut the gravity off and on at her will--"
"I was getting to that," Poe muttered, put out by her attitude. "But yes, we go in armed and ready. Grakkus himself is a limited threat, being a Hutt, but there's no telling who he has working for him in that slime hole."
"What makes you think they throw limited threats into high-security prisons?" Lyra quipped under her breath.
Karé started snickering, and Jess shot her a look of wide-eyed warning. This was usually how it went. Jess tried to stop Lyra, and Lyra never listened.
Poe's eyes narrowed the slightest bit. She was questioning his authority, and both of them knew it. "I understand he was a crime lord, but he's still a Hutt. They don't move very fast," he enunciated, talking like he was explaining it to a toddler.
"Grakkus was cybernetically modified. He has bionic limbs. But that was all in the prison report which it seems like you read," she quipped. The report that her squadron had to risk life and limb to get.
Poe just shook his head, still plowing through with his argument. He grinned the same cocky, flyboy grin and said, "Great, then it'll be an even fight."
Unbelievable.
Lyra moved her hand off from her hip to fold at her chest. Stubborn, arrogant, foolish behavior like this would get them all killed. There was a line between confidence and hubris, and she wouldn't let him drag them across it.
"Any other questions?" Poe asked, turning away from her like he had finished dealing with the only problem in the room.
"Yeah, just one," L'ulo said, glancing between them. "When do we leave?"
Whether or not he had been trying to diffuse the situation, it worked. They weren't going to get anywhere by standing around and talking. Lyra wasn't in charge. This was Poe's mission, as she had been reminded on multiple occasions.
"This afternoon. The sooner we have information, the sooner we find Tekka," Poe nodded, dismissing all of them.
The meeting adjourned, and no one lingered behind. Lyra switched gears, moving away from tactics to technicalities. Still, no matter how high she held her head or how straight her posture was, the same shaky fear snaked up into her clenched hands. If she saw Terex again, if she had the opportunity, she had sworn to kill him in cold blood.
"Jess," Lyra asked as they exited the command room. "Does Poe always run his tactical sessions like he's never done it before?"
The man in question was out of earshot, safely in front of them talking to Snap. He couldn't hear anything she was about to say. Lyra knew the answer to her own question, of course. Poe was normally composed and at ease about everything he did. Too at ease.
Jess tilted her head. "I'm not even going to answer that question."
Lyra pressed on. "There's too much at stake for his arrogance, that was hardly a strategy meeting. If he would just--"
Jess looked at her, heaving a long sigh. "You know it's only because you're here. We already had a strategy meeting about Grakkus, the tactical session was at General Organa's suggestion because she wanted to integrate you into the group."
"Well, I think it went well."
Jess was on the verge of telling her off. It wasn't like Reeve where they both agreed that Poe was an idiot. To Jess, he was her Commander. She saw him as a leader, albeit a little flawed. And Poe was close friends with Jess. Even if Jess was also friends with Lyra, she didn't appreciate her bad-mouthing him.
Jess grunted. "Just don't make it any worse."
The ground crew was already dispatched to prepare the Black Squadron's ships to leave. All under the command of the Black Squadron's technician, Oddy Muva, they moved as one unified body, disconnecting cables and making last-minute adjustments. Reeve was running around, flustered, stopping only when she saw Lyra and Jess enter the room. She came straight for them, holding her clipboard tightly in her hand.
"Is he crazy?"
Lyra grinned. "Who?"
"Poe! We barely got the ships fixed from the last mission, and he's leaving again. Absolutely no notice from that arse," Reeve complained, in utter disbelief about the whole situation. "I can't believe this. I cannot believe this."
"You don't have to do pre-flight for me," Lyra offered, looking past Reeve to where her ship was waiting.
"Just because you think you can handle it doesn't mean I'm letting you shoot off into space without making sure you'll make it back," Reeve scolded, waving the clipboard dangerously close to Lyra's nose. "Especially after you were messing with the hyperdrive again! Not that I don't trust your work, Ly, but I'd rather we didn't have a repeat of your last return."
Reeve meant well, but she always got more worried around the times Jess or Lyra were scheduled to leave the base. There was always the lingering thought that they wouldn't return.
"Come on, Reevie. It'll be fine," Jess said soothingly, pulling on her arm to get her to move in the direction of her ship. It worked, and Reeve cooled off a little.
Reeve moved grudgingly, leaving Lyra to find her own way through the fray. Cables and electrical wires were being disconnected left and right, but only in one section of the hangar. No one else was supposed to know about this mission. Reeve only knew that they were leaving, not where they were going or why.
"Hey, Commander," A voice said behind her.
"Ali," Lyra greeted. Aliyah Teron came up and leaned on Lyra's ship, red hair pulled away from her angular face. Aliyah was smiling, but something was bothering her. Lyra knew what it was. "What's wrong?"
"Just--I've been thinking." The gears turned in the captain's head as numbers and calculations rose and fell. "It's dangerous."
"Everything we do is careful danger," Lyra said. She thrived off of the thin divide, sometimes too much. "It's in our job description."
You are expendable.
"Yes, but this mission is already on unstable ground. I don't want to jeopardize it more, and now that I've given it more thought, I don't want you to go through with it."
Lyra's gaze hardened. Her ponytail was pulled back too tight, braided carefully so it stayed out of her face. "We need to do it. I need to keep up on this lead, and if I can kill two womp rats with one shot, I will."
Sometimes, Aliyah got too motherly. Five years older than Lyra, her wisdom did lend her more caution than even Lyra allowed herself.
"Lyra, with Terex in the mix, I don't need to be the one that tells you going behind Dameron's back and digging for more information is a bad idea." Aliyah was close, her voice only a whisper. Poe was running across the landing blocks beyond them, Bee rolling around him as they prepped his ship. He was blissfully ignorant of what Lyra and Aliyah had planned.
"If Terex is involved, it means the Security Bureau is active again even if he's no longer in charge of it. I need to do this more than ever." She took a deep breath, knowing the words were going to hurt Aliyah. "You don't have the authority to stop me."
Aliyah gave a short nod and squeezed Lyra's hand once in a motion of reassurance. "I gave all the data to Elgie. It won't be hard to access the prisoner data from the main computer on Megalox and I'll be on standby if you need me."
"Thank you," Lyra told her.
"Don't thank me yet," Aliyah said, voice too sad for Lyra's liking. "Remember, we want you back in one piece. I can't keep Georgie and Ellis from trouble for long."
Lyra's smile didn't meet her eyes.
"I pulled training duty for today," Aliyah said. Her posture became less stooped and her crystalline blue eyes shone bright as ocean water. "I should probably head out, make sure nothing's on fire yet."
"Good luck," Lyra told her, before quickly adding. "Oh, keep an eye on Dash. Give him a fair chance."
"Right," Aliyah nodded, giving her a mock salute.
Lyra undid her ponytail and re-tied her hair as she watched Aliyah leave. It was snagged on one of her earrings, nearly pulling it out as she tugged. She turned her attention to the sidewall of her squadron's block. Only one droid remained, but it was her favorite. Electric green and a program full of sass. Not even Eleni had managed to figure out how to override Elgie's original function. Whoever had owned the droid before had obviously wanted to give it some personality.
"Ready to work, Elgie?"
The droid beeped back in binary, informing Lyra that she was bored of waiting around. And, apparently, the droid hadn't forgotten her reckless behavior on the last mission, rambling on about how she was ejecting from the ship if Lyra so much as dented a panel.
"Were you seriously going to leave without letting me check your ship, Endellion?" Reeve asked from behind her.
Lyra shook her head as she pulled on her deep orange utility vest over her black flight suit. "Of course not. I would never think of doing such a thing. Who do you think I am?"
Reeve rolled her eyes, hooking up her holo pad to the instruments on the back panel of the ship. "I think you're Lyra Endellion, commander of semi-questionable decisions."
More than you know, she thought.
Lyra frowned as she zipped up the vest and tucked her helmet under her arm. She and Aliyah had met late last night to discuss a lead that had been pinned up to their hit list for weeks. It was pure coincidence that they had been looking for a way to access one of the galaxy's dedicated prison planets. The computer system on Megalox Beta was inaccessible to anyone not on the planet, and prison data was a bridge to the First Order's high-profile secrets. If Lyra could get into it, she might be able to figure out where the First Order was getting all of their recruits from.
And, eventually, how to stop them.
It was semi-questionable, and Aliyah was second-guessing her resolve. But that was typical Aliyah behavior. She and Lyra were notorious for mulling over decisions and discovering angles that were hidden in shadows. Lyra was just better at knowing when to act.
"Looks good," Reeve nodded, her curls bouncing as she moved. "Okay, so you know the drill. Don't die, don't get hurt, and definitely don't mess up your hyperdrive again."
Climbing up the ladder, Lyra hung off the edge, enjoying the one last moment before she would officially be part of the Black Squadron. "I'll be back before you can even blink."
Reeve waved as she walked away, heading back to her commanding officer, Oddy. Lyra turned her attention to the controls of her ship as she slid on her helmet and closed the canopy. The engine roared to life as Elgie beeped behind her, confirming that they were good to go.
"Black Squadron, on my lead." Poe's voice came over her coms, talking to all of them. Then Lyra heard the beep as someone switched onto her private channel. "Hear that, Endellion?" Poe continued, and she could practically see his smug face. "My lead. Not yours."
Lyra hit the switch on her coms with her fist, forcing him back over to the public channel. General Organa could hope all she wanted, but there was no way this mission was going to be anything but a disaster.
━━ -ˋˏ★ˎˊ- ━━
EDITED ON: 9/7/21
a/n Lyra's being sneeeakyyy 👀
I really feel like her role in the Black Squadron was so passive in the first draft and that really isn't her style. I still used the comics as a basis just as a disclaimer but you will be seeing some pretty distinct *differences*
and I know I said weekend update but by that I kind of mean end-of-the-week updates so you can read it on the weekend I guess?? idk that's all to say that I'm going to be double updating this weekend so keep n eye out for the next chapter coming soon!
--Nat