0.1 | video.

[t65]

Who: Luke Skywalker
Broadcast: Fleetwide (Accidental)
Action: Marsiva
When: 2/16

[Luke Skywalker is sitting pensively in front of one of the wide windows on the Marsiva's Hospitality Deck. Rather than staring out into the darkness of space, he's bent over a tiny silver disk in his hands. It's open, revealing a series of wires, something mechanical and complex. Lacking any proper tools of his own, Luke is replying it with careful fingers and, occasionally, teeth.]

[Lacking any proper supplies, he's forced to improvise. At one point, he removes the glove on his right hand. There's a burn over the back, but the flesh cracks open to reveal more wires and mechanistry. Luke pulls some wires out, breaks them and inserts them into the disk. It seems to cause some of the fingers on his hand to twitch irregularly, but the disk is repaired. He presses a button, and a little blue holograph of a smiling couple appears.]

[He stares at it for a little while.]

[Finally, Luke notices that he's being recorded.] Hello, there. How long have you been on, hm? [He reaches over and turns off the feed.]

[Actually wait. A second later, Luke turns the feed back on.] I suppose if all of this is being recorded, I ought to introduce myself. I'm Luke Skywalker. It's a pleasure to meet you. [His smile kind of... twitches.] All of you.

Comments

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka makes her face. She doesn't hate Tatooine with the same fervor that Anakin does, but she doesn't exactly have great memories of the place either.]

Yeugh. Good point.

Wait-- what were doing all the way out there on that dustbowl?

[t65]

[Now it's his turn to be confused.]

That's... where I grew up.

1/2

[resnipstance]

Why there? That place is--

[resnipstance]

[The obvious answer makes itself apparent before she's even finished her sentence. Ahsoka stops and blinks.]

... You were in hiding.

[t65]

[Awkward pause.]

...I'm really starting to feel like I shouldn't say anything else.

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka sighs. There might have been a time when she would've protested. Loudly. But so far, all the snippets she's learned of the future have been heart-wrenchingly awful. So for once, she's inclined to agree.]

... Don't worry about it. What were we talking about? --Right, Anakin.

I was surprised because, well, in my time he's in the news all the time. The HoloNet loves him. They call him, "The Hero With No Fear." He's popular. ... Even if it is a stupid title.

[t65]

It doesn't sound stupid to me. [That's because you have the aesthetic and narrative tastes of a thirteen-year-old, Luke.]

I wish I could see the holos from then. When I was little, I'd have to practically beg for any information about him. [There's that far away look again. He really ought to ask Ahsoka more about herself, but he keeps getting distracted by The Unbearable Coolness Of Anakin Skywalker.]

[resnipstance]

[Honestly, Luke's thirst for any information about his dead father is understandable. Telling his kid more about him feels like the least she can do. And besides-- Anakin is just about Ahsoka's favourite person in the world, even when he's being a butt. She looks up to him, like a little sister to a big brother, like-- well, like a padawan to their master. She doesn't mind.

Besides, talking about Anakin is preferable to talking about herself, in any case. She knows the kinds of questions Luke will want to know about her, and they're not as easy to answer.

Ahsoka chuckles at Luke's indignant reply.]

Well-- it sounds cool, I guess. But it's not true. Everyone has fears. Even Anakin, though he does his best to hide it.

In my opinion, I think someone who acts in spite of their fears is more impressive than someone who doesn't fear anything. What's noble about that? That's why I don't like the title. It's missing the point.

[t65]

Oh, I know that. You can't be courageous without fear. It's just another way of hoping for the best. [He's lost in thought for a moment, smiling faintly.]

So, what did they call you?

[resnipstance]

Me? Oh, I don't think I got any special nickname. I was just a padawan.

Then again, I didn't pay that much attention to the press. At least 50% of it is made-up on any given day anyway.

[t65]

[Hm.]

You must have gone on some amazing adv-... missions with him.

[Tell him a story.]

[resnipstance]

[Amazing adventures, huh? Ahsoka smiles a sort of nostalgic smile-- she once thought of them as great adventures too. But sometime after the first year of the war, after she'd seen the massive loss of life the war really brought, that had started to change.

Luke's older than her, but she's glad it seems like he still has a certain amount of innocence left.]

... Yeah. We did.

[Idly, she casts around in her mind for some mission that actually fits under the header of an adventure story. A mission that went well, that wasn't too depressing in it's implications or too small-time, and that Anakin had a hand in. As the Clone Wars went on, Ahsoka increasingly went on missions by herself-- she finds she has to cast her memory back pretty far. It takes her a moment-- it's harder than she first imagined to find one that fits all of the qualifications.]

... Do your history books ever mention anything about the Battle of Ryloth?

[t65]

[Luke is innocent in his own way. He's no stranger to pain and loss, though he's not seen the same body count as Ahsoka. He's been on the front lines himself, from time to time. But what Luke has, and will always have, is an endless font of hope for the future.]

[And, for his father, the past. Could a man as terrible as Darth Vader have been the hero Luke always dreamed of as a child? The man, not the monster, will forever exist in that childhood realm of fantastic myth.]

I'm... not much good at history. I'll have to study up. What happened?

[resnipstance]

The short version? Separatists happened. They invaded Ryloth and forced a brutal droid occupation on them. Then they blockaded the planet so they couldn't get help from anyone else.

Obi-Wan and Master Windu were tasked with liberating the planet on the ground, but they wouldn't be able to even get there if something wasn't done about the blockade. And Anakin's easily the best pilot in the galaxy, so... of course the Council gave that particular mission to him. And me, by extension.

[t65]

He flew past the blockade... [Luke's face lights up with utter pride for his father.] And you flew along with him?

[resnipstance]

Flew past? ... What do you think this is, a birthday celebration?

[She doesn't say it unkindly-- mostly she's just amused that Luke thinks there's any universe where an enemy at war would allow you to just "fly past."]

Sure, we could fly past, but then how do you expect to land an entire battalion on the ground without getting shot in the back?

[t65]

[Or Luke is well accustomed to battles pitched covertly in guerrilla tactics. The Rebellion was just that, a rebellion; open war was rarely advisable.]

[But he just nods, listening intently. He doesn't think it's lying to withhold how his battles were fought, not from a certain point of view.] Why don't you tell me?

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka nods.] There was no two ways about it-- we had to fight them off. Otherwise Obi-Wan's troops could never land.

Admiral Yularen came with us, along with three Star Destroyers. I'd been Anakin's padawan for a little over six months at that point, and although I'd been out in the field with him a lot, this was the first time I was given command of my own squadron. Anakin thought I could handle it, so he stayed back in the Star Destroyer with the Admiral to co-ordinate the attack. But the truth was-- I was over-eager.

I cleared a path towards the lead Separatist ship without any problem, but... obviously, it was a trap. Anakin saw it coming and told me to retreat, but I refused. When we got there, we were suddenly surrounded and badly outnumbered. Meanwhile, the other Separatist attack forces were able to advance on our Star Destroyers, because in my pursuit of the Separatists I'd drawn our own forces too far away from our ships to come to their defense in time.

Eventually I managed to pull my squadron out and back to the ship just in time for a retreat to hyperspace, but not before I lost half my men and an entire Star Destroyer. It was a total disaster-- there's no other word for it. I thought-- I thought there wouldn't be any coming back from it.

[t65]

[His voice is very gentle,] Obviously you did.

1/2

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka nods.] ... I was so upset. I thought we'd be retreating back to Republic Space for sure. But Anakin found me in the hangar bay and told me to get ready for another assault. I couldn't believe it-- we'd lost half our forces, how could we possibly hope to succeed now without reinforcements? Anakin just said we needed to come up with a different plan. The people of Ryloth needed us, he said. We had to try again.

The plan he came up with was-- impossibly reckless. [She says that with some fondness.] He evacuated the crew of the damaged Star Destroyer onto our ship, and took it alone back through hyperspace to the blockade. When he emerged at the blockade again, he tricked the enemy commander, saying he'd been ordered to surrender himself and his ship to the Separatists in exchange for the blockade allowing us to send food and medical supply drops to Ryloth. The enemy fell for it. Anakin piloted the damaged Star Destroyer closer and closer to the enemy ship while they thought he was surrendering.

[resnipstance]

[This is where she really gets into it.]

Instead, he piloted the Star Destroyer all by himself straight into the enemy general's command ship. Boom! Their command ship exploded! Anakin had jumped out in an escape pod a few minutes beforehand, at the same time the rest of the fleet and I jumped out of hyperspace and back into the blockade to back him up, so he wasn't just a sitting duck in his escape pod.

With their commander out of the picture, the Separatist forces were in total disarray. The rest was an easy victory.

[t65]

[Luke listens intently, and he's left sort of... stunned. The idea that Darth Vader would do such a thing, much less his father, all for the sake of other people... his face breaks out into a beatific smile.]

[There was always good in him.]

You must be very proud to have served with him.

1/2 again sob

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka smiles brightly and opens her mouth to say that she is, but then her breath catches audibly in her throat and dies.]

[resnipstance]

[The Clone Wars weren't real-- it reverberates around in her head all of a sudden, reminding her of the horrible truth she found out not so many weeks ago. She fought for nothing. Her friends died for nothing. The whole thing was orchestrated by the Sith.

A shadow falls over her face.]

I-- I was.

[It's a half-truth. It doesn't have the same heart to it that Ahsoka had just a second ago, but her thoughts are too heavy to blurt out to someone who's only just met her.]

[t65]

[Ah, there it is. He'd been expecting to hit this wall eventually, and he's ready for it. His expression turns instantly sympathetic, focused entirely on her. He asks in the gentlest voice he can manage:]

What happened?

[Show us on the doll where he made you an amputee.]