Saga - OT Ballad of the Winter Rose- Doctor Who Crossover

Ballad of the Winter Rose

A SW Rebels/Doctor Who Romance

Genre: Gothic romance, drama, hurt/comfort, dark fantasy, slight horror

Cast: the usual

Pairings: Thrawn/Minerva, and Kallus/Zeb

Chapter 46: Fulcrum’s Mission Impossible, Part 1

Chapter Soundtrack: Mononoke Hime Main Theme (instrumental)- Joe Hisaishi , Mission Impossible Main Theme



When Minerva returned to the Chimaera, Konstantine was thrilled that someone else with common sense was on board. Thrawn and Yularen were still conducting endless (and so far fruitless) rounds of Whack-the-Mole, Eli was Pryce’s glorified errand boy, and his ex-boyfriend was running his own light cruiser and acting like his laundry didn’t stink. Par for the course where everyone got in due to connections, in some way or form.

Saluting General Hektor, he told her, “Thank goodness your back! Do you know how hard it was to control the space outside Lothal’s orbit? It’s been nothing short of a logistical nightmare.” He continued to kvetch to her as they made their way towards her and Thrawn’s quarters. The stormtrooper standing at attention at the main door asked for their code cylinders before the door whooshed open. Greeting them was the sight of another pale looking member of sector command staff. With Imperial Navy uniforms looking more or less the same, Minerva found it difficult to say where this officer was from.

From nearby, she could hear the muffled voices of her fiancé and Colonel Yularen making sure that the necessary paperwork would be filed for immediate dishonorable discharge and an application of charges of public intoxication , first degree sexual assualt, and vehicular manslaughter. The now disgraced criminal was led out by Konstantine, who wanted to rub the moment gleefully in Pryce’s face.

I come back to perennial one-upsmanship, backstabbing, and general skulduggery. What a day, Miverva thought drily as the door leading from the smaller hallway to Thrawn’s office. The door whooshed open, and Yularen was informing everyone he needed to leave in order to write up reports featuring the latest updates that had been requested by Grand Moff Tarkin. Nodding kindly to the young woman, he left the young couple alone.

Turning slightly towards the open door, Thrawn inquired to Minerva, “Was everything in Sundari up to Tarkin’s strict standards?” Nodding, Minerva stepped into the office and pulled up the graphs she made during the trip back. “As you can see, protocols regarding weapon rationing at public venues were obeyed 81% of the time, but the populace appeared to be obeying Imperial law, as least what I saw. I was hoping to map Sundari, but I spent almost of my time at Saxon’s garrison,” Minerva explained. On the gate out front, Saxon had carved the words, Clan Saxon Imperial Garrison. Making a mental note of Saxon’s obvious display of ego, Thrawn scanned the image and forwarded it to Tarkin and Palpatine, also cc-ing Yularen.

Turning off the holoprojector, Thrawn pulled Minerva into a tender embrace and kissed her. “Velkommen hjem, min ven. Hvordan jeg har savnet dig. (Welcome home, beloved. How I have missed you.)” Minerva nodded in agreement, and pulled him for a long, sweet kiss.



Meanwhile back on Lothal, recent upticks in Rebel subterfuge had stormtrooper and nosy cadets all over the place, so Kallus’s usual routine of sneaking out of the Imperial Central Offices to broadcast as Fulcrum was going to be a skill worthy of James Bond. Not to mention, he had to retrieve the shipment of secondhand furniture delivered via courier for the apartment part of the communication tower he was fixing up during his downtime. It would be tight, but he had to do it. Not for himself, but for Zeb!

Slinking along the ground so his knees were bent, he crept upright against the wall, dodging stormtroopers. He did this for about an entire floor, when his peripheral vision caught troopers marching in formation at 11 o’ clock. Dropping to a roll, he unlocked a slide closet and hid just inside the door as he passed. Once they were gone, he darted into an empty elevator, and as it went down, he jumped and jimmied open the roof. Once he was on top, he fired a grappling hook, and jumped off and away from the elevator. Securing the belts together, he climbed the duracrete wall thirty feet until he came to a utility entrance.

Hoisting himself up, over and in, Kallus checked his wrist chrono. He was making good time, even with his armor on. The tunnel was not large, but Kallus managed to get through it, when he shimmied out into a construction chute used to discard solid building waste. Diving headfirst, he shot down like a bobsled at a 45-degree angle, until he landed in a giant pile of old insulation foam. WHOOF!

Covered in dust and goodness knew what else, Kallus shook his arms and legs to get the dust off and used old rags to discard the rest. There were no stormtroopers around here, they would be patrolling the east side of the campus this time of day. Relieved that freedom was insight, Kallus joyfully sprang across the back yard and over the low brick wall. Making his way quietly down back alleys, he retrieved a speeder bike and headed north out of town.

The payload was waiting at an inspection station roughly an hour outside of town. One of the perks of being as ISB agent was that you got to inspect and take mail, and nobody would question your reasoning. In Kallus’s case, it involved being in love with an enemy agent and committing high treason. Coming up to the station, Kallus inquired about the packages, and since nobody had claimed them, they were free for seizure.

Bidding good day to the officer, Kallus drove off into the mid-autumn afternoon. Early November’s on Lothal were lovely, and days like today were perfect. The fields were turning golden, and the migrating birds could be seen in large flocks overhead. There was a fresh breeze blowing in from North Lake and made Kallus happy about the future. He and Zeb could live in the communication tower once it was all fixed up, and they could go on undercover spy missions together, like in the old spy novels.

Once the speeder bike was parked, Kallus had to use a portable block and tackle to bring the crates up to the apartment. Opening the door, he brought them inside and got to work. Today, he was going to finish installing new plumbing in the kitchenette (the bathroom was still in good repair), installing shelving in the kitchen, and putting the five-piece den set together. On top of that, he still had to make a Fulcrum transmission.

Pulling out his multitool, Kallus got to work and lost himself in the work, and before Kallus knew it the sun had begun to set, so he would have to stop for the day. It was far too risky to turn the electricity on, even though he knew it worked. Any sort of test, no matter how short, could have very easily been picked up by his fellow Imperials, and then the whole affair (no pun intended) would be over.


However, there were a few Loth-bats hanging out on the large antenna on the roof, so Kallus had to climb up there and shoo them away. “Get outta here, shoo,” he shouted frantically. Waving his macro-binoculars wildly, he smacked the winged rodents with some success, and was about to go back down… when he heard the mournful hoot of a lone convor.

What in blazes? Convers don’t migrate this time of year, Kallus mused. Using the macro, he studied the bird as it flew north. It had unusually beautiful plumage, emerald green feathers and a soft golden underbelly. What was such a magnificent creature doing out here?

It flew down to Kallus and hooted gently. Kallus smiled at it, “Hello there. Are you lost?” The bird hovered in mid-air, and the alit again. Kallus stared after it in wonder. Picking up the macro, he scanned the sky to see where it had gone. Oddly, it had disappeared. Confused, Kallus used his fingers to estimate the trajectory and followed it. Once his macrobinoculars followed, he frowned. Something was sitting on the horizon he didn’t recognize, so he decided to zoom in.

ISB grade macrobinoculars had the impressive zoom range of 750 miles, so Kallus used the zoom to its full affect. A giant stone ruin was surrounded by Imperial miners and droids, it was archaeological dig. There were also more Death Troopers than he wanted to count. Something big was going on, and it looked like Pryce was left out of the loop on this one.

Puzzled about this, Kallus decided to relay this information to Zeb and them personally, so he began his Fulcrum transmission early, “By the light of Lothal’s moons, this is Fulcrum with a message specifically for the Specters. Does anyone read me?”

There was no answer, but the signal relay was showing the message was being received. To be honest, it was being recorded on the Ghost’s recording tapes. Oh well, he could transmit then get back to base without anyone recognizing it. “Anyway, as I was saying, I have come into some rather… unusual information regarding an archaeological dig roughly 800 miles due north of Lothal’s capital city. From my observations, a large ruin is under heavy guard by death troopers and there is unloading of industrial grade equipment. Before today, neither I nor my superiors had any knowledge of the goings on, and it’s safe to say Emperor Palpatine is the one behind this. I shall update you when I have more information. I hope you are well, Zeb- I love you.” Sighing, he cut the transmission just as the moons began to rise over the horizon.

Leisurely making his way back to his speeder bike, Kallus drove back to the Imperial Complex, just as Governor Pryce appeared, looking pale and exhausted. “Where in space were you, Agent Kallus? You can’t go around abandoning your post. I should have you reported for failing to do your job.”


Kallus snorted, “I was doing my job. I was tracking down Rebel sympathisizers and filling out the required paperwork. ISB agents just don’t run around all day. This is real life, not a primetime holodrama like INCIS or Selena and Irenez. For the record, I am held in higher regard than you are by Imperial High Command.” He grinned at that extra info, and it irritated Pryce greatly. Pryce merely responded he was needed on Lyste’s light cruisers, immediately. Kallus protested, but the troopers forced the despondent agent onto the nearest shuttle anyway, killing the good day he had been having up until that point.

Roughly at the same time, the Ghost crew was sitting down to eat dinner and were listening to Kallus’s message. Kanan frowned, “The Empire is attacking the Jedi Temple on Lothal? It’s a good thing Kallus spotted that convor. It also means we might need to replan our attack on the TIE defender factory.” Everybody stared at him, and Ezra cut it, “Hold it! Since when is the Temple of Moro-no-Kimi a Jedi Temple? It’s the holiest place on Lothal, don’t butt in on 5,000 years of Lothalian mythology.” Sabine, Rex, and Zeb exchanged glances, who was Moro-no-Kimi, and why would the Jedi go so far as to destroy local holy sites?

Sensing the tension, Kanan leaned back in the chair, “I’m sorry, Ezra. Master Billaba told me about the Jedi Tower of Lothal, and how it held the power to cut across time and space, a world between worlds.”

“Like the TARDIS?”

“Yes, like the TARDIS. But, it can only be accessed by Jedi and it was abandoned eons ago and was forgotten about by the earliest days of the Old Republic. Why would Palpatine be interested in it now? Good thing Kallus alerted us, he’s a reliable guy.”

Zeb nodded, “Told ya I know how to pick ‘em, being my future husband and all. But back to the temple complex, Ezra- who’s this Moro person?”

“Not person, wolf! Moro-no-Kimi is the Mother Wolf, principal deity of Lothal. The First Ones of Lothal were the Loth Wolfs, and they were the ones who aided the first humans who colonized Lothal, before the Sky People drove them away.”

“Sky People? Who are they?”

Ezra shook his head, “When my birth parents were still alive, they had me memorize as many myths as I could because the Empire was burning books then. From what I remember, it was during the Dark Winter the Loth Wolves went extinct. Mom told me a volcanic eruption at the Southern Pole caused the whole sky to go dark for six months, halting food growth and rain. Human settlers moved deeper into the caves and began praying for Moro-no-Kimi to intervene. She never came. The Sky People came instead. Oh, they were horrid! They were walking vultures who wore black robes over them so nobody could see what they looked like. They stole sprits from people as they slept. It went on for so long, the people of Lothal cursed the name Moro-no-Kimi and set out to build cities away from the mountain caves they used to call home. As they trekked south, the pilgrims were confronted by Loth Wolves, and behind them, the Sky People. Howling, they launched themselves at the Sky People… the fields were stained with blood for years.”

Everyone sat at the table, jaws agape and eyes wide. Sabine asked quietly, “Ez, why were those beings called Sky People?” Ezra explained that the moniker had been dubbed by the Lothalians because they came down from the sky without any ships. Hera thanked him for the story and made the suggestion that it was time to break Kallus out of Imperial custody.

It was time to bring Fulcrum home.

 

Who flies the Tardis at present? No, clue, luv.

But keep the good stuff and your latest link with Japanese manga & anime coming.

 

Why River Song, of course!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Now, I feel like a sheep. But of late its very difficult for me to be clever...

 

Ballad of the Winter Rose

A SW Rebels/Doctor Who Romance

Genre: Gothic romance, drama, hurt/comfort, dark fantasy, slight horror

Cast: the usual

Pairings: Thrawn/Minerva and Kallus/Zeb

Chapter 46: Fulcrum’s Mission Impossible, Part2

Chapter Soundtrack: Summer and Mononoke Hime (Nobody Knows Your Heart)- Joe Hisaishi



Once the Ghost was back at Chopper Base, everyone was greeted by Commander Sato, who debriefed them on what was going on. There was some Imperial chatter about some grade school slicer calling themselves Delta Source. They were an equal opportunity troll, bothering both them and the Empire. According to the child’s psychological profile (written by Thrawn, and hacked by Iron Squadron), he/she was in 3rd grade, exceled at mathematics and sciences, and came from a smuggling background. There was talk of recruitment, but Sato wasn’t having any of it. War was no place for a child, Delta Source needed to go home to Mom and Dad.

Not surprisingly, Thrawn had recommended the same thing in mind. He had also intimated said child would be cocky and have a self-inflated ego. According to the Grand Admiral, Delta Source’s parents were still alive and were most likely in the trading business on some backwater world, like Lah’mu. That was as far as the hack went, because Thrawn had activated his privacy programming update on his datapad.

“So, we can hire Skander, but not a nine year old with Asperger’s Syndrome,” Zeb inquired to the group as they sat around the galley table, eating peanut butter sandwiches. Kanan shrugged, “Excelling at math and science, a schizoid personality disorder, and trolling both sides in a galactic civil war does not mean Delta Source is on the autism spectrum. Besides, Thrawn would have noticed any inkling of a neurological disorder and written it down in red ink.” Everyone else nodded in agreement, that sounded about right.

After the dishes were washed and put away, it was time to discuss Operation: Extract Kallus. Running through whatever hacked Imperial data that was available to them personally (most of it thanks to Kallus), they learned Kallus was currently on a light cruisier, acting as ISB’s attache to the Seventh Fleet. It was sitting a safe distance outside of Lothal’s orbit, because light cruisers had a bad habit of becoming temporary moons in some cases, much to the consternation of the Imperial Navy’s support and maintenance corp.

“Well, according to Kallus’s social media posts, he’s bored out of his mind and his profile is full of sad face emoji’s,” Rex confirmed as he projected the screen of her datapad. Zeb frowned, he hated seeing his boyfriend looking depressed. “He looks like he’s ready to commit murder just to get off that ship,” Ezra observed. Kanan nodded in agreement, being cooped up somewhere on orders against your will was cruel and unusual.

Hera thought for a moment and nodded her lekku towards the armor lying in the closet not ten feet away. “Why don’t we go for an undercover mission? One of us could pretend to be a criminal and have Chop and AP-5 go in.” This seemed like a good idea, considering Wedge had picked up the wayward droid during an undercover mission on Corellia a few weeks ago. Since then, the protocol droid had been spending time with the Specters and had a rivalry with Chopper running red hot.

Zeb wanted to do the mission, but this was met with some pushback. Thrawn would expect that, and with his and Targeter’s wedding plans having been made public, would hopefully be out of pocket. It would be easier for 1 person and two droids. The next step was to decide who would be infiltrating the light cruiser with the data codes Kallus had sent them the other day (in between racy texts to Zeb). Ezra declared he would go, considering how much time had passed since anyone had seen him before his growth spurt and haircut. With all of that out of the way, Ezra needed a disguise.

Luckily for him, Sabine had been working on one for him. It was a standard set of bounty hunter armor, but it was painted to resemble a Loth cat. The helmet even bore the likeness of a Loth-cat. Standing in front of a mirror, Ezra sighed. “I wish Sabine was here. She’d love a mission like this.” Zeb ruffled his hair good-naturedly, “Yeah, I know. But, absence makes the heart grow fonder, as the sayin’ goes. You’re a good person, Ez. By the way, could you give this to Skander for me?” Handing Ezra a piece of cardstock, Ezra recognized it as the rough draft wedding invitation art Sabine had mocked up. Grinning, Ezra gave the Lasat a hug.

Chopper wanted to go on the mission solely because he wanted to see the pretty Imperial lady and make Kanan angry again. Angry!Kanan was the best comedy act in the galaxy, in his opinion. AP-5 took a longer time to convince. “I have inventory to do, not go galivanting on an undercover mission.” Of course, Chopper took this moment to call him a mindless philosopher and an overweight glob of grease. Dander up, AP-5 cut in, “ENOUGH! I will join the mission, but only to prove I am the superior droid around here.” Hera managed to calm the argument and let AP-5 and Ezra figure out the nitty-gritty of the plan.

It took three days to figure out how sneak back to Lothal and get arrested for smuggling and finding an appropriate ship to use as a courier. There were a lot of old ships that had been impounded, and they were being used for target practice. Old Jho knew a few models that were still in good condition. “This shuttle has 500k miles on it and was used for smuggling in shonen-ai manga about fifty years ago.” Ezra shrugged, his parents read that stuff all the time, so for him it was no big deal.

Old Jho was relieved, that was one less ship the Empire had in its arsenal. Contacting the gang, Ezra confirmed that he had the ship, and all he needed were the droids. Rex and Kanan would be his back up and would be following in the Phantom II, on standby. All they needed was clear weather, and that would be the better part of the week because of a nasty storm from moving in from the southeast.



Meanwhile, back on the light cruiser, Kallus was depressed and lonely. He wanted to play holochess with Minerva and discuss sports tactics with Thrawn at dinner in the officer’s dining hall. There was nobody here he could really connect with, at least on a platonic level. Ugh, why did the Empire have to be so lonely?

The morning of 7 November, Imperial Year 18 began like it always did. The annoying blare of the klaxon woke him from another restless sleep. The sooner I wake up in Zeb’s arms on the Ghost, the sooner I regain my soul and sanity, he thought to himself as he woke up. Groggy, he stumbled to the en-suite sink and stared at his wan face in the mirror. How could he drag himself through another ridiculous drill? Unbeknownst to the ISB agent, this was not a drill. This was a code red!

“Battle stations, sir,” the trooper barked. Rolling his eyes, Kallus ran down the corridor, into the elevator, and onto the main bridge. He was hoping Lyste had a good reason for the too-early wake up, or else Yogar was going to be thrown out of the airlock.

Looking unreasonably well rested, Lyste saluted the officer. “Lieutenant Lyste , are we under attack,” Kallus responded sarcastically. Lyste shook his head, “Thankfully not, we just got a report of a stolen freighter that’s just left Lothal.” Turning around, he gestured towards the windshield. The light cruiser had been firing at a non-descript freighter, and once it was within range, the tractor beam had it in its grip.

Gleefully bouncing on the balls of his feet, he and Kallus made their way to the docking bay. A couple of stormtroopers were holding onto a scrawny looking smuggler and two familiar droids. Good grief, what were they doing here?

Oblivious to what was going on, Lyste yanked off the helmet…revealing Ezra Bridger! Jesus Christ Superstar, what was he doing here? “What are you looking at, Imperial scum,” Ezra snarled as one of the stormtroopers backhanded him. Motioning for everyone to follow, one of the troopers asked about the droids. AP piped up, “We are witnesses to the shuttle robbery. We can provide evidence at his trial.” That seemed reasonable to Lyste.

Leaving Kallus to interrogate the smuggler, Ezra used the Force to turn of the cameras and microphones and used the Force to jump onto the ceiling. Kallus groaned, “Will you please stop that? You’re going to give me a heart attack.” Ezra shrugged and returned to the floor when Kallus gave him a large, fatherly hug. “Goodness, I have missed you all. How’s Zeb, and what are you doing here?” Ezra explained the rescue mission and handed Kallus the cardstock.

“Sabine is a fine artist, she even got all the details right,” Kallus gushed. Ezra nodded, and told Kallus they were dating. They spoke for another minute about relationships during war time, when Ezra held his hand up, “Lyste is coming back. Quick, fake punch me!” Catching on, Kallus began fake punching Ezra with the young teen confessing to everything.

Standing at the door was an understandably impressed Lyste, “You are as good as they say! However, the interrogation will have to wait. We have been summoned to Grand Admiral Thrawn’s Star Destroyer.” Kallus frowned, why in space would they be going there?

“We’re going there to show Grand Admiral Thrawn and General Hektor I’m a capable officer,” Lyste replied. Motioning for the droids to follow, everyone walked away, leaving Ezra’s helmet and the cardstock.

AS the humans talked, Chopper discretely updated plans to Kanan and Rex.