It was the perfect alibi because he genuinely wanted it, and that would be all that his Master would sense. And those little pangs of guilt which had whispered at the corners of his mind for so long were finally falling to silence, struck dumb by the reality of his betrayal.
How could he feel guilty for stopping someone who was trying to destroy him? It was simply self-defence. Survival of the fittest, laws of the wild. He'd run with the pack long enough now to understand that the only way to stop others snapping at his heels was to turn on them.
He smiled; his Master would be proud of him. But before the Sith congratulated himself too much for creating his precious 'wolf', he should realise the nature of the beast-
Palpatine had wanted commitment - well now he had it. He had his wolf. And the one driving ambition at the heart of every wolf... was to lead the pack.
"Sir?" Reece prompted gently, bringing Luke's thoughts back to the moment.
In truth, he'd already begun the campaign, having ordered Reece to contact his Bothan infiltrator and tell him to be watching The Heirs' apartments in the West Tower today. By now, the images of himself stood out on the Perlemian Apartment's wide balcony should be well on their way to the Rebellion.
"I'll contact Argot - say that the snare is set, and that we need reports of any changes in routine. You should contact Admiral Joss on an official comm and tell him to take the Peerless, the Dauntless and the Fury on a wide sweep of The Colonies by my command. Then contact him again on a secure channel and tell him to release the Specials from the 701st on their own recognisance when they reach Onderon- they're to be given the White Code. They'll start making their way to Bothan Space immediately. I want to know the moment they reach it. Contact General Reiss..."
"I'm sorry Sir- General Reiss has been reassigned to the Rim Fleet." Reece interrupted, of the commander of Luke's Core Armies- and a reliable ally.
Luke frowned, mismatched eyes narrowing, "By whom?"
"By the Emperor's command. General Veers has replaced him as head of the Core Fleet Armies - though I understand that he petitioned for this himself."
Luke turned away, frustrated, the memory of visiting his Master months earlier and seeing Veers leaving after a private audience with the Emperor coming immediately to mind. "He's an agent."
"Palpatine's?" Reece frowned, "I don't have him on my lists."
"Well then put him on. And let me know when Reiss manages to contact you on a secure channel from the Executor. I doubt we'll get anything useful from him since my father will be watching him like a hawk, but he may be useful in the future. When he makes contact, establish a secure frequency then tell him not to do so again- we'll leave him dormant for a while, until things cool down."
"And Veers?" Reece prompted.
"Tell Admiral Joss that he's an agent. He's to have no contact with the 701st." Luke said of his own squadron, which he protected absolutely from outside influence. "If he queries Joss on this, tell him to let Veers know it's by my command and direct Veers to me."
As his personal Command The Heir's Own Regiment - the 701st - maintained a visible presence onboard the Peerless as a recognised detachment, but in truth everything from squad numbers to assignments to whereabouts was carefully concealed, no more than half of the squadron being onboard the Peerless at any given time, the rest scattered in small independent covert units. There were numbers and names duly reported to Palpatine's Statistic and Intel branch on Coruscant of course. Some of them were even correct - or near enough to get past scrutiny.
It had taken Luke two years to build them up from a small, standard regiment assigned to his personal command as the 501st had been assigned to his father, to the independent, loyal, crack unit it was now. To be promoted into the 701st was the ultimate recognition in the Core Fleet, every being there recruited by Luke's own hand in recognition of exemplary conduct and consequently to date every single one was trustworthy. They had slowly been disconnected from the regular units to become a completely separate entity and while Luke was pretty sure that Palpatine's secretive Intel unit had a reasonable idea of numbers and allegiance, he also knew they had no knowledge of where the units were or what they were doing ata ny given time, and he wasn't about to let Veers change that.
Palpatine could of course revoke Luke's command of the 701st at any time, but Luke had played a discreet, delicate, calculated game and been careful to make no outward show of dissent, and he knew that his Master liked there to be no public display of mistrust between himself and his Heir, so to terminate his command of the 701st would be politically detrimental. Plus of course, he had to give his Wolf some sense of independence and autonomy... and in the final analysis, they both knew that the truth was that the unit was now so entrenched and loyal that if Palpatine gave the directive to rescind his command, Luke would simply order the majority of the committed, dedicated 701st to go covert, thus creating a stealth ex-military unit of unknown numbers and whereabouts with allegiance only to the Heir.
Necessity overcame many principles here, and over time, Luke had found that despite his early misgivings, disliking political subterfuge and artifice didn't mean that he was beyond it, nor it beyond him. He had spent his entire life enduring harsh environments and it was in his nature to fight- to survive... whether it be the deep deserts of Tatooine or the diplomatic jungle of Coruscant.
"Any orders for General Veers at this time?" Reece asked.
"Standard Fleet Manoeuvres." Luke said, then added, "I'll speak to him when the Peerless breaks orbit. Personally."
"Do you think he... has potential?"
"I very much doubt it." Luke said, "But I want to know why Palpatine removed Reiss and gave me Veers. Either he knows Reiss had split loyalties or he simply wanted another spy in my camp, which seems unlikely given that Veers' arrival is so obviously linked with the Emperor. I'm assuming Veers knows though, and I'm more likely to be able to pull it from his thoughts than from Palpatine's." He considered a moment, then added, "And I need an agent - an independent infiltration specialist who could get into the Rebellion quickly and with reasonable anonymity - preferably someone who's already had previous contact. They don't need to last too long undiscovered. See if Karrde knows anyone... tell him they need to be expendable. And tell him I need three smuggler-modified, armed bulk freighters with... name a major transport company on Bothawuii?"
Reece paused, thrown sideways by the unexpected question, "Um... Tionn Kallat? Munil?" he recalled off the top of his head.
"They need spotless ID's as either of those company's transports. I'll give him dates when I next see him."
Reece raised his eyebrows, "May I ask what we'll be smuggling in them?"
"You, me and the 701st." Luke said cryptically, offering no more at this point. He sighed, weary of these endless games he was forced into, exhausted from the long day and frustrated by Veers' untimely arrival. "That's all for tonight Wez. Contact Admiral Joss in the morning. And wake me at seven, please - I may as well start getting back into some kind of routine. I'll go to the Practice Halls in the morning."
Reece raised his eyebrows, "And you will be practicing how, if I may ask, Sir?"
"Carefully." Luke replied dryly, turning away to indicate that the conversation was over as far as he was concerned.
Reece however, was not so easily put off, "I believe that Hallin recommended that you wait until the bars and pins were removed before commencing lightsaber practice?" He reminded politely.
"They'll be removed shortly." Luke said simply.
Reece remained still for long seconds, staring at The Heir's back, but he knew from long experience that further argument would be pointless, and he could understand The Heir's decision to push his scheduled recovery. He had disobeyed the Emperor many times, but this was one step further than he'd ever gone before and if Palpatine found out then there could be no reasonable rationalization to explain away the obviously premeditated act of insubordination.