"Princess?" General Rieekan summoned Leia over with a wave, casting a concerned frown at the screen monitoring long range anomalies. "I think you may want to have a look at this."
"What is it, General?" Leia left her own station and joined the general and the assembled Rebel leadership, certain she had cause for concern about what she would find. "I take it that the news isn't good?"
"It's still too early to make an accurate determination, but our probes picked up a trace of a massive object entering the Hoth system," General Rieekan brought up an image of the object in question, but the quality made it impossible to properly identify it. "Thus far, we haven't been able to capture any clear images, our scopes have taken a few hits from the debris fields."
"But given that we've estimated the object to be just over sixteen-hundred meters in length, I think you can take a good guess at what it is," Wedge added.
"A Star Destroyer," Leia's grim face joined the others, taking note of the Destroyer's position in the system. "They're still skirting along the edge of the system. Do we know whether the Empire is aware of our location?"
"We don't believe so, no other ships have been spotted on the scopes. From the looks of it, that Destroyer is just a scout," General Rieekan answered, though his words did little to calm the group.
"But it means they are aware of our presence in the system, it won't be long before the rest of the fleet arrives to perform a more thorough sweep," Leia remained stoic, hiding her building concern.
The Rebellion had enjoyed a quiet -- if incredibly freezing -- existence on the icy planet of Hoth. A snowy coverage stretched across the surface of the planet and ice clouds shrouded the upper atmosphere in a perpetual white mist, rendering it almost impossible for any Imperial sensors to spot the settlement from afar. However, Leia wasn't naive enough to believe that the safety of the Rebellion was a certain thing, aware that the day would come when they would be forced to make yet another desperate escape, just as they had done following the destruction of the Death Star.
"We should be expecting the arrival of probe droids within a matter of days," General Rieekan predicted, staring intently at the shape as it progressed through the system. "It may seem drastic, but I believe we should start preparing for an evacuation. The very last thing we need is to get taken by surprise, and we know that the Empire is looking for revenge."
"Give the word," Leia nodded, not wishing to bring up the fact that no viable alternatives to the ice planet had yet been identified. Leaving Hoth would quite literally mean entering the unknown. "But we should keep this between the leadership for now, the last thing we need after months of rationing and frost bites is complete and utter panic."
"I'll start getting my men to fuel up and patch up the snowspeeders," Wedge said, knowing from experience how an Imperial ground invasion would play out. "They're not much, but they can do a lot of damage when they're used effectively."
"Good man," General Rieekan nodded at Wedge, giving Leia a small smile when he noticed the brief expression of nervousness that appeared on her porcelain face. "This isn't the news we wanted, but we knew to expect."
"It's the reality of the situation, we all knew what the cost would be for joining the Rebellion," Leia responded primly, still keeping her personal feelings in check, a technique taught to her by her mother.
"You more than anyone," General Rieekan said solemnly, still able to vividly remember how shaken he was when word of Alderaan's destruction reached Yavin. "Tell you what, we have everything here under control, and the scout is yet to alter its current course. Why don't you take some time out to relax? If anything changes I'll make sure that you're the first to know."
"Thank you, General Rieekan," Leia gave the older man a grateful smile before heading off, not quite sure where she even intended to go.
Leia returned the salutes that came her way as she ducked out of the base of operations, still unable to shake off the peculiarity of being seen as a military leader rather than the Princess and future queen of Alderaan. Though the responsibilities weren't too similar, with one being a purely ceremonial role and the other more proactive, the burden was equally hard to cope with at times. At just nineteen, Leia found herself at the forefront of a raging war, one where the galaxy itself was the prize being fought over, placing an immense weight on the shoulders of someone so young.