"Disclaimer: I do not own, or claim to own Star Wars or any of its properties. The only part of this work that is mine is the original character. Everything else is owned by Lucasfilm/DisneyDisclaimer: I do not own, or claim to own Star Wars or any of its properties. The only part of this work that is mine is the original character. Everything else is owned by Lucasfilm/Disney.
An investigation mission was all the statement was, and it was not even the slightest bit true. And Cadet Alexia Sterlin was aware of this, but chose not to speak up. If she did as she was told, and showed promise. Perhaps she could finally be promoted to a rank she felt was more suited to her talents. She was not simply a Junker after all.
The fifteen-year-old was placed with one other cadet to move anything that may be of worth from an old communications tower. Something deemed worthy of investigation. She was sure that based on the previous rumors about higher ranking officers entering this specific tower that there would be nothing of use to them, nothing that would be too important.
This was more than likely the exact reason two cadets were sent on this job. If anything of worth was found, then it was good for the cadets, but not worth wasting other resources on. Though Alexia was not so sure. If this was a place that tended to have frequent enough visitors, then there must be something about this tower. Something that higher ups left out thinking it was not worth their time to know.
Alexia went ahead, up the tower and through the easily sliding door that led to what, at first glance seemed like a hoarder's treasure trove, with somewhat of a livable setup in there. The cadet took off her helmet to get a better look that what the protection allowed for. She reached towards the back of her head to tighten up her loose ponytail holding back her mess of black hair while she glanced at a few pictures. Then her eyes lingered on the stormtrooper helmets. Her hands dropped and she reached towards and pulled the helmet over, tossing it around in her hands. She stared at it for along moment, realizing that this helmet was not the original property of whomever took residence here. It was here as some sort of… trophy.
Maybe a delinquent who wanted something to hide behind. Or… perhaps something worse to her? A rebel?
As Alexia stared at the helmet, she heard the distant laughter of a memory, and zoned to allow the memory to take hold. Of a smaller, younger Alexia running up to two stormtroopers giggling and reaching up and saying, "Mama, Papa! Can I come with you to work?"
One trooper reached up to take off her helmet, an older woman with brunette hair, blue eyes, and Alexia's face smiled down at her and said, "Not today sweetie, it's too dangerous today. Gotta make sure you and the rest of Lothal stay safe, okay?"
"Okay…"
"Hey don't worry kiddo." The other trooper responded as well, taking off their helmet to reveal an older male with black hair and hazel eyes, "We'll be back soon before you know it."
They did that day, but two years ago, the two never came home. The day a dangerous Rodian was out and searches were to be had. The day a team of rebels wreaked havoc on a day of celebration towards the empire. A day that should have been an easy day for her parents, and should not have resulted in her becoming an orphan.
That Empire Day two years ago.
"Sterlin…"
Alexia's grip on the helmet grew ever tighter, not hearing the name break through to her thoughts, "Alexia…" eventually a hand grabbed her shoulder and said, "Lex."
Alexia tried to hold back a gasp but her body reacted in surprise as she dropped the helmet and turned to see the second cadet had finally made it up to her, "Are you alright? You haven't been moved since I got up here."
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks Copley." Alexia replied before pulling their shoulder away from their hand and picking up the helmet to place it back where it was, "It's just, a lot of junk and dusty helmets is all."
"Nothing of interest yet then?"
"I think there was at one point." Alexia replied, walking over to a table where a mark once held some large object, but the machine's placement on the bench made it so the weathering around it happened sooner, making the surface under it look much cleaner, "But I think the commander or someone got to it first."
The other cadet sighed in disappointment and said, "Well, if we can't bring back anything good, we can try to bring back at least… something."
"Are you suggesting we shirk responsibilities?"
Copley's body movement shifted uncomfortably as they held up their hands, "Not at all, I'm saying we should bring back something rather than nothing. Even if we can't find anything of dire importance."
Alexia looked at their partner like there was no difference between the phrasing, and the other sigh in defeat, beginning to shift through boxes and drawers. Alexia walked along the walls, and beside the sliding door, she spotted a banner with the imperial insignia on it, and a bright x across it and Alexia growled, "So it's a rebel?"
"We're not here to speculate. But it might not be a rebel, it could just be someone who dislikes the Empire. I'm not defending their position, but there's a difference between silent disapproval and active disapproval." The cadet explained.
"You mean the difference between a silent traitor and a terrorist?" Alexia asked, not sure if she'd get an answer. Copley stood up from their spot and responded with slight disagreement in their voice, "Sure."
Alexia climbed up towards where the bed lay, and she saw a drawn piece of paper with sketched out places that seemed to be on a memory based map of Lothal. With key places x'd off on a map, usually common smuggling places and she rolled her eyes, "Okay, so whoever was here was a thief, or smuggler? At least that's what I got from this…"
Alexia jumped down and knocked some bolt or piece on junk on the ground over towards a corner and the cadet stopped to look only out of curiosity over what they just kicked. There was a noise that sounded odd that came from the corner, and Alexia stopped to walk over and investigate. She found a broken disc of some kind. A holodisk? She wasn't fully sure, but she sighed and said, "And a piece of junk."
"Well, it looks restorable. Why don't we bring that as a secondary and uh… the map? Maybe if we can't get any info here, we can shut down some smuggler spots they may not be aware- "
"None of these places are around anymore, not since the siege, when they took away that slum or whatever they called it." Alexia commented and began walking away with the stuff, grabbing her helmet as she left for the door. Copley followed suit behind her saying, "Tarkintown?"
"Sure, whatever." Alexia replied with disgust as she put her helmet on.
Their mission to free Lothal had failed before it could even begin. Whether it was due to a leak of intelligence which made their base an immediate target or not, it resulted in Ezra spending a lot of his focus on home. And while he knew there were more important issues to deal with, something was calling to him to head home. Not some evil whispers of a lure from Maul, or anything of the sort. It was the same familiar calling he had the day he found Kanan, and ended up joining the crew of the Ghost.
It was one that drew him, and he felt confident enough in this feeling. A little too confident. To the point where he snuck off with the New Phantom before he even gave any kind of explanation to Kanan or Hera. He just knew that if he even mentioned he was heading towards Lothal in their current state they would put it as an absolute no. Even if they trusted his feelings, he hadn't a clue how long it'd last.
The blockade of Lothal was not back yet, at least not the full size. There were ships in the area, probably looking for stragglers like him. The raven-haired teen scanned around for a blind spot, which was much easier in this state than earlier, and he flew into it before docking his ship in what really was the middle of nowhere, he did his best to conceal the ship in hills, so anyone patrolling wouldn't immediately see and invade the ship.
But it felt good to be home.
Ezra took a deep breath and said, "Alright Ezra, focus, try to figure out where you need to go…" he felt the welcoming hum of the force pull him in and he began to run across the fields. The hum stopped when he reached a hill that was close enough for him to see his tower. His gaze shifted and he ducked quickly as he noticed two imperial speeders at the base of it, and two cadets climbing onto them. Perhaps his timing was a coincidence, or some will of the force. But the speeders began to move back towards the city.
"Now what exactly are you doing in there…?" Ezra asked no one. He knew Kallus gave his Fulcrum transmissions from his old home, and that the location was compromised, but he did not think anything of worth was left there. Well, not worth anything to them. For him, certainly.
Ezra got up to start running towards his tower when one of the speeders of the two imperial cadets began to short circuit and the cadet jumped off of it. The other one turned around quickly as the speeder exploded. They seemed hurt, and since they were too close to the tower, Ezra was not going to make it without them noticing.
Ezra did not exactly bring a helmet with him, but he did hope that he could hack into the frequency, mostly to get a read on whether they were both going to ride the speeder or get a ride sent in.
"…74835… cadet Copley's bike overheated and ended up exploding. We think perhaps it was one of the older speeder types. We would like to request a lift, as Copley received an injury to the leg."
"Affirmative. We are sending out a medical speeder to your location. Please stand by. Once Cadet Copley has been collected, you may proceed to bay 2 with the transferred items. Was anything damaged from the speeder?"
"Negative, all items were of a small size and able to be carried back in a smaller container in a bag."
"Please confirm items again to ensure none were lost."
"A hand-drawn map and a broken holodisk."
"Holodisk?" Ezra asked himself. He had a feeling what the map may be but he did not remember any holodisks in his home. Unless it was one of Kallus'. But that didn't feel like the right answer.
And for some reason, having thoughts on that holodisk had that familiar feeling he knew meant that it had something to deal with his adventure.
He had a bad feeling about this one.
Author's notes:
"Oh hey, you're back. Where've you been?"
Gone, pretty much. And I'm not really back either. I had an idea for this four part story and I just HAD to get it out to you guys. It's gonna be a once-every-Tuesday type deal for the next four weeks.
It's gonna feel OC driven, I'm sorry. This idea just sparked and I really love it, and if you guys don't like it I'm sorry. I just hope it'll be a fun enough adventure.
"Are you gonna finish those other stories of yours?"
Nope. I wrote a message about them in their reviews of those stories. I didn't want to update the stories to tell you I dropped them, I gave permission to finish those though.
"This doesn't seem like Ezra?"
Give it time, I needed to pull him on over in a "what if" scenario kind of way I'm not fully in love with either. I'm writing this before season 4 so, if season 4 has a way that's easier for you to imagine this transitioning from, go for it. But that's thinking to the future.
See you next week!