Recommend you read "A Fallen Hero" and "Breakdown" first, but actually probably won't be necessary. For once.
I hope you enjoy!
Star Wars Rebels – E3 P1 – The Unfortunate Incident.
"Come on 'Bine," sighed Ezra. "There is no need to roast me before we start a mission. Everyone will be laughing so hard the Empire will find us!"
"Hmm…" she pretended to think. "Fine, but I'm still keeping that picture I drew of you."
It was a mistake to say that, and she braced herself for what was coming next.
"Oh, so you DO like me!" exclaimed Ezra. "You like me so much you want to keep a picture of me!"
"So I can admire my artistic talent…"
"The only clear space in your room is directly above your bunk, right where you'll see me every day after you wake up and before you go to sleep."
Zeb and Hera both sniggered over the comm.
"And you would know about that because you've spent so much time in my room?" Sabine returned, knowing full well it was useless.
"I make sure I absorb every detail," he smirked. "Like how you want to do so to me every time you go into your room."
"What happened to not roasting each other before a mission?" she asked.
"Now I've just got to find that device of yours so you'll have only me left!"
"EZRA!" She exclaimed as Hera and Zeb laughed. "I do NOT have a vibrator!"
"Your mind can't repel banter of this magnitude!" he laughed and she punched him hard in the shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm just kidding," he grinned as he turned to face her, getting an eye-roll in return.
"Remind me why we're still friends?" asked Sabine as she looked at the base ahead of them.
"Because I'm devilishly handsome and can make you laugh?" he replied confidently.
"Because she needs something proper now that the vibrator isn't good enough?" laughed Hera.
"For heaven's sake!" she sighed. "Why do you always go on about something I don't have."
"But want," sniggered Zeb.
"Zeb, I will personally dye your fur if you make another joke about the thing I don't have OR want. Same goes for all of you." She looked at the grinning Ezra. "And double for Ezra."
"What about me?" asked Hera, feigning offence. "You can't paint me, I have no fur or hair!"
"I'll steal your clothes when you're next in bed with Kanan," Sabine shot back. "And re-paint them all pink. And your device."
"Sabine!" exclaimed Hera. "I definitely don't need one of those!"
"She has Kanan," Zeb nudged Kanan, who sighed. "But, Sabine has Ezra…"
"Zeb, remember what I said…" growled Sabine, even though she was loving the roasting everyone was getting.
"Yeah Zeb," grinned Kanan. "It wouldn't be very funny to see you with a different fur colour," he continued sarcastically. "Maybe something that will make people laugh. Sabine?"
"I have the perfect idea for Zeb," she said menacingly, causing him to gulp.
"Thank god for that," said Kanan. "If he continues to annoy you, you may paint him."
Ezra sniggered.
"And Ezra too."
"Oh, what, come on, my hair's great the way it is," he complained.
"You want the hot pink or the Lasat purple?" Sabine asked him, doing her best not to laugh.
Kanan positioned himself by the base door with Zeb and Chopper.
"Anyway, let's focus now Spectres. We've got to get this VIP. Radio Check."
"Spectre Two, standing by."
Chopper beeped.
"Spectre Four, ready."
"Spectre Five, ready."
"Spectre Six, praying Sabine doesn't paint my hair."
"Shut up Six. I will paint it if I feel like it."
The Ghost crew were at an Imperial base on Halcor, which was being visited by an Imperial VIP while the cadets were away on an exercise and a lot of the Garrison was preforming ceremonial duties elsewhere. A fluke of nature created a crater with a lining of tough, highly compact metal/rock compound resistant to most of the erosion that took place. The result was a literal hole in the ocean, with several islands around it. Halcyon base lay on the largest island, with a dense jungle covering most of it bar the beaches. The ocean was to the right of the 'Island', while the left side ended in a steep drop into a crater. The base stretched out, one side practically touching the water, the other going right into the jungle to the edge of the crater, with a large hanger in the centre. It was, unusually, flat, not like the tall ones Imperials tended to make. The base had multiple doors and a constant TIE fighter overwatch, supported by an AT-AT sitting outside the base. Several squads of Stormtroopers milled about outside, boiling under the sun in their hot armor. Kanan, Zeb and Chopper waited by the most concealed shore door, Ezra and Sabine were hiding in the Jungle and Hera was waiting in the Phantom a mile away, ready to pick them up.
"Spectre Team Two," Kanan said, talking to Ezra and Sabine. "Move in. Give us the all clear when you're ready and Team One will breach."
Ezra and Sabine got up from where they were lying amongst the foliage and began to sneak up the side of the base, courtesy of some suction pads they'd been gifted by the rebels on Arus V, when they'd visited and smashed their squadron shooting record by 70 points. They scrambled over to the nearest air vent, avoiding the odd patrolling searchlight, which used infra-red during the day.
"In position," Ezra whispered into his comm as Sabine entered the vent, wary of any Imperial sensors that might've picked them up. The 2 Stormtroopers on the roof were oblivious to their presence and he hopped down to join her, sealing the vent behind him.
"Spectre Three, open it up," Kanan ordered, and Chopper beeped as he did so. The lone Stormtrooper guarding the inside of the door was quickly dispatched by a punch from Zeb and they proceeded to re-seal the door once they were inside. The base was deserted.
They moved quickly and quietly, shooting any patrols they encountered with silenced pistols as they made their way to the reactor room. Ezra and Sabine had crawled through the vents till they were just outside the communications room, at which point Sabine had left the vent and primed an explosive on the door.
"Team Two ready," she reported as she took position to the side.
"Spectres, initiate phase 2," Kanan ordered, Chopper ready to open the door to the control room.
The door hissed open and they charged inside. 2 technicians turned and were rapidly stunned by Kanan, while the 2 Stormtrooper guards were flung into the wall. Kanan began placing charges as Chopper downloaded Imperial data. Sabine and Ezra had taken out the communications room and signalled were on their way to the VIP's office.
A pair of red eyes watched patiently as the red dots floated around the map base hologram. Each rebel was electronically tagged when they entered and were being tracked currently as they planted bombs around what they thought was a reactor control room, but was, in reality, a storage room converted to look like a reactor control room.
Chopper beeped urgently.
"What do you mean, there are no files?" Kanan rounded on Chopper.
Chopper beeped again, annoyed at Kanan.
"Oh no…" It was a trap. "Spectres! Abort! Abort!" he yelled into his comm, getting a crackle of audio in return. They were being jammed.
Thrawn smiled slightly as 20 green dots, representing the Stormtroopers, crowded around the door ready to attack. Several more were on their way to the 2 red dots running down the corridor. Those rebels were aware something was up now.
Out in the jungle with the Phantom, Hera had been lounging around in the pilot's chair, picking her nails and worrying about the mission. Standard stuff, just wondering if something could go wrong.
A tree not far ahead suddenly toppled and she sat up. Another one did so, and another, until a set of legs appeared amongst the foliage, barely illuminated. A head followed shortly afterwards as an AT-AT walked out of the undergrowth. She attempted to take off, but a single, accurate shot exploded directly above her and the Phantom was shoved into the ground by the force of it. She looked up to see it facing her, jungle-camo troops swarming around its feet.
"Freeze rebel," a Stormtrooper said behind her, backed up by his buddy.
She raised her hands slowly and as soon as they were high enough, one of them slammed her head into the dashboard and attached a pair of handcuffs.
"Grand Admiral," reported the AT-AT officer. "We have the rebel pilot Hera Syndulla in custody aboard the walker."
"Excellent," Thrawn responded, watching the dots on the map. "Commander?"
The base commander stood to attention behind him. "Yes sir?"
"Give me the base defense controls," Thrawn ordered, and he was given a key-board like thing with dozens of buttons on it. He searched quickly, then pressed one.
In the corridor, Sabine and Ezra suddenly floated off into the air as the gravity was neutralized.
"Gravity's been neutralized!" yelled Sabine in surprise as she activated her magnetic boots. She stuck to the ceiling.
Several Stormtroopers rounded the corner, magnetic boots activated, and they all jumped onto different walls, firing constantly. Sabine shoved Ezra away as he drifted, helpless. Several green dots disappeared from the map as Sabine fired at them, but they were also getting hits and Sabine only survived thanks to her armour. That armour had weaknesses, a blaster bolt reminded her as it skimmed her exposed stomach.
Ezra crashed into the 'floor' and released the detonator he'd been holding. The detonator that spun towards the wall as Ezra desperately tried to 'swim' towards it. He was never going to make it and the button struck the wall square-on.
Thrawn frowned as the base rumbled and the hologram vanished temporarily. When it came back, the 2 free red dots were sprinting towards the cliff exit, while the 3 red ones in the control room had been flung against the wall.
"Captain, proceed with breach," Thrawn said calmly. He watched the green dots rush in and sweep the room, then check on the rebels.
"All alive but unconscious sir," reported the captain.
"Good." All that was left were Sabine and Ezra, who were currently running towards the exit. They'd had to go through a store room on the way there and Sabine had grabbed something from one of the shelves.
"What's that?" inquired Ezra as Sabine put it on.
"Parachute," she replied, fixing the straps. The open door loomed ahead of them, leading towards an empty landing pad. "Don't stop running and jump once we reach the edge."
"What?" he exclaimed. "Are you serious?"
"Do you trust me?"
"Of course."
"Then shut up and grab on to me once we jump."
A squad of Stormtroopers appeared down the end of the corridor as they reached the landing pad. Blaster bolts began to whizz around their heads as they ran.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" yelled Ezra as they neared the edge.
"Just do it!"
They jumped and Ezra grabbed hold of Sabine's waist with his arms and legs around hers. She pulled the strap on the parachute and there was a sudden jerk as the chute opened and slowed their fall.
Ezra's legs had been forced away from their previous hold on hers, so he dangled, arms doing all the work as he hung desperately. He looked down and gave a gasp of horror, before burying his head in her stomach, refusing to look at the jagged rocks and single landing platform below them.
"Don't get too comfortable down there," Sabine told him. "I like you, but I'm not ready for that kind of intimacy."
"Wouldn't dream of it," he replied. "Well, maybe not wouldn't dream of it, but wouldn't dare to do so in real life."
Sabine rolled her eyes behind her helmet and they drifted down to the pad. The waves that lapped at the side of the crater had never gotten over, so the inside was bone-dry.
Ezra's arms felt like they were going to be pulled from their sockets by the time they landed on the bridge connecting the pad and a mine and he let go of her waist with a sigh of relief, shortly followed by a grunt of pain as he checked them.
"That was fun, can I do that again?" he smiled at her.
"Sure, I'll take you BASE jumping again," she grinned back as she unstrapped the chute, knowing full well what he really meant.
They ran towards the parked Lambda-class shuttle and Sabine shot both Stormtroopers outside, then the pilot. They settled into the ship and launched, coming out of the crater to see the base on full alert. 6 AT-STs and 2 AT-ATs marched out of the hanger, supported by dozens of white figures. TIE-Fighters launched from the hanger and broke off into search patterns, sweeping the ground.
"They don't know we have the ship," commented Ezra.
Sabine spotted something and pointed. "Look!"
They flew over the AT-AT and the Phantom. There was no sign of Hera.
"Spectre Five, Spectre Six, are you there?" Kanan's voice broke through on their comms.
"Yeah, I hear you Kanan," replied Ezra. "Where are you?"
"In the base somewhere. I've only just broken free and run off to give you one more order before they re-capture me. Don't come back. Get to the Ghost and get out of here!"
They looked at each other.
"Kanan," started Ezra.
"Just GO!" he snapped.
They flew up and out to the where the Ghost was parked on one of the planet's moons. They docked, but didn't leave. They had to rescue their friends.