"Chop, I need that positioning data."

There was a metallic rattling sound from behind the co-pilot's seat. Moments later, a battered orange astromech emerged from its charging station, trundling across the floor of the cockpit towards the nearest data terminal. As it moved, the droid burbled something quietly to itself.

"I heard that."

Chopper rotated his dome with a whistling sound.

"Of course I can work it out myself. It's just far more convenient to let a droid crunch the numbers. It's all ones and zeros to you anyway. C'mon, plug in."

Hera Syndulla returned her attention to the controls of the Ghost. The converted freighter was currently attached to the remains of a Separatist battle cruiser, held in place by a set of powerful magnets. Even when idle, an experienced eye was necessary for ensuring the magnets held properly. An electronic chime sounded, and Hera flicked a switch to cancel it, hardly needing to glance away from her datapad as she did. To the Twi'lek, manipulating the Ghost was almost second nature.

Chopper made another garbled noise, and a large holoscreen on Hera's console began to fill with Aurabesh. Hera scanned over it briefly, idly adjusting her flight cap as she did. It had taken quite a lot of careful manoeuvring to bring the ship close enough to the wreck for a docking. In order to leave, the Ghost would have to pick its way through a sizeable cloud of debris that still hung around the battlefield.

"Thanks Chop. Feel free to take a recharge." Hera heard a faint squeaking noise behind her that suggested that the astromech was making an obscene gesture – but when she turned around the droid had already beaten a hasty retreat. She sighed – when was the last time I got more than a cycle of sleep? Although she wasn't out on the wreck, Hera enforced a strict ban on caf consumption during a mission – maybe that rule could be relaxed a bit. After all, what's the point in being Captain if you can't-

"Ghost...come in Ghost..."

Hera straightened up in her seat and pressed the transmit button. "How's it looking in there, Spectre Two?"

"Sorry Spectre One, no luck on finding a tactical droid up here on the bridge. I reckon our best bet now would be to investigate the debris we passed on the way in."

"Are you sure? It would be a lot more dangerous. Those fragments are still moving around out there."

"This cruiser isn't exactly the most likely place to find a rare droid. If those fragments were from a command vessel, we might just be in luck."

"I'm just not sure it's worth risking your life over, dear."

Kanan chuckled. "We'll hold here for now. You checked in with the others recently?"

"No, I'll see if I can reach them."

For the third time in as many minutes, Sabine Wren brought up the schematics of a Munificent-class frigate on her helmet display.

"It...just doesn't make sense. None of these rooms appear anywhere in the plans...and these ships were all mass produced. So this one must have seen some pretty heavy modifications to cram all this space in."

"Either that or you've got the map the wrong way up."

The two teenagers were suspended in zero gravity in a long hallway, one wall of which bore the damage from their forced entry. The mysterious heat signature, however, was now directly on their right side, as it appeared to be emanating from one of the locked doorways that branched off the passage.

"Ghost...Spectres...me?"

Sabine cursed, rapping a knuckle on the side of her helmet. "Say again, Ghost?"

There was no response. Sabine punched a text message into her longwave transmitter, reporting their position. Ezra made a frustrated sound over the comm channel. This time, however, Sabine was ready for him. She stuck out her arm, and the loose sole of Ezra's magnetic boot drifted down the corridor towards her, before attaching itself to her metal gauntlet.

"Thanks Sabine."

"Don't mention it, kid. So, which of these doors should we be taking a look at?"

Ezra trained the beam of his flashlight on the nearest one. Unlike the outer doors, these were smaller affairs, made only of thin steel with a basic electronic keypad for access. Sabine drew her twin blasters, but the Padawan had beaten her to it, slicing through the locking mechanism with one quick stroke of his lightsaber. The door rolled back, and the two rebels entered the room.

"Wow. Hey, Sabine, are you seeing this?"

Unlike the previous storage rooms, with their dark unfinished steel walls and low ceilings, this area was vast – easily large enough to fit the Ghost. The walls were covered in sterile white plating, seemingly untouched by the ravages of the vacuum. Ezra's flashlight beam danced across the far wall as the teenager braced himself against the doorway, before pushing off and slowly gliding outwards.

Sabine, however, was on edge. Her helmet sensors went into overdrive, flipping through infrared, spectroscopy and thermal to detect any hidden threats.

Seemingly unaware, Ezra drifted across the room. Looking back along the wall, he realised that all of the dozen or so doorways in the hidden passage led into this space. His eyes were drawn to several large objects that dominated the room. Flush with the opposite wall was a tall, complex looking piece of machinery, clad in thick steel plating. Even through his spacesuit, Ezra could feel the heat that emanated from within it. His flashlight panned over the device, taking in the extensive network of pipes and valves that radiated out across the walls and floor.

"That sure looks like a reactor to me. What do you think it's powering?"

As he spoke, Ezra panned his light around, following a thick bundle of pipes that trailed from the reactor, across the floor, then up to the base of the second object.

In the centre of the space, the floor curved upwards into a raised dais. At the tip of this was a tall durasteel cylinder that was coated in thick bundles of wiring. Multiple inactive data terminals were positioned around the base of the cylinder.

"Hey...Sabine. Where did Ahsoka say this ship was coming from?"

"Uta...Utapau? Was that it? There was some big battle there at the end of the war – I think Ahsoka said these ships were trying to evacuate to elsewhere in the Outer Rim. At least, until the Republic caught up with them."

Ezra drifted closer to the nearest data terminal, squinting at the attached keyboard through his helmet visor. "What kind of cargo needs its own dedicated hypermatter reactor?" He glanced up at the durasteel cylinder with a frown.

"Hey!"

"Ha-ha! Thanks kid."

A hand fell on Ezra's shoulder, and before he could protest he found himself being pushed backwards as Sabine used him as a launch platform to propel herself closer to the reactor. Lashing out with the Force, Ezra retaliated, directing a wave of energy at his companion. With a cry of surprise, Sabine was sent flying across the room, unhindered by gravity. Upon reaching the far wall, she opened her mouth to curse at Ezra – couldn't the kid take a joke - but the words died in her throat when the first blaster bolt pierced the space where she had been drifting moments before.

To the untrained eye, the debris field that lay in the shadow of the Suhukk system was like any other relic of a Clone War era battlefield. House-sized chunks of durasteel, fragments of Republic and Separatist ships alike, made up the majority of the cloud, which was dotted here and there with the gaudy colours of a starfighter, or a crystallised lump of hypermatter. To all but the most advanced military scanners, the Ghost was invisible as it clung to the hull of what was once the Pride of Utapau IX.

"Agent Kallus. Our scanning equipment has a lock on the rebel craft. We are awaiting further instructions."

"Excellent work, Captain. Activate the cloaking device and move to intercept them. Remember; the Inquisition wants the Jedi and his apprentice alive. Dispose of the rest."

The stormtrooper nodded stiffly, and then turned to the crew compartment.

"Weapons check! Three minutes to target!"

The hull of the Imperial shuttle shimmered as it engaged a cloaking device, slipping silently into the debris field.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who has been reading so far – I hope you're enjoying this story. If you have any constructive criticism, don't hesitate to leave it in the comments. See you in the next chapter!