Unknown Date on Remnant

Unknown Time on Remnant

Space


To say Sander Blanco, new captain of the Vytal, is pissed off would be the understatement of the millennium.

This galaxy, his birthplace, is the last place he wanted to go to. All it did for him was bring betrayal, misery, and loneliness. True, life on Remnant wasn't much better for a time, but at least it gave him a chance to choose his own life and he had more friends that he didn't suspect of just straight up leaving.

Anyway, despite this rage, he manages to retain some sense of security as the ship approaches the planet. However, as they continue approaching, they notice a strange-looking grey ship floating in space. Sander stares long and hard at them, strangely reminded of the Republic battleships during the Clone Wars many years ago. "Bring this ship to a full stop."

"Captain?" The Atlas pilots ask, looking up at him in shock, along with everyone else on the bridge. Sander silently gulps.

"That ship. Whoever that is, isn't friendly and armed. While our ship may be able to fight back, we don't know our chances against the locals."

The crew takes a second look through their monitors and despite sensing deep curiosity from the pilots, they also manage to repress their emotions as they do as ordered. Sander lets out a silent sigh of relief. They just sit in space for a long moment, before Yang scoffs. "Alright. So, what's the plan now, or are we just going to sit here and wait for something to happen?"

Sander glowers at his ex, but before he can snap back, a communications office calls up to him. "Sir! We're receiving a transmission from one of the ships."

"Put it through." Sander commands. Within moments, a voice is blaring through the loudspeaker.

"Attention. This is Lieutenant Galagar of the galactic empire. You are entering the Lothal sector. You have two minutes to identify yourselves or you will be destroyed."

The communication officer cuts off the communication feed on the Vytal's end, and the chaos begins. Not only does he speak in their language, but he sounds no different than any human from home. "I say we give these brain-suckers a taste of my hairy weapons!" Boomstick shouts over the shouts of protest while Wiz facepalms, Yang snickers at the insult and Dr. Grey gags loudly.

Sander ignores all of this as he does his best to come up with a plan. But he's in too much shock; a Sith usually seeks dominion over others, so could the republic he fought for so many years ago be this empire? If so, damn, Palpatine works fast. "Sir, we're detecting massive spikes in heat from that ship!" The navigation officer exclaims. "They're going to fire!"

The Jedi knight runs towards the communication officer's desk on the right of the ship, and pushes the red button. "Stand down now, Lieutenant! This is Leonard Church, and I am a courier for the empire."

The protests die down as everyone stares at him with bewildered expressions. Silence and the thickest tension ever of all times hangs in the air. "…I'm afraid we use droids as couriers, rebel."

"You misunderstand me, Lieutenant. I am carrying vital information that must be passed to the officer in charge of running this planet. It was deemed too important by my CO to be trusted with a piece of walking junk." For a little push, he uses Force persuasion.

Silence fills the air once more as the Imperials mull over the information. "Very well, sir. Please send an escape pod to my ship, and I will personally escort you to the planet."

The comms cut off as Sander lets out a deep sigh of relief. He rubs his forehead and realizes his forehead is completely soaked. "Holy shit, he bought it." Yang exclaims out loud.

"We're not out of the woods yet." Sander replies as he walks away from the comms station. "Yang, Max, I'm giving you command of the Vytal once I'm gone. Turn this ship 45 degrees starboard, then get out of that other ship's range; I'll find a map of this galaxy and find another way to escape and we'll reunite as soon as I've made my break. I'm getting my weapons and going to the escape pod."

Max then starts barking orders, and the bridge is once again alight with activity. As Sander's walking to his room to pick up the essentials, Yang grabs his metal arm. "Don't go dying on me, hot shot."

Sander simply smiles and nods before walking past his quarters and lifts his hand. With the Force, he levitates the large grey box containing Star Blaster and his suit of armor and has it floating at his left side. Never can be too careful, after all.

After reaching the escape pod, he seals the hatch and presses some buttons on the inside. The cylinder-shaped pod shakes violently as it rockets towards the imperial ship. The closer it gets to the ship, the bigger it seems to get. While far from the biggest or most impressive ship he's ever seen, it shouldn't be underestimated. The pod shakes even more, making the Jedi nearly fall out of his seat. The pod then seems to travel even faster to the ship and before he knew it, the pod was setting down on the docking bay.

Seeing no reason to stay in the pod any longer, Sander opens the hatch to the pod and is greeted with the site with a clean docking bay and a dozen white-armored troops pointing their blasters at the Jedi. For precaution, he raises his hands up in surrender. As he does so, the troops part to reveal a man wearing a green uniform that has colored buttons that seem to signify rank. "Are you the man who was so nice to me?" Sander asks in a slightly sarcastic tone.

"Yes, Mr. Church. If you could pass along the information you have, then I can send you along your way." The officer suggests, holding out his hand.

Sander just places his hands on his hips and clicks his tongue. "Now, now, Lieutenant. I wouldn't be a good courier if I simply handed my messages to those I'm not contracted to, would I? Besides, my orders were to bring my message to the…who the hell is in charge around here, anyways?"

The lieutenant looks confused, but quickly regains composure. "Governor Pryce, sir. Now, I will take you down to Lothal personally."

"Sir." Another officer calls out, running to him with a data pad in hand. "Protocol dictates that you need to remain on deck to monitor for any more ships entering our sector."

Galagar growls in annoyance. "This is not going to be a good day for me, I can already tell." He then looks to the commander. "Sargent, escort our guest to Lothal and take him to the Imperial Center. Notify Governor Pryce she has a guest on his way."

"Yes, sir." The sergeant says, and escorts the secret Jedi through the docking bay to a grey-colored transport ship nearby. Once Sander is seated, the stormtroopers literally throw his crate filled with weapons after he reminds them of its existence next to him before the hatch closes.

"Some welcome." Sander mutters as he puts his trunk right-side up and checks to see if it has any scratches. As he finishes up, the shuttle revves to life and soars out of the docking bay, going towards the plant. The trip is quick and shockingly not as bumpy as he had expected; it seems travel between planets has improved since the days of the old republic.

The second they land, two stormtroopers that were sitting next to him stand up and take his trunk. The trio walk off the ship and into the bright sunset, which briefly blinds the Jedi. After a moment, they make their way onto what seems to be a floating grey transport which then promptly takes off. Sander stares out at the grassy fields that pass by; this Lothal planet seems to be a really peaceful place.

The trip passes by in a tense silence, no one willing to break the ice hanging in the air. It ends once they reach the docking bay of a large black mushroom-shaped building in the center of a more primitive city, and is quickly escorted into a new set of quarters.

Like that, he was alone again. All Sander does for what seems to be an eternity after the stormtroopers left was to sit on his bed in silence. He got himself into this mess that shouldn't have worked in the first place, so now what is he going to do?

The Jedi shakes his head, still trying to grasp that he really was back in his old galaxy. Should he stick around and most likely lie to this governor? And get himself killed in the process? On second thought, that doesn't sound too good and he quite likes being alive, so the Jedi decides to leave the building and find some local insurgent activity that could save his neck. He then stands up and looks around the room, running his hands under the bed and in the sink in his room. There, under the mattress of the bed he was sitting on, was a bug unlike any he has seen before. Smirking, he lays the mattress back on and moves the pillow aside. After seating himself back on the bed, he bounces up and down while deliberately putting as much weight in as possible. An audible crunch can be heard, and he let out a sigh of relief. "Serves you right for trying to spy on me. Maybe I should have really masturbated and really freaked out these guys out. Ah well."

He then opens his trunk and pulls out his armor. That was a close call for inspection, but with a lot of luck and Force use, he managed to avoid any issues that could have arisen. Within a minute, he has put on his navy-blue armor, complete with Remnant-style medieval plating and a Mark II clone trooper's helmet. While his cape would have been nice to bring along, it wouldn't work outside of Remnant so he had to leave that behind. Nodding in satisfaction, he uses the Force to pull Star Blaster into his hand and after converting it to lightsaber mode, cuts open a hole in the wall of his quarters and pulls it onto his bed. To his surprise, it opens up to the night-covered outside of the facility. It's almost as if an outside entity wanted to make this bought of fleeing imperial custody quick and painless.

He stares down at the ground, several hundred feet below him. His hands shake greatly but manages to take a shaky breath, and climbs to the outside of the compound and uses the Force to pull the circle cut back into place and he starts climbing down the compound. Inch by inch, he lowers himself as the wind whooshes around him triumphantly.

As he's about the halfway point, a loud clicking rings out on his right. Looking over slowly, he sees a single black droid with a red eye rushing towards him with a wiper in one appendage, cleaning the station. Sander just stays where he is, too petrified to move and thinking the droid would skirt around him. Boy, was he wrong.

It slams hard into Sander's right arm, making him lose his grip. He yelps as he desperately tries to regain his handling but the droid manages to completely smash his fingers under the treads, which was still painful as hell despite wearing armor. Out of instinct, he lets go.

The Jedi can only scream in panic as he plummets towards the ground at speeds he can't even comprehend. He tries to use the Force, semblance, anything to slow down his plummeting but the instinctual terror for heights keeps him from doing anything but keep falling like a sack of rocks. Soon enough, however, he crashes right into the ground in the middle of an imperial garrison, crushing one unfortunate stormtrooper. His five companions look at the unconscious armored man while pointing blasters at him. "Where the kriff did he come from?" One trooper asks, looking up to the sky.

"Is he dead?"

A third trooper cautiously walks towards Sander's body and kicks his arm. Suddenly, Sander screams causing all the troopers to jump back simultaneously in shock. Then the Jedi stops screaming. "Oh wait. I've already landed." He then starts standing up, only for his back to very audibly crack in protest. "Owie." He then looks around at the armed stormtroopers, then down at the dead body. "Oh, ah. Sorry about that. I must have taken a very bad step."

"Surrender! You are under arrest for the murder of an official stormtrooper. Resist, and you will face the consequences." The sergeant commands stepping forward and holding out two metal cuffs connected by a thin wire crackling with blue electricity.

Sander huffs and shakes his head. "You do not want to take me prisoner." Sander says, waving his hand.

The sergeant growls and charges at Sander. The Jedi is momentarily surprised, but pulls out Star Blaster from the holster on his back while charges forward and slices horizontally. The leader just stands behind the Jedi while not moving, then his head slides off the body and both collapse to the ground, blood spilling on the ground. Sander smirks under his helmet. "So, who wants some now?"

The troopers then start firing their blasters at the Jedi, but he dashes towards the closest trooper, uppercuts him, and gets right behind the trooper. Red lasers hit the trooper as he screams for the last time. In that some moment, Sander throws the corpse at another stormtrooper, knocking him down. As the other two troops resume their firing, Sander dodges to the side and throws his sword like a javelin, impaling one trooper in the shoulder. The Jedi lunges forward to push the blade further in and pushes the screaming man into the final standing stormtrooper, sticking right into his heart. The Jedi rips the blade out and looks around at the bodies of the troops. Not even an hour on this strange planet, and not only does he not have a galaxy-wide map, he killed some official-looking soldiers. The trooper previously knocked down pushes the corpse off and tries to catch Sander off-guard, but not only does Sander duck under the blaster shot, he converts his sword to shotgun mode and fires. The blast blows the last trooper's chest clean open and spills blood all across the ground.

Just then, shouts of approaching troops can be heard as others check to find the source of their common. "Fuck." The Jedi mutters under his breath, sheathing the shotgun and running from the scene at the fastest speeds possible, magnified by Force use.

On and on he runs through this imperial-controlled city, until he stops at the city's edge to catch his breath. He must have made it nearly a half marathon by now. By the time he recovers, the former huntsman looks around to find out where he is now. It seems like the Force just wants to be sadistic to him today; he's run from one military facility to another, specifically a landing field of sorts. Standing high above him are three orange-colored cruisers shaped suspiciously like hammerhead Grimm, as well as large grey walkers that strangely resemble the republics' AT-TE.

Before the Jedi can figure out what to do from here, another ship that looks so different from all the others circles around before touching down on the ground, its lights nearly blinding everyone on the ground.

"This is the rebel ship we've been looking for." An officer exclaims in surprise before barking order to the two troopers at his back. Just then, the hatch opens up and three people step out of the ship: another stormtrooper, what seems to be a recruit, and a young and rather pretty woman who looks vaguely familiar to him. The two groups start conversing, but Sander is too distracted by staring at the woman and her associates.

The Force is so much stronger with them, it's baffling. The woman seems to have the most powerful sense of energy radiating from her, but the sensation is almost latent for her. The two troopers at her back, however, feel weaker but more active like they've used it recently. And the older trooper's signature feels so familiar to Sander, but where does he know it from?

As the woman walks away from the group, he notices an older man and an armored chick pulling what seems to be locks away from one of the cruisers, and separate by having the lady get inside the cruiser while the older man moves to the next lock. As he's working on the second lock, the first cruiser lifts up into the air. Haven't these guys ever heard of subtlety?

The imperials finally take notice of this and after spotting the older man, start firing at him. The commander, meanwhile, gets out what seems to be a communications device and shouts, "We've got rebels here. Call in backup. Now!"

Just then, the cruiser floating in the air lowers its blasters and opens fire upon the troops, making them lower their guard. One of the walkers finally takes notice of this and tries to intercept, only for yet another strange ship to soar through the sky and fire red torpedoes of sorts at the tank's side, allowing the flying cruiser to fly into space. Seems these thieves were more prepared than he thought.

As if that wasn't enough already, the two troops at the woman's side beat the other troops down, with the boy hoping onto the back of one trooper and despite getting his helmet knocked off, manages to beat the man unconscious. Quickly, the boy gets his helmet back on. The three can only watch as the damaged walker gets back on its legs and starts firing upon the air support.

The older trooper, to save their air support, runs towards one of the walkers while pulls out a long hilt and activating a familiar blue blade. Sander looks at it in awe; he's a Jedi! Just what the hell is going on here? This other Jedi manages to leap into the air and cut off two of the four legs of the first walker, making it collapse.

While the cadet manages to pull the blasters from the two remaining soldier's arms, he smacks them against his own head. Sander facepalms; it's like he's living in a dumbed-down cartoon for children. The woman manages to grab one of the blasters the boy pulled away and knocks down both troopers. Yang would honestly be impressed with this woman.

However, the luck has run out for these thieves. As the older trooper's making his way to boarding the second cruiser, three new transports arrive in the clearing and unload a dozen soldiers each to the battle. While they manage to not target the woman, who seems to be of some importance, while firing upon the rebels.

It is in this moment that Sander makes his choice. Lifting up his right hand, he concentrates his semblance, aura, and the Force into this new attack. The flame takes on a skull shape and glows a scarlet color. After a short minute of the fight commencing, he throws the fireball at a transport. It explodes in a brilliant flash of light, knocking the closest troops to the ground and even setting two of them on fire. As they roll on the ground screaming, the unoccupied troops take a moment to look at Sander as he steps out from the shadow of the building he was hiding behind. "Who is this guy?" He hears the disguised cadet ask in surprise. Smirking, Sander pulls back his right hand, pulling the burning flames around him to that arm before thrusting it forward. A few troops got extremely lucky and ducked under the flames but many were caught in the flames and roasted alive instantly. Without giving even a moment of rest, he then looks at the transports and lifts up his left hand before clenching the fist. All three transports float into the air and smash together before he swipes the metal arm right, making the transport smash the last troopers against a nearby wall.

The third and final cruiser lifts off the ground after the lock is deactivated and uses its thrusters to blow over the last walker. While the cadet and the woman are busy talking and ending with a stun blast, Sander sneaks around the side of the battlefield and onto the transport.

The boy sits down on the bridge of the ship, takes off his helmet, and lets out a sigh of relief. Sander stares at the boy with a slight look of contempt; if he's a Padawan to whoever the Jedi is, then to say he's unruly would be an understatement. Finally, he senses the huntsman and stands up, finding his opponent standing near the front of the docking bay, hands raised for a second time.

"Who are you? What did you do to those stormtroopers?" The boy demands, taking out what seems to be a piece of junk and activates it, giving off another blue blade.

Sander stares at the blade. "Did you make that yourself? I must say, it's rather impressive you built it out of pieces of garbage." His opponent doesn't answer, and only fires back. Sander ducks under the blast, and uses the Force to send the boy into the wall.

"First lesson to you: always pick your targets carefully. While shooting first and thinking later has its merits, you could piss off a target and that would bite you in the ass. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon. Got that?" The boy hesitantly nods, completely confused. "Then we're good!" Sander then drops the boy. "Sorry about that, I get all defensive then things blow up, you know how it goes. Honestly, I was just in the neighborhood and saw your whole heist. I've got to say, it's kind of interesting how well you fondled those assholes. But I want to meet your mentor."

"My…mentor?" The boy asks cautiously, before rubbing the back of his head. "You're talking about Kanan?"

"Yup." Sander replies happily. "You see, I was a member of the Jedi order when the Clone Wars were around. Want to see if I know this guy."

"And…if you don't?"

"Then he's dead meat. Oh, how rude of me. I'm Sander. And you are…?"

"Ezra Bridger." Ezra replies uncertainly. The flight passes in silence as the cruiser seems to connect with the rest of the fleet.

"Alright. You stay here, and I'll be back with Kanan. I think the whole crew would be interested to meet you too." With that, Ezra leaves the cruiser.

"God damn it! What is with everybody leaving me in limbo today?" Sander complains before getting up and wandering around the docking bay, looking for the hatches into and out of the area. If this shmuck decided to vent the docking bay, he'd need a way out. As he's at the door leading out of the bay, it swings open to reveal a strange group of aliens and humans, with the older man joining them.

"Ezra, is this the one you were talking about?" The man asks curiously, staring at Sander imperiously. Ezra simply nods in acknowledgment. "Alright then. Who are you?"

Sander just stares at the other Jedi, knowing who he is instantly. While his hair is much longer and his voice is slightly deeper due to age, there's no doubt in his mind. "Caleb?"

The green Twi'lek female looks really surprised while the rest of the crew looks completely confused by the turn of events. "Kanan? What is he talking about?" The armored chick from earlier asks.

Kanan, however, just stares at Sander curiously before his eyes widen slightly. "Can you take off that helmet?"

Sander nods and grips both sides of the helmet before twisting it to the right. A click, followed by a loud hiss, and the helmet slides off his face. Kanan stares at Sander for a long moment with astonishment. Ezra looks between the two, sensing their shock but not understanding it. "Sander. You're alive." Kanan then charges forward and hugs Sander tightly. The younger man is completely caught off-guard by the gesture, but decides to hug back. Kanan then pulls away and smiles slightly at his old friend. "Where have you been for the last 15 years?"

"Here and there to hit the parties, got laid once or twice, killed some monsters, just the important stuff." Sander's face then hardens. "What's been going on around here? I didn't think the Jedi survived the attack on the temple."

Kanan just stares in bafflement. "You must really have been out of touch. Emperor Palpatine has made all of the Jedi outlaws. So few of us remain, and those of us that did survive are either in hiding or finding ways to return balance to the galaxy. I happen to be fighting with the rebellion to overthrow the emperor."

Silence ensues while Sander ponders this information. "Kanan. You know this man?" The Twi'lek asks walking up to Kanan's side.

"Yes, I do, Hera. This here is Sander Blanco, an old friend and fellow Padawan when the Jedi Order was numerous. I can't count how many times he's saved my life in those days."

Hera looks at Sander in gratitude and smiles. "Well, I'm honored to meet you, Sander. I know this might be a lot to ask of you right now, but could you please join our rebellion and help us take back our homes from the empire?"

Sander leans against the wall while checking his nails to try. "And what if I say no?"

Kanan looks shocked while Hera, while well-covered, starts to become desperate. "Our operation may have been a success, but we can't win this war if we don't have support. We can only steal ships and stack imperial facilities for so long before we get killed off and our work will be for nothing. Please, we need experienced warriors like you to help us actually do something meaningful now, to strike the empire where it hurts."

Sander stares at Hera's boldness. Yang would definitely get along well with this Twi'lek if they ever met. "Okay, okay. Jeez. No need to get so melodramatic all of a sudden. It was a simple 'what if…' question. Actually, my answer is that I'd like to talk with my crew first."

"Your crew?" Kanan asks curiously.

"Yeah, the Vytal. It's not much, but it's got some of the best people I know, and I would like to speak with them as soon as possible." Then silence reigns as Sander lets his words sink in. "Uh, how far are we from Lothal?"

"One or two hyperspace jumps. Why?" Hera asks curiously. Then she sighs. "You left them behind at Lothal didn't you?"

Sander's smile fades into a frown. "Yup. With no idea where they exactly are or a rendezvous point." Sander then facepalms. "I really fucked this up, didn't I?"


AN: And with that, I am back!

Sorry for the long hiatus, finals are a real bitch sometimes. Anyway, now that it's here, I will try to get back to a semi-regular update session, with other characters taking turns for the spotlight.

And for those who are wondering, while there some references and perhaps intersections with the main Rebels story, I plan on making this mostly original, with some satire of how Disney does things (don't worry, I'll do my best keep that craziness in check) as well as some Legends references, maybe some Extended Universe, and a Star Wars comic I found that's really good involving the clone trooper Able. Unfortunately, I am not very familiar with those at all so I'll need to consult my Star Wars encyclopedias (which came out about a decade or so before the dark times, before Mary Sue made becoming a Jedi look like buying fucking ice cream). If there's any other references I could add that wouldn't be there or got incorrect, can you please let me know?

Thanks, and have a good day (or evening, whenever you read it).