Kanan was being determinedly optimistic about the whole situation. He wasn't the biggest fan of needing to rely on others and he'd have been happier with a job he could have done on his own. He was fairly certain that setting him up for the likelihood of failure might even have been part of Vizago's plan. Of the people he could have had to rely on though, he had a tentative amount of confidence in Ezra. The young man's self-assurance was certainly at least partially bravado, but that was no great crime. Ezra had been reliable in setting up the meeting, he had good reason to help out since he was getting something good out of it, and he knew a lot more about Lothal than Kanan did. It could have been much worse, Kanan speculated.

"Shipments are prepped a few days in advance with marked crates moved to the warehouse closest to the landing pad. The more expensive stuff is locked up in the warehouse itself, but there's usually some overflow out in the open. Between two and four in the morning the only people around are a few guards, the rest of the time there are people working in there." Ezra said, looking over the projection of the Imperial shipyard Kanan had up.

"It seems like two main options are to try and sneak in, in which case the fewer people the better, or pretend to be part of the crew and walk right out with the crates." Kanan decided to keep the plans as simple as possible while he was still a little unsure of Ezra's usefulness.

"Walking in would be hard, there's not been any turnover in a while and everyone knows everyone else. You'd be questioned when nobody recognized you," Ezra pointed out, and Kanan nodded thoughtfully.

"Breaking in it is then. We'll park the bikes here." Kanan indicated a section near the compound. "Get the crates out, hook them up, and get out of there." While it was a little riskier than trying to fake working there in order to walk out with them, it was a lot less complicated and he liked that.

"Is that as much of a plan as we're going to have?" Ezra asked, smiling a little.

"It's good enough, leaves plenty of room to improvise when things don't go according to plan. You're going to need one of these." Kanan got up to find a spare com unit, testing it and then handing it over. Ezra clipped it to his belt without complaint.

"How many times have you done this anyway, or something like this?" Ezra asked, sounding honestly curious.

"Too many to remember. Got taken in by a thief and smuggler and taught the ropes and eventually I set out on my own," Kanan said, smiling fondly.

"What happened to your parents?" Ezra asked after a moment of hesitation.

"The Clone Wars." Kanan answered. It was true enough. He didn't remember his birth parents, but the Order had been more than a family.

"Oh. The Empire took mine," Ezra offered. He hadn't been especially forthcoming about personal details or even inclined to volunteer information and Kanan took note of it.

"Another thing they have to answer for then," Kanan said quietly, and it seemed to be the right answer from the way Ezra glanced at him and then nodded.

It was hard to place exactly how old Ezra was. Large, intensely blue eyes and a small frame would have made Kanan think he was on the younger side at first glance, but as he spent more time around him he decided he had one of those rounded faces that would keep looking young up until his hair started graying. His hair color was something Kanan saw more out on some outer rim planets, the deep blue color having entered the human gene pool thousands of years ago when humans and near-humans intermarried. Kanan remembered hearing that on core worlds where the genetic link was better known, most people opted to permanently change their hair color rather than run the risk of hybrid prejudice. The color suited him though, as did the shaggy cut.

Ezra's clothes were a mismatch of different worn pieces, from the ripped orange flight suit to his threadbare jacket. About the only pieces that seemed to match were his boots, scuffed and dirty but sturdy. Kanan wondered if the look was intentional, most people in Ezra's line of work tried not to advertise any success by looking too nice, but somehow he doubted it. Most people tended to do it like he did, with armor and clothes that weren't new and shiny by any means, but were still functional. If Kanan had to give an assessment he'd have said Ezra was barely scraping by, keeping himself fed but without much left over. It wasn't surprising, while he obviously had an in with Vizago he didn't seem to have any sort of gang allegiances that would lead to a safety net of sorts.

Ezra cleared his throat questioningly, and Kanan realized he'd been quiet a little too long. He straightened up, and regarded the holo layout a little more seriously.

"Assuming the talk I've heard is correct and the transport arrives on time, here's what we're going to do..."


As far as break-ins went, this one was fairly smooth. Imperial shipyards had predictable blind spots, and while he could feel Ezra bristle occasionally when he whispered orders he hadn't screwed anything up yet.

Kanan kept an eye out, tense as Ezra knelt and picked the lock to the warehouse door. He slipped inside and Kanan followed, closing it behind them. Inside it was dimly lit with crates stacked up everywhere in preparation for being loaded out.

"Whoa," Ezra whispered, and Kanan couldn't help smiling a little.

"Come on, we don't have time to sight-see." Kanan started checking the marks on the crates and after a beat Ezra did the same.

"Just trying to think how much all of these would be worth," Ezra murmured back. "Ah, found them. You sure we should only grab two?"

"Yeah. A couple crates, even valuable crates go missing and they'll be some yelling, maybe someone gets demoted or reassigned, some half-assed attempts to increase security for a little while, and then everyone forgets. Grab too much at once and they'll increase security for real." Kanan came over, helping to unlock the crates from the rest, pulling the lids to check the contents.

"Good point." Ezra took both crates, linking them together and turning on the built in hoverpads, starting to push them towards the door. Kanan moved ahead to push the door open, his focus on Ezra and the crates.

"Kanan, the security system!" Ezra hissed just a moment too late as Kanan pushed on the door, only to have it bolt down.

Kanan gave the door an ineffective shove, cursing under his breath. "Who puts locks on the inside of a warehouse? No, don't answer that." Kanan pulled out his blaster, aiming at the lock. This was why he hated relying on others, he had enough trouble keeping track of things without needing to watch out for someone else.

"Wait, we're going to be running right into security if we go that way," Ezra glanced around.

"We don't exactly have a choice at this point. When I say run, you head to the bikes, I'll be right behind you," Kanan said tensely. He had hoped for a quick in and out.

"If we head up to the roof we can go across to the next building, down the fire escape, and out. They won't be expecting it," Ezra spoke quickly.

"How are… right, the catwalks between them. Lets go." Kanan changed direction, keeping his blaster drawn as they jogged as stealthily as possible towards the freight elevator. The alarms blaring would hopefully cover any sounds they were making and Imperial protocol was to cover the exits before going in. Depending on how quickly the other troopers could get there they might have a little time, or they might not. It wasn't worth speculating about.

The trip up with the crates seemed to take an eternity and beside him Ezra was practically vibrating with nervous energy. Kanan knew the feeling well, having to stop and wait when every instinct was telling them to run was tortuous. But it wasn't like they could get out and push and finally the elevator came to the roof. Kanan grabbed Ezra's shoulder before he could rush out the door, shaking his head and then ducking out quickly to access the situation. He could hear noise from around the building, but the roof was clear. For now. He motioned for Ezra to follow him, heading to where the catwalk should be.

Then Kanan stopped dead. The catwalk should have been there, it was standard in all the Imperial warehouse complexes, but there was no catwalk. Between this building and the next was nothing but alleyway down below.

"Ok, so… no catwalk." Ezra looked just as baffled as he was.

"We'll have to go back." Kanan was inwardly cursing, trying to think of ways to get both of them and the crates past the guards who'd now had plenty of time to blockade the exits.

"Or we could jump it," Ezra suggested, unlinking the crates from each other. "The hoverpads mean these things can be flung pretty far, even across a gap like this. You take one, I take the other, and we jump."

"Are you crazy? There's no way you can make a jump like that. It's impossible." Kanan hissed.

"I can do it, just trust me." Ezra adjusted the hoverpad on his crate to maximum and before Kanan could stop him he was making a short run and then flinging himself across the distance between roofs.

Kanan didn't even have time to react. Even if he'd been ready he wasn't sure if he could have caught Ezra with his mind, the fall off the building was long enough to be incredibly dangerous if not deadly, but not long enough to give him time to even start to move.

And then Ezra landed on the other roof, stumbling, face smacking forward into the crate in a way that would have made Kanan wince if he hadn't still be frozen in disbelief, but it was a landing.

Ezra shouldn't have been able to do that.

No normal human should be able to do that.

Kanan couldn't do anything but adjust his crate the same way and take the same short run, pushing off from the edge with both muscles and the Force. The same way Ezra had to have jumped.

Kanan landed a great deal more gracefully, dialing the hoverpad back down to avoid blurting out anything stupid.

"I told you I could do it. Come on, there's a fire escape down on the side away from the party." Ezra pushed the crate to the other side of the roof like he hadn't done anything out of the ordinary.

Did he even know he'd done anything he shouldn't have been able to? Kanan had a sinking feeling that Ezra had no clue, and he didn't have the faintest idea what he was going to do about it.