'Right Ezra. You remember the plan?'
'Yes.'
'And the key objectives are?'
'Get fuel, get supplies, cause mayhem.'
'Good. And when everything goes belly-up, you remember those three things and adapt to get the job done.'
'Aren't you expecting our plan to work? We spent months working on it!'
'Which is why I don't expect it to work. No plan survives first contact with the enemy. But we both know the layout of the fuel depot and what we need to do. We've done all the training we can. Only thing that could be better is if you had a lightsaber. I'm afraid you'll just have to rely on your reflexes to dodge shots.'
'I know, Darys. Me, Kanan and the rest of the crew used to do it all the time.'
'Kanan the rest of the crew and I.'
'What?'
'Grammar, Ezra, grammar. Effectively you just said "me used to do it all the time". Who do you think you are? Master Yoda?'
'Come on Darys. Focus. The mission.'
'Won't start for another ten minutes. Plenty of time for humour, young man. Now, let's get to the communications suite.'
The communications suite was a mess of a design. In some places the elegant Republic equipment still stood, smoothly integrating with the other panels and with the ship itself. Elsewhere giant blocky equipment stood, clearly salvaged from some other ship, or even home-made, clearly designed for functionality rather than aesthetics.
'And we should be dropping out of hyperspace in 5...4...3...2...1...three-quarters...'
'There we go.'
'Hush now. Time for part 1. This is Shuttle Jedthu-2982 calling Imperial Fuel Depot 57286. Come in Fuel Depot. Over.'
'Shuttle Jedthu, this is Fuel Depot. You are not recognised by our systems. Any attempt to land will be treated as an assault on the Empire and dealt with accordingly.'
'You don't need to do that. The shuttle may land without being attacked. It is just a glitch with the database. Everything is perfectly normal. You will deactivate the anti-ship turrets now.'
'I will deactivate the anti-ship turrets.'
'We have permission to land.'
'You have permission to land.'
'Thank you Fuel Depot. This is Jedthu-2982 over and out.'
With a click the transmission ended.
'Well that seemed to work.'
'Yes. It certainly seemed to. I'll be convinced when we are flying away from here with a belly full of fuel though. Until then. Well, assume that the plan has failed and they are calling our bluff. Now get your arse up to the cockpit and prepare to initiate the landing cycle. I'll be back here in case anything goes wrong.'
'Right-ho.'
The ship groaned as it entered the atmosphere, and began to shake violently. Ezra began to wonder if it was such a surprise that the ship had crashed on Jakku in the first place. It certainly didn't seem all that well put-together. Pushing a button, the landing struts were slowly pushed out of the hull and the shaking intensified. Was there something he had forgotten? It was too early for the retro-rockets. They needed to be fired about. er. Now. As the retro rockets fired the shaking reduced, to be replaced by a gentle thrum that flowed throughout the ship. Then, with a bit of a bump, they landed. Ezra sprang to his feet and ran to the boarding ramp, stopping only to pick up the bandolier of grenades they had prepared earlier and the blaster pistol he had picked out earlier.
'Ready Kid? Good. Now this is where it gets tense. Try and act calm, don't run until you hear the shooting start.'
The ramp lowered and Ezra took some deep breaths. Together they slowly walked down the ramp, half expecting to see a platoon of troopers looking up at them.
The landing platform was empty.
'Right. You know the plan. See you back here in five.'
'Good luck.'
Ezra pealed off to the right as Darys turned left towards the pumping house. Keep calm, Ezra. Keep calm. Just had to walk nonchalantly across the landing pad towards the storehouse over there. Wouldn't need much effort. Looking about, it was quite clear that no-one was coming out of the barracks blocks yet. Good. It would make life so much easier if he didn't have to fight yet.
Using the force to unlock the door, Ezra quickly gained access to the storehouse. Inside was ordered chaos. Everywhere there were neat sacks of crates, but nowhere was there any sign of a system of labelling what was in the crates. Was this some security measure? Or was it just that the quartermaster here was really bad at his job? Ezra didn't know or care. This was the first hiccup in the plan. Right. Time to investigate the crates. What was needed? Food, credits and other useful things. Basically anything, really. Ezra began sorting through the crates, picking out those that looked most interesting.
Across the landing pad, Darys was having slightly more success. He had easily duped the Imperial in charge of the pumping house to let him take a fuel hose out to his ship and by now the fuel tanks were beginning to groan under the weight of the finest fuel the Empire had to offer. With a click, the auto-sealer inside the ship shut off the flow. Good. Now onto part two; mayhem. Where was that blasted boy? How long could it take? Oh well. Ion with the plan. He'd just have to hope that Ezra could pull through in time.
Slowly, Darys walked the dripping fuel hose up towards the hangar for the fuel shuttles. Take those out and this base would be useless for refuelling the larger Imperial vessels. And what better way to blow them up than with the cargo they were designed to transport?
Ezra had gotten six crates together when the shooting started. Damn, they must have come to their sense and realised Darys wasn't an Empire-approved fuel user. Bugger it. This would have to do. Switching on the anti-grav on the train of crates, Ezra began to push. Out of the storehouse door, no worries there. Looking right he could see a load of troopers coming out of the barracks. Well, that was easily dealt with. Ezra picked up a grenade and threw it. Now he'd gotten their attention. Shit. He'd gotten their attention. Bad thinking. Bad thinking. Definitely should have gotten these crates on board before trying to start something. Ezra ran faster and faster, shoving the crates in front of him, and before long he had made the boarding ramp.
Having pushed the crates inside, Ezra went back out to find Darys, pinned down under heavy fire from both the anti-personnel turrets around the fuel tanks and a squad of soldiers. Thanking the force that no-one had noticed him, Ezra threw another two grenades to take out the turrets. Suddenly Darys seemed to have the upper hand; now only under attack from one direction he could fend off the blaster rays with his lightsaber.
'Come on!' Ezra shouted. Darys started to run. He was going to make it. He was going so fast, he'd be at the boarding ramp any second now. As soon as he had a foot on the ramp, Ezra began to raise it. But not soon enough. One last, lucky shot from a trooper hit Darys in the chest and sent him sprawling on the floor.
'NOOOOOOOOOOO!' Ezra screamed, scared at the loss of his friend. At long last the ramp clicked into place, and Ezra ran towards the cockpit. He had to get out of there. Ezra fired the thrusters, their fiery breath launching the Jadthu-2982 into the sky. Now fire the sub-light engines. Just like Hera had taught him. The rickety shuttle began to accelerate. Legs in. And programme the hyperdrive. They were headed to Ilum, weren't they? Yes. The shuttle stopped its shaking. They had left the atmosphere. He had left the atmosphere. Now time to punch it. Activate the hyperdrive and… there they were, the comforting blue of hyperspace filled the cockpit. Now time to see what had happened to Darys.
Below, back on the planet a couple of stormtroopers looked up.
'What a guy.'
'That was a Jedi knight. We're lucky to be alive.'
Behind them, a thin trail of fuel was burning, ignited by the sparks from the thrusters of the shuttle. The fuel burnt and burnt, slowly creeping forwards until it met a large puddle of fuel. There the burning became more intense, until the fires hit the ships. There was an almighty bang.
'Shit.'
'Yeah. I thought we'd had it then. Still, the armour's actually worked for once.'
The fire was spreading down the fuel hose back towards the main tanks. Suddenly the great fuel tanks ruptured in a fireball that made the entire planet shake.
'Karabast!' One of the stormtroopers could be heard to say, just as the wave of fire reached him.
