Chapter 9
For story purposes, there will be a time gap.
I lost count on the time since we gathered those weapons from that weapon depot, but we have so many new members. So many successful public missions on several worlds, though we don't get a lot of new members a day. The first to join our reborn rebellion were mostly the original deserters, and all thanks to Vizago, they were told our set rendezvous coordinates in wild space, not too far from Polis Massa. We have enough personnel to keep Polis Massa fully operational, and simultaneously this station a quarter full. If I never mentioned how large this station was, it's unimaginably big to be a spatial drydock.
As for my personal life, I never stopped thinking about that one night in Sabine's quarters and not by choice. Wedge and Zeb never let me hear the end of it so it's very hard to even think about forgetting. They give Sabine a hard time, too... or try to be more accurate. She pulls the rank card on them a lot, though a lot of the time Zeb ignores it, even though he's a colonel. Nevertheless all that teasing created an awkward tension between me and her.
"So..." Wedge began, but before he could continue, I interrupted him.
"Don't even start," I mumbled, taking another bit of my food. We were eating lunch in the mess hall.
"It's getting kind of annoying, honestly," Bastian said. He used to tease, but very quickly stopped.
"I suppose you're right. Zeb wants me to keep doing that, but I've honestly been considering stopping," Wedge said.
"Really?" I asked, not convinced.
"I realized it was all pointless," he said.
"You just now realized that?" Bastian asked.
As the two began to bicker, I focused my attention on something else... more accurately someone else.
Sabine just entered the mess hall. She picked up a tray and began filling it with food.
Somebody shoved my shoulder and my attention snapped back to Wedge and Bastian. He's actually have grown to be quite popular among the rest of us, and he is friends with everyone. Turns out he wasn't much older than I was at 26. He especially became close friends with me and Sabine, to the point where we see him almost as an older brother.
"Station to Ezra! Are you here?" Wedge asked rather loudly. I could sense that people from the other tables were watching.
"Yes I'm right here!" I replied, turning back to my food.
"What were you staring at?" Bastian asked. "We said your name like 5 times!"
"I think I know," Wedge said. I saw Bastian throw a glare at Wedge, but he quickly gave a response. "I'm not teasing, I'm serious! Sabine's right over there."
Bastian looked over to the left, right past me.
"Oh... alright," he simply said.
"Sabine just left the food bar," I said quietly.
Yes there's an awkward tension sometimes between us but we don't try to avoid each other.
"She's been busy with something lately so we haven't talked in a while," I said.
"I've noticed," Bastian said. "Anyway, are you up for some shooting practice? I hear they fixed those training droids."
"About time," Wedge said.
I saw Sabine sit down at an empty table so I grabbed my tray and stood up.
"Where are you going?" Bastian asked.
"Going to keep her company," I replied. "No thanks to you, Wedge."
"Hey!"
"It's true," Bastian said, laughing.
"Yeah laugh all you want, it's not my fault!" Wedge defended.
I just sighed and walked over to Sabine's table. She didn't seem to notice my approach.
"Is that seat taken?" I asked.
She looked up at me and smiled, "Oh hey! I didn't know you were in here."
I returned the smile and sat down in front of her.
"I was just over there. I'm surprised you didn't hear Wedge just a few moments ago," I said.
"Well with everything going on around here it's becoming second nature to ignore random outbursts," she replied.
"Yeah," I said. "So, how's this project of yours coming along?"
Sabine tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She dyed it a bright blue recently which really took my breath away. That was before she got so distracted, too.
Her smile brightened, "It's doing great! I really wish I could show you, but you have to wait until it's finished.
"What exactly are you working on?" I asked then.
"Combat uniforms," she said.
"Really?" I asked.
"Yes. Our current ones are good for mobility, but protection isn't very good. Unlike the stormtroopers where it can take a couple shots."
"Except for one well placed shot," I said.
"So what's new for you?" Sabine asked then.
"Well Wedge finally agreed to shut up about... you know," I said, growing nervous about the topic. I could sense the same feeling with her.
"Good. It needed to stop," she said.
"Then there's Zeb. He's not so often anymore but he still jokes about it," I said.
"So I've heard."
There were a few moments of silence before Sabine suddenly dropped her fork and grabbed my hand.
"Actually, there's something else," Sabine said.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Remember those riots on Mandalore?" she asked.
"I can't forget," I said.
"I was listening to the Holonet and the Empire declared full martial law on the planet and any surrounding world belonging to Mandalore. They've... the Empire executed almost a quarter of the population. My home surrendered..."
"You can't be serious," I said.
"They've finally done it, Ezra," she said bitterly. "They've officially brought Mandalore to it's knees."
"They shouldn't be able to do that!" I exclaimed.
"Who, other than us, is going to try to stop them?" she asked.
She got me there.
"Are we going to do something about it?" I asked.
"Last I heard, the Death Star was there," she said.
Even with our steadily growing numbers and fleet, the Death Star was still a huge obstacle for us.
"Sabine, I'm sor-"
"General's Ezra Bridger and Sabine Wren, report to the Command Center."
I grit my teeth at the comm device on our wrists.
"Subtle," I muttered as Sabine and I stood up and set our trays on the conveyor belt for the cleaner droids, then made our way to the Command Center.
"Ezra, Sabine," Hera said.
"Hera, is something wrong?" Sabine asked before I could.
"We're not sure," she replied. "We've picked up some sort of signal not too far off from Kamino. We can make out voices and a few words, but we don't know what it is."
"Is it a distress signal?" I asked.
"We're not sure, but we don't think so," Hera said.
"What would you like us to do?" Sabine asked.
"I know you two have some tension due to Zeb's constant teasing, but I want to know if you two..."
"We'll be fine," Sabine said.
I was relieved she said that.
"Good. I need you to take the Resolute out and investigate, but be careful. Don't just jump on into the system since we don't know what's over there," Hera said.
Sabine and I saluted and began to make our way to our hangar. Of course, the Resolute was still in Bay 4 where we originally found it. To get to our hangar, at least from where we were, we had to pass Bay 3. As we walked passed it, I looked through the windows and grinned at the sight of a nearly completed Avenger -class Star Destroyer.
"She's coming along nicely," Sabine commented. "They're naming it the Reclamation."
"That's a fitting name. Who's commanding it?" I asked.
"I don't know yet. We still need candidates for command, but one thing's for sure, it's going to be under an Admiral," Sabine replied. The hangar was finally out of view and we sped up our pace.
We passed a few engineers and they saluted us as we passed by.
"That's not really necessary right now," Sabine muttered. "Those guys are starting their shifts."
"How can you tell?" I asked.
"The mess hall is the other direction."
"Isn't there multiple halls? I mean, this station is really big," I said.
"You have a point," she said.
"Engine systems are online."
"Shields on standby."
"Primary and secondary batteries charged and ready."
Three different station officers all sent their reports.
"Comm, you know what to do," Sabine said.
The comm officer began speaking to the flight tower, requesting departure.
Moments later, the ship shuddered as the docking clamps released their grip on the ship and retracted, making room for the Resolute to maneuver.
"Repulsors are active," Sabine said. She looked to me and smiled, "Your turn."
I returned the smile and turned my attention to the helm.
"Take us out, slowly," I said.
Slowly, we started drifting out of the hangar and we soon found ourselves on the other side of the shield. Outside, there were our last two CR90s flying about since we haven't started building more just yet. Flying just opposite of the corvettes were a few Arquitens light cruisers. Turns out there's a difference between the command cruiser and the light cruiser; light cruiser having more laser batteries than the command cruiser. The Empire's command cruiser replaced those guns with escape pods, not that they did any good. Tenith, our Mandalorian engineer, really did a good job building more of those ships, and Sabine did the paint job. She didn't go overboard this time since we only needed just a color lining and the emblems.
We also managed to pick up a few more defectors within these past several months, too. This time it wasn't just the Arquitens cruisers, but more of the EF76 Nebulon-B frigate. All thanks to the crews of those ships, they were able to convince the Kuat Drive engineers to secretly construct the Nebulon-Bs and the Arquitens light cruisers.
"General, we are clear of the station," the helmsman said.
"Set a course to the Kamino system, but do not drop us within it," I said.
"Sir?"
"We don't know what's out there, and we don't want to compromise this ship," Sabine said. "Make sure we leave lightspeed outside the system."
"Yes sir!"
The nav officer looked up at me, "Course set, general."
I nodded and he brought us to lightspeed.
"We should be there in about 30 minutes," Sabine said.
We were sitting in the officer's club not too far from the ship's mess hall. The room itself was almost like a mini mess hall, but there were things in here that the other guys had no access to. Especially some of the best drinks.
Other than me and Sabine, there was almost nobody in this room. The commanding officers that relay orders from us to the boys sitting at the consoles have access since they are considered to be officers, even though they don't have the necessary rank to be in here, but nobody has any problems with it.
The only two "officers" in here that have the commander rank is the tactical officer and the flight commander. The navigation and communication officers are one rank below the official officer rank.
It's been close to an hour since we left the station for Kamino.
"30 minutes..." I repeated. "That's not too bad compared to Kuat."
Sabine smiled, "Well we haven't been doing much."
"So..." I began, remembering what she told me earlier in the station mess hall, "Tell me more about this new combat gear you're working on."
"I'm sorry, but that's classified information," Sabine joked.
"I'm the same rank as you," I protested.
"Actually, I think you outrank me just a little," she said.
"I can't do that to you," I said. "We're both the same rank, that's it."
"We can be the same rank, but you could still be my superior officer," Sabine countered.
"Either way, declassify it for me," I said.
"I understand what you mean, but the wording..."
"Yeah alright," I said. "What's this new combat gear about?"
"I've studied records and even compared Rex's old armor to my Mandalorian armor and they are similar. Records say that was supposed to be that way since Rex and his clones are grown from Mandalorian DNA," she explained.
"You want to model our battle armor after your..."
"I'm not finished," Sabine said. "More records show the gear the Old Republic used for their army and it's similar to the clone armor used during the Clone War, but even with all that I don't think our armor should be designed like that. Maybe just the same material, but looking more like this..." Sabine said, showing me her design from her datapad.
"The armor should be able to easily change colors and patterns, depending on the kind of mission," Sabine continued as she swiped through the camo patterns for desert, snow, and forest planets. "The natural color of the armor would be more silver, but with the changing paints and patterns, it could be anything."
If you look up Old Republic soldier, look for a picture of guys in a red suit and yellow visors. That's the general idea, but
"Visor covering the eyes, gauntlets, shoulder guards..."
Shoulder guards/pauldrons, whatever they're called.
"All the armor plates are separate, but will be attached to a body glove of sorts," Sabine said. "And yes it is pretty much full body armor, just not as bulky as the Old Republic or the clone troopers."
"So basically it's all modeled after your armor?" I asked.
"Yes and no. The helmets don't have a T-visor. It's a lot like our pilot helmets, but it's more streamlined and gives better protection," she said. "As for the armor itself, we can't make it out of beskar, which is the metal my armor is made from. We'll have to make the armor from some sort of durasteel alloy. Some Mandalorians didn't have a full beskar suit, but this alloy is a good replacement."
"That could be expensive," I said.
"It could be, I agree, but with any scrap parts we collect we could make our own. Remember, our station is also a shipyard, so there's going to be places to forge the materials," Sabine said.
"Well..." I began. "Your last outfit designs finally got through to mass production... sort of, so we'll have room to get this done."
I suddenly sensed some mental hesitation from Sabine.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I was just thinking... You know there's nothing wrong between us, right?" she asked.
"Yeah," I said.
"I don't feel right when you don't feel comfortable... And I never said this yet but, I'm sorry," she said.
"Sorry for what, Sabine?"
"I wasn't thinking right that night," she said quietly so the other two officers couldn't hear.
Blood rushed to my face. I never thought Sabine would bring up that topic.
"No, Sabine that... that wasn't your fault," I said. "You told me to stay until you fell asleep, but I ended up dozing off myself. If I didn't doze off... you get the idea."
"I don't want to be a burden to you," she sighs in response.
"Are you kidding? You're never a burden to me, Sabine. But... why do you want to talk about this now?" I asked.
"There's something I've wanted to tell you for a long time, Ezra. But with everything going on, I don't think I'm ready to say just yet."
I smiled and rested my hand on hers. She looked up into my eyes.
"Don't worry about it. Just take as much time as you need, we can figure it out," I said. "Whatever it is, it doesn't have to be now, or in the immediate future, but someday."
Sabine smiled and nodded, "Alright."
"Did that help?" I asked.
"A lot. Thank you, Ezra," she said.
I never realized I didn't remove my hand from hers, but it just felt right. Unfortunately, we had to go back to being professional.
We had a couple drinks before we were called back up to the bridge. We were coming up on Kamino.
We left hyperspace just outside the system. We couldn't see planets but we could see the star in the center of the system, though it was still very small, much like all the other stars around us.
"We are just outside the system, general. What are your orders?"
I looked to Sabine, "Any ideas from here?"
She nodded, "Of course. I suggest we send probes out, or a scout if we don't have probes."
"We don't have any probes, but we do have some X-wings," the flight commander said.
"Send him out. We need to make sure there's no Imperial presence," Sabine ordered.
"Understood, general."
I watched as the dorsal hangar doors opened and a single X-wing fighter flew out. This particular X-wing wasn't fit for combat, but instead for reconnaissance. The pilot jumped into hyperspace and disappeared from view, but just seconds later, he was heard through the comms.
"Everything looks clear of Imperials, but there is something here."
"Can you describe it?" Sabine asked.
"No, but I know it's not Imperial."
"Very well. Nav, get us in there," I ordered.
For just a second we saw the blue lining of the hyperspace jump, then normal space again. The ocean planet of Kamino was right below us, but in front of us was what we were told about.
"Sabine?" I asked as we stared at the ship.
"That's definitely not Imperial..." she muttered.
"It looks like a kind of transport," I said. "Sabine, is there anything on your datapad for this?"
She shook her head. "Not for this. Whatever that ship is, it looks like it's going to fall apart."
Our recon pilot commed us again.
"Sir, they're not responding to my transmissions. Permission to take a closer look?"
"Permission granted, but stay cautious," I said.
The X-wing got smaller as it approached the unknown vessel. I turned to the tactical officer.
"Raise shields, keep weapons ready but do not fire unless I say so," I said.
"Yes, sir!"
"Shields up, General," the tac officer reported a few seconds later.
"General, I'm picking up a signal from this ship. It matches the one from earlier," the recon pilot reported.
"That's it. Comm, hail them," Sabine said.
"Your're on, general," the comm officer said.
"Ezra," Sabine said quietly.
I nodded and began to speak.
"Attention unidentified craft! I am General Ezra Bridger of the Rebel Alliance. We received a signal from your ship and were sent here to investigate. Please respond soon if not immediately."
I motioned for the comm officer to mute any output audio. Sabine started to talk about prepping a shuttle for a boarding party in the case they don't respond.
Fortunately, it didn't take long for the crew of that bucket of bolts to reply.
"Rebels? So the rumors are true!"
I cued the mics back on. "Identify yourself."
"Of course! My bad. My name is Trace. My crew and I have been trying to locate your people for a while. We wish to join the Alliance."
"How do we know you're not just a trap the Imperials set up?" Sabine asked then.
"I suppose I can't really do much right now to prove it, really," Trace said.
I looked to Sabine, "What do you think of this?"
She raised her hand to her chin in thought. "Knowing the Empire, they wouldn't do this sort of thing. They'd usually be more direct in their approach, but that doesn't mean they aren't behind this. They've taken advantage of mysterious signals in the past."
"Well, there's nothing we can do from here. We'll need to board it to know for certain," I said.
"I agree. I'll take care of things here while you're over there," Sabine said.
I nodded and left the bridge, heading for the hangars. Sabine told me through my wrist comm that she ordered a team to await my arrival, so when I got to the hangar, there was a shuttle prepped and a boarding team ready to go.
"General," the team leader began, "We're all ready to go when you are, sir."
"Good. We're going now. Get everybody on board," I said.
"Yes, sir."
As the team filed into the shuttle, I felt something tap my shoulder. I looked around and saw a security officer holding a flak jacket.
"You should wear this, sir. For your protection," he said.
I took the armor and thanked the guard before boarding the shuttle.
I did a quick head count and checked everybody on board.
"That's everyone. Let's get going," I told the pilot.
We took off from the Resolute and flew straight for the other vessel. A few moments later, the pilot mentioned we were beginning our final approach to their docking ports and I turned my attention to my team.
"Alright, I want things to be nice and simple; no actions that could cause alarm to these people. Set all blasters to stun and keep them that way."
"What about the safety?" a man asked.
I just stared at him for a few moments until I heard another man mumbling.
"Rookies..."
"Just to be clear, how many of you actually saw combat, besides the simulators?" I asked.
None of the men made a move to confirm anything, so I continued. "So technically that means you're all rookies. It doesn't matter how long you've been in an army, but how much experience you've had in it."
"Yes sir!"
We docked with the ship and the airlock doors opened, showing a bunch of guys that looked exactly the same.
"Remember, no alarming movements," I said.
"Are you General Bridger?" one of the guys asked.
I nodded and the man continued, "It's a pleasure to meet you in person, General. I'm Trace."
"The pleasure is all mine," I said in return.
"Please, come aboard. Make yourselves comfortable," Trace said.
He led us to what I assumed was the bridge of his ship and we began talking.
"Now," he began, "You said you got our transmission?"
"We did, but it wasn't very clear. It was a broken transmission," I replied.
"I was afraid of that," Trace said. "We built this ship almost purely from scrap. We didn't expect the comm relay to even work that much."
"What were you trying to say?" I asked.
"We were searching for you and your people. You see, as you might have already noticed, my men and I are all alike," he said.
"Are you clones?" I asked.
Trace smiled, "We are. Though everyone you see here was copied from me, of course. The original clones were either killed off or set to work for the Empire. I, obviously did neither."
"If you're a clone... did you see Order 66?" I asked. I remember Kanan telling me about order 66 when we first met Rex and his clones.
"Sadly, yes. I was part of a commando squad called Ion team. None of us obeyed the order, and I was the only survivor," Trace said, a hint of sadness in his voice.
"Do you know Rex?" I asked then.
"CT-7567? He's alive?"
I nodded.
"I've never met him personally, but I've heard a lot about him. He would've made a good commando if he was selected for the program," Trace said.
"I'm sure he was happy with the 501st," I said. "Not to be rude or anything."
"No that's alright. I was thinking the same thing, really."
"We'll be happy to provide safe travel to our base, but first we'll need to get you and your men checked out. How many are we talking?"
Trace thought for a moment. "I think just about 300, give or take."
My jaw about dropped to the floor, "300 clones?"
"Give or take that, yes. We've attempted to avoid fighting the Empire unless we had an army. This battalion is the last surviving battalion of the clones," Trace said.
"Do you have your own shuttles?" I asked.
"No," Trace replied.
"Alright, just give me a moment," I said as I activated my wrist comm.
"Sabine, you read me?"
"Loud and clear. What's up?"
"I'm going to need shuttles to transfer 300 clones, give or take," I said.
"300 c-clones? What...?"
"Trace here is a Clone War veteran who disobeyed Order 66. Not only him, but his squad, though he was the only surviving member afterwards. He, uh... cloned himself and tried to form an army, but... the Empire?"
Trace nodded.
"The Empire tried to kill them all off. This ship is all that's left of them," I finished explaining.
"O-Okay then. I'll send our shuttles right away!"
The transmission was closed and I turned back to Trace.
"You wanted to have an army? Welcome to the Rebellion, Trace," I said.
…
About an hour later, the last of the clones were loaded into the shuttles and were transferred to the Resolute's medical bay to be tested for any control chips or anything that the Empire could have implanted. Transmitted reports read clear, much to my relief. A battalion of clones would be helpful to the cause, but that's the best we can have from them.
"Last shuttle," I said as the shuttle docked with the scrap ship.
"Alright, let's get out of here," I said to my team.
Trace, along with my men and a few of his own, boarded the shuttle, making me the last man in.
"Alright, we're all accounted for," I said to the pilot.
"Yes, sir! Undocking from whatever this thing is," the pilot said, making a few guys snicker.
"We've called it Scrapyard for a long time. I'm not sad to leave it," Trace said.
When we were about halfway between Scrapyard and the Resolute, the pilot started shouting through the intercom.
"All passengers strap yourselves in! Imperial Star Destroyer emerging from hyperspace!"
Everybody stopped laughing and strapped themselves into their seats and I commed Sabine.
"Sabine, do you hear me?"
"I hear you. An Imperial Star Destroyer just emerged from hyperspace in front of us!"
"I know. We need some cover, we're only halfway there," I said.
"I see you," she said before going quiet for a few seconds. "I just ordered your pilot to head for the portside hangar."
The shuttle shook as we took on fire from the Imperial's fire, and I heard the screeching of TIE engines all around us.
"General, they're everywhere!" the pilot shouted.
"Just focus on keeping us alive," I said.
I stared hearing laser fire from both TIE's and rebel fighters, along with the sounds of the Resolute's main cannons opening up on the enemy star destroyer, alongside the rapid-fire point defense cannons.
"Brace yourselves, we're making a combat landing!" the pilot shouted.
Seconds later, the shuttle shook violently and threated to split open, and the sound of a laser cannon smacking the left right side of our shuttle overpowering the shouts and screams of my men.
"We've been hit! I'm losing control of the- AAGH!" the pilot shouted before a shot penetrated the cockpit, killing him instantly.
I could sense his life fleeing through the Force, but that was the least of my worries. Our pilot was dead and we began spinning out of control, straight towards the hangars.
