"Got anything on the scanners? I don't think there's a blockade here, but I'd rather not stick around to find out," Sabine asked, looking down at the planet below them. It looked to have somewhat of a temperate environment, which was appealing. It would be nice to visit a bit more of a wild and open planet. They had been spending such a long amount of time on civilized worlds, like Corellia and Bracca. It would be much more interesting to check out this backwater and rather unknown world. Plus, it gives her a chance to collect her thoughts. She wasn't entirely sure what had come over her when Ezra asked that question, but it had thrown all of her defense mechanisms at once
.
"No, nothing. It's completely barren other than the low lying vegetation," Ezra responded, studying at the scanner readout.
"Nothing?" She repeated. That was never a good word.
"Nothing. There's absolutely no sign of-" The boy stopped mid-sentence. Sabine looked over to him to see him staring out the window, his eyes narrowed in an analyzing way. She watched him stand and squint at the world below them as if trying to see something that couldn't be seen. Then she realized what this was. It had happened several times, like the first time they had visited Geonosis. Ezra could tell that all the Geonosians were dead before even Chopper could successfully get a full analysis of the biosphere. He had sensed it, and been like this.
"What is it?" She said quietly. Ezra's eyes relaxed and tightened several times, focusing very hard on one spot. After a moment his head turned slightly in her direction, but his eyes remained focused on the planet.
"Do you see that storm down there?" The Jedi said, his eyes flitting to her and back quickly.
"Yeah…?"
"I… I don't think that storm is natural. The Force is unusually strong in the eye of it. There's something…no, some things… that's creating it," He tried to explain. "I think whatever we're looking for is there."
"Are you sure?" Sabine questioned. Though she knew he was probably onto something, she was still skeptical about her skills in landing through that storm, especially after she near blew up Ezra. She wasn't really in the mood for unnecessary risks.
"Kyber crystals are known to resonate with the Force. Though I'm not attuned enough to know for sure, I'm sensing a very strong presence in the Force, potentially a kyber crystal hotspot," Ezra stated, now looking at her completely.
"You realize you're not making me feel any more assured, right?" She said though she throttled up once more and they began to descend into the atmosphere of the planet. The feeling of a light atmospheric drag began to take hold, but it felt no different than what she had felt in atmospheric flight before. She loosened her grip slightly, somewhat more relaxed at this development. Maybe the storm was all looks and no strength. It wouldn't be the first time she had seen or heard of something like it. Big storms kicked up on Bespin regularly with little to no actual force behind them. But almost like she had just jinxed it, they hit the edge of the storm, and the entire ship shuddered and twisted in turbulence.
"Sabine!" Ezra shouted in alarm, fastening the restraining belt on his seat.
"I know! I know! Activate the wing rotation!" She returned. The boy listened, turning on the wing's stability mode, where they'd adapt to the conditions around them to maintain the easiest control possible. Ezra heard them slide almost 180 degrees around before they held a general position, at which point the ship stopped shaking so much. She banked hard right around a mountain pass and saw a small settlement coming up beneath them. Almost exactly where Ezra had said it should be. Glancing out the viewport, she saw a flat area of land on a mountain just in front of them, but with the wind conditions, it wasn't going to be a smooth landing. "Both of you guys better hang on, this is gonna be a rough one!"
"Woop woop woop WOO!" Chopper blared as loud as he could as he magnetically locked himself to the ship floor.
"Chopper you'd better keep it to yourself or I'm throwing you out the airlock before we land!" She yelled angrily at the comment. Throttling down fast, she spun the ship around and lowered the landing gear, dropping them down hard on the plateau she had picked but not reducing their speed as they slid toward the edge of the cliff. Sabine quickly fired the thrusters towards the edge, countering their movement with a massive lurch as they stopped just by the edge. All of them remained tensed for a moment, listening for any indication that they were going off the edge. When they heard none, both Sabine and Ezra exhaled a huge breath.
"Next time, can you just use the landing platform?" Ezra said, still breathing deeply to relax.
"There was a landing platform?" She asked, confused.
"Yeah, but we blew right by it. Besides, this place lets us get a good look at what we might be getting into before we go in. though I'm not looking forward to crossing those icy straits," The Jedi explained.
"That's what the speeder bike is for?" She suggested, standing up and picking her helmet off the floor.
"Yeah, but it's still cold…" The boy trailed off as stopped into his room to put his regular gear back on. Sabine shook her head at the seemingly childish comment. Not that he was incorrect, but the way he phrased it she found funny. As she lowered the ramp and grabbed some electrobinoculars off a hook on the wall, the topic persisted, leading her from one thought to another. She had been finding a lot of Ezra's stunts amusing lately. The way he gave her that sideways smirk every time she misphrased something was the funniest thing ever, yet she didn't know why she found it entertaining.
She also found herself extremely concerned with his injuries every time he got dinged up on a mission. Every time, she told herself she was just doing what Hera would've done. But at that moment, she had an inner compulsion to help him that she couldn't explain. A concern that was very hard to get under control. Even now, she still felt it. The Bacta mixture, while effective, still took time. Ezra's ribs wouldn't be healed for a few weeks. The reasonable part of her said that she should calm down and that her fears were irrational. The rest of her wouldn't listen though, which was unusual. She was used to being able to just turn off those concerns. This constant nag in the back of her mind was strange, but then again, it also felt different than her typical concern for the people around her.
She layed down on the edge of the ridge facing the settlement, turning on the binoculars and sweeping her eyes over the small, icy, coastal village as her thoughts continued to stampede through. Everything that had just happened on the flight here had really stirred up that feeling, making it much harder to ignore. For whatever reason, something in her had lowered all her defenses for a few minutes, during which she told Ezra to some level or another that she cared about him. His response of taking her hand and comforting her, though she told herself at the moment that it was nothing personal, had given her no small amount of enjoyment. Some part of her had the impulse to wrap her arms around Ezra and just stay there until they got here. And she nearly did it, but fortunately for her, Ezra had chosen to try and play Cubikhad. The Mandalorian game was one of her favorite pastimes, and she did have fun getting to share that part of Mandalorian culture with him. But then when he threw in that extra bet, it had conveniently thrown her game off and allowed him to win and ask her any question he liked, to which he would have to get a truthful answer.
While he had been lording it over her in a good-natured manner, Sabine had remarked him asking something stupid like who she liked. She had been taken aback when he actually asked this, and it triggered every one of her defensive barriers at once as well as sent a rush of what she interpreted as nervousness down her spine. And that led to her answer of, "the same person I always have" right before the hyperspace disengage alarm mercifully ended the conversation. Which led her to here.
So why am I so conflicted over that stupid question? She asked herself. The inner part of her, the one in the center of her chest, answered slowly.
You already know the answer to that one.
No, I don't. You aren't giving me the answer I want.
For the sake of the galaxy, be honest with yourself. Is that really not the answer you want?
"Sabine?" Ezra's voice cut through her thoughts. She shoved the inner discussion to the back of her mind.
"Yeah? What's up?" She asked, looking over at her companion. He had changed back into his typical orange jacket and outfit, making him seem much more Ezra-like than he had since they'd been on Garel. A small smirk was on his face, causing the lightsaber scar on his cheek to shift and draw her attention for a split second. The inner conflict threatened to return for a moment before she thoroughly shoved it into a box and locked it in her mind.
"You seemed kinda distant for a second. What's it look like?" The boy said, indicating the settlement.
Sabine pulled up the binoculars again, but this time actually focused on what she was seeing through them. She started by the landing pad, searching her way through until the mountain shelf blocked off her view. "I don't see anything yet…" She informed, going back over the same area. She caught a glimpse of stark white out of the corner of her eye and went back to it. "Wait…" She continued to speak aloud, zooming in on the area. Sure enough, she could see a stormtrooper in position, guarding a path up to the main town. "The Empire is definitely here. But I'm not seeing much going on."
"Well, it's possible that we just can't see it from where we're at. We can only see a small portion of-" Ezra cut off again. Sabine looked over to find him standing up, squinting out at a spot Sabine had dismissed as just an oddly shaped mountain.
"Sabine, is that a Star Destroyer?" He asked. Sabine lowered the binoculars in favor of her helmet scanner, analyzing the contours, size, and shape of the design. A readout of what it might've looked like before it crashed appeared before her eyes. She recognized the image instantly, relaying the name to Ezra.
"Yep, a Venator. Judging by the way the terrain has moved in around it, and the degradation of the hull? I'd say it's been here quite a while," She stated, raising the antenna. "Why? Is there something over there?"
"Something… near it," The Jedi confirmed, walking back towards the cargo bay. Sabine saw him emerge a few moments later with his personalized(by herself) scout helmet and the one speeder bike they still had. "I'm going to check it out. You in or what?"
"Of course I'm in," She replied, touching the side of her helmet. "Chopper, monitor comm channels until we get back. And this time, don't be lazy."
"Woop woop woo, woo?" The droid insolently blatted at them. They were both masters at understanding what Chopper really meant, so Sabine just said, "Thanks, Chop." Before mounting behind Ezra on the bike. Ezra looked back at her for a moment.
"You'd better hang on," He instructed playfully as he punched the throttle all the way up, driving right off the edge of the cliff. The sudden lurch nearly dislodged Sabine from her seat before she hastily wrapped her arms around Ezra's torso and clung to him as the hover repulsors absorbed the shock of hitting the frozen terrain beneath. As they shot off over the ice in the shadow of the mountain the village was on, Sabine's grip relaxed. Though she could just as feasibly hold on to the bike, she found herself not wanting to let go quite yet, despite telling herself she was just holding on so she didn't fall.
"How long did you say this thing's been here again?" Ezra asked as they crested a hill. Between them and the crashed Venator-Class Star Destroyer was a chilled lake, littered with debris from the aft half of the ship when it had crashed some time ago. Ezra could make out what he thought might be the remnants of starfighters, engines, and even power reactors. He assumed there was more that was submerged underwater, because the ship was utterly torn apart where he could see it. Whenever this thing had gone down, it had gone down in flames.
"Best guess? Before you and I were born. This thing has been worn down by time," The Mando replied. Ezra looked away from her and through the binoculars again, scanning the terrain for threats.
"Well, whatever we're looking for is on the other side of that ship, and the only things I see in the way are a lot of scrap metal and the occasional defensive herbivore," Ezra informed. "Though I don't really want to go deal with that guy."
"What guy?" She asked. Ezra indicated a large, hulking creature across the lake as it patrolled its territory. "Oh. That guy. I'd agree with you, but I think we have to go past him if we're going to get to whatever you think is over there."
"Well, I was thinking we could go over the ship instead," He said, studying the side. "The hull is degraded enough there are plenty of footholds for me to climb, and you can use your jetpack to fly up to the top. Once you're up there, you'll be able to take a look around and make sure we aren't getting into something worse than whatever that thing is."
"You mean, make sure you aren't," Sait the artist. She was about to leap into the air when she stopped suddenly and looked back at him. "You sure you'll be able to climb? You still aren't fully healed."
He chuckled. "Sabine, I doubt I'll be healed before the mission is over. I can't let a liveable injury stop us from getting the mission done. I'll be fine."
Sabine's head lowered in acknowledgment. He watched her turn back to the sky and blast off from the ground before sliding down the loose-dirt hillside and into the area of debris. His boots hit the rocky ground with a thud, splashing water out from the puddle he landed in. He held his lightsaber readily in hand, slowly proceeding forward into the wreckage.
As he looked around, for the first time he realized the strength the Republic had had in its clutches. Hundreds of these cruisers, often in groups of two or more. Some of the most advanced technology designers and engineers in the galaxy had been building the ships, which now lay in ruins around him. Yet, as a testament to the workmanship of the design, their architecture held up long after the technological components failed. It was impressive to look at from the perspective of an engineer.
Ezra walked through what he presumed was the remains of the engine room, and stopped just before he stepped again. He hesitated for a moment, resting his thumb on his lightsaber switch. He listened to his instincts, holding still for several seconds until they screamed at him to duck to the right. He complied, watching a small, rodent-like creature take a bite at the space his head had been the moment before. He stood up to his full height again as the creature snarled at him, lunging again at his side. Ezra swayed away from it, activating his lightsaber and gently spinning to cut the creature in half. He felt a brief pang of remorse for the creature, as it was probably just defending something, but the thought quickly passed as he sheathed his blade. What he did was in self-defense too. If only more creatures possessed the intelligence of most of the humanoids in the galaxy, the conflict could be avoided.
Ezra made his way up the top of a broken engine housing leaning against the side of the Star Destroyer, approaching the belly of the craft. It wouldn't be the easiest climb ever. The whole thing was an overhang, one which he now stood in the shadow of. But it certainly wouldn't be the hardest. He could be hanging on the complete underside of a cliff. Depending on what you framed it against, he supposed, it was easier or harder.
He concentrated for a moment, channeling the Force around him as well as in him into his legs. Then, he leaped off the ground, twenty feet straight up, and grabbed onto a dangling cable. Rather than the more relaxed grip he had taken the last time he was up this high, he quickly found more purchase than just the single point. Once Ezra got himself to a position where he could hang on securely, he began slowly hauling himself up to the top. Where he couldn't find a handhold, he called his lightsaber to his free hand using the Force to cut one out of the metal. Then he'd stow his blade and keep climbing until it happened again. It took him the better part of an hour to reach the peak, but eventually, his hands grabbed the side of the ship's hull, where Sabine's paint-covered glove offered to help him up. Gratefully, he accepted, crawling over the edge to a surface he could more or less walk on.
"Took you long enough," She said, walking back up towards the higher edge that she had been surveying from. Ezra followed, tentatively lying down beside her to not re-injure himself. Once again, he mentally noted how much she seemed to be comfortable with him being near her before he pulled up his binoculars again and looked over the area.
"You know, when you inevitably drag me to Krownest to help with the Mandalorian Rebellion, I'm commandeering a jetpack," Ezra replied to her earlier comment, looking over the gorge before them.
"I'm sure they probably have a spare one lying around somewhere," She stated in a certain tone. "Can you still sense it?"
"What?"
"The whole reason we came up here. That thing you sensed back on the ship. Can you still sense it?" She repeated.
Ezra closed his eyes briefly, feeling the Force around him. He could sense the presence of many creatures around him, everything from the relatively small rodents to the large lumbering carnivores he had gone out of his way to avoid. All relatively simple presences. He extended his reach further, resulting in greater knowledge of the world around him but a less precise sense of what he was sensing. Sort of like zooming out an image. The further out you got, the more you could see, but the less you could tell what something was.
Sure enough, across the gorge in front of him and deep underground, he could see an unnatural trench that ran much deeper into the planet. And on the far end of that trench, was a powerful Force presence, one that didn't feel like a life form. He opened his eyes. "It's still there," He confirmed. "How about imperials? Any sign of them?"
"Not that I've seen," She returned. Ezra gave her a look. Though he couldn't see it under her helmet, he was sure she had rolled her eyes as she used her helmet comm. "Chopper? Any Imperial transmissions near our location?"
"Woop, woop, woop woo woop woo," They both heard, with some static mixed in.
"See?"
"Yeah, yeah. Just making sure," He replied, taking a final sweep of the area he could see. After he concluded that he was, in fact, safe, he jumped over the ledge and slid down the slanted top of the hull, dodging the rough obstacles here and there. He jumped the last little bit, landing in an athletic stance and sliding through the shallow mud until he stepped onto a metal platform on his side of the gorge. A metal cable for freight was suspended in front of him, bridging the distance over the divide. He had to admit, he wasn't exactly enthused about hand-over-handing his way across, especially because he was still tired from climbing up the acute side of a shipwreck. Plus, his chest injuries probably wouldn't take too kindly to it either.
As he stood there considering, his brightly colored Mandalorian companion flew overhead and landed on the other side. "What's wrong?" She taunted playfully. "Looks like you need that jetpack more than I realized."
Ezra smirked under his repainted scout trooper helmet, twisting his feet under him slightly to get better purchase. He once again used the Force to jump, this time up and forward. He landed next to Sabine, using a Force push to slow his fall and not quite going down to one knee. He stood up and dusted himself off, walking past her with a hidden smirk. "Hardly," He replied, walking down the ramp before them. He heard Sabine hum in amusement before she walked up beside him.
Ezra stopped once he reached the landing, crossing his arms and examining a big pair of hydraulic doors before him. Knowing Sabine was next to him, he gestured towards the top of the frame. "So, what do you figure? Trap? No trap?"
"I figure it's a door, Ezra. Any trap on the other side is independent of it," The girl replied, walking over to his left and touching a button on the panel. The doors slid open to reveal an empty transport elevator, heading downwards at a shallow angle. Sabine walked back over to him. "See? No trap."
"Well, it looks Imperial," Ezra continued, still looking up at it.
Sabine sighed. "As smart as some people in the Empire are, they are far outnumbered by those that are moronic. Are you coming, or what?"
"No, no, I'm coming. Just trying to decide if this is the best idea," He spoke as he stepped into the compartment with her. A loud grinding sound pierced the air as the tram began to descend forward.
"Wasn't it you who said we should look here?" Sabine asked sarcastically.
"Yes, I'm just heeding the word that the best path forward isn't always the most direct."
"Which famous Jedi is that a quote from?"
"Me," Ezra stated, smiling. Sabine shook her head in disappointment.
A few moments later, the tram lurched to a stop and opened, revealing a massive cavern that was strung from stem to stern with cargo wires, platforms, industrial-grade mining equipment, and cargo crates so stuffed with random things that they couldn't feasibly be shut anytime soon. Ezra stepped forward and hopped down a small ledge to a larger platform, scanning the room for any sign of what he had sensed. His eyes ran up and down the trench, struggling to see anything against the rather clashing surroundings.
It took him a moment to remember that kyber crystals couldn't be seen until someone of their choosing picked them up, at least not with a naked eye. What felt like the tenth time that day, he listened to the Force around him while he looked, eventually having his eyes drawn to a small, fenced-in stone landing on the far end. "There," He said.
"Where?" Sabine questioned, unsure where he was looking.
"Over there, in that courtyard. Something's over there," He repeated. He quickly looked around him and spied a ledge he could jump to, leaping through the air to it. He landed in a crouch, noticing considerably less pain in his ribs than a few hours ago. Looked over his back at Sabine, who was examining something in one of the crates. "Hey, Sabine! Was all that talk about jetpacks for nothing? Try to keep up!" He teased.
Just as he jumped to a rough patch in the wall he could bounce off of to land on a bridge, he heard Sabine shout from behind him, "Ezra, wait!"
Not a chance. He thought to himself, landing in a roll on the bridge. As he had jumped to it, he had spied a rope hanging down from a truss in the side of a pillar. Convenient. He pulled the rope to him, jumping off to meet it halfway, and swung down into the courtyard. He stuck the landing with a Force push to the ground, coming back up a second later and raising his helmet visor to survey the area around him. It was here somewhere. He could feel it.
"Ezra!" Sabine shouted again, flying down towards him. Once again he ignored her, sensing the energy in the Force around him. Literally, around him. The Force was incredibly present where they stood, emanating from the corridor ahead of him.
"Sabine, it's here. I know it. If we can find it, then we know that they probably have records of it here. Then we can track the trail until we find whatever Project Stardust is. Now, help me look around," He ordered, taking a few steps towards the tunnel.
"Ezra, this isn't a kyber mining operation!" Sabine exclaimed. Ezra stopped in his tracks and looked back at her. In her hand, she held what looked like a small statue. "I found nothing but stuff like this in the crates!"
Ezra closed his eyes again, but when he reached out to feel the energy around him, it had turned cold, and dark. His eyes snapped open and he called his lightsaber to his hand, igniting the blazing green blade and staring into a dark tunnel that came into the terrace from deeper underground. "Show yourself!" He demanded, holding his blade steadily in front of him. A least ten red visors turned on and poured into the fenced-in area, encircling them with their blasters leveled. Ezra and Sabine stood back to back in the center of the courtyard, and Ezra heard the familiar sound of the Darksaber activating behind him.
"Well, this certainly isn't a surprise," Ezra heard from a female voice behind him. He spun around to see a hulking, orange dowutin, clad in the armor of the Inquisitioruis, land hard on the stone terrace, slamming an eight-fingered prosthetic hand into the ground to stabilize themself. Cracks shot out from the impact, but the ground didn't give. Though it was intimidating, Ezra found himself looking at the black and red prosthetic. It had no clove covering, instead, it had brutal-looking complexity. It had a complex detail to it, all black and silver in armor protecting the inner parts. Not the fingers though. They were exposed and pointed on the end, reminding him of an arachnid. He could also see other cybernetics on the dowutin's body, all of them working parasitically to keep whoever this was alive.
"Told you the trap would work," Another voice said, emerging from the tunnel. This one he recognized, looking to the side to see the Eighth Brother igniting a blood-red lightsaber. "You are all too gullible, boy."
The new Inquisitor activated their blade too. "We will both be rewarded for taking out the Grand Inquisitor's killer. And I don't mind killing another rebel alongside him."
"I see you invited friends, Eighth Brother. How kind," Ezra spoke, addressing the one foe he knew.
"Perceptive. At least you can tell when your death is imminent," The familiar Inquisitor laughed.
"You couldn't 'sense' this coming?!" Sabine criticized.
"You want to discuss this right now?!" Ezra shot back, assuming the Ataru stance. He could tell, just by swiveling his head around, that there was only one way out of this situation.
They would have to fight their way out, against impossible odds.
… You guys are gonna hate me for ending the chapter here, aren't you? :P. All I can tell you is that more is on the way. If you like the story so far, please leave a review and let me know your thoughts. Follow the story to know when the next chapter is released, and I'll see you in the next one, which I guarantee you guys are gonna love.