"Ezra…" Sabine began, holding the Darksaber steadily in front of her.
"Don't even say it," The Jedi said from behind her. Like most Mandalorians, the occasional crossfire and fistfight didn't bother her so much. But the border was crossed when there were more than four well-trained guns aimed at her chest. The Beskar would protect her for a short time, but in the long run, it wouldn't save her from getting shot.
"Just letting you know that if we get out of here alive, I'm blaming you completely for this."
"Noted, but unless you can come up with a plan as fast as you come up with quips, We're going to be having a very different conversation."
The Eighth brother laughed, looking down at her. "From where I stand, you will be having no conversation," The Inquisitor paused, seeming to take pleasure in their plight. "Prepare to open fire!"
The slightly disconnected sound of twelve blasters switching safety off echoed all around them. Sabine backed up slightly more, completely back to back with Ezra. "If you have a brilliant idea to get out of this, you'd better do it now!"
"Sabine, if I knew what to do right now, I'd be doing it!" Ezra shot back from behind her.
"Aim!"
"If you have any ideas, I'm very much open to suggestions right now!" The boy exclaimed.
Everything seemed to slow around her like somehow they had been dropped into a lake of Dacha-syrup. Sabine watched the Inquisitor's climb through the air, about to close his fist in the universal symbol for "go," or in their situation, "execute." In the ground, she could feel the slight shifting of feet on the courtyard, every light thud indicating changing weight or position. The Darksaber hummed slowly with energy, flickering, and giving off the strange black light that it always did. Her hands swayed it slowly in front of her eyes as her foot twisted slightly into a more athletic fighting stance. She could feel her heart pounding as the Inquisitor's hand reached its apex. Sabine breathed in low, almost unconsciously reaching for one of her blasters with her offhand. She steeled herself, allowing a single tear to roll down her face. Of all the ways to go out, it was by squad execution. But if she was going out, she thought as she glared through her helmet at their executioner, she was going to take as many people as she could with her.
The Inquisitor's fist closed, along with the brief narration of, "Fire." within a second of the command, she heard a blaster shot. The strange fact was the singularity of it. She looked at everyone around her, and then saw a smoking hole in the helmet of one of the troopers. His body crumpled. Everyone glanced around in confusion, trying to figure out where the shot had come from.
Then she heard it again. A blaster bolt zipped down from behind her and stuck down another trooper. She risked a glance up in the direction of the bolt and saw the glint of a scope on the far side of the trench. She had just barely recognized the sound of the gun as a DLT-19X when it fired again, downing a third trooper. This time the troopers opened fire on the area, and she saw the figure get up and run from the position towards one of the ziplines. A fourth bolt lanced out from the gun as the assailant jumped onto a platform behind cover, which narrowly whizzed by the head of one of the larger Inquisitor.
As the troopers fired relentlessly at the barrier concealing the sniper, a flare of green mist erupted behind one of the firing squad. A pale-skinned woman clad in red appeared, punching the spec-op in the back of the knee, then the spine, and reached around and snapped his neck. Two pistols were in her hands as she gunned down the two at her sides, before disappearing into mist again.
Sabine shook her head to snap out of her amazement and drew her own pistol, whirling into combat against the squad. Any sort of organization had gone completely out the window at this point as complete chaos ensued. The mysterious marksman continued to rain well placed either wounding or lethal shots as they went after the remaining troops. Sabine boosted herself at one of her assailants with her jetpack, barreling into him with her shoulder. The trooper quickly got back up, making a sweep for her legs. She jumped it and used another jetpack-augmented blow to the head, but found her hand stopped by his. He tried to rip the Darksaber from her grasp, but to Sabine, one of these Imperial drones even touching the saber was an offense.
Focusing her anger into a sharpened point, she kneed the trooper hard in the chest, twisted his wrist, and fired her flamethrower, burning him alive. For good measure, she kicked back the flaming corpse and shot it three times in the chest. She took a short breath and turned to see Ezra dueling both Inquisitors across the ring, seeming to be holding his own for the moment. She stowed her sword in favor of her other firearm, taking to the air and raining it down on the Imperial forces. The Eighth Brother took note of this, disengaging for a moment and preparing to whirl his lightsaber at her, but yet another third party intervened.
The doors to the elevator slid open to reveal a four-armed Lateron in a pilot's outfit, and to Sabine's disbelief brandishing a Clone Wars Z-6 minigun. The small figure leveled his gun, laughing. "You guys might wanna take a step back!"
It took Ezra a moment to realize he was being addressed, and he jumped to a platform above the area as the pilot opened fire. The two Inquisitors followed him up as the blue plasma pummeled the yard, laying waste to the Imperial forces below. Sabine pulled out the Darksaber again, blasting towards the bridge Ezra now found himself dueling on. Sabine could tell that he was wearing thin. She dove hard at the larger one, using the power of the blow to somersault herself over to the other side and stand beside Ezra.
"Sabine, I had the situation under control!" He said as he readied himself again.
"Did you now? That's not what it looks like," She shot back, double-checking her vambraces while the blood-bladed Imperials stepped back.
"On three," Ezra instructed, glaring at their foes. "One...two…"
They were interrupted by a curious beeping, and a small, red-and-white droid walked up between them.
"Huh?" Sabine asked, utterly confused. Then the sound of a door opening drew their attention to a figure standing on the other side of the bridge. He wore a navy outfit underneath a sherpa leather vest. A faded red scar ran along his cheek and onto his neck, and his red hair blew gently in the draft. But as if that wasn't enough of an entrance, from his belt hung a shining silver hilt, the unmistakable hilt of a lightsaber. The figure stood in silence, his green eyes staring into the Inquisitors'. The bigger one's brutal mechanical hand clenched hard.
"YOU!" The dowutin shouted, with unmistakable intense anger and venom in her voice.
The new combatant held out his hand, and his lightsaber flew to it. "Me," He responded, walking forward with his saber in hand. It was a bigger hilt than the one's Kanan and Ezra had, Sabine realized. Longer than even the ones the Inquisitors had, with what looked like a locking mechanism in the middle of it.
"When we came here, we were after the Grand Inquisitor's killer. We didn't expect to find you here as well," The Eighth Brother said, looking away from the two of them. Sabine didn't lower her guard for heaven a second.
"Who cares if we didn't expect him to be here, he is going to pay for what he did to me on Kashyyyk!" The Sister raged, spinning her lightsaber.
"It seems to me you have a perfectly good replacement right there," The Jedi said, gesturing to the arachnid-like metal structure.
At that comment, the dowutin let out a howl of anger. "DIE!" She screamed, charging at the figure that was about half her size. A blue lightsaber snapped to life and parried the blow as the Jedi jumped over the Inquisitor with ease, landing in a run towards the Eighth Brother. Ezra, who seemed to pick up on the action, looked at Sabine.
"Duck!" He said coming around from behind her and swinging at the Eighth Brother. His attack was blocked, but Sabine had her own ideas, boosting herself to hover beside the bridge as she fired her repulsor.
"Argh!" The Brother cried in disorientation. Ezra made a follow-up Force push, sending the Inquisitor off the side of the bridge to the depths of the mining trench. As the Inquisitor fell, the new Jedi reached them and turned to look back at the Inquisitor.
"I'll keep the Inquisitor busy. You two get back to your ship. I'll catch up with you as soon as I'm done here. Okay?" He instructed.
"Who are you?" Sabine asked, wary of taking orders from this new character.
"No time. You need to go," He demanded, looking back at the remaining Inquisitor. She leaped into the air, holding her red lightsaber in a powerful overhead strike. "Go!" He shouted at them, giving them a powerful push into the lift behind them. Just before the doors closed, he blocked the blow and rolled to the side, and they saw a second blue blade crackle to life.
"Who the hell was that?!" Ezra asked, casually waving his lightsaber
"You tell me. You're the Jedi. I can just swing like one," She replied, clipping the Darksaber to its rest on her back. The doors to the top of the lift opened to reveal two stormtroopers. Sabine's blasters were in her hands before they even started speaking.
"Halt! You're not supposed to-" She cut them off with two shots.
"We've got to move if we're gonna get out of here. You want a lift?" She suggested, offering her hand.
Ezra gave a frustrated sigh as he took it. "Fine. You'd better not drop me."
"No promises," She joked, pulling them both off the ground and burning hard towards where they parked the bike.
"Chopper, boost the engines!" Sabine shouted as she took off her helmet and ran up the ramp. Ezra Risked a glance up at the sky before he walked the bike inside. He could see two Star Destroyers in high orbit, and an angry swarm of screaming TIE fighters burning towards them.
"Oh boy," He said to himself, dashing up the ramp and using the Force to close the door. As he ran into the cockpit, he exclaimed, "Sabine! We've gotta go! Now!"
"Working on it!" She replied. "Chopper! Where are my engines?!"
"Wop woo!" Ezra heard in reply. A massive roar kicked in from behind them, rocketing the ship off the cliff and into the sky.
"Ezra!"
"Guns! Got it!" He shouted in reply, straining against the inertia to reach the cannon controls. His index finger rested on the trigger as he watched the squadron of TIEs rushing in. Two of them were breaking off. Probably trying to circle and take them out from behind. Ezra grinned, firing the guns and taking out the two fighters. The rest of them scattered, going beyond the area he could see from the viewports. He looked down ad the scope, watching the little red triangles move around like wasps. "I've got three marks at point 4!"
Sabine responded by making a hard bank to the right, pulling them completely around and behind the TIEs. The sudden movement momentarily threw Ezra's grip, pulling his weight toward the left of the ship. It was thrown again as the Mando gunned the throttle, boosting after the small fighters. When the guns didn't fire, Sabine glared at him. "Ezra!" She exclaimed.
"I know, I know!" He responded, clenching down the trigger. One of the TIEs exploded. The other two were only damaged, probably with a few systems offline. He looked back at his white-and-purple-haired comrade. "If it weren't for your fancy flying, this wouldn't be so difficult! Point 7!"
"If it weren't for my flying-" Sabine said pulled them in a vertical 180, "-we wouldn't have even gotten airborne!" Ezra grumbled and shot again, destroying it this time. As they flew through the smoke, one lucky pilot managed to land a hit on the rear shields.
"Dammit! How many more fighters are there!" He said as the ship shook.
"Four!" The girl informed, diving below one of the strafers.
Ezra grit his teeth. They needed to level the playing field. His eyes darted across the viewport from one side to the other, landing on the Star Destroyers, some TIEs, empty sky, and clouds before he finally settled on a thin line at the horizon. As he realized what it was, he turned to Sabine. "Make for the edge of the storm," He instructed, staring out at the cyclone-shaped clouds.
"What?"
"Make for the edge of the storm," He repeated, diverting the power from the weapons to the engines. "Those TIEs are too light to fly through the outer reaches. The winds will be too strong."
Sabine nodded and throttled up, rocketing them out of the dogfight and towards the much faster-spinning clouds. The TIEs raced after them, their light design picking up much more turbulence than their larger Mandalorian ship. Though they didn't enjoy it much, as the constant bombardment of firepower on their tail. As they reached the edge of the storm below them, Sabine executed a series of evasive maneuvers to avoid the barrage. "You said they couldn't fly out here!" She exclaimed.
Ezra looked away from his scope and out the window, looking down at the storm as they went through another loop. As they pulled out of it, he got by far the craziest idea he had had in a long time. "Sabine, give me the controls," He said slowly.
"Okay," She said, letting go of her yoke and watching Ezra grab his. "I just hope you know what you're DOING!" She cried as he put them in a hard dive towards the circling clouds. Their speed picked up rapidly as they plummeted, as well as turbulence to the hull. The storm came up on them quickly and the ship creaked loudly out of strain.
"Hang on!" He told the two of them. Chopper made a series of panicked warbles and locked himself down, and Sabine's grip tightened on her seat. Ezra grit his teeth as they plunged into the whirlwind, and he thought to himself, Ooooh boy, we're gonna die. The high wind impacted them instantly, tossing the ship around like a leaf as they moved at ridiculously intense speeds. Ezra's ears popped hard as he struggled for control of the vessel from the wind. His hands flew relentlessly over the controls, activating every stabilizer he knew about to straighten out. The sickening tossing and turning slowed to a stop as they leveled out, flying in parallel to the whirlwind. It was still turbulent with the high-velocity atmosphere whipping by, but control was once again in his hands as they flew with the wind.
The storm had rendered the scanner useless, but he could sense the four TIE pilots rapidly catching up behind them, their lighter craft carrying far less resistance to the breeze. He could see their thoughts, see what why saw. He could see the Gauntlet in their sights, and a hand creeping up to the safety switch on the missile launcher. And as he witnessed the safety off, his eyes snapped open and he jerked the controls to the left and put full power to the engines and stabilizers, temporarily holding them in a stationary movement against the storm. The TIEs tried to make the turn, but the lighter craft wouldn't alter its course, instead sending all four of them spinning out of control past them. Then he pulled up, the large wings instantly catching the wind and pushing them up and out of the whirlwind. Once again the ship spun about aimlessly, this time with the engines as full blast and as their inertia jettisoned them into orbit. He should've seen it coming. As a result of the oversight bother he and Sabine were wrenched out of their seats and thrown violently around the cockpit, the force of motion far surpassing that of the artificial gravity.
"Chopper! Straighten us out!" Ezra commanded as he hit the roof hard. The droid beeped quickly and interfaced with the ship, quickly reorienting them to fly in a straight direction. The shift in movement tossed them about one last time, slamming Ezra against the back wall and trying to do the same to Sabine. Ezra managed to react fast enough though, catching her with the Force and setting her down next to him as the ship leveled out. They both sat there for a moment, letting their lungs catch up with their bodies after they had been left behind a few seconds ago.
"I am never letting you fly again," The Mandalorian girl said breathlessly. Ezra smiled.
"Not too bad, was I?" He sarcastically replied.
"That is a severe overstatement," She said, lightly punching him in the shoulder. Ezra laughed for a second before standing up, noticing the twinge of pain in his ribs. He carefully leaned over slightly to help Sabine up, trying to avoid damaging himself further than he had.
"Well, it worked, didn't it?" He stated triumphantly, looking her in the eyes. She smiled, making her way to the pilot's seat.
"Only barely," She responded, reducing the speed of the ship and adjusting the stabilizers for space travel. Ezra returned to his own seat and disengaged the weapons systems, preparing them for hyperspace. They had managed to escape the TIEs and had flung themselves a good ways away from the Star Destroyers, but they still needed to get clear of the system before planning their next move.
Just as Sabine was about to prime for hyperspace, the comm pinged. "Attention Gauntlet, this is Stinger Mantis, requesting a docked hyperspace jump."
Ezra looked at Sabine, who nodded before he responded. "Stinger Mantis, this is Gauntlet. Dock when ready."
"What type of pilot flies a Stinger yacht these days?" Sabine asked, following him as he stood up and walked towards the airlocks at the back of the ship. Shortly after they acquired it from Maul, they had redesigned it to have airlocks on the gyro that turned the wings. This made ship-to-ship docking plausible. There were two sets of doors, ones on the inside and ones on the outside. The outside ones spun with the wings, but the interior ones were fixed at either side of the cargo bay. When they locked the wings in an upright position, the two sets of doors lined up and created functional airlocks.
A slight jolt echoed through the ship, signifying that the other ship had attached. The comm chimed again. "Gauntlet, we have a successful attach. Commencing hyperspace jump on your mark."
Sabine leaned back so Chopper could see her give a thumbs up. "Mark," Ezra said over the comm, followed closely by the telltale whoosh of the hyperdrive running. He slid open the first door to reveal the second, and then the second to reveal a comfortable lounge area. Black fabric seats with well-worn orange backrests were in a quarter circle around low lying table, upon which a small metal set of cups rested. Above that was a small kitchen and table with four plates set, and the smell of cooked steak wafted down to them. The floors were smooth metal and somewhat clean, as it was impossible to keep the floor of a ship completely clean.
The two of them stepped slowly onboard, with Chopper wheeling in behind them. Towards the front of the ship was a holotable displaying multiple planets, ringed by more seats. The door to the cockpit was opened, and Ezra could see the same Lateron that had used the Z-6 at the controls. The small figure glanced back at them as he reached up and flipped a switch, sliding the door shut.
"Fwoo dee!" Ezra heard from behind him. He turned to see the same red and white droid that had distracted the Inquisitors on the bridge standing on the table, studying them curiously.
"You must be one smart little droid," Ezra said, crouching down to look at the small AI.
"That," He heard from above him, "is BD-1," He looked up to the dinette to see their mystery Jedi leaning on the table and a pale woman next to him. He stood and began walking around the table towards the small staircase, gesturing to the woman. "This is Merrin,"
Merrin had pale white skin and hair, and grey tattoos on her face. Her hair was braided over her left shoulder, with a small strand dyed red. She wore a practical red synthleather jacket and black padded leggings, with a belt holding up two K-16 pistols in their holsters. Around her neck was a silver necklace with a deep blue crystal in the shape of a teardrop, well polished and cleaned. Her brown eyes had a hard glint to them, and Ezra could tell that she didn't trust them. Not a whole lot about them exactly screamed, 'trustworthy'. "Up front is Greez, our pilot, and in the back is Cere, our part-time leader and occasional marksman," The Force-user continued, stopping at arm's length from Ezra. He offered his hand to Ezra. "And I'm Cal. Cal Kestis."
Ezra accepted his hand, shaking it firmly. "Ezra Bridger," He said. He gestured to Sabine. "This is Sabine, and our droid is Chopper." He caught a glance of Chopper chasing BD-1 around the holotable and flinched slightly.
Cal caught notice of this too. "Hey, BD! Reign it in a bit, okay?"
"Boooo…" The smaller droid replied. Cal chuckled.
"Cal, Cal…" Ezra muttered as he retracted his hand. He could've sworn he'd heard that name mentioned once. He snapped his fingers as he remembered. "You were the apprentice of Jaro Tapal."
"I was," Cal confirmed. He gestured to the seats around the table. "By all means, have a seat."
Ezra sat down, followed closely by Sabine. "So, how did you know I was Master Tapal's apprentice?" Cal asked.
"Kanan's mentioned you before. He said you and your master were defending Bracca before the Purge," He explained.
"'Kanan'?" Cal repeated, frowning. "Oh, you mean Caleb?"
"'Caleb'?" Ezra asked.
"That was his name before the Purge. Caleb Dume. The padawan of Depa Billaba. I imagine Kanan is what he goes by now?" Cal elaborated. Ezra nodded.
"I didn't know Kanan wasn't his real name," Sabine input. Ezra could tell that she was feeling a little left out of the conversation.
"I don't think he would've told you. It let him protect you from that old identity so that anyone looking for Caleb Dume wouldn't associate you with that name."
"For someone we just met, you sure seem to know an awful lot about him," Sabine said suspiciously.
"Oh, he never told you?" Cal grinned. "We were great friends back at the Temple. You should've seen us back then. I swear, half the antics we pulled around the temple would've gotten us expelled from the Jedi Order if it weren't for his steps to cover our tracks."
"Your antics now are enough as it is," Merrin chimed in, punching him in the shoulder playfully.
"You're one to talk, considering you tried to kill me the first time we met," Cal replied to his silver-haired companion.
"I wonder where I've heard that before," Sabine whispered in Ezra's ear. He laughed. The first time they had met, they weren't exactly trying to kill each other. But they also weren't exactly on the same side.
Ezra's eye caught on Cal's lightsaber. "Could I see that a second?" He asked.
"Of course," Cal responded, handing him his weapon. It was a different design than Ezra had seen before. It had an elongated emitter, with two decoratively crafted panels covering the first part of the blade. The other side looked a little cobbled together, almost like two hilts had been worked into one. "The upper button controls the power to the crystal. The lower one turns the second blade on and off."
Ezra held the saber over the table, activating both the blades. "This thing is wicked," He said, looking at the two glowing beams of energy. "I didn't think the Jedi used saberstaffs."
"They are uncommon, but not unheard of," Cal explained. "Try twisting it at the center."
Ezra did as he instructed, and the double-bladed weapon turned into two single blades. He whirled them around for a moment, marveling at the ingenuity of the design. Then he shut them off and locked them back together, returning the weapon to its owner. "That has to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen."
"Really? Your friend there has a pretty rare item herself," Cal pointed out.
"Last I knew, that lightsaber was in the old Nightsister village on Dathomir. How'd you come by it?" Merrin asked. This confirmed Ezra's suspicions.
"You're a Nightsister, aren't you?" He stated bluntly. Merrin nodded.
"Yes. I was raised by the Nightsisters on Dathomir. As far as I know, I'm the only survivor of the massacre, unless you count Maul," Merrin told them. She gestured to the Darksaber on Sabine's belt. "I'm assuming by the fact that you are in possession of that, you are acquainted with my brother?"
"Wait, Maul's your brother?" Ezra asked, stunned.
"Yes and no. The Nightsisters were family by adoption. Mother Talzin is the one who took care of us and trained us to use magick. Maul was her son, so in a way, he is my brother," She explained.
"Hang on a minute. If you're a Nightsister, then how did you end up traveling with a Jedi?" Sabine pressed. Ezra felt like they were pushing it with the questions, but Merrin didn't seem to mind.
"It's a… long story," Cal said for her after their eyes met for a second.
"Ohhhhhh, I see," Sabine teased. Ezra had figured it out as well, not that it wasn't that obvious. The Nightsister had gone with Cal because of something Cal had done for her. At some point along the line, the two had become an item.
"Please. You're as bad as Kanan," Cal told the two of them, but his smile only confirmed what they both thought. "The gist of it is, both Merrin and I realized that both of our orders no longer existed, so there was no reason we couldn't abide by our own rules."
"I see you have done introductions already," A dark-skinned woman interrupted. She wore a green jacket and light pants, with a blaster at one side and what looked like an Inquisitor's lightsaber on the other. Her black and grey hair was cut short and straight, which Sabine would tell you was more practical than a longer cut when it came to battle. She nodded to Ezra and Sabine. "Cere Junda, though I'm sure Cal already told you."
"Pleased to meet you," Ezra replied.
"Agreed. But we'll have to keep the small talk for later. We have a lot to discuss," Cere informed, walking up to the holotable. "And if the two of you don't mind, we could use your help."
Ezra was about to respond that they had their own mission, but Sabine beat him to it. "What do you need?"
"Come here. This might take a while to explain."
Hello again my readers! I apologize for the delay on this chapter, but the unfortunate truth is that the delay will probably remain about the same for the foreseeable future. And to all of you who are Fallen Order fans, this chapter was pretty heavy on the fanservice to that category. I do hope you all enjoyed it! If anyone would like to share their opinion, please feel free to utilize the review section. Follow the story to get updates on new chapters, and if you like the book, there's a favorite button too. I'll see you guys in the next one, however far off that might be.