"Project Auger was an Imperial excavation initiative. An investigation into a vanished Force-using race called the Zeffo," Cere explained, bringing up a projection of various different files on the subject.
"So Lux was wrong. There wasn't any connection to Project Stardust," Sabine stated, making an effort to suppress her resentment in the matter. They had been doing so well in tracking it down at first. But now, their luck felt like it had long since burnt out.
"Lux?" Cal asked. "Lux Bonteri?"
"Yeah, the old Onderon senator. He reached out to us with a potential lead from Saw Gererra. Said the Empire was mining something on Zeffo. We- well, he figured that it might've been kyber crystals," She replied.
"That explains it then," Cal said factually, looking to the two of them. "We've been tracking what happened to the Zeffo for around thirteen years. When I met Saw, we had been investigating Project Auger, but I never told him much about it."
"So he gave us a wild guess as to where the Empire would be mining kyber," Sabine said. She could feel the resentment growing.
Ezra began to laugh. "Seems like something Saw would do."
"You're one to talk. Your instincts nearly got us decapitated," She snapped, angry at his lightheartedness.
"I never said I didn't do anything wrong," The younger Jedi suggested. "The funny thing is, I wouldn't have made the mistake had Saw not pointed us in the wrong direction."
"That doesn't-" Sabine began again, but she was cut off.
"Can we please table this conversation for now? We're trying to think here," The Lateron pilot interrupted. Greez, she recalled.
Cere nodded thanks to her once it was silent. "Project Auger's objective was never very clear, and we never got much intel on the project before what had been excavated was moved to an offworld site."
"Last month though, we obtained shipping information from an Imperial courier as to the location," Cal continued for her.
"The issue was we didn't have enough gears to get there. But now, we do! Probably," Greez said, gesturing to her and Ezra with all four arms.
"Okay…" Ezra said cautiously. "So, how does this work for us, then?"
"You guys are after kyber crystal shipments, right?" Cal asked. Sabine nodded. "Then there's no better place to look for that data than Ilum."
"Hold on. That place is a fortress of Imperials. There's no way in hell we'd actually get there and get out alive," Sabine jumped in. She had thought Ezra was crazy, but this exceeded it tremendously.
"As it is, you are correct," Merrin agreed. "But if we get a few things together, we might have a chance."
"A few things being…?"
"One big one, really. A way onto the planet's surface without being recognized," Cal told them. "We've all grown to have a bit of an… iconic reputation with the Empire."
"You're right about that," Ezra said, grinning.
"And I'm assuming we need the other few things to get there, right?" Sabine guessed.
"That's correct. We can't steal an Imperial vessel and just fly down. They log every ship headed in and out of the system. What they're carrying. How long they'll be there. How many lifeforms are onboard. All of which is logged months before departure," Cere explained.
"So we can't hijack one in the port because of the designated crew," Ezra realized. Greez nodded.
"And we can't get one midway because they travel on an encrypted route that not even the crew knows," Greez added. Sabine took a breath and took it all in. This was a huge gamble. Trusting a crew she had never met on a top-tier intelligence mission. What was more, they had absolutely no idea what they might be getting into on the surface. They didn't even know where to look. They'd be going in blind, into enemy territory, where anything could go wrong at any moment.
But on the flipside, this was their chance to follow the one lead they hadn't chased down. "Well, we aren't going to get anywhere standing around. What's our first move?" She said. Ezra looked at her with surprise, no doubt having expected her to be skeptical or maybe refuse altogether, but he held his silence.
"Ilum is not self-sustaining, meaning that they probably import supplies and food from off world," Cere said, looking at everyone around the table.
"...so they must have supply ships that visit regularly to prevent that from being an issue. I think I might know where you're going with this," Sabine finished for her, pulling up the galaxy map. "If we can figure out the time frame from when the ship departs to when it arrives…"
"...then we can catch it along the route," Ezra continued catching on. "Okay, but how do we figure out when it leaves and when it arrives?"
"Well, this lady here is a veteran comms cracker. All she needs to do is get into the system unnoticed, and we have full ears on everything going through on that frequency," Greez pointed out.
"Yes, but like all things, I'd need a strong connection to be able to slice through the encryption and get anything out of it," She warned. Sabine narrowed her eyes at the galaxy map, scanning it to give her an idea. She focused in on the glowing blue orbs close to the region they were referring to, and her eyes widened as she landed on one world. One she knew all too well.
"Here," She spoke, pointing it out to everyone around the table. "Ord Mantell. There's an Imperial control station there in the city, monitoring all traffic coming through the mid rim and heading towards the Imperial territories. I was there once with Ketsu-"
"Ketsu?" Greez asked.
"An old bounty hunting friend of mine. Anyways, back in my bounty hunting days we'd listen in on the transmissions coming in and out to find our targets. We could never slice into the high priority Imperial channels, but that shouldn't be a problem for you, right?" Sabine explained. Cere looked lost in thought for a moment.
"Well, it's worth a shot. The larger relay will make for a boosted signal, but we have to find a place in the city to hide out until we hear something," The dark woman responded, looking up at Sabine.
"Done. I know a few places we could lay low until we have what we need."
"We're all in agreement then?" Greez asked. Cal nodded, and Ezra gave a skeptical but still affirming look. Greez turned and walked back up to the cockpit. "Ord Mantell it is, then."
The ship shifted slightly as they altered course towards the new destination. The group around the holotable dispersed, and Sabine made her way back to her cabin on the Gauntlet. When the door hissed open, she began collecting a bag of explosives as a sidearm. Thermal detonators, remote bombs, and her own particular rig that she had dubbed, 'A miracle' for its reputation of getting her out of less than ideal situations.
She had just placed the final one in the bag when she heard a knock on her doorframe. She turned, expecting to see Ezra with some bad joke, but instead she found Merrin standing in her doorway. "Can I help you?" She said, unsure of what the Nightsister was doing.
"What's it like?" The older woman asked.
"What's what like?" She responded, confused.
"Ord Mantell. What's it like?" Merrin repeated.
"You've never been there?" Sabine said, a little surprised.
"No. I haven't been to many of these places all of you are familiar with. Until 13 years ago, Dathomir was all I knew. I've since seen many places, but still few compared to you or Cal," The Nightsister told her. Apparently having gotten the notion that neither of them trusted each other, she stayed leaning in the doorframe, rather than coming into her room like a familiar person.
"Hmm…" Sabine thought. "I'm not really sure how to explain it to someone who hasn't been there." She'd never had to describe a planet before. "It's… flat."
"Flat?"
"Not actually flat. It doesn't have many mountains or hills," Sabine told her.
"Oh," Merrin said. She stayed quiet, and Sabine could tell that she wasn't very good around people. A stab of guilt hit her, and she sighed.
"Have you ever been to Lothal?" Sabine asked.
"Yes, for a few days."
"Okay, picture Lothal. Gold-colored plains, rolling hills, windy but warm air…" She narrated, envisioning Lothal for herself the first time in a while. She missed it. For years, it had felt like a new home to her. A place to fight back. A place where she had felt she belonged. And on top of all that, it was the place she had met Ezra.
"That sounds… peaceful," Merrin responded after a minute. "I look forward to being there."
"You'll like it, I'm sure," Sabine replied, and the young Nightsister walked away. She turned back to her bag, and slung it over her shoulder before reaching for her helmet. But as she reached it, she picked it up, and caught her reflection in the visor as she felt the ships decelerate from hyperspace. She stared at herself, her white and purple hair. Then her eyes. Without really thinking, she spoke to her reflection. "Never thought I'd be going back here again," She said.
Her reflection just stared out at her from under her helmet, silent as ever.
"Woop woo!" She heard from behind her.
"'We're here', huh?" She replied, lowering her helmet to her side and looking at the droid. Chopper beeped in affirmation, telling her that the others were aboard the Mantis. "Okay, I'll be there," She told him. As he wheeled off, she glanced at her helmet one more time, before dismissing it for the time and following the droid back to her companions. The mission comes first. My past here later.
As Sabine came into the room, Ezra could tell she had something on her mind. Rather than walking in with her usual plucky attitude, she seemed… almost distracted. Definitely still present, but something was on her mind. He knew the look. He knew the tone. But he'd have to ask later.
"We've got landing clearance in one of the suburbs, thanks to your ever so suãve pilot," Greez informed. "Unfortunately, that's for the Mantis only. So we're gonna have to work something out, because I don't think I can talk folks into letting two ships land. A mandalorian vessel, at that.
Ezra knew Sabine wasn't going to be good at decisions in the moment, so he jumped in. "Chopper, can you stay on board the Gauntlet and keep it in orbit?" He asked, turning to look at the droid.
"Wup? Woop woo!" Chopper shot back.
"Because I trust you to keep the ship safe. If there's one thing you do, it's not risk your neck if you don't have to," Ezra responded. As had always worked with the old C1, the compliment stopped all of his complaints cold. I may end up regretting boosting his ego later, though. He thought.
BD-1 made a laughing trill from his position on Cal's back. "Easy, BD. Unless you want to be stuck up here with Chopper, you'd better stay quiet," The Knight said. The small droid instantly quieted, much like Chopper did for Ezra. Cal looked to him and Sabine, studying them up and down. "I think I may have something for you," He told them, proceeding back to what Sabine guessed were the crew quarters. He emerged a moment later with two fabric ponchos, one a plain green and the other red with two gray and white stripes on either side, both cut in the same fashion.
"Ponchos?" Sabine asked. Cal nodded.
"You're too recognizable with what you're currently wearing, even here," The older Jedi explained. It made sense to Ezra. They had made quite the name for themselves in the outer rim, so there was a good chance he might be recognized here. Plus, he didn't exactly just want to be flashing around his lightsaber hilt.
He reached out and took the red one, slipping it on over his head and finding it to fit almost perfectly. His lightsaber was concealed, and the light fabric made for no extra weight to have to throw around. Sabine reached for the other, picking it up and studying it. Ezra knew she didn't like plain outfits. She looked at her helmet for a long moment, gazing at the cool black visor surrounded by the colors. Then, to Ezra's surprise, she placed the helmet on Chopper's top, asking him to keep it safe. She then slid on the plain cover-up and looked up at them, with a loom in her eyes that said, 'Okay. what's next?'
Okay. Something's up.
Chopper warbled a farewell as he crossed back into their ship and sealed the airlock between them. A lurch shook the Mantis as the Gauntlet disengaged its magnetic clamps, and they heard the small roaring of engines passing over as Chopper ascended into high orbit once again. The rest of them moved up to the cockpit, looking through the large front windows at the plains-covered world they were approaching. "How long do you think it will take to get the info we need?" Ezra asked Cere, who was sitting in front of the communications controls for the ship.
"To crack the comms? Minutes. Hours if it's really complex. But to actually get the data? That depends on how good our luck is. Depending on what the scene is like on Ilum, they could have anywhere from a day's comfortable supply to a month's. It's hard to say, but I'm hoping the odds are in our favor," The veteran responded.
"Hey, we've done better with worse. What could go wrong?" Greez spoke up as he piloted them down into the atmosphere, activating the stabilizers.
"Careful, Greez. We've also done worse with better, and jinxing it usually goes a long way to aid the second one," Cal said, reaching up to turn on the fine tuning for the radar.
"What can I say? I like to gamble!" The Lateron returned enthusiastically.
"Yeah. A little too much," Merrin commented from her position against the wall. She still had her blasters and jacket with her, which made perfect sense. Nightsister magick and attire were both eye-catching, and not always the good kind. Besides, Ezra got the sense she was trying to leave that life behind. That past. Though he hadn't heard much of it, he knew what had happened on Dathomir, and he couldn't imagine what it must have been like to be the last of her kind. He wouldn't want to be the one to carry that legacy either.
The Mantis set down softly in the plains outside the suburb Greez had mentioned, giving them a rather dazzling view of the large city that spiralled up before them. "So, we're on the ground. Part one complete," Greez informed.
"Yep...Now, we need to get into the city," Cal responded, leaning down and looking up to try and see the top of the central building.
"Wait, why do we need to get into the city? Why can't she just do it from here?" Greez asked hopefully.
"The transmissions aren't coming in from around the planet. They're coming in from other systems, meaning that the wavelengths are incredibly long and weak. The Mantis doesn't have the strength to receive those signals, only the Imperial satellites do," Cere explained, getting up and grabbing what looked to be a portable listening device.
"Oh. Okay. Can I stay here?"
"Greez…" Cere said tiredly.
"It's fine, he can stay," Ezra stepped in. "We might need a quick way out of here anyway."
"Sweet. Good luck guys!"
Cere shook her head, evidently finding the Lateron's attitude to the situation to be quite hilarious. Ezra smiled as he looked at chemistry of the crew. They fit together perfectly, despite all coming from rather dark backgrounds.
Cal spun around in his seat, looking over to Sabine. "Alright, Sabine, you said we had a place we could stay?"
Sabine didn't move, still lost in thought. Ezra walked up to her and waved his hand to try and get her attention. "Hey, Sabine!"
"Hmm?" She mumbled sleepily, her eyes still unfocused and on the floor.
"You said you knew a place we could stay, right?"
"What?" She said, confused. Then she shook her head, evidently having her mind snap back to her body. Her eyes sharpened and she looked up. "Oh! Right. I know a place we can stay," She replied quickly, focusing back on the ground.
There it was again. This time Ezra knew she wasn't quite present, because he could sense the rush of thought as she quickly caught up on everything she recalled had been said. "Sabine, are you okay?" He asked, bending down to look her in the eye.
She nodded. "I'm okay, I'm just… thinking."
"What about?" Ezra furthered, sensing she was holding something back.
"It… it doesn't matter right now," Sabine concluded, ending the discussion. She stood up in full, walking up to the window. He could still feel whatever Sabine had been considering lingering on her mind, but it's nature remained a mystery. Whatever it was, he intended on figuring it out. The last thing they needed right now was one of them distracted, and he had had enough moments on her end of this to know that she would have to talk to someone in order to come back to focus.
"I can get us into the city," She confirmed to them all. "There's an old tunnel that leads into the city from the residential area in this suburb. It shouldn't be too hard to get to. If it's still there."
"'If'?" Ezra asked. "And if not?"
"Then we'll find another way. We always do," Merrin said from the back of the room.
"She's right," Cere agreed. "Sabine, lead the way. You know this place better than we do."
Sabine nodded, proceeding through all of them to the door, and opening the latch. It slid open, with a ramp extending out from the floor as a gust of cool summer air rushed in. Sabine stepped into the sunlight, shielding her eyes with her arm as the others followed her. Ezra stayed behind, making sure everyone disembarked the craft before following Cal out the hatch. It hissed shut as his feet collided with the sun-baked dirt under the grass, and he looked around at the scene before him.
He had never been to Ord Mantell, but it reminded him almost painfully of his homeworld. The bright blue sky, the rolling hills, the goldenmarrow fields, and the almost complete lack of mountains in any direction echoed Lothal almost perfectly, with the only real differences being the native species roaming the fields, and the bright blue star burning low on the horizon. It was incredible that he could travel across light years of distance, and find almost the exact same world in a different region of space.
They walked into the town from an alleyway, trying to avoid the suspicion that would be drawn had they just marched in from their ship. Cal had figured previously that the Mantis could be recognizable to some, as they had been in on the core worlds before. A few shady characters stepping out of an alley was almost guaranteed to be a fairly regular occurrence near a big city. Which meant that so long as they acted casual, and didn't go swinging their lightsabers all over the place, they would fit right in.
Sabine led them through a large open air market, keeping their heads down and weaving through the packed streets as the citizens went about their business. Vendors called out to the crowd to purchase fruit or parts. The savory smell of smoke-and-flame roasted meat hung in the air as they passed by a meat stand that had at least twenty people lined up in front of it, a few stormtroopers included. Ezra quickly noted the popularity of the joint, and that it should be avoided if even Imperials liked to get the food there. Though he did have to admit, perhaps these troopers were friendlier than most if they were okay with eating at local places.
Cal looked back at Ezra, and he met his gaze. Cal moved his head in the direction of another alley, and Ezra followed it to see Merrin turning into it. He nodded, following Cal into the backstreet to meet up with the rest of the party. "The Imperials seem pretty relaxed here," He said as he rounded the turn.
"Out here, sure. Just wait until we're in the city," Sabine responded, scanning the side of a building. Her fingers ran along the rough surface as she searched for what Ezra presumed to be some indicator. She switched and went back over the same spot several times, before finally stopping on a part lower to the ground. She dusted it off, revealing a small symbol on the wall. "Hmm. Lower down than I remember."
"But still there?" Cal asked. Sabine pressed a center opening in the symbol, and they heard a latch click beneath them.
"Definitely," She replied, moving away from the wall to the brick pathing on the ground. She stepped on a ever so slightly outlined square, stepping off immediately to reveal a spring mechanism, pushing the small section up to reveal a dark passageway under the street. She looked over to Ezra with a victorious smirk. "After you."
Ezra shook his head and sighed, walking up to the hole and dropping through. His boots hit the cold, damp dirt on the ground quickly, and after a quick look around he declared it clear for the others to come down. Sabine came in last, pulling the trap door shut behind them before dropping onto the ground as well. Ezra ignited his lightsaber as she did so, preventing the group from being in total darkness as they began to walk forward. Sabine nodded in approval, stepping ahead of him as they proceeded to guide them through this labyrinth. He didn't mind, as she probably knew these tunnels like the back of her hand. But that raised a question. "How do you know about these tunnels?" He asked, looking up at the hardened mud walls. Whenever the last time these were used must've been a while ago.
"Ketsu and I worked from Ord Mantell for a while. We used these tunnels to get around without having to dodge the Empire," She explained, looking back and forth at a junction. She turned right, motioning for the others to follow her.
"Yes, but how'd you know about it in the first place?" Ezra inquired. She was avoiding the question.
"One of our employers tipped us off," She said firmly, ending the discussion. Another thing to ask her about the next time he had a moment.
Sabine led them through a few more turns and sets of stairs until they came to a large, dark hallway. There, she stopped, looking down the passage with her flashlight to try and see any dangers. "Boop boo woop boop woo," BD-1 trilled, hopping off of Cal's back and walking up further to look around.
"BD is detecting faint power signals in there," Cal translated. Ezra walked forward slightly more, studying the wall that BD-1 was looking at. Along the top of the wall, he could see an array of symbols, each above what appeared to be a closed door. He went along further until one of them caught his eye. A mandalorian starbird, rising from a flame. The symbol of the Ghost crew.
"Sabine, where are we?" He asked. As far as he knew, the Ghost crew had never been to Ord Mantell, even before he joined them. Sabine walked up next to him, then up to the door under the starbird. She dusted off a panel on the inside of the frame, entering a series of digits before pressing a button at the bottom. The panel lit up green, displaying the words 'Access Granted', and the door slid open, revealing a dust-covered room. Sabine breathed deeply, stepping into the room as the lights flickered on.
"A place I used to call home."
For all of you who have stayed with me since the beginning, thank you for your continued support of the story. And for those of you that are new here, I thank you too. I know you've wondered where I've been for the past few months, and the truth is, I haven't been anywhere. I've been as cooped up as everyone else, but I stopped writing for a while for two reasons: 1. I had a general loss of motivation to continue; and 2. I wasn't sure how to keep going with the story. I know how it's going to end and have the conclusion already planned out, but getting there I wasn't sure how to do it. But now, I know. And the Hunt is back, this time, until it's over. But in the meantime, look forward to the next chapter, and feel free to spread the story around.Also, I now have an official social media account where I'll post updates on the current stories, my general thoughts, or just put out ideas that some might like to see. The tag is bluejayak.fanfiction. Feel free to look it up on Instagram.Until the next one.