Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars Rebels that goes to Disney, Lucasfilm and Dave Filoni.
On Lothal, Ezra and Kanan stood on a building watching a squad of stormtroopers patrolling the area with two AT-DPs walking by with Chopper between them as Ezra flipped her helmet's Macrobinocular viewplate and saw a ton of ships in the distance near the Imperial complex, "Look at all those ships," she said before flipping her helmet's macrobinocular viewplate back up and turned to Kanan, "Ryder said it was bad, but this is worse than bad. Lothal was my home, Kanan. I can't stand seeing it like this, even though I would consider Mandalore more of a home to me now despite never going there and am thinking about moving there after we topple the Empire.
"So let's do something about it," Kanan told her.
"If only Ryder would hurry up and get here," Ezra stated when suddenly beeping went off and Chopper began grunting as he waved one of his arms, causing her to flip her macrobinocular viewplate back down and saw Ryder driving a landspeeder being chased by two scout troopers riding 614-AvA speeder bikes firing upon him, "There he is. And he's been spotted."
"Hurry. Get on!" Ryder called out to Ezra and Kananas he approached them in his landspeeder below the two Force-Wielders after out maneuvering one of the AT-DPs and stormtrooper commanders and they jumped onto the landspeeder as Chopper used his rocket booster and landed in the seat next to Ryder as Ezra stood in the front while Kanan stood in the back of the landspeeder as the scout troopers continued to chase them along the the AT-DP.
"Look out! Blockade!" Ezra warned Ryder as she turned towards him after seeing a stormtrooper aiming and firing an infantry turret at them, causing Ryder to do a U-turn, causing both Ezra and Kanan to go onto the wings of the landspeeder with Ezra taking one of her WESTAR-35s out and fired at the stormtrooper using the turret and fired her WESTAR-35 at the scout troopers as they went in a U-turn as well as they continued to chase them as the AT-DP began firing at them as Ryder clicked a button on the speeder's controls, causing it to fly on its side as Ezra and Kanan ignited their sabers and slashed their sabers against the legs of the AT-DP as the speeder flew underneath.
"Sure is good to have you back on Lothal," Ryder told them, chuckling as the speeder off of its side and began to fly normally again.
"I think you're the only one who feels that way, Ryder," Kanan told the Former Governor Lothal.
"Uh, Ryder? What's the plan?" Ezra asked Ryder as the speeder flew across the highway, "We can't outrun these guys."
"Don't need to outrun 'em. Just need to get 'em up to 190," Ryder told the Mandalorian.
"Does this thing go up to 190?" Kanan asked him as he deflected the blaster bolts from the scout troopers chasing them.
"Sometimes," he confirmed, "Think fast thoughts."
As the scout troopers fired their blasters at them, one of them hit one the landspeeder's thrusters with Chopper grunting frustratedly as Ezra and Kanan continued to deflect the blaster bolts. "I'm thinking fast thoughts. Nothing's happening," Ezra told Ryder.
"Keep watching," Ryder told her and within moments the scout troopers' 614-AvA speeder bikes began to overheat and blow up, surprising the Mandalorian and Kanan as Ryder explained to them ho the Imperial speeder bikes blew up, "Those bikes are from the Imperial factory. I have people inside who build them to break."
"You've infiltrated the assembly line?" Kanan said in disbelief, "I'm impressed."
"That's the perfect cover to do some serious damage," Ezra commented as she likes to see Imperial vehicles get blown up like her sister.
"I wish I could take credit," Ryder added, "Idea came from an old friend of yours."
Soon they arrived at Ryder's hideout in the wilderness of Lothal, where the base of operations for the Lothal resistance movement was and saw the Ithorian Old Jho, the bartender cantina, they then saw an elderly man with with white hair holding a datapad which Ezra recognized as Morad Sumar, an old friend of her birth parents.
"Mr. Sumar," she called out to the man as she removed her helmet, hoping that he would know who she was despite her transformation.
"Is that you, Ezra?" Sumar immediately asked her as he looked towards her.
"Wait. You know about my transformation?" She asked him.
"Of course, I do," he confirmed, "Ryder explained to me that an Inquisitor transformed you into a twin of the Mandalorian rebel Sabine Wren."
"It's good to see you too," she told him.
"You know, it's thanks to you back when you were still male that I got a chance to make a difference against the Empire," Sumar told her, placing his hand on her shoulder as his wife Marida Sumar began approaching them from a command center's holotable, "Your birth parents would be so proud to see you now, even though I'm sure they wouldn't recognize you being that you don't even look like their child anymore."
"And they'd agree there's much more we can do," Ryder chimed in, "Tell them about your plan."
"Phoenix Squadron is enlisting help from another rebel cell to take out the Imperial factory here on Lothal," She began.
"An attack?" Sumar interjected with disbelief.
"Finally," Old Jho said through his Ithorian translator.
"At last," Marida said happily.
"When will this strike happen?" Ryder asked.
"Soon, hopefully," Kanan answered as he wasn't sure when exactly the attack on Lothal will happen, "It depends on what we learn while we're here."
"Our contact, 'Fulcrum', said the Empire's building a new type of weapon," Ezra added, "If we knew what it was, the other cells might agree to attack sooner than later."
"They did just tighten security around section A-2, transferred their best workers over there," Sumar informed them, "That must be why they had to recruit us to their labor force."
"Can you get us into that factory?" Kanan asked him.
"Well, I don't know," Sumar answered, "Do you have any manufacturing experience?"
"Uh, not really," she admitted.
"Then you'll fit right in," Ryder told them, chuckling.
Later on at the Imperial factory, Sumar walked into a line of workers wearing a laborer uniform of the factory with Kanan and Ezra wearing the same type of uniform and saw Lieutenant Lyste, governor Pryce and Agent Kallus walking down the room.
"Agent Kallus, make sure the workers are all present and accounted for," Pryce ordered the ISB agent.
"Yes, Governor Pryce," Kallus said before walking forward.
"Kallus has a new boss," Ezra muttered, "Must be the one my sister, Sabine told us about."
"Look sharp. This factory is being honored by a surprise visit from Imperial High Command," Kallus spoke to the workers as Thrawn walked forward.
"Thank you for the introduction, Agent Kallus," Thrawn told him, "My visit is not an honor however, but an investigation."
"Thrawn," Ezra quietly identified to herself.
"Vehicles assembled in this factory malfunction at a rate far higher than that of others.," Thrawn began as he walked down the room in front of the workers, Sumar, Kanan and Ezra, "I believe poor craftsmanship is to blame, and it has cost your Empire troops and missions. This will not be tolerated." He stared at the Mandalorian for a second before turning to Sumar, "Worker 5473. You were pressed into the Empire's service?"
"Yes, sir," Sumar confirmed, "After losing my farm."
"Do you stand by your work?" Thrawn asked him.
"I do," Sumar answered.
"This is 614-AVA is the last bike you personally assembled," the Grand Admiral said, gesturing to a speeder bike behind him on display, "Please demonstrate for me how quickly it can achieve full speed." Sumar looked around for a few seconds before Thrawn spoke up to him again, "We don't have all day."
A stormtrooper commander then dragged him over to the speeder bike by his arm.
"Back in line," one of the stormtroopers said to Ezra when she tried to intervene and stop the reluctant Sumar from going to the speeder bike. As Sumar approached the speeder bike, he hopped on it as he started the bike's engine.
"Something's wrong. It's overheating," Sumar said as the speeder bike's engine started to turn orangish-red before powering the bike down, "Gonna have to shut it down."
"No. The demonstration is not yet over," Thrawn stated as he powers the speeder bike back on with a datapad he was holding.
"I can't stop it! No!" Sumar cried out in fear as the speeder bike continued to overheat and closed his eyes as the speeder bike exploded, killing him leaving only his worker's helmet which blackened from the explosion as every worker gasped in horror including Kallus who had a horrified reaction on his face, Lyste was vaguely disturbed at what happened as well with Pryce smirking sadistically.
"Now that I have your attention, know this," Thrawn began, "Whatever you build here you will test personally. I expect your malfunction rate to drop substantially." Ezra went to charge at Thrawn with anger as her Mandalorian heritage took over only for Kanan to hold her back. "See to it that no one leaves or enters the facility. I wish to inspect the line for sabotage."
"Hold them here," Lyste ordered the stormtroopers as Thrawn, Pryce and Kallus walked away, "The factory is on full lockdown."
"Ryder. Get word to Hera," Kanan spoke into his comlink as the stormtrooper commander walked towards the line of workers, "We're trapped inside and need help."
"They've already jammed the comms," Ezra informed him as Chopper who stood next to them, painted in Imperial droid color scheme grunted, nervously.
"Workers, form two lines," Lyste ordered the workers as he walked away from the stormtrooper commander, "Prepare for verification and questioning."
"Present your identification card for examination," one of the stormtroopers ordered the workers as they formed to separate lines along with Kanan and Ezra as one of the workers handed their ID card to the stormtrooper in front of them.
"Better get lost before they take a closer look at our IDs," Kanan suggested.
"Psst," Ezra said, looking down at Chopper who was standing next to her, "Chopper. Get their attention." Chopper grunted before rolling away and approached one of the speeder bikes and plugged his scomp link into the astromech port on the speeder bike's display and rotated the astromech port around, causing the Speeder bike's engine to start up before it flew across the room.
"Look out!" One of the stormtroopers called out as he jumped out of the way as the speeder bike flew towards him before it crashed into a barrier, distracting the Imperials as Kanan and Ezra began to run out the room.
"Droid! What is the matter with you?" Lyste asked Chopper as he began to get off from the floor and grunted an explanation, "Report to maintenance." Chopper grunted as he went to leave.
"Now's our chance to find out what the Empire's up to," Ezra said as she and Kanan began running down a corridor.
"From what Sumar said, section A- is a good place to start," Kanan recalled as they went down another section of the corridors.
"Not dressed like this," she told him, "The workers are on lockdown, remember?"
As they went down another corner they were stopped by a scout trooper with feminine armor and a stormtrooper with masculine armor in front of them. "Hey. You two weren't dismissed," the scout trooper told both Kanan and Ezra only for both the troopers to get punched in the helmet by Kanan and Ezra before she kickped the scout trooper helmet to her hands with her foot.
"Grand Admiral, you don't think the rebels have infiltrated section A-2 as well, do you?" Pryce asked Thrawn as she walked down the room where the factory workers were being held with Thrawn and Kallus, "The secrecy of that project is…"
"Is imperative," Thrawn finished for her, "Which is why I've ordered anyone attempting to enter the area without my personal code to be terminated on sight. You should not have compromised security here by hiring locals."
"This factory quotas to meet," Pryce explained.
"I can question the workers, but I won't know if they're lying without more information about this new project," Kallus told them.
"All you need to know is that the Admiral has a new fighter initiative here," Pryce informed him.
"A new fighter?" Kallus inquired, "Difficult to see how one small ship will change much."
"Agent, victory and defeat are often determined by the smallest detail," Thrawn told Kallus as turned around towards him before staring at the AT-DP next to them, "For example, take this walker." He then looked towards one of the male workers, "Is this your work?"
"Yes, sir. I oversaw its construction," the male worker confirmed.
"Have the walker step forward," Thrawn ordered the ISB agent which Kallus did as he clicked on the datapad he was holding, causing the AT-DP's pod to move to its right, and its left before moving back to the look forward and as it stepped forward, it tumbled to the ground.
"Watch it," one of the male workers cried as they all got out of line.
"Get out of the way," one of the female workers cried at the same time.
"Get out of the way! Oh!" One of the male workers cried out as the AT-DP fell on the floor before them with Thrawn staring angrily at the man who worked on the AT-DP as the stormtroopers behind the man cocking their E-11 blaster rifles as they aimed it at him.
"No, no. it wasn't that one," the man told him as Thrawn nodded at the stormtroopers as they were ready to arrest the man as they dragged him away, "It was the one next to it!"
"The factory is on full lockdown. Communication is jammed. I can't reach Ezra and Kanan," Ryder reported to a hologram of Hera on his command center's holotable.
"The new Imperial in charge is pretty thorough. Didn't catch his name, but I hear he has red eyes," Ryder went on at the command center's holotable on Atollon with Hera, Sato, Zeb and Sabine standing around the table.
"Grand Admiral Thrawn," Hera told him in a bitter tone.
"My team will attack the Imperial compound's east gate," Ryder informed them, "It's the weakest point, so this Thrawn might expect it. But at least it'll keep his eyes off the factory for a bit."
Kanan and Ezra, wearing the scout and stormtrooper disguise both hid behind the corner of a wall as they reached the edge of a section of one of the corridors with Chopper as they watched an Imperial stormtrooper walk away from a room as a R2-series courier astromech droid rolled inside the room that the stormtrooper walked away from before quietly walking through the hall and stopped near the door.
"Halt. I need your clearance code," one of the two stromtroopers guarding the room in front of a sealed door told the astromech before approaching the droid who deployed an ID card from it's storage area below the dome's projector and beeped and whistled at them as one of them took the ID card and inserted it into a panel on the wall before the sealed door opened as the stormtrooper handed the ID card back to the astromech. "Code checks out. Proceed." The astromech chirped as it proceeded into section A-2 with the door closing from behind.
"Hey, if we can get Chopper one of those tapes, we can get him inside," Ezra told Kanan as she flipped the scout trooper helmet that she was wearing up after watching the Imperial droid enter section A-2, "Then all he has to do is find the design database and download everything."
"Now we just need one of those droids," Kanan told her as an R4 series courier astromech droid rolled up behind Chopper, who started grunting at his fellow astromech and Ezra smirked as she flipped her helmet's visor back down as Kanan approached the R4-series astromech and spoke to it in an Imperial accent, "Hey, droid. This is a restricted area. I need to see your clearance code." The R4-series astromech handed them the ID card as Chopper took his spark projector out and electrocuted the R4-series astromech, powering it down.
"I got it," Ezra said as she stopped the droid from falling over and placed the droid against the wall.
"Here you go," Kanan said, handing the ID card to Chopper to which he grabbed with one of his arms.
"Make it fast, Chop," Ezra told Chopper who grunted as he rolled away from them.
"Clearance code," the same stormtrooper ordered Chopper as he approached the two stormtroopers in front of the sealed door that leads to section A-2 and handed it the stormtrooper who inserted it into the panel before Chopper entered section A-2 where multiple Imperial weapons technicians were working at computer consoles and one of them watched as Chopper entered for a second before going back to his work as Chopper plugged his scomp link into the astromech port in the front of the computer console in front of the door he entered through and began to download the database.
Meanwhile in Thrawn's office, the Grand Admiral was inspecting a projected image of Ezra from when she was a male and infiltrated the Imperial Academy two years ago, along with an image of Hera, her parents, an artwork of Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders from the Mandalorian Wars fighting Jedi from a mural on Mandalore, Hera's Kalikori and a Jedi Temple guard mask were standing on his desk behind him while he was currently staring at a painting done by Ezra's sister, Sabine Wren on a canvas that had the Rebellion insignia on it in orange with a orange Loth-cat on the bottom of the Rebellion insignia with an image near the top of the canvas with a red circle and line over a stormtrooper helmet when Agent Kallus and Lieutenant Lyste entered the room.
"Sir?" Lyste called out to the Chiss.
"Lieutenant, what can you tell me about this?" Thrawn asked Lyste as he and Kallus came up to him.
"Uh… It looks like a section of the retaining wall, sir," Lyste answered, not knowing much about the painting that Thrawn was inspecting.
"Ah. Agent Kallus?" Thrawn asked the ISB Agent.
"It's the mark of the Phoenix Squadron," Kallus answered, "A creature of flight rising in the flames. A symbol of their commitment to victory."
"It is that and more," Thrawn said agreeing with the ISB Agent, "I've seen it everywhere, marking territory. It is a commitment, but to this world specifically. These rebels have an attachment to this place and will always return." He then looked towards them, "So, have you found more subversives?"
"Actually, sir, we've…" Lyste began before clearing his throat, "Lost some. Two workers went missing after your speech. We found their uniforms."
"I am confident we will locate them once we issue an alert," Kallus stated.
"No, I think not. The defectors will have new disguises by now," Thrawn said, pointing out that it would be harder to find them if they issued an alert, "They'll hide as technicians or troopers to gather data and escape."
"So you think the rebels are more than saboteurs?" Kallus inquired.
"Indeed I do, Agent Kallus," Thrawn confirmed, "These rebels are after information likely heading to section A-2. Secure it."
"What's taking him so long?" Kanan groaned as he and Ezra have waited a while for Chopper to get out of section A-2.
"Uh-oh," Ezra muttered as she saw a stormtrooper commander along with two others walk down the hall across from them.
"What are you doing here?" The stormtrooper commander asked Kanan and Ezra as he and the other two stormtroopers stopped and began to approach them.
"Uh, we're on guard duty, sir," Kanan answered.
"And what exactly are you guarding?" The stormtrooper commander asked them, clearly not buying it.
"We go where we're ordered, sir," Ezra told them.
"This is highly irregular," the stormtrooper commander stated, "What's your operating number?"
"He's got it," Ezra muttered to Kanan as Chopper exited section A-2 and rolled towards her and Kanan as he grunted, "Let's go."
"Wait. Is this section B-17?" Kanan asked the stormtrooper commander, despite knowing what section he was actually at.
"A-2," the stormtrooper commander corrected.
"I told you we were in the wrong section," Ezra told Kanan as she walked up to him, "Sorry, Commander. We're new transfers."
"Come on," the stormtrooper commander ordered the other two stormtroopers as Ezra and Kanan walked down the hall and went to chase them.
"I want exits locked down and all IDs checked and verified," Kanan and Ezra saw Lyste informing two stormtroopers across the hall from them.
"Not that way," Kanan said as they ran down another corridor.
"You there. Halt Come back here!" The stormtrooper commander ordered Kanan and Ezra as they ran across the corridor in front of them with Chopper following them.
Kanan, Ezra and Chopper soon reached a pair of turbolift as Kanan presses his hand on the lift's call button multiple times with it beeping.
"Okay. This might get messy," Kanan told Ezra when the lift's door slides open to reveal Agent Kallus.
"You two. Come with me to secure the perimeter," Kallus ordered the storm and scout trooper disguised Jedi Knight and Mandalorian, they then entered the lift with the ISB Agent with Chopper.
"Stop them!" The stormtrooper commander ordered as he ran towards the lift as the lift's door closed.
"Don't move, rebels," Kallus said as Chopper rotated his dome around, grunting with fear. And as Kallus revealed to them that he knew that they were rebels, Kanan elbowed him as the two of them began punching him before cornering him against the wall as he pleaded with them to stop fighting him, "Listen to me. I'm Fulcrum."
"Yeah, right," Ezra scoffed with sarcasm.
"You want us to believe that?" Kanan asked him with sarcasm.
"By the light of Lothal's moon," Kallus said, confirming that he was Fulcrum and as he said that Kanan removed the stormtrooper helmet he was wearing while Ezra flipped the scout trooper helmet's visor up.
"The code phrase. He's Fulcrum?" She said with disbelief on her face.
"Your friend Zeb trusted me on the Ice moon. I saved your sister, Sabine Wren at the fighter academy, and now I'm trying to save you," Kallus went on, "But you have to trust me." Kanan and Ezra then looked at each other as they were hesitant to believe him as Chopper grunted, telling them that he believed Kallus as Kallus snapped at them, "Your droid trusts me."
"Yeah, that's not a good thing," Ezra retorted.
"Fine, you wanna help us so badly? We need to get a signal to our friends," Kanan relented.
"Then we'll have to move quickly," Kallus told them.
"Watch out. They're rebels!" Kallus warned the Imperials as he pretended to fight Kanan and Ezra, firing his blaster pistol at them as he backed into the communications center with both Kanan and Ezra Force Pushing the two stormtroopers unconscious with one of the stormtroopers being pushed towards Kallus with the stormtroopers falling unconscious as Kanan and Ezra entering the room with her saber ignited with the other stormtrooper flying towards the glass table in front of the Imperial officer before falling to the ground and as Kanan and Ezra began approaching the officer who went to pick up a blaster only for Kanan to stun him with the stormtrooper E-11 blaster rifle he was carrying.
"You could've warned me you were gonna do that," Kallus told Ezra with irritation as Chopper rolled next to him.
"Where's the fun in that?" She responded.
"Your droid can open your comlinks from this port," Kallus informed them, "I'll provide the access codes." Chopper grunted at him as he plugged his scomp link into the astromech port, "He doesn't need them? This C1 of yours is quite efficient," He remarked as he got up on his feet, causing Chopper to grunt, happy that he complimented him.
"Figures Chop'd get along with an Imperial spy," Ezra said as she deactivated her saber and he grunted a response to her as Kanan's comlink chimed.
"Ryder, it's Kanan," Kanan said, grabbing his clomlink, "You there?"
"Closer than you think," Ryder answered on the comlink, "We're about to hit the east gate, give you a chance to escape. You'll need to move if you want to make it out."
"We will. And thanks," Kanan told Ryder with his comlink before going for the doorway.
"Make for the east vehicle pool. You'll find a waler there you can escape in, " Kallus told them, "Now, I have to make this look convincing."
"Okay," Ezra said as she Force Pushed him through the glass monitor board, shattering it on impact as he fell underneath the computer console.
"Ezra!" Kanan scolded her.
"What?! That is convincing," she told him.
"Yeah, but I was gonna do it," Kanan told her.
"Well, if he's one of us now, you'll get your chance," she promised as they left the room as Kallus groaned on the floor as he placed his hand on his head.
"An unlicensed droid accessed the computer in section A-2," Thrawn told Pryce as he walked towards Pryce in his office as he held a datapad in his hand showing a diagram of Chopper on it along with words in Basic before handing it to her, "I can only assume that they have acquired my plans. But something has changed. The rebels should have attempted to escape via the factory by now."
"Maybe they realize they're trapped," Pryce suggested.
"More likely they have found an unexpected ally," Thrawn corrected as he walks around his desk, "Or perhaps an expected one."
"I'm not sure I follow," Pryce admitted.
"The rebels will attempt a different means of escape," Thrawn clarified, "And we must adapt our strategy accordingly." He then activates the comm on his desk.
"Grand Admiral, there is a small band of rebels attacking the east gate," Lyste's voice came through the comm system.
"I've deployed two AT-ATs," Lyste went on as Kanan, Ezra and Chopper entered one of the AT-DPs behind him, "Should I send backup?"
"Yes, Lieutenant. Let's play their game," Thrawn agreed, as he reasoned that the rebel infiltrators will take an advantage of the attack to escape.
"Deploying walkers now," Lyste said as Kanan removed the stormtrooper helmet from his head as he sat in the seat behind Ezra.
"You hear that?" Kanan asked her as she flipped the scout trooper's helmet visor up, "We'll fit right in."
"I hope this is one of the good walkers," she told him, expressing her concerns.
Outside the factory, two AT-ATs were firing at a landspeeder carrying Ryder with Marida Sumar as shotgun carrying a rocket launcher with Old Jho in a modified landspeeder next to them with a turret in the back of the speeder firing at the walkers as two Loth-cats in the distance scurried away from the sound. Marida fired her rocket launcher at one of the Imperial troop transports, heavily damaging it. As this happened the AT-DP Kanan, Ezra and Chopper were controlling walked between the two AT-ATs.
"AT-DP-216, what are you doing here?" One of the pilots of the AT-ATs asked Kanan and Ezra through the AT-ATs comm system, "You're not part of this operation."
"uh, we're your reinforcements," Ezra answered.
"Attention, walkers. Disregard the speeders," Thrawn suddenly spoke on the comms of the walkers, "That AT-DP is under rebel control. Destroy it."
"Kallus set us up!" Ezra exclaimed as the AT-ATs turned towards the AT-DP she was piloting.
"Maybe, maybe not," Kanan told her, "We'll figure it out later. Now get to cover!"
"Not a who;e lot of that around!" She told him as the one of the AT-AT's began to fire upon the AT-DP as she piloted it beneath the other AT-AT.
As this was happening Ryder was using a pair of macrobinoculars and saw the AT-ATs firing upon the AT-DP, surprising him as it evaded the blasts from the AT-ATs, "Now there's something you don't see every day," he said before removing the macrobinoculars from his eyes and turned to Marida,"That's gotta be Wren." He then took his comlink out and contacted them, "Kanan, Ezra. Is that you?"
"Yes!" She confirmed as she took her comlink out from inside the AT-DP, "And we could use a pickup." The AT-ATs continued to fire upon them as she yelled into her comlink, "Sooner would be good!"
"Walker 414, blast them already!" One of the AT-ATs pilots ordered the other AT-AT through their comm system.
"You're in my line of fire, 271," one of the pilots of the AT-AT-414 told the other AT-AT, "I can't get a shot."
"Let's crush them," the other pilot of AT-AT-271 suggested to the pilot he was sitting next to before pulling a lever on the dashboard down, causing the walker to begin to crush the AT-DP with it's legs. But as this was happening both Ezra and Kanan ignited their sabers before stabbing them through the AT-DP's ceiling and moved them in a circle to created holes to escape through before jumping through the holes along with Chopper, while Ryder watched with his macrobinoculars and widened his eyes as he removed the macrobinoculars from his eyes as he saw the pod explode.
"They didn't have a chance," the other pilot of AT-AT-271 told the pilot who suggested crushing the AT-PD when the hatch below opened up and they looked behind and saw Kanan and Ezra standing behind them with their sabers ignited with Chopper standing behind the two Force-wielders.
"We had a chance," Kanan corrected him as Chopper laughed.
"Pretty good chance," Ezra added as Marida fired her rocket launcher at AT-AT-271 with the rocket colliding with its front legs, not realizing that Kanan, Ezra and Chopper were in that AT-AT that she just fired her rocket launcher at, causing it to begin to topple to the ground but before it could fall to the ground, AT-AT-271 fired at AT-AT-414, destroying it with Ryder watching what was happening with his macrobinoculars with Marida watching it as well as they looked at each other as Ryder removed the macrobinoculars for a second before placing them back over his eyes as he saw the AT-AT Marida shot fall down as it looked at them before finally toppling to the ground. Ryder laughed with relief as he saw Ezra and Kanan climb through the roof of the AT-AT with Chopper flying up through the hatch with his rocket booster as he and Old Jho drove their landspeeders towards them and stopped before them.
"I don't believe it," Ryder told them, "I thought you were in the smaller one."
"This one's roomier," Ezra told him after jumping down from the AT-AT with Kanan and Chopper who flew down with his rocket booster and approached Ryder and Marida's landspeeder.
"Sumar?" Ryder inquired, not seeing him with them.
"He didn't make it," Ezra answered, causing Marida to bow her head in sadness before looking up as she heard laserfire from AT-DPs.
"More Walkers incoming!" Marida announced as Ezra, Kanan and Chopper hopped onto the landspeeder she and Ryder were riding before fleeing from the factory on the highway with Old Jho's landspeeder.
A while later on Atollon, Sabine was decrypting the blueprints of Thrawn's secret project on the command center's holotable as she stood with Hera and Zeb who had his arms crossed as he stood with an astromech droid with a see-through dome as holograms of Ezra and Kanan who were out of the storm and scout trooper uniforms and were now in their regular outfits along with Ryder were projected on the holotable with Ryder having his arms crossed.
"I think I almost got the data decrypted," Sabine announced before plugging the data that was transferred onto a disk into the astromech who then projected an image of Thrawn's secret project and they saw that they looked like some kind of TIE with Basic written on the side of the plans, causing everyone to widen their eyes in disbelief, "Whoa."
"I've never seen an Imperial fighter like that," Hera admitted before turning to Sabine, "Sabine, talk to me."
"Looks like some new kind of TIE interceptor, but this one has shields," Sabine explained as she read the words that were in Basic.
"But TIE fighters never had shields before," Hera noted.
"Maybe that's why it's so secret," Zeb surmised.
"If they're actually building these in numbers, our pilots won't stand a chance," Hera said with fear.
"And neither will the Rebellion," Kanan added.
"How'd you get past Thrawn with these plans?" Hera asked them, "Someone's losing more than their job for that."
"I guess we can thank Agent Kallus. He knew Fulcrum's secret code phrase," Kanan answered, shocking everyone.
"Wait, wait, wait," Sabine began with confusion on her face, "Kallus is Fulcrum? How does that even make sense?"
"Karabast," Zeb cursed as he placed his hand over the back of his head for a second, "I must've recruited him. You know, accidentally."
"You mean when you were stuck on that ice moon with him?" Ezra asked him.
"Yeah, well. We didn't kill each other," he confirmed, "So I guess we're friends now?"
"Still, we'll use caution with our new 'friend' until we're sure we know what game he's playing," Hera advised them.
"Thank you, Lieutenant. Dismissed," Thrawn told Lyste as he stared at the canvas of Sabine's painting with the Rebellion insignia as Pryce and Kallus stood with him and with that Lyste exited the room, "Agent Kallus, I read your report. Several troopers confirmed your encounter with the Jedi. It was very helpful," He added as he turned around towards them and began walking towards his desk, "You know, after analyzing the rebels' escape, it's clear to me they had help from one within our Imperial ranks."
"The rebels have a mole?" Pryce said with anger as she pounded her fist into her palm, "Then all personnel must be interrogated. This spy must be found!"
Patience, Governor. Acting out of anger will not serve us here. We must wait and wait," Thrawn told her as he walked away from his desk and walked by them, "And when we find our spy, and we will find them, we shall turn them from an obstacle to an asset. Wouldn't you agree, Agent Kallus?"
"Your strategy is without flaw, Grand Admiral. As always," Kallus told Thrawn, feigning his loyalty to the Galactic Empire.
Please favorite and review. Would you like me to continue adding the Imperial scenes or not? Also I've been thinking of doing an AU of this from the beginning of the show of what if Ezra was always Sabine's sister but was adopted by Mira and Ephiram Bridger so the Empire couldn't find her Force-sensitivity after I finish this story. And if I do, I would like someone to suggest a name for the story as well as a Mandalorian first name for Ezra as her's in this story is Satine as she named herself after Duchess Satine Kryze of clan and house Kryze.
