Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars Rebels that goes to Disney, Lucasfilm and Dave Filoni.
Above Lothal, multiple Imperial Star Destroyers and Light Cruisers laid stationary in front of the planet.
"Sir, we're detecting several craft coming out of Hyperspace," an Imperial officer on one of the Light cruisers reported to another Imperial officer that was walking behind him and as he said that multiple Y-wings and X-wings jumped out of Hyperspace being led by Hera in one of the X-wings with Chopper in the X-wing's astromech socket.
"All right,let's make this count," Hera said from her x-wing, "Lothal's depending on us. Remember the Imperial fuel depot is our primary target."
"Presuming we get past this blockade," one of the male human pilots in their X-wing replied
"They might have numbers, but we've got skill," a human female X-wing pilot said in her X-wing.
"That last part goes double for me," Mart Mattin remarked before Chopper grunted a response from the astromech socket in Hera's X-wing.
"Yes, Chopper, tripe for you," Hera told Chopper, "Lock S-foils in attack position." And with that every single X-wing opened their wings up as they went into attack position, "Fighter group, stay with your wingmen and punch a hole in their defenses. We have to get the Y-wings through."
"So the rebels have come at last," Thrawn said as he walked into the bridge of the Chimera with an Imperial officer and Vult Skerris.
"Twenty-four ships, Grand Admiral," the Imperial officer reported to Thrawn, "Mixed group of fighters and bombers."
"Their target will be our factory and the fuel depot in the capital," Thrawn stated, "Alert all commands, deploy the fleet in defensive formation and launch fighters." He then turned to Skerris, "Commander, the rebels must not reach the planet's surface."
"I'll make sure of it, sir," Skerris replied as he left the bridge.
"Here we go. Attack speed!" Hera said as TIE fighter's began to deploy from Star Destroyers, Light Cruisers and Gozanti-class freighters and Chopper grunted a response as both the rebel and TIE fighters began firing at one another as one of the TIEs got destroyed.
Meanwhile on Lothal, emergency sirens began blaring on turbolaser towers that were protecting the TIE defender factory and rotated around as Kanan, Zeb, and both Mandalorian twins sneaked up to one of the towers with their helmets on their heads as they planted thermal detonators on the tower.
"You sure these explosives are strong enough?" Zeb asked Sabine after planting his thermal detonator on the tower.
"Yeah, they'll do the trick," Sabine answered as she planted her thermal detonator on the tower, "Why?"
"It's just that these gun towers look a lot bigger up close," Zeb said as they walked away from the detonators that they planted around the corner of the tower before a stormtrooper above on the tower's gate above them could spot them.
"Ryder, what's your status," Ezra asked into her helmet's comlink as she activated it as she and her sister hid from view as they held their WESTA-35s in their hands.
"We're setting our last charges now," Ryder said on her helmet's comlink, "Meet you at the rendezvous."
"Copy. We got one more tower to go," Ezra replied into her helmet's comlink.
"Hera will be here any minute," Sabine told her.
Back in space, the X-wings continued to chase and fire upon the TIE fighters with one of the pilots being Hera as she and the X-wing pilot and X-wing next to her flew underneath one of the Star Destroyers and destroyed one of the TIE fighters that they were chasing.
"Phoenix two, you've got the wingman," Hera told Matt.
"Already on it, General," Mart replied as he destroyed the other TIE fighter.
"Nice shot," Hera complimented the teenage rebel pilot, "Phoenix Four and Five, thin out those TIEs at point three."
"Copy, Phoenix Leader," the human female X-wing pilot said before contacting the male X-wing pilot, "Try to keep up, Duke."
"I'm right behind you," Duke replied as he followed her X-wing and swooped around and Phoenix two fired upon two TIE fighters as they began to chase the TIEs and destroyed them, "Good shot!"
"Stay on my wing," Skerris told the TIE fighter pilots that were with him as they flew in TIE fighters as he piloted a TIE defender Elite and began to close in on Phoenix Four and Five.
"Watch out! We've picked up three more," Phoenix Four said and they began to flee as Skerris the the TIE defender began to fire upon Phoenix Five's X-wing, destroying it as Phoenix Four began to flee only for the TIE defender's turbolasers to collide with one of her X-wing's boosters, causing the starfighter to begin to spark with electricity inside the cockpit, "Control systems failing…"
"Cleat! Scissor right," Hera ordered, "I'll cut them off." But just as she said that, Skerris fired at her X-wing again, destroying it with Hera noticing with an angry expression before she began firing at his TIE escort, destroying both TIE fighters.
"Syndulla," Skerris stated as he noticed just how well she handled his TIE escort.
"You good?" Ezra asked Zeb as she came up next to him on a speeder bike as he finishes planting a thermal detonator at the last tower.
"Last one," he answered as Sabine appeared next to her on her own speeder bike as well.
"All right, hop on," Ezra told him as he walked up her.
"That's not how this works," Zeb told her as he picked her up.
"Hey!" She protested as he placed her on the back of the speeder.
"Hop on," Zeb said as he sat in the driver's seat before accelerating the speeder forward along with everyone else as Sabine clicked a button on the device that activated the detonators in her hand, causing the detonators to activate as all four turbolaser towers began crumbling to the ground.
"My air defenses have been compromised," Pryce told Thrawn as she spoke to him in her office with a holocommunicator on her desk.
"I am aware. An impressive level of coordination, though not unexpected," Thrawn told her.
"The factory is vulnerable," she stated.
"Oh, on the contrary, Governor, it's quite safe. I won't allow a single rebel ship through my blockade," Thrawn added.
Skerris began to chase Hera and her X-wing as he fired his TIE defender's turbolasers at her but she evaded his turbolasers every time he fired them at her.
"Still no good, he's too fast," she muttered to herself before seeing that she and her X-wing along with Chopper were beginning to approach Star Destroyers, "Hang on, Chop! I've got an idea."
"Where are you going?" Skerris asked as he followed Hera in his TIE defender.
"X-wing on attack vector," an Imperial officer reported to Thrawn as they stood in front of a holotable in the Chimera's bridge.
"Skerris, break off your pursuit," Thrawn ordered Skerris.
"Negative, command, I almost have her," Skerris said from the TIE defender, refusing the Grand Admiral's order.
"How unfortunate," Thrawn muttered, "Open fire."
"But, sir, Commander Skerris…" the Imperial officer at the weapons system began to protest.
"Is playing into Syndulla's hands. Now open fire," Thrawn told him.
With that, the turbolasers from the Chimera began firing at Hera's X-wing, quaint it to spark with electricity and Chopper grunted a response as the turbolasers also hit Skerris's TIE defender, disabling his fighter's shields.
"He has no shields, we have no shields," Hera noted as Skerris continued to fire at her X-wing, "Tighten your bolts. Here we go." She then activated her fighter's thrusters as she flew over the Chimera's bridge with Thrawn watching as Skerris followed her as she fired at the Chimera's scanning array on the Star Destroyer's bridge from the outside and as she fired at the array, a cloud of smoke emerged from the array and closed her fighter's attack coils as she approached the cloud of smoke and rotated her X-wing up as Skerris flew through the smoke and fired upon the TIE defender, causing two of the solar panel wings were blown right off, surprising him as he crashed into a Light Cruiser killing him instantly.
"She got him!" Mart cried happily with relief as she reopened her fighter's attack foils and flew away as the Light Cruiser began to go down.
"They hit the magazine," one of the Imperial officers inside the Light Cruiser stated before the Light Cruiser crashed into the bridge of one of the Star Destroyers, destroying it as one of the non human rebel pilots that looked like a dog cheered.
"We've got our opening. This is it," Hera announced, "All wings, form up and head for the target!" With that she and the other rebel starfighters flew towards Lothal.
"The rebel forces have broken through our perimeter," a rebel officer with sideburns reported to Thrawn, who was observing out the Chimera's window.
"Hmm. Regrettable, but a testament to Captain Syndulla's skill as a combat pilot," Thrawn stated, "Contact the second wave and order them to intercept."
"Phoenix Leader, I'm picking up enemy fighters at point three," Mart told Hera as they flew through Lothal's atmosphere and they Saw TIE fighters appear in the distance and started to fire upon them.
"We should be seeing them any minute now," Ezra said as she hopped off the speeder's engine as they reached Ryder and Jai with everyone else getting off their speeders as well.
"There, look!" Sabine said as she turned around and pointed at the sky and saw dogs fly down the atmosphere in the distance, "Here they come!"
Just then they heard explosions in the distance leading the twins to flip down their helmet's macrobinocular viewplates.
"What are those?" Zeb asked.
"Is that…" Ezra began as she and Sabine removed their helmets after flipping their macrobinocular viewplates back up..
"The entire attack force," Sabine answered, confirming her sister's suspicions.
"Grand Admiral, the entire rebel strike force was destroyed," the Imperial officer with sideburns reported to Thrawn as he entered his office, "However, reports indicate that a few ships managed to crash land in or near Capital City, including the one flown by the flight leader."
"And the Imperial factory?" Thrawn inquired.
"I damaged, sir," the Imperial officer answered.
"Ah," Thrawn said bef de walking over to his table's holocommunicator where a holographic projection of Rukh appeared, "Rukh. Rebel pilots may have survived the attack. Capture them alive, if possible. Captain Syndulla in particular."
"It will be done, Grand Admiral," Rukh replied.
"We've got gunships, incoming!" Sabine announced as she saw Imperial patrol transports fly towards them as she had her helmet's macrobinocular viewplate flipped down.
"Hera! Hera, do you read me? Hera!" Kanan said into his comlink as he pulled it out.
"We have to go before they spot us," Ryder said as he walked towards a speeder bike and walked away with it as he had his hands on the bike's handles.
"Kanan, let's go," Zeb told Kanan as they all began to walk away while Ezra walked up to her master.
"We will find her, Kanan," Ezra reassured him as she placed her hand on his shoulder, "I promise."
With that, both Kanan and Ezra walked away and headed to the bikes and hopped on them as they left the area on the bikes.
Meanwhile in an alleyway of Capital City there was Hera's X-wing with Chopper in the astromech socket as it was crashed between two buildings with Chopper grunting frustratedly before flying out of the socket as he activated his rocket booster and started to hang on the window of the X-wing's cockpit as he noticed that Hera was unconscious before he lifted up the cockpit's window and began to grunt again to wake up Hera, who slowly began to regain consciousness as she groaned and lifted her head up from the X-wing's dashboard.
"Chopper…" she muttered before hopping out of the X-wing and Chopper landed behind her as civilians surrounded the crash site.
"The Empire's coming. You have to go, now!" One of the civilians, who was a human female with ginger colored hair told Hera, "Cut through the market toward the east gate. Hurry!"
"Thank you," Hera told them, as she limped past the civilians with Chopper but they then heard and saw an Imperial patrol transport fly overhead and hid next to a container and rubble as the Imperial patrol transport flew past them with their searchlight not even noticing them as Chopper's transmitter sparked with electricity, "Try to contact Kanan and Ezra." Chopper went to contact Kanan and Ezra with his transmitter only for it to spark with more electricity than before and pointed at it as he grunted a response, "Sorry, buddy. We'll get your transmitter fixed, as soon as we get outta here." With that said, they sneaked away from their hiding spot.
Ryder, Jai, Sabine and both Zeb and Ezra were riding on speeder bikes down a highway near Capital City as they were leaving the city with Kanan following on a speeder bike before stopping his speeder as he activated the speeder's brakes as he swung the bike to the side, prompting the others to do the same.
"I'm going back," Kanan announced, causing everyone to look on with surprise, "I have to do this."
"I understand," Ezra told him, "We'll see you back at base."
"Sis, we should…" Sabine began as they saw Kanan go back down the section of the highway that they came from with his speeder bike.
"If anyone can save Hera, he can," Ezra told her sister before they continued on with their speeders, "Let's go."
At the Imperial complex, Governor Pryce was holding a datapad as she stood in front of an Imperial troop transport as another Imperial troop transport appeared nearby with the door opening and Rukh pushing the dog-humanoid alien rebel pilot out the transport with a metal staff and knocked the rebel to his knees as Pryce approached them.
"Well done, assassin," Pryce said, complimenting Rukh before turning to the stormtroopers behind her, "Take him away for interrogation." With that the stormtroopers walked over to the rebel and dragged him away.
"Governor Pryce, we found the flight leader's ship in the eastern district, but there's no sign of the pilot or astromech," a stormtrooper said as he approached Pryce.
"Ah, Hera Syndulla," Pryce muttered, "Lock down the entire district and tear it apart, building by building until you find her."
"Yes, Governor," the stormtrooper commander said before walking away.
Hera walked around the streets of Capital City limping with Chopper following until they reached a corner and hid at it as she saw three stormtroopers standing in front of a blockade they were guarding.
"If we move fast, we can get through that barricade before reinforcements arrive," Hera told Chopper, "Ready?" He grunted a response when they suddenly heard a loud distant electrical chirp as Hera pulled her blaster pistol and hid behind the wall, "That's a distress call. Sounds like one of ours. It's close. Come on."
Chopper grunted before following Hera down another alleyway as she climbed over a container box before hiding behind rubble as she saw a damaged X-wing crashed above rubble with stormtroopers in front of it.
"Capture the droid. We need its memory bank," one of the stormtroopers said as they stood in front of Mart, who was the pilot of the damaged X-wing and his astromech, R3-A3. R3-A3 had a spark projector deployed with it sparking with electricity as he aimed it at the stormtroopers, "Just immobilize it."
"No!" Mart cried out as one of the stormtroopers fired their blaster rifle at his astromech and kneeled down to R3-A3 powered down, screaming.
"Stay here," Hera ordered a hopped as she watched what the stormtrooper did to Mart's astromech and climbed aboard a nearby Imperial troop transport and tapped on the combat driver's shoulder, who was using a datapad before she knocked him unconscious and pushed him off the seat and began to head towards Mart and the stormtroopers.
"Hey, what's he doing?" One of the stormtroopers asked before Mart pushed him to the ground and took his rifle and fired it at him, "Hey!"
"Drop it!" One of the remaining stormtroopers ordered before getting knocked unconscious by the transport as it collided with him.
"Mart, are you okay?" Hera asked Mart as she sat in the transport's doorway.
"I think so, General," he answered, I'm in one piece, anyway."
She then hopped out of the doorway as the stormtrooper behind them stood back up as he picked his blaster rifle up, "Don't move!" Chopper flew over him, knocking him back to the ground as he said that.
"Thanks, Chop," Hera told Chopper as he grunted before he landed on the ground as Hera turned to R3-A3 before turning back to Mart, "I'm sorry about your astromech. But if we're gonna get through this, I need that droid's transmitter so that Chopper can send a signal to get us help."
"That's okay, R3 would want to help us," Mart told her as she kneeled over R3's body as she began to remove R3-A3's transmitter as Mart stood guard.
Meanwhile elsewhere in the city, Rukh was sniffing around for a scent after jumping off a building and growled as he began running on all four of his limbs.
"There. How's that?" Hera asked Chopper as she finished replacing his transmitter with R3's, he activated the transmitter only for it to chirp and beep a negative sound and he grunted a response, "The Empire must be jamming all frequencies. Well, we'll try again once we get out of the city." Chopper grunted another response before she went to leave the area with Chopper and Mart following her, "This way. Let's go."
Just then they saw a blaster bolt get fired in front of them and looked up and saw Rukh standing on top of a building behind them grunting from the building above before growling.
"Mart, Chopper… Go!" Hera ordered Mart and Chopper as she began firing her blaster pistol at Rukh as they ran away from the area as Rukh followed them from the rooftops before jumping off the rooftops.
"Where are we going?" Mart asked Hera as they hid in an alleyway.
"Chop, scan for the nearest sewer hatch. We've got to find cover," Hera told Chopper before he activated the transmitter and pointed and grunted in the direction ahead of them and ran around the corner. As they ran across the streets, Mart noticed Rukh following them from the rooftops and fired his blaster rifle at him and soon Hera did the same as Rukh leaped from the rooftop onto a wall on the building across from him before jumping onto the ground below and grabbed his electro-staff as he extended it and knocked the E-11 blaster rifle out of Mart's hands, disarming him before using it to kick him into Hera, causing her to drop her blaster pistol and he then began to fight her with his staff and she evaded his strikes and soon she hopped onto his back, causing him to fall to the ground as he dropped his electro-staff and he went to strike her as he charged right at her, only for her to evade his attack and soon he charged his head at her stomach and picked her up and slammed her on the ground. Mart regained consciousness as this happened as Rukh picked his electro-staff back up and activated its electrical feature and went to raise it over a Hera, only for Chopper to shock him with his spark projector from behind, knocking him to his knees as Hera crawled away on her back as Mart, who grabbed his blaster rifle back up began firing it at Rukh as he jumped up back onto the rooftops.
"Let's go, General," Mart said as he helped Hera back up before picking her blaster pistol back up and handed it to her before they left the area.
Meanwhile back with Kanan, he was speeding down the highway on his speeder bike when suddenly the white Loth-wolf appeared in the distance and activated the bike's brakes as he sensed the wolf only to crash into the wolf and flew off of the bike and landed on his stomach in the distance.
"Where are you?" Kanan asked as he stood back up as the street lamps along the highway in the distance turned themselves off as he began walking back to his speeder, "I don't have time for this! If you want to help, fine. Otherwise, stay out of my way," he went on as he sat back on the speeder only to be greeted by the wolf, who growled softly as it appeared right next to him, "What do you want?"
"Dume," the wolf answered as the two other Loth-wolfs appeared behind Kanan.
"I understand," Kanan said as he removed the mask covering his eyes, "What must I do?"
"Chopper, where's that hatch?" Hera asked Chopper as she and Mart hid behind a wall and Chopper grunted a response as he saw an AT-DP and stormtroopers in front of the hatch he found earlier with the AT-DP standing on top of the hatch. "Don't tell me. That's the hatch."
"Got any other options?" Mart asked her.
"There's no time for anything else. They're closing in," Hera told him, "We're going to have to have to get that thing to move." She then stepped forward and saw a land speeder nearby as she turned back to him, "You're good at distractions."
"I am?" He asked with confusion.
"You are now," she answered and with that he walked out into the street to get the stormtroopers attention while she hid behind the wall.
"Hey, I heard you guys are looking for rebel pilots," Mart told the stormtroopers who looked at each other before aiming their rifles at him, "Looks like you found one."
"Don't move!" One of the stormtroopers ordered Mart only for Art to fire his rifle at him and knocked him to the ground and Mart ran from the blaster bolts of the other stormtrooper as he fired his blaster and hid behind a wall away from the stormtrooper.
"This is LS-757. We've spotted a rebel in sector 5-1-5," the stormtrooper said as he activated his helmet's comlink before he and the AT-DP began to go after him.
"Get that hatch open, Chop!" Hera said into her comlink as she began running towards the speeder as Chopper jumped off of the rooftop above the hatch with his rocket booster and landed on the hatch and deployed his scomp link as he rolled over to the astromech port near the hatch and began to rotate it as Hera hopped into the speeder and powered it on as the stormtrooper and the AT-DP continued to look for Mart as he hid behind a container and snuck up on him and hopped onto his back and placed his arms over his neck as he backed away into a corner before falling on the ground and seconds later Mart snapped the stormtrooper's neck, killing him as he stood up as the AT-DP turned around with Mart noticing this and began firing his rifle at it as Hera in the speeder appeared and crashed the speeder at the legs of the AT-DP which then toppled to the ground as it shattered the speeder's windshield as Hera hopped out of the speeder and began to climb the AT-DP's pod as she held her blaster pistol in her hand, "Go, go! I'll catch up!" As the hatch of the AT-DP opened with the combat driver exiting, Hera fired a stun blast from her blaster pistol at him, knocking him unconscious as he slumped out of the hatch to the floor.
Chopper grunted as Mart ran past him as he finally opened the hatch and with that, Mart began to climb down the ladder as Hera appeared in the distance, running towards them when suddenly Rukh jumped down from the rooftop above and began running towards her.
"Hera, behind you!" Mart said, calling out to Hera, informing her of Rukh only for him to jump onto her before she knocked him forward and went into a fighting stance as he jumped towards her only for her to knock him aside before he went to punch her only for her to punch him back and then he punched her again, knocking her to the ground, Matt went to her but stopped as soon as he saw Imperial tanks roll by on both sides.
"Go! That's an order!" Hera ordered both Chopper and Mart as she stood up and Matt began to climb down the ladder as Chopper reactivated his rocket booster and grunted as he hovered over the hatch while an Imperial patrol transport appeared in the sky with its spotlight being shined over Hera, "I said go, Chop!" She kneeled down and fired a blaster bolt at the astromech socket controlling the astromech port of the hatch, causing him to fall through the hatch as it sealed shut while stormtroopers rushed over to it as Rukh grabbed his electro-staff and knocked her to the ground with it before picking her up and placed her on her knees as the Imperial patrol transport landed in front of them with Governor Pryce walking down the ramp as Rukh aimed his staff at Her's back as the stormtroopers that were in the ship walked off the ramp with Pryce as Hera stood up as Rukh removed his staff from her back, "Governor Pryce, I've so wanted to meet you."
"Such a small victory," Pryce told Hera before grabbing a blaster pistol from her him and fired a stun blast at her, knocking Hera unconscious as she collapsed to the floor.
"I hope this hatch isn't locked," Mart muttered to himself as he climbed up the ladder to another hatch with Sabine Wren's symbol, the starbird painted on it before it opened from the outside and saw Kanan standing over him.
"Come on. Let's get you out of here," Kanan said as he went to help him up.
"Kanan," Mart said as Kanan helped him up and out of the hatch as Chopper flew up with his rocket booster, grunting as he landed on top of the hatch as it sealed shut..
"I know she did, Chop. I know," Kanan told Chopper, telling the astromech that he knew that Hera got herself captured so they could escape.
"Kanan, I'm so sorry," Mart told him, apologizing for letting his girlfriend get captured by the Empire.
"It's all right, Mart. There's nothing you could have done," Kanan told him, "But there is something I can do." They climbed onto the speeder bike and drove away on the highway with the white Loth-wolf watching.
Please favorite and review. Would you like me to continue adding the Imperial scenes or not?
