Chapter 1.2: The Siege of Lothal – Part 2
"Vader…" Jaral whispered in fear.
"What?" Ezra asked confused.
"Guys, get on the shuttle, now!" she screamed at the rest of her comrades as she fired a burst of her repeater toward the troopers, forcing them to look for cover behind the walkers.
Ezra and Kanan ignited their lightsabers while Vader paced toward them, his mere presence unnerving them. Then he got in front of Kanan and swung his crimson blade, hitting Kanan's blue blade and pushing it aside in a lock.
Ezra found the courage and dashed sideways to attack the towering monster on the side, but Vader just raised his hand and pushed him away with a Force push, slamming him against one of the walker's legs.
Jaral had fallen back toward the rest of the team. While Hera and Chopper were loading the generators, the others set up a barricade with a few crates and fired back at the stormtroopers, forcing them in a stalemate.
Meanwhile, Vader was literally toying with the Jedi. No matter how hard they tried, he simply pushed them away either with the Force or with his fists whenever they missed a hit. Vader even managed to strike Kanan on his armored arm, leaving a mark on the shoulder pad.
Seeing the desperate situation in which they found themselves, Jaral crouched behind the crates.
"Sabine, time to work your magic."
"Your wish is my command." Sabine replied wittily, grabbing a total of four detonators from her pocket and handing them to Jaral.
The gray and blue-armored girl put the repeater on her back. Then held the detonators on her left hand, throwing them one by one with her right every time. She managed to stuck them onto the legs of two walkers used by most of the stormtroopers as cover, which then blew up and started to fall down as a fire broke out.
"Now." Kanan told Ezra and the two of them used the Force together to push Vader right under the falling walkers. The dark warrior lifted a hand, but the walkers fell down anyway.
"I doubt we killed him." Ezra said.
"You're right. Let's move." Kanan said, holding his right shoulder, still numbed by the hit.
The troopers were still trying to regroup and the Specters managed to get away right when the walkers started floating and Vader effortlessly used the Force to push them away.
"Chopper, go!" Hera ordered and the droid complied.
The shuttle's rear door closed as the vehicle flew away.
The Specters sat on the backseats, tired and beaten, but alive.
Darvos was the first to speak up.
"Jaral, how did you know that guy's name?"
Jaral lightened up her omni-tool and pushed a few of the holographic buttons. There was a list of imperial officers that quickly scrolled up until it came at the top. Darvos understood that it was a representation of the imperial hierarchy.
Right beneath the Emperor himself was the armor of the dark-sider.
"From Tseebo's database." she said. "I studied the information he found on the Imperial leadership, there isn't much about this guy, but all we need to know is that he's the Emperor's Right Hand, and he had crushed multiple insurgencies since the inception of the Empire."
"He's a Sith Lord…" Kanan said in a grave tone.
"A Sith Lord?" Ezra repeated.
"Yes, the ancient enemies of the Jedi."
"H-How do we fight him?"
"Fight him? Ezra we were lucky to survive!"
Silence followed for a moment.
"All right, let's not lose our heads." Darvos brought everyone back on track. "Zeb, make sure they are not tracking us."
"Consider it done!" the Lasat replied going to inspect where the beacon was supposed to be.
"Jaral, use Jinx to find any possible anomalies on the transport."
"What are you thinking?" Jaral asked, curious.
"That we escaped too quickly." he turned to Kanan and Ezra. "No offense, guys, but he was toying with you. If he wanted to kill us he could've done that in a minute, without summoning stormtroopers."
That was the truth. It was horrible but it was the grim truth.
"So, you're saying that he left us escape?" Sabine asked.
"Because he wants us to lead him to the Phoenix Squadron!" Jaral realized.
Darvos nodded firmly.
Jaral didn't need other reasons, she stepped up and went to find the nearest terminal to which she could connect Jinx to the scanners.
"So I guess we can't leave the planet, yet." Hera asked rhetorically.
"No. He will have a blockade of Star Destroyers waiting for us." Kanan replied.
"And this ship is practically defenseless." Sabine stated, while she started to climb up the ladder to the cockpit. "We'll have to smuggle ourselves off Lothal, for a change."
Hera mumbled. "That's not a bad idea."
"What are you thinking?" Kanan asked.
"I think that we know the perfect person to smuggle us off Lothal, someone that owes a favor to Jaral…" she said as he climbed the ladder too.
Kanan and Ezra looked at each other, sharing the irritation. "Not him!" they said in unison. Darvos looked at them puzzled.
A few minutes later, as Jaral was notified of the decision, she turned on the comlink of the shuttle, while Hera and Kanan stood on the two seats of the ship.
In a few seconds, the small hologram of a dandy man with dark skin and a fancy mustache came up.
"Well, this is a pleasant surprise, Jaral Bridger."
"Hello, Lando." Jaral said with venom in her words.
"So, what can I do for you?" Lando said with his usual grinning face.
"This isn't a social call, Lando. It's business." Kanan interceded.
"Almost." Jaral stepped forward, a pose of authority. "I'm here to call in the favor you owe me."
"Well, I'll se what I can do. Tell me."
"We need your help to smuggle something off Lothal. Past the Imperial blockade."
Lando hummed. "Well, since I do owe you a pretty big favor for getting me rid of Azmorigan…"
"And for snapping only your Calrissians instead of your neck." she added, still very much pissed at the remembrance that Lando kinda sold her into slavery.
The memory of the pain following that fact, however, seemed to intimidate Lando, whose eyes narrowed in fear and he awkwardly chuckled.
"Right...so, I might have something to help you with your predicament at my holding on Lothal, but I'm not on the planet at the moment, however, my droid is. I'll warn him to give you the materials."
"Thanks, Lando, you're very kind." Jaral made an innocent face, but everyone could tell that she was enjoying intimidating him.
Lando closed the transmission.
The shuttle fared opposite to the planetary rotation, so even if they flew for an hour, they arrived on the side of the planet where it was almost midday.
As the shuttle landed and the frontal ramp opened, Hera, Chopper and Sabine walked out first.
"You must be Lando' droid." Hera said to the inventory droid.
"Yes ma'am." the machine politely replied with a small bow. "I have prepared everything according to Calrissian's instructions. Is one of you a mechanic?"
"Oh, that must be me." Sabine said with a smug pose as the rest of the squad walked behind them. Chopper grunted in response.
"Definitely not you." Sabine said.
Ezra noticed only then that on the horizon on their right was a big smoke column, and he knew where it was coming from.
He jumped on the nearest speeder bike and ran off.
When he reached the base of the column, Ezra looked with the binocular in his helmet. Tarkintown, the city full of refugees displaced by the Empire.
Not long after him, Kanan reached him with another speeder bike.
"There's no one." Ezra dryly commented, standing on his feet and looking at the burned city without moving.
"They're prisoners of the Empire, now." Kanan told him.
"Why would they burn Tarkintown?" Ezra asked, not seeing the slightest hint of logic in that action.
"To spread fire, make us afraid." Kanan answered, walking up next to him.
"Did they do this to draw us out? And the people just got caught in the middle?"
"There is a reaction for any action we take now, Ezra. Things are getting as bad as they were when I was your age, but back then there were 10.000 Jedi Knights protecting the galaxy, now…"
"There's only a rogue gunslinger and a genetically enhanced war-machine that happens to be a Jedi." Ezra said with sarcasm.
"Against an Empire."
"Kanan." Ezra now sounded very serious. "I know you don't like being in this rebellion. But I'm afraid I'm not going to stand with you on the matter."
"Do you seriously want to fight? You see what we're up against." Kanan said loudly.
"I do!" Ezra replied loudly, but maintaining control. "But if we are not going to do this, others will, and the Empire will tighten his grip anyway. I don't want to stand aside, Kanan.
"You know, me and Jaral have been wondered for a while…"
"About what?"
"About our place in the galaxy. Think about it: we're definitely an anomaly. Our father left us gifts from another galaxy, gifts that make us unique in this one. Why was it? Why fate, or the Force maybe, would want us to born here?
"We have the strength to fight, me and Jaral. And she was right: I want to fight too. I don't want to live in a galaxy filled with hate and darkness. I want to protect what little good there is, nurture it. That was what I promised when I was in the Jedi temple. I can't stand aside and look the galaxy rot while I know I can change things."
There was silence. For better or for worse, Kanan was very much impressed with Ezra's speech. He couldn't see the boy's face, but his aura was clear: Ezra had made his choice, there was no turning back.
Kanan just sighed.
"If that's what you want…"
The Jedi went back to Lando's holding.
"What happened there?" Hera asked.
"The Empire burned down Tarkintown, the population has been captured." Kanan explained.
Everyone was shocked.
"The time will come for when the Empire will answer for this." Darvos proclaimed with a severe face. "But for now, the best thing we can do is to get out, and live to fight another day."
If someone was about to suggest a rescue operation, the words of the lieutenant immediately shut them. He was right: they couldn't help those people now.
"So what's the plan to get out?" Ezra asked.
"Well, Lando had some old transponders lying around." Hera said, indicating the devices over which Sabine was working, assisted by Jaral and Jinx.
"Sabine is gonna turn their signature codes to match our shuttle's."
"Sounds like a lousy Lando plan." Kanan joked with a chuckling Zeb.
"Not, it's Lando's gear but is my plan." Sabine retorted proudly. "With this transponder beaming out the same signal as the shuttle, we should be able to slip by unnoticed."
"Oh, sounds like a lousy Sabine plan." Zeb added with Kanan.
"Better than Lando's." the Jedi answered with a grin.
"Speaking of which…" Darvos remembered. "Jaral, have you and Jinx found out anything suspicious on the shuttle?"
Jaral stood up and left Jinx talk.
"I detected a hidden tracking device installed into the main control unit of the shuttle."
"Can we remove it?"
"Not without compromising the shuttle's capabilities to fly, or the hyperdrive."
Everyone sighed discouraged. Darvos rubbed his eyes with a hand, as if trying to squeeze his brain physically.
"So, we can't go back to the fleet, otherwise they will find it immediately. And right now, we can't call them, or we might compromise its position…" Darvos head was rushing.
"You know what?" Jaral said defiantly. "We know it's a trap, so why don't we just go ahead and act to make sure it fails?"
"What do you suggest?"
"As soon as we jump out of hyperspace, we contact the fleet immediately. Instead of docking with Phoenix Home right away, you leave me in front of the hangar and I jump straight into my fighter."
"What do you mean, 'leave me in front of the hangar'?"
"It means that she jumps out of the cargo bay with her armor, instead of wasting time docking at the tubes." Ezra explained.
"That way I sortie immediately and I keep them away until the rest of the squadron gets deployed."
"Jaral, your abilities are out of question, but are you seriously telling me that you want to take on an entire imperial squadron?"
"Only if there is no other choice." she said sternly.
Everybody looked at each other, but Darvos was technically in charge of the mission. He looked at Ezra, who had complete faith in his sister's judgment and simply nodded in agreement.
"I don't like this, but right now we're desperate." he concluded. "Very well. First of all, let's get out of here."
Sabine's plan went better than expected. The transponders, launched and left floating in the skies of Lothal, forced the Star Destroyer over their sector to disperse it fighter squadron to investigate every single one of them. When they realized that only one of them was moving into orbit, Hera had already jumped into hyperspace.
"Warning, the imperial tracker has been activated." the voice of Jinx resonated in the entire shuttle a couple of minutes after they had entered hyperspace.
The trip toward the actual position of the fleet would take only 38 minutes, but everyone was on edge, as they knew it wasn't over. Everybody left the cargo bay, knowing that, the moment they exit from hyperspace, it might be a race against time to warn the fleet in time to let it flee.
Jaral remained alone in the cargo bay, mentally preparing herself for the task she had given herself. Darvos wanted to go down there, but honestly he was too worried about the fleet to think about what to say her.
So Ezra took the initiative. He climbed down the ladder and went sitting right next to her.
Jaral was bent forward, her arms resting on her knees while her hands were holding her helmet that she was staring, looking at her faint reflection on it.
When she heard him, she simply turned her head towards him. He was just sitting there, smiling at her. When she faintly returned the smile, he put a hand over her shoulders and gently drew her towards him. Jaral ended up with her head against his chest.
Even though they both were wearing their armors, it was a pleasant feeling. Jaral had always been the one specialized in giving reassuring hugs. Now, however, Ezra knew that she was the one that needed soothing and he certainly wasn't backing down. He just held her for a few minutes, even using their bond to reach out to her mind and ease all her anxiety and her fear.
Jaral was surprised at how much she needed that. The more he held her, the more her mind became calmer, clearer. She felt like she knew what she had to do.
"We're about to reach the fleet. Two minutes." Hera announced.
Jaral stood back up and Ezra let her go. Now more focused than ever, Jaral gave her brother a reassuring smile, then put on her helmet as he smiled back and climbed up the ladder and closed the hatch between the bay and the upper level of the shuttle.
Sabine was waiting for him at the top, leaning against the wall.
"How is she?" she asked.
"She's better now, thanks for asking." he said sincerely, with a beaming smile.
The mandalorian girl felt a grip in her chest. That expression on his face was just melting her defenses and she had to fight the urge to hug him in front of everyone. Her head tilted down in shame.
"Are you all right?" Ezra asked with a worried tone.
Sabine gave a quick look into the cockpit. No one was looking at them.
"I...want to tell you something." she mumbled. "But I guess it'll have to wait." she said with a hint of guilt.
Ezra just smiled. "I call that an incentive to survive."
Sabine couldn't hold an amused snort. He had said something like that right before they assaulted the Star Destroyer over Mustafar.
The alarm of the shuttle signaled that they were about to leave hyperspace.
Five seconds later, the blue tunnel disappeared and they could see the small silhouettes of the ships in the distance.
Darvos didn't waste any time and pushed the button of the comlink.
"This is lieutenant Darvos, calling Phoenix Home. Identification Code: 6-3-6-2-9."
After a few seconds, the voice of commander Sato answered them.
"Glad to see you again, Tanis, what's your status?"
"Commander, we have an emergency. The mission was a set-up and we just discovered that the shuttle we're using had a tracker hidden in the power core. You have to order the fleet to evacuate."
"How much time do you think we have?"
"Not much, sir. We're about to drop the Blue Nova directly into the hangar, then we're coming on board."
"Into the hangar?" Sato was comprehensibly perplexed.
"Just trust us, commander."
"All right, Blue Nova's fighter is being prepared."
"Thanks sir, we're inbound."
Hera pushed the engines at the maximum, but the shuttle was painfully slow. After four minutes they were at the frontal exit of Phoenix Home's hangar.
After the cargo bay had been quickly depressurized, Jaral opened the door and jumped out of it, floating in space. Only when she entered the reach of the ship's internal gravity did she fell down for a couple of meters, but she left herself fall and roll on the floor to distribute the impact and nonchalantly get back on her feet. The mechanics who saw the scene were pretty much impressed.
Looking up, Jaral noticed that her fighter was being brought down by the crane. The batteries of the weapons, shields and engines were already full. Without wasting any time, she jumped on the fighter and climbed up to the cockpit. Less than a minute later, she was already flying around the Phoenix Home.
The shuttle landed at the docking tube in the frontal section of Phoenix Home. As soon as everyone was aboard the frigate, the shuttle was detached and left to drift in the cold void.
Darvos was the first to run into the bridge and immediately went to the listening post, while one of the operators warned.
"Commander Sato, there is a ship entering our sector."
"Move Phoenix Squadron to support Blue Nova." he ordered and the red alert sounded all along the ship.
In a couple of minutes, the entire Phoenix squadron was out of the frigate, the six fighters moving to support Jaral, but then the scanners picked up three Gozanti transports, loaded with TIE fighters, and two Arquitens cruisers.
The single ship was a TIE of unseen manufacture. However, as Jaral got closer to it, she could feel the same feeling of cold that Ezra and Kanan described in front of…
"It's him. The Sith Lord." Jaral announced on the comlink.
"Are you sure of it?" Kanan asked.
"I...I feel the same cold as you guys felt." she said.
"Can she really do that?" Ezra asked.
As it was now, Jaral had shown some 'passive' abilities of the Force, like a bit of precognition that was very useful in battle to avoid the enemy fire, and something she was gonna need it right now, and she could share Ezra's vision. Though the ability to feel certain things hadn't still manifested.
"The Force still communicates with her, even if it doesn't give her special abilities." Kanan said.
Aboard her fighter, Jaral was heading toward Vader. She was afraid, it was stupid to deny it. By reading what little information she had on him, Vader had destroyed entire rebel cells on his own both on land and in aerial battles, meaning that she was most likely not a match for him. Still, she said, Vader didn't know about what she could do. There might still be room for her to pull off some tricks and catch him off guard, keep him away from Phoenix Home.
"All I can do now, is survive." she thought.
As she was thinking that, Phoenix Squadron showed up around her.
"Phoenix Leader to Squadron, engage!" the voice of Phoenix Leader resonated as all the six fighters fired at the same time.
Jaral tried to shoot to, but to her dismay, Vader rolled just slightly on his left and avoided them all, then fired a precise burst that immediately destroyed two A-Wings in quick succession.
"We lost Phoenix-1 and 3!" one of the pilots screamed as the TIE darted in the breach created in the fighter line, going straight for Phoenix Home.
Jaral's eyes widened in horror, but the adrenaline helped her thinking faster. She immediately turned around with a spin and gave chase.
"Blue Nova to Phoenix Squadron, I'll keep this fighter busy, you focus on repelling the incoming TIEs." she said.
"This is Phoenix-2, copy that, Blue Nova. Good hunt." the pilot sounded intimidated.
All the pilots had already understood that they weren't dealing with a regular imperial pilot. Even an ace wouldn't be able to destroy two fighters so casually, and so fast. They quickly understood that Jaral was the only one who had any chance to survive the duel.
Still, Vader's TIE was incredibly fast. Jaral pushed all energy to the engines, but her ship struggled anyway to keep up. By the time she managed to reach him, Vader was over Phoenix Home and shoot a burst that hit the rear part of the ship.
Watching his trajectory, Jaral decided to cut him off, switching power to the cannons as she waited for him. Vader crossed her scope and she fired.
The Sith Lord perceived that, but he was indeed caught by surprise a little. All Jaral managed to do, however, was to graze his left wing.
"At least I should have his attention now." she thought. The priority was to keep him away from the command ship.
"Blue Nova, this is Phoenix-2, there are three fighters coming your way!"
The radar told her that this was true. The TIE fighters were 12 in total, while Phoenix Squadron had only 4 fighters left, and since they had numbers, three of them moved to assist Vader.
The fighters were fighting at the edge of the fleet's formation. Strangely, the Arquitens were not moving, but simply blocking the nearest hyperspace lane.
Jaral had no choice but to break the chase. But first she ordered Jinx to contact Phoenix Home.
"Blue Nova is disengaging from Vader." Darvos announced.
Ezra lightened up his omni-tool, read it for a moment, then said. "Jinx is sending us the intercepted communications between the Imperial ships."
"Pass them on my channel." Darvos said. Jinx did it automatically.
"Hera, we have to help her!" Sabine exclaimed.
"Commander, we're leaving." Hera announced before running off.
Ahsoka put a hand on Ezra's shoulder before he could spring into action.
"All right if I tag along?"
"The more, the merrier." the boy said with a smirk.
The Ghost was readily manned. Zeb was on the tail gun, Sabine at the main turret and Ezra in the nose turret. Kanan and Ahsoka were passengers in the cockpit.
"Blue Nova, this is the Ghost." Hera said as she was warming the engine. "We're moving to assist you."
"No need, guys, focus on that TIE, protect the command ship."
Looking at the radar, they found out that Jaral had already dispatched two of the three TIEs sent after her and she was now fighting the last.
"She's right, Hera, we need to protect the ship first and foremost. She can handle those mediocre pilots." Ezra said from beneath the pilot controls.
"Understood, Blue Nova, we're moving."
The Ghost left the docking tube right when Vader was making another passage undisturbed and the shields of the Phoenix Home collapsed this time. Three explosions from the TIE's cannons hit the ship, which was now on fire.
"We lost the hyperdrive!" a voice said on the bridge.
The crew gave chase, but the fire from the turrets was easily dodged by the Sith lord.
"The Force is definitely strong with him." Ahsoka stated. "Kanan, let's find out how strong."
"How can I help?" Kanan asked.
"Just remember your training." Ahsoka replied, then she closed her eyes and stretched her right arm forward, reaching through the Force.
Kanan closed his eyes and put a hand on Ahsoka's shoulder, while stretching his left arm. This technique would allow the two to combine their abilities, reaching out to the Sith Lord quicker and with more strength,
They kept following the TIE, but suddenly it was not shooting.
As Kanan and Ahsoka were slowly poking the Force into the Sith's mind, an echo resonated in Ahsoka.
'The Apprentice lives'
Ahsoka screamed and passed out.
Then, the Ghost crew was surprised to see a burst of lasers scratching the TIE again from above, but now its left engine was leaving a trail of smoke.
Jaral's fighter darted down between the two ships.
"She got him!" Ezra screamed enthusiastically.
Vader retreated toward the imperial fleet as other fighters moved in to shield his retreat, following him.
"Phoenix Home to Blue Nova and Ghost. Excellent work, keep the Imperials away so the fleet can recover."
"No!" said Kanan, still holding Ahsoka. "You need to get the fleet out of here now!"
"I will not abandon our command ship."
"You don't have a choice, sir. Without an hyperdrive you must abandon ship." Hera added.
"Commander, three Star Destroyers are about to leave hyperspace, two minutes." the voice of Darvos warned.
Sato had no choice. "All hands, abandon ship."
Jaral blew a sigh of relief as she picked up her comlink again.
"Blue Nova to Ghost, I'm moving to assist the Phoenix Squadron."
"Roger that, Blue Nova, we'll be right behind you."
The two ships moved toward the Phoenix Squadron, who had been fighting bravely, but the numbers of the Empire were taking a toll. Phoenix-5 had been shot down and Phoenix-3's ship was damaged and followed by two TIEs.
Jaral immediately jumped in and destroyed those two.
"Thank you, Blue Nova. Phoenix-3 to Phoenix-2, I'm going back to the Emancipator for emergency repairs."
Jaral and the Ghost managed to turn the tide, as the imperials were quickly dispatched.
Behind them, the small crew of the Phoenix Home was being recovered by the frigate Liberator, which was about to become the new command ship definitely.
The imperial fleet now started moving in to attack, but luckily the fleet was in position to make a jump into another hyperspace lane. Once the evacuation of the burning ship was concluded, Sato ordered the jump.
The fleet jumped into a safe point, and this time there were no hidden trackers among them.
Jaral docked the fighter on the Liberator, as she wanted to be debriefed by Commander Sato and Darvos. She was glad to hear that most of the crew survived and was rescued, but still 32 crewman perished in the explosions aboard Phoenix Home and the Phoenix Squadron had been cut in half.
Ezra waited for her at the docking tube, though he knew it would be even hours before they were asked to connect the Ghost to take her back. She could sense her mood rapidly deteriorating into a status of mild depression, hate toward herself and shame.
While he was there, waiting, Sabine reached him.
"Hey." she said with a compassionate smile and she immediately grabbed one of his hands.
"Hey." he replied with his lopsided grin.
"Bit of a rough day, uh?"
"Tell me about it."
There was a moment of silence. Then, Sabine gently turned him around to face her and gently kissed him on the lips, their eyes closed as they found some solace in each other arms.
"I thought you had something to tell me?" Ezra asked with a chuckle, as if he was thinking that she was showing rather than telling.
"That's true." she said in kind. "I'm ready to get out in the open with you."
Ezra was a bit surprised, but in a good way.
"After what just happened...I realized that we're at war now. There is no guarantee about if and when we'll see the next rotation. So there is no time to hesitate."
She hugged him tightly around his chest, pushing her head under his. Ezra quietly put a hand on her head as to protect her.
"I love you. And I don't want to hold back on that." she said, finally. "I don't care what the others think. I don't care if something happens tomorrow. Before I die I want the galaxy to know that I am yours, and you're mine."
"Oh, using possessives already?" he chuckled.
She sneered back. "Yes. You are mine. Of no one else."
The two slightly wobbled around in their embrace, letting all the worries about that day and about the future go away.
"So, can we say that to the rest of the crew, tomorrow?" Ezra asked, they still weren't letting go of each other.
He could feel Sabine moving her head in a small nod.
"Yeah, I don't think now would be appropriate."
She pulled her head back to look at him in his sapphire eyes.
"Guess you stay here until she's back?" she asked seriously.
Ezra nodded. "I can feel her. I'm sure she's feeling responsible for our losses."
"So, we'll be here and make sure she stops thinking about that." she said with a faint but sincere smile.
"We might be here for a while, you don't have to wait here."
"Ezra, she's my best friend and I consider her like a sister as well, I want to be here when she gets through the door."
"Thank you." he whispered.
It was after an hour and a half that the Ghost finally connected to the Liberator and Jaral entered the airlock without her armor, finding the two teens waiting and smiling at her.
She was happy to see them, and she could perceive something new in Ezra, as if a great burden had been lifted from his heart and now he was free to be happy. Somehow, she had a hunch at what that could be.
Nevertheless, she knew that Ezra could feel her sense of dejection. For as long as she was on the Liberator, he was trying to send her positive waves.
When she approached them, Ezra immediately asked her "How do you feel, sis?"
"Commander Sato, Darvos and most of the crew is safe. I should be satisfied, but…" her initial smile quickly dissipated.
Sabine put a hand on her arm. "Jaral, it was not your fault."
"She's right." a voice said behind them.
From the cockpit, the rest of the crew was arriving. Hera walked up to Jaral and talked to her in a full "proud-concerned mother mode"
"The strongest warrior of the Empire had set us a trap, and yet you managed to repel him and prevented the Empire from killing or capturing us all. Jaral, what you've worked today is nothing short of a miracle, and non one will blame you for what happened to the fleet. We can't always save everyone."
Jaral seemed to have found those words encouraging, but she couldn't shake completely the sense of guilt, the thought that she might have done better than that.
"Thank you, Hera." she whispered, looking at her with a grateful expression and taking her hands down from her shoulder on her own. Hera squeezed them while retaining her motherly smile.
"I just need some time alone, now." Jaral finally said.
Hera brought all of their hands in the same point. "Of course, dear. We'll be here if you need us." and gently let her go.
The crew looked at her with encouraging smiles, Ahsoka even added a little bow of her head, as they let her go down the hallway and head toward the seat of the nose gun.