A/N: If you have not watched Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures, some of the next two chapters might leave you feeling a little clueless. Although the show isn't canon, I fully believe it should be and I just had to include the Freemakers in here. Before you read this, I recommend watching Season 2, episodes 10-13. These chapters tie directly into them and Episode VI, but I made a few additions for the fun of it.
Freemakers Victory:
After the near tragedy on Hoth, Hera made a few changes to her way of life. The most important being that she no longer went on any missions that she couldn't take Jacen with her. Which basically meant that she stayed on Home One and actually acted like a General instead of flying all over the galaxy fighting small battles and running spy missions. A piece of her missed being part of the action on a regular basis but the rest of her (the part that was Jacen's mother and the part that was tired of the constant fighting and the not knowing if she was going to survive to see tomorrow), was more than happy to actually sit back and relax just a little more than she had in a long time while still being helpful to the Rebellion.
Occasionally, Hera would grab Jacen and Zeb and they'd go on a supply run, just to give the Ghost a purpose and themselves a change of pace from life on a teeming city sized ship. Hera also made sure to take Jacen to see Sabine or his grandfather every month or so, not wanting her son to forget what earth felt like under his feet. Kanan never said much about Hera's decision to live a quieter life, but she could tell he was relieved that she had. After what had happened to Jacen, no one else higher up in the chain of command had questioned her decision either, which was something Hera had been worried about. But they were supportive and made it easy for her to take a more authoritative role over the running of the Rebellion.
Zeb and the clones were fine with moving to different groups of the Rebellion. Having seen Hera's agony at the possible death of her son on the long trip from Endor to Hoth, they never wanted to have to see her go through that again and understood her decision to semi-retire the Ghost. Zeb stayed on Home One, near Hera, Jacen, and Kallus, more or less just doing grunt work (which he was good at), and occasionally joining a mission that required a tracker or lots of brute force (and we all know he was really good at that), never one to turn down the opportunity to smash some bucket heads.
Rex and Wolffe were each put in charge of their own battalions of soldiers on different bases, Rex finally getting the title of Commander that he always should have had, resuming the roles that they had played in the war against the Separatists around twenty-five years ago. Hera had offered them the chance to retire again, as they'd done more than their share for the good of the galaxy already, but they both declined. Rex said he was going to fight till the Force chose to end his life on the battlefield because he didn't want to die an old and lonely man on a bed sometime in the next decade. Wolffe had nodded in agreement, not saying a word, but Hera could see the weight of their abbreviated lifetimes starting to weigh heavily on their minds and reflect in the look of sadness and resignation in their eyes. She'd asked them once why they hadn't found themselves wives when they first went into retirement years ago. Wolffe's answer had near broke her heart.
"I could never do that to a woman; make her watch me age two to three times faster than her, and then have to bury me when I should have been in my prime."
Rex joined in too. "And to be frankly honest, Hera, I'm pretty sure they bred the urge to settle down and marry right out of us. The boys and I had many conversations back in the day about girls. Almost every single one of them said that while they could appreciate the sight of a pretty girl, they never ever saw one and felt the urgent need to claim one for themselves."
Hera had stared at the clones in horror. "Does that mean that you can't... ummm... you know? Perform?"
Rex and Wolffe had stared at her for a moment before bursting into peals of laughter. When he could, Rex wheezed out between chuckles, "Geez, Hera, is that what you got out of that? I'm just saying that the Kaminoans didn't want us wandering away from the army and not coming back because we were dreaming of white picket fences. I assure you that our equipment came fully operational, if sterile, and that there are plenty of girls across the galaxy who were more than happy to give a brother a few minutes of their time."
Wolffe nudged Rex, a devilish gleam in his eye. "A few minutes? That's all you're good for? I wouldn't go bragging about that if I were you," he teased.
Rex narrowed his eyes at his brother in mock anger and pounced. "You know perfectly well that I can outperform you any day."
Hera's eyes had widened as she quickly backed out of the common room before the conversation got any more cringe worthy. This was quickly turning into the category of WAY TOO MUCH INFORMATION! The last thing she heard before the door closed on them was Zeb laughing like a loon at her retreat and the clones listing the names of girls who could personally attest to each brother's superiority over the other. That was the last time she ever asked about their personal lives.
Near the beginning of 4 ABY, one of the clones got their wish to go down fighting. Commander Wolffe led his soldiers to a small but significant victory on Ryloth at the side of Cham Syndulla and his resistance fighters, finally pushing the Empire out of the Tann Province and taking back the Syndulla properties. (What was left of them.) During the battle, he sustained a blaster injury to his chest that he didn't tell anyone about until it was too late, suffering internal bleeding that eventually had him collapsing after the battle was over. Cham said Wolffe died with a smile, content in the knowledge that he'd recovered Hera's and Jacen's ancestral lands and that Cham could finally rebuild his home on Ryloth. "Tell Hera thank you," he'd said with some of his last breaths. "Thank you for making me feel like part of her family."
"I will," Cham had promised, kneeling at the clone's side, knowing the look of a dying man much too well.
Hera had mourned Wolffe's passing, having grown to love the steadfast clone like an older brother, but nowhere near as much as Rex had. Poor Rex was left feeling like the last of his kind, being the last of the clones as far as he knew. If others had survived their time working for the Empire, Rex hadn't heard about it. He was sure that by now they all would have been retired (if they were lucky), or more likely 'decommissioned' like any clone used to be when they were no longer useful. A brother's worst nightmare had always been the fear of an injury that wasn't life threatening but would leave them unable to fight efficiently enough to keep them in the war. Those brothers had been sent back to Kamino and were never seen again. Hera hadn't known that depressing fact until Rex had told her. He said the Republic had kept the less glamorous parts of their clone creations hidden from the public for obvious reasons. It was the first time that Hera hadn't been sympathetic to the Republic about being taken over by the Emperor.
Jacen too, had mourned with Rex, the first passing of someone he considered part of his rather large family. It came as a bit of a shock to the four and a half year old that his family wasn't actually immortal and that Wolffe wouldn't be coming back as a Force ghost. It made the boy lavish even more love on the rest of his family, (especially Rex, whenever he saw him), wanting them to know that they had been cherished as much as possible.
Aside from losing an 'uncle,' Jacen's life on Home One was pretty good as far as he was concerned. Unlike Echo Base, Home One actually had a few other kids to play with. A new addition to Home One was Rowan Freemaker and his older siblings Kordi and Zander. (Who took care of him like parents, since they'd lost theirs in the war.) Despite the fact that Rowan was twelve, and a whole eight years older than Jacen, they became instant friends, sensing that they were similar in their ability to use the Force.
It didn't take long for Kanan to figure out Jacen's new friend not only knew about the Force but had some training as well, a lot of it self taught from the memory files of Rowan's reprogrammed B1 battle droid, RO-GR, but some from Rowan's first teacher, Naare, who was a Darksider pretending to be a Jedi to exploit Rowan's natural skill at finding Kyber crystals to her own advantage. Whenever the opportunity presented itself (since Rowan was away so often on adventures), Kanan would add Rowan to the lessons he was teaching Jacen about the Force and they even practiced with their lightsabres in the cargo hold of the Ghost. (Kanan was still avoiding showing himself as much as possible.) Poor Jacen still wasn't quite big enough to start his real lightsabre training, but he watched avidly from the balcony while Rowan and his father danced around the cargo hold, memorizing every move and (more or less) patiently waiting for his turn to do more than practice with a stick.
The boys helped each other with their Force strengths whenever they were left alone to play, Rowan being considered just old enough to watch Jacen without constant supervision. Jacen was a natural at connecting to other people and their emotions, and became pretty good at healing too, fixing their bumps and scrapes from playing before Hera and Kordi could fuss over them. Rowan, on the other hand, was amazing at controlling objects with the Force, so much so that he could build anything he could imagine using just the Force and whatever scrap pieces were on hand. He even built a brand new type of fighter, called the Arrowhead, that was powered by a huge Kyber crystal Rowan built from many small ones, and could cut right through Star Destroyers like they were made of fluff instead of durasteel. One of the very very few real missions that Hera went on was one of the test runs of the Arrowhead, since it was basically undefeatable with its Kyber shield and she couldn't resist the temptation of trying out a new fighter, as she would always be a pilot at heart. (Don't tell the Ghost, but it may have been the funnest thing she ever flew.)
Which brings us to today...
D198/4 ABY, Home One
When Hera woke up in the mornings, she almost always found Jacen already bouncing around the Ghost, ready to attack the day. On the few days that she woke up first, Hera always worried, usually for nothing, but today it turned out that she had a good reason.
As Hera made her way back from the refresher, she poked her head into Jacen's room. Spotting his little form still making a lump under the covers, Hera called, "Time to get up, baby," before walking across the hallway to her own room to get dressed for the day.
"Kay, Mama," she heard in a sleepy voice and then a cough that stopped her in her tracks halfway through her door.
Hera whirled back around and marched back into Jacen's room, turning the lights up to full. "Are you feeling okay, Jacen?"
Jacen sat up sluggishly and pushed his blankets off. "Yah. I'm fine, Mama," coughing between every second word. "Just a little tired."
Hera sat on the bed beside him, studying his appearance. He looked paler than normal except for the flushed parts of his face and his eyes looked a little glazed over. She hugged him into her side and felt his forehead with the back of her hand. He was also hotter than normal, just as she expected. Hera sighed and kissed the top of his hair that was sticking straight up. This was his third cold this year. At least they only lasted a day or so. (Hera had questioned the med droid about whether that was a normal time frame for a cold to run its course and was told that most colds can last up to a week. She credited the quick recovery time on the meds and the twi'lek half of Jacen. Little did she know that Jacen was doing Force Healing on himself to help beat the colds.) Home One might be a relatively safe place to raise Jacen, but it had its negatives as well. So many people came and went from the Rebellion headquarters that they were bound to bring a wide variety of viruses with them. Poor Jacen just happened to be prone to picking them up, his hybrid physiology not quite as strong as if he'd been a full twi'lek. The med droid assured her that it was normal for human children to get many colds and that the older Jacen got, the more immunities he would build up and get fewer colds as a result. Hera still didn't like it, but she'd learned not to panic about it.
Hera picked Jacen up and he immediately snuggled into her, instead of squirming to get down like he usually does these days, confirming that he wasn't feeling great. "Come on, my little miracle, let's get you some medicine." Hera carried Jacen to the refresher and pulled the cough medicine out of the built in cupboard. Jacen didn't protest much at the taste of the medicine, aside from making a face, used to it by now. Hera ran her hand fondly over his head, smoothing down his hair, and kissed his overly warm forehead. "You want any breakfast this morning, baby?"
Jacen thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "Not hungry."
Hera suppressed the urge to sigh yet again and tamped down the worry. "Okay. But you have to drink something so you don't get dehydrated. How about your favourite meiloorun smoothie? Special treat?"
Jacen perked up a bit and smiled. "Sure. I could drink that."
Hera smiled back. "I thought so." Hera rose from where she was kneeling on the floor in front of her son. "I'll be in the galley when you're done in here. If you don't show up by the time I have your smoothie ready, I'll assume you're too tired to walk that far and will send Chopper to carry you like he used to," she teased lightly.
Jacen giggled a little. "Please don't, Mama. I'm fine, honest," as he coughed again and then sneezed a copious amount of mucous all over his face.
"Right," Hera said with a healthy dose of sarcasm and reached for some tissues to clean him up. "You are staying home today, young man. No playing with Rowan and wandering all over Headquarters."
"But, Mama!" Jacen said with big pleading eyes.
"Sorry, baby." Hera said apologetically. "General's rules. Besides, you wouldn't want to get Rowan sick too, would you?"
Jacen's face fell and his shoulders slumped a little. "No, Mama. I wouldn't want that. I'll stay on the Ghost."
"Good boy," Hera said as she finally left the refresher. "Smoothie will be ready in ten minutes," she called through the door that had basically closed in her face.
"Yes, Mama," came back the reply through the door. Hera could practically hear the eye roll in his words. She shook her head with a smile and went back to her room to get dressed. Kanan's shirt was comfortable, but not exactly work appropriate.
Half an hour later, after settling Jacen on the common room couch with his lessons and strict instructions for Chopper to make sure Jacen did them BEFORE he watched any cartoons, Hera left the Ghost and walked into the already busy hangar of Home One. (One of the many hangars on the enormous ship.) She ran into Rowan on her way out of the hangar as he was on his way in with Roger trailing behind, the droid rushing to keep up with the almost hyperactive child.
Rowan skidded to a stop in front of her. "Morning, General Hera," the light brown haired boy chirped with a cheeky salute and a twinkle in his caf coloured eyes.
"Good morning, Rowan," Hera replied with a smile. "Jacen isn't feeling well today. I'm afraid you'll have to occupy yourself without him."
Rowan slumped and some of the energy looked like it had been drained out of him. "Awww. That's too bad. I can still comm him though, right?"
"Sure, sweetie," Hera said. "I'm sure he'd love to talk to you. Don't let him talk you into doing his homework for him though. He needs to do his own lessons."
Rowan grinned at her, some of his natural enthusiasm returning. "You don't have to worry, General. I wouldn't do that, would I Roger?"
Roger nodded his skinny little head. "He's not lying. Kordi had to practically tie him to a chair to get him to do his school lessons when he was younger."
Hera raised a brow, somehow not surprised. Rowan wasn't exactly one who liked to sit still. Jacen, on the other hand was perfectly all right with it and incredibly self sufficient. She assumed it had something to do with the way he'd been raised, living with so many babysitters and learning Jedi stuff at such a young age. Rowan was a much more typical child, not learning about his Force abilities until he was already twelve.
"And now?" Hera asked, just out of curiosity, even though she was due in the Command Centre in only a couple of minutes and it was quite a hike to get there.
Rowan grinned wider. But it was Roger who answered again. "We've got it down to a science. We put his dinner down in front of him along with a datapad. For every sentence he reads, he gets to eat a bite of food."
Hera blinked. "And this works for you, Rowan?"
The boy nodded enthusiastically. "Yep. I'm doing two things at once! It's great. Leaves more time for more important things like building ships with Quarrie.
"Okaaaaaay then," Hera said, so glad that Jacen was who he was and she didn't have to go through that kind of struggle to get him to learn things.
Rowan rocked on his feet, feeling kind of awkward all of a sudden. "Ummm. I guess I'll go see if Kordi or Zander need help," he said as he inched backwards and then turned and dashed off.
Roger shrugged at Hera and then followed after his human friend. "Wait up, Rowan!" She heard the droid call as the boy disappeared around a corner in the hallway.
Hera shook her head at the pair and hurried on her way. She arrived at the command centre just in time to catch a holo call from Rex, who was on Kashyyyk with a large contingent of soldiers, helping the wookiees with their Imperial infestation.
As Rex spoke, everyone in the repurposed holo theatre could hear blaster fire in the background along with the occasional curse or scream. "We could really use some help down here, Hera. We're outnumbered and outgunned. We've been here for weeks and are just about out of supplies. I hate to say it, but we might have to retreat and regroup before we can win this one."
Hera frowned in thought. "What's your biggest problem right now, Rex?"
"It's gotta be the shabla AT-ATs. There's about twenty of them and they've got us almost pinned. We could really use some Jedi right now."
Hera smiled as she came up with a solution. "I don't have any of those for you at the moment (not considering Rowan to be old enough to send into a war), but I've got the next best thing. I'm sending Zander Freemaker and the new fighter. He should be there in about an hour." She smiled slightly as a helpful aide ran off to tell Zander to fly out. (The aide just happened to be one of the many girls who were trying to catch the attention of the handsome nineteen year old boy. Too bad for them that Zander was stuck on some girl called Becky something or other that Zander had never actually talked to, back at their old home of the Wheel. At least, that's what Jacen said Rowan said.)
Rex looked puzzled. "The new kid and the what now?"
Hera grinned. "Yes, and just wait and see. I promise you'll be impressed."
Rex blew out a breath. "I've seen some crazy things, but I'll eat this rather useless helmet if one fighter can take out twenty Walkers." He missed his old helmet, even without a working HUD in it, but it made him stand out too much. For that matter, he missed his old armor too. He felt ridiculously unprotected in Rebel issue armour, but a soldier did what he had too. And right now, blending in with the other soldiers and the trees was more important than sentimental old armour.
"You better prepare some sauce for that helmet, Rex, cause you're about to eat it," Hera said with a decided glint of mischief in her eyes, to accompanying chuckles from others listening to the conversation who knew what the Arrowhead could do.
Rex gave Hera a skeptical look, but he shrugged and said with a good natured grin, "I guess I'll start looking for some barbeque sauce, assuming the wookiees have something like that here." Rex glanced down as his wrist comm beeped. "I'm getting a call from Lieutenant Valeria. Her team's working with Wullffwarro and his family to free their home province. I should answer this. Thanks for sending help. Gotta go."
Hera crossed her arms as Rex's image disappeared. Even after more than a year, she still felt wrong not being in the thick of things. This leading from afar business really didn't sit right.
Zander, Kordi, and Rowan were doing general maintenance on Red Squadron's X-Wings when a pretty blond girl ran into the hangar. As the girl skidded to a stop near Zander, he looked up and his first thought was, 'Becky!' Then he looked again and his heart sank, telling himself he was stupid for even thinking the idea that Becky would ever leave the Wheel and magically be on Home One.
"General Syndulla wants you to fly to Kashyyyk in the Arrowhead and do your thing," the girl said between panting breaths, apparently having run all the way from the command centre.
Zander was immediately filled with adrenaline at the prospect. He finally got to go on a REAL mission! On purpose! This was so sweet! He jumped off the X-Wing and threw a happy smile at the girl on his way past. "Thanks, ummmmm..." he called over his shoulder.
"Lana," she called helpfully.
"Right. Lana," Zander mumbled, already forgetting the name, his eager eyes on the Arrowhead. Zander climbed up into the fighter and started flicking switches. Before he could close the hatch to the cockpit, Kordi and Rowan dropped in too. "Hey! This is MY mission!" he protested.
Kordi smiled sweetly at her younger brother by two years. "And we're joining you. So get over it and start flying."
Zander mumbled something unintelligible under his breath but did as ordered. It would take too long to get them out of the fighter and he'd probably lose the battle anyway.
As the Arrowhead flew out of the hangar, Roger ran up to where it had been sitting just moments before. "Wait for..." He sighed and shook his head. "Why do I even bother? Oh well. I guess I'll go bake. Maybe I won't burn the cookies this time." With that hopeful thought, the old battle droid wandered towards the Freemakers' personal ship, the StarScavenger.
After taking care of Lieutenant Valeria's little Walker problem, Zander flew over an ocean and a vast forest of trees as fast as the Arrowhead could go (which was pretty kriffing fast, if he did say so himself), on the way to help the main Rebel army in their fight against the Empire. As they approached, they could hear the battle even inside the fighter. The sound of blaster fire and explosions filled the air before the battle even came into view.
All of the Freemakers' eyes widened in awe at their first sight of a real battlefield. The whole clearing in the trees was lit up with red and green blaster fire. The soldiers from both sides refusing to give ground as they shot from the cover of the trunks they were hiding behind. In the trees behind the Rebels side was a sheer drop off down to a rocky beach about fifty meters below. If they retreated any further, they'd be in BIG trouble. To make the situation just a little more desperate, there were AT-ATs firing on the Rebels as well, crashing through the trees as they advanced and flanked the Rebel soldiers and wookiees.
"Whoa," Rowan breathed. "That's a lot of blaster fire."
"Too much fire," Kordi said. "Zander, I think we're past the point the being nice. Go get 'em."
"Glad to." Zander grinned briefly before his face settled into a determined mask. He pointed the Arrowhead at the nearest Walker and flew straight at it.
At the sound of something new and fast approaching, Rex looked up through the clearing in the trees, still firing with his blasters without fail at the enemy lines across the way. The arrow shaped fighter that appeared was pretty impressive to look at, he'd give it that. When Lieutenant Valeria had commed and said that they were wrapping up on her side, he'd been amazed. Apparently the new fighter had easily dispatched the four Walkers that had pinned her ground troops at the edge of the ocean. Now he watched in shock as all the blaster fire gradually came to a stop as every single person stared in amazement as the fighter literally flew THROUGH the necks of every single Walker, rendering them useless as they crashed to the ground, taking down trees with them.
Rex eventually shook himself out of his stupor and yelled at his company of soldiers. "Don't just stand there like stupid nerfs! Get your shebs in gear and ADVANCE!" They jumped into action and followed Rex as he left the cover of the trees and ran across the clearing, firing at the still shocked Imperial troopers.
One of the troopers decided he was suddenly on the losing side as he saw his walking tanks fall and a roaring mass of Rebel forces come running straight at him. The trooper tossed his blaster to the ground and hightailed it back towards the Imperial base about a kilometer away through the trees, all the while thinking that he hadn't signed up for this bantha poodoo.
With the retreat of one trooper, a sudden exodus of the rest was soon in full swing. Men in white armor dashed away from the screaming and grinning Rebels and towering, ferocious wookiees, some not focusing on where they were going through their limited vision helmets and smacking right into tree trunks and knocking themselves out.
When there was no one still standing and visible left to shoot at, Rex raised a hand and called a cease fire. The pretty fighter flew around overhead, looking for more targets to take out. Rex commed the fighter. "Great job, Freemaker. Now I have another one for you."
"Sure," Zander replied eagerly.
"Blue Squadron is heading for the Imperial base about a click north of here next. Why don't you meet them there and help them take it out? I'm assuming that thing comes with some regular guns?"
"Of course, Commander. We're on our way, Sir," Zander replied with zeal and then took off in the direction indicated.
"We?" Rex asked in surprise, but got no response. He shook his head, dismissing it as unimportant. What he was really wondering was if he was going to have to actually eat his helmet now or if Hera would let that one slide. He jogged over to where Zeb and a few wookiees were helping fallen troopers go back to sleep if they showed any signs of waking up. "I'm going to take most of the troops and head for the Imperial base. You're in charge of rounding up stragglers."
Zeb grinned and cracked his knuckles. "My pleasure, Rex. They can hide in the trees as much as they want. The wookiees and I will flush them out in no time."
Rex clapped the lasat on the shoulder and then gestured to his troops, taking off through the trees at a brisk jog. There was one good thing about all the fighting he'd been doing over the last few years. His old armor actually fit the way it used to, just like when he was eleven or so. Not that he got to wear it much anymore, but he still put it on whenever he could.
Zander met Blue Squadron, led by Lieutenant Valeria, not far from the base. "What's the plan, Lieutenant?" he asked over the comm.
Valeria glanced over the schematics her astromech sent to her computer and decided to go for the annihilation approach over precision. "We'll hit it hard and fast with everything we've got. We want to take it out before those troops get back here. Give them no place to go. Zander, you take out the hangar and anything parked in there that might be useful to them. The rest of us will get the main building."
"Yes, Sir! Ma'am. Sir," Zander fumbled.
Kordi rolled her eyes and smacked him on the back of the head. "You'd think you'd have it right by now, nerfherder."
Zander rubbed his head and flew towards the hangar at the same time. "I'd think so, too. Except I still don't know which is right."
Rowan giggled and Kordi rolled her eyes again. "Just fly and go shoot something."
Zander shot her a look. "Well, I'm trying to, but someone keeps hitting me."
"Uhh. You know your comm is still on," Valeria's voice filled the fighter, sounding like a cross between holding in laughter and exasperation. "And Sir is fine."
Zander turned beat red and apologized quickly before turning off the comm.
Rowan cracked up in his seat in the back, thinking this day was turning out to be pretty fun. And it wasn't even noon yet.
As Rex was jogging through the woods a wookiee came running up, panic in his eyes, and growled something at him with some frantic arm gestures that Rex only sort of understood. He did catch the rumbles that sounded like children and base. "Are there children in the base?" he asked, hoping he was wrong.
The wookiee nodded frantically and growled out some more desperate Shyriiwook.
"Kriff." Rex commed Lieutenant Valeria as he picked up his pace. "Hold that attack, Lieutenant! There are wookiee younglings being held in the base as hostages. I think that's what has kept the wookiees under Imperial control all this time."
The wookiee running beside Rex looked relieved that Rex had got the right idea.
"Understood, Commander!" Valeria called back, and then immediately called off her pilots and the Freemakers, who were only meters away from firing range of the base. "Abort! Abort! Regroup, people. We're coming up with a new plan of attack."
Blue Squadron and the Arrowhead immediately swerved away from the durasteel building and flew up into the clouds and hovered, waiting for further orders, unhappy that they'd lost the element of surprise.
"Can I see the schematics for the base?" Kordi asked over the comm. "I have an idea."
Lieutenant Valeria smiled and nodded as Kordi told everyone her plan, opening the channel to Commander Rex as well so he could hear. Kordi's plan was solid, even if it did depend on the abilities of a twelve year old. She'd seen the Freemakers in action enough times now to know that they could be depended on. "Let's do it."
"Are you sure?" Rex asked. He, on the other hand had no idea that Rowan Freemaker was more than he seemed.
"I'm sure, Commander," Valeria reassured. "We'll just wait for you to get here."
"ETA one minute," Rex said as he ran around another tree in his way. If only Kanan could see him now. He'd have nothing to tease him about in regards to Rex being out of shape.
One minute later, Rex and his soldiers came to the edge of the trees that surrounded the Imperial facility that looked very out of the place on the forest planet. They'd caught up to the retreating Imperial troopers, who were all making their way back into their facility like cowards. "We're good to go," he said, only lightly puffing from the run. His soldiers were also doing well, having trained for this type of mission for months before they he felt they were ready to attack the Imperials on Kashyyyk.
"Copy that," Valeria replied. "Freemakers, you're up."
With a grin of glee, Zander dove the Arrowhead back down through the clouds, swooping towards the base. At the same time, Rex and his soldiers ran towards the base across the clearing with Zander laying down cover fire at the troopers who were turning around to fire back at Rex. Zander shot forwards and took out the canon turrets on the roof, the Kyber shield on the Arrowhead impervious to the canon fire shot at them. When all the canons were taken care of, Zander popped the hatch and Rowan jumped out with a cheery wave at his siblings. Zander closed the hatch again and reengaged the shields before flying off towards the hangar of the base to take out anything in there that might cause problems for the Rebels.
Rowan ran to the edge of the roof at the side of the building were a small door closest to the detention cells was located. He pulled his blue lightsabre out from under his jacket where he kept it hidden and ignited it, easily jumping down to the ground below where Rex and a small group of his best close quarters fighters and a wookiee were waiting for him, firing at any troopers who dared to come around the corner.
Rex looked at the brown haired boy that landed lightly beside him in surprise. When Kordi had said that her little brother could get them into the building, he'd assumed the boy was good at slicing open locked doors. He was NOT expecting the child to be wielding a lightsabre and jumping around like a proper Jedi. Did Hera know about this kid? Cause if she did, she sure had a lot of explaining to do. Rex had jokingly asked for a Jedi or two earlier. He hadn't expected one to actually show up. Even if this one was way too young to be in a war. Speaking of... " Ummm, kid, are you even old enough to use that thing?"
Rowan smiled cheekily at the grey bearded Commander that Jacen said was one of his 'uncles' but that Rowan had never had the chance to meet yet, all while digging his lightsabre into the durasteel door and starting a big circle shaped hole. "I'm twelve and half, Commander Rex, Sir, and I've had a whole six months of practice with this 'thing'."
Rex gawked at the kid for a moment. "Oh yah, that definitely qualifies you as being old enough to be here," Rex said, his voice dripping sarcasm that went right over the kid's head.
"Yep," Rowan said happily, finishing his circle. He pushed the circle of durasteel into the building with a burst of the Force and jumped through, dancing around on the spot as he waited for the old people to climb through the hole he'd made, then dashing down the hallway towards the detention cells, having memorized the schematics of the facility while Kordi was explaining her plan. Rowan, of course, had already known what his part would be.
Rex and his small group followed after the kid, raising a brow in surprise as the boy skillfully dealt with troopers that showed up in his path. The boy blocked blaster fire easily with his lightsabre and grabbed their blasters right out of their hands with the Force, literally disassembling the blaster rifles as he ran like it was nothing. Rex had never seen a Jedi do that before and was quite impressed. Rex and his team put the stunned and confused looking troopers out of their misery with a bash or two over the head or a blaster bolt as they ran by.
Rowan skidded to a stop in front of a cell door, closing his eyes for a moment as he concentrated on the life forces around him. He smiled and opened his eyes when he felt the distinctive signatures of many small wookiees on the other side of the door, feeling kind of scared and excited at the noise they could hear coming from outside the building. It was always nice when he guessed right. Rowan went to make a hole in the cell door when he realized the door was just another thing that had been put together. And if something had been put together, it could be taken apart. He imagined the locking mechanism of the door falling apart and it did, just like that, releasing the lock on the door. Rowan flicked the door open with a wave of his hand and looked in on the twenty or so surprised looking young wookiees with a smile and wave of greeting, ignoring the smell that wafted out of the room. "Hi!"
From over Rowan's shoulder, the adult wookiee rumbled at the younglings and they all stood up quickly from their seated and prone positions on the duracrete floor, having nothing to sit or lie on, running towards the door and freedom, smiling at Rowan, understanding that the human boy was responsible for their release.
"Right," Rex said. "Let's get out of here so phase two of the plan can commence." Everyone took off down the hallway back the way they came, Rowan once again leading since he could block any new blaster bolts coming their way. Once they made it back to the outside world and were headed back towards the trees, Rex commed Valeria. "We're clear. Take it out."
"Yes, Sir!" Valeria said with enthusiasm. "Blue Squadron, you know what to do." She flew her X-Wing towards the facility, her squadron falling into formation behind her and the Arrowhead joining the V formation at the end of one side. They flew over the facility, hitting it with every torpedo they had, cheering as the building blew up spectacularly as they sped away.
Rex and his group joined the main Rebel forces watching the fighters do their thing from the safety of the woods. He turned to the boy who was watching the noisy explosion with an awestruck expression on his face. "You did good today, kid."
Rowan looked up at Commander Rex with a smile and a shrug. "Thank you, Sir. But really, that was nothing compared to some of the things I've done and fought over the last half year. My life is a little crazy right now, and I've got an insane droid hunting me, but I think it's great, even if Kordi doesn't."
Rex chuckled. "I think that's what the females are meant to do; keep us males from enjoying the action too much and turning into savages."
A female soldier who was standing nearby let out an offended, "Hey! Us females like to kick butt too sometimes and don't you forget it."
All the men laughed and the girl punched the nearest guy in the shoulder as hard as she could, just to prove her point, which just made them laugh louder, everyone enjoying the relief of finally winning a battle that had dragged on for way too long.
The Arrowhead hovered overhead in front of the group and the hatch opened. "There's my ride," Rowan said to the soldiers. "Maybe I'll see you all later." He gave them a cheeky salute and effortlessly Force jumped up into the fighter, leaving more than one soldier gawking up at the fighter as it joined Blue Squadron again and flew off, headed back to Home One, waiting for them a short jump away.
Rex watched the Squadron fly away and commed Hera to give her the good news that the battle had been won and to recommend that the female Freemaker would make a good leader, being wasted as a mechanic. AND to ask her about the youngest Freemaker and if she knew about him. For that matter, did anyone? Like Luke? Surely Luke would want to know that there was a trained Jedi youngling in the Rebellion too?