Guardians may have the ability to come back to life after death, but they still have very mortal issues to deal with, such as being very upset. Apparently his glimmer forged replicas of Credits didn't stand up to scrutiny, so he had to run away from local authorities while firing the Ace of Spades and killing two Imperial Stormtroopers in the process. So not only was he a fugitive but he had no way off Lothal without fuel.
"I think I have an idea" Snyder suggested from inside Drake's head as they hid inside an abandoned house
"Shoot" Drake nodded ready to have some good news
"Our first attempt to forge Credits didn't work because we don't have access to the financial data and minting protocols to make our forgeries accurate."
"What are you suggesting?"
"If we bust into the the main government building I could hack into their secure mainframe and get what we need, the only problem is that if this is going to work, we need to make sure that communications are jammed so they can't request back-up, disable cameras so they can't trace intrusion back to us, and leave false intrusion trails so that they have no idea what we accessed"
"So basically just a milk run for us?" Drake chuckled recalling similar jobs they would pull against the Red Legion as well as Fallen houses back in the EDZ and Old Russia.
"Pretty much, if you can intercept an Imperial officer and steal their datapad, I can use it to locate a comms relay that we can sabotage." Drake nodded and changed into some old clothing that he found in the house so that he would blend in with the locals while he searched. Strolling down the main market place and pretending to browse what was for sale, Drake waited and watched for nearly an hour before he spotted an Imperial officer that was certainly inexperienced given the fact that he was young and drunk in the middle of broad daylight in the middle of a crowded area. Drake facepalmed in annoyance, his first impression of a leader among the rank and file was that of a buffoon, not a good start for them, at least it would be easier to steal that datapad.
Snyder figured out Drake's idea and materialized a 50 year old bottle of whiskey allowing the warlock to chug it down. Enough to make a Guardian appear drunk, while leaving him sober enough to do his job. Stumbling and chuckling under his breath, Drake patted the officer on his back.
"Hey Vinny, I got here quick" Drake slurred out as the officer turned to him
"Who are you?" the officer asked rubbing his eyes
"Come on Vinny, I'm your friend" Drake spat out the first name he could think of "Clovis Bray, you know the electrician"
"Ana is going to kill you if she ever finds out about this" Snyder chuckled
"Bray" the officer mused
"Yeah, you called me and said you were having trouble with your datapad and the usual solution of turning it off and on again wasn't working." Drake said
"I did ask around base about tech support, apparently my datapad isn't considered a high enough priority to have been looked at today."
"Which is why you called me Vinny, my good man"
"Yeah, my engineer friend" the officer chuckled along "You always did have those pet names for me"
"What?" Snyder thought in a shock
"I can't believe he's actually buying it, I thought I'd have to knock him out and grab the datapad" Drake thought back
"Yeah" Drake chuckled "I'll get this back to you tomorrow, good as new"
"Alright, thanks for the help" the officer handed it over and walked away.
"Snyder" Drake thought as he held the datapad in his hand
"He must've been thinking about another co-workers problem, as far as I can tell this datapad is fine, give me a minute and I'll find the comm relay" Snyder replied in exasperation, leave it to a drunk man and a semi-drunk guardian to pull off the most idiotic and asinine stunt he had seen in a long time. Seriously, there are so many ways that could've gone wrong.
The comm relay turned out to be located on the outskirts of Lothals capital city, changing back into his gear and grabbing his weapons, Drake left the city through the sewer system and used his sparrow, a model from the black armory, to drive to the comm relays location. Once he was a quarter of a mile away, Drake noticed that there was a small number of troops guarding the station. Pulling out the Ace of Spades, Drake began to do what he did best.
Meanwhile in another part of Lothal's capital city, another operation against the Empire was in progress. The crew of the Ghost were promised intelligence on an Imperial project about to begin, but their mole had been caught hacking into the Imperial mainframe and was arrested on site. So now they were waiting near the road out of the city to ambush the Imperial transport carrying their mole.
"So, what intel is this guy supposed to have?" Ezra Bridger asked
"Not sure" Kanan Jarrus, Ezra's friend and mentor replied "All Fulcrum told us was that there was information regarding an Imperial project in the hands of the mole that we need"
"Spectre-5 to Spectre-1" Sabine communicated through the comlinks "Spectre-4 and I are in position"
"Good work you two" Kanaan replied "Prison transfer begins in one hour, go comms silent immediately and keep your eyes peeled."
Back at the comm relay, all of the guards were dead, Snyder was hacking into the communications system and surveillance feeds, and Drake was munching on a bag of Jalapeno Pretzel Pieces.
"How's it going" Drake mumbled through a mouthful
"Just about finished, I'm trying to make sure only Imperial communications are down so that places like the traffic towers at the starport can do their job without getting innocents killed" Snyder replied
"Good thinking" Drake nodded as he finished off the pretzel bites and threw his bag down
"Are you really going to litter?"
"It's not like they can trace it back to us and I don't see a trashcan anywhere" Drake pointed out
"Fair enough" After another couple of minutes Snyder warped back into Drake's head "Comms and cameras will drop in half an hour, that gives you time to get into position since the virus will only last about twenty minutes before the system purges to correct itself"
"I'll only need ten" Drake scoffed as he put his helmet back on and exited the facility.
Back with the Rebels, an hour had passed since they set up their ambush and anytime now the convoy would be coming through. Remaining at high alert, the crew maintained constant vigilance standing still until the sounds of a repulsorlift could be heard and moments later, the convoy came into view. There were two speeder bikes in front escorting a transport with the mole and a scout walker taking up the rear. As planned, Sabine tossed a thermal detonator onto the walker causing it's legs to explode and the pod to fall and the turret to impale the turret on the transport while Zeb and Kanaan hijacked the speeders and Ezra boarded the speeder and grabbed the mole who had been knocked unconscious by the impact of the walker crashing into the top of the transport. Making their escape, the rebels snuck their way back into the Ghost not even thinking about how odd it was that no Imperial reinforcements had arrived like they usually would've.
As the communications and surveillance system went down, Drake strode into the government building wearing some stolen Stormtrooper armor, well not really stolen, while Snyder was hacking, he actually planted a false identification of him as a Stormtrooper so for all intents and purposes he was allowed to go right on in, the Imperials wouldn't catch on until the twenty minutes was up so it was all good. Snyder guided him through the halls as Imperials ran left and right trying to figure out what was going on and it took everything he had not to laugh.
"It gets good in a minute" Snyder chuckled
"How could it be better or simpler than this?" Drake asked before his question was answered through the all too familiar tune of Rick Astley's Never gonna give you up playing over the intercom "You rick-rolled them? Really?"
"The more confusion we cause, the faster we'll be in and out with what we need, besides planting viruses and programs that made this show necessary will keep them from finding out about our true goal. Speaking of which, I want you to spray paint something on a wall when you have a chance."
"A peace sign?" Drake chuckled as he shook his head as an Imperial officer ran past him to the turbolift down the hall
"I thought a Red Spade would be more appropriate"
"Sure why not" Drake shrugged as he continued through the frenzied halls nearing the financial records office
"You know with the time that you'll probably have to fight your way out of here?" Snyder asked
"You say that like it will be hard"
"Don't kill any civilian personnel"
"Who do I look like, Oryx?" Drake sighed "Since when have I been about hurting civvies?"
"Just making sure you know there are civvies here" with that, the two of them fell silent as they entered the office and Snyder got to work on accessing the systems. Over the next couple of minutes; Drake sprayed the Red Spade on the Bathroom door, Snydeer got what they needed and materialized Drake's weapons back onto his person, and Drake Drank a can of Diet Coke before the system was back up and they knew it was time to go.
"Showtime Snyder" Drake chuckled putting the Stormtrooper helmet back on and strolling into the hallway. As soon as a pair of troopers came running at him, realising he was a fraud, Drake used the Ace of Spades to shoot them. Alarms began blaring and as he entered the next hallway he encountered more Stormtroopers and an Officer armed with a blaster pistol
"Surrender now, traitor" the officer ordered as he and the Stormtroopers raised their weapons
"How can I betray what I wasn't apart of/" Drake asked as he shot the officer and used an Arcbolt Grenade to take down the Stormtrooper. Replacing the Ace of Spades for the Young Wolf's Howl, Drake began running and slashing at Stormtroopers, a few of them shouted out the word "Jedi" which confused him but he kept going, advanced speed, reflexes, and strength keeping him safe from harm as he busted out of the Government building and blinked into a nearby building where Snyder transported his weapons and stolen armor away while Snyder changed into civilian clothing to blend in as he strode towards the spaceport, satisfied with the mission as Imperial reinforcements were running to the Government Building in a vain attempt to capture him, while he paid for fuel and took off in the Queen of Hearts.
The rebels, entirely unaware of what had happened, stood inside the Ghost as the mole they had rescued woke up.
"Where am I?" the mole groaned
"You're safe friend" Hera spoke to him
"You're with Phoenix Squadron" the mole realised "I have vital in-"
"Just rest" Kanaan said 'This can w-"
"It can't wait, Jedi!" the mole exclaimed "The Empire is transporting an unknown object to Coruscant for research, an object with an energy signature that is also unidentified. If the Empire finds out what this is and weaponizes it, we'll all be in trouble."
"Do you have the coordinates?" Hera asked as the crew left the two to begin preparing for the mission they knew was coming.