Chapter 11: Battle of Taris
April 4.
All ships were operative. Weapons loaded. The Rogue Shadow was ready with the boarding party. The new TIE Defender squadrons were traveling in hyperspace right next to the Admonitor, along with two new ships that he had commissioned months before: Two Procursator-class Star Destroyers, but with Ion cannons instead of the traditional turbolaser turrets aligned in the center of the bow. They were the first two of the 'Shieldbreaker' variant, designed to smash the energy defenses of enemy capital ships, which were going to play a key role in his plan to face the heavily armed mandalorian fleet.
"Sir." Ciena reported next to him. "Lieutenant Kyrell just sent his scouting report." and passed her datapad to Iulius.
From the images sent by the TIE Phantoms, Iulius saw the mandalorian fleet. It was clearly centered around their capital ship, the Keldabe, and while most of the force was made of frigates and corvettes, Iulius noticed quite alarmed that there were five Kandosii-class battleships. The mandalorians couldn't have possibly built them so fast. Furthermore, the mandalorians had several Acclamator-class and Dreadnought-class cruisers within their ranks. Imperial models. Not to mention they would take a lot of manpower.
Where did they get that, considering that the warring clans had been severely reduced in numbers in the last 20 years?
"News from Agent Jade?" he asked, deciding to postpone the problem.
"She has infiltrated Taris and got in contact with the local commander."
"Why not the Governor?"
"The Governor has apparently died in the first day of the siege. He shot himself." Ciena bluntly reported.
That seemed too weird for Iulius, but there was no time to delve on it. So he went on. "So, is the hyper-velocity cannon on the surface still available?"
"Yes, sir. Luckily, it wasn't damaged during the first bombardment and is now safe under the planetary shield."
Iulius nodded. "Good." and turned his head back to stare the blue tunnel, preparing his mind for what he expected to be a colossal battle, given the numbers fielded by both sides.
Ironically, though, this time the Empire had numerical inferiority: the 101st was just the vanguard in the much more extensive operation that the Grand Admiral had planned to knock the Mandalorians out of the war, and the plan relied on a timetable scheduled down to the minute.
By the end of this day, he had to destroy the enemy capital ships for the first phase to be considered a success.
Probably sensing his nervousness, Qathora gripped his shoulder hard but not harshly. He turned his head toward her and she smiled. "We will make it, Grand Admiral."
Iulius nodded, albeit a bit hesitantly. So Ciena also added an encouragement. "The entire fleet is with you, Grand Admiral. We know you will lead us to victory."
"Thank you." the Grand Admiral murmured before taking a breath with his nose and calming his nerves. Thousands of soldiers were putting their faith on him, and to honor it, he needed to get a hold of himself and be the cold, calculating commander that he had always been.
An alarm made a beep on the bridge and along all the ship.
"We're leaving hyperspace in 30 seconds." Nash reported loudly.
"All hands to battle stations." Iulius calmly ordered and another siren resonated along the entire fleet. "Link with the Phantom squadrons to signal exit points."
"Yes, sir." an officer from the pit replied.
This was a new maneuver they had trained for in the last couple of weeks: setting the navicomputers to leave hyperspace just before they hit the planet's gravitational field and then use the momentum to reach the coordinates that the TIE Phantoms had secretly sent. It was risky, but the training had shown that it was possible with enough practice.
In order to do so, Nash started to count loudly starting from 15, so the officers could regulate the power of the engines, calculate when to activate the brakes to stop the ship and all the various factors that would prevent the fleet from crashing against the mandalorian ships, or worse the planet.
"3...2...1...Engage!"
The tunnel disappeared and Taris appeared. It was quite distant, but Iulius saw it becoming much closer in the span of a single second. But as they stopped right over the orbit of the planet, with the mandalorian ships already in sight of the sensors, the other ships also made the risky jump flawlessly.
There was no time for compliments, however, because The Keldabe and its squadron was the first thing Iulius saw, even though in front of it there was a line of imperial models.
"Commander Grey. Engage those line cruisers. Aim for the launch bays." the Grand Admiral immediately ordered to the leader of Titan Squadron.
"Copy that, Grand Admiral. All Defenders, on me." the officer replied and the Defenders sprinted forward to exploit the advantage such a maneuver had given them: the mandalorian fighters were all in their hangars, because they predicted that they would have the time to launch them.
Such was the standard procedure for the defense in a space battle: the enemy capital ships would have to leave hyperspace at several thousands km, so the fighters stayed in the hangars in order to spare fuel, but the mandalorians didn't expect such an opening move, and this gave the Defenders around two minutes to go on a killing spree.
"Tanis to all squads, engage at will." the Grand Admiral ordered to the other Star Destroyers and their escorts.
"This is the Allecto, order received."
"Eviscerator moving to engage."
Other three naval squads confirmed, then the order came for all TIEs available to launch.
Meanwhile, the first strike of the Defenders turned out to be devastating. They followed the formation planned by Gray himself to the book: 4 squadrons opened the bombing runs with ion torpedoes, other 4 came right after with the proton bombs and missiles that demolished the launch bays, while the last squadron kept in reserve, ready to intercept possible enemy fighters.
That first strike destroyed the hangars of the Acclamators, thus taking out at least half of the fighters that were supposed to protect the Keldabe before they could take off. All while the battle started to rage and the formations started to drift away.
Only the Admonitor kept her escort close: the two Procursator, four Vindicator frigates, three Victory cruisers, a missile cruiser behind her and a swarm of fighters and interceptors ready for deployment on four Ton-Falke carriers. This formation was clearly pointing at the Keldabe and her escort of two Sabaoth frigates, the Kandosii battleships, Crusader patrol cruisers and five Jelgavi-class frigates.
"Grand Admiral, this Agent Jade, come in." a voice spoke from the comlink.
"I read you, Agent Jade." Iulius calmly ordered.
"The hyper-velocity cannon is ready to fire. Be advised thata minute must pass between every shot, and we'll have to open a section of the planetary shield."
"Understood. Link with the Admonitor, we'll signal the targets." he commanded, then he turned toward the pit on his right. "Bimsey, have you identified their commander?"
"Sir, it seems like the mandalorian leader, Bo-Katan Kryze, is not on the Keldabe. They're answering to one Fenn Rau."
"The leader of the Protectors." Iulius mumbled as he turned back toward the viewport, watching the battle raging around a shipyard that had been turned into the mandalorian main base.
After analyzing the situation, he took the next decision. "Ree, order the 4th skirmish group to leave hyperspace and reinforce the Allecto." he said, pointing with a finger at the left flank of the imperial formation.
"Yes, sir." she replied, typing the order on her datapad.
And as the new batch of frigates slipped into the battlefield, Iulius spotted his next objective: A Golan defense platform that the mandalorians had captured and were now using to protect their flagship.
"We need to open a path for the boarding party. Order the Eviscerator to pin down the enemy on our right flank. The Purifier and her squad move in to provide cover fire."
The squads immediately moved according to the Grand Admiral's orders. The main tactic for the imperial was to use two or three cruisers focusing fire on a single target while the frigates distracted the enemy ships. The Star Destroyers generally stayed in the back row, hitting the bigger ships from afar.
Though the battle was proceeding well, the imperials were suffering. Several line ships had already been destroyed, and the TIEs were struggling against the better fighters that the mandalorians could sport or bought from the Zann Consortium. Though losses were still into the predicted margin, Iulius knew that he had to keep the initiative, or the battle could end up being too costly.
A heated fight took place around the Golan, but the imperials eventually got the upper hand. At that point, one of the Sabaoth frigates dashed forward in order to attempt a last ditch effort to repel the Purifier.
"Aim the hyper-velocity cannon." Iulius ordered as he saw the ship exposing her belly to the surface of the planet.
The order was quickly sent. After around ten seconds, a massive green bolt came from the surface.
The second it impacted with the ship, the vessel exploded with terrifying violence. So much, in fact, that nothing was left of it and even the Purifier was tilted a bit by the explosion. Nonetheless, the Golan was now open for the boarding party.
"Cody. Launch the attack." Iulius ordered through the comlink of the Rogue Shadow.
"Order received, sir." the old clone replied from behind his helmet, then turned toward Captain Eclipse. "Take us in." he ordered before turning around to return into the cargo hold.
"Yes, sir." Juno replied with a lighthearted tone. The Shadow was already flying, as she had followed the fleet and was now waiting with her cloaking device on, right next to the Corvus, which was supposed to bring additional troops when the squad of the Shadow would secure a landing zone.
The clone commander walked into the hold, finding the team that he would have to lead inside the space fortress: the Inferno Squad, first, but also the stormtrooper sergeant MK-4353, nicknamed "Mickey", who in the last few months had distinguished himself for incredible bravery and a certain tactical acumen, so much that Cody decided to make him his second-in-command.
Then there was the Sith assassin, Galen Marek, codename "Starkiller". Cody was still unsure what to think about him: he used to think that, after the Clone Wars, all the Force-sensitives in the galaxy had been wiped out. At least that was what the imperial propaganda proclaimed, but this had been proven false by his experience. Nonetheless, Starkiller had proven to be an effective warrior on the frontline, and now he was already in front of the airlock, eager to be the first to disembark and cut his way through the mandalorians with his two lightsabers.
Finally, there was a new squad of Dark Troopers. Burke's team had already been sent back to Carunoia to help the development of the project, and so here were four new guys in that gray armor. Two of them carried the new weapon developed on their home-planet: the 'Soul-stealer'. This weapons was developed from a Yavzakh weapon, specifically the one that was capable of firing gaseous bolts that could easily go through any solid surface and make a cover useless.
Now, Iulius hoped that this weapon would bypass the mandalorian armors, but the weapon needed to be tested first.
"Listen up." Cody said, drawing the attention of the soldiers. "The moment we enter that station, we're heading straight for the nearest hangar so we can get reinforcements, then our objective will be the control center. Remember: the mandos don't take prisoner, so give no mercy and expect none."
"Sir, yes, sir!" the Inferno and Mickey replied. The Dark Troopers simply said "Yes!" while Starkiller didn't seem to bother.
"Hold on down there!" the voice of Juno cried out. "I'm taking you right into one of the hangars!"
"And what about the enemy batteries?" Cody asked confused.
"Please. As if those can be a problem." the woman replied before increasing the power to the engines and the transport dashed forward.
They might have been invisible to radars, but when an operator on the station saw them with the regular visual sensors, a few of the batteries turned toward the Rogue Shadow and fired. Juno rotated the ship one way or the other, veering only slightly in order not to lose the approach vector with one of the upper hangars that she was aiming at.
The shields of the ship lasted enough to allow the approach, then Juno fired a salvo of missiles against the hangar, which was open as the last squadron of mandalorian fighters were taking off to join the battle.
A huge explosion rocked the inside of the hangars, blowing up virtually every starfighter that was still there and killing many mandalorians on the spot, but the hangar itself wasn't too damaged. The survivors didn't even have the time to stand back up that the Rogue Shadow barged into the structure. Eclipse quickly lowered the access ramp while still hovering over the surface, allowing Starkiller to be the first to jump out. The Assassin ignited his crimson sabers, which paired with his sinister armor probably shook the mandalorians. These, nonetheless, opened fire against him, but the Dark-sider easily parried their bolts and charged at them, allowing Cody and his team to disembark without any hindrance.
"Dark Troopers on the front! Everyone else, follow me." he ordered, and the imperials immediately fell in order.
A second group of mandalorians arrived from the hallway leading to the center of the station to reinforce the defense, and Starkiller was still cutting down mandalorians on the other side of the room, so it was time for the Dark Troopers to test the new weapon. The two of them wielding the Soul-stealer rifles knelt down (as it was a very heavy weapon even for them), took aim and fired.
The bolts were not gaseous and they were much faster than those of the Yavzakhs. Two mandalorians were hit, and no sparks appeared on their breastplates. The two simply fell down like rag-dolls. Half of their internal organs had been vaporized instantly.
The remaining warriors watched in total confusion, and just at that moment Cody noticed something weird: among the enemies there were some who weren't Humans and did not wear beskar armor.
"Open fire!" he ordered anyway, raising his E-22 blaster rifle himself and firing at one of those strangers.
The coordinated fire of the imperials, combined with the new weapons, quickly decimated the mandos and their allies, who fired back at the Dark Troopers only to find out that these had personal shields. Only two of them managed to run back behind the blast door, but they were only delaying the inevitable.
Starkiller had finished with his enemies and Cody ordered him to go slice the door opened, while Iden called in the Corvus to secure the hangar and the Rogue Shadow flew back outside, waiting for the next order.
The old clone and Mickey went to inspect the corpse of one of the aliens. He only had a light armor and weapons usually used by pirates. Strangely enough, Mickey found out no signs of his group.
"Cody to Admonitor." the clone said into the comlink of his helmet.
"Go ahead, Commander." Iulius replied.
"Be advised. We found non-mandalorians fighting with the enemy. Probably mercenaries." Cody reported.
"Understood. Thanks for the intel. Proceed with the operation."
"Yes, sir."
The soldiers gathered behind Starkiller, who was about to finish his surgery on the blast door. He drew a circle large enough to allow even two Dark Troopers at a time to cross, but instead of simply letting it fall, he used the Force to shoot it with the force of of mass driver into the hallway. It turned out that the Dark-sider had felt another formation of enemies taking position in the hallway, and now most of them were ran over by the door, scattering their line. Starkiller barged in and started another massacre, which kept the mandos and their allies so occupied that the imperials, once again, entered with few enemies noticing them.
So the squad pressed their way toward the control room. If these were the mandalorians of the past with their much stronger armors, it would hardly be this easy, but this generation of mandalorians had payed for the extensive exploitation of beskar mines by their ancestors and their armors didn't give much protection as the one more notable mandalorians had inherited from powerful ancestors: many of these recruits still had many parts of their bodies exposed and the armors were only partially imbued with beskar, so the blasters of the imperials could still kill them with relative ease.
Not only that, but Iden had a Seeker droid that regularly flew around the battle, hitting the mandos with electric discharges that only caused even more chaos among them.
In around ten minutes of fighting, the Empire had finally retaken control of the Golan fortress.
"Versio. Have your droid take control of the batteries." Cody ordered as they finished clearing the control room of enemies.
"Droid. Hack it." Iden ordered and the seeker droid left her shoulder to fly at the correspondent plug.
"Sir. The enemy battleships are moving in." the sensor officer reported.
"Good. Prepare the hyper-velocity cannon again." Iulius ordered.
Ciena sent the command, then spoke up. "Sir, we still have a skirmish squad in waiting. If we press on their right flank we might free up more ships to target their battleships."
"Good call, Lieutenant-Commander. Make it so."
Another squad of Vindicator,Lancerand Victory ships came out of hyperspace, engaging the formation that was tying down the Eviscerator, the Purifier and the Castigator. Especially, these squads were suffering heavy losses to their TIE contingents, as the mandalorians had sent in the Crusader patrol cruisers and had reinforced their own fighter squadrons.
Thanks to this jump, the new arrivals caught the mandalorians exactly at their backs. The Lancers quickly caused grave losses among the Fang fighters and the mandalorian ships tried to turn around so they could shoot to both sides, but it amounted to very little. The Sabaoth frigates, the strongest ships of the formation, were destroyed, and the remaining forces were forced to run for their lives, suffering even more casualties.
In response, the Kandosii headed straight toward the Admonitor.
"Tell the Procursators to fire a battleship each. Have our right flank's Star Destroyers converge on our position, we'll focus on one ship at a time." the Grand Admiral calmly ordered.
"Yes, sir. You want the TIE Defenders, too?"
"Have them weaken the ship on the left." he replied with a small nod toward the ship.
In quite the brutal way, the mandalorian battleships just headed at full speed, firing at any line cruiser of the Empire they found along the way.
It didn't take long before they entered in contact with the Admonitor's squad. But as they did, Iulius ordered the Procursator Destroyers to open fire. Giant blue bolts, coming out of octuple ion turrets, flew toward the mandalorian battleships, hammering them with an immeasurable amount of electricity that overload their powerful shields in mere seconds.
And just at that time, the TIE Defenders came back to bomb the first Kandosii in her weak spots.
Still, the battleships were not going down without a fight. Their shields might go down and their engines might stutter under the constant barrage of ion blows, but their impressive arsenal of turrets was still operative and they returned fire, starting from the more fragile frigates.
One of the Vindicators was hit into the core by a kinetic blast and cracked in two, but at that point, the left Kandosii had been weakened enough by the precise strikes of the Defenders, and Iulius called in the second shot of the hyper-velocity cannon.
The battleship was completely exposed and pretty much standing in her place, so the shot hit her straight into the vital support system, also causing a chain reaction that blew up the engines and engulfed it in a storm of fire.
"All ships, focus fire on the second battleship. Fire all weapons." Iulius ordered.
The Admonitor veered to face the second Kandosii, which was already withstanding the combined assault of three Star Destroyers. Deviating the energy of the engines toward the weapons, the turrets of the Admonitor fired at a much higher rate than usual, bombarding the face the Kandosii while the Victory cruisers hammered the turrets of the ship with their concussion missiles.
Both the Procursator Destroyers concentrated fire on the battleship, weakening it even more. Still, the ship was not going down easily.
"Grand Admiral." the sensor officer reported from the pit. "Intercepted enemy transmission. Their leader, Rau, is taking off with a fighter squadron."
"Good." said Iulius. "Order Titan Squadron to engage that squadron and have Lieutenant Kyrell converge on them."
"Yes, sir." Ciena replied dutifully, though there was a faint hint of worry for the possible fate of her loved one.
Meanwhile, the Kandosii was firing back, and at a point, her kinetic weapons even managed to bypass the shields of the Castigator and penetrate her armor, making a magazine explode. The Star Destroyer survived the blow, but Iulius ordered them to disengage immediately. He couldn't afford the risk of losing one of the most experienced ships in his fleet.
As the imperials dealt the final blow to the battleship, the duel between the TIE Defenders and the Protectors had already started and Iulius focused his attention to that. He had the comlink of the fighters linked to his post at the viewport and listened.
"They won't last much longer."
"Shields falling!"
"Titan-3 converge on Titan-2, we'll crossfire them."
Overall, it seemed like the fight was balanced, but the numerical superiority of the TIEs was winning them the day, as Fighters and Interceptors also converged to help the Defenders. The Fang fighters were agile, well-armored and the Protectors were some of the best mandalorian warriors existing. The heavy armament of the TIE Defender, however, made them look like they were made of paper; the shields of the Defenders saved their pilots more than once and their pilots were not greenhorns either.
"AV-547, this is Titan-1." Iulius eventually heard.
"I'm listening." Thane replied.
"I drew the attention of their leader."
"Say no more."
Iulius thus linked his screen with Kyrell's helmet cam. His TIE Phantom was in stealth mode, with his two wingmen covering his flanks. As the best pilot of the group, Thane had the most important task at that moment: catch Fenn Rau off guard and shooting him down.
It wasn't easy. He had to kill him with the first burst, or the Protector's leader would not fall for such a trick a second time and he would probably just retreat, especially because he had already lost the Kandosii ships and the battle was turning against the mandalorians.
Iulius, though, was keen to obtain the maximum result possible. That's why he instructed his pilots to act like this while Cody was reconquering the Golan.
He followed the action from the screen. Grey was veering left and right in a convincing attempt to shake off Rau, who was not letting him go. The Phantoms were still able to keep up with it, and Thane was being incredibly good at not letting the mandalorian leave the sight of his cockpit.
Eventually, the leader of Titan squadron managed to get in position and flew on a straight line, confident that the shields of the Defender could sustain the Fang's shots just long enough.
"Now, Lieutenant!"
Thane deactivated the stealth mode, allowing his weapons to receive energy once again. Rau probably noticed on the sensors and tried to fly away, but Thane opened fire.
One of the rotating wings of the Fang caught fire and detached. The mandalorian fighter span around a little, then exploded.
"Great shot, Lieutenant!" one of the pilots exclaimed, along with a cheer of many others.
Iulius smirked slightly. The battle was won. Now it was about mopping up.
"Tanis to all the 101st. Let's finish this. Bombers, destroy their flagship's engines. All Star Destroyers converge on the Keldabe." he ordered with a confident tone. A renewed energy seemed to move his crew, as well, and all the vessels of the fleet.
Quickly, the TIE Defenders and Bombers converged on the Keldabe right when she was trying to regroup with what was left of the mandalorian fleet to jump out of there. The rain of proton torpedoes quickly took out the engines, leaving the flagship to make a last stand.
What followed was no longer a battle, but a relentless onslaught. The imperial fleet chased the mandalorian ships out of the system. The Keldabe was destroyed after a relentless attack that costed a couple of line cruisers to the Empire, but that was it. As the flagship of Mandalore went down, the officers of the Admonitor started to cheer and applauded the Grand Admiral.
"Hail Iulius!" one of them screamed.
"Hail Iulius! Hail Iulius! Hail Iulius!" the others repeated in choir, celebrating the man who had just led them to a victory that, by all account, was nothing short than decisive: virtually the entire mandalorian fleet had been destroyed, while the Empire didn't lose a single capital ship, despite a heavily armed opposition.
Iulius was flattered, sure, but he gently made a gesture with the hand to calm them down. As the cheering turned to a still excited silence, Iulius opened a channel so the entire fleet could hear him.
"This is Grand Admiral Tanis to all elements of the 101st. Ladies and gentlemen." he stated proudly. "Today you have made a great service to the Empire. The citizens of Taris will be forever in your debt, and in a single day you wiped out the forces of one of the fiercest civilizations in the galaxy. I am proud of you, and I'm grateful to command such extraordinary soldiers." then he made a silent breather, and his tone turned more neutral. "However, at the cost of sounding cynical...we will not waste time with celebrations. Today we also lost many comrades." he stated, and the positive energy on the bridge quickly subsided. "It's imperative that we ensure their sacrifice...was not in vain. We shall not rest until Mandalore lies in ruins and these savages will never, ever threaten the imperial peace again.
"I want a full status report of all squads in an hour. Make reparations where you can. In 12 hours we're sailing again. Tanis, out."
Without the need to hear his order, the officers went back to work. Iulius turned toward Ciena. "Ree, I want a loss count. Send it to my office as soon as you have it."
Ciena clacked her heel. "Yes, sir." she replied, allowing Iulius to walk toward away, heading toward the planet below to see what supplies he could find to refit his fleet.
"Any idea why your sister wants to talk to us right now?" Zeb asked to a grim-faced Ezra.
He shook his head. "No. But she is extremely disturbed, right now. Something bad has happened."
The Amerigo was inspecting a sector next to the Triellus Trade Route, the hyperspace lane connecting the edge of the galaxy and that ran right next to Hutt Space.
Jaral had just contacted Ezra with the Force bond, asking him to break the radio silence and establish a connection with the New Republic's Military Command on Lianna immediately. So, after taking the cruiser into empty space, where Ezra was confident that the Empire would not be able to disturb them, the Ghost crew gathered on the bridge, together with Captain Riccardi.
"We're ready. Make the call." Ezra instructed the operator of the table, who nodded and typed the command on the console.
The table beeped a couple times intermittently, as they waited for the call to be picked up.
Then, Jaral's hologram appeared, facing Ezra.
Both of them where genuinely happy to finally see each other's face, but that good sentiment was now constrained by extremely bad news.
"Hey, sis." Ezra said with caution. "What's going on?"
Jaral put her hands behind her back and prepared to deliver the bomb.
"Ten hours ago, the mandalorian fleet has been destroyed over Taris. Fenn Rau is dead." she said with a heavy tone.
The team was taken aback by that sudden news. But predictably enough, the one who took it worst was Sabine.
"No. It must be a lie!" she said, barely holding her desire to yell.
"I didn't want to believe it when I heard the HoloNet bragging about it." Jaral intervened, then sighed. "But Bo-Katan confirmed it."
Sabine stumbled backward a bit and Ezra went to put an arm around her shoulder before turning his head toward his sister.
"How did this happen?"
Jaral didn't hesitate to reply. "Iulius. That's how."
Zeb snorted. "Of course."
"Without the mandalorian fleet, Yavin will be exposed." Hera commented.
Jaral nodded. "Precisely. That's why I'm calling you guys." she said, but hesitated to go forward. Ezra apparently had already figured what she was about to ask and nodded to her. After sighing, the Grand Marshall of the New Republic continued. "I need the Ghost back here. We need to reorganize our defenses, Hera, and you are one of the few Generals we have."
"What about Mandalore?" Sabine asked, rebounding from her shock.
"I'm trying to put together a relief force, but I don't know if we'll get there in time. Sensors say that the Empire is amassing a huge fleet over Taris. I believe another invasion of Mandalorian Space is imminent and if Iulius leads it…" she didn't have the courage to finish her prediction, but everybody understood that the situation looked extremely grim.
Nobody knew how to reply. Nobody except Ezra, who stepped forward and spoke without hesitation. "You heard her, guys. We just happen to be near the border. Take the Ghost and return to Lianna as soon as you can."
The others looked at him with grieving eyes, but Ezra clearly meant those words as an order, and they respected him too much to complain.
Hera lowered her head. "We'll go get ready." she said with a bit of pain in her voice. Without saying anything else, Jaral closed the call.
And as she and Zeb left the room, Sabine didn't seem that eager to comply.
Not wanting to make too much of a fuss, Ezra accompanied her out of the bridge and they headed all the way to the hangar, into the Silver Bullet.
As soon as they were alone, Sabine was boiling with anger, and she spat it out against Ezra. "You are not doing this." she said.
"Doing what?" he asked patiently.
"You're not setting me aside. I'm staying."
"Sabine, this is not a matter of what you and I want, it's about duty."
"Well, you are my husband! My duty is with you!" she said in exasperation.
Ezra stepped forward and gently put his hands on her arms. "If Mandalore is lost, then you have to make sure your family and your people will be safe."
"What about the ship?" she exclaimed, pointing at the interior of the Bullet. "How are you going to fly it on your own, uh?!"
Ezra shrugged. "Well, there are still Kallus, Rex...and Luke. That won't be a problem."
"But if we get back there, then will never come back to this ship!" she insisted. "I won't be seeing you again!"
"You know that's not true." he replied gently, shifting a hand to his wife's cheek as her eyes seemed about to bawl. "Because no matter what will happen, I will always be one with you."
Unable to put her contrasting emotions into words, Sabine broke down and just hugged Ezra as tightly as she could. The Jedi returned the gesture kindly, using the Force to drain away her sadness and the pain that wasn't simply given by the incoming separation, but especially from the news about her people.
For a few minutes, the young woman sulked into her husband's chest as he did his best to comfort her, and eventually she calmed down. She only wanted to hold him as long as she could, because it didn't take long before Hera called her on the wrist-pad.
"Sabine...we are ready." she said with caution, knowing what was going on.
The mandalorian found the strength to detach from Ezra and replied. "I'm on my way." she said as calmly as she could.
Ezra expected to be torn apart himself. But to his surprise, and perhaps a bit of pride, he wasn't. He was willing to let her go and not let their attachment for each other to overcome him with fear. And so, he had just achieved one of the first teachings of his Master.
"Just promise me that you will come back to me." Sabine said finally with a determined voice and a stern glare.
Ezra chuckled, but replied with all his heart. "Always."
Then the two kissed. One last time before destiny separated them for an undefined amount of time.
After they separated, Sabine lowered her gaze and ran out of the ramp. Ezra walked outside and looked at her run toward the Ghost. Just at that time, the rest of the crew showed up after they heard the news.