"Everyone okay?" Kanan asks, hiding his concern for Hera behind the crew.
"We're fine, but I scraped the Phantom's underbelly." Hera replies in annoyance.
"You?" Kanan asks, incredulously
"It was somewhat unavoidable once your plan went south." Hera retorts, putting the blame back on Kanan.
"Oh for the love of the Father, enough. I don't want to hear you argue right now. Zeb, go run a diagnostic on the Phantom. Ezra, Chopper, you can help him out." Vex orders.
"Have you met those two?" Zeb asks.
"You work with what you got, Zeb. Now get to it, Hera and I are going to pick up supplies from Fulcrum, so be quick about it.." Vex retorts. Once the three of them had left, and Hera had made her way to the cockpit, Kanan taking his leave, Vex sat beside Sabine, audibly sighing. "The Empire is learning to do things last minute. I personally ordered a droid manned scout to check once we were less than three parsecs away, and it didn't have that many ships defending it." He notes.
"Yeah. It's definitely getting harder to anticipate the Empire's moves." Sabine affirms. "Also, about that, I'd like to know why we're relying on intel from this Fulcrum, whoever he is." Sabine says.
"It's Hera's job to find the missions that create problems for the Empire, and profit us. If she trusts the contact, I trust the contact. No questions asked." Kanan explains, returning from wherever he had gone too. Hera returns too, once the ship enters Hyperspace.
"At the Imperial Academy, they didn't want me to ask questions either. That didn't work for me. That's why I ended up here." Sabine says.
"And we're glad to have you." Kanan assures.
"You are so frustrating." Sabine groans.
"Yeah, I've heard that before." He retorts with a sigh, once more disappearing.
"Fine. I'm done asking questions. I'm telling you: I'm coming on your run to meet Fulcrum." Sabine states in frustration.
"Sabine, I don't mind you coming along, hell, I'm sure Fulcrum would have a lot of fun learning your exploits in detail, but at the moment, with how things are, it will just spook them, and they won't show up. That, will delay some intel we could have received in person." Vex warns gently.
"I'm still coming." Sabine argues.
"Fair enough. But you have been warned." He relents. With things settled, the three of them make their way to the Phantom, where Chopper rolls past, laughing maniacally, Ezra and Zeb in tow.
"I take it you've finished the repairs?" Hera asks.
"Uh, you were right. The steering needed fixing and the life support needed purging, which we've done." Ezra explains. Chopper comes up behind him and bashing him in the stomach, while zapping Zeb, rolling off in laughter.
"Chopper! I'm gonna dismantle that nut bucket!" Zeb growls, running after the little droid.
"Leave a few bolts for me!" Ezra calls out, dashing after them.
"Typical of those three." Vex notes, as the three of them pile in. Hera detaches from the Phantom, flying off into the vast expanse, waiting for the call.
"So what's the deal? Is Fulcrum just another smuggler like Vizago? Why all the secrecy?" Sabine asks.
"Oh, it's no secret we're fighting against the Empire. We need as many allies as we can get." Hera responds.
"How do you find a way of answering questions without giving any answers?" Sabine asks in annoyance.
"Do you really want me to answer that?" Hera asks in a deadpan. The comms interrupt the two of them as an encrypted call passes through.
"Phantom, this is Fulcrum, come in." Fulcrum calls through.
"This is Spectre-2, Fulcrum." Hera replies.
"Archangel, along for the ride." Vex adds.
"I got your package, Archangel. Healing has been successful." Fulcrum notes.
"That's good to hear." Vex sighs in relief.
"Why don't I talk to her?" Sabine asks.
"Don't. You. Dare." Hera snarls.
"I'm already at the rendezvous, Spectre-2, Archangel. Supplies are unloaded and ready. Should I wait?" Fulcrum asks.
"Yeah, stick around. Spectre-2, Archangel and I would love to talk to you." Sabine speaks up, earning a growl from Hera in response.
"Spectre-2, Archangel, who was that?" Fulcrum asks.
"Spectre-5. She is antsy about going into missions without knowing why. I guess it's up to you whether you stay now." Vex explains, sending a glare to Sabine.
"Understood. Fulcrum out." Fulcrum cuts the transmission. Hera begins to pilot the Phantom towards the nearby Asteroid Belt, sending a glare towards Sabine.
"An outburst like that is not helpful." She warns.
"Neither is all this secrecy." Sabine retorts.
"Whether you like it or not doesn't really matter Sabine." Vex admits roughly. "This galaxy doesn't revolve around you. There will always be things you aren't meant to know." Hera brings them towards an old, abandoned Clone Wars Outpost, the asteroids floating around send moving shadows across the small base. Hera lands, the hatch opening to reveal the barren, rocky landscape.
"So, where is this mystery man?" Sabine questions, the area devoid of humanoid life.
"I don't know. Maybe Fulcrum didn't like your attitude? I know I sure didn't." Hera retorts.
"They're definitely not here." Vex notes. "We're the only humanoid life on this rock." He moves over to the crates, eyes scanning for the Fulcrum logo, finding it on two, along with another symbol. The Null Protection sigil. He goes and activates it's propulsion lifts, and calls to the other two. "I'll take this one. These other two are what you're after." Hera and Sabine take a crate each, with Sabine attempting to open hers to take an early peak, only to have no success. "Not gonna work. From what i saw, Fulcrum hastily added a DNA lock. Hera and I are the only ones who can open them."
"Look, I'm sorry. Things have been getting more and more dangerous. I just want you guys to know you can trust me." She apologises.
"We do trust you, Sabine. We just can't tell you everything. If we are captured, the less who know these things, mean the less the Empire will learn." Hera explains. Vex walks past the two of them, a discoloration on the rocky surface catching his eye.
"You think I'd talk?" Sabine asks in betrayal.
"It's not a matter of talking." Vex replies, speaking louder as he goes to inspect what he saw. "The Empire has ways of making people talk without their consent. The Inquisitors can enter one's mind to find the information they want. You wouldn't be able to stop them." He crouches down to inspect the marks, noticing as they lead to a direction, deeper into the old base. "There were more crates here. But something dragged them away." He warns. An asteroid begins to block the light from the nearby star, sending a large shadow of darkness across the base, before fading away just as fast.
"Let's see what else is in this place." Hera offers, taking her flashlight and blaster, making her way into the darkened hanger. Vex ignites his his rudimentary saber, the yellow glow illuminating the hanger in a dull glow.
"When did you get that?" Sabine asks.
"I built it. I had most of the parts I needed, and the Inquisitor's saber gave me the remaining pieces." Vex answers. As they move closer to a downed crate, a low growl echoes, as several creatures prowl around, trying to get an angle at the trio, to surround them.
"That sounds comforting. Do either of you happen to know why this base was abandoned?" Sabine asks.
"I was never stationed anywhere near here. So no. And Hera wouldn't know either, or she wouldn't have wanted us to check it out." Vex answers, gently nudging Sabine behind him.
"I think I'm starting to have my suspicions." Hera admits. Sabine tries to get back in front of Vex, but he stops her, pulling out his own blaster and shooting what looked to be a simple formation, only for it to convulse and collapse as the bolt of plasma tore through it.
"They're surrounding us. Run." He orders taking the flank as the others run out to the Phantom.
"Well, I think we can guess why this place was abandoned." Sabine comments, as the creatures make chase, only to stop and retreat once they had made it to sunlight.
"Whatever they are, it seems they can't take the sunlight." Hera notes.
"Good, but you see the size of that Asteroid? That'll block out the sun for a good while." Sabine warns.
"Good thing we weren't planning to stay. Get the rest of those crates onboard." Hera orders. Vex decides to speed things up, reforming the crates inside the Phantom. "Well, that's a handy trick." She mutters, entering the cockpit and preparing for launch, only for the engines to splutter and die immediately. "No, no, no, no, no! We had nearly a full tank when we landed. Now we're out of fuel?" Immediately, Vex goes to the commlink.
"Spectre-2 to Spectre-4, come in." He calls. "Spectre-2 to Spectre-4, come in!"
"Go ahead, Spectre-2." Zeb answers.
"You did run a full diagnostic on the Phantom, correct?" Vex asks in a sweet tone.
"Of course." Zeb replies.
"Did you bother to check the fucking results?!" He questions in fury
"Um, Spectre-2, there might be a small problem with the fuel line." Zeb says sheepishly.
"YOU THINK? WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH FUCKING CREATURES WHO THINK WE ARE AN EASY DINNER!" He bellows. "KANAN! I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR MY YELLING, SO GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE AND HELP US!"
"We're on our way, Ghost out." Kanan quickly cuts the link for Zeb.
"There's no way they get here before that Asteroid blocks the Sun." Sabine groans, the creatures, seemingly understanding them, begin to growl and screech. "I guess we could hole up in the Phantom?"
Judging by the gunships that were in that hanger? No way in hell would it be space worthy afterwards." Vex denies. "But the Rhydonium lying around might help us last a little longer."
"That's... not a bad idea." Sabine admits. "We can set them up in groups, to take out the creatures wave by wave."
"I can't reform Rhydonium. Too volatile. We'll have to set it up by hand." Vex warns.
"Let's get to it then. We don't have much time." Hera orders. The three of them work on repositioning the Rhydonium, forming clusters of three canisters, forming a sporadic perimeter around the entrance of the hanger. By the time the last canister is set, the Asteroid has begun to cast it's shadow. A lone creature goes to explore, before it tries to rush the trio. Vex plants a bolt of plasma between it's eyes, not intent on wasting any Rhydonium for a lone creature.
More creatures begin to spew out of the entrance, several rushing ahead of the others, forcing the trio to detonate the first cluster, taking out the first wave. A dozen more dash out from behind the smoke, another cluster detonated. This continues until the creatures have pushed the three back onto the Phantom, and the Rhydonium is spent. While firing at the creatures the best they can, a bit of Lightning thrown in the mix, the Ghost arrives, firing its Turbolasers at the creatures, forcing them back. Once on board, Hera moves over to the cockpit, taking control from Kanan, electrifying the hull to prevent the creatures from causing any external damage. Hera collects the Phantom with the mag lock, before taking them away from the abandoned base, jumping to Hyperspace.
Hera makes her way out of the cockpit to talk with Sabine, while Vex makes his way to Zeb, Ezra and Chopper, the three, or well, two of them, apologizing profusely.
"Enough." Vex halts their words. "You three are going to be fixing the Phantom, you got that right. But, this time, I'm watching you. If something looks off, you do it from scratch. By the end of it, you will know how to pull the bloody thing apart and put it back together in your sleep." He then turns to Chopper. "As for you, I think Hera can sort out your punishment. She'll be much less lenient on you than I would be." He turns and walks over to his crate, while Ezra follows him, curious about the contents.
He opens the lid, to reveal his old equipment, which he had left with Phoenix Cell. His battle worn armour, his custom plasma pistols, everything. Even a few dozen EMP Grenades for old times sake. Maybe this wouldn't be too stressful after all.
