Chapter 8
"Blockade set, Captain. What are your orders?" Roland asked through the comms.
"Don't engage until fired upon. I wouldn't want to be blamed for starting a battle here," Lasky answered.
"Yes sir!"
All the UNSC ships formed a forward firing line, but unknown to the UNSC forces, the Rebel fleet formed a secondary fire line, though they were much closer to the planet. That was known to the forces on the surface, but not in space. Not that it would matter anyways, they had more important things to deal with.
"Sir, the carrier is within firing range... but they're not doing anything," Roland reported to the ship's acting captain.
"Strange... maybe they know they're outgunned?" the XO suggested.
"No that can't be it... wait, they're hailing us!" Roland exclaimed.
"Onscreen, now!"
The comms screen sparked to life and a Covenant Elite stood in front of them.
"Greetings friends. I hear you've been needed some extra assistance?"
"Arbiter?" Roland asked.
"Indeed, AI. You should recognize my real name," the arbiter said.
"Thel 'Vadam," the XO said, relief in his voice. "It's good to see you again. But if I may ask, how did you get that ship?"
"I should explain," Thel began, "I managed to get a message through to my fleet just before making landfall at... what... Hoth is it?"
"Ah yes I remember that planet. You commed your fleet before arrival?" Roland asked.
"I did. I understood you needed more support so here we are. Some extra support while we wait for more ships. I'm afraid my people were only willing to send a small battle fleet..." Thel said just as more Slipspace ruptures appeared and the rest of the Covenant battle fleet appeared.
"I'll alert Captain Lasky," Roland said.
"Where is Lasky anyway?" Thel asked.
"He's on the moon's surface. We will gladly escort you closer to the moon," the XO said with a smile.
"Moon?"
"Oh, I suppose we should explain this now. The big red ball near us is the actual planet of Yavin. This moon behind us is Yavin 4, our temporary headquarters alongside the Rebel Alliance," Roland explained.
"Sir, it appears the Rebel fleet set up a secondary blockade around the moon," the nav officer reported.
"Do they know we're friendly?" Thel asked.
"Uh... not yet. I just sent them our 'OK' signal," Roland said.
Meanwhile on the surface, Lasky was staring up at the sky, much to the rebels confusion.
"Can I help you, sir?" a rebel officer asked Lasky.
"I'm alright, thank you. Just thinking..." he replied.
"With all due respect sir, and if I may, thinking about what?" the officer asked.
Lasky glanced over to the rebel, "Normally, back in my galaxy, an engagement between the Infinity and a Covenant assault carrier would be seen from the surface of a planet, as long as the ships have an orbit around the said planet. And I'm not seeing anything."
"So you're saying we should see small flashes of light from here, sir?"
"Exactly." Lasky was silent for a few moments. "Can you re-establish communications with my ship?"
"Yes sir, right away." The rebel officer ran off to grab a comlink as Lasky turned to his own comm and began tapping it.
"This galaxy doesn't seem to like our personal comlinks..." he muttered. Yeah the comms from the Pelicans and within the rebel base could get a good connection, but it's the personal comms that keep getting fried. How and why that happens nobody really knows.
The rebel returned with a comlink, the channel frequency already set, "Here you go sir. Channel frequency is already set up so just press this button to activate it."
"Thank you," Lasky said.
"If you will excuse me, Captain, I must attend to my duties," the officer said. He tacked on a quick salute when Lasky nodded, dismissing the officer.
"That was interesting," a UNSC marine said.
The marine was tasked with always standing with Lasky for security, especially since that incident with the former rebel SF unit. Naturally there would be two marines, but the other has gone to repair his somehow jammed BR85HB battle rifle. He was doing target practice while keeping a close eye on Lasky when the rifle just quit shooting, even though the clip was half empty. Apparently one of the bullets caught a bit of the rifling in the barrel and tore it off, thus throwing the bullet up into the open end of the barrel. A fragment of another bullet was lodged into the loading system and pulling back the bolt didn't work; Just got it more stuck.
"Indeed. Very polite, I like to see that sort of thing in a soldier," Lasky said.
"Lasky to Infinity, what's your status?" he said through the comlink.
"Everything is just fine, Captain," the XO replied. "Turns out that CAS-class assault carrier is friendly. It's a different ship, sir."
"Wait there's another Covenant ship? Who's the captain?" Lasky asked.
"Thel 'Vadam, sir. He said he commed his fleet just before arriving to Hoth."
"That son of a gun," the marine said. "Basically speaking we have reinforcements?"
"He's it for now, but we all know what the Infinity is capable of against the Empire's fleets, and the CAS carriers are roughly the same size as Infinity," Lasky explained.
"And equally powerful?" a rebel asked.
Lasky turned to the rebel soldier behind him, "Wouldn't say equally, but it's balanced. There are weaknesses in Infinity, but also weaknesses in the CAS-class assault carriers. Your ships have weaknesses and so does the Empire. No ship is without flaws."
"But what about those... whatever those big cannons are called?"
"You mean the MAC guns? We're the only ones that have them, so that's one advantage the Infinity has against the Covenant ships... and Imperial. The Covenant, however have energy weapons and something called a cleansing beam, plasma lance, or, due to it's placement on the vessel, ventral beam. Basically a glassing cannon," Laksy replied.
"Glassing?"
"You don't want to know."
"That bad huh?"
Lasky nodded grimly, "Yup, that bad."
"Captain, we're being requested to Infinity immediately. It's about our away team on Tatooine," a fresh Marine reported.
"Acknowledged. What's the status on your rifle?" Lasky replied.
"Totaled, sir. I'm getting a replacement once we return to Infinity," the marine replied.
"Very well," Lasky said as he turned to the Rebel officer, "We should be going. Many of my ground forces will be here until it's time to deploy if you don't mind."
"You are very much welcome here, sir, but please advise we do have our own rules and protocols to follow," the rebel said.
Lasky smiled, "I understand. Let's move."
Lasky and his security escort returned to one of the Pelicans and flew up to Infinity. When he arrived on the bridge, his XO immediately set the bridge to attention.
"Captain on deck!" he barked.
"At ease. What's the situation, Roland?" Lasky said and his orange-colored AI appeared.
"Blue Team has finished their scouting mission. They report little to no Imperial presence on the planet, but it is swarming with criminals. People constantly trying to pickpocket them only to have their face bashed in and others trying to start a firefight, obviously not ending too well for the hostiles," Roland said, reading off the report.
"Really? That's interesting. Where is our team now?" Lasky asked.
"They are currently within slipspace on their way back home," Roland said.
"Good. Anybody tracking them?"
"Negative. I spoke with Cortana and she had a ship-wide scan for foreign devices and there were none."
"That's good to hear. What's their ETA?" Lasky asked then.
"20 minutes, sir," Roland replied.
"Did you tell them we have friends?" Lasky asked as he looked out towards Thel's CAS-class assault carrier.
"Yup. I figured they should know to spare the confusion."
Lasky smiled, "You AIs have a good habit of doing everything beforehand."
"That's what we are programmed to do," Roland replied.
*20 minutes later*
"Captain, I'm picking up a slipspace rupture just off our port side, sir!" the ensign reported.
Lasky looked towards the rupture just in time to see a Strident-class heavy frigate shoot out of it, heading straight for them.
"Scan the ship, make sure there's nothing foreign on the hull," Lasky ordered.
"Scans complete, Captain. No foreign matter detected," Roland reported.
"They're hailing us, Captain," the comms officer called out from his station.
"Send them through," Lasky said, turning to the comms screen to see the Master Chief. "Chief."
"Captain. I presume you already have our returning report?" the Master Chief asked.
"I have. I understand you had some trouble with pirates, criminals, pickpockets, all that fun stuff," Lasky said, not even trying to hide a smile.
"No trouble, sir; Just annoyances," Fred said from somewhere in the background.
"Fred, we talked about this," Linda told him.
"I know, I know. But they were annoying," he said, making everybody in the background sigh, but nod in moderate agreement.
"Permission to dock, Captain?" Chief requested.
"Granted. I'd like you to meet me in the bridge after docking. You missed out on some fun earlier," Lasky said, but his smile was gone and his emphasis on 'fun' made it clear to the Spartan unit that something big went down.
"Acknowledged, Captain. 117, out."
...
"Ezra!" Sabine shouted from down the hallway.
Ezra had been running in circles around the entire base and almost ran into Sabine, who was carrying a box of explosives to the armory. If she would've dropped them... well, it's sort of self explanatory.
"Sorry!" Ezra called back, not slowing down.
Sabine set down the box and ran after him, using her new wrist gauntlets to shoot an energy rope around him, forcing him to stop. She was careful not to wrap his legs to avoid tripping him, instead aiming for his torso. The sudden pull from behind nearly threw him onto his back, but he was able to recover.
"Wha-! Sabine!" he shouted.
"You need to slow down! I nearly dropped a box of explosives," she said, angrily.
"I'm sorry, but I'm trying to stay in shape for..."
"The ODST training?" Sabine finished, her tone harsher than intended and Ezra's face fell. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. But Lasky said he will give us a portion of their training when they find the time."
"I know. I just don't want to look weak in front of them," Ezra said, not looking up to face her.
Sabine walked up to him and grabbed his hand. He gaze shifted from the floor to her eyes, "Ezra, Lasky already knows how strong you are. The ODSTs and the Spartans already know. Did you forget that operation on Hoth?"
Ezra shook his head slowly, "How could I forget? You almost died."
Sabine shook her head this time, "I didn't almost die..."
"Sabine, we heard the recordings. They know this Covenant variants interrogation tactics and prisoner treatment, especially to humans."
She shuddered at the memory, "I... didn't know you heard."
"You were just hours from execution at best... minutes at the worst," Ezra said.
"I know..." Sabine said quietly.
"And it was my fault," she heard Ezra say, making her heart almost stop.
"No, Ezra don't do that to yourself," she said urgently.
"Sabine listen, if I would have just listened to you and abandoned ship like you said to do instead of fighting... you never would have been caught," he said.
Sabine squeezed his hand, "No you listen; None of this was you."
"Sabine..."
"No!" She was almost shouting now. "Don't you dare say it was your fault again!"
Ezra fell silent.
"I can't let you do that to yourself," she said softly. "Saying that hurts me more than it hurts you."
"You don't know that," Ezra said.
"If you want to believe you caused all of this, then go ahead," Sabine said, her voice low. "Blaming yourself will hurt me more than any interrogation."
With that she ran back down the hall, back to her box of explosives, leaving Ezra standing alone in the hallway. He face fell as he, too walked back down the hallway, opposite of Sabine.
...
Sabine was sitting in a corner of her room, deep in thought. For once she couldn't paint anything. She felt like she just broke up with Ezra, though they never officially began that kind of relationship. As much as she would like to apologize to him, she didn't want to talk to anybody. She was furious that Ezra thought it was all his fault, furious that he thought he failed.
Meanwhile, Ezra was also deep in thought, sitting on his bed in his quarters. Sabine's words kept replaying through his mind nonstop. He didn't know what he could do, or what he should do. All he wanted was to protect his friends, to protect Sabine.
He was snapped out from his thoughts when he heard a chime at his door. He stood up and walked to his door and opened it.
"Commander Bridger," a marine said holding a salute. He had a couple other marines with him, four in all.
"Can I help you?" Ezra asked, not trying to be rude and hiding his frustration.
"Captain Lasky sent us to retrieve you and Commander Wren for your... training," the marine said as if he was trying to find a better word for it.
"I don't think now is a good time," Ezra said as he looked down. "Sabine and I aren't exactly on good terms right now."
"If I may ask," the soldier requested.
"She's mad at me. It's... complicated," Ezra said.
"Relationship problems?"
"It's my fault she was captured in the first place. My fault she got hurt," Ezra said.
The marines looked at each other in confusion, "Is this sort of thing normal here?"
"Not really, but I don't think anybody knows what's normal nowadays," Ezra pointed out.
The marine placed a hand on Ezra's shoulder, "Look kid, things happen but it doesn't mean it's your fault. Believe me I've had to make hard choices; Some of which I wish I could take back."
Ezra looked up to the dark tactical goggles of the Marine.
"My point is, just because something went wrong in a battle, there's no reason it could have been your fault," the marine continued.
"Unless you allowed the enemy to get you," another marine said.
"Not helping," the first marine snapped.
"Sorry, sir."
"I suppose proper introductions is in order. I'm Master Sergeant Marcus Stacker," the first marine said as he shook Ezra's hand.
"I'll go find Sabine. Where do we meet you?"
"Just outside the hangars. We have a Pelican waiting," Stacker said.
"We'll meet you there," Ezra said.
...Some time later 1st Person View: Ezra Bridger...
I knocked on Sabine's door, and surprisingly enough she opened it.
"What do you want?" she asked, her arms crossed. She tried to form her stern face, but her eyes betrayed her.
"Lasky wants us on Infinity to start our training... If you're still up for it, I mean," I said, rubbing the back of my neck. I was so nervous it was unbelievable. I don't know why she even opened the door for me since she never does when she's mad.
Sabine sighed, but didn't say anything. It was clear she also had something else to say. "Come inside. We need to talk."
I stepped into her room and she shut the door, locking it so we couldn't be interrupted.
For things like this, she would only get more angry if somebody interrupted any kind of moment.
I pulled up a chair and sat as she did the same, facing me. I felt my pulse quicken slightly, and without realizing it I could sense her pulse did the same.
"I don't want..." we both said to each other at the same time.
"You go first," we said then.
This is going to be difficult.
I held out my hand, motioning for her to go first, but instead she pushed my hand down.
"No, you should go first," she said to me, barely looking at me.
I sighed and began talking without thinking, "I'm sorry about earlier. I just don't like to fail because I feel like failing... To me, failing a mission is..."
Dammit Bridger, where are you going with this?
My looked to my hands and leaned forward onto my knees, supporting myself with my arms.
"Ezra..." Sabine said softly.
"You don't have to say anything, Sabine. You're right... about everything," I say.
I feel warmth on my hands and I look up to see Sabine staring right at me, her hands over mine.
"Soo... you're not going to beat yourself up for these things anymore?" she asked, a twinge of hope in her voice.
I hesitate to answer, but after a few moments I nod, "I can't make any solid promises, but I can try."
Sabine smiled at me, "I thought Jedi weren't supposed to try."
"I also thought Jedi weren't supposed to have attachments and see where Kanan went," I said, drawing a small laugh from Sabine.
"You forgot one," she said.
I didn't understand what she meant.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Sabine got up from her chair and knelt in front of me, using her arms to prop her head up from my knees.
"You have your attachments, too you know. You can't pin it all on Kanan."
My heartbeat spiked for a moment, but I had to stay focused.
I cleared my throat, "We should, um... Get to the hangar. There's a Pelican waiting for us."
Sabine stood up then and nodded, "Right behind you."
...
"Is there anything about Imperial movements or Covenant sightings?" Lasky asked Roland.
"Nothing accurate, Captain. I'm afraid we can't predict the Empire as well as the Rebellion can," the AI replied.
"Blast. We need to... actually never mind," Lasky said.
He was just about to say, "We should tell the Empire that the second Covenant ship is friendly," but he remembered they're the enemy now.
"What about our guests?" he asked then.
"They are on their way up now. Stacker didn't seem happy it took them as long is it did for them to actually show up," Roland replied.
"He doesn't like to be kept waiting, that's for sure," Lasky said as the bridge doors opened.
"Captain," a familiar, friendly voice said as she walked onto the bridge.
"Sarah, good to see you again. I hear you've been busy with the other Spartans," Lasky said.
"Ugh, you have no idea. They act like children most of the time," she said.
Lasky chuckled, "Well I assume you've been keeping up with our current situations?"
"I have, actually."
"Good, then you know what's happening. We have a couple guests from the Rebel Alliance that will be taking a portion of our ODST training. Gives them a chance to understand our tactics better so we can cooperate better," Lasky said.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sarah asked.
"I'm sure it's fine. Besides, I'm rather interested in this... what is it, Jedi Order?" Lasky said.
"Actually Captain," Roland began, "The Jedi Order has been destroyed for 16 years in this galaxy. All thanks to the Empire, of course."
"What happened to it?" Lasky asked.
"I don't know exactly, but there's something on their HoloNet that says the Jedi were traitorous."
"I can ask Ezra if he knows anything," Lasky said.
"I doubt it, though his master could be better suited to answer your questions," Roland said.
"I suppose... Sarah..."
"Let me guess, I'm in charge of your ship?" she asked with a grin.
Lasky chuckled, "Took the words right out of my mouth. Think you can handle it?"
"Never doubt a Spartan, Captain. You go on ahead, I've got this," Sarah said and Lasky left the bridge to arrange a meeting with Ezra's Jedi master.
