Chapter 15
Before this chapter starts, I want to be clear that everything here may not be true, but for the plot of the story it is how it is.
"I don't know what all that was, but it was delicious!" Ezra exclaimed. Sabine nodded in agreement.
They had left the restaurant and were making their way to the space port with their Army escort. Several civilians watched them curiously and Ezra could hear them murmuring something like "they must have screwed up bad" or something like that.
"That's the joys of a major UNSC city," one of the soldiers said.
"I think these civilians think we did something wrong..." Sabine said.
Apparently one of the civilians heard her.
"You're under heavy guard by the UNSC Army itself!"
"Ma'am, please step back. We assure you these two are not criminals or terrorists. They're special guests."
"Guests from where?" the woman asked.
"I'm afraid those details are highly classified," the soldier said.
"As always..." the woman muttered as she walked away.
"Cheery," Ezra joked.
"All part of the city," the soldier said. "We've been through a lot so our citizens are really up tight about strangers, especially those from another world outside of UNSC jurisdiction."
"I bet," Sabine said. "I keep seeing signs about 'Remember New Phoenix'. What's that all about?"
"It's a difficult... incident to discuss. We lost 7 million people that day..."
"Any military casualties?"
"Mostly civilian," the soldier said.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Ezra said.
"That was back in 2557. It's 2560 now," the squad leader said.
"That's this galaxy's date?" Sabine asked.
"This planet and all others under UNSC control, yes."
"I've never seen one government, controlled by one race, in control of several planets, I don't mean the Empire of course," Ezra said.
"Mandalore can be like that, Ezra," Sabine said. "It's just not very often when all the clans are united under one flag."
"I need to rephrase that," Ezra began, "I meant..."
"I think he means a united interplanetary government that originated from a single planet," a soldier said.
"When you put it like that I don't think that's ever happened in our galaxy," Sabine said.
The squad leader pressed a finger over his ear and nodded, "The Marines are on their way to pick you up. We should get going to the port."
"Welcome aboard the Spirit of Fire, you two," Cutter said once the two teens were back on the bridge.
"How soon can we get going?" Sabine asked.
"Just a few more hours. In the meantime there's somebody important to us in the medical bay. He's heard about you two and would like to meet you. Sergeant, can you take them there?"
"Yes sir!" a marine sergeant said.
"See you in a couple hours, Commanders," Cutter said.
Ezra and Sabine were led to the medical bay where a tall man was lying in a medical bed, awake.
"Commanders, I assume the Captain sent you down here?" a medic asked.
"Yes ma'am," Ezra said.
"Are those the two I heard about?" the man asked.
"Yes, sir. These are Rebel Commanders Ezra Bridger and Sabine Wren. They can answer any questions about what's happening in their galaxy," the nurse said.
"Perfect! It's about time I get something!"
"Commanders, this is Spartan B312, aka Noble Six," the nurse said.
"I can introduce myself, thank you," Noble 6 said.
"I'll leave you three alone," the nurse said.
"And I'll be waiting outside. It's good to see you again, 6," the sergeant said.
Noble 6 nodded respectfully to both the nurse and the marine and they left.
"So what do you wish to know, sir?" Sabine asked him.
"First thing, do you know the Master Chief?" he asked.
"Yes sir," Ezra said. "He helped me save Sabine when the Covenant got to her."
"Really? That's quite an honor to work next to the Chief," Six said. "He's still alive then?"
"Very much so, sir," Ezra said.
Six sat back and sighed with relief, "Good."
"Anything else you'd like to know?" Ezra asked.
"I heard you two were at war with an... what a Galactic Empire?"
"Yes sir. The Empire is evil and... they take advantage of the weak. Force people from their homes..." Sabine said.
"She used to work for them when they took control of her homeworld," Ezra began, "They used weapons she designed to subjugate her people."
"That's terrible," Six said.
"They've also committed genocide on a planetary scale," Sabine said. "One of our crew, Zeb, is a Lasat. His race was nearly extinct, but fortunately we found another planet, hidden from the Empire, full of the Lasat people."
"Then there's the planet Geonosis," Ezra began. "Pretty much the entire population was killed."
"What do you mean 'pretty much'?"
"We found a lone survivor. If there were more... we don't know," Sabine said.
"Sounds like these guys need to be brought down," Six said.
"That's what we're working to do," Ezra said. "They took my parents from me when I was 7."
"Thing is, there was a wormhole that sent the UNSC Infinity to our galaxy. You were trying to remain neutral in our conflict, but as typical as the Empire is, they turned on your UNSC. Your people joined the war and..." Sabine grew excited, "helped us liberate his home planet."
"What about your planet? You said the Empire had control of that," Six said.
"Sabine comes from a unique race called Mandalorians. They've been through more wars than thought possible so they know how to fight," Ezra said.
"Yup," Sabine said proudly. "I managed to get my family to start fighting the Empire and we have several other clans fighting with us. However there are a few clans loyal to the Empire so if we fight them, we're fighting the Empire simultaneously."
"Impressive," Six said. "So a warrior race?"
"Exactly," Sabine said.
"That's pretty cool," Six said.
"So what about you?" Ezra asked.
"What?"
"I had a good childhood until I was seven, and Sabine had one as good as any Mandalorian could have, what about you?"
"I… don't have a childhood. The military's all I've known," Six said.
"Oh... I'm sorry I didn't mean to..."
"Actually that's why I wanted to meet you two in the first place," Six began quietly. "You had to have heard about ONI by now, right?"
"ONI?" Sabine asked.
"The UNSCs Office of Naval Intelligence. They created the Spartans like me and the Chief. How they did it... Almost nobody knows, but I do."
"What do you mean?"
"You worked with the Empire?" Six asked.
"For a while, yes. I know their protocols, regulations, all the basics," Sabine answered.
"So you know how their recruitment works?"
"Both of us have an idea of it, yes," Sabine confirmed.
"How do they recruit?"
Sabine and Ezra looked at each other.
"They take children from their families. It's required that children go through some sort of military training to become Stormtroopers, the Empire's standard soldier," Sabine said.
"Don't tell anybody I told you this, but that's what ONI did with every Spartan like Chief here, only they kidnapped them and replaced them with clones so their parents had no idea they were gone. They were forced to become Spartans. All the other Spartans after the Spartan 2s were volunteer. My group joined after our parents were killed."
Ezra and Sabine were silent, allowing Noble 6 to continue.
"ONI knows about you two, and they'll do anything to get to you and your galaxy. All the tech you guys have over there... ONI is a force of good and all, but they've done terrible things."
"So how are they still around?" Ezra asked. "Wouldn't they be shut down?"
"Not unless people knew about it. They have agents and spies everywhere. They likely have an agenda for you and everybody in your galaxy. They're not much different from the Empire," Six said quietly. "If anybody is suspected of knowing of their wrong doing, they'll be kidnapped and likely tortured into keeping quiet, or worse.
"You two should watch your backs. They'll do anything to get to you two," Six concluded.
"Thanks for the information, Noble 6," Sabine said. "If they try to get to me, I'm not going down without a fight."
"And Sabine is terrific with all kinds of combat," Ezra said.
"I wouldn't doubt it. It's likely ONI doesn't know a whole lot about the people in your galaxy and I want to keep it that way," Six said. "The less they know about your galaxy the more powerless they will be against you."
"Understood," Ezra said.
Hours later, Ezra and Sabine were called back up to the bridge to begin intergalactic transfer.
"The gate is active and we are ready to transfer. I'm afraid this ship itself will not be passing through, but we have a Stalwart-class light frigate ready to transport," Cutter said. "We have a Pelican standing by in the hangar. You should get moving. Sergeant, escort them out."
"Captain, if I may go with them to the hangar?" Noble 6 said. He was wearing standard UNSC attire.
"Granted B312," Cutter said.
"Keep your eyes open. Remember, ONI could be anywhere. Do not let them find information on your galaxy. I'll keep UNSC Central Command from releasing data to them, despite being the primary research division of the UNSC," Six said.
Ezra and Sabine nodded as they boarded the Pelican.
"It was an honor to meet you, Noble 6," Sabine said.
"Likewise, Commanders. Have a safe trip home."
The Pelican doors closed and they left the hangars.
"Whatever this ONI is about and what their goal is, I don't like the sound of it," Sabine said then, keeping her voice low so only Ezra could hear her.
"I agree. My Force abilities wouldn't be helpful here either," Ezra said. "Not until we get back home, at least."
"You can't sense anything here? No danger or anything?" Sabine asked.
Ezra shook his head, "Nothing at all. This galaxy literally has no Force."
"Then we should be extra careful here," Sabine said.
"Agreed."
"We're coming up on our frigate, you two," a man said.
"Thanks for the notice," Ezra said.
Sabine eyed the man a few seconds longer, then turned around, motioning for Ezra to do the same, pretending to be looking at something else to avoid suspicion.
"He's different," she whispered.
"How can you tell?" Ezra asked. The guy was wearing standard UNSC fatigues.
"Remember what Noble 6 said? ONI has spies and agents everywhere," she said. "This guy might be one of them."
"Again, how can you tell?"
"I just have this strange feeling about him. Something's off," she said.
Ezra glanced at him and noticed he never took his eyes off of the two. He knew what Sabine was trying to do about avoiding suspicion so he continued scanning the Pelican's bay.
"I think you're right. He hasn't taken his eyes off us for one second. All the other soldiers looked at other places by now," Ezra said.
Sabine put her helmet on and checked for her weapons.
All there.
Her vambraces were armed, her blasters charged. Ezra checked for his lightsaber, the only thing in this galaxy that still gave off a Force signature other than Sabine. However he seemed to be more seeing the signatures instead of feeling them like back home.
"Whatever happens next, do not kill. Only defend," Ezra muttered, the military commander side of him starting to take over. Sabine nodded with agreement.
"I was about to say that," she said.
The pilot was heard through the comm speakers then.
"We are on final approach to our ship. All passengers stand by for docking, ETA 20 seconds. Final approach speed 22 m/s."
When the Pelican landed and the bay doors opened, the darker hold was filled with light from the frigate hangars. At the bottom of the boarding ramp stood a squad of ODST soldiers.
"Commanders Bridger and Wren?" one of the ODSTs asked.
"That's us," Sabine said as she and Ezra approached them.
"Welcome aboard. The captain wishes you two be on the bridge during this trip. Extra security," the ODST said.
These ODSTs were not wearing their full combat gear, but instead were wearing their standard uniform.
"Understood," Sabine said.
Ezra and Sabine were led out of the hangar and down several corridors. Sabine occasionally looked over her shoulder and saw the man on the Pelican following them at a distance, and thanks to her helmet, she was able to check without showing suspicion. It looked like she was occasionally glancing over to Ezra.
They approached a lift and the guard ordered the team to show authorization cards. Every member of the squad showed their identification and the squad leader explained everything.
"Understood, sir. Here you go," the guard said as he pressed a button and the lift doors opened. Ezra and Sabine walked inside, but before the doors could close, the guard was distracted by that man from earlier.
"Identification," he ordered.
"I need identification to go to the bridge?" the man asked.
"For the moment since we are responsible for these two security," the guard said. "Only those who are authorized may board the bridge."
"Alright, you win," the man said, but he quickly drew a gun... no something like a gun and stunned the guard and lunged for the lift.
In response, the ODST unit escorting Ezra and Sabine jumped into action, two of them leaving the lift to hold off the attacker. One ODST held him back long enough for the other to hit the button to send them on their way. However, halfway up, the lift stopped suddenly, throwing the four passengers into the air for a second.
"What was that?" Ezra asked.
"The lift is jammed," the ODST captain said.
"It must have been that guy. He was not trained as a Marine," the second ODST said.
ONI...
The captain groaned if frustration, "I can't get this moving. We're stuck here!"
Sabine looked up and smiled under her helmet, elbowing Ezra and motioning for him to look up.
"Maybe this lift is stuck here, but we're not," Ezra said.
"What do you mean?"
"There's always an escape hatch in a lift in case these sort of things happen," Sabine said.
The second ODST jumped up and tried to open the hatch, but it wouldn't budge either.
"Blast! It won't open!"
"Here let me try," Ezra said as he held his lightsaber.
"What is that?" the ODSTs asked.
"You might want to step back," Sabine said calmly. She and the two ODSTs took a couple steps back until their backs were against the wall and Ezra ignited his lightsaber, the blade making everything in the lift look like it was carved out of pure emerald.
Ezra raised his blade and cut out the hatch's lock and the hatch itself dropped open. He extinguished the blade and placed it on his belt, looking at the surprised ODSTs.
"What are you guys waiting for? Let's get out of here!" Ezra said as he jumped up and grabbed the edge of the opening, pulling himself up to the top. Sabine followed close behind him and he helped her up.
The lift began moving down the shaft then and the ODSTs looked up to the two teens above them.
"Come on!" Sabine shouted to them.
"Sorry, Commanders, but we have to hold him off while we can. Get to the bridge, alert the captain!" they said.
Sabine nodded grimly and she grabbed a hold of a small ledge on the side of the elevator shaft. Ezra found a cable just hanging off the side and grabbed that, using a ledge to put his feet on.
"Ezra, grab on to me!" Sabine shouted over the elevator noise.
"What?" he shouted back.
"I've got my jetpack on me," she said.
The elevator was fading below them.
Ezra nodded and he made his way over to Sabine, who let go of the side of the elevator shaft and activated her jetpack. She held out her hand and Ezra grabbed it. Sabine quickly wrapped her arms around Ezra, under his arms and he wrapped his arms over her shoulders, just like that time they were escaping from the Imperial Mandalorians back on Concord Dawn.
They flew up to the top level and they managed to get the door open, just as Sabine's jetpack ran out of power and needed to recharge. A bunch of Marines pulled them onto the deck and began asking what happened and where the lift was.
"Somebody attacked us on the hangar level. We don't know who he is but our escort said he wasn't trained as a Marine," Sabine explained, pulling off her helmet.
"It had to be ONI," somebody said. "They jump at the first opportunity whenever something new arrives."
"Noble 6 said ONI would likely be after us since they know next to nothing about our galaxy," Ezra said.
The ship's captain clenched his fist.
"They've caused a lot of damage. Dr. Halsey put a permanent black mark on ONI since she was the top scientist of the group."
"I'm sorry, who's Dr. Halsey?" Sabine asked.
"She's a very dangerous woman. We've put her on a shoot on sight order," the captain said.
"Alright then we should get moving," Ezra said.
"What Noble 6 didn't tell you, there's two factions in ONI now. They used to be one group but since everything with Halsey, they've split up. One group is working shoulder to shoulder with the UNSC, the other side is loyal to Halsey and will do anything for new information. Her group is probably after you right now."
"Probably," Ezra scoffed sarcastically.
"If that's the case, we're not going anywhere," the captain said. He turned to the comm officer, "Send a transmission to Command."
Two hours passed and so much happened. Hostile ONI agents assaulted the ship and we were forced to go through slipspace to Earth's moon. The jump wasn't tracked because we were there for an hour and a half.
"Command, what's the status of the stargate?" the frigate captain asked.
"The gate is secure. We have everything we could spare on it, including anti cloak perimeter scanners."
"Sir, slipspace ruptures off our bow... they're ONI ships!" a nav officer reported.
"Slipspace to the Gate, we're moving, NOW!"
"Slipspace drive spinning up, captain. Full charge T-2 minutes!"
"Get our fusion engines active. Keep them at our backs, all auxiliary power to aft shields, keep our engines online!"
"Yes sir!"
The ship shook under the firepower of ONI ships.
"Sir, these ships have mixed technology between UNSC, Covenant, and Forerunner weaponry!" a tactical officer reported.
"This is ridiculous!" an officer shouted.
"Jump drive stats!" the captain ordered.
"1 minute, sir!"
"Our shields are failing!"
"They can't destroy this ship without risking our lives," Sabine said.
"We understand that. They're trying to cripple our engines, make us immobile," the captain said.
"Can we fire back?" Ezra asked.
"We have missiles locked on target, captain!" the tactical officer reported.
"Return fire!"
The ship shuddered as several missiles were launched from their launch tubes and flew towards the attacking vessels, but when they hit, there was no reported change in the shields.
"Karabast," Sabine muttered.
"Keep firing! Their shields have to fail at some point!"
"Captain! We have slipspace capability!"
"Engage the drive. We're out of here!"
A slipspace rupture formed in front of the frigate and they disappeared from enemy scanners. The rupture closed before the ONI ships could follow them, though half of one made it through when it closed, effectively splitting it in half.
"Sir, we have debris behind us. It's part of one of the ONI frigates!"
"Kill the slipstream! They cannot be allowed to find the Gate!"
The Stalwart-class light frigate left slipstream and the debris followed them out.
"There she is, sir," the nav officer said upon seeing the debris.
"Reset our course, continue our jump to the Gate," the captain said.
"Sir, the slipspace drive will take another minute to recharge," the nav officer said.
"Make it quick. We need to keep moving."
The captain turned over to Ezra and Sabine.
"How are you two holding up?" he asked.
"We're hanging in there. It's not the first time we've been on the run," Sabine answered.
"That's good to hear," the captain said. "I mean..."
"We understand what you meant," Ezra said.
"Good."
"Sir, we have slipspace," the nav officer said.
"Do it. We need to get these two out of here, asap," the captain said.
"It was an honor to meet you two, but it's a shame you left under these circumstances," Noble 6 said. They were speaking through comms while the Gate was spinning up.
"It was a pleasure, sir," Ezra said.
"Commanders, the gate is ready. We must cut comms off here," the nav officer said.
"Understood," Sabine said. "Hope to meet again sometime, Noble 6."
"Likewise, commanders. Have a safe return trip."
With that, the comms were cut and the Stalwart-class light frigate was placed in final jump position and the gate opened a slipspace rupture. Powerful magnetic catapults through the ship into the rupture at speeds originally thought impossible.
"This is UNSC Midsummer Night, en route to Beta Alpha 6, ETA 4 days," the captain said. "Commanders Ezra Bridger and Sabine Wren are safe and seem excited to finally be returning home. We have sustained moderate damage to our shields and minor damage to our armor."
"Four days, huh?" Ezra asked.
"It's never instantaneous travel, but we are moving faster than every before. Say, how fast is your hyperspace travel?"
"It's pretty fast but it depends on the class of hyperdrive. A class 1 hyperdrive is much slower than a .5 class hyperdrive, but we have to calculate all our jumps since there's all sorts of stuff we have to avoid, like rogue stars and black holes," Sabine said.
"We could get from one side of the galaxy to another in about a day or two, but since we have to use what we call hyperspace lanes, it takes a lot longer and our ships have limited jumps until we have to refuel," Ezra explained.
"Makes sense," the captain said. "Since this will take a while, you two will have your own quarters. First, I must say we don't have many left so you might have to share. I'm sorry if it makes you uncomfortable, but we will provide a curtain or something to give you privacy."
"Thanks, captain, but I think we can manage," Sabine said.
"If you say so. Each room has one shower and everything, plus several bunks."
"That should be fine, thanks you," Sabine said.
An ODST led the two teens to their room and told them if they needed anything, just contact the bridge. He left and Sabine turned around after closing the door and noticed Ezra didn't look right.
"Hey," she said, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"Are you really alright with sharing a room?" he asked.
Sabine smiled nervously and rubbed her neck, "Well... don't you think it's best we stick together? I mean... we have more security when we're together than separated."
Ezra stared at her.
"I-It's not what you think... I only meant..." she stammered. This was not like her at all. She never stammered.
Ezra chuckled, "You're turning into me now."
"Yeah and I hate it," Sabine said. She began stripping off her armor and set her breastplate onto the desk next to her bunk. She unstrapped her armguards and beskar plating from her legs. The only thing she was wearing when she finished was her bodysuit and then she noticed a very red Ezra.
"What?" she asked, turning red herself.
"N-Nothing. I-I just never... I've never seen you without your armor," he stammered.
"It's nothing to get worked up about, Ez. I call top bunk," she said as she jumped up onto the top.
"There's several bunks here," Ezra stated, "I could take this one over here."
Sabine said something she really didn't think about. In fact she didn't think she said it out loud.
"Or you could stay right here."
"Sabine..."
"Did I say that out loud?" she asked.
"Yeah, you did."
She quickly turned around and buried her face, "Forget it. Turn out the light, will you?"
Ezra nodded, "Goodnight, Bine."
Sabine smiled into the pillow, "Goodnight, Ez."
If it was night, they really didn't know for sure. What they did know is that they really were very tired, and everything was only beginning.
