Failed Mission

This story takes place after a failed attempt by Sabine and Ezra to infiltrate a base on Kashyyyk, and follows their journey to return to safety.

"Run, Sabine!" Ezra shouted as he tumbled out of the tunnel, followed by a battalion of stormtroopers. After turning to see them, Sabine drew her blasters and quickly fired off a burst past Ezra, but began to sprint away with him as they continued flooding out of the tunnel. The pair headed towards the thick kashyyyk forest to the left of the imperial base in an attempt to shake off their pursuers, but the stormtroopers seemed undeterred by the trees and carried on following.

The young rebels, fortunately, were much more manoeuvrable and could pass between the trees and undergrowth much quicker than the larger group of stormtroopers in their heavy armour. Before long, they had successfully lost their pursuers. However, in the process, the pair had become terribly lost themselves.

Watching their surroundings become slowly darker as the sun began to set, and tired from running, they looked for a place to hide, and soon came across a hollow bush with enough room for both of them. After dropping their kit, they collected some branches to fill the entrance, and slumped down onto the ground. Sabine then turned to Ezra and half-shouted, "What happened back there!?". They had been given a simple job of retrieving a data card from a small outpost, which had no defences or protection, but he had gone and ruined the whole mission hardly after it started.

"They were waiting for me." Ezra retorted, angry at how she could blame him for this, "There were at least twenty of them in there."

"But you didn't have to fight anyone! The plan meant that you got in and out through the vents and nobody saw a thing!"

"It's not my fault the vents collapsed. It was when I was right above the group as well, so I had no choice but to run." Ezra turned to see a dejected Sabine sitting looking down to the ground. He leaned over and put his hand on her shoulder, but she jerked away at his touch.

"Fine. But the imperials know where we are now, and they will probably send squads after us. We need a better hiding place if you don't want them to find us." She voiced, looking around them for better cover.

Ezra followed her eyes to a short overhanging cliff, "It would be too predictable for us to hide in the caves, but if you pulled me up with you, we could use your jetpack and hide in the trees." Sabine smiled and nodded, then they quickly climbed out of the bush and moved towards an area where the canopy was thickest. "Hold on tight, a fall from up there would kill you." Sabine said, before an embarrassed Ezra wrapped his arms around her torso and gripped onto her back armour plating.

Sabine was surprised by the light 'purr' which she released as Ezra wrapped his strong arms around her, and was thankful for her helmet, which stopped him from hearing it too. Waiting for him to get a good grip, Sabine noticed how hard Ezra's chest was and she felt herself enjoying his body being pressed to her own and began to wonder why she hadn't thought about him in this way before. He had certainly grown up in many different ways since the Ghost had picked up a scrawny boy on Lothal...

"Ready!" Ezra's voice knocked her out of her thinking and she began their rapid ascent towards the canopy.

The trees were so high up, it took them almost a minute to reach the lower leaves but Sabine managed to reach a thick clump of branches, which would provide cover for them until the stormtroopers had moved onwards, before her passenger slipped off. They found a stable limb which was thick enough for both of them to lie down on, then built up leaves around it so the imperials wouldn't spot it.

"We'd better contact Hera soon to tell her what's going on." Ezra said, as he turned to see Sabine sit down on her newly-constructed bed. She looked across to him and shook her head,

"The Empire will be tracking all communications from the forest. They'll find out our position if we try to send a message."

"What are we supposed to do then?"

Sabine shook her head, "I'm not sure, Ezra. But we'll think of something..."

Ezra slumped down onto his leafy bed and sighed. This was a new worst for him, and the fact that not even Sabine, The Mighty Mando, knew what to do showed how bad this mess was. This could have been an easy mission, but that stupid vent piece just had to fall down. If only he'd kept his mouth shut at the meeting and let Kanan go. He felt a wave of frustration wash over him, but knew better than to act on it and just remained, sitting cross-legged, staring into the sky instead.

The stars were beginning to come out as the sunlight faded away and Ezra couldn't help but feel drawn by how beautiful they looked, stretched out above him. Lying down, he spotted a comet flash past, which was followed by another; and another; then quite suddenly, the whole sky shone from the barrage of sparkling specks. He smiled at the sight and felt a bit of happiness return to him.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Sabine inquired, watching Ezra staring into space.

"The sky looks beautiful here." Ezra responded, not looking away from it. Sabine climbed down to his bed and lay down beside him. She peered over at his content face and felt all her doubts wash away, bringing a smile to her face. She then yawned and sat back up, preparing to climb back over to her own bed to sleep, but was stopped by Ezra holding her wrist.

"Don't go." He pleaded, having liked the feeling of Sabine's body against him. He shuffled further along the branch until there was room for her to sleep beside him. "There's space here for both of us."

"Ezra-" Sabine started,

"Plus it's going to get colder tonight, so we should keep warmer by sticking together."

Not feeling in the mood for arguing, and secretly pleased by Ezra's suggestion, Sabine silently accepted, lying back down beside him and snuggling under their leafy blanket. Eyelids heavy, Sabine made one more forward move to wrap her arms round Ezra's midriff, before drifting off to sleep.