Call to Action
The three Jedi and Sabine were on speeder bikes at night on Lothal, getting chased by AT-DP troopers on their own speeder bikes, as well as a troop transport because they stole a crate for a job.
"Aren't we headed the wrong way?" Ezra asked Kanan.
"Do you want to lead them back to the ship? Be my guest." Errol told him.
"Follow me." Kanan told them and they headed to a town and some of the troops split up so that they could try and box them in.
The four sped through the town, with Sabine and Errol splitting up from Ezra and Kanan.
The two zipped through some alleyways and one of the troops crashed.
"You'd think they train their soldiers to be better than this." Errol commented, which made Sabine laugh.
The Jedi duo were fired at and then Kanan turned on his bike and fired at the trooper, sending him flying off his speeder bike.
"Gotcha." He muttered as he turned back around.
The four then got back together and sped down the main street and were fired upon, yet again, not knowing that one of the troopers split up to try and cut them off.
However, they expected this as they knocked out the two troopers chasing them and hid, waiting for the third one, who aimed his blaster around.
Once he saw his fellow troopers, Ezra cleared his throat catching the trooper's attention and fired his lightsaber blaster, shocking him into unconsciousness.
"Told you that would work." Ezra told the other three.
"You're finally getting the hang of this. There's hope for you yet." Sabine praised him as she and Kanan jumped down.
"You did real good for her to compliment you. Trust me, it took me a few weeks for me to impress her." Errol said as he too jumped down.
All four got back on the bikes and headed right to the Ghost and loaded the crate.
They then entered the common room where Hera, Zeb and Chopper were watching a hologram with Trayvis.
"Senator Trayvis, now that you've recommited yourself to the Empire, will your followers do the same?" An Imperial asked the recently revealed man who was once believed to be in exile helping rebels.
"Most will, Alton. These were good people who simply wanted to make the Empire a better place, peacefully. But I'm afraid these insurgents have twisted my message into something violent and frightening. Of course, I can't abide that. So I'm personally offering a reward for their capture." Trayvis said, making the Ghost crew angrier the more he talked.
"*scoffs* Karabast. Shut it off." Zeb requested and Hera did as asked.
"Still makes me sick to think that Trayvis is working for the Empire." Hera stated in controlled anger.
"Every time we win, we lose." Ezra added.
"Well, I have a plan that might just even the score. If Trayvis can do it, we can do it, too." Kanan said to brighten the mood.
"What, we're gonna send out some kind of inspirational type messages?" Zeb asked, thinking it was a joke.
"Exactly." Kanan confirmed, which surprised the Lasat.
"Exactly." Both Hera and Errol said in unison. Ever since the two forgave each other, their friendship grew a bit more stronger and it even bordered on romance though they haven't made the step forward.
"Um, I don't get it." Sabine said in confusion.
"Yeah, Kanan. What are you thinking? We can't just send a signal. The Empire would track it in half a second." Ezra reminded his Master.
"Not if the signal comes from one of its own towers." Kanan revealed. Ezra thought about and Sabine saw how engenius it was by snapping her fingers.
"Ah. Now I get it." She said.
"You want to take control of an Imperial communications tower, which is pretty much impossible, and then you want to use it to send a message to the people of Lothal?" Ezra asked, thinking this was ridiculous.
"Not just Lothal, Ezra. One of the big towers can reach a few systems. We can spread word to other planets." Errol detailed.
"That's a crazy plan." Ezra said with a smirk on his face.
"That's why you like it." Kanan replied.
"And what would we say in this message?" Ezra wondered.
"Something the Empire never says, the truth. We have to let people know what it's really like out here. Now, are you in?" Kanan said to everyone.
"Count me in." Ezra said.
The next day, the Jedi trio and Sabine were prone on an arch over a highway that led to a very tall structure, outside of the city.
"There it is. The Empire's main communications tower on Lothal. It routes comm from every Imperial operation on the planet, including the Empire's HoloNet broadcasts." Kanan told the three teens and then Sabine got on her knees and used her antennae to survey the area.
"I got bucketheads on the perimeter and at least three anti-ship batteries around the base. Not an easy trip to the front door." Sabine said as she looked all over.
"Don't underestimate yourself." Kanan advised her.
"Sabine, let's be optimistic. Say we get to the front door. What then?" Ezra then said.
"I-I could upload a data spike in the central computer and have that transmitter operational in, I don't know, five minutes?" She estimated.
"Weren't you told to be optimistic?" Errol asked her.
"Five minutes is optimistic." She retorted.
"Three is better." Kanan disagreed.
"Hey, you can have it good or you can have it fast." Sabine retorted further.
"Calm down, missy. Scan a holomap and we can get out of here." Errol told her. And just as she was about to, the four of them heard a vehicle approaching, so they prone to stay out of sight as a troop transport headed to the tower and as it did, a probe droid popped out.
"Great, just what we needed. An Imperial Probe Droid." Errol groaned.
"Does it see us?" Ezra asked.
"Not yet." Sabine told him.
"How can you tell?" He asked her more.
"Because we're not dead." She answered, stating a rather obvious fact.
They then stayed silent as it looked around, searching.
"We need to move." Kanan whispered, on edge and they got up and got to the other end of the arch as the droid got under it.
"Um, hate to mention this, but where are the bikes?" Ezra asked. Errol's eyes widened underneath his helmet, remembering where they are.
"Next to the road where it can see them." He whispered quickly and everyone looked at their speeder bikes.
"Hope somebody's got an idea, or this whole plan is shot." Sabine pointed out. They all then noticed that Ezra had his eyes closed as he honed in on the Force. He then put his hand out and then suddenly, a local animal called a Loth-cat popped out of the grass as he connected with the creature and it then leaped onto the Probe Droid, causing it to go out of control and it crashed, taking itself out. The Loth-cat then screeched at it and ran away into the grass.
"I could have blasted it and gotten that result." Sabine whined that she didn't shoot it.
"Yeah, but then the Empire would suspect something was up." Ezra reasoned with her.
"Good thinking, Padawan." Kanan patted his shoulder, impressed.
"Look, it may be touching when you two bond, but that Probe may have friends, so let's go." Errol reminded them of their situation, so they slid down the arch and got on their bikes, not realising that the Probe Droid saw them.
When they made it back to the Ghost, everyone, minus Kanan, were forming a plan while fixing up the transmitter from Ezra's family home.
"If it works, we should be able to use this to transmit directly through the tower." Ezra explained as he, Hera and Sabine were fixing it up.
"How we doing?" Kanan asked, entering the common room.
"Well, Chopper has the spike. We get him into the tower and he can upload it right into the computer core from any terminal." Sabine explained with Chopper beeping.
"Stop complaining, bolt brain. You have the easy job." Zeb groaned.
"What's the range of this spike?" Kanan asked.
"As long as that tower's transmitting, we'll be doing fine. Anyone who will listen will hear what we say." Errol said, which made everyone consider the fact that people just might not do anything.
"Once the spike is uploaded, we'll signal." Kanan reminded them.
"And I spirit you away in the Phantom." Hera added.
"That's the plan, pretty much. Though it may change, as always." Errol casually said.
"He's right about that." Ezra agreed since their plans do seem to change every time.
"What's with you?" Kanan asked, noticing his dour mood.
"Nothing." Ezra shrugged.
"Let's take a walk." Kanan suggested and they walked out of the common room.
"He's worried he'll lose us." Errol realised why Ezra's dour.
"What?" Everyone asked.
"Think about it. When his parents spoke out, he lost them. He fears the same will happen with us." He explained and that's when they all understood.
It was now nightfall and their plan was set into motion. Sabine rode a speeder bike with a canister of rhydonium attached towards the tower and then the Stormtroopers and batteries fired but she evaded their blasts and rode right to one of the batteries, jumping off before contact, resulting an explosion and then she rolled and took down two troopers.
Zeb took one down that used one of the batteries and used it himself to take down the rest of the troopers.
The Jedi trio arrived on their speeder bikes with Chopper. They all then got their weapons out and entered the tower.
Errol went akimbo on two Stormtroopers as they entered the control room.
"Okay, Sabine, three minutes." Kanan said, leaping over the controls and turning off the alarm.
"Chopper, install the spike." She instructed the astromech, kneeling next to him and he did as asked.
"Uh, guys. They're here." Errol told some grave news.
"What?! That's impossible." Kanan said and then he and Errol ran out while Sabine got on the controls.
"Time's up." Ezra said as they saw Imperial ships heading towards them. Kanan used his binoculars to see the aircraft and even troop transports heading their way.
"Hey, Sabine, we got targets incoming. Move it!" Errol said through the comms.
"But I thought we got three minutes." She said.
"Now you got one, hurry up!" He replied, urgently.
Zeb used the battery to fire at the ships and got one of them down. Errol sensed the Inquisitor.
"Guys, he's here." He told the two and they understood what he meant.
"You two go get Zeb." Kanan ordered them.
"I'm staying right here." Ezra definitely shot back.
"No, Ezra, we're getting Zeb and then coming back here. Now let's go!" Errol argued and pulled him to their speeder bikes and got on and sped towards Zeb.
"Zeb, come on. Kanan wants us to move." Ezra told the Lasat.
"But I like this gun." Zeb replied.
"We'll get you another gun, now come on!" Errol impatiently barked at him as one of the transports fired at the battery.
"Yeah, I can get another gun." Zeb said in agreement as he narrowly missed getting shot and jumped onto Errol's speeder bike and they sped back as it exploded. When they made it back, Sabine and Chopper appeared.
"Not this way. Back inside." He told the two.
"Are you crazy?" Sabine asked as she ran back inside.
"Take the lift. Hera will meet you at the top." Kanan told the rest.
"Wait, what about you?" Ezra asked.
"I'll take the next one." He replied.
"Let's go." Zeb told the two teens and they ran inside.
"Ezra. I'll be right behind you." Kanan told his Padawan as he ignited his lightsaber. Kanan then shut the door as he was ready to fight.
Everyone got in the lift and reached the top of the tower.
"Where's Kanan?" Ezra asked as he looked over the railing. But then one of the ships reached them and the troopers in it fired at them all and they all ducked for cover. They eventually had their hands up but both Errol and Sabine threw thermal detonators at the ship and it got damaged, causing it to spin out of control.
"Kanan!" Ezra yelled, seeing that his Master got held up against the door by the Inquisitor.
Hera arrived and opened the back of the shuttle, letting everyone jump in.
"Spectre-2, get out of there!" Kanan ordered over the comms.
"Not an option, Kanan." Hera defiantly shot back.
"No time! Go!" He insisted.
"We can't!" Ezra said. Hera was torn up about what to do.
"Hera!" Kanan shouted.
She really had no choice, so hesitantly, she closed the Phantom and flew out of there, reluctantly leaving their fellow crew member behind.
Errol saw how torn up she was and he assumed it was because she loved Kanan, which made his heart shatter, thinking that the woman he loves is in love with someone else.
They all made it back to the Ghost and everyone was in the common room where Ezra had finished with his message..
"Was it worth it? You think anybody heard?" Ezra asked everyone.
"I have a feeling they did." Hera answered.
"This isn't over." He said.
"No, it isn't." She agreed with him. The whole crew were silent, thinking about what's next without Kanan.
