The Call
Several days went on until the Ghost crew were tasked with their latest mission: To capture a shipment of fuel from the Mining Guild to the Empire so that the Rebel Fleet can restock their dwindling supplies.
They were flying the Ghost through an asteroid belt to find the shipment, but so far, nothing.
Hera and Errol were of course in the pilot seats, keeping their eyes open. The windshield was fogging up so they wiped them clean.
"*sighs* Errol, fuel status." Hera said as she rubbed her hands due to how cold it was.
"It's .05. We're pretty much on fumes right now." He informed her wrapping his arms around himself not wanting to use the Force to heat him up to save energy.
"Sorry, guys. Have to divert more power from thermal subsystems. Reducing heat to two percent." Hera informed everyone. Kanan was up on the top gun, having a drink.
"Our intel on this fuel source better be solid. I'm losing feeling in my fingers." Kanan said right before Slick entered the cockpit with a datapad.
"Saw the report myself. Somewhere in this belt, the Mining Guild's been refining clouzon-36 for the Empire." Hera replied as Slick handed the datapad to Errol.
"Thanks, bud. Says that one shipment of this stuff could fuel both us and all of Phoenix Squadron for a full cycle." He read from the datapad.
"Empire is scheduled to pick up their shipment today. We just have to get there and find it first." His Twi'lek girlfriend responded.
"The problem is that this asteroid field is scrambling our sensors." Errol pointed out. Ezra was blowing into his hands as he sat in the Nose Gun.
"Well, I'm getting nothing on the old visual scanners." He said but then he a very faint wailing from some kind of creature. And Errol heard it as well.
"Alright. Cut the chatter. Keep your eyes peeled for that refinery." Hera told the whole crew. The wailing can be heard by the two young Jedi again.
"Does anyone hear that noise?" Ezra asked everyone. Zeb was sitting in the Phantom, holding his head in his hands, struggling against the cold.
"*groans* The only thing I hear is my brain freezing." He complained. The wailing was then heard again, but louder as though something was coming closer.
"Guys, I can hear it too, it sounds like a creature wailing. And it's coming closer." Errol said.
"I don't see anything out here." Kanan said, looking through the glass on the top gun.
"Look, it sounds kind of sad, I guess. But… I mean, how could any of you not hear it except for Errol? It's coming from all around us." Ezra asked.
Hera looked at Errol for answers.
"Maybe we unknowingly have a connection to something out there." Errol theorized.
"That would make sense." Kanan said.
Suddenly, everyone heard the wailing as they saw a group of creatures flying right to them. They were huge and were like whales.
"What the…?" Errol whispered in awe.
"*gasps* Brace yourselves!" Hera to his surprise was being cautious as the creatures came closer. A couple of them bumped into the ship, shaking it a bit, throwing Slick up against the door to the cockpit. And then more bumped into the ship.
"What the bloody blazes are those?" Zeb asked for answers.
"Purrgils. *grunts* They'll rip the hull apart. Prepare to fire. We gotta drive them back." Hera immediately wanted to be on the offensive, shocking her boyfriend even more.
"Don't shoot! They'll pass. Just let 'em do what they do." Kanan told her.
"What they do is destroy starships like ours." Hera replied.
"We can't waste power fighting these things." Kanan pointed out.
"What choice do we have?!" She barked back.
"Hey! Why can't we just fly with them instead of against them?" Errol asked, now getting frustrated at Hera's odd behavior.
"I agree with Errol. It's not the worst idea." Ezra sided with him.
"Fine. I can't believe I'm doing this." Hera complied.
"It's not the strangest thing we've ever done." Kanan reminded her.
"Yeah, that doesn't make me feel better." She fired back as she and Errol started the ship up and turned it around to fly with the Purrgil. The wailing had also stopped.
"I think they're calming down." Ezra said.
"Yeah, I don't hear them." Errol agreed.
"That was a good instinct, you two. How did you know?" Kanan asked the younger Jedi.
"It just seemed like the right thing to do." Ezra answered honestly.
"Okay, we're low on fuel, surrounded by asteroids and caught in a swarm of Purrgil. How has the situation improved exactly?" Hera questioned, still on edge from the creatures.
"Hello? Are we shooting them or not? 'Cause here comes a really big one." Zeb informed the crew. Sabine entered the cockpit in time to see the large Purrgil move past them on the left.
"Wow. These creatures are amazing. Who would want to shoot them?" Ezra asked.
"Clearly Hera." Errol raised an eyebrow at her. That made her glare at him.
"Errol, you don't know what you're talking about. I do." She shot back at him.
"Well, why don't you tell us what your problem with them is?" He asked her. Sabine felt awkward as she hadn't seen them like this for a long time.
"These creatures are a menace. A big, lumbering menace." She answered.
"That's hardly a reason." Errol told her.
As they went back and forth, Ezra used the Force to connect with the Purrgil and sensed something off.
"Uh, something's upsetting it." Ezra told everyone.
"Maybe it's Hera." Zeb joked right before the Purrgil bellowed out a roar and moved in a different direction. Kanan was confused until he heard the distinct sound of spaceships approaching. He turned the gun to see two ships descending on them, but in a largely yellow colour scheme.
"No, it's not Hera. TIE Fighters. Two of 'em. I need a better angle." Kanan requested right before one of them fired at the ship.
"Hang on!" Hera said as she shifted the ship at a different angle and then Kanan started firing back, taking one of them down quickly. Sabine saw it and realised something.
"Those TIEs have been modified. They're not Imperial." She stated.
"Well, they're acting like it." Kanan shrugged off as the last one came back around.
"I've got him. I've got him." Ezra said, aiming the Nose Gun and as he pressed to fire at the TIE, but nothing happened as an alarm started going off.
"Hera, I lost my cannons." Ezra said, getting more and more worried.
"Rerouting auxiliary power from the Phantom." Hera said, already doing what she said.
"Oh, Karabast!" Zeb muttered. The TIE then started firing at the Ghost and Ezra still can't fire yet.
"Hera!" He called out to her. She was busy rerouting the power and Ezra started to scream right before he got power, and once the TIE was in his sightline, he fired at it and destroyed it within seconds. Ezra let out a huge sigh of relief.
"Oh, see? If we had shot at the Purrgil, we wouldn't have had-" Kanan started to brag but Hera was fed up and cut the comms off, sighing.
"They were part of the Mining Guild, weren't they?" Errol asked about the TIE Fighters.
"Yeah." Sabine nodded.
"They must be from the refinery. Errol, can you track where they came from?" Hera asked.
"Just give a minute and I'll get results." Errol immediately started to find results as Kanan entered the cockpit.
"As I was saying, it's a good thing we didn't waste energy shooting at the Purrgil." He said with smugness.
"Do you want to get your ass kicked by my girlfriend, Kanan? Be my guest." Errol warned him without looking at him.
"Okay, I get the picture." The older Jedi said, putting his hands up for surrender. Ezra looked at the Purrgil as they all bellowed and they changed direction.
"Something's happening. They're turning. I think we should follow them." He told Hera, who was having none of it with those creatures.
"Following them is the last thing we should do." She disagreed as Kanan sat behind her.
"Errol, did you find out where the Fighters came from yet?" She then asked. Errol had a raised eyebrow upon seeing the results.
"Yep." He nodded.
"Good. What's our heading?" She asked him.
"To follow the Purrgil." He revealed casually.
"What?" Hera questioned in utter disbelief.
"I'm serious. It turns out the Purrgil are heading directly where I calculated the Fighters came from." Errol shrugged his shoulders, answering in all honesty.
"That's so interesting." Kanan said with mock enthusiasm. Hera looked thoughtful and came to her conclusion.
"Alright. I guess for now we follow the Purrgil." Hera agreed as Ezra climbed up the ladder from the Nose Gun up into the cockpit.
"Hey, for what it's worth, I've got a good feeling about this." Ezra said, which didn't calm Hera down as she changed direction to follow the creatures. Kanan sat behind her with a cocky smile, crossing his arms.
"Go check your cabins. Make sure everything is switched off. We've gotta save every little bit of fuel." Hera then told her crew. Kanan and Sabine nodded and left the cockpit to check. Ezra and Errol stayed.
"Come on, big guy." Kanan said to Zeb, who seemed to be heading to the cockpit. He groaned in confusion as he was pushed back, complaining how cold it is in the back.
"I never imagined there were creatures in deep space." Ezra confessed, walking up behind the couple.
"When I was young, I was told amazing stories of creatures that lived in the stars, traveled between the worlds. Old pilots said it was the Purrgil who inspired us to jump from system to system. But I don't believe it. The Purrgil are dangerous. They wander into Hyperspace lanes, crash into ships. I've lost more than one friend that way." Hera explained why she hates these creatures to Errol and Ezra.
"Have you ever considered that they don't realise they put people in danger? They just follow their instincts like any other creature." Errol told her.
"Right now, as long as they don't come between me and my mission I really don't care what they do." She dismissively replied.
"Whatever." Errol shrugged his arm, getting a bit fed up with her disdain towards the Purrgil. An alarm then went off as they approached some kind of planetoid.
"Scanners are picking up an energy source from that planetoid ahead." Hera said.
"You think it's the refinery?" Ezra asked.
"We're about to find out."
As they got closer and closer, they were over a crater with a structure over a gas. Unrefined clouzon-36 gas.
"There it is. The refinery." Hera said, glad that they've finally found it.
"But why would the Purrgil head towards it?" Errol asked.
"Works out for us. Between them and all these asteroids, the Mining Guild will never see us coming." Hera reasoned. Zeb then used all his strength to open the door to the cockpit and kept it open to let Kanan, Sabine and Chopper in.
"The automatic doors aren't so automatic anymore." He grumbled.
"I've rationed what energy we have left." Hera reminded him as he moved in and the door closed.
"What's your next move?" Kanan asked.
"I want to get a secure location to plan our attack. Sabine, Chopper, ready a short, controlled burst from the engines. In three, two, one. Now!" Hera instructed and the two made the burst and they gained speed and then landed on a small asteroid, hovering above the refinery.
"Okay. So how exactly are we gonna pull off this raid with our limited resources?" Zeb asked.
"Well, give me a second and I'll tell you." Sabine shut him up as she looked through binoculars and saw that there were more TIEs, docked.
"Okay. More Fighters. That's not good." She said before looking everywhere else.
"Anti-ship cannon, also not good." She added before panning elsewhere.
"But… aha." She said, finally seeing containers of the gas.
"There's the Empire's shipment. Okay, lots of guards around, but I think we can drop down there, scoop it up and go." Sabin formed a plan.
"Forget the scoop job. We have just barely enough fuel to get down there. We'll have to land." Hera shot her plan down with a different one.
"Refuel on the platform? They'll blast us to bits. We need a diversion." Zeb reminded them as Sabine handed the binoculars to Ezra, who looked through them, seeing the Purrgil diving into the gas, but getting attacked by the anti-ship cannon
"I've got one. The gas in that pool is unrefined clouzon-36. Highly explosive in its pure form. We drop in a few charges, the blast will provide all the diversion we need." Sabine suggested.
"In the chaos, we grab the fuel." Kanan added, seeing where this was going.
"With the huge fireball destroying the Empire's chances to refine more for themselves." Errol added. As they discussed, Ezra was more focused on a Purrgil diving into the gas and then flying out of it.
"I like it. Ezra, you hear the plan?" Hera asked the teen, noticing his attention was elsewhere.
"Yeah. Sure. Uh, they're using the cannon to shoot the Purrgil. Why would they bother?" Ezra asked, more concerned with the creatures.
"Speaking of, how do we get past that gun undetected?" Sabine asked, focusing back on the plan.
"We jump." Kanan said.
"What?" Errol asked, taken aback at the idea.
"We're in the upper atmosphere. We can glide in on the catwalk. With all the Purrgil around, we can probably slip by unseen." Kanan explained.
"Keyword: Probably." Errol reminded him, meaning the plan may not work that well.
"Sounds like a dangerous plan." Zeb added, crossing his arms.
"Don't worry, buddy. You're staying here." Kanan assured him, patting his shoulder.
"Oh. Sounds like a good plan." The Lasat said, feeling better that he won't take part. He then opened the door, letting Kanan and Sabine out.
"The Purrgil and the gas are connected. Hey, uh, guys?" Ezra said but Zeb closed the door, following Kanan and Sabine, not listening to him.
"We can't focus on the Purrgil, Ezra. We have to prepare for the mission." Errol tried to get his focus on the task at hand.
"But I think the Purrgil want the fuel." Ezra stated.
"Well, so do we. Get going." Hera instructed Ezra, who was fed up with the Purrgil being ignored. He then left.
"Be careful." Hera told Errol as he got up. He decided to kiss her on the cheek.
"You know me." He smirked as he left as well.
Ezra, Kanan, Sabine and Errol entered the cargo bay with Chopper. Errol and Ezra put on their helmets already.
"Sabine, do you have the helmet I lent you?" Kanan asked the Mandalorian. She threw him the helmet and Kanan was surprised to see that it was painted on.
"What? You said you just wanted to look at it." He snapped at her.
"I did look at it. And it looked bad." She retorted right before she put her helmet on. Kanan then put his on.
"I think it looks great." Ezra honestly told his Master.
"At least it ain't bland." Errol shrugged.
They all gathered in front of the ramp as it opened up, Sabine packing detonators.
"Wait. We're not taking the Phantom?" Ezra asked.
"This is what happens when you don't pay attention." Errol nudged him with his elbow.
"How are we getting down there?" Ezra then asked, making Errol roll his eyes.
"Like Kanan said. We jump." Sabine told him before they all ran out and jumped, descending down to the refinery, getting into formation, with Sabine holding onto Chopper.
Some of the Purrgil ended up flying down with them, bellowing as they did so.
"Wow." Ezra breathed out as he looked at the one closest to him. He stared right into its eye and reached his hand out to it. It then flew away from them.
"Five seconds." Kanan told him. They got closer and closer to the catwalk and once the five seconds were up, Sabine pulled Chopper so that he could use his thruster to slow the descent. They landed without being spotted.
Kanan used the Force to soften his landing, rolling to disperse the impact. Errol was able to soften his landing much better, landing on the catwalk without making a sound.
Ezra however, because of his incomplete training, wasn't able to slow his descent.
"Oh, no. Oh, no! No!" He screamed, falling past the catwalk. Both Kanan and Errol used the Force to stop him from falling into the gas. They then pulled him back up and dropped him onto the catwalk.
"Ever heard of being quiet, Ezra?" Errol hissed at him at his screams.
"I'm gonna have to work on that." Ezra said, feeling guilty.
"I'm gonna make sure you do." Kanan sternly told him. Errol saw one of the Guild workers by the cannon who aimed a blaster at them.
"Look out!" He shouted, pushing Ezra and Kanan behind him, letting the blaster bolt hit him in the chest, leaving only a charred mark and Errol took out his lightsaber and blocked the rest of the blaster bolts.
"Well, so much for the stealth mission." Errol said as Kanan and Ezra pulled out their sabers, as well as Errol and Sabine started to fire her blasters.
"Sabine. Toss the detonators." Kanan said.
"I'm on it." She acknowledged, pulling them out and primed them.
"Detonators?" Ezra questioned and ended up swatting Sabine, making her drop them on the catwalk.
"Ezra, you IDIOT!" Errol bellowed furiously at him as he grabbed them.
"We can't blow up the gas!" Ezra told them.
"Don't tell me this is about the Purrgil!" Sabine was expressing everyone's annoyance at the creatures being Ezra's apparent priority.
"It is." Ezra confirmed.
"Hold that thought. Sabine!" Kanan said, ducking down, allowing the Mandalorian to fire at the worker, taking him down quickly. The worker on the cannon now started firing at them as they made their way to him. Errol sped up with the Force, blocking the cannon bolts and then levitated the worker off his feet and threw him off and into the gas. Everyone then holstered their weapons.
"Explain yourself, Bridger." Errol snapped at him, shoving him back harshly.
"Okay. The gas and the Purrgil are connected. We can't blow up the gas without hurting them." Ezra explained himself. This new piece of information now complicates matters as Kanan starts to think things through.
"Kanan, what's the plan?" Sabine asked.
"I trust your instincts, kid. Now get on that cannon and cover us." Kanan ordered.
"Okay, what are we doing?" Errol asked for clarification.
"We're going to secure the landing zone." He told them and so they all ran with Chopper down the catwalk as Ezra manned the cannon.
"Errol, what's going on?" Errol heard in his helmet's comlink.
"Because of Ezra's insistence we don't blow up the gas because of the Purrgil, we are improvising by securing the landing zone while Ezra covers us with the cannon." Errol explained the new plan.
"Not the Purrgil again." Hera groaned.
"Are you sure you can secure the landing platform? Once I start heading down there, I can't turn back." She then said.
"Hera, this is the wrong mission for a guarantee! We'll contact you once we've cleared the platform." Errol finished before cutting off.
As they ran their way, they were spotted by a guard, alerting the one in charge of the refinery and then started firing down at them.
They got behind a large container for cover as more of the guards and workers appeared and fired at them. Chopper grunts as Kanan gets on comms.
"Where's my cover fire?" He asked Ezra.
"Working on it." Ezra assured him as he aimed and fired back, making the guard up top run for cover. He then aimed towards the ones to the right, seeing that they're next to fuel cells.
"Careful! Don't hit the fuel." Sabine warned him. Ezra fired some shots, making sure to not hit them as the guards ran for it. Ezra then stopped firing and looked at the Purrgil above as he heard them bellow once more.
"Hera, get down here, now. It's secured for now." Errol told his Twi'lek girlfriend.
"Then it's a good thing we're here." She replied, making them look up to see the Ghost fly down and land.
"I'll get the fuel." Zeb said as he exited the ship with an air mask on.
"Make it fast." Hera told him.
Ezra's attention was still on the Purrgil.
"Oh. They're back." He said as he watched one dive directly into the gas and he watched it swim in the gas with a glowing aura around it and then it dived back out, this time with its eyes glowing.
"Spectre-7, do you copy?" Kanan asked his Padawan if he's still with them.
"Kanan, I figured it out. You're not going to believe this." Ezra replied, oblivious to the fact that the Guild guards came back and fired down at the crew as they fired back.
"I believe I need more cover fire!" Kanan snapped at him.
"Yes! Right, uh, sorry." He apologized as he got back on the cannon and fired at the other cannon that was high up the facility. It then fired back at him, causing the cannon to explode, throwing Ezra into the gas.
The crew were too busy getting the shipment onboard the Ghost and firing at the Guild workers to notice what happened. The cannon above them fired at the ship and Hera took over the gun on top and fired at it, destroying it. Then the TIE Fighters lifted off.
"I thought you said the landing platform was secure." Hera told Errol.
"I said 'for now'. Did you forget that?" Errol reminded her as he and Sabine pushed fuel cells into the cargo bay.
"Refuel commencing." Zeb said as he started the process.
"Come on. Come on." Hera said as she looked at a monitor that showed the shipping being refueled.
The TIEs came around and both Errol and Kanan jumped on top of the Ghost and ignited their sabers, blocking cannon fire from the TIEs.
"We've got Fighters. Ezra. Ezra! Ezra, where are you? Ezra? Come in, Ezra!" Kanan called through the comms yet got no response.
"Something's wrong." Errol grimly said.
"We need to find Ezra." Zeb said as he provided cover fire with Sabine as Slick and Chopper pushed the fuel cells into the Ghost.
"Without fuel, we can't find anybody." Sabine stated.
"Ezra's down. We need to get out of here." Kanan said.
"Just a few more seconds." Hera said.
But then the two TIEs hovered, ready to fire down at the two Jedi.
"Time's up." Errol coldy said, ready to fight.
"Surrender, thieves. You are at my mercy." The alien in charge of the refinery spat at them all from above.
"We'll never be at your mercy, you tub." Errol mocked him.
"Kanan, Errol, don't worry. We'll be right there." Ezra said over their comms, confusing the two.
"Who's 'we'?" Errol asked.
His answer came when the Purrgil came out of the pool of gas. One of which destroyed one of the TIEs. The whole crew were silent in shock and awe.
"I don't believe it." Hera confessed, for the first time, seeing these creatures as not a menace.
They then saw Ezra on top of the one that must be Purrgil Alpha since its head was yellow instead of blue. He then ignited his lightsaber.
"*gasps* We found Ezra." Zeb muttered.
"Blast those disgusting things!" The alien spat at his workers. They fired a few shots, but they were deflected by Ezra. The remaining TIE flew around and tried to fire at Ezra but as it got closer to him, he swung his saber and cut one of its wings, causing it to explode.
"Impressive. Most impressive." Errol admitted, seeing that Ezra has done something like this.
Hera looked at the monitor to see that the Ghost was fully refueled. And she immediately got in the pilot's seat.
"Are we good to go?" Errol asked her.
"We are good to go." She replied.
"*grunts* This is the last one. Go. Go!" Zeb shouted as he pushed the last fuel cell into the ship.
Hera lifted the ship off the landing platform and started to fly away as the Guild workers started to fire at the ship. Both Errol and Kanan blocked the blaster fire as Hera, with the help of Sabine, flew the ship.
The alien in charge then got taken into the gas pool by the mouth of one of the Purrgil. The Ghost crew then fired their guns at the whole refinery, destroying it so that the Empire won't get more fuel from here.
They then flew off, the Purrgil Alpha by their left with Ezra still on its head as it led the rest of its flock with the ship.
Ezra jumped onto the ship and looked back at the Purrgil into its glowing eye. He then placed his hand by its eye and it closed them. Then it bellowed, flying ahead.
Kanan, Errol and Ezra get back into the ship, take off their helmets and enter the cockpit where the rest of the crew was.
"It wasn't like anything I've ever experienced. I could see what they were thinking." Ezra revealed.
"You must have established a deep connection with them." Kanan told him.
"I guess so. I could see they need gas to breathe and travel. The crater wasn't their home, just one stop on a long journey." Ezra explained as they all looked at the Purrgil in a new light.
"I have to admit, without the help of the Purrgil, we never would have gotten off the ground again." Hera confessed. Errol smiled and kissed her on the cheek, a way of telling her how proud he is that she's now respecting these creatures.
"Whoa. Look." Sabine said, making everyone see the Purrgil all start glowing.
"Can it be?" Hera whispered before all of the Purrgil jumped into Hyperspace.
"They do travel through Hyperspace after all." Errol said.
"*chuckles* We better get moving, too." Kanan said.
"Back to the fleet?" Sabine asked Hera. SHe looked at Errol and they thought the same thing.
"How 'bout we follow the Purrgil?" Hera suggested and then they too jumped into Hyperspace.