The Honourable Ones
A few months later and the crew are now on their latest mission. They were given a tip of Imperial activity around the planet of Geonosis and so, with Alaara and Rex accompanying them, they headed right to the planet.
They exit Hyperspace above the large desert planet and already they spot what looked like some kind of structure orbiting the planet above the ring.
"Rebel intelligence was right. The Empire was building something over Geonosis." Ezra asked, sitting behind Errol (now 17 years old) in the co-pilot seat.
"Yeah, but what? I've never seen an orbital construction field this big." Sabine said, standing between Ezra and Zeb, who sat behind Hera.
"The Geonosians made weapons back in the Clone War. Whatever they were up to, I'm betting we're not gonna like it." Kanan said, recollecting what he knew when he was younger.
"Must've been huge if they had to build it up here instead of down on the surface." Zeb noted.
"Especially considering the bugs on the planet." Alaara said, who stood directly behind Zeb.
"Hey. Slick. Can you do a planetary scan?" Errol asked his droid, who acknowledged and hooked into the system.
"Good idea, I know through experience the bugs down there don't take to unexpected guests." Rex said as he sat in the Nose Gun. Slick did the scan and he explained the results, which wasn't what any of them expected.
"No life?" Sabine questioned.
"You cross wired? There are billions of bugs on Geonosis. Scan again." Rex said. Slick grunted back at him and scanned again yet the results stayed the same. Errol made a horrifying realisation.
"The Empire killed them all." He stated in a dark tone, shocking everyone at this idea of the Empire massacring a whole race.
"I don't like any of this." Zeb muttered.
"We don't know that for sure. Let's check out that construction module." Hera said, changing the subject as she and Errol piloted the ship towards the structure ahead. They land in a hangar, looking left behind.
The crew except for Hera, Alaara and Rex got up to leave, Errol was about to follow everyone when he looked back at her.
"Make sure to keep it running. We'll be bound to make things up as normal." Errol said, kissing Hera quickly on the lips.
"Got it." She nodded.
He then caught up with the others.
"What exactly are we looking for?" Zeb asked, taking the lead with a torch beaming into the corridors.
"The primary data banks. They might have records of what the Empire was making." Sabine to him as they walked into the corridors.
"My gut tells me those data banks will be empty." Kanan retorted, not knowing that an Imperial astromech was watching them and Errol senses something off.
"And my gut thinks we're heading right into a trap." Errol said, placing his hand by his saber hilt.
"I side with you, Errol." Zeb said, stopping in his tracks. Of course, that is the case as the astromech opened blast doors to reveal Stormtroopers aiming their blasters at them and Kallus came out from around the corner, facing Zeb, who had his bo-rifle out.
"How perceptive." Kallus said with smugness, arming his bo-rifle.
The Jedi trio ignited their sabers and Sabine pulled out her blasters as they all fought back against the Troopers. The blast doors were all starting to close as Zeb charged at Kallus to fight against him.
"Spectre-2, we're in a mess, as usual. Kallus has showed up and there's a droid locking the doors." Errol informed Hera through the comlink.
"Agent Kallus, how lovely." Hera sarcastically cheered.
"Chopper, go unlock the doors. Alaara, take care of the droid." Rex ordered.
"Got it." The 53 year old Togruta said, exiting the Ghost with Chopper as they were attacked by AT-DP Walkers.
"Time to sleep, you scrap pile!" Alaara shouted, shooting her blaster at the Imperial droid, taking it down within four shots.
"Do your thing, Chop." She said and the astromech started to open the blast doors back up.
"Thanks." Errol said to his grandmother and Chopper as he and others backed up, deflecting blaster bolts. As they backed up, Zeb was still busy fighting against Kallus.
"Zeb!" Erza and Errol shouted out to him.
"We'll meet you at the ship!" He told them.
"You heard him. Let's go." Kanan said. Everyone then headed back into the Ghost.
Hera lifted off from the floor and Rex fired the Nose Gun at the Walkers at the entrance of the hangar.
"Spectre-4, we're leaving. Where are you?" Ezra asked as he stood on the ramp, deflecting fire from the Walkers.
"*grunts* Busy right now!" Zeb replied through the comlink.
"Zeb, where are you?" Ezra asked back.
"Spectre-7, no need to wait. Got my own ride outta here. Escape pod." Zeb said, sounding like he was running.
Errol and Hera piloted the ship out of the hangar, hearing this and flew around the structure, avoiding the cannon fire from the Walkers.
"What a day we're having." Hera told her boyfriend.
"For once, I'd like for a mission to go smoothly and not constantly change." He groaned. The two then saw an escape pod part from the structure.
"Zeb, do you copy? Zeb?" Errol asked over the comms, but received no response.
"*grunts* He must've lost his comlink. He's heading for Geonosis. We'll be able to find him." Rex assured his godson.
"TIEs incoming." Hera called out. They started to fire at the Ghost but then Kanan on the top gun fired back and took one of them down. The TIEs then chased after them, with Alaara firing the cannons on the Phantom at the Fighters. Kanan then started to fire at Walkers they flew past, taking one down as Alaara took one of the TIEs down.
Both Errol and Hera looked at each other with a wicked look on their faces and decided to make a particular maneuver. They flew towards a hangar, turned the Ghost upside down and Alaara fired at the TIE after them as this happened, causing the TIE to be damaged and crashed into the remaining Walker.
"*sighs in relief* Thank the Force that's over with. Slick, did you track Zeb's trajectory?" Errol asked his droid, who was with them in the cockpit the whole time. Slick grunted as he already tried.
"What do you mean you can't find him?" Errol asked, confused and concerned. Slick then grunted about a transponder.
"Great. If we can't pick up on the transponder, we're just gonna have to search for ourselves." Hera said. Errol nodded.
Once everyone gathered up in the common room, they all decided to split up in the search for where Zeb might be.
While Errol, Ezra, Kanan and Slick got in the Phantom, everyone else stayed on the Ghost. Either way, the three Jedi and Slick are flying in the skies of Geonosis. They looked out the window to see the orange brown sky and landscape of the desert planet, seeing if there's any sign of the escape pod Zeb was in.
"Look at this place. It's so empty and lifeless." Ezra commented. Errol silently thought about what his parents told him about this planet from their time in the Clone Wars.
"Apparently, this was where the Clone Wars started. The first batch of clones fought here to save Master Obi-Wan, Anakin Skywalker and Senator Padme Amidala." Kanan told the younger Jedi.
"I remember mom telling me how her, dad and a fellow Padawan, Barriss Offee, had to get themselves out of a sticky situation here by themselves." Errol brought up.
"Wasn't Barriss the one who framed Ahsoka for a murder before she quit the Jedi with Dash?" Kanan asked, remembering particular events.
"Yes. She was considered a friend by my parents before they learned of what she did." Errol nodded.
Ezra was going to ask Errol something when Slick beeped, telling them something.
"You picked up something?" Errol asked him. He nodded and inserted into the console to show coordinates on the monitor.
"It's a signal, some distance away." Kanan said.
"Could it be Zeb's transponder?" Ezra wondered.
"It's too faint to get any information about it other than that it's there." Kanan said, frowning.
"Well, considering this is our only lead right now, we'll have to investigate it." Errol stated, activating the comms.
"Hera, we've picked up a faint signal. We're going to investigate and see if it's Zeb." He informed her.
"Copy that, be careful." She cautioned them before comms were cut off and Kanan piloted the shuttle in the direction where the signal came from.
After several minutes of flying over the desert landscape, they ended up in the middle of a sandstorm, with winds so strong that the shuttle started to shake slightly. And with all the sand kicked up in the air, they could barely see anything.
Errol had used the Force to sense what's out there and he sensed a really large spire in front of them.
"Watch out!" He shouted, grabbing the controls and making the shuttle move to the right and fly past the spire.
"Thanks." Ezra said while Kanan scolded himself for focusing too much on finding Zeb to notice the various hazards. The radar picked up on the signal more clearly, showing that it's coming from up ahead.
"We're close." Kanan said, all three looking out the window to see the outline of large ruins that seemed to be of a large Geonosian structure. As they flew over and around it, they saw it was so large that it gave a Star Destroyer a run for its money.
"What happened here?" Ezra asked.
"Must be a relic of the Clone Wars." Errol guessed.
"Either way, it seems that the signal is right where these ruins are. It's underneath it all." Kanan told them, Slick beeped, concerningly.
"You're saying Zeb could be trapped under all that?!" Ezra asked with worry.
"Ezra, calm down. He may not be under all that rubble. We'll make a scan just in case." Kanan told him. He flicked a switch and they scanned the region up and down and once the results came in, the trio and Slick were a bit worried.
"Great. The signal's coming from underground catacombs." Errol groaned, not liking the idea of going in tight tunnels.
"Zeb must've gone underground to get out of the sandstorm. That might explain why we haven't detected any lifeforms on the surface." Kanan said before he switched the comlink on.
"Hera, we've reached the signal. It's somewhere in some underground catacombs, we're going to check it out." He informed their captain as he landed the Phantom in front of the opening in the rubble that went underground.
"Understood, but be careful down there, we could lose communication with you guys so be quick, especially since Imperial reinforcements may arrive soon." Hera cautioned them as Errol got himself ready and put his helmet on.
"We'll be back as soon as possible." Errol comforted her before cutting the comms off.
"Alright, since we're about to walk through a sandstorm. You two hold onto me because I can see through the helmet." He then instructed Kanan and Ezra, who replied with a quick 'got it'.
"Stay close, Slick." He then told his droid as he opened the hatch as his fellow Jedi grabbed onto his shoulders.
They all walked out, Kanan and Ezra blocking the sand out of their faces as best as possible. The hatch of the shuttle closed as they all walked through the sandstorm to the opening
Once they reached the opening, they could see clearly now and the Jedi trio pulled out their lightsabers and ignited them because as they're descending into the catacombs, it gets darker and darker.
"Slick, lead us through these catacombs." Errol told his droid, who bravely beeped and got in front of the trio, leading them through the burrowed, dark, tunnels, unaware of glowing red eyes watching them from the shadows as though they were examining them.
Eventually, after a descent through the catacombs, there was a dim light from up ahead the four and once they approached it, it led them into a large cavern with what was left of a droid factory from the Clone Wars.
"I'm starting to think that Zeb ain't here." Errol said, getting a bit concerned, thinking that something might be lurking around the factory.
"We'll have to split up and look around to make sure of that." Kanan told him. Ezra and Errol nodded and went off to find the source of the signal. Errol checked the left side of the cavern where an assembly line was, all rusted and chipped.
As he walked further, he saw a tunnel, but what made this one different compared to the catacombs was that this one looked like it was excavated, not matching the style of the structures.
"What did this?" He asked himself, quietly. As he looked down the tunnel, Errol could've sworn he saw some movement further into the tunnel, yet the scanners didn't pick up any lifeforms at all. He was so creeped out that he forgot to use the Force in the moment.
"Hey, guys! Come over here!" He then heard Ezra shout from somewhere in the cavern. Not wanting to be on his own right now, Errol immediately went to where he heard Ezra from, which was what looked like a terminal with some generators and lights around it. Kanan and Slick met with them.
"What is it?" Kanan asked his Padawan.
"This terminal. It must be the source of the signal." Ezra told them all.
"*groans* So this is all a waste of time. Let's get out of here." Errol said, wanting to leave.
"But let's just turn this on and see what else there is here." Ezra said as he turned the terminal on, springing to live lights all over the cavern, which revealed all kinds of droids surrounding them. From spider droids to B1 battle droids. The three Jedi stood on edge, ready for an attack, though all the droids stood around them as though they're statues.
"What are these things doing here?" Ezra asked.
"They must have survived the collapse when the factory was destroyed." Kanan said, realising that is the most likely possibility.
That was when all the droids started to attack them with blaster fire.
"Look out!" Errol shouted as they all deflected the blaster fire and all leaped away from each other to deal with all the droids.
Ezra faced off against a dozen B1 droids, and unlike in the Clone Wars, they were focused and determined, even more so than before to take down a Jedi. He managed to slice up three of them with ease and then he dodged the blaster fire as he moved on to the next four and used the Force to smash them into each other, throw them back at another four. He then charged and jumped up to strike down at the four and with the last one remaining, Ezra sliced it in half.
With Kanan, he had to confront half a dozen B1 droids and a couple of rocket droids. They fired a couple of rockets towards Kanan but he ducked down to avoid one and used the Force to make the other fly off to a bunch of other B1's that were approaching. Kanan too noticed the odd behavior with these droids. But he couldn't stay focused on that in the middle of staying alive.
He ran up the cavern wall and jumped off to get behind all the droids and took care of the B1's within seconds and he now only had to deal with the rocket droids. They turned around to face him and Kanan sliced one's arm off, which inadvertently made a rocket fire off, so he jumped to avoid it hitting his feet. Kanan then stabbed it right in the chest and sliced up to its head, taking it down. He then moved onto the last one and he made quick work of it, though he got punched in the arm from it, which would leave a bruise.
Then with Errol, he had to face a large spider droid. It was constantly firing at the Mandalorian-Togruta hybrid, making him constantly moving as he ran up to it. A cannon bolt narrowly misses him, causing Errol to stumble slightly and another bolt hits him in the helmet, throwing him onto his back.
Errol got back up immediately and ran as fast as he could to get underneath the spider droid and once he was, he slices the legs and then he stabs it over and over, running from it as it explodes.
After the Jedi trio dealt with all of this and the odd droid here and there, they joined back up with Slick behind a large pile of metal, taking cover from the barrage of blaster fire.
"Does anyone notice their behavior?" Ezra asked as they now used their blasters to fire back at the droids.
"Yeah. They must be following their programming. To kill Jedi, which means us." Errol told him as he took a headshot of a rocket droid.
"That's just great." Ezra retorted with nothing sarcasm.
"But doesn't it seem odd they are all organized? More than they should be?" Kanan noted.
"Then something must be commanding them. But what is it?" Errol surmised as he took down a few more droids with Kanan.
That was when a deep rumbling echoed in the cavern. It then started to get louder and louder, causing the Jedi trio and Slick to peek out and saw the cavern wall on the other side start to crack and then an old Clone War era super tank burst through and rolled up into the middle of the cavern until it stopped. A hatch then opened up with a tactical droid popping out. But unlike the tactical droids from the Clone Wars, this one had very crude plating on it, clearly being crude repairs on the majority of it.
"A fully functional tactical droid?" Kanan gasped in shock.
"Correct, Jedi. TX-21, at your service." The tactical droid introduced itself.
"How are you still operational?" Errol asked, aiming his blasters at it, as did Kanan and Ezra.
"After suffering defeat, which can be blamed on the organics' whom I served under. I fell into the planet's depths upon a battle's defeat, shut down. But I reactivated myself after a long time of shutting down. I was trapped and severely damaged but after a long time, I repaired myself and reassembled forces for when I'd be found again. That never came. All this time I reviewed the defeat to improve and waited for the chance to defeat the Jedi once and for all." The droid told its story. The Jedi trio looked at each other, on edge from this information.
"Doesn't matter, we'll beat you just like we did with your lackeys." Ezra bragged, so sure they'll win this.
"I don't think so. I have revised my battle strategy for many years and have devised a plan to ensure the maximum chance of success. This means you won't escape." The droid replied in a much darker and menacing tone. It then starts to fire the cannons on the super tank, making the Jedi trio take cover and curled up as much as possible with Slick pressed up against Errol as rock, dust and metal scraps flew around them to avoid getting hit. There was the odd rocket fired and this lasted for a whole minute until to the shock of the tactical droid, the firing mechanism jams. Errol knew they had to use this to their advantage.
"Now!" He shouted and the Jedi trio charged out of cover and started to now go on the offensive. They used their lightsabers and took out all of the remaining droids left and all three worked together to take out the remaining spider droid.
Once all the remaining droids were dealt with, the trio now faced off TX-21 in the super tank, who just fixed the jammed firing mechanism. It noticed that all its droids are all destroyed and that the three Jedi in front of him are more than ready to claim victory, which it denies.
"No. I can't lose. A droid is incapable of losing." TX-21 said to itself.
"Yeah, well, I hate to break it to you, but you lost. We beat you with ease." Errol fired back, wanting this to be over and done with. Slick beeped, acting tough.
"Perhaps, but you won't escape. Therefore, I'll win." The droid then spat before it aimed the tank's cannons up at the roof of the cavern.
"What are you doing?!" Kanan asked with worry.
"This battle will be a victory for the Separatists!" The droid declared as it fired at the roof, causing a cave in, which started to fall down on top of the droid and the tank and approached towards the Jedi and Slick.
"Oh, Karabast! Run!" Errol yelled and they all ran towards the tunnel they came in from. But because of Slick's slower speed, he got caught by falling rocks and started beeping out for help, which Errol heard.
"SLICK!" He yelled in fear, running back to the cavern entrance and he used the Force to move the rocks off Slick and he decided to carry the astromech in his arms.
"Errol, hurry up!" Ezra called out to him as he ran to catch up with Kanan and Ezra as the cave in was crawling up behind them into the tunnel.
Eventually, they saw the light coming from the surface and that gave the trio the extra motivation to run much faster and once they made it out of the cave, it collapsed just as they reached the surface. This time, the sandstorm is no longer there, with the Geonosian sky clear as day and the sun beaming down at them.
"*sighs* That was close." Errol said as he put Slick on the ground.
"Yeah. I'm not looking to deal with battle droids for a while." Ezra agreed as they all made their way to the Phantom and then Errol's comlink went off.
"Spectre-6, do you copy, over?" Hera's concerned voice came through.
"I read you, Spectre-2. What is it?" Errol asked as they entered the shuttle.
"We managed to pick up on a transponder and it's coming from the moon named Bahryn." She revealed. This may be Zeb.
"Alright. We'll meet up and check it out, over." Errol replied and cut comms off.
"Well?" Kanan asked.
"They've picked up a transponder on one of the moons." Errol told him and Kanan nodded right as he lifted the shuttle off and ascended the planet's atmosphere and connected back up with the Ghost.
Once they entered the ship, the trio and Slick were greeted with Hera, Sabine, Chopper, Alaara and Rex, who saw that they were covered with dust.
"What happened?" Hera asked Errol as they hugged.
"Long story, let's just go check the transponder and hope it is Zeb." Errol told her, sounding tired.
They flew towards the ice moon named Bahryn where the transponder is situated and once they landed, Errol looked out the window in the cockpit and saw Zeb running towards them.
"There he is!" He pointed right before he ran down to the cargo bay and opened the ramp up.
"Ah! Zeb!" Ezra cheered upon seeing the Lasat.
"Zeb!" Sabine also cheered.
"Nice to see you're alright, big guy." Errol said, patting his arm.
"Zeb, you made it!" Ezra stated.
"We picked up your beacon. We were so worried." Hera said, standing next to Errol.
"It wasn't so bad. We've all been in tighter spots. I knew you'd find me eventually." Zeb said, placing his hands on Errol's and Ezra's shoulders and then he looked over towards an iceberg.
"Yeah, alright. Come on, Zeb, it's, uh, cold out here." Ezra shivered, wrapping his arms around himself.
"You've been in it for two seconds." Zeb retorted.
"Yeah, two seconds too long." Ezra shot back and they all headed back into the ship.
"By the way, we have quite the story to tell you." Errol said to Zeb.
"Really, well I have quite a story to tell you as well." Zeb told him as they walked up the ramp when the ship lifted off and then the ramp closed, all of them heading back to the Rebel Fleet.