The Mystery of Chopper Base

It's been a few days since Errol was separated from the Ghost crew and he explained what happened, surprising them with his time with an Imperial, working together to survive.

Anyway, some of the Rebel Fleet, including Ghost were heading towards Atollon, a planet where their new base was located as they were in the middle of bringing in their supplies and equipment down to their new base.

"Ghost to Phoenix Home, we're heading down with another load." Hera told Sato over the comms. Zeb entered the cockpit, standing behind Chopper.

"Copy, Ghost. I'll meet you on the surface." He replied and then the comms were shut off.

"So, one more run, then we'll take a break." Hera told Zeb, looking over to him. He smirked, liking the idea of a break.

"Are they still at it?" She then asked him.

"Pretty much non stop." He told her. She then climbed down the ladder that led to the Nose Gun and stood with Sabine and Errol, who was wearing a brown shirt and black trousers by the balcony, looking down at Ezra and Kanan, who were in the middle of a sparring session in the cargo bay, their lightsabers in Training Mode so that they don't hurt themselves.

"Keep your blade up. It's easier to drop it than it is to raise it." Kanan told Ezra right before he backed him up against the wall and then Ezra pushed back, the two now blocking each other's sabers. Kanan then Force Pushed Ezra back at the wall. When he got on his feet, Kanan swiped at him, barely missing as Ezra rolled away, turning off his saber and using its blaster mode, firing a few shots, which Kanan blocked.

"You know, that's my move." He told his Padawan.

"I steal from the best." Ezra retorted, turning his saber back on. This statement raised eyebrows from the couple watching them. The two then stared down before Ezra slid and tried to swipe at Kanan's ankles but Kanan jumped. Ezra then ran up the wall as Kanan tried to hit him. Ezra jumped off and got behind Kanan and swiped his saber right next to his Master's neck.

"Gotcha!" He said, already thinking he's victorious, unaware that Kanan pointed his saber at Ezra's stomach.

"And I got you." Kanan told him, making Ezra look down to see his saber pointed at him. Ezra felt down and he took his saber away from Kanan's neck and Kanan turned his saber off.

"*groans* Tied again?" Ezra said, frustrated at himself.

"There's no such thing as a 'tie'. You lose, you die." Kanan explained.

"Yeah, and you win by killing an Inquisitor." Ezra argued. This made both Errol and Kanan roll their eyes.

"Ezra, you idiot. You win by surviving. That's the difference between the Jedi and Sith." Errol told him.

"Besides, you two are getting pretty good." Sabine noted.

"Getting? Are you saying we weren't good before?" Ezra asked, feeling offended. Errol rolled his eyes again.

"I think she just meant you're even better now." Hera said, correcting Sabine.

"I'll take it." Ezra smirked. Kanan then suddenly activated his lightsaber and swung at Ezra, who activated his own and blocked him.

"Hey!" He said, taken aback by this action.

"You never turn your back on an enemy." Kanan warned him before he broke the saber lock.

"Okay. But since when are you my enemy?" Ezra questioned him.

"*sighs* Let's go again." Kanan said the two got back into training. Errol looked over to Hera, who had a sad look on her face. It was about Malachor, he knew that for sure.

Shortly after, they entered the planet's atmosphere and headed to where the base is located, which is up on one of the natural formations, in particular where there was shade where the command centre is set up and a Hammerhead is docked.

Both Hera and Errol landed the Ghost next to the Hammerhead and everyone walked out, greeted by AP-5.

"It's nice to see that we have some shade at the base." Errol said to Hera as they followed Zeb and the astromechs.

"Yeah. We could relax much better and we finally have a place to call home." She added, smiling slightly and holding Errol's hand.

"Nice change of pace for once." Errol noted.

"Here's that crate of power generators, AP-5." Hera told the inventory droid.

The crew, excluding Chopper, who was with AP-5, met up with both Rex and Alaara.

"The site doesn't look like much, we'll admit." Rex told them all.

"But our scouts did find a fresh water source, deep underground." Alaara brought up.

"We're placing sensor markers around the perimeter. We'll know if anyone drops by unannounced." Sabine said. Then suddenly, a chirping sound could be heard and they all looked to see a snail and crab-like creature on a crate. A part of the local wildlife.

"Hey! Get away from that!" Zeb snarled at it, looking scary enough for it to scatter off elsewhere.

"How I hate those little Bogens." He muttered.

"This planet may be hot, dry and unpleasant. But at least there's nothing trying to kill us." Rex explained.

"You just might've jinxed us." Errol rolled his eyes.

Later on, everyone went off to do their own thing. Of course, Errol and Hera stayed together, watching the whole base and seeing an A-Wing land.

"I can't believe it's finally coming together. Ships, pilots, a base." Hera marveled.

"Just about everything we need." Errol finished off. Hera seemed slightly distant for a bit now. Errol had to confront her about him, Ezra and Kanan leaving for Malachor.

"I know you're worried about me, Ezra and Kanan leaving for Malachor when my parents arrive. I understand your worry, Hera, but we can't run from the Inquisitors forever. We'll have to face them head on." He told her, facing her.

"Yeah. Ezra's and Kanan's training gave that away I guess." Hera said and the couple walked up to the holotable.

"Hera, we're both a part of this Rebellion, I know that very well, and I'm with you all the way. But unless the Inquisitors are dealt with, all of this won't matter in the end." He explained. As this happened a pilot walked over to where Sabine, Rex and Alaara were.

"All sensors on the eastern face are in place." The pilot informed Sabine.

"Good. Have all the pilots checked in?" She then asked.

"Lieutenant Deiser hasn't come back yet." The pilot revealed, shocking her as well as Rex, Alaara and both Hera and Errol since they were right next to them all.

"Phoenix-6, report. Deiser, do you copy?" Rex called through the comms, only to get static. This doesn't seem good in the slightest.

"She was up at the north face. We'll have to go check on her." Alaara told Hera.

"Take the Phantom." She told the three. They nodded and walked off and flew off with the Phantom.

Hera kept on checking how things were going on the base while Errol went off to the Ghost and went into his and Hera's quarters. He told Chopper and Slick to give him privacy as he sat on the bed. He was now starting to feel stressed out from the idea of leaving Hera. It's something he didn't want to do because of how much he loves her but it's a necessity.

He needed to calm down and so he sat on the ground and crossed his legs before closing his eyes to meditate. Instead of seeing what he normally sees to calm himself, he saw Hera, looking distressed, looking around.

"Errol! Where are you?!" She called out. He tried to call out to her but his voice was silent so she could hear him. That was when something pulled her into the darkness and as she disappeared out of sight, she made a horrified scream and then Errol was shocked out, now awake, drenched in sweat and eyes wide in distress and concern.

"What was that?" He asked himself. He wiped the sweat off his face, now feeling fear of leaving Hera by herself, not wanting to have anything happen to her. He walked out of the room to see Hera run into the cockpit and everyone else looked frantic.

"What's going on?" He asked as he followed Hera into the cockpit.

"Sabine called in for backup." She told him and that was all he needed to hear and they both piloted the ship towards the north face where Sabine, Alaara and Rex went to check for Deiser. They managed to reach their destination to see only Sabine and Alaara standing by the sensor marker, facing against large spider-like creatures. Both Zeb and Kanan stood out on the ramp and fired at the creatures with Sabine and Alaara, so much so that the remaining ones left backed off to some tunnels. The couple then landed the ship.

"*grunting* I hate multi-leggers." Zeb growled as everyone exited the ship. Errol noticed that Rex wasn't with them.

"What happened to Rex?" He asked Sabin and his grandmother.

"Those disgusting creatures took him, that's what." Alaara growled.

"They must've got Deiser, too." Sabine added.

"Chopper, locate Rex's position!" Hera ordered her astromech, who acknowledged and used his antenna to locate where he was. He got a reading and let everyone know.

"He says this way." Sabine said, running in a particular direction, everyone following her, that is, except for Zeb.

"I'll, uh…. I'll guard the ship." He said to Hera.

"We need you, Zeb." She reminded him.

"Chopper, stay here and keep the Ghost ready for take off." Hera then ordered the droid before catching up with everyone.

"*grunts* More than two legs is just… excessive." Zeb complained, catching up with Hera as Chopper turned on his thrusters and attached himself to the Phantom to attach it back onto the Ghost.

Everyone walked up to the tunnels the creatures entered when they arrived. Both Kanan and Errol turned on their sabers for light. Everyone else pulled out their weapons and flashlights as they delved into the dark tunnel.

"Stay sharp and stick together." Kanan told everyone.

"Their armour's tough but their eyes are their weakness. So aim for the eyes." Alaara gave instructions. Ezra looked back at Zeb who turned his flashlight on and off and he then turned his lightsaber on, coughing, which made the Lasat punch the teen in the arm.

As they travelled through the tunnel, they all looked around and saw odd things on the walls and then they eventually found the tunnel splitting up into two ways.

"*grunts* We need to split up. Errol, go with Hera." Kanan instructed. This made Errol feel better.

"No. Errol, stay with Kanan. You too, Ezra and Slick. Sabine, Alaara, Zeb, with me." Hera argued. This made Errol's worry grow back up.

"But you should at least have one of us with you." Errol argued against her, not wanting to split up from her.

"No, Errol. We should have to get used to having a Jedi around." She reasoned. He inwardly groaned. She just had to use a logic that made so much sense he couldn't make an argument against it. Sighing, he nodded.

"Let's go." Kanan told Ezra, Errol and Slick, who followed the older Jedi.

They walked for a while until they turned a corner and came face to face with one of the creatures. But it didn't attack them yet, which seemed odd. Ezra decided to try something and shut his saber off.

"Oh, let me try to connect with it " Ezra told them. Kanan and Errol looked at each other as though he's crazy. Slick beeped with concern.

"No way. This isn't like all those other creatures." Errol tried to argue.

"Trust me, I got this." He assured as he held his hand out to try and make a connection with the creature through the Force and all it did was make it more hostile, screeching at the teen.

"That's it!" Errol growled before he and Kanan leaped at it and stabbed it, killing it instantly. Slcik beeped with relief.

"Maybe I should teach you more common sense!" Kanan spat at his Padawan.

"I had common sense before you started teaching me!" Ezra spat back.

"Now is not the time to argue, guys! Come on!" Errol told them and they started running.

"You two always change the subject when I start winning." Ezra called out.

"You never did win an argument, Bridger, now drop it!" Errol told him.

"Guys! We found Rex!" Sabine told them over the comlink.

"Good work! We're coming to ya!" Kanan replied.

"Actually, I think it's time to go," She said, sounding a bit scared, clearly having encountered the creatures as well. This made them all run as fast as they could, Slick turning on his thrusters to keep up. They saw a bunch of the creatures surrounding the others and Errol took down one that faced Hera.

"Glad you could drop in." Hera said to them, sounding a bit grateful.

"I wouldn't stand there if I were you. Come on, we'll clear a path!" Ezra said as he and his fellow Jedi went ahead to slice the creatures, everyone else following them.

They then managed to get out of the tunnels towards the Ghost and see that there's more of these things.

"Chopper, open up! Chopper!" Hera asked for her astromech. The ramp then opened up and everyone ran into the ship.

"This whole place is infested." Zeb muttered as the ramp closed.

Errol and Hera got in the pilot seats and started the ship up to get out of there, seeing one of the creatures crawl up the windshield in front of them.

"I'm starting to think this place ain't so perfect." Errol told his girlfriend.

"I'm not giving up without a fight. Hang on!" She replied. And while the engine started, they tried lifting off but they couldn't seem to.

"Guys, get us outta here!" Zeb said in fear.

"*grunts* It's no good! We're at full power. Ah. They must've glued us down." Hera realised, making Errol growl at how annoying these things are.

"Well, we're safe in here, right?" Ezra asked.

"*exhales sharply* Sure." She replied with sarcasm.

"Ezra, get on the Nose Gun." Errol told him. He nodded and slid down the ladder to the gun. He then fired some shots at a couple of the creatures. Zeb as well entered the Phantom and fired at some more as well and Kanan got on the top gun and fired at some that crawled on top of the ship.

"They're all over us!" Kanan shouted.

Back in the cockpit, Hera, Sabine, Errol and Alaara all tinkered and fixed things up.

"Route auxiliary power to the hull. That should knock 'em off." Hera ordered Sabine, who did as ordered and it managed to shock one of these things but all it did was piss it off.

"It's not working. Hit 'em again!" Kanan shouted.

"No. If we drain too much power, we won't be able to lift off." Hera replied to him through the comlink.

"Well, the bad news is that we're not going anywhere at this rate." Alaara pointed out as Ezra climbed up the ladder into the cockpit.

"We have to go outside and cut the ship free." He said.

"Yeah, fat chance surviving that. Huh?" Zeb replied, leaving the Phantom.

"Oh, that's great, Zeb. I'm gonna get eaten, one of the last Jedi in the galaxy, chomped up by some crawlers because you were too afraid to go outside!" Ezra snapped back, fed up with Zeb's behavior.

"Shut up! We can't get heated in this situation." Errol told him as Kanan and Zeb entered the cockpit.

"*grunts* We're missing something. Why didn't these things attack us before?" Kanan asked. Alaara thought back to when they first attacked and how they stopped when she and Sabine were right next to the sensor marker. And that Bogens went right to them. That was when she connected the dots.

"The sensor markers! That would explain why they didn't attack the base! Look!" She said to everyone, pointing to the marker, seeing that some of the crawlers got too close and backed off from it.

"You're right, those things stopped when we got right up to it." Sabine realised this as well.

"They don't like the markers. And the base is surrounded by them!" Kanan then made the connection himself.

"If we can get it, we can use it to hold them off while we clear the ship." Hera explained.

"Only problem is, how do we get to it?" Sabine questioned.

"We got a breach! They're coming in the airlock!" Rex informed them all, Ezra and Zeb joining up with him. They saw one of the crawlers forcing its way in the ship.

"I'll hold 'em here. Get out and cut the ship loose!" Rex told them. Alaara joined him and they pulled their blasters.

"I'll help." She told Rex, who nodded, appreciating the help.

"We need a plan to get to the sensor." Sabine said. Errol started to form a plan and one came up that just might work.

"I have an idea/" He told everyone.

"Figure it out on the way!" Hera said.

As Alaara and Rex dealt with the crawler, everyone else walked out on the ramp, firing their blasters at the crawlers.

"Okay, Errol, quick! What's the plan?" Zeb asked.

"Zeb, you and Hera lay out front, covering fire. Kanan, Ezra, on the sides. Sabine on the ramo." Errol instructed everyone, who did as told as Errol got in the middle.

"What am I doing on the ramp?" She asked in confusion.

"I'm gonna throw you to the sensor." Errol told her.

"But shouldn't all three of us throw her?" Ezra asked.

"All three of us would throw her too far. I'm precise enough to throw her next to the sensor." Errol reasoned. Sabine looked out to where the sensor was and groaned.

"Times like these, I really wish I had a jetpack." She muttered.

"You're not the only one." Errol remarked as he argued to his parents that he needed one.

"Anyway, you ready?" He then asked.

"Yeah." She nodded.

"One… two… three!" They counted down in unison and she ran and then Errol threw her with the Force, flying over the crawlers and landing right next to the sensor lightly on her feet. She then pulled it out of the ground and used it to stop a crawler from getting her from behind. She then carried it back to the Ghost, all the crawlers keeping their distance from her.

"Hera, Errol, get us ready to fly." Kanan ordered. The couple then ran back into the ship and got into the cockpit as Kanan and Ezra started to slice all the webs off the ship with Sabine by their side. They started the ship up and with everyone back on board, they flew out of there as fast as possible, back to base.

"*sighs in relief* That was close." Errol commented.

"Guess we should inform Commander Sato our site… might not work out." Rex said as everyone was in the cockpit.

"No! It took everything we had just to find this place. I'm not ready to give it up." Hera adamantly disagreed.

"And we won't. We need this base and we'll do what it takes to keep it." Errol sided with her.

"Don't worry. I'll handle it." She then said, leaving piloting duties to Errol as she walked out of the cockpit.

By morning, rebels set up sensors around the base like some kind of fence, which would further protect the base. Kanan, Errol (now in his Mandalorian armour) and Sabine were watching this happen. Errol was thinking about that vision he saw last night. He came to the conclusion that it was just the Force manifesting his fears of leaving Hera. And he knew he had to get over it.

"Errol, you should talk with Hera." Sabine told him. He looked over to his girlfriend, who was walking towards the base. He nodded and walked to her.

"Hera…" He called out to her.

"I told the Commander the site is secure, and operations can resume." She told him, trying to avoid that subject.

"Hera, I know I can't promise that we'll be okay, but I can promise to try and make sure I and the others will make it back." He told her. She sighed upon hearing these words and faced him.

"Whatever you're facing, I wanted us to face it together." She said, wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his chest. He then wrapped his arms around her tenderly.

"Listen, I promise we'll still be together. I just need to do this on my own for once." He said softly, kissing her lightly on the forehead. The two stayed in each other's arms, silently.

Ezra was sitting at another part of the makeshift fence, looking out at the landscape and a stray crawler that was right up against the sensors.

Ezra tried to make a connection again with these creatures, but like before, all he did was make it screech at him.

"Whoa!" He exclaimed, falling on his back and watching it crawl away.

"Fine. I guess we won't be friends." He muttered before placing a hand underneath his head.

He looked up and saw a bird flying and chirping. This confused him as he then saw both Ahsoka and Dash walk up to him, looking at him in slight amusement.

"Ahsoka? Dash?" Ezra asked as he stood back up.

"Nice to see the base is coming along nicely." Dash noted.

"Yeah. Um, these creatures almost ruined it though. No matter what I do, I can't seem to connect with them." Ezra pointed out what has been nagging at him lately. The three watched a couple of the crawlers, the couple in deep thought.

"In our experience, just when you think you understand the Force, you find out how little you actually know." Ahsoka stated.

"I don't think I ever understood the Force to begin with." Ezra said.

"Anyway, let's get going." Dash said and the three walked back to base, preparing to leave with Errol and Kanan for Malachor.

This was a bit of a hard chapter to write because me and PsychicTitan struggled with whether to create a whole other plot for Errol to be in or to just adapt the episode as a whole. We went with the latter. Anyway, get ready for the next chapter, Twilight of the Apprentice.