Hey, guys. How did you enjoy the last chapter? I hope that you like what you will see in this one.
Aboard the Phantom inside unknown Star Destroyer hanger.
As the Phantom landed on the ground inside of the Star Destroyer, Ezra winced as he felt the presence of a powerful force user. He felt the ship touch down, but everything seemed to feel out of place, and the world around him was spinning. He felt Sabine put a comforting hand on his shoulder. Latching on to her calming aura Ezra was able to get his bearings and walk in a straight line.
"Ezra, are you okay?" Sabine said, voice full of worry.
"I'm all right, I need my mask and my sabers," Ezra was able to barely get out before the sounds of Imperials outside of the ship got their attentions.
"They're in the bag by the pilot's seat," Sabine said carefully, even though she only knew Ezra for a few weeks she knew that he wasn't okay, something was wrong about their predicament.
"I am going to go and try to disable the tractor beam, I want you to stay here and get the Phantom ready to fly," Ezra said in as even of a voice as he could after clipping the sabers to his belt and fiddling with a few buttons on the mask, before a small holo-recorder popped out and scanned Ezra before he spoke to it.
"Galen, wir befinden uns im Corellian System und sind an Bord des Sternzerstörers dort. Bitte kommen Sie so bald wie möglich, dort ist eine verdächtige Kraftsignatur hier." (Galen, we are located in the Corellian system and are aboard the Star Destroyer located there. Please come as soon as possible; there is a suspicious force signature here.)
"What did you just say," Choni asked, fear making its way into the young Pantoran's voice.
"I just sent out a discreet call for help, the empire can't trace it, and it can only be translated by someone who speaks that language," Ezra said as he donned the mask and made for the exit at the rear of the Phantom.
"Now, hold on, I am going with you," Sabine said as she reached for her helmet.
"No, I need to do this alone, and you're our pilot. Plus we have civilians who we promised we would get to safety. They take precedence over me. If I am unable to get to the ship, you will take off without me." Ezra replied, trying to keep the temperamental Mando from freaking out, despite the fact that they were mostly trapped inside the Phantom.
"I'll be all right, been in much worse scrapes before. Just trust me, I think there is something here that is in the same league as Vader," Ezra admitted after a few tense moments.
"Fine, but you better make your way back here. I won't leave without you, and I am going to help you clear the hangar from Imperials," Sabine relented after thinking it over.
"Deal," Ezra said, as Sabine turned and lowered the ramp to allow them to storm out into the hell that awaited them.
In the Star Destroyer command center while the Phantom is being drawn in by the Tractor beam
The figure allowed a small smile to leak out under the mask that he was wearing. It was similar to the one that the Grand Inquisitor that Kanan had defeated wore, only covered his neck along with amplifying his senses. The new development of capturing not only Ezra but the Mandalorian artist was incredibly pleasing; his master would be proud of him. Reaching out to and grasping the console he was racked by an incredible pain in his abdomen, his master had said that he wouldn't survive this mission, and the more time that went on he knew that it was only a matter of time before his young body gave out. But it would be worth it. It would all be worth it to please his master.
Looking up he felt the pain pass; the black-clad prototype pressed a few buttons that summoned the Shadow guards that were under his command. After a few minutes they walked in single file, he would never admit it out loud, but he would take spending time with Vader over spending time with the Shadow guardsmen. There was just something about how they operated that gave him the creeps.
"I have called you here because of the development in the hangar. We need to mobilize the entire garrison aboard the ship to allow them to swarm the enemy in the hangar. You two-" The figure motioned with a minor wince of pain, to the two shadow guardsmen on the far left, "-will be in charge of leading the assault in the hangar. The other two will be tasked with protecting the tractor beam array and the engines; I will divert half of the forces to be under your command in defending those vital areas. We cannot allow them to escape, is that understood?" The figure finished in an authoritative tone.
The shadow guardsmen just saluted before heading out to begin their assigned tasks as the figure gave the orders to the stormtroopers to assemble at their specified locations. Before he settled down and started to limp toward his private quarters to prepare himself for the battle ahead.
Inside the Phantom
Choni saw the lightsabers on Ezra's belt, and things started to fall into place, why he was wanted by the Empire so badly. Clutching Shilli close to her body, knowing that what was about to happen would not be something for a child to witness.
"You're a Jedi," Choni stuttered out, utterly astonished that she never figured it out sooner. She had seen him use the force but had never connected that he was a Jedi.
"I'm no Jedi," Was all the Ezra said, as the back of the Phantom opened, and he launched out a massive force push that knocked back the breaching team that was about to break open the entryway on the small ship. Sabine raised her twin blasters and started to fire into the mass of troopers before her before Ezra launched out a devastating barrage of force lightning. Killing at least a dozen soldiers. Looking up he could still see the soldiers pouring in by the hundreds. Each second that they wasted in this Killzone was just begging for an early grave.
Looking around Ezra noticed a group of unused Tie fighters hanging by their access hatches. Thinking on his feet Ezra turned to Sabine and shouted, "Sabine, Can you toss a few grenades at the door?"
Nodding Sabine jumped up and threw a few of her homemade explosives at the doorway, just as Ezra dislodged two of the ships from their access ports with the force. Holding onto them with some effort and concentration Ezra hurled the ships at the entrance to the hanger just as the grenades exploded, causing a massive fireball and cutting off the primary entrance to the hangar. While Ezra had been manipulating the Tie fighters, Sabine had managed to kill off a majority of the remaining Stormtroopers with a few rockets from her wrist gauntlets and some superb marksmanship skills from her blasters.
Ezra allowed his breathing to settle down from the exertion. He knew that they were effectively trapped in this hangar, sure there were a few other ways to access the hangar but they formed natural choke points, and Sabine could probably handle them herself. While he was thinking of ways to the tractor beam array, he didn't notice two figures drop down from above until he felt a strong force push knock him off his feet and into the side of the Phantom. Sabine gasped as she looked over at the figures that were approaching. They wore armour that she didn't recognize, along with carrying staffs that had a red lightsaber on one end, they had simple black visors that had a red-hued inset for them to be able to look through on the full head garb that obscured their faces from view.
"Umm, Ezra, what are these guys?" Sabine called out to Ezra who was just getting back to his feet.
"They're shadow guards, watch out for their saber pikes. If you can, aim for their legs, but please don't hit me." Ezra said as he launched himself between the two shadow guardsmen. His twin sabers were dancing in broad arcs, knocking away the guardsman's saber pikes. Twirling around Ezra was able to create and opening to try and create some room. Only for the other the other guardsman to catch him off guard and graze him on his shoulder. Grunting in pain Ezra fired a blast of force lightning at the Shadow guard in front of him and knocked him back. Turning and facing the other guard in front of him Ezra was able to engage him in a blade lock and grapple him to the ground and snap his neck.
Looking up from the now limp Shadow Guardsman Ezra saw Sabine struggling with the other Shadow Guard. Ezra was about to follow when he saw that she was, in fact, leading him into a trap. It seemed to be simple enough until something terrible happened The shadow guard spun around and swiped right at Sabine suddenly, thankfully she was able to dodge the attack but not fast enough for her helmet to be lifted off of her head. Sabine didn't let this faze her as she continued with her plan. Tossing a grenade behind the Shadow Guard Ezra saw the explosion happen in slow motion, Sabine and the Shadow Guard were thrown backward into a pile of crates that were placed around the hangar. Sabine recovered first and drew a Vibro-knife and lunged at the Shadow Guardsman before he could react. Slashing him right where his helmet and shoulder plate met slicing the jugular vein, killing the shadow guard in under a few seconds.
Sabine barely had time to recover before she was lifted up into a hug and pulled into a very welcoming kiss. Ezra kept her as close as he could, he didn't care if the Empire saw or not, right now all that he cared about was that Sabine was okay, in fact, he probably would have stayed right there for longer had it not been for Choni's voice crackling into his comm in his helmet.
"Umm, I don't want to ruin your guys' success but don't you need to go disable the tractor beam, Ezra?" Choni said Ezra was unsure how she was able to figure out how to connect to their internal comms, but decided it was a question best saved for later.
"Yeah, sorry." Ezra said as he looked at Sabine, "Please don't scare me like that again."
"Yeah, like you would do the same," Sabine laughed out as she walked over and picked up her helmet. It wasn't unsalvageable, but it did have a nice dent and score mark on the beskar.
"I guess you're right," Ezra said with a smile, He started for a maintenance hallway that he knew was most likely abandoned, most stormtroopers weren't smart enough to actually memorize where something as trivial as a maintenance entrance were, and without the shadow guards leading them, they likely would fall back and try to regroup.
"Hey, do you think you would be able to disable the engines as well? Probably don't want these guys following us into hyperspace," Sabine called out as she put her helmet on and made towards the Phantom to check on Choni and Shilli.
"Yeah, sounds like a good idea," Ezra stated as he righted the mask on his face before taking off into the bowels of the Star Destroyer.
Command Center
The Prototype stared in absolute disbelief. Not only had Ezra and the pink Mando took on the hundreds of troopers that were in the hangar when they emerged from the ship. But they had managed to desolate the imperial forces; the prototype was even secretly impressed with the Mandalorian being able to take on the shadow guard by herself. Not many beings in the galaxy could say that they had tangled with the deadly members of the royal guard and lived to tell the tale, let alone kill one. Seeing Ezra stride over and kiss Sabine gave the Prototype the idea to use the Mandalorian artist against him. He knew that the units that were left would be wholly unprepared for Ezra, but they would hopefully act as a good diversion. Rising from his seat, the Prototype sent the holo-feed to Vader before going to his quarters to retrieve his lightsaber. When he returned, the Prototype called up the two remaining Shadow guards. Telling them that whichever of them was the last one was to abandon their post and gather the necessary data that his master required and to report to Vader as soon as they could leave the ship in one of their starfighters. Gripping the saber in his hand, the Prototype stalked off to the hangar where the Phantom was located.
In the Engine room
Ezra used the shadows and various forms of cover in the hallways to avoid detection within the massive starship. Ezra chose to attack the engines first then deal with the tractor beam array. Doing some minor recon of the defenses that the Imperials had set up around the main and reserve reactors. They seemed pretty stout; the Imps had even managed to get a walker inside the tight space, how? Ezra could only guess it had something to do with some of the service elevators. Putting a pin in that thought, Ezra kept an eye out for any more of the Shadow Guards. They always seemed to pop up at the most inopportune of times. Checking one last time Ezra took off for the main gangplank. This caught the attention of the sentry who alerted the other soldiers on the central plank. However, he was cut down by a twirling red saber that was thrown from Ezra. Leaping up into the air Ezra called both of his sabers to his hands and began hacking and slicing his way towards the central controller for the engine reactors. When he got about halfway to his destination, he noticed that the standard stormtroopers were starting to thin out. Ezra didn't have much time to think about it though because as soon as he begun to catch his breath, he had to dodge out of the way of a heat-seeking missile sent his way from a phase three purge trooper. Dodging away from the blast and nearly getting thrown from the gangplank to his death.
"Damn, I was wondering when one of you guys would show up," Ezra said as he jumped over them and blasted them with a powerful blast of Force lightning. Killing one and knocking one down, a simple shove from a force push and the last one was sent over the edge.
"Huh, I remember you guys being tougher," Ezra commented as he turned and saw the last obstacle in his way. Another Shadow trooper had chosen this time to show his armoured face.
"Let me guess; you aren't just gonna let me destroy that console, right?" Ezra tried to joke, only to be greeted by a force blast from the shadow guard. Being knocked back, Ezra was barely able to grab onto the ledge. It was at this time when the walker started to open fire on his position. Taking a few seconds to gather his strength Ezra vaulted up and over the ledge and landed up on top of the walker. Slicing open the cockpit Ezra threw the troopers inside out over the ledge to their deaths. Turning to deal with the shadow guard Ezra found him closing the distance between them twirling his saber-pike like a saw.
Ducking under attack Ezra used his sabers to deflect an attack and then jumped back to gain some distance. Using a force push Ezra was able to knock the shadow guard back, and then he blasted him with a force lightning blast that took care of him. Looking over at the corpse of the fallen Shadow trooper Ezra knew that there would probably be one guarding the tractor beam array. Walking over to the console Ezra slashed it to pieces before heading back toward the tractor beam array through one of the many maintenance halls.
In the hangar
Sabine sat inside the Phantom using its scanners to let them know if any more Imperials were coming. She didn't have the range to tell where he was in the Star Destroyer. But she did have a heads up display of his vitals thanks to his mask. It was one of the things that the brothers had done since they had started operating solely with the Ghost crew. Sabine turned and saw Choni and Shilli huddled together. She could tell, even without being force sensitive, that they were in fact scared out of their minds. Sabine even had to admit that their predicament looked grim. She honestly had never been this close to capture in all her years, and she had no idea how to get out of it. Their only hope would be Ezra shutting off the tractor beam array allowing for their escape, but Sabine knew that they wouldn't be able to wait forever for him to get back to the ship. And leaving Ezra behind was something she wasn't sure she could do.
Sabine was drawn out of her thoughts by a massive explosion in the distance. Looking up she could see and hear the alarms going off, along with seeing a few stormtroopers running through the hangar. Completely oblivious to the rebel ship right in front of them. They seemed to be running towards the escape pods. Getting out of her seat to see what exactly was going on Sabine went outside of the Phantom only to be greeted by a punch to the face before the world around her went black.
Aboard the Rogue Shadow after Ezra sent his distress signal
Juno moved around the Shadow, the fatigue and morning sickness taking a toll on her body. Constant exhaustion made the blonde pilot a very short person to be around. As of this week, Galen had spent more time on the couch in the common area than in their shared room. Even Proxy tried to steer clear of her. Looking down at the console Juno noticed that the diagnostic check that she had started earlier in the morning was finally done. Seeing that the life support system needed to be flushed. Grumbling, she knew that she could do it. But Galen would be upset at her being exposed to the toxins that the system trapped. Looking for her commlink, Juno tried to raise Proxy, only for her to get a busy signal. Finding this odd, she decided to look for the holo-droid. As she moved through the hallway, she heard what sounded like Ezra talking to Galen. Only Ezra was supposed to be on Corellia, wasn't he?
Walking into the room Juno saw Proxy shutting down from a message, with Galen clipping his lightsaber to his belt on his robe.
"What's going on?" Juno asked, knowing that if Galen was getting his lightsaber ready. Something wrong must have happened.
"Ezra and Sabine are on a Star Destroyer over Corellia. I need to go get them," Galen responded, moving to go to their room to fetch his mask.
"Oh, and just how are you getting there?" Juno replied, trying to comprehend what was going on. Hoping that he wasn't going to try and leave her behind.
"We're going to go rescue them. But I should let Sato know," Galen grumbled, years of doing things Vader's way had fostered an independent streak in him, and he hated taking orders and having superiors. They usually were too far removed from the conflict to know what was going on on the ground thus leading to unnecessary loss of life.
"I see, well, for when you come back to disobey direct orders, I will have the ship prepped for takeoff," Juno said with a smirk as she moved toward the cockpit as Galen went for his mask then to inform the commanders of their plan.
Tractor beam array
Ezra beheaded the last Purge trooper between him and the tractor beam controller. All of the other stormtroopers were either dead or had run off. The explosions from the rear of the ship were now somewhat noticeable. Oddly enough no Shadow Guard was helping defend the vital piece of technology keeping the Phantom contained to the ship. Pressing a button on the side of his mask, Ezra tried to reach Sabine.
"Spectre five, this is Starkiller two. I just disabled the tractor beam and disabled the engines. I'm making my way to you now. Get the Phantom ready to fly because I doubt this boat will be afloat much longer," Ezra said, only to be greeted by static. Checking the signal, he saw that he wasn't being jammed, that meant that either Sabine was away from her comm, which was unlikely since she had a comm in her helmet. Or something had happened.
Taking off in a sprint to the hangar Ezra had to pause a few times to take out a small squad of Imperials that had tried to rally to stop him. Only to be cut down by a saber throw or electrocuted by bursts of force lightning. As soon as Ezra came to the hangar entrance, he was faced with the wall of melted metal and carnage from the Tie fighter that he and Sabine had used to cut off the inflow of Imperials. Cursing under his breath, Ezra gathered up a ball of force energy and launched it at the tangled mess of starfighter and dura-steel. Catapulting the debris across the hangar. Ezra stepped inside only to see Choni, Shilli, and Sabine lined up on the far wall, slumped against each other. Cautiously walking forward Ezra tried to take everything in that he could, the smells, the sounds, what the force felt like.
As he walked over to his friends, Ezra felt a sudden disturbance behind him.
"So one of the Prodigal son's returns," A voice called out. Ezra whipped his body a complete one hundred eighty degrees around and saw a figure, roughly six feet tall, their body obscured by black robes and a mask similar to a Grand Inquisitor, the angles making his face seem thin and long. The only distinguishing trait that Ezra could gain was the glowing yellow eyes of the figure that shone through the visor. The figure had his arms crossed, and feet stood shoulder width apart.
"Who are you? And what did you do to my friends?" Ezra said, his hands gripping his lightsabers tight enough that his knuckles turned white.
"They are alive. For now," The figure said, stepping forward and revealing his own lightsaber, the red hued saber casting an ominous glow across the face guard of the helmet.
Ezra didn't have time to formulate a response because he was thrown into the same wall that Sabine and the Pantoran sisters were laid against. Forcing himself into a standing position Ezra barely had a breath before he had to bring his lightsabers up to absorb a barrage of force lightning that was powerful enough to drive him back onto his back foot. The figure disengaged the lightning attack to begin pummeling Ezra's defenses with scattered debris from around the hangar. Not allowing Ezra to start any sort of offensive. Suddenly he felt his lackluster force wall get penetrated, and an invisible hand made of ice grip his throat and lift him into the air. Fighting for oxygen, Ezra tried to calm his mind to break the hold that the black-clad figure had on him. But something about the feel of the grip felt familiar, almost as if it had been there before, but when? Ezra had to shove the thought to the back of his mind for the moment as his mind started to scream about its lack of oxygen.
Sabine felt herself waking up and a deep throb emanating from her jaw. It didn't feel broken, but she was sure that she would have a nice bruise to show for it. Rotating her shoulders, Sabine tried to clear the fog that had settled over her mind while in unconsciousness. The first thing that came to her was that she was wearing her helmet, she hadn't been wearing it last she remembered. And she was in the Phantom, but now she was on the far wall of the hangar. What had happened? All those thoughts came to a halt when she looked over and saw Ezra floating in the air, suspended by a black-clad figure. Once she saw that everything came crashing back, bits and flashes. The alarms, which were still blaring, meaning the engines were offline and probably melting down. Looking over Sabine again noticed Ezra flying towards the Phantom, almost like one of the sock dolls that her mother made for her when she was a little girl. In fact, it was those crude sock dolls that inspired her to become an artist. As her hearing came back to her, she heard the grunts of Ezra as the figure dominated him. But as Sabine analyzed his fighting style, he wasn't allowing Ezra to get close, and he seemed to be favoring his right side heavily. Reaching up and tapping the commlink in her helmet, Sabine mustered up the strength to call out to Ezra.
"Ezra, this guy seems to want to keep you at a distance, he is also favouring his right side. Try to exploit that and keep him away from the Phantom. I will take care of Choni and Shilli, be safe cyar'ika." Sabine said into the comm as she rose carefully to try and ease out the soreness of being in an uncomfortable position.
"Oh thank the force. You're okay. I have seen that-" Ezra grunted out as he was slammed again into another wall and began fending off another pummeling barrage of debris from the force sensitive, "-but he seems pretty determined about keeping me at a distance,"
It was then when the figure chose to speak for the first time since the confrontation began.
"So, the Mandalorian is awake? She is tough, I see why you like her. Maybe I can have a use for her as a bounty hunter. Of course, I would have to brainwash her before I did that. But our master can do that for us can't he?" The figure mocked as Ezra stood on shaky legs. This was difficult, it was like the character knew his exact moves, what he was thinking even.
"I won't let that happen, I will kill you before I let you harm any of my friends," Ezra spat back, blood was trickling out of his mouth as he spoke.
"Oh, really? You seem to be doing a bang up job at making sure you kill me right now," The figure mocked.
Ezra merely screamed in frustration before grabbing another Tie fighter off of its support and hurled it at the figure. Who merely caught it as if it was no effort. Only as he moved it out of the way, he saw Ezra had closed the gap, right within striking distance of his sabers. The figure let out a surprised gasp as he drew his saber again and began backpedaling to try and counter the flurry of attacks and jabs that were coming his way. Ezra kept pressing his advantage and quickly figured out which form of lightsaber combat the character was using. It was a simple variant of form three, and he was using it with varying success, Ezra kept trying to overwhelm the figure with a flurry of Juyo strikes; unfortunately, he didn't notice the obvious trap that the character was leading him into.
Stepping back, the figure pushed Ezra back a few steps, not much but just enough for him to imbue his lightsaber with force lightning. Bringing the charged weapon down on Ezra, who barely had time to react and only managed to deflect the deadly saber, but faced the incredible pain of the electricity. His concentration broken, Ezra fell to his knees, Sabine watched from the cockpit, her mouth agape. She had never seen Ezra so manhandled like this before, it was a little disconcerting. Ezra reached up with a shaky hand and pressed his crackling and sparking comm but was able to get his message out.
"Sabine, go, I will be-," Ezra grunted out, as he tried to get up only to be gripped by the neck by the figure who lifted off his mask as if exposing a fraud to the world.
"You are so weak, you can't even save your pathetic friends from harm," The figure said as he threw his lightsaber to the Phantom. The saber sliced through the dura-steel hull and destroyed one of the main thrusters, effectively grounding the ship.
"No!" Ezra called out as he brought up a fist and slammed it into his opponent's face. Forcing the figure to drop him, Ezra quickly rose up, his eyes glowing orange, he noticed that the helmet and mask the character had been wearing was knocked off when he punched him, an explosion rippled through the Star Destroyer as the figure turned and looked at Ezra.
Ezra stepped back and said, "No, impossible," Looking at the face of Galen, only with glowing orange eyes and sickly white skin. His head was shaved and face twisted into one of sick enjoyment.
"So, you know the truth now, isn't that right brother?" The doppelganger said, with a smirk of pure evil.
"You're not my brother," Ezra said in anger, leaping forward, his lightsabers completely forgotten, started to pummel the figure with his fists. Once his rage was completed Ezra called his red lightsaber to his hand and set it at the figure's throat.
"You're beaten, surrender now." Ezra commanded, causing the clone of Galen to just smirk through his beaten face and say, "You're more like our master than you think, and I won't be the last clone, there will be much more," Before he lunged for Ezra, resulting in Ezra impaling him through the neck. Realizing what the clone said Ezra called his mask to his hands and walked onboard the Phantom.
Turning on his mask and attempting to send out another message through the sparking and crackling comm link to his brother only to have one trying to reach him. Answering the call, Ezra was relieved to hear Galen's voice on the other side, "Ezra, Juno, Proxy und ich sind fast zu deiner Position. Halten Sie schnell und schalten Sie Ihr Leuchtfeuer ein." (Ezra, Juno, Proxy and myself are almost to your location. Hold fast and turn on your locating beacon.)
"Ich habe die Bedrohung beseitigt, aber das Phantom ist beschädigt, haben Juno die magnetischen Schlösser auf dem Rogue Shadow, damit wir hier raus kommen können." (I have eliminated the threat, but the Phantom is damaged, have Juno engage the magnetic locks on the Rogue Shadow so we can get out of here.) Ezra responded before limping his way into the Phantom, only to feel the worried presence of his brother through the force and the clunking sounds of the Phantom being docked and held onto by the Rogue Shadow. Before Ezra's adrenaline from the fight wore off and he succumbed to his injuries and fell into unconsciousness. Sabine was busy trying to make sure that the lock could hold to notice the Je'daii falling into unconsciousness, but she did hear Choni and Shilli's gasp and the sound his body mad as he fell to the ground. Almost like the sound of a helmet falling to the ground only a little louder. Sabine turned and her world seemed to tunnel to making sure Ezra was okay, checking to make sure that the Phantom would be okay Sabine immediately grabbed the small medkit on the Phantom and started by ripping off his mask and was horrified by the grotesque gashes and bruises that marred his handsome face, Sabine felt her eyes start to water. Further, inspection revealed probable broken bones, including a broken clavicle and femur, in short Ezra, was messed up and need at least a week in a bacta tank to fully recover. The first step on this path was helped when through her misty eyes she saw Galen come over and pick Ezra up, careful to cradle his head, and whisper hoarsely, "We need to get him to the med-bay on the Shadow, Proxy will stay here and help Juno make sure the ships are properly secured to each other. I'm going to need your help with the medical care, are you able to do that?"
"I-yes, I can do that," Sabine said as she wiped her eyes and got up, only for an explosion to rip through the ship. Signaling it was time to get off of the Star Destroyer.
"I assume the explosions are Ezra's doing?" Galen said in jest, trying to lighten the mood as they moved through the interior of the ship to get to the airlock and onto the Rogue Shadow.
"Yeah, he sabotaged the engines and the tractor beam array," Sabine said trying to keep her voice from breaking, paying keen attention to the shallow breaths of her boyfriend. Trying to keep a count of how many he took in a sixty-second period.
"It's okay, he's pulled through worse," Galen said, his own voice cracking a tiny amount, though only Juno or Ezra would have been able to tell. Reaching the medical station Galen took over and started by administering a breathing apparatus and hooking Ezra up to a heart rate monitor. The ship lurched as the two worked signaling takeoff and then a minor thrust indicated hyperspace. Sabine slumped back into a chair beside the medical table as Galen finished stabilizing Ezra and went to go and retrieve Choni and Shilli.