I'm back. Just letting readers know from now on, I'll probably only update near the weekends (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday). It's not because I choose to, it's more because that's when I have most all my free time. Just sayin' now anyway, back to the story!
Ezra made his way back to his quarters with Zeb behind him. They got their stuff together in a couple minutes. Zeb loaded his blaster and equipped himself with a couple grenades he had stolen from some stormtroopers a while back. Ezra strapped up some of his newly acquired gear. Some shin and wrist guards made out of the same material as stormtrooper armor. Ezra got it white but he later asked Sabine to color it for him, so it wouldn't look so out of place when he wore it. He told her to just give a plain dark green, brownish color. She of course, did no such thing. She decided to give it random colors of dark blue, orange, white and purple. And the worst part (For Ezra) was that it was in no particular pattern. It was just a whole mess of colors and brightness. But of course, he couldn't be that mad. It was Sabine and over time, he kind of got used to it.
Once Zeb finished, he started walking towards the door. Just before he left, he asked
Ezra, "'You comin' kid?"
Ezra looked up from his bed, which was where he was sitting, and said. "Yea, I'll be up there soon."
Zeb shrugged and walked off. Ezra waited for the door close before he did what he wanted to do. Ezra made sure he was gone, and then he got off his bed and looked under it. There, was a custom-made safe. Ezra pulled it out and typed in the code. Once it opened he reached inside and pulled out his lightsaber.
He examined it for a short while, until he heard a knock at the door. He quickly put his saber into his back-pack which was up on his bed. He got up and told the person, "Come in!"
The door slid open, and on the other side was Kanan.
"'Sup Kanan?"
"I uhh… just wanted to let you know..there has been a change of plans for the attack."
"Ok?" Ezra said with a small smile on his face,.
"What is it?" Ezra asked.
"You're to stay here with Hera and protect the ship while we're gone."
"WHAT?!" Ezra screamed
"Listen, we need someone to stay back and protect the ship. Hera volunteered, but I'm not letting her stay back alone."
Ezra was enraged. "Why can't Zeb stay back? I never get to go on a mission unless it involves Jedi, training!"
"Listen, this is also for your protection." Kanan told Ezra trying to calm him down.
Unknowingly this conversation had caught the attention of the rest of the crew as well. They all stood at the end of the hallway, listening.
"Kanan, I don't need your protection. I'm not that orphan you found on Lothal a year ago!"
"Ezra, I'm your master and my job is to do what I think is best for you!" You could hear Kanan's tone of voice rising.
"You're staying here to protect the ship, and that's final!" Kana said as he finally walked off.
"Kanan." Ezra said in a much calmer voice.
Kanan stopped to listen.
Ezra started, "There's going to be a day when you can't protect me anymore, and when that day comes, I hope you're ready to accept that." Ezra then closed the door to his quarters.
Kanan stopped and looked at his feet, thinking about what Ezra just said.
Hera then walked up to Kanan and put her hand under his chin and made him look up at her.
"Kanan, look at me, you're doing the best you can." Hera said, trying to encourage Kanan.
Kanan waited a few seconds before responding, "Well, my best might not be enough."
Kanan then moved past her and the rest of the crew, as they looked at each-other in worry.
15 minutes later:
The crew was in the cock-pit waiting to exit hyper-space. Everyone's eyes were glued to the glass in front of them, waiting to see what they're were up against. Once they came out, they all saw a somewhat small station, obviously still building. Without the information they had, you wouldn't be able to tell that this station was somewhat operational.
Once they got closer, they saw some Tie Fighters approaching.
"Ezra, Sabine get to the guns." Kanan told them
They both ran out of the cock-pit.
"I'll get the nose gun!" Sabine yelled as she climbed down the ladder to the gun.
Ezra then made his way to the top gun and strapped in and put on the headset.
"Top gunner, checking in." said Ezra as he waited for a response.
"Nose gunner here, checking in." Sabine said over the comms,
"Hera here, you're clear to engage."
Ezra quickly saw laser-fire but he couldn't see where it was coming from.
He waited for the Tie's to come in to close range before firing.
Minutes passed and only a couple Ties' remained.
"We're now approaching the station. Make your way to the ramp and prepare for hard contact." Said Hera over comms.
Ezra unstrapped and made his way to the exit ramp. Once he got there, he saw Kanan and Zeb.
"Ezra, take these." Kanan told him as he handed him two hand grenades and a blaster.
"Those are stun grenades. Blinds the target for a few seconds, but that's all we're gonna need, and that blaster is to give us cover from the ship when we attack."
Just then, Sabine came in and put her helmet on.
"So, we ready?" she asked.
"Almost, Just got to get the ok from Hera first." Kanan responded
A few seconds passed until Hera came over comms and said, "Ready when you are, Kanan."
"Ezra when this door starts to open, I need you to throw those grenades out each side of the ramp, ok?"
Ezra gave a confident nod and held a grenade in each hand and waited until Kanan pressed the button to open the door. As soon as Kanan did so, Ezra pressed the button on the grenade and threw it out of the right opening, and within a second he did the same to the other grenade to the opposite side.
They heard the grenades go off, and the ramp finally opened all the way.
They all examined their surroundings for a split second an each chose a different crate to get cover from as Ezra stayed on the ship getting cover from the walls inside.
A moment passed, then Ezra heard blaster-fire start. It slowly picked up. He then peaked his head out from behind the wall. He guessed the amount of stormtroopers outside had to be somewhere in the 20's.
He saw Kanan blocking laser-fire left and right, hitting a couple troopers with the deflected bullets. He then saw Zeb getting pinned down some of the troopers. They started converging on him.
Ezra looked down on the sites of his blaster and fired twice at one of the five troopers.
This caught the attention of the troopers. Ezra saw the troopers aim at him and start firing. Ezra took cover behind the wall again as Zeb returned fire to the troopers and shot and killed the rest of them.
At this point, only a few troopers remained. Kanan turned to his offense and charged the remaining troopers, the same ones Sabine was aiming at. Sabine shot two down while Kanan cut down three.
They all examined around them to see Stormtroopers covering most of the hanger.
Hera then made her way to the exit to examine the ship to see if it had sustained any damage.
"Ezra, Hera, protect the ship until we get back." Kanan said as he followed Sabine and Zeb to the door leading to the interior of the station.
On the bridge of the station:
Alarms were going off, and panic was abroad the space station. The Empirial captain was trying to figure out what to do until an officer approached him with some disturbing news for an imperial.
"Sir, leading the attack of rebels is a Jedi."
The captain the regained his thoughts and quickly paced to the communications.
He pressed a button and waited a few moments. Then, a hologram of The Inquisitor appeared.
"You disturbed me. This better be good." The Inquisitor hissed.
"Uh, sorry my lord. We have a problem on Station 206 of Tatooine. A small rebel attack force has breached our defenses, that is being led by a Jedi, Lasat, and what looks like a female in mandalorian armor. There might be more onboard the ship the landed with ."
The Inquisitor responded, "I'm on my way."
Kanan, Zeb, and Sabine shot and cut through storm troopers like it was nothing. There were so many corners that every hallway was short, so troopers wouldn't have enough time to react if they even did see them coming.
Moments later, they reached the door leading to the bridge. As they tried to open it, they saw the door was locked.
"Aw Bantha fodda!" Zeb shouted
"Don't worry Zeb, I can slice right through this." Sabine said as she started rewiring the console to the right of the Door. As she did that, Kanan and Zeb watched her back.
With Hera, Ezra, and Chopper"
Ezra sat, with his back-pack next to him, on the ramp of the Ghost examining all the doors making sure no troopers came in while Hear examined the underbelly of the ship with Chopper.
A few more moments passed and Ezra could hear the beeps of Chopper and Hera responding back. He didn't know exactly what they were saying, because he truly didn't care and he didn't understand chopper. Just as he turned his head to one side of the hanger, he heard a door open. He quickly grabbed his blaster and got up. He saw no one there, but he could've sworn he heard the door open.
"Hera." Ezra shouted
"Hera, I think… we have some company." Ezra said as he walked off the ramp, slowly walking back to wear he thought she was.
"SSSSSS!" Ezra heard
He quickly turned around, recognizing the sound with ease. It was a light saber blade,
Once he turned, he saw Hera being held with a red lightsaber at her throat and chopper down, sparks flying from saber cut he had just received. Holding Hera was the Inquisitor. He was gripping her Left arm with his left hand and his right hand held the lightsaber at her throat.
"Hello, boy. I haven't seen you in a long time. It even looks like you've grown a bit since I last saw you." The inquisitor gave an evil smirk.
Ezra decided now was definitely not the time for panic. He quickly decided to wait for Kanan, knowing he or Hera couldn't defeat The Inquisitor.
"Yea, I'm just glad I haven't seen you in a long time." Ezra said in a smart tone.
Hera looked at him like he was crazy. He quickly gave her the look to calm down.
"I should show you some respect. But that will have to wait for another time. Now tell me, where is you master?" He said in an almost peaceful tone.
"Eh, I don't know exactly. He should be back in…" An explosion rocked the station. This had to be the rest of the crew setting the explosives and sabotaging the station.
Hera used this time to raise her left foot and stomp on The Inquisitors. The pain ran through his leg as she got away from his grip and then punched him square in the mouth. She then ran over to Ezra. The Inquisitor was falling backwards and slowly regained his balance after the rocking ended.
The Inquisitor grabbed his jaw and slowly moved it in circles, trying to see if it was broken.
He let out a small chuckle and said, "That might have been the worst decision of your pathetic life!" Ezra glanced at his back-pack containing his Lightsaber. He thought about it, until he remembered what Kanan said.
Just then Hera grabbed the blaster from Ezra and started firing at The Inquisitor. He easily blocked all the shots. Some of the bullets reflected back at Ezra and Hera. They quickly moved out of the way.
The Inquisitor forced the blaster out of her hands and at the almost exact same time, sent her flying backwards. Ezra saw as she landed hard on the metal floor. Ezra waited for her to move, but she never did. She must've been knocked out.
"Now for you, boy." The inquisitor said to Ezra
The Inquisitor flashed his hand at the boy, and he saw lightning fl at him. Ezra reacted so quick, The Inquisitor was surprised too. Ezra used the force to protect himself from the lightning. He contained the lightning in his hands. He then thought he heard a door open to the hanger. He couldn't tell.
He heard a voice yell, "Ezra!" before the power of The Inquisitor finally over-powered him. Ezra then felt the electricity fill his body. When he tried to scream, nothing happened, he couldn't do anything. The shock just kept putting more strain on his body.
The Inquisitor stopped to see Kanan and the rest of his team standing behind him.
"You finally decide to show up." The Inquisitor said as he lunged at Kanan.
There sabers locked.
"Zeb, Sabine, go help Hera and Ezra. HURRY!" Kanan forced to say.
They ran off as Kanan fought his own battle.
"I'll get Hera." Zeb said as he quickly picked her up and carried her to the ghost.
Sabine quickly ran to Ezra's side. Her eyes started to tear at the scene. His eyes were closed and blood was running from his nose and ears. His skin was a bight pale and you could see some of his purple veins through his skin.
Just as she tried to pick him up, his eyes started to flicker open. She instantly put his arm over her shoulder and tried to carry him to the ghost. At the same time, Zeb ran back out to grab Chopper, who he saw on the way to the ghost when he was carrying Hera.
Hera let out a groin, then quickly realized what was going on.
"Hera, are you ok?!" Zeb yelled.
"Yea, yea. We need to get out of here. I'll start up the ship." She said as she got up and started running to the cock-pit.
"What, you can't fly right now. You were just out cold." Zeb yelled
"Not really any other choice Zeb." She yelled as she kept running.
Sabine finally managed to get Ezra back on the ship. She finally collapsed onto her knees after carrying him. Ezra's eyes were barely open. Sabine kept gazing into her arms and saw the young man, near death. She didn't know what to do. All she COULD do was wait for Kanan.
Just as she finished that thought, she heard the ship start up. It started to lift off. Here then moved the ramp closer to Kanan.
Kanan saw what she was doing and quickly dodged one of The Inquisitors attacks and jumped on board. The ramp quickly closed and the ship was now in Tatooine orbit.
Once Kanan was aboard, he saw Zeb looking over Sabine as she held Ezra in her arms.
Kanan kneeled next to her, wondering what he could do until he heard, "Kanan, I need you up here, NOW!" over the comms.
Kanan looked at Sabine and said, "I'll be right back." Kanan ran to the cock-pit.
"What is it?" he asked
"Two of the engines were shot and damaged during the stand-off. I tried to fix it, but I didn't have time." Hera said
"So…?" he wondered
"We are gonna have to crash land on Tatooine!" she said
Kanan thought for a moment…. Then looked at her and said, "Ok, fine. Let me warn everybody."
He ran back to the crew, and saw Ezra somewhat awake now. His eyes were open. He wasn't as pale. He looked a little better from just a second ago.
"Alright, we have to strap in. We're about to land on Tatooine. CRASH land." Kanan told the group.
Kanan and Sabine carried Ezra to a seat and strapped him in. They then did the same.
Seconds later, the ship was rocking. It became more violent as the time went by. It started getting hotter, then BAAAMM!.
Kanan looked up, and walked towards the ramp-door. He pressed the button to open it and it slowly opened.
Kanan shielded his eyes from the two suns and then overlooked the sand that seemed to be going for miles, miles, and miles.
Wow, this is definitely my longest chapter (And I think best chapter). Definitely tried to show how bad-ass Hera and Sabine can be in this chapter. I'm trying to keep their personality as close to the show as possible. Just throwing it out there, I might have an explicit chapter (If you know what I mean) later on in the story. And when I say later on, I mean like, not even in the next month or two. Even later than that maybe. Just PM me what you think about the idea or if you have a suggestion. Wait, WOW! 2,900 words in this ONE chapter. That's impressive to me! Anyway, see ya later and 'May the Force Be With You!'
