FZ-279 had a horrible feeling that today was not going to go her way.
Normally, she would wake up, eat some food, don her armour, and patrol the station.
Her day had started out like that, and it seemed she was in for another day of milling around doing nothing.
But then all that had changed.
An order had come in from Grand Moff Tarkin. A rebel ship had crashed on the station somewhere. It had to be found, and the rebels dealt with.
So FZ-279 had set off in search of this crashed ship with her companion, US-135.
He was a mockery of a trooper to be honest. Always late, always messing things up.
It was remarkable that he had even passed his training, let alone avoided being air locked.
Still, they were allies, and hate him as she did, FZ-279 choose to search for him.
And it appeared that that had paid off.
Entering into a hanger bay, one that was still under construction by the look of it, FZ-279 spotted what looked like a crashed civilian freighter.
The ship was nothing impressive at first glance, not when compared to the might of the imperial navy. But on closer inspection it appeared to be heavily armed.
"That must be the rebel craft!" FZ spoke, her voice distorted behind her Stormtrooper helmet.
She broke into a jog, heading towards the ship, US-135 on her tail.
The two troopers slid to a halt when the lower ramp of the ship descended, and footsteps began. Someone was coming.
Raising her blaster into a ready position, FZ spoke.
"Come out slowly with your hands up rebel scum!"
The footsteps stopped for a second, before they began again, slower this time.
Then a voice called out in response.
"Now now my friends, I am no rebel. I'm merely a pirat… I mean entrepreneur who lost his way."
A strange looking Weequay came down the ramp, a bright almost cheerful smile on his face.
At face value, FZ almost wanted to believe him. But his outfit sang 'pirate!'
"Really there is no need for this. This is all a big misunderstanding."
FZ listened as the Weequay spoke, his voice not losing any enthusiasm the longer it went on. Either he was stupid, or really was telling the truth.
"Identify yourself!" FZ called out, gripping her blaster tighter in her hands.
Behind her US-135 did the same.
"I am Hondo Ohnaka, entrepreneur extraordinaire! And who are you my new best friends?"
Before FZ could reply, US did for her, making her groan at his stupidity.
"US-135, Stormtrooper of the Empire."
FZ wanted to facepalm. What was US thinking?
Taking a breath, FZ decided she had heard and seen enough. She didn't have time to waste on one Weequay stowaway.
"I'm taking you to the detention centre. They can decide what to do with you."
The Weequay's face hardened suddenly in a way that surprised FZ.
"That is a shame, I wanted to be friends. Oh well, but before you do that, allow me to introduce my friend." The Weequay spoke with a dark tone, indicating his hand back towards the ramp of the crashed freighter.
A deep menacing growl, followed by a snap hiss echoed throughout the hanger bay.
FZ turned just in time to see what looked like the devil approach her, a glowing red blade in its hands, spinning towards her.
It was also the last thing both she and US-135 ever saw.
The two decapitated bodies of the Stormtroopers crashed to the floor of the hanger bay just as Obi-Wan Kenobi reached the bottom of the Ghost's ramp.
Surveying the deaths, Obi-Wan lifted his head to make eye contact with Maul, whose seething gold eyes were almost as bright as his saber.
"Really Maul?"
The Zabrak sneered and rolled his eyes, before stalking off towards the door out of the hanger bay his team would use.
Obi-Wan sighed, before he too began to head towards another door on the opposite side of the hanger bay.
The team quickly filtered down the ramp, heading off to join their respective teams, waiting for the signal to go.
Ahsoka meanwhile accompanied Ezra and Kanan, who were making their way towards a ventilation duct with an opening. As agreed on in the plan, this would be Ezra's route.
As the three approached the grate that blocked the entrance to the ducts, Kanan reached out with the force and lifted it opened.
"Be careful kid." Kanan spoke to his padawan, trepidation still in his voice.
Ezra flashed a cheeky smile at Kanan, who despite not being able to see it clearly knew it was there judging by his amusement in the force.
"Don't worry, I wouldn't do anything you would do master."
And then he was gone, crawling through the vents towards his destination.
If all went well he would arrive ahead of the two teams, unlocking the doors for them to enter into the next hanger bay without issue.
"May the force be with you." Ahsoka spoke to where Ezra had been previously. Beside her, Kanan nodded, before moving to take his place in Rex's second team.
Ahsoka meanwhile turned her attention to the team she was leading.
Approaching the door they were to go through, she found herself by Yoda's side whilst Saw attempted to hack open the door. Everyone had copied of the codes for the battle station, thanks to the files given by Galen Erso. All they had to do was link into the system, and Chopper would manually open the doors from the safety of the Ghost.
Looking down at the green Jedi Master, Ahsoka suddenly realised something.
Reaching her hand down to her shoto, she presented Yoda with it.
"You don't have your lightsaber do you? Here, you may need one. I know this one is more your size." Ahsoka spoke with a trace of humour, despite the seriousness of the situation.
Yoda glanced up to the shoto briefly, before looking back at the door, waiting for it to open.
"Not need a lightsaber I do. Strong with the force I am. Enough that will be."
Had anyone else in the universe said the same thing Ahsoka would have severely questioned them. But this was Yoda. If he said he didn't need a lightsaber, she believed him.
Then Yoda chuckled lightly, drawing the attention of everyone in the first team, minus Saw who was still working on the door.
"Look after this though, you may." Yoda spoke, handing over his walking stick to Ahsoka.
Ahsoka accepted the stick with confusion. What was Yoda up to?
Then the doors opened.
Before them was a squad of imperial Stormtroopers, all of which raised their blasters the second they saw the rebels.
'Barely five minutes on board and we've already been found.' Ahsoka thought grimly. This was not the best start.
As the first team each began to reach for their weapons, Yoda moved with lightning speed.
The old grandmaster of the Jedi order pulled his hands upwards, and then pushed them forward with considerable force.
The squad of Stormtroopers had no time to react, not that they could against such power anyway.
Without warning they were all lifted off their feet, and sent flying backwards into a bulkhead. Their armour made a heavy clunking sound as it smashed against the bulkhead, most head first.
In the span of about of seven seconds, Yoda had eliminated an entire squad of troopers by himself.
Team one stood in silence for a few moments, before Vos spoke out.
"You've still got it old man!"
Yoda chuckled again, before accepting his walking stick off of Ahsoka.
Shaking her head in response to the demonstration of power, Ahsoka issued her orders to the team.
"Ok, Maul and I will take point. Mandalorians behind us. Saw, Cham, provide cover fire. Yoda, Vos, watch our rear. We move as fast as we can."
No one argued the plan, instead they formed to order they had just been given.
Hopefully, with force sensitives on each side they would be able to move swiftly, as well as protect each other from enemy fire more efficiently. No doubt they would be flanked at some point, and Ahsoka knew she could rely on Vos and Yoda to cover their rear.
Taking a deep breath, Ahsoka moved forward through the doorway, her team right behind her.
CLANG!
"Ow!"
That was the third time he had hit his head in the space of two minutes. The ventilation shafts were clearly not designed for anyone, save maybe a mouse droid, to move around in.
And not being a mouse droid meant that Ezra Bridger was having a hard time fitting through the vents, even if he had experience doing this sort of thing in the past.
Still, he didn't want to let the team down, especially Ahsoka. She had chosen him for this mission, trusted him the most with it.
After everything they had been through together, all the times she had helped him, Ezra felt that he owed it to her.
So he crawled.
The ducts were tight, but he had enough wiggle room to move around and turn corners when necessary.
Not that there was many corners. According to the map it should be a straight route to the other hanger bay. Once they, he would insert the data spike provided to him by Chopper, hack the security on the doors, and allow the other teams access.
Assuming they made it that was. For all Ezra knew they could already be captured or worse.
'No, I'd have felt it if they were.' Ezra thought to himself.
Pushing forward, Ezra continued to crawl, lifting his head to check the route in front of him again.
CLANG!
"Grrrr!"
Ezra was growing tired of banging his head on the low roof of the duct.
TING! TING! TING!
'Ok, that's a new sound!'
Ezra halted where he was. That sound was not him, and had clearly come from up ahead. But what was it.
It didn't help either that the vents were pretty much pitch black. He could barely see more than half a meter in front of him.
Taking a breath, Ezra strained his ears, listening for the sound again.
TING! TING! TING!
It was getting closer, and faster too. What was that?
Ezra was careful not to panic. If he did, it would bleed through his bond with Kanan, and his master had enough to deal with as it was.
TING! TING! TING!
Whatever it was was closing fast, coming right for him. That much was obvious to Ezra.
Reaching behind him, Ezra unhooked the torch he kept at his belt. Switching it on, he aimed it forward.
The beam of light revealed a spherical shape before him. It was yellow in colour, and looked light it was some sort of droid.
Then, the sphere opened, revealing a mass of metal legs, glowing red eyes, and various sharp looking instruments, including what looked like a buzz saw.
The sphere clearly noticed Ezra, as its eyes seemed to dilute in anger, before it charged.
"Karabast!"
The hallway was full of chaos. Blaster fire crashed into the wall. The sounds of lightsabers deflecting fire echoed. The cries of Stormtroopers as they fell.
And this was supposed to be the short route.
Shifting between another piece of cover, this one a small piece of extruding metal attached to the wall, Rex fired a series of blasts towards a squad of Stormtroopers who were behind similar cover.
The corridors of this doomsday weapon had clearly not been designed for a full on firefight, but Rex didn't care. He was too busy improvising.
Commanding the second team had gone to hell the second they had left the hanger bay. Not because of the team itself, they were working well together.
It was the seemingly endless supply of Stormtroopers that were causing the problem. Even with the likes of Obi-Wan and Kanan acting as portable Jedi shields for the others, it was still taking a long time to clear the corridor of hostiles.
For every trooper they killed, three more seemed to show up out of nowhere.
And now they were boxed in, troopers coming from both directions.
Rex glanced around at his team. Kenobi was up front with him and Wolffe, trying to break through the line of endless imperial reinforcements.
The rest were covering their backs with Kanan.
"Ha ha, this is too much fun for me to handle!"
Rex nearly groaned at Hondo's remark. Could he ever take anything seriously?
"Oh this isn't too much. I once thought an entire droid encampment by myself. Now that was fun!"
Mind you… Gregor wasn't much better at it either.
"Would you two comedians shut up and hit something already!" Ryder shouted out in frustration, scoring a hit of his own on a Stormtrooper who was peeking out of cover.
Rex shook his head, firing another series of blasts at the troopers in front of them. They had to break through if they were going to get to the rendezvous point in time.
Reaching down onto his belt, Rex had an idea.
"Zeb, get your bow staff ready!"
The Lasat, who had been in cover beside Kallus, threw the clone a confused look, before seeing what Rex had in mind. A devious and vicious smirk came to the Lasat's face as he pulled apart his rifle, prepping the bow staff for combat.
Seeing a ready signal from Zeb, Rex turned back to the troopers in front of him.
Pulling a smoke grenade from his belt, Rex threw it into the troopers beyond.
The explosive detonated, spewing smoke upon the troopers, distorting their vision.
Then Zeb charged headlong into the smoke, the ends of his bow staff sizzling with energy.
Rex couldn't see through the smoke, even with the aid of his helmet. But he could see the distinctive purple glow of the bow staffs ends, and he heard the screams of pain as the troopers in the smoke were shocked and electrocuted by Zeb.
"Now's our chance! Let's move!" Rex called out, signalling his team forward into the smoke and beyond.
The team acknowledged his order, breaking from cover and dashing through the smoke and beyond.
'Hopefully the doors are open by the time we get to them!' Rex thought as he ran. It wouldn't be long until the group that had flanked them would catch up, with reinforcements no doubt in tow.
Ezra's eyes widened in horror as the machine monster charged at him, deadly instruments flailing around with vicious intent.
In the confined space of the ventilation shaft, Ezra had no time to turn and crawl, and backing up would only buy him a few seconds.
He had to deal with whatever this thing was pronto, or he would quite clearly be ripped to shreds.
The confined space would make it difficult for him to use his lightsaber. Even if he did manage to swing it and destroy this malicious looking droid, chances are he would cause serious harm to himself in the process.
The spherical machine was closing now, its appendages growing closer and closer. It began to make a high pitched shrieking sound, almost like a battle cry of some kind.
Ezra wondered if this was what the clone wars had been like for the others. Facing machine monsters such as this on a daily basis.
Backing up slightly, Ezra reached his hand down to his leg, towards the holster that stored his blaster.
His lightsaber might now be efficient for this situation, but his pistol would be.
Internally, he thanked Rex for the training he had forced Ezra to undergo.
Privately, he wondered if he had forced the same thing upon Ahsoka when she was his age.
Gripping the handle of his blaster, Ezra pulled…
Only to find the kriffing thing stuck. Ezra pulled and wiggled the weapon around, trying to free it from its holster.
As he did this, the droid grew ever closer, its buzz saw spinning now, aiming for Ezra's head.
"Come on, come on!" Ezra mumbled to himself in panic. This was too closer.
Finally, after much wiggling, the blaster pistol came loose from the holster.
Moving his arm in front of him, Ezra pulled the trigger, letting loose a series of blasts at the approaching droid.
The shots hit their target, each one piercing the droid and sending sparks flying. The machine began to make a whining noise, as if it was in great pain.
Then, the light that acted as its eye dimmed, and the machine dropped, various pieces falling off of it.
Ezra stared at the hulk of metal for a second, as if expecting it to come back to life in a sudden twist.
When nothing happened, Ezra breathed a sigh of relief, and placed his blaster back into the holster it came from.
'That, was too close!' Ezra thought. He was supposed to have the easy job, yet still he was in danger, this time from being ripped to shreds by small spherical droids.
That just went to show how dangerous this mission was, and Ezra doubted that the droid was alone.
Still, he could do nothing about it, he had to press forward for the rest of the team.
They were counting on him after all.
Ahsoka pivoted on her heels to deflect another shot from a Stormtrooper, angling the blast back at the person who had fired it. The trooper didn't have time to dodge, instead falling to his own shot.
There was a sick sense of irony when it came to fighting people with blasters. More often enough they would inadvertently kill themselves with deflected shots from lightsabers.
Ahsoka hadn't put much thought into it when she was younger. Droids killing themselves with deflected blaster fire was no different than them being sliced in two by a lightsaber.
Yet killing an organic enemy, a person, in such a way seemed wrong to Ahsoka, even if they served the empire.
'What about all those clones you killed on Mandalore in such a way?' A croaky voice said in Ahsoka's head. She knew that Sidious would try to screw with her on this mission. They were after all on the same space station, in closer proximity than they had been in years.
However, try as he may, Ahsoka pushed Sidious' intrusion aside and focused on the battle.
Not long after leaving the hanger bay, Ahsoka's team had run into a patrol of Stormtroopers, and with them, endless reinforcements.
The formation they had created held up at first. Maul and Ahsoka had worked in tandem was they always did, deflecting and redirecting what fire they could, whilst the Wren's and Fenn Rau picked off targets.
When a squad of troopers had flanked them, Vos had begun his defensive tactics, whilst Cham and Saw had picked off the troopers one by one.
Yoda meanwhile seemed to be toying with his adversary. One by one he would pick them up with the force, spin they round, and then slam them hard on the floor. It was a brutal, but effective way of dealing with the endless masses of Stormtroopers.
But after a while, the stream of troopers had proven too much, and the formation had been lost.
Ahsoka had ordered everyone to sprint down the hallway, hoping that they could reach the door ahead of schedule and hold the line there. At least that way they would only have to worry about one direction.
So the group had broken off into a sprint.
All except Yoda, who was not riding on Vos' shoulders, delivering force pushes and grabs to any trooper in their way.
If the situation wasn't so dire, Ahsoka might have laughed at the image of Yoda riding Vos.
Snapping back into her current predicament, Ahsoka twisted her arm to the right, spinning her primary blade and cutting a trooper who had attempted to engage in hand to hand in half.
She found herself running again, this time alongside one of the Mandalorians.
Sabine's brother was every bit the warrior she was, taking well placed shots that eliminated his opponents with ease. For the more serious Wren sibling, Ahsoka had to say he was just as skilled and outgoing as Sabine could be.
"Never thought fighting alongside a Jedi would be so fun!" Tristan called out to her as they ran, blasting another trooper who happened to be in their way. The hallways were packed with them.
"Well I appreciate the assist. You fight well Tristan." Ahsoka called back, decapitating another trooper as she ran beside the Mandalorian.
"As do you Commander."
Glancing ahead Ahsoka saw a trio of troopers emerge from a doorway, pouncing on Cham. The Twi-lek dove to the side to escape the attempted assault, firing his blaster in an attempt to hit his foe.
One went down before the other two troopers recovered, dashing for cover.
"Hey, bucketheads!" Ahsoka called out. The two troopers shifted their attention to Ahsoka, before suddenly finding themselves floating above the ground, suspended by some force.
Recovering from the dodge, Cham regained his footing, blasting the two suspended troopers before throwing a nod in Ahsoka's direction, and sprinting off again.
The team was separated, yet together, and as Ahsoka turned another corridor, she found herself facing one more hallway, with a locked door at the end.
Sabine and Rau were already waiting, as was Maul and Vos, Yoda now on the floor.
As Ahsoka slowed herself and turned to watch the hallway behind her, Tristan and Cham, followed by Saw, turned the corner.
They had all made it to the door despite the struggle. Now all they had to do was hold out long enough for Ezra to open the door.
Ahsoka only hoped that Rex was faring just as well.
Unlike Ahsoka's team, Rex and his squad had managed to stick together on route to their door, moving slowly and methodically between cover.
Rec had long since learned the intricacies of combat, and how to ensure everyone came out alive. He would call himself an expert, but that would be self-flattery, something Rex despised.
The slow approach had worked, as the group turned another corner and came face to face with the door they needed to get through.
"That's it, the door! Everyone go!" Rex called out to his team, ordering them forward.
Behind them, Rex heard the shuffle of boots and armour. It appeared another squad of Stormtroopers was approaching fast.
Rex was confident that they could hold them off long enough for the doors to be opened.
'Speaking of which…' Rex thought, as he lifted his comm link up.
"Ezra, we're at the door. What's your ETA?"
A few seconds of static came through the comms before Ezra replied.
"I'm at the door Rex, just need a minute."
"Copy that kid." Rex replied, ceasing the comm link in time.
The Stormtrooper patrol had arrived.
Luckily for Ezra, the hanger bay had been practically empty when he dropped out of the vents. Only two TIE pilots, who had been examining a TIE interceptor were present, and quickly fell to well-placed deflections from Ezra's emerald blade.
Extinguishing his saber, Ezra heard a voice erupt through his comm link.
"Ezra, we're at the door. What's your ETA?"
The seriousness of the situation set in for Ezra. They were not supposed to be waiting for him yet. He was supposed to have more time.
Either something had gone wrong, or he was behind schedule.
In that moment, it mattered little. Instead, he turned towards the door he needed to open, and sprinted towards the control panel adjacent to it, inserting the data spike Chopper had given him into the port.
"I'm at the door Rex, just need a minute." Ezra replied as he waited for the spike to begin hacking the door. Chopper could handle most of the decryption remotely from the Ghost, but he still needed Ezra present to manually bypass the door.
Ezra only briefly overheard Rex reply over comms before he got settled into his task. On the other side of the door, Ezra could hear the resounding echoes of a firefight. Clearly Rex's team was giving them a good fight.
Looking at the display before him, Ezra brought his hand up to touch the holographic interface.
As Chopper cracked another code, Ezra had to input the digits into the system in order to open the door.
Swiping left once, Ezra inputted the code slowly as Chopper completed it.
'7, 4, 8, 9, 1, 1, hurry up Chop!' Ezra thought as he worked as fast as possible.
Chopper could not hear the young Jedi's thoughts obviously, but somehow the droid did seem to increase in speed, as if he was getting to grips with the security protocols.
A few moments later, Ezra inputted the final numbers and the interface flashed green. The doors blocking the second team's entrance into the hanger bay slid open.
Chaos erupted through the doors as they opened. First through was Wolffe, dashing through the doorway to take position beside Ezra and provide covering fire for the rest of the team.
Kanan backed through next, followed by Zeb and Kallus, all seemingly focused on the situation at hand.
Obi-Wan came next, side by side with Hondo, who had a fierce look of determination on his face unlike any that Ezra had seen before.
Ryder was through next, followed by Gregor, who backed in slowly, firing wildly with a rotary cannon he had brought along.
At the end of the corridor Ezra could make out the gleaming white of Stormtrooper armour.
Finally, Rex backed through the doorway last, firing his dual pistols with precision, striking down a par of imperial Stormtroopers who had attempted to break through the rebel lines.
The team was through the door. Now all Ezra had to do was close it and seal it behind them.
Bringing his hand up to the holographic interface again, Ezra began to work on sealing the door with another set of security codes.
However, as he worked, his comm link lit up again.
"Ezra, its Ahsoka! We're at the door, and need it open now!"
'Karabast!' Ezra thought. Ahsoka's team was ahead of schedule as well!
He couldn't very well abandon the door he was currently at. He doubted the second team could hold off forever.
And if he opened another one then it would mean that the imperials were pressuring both teams at once. Not that they weren't already of course. It would just mean further pressure.
Ezra's eyes darted between the panel he was working on, and another near the doorway across the hanger bay, where Ahsoka and her team were waiting.
'What do I do?'
It was then that he felt an armoured hand grasp his shoulder and pull him back gently.
Spinning in confusion Ezra came face to face with Rex. Despite the fact that the clone was wearing his helmet, Ezra could feel the look of understanding in his eyes.
"Go kid, we'll cover you!"
Determination fuelled Ezra as he broke off into a sprint, heading towards the other door. As he ran he briefly overheard Rex giving orders to Gregor to finish closing the door, and Gregor complying. Hopefully they would finish the job without him.
As Ezra neared the interface, he slid to a halt and began to work, inserting another data spike he was carrying, and began to input the code as Chopper decrypted it.
The next few moments felt like hours to the young Jedi, as the sounds of battle on the other side of the hanger bay intensified. Rex's team was holding, for now.
"Got it!" Ezra called out as the doors slid open, allowing Ahsoka's team access.
The Mandalorians were through first, with Sabine coming to crouch beside Ezra, covering her friend as he worked.
Neither spoke, now was not the time.
A hail of blaster fire sounded down the hallway as the rest of Ahsoka's team moved through the threshold of the doorway. Saw and Cham came next, followed by Vos and Yoda.
Glancing through the doorway, Ezra spotted Maul and Ahsoka slowly backing up, deflecting blaster fire back the approaching imperials with lightning speed.
Ahsoka pivoted and snapped her white blades in precise movements, deflecting shots that made it past Maul back at the troopers.
Maul meanwhile appeared to be rotating his double edged blade at a nightmarish speed, much like how the Inquisitor's did. The rotation created an arc of red in the air, blocking and reflecting nearly everything.
As the two force users did this, Ezra began to work on getting the door closed. On the other side of the hanger bay, a shout went up from Gregor as he succeeded in closing the door.
Ahsoka and Maul made it past the threshold of the door then, with the Togruta giving a signal to Maul, who nodded in understanding.
Through the force, Ezra felt a massive build-up of energy, both light and dark, as if they were intertwined.
Then both force users launched their hands out towards the approaching Stormtroopers, and the force responded.
As if hit by some sort of monstrous storm, the hallway that Ahsoka's team had emerged from shuddered, and the troopers were sent careening backwards, many smashing again one another.
Rex and Wolffe then moved up beside Ahsoka and Maul, firing down the hallway to cover the forcer users.
Snapping back to his interface, Ezra inputted the last set of codes, and the door slammed shut, locks engaged. It would take a while for the imperials to open the door, and even longer to burn through them. They had time now to advance, hopefully unnoticed.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Ezra glanced up at Ahsoka.
The Togruta seemed unfazed, even untired, unlike other members of the team, who appeared to be taking a quick breather to regain their composure.
Ahsoka turned her gaze to Ezra, and their eyes met before a wide smile broke out on Ahsoka's face.
"Good work Ezra, I knew I could count on you."
Author's thoughts
Phew, that was quite the chapter to write. Hope you all liked the action.
Now, I want to address something that was brought up in some reviews. Why was Team One so overpowered in comparison to Team Two? Well, there were many reasons. Firstly, Team Two had a shorter distance to cover, so in theory less enemies to fight. Team One had a longer route, therefore more enemies.
Another reason is due to the squad makeup, and who follows who. Everyone would willingly follow Ahsoka, and most would follow Rex. However, some people, such as Vos, would not trust Rex to lead, and other's like Saw would probably try to take command himself. Ahsoka keeps people like that in her team so she can control them (same goes for Maul by the way).
Besides... Team Two had three clones with them. Clones are the OP ones here!
Now that's over, let's get back to the normal routine. This chapter was a lot of fun to write, and it only gets more tense from this point onwards.
Speaking of which, no one has died so far. Surprised?
Also, the two stormtroopers at the start are characters I made up to kill off essentially. Hope you liked their brief appearances. Also, virtual cookies for anyone who can figure out what the name US-135 means.
Anyway, next chapter the team encounters an unpredicable situation courtesy of Tarkin. And while I won't do this for any other chapter, I have one recommedation. Bring a tissue. :)
As normal, comment and speculate at will. Speaking of which:
evan11795: Congratulations, you are the first person to call me out on the inspiration for this story and it's shape. It is very heavily inspired by Mass Effect 2 and the Suicide Mission in general, and you can expect to see some themes from the game in this story, specifically this chapter. I hope you like it regardless.
Familiar47: This story is heavily inspired by the Suicide Mission from Mass Effect 2, so expect some similarities.
FossilQueen1984: I'm glad you liked the look at both sides. Hopefully this first battle was glorious enough for you.
I'm glad you are still liking my interpretation of Thrawn. He's a fun one to write for in this story.
Cranky Paws: Oh no, please don't cry. I don't want to make people cry. :(
Regardless, I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. It was fun to plan out everyones role. And yes, this is where things get dangerous.
LukeDude: I'm glad you are loving this. Hopefully you feel the same about this chapter.
You understood exactly why Thrawn used the Marg Sabl in that situation. He's defecting without really defecting, cause he is a genious.
Yoda could indeed open the doors with the force, but that is boring and makes it too easy for the team. (At least I explained why they won't use their lightsabers)
As for the Ezra/Sabine moment, I know some people ship them and others do not. I've left it vague so you can all read into it however you like. :)
And yes, the Eighth Bro continues to try to be the Starscream. Too bad Emperor Megatron... I mean Palpatine alreadys knows. (Wait a min, if Eighth Bro = Starscream, and Palpy = Megatron, who is Soundwave?)
For the sake of the story, the Throne Room is the Throne Room from ROTJ.
Pray for Rex indeed. Even he is not safe!
Now, your questions:
1. Tiber Saxon is wearing what he wore in the series. That Stormtrooper/Jumptrooper hydrid stuff.
2. The Dauntless probably left Jedha to deliver some Kyber crystals for the death star's weapon. Maybe they had a lot and didn't want to send a shuttle.
3. I'm not saying anything about the Dionoga. Wait and see.
4. The last place Thrawn wants to be is on the Death Star right now. He's fully expecting it to be destroyed by the rebels. His plan is to repair Chimaera as best he can, and get the hell out before it blows.
5. Galen Erso is still on the Death Star at this point. Let's hope he escapes.
Travis Middleton: Sidious is certainly in trouble, but then he might already know. Seems like Ahsoka and the team are ok at the moment. Let's hope it stays that way.
WolveHulk: Ahsoka will probably want to gut Tarkin herself. Let's see if she gets the opportunity.
jamese765: Knowing Tarkin, I imagine disdain and disgust will be his reaction.
Mysterious Guest number one: I'm glad you liked Ahsoka's little speech there. It was a challenge to write it to still sound like something she would say, but be inspiring at the same time.
Palpy knows Vos and Maul are there too, he just doesn't care about them.
Mysterious Guest number two: I'm glad you are enjoying Maul. He's a fun, if not slightly crazy guy.
Chiara Polairix Edelstein: I'm glad you are still enjoying this, and that you are enjoying Ahsoka's character.
Mogor: Poor Yularen! Let's hope he's not dead! More coming, no worries.
Maliwan: Your wish is my command. Hope you enjoyed Maul's moments in this chapter.
SLE's fave guest: They should have planned yes, but then they got more up to date schematics at the last second, so yeah. Plus, they were all up partying the night before.
I'm sure Yoda can work control panels in Battlefront 2, but having not played it I was unaware. Oh well, I still think Ezra is a better choice.
Hopefully my explanation on why the teams are so uneven is ok.
Also, I'm glad you are liking the Eighth Bro the best. He is a wildcard, and for a while I was unsure exactly what his role was, and what happens to him in the end. Now that I know, I can easily say his story arc is my favourite story arc in this AU.