Alrighty- new chapter, new action, new inter-actions, and everything else! I do have to warn you guys that while the climax is approaching and action is much easier and faster to write for me, we are getting bogged down with projects and such. The previous two-day schedule is most likely not going to re-appear for a while, but rest assured there will not be a period longer than a week with no updates. On this I swear- I'm getting tired of letting you guys and myself down, so I will be writing more and updating faster. Thank you all for sticking with me so far- and enjoy! :)
Disclaimer: DUDES THE FREAKING SEVENTH SISTER IS AMAZING AND I FREAKING WISH I OWNED HER BECAUSE I WANT TO USE HER IN EVERYTHING. but I don't, so...
Sabine lowered her helmet's scanner, squinting through the fuzz of the broken device was emitting and observing the facility. "There are more guards than before," she pointed out helpfully, watching the near two-dozen stormtroopers stationed around the western bay and it's corresponding storage areas.
They were pretty much forced to use the western bay as their entrance point- they most definitely could not use the eastern bay. It had been all but demolished by the explosion, and the security there had been nearly quadrupled. The western bay, on the opposite side on the eastern and hopefully the most likely to attract the least attention, would be their entrance point and hopefully their exit as well, if nothing went wrong.
Okay, so the western bay wouldn't be their exit point.
"Can you find one of those plentiful guards on his own? Because if not, this whole plan is kinda gonna need to be re-written," Ezra commented, and Sabine hummed.
"Well, there isn't one lone bucket-head that I can see, but there are two patrolling on the outside, so we might be able to use them instead." Ezra grunted, and Sabine moved her right hand to point in the direction her chosen patrol was in. Ezra wouldn't be able to see them, far away from the facility as they were, but at least he'd have some sort of idea where they were heading. Sabine flipped her antenna up, pushing off her stomach and raising herself off the ground. The base looked much smaller and darker without her scanners, even as damaged as they were, with the only lights coming from inside the open production bays. The rest of it was lit only by the moons, but from their distance the building only appeared as a dark silhouette lit at the bottom.
Sabine stiffened as she rose, wincing as her abdomen objected. Ezra sprang up beside her, peering through the dark at the tower before raising his unlit lightsaber suggestively. "Shall we?" he asked, and Sabine nodded her head. The two jogged down the hill they'd laid down upon before for scouting purposes, the dry grass rustling under their feet as they both zipped through it.
"Remember-" Sabine called, careful to keep her voice only as loud as was needed for Ezra to hear it, "-no blasters! We don't want to scorch the armor!"
"Yeah, I know! You okay with that?"
Sabine's only response was a laugh.
The facility drew closer, and the Spectres cut their chatter for fear of being overheard and discovered. Sabine skidded to a halt and dove down behind a rock formation, only a few tens of feet away from the left storage bay's walls. Ezra stopped next to her, the only sounds he made with the maneuver coming from his breathing. He crouched down low besides her, and Sabine positioned herself on the balls of her feet.
She flipped down her helmet's scanners once again, growling and hitting the side of the device as the only picture coming in was fuzz. It cleared away after her 'persuasions', just in time to deliver the image of the two stormtroopers Sabine had singled out still on patrol. From the lack of surprised shouts or even intrigued searching, neither guard had spotted her or Ezra.
Sabine held two fingers straight up, and prepared herself to pounce. Ezra relaxed besides her, probably using the second or two they had before the patrolling guards walked by their hiding place to connect to the Force. Sabine subtly shifted to the right, giving a silent signal that she'd take out the trooper on that side. Judging from the fact that Ezra shuffled an inch or two silently over to the right, he'd seen and understood.
Steady... steady... The sounds of the bucket-head's boots scuffing the dry ground grew closer, and Sabine tilted her two fingers forwards slightly as she tracked their target's movements through the stone with her sensors. Just a little more... A white boot presented itself past the edge of the rock, and Sabine's fingers jerked downwards.
She leapt at the nearest soldier, pushing her left foot off the rock to give herself leverage and just enough height for her right foot to kick straight inbetween the gap of helmet and neck. The soldier went down with barely more than a stunned cry, and his partner whirled around, raising his blaster quicker than Sabine could draw hers-
And promptly went flying into the wall behind him, crashing into it and slumping down with enough force to make a small dent. Ezra stood up behind her, flexing his fingers. "Looks like phase one has been successfully carried out, wouldn't you say?" Sabine snorted.
"No, I'd say it's been successfully carried out once we both sneak in without getting caught. That was phase one, remember?"
Ezra shrugged. "Okay, so, phase one of phase one complete?" Sabine sighed, shaking her head as the teen joked quietly.
"Sure, sure, now let me get ready for 'phase two' of phase one-"
"So we can carry out phase three of phase one, then phase two, then three, then run?"
Sabine gave Ezra a look, to which he shrugged and smiled cheekily.
A minute later Ezra was tugging off the bolted ventilation panel in the side of the storage bay, which would be his entrance, and Sabine was decked out in bucket-head armor, tugging uncomfortably at the large armor that had her positively swimming in extra room. She hadn't even needed to take off her regular armor to make room for it- though Ezra would have to carry her helmet with his as he went about his half of the mission.
Sabine was not looking forwards to wearing the bucket.
"Cheer up, it'll only be for like ten minutes. Hopefully." Ezra tried to console her, failing miserably, but nevertheless prompting Sabine to slide the dreaded helmet over her stunning hair, replacing the vibrant colors with the bland white every soldier of the Empire wore. She had to slide the helmet forwards to properly look out of it, only to see a shaded Ezra looking at her weird.
"What?" She asked, shaking her head slightly as her voice came out distorted and mechanized through the filters.
"It's just..." Ezra seemed to struggle for words, shaking his head as though shooing a fly before finally coming up with, "It's weird to look at a bucket-heads armor and not think 'bumbling idiot.'" He seemed to reconsider. "And it's kinda weird to know it's you under there too. Waaay too colorless."
Sabine huffed. "You can say that again... ugh, and it smells like something died in here- the sooner we're done here, the sooner I'm taking this off and burning it to the ground." Ezra's upper lip twitched in a small smile before he bent down to retrieve the stormtrooper's blaster.
"You'd look a little weird to the Imperials too if you weren't holding this." Sabine took the weapon grudgingly, eyeing it with distaste. Honestly, she hadn't like the bucket-heads before, but now...
"Alright- let's just get moving." Sabine's face twisted in momentary concern, and she hesitated. Ezra did, too, his eyes momentarily shining with worry.
"Be... be careful, Ezra," Sabine cautioned, knowing they were truly on their own in this mission. They had to take care of themselves- and while Ezra could take care of himself, Sabine... didn't like the thought of... things happening.
"Yeah- you, um, you too, Sabine." Ezra nodded, seemingly unsure that that was all he wanted to say.
"...Right." Sabine nodded at the padawan, then, before she could change her mind, she spun around and marched towards the western production bay, her training from years before coming up to the surface and giving her the exact look of a stormtrooper.
Though they all wished they had armor as good as hers.
Of all the things that registered as odd to Sabine, walking around inside an Imperial facility and not having to hide from the soldiers inside was definitely high on the list. She had to practically force herself not to bolt or raise her blaster every time a bucket-head turned the corner- which, in a base like this, was a lot. It was even weirder that she wasn't being shot at for once, especially this deep in enemy territory. She would have thought someone would have noticed her armor was a bit bigger than her body and called her out by now, but apparently the Empire's own men didn't care about their troopers either.
In a way, she felt a little pity for the soldiers that no one- friends or enemies -seemed to care about what was under the armor.
Still, it made her job that much easier, and she wouldn't complain that for once everything was going to plan. Though Sabine knew their luck could run out sooner than later- after all, there were three parts to their plan, and infiltration was just the first step. Plus there were two of them infiltrating this time- twice the people, twice the chances of discovery and then everything else going wrong.
Stop worrying so much- Ezra knows enough to keep himself safe. Just follow the plan.
Until it's inevitable collapse, of course.
Sabine turned a corner, stilling her nerves as she caught sight of yet another Imperial soldier walking down past her, and then being internally relieved at the sight of an elevator at the end of the hall. She'd only had a small amount of time to memorize the route to the room Ezra had described- she could find it perfectly on her wrist-computer, as she still had a connection to the bombs, but with the stormtrooper armor covering up that screen she didn't have access to it. The sight of an elevator meant she was still taking the right route- an important little detail, because if she got lost in the tower and couldn't execute her part of the plan in time, they'd be doomed.
He said it was on the fourth floor- so after I get out of the lift, Sabine stepped into the empty elevator and entered in her designated floor, there should to two junctions to pass, and then it's the first on the left... she hoped. Without the internal schematics of the facility, she only had a basic idea of where her target was, provided to her by the signal she still shared with the bombs she was after. She knew it was on the fourth floor through Ezra, but after that she'd really only been able to make an educated guess on the position of the room based on the coordinates her wrist-computer gave and the generic layout of Imperial facilities.
The lift stopped and opened, and Sabine was met with the sight of a sparsely filled hall. She was guessing Morden hadn't found what Ezra had left behind, then, if there weren't guards stationed at every junction in the floor.
Though I guess most of the bucket-heads were deployed in guarding the outside, not monitoring the inside. That was good- that meant there were fewer stormtroopers in her way, so it would take less time for her to finish her part and get back to Ezra.
Sabine strode forwards, keeping a non-hurried, normal pace and tried to slow her breathing. Any second now. Past two junctions, first door on the left. Two junctions, first left. One junction, first left. First left-
"Intruder alert!" Sabine flinched as the Imperial officer's voice exploded through her borrowed helmet's built-in comm system. "Units ten through twenty-three, converge on the eastern facility- they're taking over the anti-air cannons!"
Right on time.
Immediately, the few stormtroopers that were in Sabine's view started sprinting towards the lift she'd just left. Sabine raised a hand and pressed in to her temple, pretending to be receiving more orders as she stayed still and counted the number of bucket-heads running past. There weren't too many, but Sabine knew that was just because these few were just a portion of the soldiers on this floor, and this floor just a portion of the entire force now trying to find Ezra.
All according to plan- but now Sabine had to act fast.
Most of the soldiers were out of her view when she quickly darted into her targeted room. It took her a second to adjust to the dim lighting, but Sabine was able to observe racks of helmets and armor and a few storage crates lined up on the opposite side of the room. She ran over to the crates, approaching one she thought she recognized and popped the lid off of it-
"Hello, strangers," she whispered to the half-filled crate of her explosives. Looked like Morden and his soldiers hadn't found the remains of Ezra's stash from the beginning of the op, leaving them for Sabine to play with. They would regret that. They would regret that very much.
Sabine activated the repulsors on the crate, pushing and guiding it with her left hand and hefting her borrowed blaster up in the other as she approached the door. It opened with a hiss, and Sabine stepped through, raising the gun and was prepared to aim at anything that moved. Now that she had successfully retrieved the bombs, stealth wasn't such an important factor. She would restrain herself from actually shooting anybody unless they aggressed her, however. Knowing how little their own comrades cared for a lone storm-trooper, Sabine figured she could still go by unnoticed- even with the crate -unless someone got a view of it's contents. So, unless someone questioned her she'd remain passive, to draw the least attention to herself before her job was done.
Straining her ears and hearing nothing of the clattering of footsteps to indicate oncoming bucket-heads, Sabine plucked a bomb from her crate and stuck it on the wall.
Begin phase two of the plan- now all Sabine could do was execute it and hope to whatever deities that were out there that Ezra could pull off his own phase two. Honestly, she had the easy part- there shouldn't be more than a handful of personnel on the floor now, and Sabine could easily take down those. Ezra was pretty much being hunted by the entire facility, not to mention commander Morden. If he didn't get into any trouble during infiltration then he should be hiding- not in the vents, too obvious, but somewhere a little more... cramped.
Sabine just hoped that he'd be able to hide from Morden until she had phase two finished and could go pick him up before the whole building came down on their heads- and that Hera and Kanan would notice what they were doing in time to pick them up. Because if not, their whole plan would not only crumble, but go up in smoke-
Along with them.