Welcome once again and a very happy new year. So we're back with a new chapter and I am glad that it has grown in popularity as well as people's opinions. Few things I guess I should put forward first, this will be the last chapter that is pretty much just a real episode to writing since I did do that somewhat with Mantle and while it can be a suitable format and entertaining, it just makes it a little less original to me.
So after this one, while there will still be known rebel missions & Adventures, Our Petty Officer will be in other places besides the hip of the Phoenix squadron. Also, while I might be proven wrong in the future, I don't plan on this story being as long as my other one so character development won't be as slow and exposition will be just that little bit more frequent. Either way, I hope you all enjoy it.
Replies to Chapter Four -
Aisen546 - It's something I am considering, his own ship would mean more independence and less crossover with rebels and It probably couldn't be a non-UNSC ship since he doesn't know Galactic Basic or how to maintain equipment like blaster canons or hyperdrive. We'll see though.
Jctherebel - Cheers buddy, I too have been receiving a weird lack of email updates but I believe it is because of the app using the notifications tab a lot more instead. It seems to have switched to that for updates and stuff. If it helps, I just go to my followed stories and organise by the latest updated every now and then to see what has been.
Blue-Jay1009 - It will definitely get told more over time, I think those he has told get the gist of it at the moment but their curiosity won't end here. Some good speculations, Not going to spoil anything here but the Artifacts appearing there are loosely related to the idea I had that started this story, there will definitely be a scene later where you will know what I mean…maybe. Thanks mate.
Mandalore the Survivor - Cheers, Yes the clone wars had their share of genocides but I don't think there are many examples that could meet what the Covenant tried to do to Humanity. We'll most definitely get a better look into the Mandalorians (Or rather James will) over time. That as well, I do feel like James would relate better to the clones, soldiers to soldiers after all. Once you know a character's traits and personality, which happens after watching a lot of rebels, you can understand what they'll say in new scenarios, again though, Cheers.
Chapter Five: Procedure & Patience
Former Republic AT-TE, Seelos
Galactic Location Unknown
Several Hours After Probe Discovery
Clanks and scraps echoed in the dusty wind of the near desolate plains as the clone commandeered walker dragged itself across the ground one leg at a time. Hanging off the side of it were the spoils of the battle it had recently emerged from. The still largely untouched remains of the desert wandering Joopa hung from the giant metal beast's right side and forced it to work under a now increased weight.
The AT-TE however, didn't seem to care as it effortlessly marched forward under the clone's command, an impressive display, especially now that it had new opponents approaching them. Still, on the very top of the walker the Phantom lay motionless as its engines had been
rendered completely useless after the Imperial probe droid opened fire on them in its attempt to kill Kanan upon its discovery.
Black smoke still poured from the Phantom's damaged engine and stood just beside its entrance were both Sabine and James overlooking the damage. James removed his helmet and crouched down next to the damaged engine.
While there was still a lot he didn't understand about the ship and a lot of its components, the engine seemed just basic enough to understand with his knowledge of UNSC ship engines providing him just enough knowledge to volunteer to help Sabine carry out the urgent repairs needed for them to escape.
Trying to Judge the damage as best he could, he noticed that the shots from the probe droid had melted and gone clean through the engine's emitters, the blaster on the probe droid was more powerful than he thought.
Standing up, the stranded Petty Officer turned to Sabine, "Well, if that shot hadn't gone straight through this panel, I'd recommend a quick patch job until we can find somewhere less dangerous for proper repairs," James stated as Sabine turned to look at him.
Standing up from the panel she was looking at, the Mandalorian held a similar opinion, "Unfortunately for us, a patch job won't fix this and we can't reach the Ghost on just one engine."
"I take it you have a plan though," James assumed.
"We keep a few spare parts on the Phantom but it's not as easy as just swapping one for another and putting in a few bolts," Sabine said bluntly.
"Guess we should let the others know we might be for a little while longer," James suggested as he picked up his helmet.
With a frustrated sigh, Sabine brought up a small comm device to the front of her helmet, "The probe hit us pretty badly, repairs are gonna take a little while longer," She explained.
"We don't have much time," Kanan Said, "There's no telling when the Empire will get here, we have got to get off the surface," He said urgently.
"Well the Empire's not our only problem," Sabine said as she peeked around the corner of the ship, "There's a storm coming up behind us," She informed.
At the same time, James too walked around the side of the ship and observed the gigantic sandstorm approaching from behind them. He was no expert in storms and weather but he knew enough to tell that at their current speed it was highly unlikely that they would be able to outrun it at their current speed.
"If the Empire gets here before we take off, the storm will be the least of our problems," Kanan said.
From what he and Sabine could see, it was an endlessly long wall of sand that stretched incredibly high above them. As a pilot, James knew that taking off in a storm was a bad idea especially when it was one that reached as high as the clouds and would at best blind the pilot flying in it and at worst, would seriously damage a ship's engines as trillions of tiny glass-like grains of and blew around at high speeds.
James turned away from the storm, "I think I've done all I can, call if you need any help," He said to Sabine.
Nodding as he started to walk away, she shouted out to him, "Will do, hey let us know if there's anything on that data tape worth looking at," Sabine said to him as he paused.
"Yes, Ma- Uh Sabine," He said, correcting himself, "Gotta get used to that," He muttered to himself as he walked away.
"Soldiers," Sabine said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.
Walking down the side of the tank's walkway, James swayed his eyes and captured one last survey of the behemoth sandstorm that was quickly creeping up on them without any delay. Refocusing his attention, the stranded Petty Officer approached the entrance to the inside of the tank but just as he was about to walk forward, the door opened.
"Oh there you are Petty Officer," Commander Wolffe said. "Captain Rex asked me to give you this," He said as he handed the soldier a small square-shaped object.
Taking it from him, James walked back inside with Wolffe, "Data tape?" He asked.
As the two walked inside, Rex answered his question for him, "That's correct, all known Imperial holding facilities and protocols as well as a few minor bases used for research purposes or at least what they call research," He explained.
James briefly looked down at the disk before looking back at the clone Captain, "Thank you, Captain, I'll owe you one for this," He thanked me.
"Don't worry about it Petty Officer, oh and your friend here told me about some of your… situations so I threw in a holo map with the location," Rex added as he looked at Kanan.
Carefully storing the disk into one of his empty tactical pouches, James turned to the Jedi "Thanks mate but I'm sure I can get this Galactic Basic down in a few days," He said.
"Well I admire the enthusiasm," Ezra said to James before he turned to Captain Rex, "Sure you won't come with us?" He asked.
"Like I said our war is over kid, don't care to get mixed up in another," Rex said, assuring him of their stance on his repeated offer, "Oh and say hello to Commander Tano for me," He said.
Once more though, Ezra's face turned to one of disappointment when he heard their answer. Particularly because of Wolffe's recent regrettable decision to contact the Empire and try to discreetly warn the Empire of their presence on Seelos.
"But the Empire's on its way and they will find you," Ezra said in a last-ditch effort to convince the three clones to leave with them.
"Oh, we can take care of ourselves," Rex assured.
"I don't doubt it, Captain, but these guys aren't kidding about this Empire," James said, gesturing to Ezra, Zeb and Kanan, "I've barely seen more than a couple of them and even I can tell they aren't some idle threat," He said, attempting to change the clones perspectives.
Despite James' grave warning to them, the three clones only smirked at him just as they had done to the young Jedi after his multiple attempts. In his mind, James thought the trio of retired soldiers in front of him must have been incredibly egotistical about their abilities in combat. The only alternative was that the three of them were actually still capable soldiers putting up a fight against all the odds.
It wasn't something that he thought to be entirely impossible, after everything he had seen and read during the Human-Covenant war as well as the conflicts that followed it. The Petty Officer himself had survived multiple engagements with the enemy that even the most optimistic Admiral would have called suicidal.
"You haven't seen them fight us though," Wolffe said.
Letting their endeavours at persuading the three die down, Ezra and Zeb turned their attention to Kanan walking back into the tank's main cabin.
"Just got off the comm with Hera, Star Destroyer just came out of Hyperspace, we don't have long," Kanan said impatiently.
All of the tank's occupants turned to face Kanan upon hearing his news and by the look on Rex's face, James assumed he was already coming up with a plan.
James knew they were in trouble If this Star Destroyer was the same class of ship that he had encountered with the Ghost crew before they had escaped earlier. Even without a technical report on the ship, he knew that it was large enough to house thousands of foot soldiers on board as well as whatever types of ground assault vehicles the Empire had in its arsenal.
"If they follow procedure, they'll fly search patterns on our last confirmed position," Captain Rex informed them.
This was news of some relief as they had managed to put a fair amount of distance between them and what remained of the probe droid that James and Rex had managed to destroy.
"Or they'll call," Commander Gregor said, pulling both the Captain and Petty Officer out of their internal plan making, "Incoming Imperial transmission, it's for you Wolffe," He said informally as the large monitor on the wall of the tank lit up with a consistent blinking and dull flashing accompanying the incoming communication.
Wolffe turned around to face the monitor, "They called back? They never call back," He said nervously.
Behind him, Kanan snorted, "Heh, this is why I don't trust clones,"
Petty Officer James Bailey watched as the 'retired' clone trooper turned around and leant forward to the walker's console when a worrying thought came to his mind. "Wait!" He cried out, Rushing his way forward to Wolffe.
"Is there any way that they could trace the call to our location? Make it easier for them to locate us?" James asked with a serious look of concern on his face that was growing by the second.
"A high chance but by this point it won't be long anyway, just try and get rid of them Wolffe," Ezra replied.
Wolffe craned his neck down rubbing the back of his head, "Yeah, it was my mistake and I'll fix it," He said with a righteous determination as he swung himself back around to answer the call.
Walking up behind him, James made sure that his helmet was on and sealed. Knowing that the clone commander was going to open a two-way video call between themselves and whoever this Empire had dispatched to hunt his newfound allies. While he desperately wanted to get a good luck at whoever was calling them, the Petty Officer was in no rush to reveal his full identity to a hostile force. Not unless he had a rifle pressed up against their head.
The consistent droning of communication alert ceased and the still image on the viewscreen was now replaced with a single figure. To his somewhat heightened curiosity, James immediately made him out to be human, or at least as visually human as him. He had short blond hair and a beard that appeared to have been cut short and kept straight. It was a style of hair that he recognised as it was common among military officers and other personnel within the UNSC that had to follow the strict regulations and protocols regarding personal attire and appearance.
"CC-3636, Commander Wolffe is it?" The man asked, his voice deep and succinct.
"Yep, that's me, What can I do for you, sir?" Wolffe asked nervously, trying to display as little of it as possible.
While the two continued their conversation, James took more note of the man.
Aside from his species, one thing that stuck out to James was the man's uniform. It was vaguely similar to the battle dress uniform donned by high-ranking naval officers. Consisting almost entirely of black and dark grey colours it projected the simple yet demanding authority of a no-nonsense military force. Guarding his upper chest was a small thin chest plate that the lost First-Class Petty Officer picked up on as being either no match for his powerful ballistic weaponry or made of some material he had never heard of that was impervious to projectile-based weaponry.
"Sorry for wasting your time," Captain Rex said walking in front of the viewscreen after Wolffe's failed attempts to deny any knowledge of the two Jedi with them.
"This image was taken by one of our probe droids," He said as he transmitted a short few seconds of what could have only been a recording from the probe Rex and James had destroyed. "It clearly shows you harbouring known rebels, now surrender them or be destroyed," He said threateningly.
Answering his question of whether or not the droid had managed to transmit anything, James tried to split his attention between the officer's appearance and traits and what he was saying.
"If it's a fight you want, I hope you brought a better class of soldier than those…Stormtroopers," Captain Rex said, mentioning the soldiers' classification almost as if it was an insult.
Below his neck and on the left side of his armour plate was what could only be the Empire's way of displaying an officer's rank. From what he could see, it was a rectangular badge that had small squares of varying colours. In this case, the officer had three blue ones followed by two yellow. Still not sure how their ranking system worked, James had little to no idea what rank the man held. If he was the one talking to them though, it had to have been fairly high.
"They serve the Empire well and I have a great many of them," He replied.
Watching the Imperial officer's eyes drift slightly, James knew he had been noticed and stared through his helmet at the obviously curious Imperial officer who was discreetly frowning at him while slowly raising and lowering his eyes.
"Something I can help with?" James asked, interrupting Captain Rex as he knew there was something off about the situation.
Slowly, the clones' heads turned to the new interest of the officer. "How many UNSC soldiers are you harbouring as well Commander Wolffe?" He asked.
Despite it being concealed behind a fully obscured helmet, James' calm demeanour dropped from his face completely and his crossed arms dropped to his sides. His head shot between the three clones on his left and Zeb on his right before rapidly veering back to the screen. Even though he had only been in this new unknown Galaxy for a very short amount of time, he had been entirely convinced that nobody here knew the UNSC or anything about them.
"How the hell do you even know who I am?" James asked without even a hint of sarcasm in his usual light tone. After hearing from everyone so far that he had met that they had no idea who he was or where he was from, James was taken aback to finally meet someone that did, It was unfortunate that the only one was trying to kill him.
A small smirk appeared on the officer's face. "I was wondering if I would see any more of you out here," He said, ignoring the Petty Officer's question. "I do wonder though, what is a military the size of yours doing so far away from home?" He asked.
James stayed silent, glaring invisible daggers at him he just stared in an attempt to read him.
"Hmm, I suppose I shouldn't expect you to tell me anything…not yet anyway," He said manically, "However, as I'm sure you're aware, you are all a threat to the Empire so I can't let you leave this planet with these traitors," He said.
James stood up straight and brought his arms back up to his chest, "From what I've heard so far, my people and our… inferior weapons are no match for your Empire, I fail to see how we are such a threat," He said smoothly, regaining his solid composure.
"A thought I had as well until this interesting little piece here turned six of my men into a bloody pile," He said as he reached behind him and pulled out a firearm. One that James was able to identify immediately, it was an M6C sidearm. Unfortunately, the quality of the image wasn't good enough for him to try and read the serial number or determine where it had come from.
Narrowing his eyes, James looked at the pistol and then back at its current user. "Where did you get that?" He asked deeply with both his anger and concern rising simultaneously.
The pompous smirk on the Imperial's faces grew, "Perhaps you can tell me, a small lone ship in the middle of nowhere and only one extremely stubborn Petty Officer aboard whose lack of understanding at the word 'surrender' has only furthered my curiosity," He said.
A small thought started to grow in James' mind, one that he hoped came true but also wished that it didn't. "The attack and capture of any UNSC assets or personnel is an act of war, do you have any idea what you have done?" He questioned, secretly harbouring the thought that this Empire cared very little about the potential consequences of their thoughtless actions.
Putting the weapon away, the officer's face remained unchanged, "Yes, a fact the Petty Officer in my interrogation room already made clear to me a number of times, though with much less polite language I might add," He said, seemingly without a care or any concern over what he had told the Petty Officer.
"I may only be a Petty Officer myself but I'll be damned if I let some tyrannical authoritarian government torture loyal UNSC soldiers, I'm coming for you…and him" James threatened.
Instead of seeming freighted, however, the Imperial officer's face only recoiled in amusement, "Ah so you must be the infamous James A Bailey, First-Class Petty Officer of the UNSC I've been hearing of, your friend seems to hold you in high regard," He said, brushing off the pilot's confident vendetta.
Even with his doubtful suspicion of the Imperials words, nothing prepared him for the officer's statement hitting him like a ton of bricks. The Imperial officer hadn't mentioned Jack's name, not directly anyway and he didn't need to. James could put two and two together, even if some other UNSC personnel had been brought to the same Galaxy as him the chances of them saying anything about him were next to impossible.
His trusted Second-Class Petty Officer was the only person that would have mentioned him by name and James heavily suspected that it was only to find out where he might have been or if he was even alive. No doubt that he did it in as many obscene ways as he was capable of. Staying completely silent, he didn't say anything and didn't move an inch afterwards, his lack of a reaction only seemed to goad his antagoniser more.
His silence, however, immediately gave away his true shock to the Imperial "Oh, I suppose you thought he was dead, well I'm sure you'll be seeing each other again soon," he said unflinchingly.
James leaned closer, his hands gripping hard into fists, "Maybe sooner than you think, keep that weapon close Imperial, I intend on returning it to its original owner," He said truthfully without hesitation as he slammed his still clenched fist into the console where Wolffe had first opened the channel.
The face of the smug Imperial officer disappeared as the viewscreen shut down.
"So much for not getting involved," Zeb said from behind him.
"To hell with that, If they want a war then it's one they'll have started," James said as he swung around to meet Zeb's face.
Without warning, the walker rocked violently as the muffled sounds of nearby explosions could be heard. It was as clear a sign as any that they were under attack and none of them needed more than one guess as to who it was. Then all of a sudden, Sabine darted into the main compartment and alerted them all.
"They found us," She shouted.
"Guess that search pattern paid off," Ezra said.
Behind the young Jedi, the clones immediately set to work. Wolffe immediately took off, headed towards the forward cockpit of the tank. From behind a dark corner and coated in a thick layer of dust, Gregor hauled out a large rectangular container to the middle of them all. Petty Officer James Bailey strolled forward, still partially bracing himself on a nearby piece of metal that was attached to the hull.
The Petty Officer bent down and grabbed the opposite end of the cover as he and the clone in front of him both removed the metal top. Tossing it over the side, the contents of the box were revealed and coated in a similar layer of thick dust. All of them looked inside the box that was filled with weapons of varying shapes and sizes. The design of a few seemed awfully familiar to the earth-born human.
One short yet thick weapon with multiple barrels reminded him of the countless varieties of rotary canons in the UNSC's arsenal of weapons. As did a longer yet also thinner weapon that had a large smoothbore barrel, leading him to believe it was a shoulder-fired rocket launcher, just like the M41 SPNKr he had never had the pleasure of using personally.
While he was more than aware that he needed to conserve his own limited ammunition, James decided to keep to his own weapons for now. He knew that a combat situation was undoubtedly one of the worst times to try learning how to operate unknown types of weapons. Reaching for his rifle, he pulled it off his mag holster and made chase after the others who had grabbed their weapons from the cache and raced for the door.
Bearly catching up to the others, James felt a sudden burst of speed from the walker as he was jolted slightly. Shaking himself off he regrouped with the others just in time to see their attacker coming once more from above. Getting up higher onto the deck, James squinted his eyes against the sun where the others were looking. Polarising his visor to get a better look he could see what was attacking them.
It was one of the same types of space fighters he had seen and shot earlier just briefly after meeting the crew of the Ghost. At first, he wasn't too impressed when he saw the small fighter, he had managed to destroy one fairly quickly using a weapon system that seemed entirely alien to him. It apparently had no shields and only standard weapons for its size. He hadn't asked yet but it wouldn't have surprised him if the ship didn't even have a life support system. From his eyes, it seemed to be a fighter designed to be cheap and easy to manufacture on a galactic scale.
For now, though, he was on the ground and not in a heavily armed and shielded fighter so he was definitely out-matched.
"Hurry, He's coming around for another pass," Sabine warned them as both she and Zeb raised their weapons to the sky while Kanan and Ezra activated their lightsabers. A weapon that still brought up much curiosity in the Petty Officer.
James joined them in raising his battle rifle up towards the incoming hostile, however as they started firing rounds without restraint, he tried to make his shots count. He was wary of both his ammo count and his own skills. The fighter was coming close but was still much further out than he would have liked. After several bursts of fire from him, Sabine and Zeb. Rex appeared from behind them.
"Try shortening your shots, you're wasting ammo," He advised.
"You're welcome to help!" Zeb shot back at the clone while manning the rotating blaster cannon, firing a stream of blue plasma at the fast-approaching enemy.
Simultaneously, Kanan and Zeb had taken up positions in front of the Phantom drop ship in an effort to protect it from the fighter.
Rapidly checking his ammo counter with his right eye, James noticed he had already blown through half his magazine and only had eighteen rounds left. He ceased firing and instinctively ducked down as the Tie fighter flew overhead of them.
"Why doesn't someone man the big gun?" Ezra asked.
Peeking at the gun in question, James guessed it was too slow to fire at something moving as fast as this fighter was, assuming it could even aim high enough in the first place.
"That's no good in this situation," Rex said, all but confirming the Petty Officer's suspicions.
"Kind of like you guys," Kanan snapped from behind them on top of the Phantom.
"Really! Right now?" James shouted at the Jedi. Understanding of his apprehension towards the clones but already becoming somewhat fatigued by his constant need to belittle them.
While James knew exactly what the elder of the two Jedi was experiencing, his feelings around the forced ceasefire with the newly formed Covenant Separatists were not something that would go away overnight. While he had followed his orders, even coming to fight in battles alongside the occasional allied Banshee or Seraph there were still too many people taken from him and the rest of humanity during the war to just forgive their former adversaries.
"You want the shot?" Rex said as he hurled the weapon James assumed to be a rocket launcher at Gregor who grabbed it effortlessly out of the air.
As Gregor sprinted forward to the front of the walker for a better shot, Petty Officer Bailey focused his eyes forward to the target, he didn't waste any time checking his ammo count once more as he knew that at best he had three or four more bursts left in his magazine.
Taking aim at the now fleeing Tie Fighter, James slowly brought up his trigger finger to the inside of the guard. Looking at the fighter gaining more and more distance from him, he knew that even with it not being shielded, the chances of being able to shoot it down with nothing more than a battle rifle were slim to none. It would have been a tall order for a Spartan and next to Impossible for an ODST. Nevertheless, he let his training and instincts guide his aim and without thinking fired to bursts of bullets.
Loosening his grip and lowering his rifle, it seemed his shots had failed to hit anywhere near the fighter as no evidence of it even sparking against the exterior was visible. However, something started to happen to the fighter, instead of following its long-plotted turn to come back around for another pass, it started to stagger all over the sky.
Unbeknownst to the Petty Officer, the several high-power rifle rounds he had loosed on the Tie fighter had turbulently pierced the rear of the ship and violently peppered the head and back of the Imperial pilot with both bullet fragments and razor-sharp pieces of ship debris broken off by the projectiles. Splattering blood and bone out forward, painting the glass front of the cockpit in a crimson stain, the pilot dropped forward against the controls.
"Well, I'll be, I think you hit the pilot Petty Officer," Rex said proudly with amazement.
James looked back out to the fighter, it seemed the Clone Captain was right as the fighter started to lose altitude and started a slow plummet back down towards the ground.
"Care to finish him off Commander," James said, still staggered that he had managed to kill the pilot.
"With pleasure, Petty Officer," Gregor said as he took up his own aim with the rocket launcher and after a few seconds pulled the trigger. A hurl of smoke came from both ends of the weapon and a glaringly bright tail fire rocket sprung forth, streaking ahead towards the doubly doomed Imperial fighter.
Watching the rocket fly through the air, James stared at the explosive munition. Either the rocket had a solid lock onto the fighter or Gregor was one hell of a shot because it was only a few seconds before it collided with the pilotless fighter and violently exploded. Enveloping the entire craft in a fireball, what was left of the small fighter fell down to the ground and become nothing more than a few pieces of blackend scrap metal.
"Gregor, you still got it," Rex praised.
"It's in my blood, gotta say though, for a pilot our new Petty Officer here made one fine shot if you ask me," Gregor said.
"Cheers Commander, just blind luck though I think," James said. "Well, they definitely know our location," he added.
"Exactly, Sabine, We need the Phantom to fly," Kanan said.
"I'm on it," Sabine said, running towards the still-damaged ship with her lengthy borrowed blaster rifle in hand.
"How long before they're on top of us?" James asked.
"Depends on what's headed our way," Zeb said, "If we're luck an hour and if not then maybe a few minutes," He warned.
"Well, might as well take what little respite we can," James said as he removed his helmet and gently set it aside next to the seat of the cannon while Kanan looked out at the hastily approaching sandstorm behind them and Ezra took up position on the tanks main cannon.
Checking over his battle rifle, Petty Officer James Bailey noticed he was down to just six rounds left. He knew that two bursts wouldn't be enough if he found himself going up against several waves of Imperial infantry. Withdrawing the rear-loaded magazine of the bullpup rifle, he pulled back the charging handle. With an audible ping, the chambered round sprung out of the ejection port and James grabbed it between his thumb and index finger.
One by one, he unloaded the few remaining rounds from the magazine and carefully poured them from his palm into one of his spare empty pouches on his armour. Sliding the now empty 36-round magazine into its original pocket, he made a note to go over his ammunition once they were safely back on the Ghost and out of harm's way and refill any half-loaded magazines with his loose handful of bullets.
"So, what was it like to fight in the Clone War?" James heard Ezra ask Captain Rex from behind him.
His ears perked up slightly, despite what little he had heard about it so far he couldn't deny that he had a similar curiosity about it. To him, it at least sounded like a winnable war for the clones and the Republic. Unlike the Human-Covenent war which was almost always a downward spiral of defeats for Humanity, despite what the ONI propaganda would have the civilians believe.
"I don't think the fighting ever got to Lothal, I'll tell ya, war was never dull," Rex said, James, assuming Lothal was probably the planet the boy was from, "The General I fought with was among the greatest of the Jedi, I trusted him with my life more times than I can count and I tried my best to keep that trust," He said.
James listened closely, fiddling with a lone 9.5x40mm bullet between his fingers when Sabine emerged from the Phantom.
"Alright, with any luck, we can get outta here soon," She reported.
Ezra and James both turned around to face her, "We can't just leave Rex, Wolffe and Gregor here," Ezra protested.
Silently agreeing with him, James knew that whatever was heading their way wouldn't be defeated by three single clones no matter how good the soldiers were. He looked to the clone Captain who turned to Sabine.
"Well, the Empire's here because of us, we'll deal with the consequences," Rex said without fear.
While James was on a vital self-assigned mission to rescue his captured friend and try and get both of them back to UNSC-controlled Space, he still felt a small bite of guilt in his stomach about abandoning the three retired soldiers to their almost guaranteed fate. Especially after they had handed him a data disk with what could only be described as a treasure trove of information that would help him in his mission.
Even with an all-but-confirmed location of his Second-Class Petty Officer, he still intended to go over every bit of data given to him. The Petty Officer had barely known the three soldiers for more than a day but already felt a sense of mutual trust and understanding, something James thought would have become impossible after the end of the war.
His small sense of remorse was brought to an abrupt stop though as all of a sudden, James could feel something in his feet beside the constant movement and vibrations of the slow clanking walker.
"Wait, listen, you hear that?" Zeb said, clearly hearing something in the distance. James thought it had to be the same motion that was sending vibrations through the ground and to them.
"Enemy contact, point two four," Wolffe said as he pointed out behind them.
They all looked to see what Wollfe was pointing at, there was definitely something out beyond the horizon but to their naken eyes, all they could see was a faint grey silhouette. James quickly snatched his helmet and clasped it onto his head with the vacuum seal instantly coming into effect. Taking advantage of its enhanced visual capabilities, James focused in on the far-out greyed shadows moving towards them.
His first clear view of what was moving directly toward them struck both confusion and concern in his mind. Marching forwards haltingly, yet just fast enough to gain on them at their now stationary position were several animalistic-looking mechanical beasts. From the small amount of information his HUD was able to provide, James could make out three of the machines to have a vaguely similar method of movement as the ageing Republic walker.
Major differences were clearly evident though. The first obvious one was that instead of the walker's six short articulated legs it used for propulsion, these had only four. Yet they held up the main body of the walking armour to a height more than double that of the tank he was currently standing on. Things didn't look any better as he moved his view upwards either, he could see several tusk-like protrusions sticking out of the front of the walker's head, he knew they were too weapon-like to be radars or sensors.
Despite his own scepticism at the stability of such a tank design, he assumed that any military brave enough to design and construct such a machine wouldn't trade in manoeuvrability and speed for nothing.
It had to be heavily armoured and possibly even shielded, it wasn't a far-fetched assumption that none of his current weapons would cause it any harm. In fact, as he started its armoured belly, James wouldn't take his chances with anything short of an M41 rocket launcher or if he was lucky enough, the M6 Galilean Nonlinear Rifle, more commonly known as the 'Spartan Laster'. A directed energy weapon that when used, fired a solid-state laser beam at the speed of light.
In concert with the Petty Officer, Captain Rex summed up his assessment of the enemy vehicles, "Hmm, Reinforced Armour Plating, Heavy Canons and anti-personnel blasters," He detailed.
James withdrew from his enhanced view, somewhat glad his rapid battlefield evaluation was partially correct, failing to have noticed the smaller anti-personnel blasters. Standing behind and above them though, Ezra didn't seem as militarily interested as them.
"I'm glad you guys are so excited but those giant death machines are on their way to blow us to bits!" He shouted as if trying to wake them up to the reality of a situation they weren't in. James couldn't really blame him. He remembered the first time he had seen a Scarab during the Human-Covenent war.
Used by the Covenant as well as the Banished, the quadrupedal giant was used for both mining and military purposes. Despite its seemingly slow ability of movement and weak spring-like hydraulics in its legs, it had enormous focus cannons that would disperse a water canon-like stream of superheated plasma that would kill anything in its path. Even in Longsword, travelling at speeds of up to thirty-two thousand kilometres an hour, hearing over the comm that Scarab anti-air emplacements were in the area struck a feeling of uneasiness into him and his crew.
"Wolffe, set vector, two-niner-zero," Rex ordered as he joined the pair of Jedi atop the gun platform.
Wolffe gave his Captain a quick salute in acknowledgement then turned tail and ran for the cockpit of the tank.
Meanwhile, Kanan didn't seem pleased with the clone's decision, "Wait, you're just going to turn and run? Just like that?" He said in a dismayed tone.
From his attitude, James assumed the Jedi wasn't expecting such a decision. While he himself agreed with the clone, that charging head first into the enemy with their limited numbers wasn't their best strategy, he knew that Kanan had fought alongside them for a long time.
"Well if you've got a better idea, sir, now's the time," Rex said as he slouched into the seat of the turret.
"I thought you clones loved to fight," Kanan countered.
"I do love a battle but on my terms," Rex admitted before getting to work, "Gregor, drop the Joopa, we gotta get moving," He ordered.
Climbing up the ladder, it wasn't a moment later when James heard and saw the massive beast they had worked hard to hunt drop from its craned-up position and fall onto the sun-bleached ground. As he joined the two Jedi and soldier, he felt the tank start to turn and the outmatched walker burst into life. Moving from its stationary stance, putting the enemy behind them and the storm in front of them.
As soon as they made the full one-eighty-degree turn, their intentions of retreating back into the sandstorm became clear. Instantly, James ducked when he heard the first shot, jerking downwards before he had even seen the shot fly past them. All three of the walkers on their tail had opened fire with their heavy blaster canons. After several seconds though, the Petty Officer found some comfort in the lack of accurate weapons fire.
Watching the blackend scorch marks of the sand behind them where the shots had missed, James guessed that they were only just within the enemy's weapon range. Either that or whoever was shooting at them had had a few pints too many before deployment. A trait he was glad that neither he nor his absent Second-Class Petty Officer.
Hearing a clunk over his shoulder, James turned to see Sabine carelessly discard the old engine emitter plate that had been destroyed by the probe droid. Wiping a bead of sweat off her forehead, the tool still in hand she emerged outward from the Phantom.
"Kanan, I don't know how far we'll get but I think she'll fly," She reported.
"Good enough for me," Kanan said as he pulled out his small comm device from his belt, "Zeb we're going now," He said, alerting his friend inside the tank to vacate it quickly.
A quick sense of relief flooded the Petty Officer. While he knew he was no coward when it came to a battle, he wasn't a flat-headed fool either. He knew that a battle avoided was better than one fought, especially when the end goal was the same.
Unfortunately, his alleviation didn't last long though as Rex quickly warned them against trying to fly away, "Too late, the walkers are already on top of us," He said.
"He's right Kanan, they'll shoot us down," Ezra said, adding an extra warning to their now hopeless escape attempt.
"How will going into that storm be any better?" Kanan asked.
"Well, the storm will scramble the scanners, we'll all be blind," Sabine said.
It was a sound theory James thought, whether it was Covenant or UNSC technology all sensors and scanners worked off the same principle. Sending out invisible waves of some sort and waiting for a receiver to pick something up, whether it was movement, heat or sound. It made sense that it would be the same for the Empire and Republic.
"But a Jedi won't," Rex said.
Slowly, James turned his head, "But how will we- wait what?" He stopped himself mid-question but the rest of them had already started heading for the door inside the tank.
Making chase to catch up to them, James inched his way inside the tank just as the waves of sand in the sky started to fly into them like grit in a sandblaster. Stopping once he had joined the rest inside the main compartment of the tank, minus Wolffe who was still piloting them forward into the storm, he removed his helmet, placing it on an old crate next to him.
"We're not gonna be able to hide in this storm forever," Ezra said, with the dim orange lights above them providing the only light for them to see.
Even if the tank did have windows for some senseless reason, the sandstorm surrounding them was heavy enough to block out the bright burning light from the planet's star. Use to the dark cramped environment of various small spacecraft, James' eyes quickly adjusted to the sudden change in brightness.
"Kid is right," James spoke up as he took a small step forward, "Sooner or later they'll be right on top of us and they won't even need those massive guns to kill us," James pointed out, accurately assuming that the dead weight of the Imperial walkers would be enough to crush them.
"Those things are pretty much impervious to blasters but they have one weak point in their armour, the neck," Sabine explained.
"One well-placed shot from the main gun should destroy it," Gregor said.
Knowing he was referring to the manually operated canon outside, James was curious as to how they would operate it in the storm. A question that was shared by Zeb as he stared, frustratingly at the screen of the malfunctioning scanners.
"I don't know how we're supposed to shoot something we can't see, I don't even know where the enemy is" He grunted in annoyance.
"You don't always have to see something to know where it is," Kanan said from behind James, he looked over his shoulder, letting his body follow after," If you're willing to trust me, I can get us that shot," Kanan asked, looking at Captain Rex.
"I always trust my General," Rex said confidently.
Silently, Kanan reached out with his hand and closed his eyes. Not wishing to interrupt and cause something that might get them all killed, James still watched on with confusion and curiosity. So far, he had only seen minor examples of the two Jedi using their power with one of them being upon his awakening and he pulled his gun on them. An action that he didn't regret but did feel apologetic for afterwards.
As the tank still slowly lumbered forward into the depth of the storm, Kanan opened his eyes for a second and issued an order to Wolffe, "Prepare to stop…now!" He said.
In the cockpit, Wolffe yanked on the controls and the tank came to an abrupt stop causing everyone inside to shift a few inches with the momentum of the tank. Once more, the older Jedi reached out as if trying to feel for something directly in front of him that none of the rest could see. Even with the constant scattering of the sand against the hull of the tank making it hard to hear anything outside, the heavy thudding of the enemy got louder and louder.
Hearing the stomping of the tanks get clearer, James knew they had to be right on top of them. Kanan seemingly allowed the enemy to get closer and closer to them for several more seconds before he gave Wolffe another direction.
"Commander Wolffe, circle left, double time," He directed, adding his last order as a matter of urgency.
Turning around to the point they were facing the same way they entered, Kanan once again issued an order, "Full, stop," He said.
"If what I'm sensing is right, we're surrounded," Kanan said.
Slightly baffled at his manoeuvring choices, James thought that the Jedi had to know what he was doing and there was a tactic in play he wasn't quite seeing.
"You put us right in the middle of them to get us a shot, it's crazy but it's probably our best chance," Rex said.
With the three walkers now split up, it made sense as a way to escape them but it did have its risks. "Once we fire, we'll reveal our location, if we miss it's all over," Sabine warned.
James knew Sabine was correct, even in the storm a bright blue canon blast would be visible clear as day, "Those things clearly don't have good turning speed on them, luckily it seems they don't have any rear-mounted weapon emplacements so once we make the shot we'll have a few minutes at best to get the hell out of this storm before we're in reach of their guns," He said.
Gregor stood up, "The Petty Officer's right, I'll take the shot," He said, volunteering himself for the job.
"No," Kanan protested, "Ezra should take the shot," He recommended.
"Why don't you do it," Ezra said, apprehensive about taking the role.
Captain Rex walked forward, approaching the young Jedi, "Kanan's right, we need one Jedi up there manning the cannon and another Jedi down here to lead us out of this mess, you are the only ones who can see in this storm," He said.
Understanding he was speaking the truth, Ezra walked past him to the door, "Sabine, spot him," Rex said.
The two of them made for the door when Rex stopped them, "Hey kid," He said, tossing his white and blue helmet at Ezra, "You might need that, and hang on tight," He said.
Truthfully if Rex hadn't given the kid his helmet, he probably would have. Anything that might increase their odds was worth it. Instead, though, he followed the two of them to the door.
"I'll come to, my Visor system won't be much help outside of my ship but I might be able to shave a few seconds off your aim," He told them.
Wordlessly, the three of them exited the tank and were immediately hit by an incredibly strong force of wind. Even with all three of them wearing helmets, it was a tremendous effort to put one foot in front of the other. James was glad the main gun was only a few feet forward of the door as navigating any further in such low visibility would have been perilous. A fact made all too clear just a second later when Ezra lost his balance and started to fall backwards.
James made ready to catch him but Sabine managed to grab his arm and pull him back onto his feet. "I gotcha! Come on!" She reassured him.
"Right behind you kid, the gun is right here," James said as he tried to use his visor to the best of his abilities.
Jumping down to the canon, Ezra hopped into the control seat and powered up the gun. "Don't miss," Sabine said.
Taking a look at the targeting scanner, James could see that it was just as useless in the storm as all the others. Even his own limited helmet functions were acting up, while it was no Mjolnir or ODST helmet connected to an armours onboard computer, it was able to display a low-level amount of movement in a small range and outline objects picked up by the outgoing signal.
Along with the standard munitions counter and vital signs display connected to the small number of sensors in his armour, it was still a fairly well-equipped piece of equipment. However, despite his best hopes, he could only see a few dozen or so meters ahead of him with it and even then, it was only a rough scattered outline.
"Ezra, I can see something…right there," He said, leaning in close so the boy could see the general direction it was coming from.
Traversing the turret to the area the Petty Officer had pointed out to him, Ezra focused on the area but could barely make anything out, the storm was just too thick. "Targeting scope's useless, I can't see it," He said audibly.
James knew Kanan or one of the others would be guiding him but unfortunately whatever communications channel or system they were using, he couldn't waste time figuring out how to use it or link it up to his helmet's internal communications.
Rotating the turret around aimlessly, Ezra struggled to find his target. The heavy-duty lights of the walker were just barely at a distance. Moving the turret around more slowly, the young Jedi started to hone in on his target. The exact position of the walker was still unknown to James or Sabine. Unexpectedly, Ezra removed his helmet but kept his eyes closed as he re-took control of the gun.
Concerned at his sudden choice of action, James took half a step forward to intervene before Sabine put her flat palm on his chest. He looked at her slightly worried and confused, and she silently shook her head at him. Clearly, she didn't want him to interrupt the young Jedi, compliantly he took his half step back and watched on as Ezra pivoted his aim by just a few degrees and rested his thumb on the trigger button.
A few more agonising seconds passed before he pushed it without any warning. In the space of a second, the powerful energy bolt blasted out of the barrel with a roar and soared through the storm to its target, lighting up the space around it as it shot forward. Despite the density of the storm, the result of the shot was beautifully visible.
Colliding with the neck walker, a fiery explosion broke out and in between waves of orange light from the blaze, it was unmistakable that the walker had collapsed to the ground. Ezra quickly relayed the information back to Kanan, who then ordered Wolffe to take the opening the had and gun it.
"Great shot kid, that was one in a million," James said, patting the kid on the shoulder, "Now let's get the hell out of here," He said as the tank burst back into action.
It only took a few seconds at full speed before they started to emerge from the storm and see the light of day once more. Standing up from the gun, Ezra, Sabine and James all regrouped at the entrance to the inside of the Tank when the rest of the group emerged.
"Great shot kid," Rex applauded, "Now get yourselves moving, this is your only chance," He said hastily, rushing them to their ship.
"What! We can't leave now," Ezra protested.
Kanan immediately spoke up to Ezra, "We have to get the information they gave us back to the rebellion," He said as Sabine and Zeb sprinted into the Phantom.
Ezra ran partly to the ship before stopping and turning to Kanan, "The other part of that mission is to bring Rex back with us, we can't just abandon them," He declared.
On some level, the Petty Officer had respect for Ezra's choice in trying to either stay and fight or convince the clones to leave with them but he knew from experience that arguing with a superior officer in the same position the clones were in, rarely went in their favour.
"You're not abandoning anyone, we're covering your escape, now move!" Rex urged him.
As Kanan entered the Phantom, James walked up beside the clone and young Jedi just as he handed back the helmet to its owner.
"I wish I could stay and help Captain," James said as he extended his arm out to the Captain, "But I have a mission of my own against these Imperial pricks now and they've got my friend up there" He explained, briefly looking up to the sky.
Rex chuckled slightly at his humorous insult for the Empire as shook has hand firmly, "I'd do the same for my brothers, Petty Officer," He said as he lowered his hand.
Saluting the Captain once more, James raised his hand to his forehead and was met immediately after by Rex, "Good luck soldier," Rex said.
"You to Sir, give em hell,"
Putting on his helmet as the Petty Officer and Ezra entered the dropship he made way to let them take off.
Within seconds of the engines powering up, the small nimble ship took off from the makeshift landing platform and deployed its wings for stability as soon as it cleared the ground. They were already clear of the walkers and safely out of their weapons range. It would only be a matter of minutes before they would make it through the atmosphere and off the planet entirely. Inside the small ship, however, the mode was anything but joyous.
Feeling the defeat was Ezra more than all, his repeated attempts to convince to clones to join their rebellion had failed and even just trying to get them to evacuate with them turned out to be a false effort.
"Kanan, you know better than anyone, they won't give up. This is fight is gonna be their last," Ezra said solemnly.
"Real shame," James said, "Was hoping to buy those guys a drink before any of us bit the bullet," He expressed earnestly.
After they started to rise through the clouds of the planet, Kanan opened a com channel to the Ghost that was still floating around aimlessly above them. Kanan briefly explained the situation to Hera and she sounded as equally forlorn.
"It's too bad about Captain Rex but at least you and the Petty Officer got the Intel, I'll rendezvous with you shortly," She said through the ship's com.
"Copy that," Kanan said acknowledging.
"What are we gonna tell Ahsoka? Rex was her friend, even though he was a clone," Ezra asked.
"I don't know your friend but I'd say only the truth, he went down fighting. Even those split-lip Elites would have respected that, I'm sure she'll understand if they were friends," James said, making reference to the former main warrior race of the Covenant. He still very much hated them but knew they gained a somewhat level of respect for humanity after a while because of their ferocity and determination to fight even when the deck was almost always stacked against them.
"Still though," Ezra said.
After a few seconds, Kanan let out a sigh, "I hate it when he's right," He said as he turned his chair around, "I've got my problems with clones but I don't want those men to die,"
"Then let's go get them," James said.
"Alright, Ezra, Zeb with me," Kanan said as the three of them moved to the back of the ship.
"Time to show us what you're made of Petty Officer," Sabine said as she stood in front of a small panel and control system in the wall next to the pilot seat.
"You're joking right, shouldn't you be the one flying!" James exclaimed.
"Nope, I'm on the dorsal gun, you're flying us in," She told him.
Hesitantly, he walked forward and sat down in front of the main ship controls, "This isn't exactly UNSC issued you know," He told her.
"Oh for the-," She said as she turned to him and the controls, "Turning, Speed, Gun, got it?" Sabine said very directly as she pointed the three correlating controls. One being the main flight stick attached to the centre console. The buttons for the main front canons being on the end of the stick. To his right, next to his knee was a moveable leaver currently situated halfway forward, the control for the power output of the engines.
"If we die, it's on you," James said to Sabine as she took up her station again.
Gripping the controls firmly, James brought his left hand down steering the ship into a steep left bank. Easing off once they were headed back in the direction they came from James both increased their speed, pushing the control lever forward by about a quarter of the way up to its maximum.
"Pretty sure It'dd be your fault since you're the one flying us in," Ezra said.
"Of course, you'd say that kid," James said as he pushed the control stick forward and down slightly to check it was correct for a downward pitch, "You're the one that owes me 20 credits unless you still don't think this counts as a firefight," He said, a small grin growing on his face as he got used to the controls of the Phantom.
Pushing heavier onto controls, the ship dove down deeper until the Republic walker was in sight and from what he could see, it was in bad shape. Thick black smoke was pouring from various parts of the tank where it was obvious that multiple shots from the enemy tanks had landed devastating hits. Despite the still burning metal and singed segments of the tank, it showed no signs of giving in.
The outsized and outgunned walker had climbed halfway up the legs of the enemy tank and was refusing to back down. However, to their right, the seconds tank started to close in on them more and more. Either the main gun was damaged beyond repair or a system had malfunctioned because Rex wasn't firing on either tank.
"Get us over that walker," Kanan instructed.
"Yes Sir," James gladly responded, "I'm gonna go in for a pass on the other one, try and take some heat off the clones," He told them.
"Be careful," Kanan cautioned.
"Ye of little faith," James said as he tightly gripped both sides of the controls.
Reducing the ship's speed, he lined himself up for a mostly risk-free run on the enemy walker. About as risk-free as it could get anyway, staying clear of the head with all the guns on it, James held down the trigger for the twin blaster canons mounted on the front of the Phantom. Several red streaks of blazing heat streaked towards the walker. Its armour held strong though and he only succeeded in causing minor damage to the outer plating.
Almost right on top of his target, James stopped firing and got ready to pull out of his dive. Waiting until the last possible moment he pulled back on the flight controls when they were mere meters off the ground. Punching the speed forward as he pulled up, he shot the ship right through the middle of the walker, in between the gap in its legs.
The second walker was now close enough to the first that it took only a second after pulling out of the dive for them to fly over it. Just before they were about to fly over its head, James yelled out to the two Jedi and Lasat.
"Go, Go, Go!" He shouted.
Partially one step ahead of him with the rear door already open, the three of them leapt out of the ship and down towards the walker.
Gaining more altitude, James quickly turned around to rejoin the battle. As he swiftly brought the ship back into the frey, he saw the enemy walker's head move to the right and was now aimed directly at the main body of the walker still clashing against its Republic predecessor.
"That was fast," James commented, noting that the three rebels had managed to get inside the walker and take control of it. It took all but a few seconds before the commandeered walker opened fire on its former ally. The armour on the tanks was evidently only meant to protect it from small arms fire and small explosives as only a continuous few blaster shots in and there were visible holes in its side.
Sparks started to fly and the smoke bellowed out of the jagged metal craters in the armour. Just when it seemed to lose control and collapse completely, Captain Rex forcefully brought the main canon of the tank back around the enemy still above them. Raming the barrel as far as it would go, he aimed it right at the remaining tank's neckline and opened fire without a moment's hesitation.
At such close range, the effect was instantaneous and the blue bolt of energy was visible for less than a fraction of a second. The consequences of it, however, were much longer lasting. Both tanks recoiled from the point-blank shot but as a burst of flame shot out from the hole in the neck of the walker it was the only one to fall to the ground.
Bringing in the Phantom slowly above the captured walker, James and Sabine saw a larger ship coming into view. At first, James felt a small sense of alarm, thinking it could be more Imperial reinforcements but his fears were laid to rest when the silhouette of the ship became clearer, it was the Ghost.
"I'll let you dock her with the Ghost, I don't think Hera would like it if I scratched the paint off," James said as he vacated the seat and allowed Sabine to take over.
"Hmm, not bad for a guy who can't read any of these warnings," Sabine commented.
"As long as none of them means we blow up in three seconds I think we're all good and I think the ten years of flight combat might have helped a little bit," James said as he felt the ship sliding into its docking position with the Ghost. Once it was fully inside, Sabine powered down the ship and the two of them made their way to the hatch that connected the two ships.
"Ladies first," James said as he pulled open the hatch.
"By all means," Sabine said, gesturing for him to go.
Rolling his eyes, he climbed down the hatched ladder back into the main hallway of the Ghost in between the cockpit and corridor of rooms leading down to both the storage area and common areas. Following Sabine into the main hangar and storage room, they all regrouped along with Captain Rex.
"Captain, glad you're all safe," James said to Captain Rex as the two of them walked into the room.
"You too Petty Officer, that was some decent flying out there," Rex said.
"That was YOU flying the Phantom?" Hera questioned.
"In my defence, I told Sabine she should fly," James said defensively.
"She better be in one piece," Hera said sternly.
"Excluding the damage from the probe droid, she is the same as how I found her," James said sincerely.
While they were having their discussion, Kanan and Ezra walked up to the three of them, "Well it's good news, I guess, Captain Rex had decided to come with us," Kanan told them, clearly still holding a bit of resentment towards the clones.
"Only the Captain, what about Wolffe and Gregor?" Sabine asked.
"They're going to stay here and see about fixing up their home," Ezra said.
"Well, you got one of them to come at least," James said.
Walking over to his supply crate, James immediately started to refill his ammo. Replacing his partially spent magazines with a few fresh ones.
"We already won the battle in case you didn't notice, you can relax for a minute," Sabine said upon noticing him prepping himself for an all-out battle.
"Well you lot can but I still have a mission to complete, I'm going up there and I'm bringing Jack back with me," He said determined, catching the group that heard it off guard.
Rex, Zeb, Kanan and Zeb all approached him as he was looking over his weapons. "Did you hit your head while flying the Phantom because I'm pretty sure you just said you were going to rescue your friend from an Imperial Star Destroyer," Ezra said.
"I'm fine kid but as I said, I've got a friend to save," James said, trying to reassure the young Jedi but to no avail
"You can't take on a whole destroyer's worth of stormtroopers, even with all of us it would be next to impossible," Sabine said.
Seemingly unfazed by her warning, James continued performing quick field inspections of his gear, "I don't care, they're holding him doing who knows what to him while I sit around doing nothing," He said adamantly.
"I don't think you heard me, you CAN'T take on a whole destroyer's worth of stormtroopers," Sabine warned again, with a much more serious tone.
"And I don't think you heard ME" James snapped, "I'm going up there and I am going to shoot anybody foolish enough to get in my way, if their stormtroopers are anything like their pilots and tankers I'm probably more safe standing right in front of their guns than anywhere else," He said, raising his voice.
"If you try that you'll be killed immediately and so will your friend!" Ezra said, "Right now it would be selfish of you to even try, don't you want to get home?" He asked.
Leaving his pistol inspection, he holstered his weapon and turned to face Ezra, "Your right Ezra, I don't want to go home," He said with a calmness that surprise everybody in the room, "My home was burnt to glass by over 300 Covenant warships, there is nothing left now but a ball of burning fire," he said, leaving the room silent.
"His home isn't though, I'll be damned if the last thing he ever did was save my life only to be killed in some interrogation room in a completely unknown Galalxy," James declared as he made his way to the door of the room only for it to shut at the last second before he walked through.
He didn't need to turn around to know that either Kanan or Ezra had closed the door through their special powers he still understood very little about it. Instead of turning around or demanding he opens the door, he just steered at the door with closed eyes and sighed. He heard a pair of footsteps approach him on his right, he could see a skin shade of green in the corner of his eye and knew it was Herastanding beside him.
"Even if by some miracle you could make it aboard without being shot down, it's too late, the destroyer left before Sabine had even got the Phantom in the air," She said gently to him, resting her hand on his shoulder.
"I thought I had a chance, to just get him out and be done with all this," James said as he let out another sigh and leant forward with a single hand against the door.
"It won't be today or tomorrow but you will find your friend and we'll work out a plan then but for now, we both know there is nothing you can do," Hera told him.
"I know," James said, "Where to?" He asked.
"Ahsoka sent us the coordinates for the rendezvous point, we should be there within an hour or two," She said.
Backing up from the door, James nodded in acknowledgement. "Copy that Captain," He said trying to force a slight grin onto his face.
With the tense situation mostly defused, everybody started to go about their normal ship activities. Meanwhile, James removed his, Rifle, Helmet and main ammunition carriers, shedding the several dozen pounds of equipment always felt an earned sense of relief since it usually came after yet another battle in the skies he had survived.
As he ditched his equipment in the hanger, making sure to keep his sidearm and a few spare magazines on him in the event of an emergency, he walked upwards through the bowels of the ship to the main halfway when Hera called out to him.
"Petty Officer, mind co-piloting for me?" She asked.
"Of course, Captain," James responded as he made his way to the cockpit. Entering it, he took up the same seat he had done before arriving on Seelos, when they had to fight off a few imperial Tie fighters and he scored his first kill against one, technically in self-defence.
Once he sat down, he took a look once more at the ships control systems and displays, "Just keep an eye on those monitors there,"
Despite the numbers being remarkably the same as the ones he knew, everything was still just a mess of unreadable gibberish to him, "How will I know if something is wrong?" He asked.
"Trust me, you'll know," She said.
Staring out into the empty blackness of open space, James switched his attention between the view and the display panel, "I should probably apologise to Ezra, I shouldn't have snapped at the kid earlier," James admitted.
"True, you shouldn't have but Ezra understands more than you'd think for a kid his age, before he found out what happened to his parents, he was willing to risk everything to try and find them, including his own life," Hera explained, briefly.
"He shouldn't have had to go through any of that," James said before he let out a beaten sigh, "I'll go talk to him in a bit," He promised.
Content with his choice, Hera went back to piloting the ship, "Alright, coordinates entered," She said as she moved forward to the control that would propel the ship into hyperspace.
As the stars around them turned into infinite streams of white light he looked out the cockpit window.
"I'm coming Jack, just hold on,"
As usual, I was unsurprisingly late with this one but as I put the finishing touches on it I have spent one 10-hour session on this chapter and am pretty much about to pass out at my desk so I hope you all enjoy this one. Even though this is only chapter five it is over 12k long, don't ask me how it got so out of control for this one I don't know. I hate the title for this one as well but the original one was too long and I am way too tired to think of anything good so here's hoping a bad chapter title doesn't turn you all away.
Anyway as normal leave your thoughts in a review for the chapter and I'll respond in the next upload. Also, I apologise If anybody finds a Lieutenant in place of a petty officer for this one, I did that by mistake and only realised at the end so had to go back and change all of them. Once again, really sorry about the wait, it is something I complain about on my own reading lists on here. I'm sure I'm forgetting to say something but I'll remember it too late I guess.
Today's Excerpt -
In the bleak midwinter, Frosty wind made moan
Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone
Snow had fallen, Snow on snow on snow
In the bleak midwinter, Long, long ago