Three days after the funeral of his master, Jedi Knight Ezra Bridger was back in action. He was onboard the Shuttle from Tython to Carrick Station; the main staging point for the Republic Navy's operations. As he strolled through the vast station teeming with life and activity, a man in a red coat approached him.
'You must be Jedi Knight Ezra Bridger right?' The man asked. Ezra nodded in response. 'Wonderful, I'm Theron Shan, Republic SIS. The briefing room's this way.' The man continued, gesturing for Ezra to follow him. As the two walked towards the briefing room, Ezra couldn't help but notice that this SIS agent and Grandmaster Satele had the same surname.
'Just curious, are you by any chance related to the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order?' He asked. Theron gave a short laugh before replying: 'You're not the first to ask, but yes, Satele is my mother.' The reply gave Ezra a shock. The Grandmaster of the Jedi Order, an organisation that emphasised that its members not form attachments, led alone fall in love and have children, had a son!
'You're not gonna tell anyone are you?' Theron asked. Ezra paused for a while, contemplating his dilemma. This was a serious breach of the Jedi Code by someone so high-ranking in the order, but again, what did he have to gain from reporting this? It's not like he agreed 100% with that whole 'no attachment' clause of the Jedi Code. 'Don't worry, Theron, my lips are sealed' He said, making a lip-zip gesture.
When they finally reached the briefing room, the officers were ready to wrap up. 'Sorry for being late. I had a hard time finding our target.' Theron said pointing to the Jedi Knight standing behind him. 'We better bring him up to speed quickly then.' The Twi'lek officer replied, turning to face the Jedi and the Agent. 'I'm Hera Syndulla, captain of the flagship Fortitude. I'll be leading this mission with Admiral Williams. It's an honour to meet you, Master Jedi.' She said, saluting the Jedi, before proceeding to explain the mission to him:
An SIS agent on Nar Shadaa had intercepted transmissions from Imperial Intelligence, involving the Empire's 'secret arsenal'. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the Empire was salvaging abandoned Czerka weapons from Tattooine and conducting research to increase their destructiveness. These weapons were from a long time ago and were brought to Tattooine by the Czerka Corporation for testing and development. Rumours have it that the weapons were too dangerous and horrible to house on another system. The lack of law and order on Tattooine made it the perfect environment for an illegal weapons research and development operation.
Now the Imperials were continuing Czerka's research on a space station orbiting Tattooine. Digging operations on the planet surface had turned up plenty of prototypes, and the computer banks inside Czerka's Secret Weapons facility had not been wiped, leaving behind blueprints of weapons already built and those that had yet to be put together. According to a Republic source on Tattooine, the station was protected by two Imperial Harrower-class Dreadnoughts, the most powerful class in the Imperial Navy.
If the Empire successfully tested and used a Czerka weapon on the Republic, the tide of the war could be turned in their favour. This obviously, could not be allowed to happen, which was why this mission was so vital to the future of the Republic and the galaxy. Chancellor Saresh had personally requested that the weapons on the station be salvaged and taken back to Coruscant for their scientist to examine. As much as the Jedi Order disagreed, Saresh had the final say. Ezra's role was to infiltrate the research station with a squad of troopers, retrieve whatever was salvageable and destroy the station, all in the span of 20 minutes.
However, the fleet of warships assigned to this mission was underwhelming, given the importance of its success. Besides Fortitude, a Valor-class cruiser, three Thranta-class corvettes formed the rest of the fleet. A fleet that size would never be able to take down the two Dreadnoughts defending the station, only distract them for a period of time. The rest of the mission depended on Ezra and his men.
As Fortitudetravelled through hyperspace with the three corvettes on her sides, Ezra and his squad were ready in their transport vessel. Admiral Williams and Captain Syndulla were both on the bridge, waiting to reach Tattooine, which was now two parsecs away on the Nav Computer.
'We're approaching Tattooine , power down the hyperdrive' Captain Syndulla commanded. Seconds later, the wormhole of hyperspace was replaced with a space station and two Imperial Dreadnoughts. 'Fleet, raise deflector shields and open fire. Launch all fighters!' Admiral Williams ordered. The turbolasers turned and red lasers shot out toward the enemy. As fighters from both sides flew out to engage and the large warships continued shooting at each other, a small transport slipped through the mess of the space battle and entered a Hangar Bay on the station.
Before they could even land, Imperial troops were already in the Hangar trying to repel the Shuttle and its occupants. Ezra and his men quickly disembarked and fought back, with Ezra making quick work of the Imps. 'Alright men, Private Abrams and Lucas, you're with me. The rest of you get the prototypes and schematics. Rendezvous back here in 20 minutes.' Ezra instructed his men. 'Sir yes sir!' they replied and went off to the control room while Ezra led the Privates toward the reactor chamber.
They found it three storeys below the Hangar level. The three men blasted the door open and charged in, killing most of the workers inside. One of the scientist however, surrendered and asked for mercy. 'General Bridger, we have a prisoner!' Private Abrams informed Ezra. 'Get him to the Shuttle. Lucas, you follow Abrams. I'll set the charges.' He replied. Private Lucas toss the bag of charges to his General and left with Private Abrams, escorting their prisoner to the Shuttle.
After the setting the charges, Ezra ran back toward the Hangar where the Shuttle was. As he made a left turn, his face met a fist and he was knocked to the ground. The Jedi groaned in pain as blood trickled out of his nose. 'Heh, funny how that mystical Force can tell you when a blaster bolt's coming towards you, but not a fist that's ten times slower and bigger.' Ezra's eyes widened. That voice! It belonged to Sabine! The Mandalorian on Balmorra. Under normal circumstances, he would have been ready to take her down. But right now, he wasn't interested in fighting on a station that was about to explode. He stood up and ran past her, only to get stopped by a blast door slamming shut as the Mandalorian blasted the controls, separating the Jedi from his ride off the station.
'Leaving so soon?' She asked, grabbing his left shoulder and shoving her blaster into the back of his neck. Ezra was quick to react, swinging around and knocking the blaster away from his neck. He kicked the Mandalorian in the chest, which sent her flying backwards. The teenage Jedi drew his lightsaber, activated it and prepared himself for a fight.
Suddenly, there was an explosion and the station shook, then all the lights went out. The only source of light left being Ezra's green saber beam. Sabine quickly activated the night vision on her helmet, not intending to leave this Jedi alive. 'General Bridger, this is Sergeant Burns. The squad is back at the Shuttle. where are you?' Ezra dodged a punch, pressed the mic on his headset and replied 'Burns, Bridger here. Get the squad and our prisoner back to the Fortitude.' 'We can't just abandon you, General!' came the alarmed reply from the soldier. 'I'll be right behind you, soldier. Gonna take an escape pod of this station.' Ezra replied, raising his lightsaber to deflect a blaster bolt back at the Mandalorian as he ran away.
Just then, someone else bud into the conversation. 'General Bridger, this is Admiral Williams of the Fortitude. Our forces can't hold out much longer. We've lost two of our corvettes and shields are at 10%!' Ezra was quick to respond. 'Admiral, my men are on their way back, I'm getting in an escape pod.' As he reached the escape pods, Ezra realised that there was only one left. He jumped in and powered it up. Suddenly, a hand grabbed his shoulder and flung him back out of the pod. That Mandalorian buckethead! Ezra lept back in and wrestled with her for control of the pod.
The pod door slammed shut and it blasted out of its socket on the space station, the occupants still fighting for control. Behind them, the station was engulfed in fire as it fell out of Tattooine's orbit on to the sand below. The escape pod was also heading for the surface of the desert planet. Meanwhile, the Shuttle had returned to Fortitude'sHangar, but with the Cruiser severely weakened and the fleet taking heavy fire from the Dreadnoughts and Mark VI Interceptors, staying a minute longer would mean risking the crew of the Fortitude.
Admiral Williams was caught at a crossroad. His General was counting on him to send someone down to rescue him, but his crew and the Republic itself was also counting on him to make the right decision in their interest and survival. 'Admiral, the Shuttle has returned'Captain Syndulla reported. 'Shall I send a squad down to find General Bridger?' Just then, another officer spoke up 'Admiral, we've lost our shields!' The Cruiser started to shake from the hundreds of turbolaser shots landing on its hull.
Admiral Williams made his decision; 'Captain, our work here is done. Get us back to Carrick before the Imps blow us to pieces.' Hera was shocked at the decision. 'But what about General Bridger?!' She asked. Her superior bowed his head slightly and replied: 'If he is as well trained and loyal as the Jedi Order says he is, he will find his back to us. Now get us out of here!' Hera reluctantly turned to her officers and relayed the Admiral's orders.
Fortitude and the last remaining corvette turned around and jumped into hyperspace, limping back to Carrick Station with fire coming out of the hull of both ships.
A/N: Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Told you there would be a bit more action. Also, yeah, way to shoehorn Hera and Theron Shan in like that huh? And Williams? Abrams? Lucas? The Kriffing Kriff right?! I guess you can say I'm not the most creative when it comes to characters and their names... Anyway, thanks again and May The Force Be With You.
~Paul