Star Wars: Rebels: The Rising Darkness
Disclaimer: Star Wars Rebels and all Star Wars characters and Lore are not my property, as they are all owned by Lucasfilm and the Walt Disney Company.
A/N: I know I have said this more than once already, but my sincerest appreciation goes out to all of you. It is this amount of positive feedback and other activity from you people, my readers, that has me encouraged to keep updating around this pace, which to clarify I intend to keep up at about once a week. I hope to see more from you guys with this latest update! :)
Chapter 4: Deep Implications
The Imperial base was a clam and orderly facility, the entry points all heavily barricaded with dedicated round the clock guards. Inside the central control room, Grand Inquisitor Nachtgeist was finishing his inspection of the automated defenses when Colonel Veers entered. The menacing Dark Side user turned to face the decorated Imperial officer, as did HK-47 and the lieutenant in charge of the controls.
"Please pardon the interruption, sir, but I have an urgent matter I must bring to your attention," the colonel stated respectfully as he attempted to retain the attention of his superior.
"I sensed you were following us, Colonel Veers. Lieutenant, give us a couple minutes if you would," the Grand Inquisitor said as he turned back to the lieutenant, who nodded before leaving in silence. Once the doors closed behind him, the colonel spoke up.
"Grand Inquisitor, sir, I have more to say on the uprising, but I couldn't say this in front of the general," Veers trailed off as Nachtgeist nodded slowly, but gave a bemused reply.
"I can't imagine General Dodonna would appreciate his right hand going behind his back like this."
"No, he would not, especially considering what I have to say. Sir, I have reason to believe that General Dodonna is in league with the insurgents behind this chaos. I have something to show you, in here in fact. Please, come with me over to this console," the colonel gestured over to one of the computer stations on the wall inside the room, and as he walked over the Grand Inquisitor followed him, the latter relaying his instructions to his skilled droid as he did so.
"HK, seal the doors and outward comm channels. We don't need any prying eyes and ears."
"Acknowledgement: At once, master. Zero outside meatbag interference will be assured."
As this had been taking place, down in the chemical venting tunnels, the Rebels and Freedom Coalition operatives were barely keeping their distance from the approaching cloud of toxic fumes as they ran. The fans were now on full power, ensuring the maximum speed for the funneled gasses being pumped in from the processing station back the way the group had come just minutes prior. Sabine called out to the others running alongside her.
"We're not gonna be able to stop and break through into the base! The gas will follow us all the way to the refinery at the other end of the tunnels!"
"Aygo, any ideas?!" Ezra asked frantically.
"We could activate the emergency containment lockdown from one of the maintenance consoles up ahead, but it would take a highly skilled slicer at least thirty seconds to hack the system!" the grizzled Bothan informed his new allies, his men along with Kavir running at his side.
"Argh! We'll never get that done in time!" Zeb growled, keeping pace alongside his team. Kanan turned to the teenage Mandalorian, an idea forming in his head.
"Sabine, think can you slice that console and activate the lockdown in thirty seconds?!
"I can do it in twenty, but that still won't be enough time!" the young artist told the Jedi Knight worriedly, but he said nothing as he turned to his apprentice.
"Ezra, you and I are going to make that time! We're going to give Sabine a head start!"
"Wait, what?!" Sabine inquired, skeptical of what the two Jedi had in store for her. The two of them said nothing to her but nodded to each other as they understood what they were going to do.
Seizing their female teammate with the Force as they ran, Kanan and Ezra, urgently and gently as they could, threw her further down the tunnel, putting a substantial difference between her and everyone else further back. She shrieked as they did so, glaring at them through her visor as she landed on her feet, taking off in a run once more.
"Never do that again, you crazy Jedi!"
"We'll consider that!" Ezra joked as he called out to her.
"The console is just up ahead! Get to it!" Aygo reiterated frantically.
Sabine found the console to her left behind an air-tight panel she easily removed and tossed aside. Immediately inserting a data spike, she began her work at a fast and steady pace, calling out to the others via her comm unit as they continued approaching in the distance.
"We've got another problem! The pipes are about to funnel in more gasses from above and below us! I need fifteen more seconds to finish modifying the lockdown, or we'll be separated by blast doors and trapped for six hours!"
Within in instant as Sabine spoke to them through their comm units, a foreboding sense of danger, immensely greater than the fear at their current predicament, engulfed Ezra. He shut his eyes tightly as he ran, sensing an overwhelming threat at exactly the spot Sabine was standing just up head, the light from her helmet and the console growing for him as they steadily came into view.
"NO!" utilizing speed he didn't even know he possessed, Ezra ran past Kanan, Zeb, and the others, the unnatural pace surprising everyone he left behind him.
"Ezra?! Wait!"
Paying his master no heed, it was a mere moment before Ezra blindsided the Mandalorian, who hadn't seen him coming at all as she had been focused on the console.
"Gah! No!" Sabine shouted as she and Ezra both tumbled to the floor, his lightsaber deactivating in the process.
At that exact moment, two pipes from behind grills above and below the maintenance console began venting in gas at a brisk pace. If Sabine had been standing there, she'd be quickly succumbing to the poisonous fumes shutting her body down from the inside and out, an agonizing demise. However, her attention was still on her objective, failed thanks to her rescuer. The emergency lockdown activated within a second later, the vents shutting down and the fans screeching to a halt. However, the containment doors immediately sealed shut as well. Divided at junctions throughout the tunnel and pipe network, including the maintenance console Sabine just accessed, the doors effectively barred the spread of the gasses. However, because the young Mandalorian was unable to finish modifying the parameters of the lockdown, the team was now separated by the sealed doors, and the lockdown would remain in place automatically for six hours, until well after the last of the fumes in the tunnels were extracted by the emergency subsystems. To say Sabine was livid at this complication would be a severe understatement.
"Ezra! Get off me!" she snapped as she forcefully pushed the slightly younger Padawan off of her, standing back up in a huff. The console was beyond her reach now. Her face contorted into anger beneath her visor.
Further back behind another set of sealed doors, Kanan moved to drive his lightsaber through them in a bid to cut their way forward, but Aygo placed a hand on his shoulder, telling him to wait. Kavir, Zeb, and the other operatives were all behind them, doors just a few meters back keeping the gasses in the rest of the tunnel contained. Aygo elaborated to the Jedi Knight, warning him of what he was about to attempt.
"You seriously don't want to do that. These doors in front and behind us are all that's separating us from the gasses on both ends. It will take some time for them to be removed by the automatic subsystems triggered by the lockdown."
"We can't exactly afford to wait. If General Dodonna didn't just betray us, then he's still in danger of being discovered until we extract him. Not to mention the Imperial fleet now blockading the entire planet," Kanan replied in an exasperated tone.
"General Dodonna wouldn't have willingly helped my associates drive his own troops into a corner if he wasn't sincere. I'm convinced there are greater powers at play here," Aygo defended his longtime ally.
"Wouldn't be the first time," Zeb chimed in as he commented drolly. Kanan turned back to give his assessment to Aygo.
"The arrival of Imperial reinforcements is no mere coincidence, then. This would mean whoever is in charge now is trying to actively contain your uprising, trying to drive you into a corner, instead."
"Pffh! Let them try! They'll find the people of Ord Mantell are not broken so easily," Aygo scoffed as he exclaimed defiantly.
"War has a way of breaking everybody, if you're not careful," the Jedi Knight replied quietly in a tone that suggested solemn remembrance of past experience. His thoughts suddenly shifted to his longest-serving companion, and how she was doing back at her ship.
Back on the other side of the twin set of sealed doors, Sabine abruptly turned back to Ezra, furious with him.
"Ezra Bridger, turn your lightsaber back on and cut through these doors! I need to get back on that console!" she demanded in a rush. Ezra replied as he got back to his feet slowly, and as he did so pulling out and activating a flashlight given to him by Aygo instead.
"I can't, Sabine. More of those gasses are on the other side of those doors, directly where you were standing. I just saved you from getting engulfed in the stuff, I'm not going to expose us by cutting through the only barrier keeping us safe!" the Padawan was adamant in his refusal, only frustrating Sabine further, regarding him as clueless.
"I just needed three seconds more and I could have stopped those gasses from coming in and prevented the doors around the console from closing! We'd still be with Kanan, Zeb, and the others, and we'd probably be breaking right into the Imperial base right now!" with so much at stake, Sabine couldn't believe Ezra would be so reckless as to jeopardize the mission. She was positively irate at the position they and the others were in, now.
"Those were three more seconds than you had, Sabine, and you know it! You'd be dead if I hadn't gotten you away from that spot!" Ezra defended the choice he made, no regrets or hesitations about it. His bravado, and the logic in his words, did nothing to calm his female companion.
"I didn't ask you to save me! The mission must come first! How could you still be so careless?! You've been with us for months now, I thought you would have gotten past being a naive child at this point but I guess I was wrong!" Sabine spat, her tone harsh as she glared daggers from beneath her visor.
Ezra couldn't see her fierce expression, but her words couldn't be missed even if he tried. They stung, striking a nerve somewhere deep inside him. He narrowed his own eyes before firing back.
"Shut up, Sabine!" his words filled with venom of his own, Sabine recoiled her head only briefly, surprised at his outburst, but not ready to relent. Not by a long shot. Reconstituting herself in her anger, she resumed her unseen glare.
"What did you just say?! You brat! You think you can just tell me to-?!"
"I said shut up! You're wrong! I'm not careless! I care about you!"
Sabine recoiled again as she was surprised again within a five second interval. This time however, she may as well have been blindsided again. She sure felt like she was.
"You… you what…?"
Further back once more with Kanan and the rest of the team, Zeb attempted and failed to try and reach Ezra over the comm. Sighing in frustration, he confirmed everyone's suspicions.
"The Imperials are jamming the comm channels. We can't reach Ezra, Sabine, or Hera."
As if on cue, the ping on the holocommunicator that Aygo kept clasped on his belt sprang to life, and everyone watched with wide eyes as he pulled it out to activate it.
"Seems like they're still not jamming the holofrequencies," and upon activating the device, the hologram of one of his lieutenants appeared on the other end. A male Twi'lek clad in Freedom Coalition garb had called them.
"Hey, Rajom, wassup buddy?" Kavir called out to the familiar man on the other line. Aygo merely gave a roll of his eyes before addressing his adjutant.
"Rajom, I'm glad you called. We need a unit dispatched to the processing center immediately. The mission has been compromised and we're trapped in the emergency containment lockdown down in the venting tunnels. We need them to access the building's controls and manually complete the lockdown ahead of the automatic subsystems. Dispatch a team at once!" after Aygo finished issuing his orders, his follower immediately had his reply ready.
"I'm afraid that may be easier said than done, sir. The Imperials have deployed aerial units to patrol the skies all over the city, and we don't have enough ordinance to take them all on. But that's not the reason I called, sir. It seems the commander of these reinforcements wants to speak to you. He called us here at HQ looking for you. Shall I put him through to you, sir?"
"Yes, please do. I too would have words with this upstart who thinks they can outwit the Ord Mantell Freedom Coalition," Aygo narrowed his eyes in anticipation. Kanan however suddenly felt a sense of dread come over him.
"This isn't going to be good…"
The holofrequency shifted, and it was the Grand Inquisitor on the other line this time. The Evocii mastermind barred his own narrowed eyes from above his half-mask, his vicious glare easily chilling Kavir and the other operatives. Kanan did not miss the strong eminence of the Dark Side in the presence of their cloaked adversary. Aygo, unlike his men, would not be so easily intimidated.
"So, you're this upstart that's been meddling in our business? I have a few choice words for the likes of you, Imperial lapdog!"
"So you're this rogue lieutenant governor I've been hearing so much about. I am the Grand Inquisitor, hand-picked by the Emperor himself to settle this little civil war of yours," Grand Inquisitor Nachtgeist spoke firmly without any slip, his own confidence practically dripping from his tone.
Zeb didn't miss Kanan's eyes going wide at the revelation. Admittedly, the veteran Lasat warrior was also a bit surprised at the news. This new Grand Inquisitor was nothing like the previous one they had dealt with months ago. Even without sensitivity to the Force, Zeb could tell this one was far stronger than their former nemesis. He had the look of a man with years of death behind him, both by his own hands and witnessing killing from others.
"Your titles mean absolutely nothing to me. My demands for the betterment of Ord Mantell and her people will be accepted, or I may have to begin executing hostages," Aygo threatened with malice. Kanan thought to himself that he would have to object to that later. The Grand Inquisitor was unfazed, not even in the slightest.
"You speak as if you are still in control of the situation. You were, until I set foot on this pathetic little rock. Your demands will not be considered, there will be no negotiation. I will give you a chance for surrender without conditions. I suggest you take it. Dire consequences will have to be met should you refuse."
"I stand with the people, and I'll die before I see them suffer because of the Empire any longer!" Aygo spat harshly and defiantly, unwilling to back down as well. The Grand Inquisitor took a moment to study the grizzled Bothan before giving his reply.
"Well, I tried this the easy way. A pity you chose the alternative," this time as he spoke, his words carried with them a severe and dark undertone. Enough to cause Kanan to feel a chill run down his spine. Still, Aygo was defiant.
"This can only be resolved the hard way, you presumptuous fool!"
"Wrong again. Now thanks to you, we will be resolving this my way. You will remember that fact in the end. Farewell, enemies of the Empire."
And with that, the Grand Inquisitor cut the transmission, leaving Aygo, Kanan, and the others to contemplate his grave words as they stood in the dark.
A/N: Thanks again for reading, everyone! :) Hehehe, I have the plot for the rest of this story worked out now. Rest assured, this has barely begun. ;)