Ezra lay there for a while, fingers rubbing over the metal band subconsciously. Had showing Kanan been the right decision? He jerked up from his resting as the lights suddenly went out, swamping the room in blackness. Seconds afterwards, red and blue bulbs started to flash, a loud siren blared out across the ship. With his adrenaline starting to increase Ezra leaped up, out of the room, to try and find out what the heck was going on.
Soon enough he was breaking into a run verging on a sprint. There were crew members everywhere shouting angrily, some lifting things here, others running in and out of various rooms. Finally- finally- Ezra came to the cockpit. He noticed Vizago standing by the pilot.
"What's going on?!" He called out, dodging another pirate who rushed out of the room.
"Attack…A band of 'wannabe pirates.'" Vizago laughed "Recently they've become quite- attached to us, but they've never mounted a full-scale attack like this before."
The concerning thing was that, for a band of pirates who supposedly weren't quite pirates, they sure did know how to carry out an effective attack. Another explosion rattled the ship, and Ezra had to hold onto a nearby rail to stop himself from being thrown halfway across the ship.
"Jedi- get on that gun turret NOW!" Vizago yelled, pointing to the chair below the control panel.
No arguments here, Ezra thought with a manic grin.
He slid down beneath the panel to sit in the chair, finding he had an excellent view of a terrifyingly huge ship. It was almost as big as one of the Empire's, and was protected with a wall of smaller fighters around it- one hell of a defence. It loomed over them, coming closer and closer. Ezra, wasting no time, directed his shots towards the main front of the ship. Again and again he hit down the fighters, but as soon as he did another would replace it.
"There's too many of them!" Ezra called up.
"Keep shooting, boy!" Vizago responded helpfully.
Other than the command, there was only the constant sounds of wailing sirens, shouts and orders from the pirates, explosions- the sound of war. Ezra lost track of how long they'd been trying to hold their own when he suddenly saw a huge gun turret being hauled up on top of the other ship.
"Uh- Vizago…"
"I see it! ALL GUNS- OPEN FIRE ON THAT WEAPON!" Vizago ordered, sounding as panicked as Ezra felt. Almost instantly, most of Vizago's turrets were aimed towards the menacing-looking weapon. It was a good attempt, but not enough.
Before anyone could react, the weapon was charged and a firecracker of blasters shot out straight towards them.
"TAKE COVER!" Vizago screamed, just seconds before the missile hit.
Ezra was aware only of a massive crash, followed by several deafening explosions. Everyone on board was roughly tossed around. Ezra dimly registered hearing a sickening crack before his head whiplashed on a hard surface- he couldn't tell if it was floor, wall, or ceiling. Unsteadily he tried to pull himself back to his feet. The ship seemed to be spinning uncontrollably. He noticed they were dipping down; they were losing all engine power! Ezra's ears were bombarded with yells and wails coming from all over the ship, as well as those blasted sirens that wouldn't shut up. Scrambling from his place on the turret Ezra climbed back up, gasping in pain when he tried to put weight on his arm. Not good.
The cockpit was a mess. He was about to leap over the debris to the rest of the ship when a hand grasped his wrist. Vizago pulled himself up, latched onto Ezra. Thankfully he wasn't using the arm with what Ezra now suspected to be a broken shoulder.
"You're to stay here, understand?" He demanded. Despite the authoritative tone, Ezra could hear the shaky tone of his voice; clearly he'd been thrown around too much for his own liking too.
"But what are you going to do? I've seen the outside. We're going down!" Ezra tried to explain without shrieking.
"Don't worry; Vizago plans for situations such as these."
Ezra did not think that Vizago referring to himself in third person was a good sign.
"Quickly- run down to the end of this hanger corridor. You should see a red lever, just like the one there." Vizago instructed him, pointing across the room to a rusty lever.
"But why? What's-"
"Just DO IT."
With a shaken nod, Ezra ran out of the cockpit, trying to ignore the dizziness which was making the walls tilt around him. There were some bodies around the floor, generally accompanied by murmurs of people starting to wake. He reached the end of the corridor and located the lever fairly quickly. He stared at it blankly, wondering what in the galaxy Vizago planned to do.
"You there yet Jedi?" Vizago's voice crackled up from the band on his wrist. Okay- so it was a communicator too?
"Yeah- what now?"
"We pull the levers at the same time. On my count."
"But wait, what's that going to do?"
"Unimportant. No time. You'll have to wait and see." Vizago explained hurriedly as the ship rattled again from another round of blaster fire.
"Quickly- 3,2,1- NOW!" Vizago counted. Ezra pushed down the lever, and as it landed, he heard the unnerving clicking and the whirring of mechanisms. Suddenly the doors in front of him- which, he recalled, led to the other half of the ship- started to close slowly.
"No! Please wait!"
Ezra followed the desperate voice to see a few crew members limping down the corridor.
"Hurry!" Ezra called, feeling rather helpless. To his slight surprise, they actually sped up, the futile limping increasing.
They weren't going fast enough.
The doors inched closer and closer together. Ezra's mind whirred before a split second decision had him stepping through the doors.
"Jedi! You are not to cross that door. Do not help them." Vizago's order rang out through the ship. Strangely, none of Vizago's men looked surprised.
"But- Vizago, they can't-"
"No."
Ezra wasn't listening. He didn't know what was going to happen when that door would finally close but by the desperation on those pirate's faces he knew it couldn't be anything good. He hesitated, but then headed forward.
"Ezra, I'm warning you." Vizago's tone darkened considerably.
"I can help them!" Ezra called, racing down the corridor to reach them.
"No! I need you alive." Vizago, apparently having run out of both ideas and patience, activated the bracelet and suddenly shocks were running into Ezra's body. He cried out, but tried to keep shuffling forward. After a few seconds, the electricity subsided and Ezra gritted his teeth, finally reaching the first pirate.
"C'mon" He managed, slinging the man's arm over his shoulders and pulling him forward much quicker. He pushed the man- dimly remembering that Vizago had called him Xevin earlier- through the doorway. He managed to get the other two afterwards more easily, but was left outside as the doors were moments from slamming closed. Quickly, he acted on instinct, jamming the door open with the force and just managing to squeeze through before the doors closed with an ominous thud.
He crouched down, exhausted.
Knocking.
A loud panicked knocking quickly turned into violent slamming behind the doors that had just closed. Ezra jumped round in surprise.
"NO! Please! Open the doors, please!" Several voices joined in the pleas.
"Vizago get that door open! There's more of them." Ezra cried down his com.
"You've defied me enough already, child. Besides- it's too late for them."
"No!" The pounding on the door made Ezra feel sick.
Before he could even think about doing anything, the sound of air pressure being released plugged his ears. As if in slow motion, the ship spun and rocked. Eventually, the sounds of various explosions filtered through Ezra's ears.
Then the cries of the trapped crew members stopped abruptly.
The door window was clicked across and Ezra could finally see what Vizago's plan had been. The ship had literally split in two, much like how the Phantom could separate from the Ghost, but on a much larger scale.
The other half of the ship floated away, slowly.
Ezra could now see where they had been hit. Masses of debris hung from the top roof, the wiring exposed and dripping over edges of the ship. The explosion crater was devastating, roaring with flames. He supposed it was lucky that damage hadn't been on their side, but soon realised the cost of that luck- that all those crew members, all those he hadn't been able to save, were slowly going down, down with the ship to their deaths. In order to keep this ship up, Vizago had willingly sacrificed half of his ship and crew members. What kind of person does that?
Ezra slumped onto the floor, his breathing ragged, hands still shaking from the shocks and plenty of leftover adrenaline. He looked over to where the crew members he'd managed to help were picking themselves up. Two of them started to slowly make their way down to the cockpit, assumedly to Vizago, but the first one he'd saved- Xevin- stopped momentarily and turned to look down at Ezra.
"You've got guts, kid. You saved my life and I'm thankful." With that he too left. Ezra gazed after him with wide eyes. He was a little speechless. Yes- the man was gruff, and none of them had been particularly nice to Ezra since he boarded, but he was honoured all the same by that small token of thanks. It was the only thing he could hold onto as the guilt swamped him at all the others he hadn't been quick enough to save.