Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars Rebels that goes to Disney, Lucasfilm and Dave Filoni.
On Lothal, Satele, Sabine and Kanan stood on top of a building outside Capital City with both Mandalorians having their helmets over their heads, watching a squad of stormtroopers patrolling the streets below with two AT-DPs as one of them walked past a stormtrooper from behind as Chopper stood between the three Force-Wielders before both Mandalorians flipped down their helmets' macrobinocular viewplate's rangefinders and looked at the Imperial Complex with three Star Destroyers hovering near the Imperial Complex with a few TIE fighters patrolling the area as well, "Look at all those ships," Satele said before she and Sabine flipped their helmets' macrobinocular viewplate's back up.
"Yeah, it looks like what Ryder told us, but worse," Sabine said, agreeing with her.
"I know, Sis," Satele told her as she turned to Sabine and Kanan, "But remember, I was raised on Lothal for 11 years before I was reunited with you three years ago. I can't stand seeing it like this, guys."
"So, let's do something about it," Kanan suggested.
"Yeah, I agree with you, Kanan, we really should do something to help Lothal," Sabine said, agreeing with their master.
"If only Ryder would hurry up and get here," Satele said before Chopper heard a beeping sound and started grunted as he turned to her and pull out one of his metal arms, causing her to flip her helmet's macrobinocular viewplate's rangefinder back down and saw Ryder driving a landspeeder towards them with him being chased by two scout troopers riding speeder bikes firing their blaster cannons upon him, "There he is. And he's been spotted." She then flipped her helmet's macrobinocular viewplate's rangefinder back up as the three Force-Wielders began to run across the building towards Ryder with Chopper following them as Ryder evaded the lasers from the blaster cannons of the scout troopers' speeder bikes as well as one of the AT-DP as it began firing upon him with it's laser cannon as well, while a stormtrooper began firing upon him as the former Lothalite governor maneuvered around the AT-DP and the stormtrooper.
"Hurry. Get on!" Ryder said, calling out to both Mandalorians and Kanan as he approached the building they were standing on top of with his landspeeder before they jumped onto the landspeeder as Chopper used his rocket booster to jump off the building and land in the co-pilot's seat, while Satele stood in the front of the landspeeder as Sabine and Kanan stood in the back as the scout troopers continued to chase them with the AT-DP.
"Look out! Blockade!" Satele warned Ryder as she turned around towards him after she saw a stormtrooper aiming an infantry turret at them before they began to fire the turret at them and the landspeeder, causing both Kanan and Satele to stand onto the land speeder's thrusters, while Sabine stood in the back of the landspeeder as both Mandalorians took out one of their WESTAR-35s and fired them at the stormtrooper that was manning the infantry turret as Ryder drove the landspeeder past the stormtrooper before he drove the landspeeder in a U-turn as he began to drive it back the way they came as both Mandalorians fired their WESTAR-35s at the scout troopers, which the blaster bolts missed as the scout troopers drove their speeder bikes away from each other and began to chase them from behind as they continued to fire upon the scout troopers as the scout troopers tried doing the same with their speeder bikes' blaster cannons as the AT-DP tried firing upon them with its laser cannon as Ryder clicked a button with the landspeeder's controls, causing it to fly on its side as Satele grabbed her lightsaber from her armor's belt and ignited it as Kanan grabbed his lightsaber and ignited his as well as Sabine jumped onto the thruster that her sister was standing on as she and Kanan used their sabers to slash the legs of the AT-DP as the landspeeder drove underneath the walker.
"Sure is good to have you back on Lothal," Ryder chuckled as the landspeeder flew back upwards.
"I think you're the only one who feels that way, Ryder," Kanan told the former governor as Sabine placed both of her WESTAR-35s back in their holsters before grabbing her lightsaber from her armor's belt as she ignited it's blade.
"Uh, Ryder? What's the plan?" Satele asked the former governor as the scout troopers flew their speeders across the highway.
"Yeah, she's right, what's our plan on getting out of this as we can't outrun them?" Sabine asked, agreeing with her sister.
"Don't need to outrun 'em. Just need to get 'em to 190," Ryder explained to both Mandalorians.
"Does this thing go up to 190?" Kanan asked him as he deflected the lasers from the scout troopers' speeders with his lightsaber.
"Sometimes," he answered, "Think fast thoughts."
As the scout troopers fired their blaster pistols at them with one of their blaster bolts hitting the landspeeder's thruster that Satele was standing on earlier as Chopper grunted, frustratedly at the former Lothalite governor as Kanan and the twins continued to deflect the blaster bolts with their lightsabers.
"I'm thinking fast thoughts. Nothing's happening," Satele told Ryder.
"Keep watching," Ryder said and within moments of saying that, one of the scout troopers' speeder bike's engines began to overheat and blow up, surprising both Mandalorians and Kanan before the debris of the destroyed speeder bike flew onto the other speeder bike, taking it out, "Those bikes are from the Imperial factory, I have people on the inside who build them to break."
"You infiltrated the assembly?" Kanan said with disbelief in his voice, "I'm impressed."
"Me too," Sabine said, agreeing with him.
"That's the perfect cover to do some serious damage," Satele said as she liked that she saw those Imperial speeder bikes getting blown up.
"Wish I could take credit," Ryder told her, "Idea came from an old friend of yours, Satele." He then drove the landspeeder off the highway and onto the planet's grassy plains next to the highway as they began to head towards his hideout.
Soon they arrived at Ryder's hideout that was a camp, around a few Lothalian mounds including a large one at the edge of the camp as it was in the wilderness of Lothal as it was the base of operations for the Lothal resistance movement and saw Old Jho, Sumar, who was holding a datapad in front of them as he stood next to a holotable as his wife, Marida stood nearby in the back of the camp.
"Mr. Sumar," Satele said after she and Sabine removed their helmets.
"Is that Satele Wren?" Sumar asked as he looked at Sabine, mistaking her for Satele as they got off of the landspeeder and placed his datapad on the holotable before walking up to the twins, "I hardly recognize you. You're so tall. Oh, and you changed your hair. And this must be your sister."
"Actually, I'm Satele's sister, Sabine," Sabine said, correcting him.
"Yeah, you mistook her for me," Satele added, "The only difference between us besides our armor, which you probably thought all Mandalorians had the same armor design, is our hair color and that I have a scar on my left cheek now."
"And I'm the older sister as I was born a few minutes before she was," Sabine told him, "And it's a pleasure to finally meet you. I've heard so much about you from Satele."
"I'm sure she has," Sumar told her.
"It's good to see you, too," Satele told him, "And I have told her a lot about you."
"You know, it's thanks to you I got a chance to make a difference against the Empire, Satele," Sumar told Satele as he placed his hand over her armor's right pauldron as Marida began to walk towards them as she stood next to them, next to a screen for strategic planning operations, "The Bridgers would be so proud to see now, Satele." He then looked at Sabine, "And I'm sure they would have loved to meet you, Sabine."
"I'm sure they would have loved to meet me too," Sabine said, agreeing with him.
"And they'd agree there's much more we can do," Ryder said, agreeing with them as Kanan stood next to landspeeder as he stood in front of Chopper as they began approaching him, "Tell them about your plan."
"Phoenix Squadron is enlisting help from another rebel cell to take out the Imperial factory here on Lothal," Satele told them.
"An attack?" Sumar said with surprise and disbelief in his voice.
"Finally," Jho said with excitement in his voice.
"At last," Marida said, happily.
"When will this strike happen?" Ryder asked Kanan as he looked at the blind Jedi Knight.
"Soon, hopefully. It depends on what we learn while we're here," Kanan answered the former Lothalite governor.
"Our contact, Fulcrum, said the Empire's building a new type of weapon," Satele told them.
"But we don't even know what it is," Sabine added.
"If we knew what it was, the other cells might agree to attack sooner than later," Satele told them.
"They did just tighten security around section A-2, transferred their best workers over there," Sumar informed them after he placed his hand over his chin for a brief second, "That must be why they had to recruit us to their labor force."
"Can you get me and Satele into the factory," Kanan asked him.
"Well, I don't know," Sumar answered, "Do you have any manufacturing experience?"
"Uh, not really," Satele answered.
"Then you'll fit right in," Ryder told them, chuckling.
"Sabine, you'll have to stay here, 'cause the three of us and Sumar can't go, only two of us and Sumar," Kanan told Sabine.
"I understand, Kanan, I'll wait for you guys here with Ryder," Sabine told her master as Kanan, Satele and Sumar went to change their clothes to infiltrate the Imperial factory.
Later on at the Imperial factory, Sumar walked into a line of workers inside one of the factory's assembly line's where there were AT-ATs and TIE fighters were being produced wearing laborer uniforms and with most of them wearing helmets of the factory that had tinted visors with Kanan and Satele wearing the same type of uniform and helmet with Chopper, who was repainted with an Imperial color scheme standing next to them as stormtroopers stood around each line of the workers with a stormtrooper with a black colored pauldron standing in front of the workers as Satele saw Lieutenant Lyste, Governor Pryce and Agent Kallus walking down the room as the stormtrooper with the black pauldron began walking towards them.
"Agent Kallus, make sure the workers are all present and accounted for," Pryce ordered the ISB agent.
"Yes, Governor Pryce," Kallus said before walking forward.
"Kallus has a new boss. Must be the one Sabine told us about after she returned from Skystrike Academy when she recruited Wedge, Biggs and Hobbie," Satele muttered.
"Look sharp. This factory is being honored by a surprise visit from Imperial High Command," Kallus said as he stood next to Sumar for a brief second before he continued to walk past the factory's workers before stopping as Thrawn walked forward with his hands behind his back.
"Thank you for the introduction, Agent Kallus," Thrawn told the ISB Agent, "My visit is not an honor, however, but an investigation."
"Thrawn," Satele muttered under her breath as she instantly recognized the Chiss Grand Admiral.
"Vehicles assembled in this factory malfunction at a rate far higher than that of others," Thrawn began as he walked down the room in front of the workers, Sumar, Kanan, Satele and Chopper, "I believe poor craftsmanship is to blame, and it has cost your Empire troops and missions. This will not be tolerated." He then stared at Satele for a second, thinking that he recognized her from somewhere before dismissing it as he turned to Sumar, "Worker 5473. You were pressed into the Empire's service?"
"Yes, sir," Sumar answered, "After losing my farm."
"Do you stand by your work?" Thrawn asked him.
"I do," Sumar answered.
"This 614-AvA is the last bike you personally inspected and assembled," Thrawn said as he gestured to an Imperial scout trooper speeder bike underneath the TIE fighter pods that were being produced from the assembly line, "Please demonstrate for me how quickly it can achieve full speed." Sumar looked at him and the speeder bike as Satele looked at her master with the corner of her eye and then at Sumar, fearing what Thrawn wanted Sumar to do, "We don't have all day." The stormtrooper with the black pauldron then dragged Sumar over to the speeder bike.
"Back in line," one of the stormtroopers ordered Satele when she tried to intervention and stop the reluctant Sumar from going over to the speeder that he assembled and as Sumar approached the speeder bike, he opped on it as he powered up the speeder bike's engines.
"Something's wrong. It's overheating," Sumar said as the speeder bike's engine started to turn to an orangish-red color as he began to power the speeder bike down, "Gonna have to shut it down."
"No. The demonstration is not yet over," Thrawn told him as he took out a datapad and used it to power the speeder bike back up as it's engine began to accelerate at a high speed as a speed meter next to the speeder bike began to beep rapidly as it went from green to red.
"I can't stop it! No!" Sumar cried out with fear in his voice as the speeder bike continued to over hear and closed his eyes as the speeder bike exploded him, killing him leaving only the charred remains of his worker's helmet from the explosion as every worker including Satele and Kanan gasped in horror as Kallus has a horrified expression on his face as Lyste was also vaguely disturbed by what happened as well, while Pryce just smirked, sadistically.
"Now that I have your attention, know this," Thrawn said as he began to speak to the factory's workers, "Whatever you build here you will test personally. I expect your malfunction rate will drop substantially," Satele then went to charge at Thrawn with anger, only for Kanan to hold her back as Thrawn began to approach Lyste and Pryce, "See to it that no one leaves or enters the facility. I wish to inspect the line for sabotage."
"Hold them here," Lyste ordered the stormtroopers as Thrawn, Pryce and Kallus walked away from him, "The factory is on full lockdown."
"Ryder, Sabine. get word to Hera," Kanan said, trying to contact Ryder with his comlink as he held it in his hand as the stormtrooper with the black pauldron walked towards the line of workers, "We're trapped inside and need help."
"They've already jammed the comms," Satele told Kanan as Chopper grunted nervously.
"Workers, form two lines," Lyste ordered the workers as he walked away from the stormtrooper with the black pauldron, "Prepare for verification and questioning."
"Present your identification card for examination," one of the stormtroopers ordered the workers as they formed up in two separate lines with Satele and Kanan lining up in one of the lines as one of the workers handed their identification card to the stormtrooper in front of them.
"Better get lost before they take a closer look at our IDs," Kanan suggested.
"Psst. Chopper," Satele said, looking at Chopper as he stood next to them, "Get their attention." Chopper grunted before rolling behind them towards a speeder bike and plugged his scomp link into the astromech port near the speeder bike's display and used his scomp link to rotate the astromech port around, causing the speeder bike's engine to power up before it flew across the room.
"Look out!" One of the stormtroopers called out as he jumped out of the way as the speeder bike flew towards him before crashing into a group of containers that were on top of a loading dolly, distracting the Imperials as Kanan and Satele quickly left the room as Lyste, the stormtroopers and a couple of the workers landed on their stomachs.
"Droid! What is the matter with you?" Lyste asked Chopper as he began to stand back up and grunted an explanation, "Report to maintenance." Chopper then grunted as he left the room.
"Now's our chance to find out what the Empire's up to," Satele said as she and Kanan ran down one of the factory's corridors.
"From what Sumar said, section A-2 is a good place to start," Kanan recalled as they ran down another section of the corridors.
"Not dressed like this," she told him, "The workers are on lockdown, remember?"
As they went down another corridor, they were stopped by a female scout trooper and a stormtrooper as they were patrolling the halls, "Hey. You two weren't dismissed," the scout trooper told Kanan and Satele, only to get punched in their helmets by Kanan and Satele, knocking them out before she used her foot to kick the scout trooper's helmet into her hands.
"Grand Admiral, you don't think the rebels have infiltrated section A-2 as well, do you?" Pryce asked Thrawn and Kallus as they walked back into the room where they were keeping the workers as Thrawn had his arms behind his back, "The secrecy of that project is…"
"Is imperative," Thrawn finished for her, "Which is why I've ordered anyone attempting to enter the area without my personal code to be terminated on sight. You should not have compromised security here by hiring locals."
"This factory has quotas to meet," Pryce explained.
"I can question the workers, but I won't know if they're lying without more information about this new project," Kallus told them.
"All you need to know is that the Admiral has a new fighter initiative here," Pryce told the ISB agent.
"A new fighter?" Kallus said with surprise and confusion in his voice as they stopped walking, "Difficult to see how one small ship will change much."
"Agent, victory and defeat are often determined by the smallest detail," Thrawn told Kallus as he turned around towards him before looking at at an AT-DP next to them, "For example, take this walker," he then looked over to a dark skinned male worker wearing a helmet, "Is this your work?"
"Yes, sir. I oversaw its construction," the worker answered.
"Have the walker step forward," Thrawn ordered Kallus as the ISB agent took out a datapad and clicked on it, causing the AT-DP to move it's pod from left to right before moving back to look forward as it stepped forward, causing it to began to fall to the ground.
"Watch it," one of the male workers said as he got out of the line that they were formed up in.
"Get out of the way," one of the female workers as she and the other workers got out of the line they were formed up in as well.
"Get out of the way! Oh!" One of the male workers said as the AT-DP fell on it's side between the stormtroopers and the workers before Thrawn stared at the worker, who oversaw the AT-DP's construction, angrily as the stormtroopers around the man aimed and cocked their E-11 blaster rifles at him.
"No, no. It wasn't that one," the man protested as the stormtroopers were ready to arrest and detain the man as they dragged him away by the shoulders, "It was the one next to it!"
"The factory is on full lockdown. Communication is jammed. We can't reach Satele and Kanan," Ryder reported to a hologram of Hera at his camp's holotable as Sabine stood next to him.
"The new Imperial in charge is pretty thorough. Didn't catch his name, but I hear he has red eyes," Ryder went on at the holotable on Atollon with Hera, Sato, Zeb and Lux standing around the holotable with R4-G6 standing next to the Onderonian senator.
"Does he have blue skin?" Sabine asked him.
"From what I've heard, he does actually," Ryder answered.
"Then he's a Chiss," Sabine told him, "Me and Satele learned about them when we were children at our ancestral home on the planet of Krownest."
"Grand Admiral Thrawn," Hera said bitterly, remembering her encounter with the Chiss Grand Admiral on Ryloth.
"My team will attack the Imperial compound's east gate," Ryder told the rebels on Atollon, "It's the weakest point, so this Thrawn might expect it. But at least it'll keep his eye off the factory for a bit."
"I'll join him, too, Hera," Sabine told Hera, "To help my sister and Kanan escape the factory."
Kanan and Satele were now wearing the stormtrooper and scout trooper armors as disguises as both of them hid behind a corner of a wall as they reached the edge of one of the factory's corridors with Chopper as they watched a stormtrooper walk away from a room as a R4 courier astromech droid rolled inside the room that the stormtrooper walked away from before they quietly walking through the hall and stopped near the door as they hid behind another corner.
"Halt. I need your clearance code," a stormtrooper that was guarding a sealed door that lead to the room with another stormtrooper told the astromech droid as he approached the astromech droid, who pulled out a clearance code tape from it's storage area below it's holoprojector from it's dome and beeped a whistle as the stormtrooper took the clearance code tape from the astromech droid and inserted it in a panel on the wall next to the sealed door before the door slid open as the stormtrooper handed the ID card back to the astromech droid, "Code checks out. Proceed," the astromech droid chirped as it rolled into the room within section A-2 with the door closing shut behind the astromech droid.
"Hey, if we can get Chopper one of those tapes, we can get him inside," Satele told Kanan as she flipped up her scout trooper helmet's visor after she watched the Imperial astromech droid enter the room within section A-2, "Then all he has to do is find the design database and download everything."
"Now we just need one of those droids," Kanan said as an R4 courier astromech droid rolled up behind Chopper, who started grunted at the R4 astromech droid before Satele smirked as she flipped her scout trooper helmet's visor back down as Kanan approached the R4- series astromech droid as he spoke to him in an Imperial accent, "Hey, droid. This is a restricted area. I need to see your clearance code," the R4 astromech droid pulled out their own clearance code tape from it's storage area below its holoprojector on its dome before Chopper pulled out his spark projector and electrocuted the R4 astromech droid with it, powering the R4 astromech droid down.
"I got it," Satele said as she stopped the R4 astromech droid from falling over and placed the droid against the wall.
"Here you go," Kanan said, bending down towards Chopper on his knee as he handed him the clearance code tape before Chopper took it with one of his metal arms as he pulled it out from his dome.
"Make it fast, Chop," Satele told Chopper as Kanan stood back up before Chopper grunted as he rolled away from them as he headed towards the sealed door that led to the room within section A-2.
"Clearance code," the same stormtrooper that was standing at the sealed door with another stormtrooper ordered Chopper as he approached the two stormtroopers before he handed the stormtrooper the clearance code tape that Kanan handed him that he took from the R4 courier astromech droid that approached them before the stormtrooper inserted the clearance code tape into the panel on the wall next to the sealed door before Chopper rolled into the room within section A-2 after the stormtrooper handed him back the clearance code tape and as he entered the room, he saw multiple Imperial weapons technicians working at computer consoles with one of them looking at Chopper as they watched him enter the room before going back to their work as Chopper plugged his scomp link into the astromech port in front of the computer console that was in front of the door he entered through and began to download files from the database as he rotated the astromech port around with his scomp link.
Meanwhile in Thrawn's office, the Grand Admiral had projected an image of one of Satele's Mythosaur paintings along with Hera and her parents from when she was a child, an artwork of Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders from the Mandalorian Wars fighting Jedi from a Mural on Mandalore inside of Sundari, while Hera's kalikori and a Jedi temple guard mask were standing on his desk behind him as he was currently staring at a painting on a canvas made by Sabine that had her and Satele's starbird symbol on it painted orange with a Loth-cat painted at the bottom of the starbird with a no stormtrooper symbol painted on the top right corner of the canvas as he had one of his arms crossed with his hand holding the elbow of the other arm as it was near his chin with his other hand was clenched in a fist in front of his chin.
"Sir?" Lyste said as he and Kallus entered the room.
"Lieutenant, what can you tell me about this?" Thrawn asked Lyste as he and Kallus walked up to him.
"Uh… It looks like a section of the retaining wall, sir," Lyste answered, not knowing much of the painting that Thrawn was staring at.
"Ah. Agent Kallus?" Thrawn asked the ISB Agent.
"It's the mark of the Phoenix Squadron," Kallus answered, "A creature of flight rising in the flames. A symbol of their commitment to victory."
"It is that and more," Thrawn said, agreeing with the ISB Agent as he removed his hand from his chin, "I've seen it everywhere, marking territory. It is a commitment, but to this world specifically. These rebels have an attachment to this place and will always return," he then turned around towards them as he loosened his hand as he opened his fist, "So, have you found more subversives?"
"Actually, sir, we've…" Lyste began to say before clearing his throat, "Lost some. Two workers went missing after your speech. We found their uniforms."
"I am confident we will locate them once we issue an alert," Kallus told the Grand Admiral.
"No, I think not," Thrawn said, walking away from the painting as he placed his arms behind his back, "The defectors will have new disguises by now. They'll hide as technicians or troopers to gather data and escape."
"So you think the rebels are more than saboteurs?" Kallus asked him.
"Indeed I do, Agent Kallus," Thrawn answered as he stopped walking and turned back around towards him, "These rebels are after information likely heading to section A-2. Secure it."
"What's taking him so long?" Kanan groaned as he and Satele were standing in one of the halls of Section A-2 as they had waited a while for Chopper to return.
"Uh-oh," Satele muttered as she saw a stormtrooper with a black colored pauldron along with two stormtroopers walk down the hall across from them.
"What are you doing here?" The stormtrooper with the black colored pauldron asked Kanan and Satele as he and the other two stormtroopers stopped walking before they began to approach them a bit.
"We're on guard duty, sir," Kanan answered.
"And what exactly are you guarding?" The stormtrooper with the black colored pauldron asked him, clearly not buying it.
"We go where we're ordered, sir," Satele told him.
"This is highly irregular," the stormtrooper with the black colored pauldron stated before he and the other two stormtroopers began to continue approaching them, "What's your operating number."
"He's got it," Satele muttered to Kanan as Chopper exited the room that he entered to download files from the database as he rolled towards them as he grunted , "Let's go."
"Wait. Is this section B-17?" Kanan asked the stormtrooper with the black colored pauldron.
"A-2," the stormtrooper with the black pauldron answered.
"I told you we were in the wrong section," Satele told Kanan as she walked up to him, pretending to be a scout trooper as Chopper rolled down the hall behind them, "Sorry, Commander. We're new transfers."
"Come on," the stormtrooper commander ordered the two stormtroopers that were accompanying him as Kanan and Satele walked down the hall as they followed Chopper as the stormtroopers went to chase them.
"I want exits locked down and all IDs checked and verified," Kanan and Satele saw Lyste order two stormtroopers across the hall from them.
"Not that way," Kanan said as they ran down another corridor.
"You there. Halt. Come back here!" The stormtrooper commander ordered Kanan and Satele as they ran across the hallway in front of them with Chopper following both Force-Wielders.
Kanan, Satele and Chopper soon reached a group of turbolifts as Kanan clicked on one of the turbolifts' call buttons multiple times with it beeping after he pressed it.
"Okay. This might get messy," Kanan told Satele as he looked at her before one of the turbolifts opened up, revealing Agent Kallus standing inside one of them, causing both Kanan and Satele to look at each other for a second before looking back at the ISB Agent.
"You two. Come with me to secure the perimeter," Kallus ordered Kanan and Satele before they walked into the turbolift that Kallus was in with Chopper following them.
"Stop them!" The stormtrooper commander ordered as he ran towards the turbolift as the turbolift's door closed before he could reach them.
"Don't move, rebels," Kallus told Kanan and Satele as Chopper rotated his dome around towards the ISB Agent and grunted with fear. Kanan then elbowed him and began punching him before he placed him against the turbolift's wall.
"Kanan stop!" Satele said, knowing that Kallus wasn't fighting or reporting them in for being rebels, "I don't think he's a threat to us anymore. Look at him, he's not attacking or reporting us in. I suspect he's Fulcrum."
"Listen to her," Kallus said, pleading with the blind Jedi Knight, "She's right, I'm Fulcrum."
"Yeah, right," Kanan said, sarcastically, not believing Kallus, "You want me to believe that?"
"Kanan he's right," Satele said, agreeing with Kallus, "'Cause if he wasn't, he would've attacked or reported us in. Tell him the code phrase to get him to believe you, Kallus."
"All right, Satele," Kallus said before turning to Kanan, "By the light of Lothal's moons."
"Told you," Satele told Kanan as she elbowed her master before turning to Kallus as she flipped her scout trooper's visor up, while Kanan removed his stormtrooper helmet from his head, "How long have you been a Fulcrum Agent?"
"Since sometime after your friend Zeb trusted me on the ice moon of Bahryn, which I became disillusioned with the Empire's ideals as when I returned they barely acknowledged my absence and when I saved your sister, Sabine at the fighter academy, and now I'm trying to save you," Kallus answered, "But you have to trust me." Kanan then looked at Satele, who smirked as she trusted him, but he didn't before Chopper began grunting, telling Kanan to trust him, "Your droid trusts me."
"Yeah, well I do trust you, Kallus, but Kanan here doesn't completely trust you," Satele told him, "You really should trust him, Kanan, Zeb trusted him when he was trapped on the ice moon of Bahryn and he saved Sabine from Skystrike Academy after all."
"Fine. You wanna help us so badly? We need to get a signal to our friends and her sister," Kanan relented.
"Then we'll have to move quickly," Kallus told them.
"Watch out. They're rebels!" Kallus warned an Imperial officer and two stormtroopers that were inside the factory's communications center as he pretended to fight Kanan and Satele as he backed into the room, firing an RK-3 blaster pistol at them as Kanan and Satele extended their arms out as they used the Force to push one of the stormtroopers towards Kallus with the stormtrooper falling unconscious as Kanan and Satele entered Satele having one of her lightsabers in her hand with it being ignited as Satele used the Force to push the other stormtrooper towards the room's glass wall behind the stormtrooper that was in the center of the room before the stormtrooper fell to the ground unconscious, like the other stormtrooper as Kanan and Satele began approaching the Imperial officer, who went to pick up a blaster, only for Kanan to fire a stun blast at him with the E-11 blaster rifle that he was holding.
"You could've warned me you were gonna do that," Kallus told Satele as he placed his left hand over his forehead as Chopper rolled up right next to him.
"Where's the fun in that?" Satele asked the ISB and Fulcrum Agent, rhetorically.
"Your droid can open your comlinks from this port," Kallus informed them, "I'll provide the access codes," Chopper grunted as he pulled out one of his metal arms and plugged his scomp link into the communications center's astromech port, "He doesn't need them?" He stood up as he said that, "This C1 of yours is quite efficient," Chopper pulled out both of his metal arms and grunted, excitedly at Kallus' compliment.
"Figures Chop'd get along with an Imperial spy," Satele said as she deactivated her lightsaber as Chopper grunted a response to her as Kanan's comlink chimed.
"Ryder, Sabine, It's Kanan," Kanan said, grabbing his comlink from his hip, "You both there?"
"Yeah, we are, Kanan," Sabine answered from his comlink.
"And closer than you think," Ryder added on the comlink, "We're about to hit the east gate, give you a chance to escape. You'll need to move if you want to make it out."
"We will. And thanks," Kanan told Ryder with his comlink before he and Satele began walking towards the doorway with Chopper.
"Make for the east vehicle pool. You'll find a walker there you can escape in," Kallus told them, "Now, I just have to make this look convincing."
"Okay," Satele said as she turned towards Kallus as she extended her arm out and used the Force to push through the glass wall, shattering it on impact as he fell underneath the command console.
"Satele!" Kanan said, scolding her.
"What?! That is convincing," she explained.
"Yeah, but I was gonna do it," he told her.
"Well, he's one of us and a Fulcrum Agent now, so I believe you'll get your chance," she promised as they left the room, while Kallus groaned on the floor as he placed his left hand over his forehead again.
"An unlicensed droid accessed the computer in section A-2," Thrawn told Pryce as he walked towards her as she was in his office, standing in front of one of the holographic artworks as he held a datapad in his hand that displayed a diagram of Chopper on it along with words in Basic before handing it to her, "I can only assume that they have acquired my plans. But something has changed. The rebels should have attempted to escape via the factory by now."
"Maybe they realize they're trapped," Pryce suggested.
"More likely they found an unexpected ally," Thrawn corrected as he walked around his desk, "Or perhaps an expected one."
"I'm not sure I follow," Pryce admitted.
"The rebels will attempt a different means of escape," Thrawn clarified as he placed his arms behind his back, "And we must adapt our strategy accordingly." His desk's communication's system then chimed, causing him to activate it with his finger.
"Grand Admiral, there is a small band of rebels attacking the east gate," Lyste's voice said through the desk's communication's system.
"I've deployed two AT-ATs," Lyste went on as he held a comlink in his left hand and a datapad in his right hand as unbeknownst to him, Kanan, Satele and Chopper entered one of the AT-DPs behind him, "Should I send backup?"
"Yes, Lieutenant. Let's play their game," Thrawn said, agreeing with him as he reasoned that the rebel infiltrators will take advantage of the rebel attack to escape.
"Deploying walkers now," Lyste said as Kanan removed his stormtrooper helmet from his head as he sat in the seat behind Satele.
"You hear that?" Kanan asked Satele as she flipped her scout trooper helmet's back up, "We'll fit right in."
"I hope this is one of the good walkers," she told him, expressing her concerns with the walker.
Outside the factory, two AT-ATs were firing at a landspeeder carrying Ryder with Sabine in the co-pilot's seat as she was carrying an RPS-6 rocket launcher with Marida behind them on the landspeeder, while Joho was in a modified V-35 courier landspeeder that had a turret cannon attached to it, firing it at the AT-DPs as two loth-cats that were in the distance within the grass, scurried away from the sound the the cannon being fired as Sabine fired the rocket launcher at one of the Imperial troop transports, heavily damaging it as the AT-DP that Kanan, Satele and Chopper were inside of, walked between the two AT-ATs.
"AT-DP-216, what are you doing here?" One of the AT-ATs' pilots asked Kanan and Satele with their AT-AT's communications system, "You're not part of this operation."
"Uh, we're your reinforcements," Satele answered.
"Attention, walkers. Disregard the speeders," Thrawn suddenly said through the communications systems of the AT-ATs from his office as he used his desk's communication system, "That AT-DP is under rebel control. Destroy it."
"How'd they know we're actually rebels, who commandeered this walker?" Satele asked with surprise and confusion in her voice as the AT-ATs slowly began to turn around towards the AT-DP.
"We'll figure it out later," Kanan told her, "Now get to cover!"
"Not a whole lot of that around!" she said as one of the AT-ATs began firing its heavy laser cannons at them as she piloted the AT-AP beneath the other AT-AT.
"Now there's something you don't see every day," Ryder said as he used a pair of macrobinoculars as he noticed that the AT-DPs were blasting the AT-DP with the AT-DP evading the AT-ATs' blasts before he looked up at Sabine, "That's gotta be your sister," he then took out his comlink to contact them, "Kanan, Satele. Is that you?"
"Yes! And we could use a pickup," Satele said, answering him with her wrist communicator, one of the AT-ATs continued to fire upon them with it's heavy laser cannons as she evaded the AT-AT's lasers from it's heavy laser cannons, "Sooner would be good!"
"Walker 414, blast them already!" One of the pilots of the AT-AT that was firing upon the AT-DP ordered the other AT-AT through their communications system.
"You're in my line of fire, 271," one of the pilots of the AT-AT known as Walker 414 told one of the pilots of the other AT-AT, "I can't get a shot."
"Let's crush them," the other pilot of the AT-AT known as Walker 414 suggested to the other AT-AT's pilot before pulling a lever on the dashboard down, causing the walker to begin to crush the AT-DP with it's body as it lowered it leg's down and as this was happening, Kanan grabbed his lightsaber and ignited it, while Satele did the same with one of her lightsabers as well before stabbing them through the AT-DPs and moved them around in two circles to create holes to escape the walker through before they jumped through the holes they created along with Chopper, while Ryder watched with his macrobinoculars and widened his eyes as he removed the macrobinoculars from his eyes as he saw the pod explode, "They didn't stand a chance."
"We had a chance," they suddenly heard Kanan say as they saw him and Satele standing behind them with their lightsabers ignited, while Chopper stood behind them after they entered the walker by the hatch below the cockpit.
"Pretty good chance," Satele added as Sabine fired the rocket launcher at the AT-AT known as Walker 271 with the rocket colliding with its front legs, not realizing that her sister, master and Chopper were in that AT-AT that she just fired the rocket launcher at, causing it to begin toppling to the ground before it could fall to the ground as the AT-AT fired at the AT-AT known as Walker 414, destroying it as Ryder watched what happened with his macrobinoculars with both Sabine and Marida watching it as well as the three of them looked at each other after Ryder removed his macrobinoculars for a second before placing them back over his eyes as he saw the AT-AT that Sabine fired a rocket from the rocket launcher at finally toppled as it landed to the ground Ryder then laughed with relief as did Sabine as they saw Satele climb through the AT-AT's hatch on top of its cockpit with Satele hemping Kanan up as Chopper used his rocket booster to fly up through the hatch as Ryder and Jho drove their landspeeders towards them as Satele gave them a salute as Ryer and Jho stopped their landspeeders as they neared the toppled AT-AT.
"I don't believe it," Ryder told them, "I thought you were in the smaller one."
"Me too," Sabine said, agreeing with the former Lothalite governor.
"This one's roomier," Satele told Ryder after climbing down from the AT-AT with Kanan and Chopper, who flew down with his rocket booster and approached Ryder's landspeeder.
"Sumar?" Ryder asked them, not seeing him with them.
"He didn't make it," Satele answered, causing Marida to lower her head with sadness.
"I'm sorry for your loss, Marida," Sabine told Marida, sympathetically before looked up as she heard laserfire being fired and saw AT-DPs firing their laser cannons at them.
"More walkers incoming!" Marida announced as Satele, Kanan and Chopper hopped onto the landspeeder that she, Sabine and Ryder were riding before fleeing the factory on the highway with Jho's landspeeder.
A while later on Atollon, a hologram of Sabine was decrypting the blueprints of Thrawn's secret project from the holotable from Ryder's camp as she stood with her sister, Kanan and Ryder, who had his arms crossed as both Kanan and Satele were out of their Imperial disguises as he was now wearing his regular clothes, while Satele was back wearing her Mandalorian armor as Hera and Zeb, who had his arms crossed as he stood next to a black and god astromech droid with a see-through dome with Lux standing next to Hera with R4-G6 as the Twi'lek has her hand under her chin as Kalani walked past them in the background with a couple of B1 battle droids.
"I think I almost got the data decrypted," the hologram of Sabine said as she finished decrypting the data, "Sending it to you on Atollon now." The holotable on Atollon then displayed a diagram of a TIE fighter, but unlike a normal TIE fighter, this one had three solar panels on both sides of the pilot's pod as well as over the top of the pod as well with words written in basic over the side of the plans, causing everyone to widen their eyes, "Whoa."
"I've never seen an Imperial fighter like that," Hera admitted before looking at the hologram of Sabine, "Sabine. talk to me."
"Looks like some new kind of TIE Interceptor, but this one has shields," Sabine said as she read the description of the plan they were examining from the words on the side of the plans that were written in Basic.
"But TIE fighters never had shields before," Hera noted.
"Maybe that's why it's so secret," Zeb surmised.
"If they're actually building these in numbers, our pilots won't stand a chance," Hera said with fear in her voice as Kanan placed his left arm and hand under his chin and held the elbow of the arm with his other hand.
"And neither will the Rebellion," Kanan added.
"RG, download the data so we can study and examine the new TIE Interceptor plans for weaknesses later in case we ever run into them," Lux ordered R4-G6, who went to download the plans from the holotable.
"How'd you get past Thrawn with these plans?" Hera asked them, "Someone's losing more than their job for that."
"I guess we can thank Agent Kallus. He knew Fulcrum's secret code phrase," Kanan answered, surprising everyone as he lowered his arms.
"Wait, wait, wait," Sabine said with confusion on her face, "Kallus is Fulcrum? How does that even make sense?"
"Karabast," Zeb cursed to himself as he placed his hand over the back of his head for a second, "I must've recruited him. You know, accidentally."
"You mean when you were stuck on the ice moon of Bahryn with him?" Satele asked him.
"Yeah, well we didn't kill each other," he confirmed, "So I guess we're friends now?"
"Still, we'll use caution with our new friend until we're sure we know what game he's playing," Hera advised them.
"I doubt that'll be a problem, Hera" Satele told her, "He told us that he became disillusioned with the Empire's ideals after his experience with Zeb on Bahryn."
"Well, then let's hope he was telling the truth," Hera told them.
"Thank you, Lieutenant. Dismissed," Thrawn told Lyste as he stared at the canvas of Sabine's painting with her and Satele's starbird as Pryce and Kallus stood with him and with that Lyste exited the room, "Agent Kallus, I read your report. Several troopers confirmed your encounter with the Jedi. It was helpful," he then turned around towards the ISB/Fulcrum Agent and the Governor as he placed his arms behind his back as he began walking towards his desk, "You know after analyzing the rebels' escape, it's clear to me they had help from one within our Imperial ranks.
"The rebels have a mole?!" Pryce said with anger in her voice as she pounded her fist into her palm, "Then all personnel must be interrogated. This spy must be found!"
"Patience, Governor. Acting out of anger will not serve us here. We must wait and watch," Thrawn told her as he walked away from his desk and walked past them, "And when we find our spy, and we will find them, we shall turn them from an obstacle to an asset. Wouldn't you agree, Agent Kallus."
"Your strategy is without flaw, Grand Admiral. As always," Kallus responded, feigning his loyalty to the Empire.
Please favorite and review. Would you like me to continue adding the Imperial scenes or not?