A/N: I spent like ten minutes searching for whether the Ghost was equipped with tow cables for this chapter, but I couldn't find my answer anywhere. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I could have sworn there was an episode in the show when they used tow cables. I just ended up going with it. lol
And, again, I'd like to send out a thanks to my sister, who continues to read over all my works for me as my own, personal, beta reader. You can really look over anything if you've been staring at it for long enough. And also, thanks to you all for the continued support. I love hearing you all's opinions, and it's been one of the things that's kept me coming back to this!
Again, Sabine found herself waiting. This time, however, she and the others knew exactly how long they would be waiting for. Throughout the hallways of the Ghost, there were few noises save the anxious shifting of the crew. But the air wasn't completely void of emotion. It was saturated with anticipation.
Sabine's gaze was fixed on the star-studded void just on the other side of the transparisteel viewport, scanning the darkness for any movement, any hint of the returning transport that would be their ticket onto the planet Delthqar.
Since moving in, it appeared the Empire had put up tight security measures to prevent any unauthorized ships from entering the atmosphere. Tie-Fighter squads regularly patrolled the surrounding airspace, and the designated entryway for incoming transports was guarded by an Imperial Arrestor Cruiser, a ship designed solely to intercept any inbound hostiles in its long-range tractor beam. As far as the rebels knew, it was next to impossible to escape it, if you were anywhere near one. Upon closer inspection, Echo had pointed out the strict schedules the off-world freighters followed.
"We can't just waltz in uninvited." He pointed to a paragraph among the extensive lines of text concerning safety regulations. "Protocol here says that any ships that arrive in the system greater than five minutes off their scheduled time, early or late, will be intercepted and boarded."
"It just means we'll have to be precise," Hera decided.
Hunter rested his palms against the projector console. "But if the other transport arrives at the same time we do, that'll be sure to stir up attention. We'll have to take get rid of it somehow."
"We have the transport routes," Kanan said, crossing his arms "If we intercepted the transport before it arrived in the system, we could use it to sneak into the facility."
"That's ridiculous."
The group had wheeled around to look at Crosshair, who had been perched on a stack of ammunition crates watching the planning from afar, completely silent until now. "We'd have to capture the entire ship in less than five minutes."
Kanan and the sniper locked eyes. The air was so tense, Sabine was sure she could have cut through it with a vibroblade. But Kanan only turned back to the console, coolly responded, "we've pulled more risky stunts."
"Well, don't blame me when I'm not there to say 'I told you so,'" Crosshair had sneered, "because we're all dead."
Sabine ran through the plan one more time in her head. Although most of the crew was loathe to admit it, the sniper had been right. It was dangerous, and they had an extremely small window to pull it off. But so is Kanan, she argued with herself. This way, they were more likely to get past security and into the atmosphere before the Empire even realized something was up. At least, that was the idea.
"Any minute now," Sabine heard Hera mumble to herself, watching the time on the chrono tick by. At her words, Sabine found herself scanning the stars with even greater diligence. A small, red light began flashing on the console of the Ghost.
"Here they come!" Hera hollered, pressing a button to activate the intercom, "Everyone to their positions!"
Sabine felt her chest tighten with anxiety and anticipation. If everything went right, this would be quick, clean, and quiet. If not… Sabine didn't want to think about that.
Without hesitation, Sabine dashed out of the cockpit, sliding to a stop next to the rest of the crew, all of whom were gathered in front of the airlock.
"Hey!" Zeb barked as Chopper went whizzing by, bumping into the Lasat's legs, causing him to stumble. Zeb snarled at the retreating astromech, who let out a short chuckle and sent them a wave. Before Chopper disappeared around the corner, Sabine heard a faint comment about them probably dying. The droid claimed Zeb and Ezra's room if they did.
"Thanks, Chop," Ezra grumbled sarcastically after the droid.
Hera's voice blared over the intercoms, "There it is! Maneuvering into position!"
And just like that, everyone went dead silent. The next few minutes would determine whether they would succeed or not. It wasn't something Sabine enjoyed dwelling on. She allowed her racing mind to fall into the familiar routine of preparation. They had one chance.
Underneath them, the Ghost hummed as it rolled sideways, and Sabine heard the faint twang of the ship's tow cables deploying. A violent jerk almost knocked her off her feet as the line went taught, and she scrambled to grab onto something, bumping into Ezra in the process. There was a meaty thwack, a yelp, and Sabine looked back to see Wrecker rubbing his head woefully.
"Hang in there!" Hera exclaimed over the intercoms, before a faint hiss on the other side of the airlock announced that the Ghost had successfully docked with the transport. Sabine's hand darted down to one of the twin blasters at her side and squeezed the grip tightly. "Ready for entry!"
"Now!" Kanan shouted, and Hunter pounded the control panel with one fist. The door slid open with a hiss, and the rebels, minus Chopper and Hera, flooded into the passage. A blaster bolt whizzed past Sabine's shoulder, but a well-aimed kick on her part sent one of the two hapless Imperial inventory officers tumbling to the ground. She didn't even need to look over to her left to know the others had the situation under control.
Seamlessly, the rebels split up, and Sabine rushed after Kanan and Echo through the halls and towards the bridge. The sooner they captured the ship, the better. They had already lost around two minutes catching and boarding the ship, now it was just a countdown to take control of the bridge before the transport could even think about sending out a distress signal. Hopefully, Sabine thought as she careened around another corner, revealing the door to the bridge, Ezra and the others wouldn't have any problems finding the rest of the crew in the maze of oversized crates in the cargo hold.
"Here," Kanan said, skidding to a stop in front of her, and trying the control panel on the wall. An angry sounding beep was the only reaction, and Sabine heard Kanan mutter a curse.
"Guess we're going to have to do this the hard way," Echo groaned, and Kanan's hand went down to the lightsaber hanging from his belt, but Sabine put out a hand.
"I got this."
Sabine dug through her bag until her hand found what it was looking for. Ironic, she reflected as her hand met cold metal, how last time we were the ones trying to keep them out. Expertly attaching the small, wired device to the door, she gestured to Kanan and Echo, and all three of them flattened themselves to the wall, giving the entry charge space to do its job. With a muffled explosion, a sizable hole blew itself into the doorway.
Across from her, Sabine saw a blur of blue light dash through the smoke billowing from the entry and into the cockpit. Red blasterfire further illuminated the dispersing smoke as Sabine vaulted into the room, heart hammering in her chest, with Echo hot on her heels. But by the time both were through the smoking hole that had once been a door, the few pilots in the room were unconscious on the floor.
"Huh," Echo muttered to himself, as he slid into the pilot's seat, checking to see if the crew had sent off any signals, "for claiming to have 'high security,' they have terrible crew."
Sabine snickered at the comment. She'd spent several years training to be a pilot in the Imperial academy and, yes, some of the training left… something to be desired. Only the real world could teach you certain things.
"This is Specter 2, we've captured the cockpit," Kanan said into his commlink.
"Got it," Hera's tinny voice replied through the commlink. "Be careful," she added, and Kanan nodded solemnly, even though she could not actually see him.
"We'll meet up with you afterwards, just as we planned."
As Echo called back that the ship was ready for hyperspace, Sabine checker her chrono. Four minutes, almost to the second. She shivered, picturing a scenario where they hadn't managed to take the ship in time. Cutting it close, but we're one step closer. A breath later, the black void of stars tunneled into the familiar blur of hyperspace, and they were off once more. It was time to finish this, once and for all.
"That should do it."
Ezra stood to the side as Zeb straightened, examining his work. Six soundly unconscious men and women leaned up against the bulkhead, arms restrained behind their backs. It hadn't been very difficult to search out the remaining crew, and Ezra was almost glad he had gotten this job rather than storming the bridge with Kanan, Sabine, and Echo. At the same time, a little excitement might have made it a bit more interesting.
"All clear over here," Hunter called from another part of the massive cargo hold. The vastness of it, along with the narrow walkways formed by the oversized shipping crates, had proven a bit of a complication, as it meant they had to split up and diligently sweep the entire room. Ezra had already claimed that he felt no more crew members besides the ones they had already caught, but Hunter had insisted on doing one last search with the rest of his squad.
Well, I guess you can never be too careful, Ezra figured.
Just as Ezra was wondering whether Kanan and Sabine had managed to capture the bridge, the hyperspace alert blared through the entire ship, causing him to jump.
"Looks like the others finished, too," he said with a grin, before running out of the cargo hold all the way to the bridge. At the sight of the sizzling, molten hole that used to be a door, he couldn't hold back another smile. That was Sabine's work, all right.
"We're on our way to Delthqar," Kanan said, upon seeing Ezra duck through their homemade entrance. "Should be there in no time."
A voice from the other end of the room piped up, "Unless something goes wrong. Which it always does," Sabine added snarkily, and although she was still wearing her helmet, her head moved in what was obviously an eye roll.
"Yeah, with that attitude," Kanan retorted, crossing his arms.
Sabine let out a short laugh in response, before going back to calibrating her twin blaster pistols.
Ezra grinned, took a step towards her, but felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Great job, kid," Hunter said, a warm smile on his face. "It's been quite a while since I've got the chance to work with a Jedi." His gaze briefly flickered to Kanan. "Since any of us have."
Ezra shrugged, "yeah, well, what can I say? I learn from the best."
Behind them, the sound of bickering began to echo down the hallway, and Hunter let out a long, heavy sigh. As the voices came into earshot, Ezra couldn't help but snigger at the Batch's banter. It reminded him a lot of his own rivalry between himself, Zeb, and Chopper. At least, he preferred to think of it as a rivalry. Anyone else might have just laughed at the idea. It was obvious that he had the upper hand.
"No you did not!" Wrecker all but whined at Crosshair as the rest of the squad entered the bridge.
"Yes, I did. You saw me take them out," the sniper replied with a sniff.
"Nuh uh!"
"Yes."
"Nuh uh!"
"Yes."
"NUH—"
Tech shoved himself between his brothers, whose helmets had been inching closer and closer to each other as the argument had progressed. "The answer to who took out the most guards is irrelevant, but–" here the mechanic looked down at his datapad, ignoring the expectant glares of his brothers "–it was obviously me."
Immediately, Wrecker and Crosshair burst out into an outraged, and completely unintelligible dispute, and Ezra could no longer contain his laughter. He snuck a glance at Hunter between laughs, only to double over again at the beyond-exasperated expression on the sergeant's face. The clone dragged a gloved hand down his face once, took a deep breath, and dove into the fray of shouting to end the argument.
"You deal with this every day?" Ezra heard Sabine's question over the din.
Wryly, Echo grumbled, "that's one way to put it."
After several more minutes of persistent quarreling between the four of them, Crosshair and Wrecker huffed simultaneously, before stomping off to different sides of the wide bridge.
"Child," Crosshair spat over his shoulder.
"Cheater!" Wrecker replied.
Tech only shook his head and approached Echo's side as though he had always been above it all.
Returning to where he'd been standing next to Ezra, Hunter let out yet another long sigh. "They'll be on about that for weeks."
"If we're lucky," Echo added from his seat in front of the communications console.
Ezra was just about to comment that at least their squadmates would eventually let it go and that he usually wasn't as lucky when the alert began to go off. All eyes focused on the flashing, yellow button as the navi-computer announced their arrival in the system. Ezra felt himself tense. In a lull like this, it was easy to forget that they weren't out of the fire just yet.
"Get the codes ready," Kanan ordered, walking up behind Echo, although his gaze never left the swirling blue outside of the viewport.
The clone nodded, and without hesitation, plunged his scomp-link arm into one of the data-ports, prepared to send out the Imperial security codes as soon as they came out of hyperspace.
When the stars came all the way back into focus, Ezra balked. On the other side of the transparisteel window, the Imperial Arrestor loomed over the ship like a malevolent bird of prey, casting a wide shadow upon them with its oversized tractor-beam amplifiers. Squads of Tie Fighters, just returning from their meticulous patrols, swarmed around it.
Ezra gulped.
Again, another alert went off, and this time, Tech quickly intercepted it.
"Inbound vessel, please identify yourself."
"This is transport D-2117," Tech easily recited the designation of the ship that they had found on the supply logs, "requesting clearance to land."
"Transport, please transmit your clearance codes," the curt voice of the Imperial communications officer ordered over the transmitter.
"Of course," Tech replied, and gave a nod to Echo, who quickly sent off the codes they had stolen from the Empire months ago. Hopefully, they were still valid.
A moment of silence ensued, and at first, Ezra thought they might reject them, and pull them in with their giant tractor beam. But that's never happened before, he reasoned, why would it now? The voice of doubt quietly whispered in the back of his mind, but just before he could speak up and say anything to Kanan, the communications officer responded.
"Transport D-2117, you are clear for contact."
"Ma'am, we have an incoming code from the transport," one of the communications officers announced.
When the officer did not continue, Admiral Correk pursed her lips in frustration. She didn't have time for this. Incompetency had already wasted enough of her time in this matter. If the crew the Empire had provided her with wasn't so blasted useless, she was sure she would have caught and executed these insurgents long ago.
"And?" she snapped.
The young man hesitated, shifting uncomfortably in his seat under the Admiral's penetrating gaze, like the laser of a sniper rifle. "It's… Imperial."
Immediately, her frustration turned to triumph. Before starting this operation, she had carefully studied the activities of the rebel cells, examining every hole, nook, and cranny they had managed to squeeze through in the past to make their blows at the Empire. A stolen uniform here, a fabricated or stolen code there, along with a shipload of foolishness on the Empire's part, and she had to admit, guts, and the rebels were past security.
It had happened so many times, in fact, that she would have been stupid not to come to the conclusion that the system was only as effective as their ability to keep security codes, well, secret. So, Correk had taken the liberty long ago to put her own codes into use, as unique as the project itself. No ineffective Imperial codes necessary.
She could hardly help the pleased smile that crept onto her face as she realized even their agent hadn't realized they would only be announcing themselves if they used any of their fabricated or stolen clearance codes. Apparently, the traitor wasn't as thorough as she thought she was.
"Admiral, Ma'am," the officer practically squeaked, catching her attention once more, "what are your orders?"
"Contact the facility planet-side," she replied briskly, a satisfied undertone to her voice, "tell them we've located our rebel scum."
A/N: Nothing much to say here, other than I really enjoyed writing the Bad Batch's little argument this chapter. If you can't tell, I'm a sucker for brotherly banter. Also, I just started watching the new season of the Bad Batch, and I'm already super hyped. Anyways, I already have the next chapter deep in the works, so stay tuned! Until next time, my lovely readers! :)