Chapter 25

Sabine POV

For the next step in their plans to attack Mandalore, Sabine, her mother, Ezra, and a few dozen soldiers from various clans had gone back to Krownest to gather additional resources. Not that they really knew that they would need it. After their recent major victory against the Empire in which four clans had acquired two AT-ATs and two Arquitens-class command cruisers while suffering less than a dozen of their own casualties, almost all clans were now making their stand against the Empire, not just freely, but happily.

One of their biggest advantages was that Clan Vizsla had joined their alliance, uniting behind the Darksaber just like everyone else. This was an enormous deal for them, as Clan Vizsla was the largest of all clans and the second richest, right behind Clan Kryze. Before, they had been unable to join as their previous leader had been Gar Saxon, ever since Maul had ruled Mandalore, but now they had abandoned Tiber Saxon to instead join the freedom fighters.

Everyone else had also joined, except for Clans Kast and Fett, who were both staying out of the conflict entirely, leaving Clan Saxon alone with only the Empire to back them up. Clan Kast had been a supporter of Gar Saxon during Maul's reign, but had now abandoned the Empire, falsely claiming that they were dealing with an internal conflict in order to avoid being forced into fighting for the Empire's side of the war. Clan Fett, on the other hand, currently consisted of only one member, a bounty hunter that simply told them to "Kriff off" when asked if he would join their alliance and return to Mandalorian society.

Inside the throne room, their whole group were gathered around a star-map of the Mandalore system while the Countess Wren, who had led this excursion back to Krownest, sat on her throne.

Sabine pointed towards the hologram planet that represented Krownest and said, "We could try storing some of the incoming supplies here on Krownest, at least for a while. It's far enough away from Mandalore that the Empire would have a difficult time attacking the arriving ships, yet Concord Dawn is between them and Mandalore itself, so they could reinforce us when we move towards the planet."

Sabine's brother Tristan, who now sported a stylized loth-cat face on his right shoulder plate that he had allowed Sabine to give him when she insisted that his armor looked a little bit too bland, looked it over and said, "I don't think so. It's too far away, especially with Concord Dawn's current orbit position. We wouldn't be able to send reinforcements in time if the Empire attacked Krownest, and the people here wouldn't even have settled in. It's a risky move."

Ezra stroked his chin in thought and said, "But we need to put them all somewhere, and Krownest could be a good temporary base. Maybe we could… set a trap here for the Empire. We can make this location seem weak, but we'll position Clan Vizsla to take the fight to them, and I'll be ready to move as well. This is a fortress, after all. It can take a bit of a beating. Maybe we should use that."

"And it's also our ancestral home, young Kryze," Ursa responded. "If we can avoid attracting the attention of the Empire here, that would be to our benefit."

"Would you rather attack them at their fortresses, without even softening them up a bit?" Ezra asked her.

Sabine's mother seemed to think over his point, then opened her mouth to respond, but just then, the side door of the room opened and the Protector Fenn Rau walked in, clad in his full armor unlike the last time Sabine had seen him, on Concord Dawn, when they'd discovered the destruction of his clan. Following behind him was Sabine's rebel droid friend, Chopper.

As they walked in, Rau removed his helmet and said, "Well, this looks interesting. Wren, why didn't you invite me to join you when you left?"

Ursa looked over to him and greeted, "Fenn Rau. The last of the Protectors. Are you here to join us?"

"Not at this moment, I'm afraid," Rau told her apologetically.

Chopper chattered something to Sabine, and she translated, "You escaped? What are you talking about?"

Rau then turned to Sabine and said, "Your rebel friends have been ambushed on Atollon by Thrawn. He has them pinned down and we barely managed to escape. We came here because you're their only chance for help."

Ezra looked up at Rau and asked, "Grand Admiral Thrawn? Blue guy, red eyes, talks too much?"

Surprised, Sabine looked back at him and asked, "You know him?"

Ezra nodded. "A few months ago, just before I met you for the first time, I was assigned to be his partner in his hunt for the rebels. Of course, it didn't last very long, but the guy's smart. Scary smart. He told me about how he fights, attacking from multiple angles and making you think that you're winning until you eventually find that you were already doomed ages ago. He also said that he was working towards something bigger than just fighting a few of those rebels. My guess is, this is it. He's out to destroy their entire rebellion at once. With him in command, the rebels should count their losses and consider themselves lucky to have lasted this long."

Seeing Rau nodding in mourning agreement, Sabine scowled and said, "There is no 'they'! I'm part of their group. One of my families is down there. I'm going to go help them."

Sabine began to stalk towards the exit, but her mother called after her, "Sabine! We're in the middle of a civil war right now, and Clan Saxon has the Empire's backing. Our power has grown, certainly, but we still need to hold our ground."

"Besides," Tristan added, "if what Ezra says about this guy is true, it sounds like a suicide mission. It's impossible."

Sabine took a step back towards them all and said, "They need my help, so I don't care if I might die in the process, I'm going to help them."

Looking around at all of the assembled Mandalorians, she said, "And the impossible? We've seen and we've accomplished countless impossible things. Not long ago, I bet that you never would've thought that we would all be free from the grip of Gar Saxon, but we are. A few days ago, we were ambushed, facing impossible odds, yet we managed to destroy our enemy in less than an hour. And my rebel family is the same way. They make the impossible possible. If I can do something to help them, I have to try."

There was silence for a moment, and then Ezra stepped forward and said, "Well, I might not agree with it, but you know I'm coming with you."

Tristan stepped forward as well and added, "Me too."

"I'd like to join the fight for Mandalore myself, but I'll go back to help you save the rebels. I owe them a debt," Rau said.

After a moment's hesitation, Ursa also stood up and said, "I will do my part to help. If my children are both going towards almost certain death, I would see that I die fighting beside them."

After her, each of the other Mandalorians present began to step forward one by one, all seeming determined to help assist these fellow enemies of the Empire that they didn't even know. Sabine was touched by the gesture, and she smiled at Ezra and said, "Well? Are you going to lead us into battle?"

Ezra smirked at her and responded, "Oh, don't look at me. They're your family, this is your operation."

Sabine was shocked by the new authority she was being given, feeling slightly overwhelmed as she looked around at the small army that she now had to command, but she fixed her gaze and ordered, "Mandalorians! To your ships!"

With a collective cheer, they all ran outside and flew on their jetpacks over to their ships, a collection of Kom'rks and Talon fighters, Chopper using his jet launcher to follow after Sabine with an encouraging whir.

Though Sabine had recently finished repainting her own Kom'rk, the Nightbrother, she had come here in the Absolution, and now she climbed inside it once again as they prepared to fly to Atollon. Out of habit, Sabine immediately went towards the cockpit, but Ezra put out a hand to stop her and said, "Hold it, Commander Wren. You're leading this thing, you get to head up the deployment party."

Sabine nodded in response and strapped herself into one of the deployment chairs in the hold, and Ezra gestured for Trev to follow him into the cockpit instead.

Soon after they disappeared, Sabine felt the ship begin to lift off the ground, and the floor beneath her feet opened to allow a few final Mandalorians to fly inside, where they strapped themselves into the chairs next to and behind Sabine, until two dozen Mandalorians were lined up back-to-back and ready to deploy before the floor closed once again.

As the Absolution jumped into hyperspace, Sabine held on tightly to the straps at her shoulders and looked around. The Mandalorians surrounding her were all wearing their helmets and looking straight ahead in neutral apprehension for the coming battle. If Sabine knew anything about Thrawn, it was that his blockade was likely going to be difficult to breach. They would have to move quickly and efficiently to give the Rebels any sort of opening to escape, and there was certainly no guarantee of survival for anyone present, even if they did have almost a hundred total Mandalorians accompanying them.

"Thank you for doing this," Sabine said to the group.

Her remark was met by a short silence, and then one Mandalorian responded, "You're one of us, and these rebels are important to you. We protect our own."

There was grumbling of agreement, and Sabine smiled to herself. She enjoyed being back among her people. When she'd first returned to them, she hadn't known what to expect, but she'd found a home among them, and she couldn't help but appreciate their willingness to fight for her despite her checkered past.

Some time later, the ship dropped out of hyperspace, and Ezra's voice said over their comms, "Alright, everyone, steel yourselves. I see five Star Destroyers including Thrawn's flagship, and an Interdictor cruiser."

Sabine held her wrist communicator to her mouth and ordered, "We'll deploy about half of us onto the Interdictor first. We need to destroy its gravity wells if the rebels want any chance at getting out of here. Everyone else can target the Destroyers."

As the Absolution shifted its flight paths to follow Sabine's orders, she heard Rau's voice over her comm coming from another ship say, "If not for a sacrifice made earlier by Rebel Commander Sato, there would be two Interdictors. Mandalorians, fight in honor of the bravery of that man, for he made our job much easier this day."

Sabine felt a small pain in her chest at Rau's claim. He was saying that Commander Sato, one of the best of them, had died to take out one of those cruisers today. The fact that Sabine hadn't known or been here to possibly save him hurt her, but she saw that the Mandalorians around her were all bowing their heads in respect for the man's sacrifice, and Sabine did the same, closing her eyes and remembering Commander Sato as he was. The Empire would pay for taking his life.

She opened her eyes again when she heard the sound of the floor opening beneath her. Seeing the expanse of space beneath them, Sabine and her fellow soldiers all reached up and pressurized their helmets to allow them to breathe.

Their two lines of seats quickly lowered out of the ship, and Sabine and the others quickly released the straps keeping them in place and fell out of the ship towards the hull of a massive Interdictor cruiser.

Once they were on top of the hull, they all drew their weapons and began to fire them towards the gravity well projectors in front of them, large bulges spread across the surface of the ship. These gravity wells were able to pull ships out of hyperspace, which in this case prevented them from being able to flee from this planet and leaving them at the mercy of the Destroyers. Luckily, the projectors were also extremely volatile, so all they had to do was significantly breach a single one of these bulges and they would destroy the entire ship as a result.

Unfortunately, the ships were also well-guarded to prevent such a fate. Shortly after a dozen Mandalorians were deployed on top of the Interdictor, they began to be fired upon by numerous TIE Fighters that were already in the air, no doubt having originally been used to fight the Rebels. And as if dodging TIE Fighter bolts wasn't enough, Sabine looked up at the sound of rockets firing and saw numerous stormtroopers with jump packs being deployed onto the hull of the ship to fight off the Mandalorians.

"Rocket troopers!" Sabine called in warning to her soldiers, and they circled up as they began to fend off attacks from all directions.

Ezra POV

Much as Ezra wanted to help Sabine with the Interdictor, he knew that she could handle it. Besides, he had another idea.

Turning to Trev in what was usually Sabine's seat next to him, Ezra pointed ahead of them and said, "See that center Destroyer, the one with the weird design on the bottom? Take the controls and fly us right over the top."

Trev nodded and grabbed the controls as Ezra released his own and got up from his seat, walking back towards the hold. As he exited, Ezra pointed at C1-10P, or "Chopper" as Sabine had called him, and ordered, "Droid, follow me."

Before he left the cockpit, Ezra added, "Oh, and one more thing, Trev. This ship is my baby. You break it, you buy it."

Not waiting to see if Chopper would follow him, Ezra then walked out into the hold before pressing a button on his vambrace to open the floor.

Just as they flew over the back of the Destroyer, Ezra pressurized his helmet and jumped out, activating his jetpack to slow his fall in the Destroyer's simulated gravity field. He heard Chopper's jet launcher firing above him, but he stayed focused on his objective.

Ezra floated right up to the main bridge window and pressed himself against the glass. Inside, he was surprised to see not Thrawn, but Governor Pryce standing at the helm of the ship. With her were two Death Troopers, who were a kind of elite Imperial soldier in all black armor, and they were holding an ISB agent between them, kneeling on the ground with each Death Trooper holding one of his arms.

With shock, Ezra realized that the ISB agent was actually Agent Kallus, the Imperial that Ezra had met months ago. He looked terrible. His hands were cuffed behind his back, his hair, usually so neat and tidy, was now disheveled, and his face was badly bruised with some small cuts in places.

When Ezra pressed himself against the glass, he waved at Pryce cheerily, and she just drew back in shock and rage before turning to address her soldiers and yelling something unintelligible at them while pointing at Ezra floating outside. Probably something along the lines of What is that bug doing on my windshield? It's ruining the view!

Luckily, Ezra didn't make her suffer for long. Knowing that his rocket wouldn't do anything here, Ezra drew the Darksaber and slashed it through the transparisteel, shattering their window before Pryce could even finish widening her eyes in surprise and fear.

As soon as the viewport was compromised, Ezra pulled on it with the Force, and the window shattered and began to get sucked out into space, as well as every loose object inside the room, including people. As stormtroopers and technicians flew by him, Ezra dodged their bodies and grabbed both Governor Pryce and Agent Kallus by one of their legs as he flew inside the now empty bridge of the ship.

Ezra then called behind him, "Droid! Activate the shields!"

Chopper flew in behind him and plugged into the main scomp terminal. With a few small twists, an orange shield appeared over where the viewport had recently been, and Ezra deactivated his jetpack as gravity was restored to the room.

Governor Pryce immediately glared up at him and began to say, "How dare you-" but Ezra silenced her with a stunning blast from one of his pistols, then turned to where Kallus lay, unable to get back up. "I've wanted to do that for a long time," Ezra admitted.

"I can sympathize," Kallus responded. "Now, if you would please release me, Mandalorian, it would be greatly appreciated."

"Now, why would I do that, Agent?" Ezra asked, directing his pistol at the bound man.

"You're here to help the Rebellion?" Kallus asked.

Ezra nodded, and Kallus continued, "Well, I was their double-agent within the Empire. Codename: Fulcrum. That's why I was taken prisoner and forced to watch their destruction."

Ezra hesitated for a moment, then removed his helmet and said, "I remember you, Agent, and I'm willing to trust you now."

His eyes widening in surprise, Kallus said, "I knew your voice sounded familiar. Captain Kryze. We all thought you were dead."

"Well, I do like making an entrance," Ezra said, then leaned down to remove Kallus' binders from his wrists and put them on the unconscious Governor Pryce instead.

He turned to where Chopper was still plugged in and said, "Droid, patch me through to the other Destroyers here. If he's not here, Thrawn must be leading the ground assault, so also jam transmissions to and from the planet."

Chopper beeped an affirmative response, and after a few seconds Ezra cleared his throat and spoke into the microphone, "Seventh Fleet vessels, this is Captain Ezra Kryze, Grand Admiral Thrawn's recently-returned partner. As of now, I am taking over this operation for Governor Pryce. The Mandalorians outside your ships are my people. I will tell them to stop fighting you, but you are to immediately cease your own hostilities and surrender control of your vessels to my specialized reinforcements. You will follow their orders without question, understood?"

One voice that Ezra knew returned to him and asked, "And how do we know that we can trust this claim of yours?"

"Because we are not enemies with these Mandalorians, Captain Pellaeon," Ezra said. "You are wasting men and resources fighting our own people, and I will not have it. And in case you still hesitate to accept my order, I'm now invoking a complete Seventh Fleet temporary ceasefire. Authority Code: Rukh."

There was a short silence, and then Pellaeon said shortly, "Very well, Captain. All Imperial forces, stand down and prepare to surrender control of your vessels."

Immediately after the Imperials began to obey him, Ezra got on his comms and contacted Sabine. "Hey, Sabine. Tell all of your soldiers to stop fighting and seize control of the ships instead of destroying them. I've gotten the Empire to stand down and surrender control to you."

"That was you? How'd you accomplish that?" Sabine's voice asked.

"Well, Captain Kryze of the Imperial Super Commandos has quite a bit of sway, being on the same command level as Thrawn himself," Ezra said with a smirk. "Oh, and your first order of business once you guys take control should probably be to order a full Imperial evacuation in the escape pods. From there, they'll be either prisoners or target practice."

There was a short silence, and then Sabine asked incredulously, "You want an army of just over a hundred people to man five Star Destroyers and an Interdictor?"

Frowning, Ezra said, "Good point. Keep the Imperials around then until we can get a few astromechs to automatically control these things. I have your droid Chopper controlling the Chimaera right now. I'll call my mother to send a few astromechs our way right now. And as a gesture of good will, I think we'll offer a Destroyer and the Interdictor to your rebel friends."

There was another silence, then Sabine said, "Make it two Destroyers. We don't need four, and that's a better balance. Besides, they did just lose their secret base."

Rolling his eyes, Ezra said, "Very well. Two Destroyers. Happy now?"

"Thrilled," Sabine responded. "Alright, we're taking the ships now. I'll see you at the end of all this. Love you."

Smiling, Ezra said, "Love you too," then deactivated his comlink as he turned back around to see Kallus staring at him with an eyebrow raised.

"Am I… interrupting something?" Kallus asked.

Remembering that this agent liked to tease, Ezra ignored him and just threw one of his pistols at him, which Kallus caught despite his injuries, and Ezra pointed at his gun in Kallus' hand as he said, "I'll be wanting that back. The ship too. But for now, former Agent Kallus, enjoy being the temporary captain of the Chimaera. If anyone comes this way, just have Chopper close the doors and turn off the comms. If Pryce wakes up, stun her again all you want, but don't kill her. She could still be useful."

"Where will you be?" Kallus asked.

Smirking as he walked backwards off of the bridge, Ezra answered, "I'm gonna go finish turning this Imperial ambush into one of their worst losses in history. Turns out, it's what I do. See ya in a bit!"

Ezra ran down to one of the Imperial hangars and contacted the Absolution. "Trev," Ezra spoke into his wrist comm, "I'm going to need a pickup in the Chimaera's forward portside hangar. I need a ride down to Atollon."

Deactivating his comlink immediately after giving his order, Ezra continued to run down to his destination. He arrived just before the Absolution itself did, and Ezra used the Force to jump into the open ramp without the ship even needing to land. In seconds, he was in the cockpit, and he then yelled to Trev, "I'm on board, let's go!"

Trev jumped in his seat and turned to look at Ezra with surprise. "How did you… I haven't even landed yet!"

"Nevermind, just go! Thrawn might have an escape plan in place, and I want to get him before he gets away!" Ezra said quickly, and Trev spun back around to fly them back out of the hangar at top speed.

As they flew towards the planet, Ezra looked out the viewport and frowned in confusion as he saw that the location of the rebel base on the planet's surface was covered in heavy, swirling storm clouds. That wasn't the weird part, however. The weird part was that Ezra could feel the storm clouds moving in the Force, like they were alive.

Ezra gazed at the clouds in apprehension, his hand instinctively resting on his one remaining pistol, and Trev gave him a worried look before asking, "Are you alright, Ezra?"

Ezra shook his head to clear his thoughts and said, "Yeah. I'm good. Get us down to that base. You'll have to go through the storm."

Trev nodded in acceptance and steered them into a dive through the clouds. Unfortunately, Ezra had underestimated the severity of the storm, and as soon as they were inside the clouds, Trev was struggling to dodge repeated blasts of lightning.

Grunting from the effort of fighting the winds, Trev mumbled, "This storm is rough… I've never flown in anything like this."

Suddenly, a loud, echoing voice rang from all around them, angrily booming out, "Kanan Jarrus! Jedi Knight!"

Looking around for the source of the noise, Trev asked, "What the kriff was that?"

Gripping tightly onto Trev's seat with one hand to keep himself standing as the ship rocked, Ezra responded, "I don't know, but it sounds like Sabine's Jedi friend made it angry."

As their ship continued to rock and strain to reach the planet's surface, Ezra finally decided, "Pull up. We can't get through this storm. We'll have to go around."

Trev wasn't about to argue. As soon as Ezra gave the order, Trev pulled all the way back on the controls in his hands, turning them into an almost-vertical ascent back away from the planet.

Once they were out of the clouds, Trev suddenly pointed out to their side and said, "Hey, Ezra! Look there! That's no Imperial ship!"

Ezra looked to where Trev was pointing, and sure enough, the Ghost was next to them, also fleeing from the clouds. After years of chasing that ship, Ezra instantly recognized it at a glance.

Suddenly seeing that the Ghost was hailing them on their communicator, Ezra answered their call and said, "Why, hello there, my rebel friends. You called for assistance?"

Captain Syndulla's voice responded, "Ezra? Ezra Kryze? Oh, I can't say how good it is to hear your voice. I take it that Rau got us our help then."

"Well, he came to ask Sabine for whatever we could offer, and we happened to have about a hundred of us handy," Ezra responded.

There was a short silence, and then Kanan's voice asked, "You mean… you brought a hundred Mandalorians?"

Not answering his question, wanting to keep their true success a victory for now, Ezra simply said, "Hey, Kanan. We just tried to rush to your rescue a minute ago, and I think the clouds were angry at you?"

"That's apparently a long story that he'll have to explain to both of us later, Ezra," Hera said before Kanan could respond. "For now, it looks like that Interdictor is still in the air. We can't go anywhere!"

"Correction, we can go anywhere," Ezra corrected them, smirking at Trev as he said it. "But first, I need to know, how would you guys feel about being my prisoners for a hot minute while we prepare you a new base or two?"