Chapter 1: Imperial Attack
3-PO had just finished pronouncing those words, then a much stronger vibration shook the ship again, this time the three youngsters had to balance themselves in order not to fall on the floor. The lights fizzled for a moment. The alarm never stop blaring.
"That didn't sound promising." Ezra commented.
"I detect heavy damage to the main reactor." Jinx said from Ezra's omni-tool.
"Then it's a race against time." Jaral said. "Let's hope those droids are close enough."
While they waited, they heard a loud clanging sound that lasted a few seconds, and the siblings immediately understood: a tractor beam. Soon enough, a battalion of stormtroopers would breach the main airlock and swarm the ship. They had to leave before the imperials found them.
As the first sounds of blaster eventually resonated in the corridors, it was R2 who first arrived on the scene.
"I'll record a message for Obi-Wan." Leia announced. "At least he will know for sure that is my father who asked."
The siblings would have really liked to know why the fact that Bail was asking would make such a difference, but that simply wasn't the right time. The blasters were coming ever closer. The lightly equipped soldiers of the Tantive stood no chance against the stormtroopers, so there was no time to waste.
"Do it, we'll watch your back." Jaral said, and she and Ezra turned toward the only door leading to the main corridor, ready to grab a weapon if the need arose.
After a few seconds of preparations, Leia started speaking while R2 recorded.
"General Kenobi, years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I'm unable to present my father's request in person. But my ship has fallen under attack and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to the Alliance has failed. I have placed information vital to the survival of the Rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit. My father will know how to retrieve it. I'm sending this droid along with two of the best warriors of the Rebellion, that I'm sure you'll recognize immediately.
"You must help them see this droid safely delivered to him into the Coalition's space, or to Aldeeran. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're our only hope."
A closer detonation followed. Leia carefully put the data disc into R2's dome head, right when C3-PO entered the maintenance section, since he ended up lost from his counterpart.
"R2, thank the maker I found you." the protocol droid said, waving his constrained arms in what was probably an expression of relief.
"Ezra, Jaral." Leia called with a calm tone and the siblings turned around.
Leia gently patted R2's head and the astromech rolled toward them.
"He's ready. You better get to the escape pods before it's too late."
Ezra looked toward his sister another time.
"At least let me try again." he thought in her mind.
"Try, but I doubt you'll dissuade her."
Ezra then turned toward Leia. "You sure you want to stay here?" he asked calmly.
"Down on that planet, I would only be a burden for you guys. And these plans are much more important than my life."
Then Leia stepped forward and put a hand on each of the siblings' shoulders. "Take care of yourselves, and bring those plans back home."
Sensing an incredible willpower emanating from her, the siblings dropped any doubts. Jaral put a hand on her shoulder in return.
"We'll see each other again, I know that." she said with a dry, but confident, tone, then she walked toward the escaped pods.
"Good luck, Princess. It's been an honor." was Ezra's goodbye.
Leia nodded with a friendly smile, then disappeared into the other maintenance shafts.
Ezra looked at the droids in the room with him.
"Come on, guys. Into the escape pods."
"But, Master Bridger…" the protocol droid objected. "that area is interdicted to us."
R2 beeped an urging answer.
"Not anymore, buddy. Come on." Ezra insisted, gently pushing the gold droid into the small conduct.
Since C3-PO had limited speed capacities, Ezra kept pushing him slightly forward. He materialized his M-3 pistol which went together with the armor and the two stayed behind Jaral and R2. The blasters had now gone silent, so it wouldn't take long before the stormtroopers made a thorough sweep of the ship. They needed to hurry.
As they reached the escape pods, Jaral knelt and opened the hatch of one of them. They were quite short, so much that the two humans and 3-PO would have had to bend forward, but they could fit all of them with no problem.
"Jinx, can you confirm that you can hide the pod from imperial sensors?" Jaral asked.
"Affirmative. At least until I'm in range of their instruments, but that will be enough for us to get out of their weapons' reach.
"That will have to do." Jaral concluded as she opened the hatch and slipped inside, followed by R2.
"I know I'm going to regret this." C3-PO lamented as he slowly entered the pod as well.
Ezra took a last look behind them and heard a distant sound of footsteps, so he quickly entered into the pod when his time came and shut the hatch.
"I'm disturbing their sensors." Jinx announced to Jaral, who was sitting at the commands. "I suggest we depart immediately."
Without answering, Jaral pushed the powering command. The pod's engines whirred a little, then the capsule was ejected out in space.
The siblings held their breath for a few seconds, as the capsule kept flying away from the Tantive and the Star Destroyer, seriously hoping that Jinx wouldn't fail right at that time. But the alarm stayed silent, meaning that the small turrets in the Destroyer's hangar indeed didn't detect them.
As they finally got out of range, they breathed a sigh of relief.
"All right," Jaral said, not losing focus. "we made it to Tatooine, but where do we go, precisely?"
Ezra approached the frontal viewport. "Jinx, where did we meet Master Kenobi last time we came here?" he asked.
Jinx made a few calculations, then highlighted a trail on the siblings' visors.
"The Jundland Wastes. I suggest we start looking for Obi-Wan Kenobi into the mountains."
"Great." Jaral replied and set the course on the navigation of the pod. "Strap in, we're entering the atmosphere." she then announced.
She pushed the engines forward. As the pod collided with the outer atmosphere of Tatooine, the sound from outside suddenly reappeared as the air now allowed it to propagate again. First a hissing, which became progressively louder as Jaral dived the pod downward.
A few stripes of heat became visible on the viewport, but the pod was built exactly for these moments, so it didn't creak or gave signs of structural destabilization.
Passing the incredibly clear skies of Tatooine, it didn't take long for the young woman to spot the great canyons of Jundland. They needed to land there, or they wouldn't have survived long in the dune seas under the scorching heat (the two humans, at least, but even the droids might soon suffer due to the great quantities of sand).
Jaral opened the inverters, starting to slow down the descent. Aside from a small turbulence, though, the landing was quite uneventful, to 3-PO's greatest relief.
"Good thing you haven't lost your touch." Ezra complimented with his sister by giving her a light punch on the shoulder.
Jaral chuckled and then raised from the pilot's seating. "Come on, let's get out of here.
The pod was now in vertical position, with the hatch put in the rear, aligned with the engines. The siblings needed to climb a bit, and also help out the protocol droid while R2 simply uses his thruster to fly out.
Ezra took out an M-8 assault rifle, Jaral her good old TL-50 before she noticed they landed on a ridge, so she reached the edge and activated the rangefinder inside her visor.
"All right, at least there will be plenty of caves where we can find shelter, it's already afternoon on this side of the planet." she stated. "Any idea where we can start?"
But just as she finished that sentence, she started to feel that unmistakable humming of the Force. She turned on her right, noticing that Ezra's head was already pointing to that direction.
"You feel that too?" Ezra said down the bond.
"Yeah. Never felt something so powerful. Is it Master Kenobi?"
"I don't think so. Last time it didn't beam like this. In fact, I think he was hiding his signature, that's why Maul couldn't find him without me."
"Mmh."
Jaral stepped closer to her brother.
"Then who is this?" she asked.
"I don't know. But the Force brought us here, I say we follow it and see where it leads us."
"Do we have any other choice?" Jaral noted with a witty tone.
Ezra couldn't hold back a chuckle. "I guess not." and started walking toward that direction, still holding the rifle in his hands.
"R2, 3PO, let's go." Jaral instructed.
The droids obeyed without a lament. Meanwhile, Ezra summoned the AI.
"Jinx, do you detect any sign of civilization this way?" he asked.
"Let me use the scanners of the pod for a second…" the AI replied, compelling Ezra to halt in his tracks so Jinx could still maintain the connection, but it only took him five seconds at most. The blue figure reappeared and spoke up. "The dune seas have many moisture farms, and there is one right outside this ridge, 8.3 kliks north-east."
"All right, let's go meet the locals." Ezra concluded with a relaxed attitude, and resumed walking.
"But Master Bridger, what if they are not amicable?" 3PO asked.
"Calm down 3PO, I'm sure they might be willing to let us in with the credits in my omni-tool."
"You go around with credits?" Jaral asked, since it wasn't exactly one of their habits.
"You never know." Ezra replied as he made a quick turn on his feet and extended his arms. "Besides, now that we are well sponsored, I might as well enjoy that a bit."
"Materialism isn't the way of the Jedi, remember?" Jaral quipped.
"Oh, come on, it's not like I'm abusing that or something."
"When we freed Lothal, you literally asked for a palace."
"That was just a rightful recompense, and I was mostly thinking of giving my family and friends a comfortable place."
The siblings kept bantering for a while while the droids followed them without question. Well, mostly without question: 3PO questioned the sanity of his protectors, since they seemed so relaxed despite their situation.
They walked for around three hours, until they finally reach the end of that labyrinth of canyons, arches and caves, occasionally stumbling upon some small sentient creatures called Jawas, who ogled the two droids from behind the rocks, but the simple presence of the siblings, armed to the teeth, was enough to prevent them from attempting anything stupid.
And as they could finally see the sea dunes, they also spotted a small dome-like structure in the distance, plus several strange pylons in the sand behind it.
"There it is. The moisture farm." Ezra said.
"And look, there's someone just outside the door." Jaral said as she was looking that way with her rangefinder.
Ezra gave a more thorough look and also spotted a young farmer boy who seemed to be checking one of the vaporators.
"Ok, first things first, we need to appear friendly enough, so let's get the armors out of the way." he instructed and they both dematerialized their protections, remaining with their civilian clothes.
"And lightsabers away." he added. "We don't want to give away our identity so quickly."
"Right." Jaral agreed and they put their weapons into the omni-tools.
"Now, you all just follow my lead, okay?" he asked to the whole group.
R2 beeped an affirmative.
"As you wish, Master Bridger. 3PO said.
"Good. Let's go." Ezra concluded and started walking toward the farm, which was nearly another klik from the canyon.
As they approached, the siblings started to hear that humming again. It became increasingly louder as they approached the young farmer.
The more they heard it, the more their thoughts became obfuscated by questions. What was happening? Why was this feeling exactly like the time...like the first time they met Kanan?
Just as they were only a dozen meters from him, the young man suddenly raised his head in suspicion, before turning toward the small group.
Somehow, the siblings knew that he was hearing that same humming, as he looked at them with what seemed a mixture of curiosity and a strange calm.
"Hello…" the young farmer said. "Can I help you?"
His voice had the siblings snap out of the whistle and Ezra started his act.
"Greetings, good sir. Are you the owner of this farm?" he asked gently.
"Ah, no. Just wait a second." the farmer replied, then moved in front of the door of the white dome-shaped entrance and shouted. "Uncle Owen, we have some visitors."
Not long after, a man in his 60s, probably, came up from the stairs. His expression seemed a bit grouchy, yet, he spoke up with a relatively polite tone.
"Hello. Why are two youngsters like you wandering around the desert?"
"Sorry to disturb you sir, but me and my sister are on our way to the nearest spaceport, and it appears like we got lost." Ezra said feigning the tone of a somewhat naive young boy.
"Well, son, the nearest spaceport would be Mos Eisley, but it's two days of walk from here."
The siblings looked at each other. It was a precious information, but the Empire could be right behind them. Though, the patrols wouldn't probably come and search now that it was becoming dark and the desert would be almost impossible to navigate since the moon in that period of the revolution wasn't enough to shed light on the surface.
Still, they had to move quickly.
"Would it be possible for us to rent a ride on your speeder? We can pay." Ezra asked and showed a bar of credits.
Owen, however, shunned with his hand. "Nah, you're gonna need those. I offer you a deal, though. Your droids, there, can they understand the binary language of moisture vaporators?"
The siblings turned toward 3PO and R2.
"What do you say, guys?" Jaral asked.
The protocol droid answered all excited. "Why, Lady Bridger, my first job was programming binary load lifters, very similar to these vaporators in most respects."
"Can you speak Bocce?" Owen asked from the small distance.
"Of course I can, sir. It's like a second language to me." the protocol droid replied happily and proudly.
Owen nodded with his head. "Okay, I have some problems reprogramming my vaporators. If you are willing to help me tomorrow morning, then my nephew will take you to Mos Eisley."
"Sounds too good to be true, we thank you." Ezra said gratefully. "We'll reach you tomorrow morning." he concluded and they turned around to get back to the canyon.
Owen, though immediately raised his voice, concerned. "Woah, woah, woah, boy, you wouldn't leave your sister and the droids to eat sand all night, I hope? Come on in."
The siblings looked at each other with an off-guard expression.
"Ezra, if we stay here, we expose them to danger."
"I know, but it would be rude to turn them down. Besides, they might give us some clues about Master Kenobi's whereabouts."
Jaral could not object to that. Besides, that place would most likely have a garage for the droids, where they would be much safer.
The Bridgers thus turned around and made a humble bow with their heads.
"You're too gentle, mister...Owen, right?" Jaral said with an innocent tone.
"That's right, missus. Owen Lars. And this is my nephew, Luke Skywalker." Owen said, giving a friendly pat on the farmer's shoulder.
For a moment, the hearts of the siblings froze up.
"Skywalker?" Jaral screamed down the bond. "Wasn't that…?"
"Ahsoka's master surname, yes." Ezra replied.
Still, they feigned ignorance.
"A pleasure to meet you." Ezra said. "I'm Zermat Miller. This is my sister Nala. The droids are C3-PO and R2-D2."
The astromech beeped an affirmative while 3PO made some sort of bow.
"Luke, why don't you accompany the droids to the garage, tomorrow morning we will help them with the cleaning." Owen said.
"Okay, Uncle." Luke replied and motioned the droids to follow him toward the great pit in the terrain which actually hosted the house of the family.
Owen, in the meantime, escorted the 'Millers' down into the dome and they entered the small complex of the farm. He first made a stop into the kitchen, where a small cloud of vapor was starting to form. They entered and the siblings saw a quite old woman, the same age as Owen.
"Zermat, Nala, meet mi wife Beru."
The old woman gave them a gentle and surprised smile.
"You didn't tell me we had guests." she quipped to Owen.
"These two need a passage to Mos Eisley, and they also happen to have two droids who might help us with that work on the vaporators."
"Well, good thing the water just started to boil, then. I'll add some more veggies to the stew."
Jaral stepped forward. "I can help you, if you wish, madam." she politely said. She didn't like the idea of being a complete freeloader.
"Oh, I'll be glad to have you with me, dear, but first, we gotta do something about all…" she approached her and patted her waist, lifting a sprinkle of dust from her clothes. "this."
During the walk from the canyon to the farm, they had lifted quite a lot of sand and dust. It wasn't nothing terrible, but they didn't leave a good impression, either.
Jaral sighed. "I guess it doesn't look great." she quipped.
"Especially on such a beautiful girl." Beru said with the affectionate voice of grandmother. "Come with me." and accompanied Jaral to another part of the house.
"Sorry, you'll have to wait until she comes back to wash yourself." Owen apologized.
Ezra raised his hands in a gesture of peace. "Ladies first, right? And you don't have to apologize about anything, you're already making too much for us."
Owen seemed to hesitate before formulating his following question. "Say...why were you two out there?"
Ezra only feigned to be thinking about it, as he had already made up a slightly revisited version of the attack on the Tantive that he explained briefly. He basically said that him and his sister were new members of the crew of the corvette (which wasn't entirely false, in a way), and that they ran away as soon as the main shooting started.
"Me and Nala managed to get to the escape pods while the fight was going on. I don't know what the Empire wanted from us, but sure I am grateful that we made it out of that hell."
Owen was sincerely impressed.
"So, what do you intend to do now?"
"Get back to our parents." Ezra replied. "That's why we need to get to the spaceport. And we also want to return those droids to Alderaan. I bet whoever they belonged to, they will at least compensate us, since we won't be paid for the job on the corvette." he added with nonchalance.
Owen slightly nodded. "Very well. If that gives a displeasure to the Empire, I'll be glad to help you."
"Thanks, Mister Owen." Ezra said with gratefulness.
Luke entered a few moments later, announcing that the droids were now 'resting' inside the garage.
As they started to prepare for dinner, Ezra got into the open space of the pit for a moment and looked at the stars, wondering what his own family was doing.
Jordan was still a bit incredulous at what he was seeing. The entire Ghost crew and all the inhabitants of the complex of the tower were gathering around the large table of his own house. Even Hera had been allowed to partake in the festivity, under Mira's authorization.
After reporting to Admiral Edrix, Jordan and the Constantinople's crew had received three days of R&R before rejoining the fleet, since for many of the Humans aboard the ship, December 25 was a festive day, and since the frigate had been in service for 10 consecutive months, the crew really needed to take a breather.
So, while his men enjoyed all the new opportunities for fun in the capitol, Jordan and the rest of the family would go on having a dinner all together. The weather was clear, and that region of Lothal was always kinda warm, so they were going to dine in the small garden in front of the Bridger parents' house.
Part of him couldn't help but remind himself that his children were still lost Gods knew where, but deep down, he felt they were still alive, and wondered if he, too, had even a tiny Force bond with them, or if they were using said Force to reassure him from a distance.
In the meantime, there were two seats that would be left empty at the table, and at the sides of those sat the consorts of the siblings: Sabine and Darvos.
Despite this, the atmosphere was overall joyful. Everybody agreed that they needed a break, and while the missing of their Jedi friends and leaders weighted on their hearts, they were set on enjoying the evening, also to honor the now missing siblings.
There was a small pack of Loth-cats hanging around the garden. Mira used to always give them some food, mostly because they reminded her of Ezra and his ability to communicate with animals, so this group used to hang around the complex.
Even Wolffe was present, after getting a day of leave from the LDF, and helped arrange the tables.
To Jordan surprise, the ones who were helping Mira in the kitchen were Kallus and Moreena. He didn't have particular ideas about the girl, but the last thing he thought to see was a former Agent of the ISB to be so at ease in the kitchen. He was cooking the meat with incredible mastery.
Mira was preparing some kind of Asari recipe she had grown particularly fond of, living in the multicultural environment of the capital. It included some fish and what remotely resembled some kind of pasta.
Moreena was taking care of veggies and other side dishes, which she was very knowledgeable about, coming from a family of farmers who had done their job on Alderaan for many years.
Once Mira announced they were almost ready, Jordan, Zeb, Darvos and Sabine started to lay the tables. Hera wanted to help too, but she was pretty much forced to stay put and sit patiently at her place. Even Chopper and Raze helped as much as they could by using their handlers or even putting some music.
The group chattered, discussing of many things that, for once, didn't regard the war. From commenting the state of Capitol city, where a small community of merchants from the Milky Way had begun to settle and there were already huge skyscrapers to accommodate both the new activities and the constant flux of immigrants coming form the territories oppressed by the Empire.
They even talked about how Lothal's new government had announced the start of the negotiations with the Imperial Federation to become a Sister-Nation, with all the economical and political benefits that would bring to both parties.
Sabine had had the time to visit the Wren colony on the planet and reported happily that things were going quite well. As Wolffe confirmed, most of the adults had found employment in the Lothal Defense Force as military instructors or NCOs. Some even started to train a company of special forces that was also being trained by the Carabinieri of the Systems Alliance to serve against heavily armed terrorists or even enemy invasions.
In exchange, the colony was given abundant rations and a shuttle service had been established so the civilians could travel to the Capitol for any necessity.
Darvos was being quite silent, as he just laid down plates and glasses. Somehow, Jordan could sense that he wasn't thinking about his wife missing, so he approached him.
"Everything all right, Darvos?" he asked.
The young man seemed a bit caught by surprise as he jolted his head.
"Oh, Jordan. Yes, I was just...thinking."
"We think all the time, but usually it doesn't make you look so fatalistic. What's on your mind?"
Darvos leaned his head on the side. "I…well, I paid a visit to my old house in the Capitol." he mumbled.
"The one were your family used to live?" Jordan asked calmly.
Darvos hummed a positive response.
"What's with it?"
"Nothing, actually. It's been replaced by a new residential complex. But I didn't care much for him, so much that I cared about only one person into my family."
"You mean Iulius."
Darvos sighed. "Yes. I remembered last time we met again on Atollon. He could've killed me, yet I know he didn't want to, just like I didn't."
"You still love him, so." Jordan kept going with his calm tone, guiding his son-in-law through his own emotions.
"I just...I would really like for a chance to meet him, face to face, and talk. I'm scared, Jordan. Scared that I might find him again on the field of battle and not have time for a dramatic standoff."
he didn't want to elaborate the thought further, because it scared him.
Jordan had nothing much to say. He couldn't understand that feeling because it never happened to him, luckily.
All he could do now was put a hand on Darvos' shoulder, reassuring him with a gesture.
Darvos looked at him with a grateful expression, then made a huge breath and shook his head.
"Ok, enough with the pessimism for tonight. Let's have some fun." he concluded.
"Good idea." Jordan encouraged him.
And just a minute later, the food arrived on the table.
Before they started, Jordan poured some alcohol in his glass and raised it, followed by the rest.
"These last few days have been...intense, to say the least. And even if our hearts are still praying to every possible divinity to bring us back the two great absents at this joyful occasion…" his gaze wavered a bit on the empty seats, much like those of the others. "we know one thing for sure. The Force will be with our beloved Ezra and Jaral. They will come back to us. In the meantime, let's cheer to them."
The others raised the glasses even higher. "To Ezra and Jaral." and they gulped down the fluids before getting to the food.