"The Jedi Knights are all but destroyed. Yet, your task is not complete, Inquisitor. The Emperor has foreseen a new threat rising against him. The children of the Force, they must not become Jedi," a mechanical voice told a Pau'an with Sith yellow eyes, ashen white skin tone and red markings around his eyes and went down the sides of his face known as the Grand Inquisitor through a holocommunicator on the bridge of an Imperial Star Destroyer.
"Yes, Lord Vader," the Pau'an replied as he had his eyes closed.
"Hunt down this new enemy. And if they will not serve the Empire, eliminate them along with any surviving Jedi who will train them. This is my Master's command," Vader added.
"And so it will be done," the Pau'an said as the hologram of Vader dissolved before the Pau'an moved his head upwards as he opened his eyes.
Meanwhile on the planet Lothal, a planet in the Outer Rim under the control of the Galactic Empire, a 15 year old Mandalorian boy with copper skin, blue eyes and mid-length black hair stood on a comm tower, outside of Capital City as he wore an orange jacket with a yellow v-neck along with a brown colored vest with some yellow on both sides, green colored fingerless gloves, orange pants and deep orange shoes with a holster over his waist with had a pair of WESTAR-35s inside of it along with a beige colored backpack over his back as he had his arms over the tower's railing and he was Ezra Bridger, the son of Countess Mira Bridger and Baron Ephraim Bridger of Clan Bridger. He then looked up and removed his arms from the railing as he saw a Star Destroyer flying above him before he left the tower and hopped on a speeder bike and began flying towards Capital City.
"Your identification. Now," an overweight Imperial officer with light skin, brown eyes and hair named Myles Grint ordered a Gotal street vendor named Yoffar, who was selling jogan fruits from a basket with another Imperial officer standing next to him and had his arms behind his back, but unlike Grint, he had pale skin, brown hair and blue eyes named Cumberlayne Aresko alongside a squad of stormtroopers in the marketplace within Capital City as two TIE fighters flew overhead.
"I'm just trying to sell a couple of jogans here," Yoffar explained.
"All trade must be registered with the Empire," Aresko told him.
"I remember what it was like before your ships showed up, before you Imperials ruined Lothal like the rest of the galaxy," Yoffar said, causing every civilian nearby, which included a human female with tan skin, brown eyes and hair, wearing a cap over her head and a Rodian with green skin and blue eyes to stop and watch in shock as he spoke out against the Empire.
"This is LRC-01. I'm bringing in a civilian under a charge of treason," Aresko spoke into his comlink as he pulled it out.
"Copy that, LRC-01. Dispatch to Cell Block AA-33," a masculine voice replied from the comlink. "Take him away," Aresko ordered the stormtroopers as Grint picked up the basket with two of the
stormtroopers grabbing the Gotal by the arms as they took Yoffar hostage.
"You can't do this!" Yoffar protested as the stormtroopers began to take him away.
"Oh, yeah? Well, who's gonna stop us?" Grint asked as he picked up one of the jogans and ate it as he turned to the civilians who watched what happened, "You? You?"
"I will," Ezra answered from a distance, causing Grint and Aresko to turn towards the Mandalorian.
"You think we'd be scared of you, boy?" Grint scoffed at him as he turned towards the stormtroopers, "Get him, boys."
Ezra then pulled his pair of WESTAR-35s our from their holster and fired blaster bolts at the stormtroopers that were standing next to him before placing them back in their holster as he charged towards the stormtroopers that were taking Yoffar away and punched one of them in the helmet, knocking him out before he turned to the final stormtrooper in the area and punched him repeatedly in the stomach before he fell unconscious as well.
Grint then dropped the basket of jogans that he was holding as he and Aresko looked at the Mandalorian with shock on their faces, "You won't get away with this, you Loth-rat." He then turned to Aresko, "Let's go."
"Little do they know, I'm not a Loth-rat, I'm a Mandalorian," Ezra muttered to himself as the two Imperial officers walked away from him and Yoffar as he helped him up.
"Thank you," Yoffar said as he appreciated his help.
"No problem," he told him, "By the way, can I have a spare jogan for stopping those Imperials from arresting you?"
"Certainly, uh...?" The Gotal began to say before stopping as he didn't catch his name.
"Ezra," he answered, "Ezra Bridger."
"Here you go, Ezra Bridger," Yoffar said as he handed him one of the jogans from his basket.
"Thanks," he said as he walked away and ate the jogan before climbing onto a container and then onto an overhang of a shop before jumping onto the rooftop of a building nearby.
"Who is that kid?" Yoffar asked himself as he was shocked that a teenage boy like him could take down Imperial stormtroopers and make two Imperial officers back off.
"Copy that. We have reached the location and we are standing by," Ezra heard a masculine voice say as he slowly walked towards the edge of the top of the building and laid down on his stomach.
"I can't believe that Loth-rat outsmarted us," he heard Grint tell Aresko as he spied on them from the top of the building.
"I agree. That's embarrassing," Aresko told him when they suddenly bumped into another Imperial officer with light skin, brown hair and blue eyes by the name of Lyste, who was standing by a squad of stormtroopers and two combat drivers with one of them sitting on one of the two speeder bikes that were present that had crates attached to the back of the speeders with the other combat driver standing with a stormtrooper.
"What happened?" Lyste asked them as another combat driver moved a crate towards the back of the speeder bike that had one of their fellow combat drivers sitting on, "What are you two running from?"
"Some Loth-rat who stopped us from taking a civilian away for saying a treasonous remark," Grint answered.
"That's awkward and embarrassing if I do say so myself," Lyste stated before turning to the speeders as he placed his arms behind his back, "Well, aside from that, my orders here are to get these crates to the Imperial portal."
"Well, get them loaded then!" Aresko ordered.
"Almost feel bad for those di'kuts. Almost," Ezra chuckled to himself before he heard distant humming in his head, "That was weird. I..." He then stood up and saw a tan skinned human man with brown hair in the style of a ponytail along with a goatee and teal-blue eyes, wearing a green suit, dark green pants and a metallic green armor around his neck and left arm named Kanan Jarrus standing in the marketplace before he gasped and widened his eyes as he went back down on his stomach as the man turned around as he sensed him.
The man then walked away and tapped his hand on his left thigh as a male Lasat, wearing a green, yellow and beige colored armor with shoulder pads and a white colored design under his left shoulder pad named Zeb Orrelios, who had purple, gray and black skin, purple hair and fur along with a beard and was standing in front of a doorway before walking out of the doorway.
The man then approached a girl wearing pink, red and silver colored Mandalorian armor with a modified Nite Owl's helmet that had a macrobinocular viewplate's rangefinder attached to it over her head, surprising Ezra as he saw that the Mandalorian's armor had a stylized depiction of a creature known as an Anooba on her left pauldron and a silver and black colored checkerboard pattern on her other pauldron with a starbird painted on her armor's left breastplate and the piece of armor around her elbows having short sleeves, revealing that she had light tan skin.
"A Mandalorian here on Lothal?" He muttered to himself with shock and disbelief in his voice as the man stopped next to the Mandalorian and tapped his hand over his holster again before the Mandalorian tapped her hand over her right holster three times as he walked away before she turned around and walked away from the man, "Interesting. Her armor looks similar to that of Clan Wren."
The Mandalorian in the marketplace below walked past one of the speeders and threw a thermal detonator at it with it planting itself onto one side of the speeder as it activated before the combat driver that was behind it turned around and looked at her as she walked away, just as the detonator blew up, destroying the speeder bike.
"Get those crates out of here! Keep them secure at all costs!" Lyste ordered the two remaining combat drivers as one of them sat down on the speeder bike next to their fellow combat driver before they sped away on the speeder bikes.
"All costs, huh? I like the sound of that," Ezra muttered to himself before moving away from the side of the building's rooftop he was laying on top of.
"How's it going?" Kanan greeted three combat drivers on their speeder bikes as he pulled up next to them on a landspeeder before hopping out of the landspeeder as he kicked the combat driver in front of him off of their speeder bike as he pulled out a DL-18 blaster pistol from his holster and
twirled it in his hand before firing a blaster bolt from it at a combat driver on a speeder bike in front of him, killing the combat driver instantly before firing at the other combat driver, who was now off of their speeder bike and hiding behind the speeder's crates as he fired an E-11 blaster rifle back at Kanan as a few stormtroopers began rushing towards them as Ezra watched from the rooftops of the same building he was standing on top of as he was now in a crouched position.
Zeb then rushed out from a doorway nearby as he ran towards the combat driver and picked him up, causing him to grunt before he threw him towards a stormtrooper that was hiding in a doorway next to him as Kanan smirked as he continued firing his blaster pistol at the stormtroopers, who began firing their E-11 blaster rifles at him before the Lasat came up behind them and grabbed one of the stormtroopers by the helmet, which the other stormtrooper noticed before Zeb threw the stormtrooper that he grabbed at him as one of them grunted, knocking them out as they fell to the ground, unconscious as Zeb stood back up and brushed his hands before Kanan stood back up as he placed his blaster pistol back in its holster when Ezra suddenly grabbed onto one of the cables connecting the buildings together as he jumped down from the rooftops before landing on the seat of one of the speeder bikes, surprising Kanan and Zeb.
"Thanks for doing the heavy lifting!" Ezra told them as he gave them a salute as he grabbed onto both of the speeder's maneuver controls as he backed the speeder away as Zeb tried to punch him, only for the Mandalorian to dodge the Lasat's punch.
"Now what?" Zeb asked Kanan as he growled and looked at him.
"After that kid!" Kanan answered as Ezra backed the speeder bike into a wall behind them as three stormtroopers fired their E-11 blaster rifles at him before he flew the speeder towards his right with Lyste trying to grab it as a stormtrooper behind him stood back up, only to fail before Kanan and Zeb, who hopped on the other two speeder bikes both backed their speeders towards the same wall that Ezra backed his speeder bike towards as the stormtrooper began to fire his E-11 blaster rifle at them as Lyste turned around towards them as Kanan knocked the stormtrooper out as he collided with the crates attached to his speeder bike before they began to follow the Mandalorian as Lyste tried to grab their speeder bikes as well, but failed to grab their speeders as well.
As Ezra flew his speeder past one of the buildings in the marketplace, the female Mandalorian stood on one of the building's rooftop before she jumped down from the building and landed on her stomach on top of the second crate attached to the speeder bike that he was piloting before she stood up on the second crate, causing him to look at her.
"Pretty gutsy move, kid!" The female Mandalorian told him, causing him to speed up the speeder bike before she pulled out one of her WESTAR-35s, which Ezra saw was painted gray and yellow instead of just silver and gray like his pair were painted as she aimed it at him before she moved her WESTAR-35 away from him as she aimed it at the repulsorlift connecting both crates and fired it at the space in between both crates, allowing it to disconnect with the speeder bike's repulsorlift, "If the big guy catches you, he'll end you! Good luck!" He smiled as he sped up before the female Mandalorian ran around the corner with the crate as Kanan and Zeb continued to follow Ezra.
Stormtroopers nearby took a ready position behind a couple of vases as they aimed their E-11 blaster rifles at the road as Ezra appeared ahead of them with Kanan and Zeb following him before he sped up as Kanan pulled his blaster pistol out and fired a couple of blaster bolts at the stormtroopers, killing them instantly as they fell to the ground as they rounded another corner.
"Who are these guys?" Ezra asked himself as he looked back at Kanan and Zeb, "And who is that Mandalorian that looks like she's from Clan Wren?" He then gasped loudly as he saw civilians, a silver and white Lothal astromech droid and a deep yellow landspeeder in front of him, causing
everyone to look at the Mandalorian in shock and shrieked in horror before he flew his speeder bike around a corner and as if on instinct, he evaded everyone and the landspeeder.
"Who is that kid?" Kanan asked himself as he watched the Mandalorian evade everyone and the landspeeder as if on instinct before the three of them reached the highway that leads outside of the marketplace and Capital City. Two combat drivers were on standby, sitting on speeder backs when Kanan, Zeb and Ezra suddenly flew past him and began to chase and fire their speeder bikes' blaster cannons at them with Kanan pulling his blaster pistol back out as he began to fire back at the Imperials with it as the combat drivers dodged the blaster bolts by moving to the side as a laser from one of the blaster cannons from their speeder bikes collided with the crate connected to the repulsorlift of Ezra's speeder.
"That's never good!" Ezra muttered to himself as his speeder bike began to skid across the road before it flew onto the other side of the highway and began to evade oncoming landspeeders.
Kanan continued to fire upon the combat drivers with his blaster pistol as Zeb reached for an AB- 75 bo-rifle from his back and slowed down as he activated its electro-staff feature and slashed it across one of the combat driver's speeder bikes, ripping it in half.
"Okay, you caught me! I give up!" Kanan told the combat driver that was flying next to him. "What the..." the combat driver said with confusion in his voice.
"Just kidding," Kanan replied as he handed the combat driver a thermal detonator that he was holding in his hand and within seconds the thermal detonator exploded, killing the combat driver and destroying his speeder bike.
Soon Kanan and Ezra were on opposite sides of the highway, which the Mandalorian saw and sped forward as Kanan slowed down to fly next to Zeb and gave him a signal with the Lasat giving him a thumbs up as Kanan unhooked the crates from his speeder bike's repulsorlift with a button on the front of the speeder bike before he chased after Ezra.
"If Kanan catches that kid, I'm gonna end him," Zeb declared as he placed his hand on one of the crates that Kanan unhooked from his speeder bike's repulsorlift as he approached the crates and clenched his hand into a fist.
As Kanan chased Ezra, he flew his speeder bike onto his side of the highway in front of the Mandalorian and turned his speeder bike to the side in front of him, causing him to do the same as he put his speeder bike on its brakes.
"Who are you?" Ezra asked Kanan as he sighed.
"I'm the guy who was stealing that crate," Kanan answered.
"Hey, look I stole this stuff, whatever it is, fair and square," Ezra responded as he crossed his arms.
"And you made it pretty far. But I've got plans for that crate, so today is not your day," Kanan told him as a TIE fighter began to fly towards them.
"Mmm, day's not over," the Mandalorian responded as he restarted his speeder bike and began to fly away.
"Oh, wonderful," Kanan muttered to himself as he rolled his eyes and got off the speeder bike as the TIE fighter closed in on him and fired upon the speeder bike, destroying it with its laser
cannons, causing him to fall onto his stomach as he ran from the speeder bike before the TIE fighter flew away, "He acts somewhat like a certain Mandalorian I know."
"Have a good one!" Ezra told Kanan as he flew his speeder bike away from him and the wreckage of the speeder bike that Kanan was piloting as Kanan got back on his feet.
"This is Spectre-1. I need a lift," Kanan spoke into his comlink, activating it as he walked away from the wreckage of his speeder bike as he smiled at the Mandalorian.
As Ezra flew his speeder bike throughout the plains of Lothal, the TIE fighter that blew up the speeder bike that Kanan was piloting began to chase Ezra before the Mandalorian looked behind him and saw the TIE fighter chasing him.
"Whatever's in these crates must really be worth it!" Ezra said as the TIE fighter fired its laser cannons at him, only for him to evade it, "Better be worth it!"
The TIE fighter's laser cannons then fired at the back of his speeder bike, destroying it instantly as she was knocked off of the speeder bike and landed on her stomach with the crate being detached from the speeder bike's repulsorlift as it landed a few feet away from the wreckage of the speeder bike as the TIE fighter flew away before he stood up as it began swooping back in to finish him when the TIE fighter was blown up as he turned around to see a VCX-100 light freighter behind her and saw that the ship had its ramp lowered with Kanan standing behind it.
"You want a ride?" Kanan asked him as he extended his left hand out towards him as more TIE fighters began flying towards him as Ezra looked at the approaching TIE fighters before he looked back at Kanan, "Kid, you have a better option? Come on!" The Mandalorian knew he was right as he ran towards the crate and activated its repulsorlift, "Leave the crate, you'll never make it!" He ran towards the ship with the crate as the TIE fighters closed in on them and jumped up towards the ramp, surprising Kanan as he saw that Ezra jumped higher than a normal human would, "Whoa."
Ezra was hanging onto the ship's ramp before he climbed up the ramp as he and Kanan grabbed the crate and brought it into the ship as the ramp slid shut as it rose upwards as the TIE fighters began chasing the VCX-100 light freighter.
Ezra was crouching on the floor as he looked up at Kanan, Zeb, who was standing behind the crate that he and Kanan brought into the ship and the female Mandalorian, who had her arms crossed.
"Oh! Do you have any idea what these are worth on the black market?" Ezra asked everyone as Zeb lifted the lid of the crate off, revealing that there were E-11 blaster rifles inside the crate as he approached it and grabbed one of the E-11 blaster rifles as Zeb turned back towards him after he placed the crate's lid behind him.
"I do, actually," Kanan answered.
"Don't get any ideas," Zeb told him as he placed his hands on the crate.
"They're mine so I could sell them on the black market," Ezra stated before Zeb grabbed the E-11 blaster rifle from him.
"We actually were going to sell them to the black market, Kid," Kanan told Ezra.
"If you hadn't gotten in our way..." Zeb began to say as he placed the E-11 blaster rifle back in the crate.
"Too bad. I got to them first," Ezra retorted as he stared at the Lasat.
"It's not who's first," Kanan told Ezra as he placed his left hand over the Mandalorian's right shoulder as the female Mandalorian now had her hands over her hips, "It's who's last." He then looked at Zeb, "Keep an eye on our friend here."
Zeb crossed his arms as he approached the ladder in the cargo hold and climbed up the ladder to the ship's cockpit, where a female Twi'lek with green colored skin and eyes with yellow circular markings over her lekkus, wearing a brown, beige, silver and orange flight suit with a silver colored headdress and goggles over her forehead with a C1-series astromech droid colored orange, white, yellow with a mismatched strut colored green and silver instead of just white and silver along with blue colored sensors standing next to her as she piloted the ship, evading the TIE fighters as they fired their laser cannons at the VCX-100 light freighter.
"You said this was a routine op," the Twi'lek told him, "What happened down there?" The droid grunted an agreement response with the Twi'lek as Kanan walked towards the ship's co-pilot seat.
"Chopper, please. It's been a difficult morning," Kanan sighed as he stood next to the ship's co- pilot seat.
"He has a point, Love. We've got four TIE fighters closing in," the Twi'lek said, agreeing with Chopper as the ship continued to evade the TIE fighters as Hera piloted the ship up through the planet's clouds with the TIE fighters firing their laser cannons at the VCX-100 light freighter, only for their lasers to miss.
"Hera, how about a little less attitude and a little more altitude?" Kanan suggested, causing Hera to tilt the ship around before he fell into the ship's co-pilot seat and looked at her as he scoffed, "If I didn't know better, I'd think you did that on purpose."
"If you knew better, we wouldn't be in this situation," Hera countered as she pointed at him with her index finger for a second, "Seriously, Kanan, what happened?"
"He did," Kanan answered as he looked at the monitor behind them with Zeb and both Mandalorian in the cargo hold below them as Ezra sat on the crate, which had its lid placed back on top of it.
"Look, I was just doing the same thing as you were," Ezra told Zeb, "Stealing from the Empire." "You have no idea what we were doing," Zeb argued, "You don't know us."
"Aside from that Mandalorian over there, I don't want to," Ezra told Zeb, causing the female Mandalorian to look at him with confusion as he got off of the crate, "I just want off this burner."
"Please. Nothing would thrill me more than toss you out while in flight," Zeb stated as he stared at him.
"A kid tripped you up?" Hera said with surprise as she continued to pilot the ship, "Must be some kid. Spill it."
"Aren't you a little busy at the moment?" Kanan reminded her as he crossed his arms. "Spill," Hera ordered him as one of the TIE fighters' lasers collided with the ship's back hull.
The laser from the TIE fighter caused Zeb to fall onto Ezra, who began having trouble breathing.
"Get off," Ezra ordered the Lasat in a strained voice as he pounded his fist on the floor, "I can't breathe."
"I'm not that heavy in this gravity," Zeb told the Mandalorian as he stood back up.
"Not the weight, ugh, the smell, you hairless Wookiee," Ezra explained as he grunted as he sat back up and waved his right hand in front of his face with Zeb looking at him with anger.
"You don't like the air quality in here, eh?" Zeb asked him as he sniffed his nose, "Fine. I'll give you your own room."
"You just try it!" Ezra retorted as he stood up and pulled out one of his WESTAR-35s and aimed it at Zeb.
"Where did you steal that blaster?" the female Mandalorian asked Ezra. "I didn't steal it," Ezra told her, "My mother gifted me my blasters."
"Yeah, right," the female Mandalorian muttered to herself in disbelief, "Only a Mandalorian uses those blasters."
Just as Ezra was about to tell her that he was a Mandalorian, Zeb picked him up as he grabbed his collar as he began to take him out of the ship's cargo hold with the female Mandalorian following them as the TIE fighters continued to chase after the VCX-100 light freighter and fire upon it as Zeb and the female Mandalorian entered the ship's common room before he opened the room's closet.
"Let go!" Ezra ordered the Lasat as Zeb grunted and threw him into the closet before closing the closet's door as he turned around.
"Kid sounds impressive," Hera muttered after Kanan told her how he met Ezra.
"You're not thinking what I think you're thinking," He said as he turned to her as he knew what she was thinking.
"He held onto a crate of blasters with a pack of troopers on his tail," Hera told him as she clicked a few buttons above her.
"Because I was there to save him," Kanan explained, "He's a street rat. Wild, reckless, dangerous and..." he then looked behind him at the monitor to see that Ezra, Zeb and the female Mandalorian were no longer in the cargo hold, "Gone?"
"Zeb, Sabine," Kanan said, contacting Zeb and the female Mandalorian with the ship's intercom as Sabine walked around the common room as the TIE fighters continued to chase and fire upon the VCX-100 light freighter with their laser cannons as the ship shook from the TIE fighters' lasers, "Where's the kid?"
"Calm down, chief. He's in..." Zeb assured Kanan as he opened the common room's closet, only to reveal that Ezra had escaped the closet as Zeb placed his left hand over the back of his head with Sabine approaching the closet as they saw that the entrance to the ship's ventilation system had been opened, "Uh... Here."
"Zeb, where is he?" Ezra heard Kanan ask the Lasat as he entered the ship's ventilation system as he had removed his backpack and pushed it in front of him as he traveled through the ventilation system.
"Well, he is still in the ship," he heard Zeb answer from the common room below him.
"Oh, he's in the ship all right," Sabine muttered, sarcastically as she heard a clattering sound from the ship's ventilation system above her and Zeb.
"Very creative," Hera remarked as she looked at the corner of her eyes as the ship had left Lothal and the planet's atmosphere as she clicked a few buttons on the cockpit's console, "Sounds like someone I used to know."
"Ugh," Kanan sighed as he left the ship's cockpit and towards the rear cannon.
As the TIE fighters continued to chase the ship and flew past the cockpit of the VCX-100 light freighter, Ezra suddenly fell down from the ship's ventilation system with his backpack into the nose gun before he stood up and sat in the seat before opening his eyes as he looked out the viewport and widened his eyes as he wasn't on Lothal anymore.
"I'm... I'm in space!" Ezra said, happily, "I haven't been in space since me, Mom and Dad left Mandalore Space." Two TIE fighters then flew towards the ship's nose gun, firing their laser cannons upon it as the Mandalorian placed his hands over the gun controls of the nose gun with both TIE fighters flying away from the VCX-100 light freighter, "Try to kill me, will you?"
"Shields are holding for now, but you need to buy me time to calculate the jump to light speed," Hera told everyone from the cockpit as she clicked a button above her.
"Buying time now!" Kanan assured the Twi'lek as he rotated the rear cannons around and fired it at one of the TIE fighters, destroying it instantly.
"Sorry, kid, but that's my job," Sabine told Ezra as she appeared behind him and pulled him off of the seat of the nose gun as he went to fire the nose gun's cannons at the TIE fighters as he stopped in the hallway for the nose gun before turning around as she removed her helmet as Ezra saw that she was the most beautiful girl he's ever seen in his life as he saw that she had brown eyes and dark blue hair with light orange tips.
The ship shook again as Sabine placed her helmet on top of the nose gun's seat before she sat down on the seat as she began firing the nose gun's cannons upon the TIE fighters when Ezra walked up behind her.
"Hello, beautiful. My name's Ezra. What's yours?" Ezra flirted with her, causing Sabine to blush.
"My name's Zeb, you Loth-rat," Zeb answered as he grabbed him by the collar as he appeared behind him.
"I'm not a Loth-rat, you di'kut, I'm a Mandalorian!" Ezra told Zeb with anger.
"What did you just say?" Sabine asked Ezra with surprise and confusion in her voice. "Calculations complete, but we need an opening," the three of them heard Hera say from the
cockpit.
"Found one," Sabine said as she fired the nose gun's cannons upon one of the TIE fighters, destroying it instantly as the two remaining TIE fighters continued to chase and fire upon them with their laser cannons.
"Entering Hyperspace!" Hera announced as the ship jumped into Hyperspace with Zeb and Ezra staring at the bluish light of Hyperspace.
Meanwhile back on Lothal, it was night as stormtroopers inspected Capital City's marketplace with an Imperial Star Destroyer and a Gozanti-class cruiser hovering hover the city, following the rebel heist, hours ago as two of the stormtroopers were standing in front of the speeder bike that Sabine blew up with her thermal detonator as an AT-DP walked past them from behind as Aresko stood on top of a building nearby with two stormtroopers and a man with light skin, hazel eyes, light brown hair and mutton chops, wearing an ISB agent's fleximetal armor and helmet over his head, hiding his sideburns with his arms behind his back.
"They knew our protocol and were waiting in position," Aresko told the ISB agent.
"I've no doubt," the ISB agent stated as he sighed, "You're not the first on Lothal hit by this crew."
"That's a relief," Aresko sighed as he straightened his cap, "I mean, I assume that's why you're here, Agent Kallus."
"The Imperial Security Bureau pays attention to patterns," Kallus said as he removed his helmet and placed it under his right arm as he turned to face Aresko, "When the Empire's operations are targeted on an ongoing basis, it could signify something more than the theft of a few crates." He then turned back away from Aresko as he placed his left arm behind his back again, "It could signify the spark of rebellion." He then turned back around to face Aresko, "Next time they make a move, we'll be waiting for them, to snuff out that spark before it catches fire."
As the VCX-100 light freighter exited Hyperspace, it entered the Lothal system and began to approach Lothal as Zeb, who was dragging Ezra into the cockpit as he held onto the Mandalorian's right arm.
"Let go!" Ezra ordered the Lasat before he let go of his arm, "You can't keep me here! Take me back to Lothal!"
"Calm down," Hera urged the Mandalorian as Zeb crossed his arms, "That's exactly what we're doing."
"Wait, right now?" Ezra said with shock in his voice, "With Imperials chasing us?"
"We lost the TIEs when we jumped, and the Ghost can scramble its signature so they won't recognize us when we return," Hera explained.
"Oh, that's pretty cool!" Ezra said with amazement, "So just drop me and my blasters outside Capital City and..."
"They're not your blasters," Sabine told Ezra as she and Kanan appeared in the hallway behind them as the door slid back open.
"And we're not going back to Capital City," Kanan added, "The job's not done."
"Hold on, one more thing," Sabine said as she looked at Ezra, "You said you were a Mandalorian. Who are you exactly?"
"Allow me to introduce myself fully," Ezra muttered, "I am Ezra Bridger of Clan Bridger."
"I thought you were all wiped out," Sabine said with surprise in her voice, "What were you doing on Lothal and not somewhere in Mandalore Space."
"I don't want to talk about it," Ezra answered with sadness in his voice before Sabine looked at him sympathetically.
As soon as the Ghost reentered the atmosphere of Lothal, the ship landed on a hill near a small town known as Tarkintown with the Ghost's ramp lowering as they all walking down the ramp with Zeb and Sabine transporting the crates as they activated their repulsorlifts before Kanan and Hera walked away from them with their own crates.
"Hey, where are they going?" Ezra asked Sabine and Ezra as he looked at Kanan and Hera.
"If I told you, I'd have to kill you," Zeb answered as he pushed two crates past the Mandalorian, "Oh, and I might just kill you anyway."
"Try it and you're dead," Ezra told the Lasat.
"Ignore him," Sabine urged him as she began to move her crate past him, "Grab a crate, pull your weight."
"I've lived on Lothal since I was five years old," Ezra stated as he began pushing one of the crates as he, Sabine and Zeb entered Tarkintown, "Never been here."
"The Imperials don't advertise it," Sabine explained.
"Locals call it Tarkintown," Zeb added.
"That sounds like Grand Moff Tarkin," Ezra muttered, "Is it named after him?"
"It is," Sabine confirmed, "He's the Governor of the Outer Rim." Ezra then looked at a human male with light skin, brown eyes and hair with a beard and a green skinned Rodian with blue eyes that were sitting in front of a tent with a basket next to them as a human female with tan skin, brown hair and eyes standing next to them and the bucket as they all looked poor, "He kicked these folks off their farms when the Empire wanted their land."
"Anyone tried to fight back got arrested for treason," Zeb added with sadness in his voice.
"Any problems procuring these lovely ladies?" A Devaronian male with green skin, red eyes, dark green hair and a broken left horn with a holster around his belt that had a Vilmarh's Revenge blaster pistol inside of it asked Kanan and Hera as they stood in a camp surrounded by Lothalian mound like-structures with IG-RM bodyguard and enforcer droids standing behind him with one of them holding a small crate in their hands as he stood in front of the crate that Kanan and Hera as he picked up one of the E-11 blaster from the crate in front of him.
"Nothing we couldn't handle, Vizago," Kanan answered as the Devaronian looked through the E-
11 blaster rifle's scope as he aimed it in the air as he had his hands over his hips, "Your intel was accurate. This time."
"We got the goods and took a bite out of the Empire," Hera added as Vizago placed the E-11 blaster rifle back in the crate before gesturing to one of his IR-GM bodyguard droids to approach him as the one carrying a small crate began to walk towards him as she placed her right hand over her hip before Kanan lowered his hands, "That's all that matters."
"Business is all that matters. But I love that you don't know that," Vizago stated as he grabbed a couple of credits from the crate and walked over to Kanan and began handing him the credits as the IG-RM bodyguard droid walked away.
"Keep going," Kanan urged the Devaronian.
"I could. Or I could stop and trade the rest of the bounty for another bit of intel you've been begging after," Vizago told them.
"The Wookiees?" Hera asked him. "The Wookiees," Vizago confirmed.
"Who wants free grub?" Zeb asked as he and both Mandalorians stood in the center of Tarkintown and behind their crates before he removed the lid of his crate, revealing food inside of the crate, causing the villagers of all different species including human, Rodian, Ugnaught and Ithorian to walk towards them and the crates.
"Yes!" Two of the villagers answered as they approached the crates.
"Much appreciated," another of the villagers replied as they approached the crates as well before Zeb handed them one of the fruits from his crate as Ezra and Sabine removed the lids from their crates.
"Please, please," a female villager said as she approached the crates.
"Yes, thank you," an Ithorian villager told Ezra as he grabbed a fruit from the Mandalorian's crate.
"Thank you! Thank you!" Another villager said as they grabbed a fruit from Ezra's crate as well before walking away.
"Thank you," one of the Rodian villagers told Ezra as he grabbed a fruit from the crate in front of them and placed his right hand over the Mandalorian's left shoulder, "Thank you so much."
"Thank them," Ezra suggested as the Rodian removed his hand from his shoulder and walked away from him, "I... I didn't do anything."
A while later, Ezra was sitting on top of the hill and on top of the crate that he gave the fruit to the residents of Tarkintown with as he looked down at Tarkintown when he suddenly heard a distant humming in his head, similar to the one he heard earlier in the marketplace of Capital City before he met Kanan, Hera, Zeb, Sabine and Chopper and turned his eyes and head towards the Ghost when Sabine suddenly approached him.
"Ezra, did you hear that sound?" Sabine asked him.
"What did it sound like?" He asked her.
"I don't know," Sabine answered, "It sounds a bit like... humming."
"Then I heard it too," Ezra told her.
"You should see where it was coming from," Sabine suggested, "It probably would be better than both of us going to see what it is."
"I'll go check what it is," Ezra said as he reentered the Ghost and approached the cargo hold's ladder before he began climbing up the ladder and entered the ship's cockpit before he approached the door to the hallway that contained everyone's personal quarters slid open.
He then began walking down the hallway before he stopped as he turned to one of the cabins as he heard the humming sound that he and Sabine heard coming from inside of the cabin and placed his hand over the door for a second.
He began to take his backpack off as he clicked a button on the panel next to the door to the cabin and placed his backpack on the floor as he crouched on the floor and pulled out a thin cylinder shaped device from his backpack and placed it in the panel next to the door as Chopper rolled towards the end of the hallway and looked at the Mandalorian as he saw what Ezra was doing before rolling away before he sensed him as he looked at him for a second before he turned back towards the door to the cabin and placed his backpack back over his back as the door slid open.
As Ezra entered the room, the door slid shut behind him as he saw that the cabin was just dull with bunk beds and a ladder before he began to approach the bottom bunk in the cabin and sat down on the bed as he continued to hear the humming sound in his head as he began to look around for the source of the sound.
"Okay," Ezra muttered as he began to feel around the bed's ledge for the source of the humming before he got off of the bed, "Weird." He then began to feel around under the bed before a drawer underneath the bed slid open before he pulled out a cube-shaped object from it, "What's a Jedi holocron doing here?"
He placed the holocron in his pocket before extending the drawer out further and saw a familiar cylinder shaped device placed inside of it and that was a lightsaber, the weapon of a Jedi.
"Okay, I think whoever sleeps in this cabin is definitely a Jedi," Ezra muttered to himself as he ignited the lightsaber with a blue colored blade appearing from the hilt and waved it around the room and smiled, "Whoa!" He then held it with both of his hands as he held it near his face when he suddenly heard the door to the cabin opening, surprising him and widening his eyes as Kanan stood in the doorway with an angry expression on his face.
"Careful, Ezra. You'll cut your arm off," Kanan told Ezra as he crossed his arms before Hera and Chopper appeared next to him with the Twi'lek having her right hand's wrist over her hip as Chopper grunted amusedly at Ezra.
"Look, I know you're not gonna believe me, but it's like this lightsaber wanted me to take it," Ezra told Kanan, "And I think it was calling out to my fellow Mandalorian as well."
"How did you know it was a lightsaber?" Kanan asked him.
"Because the Jedi were the ancient enemy of my people," Ezra explained.
"And you're right, I don't believe you. Now hand me the lightsaber," Kanan ordered the
Mandalorian as Hera placed her left arm over the wall before Kanan extended his left hand out towards him, "Give it to me, and get out." Ezra then deactivated the lightsaber as he exited Kanan's cabin as he walked past them as he pulled the holocron out and held it in his hand.
"Now we'll see," Kanan told Hera as he disconnected the lightsaber's emitter from its main body as he clipped them onto opposite sides of his belt as he crossed his arms before Hera looked at the Mandalorian as she placed her right hand over her hip as she watched him walk away from them.
"What if Sabine has the ability as well?" Hera asked him as she looked back at Kanan, "Considering he said that she heard humming in her head and usually that means that something attuned to the Force is calling out to a Force-Sensitive."
"I'm not sure, Hera," Kanan answered, "I'll have to think about it."
"Not too good, following directions, are you?" Sabine asked Ezra as he entered the Ghost's kitchen as she held a cup of caff in her right hand with her helmet on a counter next to her as she leaned against the counter behind her.
"Not so much," Ezra answered as he approached her, "You?"
"Heh, never been my specialty," Sabine answered as he smiled and placed his hands over his hips, "I've been meaning to ask you something, Ezra."
"Okay," Ezra said as he looked at her, "What do you want to know?" "Your armor?" Sabine asked him, "Where is it and aren't you wearing it?"
"I don't wear it as to keep my identity as a Mandalorian a secret from the Empire as they and Clan Saxon are still searching for Clan Bridger survivors," Ezra explained, "And it's at an old comm tower outside of Capital City that I've been using as a home since I was nine years old."
"That's a very good reason as to not wear your armor out in public," Sabine chuckled to herself.
"Who are you?" He asked her with confusion, "I mean, you're not thieves exactly."
"We're not exactly anything. We're a crew. A team," Sabine answered, "In some ways, a family."
"What happened to your real family?" He asked her after she stared at him for a few seconds, "'Cause my mother told me that you Wrens always stick together no matter what."
"Similar to what happened to your clan," Sabine answered, "The Empire." The door to the kitchen then slid open as Zeb appeared in the doorway with Chopper standing next to him.
"Kanan wants us in the common room," Zeb told Sabine as Chopper rolled into the room before pounding on his dome, causing the astromech to look at the Lasat, "If he tries anything, sound the alarm or shoot him." Chopper then grunted a response as Sabine grabbed her helmet, "Shush. Just watch him."
"Sabine," the female Mandalorian said, introducing herself to Ezra as she looked at him with the corner of her eye, "My name's Sabine." Ezra smiled at her as she left the kitchen before he went to follow her, only for Chopper to stop him as he stood in front of him and grunted a disapproving response as Ezra crossed his arms as he smiled at the astromech before Chopper grunted another response.
"We have a new mission," Kanan told Sabine and Zeb as he and Hera stood in front of the holotable in the Ghost's common room with Hera having her left hand over her hip and Kanan having his arms crossed as Zeb and Sabine sat around the common room's holotable, "Vizago acquired the flight plan for an Imperial transport ship full of Wookiee prisoners."
"Most of these Wookiees were soldiers for the Old Republic," Hera added. "I owe those hairy beasts," Zeb stated, "They saved some of my people." "Mine, too," Hera muttered, agreeing with him.
"If we're going to save them, we've got a tight window," Kanan told them, "They've been taken to an unknown slave labor camp. If we don't intercept this ship, we'll never find them. Now, I have a plan, but..." They then heard a noise coming from the room's closet, causing them to look at it before Kanan walked towards it and clicked a button on it before it slid open to reveal Ezra inside of the closet before he fell to the floor with everyone staring at him as he got up and tried rushing back into the ship's ventilation system, only for Zeb to rush towards him before he grabbed him as he pulled back out of the ventilation system and threw him onto the floor.
"I ordered Chopper to keep watch!" Zeb said with anger as he looked at Ezra before Chopper rushed out of the kitchen with both of his metal arms out before Zeb growled at the Mandalorian, "Can we please get rid of him?"
"No. We can't," Sabine told the Lasat as she and Kanan stopped Zeb from walking towards Ezra as she placed her left hand in front of his chest with Kanan having his right hand in front of his chest as well with Ezra smiling at his fellow Mandalorian, "The kid knows too much, and besides he's a Mandalorian like me and seems to be the last member of his clan."
"We don't have time to take him back to Lothal anyway," Hera said as she helped Ezra up as Ezra looked irritated at Sabine from what she said before Zeb crossed his arms, "We need to move now." She then began walking towards the ship's cockpit as he looked at the rest of her crew with the corner of her eye, "I'll keep an eye on him."
"You know, this whole 'mission' thing is nuts," Ezra stated as he sat in the Ghost's co-pilot seat as the ship traveled through Hyperspace with him spinning the seat around in a circle, "I'm not against sticking it to the Empire, but there's no way I'd stick my neck out this far without my armor. Who does that?"
"We do," Hera answered as she clicked a button next to her on the cockpit's console before the ship suddenly jumped out of Hyperspace with Gozanti-class cruiser carrying four TIE fighters before Hera went to contact the cruiser with the Ghost's communications system, "Imperial Transport 651, this is Starbird, coming inbound."
"State your business," the captain of the Imperial cruiser requested on the Ghost's communications system.
"Bounty," Hera answered, "We captured an additional Wookiee prisoner and have transfer orders to place him with you."
"We have no such orders," the Imperial captain told her with confusion in his voice as the Gozanti-class cruiser deployed two TIE fighters to intercept them.
"That's fine. We already got paid by Governor Tarkin. If you don't want the oversized monong, I'll jettison here," Hera stated as she crossed her arms, "Let you explain to your superiors why the
Empire has one less slave."
"Permission to dock. Bay 1," the Gozanti-class cruiser relented as the Ghost began flying towards the Gozanti-class cruiser with the two TIE fighters following the VCX-100 light freighter as Hera smirked as she looked at Ezra before he looked out the ship's viewport.
As the Ghost docked with the Gozanti-class cruiser's airlock, two stormtroopers walked down the ship's airlock and approached the door to the Ghost as it slid open as they saw Kanan and Sabine, who had her helmet over her head with Zeb behind them as a prisoner, surprising them as Zeb didn't even look like a Wookiee.
"That thing's not a Wookiee," one of the stormtroopers stated.
"Haven't you ever seen a rare hairless Wookiee before?" Kanan explained before Zeb tried his best to imitate the sound of a Wookiee with his mouth, causing everyone to stare at him.
"Oh, forget it," Zeb muttered as he punched the stormtroopers in their helmets, knocking them out, "Told you they wouldn't buy it."
"You didn't exactly give 'em a chance to buy it," Sabine explained as she pulled out her WESTAR-35 that was painted silver and yellow along with her other WESTAR-35, which was painted blue and silver from her armor's holsters with Kanan doing the same with his DL-18 blaster pistol.
"Ah, there's just something about the feel of their helmets on my fists," Zeb chuckled as he placed his left hand behind his back before he clenched it into a fist.
"Okay, you know the plan. Move out," Kanan told them as he and Zeb ran in a different direction than Sabine and Chopper as the astromech appeared in the doorway behind the Lasat.
"No troopers. Security's soft," Kanan told Hera on the Ghost's communications system before it went static.
"Spectre-1, come in. Spectre-4? Spectre-5?" Hera said into the Ghost's communications system before groaning in frustration, "Comm's down. No, not down. Jammed."
"Something's coming," Ezra muttered to himself when suddenly a Star Destroyer, the Lawbringer, jumped out of Hyperspace nearby as it began to fly towards the Ghost and the Gozanti-class cruiser.
"That's an Imperial Star Destroyer!" Hera stated as she looked at the Lawbringer. "This whole thing was a setup!" Ezra realized as he looked at her.
"It's beginning to look that way," Hera said, agreeing with him as she clicked a few buttons on the cockpit's console before she and Ezra looked back at the Star Destroyer.
On board the Lawbringer, a squad of stormtroopers were walking down one of the Star Destroyer's corridors as an Imperial officer was running past them as Kallus approached them from the corridor's intersection with his ISB helmet in both of his hands with a J-19 bo-rifle strapped to his back.
"Prepare to board," Kallus ordered the stormtroopers before he placed his helmet back over his head and began walking down the corridor that he was walking down as they began to follow him down the corridor.
"You need to board the transport and warn them," Hera ordered Ezra as she looked at him. "What?" Ezra said with disbelief, "I'm not even wearing my armor. Why don't you do it?" "I need to be ready to take off, or none of us stands a chance," Hera explained.
"No, no way," Ezra protested, "Why would I risk my life for a bunch of strangers?"
"Because Kanan risked his for you," Hera answered, "And it's honorable for you Mandalorians. If all you do is fight for your own life and not your people or clan, then your life is worth nothing. They need you, Ezra. They need you right now."
Ezra looked at her as he began to think about what she said about his clan, people and most importantly Sabine as he looked down before looking out the Ghost's viewport as the Lawbringer began to hover over both the Ghost and the Gozanti-class cruiser as both ships began to be pulled towards its tractor beam.