"Ow! Fuck!" I cursed as I felt a stinging sensation in my thigh. Ahsoka and I were having one of our lessons in a hangar bay on Garel. Currently, I was blindfolded, my sabre at the ready, and a tiny training droid floating around me, sending shock bolts at me which I'm supposed to block. This is what we've spent the majority of the week doing since Ezra and I met Hondo.
"Remember, feel the Force flow within you." Ahsoka's voice sounded to the side, an edge of amusement in her tone. "It'll partially control your actions, but it'll obey your commands at the same time." She said as I took my stance again.
After a week, I'd managed to block most shots sent in my direction. With the Force, it was surprisingly uncomplicated to block blaster fire with a lightsaber. Ever since I got the Force, my reflexes, which were already decent to begin with, have been enhanced to the point where I can react quickly enough to block blaster fire, especially when you add the training from Ahsoka into the mix. And she was right. Not every move I made was completely of my own will. I had a similar feeling when I fought Vader. It's the Force keeping me alive, agile, and alert. Like the coolest caffeine high ever.
Unfortunately, blocking was all I was able to do thus far. Even if my blocking wasn't perfect, it was passable at the very least. I couldn't deflect the blasts in the right direction for shit. At least, not yet. That was proving far more difficult than simply blocking. Like the most fucked up game of baseball ever.
"Hah!" I grinned as I blocked a shot. I was able to block another three before that stupid thing nailed me in the chest. "Son of a bitch!" I snapped in frustration, sighing as I removed the blindfold.
"We really need to talk about your use of profanity." Ahsoka said dryly.
"I'm an Aussie in his 20s. It's basically a cultural requirement." I returned with a grin, getting an eye roll from the Togruta.
"Well, I suppose that's as good as we're going to do today." She decided, approaching. "Your blocking is progressing nicely. Next time, we'll focus on deflecting." She informed me. I nodded in response. "And you still have your heart set on Form VI?" She asked.
"I do." I confirmed with a nod. "Form I is good to have, but it's not enough, Form II is too showy and meticulous for me to effectively use it in time, and the same could be said for Form VII, Form III is too defensive, and Form IV, which I briefly considered, I decided wasn't defensive enough for me." I listed. "I chose Form VI because it's versatile nature and focus on Force powers would be well suited to me once I gain more mastery over the Force." I explained.
"That's very insightful of you." Ahsoka complimented me. "Although, I urge you to consider Form V as well. The defensive and offensive capabilities of the two variants have saved my life more times than I care to count." She told me.
"I was about to bring up that exact point." I noted. "Form V would be my second choice, and I was going to ask your opinion on learning it as well."
"No Jedi ever goes their entire career without learning more than one Form, not including Form I." She told me with a sage nod. "Forms V and VI are both highly effective lightsaber Forms, easy enough to learn, but hard to Master." She warned me.
"I understand." I nodded.
"We'll start tomorrow."
A couple of hours later, there was a mission taking place. A planet called Ibaar had been blockaded by the Empire, and the civilians were being worked to death by the Empire, and the rations they were given were less than sufficient. The mission was to break through the blockade and deliver food supplies to the people. If it wasn't done soon, the people would probably starve soon. We were in hyperspace, on our way to engage the blockade with a Blockade Runner, the Ghost, and a squadron of A-Wing fighters, when we received a call from a representative of the people we were helping.
"The Empire has cut our food rations, and doubled our workload. Without your food drop, the weakest among us will starve." The holographic form of the man said. He was definitely a man that sounded desperate.
"Stay strong my friend, we'll be there soon." Kanan assured him, sitting in the co-pilot's seat in the Ghost's cockpit.
"You have my deepest gratitude, Phoenix Squadron." The man said with a grateful bow as we came out of hyperspace, approaching the planet Ibaar. "Our underground network is *tandin* b* to d**tribut*..." The hologram fizzled and disappeared.
"The transmission is being jammed." Sabine announced from her place at the console on the left of the room. Chopper was at her side, Ezra sat behind Hera, and Zeb sat behind Kanan. With nowhere to sit myself, I just leaned against the wall beside the door.
"Looks like the Empire came out to welcome us." Hera remarked, her eyes narrowing as we approached the blockade.
"Attention Rebel convoy, this system is under Imperial control." A very familiar voice transmitted through the comms. "Surrender, or be destroyed." He warned.
"What a surprise, Agent Kallus." Zeb growled, an annoyed undertone in his voice. Right, that guy.
"So I assume he's a recurring adversary?" I asked.
"Pretty much. Persistent too, I'll give him that." Hera answered, opening her comm channel. "Phoenix Leader, are your pilots ready?" She asked.
"Ready as we'll ever be Captain Syndulla." Phoenix Leader responded. "All fighters, attack formation." He ordered the other fighters. At that point, a small group of A-Wings, three of them, I think, detached from the Blockade Runner and joined Phoenix Leader and the Ghost in front of the Runner. I had a sudden flashback to when I saw all those A-Wings and their pilots getting massacred by Vader in his TIE. Vader wasn't anywhere near, I would have felt him if he were, but the thought still unsettled me. I hope these guys fare better against regular TIE pilots than the others did against Vader.
"Handle those TIEs Phoenix Leader." Hera said over the comm as several of the H-shaped fighters approached. Huh, why are they called TIEs and not H-Wings I wonder? Anyway, with the battle approaching, the others hopped into battle stations, Zeb in the aft gun, which was just the Phantom's gun whilst it was attached to the Ghost, Ezra in the nose gun, which was the gun on the front of the Ghost, controls seated underneath the cockpit, and Kanan in the turret, on top of the Ghost.
"We'll cover you Ghost. Start your run." Phoenix Leader responded.
"Zeb, bandit at 270!" Hera called out to the Lasat.
"I see him!" Zeb responded, firing at the TIEs. "Karabast!" I guess he missed.
"Ezra, coming in at point 3! Kanan, two marks at 185!" Hera called out to the respective Jedi, who fired at their ordered marks.
As I watched the whole battle unfold, I got uneasy. The battle had already started, and already it didn't look good. Or maybe I was just being a cynical bastard like usual, but I did feel good about this fight. There were several Imperial cruisers and freighters forming that blockade, and all we had was the Ghost, a Blockade Runner, and a handful of fighters. All we really needed to do was destroy one of the ships blockading Ibaar to get the transport through, which sounded simple enough. Unfortunately, people have an unfortunate habit of forgetting that simple and easy are NOT the same thing.
And I was right. As the moments passed, the transport started taking heavy fire, more and more with each passing second. Hera ordered them to stay on course, which only prompted more fire to be focussed on them. Eventually, they lost their forward deflectors, and were obliterated in a matter of seconds. The last thing any of us heard from them were their screams of terror. I actually went weak at the knees when I felt the dozens of lives on that ship being blown out like small candles. I actually had to sit down to not fall over.
It occurred to me then just how unprepared I am for this galaxy. There's so much more violence and death here. Adding in the fact that I grew up in Australia, one of the safest countries on Earth with crime rates of virtually zero. I've been exposed to violence before, drunken idiots who wanted to prove their masculinity to whatever slag they were trying to pick up by punching out an antisocial teen like me, an indignant boyfriend who'd found out I'd slept with his girl, and dumb girls in the gym who were strong enough to punch me out when I said something they didn't like. But death was another story. The only person I'd known who died was my father, no one else. And his death was an accident.
Now, dozens of lives were snuffed out right in front of me, and I could feel each and every one. It was only made worse by the fact that I couldn't do anything. There was one more casualty though. Hera told all ships that remained to abort the mission, and we all turned to leave and make a jump to hyperspace. Unfortunately, one fighter was not fast enough to escape; Phoenix Leader took heavy fire from TIEs and did not survive. I felt that one too. And it was only moments before we got far enough away to plot hyperspace jumps.
A little while later, we'd returned to the fleet. Needless to say, Sato wasn't happy to know we were down one fighter and one Blockade Runner. I was sitting in the empty cockpit, staring off into space as I pondered the day's events. Phoenix Leader was gone, the transport destroyed, and the people of Ibaar were fading fast. Hera and Kanan were discussing what to do next with Sato and Rex back on the Liberator.
As I stared into the empty abyss of space, I felt my own emotions running all over the place. I was still feeling the effects of feeling all those lives get taken at once. On top of that, I was angry. Angry at the Empire for doing something like that, and angry at myself. Until today, I was still feeling the high of being in one of my favourite movies/series/games ever, and though I wasn't naive enough to believe it would be all fun and games, I hadn't really come to terms with the fact that those were real people dying out there. At least, not until right now.
This led to my feelings of motivation and determination. In my next lesson with Ahsoka, I was going to do better. I always knew what was at stake, but seeing it, and feeling it, firsthand has really broadened my perspective on what needs to be done. This, unfortunately, led to feelings of dread. Dread for when I took a life for the first time. I asked Sabine, and during my first shootout on Lothal, I'd hit a few troopers in the shoulders or legs, but I didn't kill anyone. If I continued, I'd end up killing someone soon. It was inevitable. Many were going to die at my hand in the next few years. The only question is whether or not I can handle it. I'm going to have to. If not, the corruption of the Dark Side may very well turn me into something like Vader.
When it came to Star Wars in a fictional sense, I've always been an advocate of the 'Grey Jedi' route. It just made so much sense. Light and darkness were in everyone, that's a fact of nature. No one individual is pure light or pure dark, and trying to dedicate oneself to only one side was foolish in my eyes. Sure, dedicating oneself to the Dark Side would be easier and quicker than trying to master the Light Side, but in recent days, I've not been the type to take the easy path. That being said, I don't believe that the Force is as black and white as the Jedi like to believe it is when talking about the Dark and Light Sides.
But, now that I'm actually here, could I be wrong? Could the Dark Side actually be as corruptive and addictive as the Jedi claim? If so, I'm going to have to be very careful with my emotions in the future. I don't want to end up like Vader, or Exar Kun, or Revan. If nothing else, I'll have to have an in-depth conversation about this with Kanan and Ahsoka in the future. Maybe I can learn to fly a ship and pay Yoda or Obi-wan a visit. Not for a long time though. I'll also have to branch out with my feelings and truly get a sense of what the Force truly is. At least, as best I can. It's probably impossible to get a full understanding of the Force as a whole.
"Lance?" A voice caught attention as the door to the cockpit opened. I turned the seat and saw Hera looking at me in curiosity.
"Oh, hey Hera." I greeted. "Sorry, I'm in your seat." I said, getting up and moving to the co-pilot's seat.
"No need to apologise." She said, taking her seat.
"So what's the verdict?" I asked as she punched in a few coordinates and got the Ghost ready to fly again.
"We're going to a planet called Shantipole, where I'm going to talk to a shipmaster named Quarrie about a new fighter for the Fleet." She explained. She seemed frustrated at the fact
"I sense a 'but' coming." I noted.
"Shantipole can be… tricky." She told me. Somehow, I got the sense she wasn't going to say any more, so I didn't pester her. "Are you doing alright? You seemed deep in thought." She said, looking at me.
"I was just thinking about Phoenix Leader, and the transport, and all the people on it." I said with a sigh, looking out the window again. Hera gave me an understanding look.
"I know it's hard." She told me empathetically. "No one's ever truly prepared to face death. The only thing we can do is move forward." She said sincerely. It was times like these that I could really see how strong a person Hera was. Not just her, but everyone on the Ghost really.
"I understand that, and I agree, but then I start thinking about when I'll eventually have to take a life." I said with a deep sigh, resting an elbow on my knee and resting my head on my fist. "How am I going to react when I kill someone?" I asked softly.
"I'm not going to say you can avoid it. We find ourselves in 'kill or be killed' situations far more than I'd like." Hera said honestly. "I don't have a definitive answer for you Lance. All I can say is that we have a job to do, and if we let our own fears get the better of us, the Empire wins." She said, disengaging the Ghost from the Blockade Runner. With one more depressed sigh, I stared outside of the window as we jumped to Hyperspace.
In less than an hour, we'd arrived at the planet Shantipole, and Hera gave a brief rundown of the mission to the crew. She, myself, Zeb, and Sabine would head down to Shantipole in the Phantom to get the ship from Rex's old contact; the shipmaster Hera mentioned. While we're doing that, Kanan, Ezra, and Rex would take the Ghost to pick up the supplies for the next run, and hope we get back with the new ship in time.
Hera and Kanan had a little exchange before we left that just made me think they looked like a married couple again before I followed Zeb and Sabine up the ladder. As I made it up to the Phantom, I caught sight of the planet Shantipole, or at least what I thought was Shantipole, and couldn't help but admire it. It was beautiful in it's own way. It reminded me of Saturn in a way, but without the rings. Although Saturn's pattern wasn't as conspicuous as this one.
"Enjoying the view?" Sabine asked in amusement as she saw me staring. I shook my head and sat down on one of the back seats, opposite the Mando.
"It looks a lot like Saturn, one of the planets in my solar system." I said, surprising her.
"It does?"
"It does." I nodded. "Although, Saturn has a belt of countless water and rock particles orbiting it." I noted as Hera entered the Phantom, frustration evident on her face. With nary a word, she expertly slipped the Phantom out of the docking bay and we were headed down to Shantipole. I suddenly remembered how Ezra forgot to release the shuttle before flying it when he took it for our adventure. Hera made us clean the whole thing, buff out the scrape marks on the docking bay, and run a full diagnostic on the thing. Admittedly, that gave me some insight to how the Phantom works, so it wasn't a terrible thing. Plus, Ezra had to do more than me. I warned him I'd throw him under the bus, and I did. Hera was gentle with me.
"So, I did some research on why it's so difficult to land here." Hera announced as we entered the atmosphere.
"You mentioned Shantipole can be 'tricky' I believe." I recalled.
"The upper atmosphere specifically." She confirmed.
"Tricky how?" Sabine asked hesitantly. She was not liking this, and neither was I.
"You can get through it, but your craft never seems to maintain its power." Hera said, making Sabine and I freeze.
"Wait, what does that mean? I don't know what that means!" Zeb started to panic at Hera's answer.
"It means buckle up!" I said loudly.
"No power, no flying, just falling!" Sabine said in realisation.
"What!? Why didn't you tell me before I got aboard?!" Zeb demanded of the pilot, who looked ready for some serious flying. Or falling. With style(Heh.)
"You wouldn't have come." She shot back.
"Damn right I wouldn't have!" I snapped. In hindsight, I really should have seen this coming. "Why doesn't this thing have any fucking seatbelts?!" I shouted in a panic, finding just that; no seatbelts.
"Language!"
"Not now Hera!" I snapped. Sure enough, as we flew downwards through the clouds of Shantipole, the Phantom was struck by lightning, giving the ship a slight jolt, and making the power shut off. Sabine and I both hit our heads on the walls of the ship behind us, and Zeb had a death grip on his seat.
Once we'd gotten through the clouds, several tall, natural pillars of rock, not too different from the ones on Lothal, could be seen in our path. Hera immediately banked to the side, dodging the power relatively successfully, but it caused the three of us in the back to smash against the sides again. As I opened my eyes, I noticed my hair, Sabine's hair, and Hera's lekku were all pointing upwards. The Phantom was upside down. Why were we not falling to the roof though? The Phantom's artificial gravity? But if that's the case, why was our hair standing up? God, this is confusing…
Hera was able to stabilise the Phantom again, and keep us in a relatively straight glide towards our destination. She manoeuvred us through several more pillars, but something caught my attention; a large metal object that seemed to have crashed and lodged itself in one of said pillars. It was also disturbingly ship-shaped. Oh, that does not bode well…
"Was that a ship? That was a ship!" Zeb shouted in a panic as he saw the object lodged in the pillar.
"That was your imagination!" Hera shouted in response.
"No, it was definitely a ship!" I shouted in support of Zeb.
As we glided, Hera was just barely able to keep us from crashing into another pillar, but the wing did scrape against it, causing another jolt and shake of the Phantom. We all would have crashed to the ground if it wasn't for Hera's speedy compensation.
"There! The landing field!" Hera called out to all of us.
"Is that your imagination!?" Zen almost snarled at the woman.
"Let's hope not!" Hera shot back, bringing us in. "Brace for landing!"
As we approached the landing field, we all braced ourselves for impact. Zeb was gripping his seat so hard I was surprised it didn't snap under his claws. Not that I was any better, mind you. Within seconds, the Phantom impacted with the landing platform and skids along the surface, the sound of metal scraping against metal could be heard resounding outside of the Phantom. A bump in the surface caused us all to jump in our seats. Zen hit his head, Sabine slammed on the wall again, and I was flung to the ground as the Ship started to come to a stop.
I could feel the Phantom leaning forward over the edge as I sat up.
"Ugh, am I dead? I don't smell dead…" Zeb said as he stood up, a hand on his head as he walked over to Hera.
Bad move. Zeb, being larger than all of us, weighed a lot more than the rest of us, and that weight caused the Phantom to lean forward even more. Hera, ever alert to the situation, immediately screamed at the Lasat to get to the back of the ship, along with the rest of us. It looked like the ship was just about to fall over when something suddenly seemed to grab it and pull it back. This caused us all to fall out of the Phantom's door as it opened.
"Ugh…" I groaned as I opened my eyes. I could feel a weight on my torso, and the orange armour coupled with the blue hair gave away just who it was I could feel crushing my stomach. "Everyone alright?" I asked as they all lifted their heads. Three answers that sounded like 'mostly' responded as Sabine looked down and saw who she was lying on top of. "Was it good for you? Cause it was good for me." I said wryly. This earned me a glare from the Mando, who punched me in the chest in response. "Ahahah-ow!" I whined as I felt her armoured knuckles hit my chest.
"Ass." She said as she stood up, looking down at me.
"What is in that armour?!" I demanded, getting a smirk as she helped me up. The other two also stood up.
"Who are you?" A new voice asked. We all faced the direction of the voice, finding a short, orange fish-like alien standing there, looking at us. He was the same species as Admiral Ackbar, though he was shorter. Behind him was some kind of construction vehicle that was being driven by a small astromech droid. It had a cable attached to the Phantom, so it wasn't hard to see that that was what was pulling us up.
"You're Quarrie, right?" Hera asked of the fish-guy, approaching. "Captain Rex sent us."
"Ah, you're here about my ship." Quarrie said with a grin. That was a man proud of his work right there.
Hera caught sight of the Phantom being pulled and gave a small sigh. "Any landing you can walk away from is a good one." She said, dusting off her arms.
"Even crash landings?" I asked sourly, dusting myself off.
"I don't crash." Hera said, narrowing her eyes at me warningly. "I just have very excited landings." She humphed. Yeah, sure.
"You can still fly after a good landing." Quarrie piped in, looking over the Phantom with a scoff.
"Yeah, but you know this is a terrible place for ships." Hera defended herself weakly.
"But it's the perfect place to test them." Quarrie returned, almost smugly. "If it can fly here, it can fly anywhere." He had a good point there. "It's also the last place the Empire would look. Now come, let's get out of this wind." He said, turning and walking. Without little else to do in response, we followed after him.
Quarrie led us to what looked like a hangar, which made sense given his profession. The ship was probably in there. I was wondering if this might be where the X-Wing fighter comes into play in the Rebellion, but I squashed that idea. I think the X-Wings were manufactured by a ship company on Corellia, not an independent ship master like Quarrie. At least I think so.
"Sorry, for the mess, I don't get many visitors. Most of them crash." Quarrie said as he pushed the door to the hangar open, allowing us in. "There she is." he said proudly as he led us inside. "I call it the Blade-Wing." he told us, his voice carrying a majestic and proud undertone.
The ship was… strange, to say the least. It was long, thin, and triangular, almost like a straight boomerang sitting on the ground on it's flat side. On each side there was a sitting station, presumably one for piloting, and one for shooting, and on both flat sides, one on top, and one on the bottom, there were wings folded down to be parallel to the horizontal body, each with a blaster cannon at the end. It was painted a dull shade of red-orange.
"Uh, that's a ship?" Zeb asked, confused. "Is it upside down?"
"Looks like it's been through a garbage masher." Sabine remarked, unimpressed.
"I know it looks weird, but is it really that bad?" I asked, not sure what to think of the strange fighter. "I mean, even I know it looks weird, but it seems OK to me. Though, that might just be me being biassed given my circumstances." I said thoughtfully.
"It's one of my most advanced designs." Quarrie defended his creation. "It's fast, agile, has a narrow attack profile, and it packs a punch." he said proudly. "High intensity blasters, ion cannons, and proton torpedoes." I was reminded of the day I bought my first car. Quarrie sounded a lot like the guy who sold me the device.
"Great, I can't wait to take it out. The Fleet really needs this." Hera said, looking over the machine in excitement. Seemed she saw past the unusual shape of the fighter.
"The Fleet eh?" Quarrie asked with a frown. "What makes you think she's yours just for the taking?" He asked, giving Hera the stink eye before waddling off past her.
"Did he really bring us all the way here just to tell us we can't use his ship?" I asked, my eye twitching in annoyance.
"Apparently." Sabine sighed in frustration.
"Day's not over yet." hera said, not one to give up easily. Sabine gave a nod of agreement. "But, in the meantime, let's just see how damaged the Phantom is." The Twi'lek decided.
The droid who was driving that construction vehicle-looking thing earlier had brought the Phantom closer to the hangar, which meant we wouldn't have to work on it at the edge of the platform. I was infinitely grateful for that, as I didn't want to stress myself out thinking about how Hera or Sabine might fall over the edge at any minute. No way would I be willing to do anything that close a fucking cliff. I'm not usually afraid of heights, but on this planet, I want my feet planted firmly on solid ground, thanks.
"I can't believe that old carp isn't going to let you fly his ship." Zeb grumbled from the side as Hera inspected the Phantom. "If you ask me, he's been out of the water too long." he huffed.
"Wouldn't calling him a carp or fish of any kind be considered politically incorrect?" I asked the Lasat, who looked at me with a confused look. "Racist Zeb, racist." I said with a sigh.
"He's a Mon Calamari." Hera told me. "And calling them fish isn't nice, but no one would consider that racist." She explained.
"Good to know." I nodded. "I've been worried about saying something I shouldn't for a little while now." I admitted.
"Eh, you've been doing well. Just don't call any non-humans alien again." Zeb told me with a nudge to my shoulder. During my first days here, I was talking with Zeb and Ezra and mentioned the word 'alien.' Thankfully, Zeb didn't take offence, understanding that I was from a planet primitive compared to the larger galaxy, and explained that the word 'alien' is considered racist. It's basically a declaration that one considers their own race superior to the others.
"Duly noted." I returned with an amused shake of my head. "How's the Phantom Hera?" I asked.
"Gonna need more than the spare parts we have to fix it." She said with an annoyed sigh.
"And more good news." Sabine announced, stepping outside of the shuttle. "Our comm system's fried. We can't contact the Ghost."
"Well fan-fucking-tastic, we're stuck here." I grumbled, pinching the bridge of my nose.
"For once, I'll let one slide." Hera said with an equally frustrated sigh.
"Does any mission ever get accomplished with you people without any complications?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"We can count'em on one hand." Zeb answered as Quarrie approached, pushing a hover cart with tools, parts, and the like on it.
"I noticed your aft stabilisers were cracked. What else do you need?" he asked. So he's willing to help us repair the Phantom, but not use his ship. How kind of him.
"A power bust relays, flux converters, some plasma conduits?" She listed off the top of her head.
"BG will get you sorted." He gestured to the small astromech he had with him, who whistled in acknowledgement.
"Thank you…" Hera said, looking at the droid as it rolled off, Sabine and Zeb following to help carry everything. "Look, if I don't fly your ship, who will?" She asked the Mon Calamari.
"I've waited a long time for the right pilot; I can wait longer." he responded, walking off.
"Is there any way, shape, or form in which I can be useful right now?" I asked dully as Hera continued her work.
"Can you fix broken aft stabilisers or flux converters?" She asked, equally dull and knowing the answer.
"Sorry, no." I replied with a laugh. "If this was an internal combustion engine like back home, I'd be your guy. Something this advanced is well above my paygrade."
"Paygrade… does that mean you worked with engines?" She asked in curiosity.
"Part-time, yeah." I nodded. "My neighbour owned his own auto-shop. Since I was University student, he gave me a part-time position. Sometimes I'd just man the cash register at the store area where he sold parts and tools, other days I'd help fix the cars that came in." I shrugged. "It was a lot more engaging than waiting tables or mixing drinks, let me tell you." I said wryly.
"I can imagine." Hera agreed in amusement. "Well, next time the ghost needs repairs or a check-up, I'd be happy to show you the ropes." She offered.
"I'd appreciate that." I nodded in gratitude. "Starship repairs, Binary, Force powers, and lightsaber combat…" I listed with my fingers. "If and when I get back to Earth, I'm gonna have one hell of a resume." I quipped, getting a smile from the pilot. "Speaking of, I'm gonna kill time with my sabre. Holler if you need me." I told her.
"Will do." She responded as I walked off.
"Feel the Force flow within you…" Ahsoka's voice resounded as I took my ready stance for Form I, my eyes closed in concentration and my sabre at the ready.
As I opened my eyes, I started the forms. First, a downward vertical strike to form 1, then a horizontal cut to form 2, reversing the cut to form 3, a wide wrapping technique used to burn one's opponent to form 4, transitioning into a diagonal downward cut to form 5, and finally inversing the downward cut to form 6, then returning to the ready stance.
Immediately, I moved into the defensive forms.
A high block, defending to form 1, an outside block, defending form 2, reversing the outside block, defending form 3, a wing block, that being the blade over my shoulder, defending form 4, a downward block to form 5, and reversing the downward block to form 6, before returning to the ready stance.
I relaxed and sighed. Altogether, that took me 17 seconds to get through both the defensive and offensive forms of Form I, which wasn't good enough. Ahsoka said that, on average, a person skilled in Shii-cho can do all twelve forms perfectly in 10 seconds or less. I can get through them all in 10 seconds, no problem, but that results in sloppy work and clumsy movement.
"Wow." A familiar voice said to the side. I turned and saw Sabine giving me an impressed look. "You've been practising for around a month, and you already look like a Jedi." She told me, approaching. "Well, with a red blade." She noted, looking at the weapon in my hand.
"Thank you, but I still have a long way to go." I said, clipping the blade to my belt. "I'm more used to this." I said removing my staff from the magnetic strip on the back of my belt. With a flip, I extended the staff, flying through a few basic movements with it to demonstrate to the Mando.
"Well, that style isn't like anything I've ever seen." she admitted, looking around. Something caught her attention, and she smirked. She took a few steps towards a heap of scrap metal and picked up a metal pole. It looked like some kind of beam or something that had snapped. Maybe it was the barrel for a ship's blaster in a previous prototype of Quarrie's. Point is, it was about as long as my staff, give or take a few centimetres, and about as thick as my lightsaber. With a smirk, Sabine approached and took a stance. "Show me what you've got Caveman." She said, using that infernal nickname Chopper had come up with.
"Oh, you're in for it now." I smirked, taking my own stance.
Sabine made the first move. I could tell she was being careful, trying to gauge my skills as she started with very basic attacks. First, a downward swipe of her 'staff.' I blocked it easily enough, and pulled back into a spin, jabbing her in the side, and then spinning around again and jabbing her in the other side before she could react. This threw her off balance, and allowed me to kick her in the stomach, sending her backwards. She fell, but compensated with her arms and pushed off into a backflip, landing safely.
"Alright, full disclosure, I can't do what you just did." I told her honestly as we both readied our stances again.
"Good to know." She told me, smirking challengingly. This time, I attacked first. I did a simple step-and-slide, jabbing my staff forward, an attack that Sabine easily deflected with her own weapon, and made to swing her staff at me again, this time with more power and finesse. It seemed she wasn't going to gauge my skill anymore, and decided to just go with the fight. I dodged that attack with a backwards step-and-slide, forcing Sabine to come closer if she wanted to hit me, which she did.
We exchanged a couple of blows before I went for her legs with a sweep of my staff. She jumped over the attack and brought her weapon down, which I deflected with a swipe of my own. The force of my attack, coupled with the fact that she was still a few centimetres off the ground when I hit her, sent her rolling to the side. She got back to her feet easily enough, ready for another strike.
This time, I went to her. With my grip on the centre area of my staff, I swiped at her with one side, which she blocked, and then switched to the other end of my weapon, which rolled under. It seemed she wasn't going to fall for that a second time. The roll actually allowed her to jab me in the side with her weapon, which wasn't sharp thankfully, and I responded with a roundhouse kick, which she blocked with her weapon. She then took the opportunity to push my leg away, which stumbled my balance. I caught myself by planting my staff in the ground, an opportunity that Sabine took to strike. With my enhanced reflexes I was able to grab her weapon in the middle of her attack, surprising her. I yanked on the pole, bringing her with it, and sending her behind me, giving me enough time to pull my staff from the ground and ready my stance again.
"OK, it's on now." Sabine said with a smirk, balancing herself out.
"Karabast! What happened to the two of you?" Zeb asked in shock as Sabine and I walked back to join the others. Sabine was sporting a black eye, a bruise on her collar, and a scrape to her side, where the full body suit she wore was torn. I had a bloody nose, not broken thankfully, a light limp from when Sabine hit my shin, and a swollen lip.
"We decided to pass the time with a light spare." Sabine said with a shrug.
"Light spare?" Hera asked incredulously as she looked us over, like a worried Mum who saw their child trip in the park.
"Yeah, we may have gotten a bit carried away." I admitted sheepishly, giving a slight hiss of pain as Hera touched a bruise on my side. "But that's not important right now. I take it Quarrie changed his mind?" I noted the helmet Hera was wearing now, as well as the Blade-Wing being prepped for movement by BG.
"He did." Hera smiled, relieved that we weren't seriously injured. "BG is bringing it out right now." She said as a platform inside the hangar started extending out the door, bringing the B-Wing with it. Hera took the opportunity to hop into the cockpit as the platform stopped, allowing her in. Once she was secure inside, the cockpit closed and the platform continued until the entire B-Wing was out, the cockpit side just barely hanging over the cliff edge as Sabine, Zeb, Quarrie, and I stood just outside of the hangar's entrance.
"You're lucky to have her as your pilot." Zeb told the Mon Calamari, a frown present on his face. He still wasn't happy with how things went earlier.
"How many times have you flown it?" Sabine asked him.
"Me? Oh, I don't fly. Too dangerous." Quarrie said as he turned to face us. "But, theoretically, it should fly!" He declared.
"Theoretically?" The three of us all exclaimed in shocked unison.
"Better to be down here, wishing I was up there, than up there, crashing down here!" Quarrie said with a crazy laugh that almost reminded me of Gregor.
"Are you fucking kidding me!?" I demanded angrily.
"If that ship crashes, I'll toss you over the edge and see how well you fly!" Zeb snarled at the fish themed alien. Sabine, although clearly as upset with the development as we were, remained calm enough to hold the Lasat back from hurting Quarrie, which I had mixed feelings about.
Hera, who had finished prepping the ship for flight, was oblivious to the development, and the B-Wing looked ready to take off, so it was too late to stop now. With one last flick of a switch, the B-Wing took off. For a second, it looked like everything was fine. Then, right as Hera curved the ship upwards to gain altitude, the ship stalled, like a car when one releases the clutch too fast, and plummeted down.
"HERA!" The three of us screamed and ran right over to the edge of the cliff, looking downwards for any sign of the pilot. Seconds later, the B-Wing zoomed upwards, eliciting cheers from the three of us as the wings on the flat sides opened up, and the entire ship tilted 90 degrees. It almost looked like a flying cross now.
Immediately, we all followed Quarrie to his observation tower, which allowed for a much better view of Hera testing out the new ship. The room was a bit cluttered and untidy, but not nearly as much as the other areas. From the windows, which might I add, didn't have any glass, we could see Hera flying the ship. Flying, and spinning, and twirling, and manoeuvring through all those pillars, and cruising alongside the local wildlife. She even free-fell in the beginning before taking off again at just the right moment.
What a show off…
Not that I wouldn't do the same, mind you.
"Masterful…" Quarrie whispered in awe as he watched Hera pilot his ship right past the tower. With the lack of any glass in the windows, the backlash of wind soared right through. Every follicle of hair in the room, mine, Sabine's, and even Zeb's fur whipped around violently in response.
"Commencing weapons test." Hera said over the comm as the ship approached another one of those crashed ships lodged into a pillar. As she approached, the Blade-Wing fired at the long-crashed ship with the lasers at it's left and right. Bits and pieces flew right off, sure, so it definitely did some damage, but it wasn't all that impressive as far as blaster fire is concerned. "I was kind of hoping your ship would pack more of a punch Quarrie…" Hera voiced my thoughts.
"Did you pull the big lever on the right?" Quarrie asked with a smirk.
"No…" Hera responded.
"Try again." Quarrie said with an expectant smile.
Hera, per Quarrie's instructions, brought the ship around in a vertical circle, once more headed directly towards the crashed ship she fired upon. This time, four red lasers shot out of each end of the ship, and collided in four diagonal lines, before firing in one massive laser at the ship, utterly obliterating it. My heart actually skipped a beat when I saw how similar that laser was to the Death Star. Zeb and Sabine just stared in awe, whilst Quarrie whooped for joy at the successful test.
With that done, Hera brought the B-Wing back to the platform and landed it smoothly. We were all approaching as she climbed out, a massive smile on her face.
"Well, your ship certainly has the fire power we need, but the targeting system could use some work." She told the shipmaster honestly as he approached, still looking a little giddy.
"I've got some ideas." Sabine said, approaching.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Quarrie stopped her with a peeved look on his face. "That's my ship young one." he told her sternly.
"Never get between a Mandalorian and a weapons package." The girl warned the shipmaster, her eyes narrow. "A lesson you should learn too." She shot at me.
"Hey, when the weapons package in question belongs to me, nobody is going to touch it without my express permission." I shot back, bringing up my staff, which she tried to take after our spar earlier to inspect it. "And anyone who tries, Mandalorian or otherwise, can suck it." I added, getting a warning look from her. I didn't back down.
Before anything else could be said, BG rolled up to Hera and gave her a few whistles and beeps, turning his head to face the Phantom, which had what sounded like a beeping ringtone coming from it. The comm.
"It's Kanan. He'll want to know of our success." Hera said as she removed her helmet and passed it to Zeb before jogging on over to the shuttle.
"I thought the coms were fried?" I asked in confusion.
"I fixed it before our spar." Sabine informed me with a shrug.
"Ah."
Moments later, whilst Zeb and I were helping Quarrie move some equipment in these relatively heavy crates, Hera emerged from the Phantom, looking distressed and anxious.
"We need to get moving, the second attack is about to commence." She said hurriedly.
"Well, we've got another problem." Sabine spoke up. She and Quarrie had been inspecting the B-Wing, much to his reluctance, but he didn't put up much of a fight. "The energy drain from the multi-cannon firing system killed the hyperdrive." She reported.
"Ugh, in basic please." Zeb said with an annoyed sigh.
"Seriously?" I asked the Lasat in surprise as I set the crate I was holding on the hover-cart. "Zeb, that's the second time today I've understood something that you didn't, and I'm not even from this galaxy." I pointed out.
"OK, what does it mean then, smart guy?" Zeb shot back.
"It means that using that giant laser sucked up so much power that the hyperdrive doesn't work." I said, turning to Sabine with an expectant look.
"Exactly." She confirmed, getting an indignant huff from Zeb. "The weapons work, but we've got no light speed."
"Well, that has been a problem." Quarrie spoke up, scratching the side of his head.
"Seriously?" I snapped at the fish, who's withholding of significant information was starting to get annoying. "You didn't think to mention that before?"
"Well what do you expect from a prototype?" The shipmaster returned defensively. "There are all sorts of adjustments that need to be made." He sighed. "For instance, I don't even like this paint job so much."
Zeb growled at Quarrie in anger. "Come here Fish-face." he said as he tossed the crate he was holding to the side and grabbed Quarrie. "I wanna see how well you fly!" He bore his teeth at the engineer.
"Hang on, hand on Zeb! Easy!" Hera snapped at the Lasat, who humphed before dropping the small man. Literally, he dropped Quarrie onto the cart with the crates. "There must be a way to solve this."
"It's a shame I had BG install that other hyperdrive on the Phantom." Quarrie said as he sat up.
"You what?!" Hera asked in shock, her eyes wide.
"I don't like seeing a ship that can't fly." He admitted. "And if you don't have a hyperdrive, you can't fly far." he said with a sigh.
"You crazy, beautiful Mon Calamari you!" Hera exclaimed happily as she hugged Quarrie out of nowhere, much to his surprise. "That's the answer to our problem." She grinned widely as she got to work.
"What's gotten into her?" I asked the other two, who shrugged.
So the solution Hera was so excited about was actually fucking genius, but incredibly simple at the same time. With the new hyperdrive installed on the Phantom, we could use it to get to Ibaar, where the attack was taking place as we speak. With that in mind, Hera and Sabine got into the B-Wing, in the pilot and blaster seats respectively, whilst Quarrie, Zeb, and myself got into the Phantom. We then hovered the Phantom over the B-Wing, and magnetised it to the bottom. Now, when the Phantom jumped into hyperspace, the B-wing would jump with it. Like I said, simple, but ingenious.
BG had also inserted himself into the astromech slot that was now on top of the Phantom. When I asked what the exact purpose of it was, Hera explained, very quickly, that smaller ships like shuttles and fighters don't usually have the computing power necessary to plot hyperspace jumps. I actually didn't know that. Maybe it was because I didn't always pay attention when watching TV, maybe it was because my memory, whilst really good, wasn't perfect. Doctors actually told me I was just short of a photographic memory. Wonder how that works?
Digression aside, we were travelling through hyperspace, on our way to Ibaar. We were just a few minutes away when we picked up on the Rebel comm frequency.
"I'm gonna swing by and try for another direction!" Kanan called out into the comm to the other ships. Right, the Ghost was carrying the supplies rather than a different transport, because it's harder to target, and by extension, harder to destroy.
"Stay on course, Ghost." Hera spoke into the comms quickly. "I'll knock that cruiser out of your way." It was at the very second that Hera finished her sentence that we exited hyperspace, seeing the battle ensuing before us. "Turn me loose Phantom." She told Zeb, who was piloting.
"Say hello to Agent Kallus for me." Zeb said with a grin as he pressed a button, letting the B-wing loose.
"Oh, we will. If there's anything left of him." Sabine responded from the blaster seat of the B-Wing as the wings unfolded and it twisted again, looking like a flying cross. Hm, maybe Cross-Wing would be a better name. C-Wing?
What followed was an impressively quick battle. Hera called out to all the Rebel ships to give her some space, which allowed her to do her thing. She dodged a few blasts from the Imperial cruisers before moving into attack position on the right side of the lead ship, left from where we were observing. Once they were close enough, Sabine fired that multi-cannon Death Star-esque laser at the ship on the left, destroying it with two blasts. This allowed the Rebel ships, and the Ghost, to break through the blockade and deliver the supplies.
We could hear the cheers from the Rebels over the comm as the orange explosions decorated the silver and grey surface of the Imperial ship. I, however, was not cheering. Again, I could feel every individual life being snuffed out on that ship. It wasn't as serious this time, maybe because there were less people in the ship, or maybe it was because they were the enemy, but the experience was… dulled, this time. I didn't like it any more than the first time though.
"Kid? You alright?" Zeb's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry." I said, shaking my head. "What were you saying?" I asked, noticing Quarrie dancing for joy at the monumental success of his design.
"I said maybe that ship wasn't a hunk of junk after all… You sure you're alright?" He asked, his doubt evident on his face.
"Yeah, I just got distracted." I said assuredly. "And no, it's not junk. I do agree it needs a better paint job though… maybe a shiny cherry red." I suggested. "And stop calling me kid." I added with narrow eyes.
"Yeah, like that's gonna happen." Zeb said with a roll of his eyes.
"We have confirmation that the drop was successful. Let's go home, Phoenix Squadron." Sato announced through the comm. As the B-Wing approached the Phantom, with BG getting us ready for a hyperspace jump, Hera and Quarrie shared a meaningful look through the windows of the B-Wing and the Phantom before we finally jumped to Hyperspace.
"Whoa, what happened to you two?" Ezra asked with wide eyes as he saw Sabine and I all roughed up once we were all back on the Ghost, docked onto the Liberator.
"We got into a little sparring match." Sabine said with a casual shrug.
"Little?" Kanan asked doubtfully, looking at us.
"From what I've seen, this is little by Mandalorian standards." I drawled as I leaned against the wall of the Ghost's lounge.
"He's not wrong. We could have done some real damage to each other if we really tried." Sabine admitted, as if what she was saying was completely normal and not something that needs to be worried over.
"Plus, I now know that I can fight on par with some Mandalorian warriors, so there's a boost to my ego." I quipped with a grin.
"Maybe, I said maybe." Sabine reminded me, getting a childish grin in response. At that moment, Commander Sato walked in, his hands behind his back, professional as ever, though with a very pleased look on his face.
"It appears Senator Organa has found a shipworks sympathetic to our cause." he said, straight to the point. "And willing to manufacture more of these B-Wings in secret?" He not so subtly asked of the Mon Calamari, who was also present.
"Project Shantipole will continue under my supervision." Quarrie confirmed, though not without an edge of smugness. "There are all sorts of adjustments that need to be made." He declared, like a man ready for a big project. Which he was.
"Quarrie, thanks to you, and your ship, we helped many people today." Hera said to the shipmaster gratefully.
"I just hammered it together, young pilot." Quarrie shook his head. "You made it soar." He said, waddling off to Sato's ship with BG.
"Your heroics are unparalleled, Captain Syndulla." Sato said to the pilot once the shipmaster was gone. "That is why I agree with Kanan's suggestion." He said.
"Your recommendation?" Hera asked, turning her attention to the Jedi, who was smirking at her. "What have you done now?" She asked, a note of exasperation present.
"Just listen to the Commander." Kanan said slyly, leaning against the wall, seemingly very pleased with himself.
"You are to be promoted to Phoenix Leader." Commander Sato told the Twi'lek, much to her shock. Much to everyone's shock. "I'm sure our fighter pilots will benefit greatly from your expertise."
With that, the Commander saluted the newly promoted Phoenix Leader, who was staring at him dumbfounded. Everyone else followed suit, saluting the pilot, so I figured I should probably do the same. Hera's shocked expression soon morphed into a happy smile.
"Good job, Captain Hera." Kanan said, giving his friend a two-fingered salute.
Hera's smile never waivered, and she returned the salute to everyone.
SURPRISE DOUBLE UPLOAD!
