Outerspace, Above the Planet Lothal.
The Ship jumped out of Hyperspace and sped towards Lothal, Inside the cockpit, Zeb dragged the boy, Ezra along as he squirmed out of his grasp.
"Hey! Let me Go!" He shouted. "You can't keep me here, take me back to Lothal!"
"Calm down, that's exactly what we're doing." Said Hera.
"Wait, right now?!" Asked Ezra alarmed. "With imperials chasing us?"
"We lost the TIE Fighters when we made the Jump to Hyper-space." Said Hera as she flipped a few switches. "Plus the ghost can scramble it's signature so they won't recognize us when we return."
"Oh that's pretty cool." Said Ezra amazed. "So just drop me and my blasters outside capital city and-"
He was cut off by Sabine and Kanan entering the room from behind him. "They're not your blasters." Said Sabine.
"And we're not going back to capital city." Said Kanan. "Jobs not done."
"Job?" Asked Ezra.
The Ghost quickly entered the planet's atmosphere and found a place to land far into the greasy planes of Lothal, Specialty on top of a hill overlooking what looked like to Ezra a small run down hamlet.
The rest of the crew, minus Chopper, came out of the ghost with the crates,Zeb and Sabine pushed three of them down the hill, While Kanan and Hera went the other way with a forth crate.
"Where are they going?" Asked Ezra.
"If I told you I'd have to kill ya." Said Zeb. "Oh and I might just kill ya."
"Grab a crate, Pull your weight." Said Sabine, As they headed down hill.
Ezra followed soon after, Took a crate from Zeb and followed them into the Hamlet, All around them, Ezra could see poor starving beings sitting outside their shelters miserably.
"I've lived on Lothal my whole life." He said. "And I've never been out here before."
"That's because the imperials don't advertise it." Said Sabine.
"The Locals call it Tarkin Town." Said Zeb.
"Named for Grand Moff Tarkin, Governor of the outer rim." Said Sabine with disdain. "He kicked these poor folks off their farms when the empire wanted their land."
"Any who tried to fight back, got arrested for treason." Finished Zeb.
As the morning sky began to turn blue, They stopped in the center of the town and Zeb called out.
"Oy, People! Who wants free grub!" He called out, As she and Sabine opened the crate and handed out food to a growing crowd around them, One Rodian took a fruit and looked at Ezra.
"Thank you." He said. "Thank you so much." And he went off to share it with his family.
Ezra was stunned. "What? I… I didn't do anything…"
He watched as Sabine and Zeb handed food out to the rest of the people, Before walking off with a lot to think about.
Imperial shipyard, Nar Shaddaa.
The Factory had seemed much smaller than it looked from a distance, But that mattered little to Starkiller as Juno steered the ship quickly through the various starfighters zooming through each other.
The Main belligerents consisted of an old, Heavily modified Venator Star Destroyer, followed by a pair of CR90 Blockade Runners, and several old fashioned Fighters and bombers made short work of the meager defenses of the Imperials, Mostly the TIE Fighters and Defense Satellites that were completed.
The Rogue Shadow slowed down as it looked for cover from the battle, eventually Starkiller spotted a small cargo hanger nearby. "There!" He ordered. "I can enter from there."
"It's still defended." Said Juno.
"We don't have time to worry about security measures." Starkiller snapped.
"I'll land us there." Said Juno, pointing to a set of debris nearby. "It will keep the rogue shadow out of firing range while you attend to your mission. The on board scanners should be able to track your movements through the infrastructure and I will provide any intelligence I can."
"Good, See to it." Said Starkiller as he got up and went to the air hatch. "And just keep the ship safe for when I get back."
"Will do." Said Juno as she steered the Rogue Shadow into position.
In the back, Starkiller put on an air-mask as he stepped towards the air hatch, PROXY stood by at the controls to open it.
"You don't intend to die out there, do you Master?" He asked. "I still have yet to fulfill my programming."
"Don't get disappointed." Said Starkiller as the hatch opened and he jumped out, Starkiller dived through Space, Descending into the hanger, A small area jutted out next to it, He drew his lightsaber and went for it, He landed and cut a whole into the roof, Than he slipped right through it and landed on the floor on all fours, He stood up and shut off his lightsaber.
Quietly, Starkiller made his way down the halls, Only a few passing droids were his only witnesses so far, But whoever listens to Droids anyway, Starkiller made his way through the doors, And onto a catwalk in the hanger, Quietly he crept along it, Watching below as Imperials and Kota's men fired upon each other in a bid to take control, His master words came back to him.
"The Emperor cannot know of your existence, Only the inquisitors, Make sure to use Stealth when you arrive at the target site, Failing that, Kill everyone aboard, Imperials and Kota's men alike."
Starkiller than noticed an nearby vent above him and jumped over to it, grabbing the vent with one hand, He latched onto a cavis in the wall with his other one, The Vent was just big enough for him to fit into, So using the force with his mind, He quietly undid the screws and let the vent casing, It clattered to the ground as Starkiller crawled his way into it, It was lucky no one heard him over the sound of Blaster fire.
The sith apprentice made his way through the vents, crawling through them as he listened and looked through the darkness, The Force seemed to guide his every move as he moved left and right through ventilation shafts until he found an opening, He peeked through the grill and saw another hallway, seemingly unguarded, Starkiller quickly dived out of the vent and rolled into the hallway, After checking to see no one there, He made his way left towards the nearest door, Seemingly unaware of the two passing rebel that spotted him.
"Hey, Whose that?" One asked.
Starkiller quickly heard this and looked back to see the two rebels aim their blasters at him. His eyes narrowed as words echoed in his head.
"Failing that, Kill Everyone aboard, Imperials and Kota's men alike."
As the two Rebels fired, Starkiller deflected the shots, dashed forwards and cleaved both men in two with a single stroke, They fell forwards dead.
Starkiller looked back with dark vicious eyes as he made his way down the hall, He passed a security camera on his way, And the feed went back to the security room, which had been taken over by the Rebels, The guard stationed there, A Rodian, saw the whole thing play out and raised the alarm!
The sound echoed throughout the ship, Rebels and Stormtroopers forgot their fights and rushed to intercept the intruder, Captain Stockmel looked on as his troops nearly left, Before ordering them to stay where they were!
"Stay in your Positions!" He called. "That's an order!"
"Captain, What's going on?" Asked a young Nautolan named Kode.
"General Kota's prey is here." Said Stockmel. "And we know what's coming next."
Starkiller made his way to the next corridor as a squad of Stormtroopers intercepted him.
"FREEZE!" Called out the leader. "Don't move."
Starkiller turned back at the troopers, A look of vicious pleasure in his eyes, He was told to kill anyone who saw him, might as well make it fun.
To Be Continued.
Well, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I might not have time to make more in the future unfortunately, Because I now have an Internship at Uncanny Comics starting Monday, If you haven't heard of the place, / Here's their website, I'll try and update my Stories as best I can, And I would very much appreciate any support.
This is South Down signing off for now.