Imperial Academy: A Star Wars Rebels Story;
Chapter III:
Characters: Sabine Wren, Ezra Bridger, Kannan Jarrus, Hera Syndulla, C1-10P (Chopper), Garazeb 'Zeb' Orrellios, Agent Alexander Kallus, The Inquisitor, Gar Saxon
Ships: Sabezra, Hints of Kanera, for now
Description:
Sabine Wren is the top cadet in the Imperial Academy on Mandalore, as such she is the one selected to tutor its newest pupil, Ezra Bridger. Ezra is a rebel spy, working for Phoenix Squadron; his objective was simple, find The Duchess and eliminate it. So what happens when the pair become entangled in the web of Rebel plots and Imperial machinations?
Disclaimer:
I do not own Star Wars. I am but a humble fan, may Disney, who may soon be the entertainment overlords please spare me their wrath and lawsuits, I wouldn't have much to give them anyway.
Classroom Delta-4, Imperial Academy
Ezra kept his focus on the front of the class, still he could feel the eyes that bored into the side of his head. Nearly every person in the class watched him like he had a pair of heads. The instructor continued to motion to her display, equations, letters, and numbers filled it. To Ezra it might as well have been Shyriiwook. Sabine, placed directly behind the blue haired boy stared as his brows furrowed and his lips went tight. His eyes scanned the displays, then again, over and over. Her eyes narrowed as Ezra glowered at the display and he worried his lower lip.
"Any of this make sense Bridger?" Sabine leaned in close, her voice only a shadow of a whisper. His bright blue eyes looked as hard as the ice of Geonosis' moons. His stylus stopped in its movement over his pad.
"What's it to you?" His tone was sharp, and something caused the hairs on her arms to straighten as she matched his gaze. Her own amber eyes went steely and she didn't back down.
"I'm supposed to tutor you." It sounded more like a question than a statement as she felt a flicker of doubt in the back of her mind.
"Great lot of good that's done me so far." Ezra focused on the lesson completely, and left Sabine close to his shoulder. A growl rumbled in the back of her throat and she sat back, hard. Her chair made the slightest groan and the instructor's eyes went to her.
"Cadet Wren, perhaps you would like to explain why this material is important, especially to infantry and special forces such as yourselves?" Her voice could probably give the durasteel walls a run for their credits for how cold it was. Sabine kept her eyes straight and avoided the urge to roll them. Her chair barely made a sound as it slid back, Shabla chair.
"We're learning trigonometry Ma'am. It's important because it can help Infantry determine the angle they need to fire at, or the distance they are from a target. For Special Forces this is exacerbated as they may need to line up a precise orbital bombardment, or need to quickly judge the distance they still have to cross from their position to their target." The Instructor nodded, Sabine soundlessly retook her seat.
"That is correct, Trigonometry has many uses and many applications. For Fleet Officers it is needed to help determine distances between vessels for communications, or it could be needed to work out the firing arcs of turbolasers. Infantry use it to figure out the best firing positions in static defense. Special Forces use it for a vast variety of tasks that may sometimes seem pointless or unexplainable outside the field of battle. Math is an important tool for the Imperial Military, that is why we teach it, even at an academy on a world of raised warriors. So please Cadet Wren keep your focus on your studies." The glare of the officer's grey eyes bored into Sabine's head. Sabine pulled her shoulders tight and straightened her back, her eyes on the lesson. She ignored the burn of the instructor's eyes until her words continued. In a normal classroom full of teenangers, those not born on Mandalore snickers might have passed through the rows of desks, here in an Imperial Academy eyes just glanced at her. It was worse. Each glance made her draw her lips tighter, every look caused a slight twitch in her eyebrow, but the worst was how Ezra didn't even react. She couldn't fathom how his lack of response infuriated her more than anything the classmates she'd spent years with at this point. When the instructor finally dismissed them Sabine all but threw herself from her desk and tried to catch Ezra, but the boy had escaped from the room faster than she could stand, a growl slipped from between her lips and clenched teeth.
The Ghost, 25 kilometers out from Sundari
Hera glared at the report on her pad. The Basic scrolled faster and faster with every flick of her finger. Her eyebrows scrunched together and her lips pulled tight. The doors hissed and Kanan took the Co-Pilot's seat. Her eyes burned across the pad's surface before they rose to Kanan's. His teal-blue eyes glimmered like the clear waters of the ocean worlds they'd passed on their travels. A dark note flickered within his gaze like an undercurrent in the sea. She knew he knew, he has The Force to add to his perceptive nature, but he'd still let her tell him.
"The Rebellion, they think we need to have Ezra stay in place longer. They're afraid that even if we find and destroy the prototype then they'll just build a new one. They… They want him to find the builder of the prototype, and either turn them to our cause, or tell us so we can extract them." Her lekku twitched and her face fell from his view. His fingers curled around hers.
"You know as well as I do he can do it, but the way you said extract?" The last piece of his statement was near a whisper, as if spoken too loud it would draw The Empire to them.
"Prison, if Ezra can't convince them, they'll be imprisoned by The Rebellion. We have a few facilities for it, though they aren't used very often. Even if it's for the right reasons Kanan, does it make us better than The Empire to kidnap someone and pull them from their life?" Kanan tightened his grip on her hand.
"The Jedi would argue that such a life lived in the willing destruction of other sentients is a waste of a life, and that taking measures to ensure they hurt no one would be acceptable. Or at least that's how I would interpret what the Jedi would say. But, that said I don't know. The Empire has ripped many people from their lives, Ezra is just one of the consequences of that. They've done it for many reasons, and they have killed for no other reason than they want to. We may not be able to find an explanation for this, but at least they aren't asking up to kill whoever this person is, that is something The Empire would do without hesitation." Kanan slipped onto his knees and brushed his lips over the back of Hera's hand. "We can only do what we think is right, if you trust The Rebellion then we should do it, but if you doubt it then we should stick to the original mission."
"How are you able to say things and give advice like this? I still remember having to pull you out of the firing line when we first met because you were drunk as a criminal thug." The half-hearted laugh that escaped her lips just barely reached her eyes. A smile broke on Kanan's lips and a small chuckle flittered into the cockpit.
"Because you pulled me out of the gutter, and now I have the ability to think clearly, at least some times."
Combat Room Alpha-4, Imperial Academy
Ezra's blaster bucked in his hand. He ducked back around the cover as another bolt sang towards him. Sabine let her eyes narrow at him. Ezra raised an eyebrow and shook his head. He leaned out and sent two more blasts downwind. The white blocks around them were scorched black and grey, fires raged over the battlefield, and the white armoured cadets marched closer.
"We're going to be flanked! We'll fail the exercise!" Sabine fought the urge to shoot her partner, Ezra narrowed his eyes at her and he sped around the blocks at a breakneck speed. Sabine's hand snatched at thin air. She took Ezra's cover and chanced a glance around the barricade, her blaster at the ready.
Ezra ducked and dodged, almost like how someone might weave clothing. The bolts from the blasters whizzed and zipped around him, the air sizzled and snapped. It was almost like he knew the shots were coming before they even started. His hand rose and the blaster kicked in it, the round pulsed over the other cadet's armour as they went down. The blue haired boy ducked down and fired off another shot under his free arm. Energy from the strike waved across the other cadet's armour and he collapsed onto the ground. Sabine went wide eyed as more and more of their enemies collapsed into pained heaps.
Finally the hiss and snap of blaster fire ceased and Ezra stood tall in the middle of the square, at least six cadets sprawled around him moaned and groaned. They shifted and clutched at the scorch marks across their armour. Sabine's jaw dropped. She'd seen the file, Saxon had given it to her not long after her first meeting with Ezra. The kid was a master with a blaster, and an artist in out of the box thinking, but this was otherworldly, and it screamed Jedi. Ezra turned and shot her a smile. Sabine's lips pulled tight and she spun on her heel and marched from the exercise room as the Training Officer called 'Endex'.
Sabine was halfway to Saxon's office by the time Ezra caught up with her. He stopped his dead run and walked beside her at the same pace, his breath huffed and puffed in unison with their steps. He didn't say a word and Sabine kept her eyes focused forward. A couple of times his breath stopped, his jaw open, and then it'd snap shut again. As it happened again Sabine whirled, and jabbed her finger at his chest as she shouted.
"What? What is it you want to say? We've been walking for I don't know how far now and you keep starting and then stopping, just spit it out already!" Her eyes blazed and she pushed into his personal space. "I don't get it, one minute you want my help, the next you want respect, then you want my approval! When will you get it through your thick skull I'm just following orders! I'm not here to be your friend, my aid is only worth as much as you put into it. I feel like you're not even trying! What do you want from me? You're coming here got me pulled off my project, it messed with my academics, my life! I'm here to learn and be of better service to the Empire, and because I'm saddled with helping you I don't feel like I'm reaching my full potential! And you? You show-off, you rise to bait like a Krayt Dragon, and you sure as shab don't notice when you're not wanted!"
"I was just gonna ask if you wanted to go to the mess, but I guess you just answered that question for me." Ezra's shoulders fell and his eyes went downcast. He turned and slowly walked away, he stopped for a second and just barely glanced over his shoulder. "Sorry I ruined everything for you, but I guess if this how you treat people who want to be your friend I guess I should thank every force in the universe, that I'll never be your friend."
He turned a corner and was gone. Sabine hissed, a hollow empty feeling settled in her gut and something seemed to tug at her conscience. She felt the heat in her glare fade, by the Manda why do I feel like this? A hand fell on her shoulder and Sabine's head shot to see Saxon directly beside her. A cruel smile stretched across his face.
"I watched the combat exercise, he definitely is impressive, and I have to say, he's either a Mando with a lot of training, or Jetii to be able to do that. You're doing good work Cadet Wren, push him harder, the more desperate he becomes the sooner we'll get everything back on track for you, no need to worry The Duchess will still be waiting for you once this is all over." A cold weight pressed against her chest and as quickly at Saxon appeared he was gone, she was left standing in the middle of the corridor alone. Everything about this felt wrong, and all she wanted to do was paint or work on her machine.
A/N:
Another short update. I'm so sorry for how this took, first I admit to hitting more Writer's Block on this scene, and then as if that wasn't enough I got my hands on a new game and became entirely engrossed in that, add to that a huge shift in my sleep and work schedules alongside an increasing desire to read both books and fanfiction and well I hope you can see why this took longer than I'd hoped. I'm not abandoning this work I swear and I'm trying to do my best around Writer's Block but I will just say I make no promises for timely updates, in fact most of the time I have timely updates is when I have spent months or more working on things in advance before posting. So again I apologise, I hope you all enjoyed this, and well I'll have another chapter as soon as I can, I hope.
-Six Out!