Chapter 27

Two Rebellions

Kanan Jarrus stood beneath a tree situated at the top of a long, flat hill. The tree's limbs hung low, so that the top of his head was among the leaves. He was, however, able to see down into the valley below, where he beheld lush farmland. Like most of the Jedi, Kanan Jarrus did not often have the chance to be out in the daylight and fresh air. The years since he had been rescued by Anakin Skywalker had been spent mostly aboard ships. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the warm un-recycled air, brought a hand held communicator up to his mouth and said, "Come in Ghost."

"What is it, Caleb?" an annoyed Hera Syndulla asked in response.

"What happened to codenames?" Caleb asked, taking mock offense.

"This line is secure," Hera said.

"You think," Kanan said with a smile. "Operational discipline is vital."

"Fine, what is it, Kanan?" Hera asked.

"No, I meant the Specter thing," Kanan said. "I mean I do go by Kanan, but I meant the Specter thing."

"Why do you go by Kanan? What does that have to do with Caleb?" Hera asked.

"It's the name of an old friend," Kanan said.

"Ok, fine, whatever. I am not doing the Specter thing though," Hera said.

"Why not?" Kanan asked.

"Because I can't ever remember which number any of us are supposed to be. And I am not going to upend everything I do just to please someone who isn't even a member of my crew," Hera said.

"But I could be," Kanan said.

"Not this again. Are you in some kind of hurry to leave the Jedi?" Hera asked.

"I don't have to leave the Jedi to join your crew. I am a Knight now. Traditionally we roam around the galaxy doing good deeds. I could do that on your ship," Kanan said.

"Will the two of you please shut up!" Asaj Ventress screeched. "This is a shared line and I can hear everything you are saying."

"Easy for you to say Ventress, you're in a relationship," Kanan responded nonchalantly.

"A relationship?" was Hera's surprised response.

"Well it's a bit forward, but I'm game if you are Hera," Kanan said.

"I wish we had met during the war, Caleb. Then I could have killed you," Ventress said.

"Kanan. And you mean you wish you had killed me when I was 13?" Kanan asked playfully.

"It would have saved everyone a lot of headaches," Ventress snarled.

"Crosshair wanted to kill him," came the deep and rumbly voice of Wrecker, one of the members of Clone Force 99.

"Shut up Wrecker," Crosshair spat.

"Everyone get off this channel if you aren't talking about mission vital information," Hunter, leader of Clone Force 99 said.

"But I had a real thing to share," Kanan said.

"Then share it and stop clogging up the channel," Quinlan Vos said.

"The guards are getting ready for shift change here," Kanan said, looking out over the valley with his binocs towards the ridge opposite him. The Stormtroopers were doing their standard inspection of the anti-air guns they were there to guard before their shift ended. "Estimate 10 minutes until the new company starts its ascent."

"Now we see if they keep being sloppy," Tech said. "If they are following proper procedure they are going to stagger those shift changes so that the base doesn't empty out at shift change time. Crosshair, what do you see?"

"The same thing. Our squad is prepping for shift change. So they are either leaving the guns unguarded, or their relief is leaving the base early. These new troopers really are soft," Crosshair answered.

"Probably shouldn't have tried to join them then, eh," Wrecker said while chuckling.

"Enough chatter troopers," Hunter said sternly. "What's the call General?"

"Does anyone have eyes on the transports coming out of the base yet?" Quinlan asked.

"Nothing emerged from the tunnels yet, but we wouldn't expect them for another few minutes," Echo said.

"They are following their daily pattern," Hunter said. "I recommend we go."

For a few seconds the line was silent. Then Quinlan said, "Go. I just sent the transmission. Echo, activate the jammer. Everyone else, engage."

As Kanan Jarrus hopped on his personal speeder he heard the acknowledgements come in from all the teams. In addition to the members of Clone Force 99 who were broken up into two teams of two with Echo serving as a forward scout, there was Master Vos, the established Knights Ventress and Barriss Offee, Reva Sevander and Kanan himself, both newly Knighted. The Ghost was flying through the nearby mountain range to keep off scanners but would hopefully emerge just in time for the anti-air guns to be taken out. To effect that Kanan was now racing across the valley toward the anti-air craft gun, whose guards were too busy preparing to vacate their position to notice that someone was tearing across the valley like a pod-racer on death sticks.

All the teams hit at once, and the Stormtroopers really had no hope. None of them were prepared to fight against Jedi, they hadn't even been told it was a possibility. And even outnumbered the members of Clone Force 99, when given proper time to prepare, had a clear advantage over the squads they were attacking. The anti-air guns were arranged in a circle around the main base, which was the best spot on the continent where the grain ships could land, get loaded and head back up into orbit. As a result, all the produce of this rich agricultural world was sent to one point. And the rebels were going to steal it. Not for themselves of course. They had a fairly reliable system of acquiring food set up. But the recent attacks by Anakin's suddenly more active fleet had left trade routes disrupted enough that worlds at the tail end of hyperspace lanes were starting to starve. The Jedi had decided to do something about it.

Kanan was already almost to the top of the ridge before the troopers saw him. He leapt from the speeder with his new lightsaber, a brilliant blue, flashing between him and them. He blocked the first few shots back at the troopers. Two of them fell dead while the third took a glancing blow to his arm. Kanan knew there were six in the unit and so advanced quickly to take the wounded one out when the trooper did something entirely unexpected. Whether through ineptitude or a brave refusal to go down easy the trooper set off a grenade right in front of Kanan, killing himself and forcing the young Jedi to jump backwards quickly. He landed awkwardly and as he got up he saw the other three troopers emerge from behind the anti-air gun and begin to fire their blasters at him. It was Kanan's turn to take a shot to the arm and though the armor beneath his robe reduced the damage the injury left one arm difficult to use. He scurried behind his speeder and the troopers continued to fire on his position as they closed in on him.

Kanan tried to think of what to do, how to take down the three troopers with only one good arm, but could only think about how ridiculous it would be to die on his first mission as a Jedi Knight. So much, he thought darkly, for all those dreams he had in the Temple on Coruscant. Two grenades rolled into view and he was able to use the Force to send them away. The explosions were large enough that the troopers had to stop firing while the dirt rained down on them. Kanan knew it would only be a few seconds before they started on him again. He also knew his speeder would not hold up to many more blaster hits. The odds were that it would fall apart as its internal structure slowly melted, but there was a chance it would just explode. Kanan decided he would rather go out fighting than be consumed by the flames from his own ride. He took a deep breath in and prepared to attack. He did not think he could, in his current state, take out all three troopers and live, but he thought there was a chance that he could take them down before he died. With no team to operate it, and the auto targeting system being interfered with by Tech's complex jamming system, taking the guards with him would protect the Ghost from fire when it emerged from cover. It would complicate the plan in its later stages but he saw no alternative.

Just as he was about to make his suicidal attack he heard a strange blaster bolt and then the sound of a body hitting the ground. The two remaining troopers stopped firing for a second to figure out where the shot taking out their comrade had come from and their moment of hesitation allowed Kanan to Force Push the speeder into them. It caught one completely unaware and sent him flying backwards towards the base of the anti-air gun where he hit his head hard against the metal. The other moved to the side and raised his blaster only to have Kanan's lightsaber cut him down.

Kanan looked around to see where the shot that had saved him had come from when he heard his communicator ping. He lifted it up and heard Crosshair say, "You're welcome Jedi."

A bewildered Kanan Jarrus lifted the communicator and said, "Aren't you five klicks away?"

"Yes," Crosshair said.

"How did you…," Kanan started to ask before simply saying, "Thanks."

"Nice shot Crosshair," Hunter said. "Dume, get back on mission."

"Yeah, right," Kanan said. He pulled the data spike from the pocket of his robe and ran over to the anti-air gun. It took him a few moments to find the correct panel to remove, but after he did so he was able to start the process of turning the gun's control over to himself.

"The troop carriers bringing the replacements have increased speed," Echo said over the comm line.

"Are they grouping up or staying separate?" Quinlan asked.

"They are staying separate. One carrier for each gun," Echo said.

"Well that's good," Ventress said. "Wouldn't want to make the clones bail young Caleb out again."

"Ok, all ten TIEs are airborne," Echo said.

"Ghost inbound," Hera responded. "Do I have some ground support?"

"Come in mark .15, and Crosshair and I will have you covered," Hunter said.

There were a few minutes of quiet and then Kanan saw the Ghost come screaming through the valley he had just crossed. Hera had kept the ship low the entire way in, but she would have to pull up soon to avoid the point where the two ridgelines met. He was looking between the progress of the data spike and the flight of the Ghost when he saw the TIE's in the distance. Instead of breaking up like they had planned, all eight were flying in formation.

"We have a problem. Five of the troop carriers have turned around. The remaining one has stopped. I think they are going to concentrate their forces and go gun by gun," Echo said over the commlink.

"Hera, you have all ten fighters coming your way!" Kanan shouted into his comm.

"No she doesn't," Crosshair said calmly. Just then a missile from a shoulder mounted launcher shot into the air from behind the TIEs. Kanan looked down from its trail of smoke to the Ghost, trying to figure out whether the Ghost would run out of valley before the missile took one of the fighters out. He was still unsure of the outcome when he saw an abnormally large, blue blaster bolt hit one of the TIEs. Electricity seemed to ripple out from the point of contact to the rest of the fighter, which immediately began to fall from the sky. On its way down it hit one of the TIEs flying below it in formation. The resultant explosion forced the rest of the TIEs to break formation. One of them turned to its left just in time to hit the incoming missile head on.

Just then the Ghost banked upwards sharply and began to fire. The TIEs, which had clearly not had the Ghost on their scanners, were caught completely by surprise and one of them went down immediately. The remaining TIEs scrambled briefly as the Ghost shot up into the sky above them, firing back down from its gun turret, taking out another fighter before the rest regrouped. Of the five remaining TIEs three formed up behind the Ghost and began to fire at it. The other two flew low to the ground and were clearly making for one of the anti-aircraft guns, by the look of things the one Crosshair and Tech were defending.

"Troop carriers headed towards your position Tech," Echo called out.

"Should I assist?" Kanan asked over the comm.

"No. Stick to your gun, make sure it stays under our control," Quinlan ordered.

"They can't hold off six squads Master Vos," Kanan responded.

"We can for a short time," Tech said. "I have left a little surprise for them."

"Follow the plan," Hunter said. "We can improvise later to help out Crossfire and Tech."

Kanan found it hard to believe that two aging clones could hold off that many Stormtroopers, but he also appreciated that Hunter had more battlefield experience than any of the Jedi except Master Kenobi. He could still remember the day they had met on Kaller, how foolish and innocent he had been. He remembered Deepa falling. He remembered Hunter yelling 'No' as he jumped. As he jumped. He focused on the memory for a moment and then came to a decision.

"Hera, I have an idea. Fly towards me!" he yelled into the communicator.

"What's the idea?" Hera said, the stress from dodging attacks apparent in her voice.

"No time, just head my way, and try to stay level," Kanan said. After putting the communicator down he added, to himself, "And say a prayer."

Kanan backed up all the way to the anti-air gun so that he has as much room to run as possible. He saw the Ghost banking one way and then the other, but heading in his direction. Timing was going to be everything. But could he get the timing right? He was distracted from his worry by the sound of a huge explosion. He turned to his left and saw a black cloud rising from the earthen ramp to one of the guns in the distance, the one Crosshair and Tech were defending. Through the smoke he could see that the column of troop transports had come to a stop on their way up the road to the top of the ridge because the lead transport had been overturned by the explosion.

"That should slow them down," Tech said. "We could still use some air support soon."

"I have three fighters still on me!" Hera shouted.

"Not for long!" Kanan said as he attached his communicator to his wrist and started his sprint across the ridgeline. For a moment he thought the Ghost was going too fast, that he would jump and find it already behind him, but he had no choice but to continue. He leapt from the edge of the ridge and pushed himself upward with the Force. As he reached the top of his jump he looked down to see the Ghost exactly where he needed it to be. His fall brought him down onto the oncoming ship. He threw himself forward at the last moment to start a roll, and went end over end several times before popping up. He yelled into his wrist for Hera to climb, which she did quicker than he had expected. As he slid down towards the back of the ship he reached out and caught one of the turret guns. He looked into the turret to see a Lasat, 'Zeb' he remembered after a split second, yelling at him, and though Kanan could not hear him, he had an idea of the sentiment. Getting his feet back under him he saw the TIEs following behind and below them. Kanan timed his jump and once again flung himself into the air.

The TIEs closed on him incredibly quickly and it was only instinct that allowed Kanan to grab the wing of the ship with one hand before it passed him by. He pulled himself up until he was holding on to the pylon connecting the wing to the cockpit. Holding on with one arm he pulled his lightsaber from his belt and activated it. Taking one last look beneath him at the other two TIEs he then cut through the pylon, separating the wing from the rest of the ship and cutting himself loose in the process. As the main body of the TIE began to spin out and away from him Kanan grabbed onto the wing as it fell to the opposite side. The TIE nearest to him veered sharply away to avoid hitting the wing, which put it right in Zeb's line of fire. The explosion of the TIE knocked Kanan off the falling wing and into the air. He fell just long enough to become convinced that he was going to die by crashing into the surface of this world whose name he had forgotten, when the Ghost appeared suddenly beneath him.

He hit the Ghost's surface hard enough to briefly knock him senseless. As he slid off the back of the ship he felt a huge hand grab his foot and yank him in the open rear door of the craft. Zeb didn't spare a word after saving Kanan. He ran back to the turret he had been manning after throwing Kanan roughly into the cargo hold. After a moment to catch his breath Kanan made his way to the cockpit, though he was knocked off his feet several times on the way as the Ghost made its way through the firefight.

As he entered the cockpit he could hear Hera yelling, "Crosshair, Tech, I'll get the TIEs off you and come back to help out with the troopers.

"Take your time, this is light work," Crosshair replied. Kanan could hear the clone's sniper rifle fire as he spoke.

"Ignore him please. It would be best if you could return as quickly as possible," Tech said.

Hera heard Kanan enter and took a split second look back at him before saying, "Strap in!"

Kanan did as he was told and took the seat next to Hera. She did not look his way as she said, "Thanks for the assist. We got the third one after Zeb grabbed you. Now we have to take out these last two before they blow Crosshair and Tech up." Kanan could see one TIE ahead of them and from the blaster bolts shooting past them he figured there must be one behind as well.

"Maybe you should drop me with them, they need my help," Kanan said.

"Shut up!" Hera shouted as she banked the Ghost hard to the left while also pulling back on the throttle. The TIE that had been tailing her shot past her on the right, and Hera then pulled in behind him and blew him out of the sky. The TIE that she had been chasing tried to pull up to circle around behind her but Zeb took it out with a shot from the Ghost's turret.

"Great move!" Kanan shouted enthusiastically. Hera smiled slightly as she nodded her acknowledgement. She turned the Ghost towards Crosshair and Tech who were pinned down behind the wreckage of the troop transport they had blown up. There was a line of troop transports pointed in their direction, the first of which was blasting away at their cover. Kanan could tell it would only be a few moments before they were overwhelmed. But without their air cover, the Stormtroopers were helpless against the Ghost. Hera fired two photon torpedoes into the closely packed soldiers, eliminating almost all of them. The remainder realized quickly how the tactical situation had changed and tried to flee the field, only to be gunned down by Crosshair, who had anticipated the Ghost's impact on the fight and taken a position from which he could hit the troopers as they fled down the ridge.

"We're clear," Tech said over comms.

"Good," Hunter replied. "Now get back to your post Dume! We don't have much time, the cruisers have already started their approach."

Hera and Kanan looked up and saw Hunter was right. The three Arquitens class cruisers that patrolled the system had begun their descent from orbit. Hera turned the Ghost hard again to take Kanan back to his assigned anti-air gun. Kanan winked at the Twi'lek and made his way to the cargo bay.

"Everyone got their gun cracked?" Hunter asked.

After everyone else answered in the affirmative Kanan had to say, "I think so. I will know soon."

"You are embarrassing the Order, Dume," Ventress said acidly. Kanan smiled, knowing her attitude was just her jealousy of the action he had seen. As he reached the cargo bay Kanan saw the door was open and he jumped over the railing and then slid down the ramp. The Ghost took off again as soon as he was offboard, as Hera moved on to the next stage of the plan she and Hunter had devised. The rebels knew that they had no chance to get the food from this planet if the Cruisers were not taken out, but they could not risk the few big ships they had in a space battle with them, not with the planet's anti-air guns, which could hit ships in orbit, backing the cruisers up. Hunter's idea had been a ground assault to take out the anti-air guns before the rebel fleet, such as it was, jumped in. Hera Syndulla, a newly recruited into the rebellion by Hunter and his boys, had supplied the rest of the plan. The rebel frigates and cruisers were old and undermanned. Against three fully armed Imperial cruisers they could probably win, but they would take serious damage. So the plan was to not just neutralize the surface to space guns, but to turn them against the Empire.

So Kanan made his way to the gun he had been assigned to break into, in order to check that the data spike had succeeded. The key to the plan had been to not use the anti-air guns to fight off the base's TIE fighter contingent. If the cruisers had seen the rebels using the guns they would just move to high orbit and bombard the whole area from outside of the guns' range. Part of convincing them that it was safe to approach was the Ghost retreating as they advanced. The Ghost had no hope of taking down two such ships without help, and so the retreat would make it seem like they didn't have any coming. Kanan checked the progress of the data spike and said, "The data spike worked."

"Of course it did," Tech said testily.

The Ghost fleeing the scene, along with the risky decision to not use the anti-air guns against the TIEs seemed to have worked. The cruisers were plowing towards them fast. Everything was almost in place. There was just one last piece that needed to be put in play.

"We are now in range of their guns," Echo said over comms. "Orders?"

"Hold fire until support arrives," Hunter said.

"Why aren't they firing?" Reva asked over comms.

"They don't want to damage the guns," Quinlan answered. "They intend to release their own contingent of fighters and drop their troops down on top of us."

"Where is Kenobi!?" Ventress snarled.

"Have a little faith Ventress," Obi-Wan replied. "We are here."

"Confirmed!" Echo shouted. "The fleet has arrived!"

"Hold your fire, wait for them to see," Hunter said.

Just as planned the cruisers began to turn around. Obi-Wan and Rex had jumped into orbit with three Old Republic frigates, two Zebulon-B escort frigates and three Corellian Corvettes. As that was far more of a concern than the handful of rebels on the surface the Imperials turned to face them but held their position in the upper atmosphere, their captains obviously hopeful that at least some of the guns still worked and would auto-acquire targets.

Hunter waited until the Imperial cruisers released their TIE fighter squadrons before he gave the order to fire. When he did, all eight guns opened up at once, targeting the cruisers' engines. As Hunter and Hera had hoped, the cruisers had angled their deflector shields forward to meet the oncoming attack from the Rebel fleet, leaving their engines completely unprotected. With no shields to absorb the energy, the blaster bolts from the surface guns tore through the sublight engines of the cruisers. As the ships slowed down and came to a stop there were two questions in the minds of the rebels below. The first was whether they had run out of momentum close enough to the planet to be pulled immediately back down towards the surface. The second was whether their hyperspace engines were still intact. If the answer to the second question was yes then the whole mission would have to be scrapped. If even one of them reached another Imperial system to raise the alarm that would mean Imperial reinforcements that the rebels knew they could not handle.

If the answer to the first question was yes then they would lose a golden opportunity. The primary goal of the mission was to acquire food to feed the planets on the Outer Rim that had been cut off from their trade routes. But a secondary goal had been to grow the fleet. Three Imperial cruisers with their fighter escorts destroyed were sitting ducks and their crews would know it. Of course the fighters still had to be destroyed, but going into a fight with five frigates and three corvettes, without the cover of their own cruisers, was hardly a winning proposition. With the broad spectrum jamming device that Tech had built on the surface over the past few weeks, and which he had turned on as soon as the anti-air guns started firing, there was a good chance the fighters were flying towards the Obi-Wan's fleet without even knowing that their cruisers were no longer with them.

The rebels, Jedi, Clones and smugglers alike, watched the battle unfold from the surface. They could not see the fighters of course. They could barely make out Obi-Wan's fleet, but they could see the cruisers, and that is what mattered. The three ships did not jump away. The primary mission objective had been achieved. One of the three separated from the other two, and started growing larger in their field of vision as it fell to the planet below.

"There is likely to be a large wave produced by its impact," Tech said. "We should consider moving further from the shore."

"Will it destroy the spaceport?" Hunter asked.

"No, the whole Imperial base should be fine," Tech said.

"Ghost, care to come pick us up?" Hunter asked.

"No problem," Hera answered.

By the time Kanan got picked up the battle was over. Obi-Wan had radioed in word of victory. The crews of the two remaining cruisers had been offered a chance to surrender, and were considering it. Wrecker joked that what they were considering was how best to kill their officers so that the surrender could happen.

Kanan was walking through the cargo bay on his way to see Hera when he heard Crosshair and Hunter talking in a hallway.

"You know we wouldn't have to take these kinds of risks to get a couple ships if we were hooked up with Skywalker's fleet," Crosshair said.

"We've been over this. We decided. So unless you want to break with the rest of us, I suggest you stop bringing that up," Hunter said.

"All I am saying is maybe it's time to revisit the decision. They are taking the fight to the Imperials much better than this group is," Crosshair replied.

"They are doing a lot besides that," Hunter said. "Or have you forgotten why we are here? Look if you want to leave again, fine. You tell the kid when we get back."

"No need to be so dramatic. I was just asking a question," Crosshair said.

Kanan thought about talking to them but thought better of it. Hunter was a good soldier, and loyal to the Rebellion, but the bond between Clone Force 99 was stronger than any bond any of them had with anyone else, with the exception of the female clone Omega, who they still called 'kid' even though she was now a young adult and a member of the bridge crew of Kenobi's flagship.

Kanan got to the cockpit and sat down next to Hera as she piloted them up and out of the atmosphere.

"Aren't we going to have to go right back down to start loading the grain ships?" Kanan asked.

"All of that is automated," she said with a smile. "You think the Imperials actually deign to load grain on ships?"

"I guess I didn't think about it," Kanan said. "A good day though."

"A very good day. They threw a few surprises at us. It was a closer run thing than I would have liked," she said.

"Worth it though. Now we have two more ships," he said.

"Two light cruisers. We have a fleet full of support ships, and no capital ships," Hera said.

"We have to start somewhere," Kanan said. "Besides, the Mon Calamari are going to be joining up soon. They've got the best capital ships around from what I hear."

"They are good. Probably the only ships that could stand up to Star Destroyers. But I wouldn't count on the Mon Cals yet," Hera said.

"They are committed to the Rebellion," Kanan said.

"Yeah but which one?" Hera asked.

"What? No way they join Skywalker," Kanan said. "With the things his fleet has been doing?"

"I am not saying they would like it, but victories, real victories, have a way of making up for a lot of discomfort," Hera said.

"You sound like you've been thinking of chasing some victories," Kanan said.

Hera responded with a mirthless laugh and shook her head. "My father would, if he ever left Ryloth that is. He would tell me if I was going to waste my time fighting for non-Twi'leks that I should at least join the faction that is fighting and winning."

"And what do you think?" Kanan asked while trying to hide the worry in his voice.

"I don't know. They've got a real fleet, and a real army. It's hard not to want to be a part of that. But…I like being able to tell the difference between my side and the enemy," she said.

"And then there's the company," Kanan said with a grin.

Hera shook her head and asked, "So where did you say your nickname came from again?"

"Kanan?" he asked. "It's a name I came up with. It just sounds like my friend's name. He was a smuggler. He took me in after Order 66. He tried to convince me to leave it all behind me. Move on. For a while I did. After I went my own way I started calling myself Kanan Jarrus. He was Janus Kasmir. When the Inquisitors caught me they figured out who I was. I started going by Caleb again because they would beat me anytime I tried to go with Kannan. I spent years wishing I was Kanan, and not Caleb, wishing I had been anything other than a Jedi. When Skywalker found me, brought me back to the Order it felt disrespectful to use the smuggler name. So I got re-introduced to everyone as Caleb Dume, and now that's what they all call me. I always liked the sound of Kanan Jarrus though."

Hera, who had smiled and nodded through the story, turned to him and leveled a look on him that made the young man's stomach twist and his cheeks flush. After enjoying his discomfort for a few seconds she turned back to looking out at space through the cockpit window and said, "I like the sound of it too."