Chapter Four
Disclaimer: See chapter 1
At last, I have returned to this tale, after a while of working on other things and with real life, but most of which that kept me from writing in general have now passed.
Jerec was 'looking' out the Destroyer's front viewport, Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister stood behind him. A look of concentration crossed the High Inquisitor's face. "What is it?" Fifth Brother asked.
"I sense that our quarry is on their way to us, when they arrive lower shields on one of the docking bays and clear the hanger," Jerec ordered.
"You think that is a good idea, my lord?" Seventh Sister asked.
"They will suspect a trap if there are no troopers in the hanger," Fifth Brother said.
"Exactly, and they will come to us, as we will have the child and they will be drawn to his force signature," Jerec explained his plan.
With Agent Kallus,
Kallus was walking the halls of the capital building on Lothal, keeping his eyes on the floor as he walked, not meeting anyone's gaze, as he was wrestling with himself over what was the right course of action. For a long time, he believed in what the Empire stood for, and he did things, terrible things in its name, in the name and idea of the pursuit of peace. Sometimes he was just following orders, other times he could justify the actions he was taking as being for the greater good of the galaxy, but what the Inquisitors did to the rebel teenager did not sit well with him at all. He had already broken his vows of loyalty to the Empire once by contacting the Lothal rebels to inform them of where their captured member was, but now he was considering an even more serious breach of those oaths: Defection. Kallus looked up from the floor and looked around him. Sure, the place was a buzz with soldiers and officers walking about, but no one paid any attention to him as they walked past, only a few gave an acknowledgement of his presence and even then it was a cold, uninterested acknowledgement. He recalled how it was like this when he got picked up from Bahyrn, ice moon of Geonosis. 'They don't care about you, none of them do, and a bunch hate you for the mere fact that you are ISB,' he thought. Another thought struck him, 'but if you continue down the path of desertion, you will be considered a traitor and therefore marked for death by the Empire.' Mulling it over some more as he walked, he had made up his mind.
Making his way to the hanger, Kallus boarded a shuttle to take him to the Destroyer in orbit. Reaching the ship, he disembarked from the shuttle and headed for his quarters.
With the Inquisitors,
As the shuttle carrying Agent Kallus was docking in the central hanger bay, a feeling of unease entered Jerec's mind momentarily as he was 'looking' out the viewport. A look of concentration had crossed the High Inquisitor's face, the other two noticed this, "what do you sense?" the mirialian inquisitor asked him.
"I sense that someone will betray us, who, I cannot tell at the moment, so keep your senses on alert and we will find them," he said, trying to discern who would turn against the Empire.
With the Ghost Crew,
The Ghost was currently in hyperspace, only a few parsecs away from Lothal, normally on infiltration missions, they would have hijacked an Imperial shuttle, they did not have the time as one of their crew was being held captive, they used the Ghost to rescue Kanan from Tarkin's destroyer, the Sovereign, above Mustafar, and they will do the same for Ezra, the only difference was that they had a Clone veteran of the Clone Wars with them, one of the two that had standardized the Republic's, and later Imperial emergency protocols.
"Once we come out of hyperspace, Rex, contact the destroyer and request emergency landing clearance," Hera said, from her place in the pilot's chair, Rex was sitting in the copilot's chair.
"Don't worry, I know what to do," the clone captain said.
"Chopper, make sure the forged ship ID is in place," Hera told the droid. Hera heard the droid grumble about it, but he did what he was told to do.
Kanan placed a hand on Hera's shoulder, she reached up to place her own hand on top of his, "Are you going to be okay?" he asked her worried, as she radiated worry.
"I am worried about Ezra, I have bad feeling about this," Hera admitted.
"We go in, grab Ezra, and get out," Kanan said, trying to reassure her, even though he too was a bit concerned.
"What if we run into those Inquisitors?" Hera asked.
"Hopefully, that happens after we free Ezra, he can help me and Ahsoka fight them off," Kanan said, trying to be hopeful about this situation.
"Coming up on Lothal, everyone strap in," Hera said. After everyone was in place, she hit the switch to drop the Ghost out of hyperspace, and quickly flipped the switch to give off the falsified transponder codes.
The Star Destroyer contacted them immediately, "come in unidentified light freighter, this is the Relentless, state your cargo and destination," came the voice of the comms officer.
Rex answered the hail, "This is light freighter Rising Sun, Cargo is foodstuffs bound for Lothal, we also need to make an emergency landing aboard you, Relentless, to enact repairs to our ship as we came under attack by pirates and suffered damage to one of engines before making the jump, and it would be unsafe for us to enter the atmosphere. Code 157, repeat, 157," Rex told the comm officer, hoping they didn't know about the incident with the interdictor cruiser.
"Code 157? That's a military code, what are you playing at?" the comms officer said, suspicious.
"Sorry sir, I used to serve in the Republic Navy during the war before retiring," a half-truth, but sort of accurate.
"I understand, stand by for code verifications," the comms officer said and the line went silent.
A moment later the comm came to life again, "Rising Sun, you are clear for docking."
"Now comes the hard part," Hera muttered, mostly to herself as she guided the Ghost to the hanger bay. As they touched down in the Destroyer's bay, the lack of troopers was odd to her, "Where are all the troopers?"
"That is odd, be prepared for a trap," Rex advised, as everyone got up and walked down the loading ramp. The group of six rebels, consisting of two Jedi, a Mandalorian, A Clone Captain, a Lasan Honor Guard member, one feisty Twi'lek pilot, and a cranky astromech, made their way toward the doors at the end of the hanger, weapons at the ready, even Chopper carried two pistols in his manipulators, expecting troopers to come down on them at any moment, finding it strange that no one was there to greet them.
Aboard the Destroyer, a few minutes before the rebels boarded,
As the Ghost had come out of Hyperspace, and the Comms officer hailed the ship, Jerec knew their prey had come. "Our prey has arrived, let them land, and send a trooper for the child and bring him to the bridge," Jerec commanded.
The comms officer hailed the freighter again, "Rising Sun, you are clear for docking."
"I hope this works out, my lord," Fifth Brother said.
"Everything is going as planned," Jerec answered the unsaid question on the other Inquisitor's mind.
With Kallus
Kallus was in his quarters, mentally preparing himself for what he was about to do. He took one good look around his quarters for anything he may need or would give to the rebels, grabbing a handful of datacards and stuffed them into a pouch on his belt. He made sure he had his code cylinders, that he realized that won't be good for much longer. He saw his Bo-rifle that he had finally fixed with Imperial parts sitting next to the glow rock he had gotten from Zeb. Grabbing both, he placed the Bo-rifle on his back, and the rock in another pouch. Making sure one last time he didn't leave anything behind, satisfied, he grabbed his E-11 blaster that he had been using while he fixed his Bo-rifle, and left his quarters.
Kallus walked cautiously down the hall, weapon at the ready, which probably looked suspicious if anyone saw him. He walked down the thankfully deserted corridor toward where the Inquisitor's rooms were. Reaching the Seventh Sister's room without hassle, he placed his code cylinder in the access port. The door slid open, and Kallus walked inside. He looked around, noting that Ezra was asleep in his crib, and saw the boy's lightsaber on a nearby counter. He hung it from his belt and then walked over to the crib.
Kallus grabbed the youngling from his crib, 'this is it, no turning back now,' he thought, he propped Ezra so that he could hold him in one arm, and hold his E-11 in the other hand, and made his way through the corridor. Fortunately, Ezra didn't start crying when Kallus had picked him up.
A stormtrooper stopped him, "Agent Kallus, sir, where are you going with that child?" a genuine curiosity in his voice. This was the trooper that had been sent to get the child for the Inquisitors.
Kalus gripped the handle of the E-11 tighter, the only thing he said to the trooper was "I'm sorry," before raising the weapon and blasting the trooper right in the chest, the force of which knocked the trooper out. Unfortunately for Kallus, a squad had heard the shot and came running, Kallus took off in the other direction.
As he ran, he heard the squad leader call over the open comms, "All units, all units, Agent Kallus has gone rogue, I repeat, Agent Kallus has gone rogue, he has the child, err… prisoner."
"Oh Dank Ferric," Kallus swore, this was going to be difficult, since that meant the Inquisitors would come running as well, and he knew he couldn't do anything about them. He would try his best to make it to the hanger or at least an escape pod.
With the rebels
As the group crept through the corridor, the emptiness was weirding them out, and then they heard the ship's PA blare, "All units, all units, Agent Kallus has gone rogue, I repeat, Agent Kallus has gone rogue, he has the child, err… prisoner." A moment of confusion crossed everyone's faces.
"It seems we need to find Kallus before the Inquisitors do," Sabine muttered to the group. Kanan took a brief second to stretch out with the Force, looking for Ezra's signature, knowing though that this would alert the three dark siders to their location on the ship, but did so anyway. Ahsoka also reached out a bit to ascertain where the Inquisitors were in the halls of the ship.
"Found them, this way," Kanan said, locating Ezra and Kallus, and started running in the direction they were in.
"Kanan, wait up," Hera said, as the rest of the group followed after them.
"Anyone else find it odd that the trooper on the intercom said child but then corrected himself to prisoner when referring to Ezra?" Zeb asked as they ran.
"Who knows, not really important right now," Sabine said from beside the Lasat. In truth, though, it did make her curious.
With the Inquisitors,
When they heard the PA blare with the trooper's warning, "Well, now we know who the betrayer is," Fifth Brother said.
"Let's move, we can't let them escape," Seventh Sister said.
"Indeed, let us go, and catch us our prize," Jerec agreed, and the three of them headed for the turbolift down to the lower floors. As they entered the turbolift, Jerec told them the plan, "we are not going to go straight for them, rather we will force them into a trap, if we come at them from different directions at once."
"So lie in wait in certain corridors?" Seventh Sister asked, trying to understand the High Inquisitor's plan.
"Not exactly, we head for Kallus, allow them to reach him, but we corner them with troopers on all sides," Jerec explained.
With the Specters,
"Kallus," Zeb called out as they approached the former ISB agent, who spun around to face them.
"Zeb, Specters, am I glad to see you," Kallus said, with a slight grin as he walked up to them.
"Where's Ezra?" Kanan asked him, getting right to the point. Then he noticed the child in Kallus's arms, who was wearing a smaller version of Ezra's flight suit.
"He's right here," Kallus said, indicating the infant in his arms, getting odd looks from the Specters, he added, "get me off this blasted ship and I will tell you everything."
"Ok, everyone create a perimeter around Kallus and Ezra and let's hurry back to the hanger," Hera said.
"Oh, Kanan, you should probably have this," Kallus said as he handed Ezra's lightsaber to Kanan.
"Thank You, probably will need the extra blade anyway," Kanan said
One turbolift ride later
As they were walking the corridors back to their ship, at a crossroads, Ahsoka asked Kanan, "can you feel that?"
"The Cold, yeah, Inquisitors must be near," Kanan said. As if on que, four large squads came rushing in from all directions, and the three inquisitors came from three different directions, sabers ignited.
"Welcome, rebels, to your doom," Jerec said, his single bladed weapon, pointed down toward the floor.
"Which Brother are you?" Kanan asked as he and Ahsoka put themselves between their group and the Inquisitors, activating their four blades.
"Unlike the rest of the Inquisition, who go by rank as their name, I have a title and a name. I am High Inquisitor Jerec," Jerec introduced himself to the group.
"Jerec? Master Jerec, who was off in the unknown regions during the war?" Ahsoka asked.
A smirk crossed the Miraluka's tattooed lips, "It was unwise of you to come here, Ahsoka Tano, as Lord Vader has keen interest in you, he very much wants to meet you."
"I bet he does, sorry to disappoint him, but we must be going," she said.
As Ahsoka kept the Inquisitor occupied, Sabine leaned her head close to Kallus, to ask him "Are we near an external bulkhead?"
Kallus took a moment to consider where they were on the ship and to why Sabine may be asking why she was asking that, realizing that she may want to use explosives to get them out this situation, "No, you are good."
Jerec raised his hand and let loose a blast of Force Lightning, Ahsoka and Kanan had a difficult time deflecting it, "Since when do you know how to do that," Fifth Brother asked, a bit shocked at it.
"There are many abilities I know that no other ordinary Inquisitor knows," Jerec said, smug with power.
Sabine threw two thermal detonators just past the troopers on two sides, which exploded, taking two of the squads out. As if in unison, with a slight nod both Ahsoka and Kanan, leashed a force wave that knocked the other two squads on their backs. "This way, hurry," Kallus said as he took off down the passage that was not guarded by an Inquisitor, the rest of the crew followed after the former agent. Kanan and Ahsoka had to trade blows with the Inquisitors as they ran.
Kallus led them through the corridors, bobbing and weaving through them, trying to shake the Inquisitors and the stormtroopers following them, but to no avail, they were close behind. He managed to lead them to the hanger, which fortunately for them was still empty but it wouldn't be for long. As they were booking it toward the Ghost, troopers were filing in from different entrances and were taking potshots at the rebels, but most mist and the two Jedi managed to deflect the others. Sabine had left a short, fused time bomb behind her as they ran knowing the Inquisitors would have to break off pursuit in order to avoid it. She was right as it went off, they had to dive out the way.
They somehow managed to get to the Ghost, most the crew stood out on the ramp fighting the troopers to give Hera and Chopper time to warm the ship up. As the Inquisitors approached menacingly, Sabine threw another grenade that exploded in close range to Jerec, which would have been fatal had he not raised a force shield to take most of the blast, but it still knocked him to the ground and momentarily unconscious. As the Ghost began to lift from the hanger deck, Sabine and Zeb ran up the ramp to the turrets that would at them in this battle. With both of them on the guns, it allowed for Rex to board as well.
"Kanan go, I got these two," Ahsoka said as she locked both of her blades with both lesser Inquisitors, Kanan took the chance to jump up on the Ghost's ramp.
Hera's voice came of the ship's intercom, "We have to get out of here, is everyone aboard?"
Kanan pressed the intercom button of the control panel, "Ahsoka is still out there, we can't leave her," turning his attention back to the battle, he called out to her.
"Ahsoka," Kanan shouted from the boarding ramp, wanting her to get in.
"Go, get out of here, leave me, Ezra is far more important than me. I'll be fine, the Force is my ally. GO!" She shouted back as she fended off the two regular Inquisitors by herself.
Kanan was going to protest, but he saw that Jerec was getting to his feet and that the troopers were setting up E-Webs in the hanger, he reluctantly closed the hatch, and pressed the intercom, "Punch it Hera, get us out of here." Hera was about to protest about Ahsoka, but she also saw the E-webs getting set up. Regretfully, she pulled the Ghost out of the Star Destroyer's hanger and as soon as she was clear, she launched the ship into hyperspace.
As soon as the Ghost had safely got away, Ahsoka knew what she had to do, as troopers came flooding in, and with the heavy guns set up and all three Inquisitors advancing on her, she stood up straight, deactivated her lightsabers, and threw them down at the High Inquisitors feet, got down on her knees and surrendered. "A wise choice," Jerec said to her, "fortunately for you, Lord Vader wants you alive, to interrogate personally. Bind her, put the Force cuffs on her, and bring her to the bridge, we must inform Lord Vader that we have his prize." Jerec said, using the Force to lift Ahsoka's lightsabers, placing them on his belt, and turning away to head back toward the bridge. Fifth Brother had one of the blades of his weapon activated, in a threatening position as Seventh Sister placed the cuffs on Ahsoka, with hands behind her back and lifted her to her feet and was moving her toward the turbo lift.
"You know, I didn't get a chance to mention it before, but you remind me of someone I once knew," Ahsoka said to the Seventh Sister.
"Is it because I am a Mirialan former Jedi who turned to the dark side? I know of whom you speak. Interesting enough is that the late Grand Inquisitor was one of the four Temple Guards that helped your former master bring your friend, Barriss Offee to save your neck," Seventh Sister replied in her mockingly sweet, but cruel tone.
Getting to the bridge, Fifth Brother deactivated his blade, and keyed Vader's frequency. Seventh Sister and Ahsoka stood just outside the holoprojector's view. Moments later, the Dark Lord's visage materialized on the holoprojector, his booming voice rang out, "Report, have the rebels shown themselves?"
"We have good news and we have bad news, my lord," Fifth Brother said, hoping that he wasn't going to be strangled over the comm for this. Vader waited for them to explain themselves.
"The rebels showed themselves, coming for the boy, as we knew they would. Unfortunately, they managed to escape with the prisoner, also Agent Kallus has turned traitor and aided them," Jerec said, unconcerned about Vader's wrath upon him. "Fortunately, we have a gift for you, Lord Vader, we have your prize," he motioned for Seventh Sister to bring Tano into frame.
Seeing her, "You have Ahsoka Tano? Bring her to Mustafar at once," he commanded, as he cut the connection.
"See her to a cell," Jerec dismissed the other two Inquisitors, as he made his way onto the front of the bridge, "Admiral Konstantine, set course for Mustafar, at once,"
"Yes, Inquisitor," Konstantine went about his duty as not to have to interact with Jerec much. Soon enough, the Relentless jumped to hyperspace.
There you have it, the next chapter of this story, a lot has happened, the rebels got Ezra back, and gained Kallus, but lost Ahsoka, which was not my original intent but when working this chapter, I got an idea that I want to use later that required it, so I had to steer it that way.
I hope to have the next chapter out soon, now that I have set days a week that I can write.
The Emperor of the Multiverse is out. Peace.