Ch17: Loss and Consolidation

Lothal System, Lothal Sector, 1 BBY
"-bine? Sabine! Phoenix 5, come in! Sitrep! Can you hear me?"
The insistent demands of the Rebel Controller on Yavin chirping over her comm snapped the young Countess of Clan Wren out of her reverie, the crackle of the radio allowing her to finally tear her eyes away from the explosions where the X-Wings had crashed.

Thirty fighters, she mused to herself. Thirty pilots. Thirty droids. All gone.
She sank to her knees, merely sitting down and thinking over it once more.

Even over Sundari, the Mandalorian Resistance hadn't lost thirty fighters. It had taken months to incur losses that bad, and even then, some pilots had survived, beskar armour and prompt medical aid saving their lives.

"Ad'ika, it's me," a new voice said on the radio. It was Percy. "Come on. We can't help you if you don't tell us what's wrong, Sabine. We've lost contact with the Strike Force."
"They're dead," Sabine muttered back. "All shot down."
"Say that again?" Percy asked gently, and as good as he was at masking his tone, Sabine could tell that he was asking just to confirm that it really was true.
"All shot down, she reiterated. "I didn't see what happened, but none of the X-Wings managed to arrest their momentum in time. All gone down over Capital City."
"Some may well have survived," Jason offered. Sabine laughed in disdain.
"So we go in. Then what? We might find some. What if they're injured? We don't have any way to get them back out before the Empire finds them."

"Lady Wren," Nico joined the conversation. "You need only trust."
"Trust who, Nico?" Sabine laughed. "Pryce? Thrawn? The average citizen of Lothal is too scared of the Empire to let us lay low, and the Stormtroopers are raiding houses daily now."
"So, what, Sabine?" Percy asked. "You're beaten? Compromised? Defeated? Fine; Nico and I will come in and get you folks out. Lothal is lost to us."
"No," a voice interjected. "Hera's alive; I know it. At least eighteen of them were before they hit the ground. They still have personal medical supplies, weapons, armour. They have plans, too. We need to stop the Empire from getting a hold of them, at the very least."

"Good, Master Jarrus," Nico nodded approvingly. "The hardest part of a loss isn't the loss itself; it is recovering, and setting a new course of action. Act, Kanan, and act decisively. You may well achieve more than you thought could be possible."
"Thank you, Master," Kanan nodded. His jaw was set, his face resolute.
"May the force be with you, Master Jarrus."
"And you also, Master di Angelo."

Headquarters of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Yavin 4, 1 BBY
"Bo-Katan!" Percy exclaimed, smirking as he observed the five ships landing in front of him. "You've outdone yourself. You can have your warriors back, by the way; the two you've given me just now are probably better than the other thirty combined, anyway."
"Your father is all kinds of annoyed," the Mand'alor replied. "You're stealing all his best commanders. Amphitrite isn't complaining, though; it's just the two of them and little Rhode still in the palace these days."
"And Benthekisyme," Triton pointed out. "All of the other guys. Yeah, he took Delphin's loss hard, but Dad's tough; he knows that we're more useful here than anywhere else."

"Enjoy these little things," Bo-Katan told Percy, gesturing at the ships. "We've done the standard work on them all, plus some little changes that you might enjoy looking over.
"Lady Kryze," Mon Mothma greeted. "What is this that you have brought with you?"
"Just a little present, Senator," Bo-Katan replied. "I am primarily here to retrieve my soldiers. We did, however, capture more resources than we know what to do with at the Battle of Sundari. So, once we had a little time, we reconfigured them. You should be able to find some use for them."
"I didn't see one of those tin triangles at Sundari," Percy mused, looking at the five ships that she had brought with her. Each of them far outsized anything else on the landing docks on Yavin 4.

The biggest of the five was familiar to those of the Rebellion, the broad triangular dorsal hull and underslung carrier bays of the Quasar-Fire class having been the centrepiece of Phoenix Squadron between the battles of Ryloth and Atollon.
The other four were even more familiar, though the Rebels' experience of them was in opposition, not in operation.
That was, of course, unless they'd served in the Mandalorian campaign.
Four captured Type 546 Arquitens Cruisers made up the rest of the donated fleet, the seemingly evergreen vessel having been gutted by the Mandalorians, and remade to Percy's own design as the now-Mandalorian vessels, Haran and Beviin had been.

"Any new quirks that my Father has added to these?" Percy asked of the Kryze leader.
"He sorely wanted to," Triton told his adoptive brother, "but as hard as he tried, all he was able to suggest was extra seat comfort and more escape pods. Between Jason and you, it's a damn good ship you've designed there."
"Kark, I'd forgotten that Jason designed the latest batch of the Arquitens," Percy chuckled. "Not that I'm going to mention it to him; he hardly needs the ego boost."

"I resent that," Jason said, clapping Percy's shoulder as he joined the conversation. "Lady Kryze, my congratulations on your victory. I look forward to working with you in the Senate some day. What changes did you actually end up making, by the way? I promise I'll give you at least a little credit when I eventually steal it."
"Ripped out the insides," Percy said. "Bigger hangar, less offices. Little to no creature comforts. We extended the Mess and added entertainment stuff there, but aside from that, the only places for people to sleep are that genius little troop drop bay of yours, and the Offices, which hold four people each. All beds in there are bunks that retract into the walls when not needed. All the rest has been repurposed as Hangar space. I'm a particular fan of that accelerated launcher you designed."

"Should've expected that from you Mandalorians," Jason scoffed. "No comforts at all."
"It's a warship," Percy pointed out. "People have space to eat, sleep, shit, wash and work. What more do you need?"
"And if you're in an expeditionary force?"
"When are we ever on tour for more than a few months at a time? If we're going for longer than that, we're probably rotating on and off a carrier like this Venator you're building; even then, from what we've both experienced, those are hardly comfortable either."
Jason nodded, shrugging. "To each their own, I suppose. Not too different from the setups here on Yavin."

"If that is all, Perseus, I'll be on my way," Bo-Katan said. "Ret'urcye mhi."
"Indeed, Bo-Katan," Percy answered with a smile. "I'll see you soon. Give Father and Amphitrite my best."
Triteia and Felix remained, Triton and Bo-Katan making their way to a Kom'rk, the Saxon warriors who had been involved in the Lothal raid in tow.

Capital City, Lothal, 1 BBY
"Spectre 1 in position," Porter informed the team over the comm. "I've found the first fighter; droid's been shot up, but the Pilot's alive. He's coming your way, Ryder."
"Another one," Jai Kell added. "Zeb, you're closest."
The Rebels kept going, street by street, alleyway by alleyway.

The knew, however, that the longer they were hear, the higher the chance of them being captured. Not only would the crash sites attract Stormtrooper attention, but the further into the centre of the city they went, the more guard posts and Officer's houses there were.
Even still, they had jobs to do; lives to save.

Sabine rounded a corner, blasters brought to bear. A pair of white-clad stormtroopers were climbing the wing of a downed X-wing, the first about to peer into the cockpit. The engine was aflame, but it clearly hadn't reached the pilot or his droid, which was protesting, loudly.

"There!" the second trooper exclaimed, bringing his blaster up.
Both were dead before they could fire a shot.

Not putting her blasters away, Sabine rushed to the downed starfighter, ripping open the canopy.
Immediately, she wished she hadn't.
The pilot wasn't dead, but she wasn't far from it. The Rodian was in evident pain, bleeding out.
The moment the wounded pilot saw Sabine's face, she began to beg for help, reaching out with the mangled stub of an arm that she still had.
Sabine put the pilot out of her misery.

Still, though, the Droid beeped and warbled insistently. Sabine freed it with a well-placed blaster bolt.
It continued to natter away, and Sabine took a moment to listen to it.
"They're carrying weapons," Sabine informed the other rebels on the surface. "If they're lost, salvage what weapons and ammunition you can."

It felt wrong, taking a dead person's possessions like she was doing. The Mandalore Campaign, however, had taught her that this was just another reality of war.
A blaster bolt pinged off the fighter's fuselage, forcing her to duck for cover.
She responded by jumping back off, creeping around the still burning wreck to change the angle of attack. Her two shots didn't miss, each of the Stormtroopers going down to a headshot.

Once more, she approached the pilot's compartment, opening up the storage compartment underneath the seat. Inside, she found a satchel full of grenades, medical kits and a hunter's rifle. The scope was powerful enough to see two klicks, making this an effective sniper.

"Three of them are back at base," Azadi informed them. "Two more in the tunnels. Any update on the General?"
"Getting there," Kanan ground out. "I can sense her. She is unconscious, but alive."
"What's your location?" Sabine asked him. "I'll try and get to you."

The location that he sent was at least four blocks further than any other rebel had reached by now.
That was cause for concern.

"Spectre 1, hold your position," she advised. "You're overextended, and we can't get through if they bring up armour."
There was no response.
Sabine swore.

Capital City, Lothal, 1 BBY
Kanan Jarrus put down a Stormtrooper with a brutal shove in the force, sending the white-clad sergeant and the single trooper on patrol alongside him hurtling into the wall at the back end of the alley he was in. A few kilometres away, Kanan could sense the life, the warmth and the hunger of a fire.
It was growing.
Hera.

"Kanan!" Sabine's voice asked insistently in his ear.
He ignored her. She stopped calling for him.
Over his right shoulder, he could sense something.
Something big.
Drawing his sabre, he was just in time to deflect the first blaster bolt.

Capital City, Lothal, 1 BBY
"And now he's in a fight," Sabine sighed.

"Ezra, I'm going to need you to cover across for Kanan. He's pushing ahead on sector 4. Kell, you're a good shot; can we get you on a rooftop somewhere?"
"I haven't got a blaster," the young man replied. "But sure, I can get on a roof."
"I got the blaster sorted," Sabine replied. "Take the tower on grid C. You see a Stormtrooper Officer or NCO, blast them."
"Roger that," Kell replied.

Entrusting the droid with the blaster, Sabine emerged from her cover and resumed her advance. The next downed fighter was a few streets away, and already she could faintly hear the sounds of Imperial AT-ST walkers advancing.

Headquarters of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Yavin 4, 1 BBY
Percy, Jason and Reyna strode into the control room together, striding across to the hunched form of Aleksandr Kallus.

"Admirals," he greeted with a nod. "So far, from what Azadi has transmitted, it appears as though we're recouping at least a little of what survived Thrawn's blockade. Seven pilots are out of Capital City already, though there are ten confirmed casualties thus far."
Reyna grimaced. "Give me their names," she told him. "I'll find their closest living relatives. They'll want to know."

"Roger that Admiral," the former ISB agent nodded solemnly. "What news of Project Liberator?"
"Lots of paperwork," Percy smirked. "And kriff, I hadn't missed that part of the job; transferring hundreds of pilots across to the Liberty Fleet isn't going to happen quickly. Fortunately Jason here had enough brain cells to rub together and realise that he needed to automate most of the systems for Rebel use."
"Only takes three thousand crew," The Kuati man stated proudly. "Mostly attached to the fighters, too. I've streamlined the bridges and cabins so that they don't need as many people. The Engines are mostly automated, as are the maintenance jobs. It's hard to train troops, but droids? Less so."

"Handy," Reyna remarked. "And between the Liberation, and the Quasar Fire ship Firebird, we're looking at a mobile starfighter fleet of about three hundred ships."
"Handy indeed," Kallus nodded. "And you've been busy naming them, too."
"I'm even happier with the Cruisers," Percy said. "Get a load of this; Redeemer, Rebirth, Restoration and Reunion."
"You're on a roll," Kallus deadpanned. "As is Kanan Jarrus, by the looks of things. Thank the force that Sabine Wren learned how to take control of an operation on Mandalore, because Kanan seems to have lost his senses."

"He has allowed his emotions to cloud his judgement," Nico said, entering the room. The Umbaran was clearly troubled. "His feelings for Hera seem to have overridden his Jedi training. You have eyes on the situation?"
"The blockade isn't jamming our trackers," Rex answered him from his position next to Kallus. "Sabine's placed a sniper on the tallest tower in the sector, and the rest of them are operating as though Kanan's not even there. Bridger's covering two sectors on his own."
"A sound strategy," Percy nodded. "Keep us appraised if there are any developments."
The trio left, Percy clapping Nico on the shoulder as he left.

"More and more worrisome," Nico muttered. "And yet there is very little that can be done from here."
"I hate it, General," Rex replied. "But here we are."
"Here we are," Nico echoed.

Capital City, Lothal, 1 BBY
"Kell, get eyes on here!" Sabine bellowed into her helmet's communicator. "I'm pinned down!"
She ducked down as a couple of crimson blaster bolts hurtled overhead. Once more, she was painfully close to a downed X-Wing, and once more the Empire had made it there before her.

Asking Jai to take up a sniper's role had been an inspired call, she reflected. The Lothal native had been instrumental in delocalising the Imperial leadership. When one officer went down, the next rank up was forced to take control of the situation.
Not only did that reduce cohesion in the Imperial ranks, it also gave a small number of Officers a lot of important things to deal with at once.
Meanwhile, the Rebels could still work to their original plan, flitting from position to position, working around the carefully curated entrances to the sewage network. Operating individually, they could effectively disappear and reappear at random points in time, freeing their comrades and accumulating equipment as they went.

"Can't hit that," Kell told her. "If you can force them a few steps backwards, then I can get involved. If not, you're on your own."
"Kark, I love these darts," Sabine muttered, priming the explosive warhead inside her right vambrace and clenching her fist to release it.
It hurtled through the air, striking the armoured personnel carrier and incinerating the troops within.
"Good shot," Kell told her. "I've got a new platoon converging on your position. Let's see if I can't make that number smaller.

Darting out from behind her cover, Sabine rushed across to the wreck of the X-Wing. A cursory look told her that both pilot and droid had survived.
A quick slash of her vibroblade had the droid free, and the R-3 model instantly set about freeing its master as Sabine pushed ahead.

The Imperial platoon were in disarray as she watched them from atop the roof directly above them. Already, they had dismounted from their personnel carriers, leaving them spread out, but still no less vulnerable.
A blue blaster bolt streaked through the air, striking the Sergeant so hard in the side of the head that his form skidded a yard or two before it hit the ground.
Kell had them in his sights.

Immediately, the Troopers began to back off.
Sabine didn't give them that chance.
Drawing both her blasters, she picked off the rear two, before dropping a pair of grenades into the alleyway.

A cursory glance behind her told Sabine that the droid had succeeded in freeing its master; a young Togruta who was now rushing away in the direction of the nearest entrance point to the sewer system.
She was gone before the explosives detonated.

Capital City, Lothal, 1 BBY
Kanan ducked underneath the heat of a volley of blaster bolts, reaching out in the force and pulling sharply to strip the shooters of their weapons. A swing of his sabre had them cut neatly in half. Behind them, he could sense something large.
A walker.

The squad of stormtroopers darted for the sides of the road as he charged in their direction, sabre outstretched. He wasn't sure if any of them had screamed. Quite frankly, he didn't care.
Hera wasn't far off now.

Vaulting up off the ground, he sprung himself upwards, grabbing the hull of the AT-ST and clinging on.
Slowly, he worked his way to the top, opening the hatch and pulling the pair of crew out. They fell to the ground with a scream.

"Kanan, is that you in a Walker?" Ezra asked him on the comms. He wasn't sure if it was a question or if he was merely appraising Sabine of the situation.

His Padawan wasn't too far behind him, though even at the rate at which Ezra was moving, he'd still be too slow to save Hera from the Imperial troops who converged upon her position.
Leaping back off the top of the walker, he vaulted onto the roofs, sprinting off in Hera's direction.

ISD Chimaera, Lothal System, 1 BBY
"Give me a situation report," Thrawn demanded of Pryce. Out of his viewport he could see a pair of flaming Star Destroyers, and the wreckage of one of his Command Cruisers. His tactical display gave him something of the picture, but hardly enough to allow him to dictate the fight.
That duty had fallen into the hands of the Governor of the Planet.
A woman so painfully incompetent that he dreaded her update.

"We have captured three Rebel pilots," she informed him. "Several others have been confirmed to be dead. However, the Rebels have launched a rescue effort. Assessed to be of platoon strength or larger. Several pilots were spotted escaping into the city's sewers, and any attempt to pursue has been cut off by Rebel snipers."
"You are being systematically taken apart by a team of fewer than ten Rebels," Thrawn told her. "Governor, has it not occurred to you that you reserve the right to simply collapse the tunnel, rather than throw troops at its entrance?"
"Y-yes, Grand Admiral," she told him. "I will deploy Combat Pioneers at once."
"I will be with you shortly," Thrawn told her. "And it has not gone unnoticed that you have lost the entirety of this planet's production and resupply capacity. You may well find yourself undefended against any future Rebel offensives."

Pryce couldn't reply. In Thrawn's opinion, that was a superior course of action in comparison to anything else that she might have done.

Capital City, Lothal, 1 BBY
Ezra shook his head in wonder as he watched his master go. One block to his right was another downed X-Wing, and the street beyond that was full of Imperials.
Sheathing his sabre, the Lothal native pressed himself to the wall. This pilot was alive, and out of his cockpit.
He had a blaster in his hand, and he was fighting to save his droid from incoming Imperial fire.

Ezra leapt into the fight with a shout, slicing the first trooper's weapon in half and shoving him into the nearest wall.
The next three surrendered instantly at the sight of the Jedi, the NCO who Ezra expected to be leading the squad missing.
Clearly, Jai had something to do with that.
Turning around, he noticed just who he had saved.

"Mart?" he asked, grinning as the soot-stained pilot nodded.
"The one and only. Hera's alive, but considering how Kanan charged down the next street, I'm guessing you folks know that already."
"Something like that," Ezra nodded.

"Cool. Where are we going next?" the man from Mykapo asked. "I've got some grenades and medpacks."
"Medpacks?" Ezra asked, nodding when he was shown the painkillers, bandages and various other implements. "Get yourself across to Ryder; three streets south, and then take a left. He should be there. I'll see you at the camp."
Mart ran off without a word.

Capital City, Lothal, 1 BBY
Sabine hadn't been given a reason to smile as widely as she currently was in a while.
The rocket launcher in her hand, however, was enough to split her face in a wide smile.
Kneeling on top of one of the taller buildings, she took careful aim before pulling the trigger.

She took control of the projectile through the datapad integrated into her vambraces, locking it onto the magnetic signature of the incoming AT-ST walker.
She grinned once more as it blew up.

"Sabine, that you?" Zeb's voice asked her over the comm.
"Rocket launcher," she gloated.
"Kark, you get all the fun stuff," he groused. "Keep it safe. I want to use it to blow up some bucket heads later."
"You got it, big guy," she told him, rising to her feet and running off towards the next wreck; the last in her sector.
As she approached it, she could see the reflection of a pillar of blue light, and she could hear the sounds of incoming blaster fire.

"You seeing this, Jai?" she asked over the comm. "Hit it if you can. If you can't then get somewhere where you can. It's the last wreck."
"That's ten pilots safely out of here," Azadi told them. "Three more in the tunnels."
"Mart's on his way to you, Zeb," Ezra told the Lasat. "No sign of Hera for me."
"Kanan's found her," Sabine told him. "I'm about to engage."
"Roger that," Kell told her. "I've got eyes on. Engaging now."

Speeding up, Sabine made her way over the rooftops to overlook the little market that Kanan had found Hera and Chopper in.
True to form, the Twi'lek had cut herself free, dragging a fellow wounded pilot with her before she'd been cornered close to one of the sewer system's entrances. She was firing away with her blaster, the old Eirriss-Ryloth Blurrg-1120 weapon sounding off with its trademark echoing sound as she attempted to pin the Stormtroopers down.

"Hera, stay down!" Sabine ordered sharply, loading the Sienaar RPS-6 Rocket Launcher and dropping to a knee for stability. Pinpointing her target on her helmet's heads-up display, she locked on with her viewfinder and squeezed the trigger.
The footbridge collapsed on the onrushing squad of Stormtroopers, the physical blockade halting their advance and the dust that the collapse kicked up granting them a few moments to pull back.

"Good shot!" Kanan shouted, "Now into the tunnels!"
"Confirm the numbers to me, Ryder?" she asked.
"Ezra's just got the last survivor out now," the former governor confirmed. "You're the last one still out there.. Get out of there Sabine. Your uncle would be proud. You too, Kell. You've saved a lot of our people today with your fancy shooting."
Sabine nodded; twenty kills as a sniper was no mean feat, and Jai had done it with some measure of ease in these streets of Capital City.

ISD Chimaera, Lothal System, 1 BBY
"The charges are set, Grand Admiral," Pryce informed him. "Preparing to detonate now."
"No, Governor," Thrawn corrected, shaking his head softly. "The Rebels have played their hand. It is wise to keep ours concealed until it is absolutely necessary to play it."
"I don't understand," the woman said, crossing her arms. "We have the charges; why don't we just blow it and watch them suffer?"
"If the charges were to be blown now," Thrawn explained, as though to a child, "the remaining insurgents would simply find a separate route. Indeed, under Sabine Wren's planning, I can see at least three that these guerillas have cleared. Instead, we must wait until they have committed fully to their withdrawal along the tunnels.

Once they have no possibility of escape, we will destroy them in one decisive blow. An explosion is propelled along a passageway such as this one, Governor; the insurgents will have no chance of escape."
"Yes, Grand Admiral. It shall be done at your word."

Sewage Tunnels, Capital City, Lothal, 1 BBY
"I'm seeing an anomaly on the walls here," Sabine told the others as she advanced down the tunnel. They'd encountered little resistance since they had dropped into the network of sewage and ventilation tunnels under Capital City.
While that was worrying, there was a more immediate threat. As she looked through her viewfinder-assisted helmet, she noticed a series of pulsing electrical signals.
Large numbers of them.
"Detonation charges!" she exclaimed. "Someone shut the blast doors!"
Too late.

ISD Chimaera, Lothal System, 1 BBY
"Lock all blast doors to the 'open' position. Detonate now," Thrawn instructed.
"As you wish, Grand Admiral," Pryce agreed, relaying the command to the Combat Pioneer Lieutenant.
"Send troopers down into the tunnels to finish off what remains,"
"As you wish, Grand Admiral."

Sewage Tunnels, Capital City, Lothal, 1 BBY
"Get moving," Kanan demanded. "It's about to blow"!
Sabine dearly wanted to reply with something witty, but she felt the rumbling underneath her feet. The detonators were undergoing a countdown, under the standard timer.

"Blast doors are locked open," Ezra warned. "There's no way to hold 'em off!"
"Then run!" she roared.

They took off, Ezra now supporting Hera as Kanan…
Where was Kanan?

"Kanan!" Sabine called into the comm. "Where are you?"
"Don't you worry," the Jedi's voice replied. "Just keep running."
She didn't follow the instruction, instead turning back.
"Just keep running." He sounded weaker now.

Her heart sank like a stone when she saw the wall of fire hurtling down the tunnel. It sank lower, somehow, when she saw the lone figure standing tall and proud against it, like the heroes from the stories of old. Stories that Percy and her Triton had told her while her mother was off campaigning in the Clone War, liberating Sundari from Maul and his agents.
He held both his hands out in front of him, halting the rapidly onrushing explosion.

"Kanan!" Ezra shouted, rushing to aid his master.
"No!" Kanan roared. Turning back for a moment, he hurled Ezra back. The flames inched closer as the Jedi Master's concentration lapsed momentarily.
"Kanan, stop!" Ezra cried, "I can help!"
"If you stay, we all die," he replied. "Now go. I won't have your deaths on my conscience too."
He squeezed briefly with the hand he had used to hurl Ezra back. With a series of pops and cracks, the blast door slamming shut.

It took Sabine a moment to realise just what had happened.
Ezra realised the exact same thing.

"KANAN!"
The boy hurled himself at the doors, physically trying to pry the gargantuan things open with his fingers.

"Ezra, it's structurally unsound," Sabine warned, fighting to stave off the wavering in her voice. "If we stay, we'll be crushed. Don't let his sacrifice be in vain."
"He's not dead!" Ezra told her. "He can't be."
"If he's alive, Ezra, we'll find him," Sabine reassured him. "You know we'll find him. Now, though? We need to get out of here before the Stormtroopers show up."
Once more, they were too late.

Blaster bolts thudded against the freshly sealed blast doors, one of them pinging off Sabine's Beskar armour.
The first pair went down to a pair of quickfire shots from Sabine's WESTER-35s.
The jolt of combat spurred the pair of teen rebels into action, sprinting down the tunnels, shooting out the controls to the blast doors as they went.
They kept running, and at a point Sabine found her sense of distance vanishing.

It would hit her even harder later, she knew, but there was something about losing Kanan that just didn't work.
It didn't make sense. The man who'd brought her aboard the Ghost eight years ago, on some remote moon in the Expansion Region.
He was gone.

Headquarters of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Yavin 4, 1 BBY
"Spectre, update."
The officer team who had been designated as the heads of the 'Liberty Fleet' were once more gathered around the command console manned by Aleksandr Kallus.
The former ISB Agent had been attempting to establish comms with the detachment on Lothal every ten minutes for the past hour; all trackers on the planet had been disabled by what showed up on instruments as a massive explosion.

"Kanan's dead," Sabine's toneless voice informed them over the comm.
"Sabine, say that again?" Percy asked. "It sounded like you said-"
"Don't make me say it again," she replied. No, that wasn't a reply; that was a plea.

The Mandalorian Admiral took a moment, exhaling and composing himself. He hadn't been close with Jarrus, having only met the Jedi a handful of times. They had exchanged blows and blaster bolts more than they had words. He was indebted to the man, yes, for taking his niece in at a time when both he and Sabine had been truly desperate.
Sabine, however, was attached to the man.

Throughout the campaign to free Mandalore she had used his strategies and lessons, shocking her fellow Mandalorians with a steely calmness under a pressure that Percy now understood came from the late Jedi.
And now, he had an unpaid debt, and his niece was another parental figure short.

"Atalanta is going to Lothal," Nico told him.
Percy didn't acknowledge the statement.
"Bridger is good, but Iyneda is better. The Temple must yet be secured, and the planet must be taken."
"We're going to have to go in with her," Kallus informed Nico. "Thrawn would instantly suspect a single pilot in an Imperial shuttle. Rex and I know Imperial security protocols well enough to get in, and the Force knows that Bridger's going to need some more firepower in that theatre."
Nico shook his head.

"Not your fight," Jason told the bearded man. "If Syndulla wants you in the fight, best believe we'll move planets to get you in there, but until then, your posting is here. You're just as essential to the Lothal campaign right here as you might well be on the ground."
"Understood Sir," Rex ground out.

Rebel Camp, Lothal, 1 BBY
"Why did he have to die?" Ezra lamented as he collapsed on the grassy slope.
Off in the distance, Sabine could see the smoke, still curling into the dawn sky.
It was almost hard to believe that it hadn't even been half a rotation since Percy, Jason, Reyna and twenty other Mandalorian warriors had been on the planet's surface, laying charges and completely obliterating the Empire's ability to function militarily on Lothal.
And, somehow, an incredible, flawless victory had turned into what felt like a defeat.

"I think he knew he was going to die," She muttered back to Ezra, tossing her helmet off to one side, watching as it thudded into the turf. "Whatever Jetii magic you guys use. He didn't care how tonight turned out, because he knew how it was going to end."
"But he had so much more to do," Ezra said back, covering his face with his hands. If it was to shield his eyes from the rising sun or to shield hers from his tears, Sabine didn't know. "So much more to teach me." Her friend's voice caught on the last two words, and Sabine swallowed her own emotions back.

"My mother died," she confided. "The day we took Sundari."
Ezra sat up ramrod straight, turning to face her. Sabine placed her helmet back on her head and scooted over, leaning against the inexplicably smooth surface of a mountain. She relished in its coolness against her back, and once she was comfortable, she continued speaking.

"She insisted on being the first into the Throne Room. It was her and Percy. They'd dreamed of that moment for years. Ever since the Empire took over. Seeing a Mandalorian, in full armour, on the throne."
"How did it happen?" Ezra broached.
"She took off her helmet, Ezra," Sabine told him. "Percy said it's because she was so emotional at seeing the throne in person after so long. All of the stained glass, all of the gold and gems. It was everything she'd fought for, for all those years. But the Imperial Governor had let loose Geonosian Gas. It killed more Mandalorians in half an hour than the Empire did in two whole years of open war. And it took my mother."
He said nothing to her, so Sabine kept talking.

"My mother died doing something she knew mattered, fighting for the people she loved. Kanan did the same. Even after he'd won, after Hera was safe, he died so that all of the rest of us could keep living. Keep fighting for what is right."

Headquarters of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Yavin 4, 1 BBY
Percy reached over and pressed a button to mute the comm on their end, before sinking into his wife's embrace.

"Manda, when did she get so intelligent?" he muttered, drawing a watery chuckle from Reyna.
"About the same time we told her to lead the Mando'ade into a war for our existence," she muttered back, running a hand through his hair. "And she's all the better for it."
"Kriff, I miss Ursa," Percy chuckled, drawing back a little. "She could be dense, but family is family, and Ursa was that."
"Take your niece's advice," Reyna told him. "Respect her sacrifice. Honour her legacy as a warrior. Defeat her enemy."
"The Manda above know that we will," he muttered. "They might not know it just yet, but retribution is coming their way."

ISD Chimaera, Lothal System, 1 BBY
"Search patrols are back, Grand Admiral," an ensign informed him. "No survivors. They found the Jedi Knight Jarrus' lightsaber."
"Then at least I have something of note to tell the Emperor when I meet him," Thrawn nodded. "Set course for Coruscant. We must depart with the utmost urgency."

Rebel Camp, Lothal, 1 BBY
Hera emerged from the cave distraught. With sleep having worn off the painkillers administered to her, there was a dull ache in her head from the concussion caused by the crash.
There was a very much live throb in her heart for the man who she had loved.
As she walked around the camp, people stopped to greet her, some passing her rations, others passing her water, or even just offering her a polite greeting.

She ignored much of it, following those who guided her towards the rest of her crew.
She found them all together, Zeb, Sabine and Ezra speaking quietly at the foot of one of a mountain, their weapons and armour discarded around them as though they'd been here for some time.

"So I gave Tristan a sniper rifle," Sabine was saying to her captive audience. "And he instantly knocks out four of them. So we kept going, fighting the troopers until we were able to get the scaffold up. Tarre Vizsla was an inspiration to all of the Mando'ade. His statue couldn't be covered up. He needed to see what we were doing for his planet, and the Empire needed to see that he was watching them."
"You guys really aren't so different from the Jedi, you know," Ezra replied to her. "K-Kanan was always saying that every planet resonated with the Force."
"In a way, I guess he's like that statue of Tarre Vizsla," Hera murmured, leaning against the rock and joining her crew. "He's watching us, wherever he is, and he's free now."

Imperial Naval Admiralty, Coruscant, Galactic Core, 1 BBY
"Grand Admiral Thrawn," Tarkin greeted, dismissing the Chiss Admiral's salute with a wave of his hand. "It has come to my attention that you have an update regarding your Defender initiative."
"The Insurgents conducted a successful sabotage mission on Imperial facilities on Lothal," Thrawn replied. "This mission disabled my factories upon Lothal, and destroyed the Sector's newly constructed Fuel Depot. A subsequent assault was then directed upon my blockade; an assault which resulted in failure, and the subsequent demise of the Jedi Insurgent known by the name of Kanan Jarrus."
Tarkin gave a huff of amusement as he opened the door to his office, allowing Thrawn inside.
The Grand Admiral was briefly shocked to see just who was awaiting him inside.

"Ahh, Thrawn," the Emperor greeted. The former Supreme Chancellor was garbed in his black cloak, his seemingly ever-present lackey, Mas Amedda and his right hand, Darth Vader flanking him on either side.
"My Emperor," he greeted with a bow. "I was under the impression that this would simply be a report delivered to the Grand Moff. Evidently I was labouring under a misapprehension."
"Failure," The Emperor spat, "shall not be tolerated. And you, Mitth'raw'nuruodo, have failed me."
"Perhaps, My Emperor, before attributing failure to those at the highest level, and with a proven record of success, one must question the gears of the machine?"
"You implicate my Empire as the reason for your failure?"

"I implicate those under my direct command, My Emperor. There is a reason that the Rebellion took root on Lothal. There is a reason that it strengthened under the stewardship of Minister Tua and Governor Pryce, and with the brilliance of the treasonous Perseus Jackson and Hera Syndulla the Imperial Doctrine is insufficient to put down a rebellion such as this one."
"And yet you refused to implement the Interdictor to its full potential. Perseus Jackson designed both the Interdictor and 546 Cruiser to complement your Defender, and since it entered service, you have only utilised it once."

"The Interdictor," Thrawn defended, "was designed with a weakness. Once I discover its root, I can begin to utilise it one more. Until then, there is no use in dooming my troops to a fundamentally flawed strategy."
"Your displeasure is noted," Mas Amedda told him. "Consider your Defender scheme rusticated, the lost funds rededicated to Stardust. Further failure will result in the direst of consequences."
"I thank you for your leniency."

A/N
Some Lothal excitement. Dudududhehe and I have been working hard at this, and surprisingly this chapter flowed fairly well.
I didn't really change much in the grand scheme of things; less time between the crashes and the rescue attempt, and more people survived (well, if Hera and Mart can, then I reckon it's reasonable that some others would make it. End result is about half of the original thirty who get out of there. Others were killed on impact, captured or too badly wounded on impact to be evacuated. You see what happened to those folks pretty early on in the rescue attempt.

The other thing is the Liberty Fleet. That's being worked on, and it'll serve its purpose as we go into the latter stages of this story.
Next up, more Lothal, and some post-Imperial Mandalore.

Until next time, then,
Sol
(I do not own PJO, Star Wars or any related media)