Wars Amongst the Stars: Rebellion: Vol: 1

Chapter Four

When Kanan spots Keen he turns away from her, the tension thick, and obvious between the two. Ezra enters directly behind Keen, looking up at his Master, "Kanan?" he starts. The lights are off, and the emblem of the Galactic Empire hovers over the Holotable.

Sabine shushes him, pointing at the emblem, "You made the Holonet."

A voice of an Imperial newscaster fills the room, it's discussing the robbery, of the TIE Fighter, and saying how the thieves had attacked a convoy of farmers. Zeb growls at the statement, "You Liar, we set 'em free!"

The report cuts out, and a picture of a man appears, "Citizens, this is Senator-in-exile Gall Trayvis. I bring more news the Empire doesn't want you to hear."

Ezra looks confused, "What's a Gall Trayvis?"

"The only member of the Imperial Senate with the courage to speak out publicly against the Empire." Hera answers, listening intently to the report.

The picture changes to a video of someone very familiar to Ar'iabel, the sound disappearing all around her, gasping softly. Jedi Master Luminara Unduli, an old friend, and a fellow member of the council. Keen had watched her from the beginning of her training, a great peacekeeper, calm under pressure, someone every Jedi looked up to. Her focus returns to the present, as it cuts back to the Imperial broadcast.

"This Luminara, you knew her?" Ezra asks Kanan.

"I met her. Once. She was a great Jedi Master brave, compassionate, disciplined. In fact, she'd make an excellent teacher for you," Kanan replies. Master Quinara rolls her eyes, feeling her anger bubble up at the final statement, the Knight turns to address Hera, " There've always been rumors she survived the Clone Wars, but they never came with a specific location before. We can't pass this up."

Keen glances up, she agrees that they need to locate Master Unduli, but, not for the same reasons as Kanan. Any Jedi that could have survived Order 66 deserves to be free, and the more that there are, the more hope the Galaxy receives.

Hera smiles, "Was hoping you'd say that. I'll set course for the Stygeon system." She stands from her seat, making for the cockpit.

Kanan stands as well, pointing to the crew, "The rest of you, prep for an op," and then heads for his cabin, to prep for himself.

Sabine and Zeb both go to make preparations for this mission. Ezra slumps down on his seat, dejected. Chopper rolls forward chuckling at him. Ezra looks up at the astromech, grumbling, "You hear that? He's done with me. He's gonna pawn me off on some stranger." Chopper just continues chuckling, rolling off for the cockpit.

Keen sits down opposite Ezra, placing a hand on top of his comfortingly. "I agree with Kanan," she tells him.

"Great, you think he should pawn me off, I thought we were meant for each other, the will of the Force, or whatever."

"I agree that we should find Luminara, and that she deserves to liberated. I agree that she's compassionate and disciplined. I still stand by the fact that you and Kanan are stuck with each other."

"You make that sound like it's a bad thing," he smirks, walking to get his stuff for this mission.

***

The team is crowded into the cockpit, Sabine has Chopper put a hologram of the prison up in middle of the room. She gestures to it, "Welcome to the Spire on Stygeon Prime, the only Imperial detainment facility in the Stygeon system. And it's impregnable."

"So was General Grievous' flagship, and yet, it was amazingly pregnable," Keen mutters under her breath, the comment not heard by the rebels.

"That's never stopped us before," Kanan states with confidence.

The Mandalorian chuckles, "Trust me, we have never faced anything like this. It's a real work of art. Blast proof, ray shielded, protected by anti-ship weapons, TIE fighters and short and long range scanners."

Ar'iabel scans the hologram looking for any weak points, but, if it does hold a Jedi, not just the Emperor, but also Anakin, the cocky, flyboy Jedi mechanic, who could tell a fault in a ship just by sensing it with the Force, would have inspected it, so when it's said to be impregnable, it would have to be almost certain. Vader would be involved, out of everyone in the Empire, he would have known the Jedi best, he'd have planned for how one would infiltrate or escape, he'd have tried every possible thing, except maybe the front door, the most obvious entrance.

Hera mentions something about fooling the scanners, to which Sabine responds, "Eh, maybe. But that just leaves an army of troopers and guard posts on all the walls. Look, even if we get into this beauty, the hard part's getting out. 'Cause, you know, it's a prison."

Ezra suggests a plan and, almost immediately Sabine shoots it down pointing out the flaws. Kanan points a finger to the hologram, at a small platform off to the side, "Here. There's only room for a couple guards. We take them down, make our way to the upper level isolation cells, free Luminara and come back out the way we came in."

The astromech cuts out the hologram, just so he can tell Kanan what he thinks of his plan, and Sabine concurs, "Yeah, you'd have to be crazy to try that stupid plan."

"They're right," Keen speaks up for the first time during the planning, "Think about it, this facility is housing a Jedi, a Master at that, it'll have been inspected, not just by the Emperor, but, Darth Vader. He'll have planned for any invasion, starting with the craziest, going to the least crazy," she scrubs a hand through her green-tinged hair, "Honestly, if I know Vader like I think I do, the only contingency he won't have planned for is if we marched straight through the front door. He's paranoid, afraid that he will fail his Master," she practically hisses the word Master.

Kanan blinks at the revelation that she knows Palpatine's guard dog, "I still think entering here is smarter."

"And crazier," Ezra butts in.

"Let's hope the Empire thinks so too."