Star Wars: The Lord in Exile

Invictus Ultramar

It was a quiet day on the Ghost, Aurelian was once again at the holotable. Ezra had a ridiculous notion that he could beat the Ultramarian at dejarik, and he wanted Sabine as a witness to his upcoming victory. Aurelian had a sneaking suspicion that this was a ploy to make himself look good in front of the woman they both had feelings for. Sabine imputed the dejarik disc into the holotable and the game turned on. Monsters appeared on both sides and while Ezra had a cocky smirk, Aurelian's face was blank.

"The challenger has the first move."

Ezra moved a piece forward and took down a smaller creature on Aurelian's side. In response, the Ultramarian moved one of his pieces back and baited Ezra in. Ezra spent the next few moves advancing and taking more pieces; he didn't see Aurelian's plan in action. He had made Ezra throw away many of his stronger monsters on carefully selected targets and even used the Kintan Strider death gambit to get his best player. Ezra only realized too late that he had no monsters capable of stopping the few Aurelian had left.

"I win," he proclaimed.

"What?" Ezra looked at the board and saw his few pieces get demolished in front of his eyes.

Sabine smirked, "Lian wins. Classic Hydian faint tactic. Though the death gambit was a nice twist."

"Thanks. Well Ezra, I'd say that was challenging but that would be a lie. Perhaps we should find a game more your speed, like Sarlacs and lifts."

Ezra scoffed in annoyance while the Mandalorian girl chuckled. Just then, Kanan, Zeb, and Hera walked into the room with Chopper close behind them. Aurelian cleared some room for them and everyone sat down so the two leaders could go over their upcoming mission.

"We got something a little different this time," Kanan said.

"Different as in 'we're taking in some lonely street kid' or the good kind of different?" the Mandalorian joked.

"Hey!"

"We've gotten intel about an Imperial auction dealing in rare trinkets from various corners of the galaxy."

"According to our intel, most of the items on the docket were stolen from Imperial occupied worlds and are actually items of great historical and cultural significance." the pilot explained. "Now, this mission is strictly covert. We're going to be infiltrating the auction and procuring only a five select items. We've already been given the funds to make a real stake at the biddings."

Kanan jumped in, "If we can't afford the items, we'll be stealing them from the auction warehouse before they ship out tomorrow morning."

"Why not just raid the warehouse straight away?" Ezra asked.

"Security is tight. And there's already a lot of high-ranking Imperials on this planet."

"Where is this auction?" Zeb asked.

"Well... Coruscant." Kanan hesitantly replied.

Instantly, everyone besides Hera began shouting objections to the mission. It would near suicide to go anywhere near the capital of the galaxy. Aurelian even got up and started walking out of the room from the sheer absurdity of the idea. That was until Kanan grabbed him by the arm and made him stay.

"I know it's risky, but we have a solid plan to get into Coruscant. Others have slipped past the Imperial blockade in the past. So can we." Hera assured them.

"Karabast. This is insane, why are we even considering this?"

"I'm with Zeb," Ezra said. "The Empire gives us enough trouble in the Outer Rim. Why would we go up to their doorstep?"