Star Wars: The Lord in Exile

Gathering Forces

The Inquisitor and his TIE squadron pursued the Ghost through the space around Lothal. Imperial fighters landed multiple hits against the ship's shields, causing the vessel to shake violently. Hera maneuvered her ship to avoid more fire but was unable to return fire without the nose and rear guns active.

"Chopper, I'm rolling us starboard. Be ready to fire those rear guns." Hera advised.

Zeb made it to the Phantom and saw the damaged droid. "Karabast! Chopper's down! Ow. Ow!" he groaned as he used his hands to stomp out the fire. "I've got you covered, Hera. Roll away!"

The ship spun away and Zeb gunned down a TIE Fighter, but more approached the chase for their side.

"Open fire. Their shields will not hold indefinitely." the dark sider ordered.

The Ghost took more damage and in the common area, Sabine along with Aurelian looked on at the scene between Tseebo and Ezra. Aurelian felt like staying but knew where he was needed, so he ran off to the rear cannon. The ship shook and the pilot called out to her teams on comms.

"Sabine, Aurelian, I need you on the guns, now!"

"Didn't you hear Hera?" Ezra asked as he saw Sabine remain behind.

"Didn't you hear Tseebo? He said he knows what happened to your parents."

"I already know what happened. They're dead. So go!" the Mandalorian hesitated for a moment before rushing to the nose gun. Once she was gone, Ezra turned to his old family friend. "Are they? Are my parents dead?"

In the cockpit, Hera adjusted her instruments and noted how much more resistance her team was getting from the Empire.

"Someone want to explain to me why we're extra popular tonight?"

"We've picked up a passenger... the Rodian the imperials are hunting." Kanan replied, shooting at some TIE Fighters from his turret.

"And he's important because?"

"Because his cybernetic implant has downloaded half the Empire's secrets." Sabine added.

"Okay, I can see why that's important. Let's get him out of here."

"The Bridgers should hide. The troopers came. They took Mira and Ephraim Bridger away." Tseebo explained in a guilt-stricken voice.

"Where? Where did they take them?" the blue haired boy asked desperately.

"Forgive Tseebo. Forgive him."

"Forgive you?"

"Tseebo failed. Tseebo was afraid. Tseebo could not raise Ezra Bridger."

"Coward! You could have stopped them! Why didn't you stop them!?" Ezra shouted, but the implant reactivated and overwhelmed the Rodian. "Tseebo!"

"Shields down! Ezra, I need you in the cockpit!" Hera ordered.

"Yeah. On my way." the boy replied before turning to Tseebo. "Forgive you? My parents trusted you, and you failed them and you failed me. I'll never forgive you for that."

"Quite a ship." the Imperial dark sider praised.

He launched a small projectile from his fighter and it latched onto the docked Phantom. It beeped and an signal appeared on the Inquisitor's computers, indicating it was a tracking beacon. Meanwhile, Hera turned back to see Ezra running into the cockpit.

"Ezra. Nav-computer's off-line. With Chopper down, I need you to fix it."

"Not exactly my specialty."

"Well, make it your specialty and make it fast. Or this ship becomes a real ghost." she muttered as she saw Star Destroyers approach from the distance. "Could really use that nav-computer!"