STAR WARS REBELS || Her Wings Of Fire

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Tank In The Desert

Ezra crept down the hallway towards the cockpit, poking his head through doorways as he did so. And he was a man on a mission – for the fifth time in as many days, Chopper had substituted the sugar in the shaker for salt.

Or at least, he thought it was Chopper. But all the evidence pointed to him. Every single time it had happened, Ezra had heard his wheels rolling away down the hall followed by a mechanical laugh, and it was high time he got back at him.

This morning he had chased after the droid, and gotten shocked a few times for his efforts. But now, he had a secret weapon: the Taser that Teri kept in his sleeve. If he couldn't win against Chopper, then he could at least make it a fair fight.

But, as he paused to stick his head into the kitchen, he suddenly found himself being dragged by the shirt collar back the other way.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, scrambling to his feet and swatting the hand away.

Kanan glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, unimpressed. "Come on. You can deactivate Chopper after the mission."

Ezra lit up. "Really?"

"No," the older Jedi deadpanned. "And you should probably give the Taser back before Teri notices it's gone."

"You kidding?" Ezra laughed, puffing out his chest as he hooked the Taser onto the back of his belt. "I did this for a living for years. Of course he won't notice!"

"Better yet, you won't notice either," came a voice.

Ezra jumped, whipping around to see Teri walking silently behind them. The dark-haired man dangled the Taser in front of his face, chuckling to himself. "Never steal from another thief, Ezra," he said. "It doesn't end well."

"You were a pickpocket?" Kanan asked, surprised.

"I had my moments... But only when it was necessary." Teri sighed wistfully, but he was back to the present a moment later. "Okay, so what's the plan?"

"We're going in on the Phantom. Chopper screwed something up in the hyperdrive repairs, so he and Hera are staying here to fix it."

Teri thought for a moment. "Okay... But she's got to stay in this corner of the system. Rhea can get pretty rowdy, and there might be pirate ships flying around."

Kanan nodded. "I'm sure she knows."

Teri set his jaw, staring straight ahead determinedly. "All right, then let's go."

-:-:-:-:-:-

A few minutes later, the Phantom had cleared the atmosphere and was settling into a slow descent while Teri and the Ghost crewmembers present set up their scanning equipment.

Seelos was a pretty sort of planet from the upper atmosphere, as Ezra mused, with its fluffy-looking wisps of cloud that shimmered ever so slightly in the light and took every shape and form imaginable. Although he knew that the clouds here were comprised mostly of water vapor, and wouldn't hold his weight, he was suddenly tempted to jump into them like they were big, soft pillows.

But the subtle beeping noises of the droid head being activated soon brought him out of his oddly childlike reverie, and he looked away from the windshield as Sabine walked over.

"Well, let's fire this thing up," she said, placing it on the dashboard and plugging it into the Phantom's systems.

"We can restrict our search to this quarter of the planet. My friend knows exactly where all the hotspots are."

"What kind of hotspots?" Kanan inquired, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

Teri didn't answer; he only smiled.