A Jedi's Hope

Chapter 9

Standing at the base of my ship the night brother I bid everybody a farewell, I was going to Mandalore to help Sabine I gave my good byes to Leia this morning in our room and now I had the ghost crew in front of me "remember your training Ezra" yes Kanan how could I forget it" he frowned "get snippy on me young one" before we get into an argument Hera interrupts us and pulls me into a hug "don't forget to call us" "yes Hera" "stay close to Sabine" "yes Hera" "remember to" "ah come on Hera give the kid a break" "yeah have a good one Zeb" "you to kid". Ascending the ramp and sitting down on the pilots seat I pilot my ship out of the atmosphere and into hyperspace. As the blue and white streaks replace the darkness of space I retreat to the back of the ship and take up my mediative kneel on a small rubber mat I had placed down in the back just for this exact occasion. It's a 10-hour flight, and there is no one to talk to. It's going to be a long flight.

"you have permission to land Bridger we'll guide you in" replied to static voice of some Mandalorian. As I glided the ship down to land I hear the distant booming of Cannons firing, clearly the war front is close by. As I landed just short of the city I see the brightly coloured armour of Sabine and various another Wren's from the cockpit. I exit and I'm greeted with hostility from most. "Ezra" I hear Sabine yell out causing a few heads to turn, although she is trying to remain calm and neutral you can hear the happiness in her voice. "hey sabs" I call out meeting her halfway and shaking her hands as we turn and start to walk away she leans towards me, Cleary un wanting others to hear her "hey I'm sorry about the cold reception but as you could probably tell most people don't want you here" she states quietly "yeah... why is that. Your mother was the one who requested me". She sighed "Ezra... it's not you, it's just most people don't believe that we need help from outsiders, that this is an internal affair, and others don't believe in help from a Jedi... I'm sorry Ezra" "Sabine its fine... I didn't come to make others happy, I came for you and to help free your people" "thanks. Now I hate to do this but we have to go to a meeting to brief you about the missions" "ok no worries. Lead the way" she laughs "I was already doing that idiot"

"GO! GO! GO!" screamed Sabine over the sound of the air rushing into the cabin. Shortly after her voice and the whir of the engines is taken over but the sound of the air whistling past me, the sounds of blaster fire screaming by and the blasts of anti-air exploding around us. The ground approaches closer by the second, looking to my side I see the colourful armour of Sabine fly next to me. At the last second, we activate our jet packs and land on the massive satellite dish, stormtroopers start to pile onto the platform from the stairwells as more Mandalorian's land around us, all out warfare starts up and men from both sides start falling, slowly we start making our advance, at the briefing I was told I was not allowed to use my saber in case the empire found out I was here but screw it, we are taking to many losses and the stormtroopers are starting to piss me off

The familiar pop and glow from the blade makes a smile grow on my face, the stormtroopers stand back slightly scarred and in awe, clearly, they've never seen a Jedi before. I rush forward and start slicing and impaling the troopers as I pass, seeing a group of three in my pass I jump forward and spin around turning myself and my blade into a saw and bring them all down. After the initial shock, the Mandalorians start to charge forward using my momentum to reach the doors we go to open it but its locked, I order them to return fire as I start the slow process of cutting through. After about 30 seconds I complete the circle and propel the large chunk of metal forward at the troopers waiting on the other side. As I run in I start blocking and charge, sending the bolts back at their senders and jabbing those who get to close. Sabine and her men push in behind me and start returning fire, after minutes of pushing through the enclosed corridors of the station we make it to the control room, a droid similar to chopper moves forward and plugs itself in and starts to retrieve imperial data while Sabine places detonators around the control panels. The work is eventually done and we join the rest of the Mandalorians and fight our way back out, luckily we had taken out most on the way to the controls so the fight was easy and the escape was quick, until we reached a corridor filled with stormtroopers, "fall back" I yell and we run back around the corner "Sabine get to the hangar I'll meet you there" as I break off and run back "I'll make sure that they don't get to the control room" without a word she joins her men and I arrive at the corner. Breath in, breath out. "Deep breaths let the force flow through you" I say to myself as I remember Kanan's teachings.

Slowly I walk corner with my blade held low, all the troopers take aim and start firing. I walk forward and casually block the bolts and send them back, I make my slow casual advance eventually reaching the shooters, I get into action and start to speed up. I rush forward and start slicing and jabbing those who fall to close to my blade, the ones out of range receive a blast either from my blaster or from the force. After the long advance taking on dozens of troopers I reach the hangar. Blade ready the door slides open revealing the battle that lay beyond the door. Mandalorians flying around, stormtroopers falling and an AT-DT Walker walking around firing. All of this fighting in a small. Closed hangar, rushing forward I take out the walker by jumping up and slicing the legs off the waker forcing it to crumble to the ground. Blocking the bolts that come my way I look for Sabine and see her a few meters pinned down behind some rubble. Rushing forward towards her I jump over her head and the rubble and take on at least 14 troopers at once. Bending down I'm ducking and twisting, spinning through the imperial ranks like a green tornado of death. Finishing off the final one I turn around and look at the Mando's "I've always heard stories about how deadly a Jedi is... but I've never seen one in action till now" boldly states alone Mandalorian in green armour as the rest stare in awe I guess, I don't really know they've got helmets covering their faces so I can't see their facial expressions. A loud explosion from the control room alerts us that it's time to leave, rushing forward towards the hangar bay doors we jump out and start plummeting towards the ground before our jetpacks activate and we fly away, it's not long before our transports arrive and we file into them fly away.

Walking down the ramp suddenly all the guns it feels like are raised and levelled with my head "wow what's wrong" Sabines mother approached me with her gun raised, she looks at her surprised daughter then at me "this ship. How did you get it" what "what" she looked angrily at me "how did you get this ship; this ship belongs to the Manda'lore" she shouts, "hey look I don't know who is supposed to own it but I took it from Maul" suddenly everyone's gun lowers slightly before resuming their place pointed at my head "y-you stole this from maul?" demanding not asking. Shit. I can't tell them that Master Kenobi is alive and killed him "No. I killed Maul" I say making it up on the spot. Suddenly all the troopers drop their weapons and look at Sabines Mum again and she lowers her weapon but does not holster it. "how" she says with her eyes squinted in disbelief. "Maul was calling to be his apprentice, I followed his calling and killed him in a lightsaber duel" That's close enough to the truth.

Suddenly Ms wren drops to her knee and quickly everybody follows suit. "ahhh what's going on?" I ask a now overwhelmed and shocked "you. Ah. Well. I." thankfully her mum steps in and speaks for her "Bridger by killing maul you are now the Mandalore" "what!" I yell in shock "I don't want to be Sabine can be it" I quickly pointing at the empty space where she used to be I look down and she too has taken a knee "Ezra... as much as I want to relieve this burden from you I can't. most believe me to be a traitor" "ok what about your mother" before Sabine can reply her mum speaks for her "Ezra I can't. not right now, people won't accept me as I didn't win it in combat and I haven't anything to prove that I'm worthy of the title" "well then, how do I pass on the title?" "when either someone kills you in combat or you find someone who is worthy of the title" "oh. Ahhh, what do I do?" with a slight giggle Sabine answers "tell us to rise and carry on" coughing I try to put as much authority into my voice as possible "Rise" I say in a voice that no longer sounded like my own. Everyone does so and stares at me "carry on with your duties" I say and everyone disperses. Sabine and her mother walk up to me and she pats me roughly on the back "excellent job sir" ending it in a sarcastic tone of voice "what now" I ask the two, Sabines mother answers "now... now we fight"