~Part Two~
Sure enough Ezra said, “Something’s coming,” right before a First Order fleet dropped out of Hyperspace right above them.
They all jumped up. “Chopper! Come on!”, Jacen yelled. The stupid droid wasn’t even paying attention. He was so old sometimes Jacen thought his circuits might be fried for good.
They took off immediately. “What the hell does the First Oder want with Lothal? They haven’t been back here in decades!” Ezra yelled over the comms.
“That is really irrelevant right now!” Sabine shouted back from the rear gun, “Help me get these ties off our tail first!”
“Both of you shush,” Jacen grumbled. “I’m not seeing any dreadnoughts so we’ve got something going for us.”
“Thank the Force,” Ezra muttered as he blasted a couple TIEs into oblivion.
“We’re receiving a transmission from…the Rebellion?” Jacen said suddenly.
“What!?” Sabine and Ezra replied in unison.
“Yeah. It’s probably from the Resistance. They must be at an old base,” Jacen said before nearly getting shot out of the sky. “It must be important. Should I- ah karabast!” They’d been hit.
Shields at 61%, chopper informed helpfully.
“Should I put it through?” Jacen asked.
“Not now!” Ezra shouted back. “We’re in the middle of an invasion!”
“And it could be a trap”, Sabine added. “The First Order has access to Imperial Intelligence records.”
Jacen ignored them both. His thinking had tunnelled. The only thing on his mind was Poe. He could sense that the resistance was in trouble. Big trouble. Something Terrible had happened.
“Ezra,” he pleaded, “We have to go. Somethings wrong. I can sense it.”
“Jacen, how? We have to deal with this first. We don’t even know what the Alliance, I mean Resistance wants.”
“We can’t leave now,” Sabine added sadly, “look around.”
They took Jacen’s silence as approval and continued fighting.
“Do you think we should get on the ground?” Ezra asked after a minute of silence. “The civilians down there won’t be able to protect themselves for long. Maybe we can get to the old republic building and raise the planetary shields.”
“Let’s head there,” Sabine agreed. “Then at least we’ll be safe from the cruisers”
Without another word they were on their way.
“We really need to get some more crew,” Jacen grumbled as he stretched all the way to the copilot’s side to boost the engines, remembering only after he settled back down that he could have used the force.
They landed their ship on a platform inside the old republic building, ran past Sabine’s lovely family portrait, and got to the command centre. The new governor of Lothal was there, looking frazzled as ever. He stepped aside immediately when he saw Sabine and let her do her thing. The shield was up in seconds and they all let out a small breath of relief, even though they still had too many TIE’s and an impossible number of storm troopers to deal with. They just had to hope that the First Order hadn’t brought tanks…
To be continued…
Photo Credits: Star Wars Rebels
Star Wars From Another Point Of View 