~Part One ~

Soon after the destruction of the Republic in the Hosnian System, reports of First Oder fleets occupying worlds in the outer rim had come flooding in. The crew of The Ghost were the first to see them in action. They had been on Ryloth, scouting an old rebel base for supplies, and giving Jacen a chance to visit his family home, when an enormous star destroyer dropped out of hyperspace right above them.

“Woah”, Ezra said as he saw it in full view from his perch in the turret gun. “What is that thing?”

“It’s huge,” Jacen muttered.

“We have to get out of here,” finished Sabine.

“Did we get everything we need?”, Ezra inquired.

“Doesn’t matter”

“Of course it does!”

“Not if we don’t make it off the planet!”

“Will you two knock it of!” Jacen interjected.

Chopper grumbled in agreement.

“Honestly Chop, how did you deal with them for so many years?”

“Please,” Ezra scoffed, “Your parents were way worse. Let’s get going.”

“Chop, Scramble the Ghosts signature” Sabine ordered as they pulled away. And just in time too. Moments after they’d cleared the surface, that monstrosity of a ship had opened fire on the planet and destroyed the entire city that they had just left behind.

“No!” Jacen yelled, “We have to help them! I’m turning the ship around.”

“We help them by surviving Jacen” Sabine said kindly. “If we go back now we’ll die for nothing.”

Jacen looked close to tears. He’d grown up on space stations and rebel bases but Ryloth was his home. He couldn’t stand to see it helpless like this. His family had fought too hard for their freedom to lose it all over again.

“Let’s head back to Lothal” Ezra suggested. “We can lay low for a little while and figure out what we’re up against. Then we’ll be back. I promise.”

When they arrived in Capital City on Lothal, they headed for Ezra’s house(well, it was all of theirs now but it used to belong to his parents). Lothal was one of the few safe planets that hadn’t fallen under oppressive rule in decades. It was the only place they had left where no one was trying to kill them…most of the time.

Sabine went to research about the new murder ship with chopper and Ezra went to take a nap, or maybe he was meditating. Jacen didn’t know or care. He stayed on the ship and pulled up a bunch of old holos of his parents. He had collected a small stash of them over the years. There were pictures of them together from long before he was born, recordings his father had made for Ezra’s Jedi training, a few that his mother had made when she was training Phoenix Squadron. He’d even found a birthday message from his second or third birthday with the whole crew that he’d watch over and over again. His grandfather had been in that one too. As he skimmed through the holos he thought about his mother. How she’d spent her whole life trying to make the galaxy a better place for him to live in. Seeing her home planet get destroyed, he felt like he’d failed her, and everyone who’d come before her. His whole family had spent their lives fighting, Hera had only hoped that Jacen wouldn’t have to. He would never forget the look on her face when they new war began. She was more heartbroken than anyone. 

Jacen slept on the ship that night. It was the last piece of his family he had left. Whenever he was on The Ghost he felt like he was surrounded by his mother and father’s warm embrace. He felt like a child, safe in his mothers arms, and he loved it. 

The next morning they gathered in the house so Sabine could brief them about the First Order’s new ships. They were Dreadnaught class, but far more dangerous than the old separatist frigates that shared the same name. These ships were equipped with what was essentially miniaturised death star tech. They couldn’t blow up a planet, but a city, a few ships, definitely. This was bad. They had no real way to combat these things without fighters or bombers. They were alone, their best plan right now was just to avoid them. 

They sat in silence for a few minutes, contemplating their new adversary, when Ezra’s head suddenly jerked up. Jacen hated when he did that, he always knew something was about to happen. 

Sure enough Ezra said, “Something’s coming,” right before a First Order fleet dropped out of Hyperspace right above them. 

To be continued… 

Photo Credits: Star Wars Rebels