Saga - OT Diving In Too Deep (Book 3 of Journey Into Darkness) Rebels AU

Thanks for the kind reviews everyone. My life's taken a bit of a sharp right turn this week, so I sadly can't reply to individual reviews. But I can give you all another chapter. Hope you like it and thanks again!

 

Chapter Five


The air in the derelict supply ship was musty and stale and reminded Ezra of the ventilation shafts in the oldest restaurant on Lothal. Shaking away the old memories, the young man kept his senses attuned as they charged ahead. The four Rebels had been making solid progress for nearly a quarter of an hour and Ezra was starting to get suspicious of the absence of any battle droids. He knew from his previous visit that they were somewhere on the ship and was about to say something when he felt a tremor in the Force.


Stopping in his tracks, he started to extend his senses when a faint whirring sounds reached his ears from behind him. Spinning on his heel, his hand dove to his belt and brought up his lightsaber in a basic Soresu guard stance. Just in time to intercept the first volley of fire from the two bronze wheel-shaped battle droids.


“Destroyers!” Rex shouted, diving to one side of the hallway for cover.


Sabine and Zeb followed his lead, but Ezra stood his ground, spinning his emerald blade in a classic defensive style, batting the crimson bolts back towards their sources, only to see the deflected shots strike the hazy blue orb that surrounded each destroyer droid.


“No good, kid!” Rex called, “They’ve got shield generators!”


Muttering an old Weequay curse under his breath, Ezra twirled his blade in a swift set of parries, then freed his left hand and began to draw on his anger. Power rushed into him with a red-hot surge of energy that was starting to become all-too familiar. Pulling the invisible currents of energy to him, Ezra continued to deflect the unceasing barrage while slowly clenching his free hand into a fist as the Dark side of the Force poured into him until his clenched fist began to tremble from the strain.


Gathering all the power he’d summoned, Ezra drew it up and hurled it at the droidekas in a single burst of power, his hand thrusting outwards in a violent gesture. Caught in a mighty wave of invisible power that their shield generators had no way of deflecting, the droidekas went flying like Loth-bats caught in a storm wind. One hurtled through the corridor and crashed into one of the dusty metal walls a dozen meters away. It lay there motionless, its bronzium chassis cracked in a dozen places and expectorating blue-white sparks. The other droid sailed clear down the hallway until it smashed into one of a sealed blast door, hitting it so hard that it burst apart into a shower of aging components.


Not sparing a single look at the shattered ruins of the battle droids, Ezra turned to his comrades.


“Come on,” he snarled, “We’re wasting time!”


Sabine and Zeb said nothing, their eyes still wide at the unnatural display of power. But Rex simply rose to his feet without a word, his dark eyes focused on Ezra.


Shifting under the old man’s scrutiny, Ezra spun away and strode down the hallway, his hands clenched at his side, the left one still shaking.


As the foursome reached a large, closed ovoid door at the end of a three-way intersection. Even as Sabine was speaking into her comlink to order Chopper to open the door, the metal portal began to groan open of its own volition. Ezra snatched his saber off his belt again, the viridian blade flashing to life with a snap-hiss. Rex and Sabine drew their respective pistols and Zeb brought his long bo-rifle up, training its sight on the rusted door.


The door wasn’t even halfway open when a host of dark figures sprang through the narrow gap and charged at the Rebels. A hail of scarlet blaster bolts lanced from the leaping figures and the Rebels scattered instinctively, except for Ezra, whose blade flashed with the supernatural precognition of the Force behind it. But even with the Force guiding his hand, Ezra had to spin his sword up to block a remarkably straight shot aimed for his head, then down to deflect a swift bolt headed straight for his stomach…which left his blade dangerously out of position as a third shot arced toward his left foot.


Summoning a burst of Force power at the last moment, Ezra leapt upwards, soaring above the low bolt. Tucking his body into a backwards somersault, Ezra fell backwards and came out his aerial roll to land on his feet, green blade raised. Getting the first clear look at his enemies, Ezra spat another Weequay curse.


“Grissk!”


Rex’s outcry was a bit more helpful.


“Commando droids!”


With a slim profile, but not as spindly as their B1 compatriots, the BX battle droids sported dark gray chassis with small, canted heads and sleek E-5 blaster rifles. Ezra’s practiced eye counted a total of nine, three of which were even now attacking Sabine, Rex and Zeb from their cover positions. That brief moment was all the time Ezra had to think as the remaning six droids charged him, their tarnished blasters spitting lethal red darts at him.


Spinning his blade in an impossibly fast deflection pattern, Ezra knocked the incoming shots aside, a few lucky bolts making it through his defenses to singe his black jumpsuit and scorch his hair. Ezra snarled at the pain and the Force came rushing to him in a searing burst of fury. Freeing a hand, Ezra lashed out at the droids with a Force blast of power. Half of the droids were smashed back through the open hatch behind them, but the remaning three managed to leap away with incredible acrobatics. Before Ezra could blast them again, the survivors landed on the deck and opened fire on him again.


Scarlet high-energy darts flew at the young man from three different directions and he moved with all the speed and agility the Force could offer, twisting his entire body to evade two of the bolts and deflecting the third one right back at it’s source. The shot caught the commando droid in it’s boxy chest, and left a black scorch mark on the dull grey armour, staggering it for a moment. That moment was all the young Rebel needed and he lashed out with another Force shove, hurling the droid back with a concussive blast of power that shattered it against the far wall.


The two remaining droids continued their barrage and Ezra whirled his blade with all his skill and power. The emerald beam spun like a thing possessed, deflecting shot after shot back at it’s assailants. One of the droids took five ricocheted shots in the torso in rapid succession and dropped like a stone to the deck, burned and smoking. The last droid’s electronic brain seemed to realize that blaster attacks were ineffective and dropped its rifle to unsheathe a grey vibrosword that was sheathed on it’s back.


Which was its last mistake.


Even as the droid’s discarded rifle was clattering to the floor, Ezra was leaping forward and before the droid could even bring its sword up to parry, Ezra slashed forward and bisected the machine, sword and all with a single lateral chop. The two halves fell to the deck with a loud clang, and then a last-minute premonition prompted Ezra to follow it down. He dropped into a low crouch just as a flurry of blaster bolts filled the space where his head had just been.


Spinning on his toes, Ezra turned to see the three droids he’d blasted earlier, back in the hallway, their weapons blazing. A surge of anger filled the young man’s thoughts and his vision began to go red at the edges. With a shout of fury, Ezra swept up the attackers in a Force grip and as they warbled in electronic confusion, he clenched his hands into fists and squeezed. A chorus of electronic shrieks filled the air and were swiftly replaced by the sound of crumpling metal as all three droids imploded, their dark frames crushed by the invisible hand of the Force.


Staring at the floating remains with a mixture of awe and triumph, Ezra released the ruined machines with a thought and turned his gaze towards his comrades. Both Sabine and Rex were standing over the remains of their foes, but Zeb was still struggling with his. As Ezra watched, the droid and the Lasat were duelling, the BX’s metal vibrosword crashing against Zeb’s sparking bo-rifle.


Ezra watched them fight for another second, then gestured, making a sharp grasping motion. The droid flew off the deck and gave a single metallic shriek as it’s boxy torso was crushed by the invisible hand of the Force.


“We don’t have time for you to play with your food, Zeb,” the young man said with a smirk, sending the pulverized machine to land at Zeb’s feet with a flick of his wrist.


The Lasat gave Ezra a glare, but said nothing.


Rex was glancing at the crushed remains of the three commando droids and whistled.


“Never seen a Jedi do that before, kid.”


Ezra turned to face him and found Rex’s dark eyes studying him carefully.


“What exactly were you learning from Maul while you’ve been gone?”


Ezra flushed under the old man’s scrutiny and looked away.


“Don’t worry about it, Rex,” he responded curtly, “You don’t understand the Force anyways.”


Spinning towards the open hatch, Ezra strode through it, his hand hovering near his lightsaber.


Stepping into a large, brightly lit room, he looked around to see a handful of large viewscreens and control terminals scattered about the room, all of them dark, save for a single port near the end of the chamber. Standing beside the active terminal was a lone battle droid.


Unlike all of the others Ezra had seen in the derelict ship, this droid was gleaming, his dark grey chassis shining under the overhead illumination panels. It’s dark grey body was emblazoned with gold patterns and its trio of photoreceptors glowed a dull crimson in it’s boxy head.


“Welcome, Jedi,” it intoned in an unctuous voice.


“I am pleased to inform you that I have prepared for this-”


Its speech was abruptly cut off as Ezra yanked it forward with a Force tug and decapitated it with a single sweeping slash of his lightsaber.


“Blah, blah, blah,” Ezra said with a grin, “Tell it to someone who cares.”


The droid’s severed pieces crashed to the deck with a loud impact that echoed across the bridge.


Sabine actually laughed at that, her light peals filling the air.


The Mandalorian girl glanced around the room, before spying the working terminal where the unctuous droid had been standing. Striding to it, she pulled out her comlink and inserted it into the interface port. Tapping a few commands into, she grinned and turned to the others.


“Chopper’s into the system,” she reported, “He should be able to shut down the rest of the droids in the ship in just a few minutes.”


Ezra smiled back at her.


“Nice work, Sabine.”


Rex casually bent over the remains of the three-eyed droid and gave it a cursory look.


“I think this was a super-tactical droid,” he remarked thoughtfully.


“They used to be some of the best tacticians in the Separatist Army.”


Zeb gave the droid’s severed head a kick that sent it clattering off into the dark reaches of the bridge.


“Didn’t seem very ‘super’ to me,” he quipped with a smirk.


Ezra gave his former friend an almost-grin, then gestured at the dark corner that the head had bounced.


A moment later, the hunk of metal came flying out of the darkness to land in Ezra’s outstretched hand.


At Rex and Zeb’s raised eyebrows, Ezra shrugged.


“Souvenir.”

“Hey, guys” Sabine called, “Chopper confirms that all the droids are offline.”


“Great!” Ezra said, clapping his hands together, “Then we’re good to grab the proton bombs and take off.”


“Finally,” Zeb growled, “I hate being around these clankers.”


“I hear you,” Rex agreed, clapping his large comrade on the back, “Being in this place brings back old memories and not the kind I like to relive.”


As they all made their way out of the bridge and back to the hangar, Ezra glanced down at the tactical droid’s head in his left hand. As it’s dull red photoreceptors glowed faintly in the dim light of the derelict ship, a small, satisfied smirk crossed Ezra’s face.


Mission Accomplished.

 

Superb action and very much contrasted with the light hearted snarking at the end. I am glad the droids are offline.

 

Thanks for all the great reviews everyone. My life is starting to calm down, but it's still a stormy sea I've got navigate. This book is done, but the next one should be up soon.