Saga What's a Pretty Girl Like You Going to Do With All That Boom? (Kanan, pre-Rebels, AU)

This is a Saga fanfiction featuring Kanan Jarrus and an OC named Illia Thall. It is set on Gorse during the same time period as the novel New Dawn (about five years before Rebels), but in an alternative universe.

This fanfiction contains some spoilers concerning Kanan Jarrus, specifically his back story.

 

Fascinating You had me at two words, Kanan and OC. OCs rule! Rule, rule! LOL I'll be watching the thread avidly.

 

What's a Pretty Girl Like You Going to Do With All That Boom? - Introductions

Kanan sat in the shadowy corner of a bar on Gorse quietly nursing a pint of the local brew. He didn't even notice the figure who had come up behind him until he felt a light touch on his arm.

"I've been looking for you," a soft voice drew his attention momentarily to the female figure who had sat down at his right.

"You've got the wrong guy," Kanan replied without taking his eyes from his drink, "I don't know you".

"But I know you, Caleb Dume".

Kanan stiffened reflexively and stopped pretending to be absorbed by his pint. His eyes hardened, but continued to stare straight ahead at the mud bricks of the bar.

"I told you, you've got the wrong guy. That's not my name and I think it's about time you left me to my drink, "his tone remained even, but his hand reached meaningfully for the blaster at his hip.

"You can threaten me if you want, but I do know you and you are who I am looking for" the voice insisted.

Kanan now turned his full attention to the figure for the first time. She was mostly shrouded in a hood, but her eyes sparkled intently in its shadows as they locked onto his.

"Who are you?" he asked, panic raising a full alarm along his arms and spine.

"My name is Illia Thall and before you refuse to hear what I have to say, I would like to point out that the entire time we've been speaking, neither of us has said a word".

Kanan opened his mouth to reply only to realize that what she had said was true and that her hand still rested gently on his arm. He should run, he told himself. Or shoot her, or do…something, but in the time they were conversing, he hadn’t even noticed that they were speaking through The Force. He could sense nothing threatening coming from this strange woman who claimed to know him. He concentrated on his next thoughts, trying to make them as neutral and emotionless as he could.

“How is this possible?” he quarried. Now that he was aware of the telepathic link, he could tell that there was more going on than simply a relay of words.

“You know how this is possible, Caleb. You just don’t want to admit it. This is the safest way for us to talk here. I need your help,” her words were coated with earnestness and something else. Something that Kanan was afraid to identify as it came far too close to the emotions he had been attempting to drink away for several years.

“Kanan,” he grumbled out loud before taking a large swig off his drink, “My name is Kanan”.

“I see,” came the contrite response, “As it turns out, Kanan, I’m in need of someone with your particular skill set”.

There was a lingering this time to her thoughts, Kanan was sure that if he responded even slightly with The Force he would be able to tell exactly what her motivations were and what it was she wanted, but he held back. He hadn’t survived this many years by being reckless with The Force, although it was one of the few things he hadn’t been reckless with.

He decided to take a less committed route to this bizarre conversation and instead arched one eyebrow at her while taking another swig.

“That so?” he drawled over the link.

"I’m in need of someone who isn’t above breaking a few rules for the right reasons, specifically, rules pertaining to the transportation of baradium. I hear that you’re the best baradium pilot in this system”.

“I’m not interested,” Kanan replied dryly.

"I can make it worth your while,” she insisted.

There was something else in her statement that caused Kanan to pause. Usually he laid low. Did his job, got his credits, and spent them here at this bar. Simple. But there was something deeply compelling about meeting another Force user. Thrilling and terrifying all at once. He knew he shouldn’t trust her, but there seemed to be no façade to her. All he had to do was reach back through the link and he knew he would be able to learn everything he could ever want to know about her. Even more, he got the sense that she would let him, that she would remove all the mental shielding they had been taught at the temple and simply let him in. His own shielding must be pretty weak at this point to allow any of this to have happened before he realized it. Kanan weighed the pros and cons a minute more, before curiosity overcame his caution.

“Let’s say I was interested,” he mused, “I’d have to see who I was dealing with first”.

He hadn’t meant it to imply just her, but at his words the woman took her hand from his arm and lifted back her hood. Kanan was surprised to see that she was human. Tan skin, a little darker than his own, brown hair, also dark, but laced with copper and red streaks done up in two elaborate, ringed braids on either side of her head. She was dressed simply in a charcoal traveling cloak and lighter gray tunic over tight silver leggings that showed a well-shaped and muscled pair of legs. She was quiet attractive, certainly the prettiest thing he had seen on Gorse in a long time and he guessed she was around his own age. It was her eyes that he found most noticeable, though. A little large for her heart shaped face, dark, but bright and unflinching. Illia, met his gaze steadily, a half smile tugging at the edge of her lips. She seemed to be sizing him up as much as he was her.

With her touch rescinded, Kanan realized that he no longer had any sense of her. If he wasn’t looking at her now, he might not have even known she was there.

“I can pay you,” she said aloud. Her voice strong, but quiet. After the closeness of the telepathic connection, her voice seemed both intimately familiar and surprisingly different, almost like hearing one’s own voice on a holo-projector image.

Kanan turned back to his drink, but found it empty. He sighed and placed the clay mug down with a sharp clink of pottery on hard baked mud.

“I’m listening” he said simply.

“We can talk more tomorrow then, when you’re sober,” she said, “Meet me here after your shift”.

With that, she got up and left the bar. Kanan stared after her retreating figure for a moment before signaling to the bar tender for another round.

 

I like Illia. She's straightforward and attractive. And the instinctual and easy telepathic link - already?! SQUEE! They will doubtless work well together. Besides whatever else might occur...

 

Nyota's Heart Thanks! Like other "lost padawans" Illia didn't complete her Jedi training, leaving her to intuit her own way through The Force. This has led her to over develop her skills in a single area (insight), but assumes that she has underveloped one or more of the other four.

Glad you like her, there's more to come soon!

 

Striking the Deal

Kanan woke up with the taste of mud in his mouth and a vague feeling of disappointment. He noted that he had made it back to his quarters at least, although not actually on his bed. The disappointed feeling lingered as he cleaned himself up for the day, but he couldn’t quiet place it. Then he remembered the woman in the bar last night. Had there been a woman? Kanan couldn’t actually remember.

By the time he had finished his shift that day, Kanan had almost completely convinced himself that it had all been a dream.

Perhaps it’s time for a change. He mused.

Once his carrier was docked and checked in for the night, Kanan headed back to the bar. It was where he normally spent his evenings anyway. Once inside, he couldn’t help glancing around to see if she was there. Unsurprisingly, she wasn’t. Feeling more let down then he had expected, he made his way back to the same corner of the bar he had taken up the night before.

A light touch on his shoulder startled him before he had even had a chance to grab his first drink.

“Hello Kanan,” Illia said aloud, her hand no longer on his shoulder. She sat down in the same seat she had been in the night before. The only thing that was different was that her gray tunic had been exchanged for a deep purple and her silver tights, still form fitting, were now black. Somehow the deep colors made her dark eyes shine more brightly in the dim light.

“I wasn’t sure you would be here,” he confessed.

“I told you, I’m in need of someone with your skill set. Is there somewhere more private we could go to talk?”

She tilted her head slightly at the question; either for emphasis or to be able to take a better look at him, he couldn’t tell. He wondered if she was reconsidering approaching him.

“Not really,” he grunted. The miner’s tavern was not known for its privacy and he certainly wasn’t going to invite her to the cell like room he was renting.

“We can talk here,” he continued, “everyone else is either too drunk or too self-absorbed to care”.

Illia glanced around at the growing crowd of off shift workers from the mines on Cyna. She seemed slightly unnerved at the idea of speaking openly amongst so many people. Kanan recognized the look, it came from always feeling the need to check over one’s shoulder.

“We would look a lot less conspicuous if we each had a drink” he suggested not unkindly.

She nodded her head and Kanan raised two fingers to the bartender. Within moments, two clay mugs of a frothy, but pale beverage slide along the hard packed mud of the bar and into Kanan’s waiting hands. He slide the first closer to Illia and then took a deep swig of his own. Illia took a mouthful from her own cup and began to choke almost immediately.

“It takes some getting used to” he said with a wiry smile.

“You don’t say,” she responded through her sputtering. With a deep breath and after firmly placing the mug back onto the bar top, Illia turned back to Kanan. Kanan took another long sip to hide his chuckle.

“I’d like to ask permission this time,” she said once her cough had subsided. She offered her hand, palm up on the bar.

Kanan glanced at it for a moment, “I’m not going to hold your hand in a bar. This isn’t a date, ya’ know”.

Illia immediately retracted her hand to her lap. He wasn’t sure, under the tanned skin, but he thought he might have made her blush. He liked the idea that he might be able to do that.

“Just tell me what you came here to tell me” he said in a low voice.

“I’m interested in procuring a sizable sum of baradium. I have a buyer who is willing to pay quite well…”

“But not willing to go through Imperial channels it sounds like,” Kanan interrupted.

“You see why I came to you”

“No, I really don’t”

Illia took a minute to stare him down. She couldn’t tell if he was putting her off intentionally or not without the connection. She noted the way he was slumped over his bar chair, arms open to either side and chin up slightly, exposing his neck, his left hand was clasped around the mug, but the other dangled loosely down the back of the stool. She decided to take his approach. Leaning back in her own stool she uncurled her hands and set one on the bar, the other on her leg. She continued to maintain eye contact, waiting.

Kanan began to squirm slightly from the constant scrutiny. He wasn’t used to having people stare at him for long periods. On the contrary, if he wasn’t actively trying to beat someone in a brawl, he was generally trying to avoid being noticed. Eventually, her stare and her silence wore him down.

He cleared his throat, “How much baradium are we talking?”

Illia smiled, “at least five hundred kilos, but I’ll take more if you can get it”.

Kanan whistled low, “that’s a lot of baby,” he said using the common term for the explosive, “What’s a pretty girl like you going to do with all that boom?”

“Like I said, I have a buyer. Beyond that, it’s not really any of your concern”

“So you’re an arms dealer,” he surmised, taking another swig from his mug.

“No, I’m… an intermediary…” her voice trailed off again. She shook her head a little, setting the ringed braids on either side swaying slightly, then continued, “Look, it’s a thousand credits, a third up front and the rest after safe delivery of the cargo. Are you interested?”

Kanan kept his expression as neutral as possible. A thousand credits was more than he made in three months on this mud pit. They must really be desperate, he thought.

“And how, exactly are you intending to get ahold of let alone off planet with that much baby?” he asked, cocking one dark eyebrow at her.

“That’s where you come in, after all, we’re not going to pay you just for the pleasure of your company,” her tone was serious, but her eyes gleamed with the hint of her sense of humor.

In the back of his mind Kanan wondered what it was he was really getting himself into. Somehow though, it didn’t matter. He realized that at some point last night, when he still wasn’t sure that all of this had actually happened, he had decided to help this Force wielding mystery woman, if only to see what came next.

Avoid detection, stay strong, may The Force be with you.

Words from Master Kenobi’s final transmission rang through Kanan’s head. They often did, when he was considering any type of major decision. He had been avoiding detection and staying strong for the past ten years and as far as he could tell, he had done a pretty good job of it up until now. As for The Force, he had stopped relying on that years ago. He had, had to in order to survive.

Now there was another dangerous, temporary job on the table. At least this one paid well and had the added bonus of being offered by a beautiful woman. Kanan couldn’t remember the last time he had spent time in the company of an attractive woman. Certainly it had been before he had come to Gorse.

“Half up front and half when the shipment is delivered,” he said holding out a slightly grubby hand to her.

Illia took it without hesitation, shaking it with a slightly stronger grip then Kanan had expected from a woman her size.

“Then I look forward to hearing your plans for how we are going to pull this off,” she said with a smile.

“We?”

“Oh yes, I’ll be assisting you with this operation the whole way. Did I forget to mention that part of the deal?” her smile turned slightly too sweet for Kanan’s taste.

“Look, you’re a perfectly lovely lady, but I don’t…”

“I assure you, I’m as capable as you are” she interrupted.

“I guess we’ll see about that,” Kanan said under his breath as he finished his drink and reached for hers, “you’re not going to finish that, are you?”

“By all means,” she waved the mug over to him.

Kanan took a slow sip and used the time to think over a plan. The ship he piloted could hold a fair amount of baradium, but five hundred kilos was more then he would ever have in one load and trying to load up more than his allotted amount would look suspicious. Not to mention the wreck he flew for the mining company probably hadn’t made it to hyperspace in over a century. Their best bet would be to hit up a stash at one of the loading docks. The baradium itself wasn’t mined on Gorse, but was essential to the mining process. Big shipments of it came in weekly and were parceled out to shuttles like his to be used on Cynda. His own clearance would be enough to get them to the loading bay where he picked up his usual allotment, but it wouldn’t get him into the stores themselves.


“How comfortable are you with tight spaces?” he asked, turning to her with a roguish grin.

 

Excellent You can tell he's intrigued by her and the idea of something different and challenging. Her forthrightness is refreshing also, I am sure.

 

Kanan AU? Niiice! I really like your OC, and am intrigued by the story so far. Looking forward to more! (Oh, and I love the title - it makes me think of the Wraiths )

 

Thanks! I"ve really enjoyed your pieces as well. I hope there's more Kanan/Hera from you in the future!

 

Hammering Out the Details

“You want me to go where, exactly?” Illia’s normally calm tone, raised in pitch slightly as her eyes widened at what Kanan was suggesting.

“Into one of the baradium crates, an empty baradium crate. Look, my credentials are enough to get me into the loading hanger, but the foreman there isn’t an idiot. Tarsk might look like he was squished under his mother at birth, but he knows absolutely everyone who has a clearance to be in his loading bay. If he sees you, there will be no chance that we can explain you away, so we make sure no one sees you,” Kanan was enjoying ruffling her calm demeanor more than he had expected.

“Right, and where will you be while I’m stuffed into a crate like a peck of jogan?” she asked dryly arching a delicate eyebrow at him.

“I’ll be right there besides you the whole time. While Tarsk isn’t looking, I’ll walk your crate right up the loading ramp of one of the larger transports, you’ll knock out the pilots, I’ll throw a few smoke bombs into the loading bay, and then we’ll make our get away,” he sat back confidently in his chair, a half smile pulling at the left side of his lips.

“And you’re sure this will work,” she asked doubtfully.

“It’ll work”.

“Then it sounds like we have our plan. I’ll leave the timing to you, for now I need to find a safe place to park my ship, we’ll need to transfer the baradium to it as soon as possible,” Illia uncrossed her legs and stood to leave.

“What’s your hurry? If this place isn’t to your liking there’s a quaint-ish café just a few blocks from here. We could grab a bite to eat,” Kanan smiled what he had been told was his most charming smile at her.

“Like you said before, this isn’t a date,” with that, Illia pulled up her hood and headed for the door.

“Man, I sure can pick ‘em,” Kanan grumbled into his drink.


A Plan In Action

Kanan yawned expansively at the controls of his transport. The only other times he had been up this early where because he was still awake from the day before. Still, he couldn’t complain about the view. He stole a quick glance back at Illia where she sat in the rear seat of the transport. Kanan had almost felt his jaw drop when she had shown up in a plain, but tight fitting black jumpsuit, a single blaster strapped to a holster on her hip. He was glad that the plan called for her to not be seen, as it was he was having trouble keeping his eyes off her. He decided that it was best to focus on his flying. If he crashed his empty transport into a building they were sure to get caught. Coming into the mining facility’s loading bay, Kanan paused to allow the scanners to register his transport’s credentials before smoothly gliding into his usual parking spot. Without waiting for the ship to finish powering down, he leapt up and opened the rear cargo door.

“Stay out of sight,” he reminded Illia on his way down the ramp.

A besalisk greeted him with a hearty wave from two of his four arms and a lopsided smile out of his frog lipped mouth.

“You’re here early,” the dock foreman remarked gruffly still smiling as Kanan exited his ship, “never known you to fly in before your shift starts”.

“That was the old me, Tarsk,” Kanan said smiling and putting one arm around the alien’s thick shoulders, while leading him slightly away from the ship, “the new me is just trying to stay ahead of the crowds,”.

“Well, the boss will be glad to hear it,” Tarsk replied, “but I doubt she’ll believe it. Anyway, you’re early enough that there isn’t enough baradium unloaded on this level yet and I haven’t even started on this morning’s freighter. I can get you loaded up with what we have, but you might have to stick around a little while to get a full load”.

“Oh, the freighter’s not unloaded yet, huh?” Kanan pitched his voice louder than necessary in the hopes that it would reach Illia.

“Yeah, that’s what I said, geez you go deaf all of a sudden too?” the besalisk gave him a hard look with one eye, then shook his head causing his jowls to flap loosely as he glanced down at the datapad in his hand, “anyway, it’s going to be a good twenty minutes before I can get you loaded”.

“That’s fine, Tarsk, just fine,” Kanan clapped the foreman on one upper arm and headed back towards his ship stopping to pick up an antigrav cart full of baradium on his way.

Once inside the ship, Kanan and Illia carefully unloaded the baradium, placing the individual cylinders onto the shelving that usually held an entire shipping crate. Once the crate was unloaded, Illia stepped nimbly inside.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Kanan said reaching behind the pilot’s seat and pulling out a medium sized, faded duffle bag, “Here, I need you to take this too”.

“What is it?” Illia asked looking over the bag curiously.

“Well, after this I don’t expect that anyone here will want to throw me a parade, so I thought I would make it easier to make a quick getaway”. He tossed her the bag and then picked up the lid of the crate. Illia ducked down inside, holding the duffle to her chest.

“Here we go,” he said, placing the lid partially on top of the crate and turning on the antigrav.


Cramped inside the shipping crate, with Kanan’s bag hugged against her chest, Illia began to wish that she had a better weapon with her then just her blaster.

 

BTW, I'm not exactly sure what the rules are for constructive criticism here, but I'm open. Feel free to PM me if you think that would be more appropriate then posting it here in the thread. (This is actually my first fanfict, so I'm sure there's something I could use help with ).

 

WOW for a first fanfic --- you're doing really well. I liked your intro of Illia and how she could Force speak with him by touching his shoulder. Like that Kanan is attracted to Illia. Your story has my attention, please continue and tag me in, please so I get your updates as you post them.

 

Thanks so much!

I'm glad you like the Force speak. I was a little hesitant about how people would respond to it at first. I was afraid that it was a little too obscure to give to an OC who isn't a super powerful Jedi. I'm hoping that Kanan's attraction to Illia isn't coming on too strong. That was one of my complaints about New Dawn, that he was just suddenly in puppy love with Hera and started following her around all smitten.

I will look up how to tag people and put you in for the next update! Hopefully that will be soon. I had Illia stuck in a ventilation shaft for about a week and it just wasn't working for me, so now that she's out of the shaft and in the crate the story seems to be coming together more easily.

 

Kanan’s feet beat a quick, steady rhythm across the stone floor of the loading bay. He stared straight ahead, his eyes fixed on the open ramp of the freighter. He was halfway up the loading ramp with his cargo when a gruff voice called to him from the floor.

“You’re supposed to be taking the baby off the ship, Kanan, not putting more on,” the foreman grumbled.

“Right, sure,” Kanan called back over his shoulder. Stopping, he turned towards the bersalisk with a nervous smile. Tarsk stood at the bottom of the ramp, staring back at him. Two of his arms rested on his bulging hips, he seemed to be waiting.

“Guess we’re gonna do this the hard way,” Kanan sighed to himself, unclipping two smoke grenades from his belt, he activated them and lobbed them directly at the surprised foreman. A shroud of thick, gray smoke engulfed the room. Grabbing hold of the crate once more, Kanan sprinted the last few steps up into the freighter. Deactivating the antigrav, he banged on the side of the crate as a signal to Illia, who leapt out, blaster drawn.

“What happened, I thought you weren’t going to throw those until after I incapacitated the pilots?” she asked, catching sight of the rising gray cloud.

“I’m improvising”

“And this was the best you could come up with?” Illia asked incredulously raising one eyebrow before turning quickly towards the cockpit of the ship.

“Hey!” Kanan called after her retreating figure.

A few stray blaster shots whizzed by Kanan as the security forces of the mining company closed in. Kanan unholstered his blaster, sending back a few shots of his own. While he couldn’t see the guards any more clearly than they could see him, he was able to intuit where they would be as they crept closer to the ship. As the blaster shots increased both in accuracy and amount, Kanan took cover behind the baradium crate, hoping that the shielding that was intended to keep the explosives safe from impact would work on blaster fire.

“Don’t shoot you idiots!” screamed a frantic Tarsk, “You’ll blow us all up!”

Kanan seized the opportunity to reach the control panel for the loading ramp, closing it just as the guards approached.


“She better get this thing moving soon,” he muttered as he made his way to the cockpit.




Just a short addition this time, I'm struggling between wanting to make parts of the story available faster and feeling like I have eveything written the way I want it. (I normally write something and then edit, reedit, and basically sit on it for a long time before letting anyone read it. Perhaps I need a beta reader?) Anyway, Gemma here's me tagging you in!

 

Brief, but filled with action. Improvising LOL much of the OT felt like that didn't it? As long as they get away safely.

 

So glad you liked it! There's more action coming, but again I'm fighting between wanting to get things posted and wanted to have it perfect!

I feeling like improvising is the only way Kanan knows how to run with a plan!

 

Great update. Write how you feel is comfortable for you. Your readers will follow you. I loved the banter between Illia and Kanan about him changing plans on her. I look forward to more as you have it ready.

 

More Rebels fic! Kanan's grungy, hiding-under-a-rock life on Gorse comes through clearly here -- it has the feel of the run-down place that we see in A New Dawn. And he's the same bundle of nerves and quiet (or not so quiet when picking a brawl) desperation. It will be interesting to see whether he and Illia get away with their shenanigans. They're a little short on planning, poor things.

 

Gemma Thanks! I appreciate the advice


Kahara I'm glad that you're picking up the same vibe as New Dawn. That was definitely my intent!

 

Best Laid Plans

Illia approached the cockpit cautiously, silently cursing Kanan for giving away most of her opportunity for surprise. Stopping just outside the door, she activated the control panel. As the door opened with a faint swish, Illia rounded the doorframe and immediately shot two blasts. The first caught the pilot in the shoulder, while the second hit the copilot square in the chest as he pivoted towards her. Both toppled forward in their chairs, stunned. As gently as she could, Illia pushed the pilot out of his seat and began the startup sequence for the freighter, causing its engines to roar to life. Moments later, Kanan burst through the still open door and into the cockpit.

“We need to get out of here,” he said, coming to stand behind her chair.

“I’m working on it,” she muttered though gritted teeth. Illia began to slowly push the ship forward, turning it towards the loading bay doors, which seemed to be closing.

“That’s not good!” she said as the opening reduced to the size of a land speeder.

“They’re locking the loading bay down,” Kanan growled, “It’s part of the emergency protocol”.

“Well, I don’t think we’re going to make it out of here before those doors close!” Illia said, alarm creeping into her voice.

“Don’t worry about it,” he responded, roughly shoving the incapacitated copilot out of the chair, he sat down and began flipping switches on the control panel.

“What are you doing now?” Illia’s normally calm voice had become much higher pitched since Kanan’s arrival.

“These freighters are equipped with an asteroid blaster”.

“A what?”

“A cannon on the front of the ship. Normally it’s to make sure that nothing bumps the baby too hard, but today it’s our ticket out of here!” Kanan voice was steady as he grabbed hold of the controls in front of him and aimed the front canon at the ever shrinking doorway. With several quick blasts he was able to widen the hole substantially.

“Gun it!” he shouted.
Illia slammed on the thrusters, “Hang on!” she called as the ship lurched forward into the dissipating cloud of gray smoke. She could hear metal scrapping against metal as the ship pushed its way towards the door. After a few more tense moments, they were clear and headed up into the open sky.

The chirp of the ship’s communication system springing to life caught Illia’s attention seconds before a gruff voice came across the frequency, “This is Captain Mersak of the Moonglow private security fleet, I order you to land your ship immediately. Surrender and I can assure you a fair trial, refuse and we will open fire”.

“He can’t be serious!” Illia blurted incredulously, “This ship is full of explosives!”

A pair of warning shots fired just past their starboard side.

“Oh he’s serious all right, move over!” Kanan said grabbing the controls and pushing Illia out of the pilot’s seat. He steered the freighter into a nose dive, heading back into the town. Pulling up at the last minute, Kanan leveled the ship out and began to navigate the streets below. The two Skyhoppers chasing them were close behind. Kanan turned sharply to the right, down a side street behind several factories, then pulled a sharp left into an alley which barely had enough room for the bulky freight.

“Need I remind you of what you said about baby not liking to be shaken?” Illia asked, sitting heavily in the copilot’s now vacant chair as the ship shuddered violently with the next hairpin turn.

“Just hang on!” Kanan shouted, pulling another sharp left. The two Skyhoppers remained hot on their heels. Kanan swung the freighter into yet another alley, only to face a quickly approaching dead end. Without warning, he jerked the controls hard, pulling the ship’s nose straight up into the air and narrowly skimming the wall on their ascent back up into the open sky. One of the Skyhoppers was not so lucky and plowed into the wall. Machinery flew in all directions as the tri-winged ship crumpled in on itself. The second Skyhopper was able to make the turn, and fired a series of shots from its laser cannon at their retreating thrusters.

“Here we go again!” Kanan called as he pushed the freighter into another nose dive back into the city. This time, he spotted a large, open hangar. Gunning the engines, he sped towards it, barely ducking inside the security ship close behind them. Kanan swerved to avoid the stacks of discarded crates and canisters that were strewn about inside. Up ahead a silver, cylindrical canister caught his attention.

“Illia, when I say now, I need you to shoot that canister on our 2 o’clock, got it?!”

“Right!” she said as she grabbed the controls Kanan had used earlier to blast their way out of the loading bay.

Kanan urged the ship on as more haphazard cannon fire shot their way from the security ship. When they were almost on top of the canister he shouted, “Now!”

Illia shot three blasts into the container and it exploded in a massive ball. Violent streaks of red and orange fire shot at them, but Kanan deftly swerved the ship away.

“We need to make our own exit out of here” he said.

“I’m on it,” Illia shot back, taking aim at the back wall of the hanger and opening fire. She was able to blast a large enough hole for the freighter to slip through.

“What happened to the security ship?” she asked looking at the control panel to try and find a hint of their former pursuer.

“Must have been taken out by the blast,” Kanan said, leveling off the freighter as they cleared the cloud cover,

“That was some pretty fancy flying,” she said appreciatively as she turned towards him in her chair.

“Thanks,” he replied, rewarding her with a quick smile before collapsing back into his seat and letting out a long breath.

“What do you want to do with these two?” he asked, indicating the still incapacitated pilot and copilot with his thumb.

“See if there’s somewhere we can lock them up on ship. It won’t take long before every other security ship on the planet is looking for us, so we’re going to have to work fast”.

Kanan grunted his assent and hoisted up the copilot, he half dragged, half carried the man back out to the cargo area. Finding an empty storage locker, he dropped the copilot inside before returning for the pilot. Once both men were securely within the locker, Kanan shut and locked the door. Returning back to the cockpit, he threw himself into the pilot’s seat once again.

“So, where exactly are we headed?” he asked, placing his hands on his knees and leaning forward.

“I parked my ship in an abandoned mining tunnel outside of the city,” she said as she fiddled with the control panel, “If we hurry, we should have enough time to off load this stuff and then get out of there before the authorities find us”.

Kanan nodded, “let’s hope so”.




Tags: Gemma

 

Rockin' hot action! Totally was on the edge of my seat the whole way!

 

So glad you liked it!

 

I adored this -- it kinda reminded me of Hera's snark. And the whole chase scene had the flavor of a 'Rebels' episode. Very well written action. Keep it coming.

 

Thank you! I'm glad the action feels like Rebels. I really enjoy the show.

 

Niiiice! I've been meaning to read this since you posted that first excerpt in the Creche thread and I'm really happy that I finally caught up. This is a very, very nice story to read in that it combines very well the gritty atmosphere of Gorse in AND and the we-make-it-up-as-we-go-along improvisation of ANH Plus, I really like your OC, and having another untrained Force-sensitive as a counterpoint to Kanan makes for nice plot points and character development. I watched the thread and I'm eagerly waiting for more!