Saga of the Bridgers-Year 3

Chapter 5: The Antilles Extraction

The frigate announced by the Empress didn't make the rebels wait. Just a couple of hours later, as the sun was beginning to set over Chopper Base, the frigate INS Adrianople showed herself over the heavens of Atollon. It was a very quick visit. The salarian captain came down, presented himself, let his crew unload the first quantum communicator and left a few minutes later, after Sato gave him the supposed coordinates of General Dodonna's fleet.

With some time to finally settle down, the Constantinople's crew quickly started to fraternize with the members of Phoenix. Karg was the first to make a certain impression, because Jordan finally allowed him to go fight the spiders, and the rebels watched with a mixture of admiration and uneasiness at that massive alien hitting and blasting those spiders like they were nothing.

Soon, Karg got bored of those foes, claiming that 'a sick varren is more dangerous.'

Nonetheless, the rebels were very curious about their new allies, especially the non-humans. They were fascinated by how every single species had peculiarities which made most of their population inside the Federation fill a particular role. For example, the Asari excelled in diplomacy; the Salarians in intelligence gathering and science; the Turians, given their militaristic society, formed around 60% of the Federal Armed Forces, despite the nation being run by Humans. The Krogans were still finding their place in the Federation, however they were first and foremost warriors with an undying desire to find stronger foes, thus many joined the Imperial-Federal Army as stormtroopers.

Speaking of which, the names were becoming an issue. The rebels learned quickly that the soldiers of the Imperial Federation either called their nation "Empire" or "Federation" based on who they believed their loyalty lied. In fact, most of the soldiers aboard the Constantinople, including Jordan, tended to call their nation "Empire", because they preferred the Empress as a leader over the Parliament. Others called it "Federation" because they believed more in the democratic institutions than the power of the monarch.

Of course, since now they were fighting another nation which official name was "Empire", the soldiers of the Milky Way quickly learned to refer to their own country as "Federation", to the great pleasure of the rebels, who were starting to be confused.

This characteristic actually made Karg and Sabine talk and confront their respective cultures on friendly terms. The only major difference was that Mandalorians adhered to a strict code of honor, while Krogans followed some rules only in the rare occasions where they would employ diplomacy, otherwise they thought that everything was legit in a war. In fact, Karg respected the rebels for being able to survive against the Empire for so long despite being always short on resources.

Ezra and Jaral had finally started to train together with the lightsaber, under Kanan's supervision. Their bond showed once again how incredible it was, because basically Jaral could learn on the spot whatever Ezra knew about sword combat. When their minds were connected, they were able to exchange knowledge directly. Thabo nicknamed it 'Osmosis Effect', and the siblings thought it was an adequate metaphor.

This meant that Jaral, in the span of a week, had already learned all the basic forms of lightsaber dueling, but the siblings surprised everybody with their latest modification. Using the tools of the research lab of the Constantinople, they modified their lightsabers so that now they could be joined together into a double-bladed lightsaber.

The concept was that, when dealing with a skilled duelist, if necessary, one could pass the saber to the other and give him/her more paths of attack while the other gave long-range support to distract the opponent, or dealing with other enemies that might threaten them.

It was also another symbol of their renewed connection: the fact that each of the siblings was willing to give its lightsaber to the other without second thought and even join them together could be very much interpreted as a proof of complete and absolute faith in each other. Kanan knew this and, honestly, couldn't have been happier or prouder of his two pupils.