Star Wars Rebels - Odyssey

Chapter 10: Entering the Unknown

The crew boarded the Ghost, turning to take one last look at the plains of Dantooine. They knew that this may be the last time they see anything remotely friendly or peaceful in a very long time, if at all. The Unknown Regions were aptly named as nobody knew what secrets they held but one thing was certain, something evil awaited the crew there. As the Ghost exited the planet's atmosphere, Hera loaded the now decrypted hyperspace co-ordinates into the dashboard. The ship grumbled with flashing red lights telling her that the co-ordinates led to uncharted space but Hera ignored it, pulling a lever and initiating the jump to hyperspace with a jolt. As she did so the rest of the crew joined her in the cockpit, the mood growing cold. "So this is it? In a couple of hours we'll...arrive?" Zeb asked, an unusual amount of fear evident in his voice. "Yes, everyone keep it together. There isn't much time left before we arrive at the co-ordinates so anything you need to do be it training or meditation or anything else, get it done now" Hera explained whilst standing up.

Tensions rose as the crew kept checking their clocks every five minutes, nervously anticipating what would soon happen. Hera stayed in the cockpit, making sure that they were headed in the right direction and checking that everything was in order. Kanan and Ezra, meanwhile, decided to do some last minute lightsaber training with Sabine and Zeb watching admiringly from above. Chopper found himself rather bored as he was in no mood to play any pranks and had no idea what else to do so he found himself flitting around the ship. The Jedi crossed blades, both with their eyes shut using the force as their guide. Ezra span skilfully on one foot and swiped down low to which Kanan reacted by leaping up. Ezra caught Kanan in mid air with a force push, knocking him into some crates before aiming his lightsaber down at his throat. "Pretty impressive work kid, you've finally defeated me in a saber fight" Kanan remarked as they both deactivated their lightsabers. Zeb and Sabine gave a small round of applause as Ezra opened his eyes with a grin. "Well I am simply the best" he replied making Kanan roll his eyes. The four of them looked at one another, silently asking "what do we do now?". "Zeb, could you help me with a job Hera set? She wants me to check all of the ship's weapons to see if they're calibrated correctly" Kanan asked, making Zeb nod and walk off down to the nose gun. This left Ezra and Sabine in the cargo bay alone, sat there with their thoughts to themselves.

"Sabine, I..I have something I'd like to say" Ezra stuttered as they sat down on a pair of crates next to one another. "Sure, what is it?" she asked in reply. "Look, we don't know what's waiting for us at these phantom co-ordinates and this mission has already had its share of life threatening danger.  I don't want to lose you Sab, you're like...my light in this darkness and if I lose you then I'll slip into the shadows.  What I'm trying to say is that I really don't want to lose you" he explained as tears began to well in Sabine's eyes.  "Ezra" she sniffed "I'm not leaving your side, don't worry".  She pulled him in for a hug and they held one another tightly.  Meanwhile, Kanan and Hera looked down from a platform above with their arms around one another, smiling at one another after having set Zeb to work on the nose gun alone.  As the lasat quietly grumbled to himself in the background, the pair took a glance down at Sabine and Ezra and both knew that a similar moment was coming for the both of them.  Hera swiftly anticipated that Kanan was about to make some sort of speech and interrupted him with a tight embrace.  "Don't you dare die out there Jedi" she said quietly as they rested on one another's shoulders comfortably.  "I'm not going anywhere...Sky-gal" he replied affectionately, causing them both to chuckle. 

An hour or two later, Ezra stood silently in the cargo hold having left Sabine to have a nap before the storm.  He stared at the bay doors, entering into a daydream of all the possible outcomes of the mission ahead.  A firm hand on his shoulder swiftly brought him out of his deep thought as he turned to see who it belonged to.  "Don't worry kid, it'll all end well" Kanan said as if he'd read Ezra's thoughts, which now he thought about it was perfectly possible.  "I am worried Kanan, what if we lose someone? What if we lose everyone?! I don't want to be alone again..." Ezra replied with a sniff as Kanan pulled him into a fatherly embrace.  "I'm not gonna let that happen" the Jedi answered before allowing silence to fill the room once more.

Hera sat in the cockpit, effortlessly pressing a button to her left which activated a siren throughout the ship, gathering the crew around her.  "You all know what this is, we're about to exit hyperspace.  We've all said what we need to, prepared our gear and focused our minds.  This isn't going to easy, it may be one of the toughest missions we've ever completed but we will complete it.  Let's do this rebels" she said as she began to focus more on the controls of the Ghost.  They stood, anxiety filling the air as Hera began flicking switches and pressing buttons all around her.  With a jolt, the endless blue hue of hyperspace disappeared replaced by their first view of the infamous Unknown Regions.  They entered a vast asteroid belt at high speed causing Hera to grip at the controls tightly, trying to keep the ship from exploding into space rock.  "Karrabast! This could be going better" she remarked, trying to keep her cool as they narrowly avoided an asteroid.  "Nobody mentioned an asteroid belt, do you know what the odds of successfully navigating this are?! Like, low...really low!" Kanan shouted as he was thrown into his chair by a jolt.  "If you'd like to try flying yourself then you're welcome to, otherwise shut up and let me concentrate" Hera snapped back, tightly squeezing through a gap between two asteroids just in time.  Noticing a huge rock ahead of them, Hera pulled up with difficulty, doing so slightly too late and scratching the paintwork on the bottom of the ship.  "We're too heavy, screw it I'll soon deal with that" she remarked, pressing a red button which opened the cargo bay doors.  Several crates flew out of the ship with force, dragged into the vacuum of space.  "Hey! I had some spare parts for my lightsaber in there!" Ezra complained, quickly quietening down again when he saw the amount of rocks they had to avoid.  Hera instantly felt the difference as she used the Ghost's lasers to blast a smaller asteroid out of her way.  "Alright, we're approaching the exact co-ordinates.  I'm gonna slow us down" she explained as she pulled down on the throttle, stressing the ship's engines no end.  Suddenly ahead of them they noticed a grey structure reminiscent of the Empire's excellent taste in colour carved into a massive asteroid.  Realising that this was their target, Hera looped the Ghost around and entered an alcove in a smaller nearby asteroid, just big enough for them to fit.  As the ship descended and landed with a small bump, Hera turned to face the rest of the crew.  "We'll take the Phantom to check out this facility, the Ghost's too big and noticeable" she said calmly as her heart raced within, nothing got her more excited than when she was in the cockpit of a ship in a tense situation.  "Well...we made it" Ezra remarked with a sigh of relief, secretly knowing that this was only the start.