Short Stories of Ezra Bridger

Chapter 4: The Fifth Brother (4/9/19)

Kanan walked through the dark hallways of the medical bay with his lightsaber ready and activated. He was being guided forward by the bright blue glow of his weapon. He wasn't afraid to face whatever he might find in the hallways. All he knew was that he wanted to find his padawan, the rest of his crew, and bring them safely back to the Ghost so they could resume their missions.

The first corner he turned down, he walked with caution knowing through past experiences that the element of surprise was one of the easiest skills to master against an enemy. Especially since it was so dark, anything could be lurking in the shadows. Kanan waved his saber in front of him as he went, illuminating the path in front of him. He wished he could contact Ezra, but knew hoping would do him no good, since he understood that it wasn't possible.

As he turned another corner, turning right, he saw a large black shadow in the middle of the hallway. His first thought was Ezra, but it was not him. The black lump that was hidden in the shadows, turned out to be white and orange as he got closer. Kanan realized it was Chopper, the Ghost's astromech droid.

"Chop! Get up!" he called, quietly, but firmly.

The outdated astromech lay on its back, with his mechanical arms lying limp at the sides of his circular disk head. Kanan rushed to his side and began to flip the heavy droid upright. The two blue circular lights that represented Chopper's eyes were not lit and his normal droid like hum was silent.

"Chopper! Wake up, we need you!" Kanan pleaded as he wrapped his knuckles gently on his hollow, metal body.

Chopper didn't respond instantly, but eventually did and started spinning his mechanical droid arms frantically around his head in a panic. His distinct rumbled voice echoed through the hallway loudly as Kanan tried to calm him down. It would bring unwanted attention to any hidden enemy that happened to be looking for the Jedi.

"Hey, get a hold of yourself! It's me, Kanan," he explained and stood up.

Chopper tilted his body back and looked up to his master. He then made a deep rumbling sound that could have almost past as a guff sigh or complaint. With Chopper, that was only expected. Chopper grumbled something that was uncomprehendable to Kanan.

"You know I don't know what you are saying, Chopper," Kanan complained back.

Chopper grumbled again and put his arms on the sides of his head. Kanan always took that as the droid putting his hands on his hips, if he had hands or hips. The thought always made Kanan smile, but not in the situation they were in now.

"Focus, Chop," Kanan said, "Ezra and Sabine have been captured by a lightsaber welder; a sith,"

The droid made a squealing noise of surprise as he began to look around. He obviously had no idea what had happened before he had been knocked out.

"Let's look around a little more and then we will meet up with Hera. Come on," Kanan said and started running down the hallway.

He made the quick decision that no time could be wasted. For all he knew, Ezra and Sabine could be long gone by now, traveling to lands far away and out of reach. All he was relying on was any clue that had been left behind that would give him a hint of where his friends had been taken.

Kanan was grateful to have the piece of information about Lord Vader. That was a blessing that the captor of his friends had unknowingly informed him of. Nobody knew Lord Vader's exact location, for he was always moving around. From what he and Ahsoka had learned so far, the sith liked to travel and even more so, do work himself. He didn't seem like the kind of sith to sit around letting other lowly Imperials do all the work like the Empire was fond of. In fact, Kanan guessed that this Lord Vader figure was one of the Empire's most trusted figures.

A strange feeling suddenly washed over Kanan, interrupting his thoughts of Lord Vader and his friends. He spun around to see nothing behind him, nothing to his sides, and nothing in front of him, but darkness. Close to his legs was Chopper who looked oddly paranoid. He was rotating his head in all directions, making a low moaning sound. These were the times he wished he could understand the droid.

He shouted in sudden surprise as something flew into the side of his head and knocked him to the ground. This was the fight he had been hoping for.

-----

"We have trouble!" Zeb shouted as he saw a dark gray TYE modeled fighter zip out of the darkest spot of space that surrounded them.

"We need to get to the ground," Rex said, "Or they will shoot us to the ground!"

Just as he said that, the figure in the TYE fired away at the Phantom. The Phantom's chin cannons and aft laser canons were useless in the situation of being chased. Zeb and Rex both let out a holler as the green bullets went zooming over the top of the ship, missing by mere inches.

"Go, go, go!" Zeb shouted to Rex.

"I am going as fast as I can, call Hera!" Rex replied as he boosted the Phantom's engines and started heading to the medical base.

Zeb fiddled with this com link for a few seconds as they were being jostled around in the small shuttle. He finally was able to hit the red button on his wrist to call Hera when Rex was able to smooth out the ride.

"Specter 4, what is it?" it was Hera's voice that rang through the piece of technology.

"We have a bit of a situation here," Zeb said, "There is a strange looking TYE fighter chasing us,"

"What do you mean 'strange'?" Hera was using her warning tone.

"The wings are bent... looks like a newer model and much... Karabast!" the Phantom took a hit to the rear of the ship and Zeb hit the ground behind the pilot chair Rex was struggling in, "much more dangerous!" he concluded as he got back to his feet.

"What happened?" Hera asked. True concern pulled at her voice.

"We got hit!" Rex crying as he tried resisting the pull of the Phantom's engines.

The ship wanted to go down, naturally, but Rex pulled the two hand levers up, hoping to slow the fatal decent. The situation had been from bad, too horrible in only one minute.

"The doors are open from when I landed. Try to aim the Phantom into the med bay hanger," Hera explained to Rex through Zeb's com link.

Green blast fire went off behind them again as Rex was trying desperately to land the ship in one piece.

"That would lead our friend straight to you though!"

"Just do it! From what I can tell, the Phantom doesn't have much life left," Hera shouted into the com link.

It was hard to hear her from the inside of the Phantom that was being attacked ruthlessly. It was an easy target.

"This is going to be close," Rex shouted, "I am no pilot!"

Zeb turned off his com link and jumped to help Rex. He put his large hands over Rex's and the levers he was pulling back and used his strong Lasat muscles to pull as hard as he could.

The Phantom was going down in a fume of smoke and bright fire that was flaming out of the booster in the back of the shuttle. The fire was not coming from the exhaust pipes, but from where the small, defenseless ship had been hit. Where exactly? Zeb and Rex could not tell. All they knew was that they were going down, and going down fast. 

Authors Note: Which POV did you enjoy better?