Short Stories of Ezra Bridger

Chapter 7: Tracker (4/13/19, 4/15/19)

Kanan ran to the center of the Ghost where Zeb and Rex were recovering from the crash of the Phantom. He had just explained the plan to Hera and Chopper and now was about to explain it to the rest of the crew. Chopper had stayed back with Hera. Most likely to complain about how he had short circuited back at the medical base. All due to the small probe like droid, that he had later identified as an ID9 Seeker droid, which had shocked him. He was always talking about how he wanted, no, needed an upgrade.

"How are you guys doing?" Kanan asked.

"Alright. Jut got a couple bumps and bruises, but nothing we can't handle," Zeb said, thick in his Lasat accent.

"What is the plan, captain?" Rex asked.

Kanan had already told him countless times that he had never had the ranking of a captain, but he ignored the clone.

"As of now, we are waiting. When I was fighting the inquisitor, I placed a tracking device on his back. We are waiting until the tracker starts moving and then we will follow him straight to Ezra and Sabine,"

"Great plan, Kanan," Zeb said and leaned back on the couch, "Looks like I have time for a little nap,"

Kanan shook his head in annoyance.

"This isn't a joke, Zeb. A sith lord has a Jedi captive," Kanan murmured and stormed out of the room.

"He didn't mean it," Rex called, but Kanan was already gone.

"Oh, Karabast," Zeb mumbled to himself and gave Rex and apologetic shrug.

Back where Hera was piloting, Kanan came in and plopped down hard in the passenger's seat. He was upset and worried for his young padawan. He knew Sabine would most likely be ignored, if not questioned a little. But Ezra, he knew, could be tortured just because he was a Jedi in the making. The sith lord would want to get information out of him, and he knew Ezra wouldn't give it voluntarily. They had to get to him as fast as they could.

"Something on your mind, dear?" it was Hera's sweet voice beside him.

"We have to hurry. Has he moved yet?"

Hera jumped out of hyperspace and floated amongst the stars. She told Chopper to shut off the axillary power and reduce on the ships energy. They would need as much fuel and energy as they could for the rescue mission.

"Kanan, he is moving towards Mustafar," Hera said reluctantly, knowing she would get a bad reaction out of that.

Kanan grasped his head in his hands. Last time they were there, they had all almost died. Mustafar, as Kanan knew from ancient Jedi tales, was the notorious place where Jedi went to die.

"Start a course for..." he paused, not wanting to say the word, "Mustafar,"

Hera turned to Chopper, who was wisely staying quiet behind her chair, "Chopper, load the medical base location into the Ghost memory banks. We will go back later for the Phantom,"

Hera set a course for Mustafar, redirected her position, and jumped into hyperspace once again.

-----

The Ghost jumped out of hyperspace just out of tracking range from the planet. All the way through the long hours of hyperspace, Kanan had stared at the tracker. The red dot had blinked endlessly as it moved across the space maps on the chart of the Ghost in front of him. All Kanan had been thinking about was Ezra and Sabine in some prison cell aboard the sith lords star destroyer.

Out in the distance, they could see three star destroyers. One that was significantly larger was in the middle of the other two that were floating in space on either of its sides. Behind the three enemy ships was the planet Mustafar. The red planet had dark red and black swirled patterns that symbolized the dreadful lava storms there were rumored to be within the hot planet.

"What is the plan Kanan?" Hera asked gently as she made sure the Ghost was out of range of the star destroyers. She tapped a few buttons and looked a few graphical charts on her main board.

Kanan had thought long and hard about the plan and had come to only one conclusion.

"We surrender," he said simply.

-----

Zeb, Rex, and Chopper opened the trap door that Sabine had implanted into the flooring of the Ghost a couple months prior.

"Get your foot out of my face!" Rex whispered loudly to Zeb.

"When we get Sabine back, she is making this compartment bigger!" Zeb complained, "I can hardly fit,"

"Would you two be quiet?" Kanan nearly shouted, "We are almost to the destroyer and Chopper still needs to fit," as if as an afterthought, Kanan said, "Hurry up,"

"This isn't as easy as it looks," Zeb grumbled.

Chopper buzzed angrily to the right of Kanan. The Jedi crossed his arms and took a deep breath.

"This is for Ezra," he whispered to himself. I need to calm down. I need to save my padawan.

"Hey, Chopper!" Zeb shouted as he hit his head on the side of the inner wall of the compartment.

"Would you guys be quiet in there?" Hera shouted from the cockpit, "A pack of banthas on Tatooine could hear you guys arguing,"

Chopper flung himself into Zeb's stomach which emitted an instant growl from his inner belly. Rex shoved one of Chopper's droid legs off of his own leg and curled in on himself.

"We are ready, captain," he said with true loyalty in his voice, "We won't let you down,"

"You might not, but Chopper will make my legs numb by the time we have to get out of his stink pit,"

"Who are you calling smelly?" Rex complained, "You probably just smell yourself,"

Before the fighting and arguing could continue, Kanan spoke up.

"Not another word. Hera and I will do our part and you will do yours. Don't mess this up and don't get caught," Kanan shut the lid of the floor covering before anybody else could say a word.

If it were a different day, Kanan would have laughed at the sight of Zeb, Rex, and Chopper smashed into the secret compartment, but today wasn't a good day. He stomped the covering into place and made sure it didn't look suspicious. Kanan made his way back to Hera and looked out the main window.

"Are you sure about this Kanan?" Hera asked as she looked in fright at the star destroyer that was pulling in the Ghost with the powerful tractor beam.

"There is no backing down now," he murmured and watched as the docking bay of the destroyer come into focus before him.

Hera could tell when there was something off about Kanan and this was one of those times. He had been off ever since getting the warning call from Ezra. She understood what he was going through, because she was going through much the same. The one difference was that Ezra was everything to Kanan, Ezra was his padawan. The young orphan they had met a year ago had grown so much in the time he had spent time with the Ghost crew. She knew Kanan would never let Ezra down, just as he would never let him down. The bond between them was unbreakable.

"For, Ezra and Sabine," Hera concluded and put a hand on Kanan's shoulder in comfort.

Kanan nodded as he looked dumbfounded at all the stormtroopers that started grouping together on the docking bay beneath them. The Ghost was about to land, rendering it captured, but not defeated. Kanan wasn't about to go down without a fight.

Author's Note: Do you think Kanan made a good decision surrendering himself and the crew? What other plan might have worked?