Star Wars Rebels - Odyssey

Chapter 7: A Cause Worth Fighting For

Hondo ushered away the various lowlifes he'd been playing with and pulled up a chair next to himself, gesturing Ezra to sit beside him.  "Fancy seeing you here of all places, in the Empire's capital.  Clearly my apprentice in enterprise is going up in the world" he remarked with a smile as he furtively picked up a couple of credits from the floor that had fallen out of someone's pocket.  "Believe me I wouldn't be here unless I really needed to be" Ezra replied, visibly uncomfortable about his surroundings.  "Ahh, so you're in trouble.  You've learnt so well" Hondo said, taking a sip from his bright blue drink.  "Look, the thing is I need something called a Dartflower Serum and I can't find it anywhere, help a mate out?" Ezra asked, trying to impress Hondo with his grasp of favours.  "Hmmm, I believe I may know where you can find some...but I'm intrigued.  Why do you need such a rare brew? he replied.  "Look, during a recent mission Sabine and I got captured.  We escaped of course but while we were there the Imperials injected some toxin into her and unless I get this serum, she'll...she'll die ok?" Ezra explained as he felt a tear welling up in his eye.  "The pretty Mandalorian got tortured, oh no no no.  That's not nice at all.  Well, recently the Empire began confiscating all of the Dartflower Serum from traders, clearly they don't want people in possession of the antidote to their poison.  Fortunately, I happen to know that the latest batch is currently in a local storage facility as it awaits transportation to one of their space stations.  I can help you get in, buuuuut you have to do something for me" he replied.  "Of course we do, what is it?" Zeb asked as he loomed over the pair of them.  "The Imperials also confiscated my...completely legally earned credits and I suspect that they'll be in that very same storage facility.  If I was to provide a distraction for the guards at the front while you snuck in, then you could retrieve my credits and your serum" he explained with a small grin on his face.  Zeb groaned audibly and Ezra rolled his eyes.  "Come on Zeb, it's not as if we have a choice.  Besides, it might be fun" Ezra stated making Zeb clench his fists.  "Finally, your little rebellion seems like a cause that might be worth fighting for" Hondo remarked as they stood up to leave the cantina.

For the next half an hour, Hondo led them through the alleyways and backstreets of Coruscant's underworld as if he knew it like the back of his hand, which wouldn't be surprising since he's a backstabbing smuggler.  Finally they reached a corner and he signalled with his hand to tell them that the storage facility is right around it.  They poked their heads out from around the building to see a large set of hangar-like doors built into a huge cliff with at least a dozen stormtroopers patrolling out the front.  "How are we getting in there good friend Hondo?" Ezra asked sarcastically as he scouted out the immense security.  "Relax, see that small tunnel next to the doors with a lone officer guarding it?  That's the entrance into the facility commander's office from which you can gain access to the main warehouse itself, I'm pretty sure I can distract a single officer for a few seconds while you sneak inside.  It's what Sabine would want is it not?" Hondo replied in his usual charismatic way.  Zeb gave Ezra a concerned look which said the words "why are we even trusting this guy?" and "this is never gonna work" in one go and Ezra sighed himself.  "How do you plan to distract him?"

Hondo slowly tiptoed over to the stormtrooper looking so conspicuous that he almost looked inconspicuous and put his arm around him.  "Hey pal, how are this year's Empire Day preparations coming along?" he asked whilst slowly guiding him away from the entrance.  "Uh, well, to be honest it's been hectic.  The minister said he wanted all of the vehicles ready for a grand parade but we're having trouble getting them to work" the officer replied as Hondo slyly winked over to Ezra and Zeb.  They briefly shared a glance of discomfort at one another before sneaking over to the tunnel entranceway, hugging the walls.  To their great surprise, Hondo's distraction had actually worked and they managed to get through the first door without attracting any attention.  The tunnel itself had been carved into the cliffs and unlike most Imperial architecture was not made out of bland metal.  Instead the original rock had been kept for the walls and ceiling and a simple fibre carpet had been placed on the floor, probably at the orders of an eccentric facility commander.  The tunnel led upwards on a steep incline up to a steel door with a camera above it.  Ezra quickly pulled out his lightsaber and shot a stun round at it causing it to deliver nothing but static to whoever was watching its feed.  Zeb then slowly opened the door and peaked through a gap to see an office with a single Imperial commander sat at a desk facing the opposite direction.  He nodded at Ezra who snuck into the office and fired a stun round at the commander before he could let a sound out of his mouth.  The office itself was a small metal box with huge windows looking over the warehouse.  A set of stairs led down from the office into the storage facility itself which had pretty minimal security with only a couple of patrols containing two stormtroopers each strolling up and down the large room.  "According to the commander's data pad, today's shipment is located near the main doors and contains both the serum we need and the credits Hondo, ahem, requires" Ezra explained whilst tapping on a small holographic pad that was sat on the desk.  "Looks like we've got another stealth mission on our hands then, let's hope it goes better than the last one" Zeb remarked as they slowly started to move down the stairs.