Star Wars Rebels: Come In, Spectre Six

Part Three

The ground was soggy and grassy. The air was filled with thick fog that made it difficult to breathe. Sabine had to lift her feet high to walk through the tall grass on the surface of Ylesia, and the humidity was probably going to ruin her freshly-painted armor. She was starting to appreciate her very-short hair, though... if it had been longer, it would stick to her cheeks and pester her as she searched yet another planet for her friend.

She kept a secure hand on Ezra's green lightsaber, which was fastened to her belt along with one of her paint guns and an unnecessarily colorful pistol. She wished she'd worn her navy Mandalorian armor instead of her homemade colorful armor, because all the colors she was covered in just screamed, "Catch me if you can! I'm completely covered in fancy colors so you can target me!" In a way, she kind of wanted to get a white cloak like Ahsoka's, but she could never rock the whole "purest almost-Jedi ever" look like Ahsoka could.

Sabine stepped out of the tall, wet grass and into an open pasture. The beauty of the mountains in the distance and the low valley containing a river seemed surreal and enchanting. She was starting to think about settling on a peaceful planet like this when she retired (which wouldn't be for a long time.) But the pasture almost seemed too peaceful. Too quiet. Like the inhabitants were hiding in plain sight, waiting for the perfect time to...

The ground started to shake. Shock welled in Sabine's chest, and her first instinct was to grab her gun. But as she went to grip the handle of her pistol, a giant red blur stomped past her, and she ended up falling face-first in the grass and flinging her pistol ten feet away.

"Karabast!" she whispered to herself.

Sabine looked up at the red-and-orange skin of the mighty beast. The Reek was a muscular creature, with tough reddish skin and a horn on the top of its short snout. It faced her with an angry aura, digging furiously at the ground with its foot. Before Sabine could get up and recover from her fall, the Reek was charging at her a second time.

What did she do to make it so mad?

Sabine rolled out of the way as the beast charged her. It rushed past her with a booming whoosh and performed a rough spin-around that broke the soggy soil as it tried to stop itself from running. It savagely stomped at the ground as Sabine stood and grabbed her grass-covered gun. When she looked up, she stared right into the eyes of the angry Reek.

They stared deeply into each other's eyes, daring their opponent to charge; daring their opponent to Round Two.

The Reek started into a run. Sabine didn't move anything but her hand, which slowly clasped onto the lightsaber on her belt. The Reek grew closer and closer, and yet Sabine stood her ground. At the last possible moment, when the beast was inches away from impaling her, she activated the lightsaber and spun to the left of the Reek, slicing it down its spine as it hastened past her. With a giant BOOM, the Reek fell to the ground: defeated.

It was strange for the beast to randomly attack her as it had. Reeks usually left visitors alone unless they crossed a violent path with one another, which rarely happened on purpose. So for the beast to come out of nowhere and try to maul her, it was odd.

Sabine knelt next to the Reek's head. It seemed normal: brown-yellow eyes, tough red skin, and one giant horn. But as her eyes traced down its neck, she found something peculiar: a small gray device with an antenna and a flashing green light. Using the lightsaber, she carefully cut out the device and got a better look at it. The device was a radio signal enhancer, a device used to pick up radio or communications channels, but it only had one channel available. When she changed the channels on the device using a small knob on the side, the light should have flashed faster or slower with each different channel it picked up, but when she tried to move the knob, the green light kept the same steady pace. The volume button didn't work, either, which was unusual.

Did she have to hook it up to an actual radio to hear the channel?

Maybe there's another button on the back, Sabine thought. Sure enough, she found something on the back, but it wasn't a button. A familiar symbol that Sabine knew was Ezra's was painted neatly on the smooth gray surface: the head of a white Lothcat.

"Sabine!" Hera's voice suddenly came from her commlink, snapping Sabine out of her investigative thoughts, "We're leaving! Come on!"

She quickly shoved the enhancer in her belt pouch and ran to the Lothcat, eager to get back to Ahsoka and tell her everything she'd found.

They finally had a lead.