Heroes Of The Galaxy: The New Avenger

Chapter 5: Imperial Survivors

The forest where they had set up their base was teaming with life. It disturbed many of the Imperials who were far too accustomed to having pristine halls and spotless floors. Thrawn was not one of those Imperials. He survived on a planet somewhat like this waiting for the Empire to find him. However, unlike then, he didn't know how long to wait because he didn't want to be killed by them. Because he had a few Lambda shuttles, he could leave whenever he so desired. He didn't exactly want to leave empty handed, though. He knew what would happen if he went back to the Emperor without Ezra or some form of power. And considering how displeased he was with the events that took place involving Project Stardust over the course of the week he was off Lothal, if he returned without some tool that the Emperor could use he'd be killed.

He briefly thought about returning to the Ascendancy. With the art of the Grysks that he had acquired, he could find weaknesses on the design of their war machine and expose them, annihilating them. The fact that Admiral Ar'alani and Eli Vanto managed to defeat two Grysk warships was enough to convince him that the Chiss, if united, could beat them back. But the Chiss Ascendancy was anything but united. Some had even been cowardly enough to serve those monsters. This planet had been found by neither the Chiss nor Grysks, and he had no clue whether or not they could even stand against them. He wanted to know if they could stand against them, and he knew exactly how to tell. He began walking to a Lambda shuttle to begin his quest for this planet's art. He was stopped by one of his deathtroopers telling him that they managed to connect to what this planet's version of the holonet was.

"Reports are still flooding in as to what this thing might be," said a voice describing the crash sight of the Chimaera, "whether it is a preliminary assault, or a full scale invasion, we have yet to know. The Avengers have not chosen to comment at this time."

"Avengers?" Thrawn asked himself, "What are these 'Avengers'?"

"We'll search this net for information," said an officer, "whatever they are, we'll find out."

Almost immediately there were dozens of news articles about them. Ranging from a "Battle of New York" to a "Battle of Sokovia" and dozens of other smaller operations.

"So," Thrawn said after watching some news footage, "they are the protectors of this planet. What of this enemy of theirs? The one that's called 'Hydra'?"

Many history reports and more news footage came up. He gathered quickly what Hydra was like: they were almost exactly like the Empire. They wanted this planet under a totalitarian government. And they had several leaders locked up. In some prison called "The Raft". It also housed several other prisoners who had all fought the individual Avengers at one time or another.

Perhaps they could be useful, he thought, they all have skills never seen in the wider galaxy.

He still needed to know what he could about this planet. He started looking up art that was made from the beings in the individual territories of this planet to begin his study. He found thousands of pieces of art ranging from beyond ancient times to the present. He knew it'd take months, if not years, to learn all he could about this planet, but if he could organize them into their territories, it'd be a shorter wait. He decided to assign troopers and officers to the six different major regions. He'd take the one they were currently in. They began their work.

***

Ezra was searching the screens for where Thrawn could be. So far, he was coming up empty. One moment, he was following their flight perfectly, the next they just disappeared. He had no idea whether or not they had veered into a different direction, whether they had landed abruptly, or whether they had kept going straight. An idea flashed through his mind, but he put it away, because they didn't have long range communications equipment. He heard somebody enter the door behind him.

"You've been staring at those screens for hours," Daisy said, "there's no telling if this 'Thrawn' fellow is even out there."

Ezra closed his eyes using the Force to search the planet for him. He could sense him, but he couldn't tell where he was.

"No," he replied, "he's still alive. I don't know where exactly, but he's still alive."

"How do you know he's out there?"

"I have this... connection that gives me powers. It lets me connect to creatures, leap high, sense danger, control objects without touching them, and sense beings. Thrawn is out there. I just don't know where."

"Pretty selective in how strongly you can sense people of you can't pinpoint a location."

He decided not to reply and just continued his search. Peter entered the room a few minutes later.

"Ezra," he said, "Mr. Stark has an assignment for us."

Next part coming soon.