Tales of the Force

Returning with a Different Crew

The Empire has trillions of soldiers. All either taken from their home worlds or families. They are trained equally. Same tactics. Same commands. Same quarters. Same uniform. No one was to stand out. No one was to improvise or suggest ideas. If you were a Storm Trooper, you had to obey your commander and that was it. If the command was to shoot, you shoot. If you were told to run head first into enemy fire, that was your command and nothing else.

There was no room for fear. If you lost a comrade, another soldier would be assigned to your squadron and it's business as usual.

No bonds. No friendships. No relationships.

You were expendable and that was all you were ever going to be.

Send in a squadron of 250 Troopers to a base known to be constantly attacked by enemy groups, and you could replace 175 of them within a rotation. No questions. No mourning.

These were the observations Ezra Bridger made as he went on missions with the Ghost crew.

His family was taken by the Empire as they were public activists against the Empire when he was a child. He grew up on his own resenting those who served and defended the tyrannical government. 

When he joined the Ghost crew, he joined a new, growing family he learned to trust and treasure. Everyone there cared about each other and worried for one another when a mission began to go sideways.

On Chopper Station, they were known to always come back in one piece or even bring back new recruits.

"Returning with a different crew," Commander Sato would remark.

That's the only way Ezra heard that phrase.

One day, he went on a mission to Malachor with his Jedi master, Kanan, and a fellow Jedi from the Old Republic, Ashoka Tano. The mission was to investigate a Sith Temple in order to find some answers as to why Master Yoda suggested visiting that place.

However, the mission grew complicated. Inquisitors along with Darth Vader and Darth Maul, on his own, interfered with the Rebels' plans and made them suffer casualties. Kanan and Ezra could've been ended off by Vader, but Ashoka held off the Sith lord.

Both the Jedi and his Padawan escaped Malachor... Ashoka sacrificing herself for the Rebellion.

Their ship touched down on the base and everyone gathered around ready to welcome them back from a successful mission... Only to have their hearts sink seeing two people in that ship, and no one had to ask what happened after noticing Kanan's singed face, his sight gone.

The rebel cell suffered it's first major casualty, and words that once ignited hope now carved a deep wound...

They returned with a different crew.