Ezra woke up and saw his wife laying next to him. She woke up soon after. They decided to say their goodbyes now. They exited to see a pair of transports along with a corvette in the landing field. They saw Hera speaking to someone, and they walked over to say goodbye. They were stopped a few yards away from her by a voice from behind them.
"Leaving so soon?" The voice asked, "I thought that we would be spending a couple of hours just being free before you left."
They turned around and saw the Mobians.
"Sorry, guys," Ezra responded, "but we've been gone long enough. We want to get back as soon as possible."
Omega seemed to be distracted by something, and Sabine noticed.
"Omega?" She asked, "Is something wrong?"
Omega turned his thrusters on and flew to the corvette.
"Audio trace detected," he said, "source: hull of corvette. Investigating."
He flew around the corvette, and near the engines he found what he heard. He pulled it off of the hull and flew back down.
"Source located. Mechanical make up suggests tracking device."
Even Hera, who stopped the conversation when Omega began flying, was stunned. The Empire found them.
"We'd better evacuate the base," Shadow said, "get into orbit, and launch the attack now."
"No," Hera said, "we don't know how far behind the Empire is. And if we jump we risk colliding with a stardestroyer. We'll have to wait for them to arrive and then we can escape. Battle stations."
The base alarm sounded and everyone began to evacuate.
"Mobians, are any of you willing to come onboard the Ghost to man the turrets?"
Espio, Shadow, and Blaze all stepped forward, willing to go aboard. Tails, Charmy, Rouge, and Silver all went to their fighters. The rest went to a cave that Tails had told them of. A few minutes later, the entire cave opened wider and, to the astonishment of many of the people around, a massive capitol ship flew out.
"Tails," Ezra asked into his coms, "what's the massive ship thing?"
"A remnant of the Resistance War that wrapped up only months before you came." He replied. "If we make it out of this alive, I'll tell you about it."
The ships all left the surface and assumed a defensive position over the planet. They waited a couple hours before finally receiving word of a massive fleet emerging from hyperspace. Another part of Ezra's vision passed when thirty stardestroyers dropped out of hyperspace.
"Is that all?" Sonic asked, "If so, we can take 'em."
Another dozen light cruisers then dropped.
"No sweat," he continued, "their funeral."
Twenty transports dropped loaded with fighter, bombers, interceptors, and walkers.
"Um," he was finally losing optimism, "We can still fight."
At the rear, five interdictors dropped followed by two final stardestroyers.
"Now we can't escape." Ezra said. "They have interdictors."
Their attention was on the last two stardestroyers that dropped. One was completely red, and the other...
No, Ezra thought, it can't be.
They all received a holographic transmission of a bald man with a stiff mustache.
"Hello, rebels," he said, "it's nice to finally be able to rid the galaxy of you once and for all."
"You won't win," Sonic said, "Captain Eggman. We'll be out of here soon enough and you'll be left wondering how you could have failed again."
"That's ADMIRAL Eggman to you, Sonic. And believe me, the person I'm fighting with is more than a challenge for you."
"He is absolutely right." A voice said.
The voice, it filled Ezra, Hera, and Sabine with dread.
"How?" Ezra asked the voice, "You're supposed to be dead!"
"It is a tale that you won't be able to hear, Ezra Bridger."
A second hologram appeared next to Eggman. It was who the rebels had feared. A man who Ezra thought dead.
"So that's what you look like," Eggman said, "Now will you finally tell me your name?"
"Let them say it for me," he replied.
All three uttered it in near unison.
"Grand Admiral Thrawn."
And the Battle of Mobius is on!
In the next part.(Did I catch anyone off guard with Thrawn being in this?)