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Under a full sky of shining white stars, a pirate ship sits aground on a beach.
“Captain Syndulla, we’re fully moored!”
“Aye, then make haste to the shore! We have an outpost to plunder! Those Imperials won’t know what hit ‘em!”
“ARRRRRGH!”
Captain Syndulla leapt from her ship, her crew behind her, and charged up the beach with her cutlass held high! The Ghost, standing tall and proud with its sails of patchwork white, green, and orange, shrank behind them as they ran through jungle up a long hill, towards the outpost that sat atop it.
As the crew approached the outpost, they slowed down into the bushes, taking advantage of the cover around them to stay hidden and observe.
“Wren, come forward.” Captain Syndulla called quietly. Bushes rustled, and a colourful girl appeared, totally at odds with the shrubbery around her. Her whole outfit was a mixture of orange and purple and blue that somehow seemed to work despite the crazy colours.
“What can you see, Sabine? You’re our weapons expert. What are their defences?”
The colourful girl, Sabine Wren, took a long look at the outpost, before turning to the Captain, and pointing out several areas.
“They’ve got several cannons on top of each wall, watchtowers on three corners and a gate at the fourth. There appears to be a prison, and at the moment, that’s where most of their attention is. Must be a difficult prisoner.”
“Good, we can use the prisoner as a distraction.” She turned and spoke to the whole crew. “I want two teams to go after the furthest cannons, and the rest with me. Sabine, take Garazeb and scout out the prison. If there’s any extra way we can use the prisoner, or if you can take out some of the guards permanently so that we have more time and freedom to move, do it, but don’t get caught.”
“Aye, Captain.” The crew chorused quietly.
“Alright, let’s move.”
***
Sabine crept up to the wall of the outpost, Garazeb, a hulking, bulky man with hair dyed purple all over his body, by her side. Sabine had a rope around her shoulders.
“You boost me up, and I’ll toss the rope down.”
Garazeb nodded.
“Make it quick, it sounds like the Imps are starting to notice the others.” He said gruffly. He placed his hands together, and Sabine stepped one foot onto them. Garazeb wrenched his arms upwards, sending Sabine flying up the wall. She grabbed onto the top edge, pulling herself over. Immediately looking around for any enemies she hadn’t already spotted, she found herself alone. Sabine quickly tied the rope to a sturdy post and tossed the other end over the wall.
In no time, Garazeb was up next to her, drawing his long staff. Sabine drew her own pair of knives, and they snuck their way towards the prison, just along the wall from where they were. Up on this gangway, they could see that Hera’s three groups were engaging the enemy at different points, making slow but steady progress towards overtaking the outpost. However, there were still a number of guards, dressed in their black outfits with dyed white leather armour over the top, standing around a freestanding cage, taunting and jabbing at a figure inside.
“We need to get a closer look.” Garazeb nodded his assent and the two snuck closer, climbing down off the gangway and adjusting their trajectory to come behind the Imperial troops. With this better angle, they could see the prisoner inside the cage.
It was a boy, around her age - no younger than 18, no older than 22 - wearing rough clothing with a number of tears. His long shaggy hair was messy, and there was dirt and two large cuts on his face. He was snarling at his captors and taunting them right back.
“Wait until my father, the King, hears about this! I can’t wait to see the looks on your faces when I get out of here and knock you out with your own weapons! You there, your face looks like your mother was married to a sea cucumber! Want me to fix it for you?”
Sabine chuckled quietly. This was a boy after her own heart, if he could taunt and quip whilst in captivity.
“I think he’ll be a great asset to our crew.” She assessed.
Garazeb grunted, not impressed.
“Him? He probably can’t do anything but clean, and even then he looks like he’d be better use as a mop than holding one. Even so, we’d have to get him out first.”
“I’m sure Captain Syndulla would rather assess for herself. Besides, what better chance for you to do your favourite thing and bash some Imperial heads in?”
Garazeb cracked his knuckles.
“You might be right. Fine, we bust him out. But if he’s more trouble than it’s worth, I’m telling Captain Syndulla that you’re in charge of him, and anything he does wrong will be pinned to you.”
It was over in just a few seconds. Sabine and Garazeb jumped out behind the Imperials, startling the boy in the cage. This caused a few of the Imps to turn around, but not before Garazeb had already smacked one over the head with his staff hard enough to hear the bone crack, and Sabine had slashed one across the throat. The remaining two struggled to draw their cutlasses to meet the two pirates in battle, but they were no match. Dispatching them handily, Sabine and Garazeb began searching their bodies for the key.
“Aha!” Sabine rose, dull metal key in hand. She unlocked the cage, pulling the door open and extending a hand to the boy. He seemed to be in shock, or at least surprise, as he stared at the pair of pirates, eyes wide. He didn’t seem afraid, however, which surprised Sabine. Most non-pirates were scared when they first came across one. Then his face broke into a large, cheeky grin.
“Thanks for getting me out of there. That was some impressive fighting you two just did.” He grabbed her hand, letting her pull him up. Suddenly, they were face to face, and Sabine was staring into his eyes. They were a deep blue, like a whole galaxy rested within them. She took a step back to get a little bit of space.
The boy stared at her. He was clearly enamoured, and she appraised him with an eyebrow raised. He was much scruffier up close.
“My name’s Sabine. What’s yours?”
Under the stars shining down above them, Sabine felt like the shape of her life was about to change. He put on a lilt as he said the words that would become ingrained in Sabine’s head for the rest of her days.
“Ezra. My name’s Ezra.”