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Description

Comic/Story commission by Anonymous.

_____________________________________________________________________

“How I Spent My Summer Vacation”
by Sabine Wren

((Ok, minor spoilers for the end of Season 1 of Star Wars Rebels. No big reveals, no names. Just events. Deal with it.))

Yeah, we were SUPPOSED to be laying low, after that fracas at Mustafar...

I mean, when we finally tallied the score it came out EPIC WIN. We'd taken out an Imperial-class Star Destroyer, embarrassed Grand Moff Tarkin, apparently slain the Inquisitor, RESCUED Kanan, and bloodied the Empire's nose a bit. All in all, win.

Oh, AND we'd finally been told the true identity of Fulcrum, and learned about our place in a larger rebellion.

See? EPIC win.

But this meant that the Empire was gunning for us even more than before. So, we decided some down time was in order. It took some doing, but eventually the Ghost dropped out of Hyperspace at the lush world of Dewn.

Dewn is... well, it's an untouched paradise of a place. First, it's in a completely useless end of space. No hyperspace trade routes, no heavily populated systems in proximity, nothing. From a resource standpoint, it's just too uninteresting for the Empire or the big corporations to bother with. Something like 90% of the planet's surface is undeveloped, which is fantastic.

We were traveling incognito, posing as small-time cargo haulers. Heck, we even actually had a contract and a hold full of off-world luxury foods to deliver upon arrival. After which we diverted to a private spaceport secured by our new friend, Senator Bail Organa. From there it was a short hop to a nice little resort area for fun, sun … and oh my gosh, the boredom.

After about a week of Ezra and Kanan going off for Jedi training, Hera disappearing on her own errands shortly after Ezra returned alone (yeah guys, not fooling anyone) and Zeb and Chopper off 'fishing' I was beginning to tear my hair out.

So here I was, snoozing in the the afternoon sun by the pool. Just killing time until SOMETHING might happen.

“Hey, Sabine! Guess what... I just... heard...”

Ah, Ezra was back early. The way he trailed off like that made me frown. I thought about opening my eyes and making sure my swimsuit's zipper front was done all the way up, just to send him an unsubtle 'STOP OOGLING' message, but he's a teenage boy, he'd oogle if I was covered head to toe.

He stood there, blocking my sun and obviously not planning to move any time soon, so I prompted him.

“What, Ezra?”

“Huh? OH! Yeah, it seems this place isn't... entirely... free of Imperials.”

“And by 'entirely' you mean?”

“It isn't free of Imperials.”

Deep breath, if I throttled him here and now, Kanan would never forgive me. Zeb might, but not Kanan.

The kid was trying to puff himself up and impress me. “It turns out, they have a small mining base right off the coast.”

“Ok, how do you know?”

“Heard a rumor in town, so I tracked it down. Saw an imperial shuttle land at the site. You know that rocky cliff just outside the resort area?”

I nodded. It was a fantastic spot, I'd been planning to snap a few holos for possible landscape paintings later. Multi-layered cliffs right down to the sea's edge. Spectacular.

“It's underwater. Right at the foot of the cliff. About fifty feet deep. You can see it from the edge.”

I opened my eyes, sure enough, Ezra was grinning ear to ear. “So...” he began “what's it worth to you?”

***

Less than an hour later, I approached my goal.

The cliffs above the supposed base weren't guarded, but there was a network of hidden security holocams. A bit of short work, and I was able to slip through their blind spots right to the cliffs themselves. Negotiating those was a snap and I was able to work my way right down to the water's edge.

As I strapped on a pair of dive fins, I made a last check of my inventory. A commercial dive mask/re-breather (My actual combat gear just wasn't suitable for underwater work, besides we were supposed to be keeping a low profile), vibro-knife strapped to my right thigh, my blasters had been regretfully left behind, but a number of water-proof explosives should do the job nicely. Those last went into a knapsack I slung over my shoulders.

It wasn't until just then that the nerves began.

See, I've never been trained in working underwater demolitions. I knew the theory, but theory and practice are like the difference between a flashlight and a lightsaber. I was nervous. Downright scared.

“Get a grip girl,” I chastised myself. “Just swim down, affix the noisemakers and leave. Simple.”

Sure.

I pulled on the mask and re-beather, made sure of my airflow, and flung myself into the sea.

The water was shockingly cold, but clear as a bell. I could see the facility itself a short ways below me. Comapact and built into the base of the cliffs themselves, the facility was a gray box of a place. It looked like the sort of automated bunker the Imperials used to extract raw minerals from the land of hundreds of planets across the galaxy. That was fine with me. Blowing up an underwater base full of droids and automata is one thing, a building full of people who can't but drown as the place floods in another matter.

I swam lower and got to work. The place may look deserted, but I wasn't positive on that, so I approached one of the corners of bare durocrette wall. Swinging the pack off, I began affixing demolition charges to the wall.

As I worked, my apprehension grew. This was way too easy. I felt the pressure of the water, the cold... Grozzit, I knew I should have grabbed a wetsuit or SOMETHING other the swimsuit I'd worn earlier, but I didn't want to attract the attention of my crewmates. The last thing I wanted was a lecture about 'laying low'.

Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Something was out of joint. Ok, low-priority target, no security to speak of... Maybe it was the unfamiliar environment, maybe it was my lack of fire power...did I EVER miss my blasters.

Or maybe it was the fact that I was wrong about the lack of guards.

The first hint I had of my attacker was a sudden yank of my hair, and I was hauled away, dropping the bag of explosives in the process. The violent heave ended with me caught in a scissor lock about my waist. The guard's legs squeezed me tight and my left arm was caught in a one-handed arm bar. Just as I readied my right elbow for a rib shot, their right snaked out again and seized the strap of my mask and re-breather combo.

The water stung my eyes as it was ripped away. At the same moment, I felt their legs squeeze my midsection even tighter, the pressure on my chest became intense and I let out a huge cloud of bubbles.

Panic began to set in. I was alone, unarmed, against a foe with superior equipment and training. I couldn't breathe, I could barely see... I was doomed.

Like hell.

I wrenched my head around and glared into the faceplate of my attacker, then I whipped my vibroknife from it's sheath and buried it in their side.

***

I walked up onto the beach as the explosives triggered. A brilliant fireball of oranges, purples and searing light tore up through the waves. I nodded to myself in satisfaction as I turned from my handiwork and continued along the beach, toward the resort area.

This had been a good day after all, one imperial mining facility toast, a blow struck for the good guys. I even had a new Imperial bucket for Ezra's collection.

Yup, life is good.

Description

Comic/Story commission by Anonymous.

_____________________________________________________________________

“How I Spent My Summer Vacation”
by Sabine Wren

((Ok, minor spoilers for the end of Season 1 of Star Wars Rebels. No big reveals, no names. Just events. Deal with it.))

Yeah, we were SUPPOSED to be laying low, after that fracas at Mustafar...

I mean, when we finally tallied the score it came out EPIC WIN. We'd taken out an Imperial-class Star Destroyer, embarrassed Grand Moff Tarkin, apparently slain the Inquisitor, RESCUED Kanan, and bloodied the Empire's nose a bit. All in all, win.

Oh, AND we'd finally been told the true identity of Fulcrum, and learned about our place in a larger rebellion.

See? EPIC win.

But this meant that the Empire was gunning for us even more than before. So, we decided some down time was in order. It took some doing, but eventually the Ghost dropped out of Hyperspace at the lush world of Dewn.

Dewn is... well, it's an untouched paradise of a place. First, it's in a completely useless end of space. No hyperspace trade routes, no heavily populated systems in proximity, nothing. From a resource standpoint, it's just too uninteresting for the Empire or the big corporations to bother with. Something like 90% of the planet's surface is undeveloped, which is fantastic.

We were traveling incognito, posing as small-time cargo haulers. Heck, we even actually had a contract and a hold full of off-world luxury foods to deliver upon arrival. After which we diverted to a private spaceport secured by our new friend, Senator Bail Organa. From there it was a short hop to a nice little resort area for fun, sun … and oh my gosh, the boredom.

After about a week of Ezra and Kanan going off for Jedi training, Hera disappearing on her own errands shortly after Ezra returned alone (yeah guys, not fooling anyone) and Zeb and Chopper off 'fishing' I was beginning to tear my hair out.

So here I was, snoozing in the the afternoon sun by the pool. Just killing time until SOMETHING might happen.

“Hey, Sabine! Guess what... I just... heard...”

Ah, Ezra was back early. The way he trailed off like that made me frown. I thought about opening my eyes and making sure my swimsuit's zipper front was done all the way up, just to send him an unsubtle 'STOP OOGLING' message, but he's a teenage boy, he'd oogle if I was covered head to toe.

He stood there, blocking my sun and obviously not planning to move any time soon, so I prompted him.

“What, Ezra?”

“Huh? OH! Yeah, it seems this place isn't... entirely... free of Imperials.”

“And by 'entirely' you mean?”

“It isn't free of Imperials.”

Deep breath, if I throttled him here and now, Kanan would never forgive me. Zeb might, but not Kanan.

The kid was trying to puff himself up and impress me. “It turns out, they have a small mining base right off the coast.”

“Ok, how do you know?”

“Heard a rumor in town, so I tracked it down. Saw an imperial shuttle land at the site. You know that rocky cliff just outside the resort area?”

I nodded. It was a fantastic spot, I'd been planning to snap a few holos for possible landscape paintings later. Multi-layered cliffs right down to the sea's edge. Spectacular.

“It's underwater. Right at the foot of the cliff. About fifty feet deep. You can see it from the edge.”

I opened my eyes, sure enough, Ezra was grinning ear to ear. “So...” he began “what's it worth to you?”

***

Less than an hour later, I approached my goal.

The cliffs above the supposed base weren't guarded, but there was a network of hidden security holocams. A bit of short work, and I was able to slip through their blind spots right to the cliffs themselves. Negotiating those was a snap and I was able to work my way right down to the water's edge.

As I strapped on a pair of dive fins, I made a last check of my inventory. A commercial dive mask/re-breather (My actual combat gear just wasn't suitable for underwater work, besides we were supposed to be keeping a low profile), vibro-knife strapped to my right thigh, my blasters had been regretfully left behind, but a number of water-proof explosives should do the job nicely. Those last went into a knapsack I slung over my shoulders.

It wasn't until just then that the nerves began.

See, I've never been trained in working underwater demolitions. I knew the theory, but theory and practice are like the difference between a flashlight and a lightsaber. I was nervous. Downright scared.

“Get a grip girl,” I chastised myself. “Just swim down, affix the noisemakers and leave. Simple.”

Sure.

I pulled on the mask and re-beather, made sure of my airflow, and flung myself into the sea.

The water was shockingly cold, but clear as a bell. I could see the facility itself a short ways below me. Comapact and built into the base of the cliffs themselves, the facility was a gray box of a place. It looked like the sort of automated bunker the Imperials used to extract raw minerals from the land of hundreds of planets across the galaxy. That was fine with me. Blowing up an underwater base full of droids and automata is one thing, a building full of people who can't but drown as the place floods in another matter.

I swam lower and got to work. The place may look deserted, but I wasn't positive on that, so I approached one of the corners of bare durocrette wall. Swinging the pack off, I began affixing demolition charges to the wall.

As I worked, my apprehension grew. This was way too easy. I felt the pressure of the water, the cold... Grozzit, I knew I should have grabbed a wetsuit or SOMETHING other the swimsuit I'd worn earlier, but I didn't want to attract the attention of my crewmates. The last thing I wanted was a lecture about 'laying low'.

Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Something was out of joint. Ok, low-priority target, no security to speak of... Maybe it was the unfamiliar environment, maybe it was my lack of fire power...did I EVER miss my blasters.

Or maybe it was the fact that I was wrong about the lack of guards.

The first hint I had of my attacker was a sudden yank of my hair, and I was hauled away, dropping the bag of explosives in the process. The violent heave ended with me caught in a scissor lock about my waist. The guard's legs squeezed me tight and my left arm was caught in a one-handed arm bar. Just as I readied my right elbow for a rib shot, their right snaked out again and seized the strap of my mask and re-breather combo.

The water stung my eyes as it was ripped away. At the same moment, I felt their legs squeeze my midsection even tighter, the pressure on my chest became intense and I let out a huge cloud of bubbles.

Panic began to set in. I was alone, unarmed, against a foe with superior equipment and training. I couldn't breathe, I could barely see... I was doomed.

Like hell.

I wrenched my head around and glared into the faceplate of my attacker, then I whipped my vibroknife from it's sheath and buried it in their side.

***

I walked up onto the beach as the explosives triggered. A brilliant fireball of oranges, purples and searing light tore up through the waves. I nodded to myself in satisfaction as I turned from my handiwork and continued along the beach, toward the resort area.

This had been a good day after all, one imperial mining facility toast, a blow struck for the good guys. I even had a new Imperial bucket for Ezra's collection.

Yup, life is good.