(no subject)

[explosive_artist]

 The mission is simple. Stall the cargo ship from take off until the specified time, just fifteen minutes, and then get out before the bucketheads come in force. Easy, especially when you have a Lasan's throwing arm.

 Sabine checks her controls and their connection to the detinators before nodding over to Zeb, aka Specter Four across the way. He in turn looks over to the other alley to get Spector One's go ahead. The Imperials were in for an exciting night.

Comments

[explosive_artist]

"We're within five minutes of our window," Sabine notes as she passes by Zeb, gesturing for the extra bombs he hadn't thrown. "Specter-4, remember to not damage the ship. We want it to fly out once they think they've driven us off."

Zeb rolls his eyes. As if he'd forget the mission objective.

Sabine takes a moment to salute the eye roll and then heads up a wall to the roof and better sight lines.

The pilot of the inner system freighter is now running for his ship, worried it's a target. Zeb throws a few of the light and thunder bombs his way to make him dance a bit.

[notallofus]

"Coming in hot."

Luring the patrol wasn't difficult, but keeping them just close enough without quite catching him is the real trick.

Fortunately Kanan's had a lot of practice.

"You ready, Spectre-4?"

[explosive_artist]

"Yeah, just give me a sec," Zeb says, springing for a roof top to get a better firing angle from.

By now, the stormtroopers have hit the pallet maze and are bottle-necking as they realize their training doesn't cover how to handle this.

The pilot is getting near enough to the ship now, that Sabine start firing at him to slow him down. He dives for cover but the stormtroopers, finally having something their training covers, start firing at her.

"Three minutes," Sabine says over the team's private channel as she dodges and weaves about the rooftops.

[notallofus]

"I've got you covered," Kanan says, riding hell-bent toward the troopers and leaping off the speeder at the last minute.

He rolls behind another set of hover-pallets and starts laying down covering fire.

"Are you sure you can't make time move any faster, Spectre-5?"

[explosive_artist]

"I'm good, Specter-1, but not that good."

Across the way Specter-4 is chuckling (giggling really, but he'd take offense at that) as he blasts the stormtroopers who have yet to figure out how to find cover from his angle of fire. He prefers smashing their helmets together, but he'll take what he can.

The pilot takes advantage of Sabine's need to duck and makes it to the loading ramp of his ship, disappearing out of sight.

"Actually," Sabine says over the comm as she runs some quick estimations against the remaining time, "Maybe I am. I set the clock with the outside time frame. With the time the engines will take to warm up, we're in the short window. We can pull out and still succeed, though barely."

"Your call, Specter-1."

[notallofus]

"Keep at it. We can still run out the clock."

He ducks behind the pallets for a second, taking a deep breath and centering himself.

Then Kanan bolts out of cover and books it down one of the other alleys, pushing a few pallets into place behind him and moving for Zeb's position.

"Two more minutes."

[explosive_artist]

"Roger that," Sabine responds. Of course now they've got a pilot to slow down who's now inside his ship. She looks about for inspiration and spots it in the form of some shipper containers that are being held in place by netting. Containers that would spill out over the ship's landing gear and keep it in place. She can release her side of the netting easy enough but....oh look, th eother side is in Zeb's field of fire.

"Specter-4, fire at that anchor holding the netting on your side."

"Huh?" Zeb says looking around and then smiling when he sees her plan. "Got'cha."

It only takes a few blasts from each of their weapons and then the containers spill out. Most miss the ship, but three pin the front land strut perfectly. From the windows of the cockpit, the pilot doesn't look too pleased by this and soon he can be seen to be shouting into his comm. The cargo he's carrying must be important, as a squad of stormtroopers break off firing at the rebels and runs into fire to work at moving the containers.

[notallofus]

Kanan switches position as the fire from the stormtroopers lightens. It's got nominally better sight-lines than his last post, but it's also a little bit more exposed to the troopers working on clearing the landing gear.

That's going to be really relevant in another minute or so.

Someone's got to make the Ghost crew's retreat look good.

"One more push ought to do it, Spectre-4. 5, you're ready to clear out on 'go'?"

[explosive_artist]

"Heading to your level now." She's lost her firing lines anyway with the troopers beneath the ship and the pilot within. Now she's just a good target for the other troopers and that won't do.

She takes a moment to spot a path and then leaps from the roof to a tall stack of containers, do a hand rail, and finally to another stack of cargo to land in a roll, which she spins out of with her blasters hot.

Hey, it's not showing off if you can do it every time. Besides, the troopers were firing at her anyway. She holds her position for a few moments before slowing giving way; heading towards the alley behind her.

"We're down to thirty seconds."

[notallofus]

"Spectre-4, break and run."

It's going to be a slow trickle of them out of here, to give the illusion that they're still trying to get the troopers off the ship.

Which means --

"5, get to my position!"

[explosive_artist]

"Copy that," Zeb replies, firing a few more blasts before seeming to be driven back. "Meet you are the rendezvous."

"I copy, Specter-1. Closing in on your position." Coming in hot, she spins every other meter to keep the pursuit from getting too close and personal. After the first block, she pulls ahead by a good margin, better armor design and all that, and by the time she's running past Kanan, they're a block and a half behind and getting farther away as they take cover from Kanan's fire.

Sabine keeps running, assuming she's following the original plan, and another block later, she turns a corner, out of sight for a moment.

[notallofus]

Kanan exhales as he slows his own run past the position down which Spectre-5 vanished. Not again.

"Hey, 5, we're running here, not taking a break for lunch!"

He pauses and backtracks momentarily, readying his blaster to fire at any stormtroopers that should appear.

"Do we have a problem here?"

[explosive_artist]

When he comes around the corner she's crouched down and rubbing at a wall.

"No problem, and we're good," she replies before raising her destination device and pressing the switch. Multiple explosions rock the night and 'Troopers immediately call out in confusion.

(The comms as well, if you happen to have a tap.)

"You've asked me, before, why I had to paint every site we visited. For years the Empire told me what to say and paint. Never listened to what I had to say. It was their way and nothing else. I learned how they controlled and dominated through propaganda. Among other things."

As she talks, she's making a quick addition to the graffiti already there. Just a small caricature of her helmet. "When I got out, I promised myself I'd never keep quite. I'd make sure they knew I was still out there and they hadn't silenced me."

"Silly and selfish, I know. But look here." She stands to move away and give Kanan a clear view of the graffiti, which is obviously not her style. "It's paying off, in ways I never hoped would happen. You won't act out against something if you're too afraid so speak out, however you can."

"Someone else is speaking out."

[notallofus]

"Does Spectre-2 know about this?"

If not, Sabine should probably tell her. It's definitely something Hera would appreciate, maybe better than Kanan can.

"I guess I wouldn't call it selfish."

He reaches out to rest his hand on her shoulder in approbation, just for a second.

"But we can have excited talks about philosophy and your success somewhere that's not about to be overrun by stormtroopers, okay?"

And the hand on her shoulder becomes a light shove to get her moving again, with Kanan following along straight after.

"It'll save on bacta!"

[explosive_artist]

"Can't waste bacta now can we?" Sabine relies, a smile clear in her voice as she stands and sets to leave. "I haven't really talked with Specter-2 about it but you're right, I should. How about I give the mission report when we get back?"

[notallofus]

"Pretty sure 4's not going to fight you for it," Kanan says, with a tiny smirk. "And neither am I."

Plus it's good practice for the day when Sabine inevitably runs her own missions.

(They grow up so fast!)