uncertain_dume | An Empire Outpost in the Bryx Sector, A Galaxy Far, Far Away, Thursday Evening

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An Empire Outpost in the Bryx Sector, A Galaxy Far, Far Away, Thursday Evening

It was supposed to be a milk run. In and out, no problem. Hera's sources had tipped her in on the location of a large shipment of bacta and other assorted medical supplies, which they were to come in, pick up, and then drop off on Wobani for a group of escapees from one of the Empire's labor camps. Hera would drop Kanan off, he'd make his way in on foot to secure the payload, and within an hour or two, the cargo would be on the ship, on the way to a group of people who could make far better use of it than the Imps could.

In theory. And Kanan had even managed to make it most of the way in, taking out a small trooper patrol and then helping himself to some of their gear. It was much easier to get in and out of an Empire's loading area when you were dressed for success, after all.

He... hadn't been banking on there being only one crate of cargo in the warehouse.

He extra hadn't been banking on it being accompanied by a half-dozen Rodians wearing shock collars, also awaiting transport to somewhere most certainly unpleasant.

After a quick, hushed conversation with the nervous captives, Kanan sighed and reached for his comm.

"Hey, Hera? How many people can we comfortably fit on the Ghost, anyway?"

[OOC: For she what is piloting the getaway vehicle!]

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"Not unless the metal content's high enough for a magnetic lock." Hera went over the scans and headed for a likely place. "I'll keep an eye out, though; it's a good thought."

"It's our safest bet, at this point," Kanan noted, "but I'm guessing 'safe' isn't something we're going to be embracing much of today."

Today was for stupid, mostly.

"Well, we can always try," Hera said wryly. "Just because I need to avoid it sometimes doesn't mean I'm not a fan of safe."

"No kidding," Kanan replied, glancing at Hera. "Looks like they've got us pretty trapped unless we can disappear in here, at least for now."

He looked back at the readings.

"... You know, I'm not completely committed to this resistance thing, but that doesn't mean I'm not in this for the long haul."

"Hey, I don't take just anyone on as crew," Hera said. She gave him a smile, then took a moment to lower the Ghost enough to see the ground and headed for the canyon.

"No, I know," Kanan said, blowing out a breath. "And, I mean, I know you know I'd be lying if I said I wasn't exactly picky about my employment."

Even if he went out of his way to make it appear otherwise.

"But, I mean..." He pursed his lips as he stared at the controls. "I don't just commit to anything, if I can help it."

Hera shrugged, checked the scanners, then dropped down, canted the ship, and slid in past the canyon walls.

"It's a..." she glanced back toward where their visitors were. "part of your upbringing, and a freelancer thing. I can't say I blame you."

Kanan reached up a hand to scrub at his face for a moment, sighing.

"Yeah, yeah, nobody blames me," he muttered. "That's not... really what I'm saying, here."

Hera raised an eyebrow at him, but couldn't do much more as she wove between the canyon walls. "You want me to blame you?"

"No, I mean--" And now Kanan was huffing out a breath and feeling maybe a bit stupid. He looked again at the readings. No, nothing had really changed up above, except that the Ghost's own ability to pick up on the Imp ships was being garbled by distance and storm interference too, now. "I mean, I don't ever commit. But I'm committed. This is me, committed."

Hera blinked. "Wait, you mean you're staying for good? Full partners, not just crew?"

Sorry, Kanan; she was surprised and just a bit startled.

Kanan blew out a breath and leaned his head back, looking up at the ceiling of the cockpit.

"I mean, I'd be committed even if all you wanted was crew," he noted. "I'm not going to let you do this alone. Not if you'll have me."

A pause.

"Around. Have me around. For good."

Okay, there were too many flying things to do right now. She could not be having this conversation.

"Kanan, you know this rebellion is my focus. I can't -"

"You can't split that focus between the rebellion and a relationship," Kanan finished for her, holding up his hands. "I know. I'm not asking you to. I just... I wanted you to know, even if this thing lasts forever, that's how long I plan on being here anyway. Being... Being whatever it is that you need me to be. If you need a partner in the rebellion, not a lover, then I'll do it. And if by some miracle the Empire falls within our lifetime, then I'll ask you again."

Hera was quiet for a second as she flew.

"I really appreciate that. But I hope you're not in this only for me, Kanan. It's too important and too dangerous unless you really want to do it. I'd rather find you when it's done than get you found out or killed."

"You were there with me on Gorse when we watched the explosion on Cynda," Kanan said, after a long pause. "You helped me bury Okadiah. And I'm here now, and we've got a cargo hold full of Rodians and we've got a fifty-fifty chance of dying anyway and I'm... weirdly okay with that."

He sighed.

"Hera, I'm not going to do anything I don't believe in. I want to think you know me well enough to know that. When there's something I can do, I do it. Hell, I was halfway to committing to something like this before we even met. That stupid island has a funny way of doing that. The difference now is that you make me believe I can. I'm going to end up in this fight one way or another. If it's gonna happen, I want it to happen beside you."

Hera smiled. "Then thank you."

She saw what looked like a spot (barely) wide enough to land, and started to head for it.

"I've been doing this mostly alone for a while. It's good to have someone I know has my back. And for what it's worth, when all this is done," because she was determined it would be, "and I look around, I do hope to see you there."

Yeah, Kanan was wearing that stupid little smile again. Hera almost certainly knew the one by now. It was his stupid 'for Hera' smile.

It faded just slightly as one of the Rodians made an 'awww' sound from the doorway to the cockpit.

"Oh, come on," he muttered, "don't you have a cargo to secure or something?"

That only took so long to do, Kanan.

Hera rolled her eyes. "All right, go tell everybody to brace themselves for landing; I may have to drop a bit suddenly."

She probably wouldn't, but she didn't need the audience either.

"Right there," she pointed out to Kanan as the rodian left. There would probably be about ten meters' clearance on either side of the Ghost, but scans reported it flat enough to land.

"Looks like as good a spot as any," Kanan replied, thankful to be able to throw his attention back into the readings. "Ground looks to be solid, no hidden caves underground or anything like that. Let's take it down and go dark."

Hera nodded, cut speed, and dipped to one side to get around an outcropping before gently setting down. "Cutting power," she let everyone know. "Chopper, power down please."

She got a rude noise as Chopper came back up to the cockpit, but he only waited for a pat on the head before he locked himself to the deck and powered down.

Hell, Kanan was even pulling out his phone and shutting it off, just to be sure. There was a pause, then, before he frowned.

"The shock collars."

They were powered on pretty much constantly. And they had to get them off the Rodians anyway. They had the tools to remove them, at least, but they were going to have to do that pretty much right away.

"And potentially whatever's in that crate. You take care of one, I'll take care of the other?"

"On it." Hera nodded. "I'm good at those collars."

For reasons that probably didn't need to be expounded on. She'd grown up on Ryloth, after all.

"Then I've got the crate," Kanan agreed, jumping up from his seat and making his way back toward the cargo hold. He wasn't about to argue or even question that one. He kind of figured that would be Hera's answer.

And if the contents of that crate were anything seriously dangerous, he'd stand a better chance of knowing before it was even entirely open.

Hera nodded and hurried back herself, grabbing up the tools she'd need. She grabbed the first of their guests she saw.

"Let's get that thing off. What's your name?" She sat her down and went to work.

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