With a sudden violent movement, the entire frigate rocked and shook, causing Ahsoka to lose her balance. The exit from hyperspace had taken her off guard, and she found herself thrown from the narrow walkway with a shout. A single hand gripped onto the edge of the platform as Ahsoka hung on for dear life. Her legs flailed beneath her, and as she glanced downwards she saw an inky black chasm that would become her doom if she let go. Not all of the droids were dead yet, and they did not hesitate to take advantage of her vulnerability, firing a volley of laser bolts at the walkway and preventing her from leaping upwards. She was trapped, and her grip was slowly loosening.
"Ugh...come on..." she muttered under her breath, desperately trying to pull herself up but finding herself blocked by the laserfire from her enemies. One of her fingers lost grip, and then another, until only three fingers were keeping her from falling into the blackness. But she could not hold forever. Her strength was abandoning her, and so with a deep breath, she finally let her hand go...

The shaking finally came to a halt, and Ezra offered his hand. Sabine accepted, and he pulled her up, looking around anxiously. The frigate had left hyperspace sooner than he had dared expect, which meant that they were already approaching Jakku, they had to hurry. Sabine quickly rushed over to the console, and began pushing buttons rapidly, a look of concentration on her face as she continued. Ezra, meanwhile, leant his back up against her, igniting the white lightsaber and cautiously keeping an eye on their surroundings. He had to defend her while she did her thing. The seconds passed, and Ezra's anxiousness began to grow, the longer this took, the more chance there was of them being attacked. And just as he thought this, his fears became reality. Sabine slowly stopped typing and turned to her friend with a worried glance. They both started to hear an ominous whooshing sound, and quite soon, they realised why. A dozen B2 super battle droids slowly rose up, floating several metres above the walkway thanks to jet packs attached to their backs.
"Rocket troopers" Sabine whispered in a worried voice.
"Activate the fuel pumps, I'll keep you covered" Ezra responded, springing into action. He immediately performed a combat roll, moving several metres away from Sabine to draw the droids' fire and keep it away from her. With a spin, he eloquently wielded his blade in a defensive parry, deflecting the onslaught of shots that soon came his way. The shining red laser bolts hit the icy lightsaber with a blast, before deflecting back at the droids, immediately shooting two of them out of the sky. Ezra held this stance for several seconds, waiting for a gap in his enemies' attacks. And then, when the opportune moment rose, he raised a single hand, grabbing one of the supers with his force powers and causing it to cease fire in confusion. With a confident grin, Ezra focused and used his powers to throw the droid at several of its peers, provoking a chain reaction which ended in four super battle droids falling to the ground far below. The battle seemed to be going well, but then Ezra let out a shout of pain. A blaster bolt had burnt through his shoulder from behind, and he turned to see several more super battle droids walking up the stairs nearby, these ones devoid of any jet packs. They were beginning to get surrounded, and so Ezra moved closer to Sabine, once again brushing his back up against hers and deflecting every shot that he could.
"How's it going 'Bine?" he asked in a panicked tone as he just managed to block a bolt that would have gone straight through his friend's head.
"A ton of firewalls have been programmed into this to prevent anyone else from accessing it. I'm getting there, but I need time, keep them off me" Sabine answered in a focused voice. Ezra leapt into the air, slicing several of the rocket droids in half before landing down next to her in a crouched position, his long cobalt hair swept over his eyes.
"What do you think I've been doing?" he asked sarcastically, a breathless tone filling his words. But Sabine was in a world of her own, she was well aware of the risks that Ezra was currently taking on her behalf, but that was all part of the mission. If she was going to crack through these defences then she needed to put her heart into it and try not to worry about her friend, no matter how difficult that was. Ezra continued deflecting the barrage of laserfire coming his way, every time he took down one droid, three more seemed to take its place. And to make matters worse, he could hear a rolling noise coming his way, which could only mean one thing. He turned the other way and his worst fears were confirmed, a droideka. This one was fitted with a shield generator, and as it came to a halt and its shields came online, Ezra found himself forced to retreat under its volley of fire. This was the very last second now, there was no way he would be able to defend against this many droids for much longer. Sabine had to get through those firewalls in the next few seconds, or they'd both be toast. The super battle droids and droideka were now on the same level as Ezra, just several metres away from him, and each unleashing a multitude of fiery red laser bolts at him. It was a miracle that he'd been able to parry this many attacks so far, but it couldn't last. Once again he needed something desperate, and he believed he had just the plan.
"Sabine, you trust me?" he asked, causing her to lose focus and look into his deep blue eyes.
"With my life" she confirmed without hesitation.
"Then I have to leave you, only for a moment" he responded. The plan he had formed was risky, but it was no different to the sorts of stunts he would pull in the past. Here goes nothing.

As Ahsoka loosened her grip, she felt herself fall for half a second before something grabbed her hand tightly. She looked upwards to see Skorn stood above her, a pained look on his face. He used both hands and refused to let go, slowly pulling her back up with a groan. In a matter of seconds, they were stood side by side and Ahsoka found herself grateful on a thousand levels to her friend.
"Thank you Skorn" she said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Anytime gen-" he started, but was interrupted when a laser bolt burned through his armour, penetrating the very centre of his chest. He cried out in pain and fell to the ground, causing Ahsoka to immediately move to his defence, using her lightsaber to parry the incoming attacks. The clone's breaths became rapid and shallow, as he held a hand tightly to his wound, writhing in pain. The togruta found herself overcome with emotion, the one thing that a Jedi had been trained against. She couldn't help herself. The anger. The pain. The sadness. It burst out of her in one vicious movement. She extended her arms outwards and closed her eyes, letting out a scream that would scare a Hutt. And with that, a huge sphere of energy, created by the force, released from her hands, extending outwards and devouring the dozens of droids around them. The entire reactor room shook a little with this, and after a few seconds, the togruta collapsed to the ground herself, breathing heavily in exhaustion. Skorn wasn't looking good, he couldn't bring himself to speak and his breaths were growing more and more infrequent. Ahsoka knew she had to contact somebody.

With a deep breath, Ezra leapt away from Sabine's side, gliding through the air and landing behind the large group of super battle droids. They turned to face him and raised their wrist blasters, preparing to annihilate him there and then. But he had a different outcome in mind. Just as he had predicted, the droideka was now rolling closer to get a better shot, and was positioned behind the droids. Ezra reached out with the force, and took over the droideka's movements, increasing its speed and causing it to smash into the group of supers with a crash. It mowed through the other droids like a knife through butter, and once it had destroyed them all, Ezra used the force to throw it off the walkway, sending it falling down below. He had taken a risk, leaving Sabine unprotected, but it had seemed to work out for the best. As he took a moment to regain some energy, the comlink on his wrist bleeped, and he activated it with a press.
"Ezra? This is Ahsoka, listen, we've begun planting detonators on the pylons as a final resort, but Skorn's been hit. I'm about to finish the job, but after that I need to get him out of here, he needs immediate medical attention. I'm going to return to the Gauntlet, I'm afraid you're on your own from here on out" Ahsoka reported over the comms. Ezra grimaced, but agreed silently that it was the best course of action.
"Copy that, we'll keep going, stay safe. Ezra out" he replied, deactivating the comlink as he jogged towards Sabine.
"So we're on our own huh?" Sabine asked, still focused on her work.
"Seems that way...still, that's never been a problem in the past. We make a good couple" Ezra started, causing Sabine to raise her eyelids "that is to say team! I meant team! We...uh...we work well...together...you know?" Ezra scratched the back of his neck with a slightly embarrassed look, even now he tiptoed around Sabine when statements like that came up. The Mandalorian couldn't help but smile. She continued working, and for a few seconds they encountered a rare peace. This wave of droids had been wiped out, and it would take a little while for any more to arrive. For once, Ezra had a little time to catch his breath.
"Alright...I'm in...I've got full control over the fuel pumps in the main hangar bay" Sabine reported after a little while, a celebratory smile appearing on her face.
"Great, set all pumps to explode, we can blow this room sky high before it does any damage" Ezra responded, but a glance over the hangar bay quickly caused him to grimace. While they had been busy fighting on the walkway high above the hangar, the droids had also been busy, at least half the fighters had already launched, with more on the way. The pair had the opportunity to stem the flow, but there was already a large amount of droid fighters heading towards the New Republic fleet, with this frigate not far behind. Once they were done here, they had to head to the bridge, this had to end. Sabine pulled a large red lever on the control panel, and suddenly all of the fuel pumps far below them began hissing ominously. Steam began bursting from pipes all around the hangar, and a steady amount of fuel leaked out onto the hangar floor. Within seconds, the explosion of one pump caused a chain reaction that filled the entire hangar with flames. The mass of fire was beautiful, in a frightening and awe-inspiring kind of way, but Sabine still maintained that it would have looked better with a bit more colour. Now was no time to split hairs though, the hangar was neutralised, and now it was time to head up to that command deck and put an end to Thrawn.

Meanwhile, on a Nebulon-B frigate in the middle of the battle, the bridge was a hive of activity. This was no ordinary vessel however, this was The Redemption, a survivor of the Battle of Endor, and the ship currently housing the legendary General Skywalker. Skywalker stood on the command podium in the centre of his frigate's command bridge, surveying the results of each skirmish via several different monitors in front of him. The battle seemed to be rather even so far, with both sides taking heavy losses in the initial attacks. Skywalker was no fool, he knew that if the New Republic were going to win this, then they needed a game-changer. At that moment, one of the technicians on the bridge turned around and beckoned the general's attention.
"Sir! New signature has just emerged from hyperspace on our flank. It appears to be a heavily modified vessel, but it's general appearance matches that of a...Munificent-class star frigate...from the Clone Wars" the technician reported in a confused tone.
"A mysterious Separatist vessel turns up just days after Miss Tano sets off on her quest...hm, I don't believe in coincidence. I need to contact somebody" Skywalker responded, typing onto a monitor for several seconds. A live feed of a green Twi-Lek appeared before him, and the two silently greeted one another with a smile.
"I have some news that you may want to hear" Skywalker stated. The Twi-lek listened with interest, before grinning. She was on her way.