Chapter 34
716 FNM (22 BBY)
Month 6
Tatooine, Slave 1
Boba Fett
The planet outside is sizzling under the midday heat, which is to be expected considering that this is a desert world known for being one of the worst sand piles in the galaxy. Thankfully, I'm not out there in the scorching heat, instead I'm sitting in Slave 1 with the climate control cranked, but there really isn't much else for me to do.
Father had gone to meet the people who wanted him for a job while I'm sitting here with the engine ready in case this is a trap.
That being said, he also said no books or any other distractions from the job. Something about mixing both job and pleasure is bad business and tends to be a killer. At least I'm connected to Father's helmet feed, allowing me to see and hear what he's experiencing.
He told me the basics of the mission, that someone had hired him to hunt down another Fett that he thought was dead, which was interesting in its own right. He hasn't told me many details of his younger years, so this would be interesting in and of itself and could even give me a bit of a glimpse of the past. A good hunter is always patient, but the anticipation is killing me.
Currently, he's walking through the town, his silver armor is partially hidden under a brown poncho. By the looks that some of the locals were giving him though, it didn't really matter. Mandalorian helmets were rather distinctive, and people were giving him a wide berth as he made his way to a small open air diner.
Said diner has a collection of sentient alien species, here for what would look like a midday brunch. Father is looking about and quickly spotted two individuals that he focused on immediately. Sitting near one side in the shade was a pair of women in Mandolarian armor. One is wearing shades of green with her own poncho watching Father with an intensity that only a Mandalorian could pull off, the other is in brown with the occasional orange markings. The brown one doesn't seem to notice him, she's a bit too focused on carving open a hard fruit the size of a head with her vibro-knife. Her helmet is also off, revealing a youngish face with short blonde hair and blue eyes.
Father looked them over for a moment before checking his surroundings, as if looking for something. After not seeing whatever it was, he made an audible sigh before walking forward to the table and saying, "Well, if it wasn't Green and Brown Ranger. Where's the Blue one?"
The brown one's gaze went up as he approached and immediately put a straw through the hole she made so that she could drink it. They didn't go for any weapons, which is a good sign. The green one tilted her head before saying, "She's off to the medical wing. You didn't exactly leave behind a great impression."
"You're lucky I didn't do more. Most people don't tend to survive when they get between me and my target."
"Is that an admission that you were targeting the Senator for Naboo or were you just aiming for her assassin?" The green one said her head still tilted to an angle.
"Whichever one you prefer." Father said matter of factly. He looked around again before saying, "Not seeing the Royal Guards here either, I'll assume that they're off somewhere providing some overwatch and sniper support. Maybe the one wearing a dark poncho by the bar over there." I noticed the one Father pointed out as being the only one in the bar fully covered.
"Whichever one you prefer." The green helmeted woman replied with the same words Father used. She then slowly reached to her side and pulled out father's WESTAR pistol before she slid it across the table to him. "You dropped that, I thought you might want it back."
Father reached down and picked it up. He did a quick inspection, and I noticed that its gas cell had been removed. I could also tell he did a little spin with it, it has a distinctive sound to it, before putting it into its emptied holster. "Thanks for that, I was afraid I was going to have to either get a new one, or hunt you down to get it back. Now, not many who survived me want me to do a job for them. They also tend to hide and count their blessings, instead of doing some research on me. Care to explain why I'm here, and why you've dug up old ghosts?"
"You're here because you're the only person who can identified who's responsible for the assassination order on the Senator, and I have a personal interest in knowing who that is.""
Father gave a laugh before saying, "Not happening, I'm not going to turn in one of my clients just for giving me back my gun. Seems a bit risky just to come out of the middle of nowhere for something like that. What's to stop me from shooting
you?"
The green helmet girl shrugged before she reached up and removed her helmet revealing another blonde girl, this one also has blue eyes but with a longer and slightly less well-kept hair; there is something dangerously sharp about her eyes. Nodding her head towards a nearby chair offering it for his use, she said, "Why don't you take a seat, Mr. Fett."
"I'd prefer to stand." He stated. A Mandalorian chooses their battlefield, Father said.
"Suit yourself then, from my point of view you're a bounty hunter, correct? You are paid to do a job and we prevented you from doing it. Currently, we are not in that situation. We are just potential employers, and shooting an employer who's brought to your attention by the guild would not go well with them. I believe they might even put a bounty on you if that were to happen. Not to mention that this is Hutt territory, and you don't want to unnecessarily start something here."
Father nodded his head in a familiar way, huh, he must have already known that, before continuing, "I thought there was something odd about this. You thought this through, didn't you?" Clever girl, I probably should note this down.
"Always." She said matter of factly before continuing, "As for the gun, that was merely a peace offering. This is what I wanted to show you." She said, reaching over to her vambrace and pressing a few buttons.
"This better be good, otherwise I'm walking-" Father stopped mid-sentence when a female voice came from the vambrace.
"Near the midpoint of the Civil War, I was a child living on a farmstead in Concord Dawn. Just me, my mother, my father, and my brother. True Mandalorians had gotten their asses kicked by Death Watch more than usual and sought shelter on my father's farm. My father was a sucker for the True Mando cause, and it cost us everything. Death Watch managed to track them here and killed him, my brother ran while my mother opened fire. They killed her while I hid but they eventually found me."
The story stopped midway through as the girl pressed down on another button on her vambrace. She turned to look at Father, who hadn't made a move while it was playing, before folding her arms over each other. "I believe elements of that story should sound rather familiar."
"You can say that again." came Father's voice, though it had moved from his more light and cordial tones to his darker and more focused one. Worryingly, something about it had set him off.
"I'd hoped so, a woman by the name of Arla Fett was apparently kidnapped and brainwashed into Death Watch. She was a leading member of their assassination unit until about 10 years ago. At the time, she was arrested and brought into a Coruscant prison ever since."
"Which.
Prison?." Father's voice sounded more like a demanding threat..
The blonde girl only smiled, "So you may stage a breakout? That's a card I'd rather not play at this time. Not till I get what I want, or at the very least, until I've made my offer."
"And what exactly are you offering?" Father said.
"Oh, I'm offering to have Ms. Arla Fett transferred to Mandalore, where she will undergo a full reevaluation to attempt to stabilize her mind. Undo some of the damage done to her by Death Watch's cult teachings. Semi open treatment with full visitation rights, In exchange, I want you to give up all the information you have on who is responsible for the assassination attempt and a promise to stay out of any and all politic related matter in the Mandalore sector, or at least until this inevitable galactic war is over."
"And how can you promise something like that?" Father asked, and that is a good question. After all, why would this Mandalorian have any control over the goings on of the Republic or the Mandalorian sector.
"Tanya Kryze, Representative of Mandalore to the Mandalorian Senate delegation and niece of the ruling Duchess of Mandalore."
Okay, I did not expect
that. She may be confident in herself, but she has ways of keeping information until the right moment. But if she is telling the truth, it means that she can make a promise exactly like she offered.
Didn't know I had any other family other than Father, and I don't think he knew either until just now; I couldn't exactly imagine what he was going through right now but by the sound of it, he was not too happy about this. Mixed feelings aside, I certainly
don't.
"You just want me to stay out of politics? Why would I get involved in that damn sector ever again?"
Tanya tilted her head as if confused before saying, "You're the former Mand'alor of the True Mandalorians, I was under the assumption that you would." Wait,
what!?
Father laughed before saying, "Screw that sector.. I don't care about them anymore, not after that damn civil war."
"Hmm, still, as long as you promise that you will stay out of it and give me something to point to the people responsible for this assassination attempt. If you do, I'll
personally see to it that your sister is transferred to a safer place that will actually help her."
Father sighed, before he took the offered seat and sat down. "Alright, I'm going to assume that you can record on that vambrace of yours." Tanya nodded as he continued, "I was hired by the former leader of the Trade Federation, Nute Gunray, he has a personal grudge with Naboo." Huh, recent revelations aside, that vambrace looks practical
and wizard; I think I want one.
Also, my jaw firmly
dropped. Father had just broken one of the most important Bounty Hunters codes, at least when it came to dealing with your employers. We're not supposed to give out information about assassinations. On the other hand, I could kind of understand why. One of the things he'd always put forward in our conversations is that the most important thing is
family, not the clans, not even the idea of being a Mandalorian, just
family. And if one of his family members is in trouble and could be helped, maybe giving a little bit of your reliability away to help them is a necessary loss.
"Wonderful." the girl said imperiously, pressing the button on her vambrace, obviously ending the recording before saying, "By the way, your sister's already on her way to Mandalore."
"What?" Father asked, sounding a bit annoyed.
"She's a Mandalorian. We look after our people, no matter what condition they're in. Using people as objects for political purposes is . . . undesirable, but in some situations it may become necessary. However, just because I needed to use her doesn't mean I needed to let her suffer."
"Hoh." Jango let out a laugh before saying, "You're a strange one, but I think I can work with that."
"Excellent, there are other things you can do for me inside the Mandalore sector if you are looking for work."
"I thought you said you wanted me to stay out of politics?"
"I want you to stay out of politics that could potentially draw the sector into the upcoming war. That doesn't mean I didn't notice that you are well-trained and could easily help improve the sector's many defenses."
"Hah, you want me to give up bounty hunting and go work as a man for the sector I'd rather not even have anything to do with? You have a lot of
guts saying it to my face."
The blonde girl nodded before saying, "I have been told such before, and it's a necessary trade for success in my opinion. It's only logical to offer you another job, since more likely than not your usual source of employment will dry out when this will eventually go public."
"Hmm, you're a lot more put together than any other Senator or Representative I've seen. Most of them couldn't find their own ass with two hands and a lightsaber."
"I will admit they're only a very few of us who are not as . . . enamored with their own status." She sounded a bit defensive there, "I simply see my position as the servant of the people of Mandalore, not the Republic."
"Maybe the Mandalorian sector's got a chance after all, then." Father muttered, shaking his head. He then took off his helmet and let it rest in the crook of his left arm, giving me a good view as he offered a hand to the girl.
"Well it's nice doing business with you, Ms. Kryze. Hopefully this will be the start of a good working relationship."
Tanya reached out and took the hand and they shook as she said, "True, us Mandalorians have to stick together to some extent. Even if we don't like what the sector has become, there's always a chance it can become something better."
Father released her hand before saying, "Keep chasing that dream girl, maybe you'll be able to pull it off. Personally, I'll just take the chance to see my sister again." He said before he stopped. "That doesn't look good." He said as he drew his pistol and quickly loaded a new power pack into it.
"No, no it does not." Tanya replied as she reached for her helmet and put it back on. I couldn't see the brown haired girl, but I thought I could hear the telltale sign of a helmet being locked in place as well.
I don't know what was going on, but I had a bad feeling about this, so I started prepping the engines on Slave 1. Starting to get her up and running in case I need to fly over there and provide air support. I did spot Dad putting on his own helmet, which allowed me to finally see what he was looking at.
Coming up the street towards where they are having their meeting is a group of droids, judging by the grouping there are at least one hundred of them, marching in perfect formation. B1 type by the looks of it, all of them in their usual sandy brown coloration except for a red stripe running along their shoulders.
The group of droids came to a stop just in front of the diner and deployed into a battle line, their guns kept at a low angle, but obviously ready to lift up and point into the diner.
One of the droids stepped forward with a blow horn mechanism and held it up to its vocal unit saying, "Monarchist swine Tanya Kryze, this is Lieutenant Vyeka of the People's Revolutionary Guard! You are under arrest by orders of the Comrade Secretary General Liliya Vhekayno Shepest for crimes against the people of Mandalore. Come out with your hands up and you, as well as the people inside this diner, will not be harmed." The voice was distorted but clearly not a droid, someone was commanding and speaking though it from somewhere. That or someone had planted a highly advanced core into that B1. Unlikely.
There was a pause before the voice continued, "Do not attempt to resist, we would rather not harm you, reform and re-education shall free you, the system of oppression and banditry that shackles you to a dying cause is not worth your life. Even a monarchist can find redemption!"
There was a pause before I heard Kryze saying something
weird, "What the fuck are
communists doing here?"
Tatooine, Twin Sons Diner
Tanya Kryze
"What the fuck are communists doing here?" It was really the only thing I could say at this unexpected development. Everything has been going so
force damn well, so I thought I was in the clear and then all of a sudden a battalion of droids led by what sounds like a
communist, of all things, walked up to the store and demanded my surrender.
I really don't know what to think of this situation, and surrendering would not end well for me
No, I had already decided the moment they threatened me that I didn't much care about the other patrons in the diner except for Khae, Jango, and Kastel. Kastel is posing as some stranger with a heavy cloak hiding his armor.
However, looking around the open air diner, I had to worry about the victims of my decision to not surrender. There are about two dozen patrons, most likely having some sort of criminal background from their looks and the planet's reputation. They are more likely to side with the droid's superior forces if given the chance to avoid a shootout.
Backstabbing and infighting was my biggest concern. Even with the droid numbers, the odds were not great but manageable. We could definitely pull off a fighting retreat if Jango happened to join us. But the issue lies on what the patrons would do, and it'll be annoying if we have to handle them at the same time.
Tilting my head in Jango's direction, I asked, "How much will it cost to help me?"
He looked at the droids as he would with an appraising client before saying, "Hmm, hundred thousand credits, assuming that I'm not injured in the escape. Hazard pay and medical bills will be factored in afterwards. Oh, same with munitions and equipment expenses as well." I could hear his grin by the end.
"Done." I said, kicking the table over to create cover as I drew one of my WESTAR-35 pistols out and shot the B1 with the megaphone. Granted, my pistols were not modified to unleash high-powered damaging bolts, but they do have an ionizing effect. Ionizing bolts meant that the bolts that impacted robots caused them to lose control of the limb that was hit and in the case of the one that got hit in the head, it fell over into its comrades.
The robots reacted by following their programming, bringing their guns up and started to shoot into the diner, firing non-stop into the only entrance of the diner.
This had the effect I was counting on, as the vagabonds were not given the chance to switch sides in this situation, so they could not join the robots. Instead, they were under assault with me, which meant they were in danger, and vagabonds in danger tended to fight for themselves.
The criminals opened up on the red plated droids, exchanging fire and finding cover. Shots went wild everywhere. Khae and I took cover behind the table. Jango quickly pulled out his second pistol and started firing off his own shots. He moved slowly, backing up in the general direction of a rear escape door. Kastel, who had been covering the bar, dived behind it. Once he resurfaced, he was wielding his own blaster rifle that I don't recognize and opening fire on the droids.
Drawing my other pistol, I turned to Khae and said, "Move the table in the general direction of that door." I indicated the door we wanted to go to. Jango is already moving a little bit faster, motivated by the amount of fire that was splashing off his durasteel armor. "I'll cover you, go!"
She nodded as I poked my head out of cover whilst bringing both pistols to bear. I fired off a salvo of shots before slowly standing up the rest of the way.
"Where are the Hutt forces? I thought Jabba was sponsoring this meeting!" Jango shouted over the noise of blaster fire.
"I bribed Ziro to get in contact with you, bribing him to actually get Jabba to sponsor the meeting was insultingly expensive, lying was cheaper!" I called back, earning a laugh from the older Mandalorian.
Khae started to slowly push the table into the general direction we needed to go. As she did, I slowly moved with her while picking off a couple of droids every once in a while. From what I could see, the droids are not doing very well. There had been at least one hundred when they started firing, and now they're around half that, judging by the debris. While so many battle droids on paper is an overwhelming force to capture me out in the open, the narrow street prevents them from bringing their full numbers to bear. Resulting in only something like twenty or so of the droids actually firing at our position, while the line of fire of the rest are being blocked by their fellow droids. Not to mention the fact that they were now taking fire from not only the internals of the diner, but all around them as various organizations and or civilians came out of the woodwork to give a few fire shots at the obvious troublemaker.
The place may be a hive of scum and villainy, but it's
their hive of scum and villainy. And they don't like some obviously foreign robots coming around to do things in their hives. What is strange is that even with the losses they were taking, they weren't retreating. I wondered if they were programmed to never retreat. Quite typical of them if they did.
Hopefully, we would make it to the door before more droids show up. I would rather not have a protracted battle in the enclosed and limited streets; especially against
communist, no matter the species.
Still, how come they were here in the first place? I guess it is possible that they had developed something that was similar to communism. I have seen references of Sengoku era Japan on Shogun, for Manda's sake. Or was this Being X finally playing his move? I never detected any activity from him until this point, but then again I could not rule out that this was his fault.
It was suspicious, but I am unwilling to bend to an onset of paranoia; so for the moment I just focused on laying down as much fire as I could. The droids' combat tactics were rather unimpressive, but now and then one of the droids would suddenly dart from the pack and actually use cover. Possibly it was the enemy commander, this Lieutenant Vyeka, assuming direct control. Luckily for us, their blasters were very inaccurate and they are relying on numbers to actually hit anything. We moved the table to its final resting position against the bar, leaving us a corridor completely covered all the way to the door.
Kastel and Jango were already there, providing cover fire. Khae and I quickly joined them. I stepped through the door last and shut it firmly behind us, separating us from the chaos on the other side, even as one last bolt nearly burns its way through the back door.
I want to ask if anyone knew what the hell was going on but Khae did that for me, "What the hell is going on?!" she asked, finally drawing her pistol, which she hadn't had a chance to use. She then covered one of the alleyways that led to the back of the building in case any droids were trying to follow us.
"Looks like someone tried to hire an assassin to take out Representative Kryze, or is it Princess now?" Jango said, clearly in his element.
"Either, whatever you decide." I focused on checking the ammunition count on my pistols before continuing, "The important part is that while we've gotten out, we still need to get out of town before more of these droids show up."
Activating my helmet radio, I tried to get in contact with Captain Struc. "Captain? Captain, do you read me?" All I heard in response was static. Jango is likely doing the same, though he had apparently muted himself.
I was about to try raising Captain Struc again, but Jango spoke first. "They're jamming the comms. My son was in constant communication with me before we lost it. I told him to stay put before I lost contact with him. I can get all three of you inside, then we can find somewhere to lie low before we get you back in contact with your royal captain."
I nodded my head before saying, "I'll add a little bit of a bonus once we get out of here."
"Hah, thought you said you weren't corrupt? Where are you getting all this money from?" Jango asked in such a way that sounded very in jest, so I responded in kind.
"Perfectly legitimate, if discreet, business ventures and careful financial management. Corruption is rarely profitable in the long term, everything and everyone has a hefty price tag."
Jango chuckled before replying, "Alright, my son and gunship is outside the town to the north of here." He said pointing up an alleyway, "I don't know where your transport is, but if you're going that way we can definitely meet up with them."
I shook my head before saying, "We parked ours a little bit out of town, towards the west and walked in. We will have to regroup later."
Nodding, Jango led the way, moving quickly down the alleyway as the rest of us followed. I remember the group had a jetpack except for Khae, but even so it would probably not be a great idea to use jetpacks right now. The probability of some sort of sniper droids watching the rooftops exists. Without any way to confirm it without unnecessary risk, better to move strictly along the ground and make use of cover, or else be exposed to potential sniper fire.
Quickly, we moved through the alleyways until we reached a major street. While looking both ways, we did not spot any droids, but that was no reason to get out of the alleyways. So we kept going right. We almost reached the edge of town before we ran into five droids watching a major entrance and exit.
The droids were standing there with a poster of me in their hands. They are looking at the crowd, trying to detect me just from my silhouette, it seems. It looks like it was a picture from when I had that little nightclub scuffle on Coruscant, a couple of years back. They had hundreds of the things all stacked up and laminated right beside them.
Chuckling, I asked, "Do you think they'd recognize me with the helmet on?"
Jango apparently took it seriously before saying, "No, I don't think they would. B1s aren't exactly the smartest bucket of bolts walking around here. They'd probably let us slip right through as long as we have helmets on our heads." Then added as later thought, "Although, they are looking for Mandalorians, so maybe they'd just shoot on sight as soon as they saw us. There is also their controller to worry about too, they could be watching from any of them."
I didn't have time to answer that as a Mandalorian royal guard popped up behind them and immediately started beating the bolts out of them with his electric staff weapon. He downed one immediately by stabbing the activated staff at a B1's back. While the other droids reoriented themselves, the guard pushed the first B1 off to the side. He closed in on the droid to his right, and bashed it in its head with the other end of his staff as it turned around to look. As the second droid fell, the guard continued his spin so that he had a big wind up for a two-handed swing. The extra reach is enough to impact two droids and cause them to fly back from the impact. Then, the last one jolted to life, no doubt indicating Vyeka's attempt to intervene. Before she could bring her blaster up, the guard smoothly transitioned to a throwing stance and threw his staff, the staff's magnetic tips causing it to stick to the droid and continue shocking it as it went down.
After retrieving his staff, he looked at the downed droids to make sure they were dead before looking around. He started to move on before I popped out of the alleyway.
He stopped and waved me over as the others followed.
"Tanya, thank goodness you're okay." The familiar voice of Ordo came.
Smiling, I grabbed his shoulder and said, "Of course I'm okay. Good work on the droids."
I could just barely see the smile on his eyes as he said, "Thank you, Princess."
"Where are the others?" I asked.
Ordo shook his head before saying, "Struc and Mok are causing a ruckus and drawing the droids towards the Lancer. There's only about a dozen of the original group left, but another formation, roughly the same number, has marched into the town closer to the Lancer. We are still trying to draw them away from this direction. The others sent me this way to try to link up with you and acquire a craft to get out of here. Figuring we'd all meet up somewhere else once we've escaped this ambush."
"Good, we're on the same plan." Turning towards Mr. Fett I said, "Got room for one more in your craft?"
Jango chuckled before saying, "It'll be a tight fit, but I can get him in." He said, pointing in the direction of a rather oddly shaped ship with its engines facing the ground by the looks of it; one with a strange tail above the opening section.
"Let's get out of here. Mr. Fett, try and raise the others as soon as we're out of town and hopefully out of the range of the jamming. I hope that they can rejoin us, if not we'll try and find somewhere outside of town to camp and hide out till this blows over."
"Sounds like a terrible plan, but since you're paying, I'm willing to put up with it. Why not try to find the one commanding the rust buckets?" Jango said while walking towards his craft. Leading the way for the rest of us as we fell in behind him, watching the exit in case any more surprises came after us.
"They could be in orbit for all we know." It had been a long time since the B1 droids had come to market, smaller and more effective command ships were an obvious product to sell to less wealthy clients. There was honestly no way to know the true capabilities or forces that this
Vyeka's commanded, so avoiding conflict was merely the most logical cause of action.
Tatooine, Mos Eisley Outskirts
Anakin Skywalker
Obi-Wan is going to kill me when he finds out what I've been up to. I was supposed to be protecting Senator Amidala, not visiting Tatooine looking for my mother. Granted, this wasn't completely my fault. Okay, maybe it was completely my fault, but I was doing this under encouragement.
Few months back, I had a dream where she was in danger, and there was nothing I could do about it at the time. Even so, the guilt of not being able to do anything about it and the constant recurring dreams doesn't help. Well, the first one had probably been a vision, the ones after that had most likely been echos, dreams in remembrance of just how traumatic the first one had been. I could tell the difference; don't ask me how, I just . . .
know. They have been slowly fading away, just as Obi-Wan had said they would.
But then, I had a nightmare while staying at Padme's cottage in the wilds of Naboo. She had heard about it, and I explained the whole story. How I had dreams of her being in danger, and how I had no idea what had happened to my mother after we left Tatooine.
She'd comforted me a bit, then explained how sometime after the Naboo Crisis, she had sent one of her handmaidens back to Tatooine to free my mother but was unable to find her. It wasn't much, but it was a considerable act of kindness that Padme had tried to free her. If she had not been found by someone with probably more credits than sense, that tended to mean that Watto had probably sold her already.
Of course, I've been a bit mopey since then, It hasn't put my mind at ease about Mom. Now, our conversations were stuck and going in circles; Padme kept bringing up Tatooine and suggesting that perhaps with my familiarity with local Tatooine politics, we could find her.
I tried to reason with Padme. I haven't returned to Tatooine after departing with Qui-Gon for a long time now, and everything that I do know would most likely be out of date. My duty is to protect her, not take her into one of the more dangerous places in the galaxy.
I'd lost, of course. Rhetoric wasn't a skill I particularly cared much about as a Jedi, while Padme being a Senator is trained to use it effectively. But she'd raised a good point that though Naboo is probably the safest place she could be, it's also where people expected her to be. If the assassin didn't know where she was, that would mean that she'd be technically safer, as not even the assassins sent for her would know where to find her.
And so, we had departed Naboo in her private yacht to Tatooine in the hopes of finding my mother and finally putting this old issue to rest. I've been tense ever since our arrival, as I was reminded of just how awful this place still is. Everywhere I looked, I remembered some forgotten remnant of my past or the injustice I tolerated as a kid. The street traffic shuffled slowly, most looking at the ground, keeping their distance from the obvious foreigners and dangerous looking aliens.
I just need to focus on finding my mother and get this done as quickly as possible. We tracked down Watto, who had moved businesses since I'd last seen him. His once mighty shop was now smaller. Apparently, gambling on my freedom had not been profitable to him in the years since. I smirked slightly at his misfortune.
A brief interrogation, and reminder of just who I was, had managed to warm him up enough to, well, ask me to use my Jedi abilities to help him make back some money from his debtors. The pleading had been somewhat amusing, but I would sooner cut off my own hand.
Instead, I'd managed to fool him into giving me what I want on what happened to my mother with some vague assurances and a false smile. I couldn't, nor want to, be openly hostile with Padme at my side. Apparently not too long after I left, Shmi had been bought by a moisture farmer named Lars who freed her, which is good news and quite possibly the best outcome that could have been expected for this place. It didn't explain the bad dreams I've been having, but it was a step in the right direction.
From Watto and Mos Eisley, we've been able to track down Cliegg Lars to a modest moisture farmer homestead out in the boonies. It was quite far away from Mos Eisley and would have been a long journey without Padme's ship.
I've never been this far away from the town of Mos Eisley, at least not for anything but that Pod Race, so it was strange being so . . .
isolated. Walking to the homestead with Padme next to me, I wondered if I really would be seeing my mother again and what I would learn about the dream. Wait, is that
C-3PO? Stopping, I looked at the droid now with a silvery plating and asked him a question, "C-3PO?"
The robot, who was busy chatting with another machine, stopped to look at me before tilting his head, before saying, "By the Maker, the Maker. Master Ani, it's so good to see you again. I always knew you would return and, oh my, is that Miss Padme?"
"Hello, C-3PO." Padme said with a smile that soothes my soul.
"Bless my circuits, I'm so pleased to see you too."
"It's good to see you too." I said with a smile before continuing, "I've come to find mom, is she here?"
"Of course, of course, please follow me indoors." The droid said, starting to walk as fast as his legs would allow him. Padme and I took his lead and fell behind at a measured pace.
Down through a doorway, we descended into a round hole in the ground that seemed to be a central court of several smaller rooms.
Inside the court, there is a man and a woman talking, they both turned as soon as C-3PO entered.
"Master Owen, I have two most important visitors." C-3PO said, turning to me so that I may introduce myself.
"I am Anakin Skywalker." I stated, wondering who these two were.
The man smiled before saying, "I'm Owen Lars, this is my girlfriend Beru." Beru and Padme exchanged pleasantries as Owen seemed a bit unsure of how to continue before he said, "Guess that would mean we're step-brothers, always thought you'd show up one day."
As much as interesting as that was, I was focused on what I was here for, so I asked, "Is my mother here?"
The response I got was a hushed voice saying, "
Ani?" My attention leapt to the other side of the courtyard, where
she was now standing. She was carrying a basket of vaporator mushrooms, and dropped it on seeing me. A moment later, she ran across the courtyard before taking me into an embrace and everything felt like it's going to be alright…
"Ohh, my baby boy. I missed you so much."
"That would be a yes." a man said, while limping out of the doorway on a crutch. He hobbled up next to us and offered a hand and said, "Cliegg Lars." I took it as he said, "Now as much as I'm sure you two want to have a long conversation about the last 10 years or so, how about we do that inside? The heat's going to be getting worse as the day goes on, so we might as well get comfortable for this conversation."
"Sounds good." I said, though it was hard to move with mother holding on quite tightly to me. Embarrassing really, but It feel . . . pleasantly
warm.
She finally let go and said, "I'm so happy you're okay. I was so worried about you, it looks like you did it, you became a Jedi. Oh look at how much you've grown"
I smiled back before saying, "Yeah, yes I did." Cliegg looked up at the twin suns and seemed to imply that they'd be only getting hotter, encouraging us all to follow him inside what appeared to be the main eating area of the moisture farm.
We arranged ourselves in a circle around the table, me and Padme on one side, Owen and Beru on the other, with mother and Cliegg at the head with mother on the side closest to me.
Cliegg spoke first, "Now I'm sure you have questions, and I'm sure my lovely wife has some questions as well, but I think we should all start at the beginning of how we got Shmi out of Watto's pocket."
Well, that wasn't exactly the question I wanted to ask, but it was a good starting point. Nodding my head I said, "How did you do that?"
"It was thanks to your Master Qui-Gon Jinn." Mother said, causing me to raise an eyebrow, considering he had died 10 years ago. I never truly knew my first Jedi Master all that well, but then again, she couldn't know that.
She continued by saying, "He sent someone along with a very expensive ship component that would be enough to buy my freedom, but I needed to find someone to actually purchase me. So I contacted Lars; we had been having on and off chats at a market for years, I felt that he was trustworthy and everything worked out in the end."
She smiled and held Cliegg's hand and he smiled back, adding his side of the story, "I freed her pretty much on the spot. Unfortunately, once you're free you can't live in the slave quarters anymore. Shmi had to move out in a hurry, and I had plenty of space on the farm here, things just sort of . . . developed from there."
"That explains some things." Padme said, which it really did. Now it opened other questions such as how and when did Qui-Gon have the time to have a valuable ship component sent to Tatooine. I probably had to do a bit of investigation on that myself. Most likely he had contacted one of the Jedi that owed Qui-Gon a favor to do it, so at the very least I should thank the person who delivered it.
Mother smiled, "Anyway, that was 10 years ago or so. We've made things work out here, on the outskirts of town. Moisture farming is not very lucrative, but I prefer the quiet life away from Mos Eisley and all the crowds there. I tried writing a letter to you a few times, but a holonet connection to the Republic is like water out here, I don't even know if any of my messages made their way to you. Enough about me, though. So what have you been up to, Anakin?"
I frowned but nodded, "I might know someone who could arrange for a stable holonet connection in the future." It was possible for me to acquire and send some long-range equipment from the spare parts I had access to in the Temple, but those components were expensive. The price wasn't so much a problem for me as it would be for the farm, valuable parts would be a target for raiders and other scum here. Thankfully, I knew a certain friend who had access to Mandalorian-grade gear. I'd have to ask her for recommendations.
"It's all right, I don't mind you visiting again to talk." Mother said.
I smiled again as I answered Mother's question, "After I left Tatooine, I took the chance with the Jedi. I'm currently a Padawan learner, but I'm almost ready to move up to knighthood." I paused, my mouth a little dry. "I have seen a lot of the galaxy since."
Mother smiled before adding, "And I see that you and Padme stayed friends."
Padme chuckled before saying, "Sort of, we actually just reconnected recently."
"Oh, what exactly brought you two back together?" Mother asked.
I coughed before realizing that it was going to sound rather weird, but I went ahead, "An assassination attempt."
"Oh my." Mother let out a shocked gasp as well as covering her mouth.
All eyes were now on me, so I was forced to continue, "Padme is actually a Senator of Naboo for the Republic and someone is trying to assassinate her. So she's currently in protective custody of the Jedi until the situation is handled."
"Ha, imagine that, a senator hiding out in a moisture farm." Cliegg said, shaking his head.
"Well, it's not exactly like that." I said, rubbing the back of my head as I continued, "We were actually hiding out on Naboo when we sort of got sidetracked by talk of old times and a bad dream I had. We ended up coming over here to see if we could find out what happened to you, Mom."
Owen chuckled, "You came out of here because of a bad dream? I think you probably would have saved yourself some trouble and just stayed on Naboo, I heard that the planet's just covered in water."
"It kind of is." I granted, before continuing, "Dreams from Jedi can often be visions of the future, the past, or the present; and I had a vision that you were in trouble three months ago mom. I just couldn't shake it."
Cliegg tilted his head, "3 months ago? Huh." I looked at Owen who was also looking a bit stunned, "3 months ago, Shmi was almost captured by Tusken raiders. I don't know what their plans were or what they were going to do, but we managed to put a stop to the group that attacked us. Nearly lost my leg, and we took a bit of casualties since we needed to bring in a few friends from other moisture farms. It was a near thing. And it kinda lines up with that dream."
I blinked in surprise, "You've managed to fend off a
Tusken raider party? I always heard that they were difficult to deal with."
Cliegg chuckled before saying, "Oh, you have no idea." He got himself up into a stand and hobbled over to a nearby drawer. He opened it and pulled out what appeared to be leg armor and tossed it to me.
I grabbed it mid-air and looked at it, noting that it had some design similarities to what I'd seen on the Mandalorians. It has a noticeable scratch mark and divots carved on it.
"Few months ago, some transport corpo had to sell off all their stock at dirt cheap prices. It was carrying all this gear and armor. They flooded the market, all the vendors in town were hawking their kit. Anyway, me and the boys around here thought it was a great investment, so we all bought some. It turns out to be the right call, if I didn't have that thing on the day we went to go save your mother I'd have probably lost a leg, and we probably won't have been able to pull it off."
Putting the leg armor down, I said, "I guess we can say that my dream was actually a vision." Shaking my head, I continued on by saying, "But it looks like you managed to handle the situation just fine."
It was an interesting development in understanding of the Force. My connection to my mother had warned me that she was in danger, and had actually given me
a course of action to come to her rescue. However, the connection had not faded, even though she had already been rescued. Distinguishing between new danger and the echo of one is going to take some work to understand. Likely one of the reasons the Jedi Order was so against attachments in the first place. I had been driving myself mad worrying about her, even though she was already alright.
Perhaps in the future, I should be a bit more open about my dreams. Maybe Obi-Wan could refer to a Jedi who had to deal with their own attachments and could offer some advice. I knew there were a few Jedi with special circumstances, even though it was heavily frowned upon. At the very least, talking about the dreams would help out whoever the target was next time; I couldn't expect to be as lucky in the future as this armor had managed to get into the hands of Cliegg, otherwise I might have to track down the Tusken Raiders myself to find out exactly what happened.
"Now that we've gotten that out of the way, while you're here, how are things going for you? Any chance you two will be staying here for a couple days? I'm sure Shmi would love to catch up and find out everything you've been up to. We could put up with you for a while as you are technically my son via marriage, so my house is your house."
I'm not sure how I feel about that, but for now I need to focus on protecting Padme. I could reflect on the implications of step-family later, "I don't want to impose..."
"Actually, that sounds
perfect." Padme interrupted what I was going to say, though, "We need a place to stay hidden for a short time, this is much better than trying to find accommodations back in Mos Eisley."
Cliegg and Owen both nodded at that, and mom was smiling fondly at Padme now. I did want to stay, but it was my duty to protect her. Really, it came down to her decision on the matter. Turning my head to look at her, Padme merely gave me a serious look that I have come to recognise as her "
Do what I say" look.
I smiled once again, saying, "We would love to stay a couple days. Although we don't have much to offer as guests."
Padme nodded, "I haven't forgotten that Republic credits don't have weight here. Regardless, there might be a few things about the ship we could spare in barter, if necessary."
Mom's smile had disappeared and was frowning by the end of that, though, "It's really not necessary. I haven't forgotten what you all did for Anakin, or me."
Cliegg nodded his head, "If you do need or want money for some reason, there's a marketplace for spacers that does take some Republic credits. At the very least, I know some people who will transfer Republic credits to water chips. The Hutts will exchange wupiupi too."
Owen spit at the mention of the Hutts. "Owen, don't spit on my floor." Mother admonished him with a severe frown. Owen winced and apologized before proceeding to clean up his mess.
Cliegg gave him a glance, but continued. "But I doubt you're looking for that. Most of us farmers stick to barter or favors."
I nodded at that, I had no desire to meet Jabba or the other Hutts. It would be best if we didn't have to exchange any credits, less evidence we were here.
Getting up, I said, "The less we have to do with the Hutts, the better." I glanced at Padme, but she seemed to agree with me. One catastrophe avoided. "And I prefer barter or favors myself, so this works out fine then. I know my way around a few machines. Is there anything I can do to help around here? Seems like a good way to get to know my new extended family."
Cliegg nodded, "You can help around, sure. Owen, why don't you show him some of the intact moisture vaporators? And then you can help us with a few of the ones that are giving us a little bit of trouble. I've heard from your mom that you are, as the kids would say, pretty
wizard with technology." Cliegg said.
"I saw C-3PO on the way here, so you've already met my greatest creation." I stated, matter of factly.
Owen nodded as he got up, "Yup,
'greatest creation.' That sets the bar sorta low, I think." He said, starting to move towards the door.
I made to follow Owen, but was stopped as Mom grabbed my arm and smiled. "Just checking if this is real."
I grabbed her hand and held it for a moment.
"I'm real. Let's talk more tonight, this is a lot to take in all at once." I paused for another moment, unsure what to say. Lamely, I added, "Fixing something will help me figure out how to tell you everything, though."
She just nodded, though, as if that was the correct thing to say. "There's no right or wrong way, but there is also no rush. Just let me know when you are ready to talk some more."
My mouth was dry again. "Okay."
"That's something I can't wait for." She said with a smile. After she let go of my hand, I stepped out after Owen into the familiar twin suns of Tatooine and smiled up. I still hated the sand, but maybe it wasn't so bad after all.
As I followed Owen, I heard Padme and Beru talking with mother and Cliegg. They probably would get to know each other a bit better, while Owen and I did the same. It is an interesting experience, I never had a brother. Hopefully Owen didn't take his new role as eldest too seriously, we would only be here for a few days.
Owen led me to a heavily modified swoop bike out behind one of the farm structures a little ways away. I gave the bike a questioning look, it was partly disassembled and it didn't seem quite . . . functional.
"Every piece of equipment nearby is in top shape, Dad sees to that." Owen explained. He quickly snapped a few plates laying nearby back into position on the bike's exterior. "I started modifying the bike to support a passenger, Dad can't get around for a few months yet. It's, well, a work in progress. And it might come in handy later."
The bike had exposed wires all along one side and extra non-standard pipe-fittings clearly meant to brace a passenger's legs and torso against. Still, it might be manageable. "It'll work if I'm the pilot. This isn't even the most dangerous piece of junk I've flown."
Now it was Owen's turn to look confused for a moment. Then it cleared up. "Right, you're a Jedi. Should be easy then, eh?"
"Padawan still, but I actually was referring to when I made my own pod-racer. I did that back when I was a kid." I examined the bike for another moment, then stepped into the pilot's seat. "Are you able to hold on to this thing?"
"Course. Mom hates those stories, though." Owen clambered aboard awkwardly, half clinging to the bike. Still, he gave clear directions and directed me to the edge of their territory. He pointed at the distant equipment, "The distant vaps need the most maintenance. They have extra sensors too, finicky bastards." For detecting the Tusken raiders and others, no doubt. "But enough of that, tell me what really happened back then."
We swapped tales as he demonstrated parts of the moisture evaporator. The machinery wasn't terribly hard to fix, mostly faults from the sand or wind blowing debris where it was not supposed to be. Not nearly as complex as the swoop bike or pod-racer had been.
"I still can't believe you managed to assemble half a protocol droid entirely from spare parts. A protocol droid? Really? Not a scavenger or repair droid?"
"I wanted to build something to help mom. She always liked to talk with the vendors at the market to haggle or catch up with her friends. I thought having a Droid to talk to while she worked would be great for her. And C-3PO
is great, so take that back."
By the time the first sun had set, and the second sun was setting, we got back to the farmstead. Both Owen and I were covered in sand, but for the first time, I barely noticed. Padme greeted us at the door.
"I caught your mom up to speed, and how well you behaved as my bodyguard." She explained without explaining. I grunted, still wondering if the Force could be used to remove all the sand from my clothes. I had seen a trick with a spilled drink of water, once. With a wave of my hand a wave of sand and dust fell off me and Owen.
"Do that outside!" Mom cried, and I felt a bit sheepish at causing a mess. After blowing the sand out of the entranceway, I noticed an opportunity. Mom was standing a little apart from the main group, they were making that smelled quite good, probably dinner. Cliegg, Padme, and Beru were clustered in the kitchen.
I walked over to mom, fortifying myself, "Let's talk."
So I did. It took a while, and the others joined in slowly, as they noticed us at the kitchen table. Padme and Beru served the food, a meal whose contents I entirely forgot. Padme helped fill in a few holes in my tale in places with general information, but it was mostly my story as she hadn't been to the Temple much. The Force was a hard subject to explain, and it seemed like I was going to be doing a lot of that in the future, if I had a family. Mostly, I was . . .
happy, happy in a way I had not felt since I met Qui-Gon. I felt the deep weight that I had unwittingly carried all this time just . . . melt away as the conversation continues.
Afterwards, Padme and I retired to our room. Well, her room. Both of us had been offered individual rooms, but Padme said she felt unsafe alone after recent events. I offered to sleep on a sleeping bag Owen had dug up from somewhere, but he had given me a knowing glance when he passed it over to me. Did siblings get a connection similar to the Force? Or was it because he and Beru are in a relationship like Padme and I?
"Give that sleeping bag up, Anakin. It was just for show anyway." Padme said, once we were alone and the door was closed. "There's plenty of room on the bed."
"Fine." I agreed easily, I was tired and could tell how this was going to go. I rested in my bed, considering the day's events. All in all, this wasn't a bad idea after all, just hanging out here for a couple of days just to throw some misdirection on which planet Senator Amidala is hiding on. Hopefully, the assassin would assume she was still on Coruscant if they tried to do anything. And if they did manage to figure out she was off-world, well, not being on Naboo is a good idea as that would have been the first place people generally suspect.
That being said, I do worry about how Obi-Wan is doing with his investigation. While everything is safe here, I am left wondering how everything is going for him. Unfortunately I couldn't exactly contact him because it would only potentially reveal my location, and that wouldn't be good if anyone figured out that I was the one guarding Padme.
So what I did was leave R2 on board Padme's ship to monitor any incoming signals and let me know if Obi-Wan gave me a call. I'd rather not get us all involved in anything, but if he needed the help I would be there in a heartbeat. I glanced at the other side of the bed, but Padme was still up and reading a datapad. So I left the bed and started digging around in my suitcase for mine, when the screen lit up on its own, still buried under spare robes.
Then there was a knock at the door. "Master Anakin?" C-3PO called faintly through the closed door, clearly uncertain whether to interrupt us.
I double-checked that Padme was still presentable, then walked over and opened the door. "C-3PO? What is..." but R2 and C-3PO came barging into the room.
"I'm so sorry, Master Ani. This malfunctioning droid kept insisting it had a priority message for you."
R2 whined in obvious disagreement and annoyance.
"R2?" I asked as the little droid came to a stop in front of me beeping away about something, "Something wrong?"
Thankfully, I understand Binary. But I doubt Padme knows it so I might as well let C-3PO have his time to shine. C-3PO swung sharply at R2's continued beeps. "Oh, that is interesting. Why didn't you just say so earlier?" He lightly banged his metal arm against R2 and R2 just beeped a few curses back at C-3PO. Where did he even
learn that? 3PO ignored the cursing Astromech and turned to us to say, "Apparently, a Representative from the Republic is trying to contact you, a Representative Kryze wishes to speak to anyone who is on board."
"Tanya?" I said, confused. I had not expected her, of all people, to try to contact me. Padme finally stirred from her datapad and seemed to take notice of the situation as well. "I imagine this comm is for you, Padme. R2 can you relay the message here? Thanks C-3PO."
"Of course, Master Ani." The droid said, turning and leaving me with R2 and Padme.
After C-3PO shut the bedroom door, R2 opened a hatch to activate his holo-emitters. Odd, why did a voice message need... A hologram of a fully-armored Mandalorian appeared, but it took me a second to realize that it was just her wearing it.
"Not who I was expecting, but close enough."
I blinked before saying, "Wait, this is a live comm, where are you?"
"Tatooine, I'm making an escape from a rather unfortunate series of events that resulted in droids trying to kill me. I need a place to go to ground for a couple of days while I get in contact with my men. They had to temporarily separate in order for us to make an escape."
I blinked before saying, "Well, I don't know what I can say on that matter. I can't exactly tell you where I am at this moment. The situation here is a bit complex." Padme had moved off the bed and towards the holo-display of the comm.
"Well, that's unfortunate, I was hoping to tell Padme that I had managed to find the assassin and work out a deal to end his contract on the matter, as well as bringing State's evidence against the people responsible."
I blinked before Padme said, "
What? How did you manage that?"
"Padme?" Tanya asked.
Padme nodded, joining the conversation. "Yep. I heard the earlier part too. So
how?"
Tanya smiled broadly now, before answering, "Ancient Mandalorian secrets known as money and clan contacts. The important part is that the threat to Padme is officially over, at least from that one assassin. As far as I can see, I just need a place for me and a couple of my Guards to camp out for a while."
I had to lean back and think about this for a bit. Padme looked at me, clearly wanting permission to tell Tanya where we were. I held up a finger to wait.
On one hand, if she was telling the truth and managed to end the assassination plots, we needed to know all the information she had on. On the other hand, this was putting Padme at unnecessary risk. Who was to say that Tanya is not currently threatened in this message and that she needed help too. This was a tough decision.
Shaking my head, I decided to come up with a middle ground on this, "I can give you a place where I can meet you and pick you up to bring you to a safe house. Would that be fine?"
"That would be perfect." Tanya answered with a smile.
Nodding, I said, "R2, send them a place somewhere where we can make this pick up." The little droid beeped happily. Turning back to the hologram, I said, "I'll be there in a few minutes. Good luck, may the Force be with you."
"And may the Manda be with you." she said with a smile.
"Manda?" I asked out of curiosity.
She chuckled before saying, "It's like the Force but without magic and for Mandalorians."
Surprising me, Padme chuckled at that. "May the Manda be with you too, Tanya."
R2 ended the holo-emitters and started packing up.
"For a supposed pacifist, she sure likes getting involved in adventure." Padme commented while shaking her head. She sat on the bed again near me, then leaned up next to me and said in a lower tone, "Alright, let's go pick her up."
I smiled and said, "I don't think that'd be the greatest idea, if she had contact with the assassin he could be following her. It would be better for you to stay here with the others."
Padme sighed before saying, "If there's still the threat, then it won't matter if I'm on the ship or not. The assassin would just track our ship back to the farmstead and attack us here instead." I nodded at that, a bit frustrated by the situation.
I left and Padme followed me, but I saw Cliegg and Shmi were still up softly discussing something in the shared living quarters. They both looked towards us silently as we left the bedroom.
"We're not leaving, not just yet. Possibly a slight bit of danger though, going to take our ship and find out." I explained.
Unhappy with my abridged explanation, Padme huffed and stalled me. "I have a friend who happened to be nearby and got caught up in some local politics… somehow. We might be back with a few extras, but they're a good sort."
"Eh, more her sort, really." I hedged, indicating towards Padme. No need to explain that there would soon be a Senator and a Representative here. This is Tanya's added mess.
Mom nodded silently, leaning against Cliegg and their hushed whispers resumed. I could listen in with the Force, but thought better of it.
Looking out the window, I asked again, "Are you really sure you want to come?."
"Yes," she said firmly, while nodding her head in agreement, "we are going to go pick up Tanya together then we are going to bring her back to the farmstead. We're going to find out what's been going on, and then we'll see what happens."
"Yes, senator." I said. I noticed Cliegg roll his eyes. We walked out towards the ship, and R2 raced to meet us aboard, already programming in the location for us to rendezvous with Tanya.
Carefully, Padme's yacht lifted off, and I looked out the window, seeing that mom had come out to see us off. I gave a wave, but I don't know if she saw it. I hoped I'd be back soon enough that it wouldn't matter.
The yacht made its way across the dunes at a reasonable pace. We were heading in a generally eastern direction, towards a mesa section of the desert. We arrived at the meeting point, a small clearing where four figures were apparently sitting around some rocks. I carefully sat the ship down and said, "Okay, on the off chance that your safety might be in danger, stay inside while I get them on board."
"I will do as the Jedi requests." Padme replied with a smirk. I got up and walked down towards the bottom of the ramp.
Standing there were four figures in armor. The one in front is a Mandalorian in green armor, to her left is a Mandalorian in brown armor, and to that one's left is another Mandalorian, though his armor looks darker and is hidden by plenty of wrappings. The last Mandalorian, the one to the green one's right, is a Mandalorian Royal Guard. Very recognizable with his rather bright uniform and crest helmet.
"Tanya?" I asked, a bit confused. I was rewarded with the green one pulling off her helmet, revealing a blonde mess of hair. She shook her head and the bangs fell into place, her face resolving into Tanya's.
She gave a small hand wave, "Good to see you again, Skywalker. You got here pretty fast. I thought we'd have to wait for a couple of hours for you to get here from Naboo."
"Yeah, wait. How exactly did you get in contact with the yacht?" I scratched the back of my head in confusion.
She smiled and said, "Oh, I have R2D2's communication number. I figured he would be a safer way to try and contact Padme in this situation. People tend to focus on the target and not people, or in this case droids, who support the target. Less likely to be intercepted."
"R2 has a communication number?" I said, a bit confused, looking down at the droid. He pulled up next to me and let out a couple whistles of victory and approval.
"Most droids do." Tanya said, stepping up and patting him on the head. "You just have to ask for their information when you have the chance, something I tend to do." She stepped past me saying, "Anyway, there's four of us here and this ship can handle that many passengers, right?"
"It's capable of carrying a dozen Gungans at once." Padme called from the front of the ship. "So yes, it can probably handle 10 people in total, though that's pushing it."
Tanya frowned, stopped and immediately looked at me and said, "Tell me you did not bring her here?" Her tone contained an amount of frustration that rivaled Windu.
Shaking my head, I said, "Nope, this is not on me. I did not bring her along, she brought me."
"Great, the two of you are bad influences on each other, noted." Tanya said while shaking her head in disdain. She stepped further into the ship and said, "Good to see you, Padme."
"No, we're pretty good influences." I heard Padme say before the brown suited female Mandalorian stepped past me to follow behind Tanya. It's probably Vai, no wait she wore blue, didn't she? I paused for a moment, wondering at the unfamiliar arrivals.
The black armored Mandalorian nodded as well as he stepped past, taking a seat in the aft section. Finally, the Royal Guard stepped up and offered a hand. "Thanks for the pickup. Today has been one hell of a day, and it's good to have someone we can trust in the area."
"Yeah," I said taking the hand, "no problem, though I am going to want a full story about what exactly was about today, ah?"
"Ordo. Engiz Ordo." He shook the offered hand. "And I'm sure you'll have it. What happened today was just a whole nother level of crazy. I don't think Tanya has been so involved since-" He seemed to stop there to cough before continuing, "Well, that alley fight a few years ago."
That only got me to raise my eyebrow, but I'd push on that later. First, safety. As he passed by me, I hit the button to close the ramp and shuffled forward back into the pilot seat. I noted that it was a bit tighter than it had been, but we should be able to get back to the Lars moisture farm without any issues.
Smiling, I did the shuttle's start-up sequence and called out, "Alright, everyone. Make sure you're buckled in. We got a bit of a trip ahead of us, but it shouldn't be that long. And once we're there, I want answers on what exactly is going on."
"You'll have them." Tanya said matter of factly and then she buckled herself in.
Satisfied, I pulled the ship up off the ground and blasted off back to the Lars homestead.
Writers note: Well that was a wild ride. Diplomacy, shoot out, and escape. And that was just the first half of this chapter. Second half is great as well, though I won't spoil the implication there as I'll let you all figure it out yourselves. Hope you all enjoy this chapter.
Edited by: Warmach1ne32, indra le fulgurant, fallqm, Afforess
Community edited by:Just Rafi
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