Worth: A Star Wars Story

7. The Clan

We finally touched down on Ryloth and quickly got a message from our Mandalorian contacts almost before we could finish getting our gear set up. The message was brief: Abandoned town, two clicks south. Meet us there.

The abandoned town we were searching for was easy enough to find. The entire thing looked like it had been bombed to hell, and only a few of the houses were left standing. Much to our surprise, Ros and Wylan met us at the edge of the town and made their way to us around the absolute maze of rubble until they were standing right in front of us, armored from head to toe in their beskar'gam. Almost like a greeting, they reached up in unison and pulled off their helmets, revealing their faces to us, and Wylan tossed his shoulder cape behind him with a small grunt of acknowledgement as Ros nodded at us. 

"Welcome to Ryloth, boys. Hope you're ready for the beskar'ad. They're here in force with the Trandos," Ros jerked his chin over his shoulder as he pulled his helmet up under his arm and regarded us all with a look I couldn't quite put my finger on. "Anyway, time for right proper introductions. My name is Ros Beroya of Clan Beroya of House Vizsla. This..." He began as he gestured to the taller Mando.

"Wylan Ordo of Clan Ordo of the same House," Wylan regarded us with steely eyes that seemed like knives compared to the bold brown of Ros's. 

"I'm Padawan Talen Jall," Talen began as he stepped forward with a nod, "but... I think you knew that already. These are Captain Kando, Red, Grek, and Tor of the Coruscant Guard."

"See?" Ros chuckled, "We can be all civilized like when we need to, eh? We're set up in that old town - me and my boys - and we're planning a full-scale assault on a compound near here. problem is, we're fighting slavers and Tualin's people at once."

"You need him dead," Wylan cut in, "and we want him dead. Figured that meant that we could work together to take him down."

"We're finishing up setting probes. Go get comfortable and introduce yourselves to my sons. We'll join you soon." Ros gestured over his shoulder with his chin as he spoke. We didn't get a chance to ask any questions before they had placed their helmets back on their heads and cut out past us without so much as another word to anyone. I could tell that Talen was a little put-off by the whole thing. I couldn't blame him. We got asked out without so much as a thorough explanation as to why we were even there.

We soon found ourselves walking through the bombed-out ruins of what was a town. I noticed something about Talen that I hadn't ever seen him do before. He pulled his arms into his sleeves and folded them tight over his chest. He seemed like he was focusing much harder than he normally did, like he was trying to focus on something far away or that he couldn't remember. He must have caught me looking over at him as we made our way through the ruins and looked up at me with those bright blue eyes of his. 

"I... don't want to touch anything," Talen admitted to me quietly. "If I do, I see things... Memories and feelings imprinted in the rubble... It isn't always nice."  He looked around at the destroyed landscape and the conspicuous lack of bodies, and I understood what he meant. I don't think any sane person would ever want to relive a war, let alone from the side of the civilian casualties. 

Tor elbowed me as we rounded a corner past what seemed to be the remains of some store and I immediately saw what he did. There was an old building that was set up like it had to have been an administrative building. It was at the center of everything with whatever windows it had once blown completely out. The old metal buildings, simple in their design, had seen better days, and without so much as a living soul to be found anywhere, it was disconcerting. "Look around. The crates," Tor nodded towards the building and I again saw what he meant. Old storage and shipment crates had been hauled up to form a barrier, albeit a small, inconspicuous one. You wouldn't have really known what it was unless you were looking for it. It had to have been where the Beroyas were set up, so we decided to head over and give it a look.