Inhaling a faint earthy scent from the trees, I ambled over to Cara, who was gazing at the distant forest. We stood side by side for a moment, observing the colorful birds and leaves that occasionally fell to the ground.
"You are an unusual couple, you know."
The statement caught me off guard. "What do you mean?"
Cara shrugged. "Don't get me wrong, you're great together, but two bounty hunters, one of which is a Mandalorian? You don't see that very often these days." She laughed softly and added, "Not to mention your little green son."
"Oh, uh, we're not... we're not a couple. And the kid isn't our son." I said quickly. Why would anyone even think that?
She quirked a brow with skepticism. "Really? I don't know, the look on your face..."
"I- We're not- No." She smirked at my discomfort, and I shook my head. Mando and I are... partners? Coworkers? Even I don't know what we are. "We just work together."
"Whatever you say."
Later that day, Cara, Mando, and I left the child to play with his newly found friends and trekked through the forest in hopes of finding the raiders who ransacked the village.
Following the trail of destruction they left behind, we encountered traces of a large object that was capable of snapping branches right off of trees. We eventually came across an indentation in the ground that resembled a massive footprint.
Just our luck.
It was an AT-ST.
"AT-ST," breathed Cara in incredulity. I tried to fight the feeling of unease that grew in me at the mention of an Imperial remnant.
Mando inhaled sharply. "Imperial walker. What's it doing here?"
"I don't know, but this is more than I signed up for." I wholeheartedly agreed, yet couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt - the villagers didn't deserve to be terrorized this way, or repaid for their kindness with bad news. What would their reactions be when we told them they needed to abandon their homes?
As it turns out, they were displeased, to say the least.
"Bad news. You can't live here anymore," announced Mando to the crowd of villagers who had come to hear us deliver our verdict. I winced at his bluntness, unsurprised at the instant uproar that followed.
"What?"
"Why?"
"Come on!"
"Nice bedside manner," Cara muttered with a pointed look at Mando. I could only assume that he was rolling his eyes.
"You think you can do better?"
"Can't do much worse." She stepped forward to address the villagers. "I know this is not the news you wanted to hear, but there are no other options."
"You took the job!" they cried in indignation.
I stepped forward as well. "That was before we knew of the AT-ST." The people seemed confused, so I clarified, "The armored Imperial walker."
"Which has two enormous guns that you knew about and didn't tell us," added Cara. The villagers' distress only worsened at our explanation.
"Help us!"
"Please."
"You're supposed to help us."
"But we hired you!" As much as we wanted to help them, we were severely outnumbered and did not stand a chance against an AT-ST.
Unless...
While Cara continued to speak to the villagers, I turned to Mando.
"We're outnumbered right now, but not if we train the villagers to fight with us."
He considered the idea for a moment. "You think they can do it?"
"I hope so." We turned back to Cara.
"You cannot fight that thing," she said to the adamant crowd. One could tell that she spoke from experience by the way she clenched her fists and jaw.
"Unless we show them how."
And so commenced the training. We divided the villagers into groups, with Mando teaching them to shoot, Cara making battle plans, and me instructing hand-to-hand combat.
They were very hesitant to come forward and spar with each other, and even more so with me, but relaxed slightly after becoming familiarized with each others' fighting styles. Mando undoubtedly had the hardest job, seeing as shooting was a tricky business and no one except Omera knew how to do it.
By the end of a few weeks, they were still incompetent by bounty hunter standards, but were definitely capable of holding their own in a battle. Two giant holes were dug as a trap for the AT-ST, and trees were cut down to make barricades that would, hopefully, protect the majority of the village.
At long last, it was time for the attack. All the villagers had been briefed and armed, and the children had been hidden in a hut farthest from the battle. The tension in the air, however, was so thick you could cut through it with a lightsaber. The question was never uttered, but it resounded in everyone's head - will the plan work? Will we get out of this alive?
When everyone was in position, Mando, Cara, and I left to poke the sleeping bear.
Occasionally ducking behind trees, we crept silently towards the raiders' camp. It was illuminated by the light of several small fires around which a few raiders sat, sipping spotchka.
As we approached, their faces became distinct.
Klatoonians.
Mando and I swiftly took out the dog-like sentries before either could make a sound and dragged their bodies behind large bushes. We moved unnoticed past another fire, where a half dozen more Klatoonians were chattering amongst themselves.
Drawing our blasters, we entered a tent that contained vats of glowing, bubbling spotchka. Mando planted detonators on poles supporting the tent, but before we could leave, we heard raiders coming closer. We backed against the walls and as soon as they set foot in the tent, we engaged them.
We fought as more raiders entered, punching, kicking, and occasionally throwing them into the tanks of spotchka. The detonators beeped threateningly as we put an end to the last of the group of raiders, but then more came in and began to shoot.
Ducking behind the tanks, we exchanged blaster fire before creating a diversion and jumping out of the tent. Our escape was not a moment too soon, as the detonator went off behind us, throwing us forward.
"I hope the plan worked," panted Cara, trying to catch her breath. Almost as if it heard her, two glowing eyes emerged from the darkness as the AT-ST came to life.
It stood slowly, towering over the treetops.
"Go." yelled Mando. "Go!"
We dashed back towards the village with the AT-ST in hot pursuit, its footsteps shaking the ground. We narrowly avoided being hit when laser fire from the machine began to rain down, lighting up the surrounding forest.
Bursting into the clearing where the village lay, we quickly took our places behind the barricades, blasters at the ready.
"This is it. Once that thing steps into the pond, it's going down," hollered Cara. We waited with bated breath as the sound of trees creaking and the thudding of the AT-ST's legs gradually grew louder. "Weapons ready."
Before long, the trees parted to make way for the glowing red eyes once more. With a spine-chilling creak, the AT-ST moved forward.
"Come on, just a few more steps..." I murmured. The AT-ST was one step away from falling into the trap when it paused.
"It stopped." A blinding white light emitted from the Imperial walker.
"Get down. Down." urged Mando. We bent down and a sinister groan of metal echoed as it surveyed the barricades we had built.
That's where it all went wrong.
The AT-ST fired a laser which instantly destroyed a hut. It went up in flames, the fire illuminating our surroundings.
"Hold your positions!" Cara ordered. What was once distant shouting grew closer and closer. The AT-ST shifted slightly, allowing the band of Klatoonian raiders to charge through the fields, right at us. Their numbers were two or three times as many as our own, and they wielded heavy blasters and iron rods. "Open fire!"
From our semi-safe location behind the barricades, we opened fire on the raiders. Many fell dead in the subsequent chaos, but the AT-ST was doing substantial damage to the village. There was no foreseeable conclusion to the battle unless it fell into our trap.
"We've got to get that thing to step forward," said Mando urgently.
"We're thinking."
I gritted my teeth and pulled my lightsaber out of my pocket. Cara gave me a puzzled look, but there wasn't time to explain. "I'm going to regret this later. Cover me!"
I barely heard Mando's "Are you crazy?" (to which the answer was yes) as I ran outside of the barricade, right into the belly of the beast.
I ignited my saber, enjoying the feel of the balanced violet blades for a moment before jumping into action. I deflected the blaster fire being sent my way while moving slowly forward, toward the AT-ST. One blaster bolt hit my leg, but I didn't take time to register the pain and kept moving.
My lightsaber whooshed through the air with a low hum, bathing my surroundings in an ethereal glow. I blocked the rest of the shots fired with an ease that came with years of practice. Then, a group of about a dozen raiders circled around me, blasters poised to shoot. I separated the blades and took a deep breath, falling into a calm state of mind.
I attacked, my sabers spinning, slicing and slashing at anything in my way. The world around me disappeared for a minute, my movements becoming almost automatic. Somewhere in the corner of my mind, I heard the villagers join the battlefield, yelling a war cry.
I snapped out of my trance when the raiders attempting to corner me were dead, but the job wasn't done yet.
A dozen more raiders had formed a barrier to prevent me from getting any further, so I used the Force to push them out of the way with a sweep of my hand. At last, I crept behind the AT-ST, gathered all my resolve, and raised my arms in the direction of its legs.
With great concentration, I sent a powerful Force push that slid the AT-ST's legs forward a few feet. That was just the push it needed to fall into our trap. It sank down completely, all the way to its head.
The AT-ST fired lasers rapidly, but it was to no avail, because Mando had run forward and placed a thermal detonator on it. I ran as far away from the machine as I could, knowing what came next.
With a fiery explosion, the AT-ST was destroyed, sending enormous plumes of smoke into the night sky. It was then that the raiders knew they had lost - they scattered immediately in hopes of surviving.
However, I was not completely out of harm's way. During the mayhem that followed the destruction of the AT-ST, a raider had snuck up behind me and hit me forcefully over the head with an iron pole before I could react. I crumpled to the ground.
A pair of strong arms and a familiar visor were the last things I made out before the world went dark.
• • •