When Dantra, Lyda and I landed, it wasn't chaos like I expected. Nope. It was quiet. Dead silent actually.
Stepping out of the cramped Jedi starship, the three of us us looked around. "Any ideas?" I asked.
"You're the one who dragged us into this.* Dantra shrugged.
I groaned. She was right. I looked around our surroundings. The trees reached up to the sky, vines dripping from the branches. The sun reached lazily down through, settling in soft beams to the green undergrowth. We had landed in a clearing that hid a village.
We headed toward the village.
The homes were simple, built of brick and stone. We approached a house, the cloth door fluttering slowly on the light breeze. I slapped the doorframe I standard Togrutan greeting. No answer. Dantra pushed through. Lyda and I followed.
The interior was simple, painted walls and a tapestry depicting a Togruta family hanging on one wall. "Hello?!?" I called. "We're Jedi, here to help!" I added.
Dantra and Lyda fixed me with a 'really?' look. Okay. Two Jedi and a jedi-wanna-be.
Nobody answered.
Lyda stalked toward the tapestry. "What happened?" She asked nobody.
"Maul." I whispered, glancing around the home, peaking into a couple rooms down the hall.
"Where are the civilians?" Dantra added to Lyda's question.
"Either hiding, killed, they deserted, or maybe maul has condenced their population into one major point and is using them as living sheilds." I guessed.
"He's trying to lure in Master Kenobi?" Lyda asked for my story again. I nodded. "My master once said that the best way to control a Jedi is hold an innocent life in their power." Lyda whispered.
Maul knows what he's doing..., I thought. "It's simple warfare. Take hostages to control someone else." I spoke.
"Yeah. I forgot. You're Mandalorian." Dantra said that last word the same way you would pronounce a hated disease. I looked at her. "What do you have against me?" I asked. "I'm different from my ancestors." I added.
"Mandalorians slaughtered my grandmaster. Master Biwena lost her master to your kind." Dantra answered sharply.
"My kind?!?" I retorted.
"As I've told you. Mandalorians amd Jedi don't mix. I'm sure that your kind-" dantra paused, enunciating the term, "-would not be proud of you for associating with me and Lyda. Just because we're Jedi."
"I happen to have a high respect for Jedi." I growled. "And as I said said earlier, i am not like my ancestors!"
"Maybe, but-" dantra prepared a come-back, but Lyda interrupted. "Hey, hear that?"
Dantra and i paused. There was a strange sound, slicing through the silence. And I recognized it.
Mandalorian jet packs.
Death watch jet packs.