THIRTEEN.
preparing for war
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"About 15 or 20 of them came through here on foot." Mando announced, walking around the forest with me and Cara. He pointed at a couple of broken trees, "And something sheared off those branches."
As we kneeled near the large footprints imprinted onto the ground, Cara mumbled, "AT-ST."
"Imperial walker." I chimed in, standing up. "What's it doing here?"
"I don't know." Cara replied, shaking her head. "But this is more than what I signed up for."
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"Bad news." Mando announced to the citizens of the farm with no hesitation. "You can't live here anymore."
"What?! Why?" All the citizens shouted, angrily.
"Mando.." I sighed as I pinched the bridge of my nose, elbowing him in the side gently. He looked at me with his head slightly tilted to the side.
"What?"
"Nice bedside manner." Cara whispered over to him.
He scoffed, turning to look at me. "And you think you can do better?"
"Probably." I replied, taking a step forward on the front porch to face the citizens. "I'm sorry that this isn't the news that you expected to hear.. but there's no other options."
"You took the job!"
"Yeah!"
"That's before we knew about the AT-ST."
"What is that?"
"The armored walker with two enormous guns--"
Cara interrupted, "That you knew and didn't tell us about."
"Help us, please!"
"You're supposed to help us!"
"But we hired you! Please!"
"We have nowhere to go." Omera said, holding Winta close to her side. I turned to look at Mando as he looked at me.
"Sure, you do!" Cara shrugged with a moderate expression. "This is a big planet. I mean, I've seen smaller."
"My grandparents seeded these ponds..!"
"It took generations!"
"Yeah!"
"I understand, I do." Cara snapped. "But there are only three of us."
"No, there's not." A man said as my eyes landed on him. "There's at least 20 here..!"
"Yeah!"
"I mean fighters!" Cara rolled her eyes, giving out an airy laugh. "Be realistic--!"
"Hey," I whispered to her, sharply. "They're not wrong."
"We can learn!"
"We can."
"Give us a chance.. please."
"I've seen that thing take out entire companies of soldiers in a matter of minutes!" Cara barked at both me and the citizens.
"We're not leaving." Omera said sternly. I walked over to Mando, staring into his helmet. He nodded as if he understood what I was suggesting.
Cara looked Omera in the eye, "You cannot fight that thing."
"Unless we show them how." Mando said, stepping forward to talk to the villagers. My eyes followed him with approval as Cara just glared.
"Show us!"
"Yeah, we can do this!"
"Mando's right," I said to the both of them. "We'll show them how to help us fight, and that's the end of it."
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"You got two problems here -- the bandits and the mech." I announced, glancing at all the citizens. "We'll handle the AT-ST, but you gotta protect us when they come out of the woods.. and I don't have to tell you how dangerous they are."
"Cara Dune here was a veteran," Mando said, looking in her direction. "She was a drop soldier for the Rebellion, and she's gonna lay out a plan for you, so listen carefully."
"Now, there's nothing on this planet that can damage the legs on this thing, so we're gonna build a trap." Cara explained while pointing at the pond behind her. "We're gonna need to dig real deep, right here, so that when it steps in, it drops. The three of us will hit their camp -- provoke them. That'll bring the fight out of the woods and down here to us."
Mando added, "And I'm gonna need you to cut down trees and build barricades along these edges."
"I need it high enough so they can't get over, and strong enough so that it can't break through." I said, crossing my arms as I looked around at all of their determined faces.
"Okay. Who knows how to shoot?" Mando asked the citizens. They all looked around at one other in silence as no one raised their hands.. except for one -- Omera.
We all gathered together and separated into three groups: fighting, shooting, and building. Mando trained the shooters, Cara taught the fighters, and I got the builders.
I helped the builders make the barricades and the trap underneath the pond. It took a while, but we had finished a lot faster than I had expected us to. I clapped my hands together, wiping the dust off my hands and face.
"Good," I muttered to myself as I stared at the final result, nodding in approval. I turned to all the builders, "Now, go train with the others."
"Yes, ma'am!"
They hurried off, running to either Mando or Cara's training groups. I walked over to Mando, watching them learn how to shoot a blaster. I placed a hand on my hip as they followed Mando's every command.
"They're not bad." I said, smiling at the sight.
"They're improving," He replied, turning to face me. "But it's enough to win this fight."
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I walked into my homestead, preparing to head back into battle once more. I looked through my bag, searching for some weapons to bring with me. I took out my blaster and a couple of other rifles just in case, placing them in my emissary belt.
Just then, I felt a weapon protruding from out of my bag. I took it out and placed it in the palm of my hand. I sighed as I observed the intricate details and features of my lightsaber.
I activated it, illuminating its blue, almost white light from out of the hilt. I stood up, twirling it around in my hand. I smiled as it brought me back to the old days. I deactivated it and placed it in my emissary belt.
I walked back outside, searching for Cara and Mando. After bumping into Cara, I wandered around the whole village, looking for Mando. I finally found him; he was standing right outside of our homestead.
I called out to him with a small grin on my face, "Mando--!"
Almost immediately, my grin faded once I saw Omera walking outside, looking up into Mando's helmet. Cara raised up an eyebrow as she saw my blank expression.
"You okay?" She asked as I snapped out of my trance.
I nodded in response, looking away from the two on the front porch. After Mando and Omera had talked with one another for a bit, they finally spotted us. Mando turned to look at Omera one last time before walking over to me and Cara.
"Alright," I cleared my throat, avoiding any eye contact with Mando. "Let's get a move on."