[fic] SW: Return From Exile

[Rain128]

if you like this one Devon, look up his Kotor I story and his early republic novels, very good reads...

 

 

I would link them but i have no idea how =(

[machievelli]

if you like this one Devon, look up his Kotor I story and his early republic novels, very good reads...

 

 

I would link them but i have no idea how =(

 

 

Thank you rain. And no, I will not raise your allowance

[machievelli]

Marai

 

I could almost read Bao Dur’s mind as we looked down. I looked up, turning, and across from him, I saw the Handmaiden mirror my movements.

 

If you have ever seen a predator in his natural environment, you will know what we saw. For a moment, it was merely the jungle behind us. But some of the more innocuous animals make noises, and they had fallen silent. Then the trunk and bark of a tree ten meters away moved separately. I had an instant to recognize the Mandalorian armor.

 

“Handmaiden?”

 

“I see them too.” She replied in a level voice. If they were had their helmet sensors up, they could hear are heartbeat easily at this distance. She spoke as if she knew they could hear us. “But they are not preparing to attack.”

 

I looked at them. Bao Dur was humming, and I recognized a song that had been popular in the 2nd Marines back then. It should have been played as a ’sprightly air’ but he was humming it like a dirge.

 

His blaster rifle came up, and I gently pulled it aside. He looked at me

confused. We were in the war zone, the enemy was right there. Why was I stopping him? “They wouldn’t like that.” I whispered.

 

He rolled slowly, looking back at the men. I could feel his tension like the string of a bow.

 

I stood, facing them silently. The Mandalorians aren’t much for personal in your face bluster. Either do it or go away. We stood there face to face at that distance, waiting for the other to say something. Bao Dur knew it from experience, the Handmaiden from our example. We were pillars of stone, we were trees talking a mile a minute at their pace, of a word perhaps every hour.

 

Someone sneezed, and one of the helmets turned. I could almost hear the lecture that man would get. “Impressive.” He said. “Most visitors take one look at our neighbors and runs screaming to safety.”

 

I nodded. “They can be a bit, persistent. May I ask why you have occupied this moon again?”

 

“We are not occupying. We have settled.” One of the others spoke. The helmet of their leader turned yet again, and I didn’t have to hear the soft voiced ripping that loud mouth was getting.

 

The leader turned his head back to look at us. “The People of Onderon don’t seem to like this vacation spot. So we have moved back in peacefully.” He motioned, and all of them came out. “Will you do the courtesy of explaining how you ended up on this garden spot?”

 

“Our ship was damaged in the disagreement above. We landed here to make repairs.”

 

“That would be faster than trying to convince the General to let you land.” The leader touched his ear where the connection for his helmet com link was. “We have been ordered to escort you to our encampment. Our leader wishes to speak with you.”

 

We marched with them down a well used path. I noticed furtive looks by the Handmaiden and Bao Dur. In a jungle a path is also a target. I noticed a sensor module, and relaxed a bit. If the foe were a human enemy, they would have been worthless. But as long as you didn’t put them down where a Cannock could eat them, they were perfect as detectors.

 

We came into the valley, and the forest just ended at the edge of the greensward. I looked around. The lawn for lack of a better name looked neatly clipped, as if with owner’s pride. But it is also called the dead zone. It is a cleared area where every movement is in the open. Crossing it without the Mandalorian camouflage or ghillie suits would be like crawling across a green table cloth.

 

The outer enfilading redoubts had been professionally sealed. Not to remove them, merely to save them for more space and later growth. Left alone, the jungle would have already reduced them to piles of rubble. The gate was open, and I could see the dusting of mines ahead of us. Command detonated, so we could walk through safely.

 

It was like walking into a remote village on the Mandalore home worlds. There were fifty or perhaps sixty men of fighting age, meaning older than fifteen. Half as many women, all with the lean lithe look of warriors themselves.

 

And children. Not the screaming and laughing hordes you would expect at a park of a day off, but a couple of dozen playing. But even play was in training for war.

 

We passed a group of men, the youngest maybe 20, the oldest a grizzled sergeant half again my age. They were cleaning weapons, inspecting armor, the boring maintenance duties you either did, or died in the field. Second place in battle was your grave. Another area had been cleared, and a pair of Mandalorians charged together like bulls. Beside it a circle where two women circled, swords at the ready.

 

There was a ramp downward, and we walked down it. The room was cluttered with equipment. It was an old command post bunker. About a third of the equipment was running. A man not in the colored armor worn by the juniors, but the satin sheen of bare metal was working at a computer. He growled, then slammed a fist against the side of the machine. He turned, as if he’d expected us to be right there, pointing at one of the silent men with us.

 

“If you can’t stick to patrol discipline, you can stay inside the perimeter Davrel. Now go to Zuka, tell him my systems are starting to go bug nuts again.”

 

“Chu!” The figure double timed away.

 

“Leave us.” He said to the patrol leader. They trooped out.

 

“I am the Mandalore of Mandalore. Welcome to our settlement.”

 

“A title I thought dead at Revan’s hand.” I said.

 

“Five years ago Revan gave unto me the helm and title.” He replied. “She would have gone to Mandalore itself, publicly freed us from exile. But that was not to be.

 

“What are you doing invading the Republic again?” Bao Dur growled. I touched his arm and he moved back.

 

“The question does have merit.” I said. A superior gently chiding a subordinate.

 

“The People of Onderon use their moon for two things, tombs and a hunting preserve. If they knew we were here they would be upset. However this,” he waved toward the people beyond. “Is obviously not an invasion force. We came here to regroup before our return home.” He stood, waving at the moon at large. “From here were commanded half of the forces that attacked the Republic. Now, it is just a rest stop upon the way.”

 

“But why chose Dxun as you ‘rest stop‘?” I asked.

 

“If you think the Republic’s politics are bloody, you have yet to see ours.” He laughed. Something about that voice... “The Mando-a have an affinity for such places. In the jungle there are two forms of life. Those that feed, and those fed upon. No where better to hone the edge for us. Those who fought us here should have considered that.”

 

“I led one of the assaults here.” I answered softly. “We were overruled.”

 

“By Quintain. Whatever happened to that D’kut?”

 

“He was promoted to planning, but got back into battle at Malachor V. He died there.”

 

 

“It would have been better for you if he had died in bed before the war began. We are here in secret because I felt the Onderoni would hold a grudge if they knew of our presence. The politics down there are... unsettled of late.”

 

“I am trying to get down to Onderon.” I told him. “I have business there.”

 

“So it is transport you seek?”

 

“They seem to hold a grudge against my ship.”

 

“I have a small shuttle capable of running their blockade. We make supply runs every few weeks. If you can wait three days, I will be glad to take you down. Until then, be welcome, and warm at our fire.”

 

“May good company transcend our differences.” I replied. He looked at me.

 

“You know our social forms.”

 

Suddenly it hit me. “Wait. Before you became Mandalore, was your name Ordo? Canderous Ordo?”

 

He looked at me for a long time, then he reached up and took off the helmet. Canderous Ordo, who had held me like a child almost eight years ago looked back. “You have grown thin, my little friend.”

 

“And you have not changed at all.” I said. “You’re what, 73 now?”

 

“71. Have you gotten over what plagued you all those years ago?”

 

“Most of it.”

 

“I have ordered that until we are a people once more, the rite of First battle will not be practiced. In deference to... an old friend.” He picked up his helmet again. “My quartermaster Kex will see to your needs if you have any. I would suggest having a care in the jungle beyond. With the battle going on above, we have pulled in our patrols, and the native wildlife will have moved back in.” He put the helmet on again.

 

“Now if you will excuse me, I have work to do.”

 

Encampment

 

Handmaiden

 

We walked from the bunker. Ahead of us was a training circle. Men lunged, watching the two men that fought in full armor in the center. If I had been a Mandalorian I would have slapped them both. Their style was sloppy and their movements jerky.

 

The sergeant at the edge looked toward us. “This is not a zoo.”

 

“The one on the left holds his hand too high on striking.” Marai commented.

 

“And what does a puling Republic weakling know of that?”

 

Marai looked at him. “I am Marai Devos. I commanded part of the assault on this moon, and if I remember correctly, took this very fortress from the 4th Order.”

 

They all looked at her. The sergeant stood with a fluid movement. “They were good men.”

 

“The best you had here. Cassus Fett left them to die.”

 

He motioned, almost as if asking her if she wanted to dance. “Would you participate? Or will you merely watch and criticize?”

 

She looked at the men. The smallest was a full two meters tall, the largest a meter taller than she.

 

“I have never practiced in your way.”

 

“The rules are simple. No tools, no weapons unless they are agreed to before hand. If you are Jedi no Jedi tricks. Simple.”

 

She nodded, moving forward.

 

“Who will face her?” He asked. A forest of hands rose. He considered them, then pointed. “Davrel.”

 

The man stood.

 

“Since you are new to our ways, you may fight a recruit. No weapons. Hands and feet only.”

 

She nodded.

 

He pointed at a box etched into the dirt to one side. “Until told to begin, stand there.”

 

They squared off three and a half meters apart. “We have a match. Stations!” The warrior bowed. Marai returned it.

 

“Cha!” at the shout the man leaped into a run. Marai merely took a pace forward, and as he reached arm’s length, she ducked, catching him around the waist, and flipping him up and over her. The man bounded back to his feet. Marai had move so that they had almost traded places. She had her hands on her hips, considering him.

 

“Never assume an enemy is weak because they are small.” She said. “A warrior’s muscles slacken when he smiles.”

 

The man moved forward, this time in a glide. There was a flurry of blows and blocks. Then suddenly the man was in the air again. He landed on his stomach and she landed in the center of his back, left hand pinning his shoulder, right hand raised as if to strike.

 

“Pa-cha!” She looked at the sergeant. Then moved up and away.

 

“The match goes to Devos. But she is only facing a recruit. a mere boy.”

 

The young man she had bested stood. I could see his fury in his stance.

 

Marai stepped from the circle. “I hope to try another.”

 

“In a few moments. Now, critiques?”

 

Every warrior spoke of what they had seen wrong. Almost all was directed at Davrel, and his fury was growing. The only real negative directed as Marai was that she wasn’t aggressive enough.

 

“Who would stand in the circle against her this time?” He ignored Davrel’s raised hand. Kex.”

 

The man Mandalore had called the quartermaster was one of the shortest of them, but he was also as broad as his Mandalore. “Training blades.”

 

Marai was directed to a stand, and chose a blade. They had the weight and feel of a Mandalorian war blade, as I well knew. The Mandalore have as much love of the fight as we Echani do.

 

Again they stood in their positions, and at the command, they went to engarde. For a long moment, there was stillness. Then the Mandalorian moved forward in a fast shuffle. Marai moved to the right, blade held out in her hand to the side. Then she seemed to decide, her left coming over to hold it as well.

 

Kex swung, shouting, and she parried him. There was a series of cuts too fast for the uninitiated to follow, then Kex leaped back, a stain of black on his armor. “Pa-cha!”

 

Marai lowered her blade, then brought it back, checking it for damage before returning it to the rack. The sergeant gave her a grunt of approval. “I must call my ship. Perhaps later.”

 

We walked away, and Marai took out her com link. “Atton?”

 

“Marai! Been worried. The orbital fighting has died down. That idiot Tobin opened a Mynock’s nest up there. They finally had to order it stopped from Onderon.”

 

“How about the ship?”

 

“Still working. I’ll have to take some systems offline including sensors and communications, so you won’t be able to talk to us for a while. I know, you’re crushed.” I could picture his smile. “Will bring the com systems up at dark, and again at dawn.”

 

“Understood. Out.”

 

*****

 

The sun set, and the glorious moon that was Onderon rose. The two bodies are in actually sister planets, both almost exactly the same size. Formed in one of those freak instances that planets sometimes go through. If they had been one mass, it would have been a gas giant. If they were farther apart, they would be separate worlds in different orbits. Instead they orbited each other in a dance 4 billion years old. sometimes coming so close that their atmospheres merged.

 

The Mandalorians were a quiet people. I know they aren’t that way all the time. They will enjoy a party as much as you or I. But we were a dampening influence. You don’t show the face of pleasure or weakness to someone that might be your enemy later in life. The Echani know this.

 

Marai sat beside me, in the quiet corner we occupied. Bao Dur was sullen, and I knew he was on the edge of fury. Too much had happened to him during the Mandalorian wars for him to be willing to relax around what used to be his enemies.

 

He knew he was being childish, and tried to lighten the mood. “You know General, you look like you were standing to close to the power generators.”

 

“What do you mean?” She sipped from a bottle of tihaar. I had tasted it, and all I can say is it must be an acquired taste I had no interest in acquiring.

 

“You’re almost glowing.”

 

“It is the force.” She replied. “Those who draw it into themselves sometimes manifest it visually to the those sensitive to the force.”

 

“That explains it.”

 

“What do you think of the situation now on Telos?”

 

“Bad.” He said. “With Peragus destroyed, they will be without power before too long. It’s worse because Czerka has their hook into it.”

 

“Because of what they are doing.”

 

He nodded staring at the fire. “The Republic government doesn’t seem able to rein them in. If they would just let the Ithorians do what has to be done first, it could work out. But as long as they try to think of the Corporate bottom line, Telos will remain dead.”

 

“Perhaps what we did before leaving Citadel station will help.” She told him of the files they had handed over to the local government. Of Lieutenant Grenn laughing in delight at ten years of hard prosecutions.

 

Bao Dur sighed, shaking his head. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

 

The night wore on, and Bao Dur finally rolled over and went to sleep. But I couldn’t bring myself to lie down, and Marai was deep in thought. I touched her on the shoulder. “You asked about my face.“

 

“I understand it is something I need not know.“

 

“No, this I feel I must tell you. I said that I honor the face of my mother. What I did not say was all of the Handmaidens are sisters in flesh as well. Including me.”

 

“But you honor your mother’s face.” She replied contemplating it. “Then your mother was not theirs.”

 

“Yes that is correct. I feel that I may trust you with this, so I will speak of it, if you wish to hear.” She nodded. I sighed. “Though I share the blood of my father with them I was born of another. My father was Yusanis Rekavali Bai Echani.”

 

“The General?” She looked at me with newfound respect. “I fought along side him in half a dozen campaigns. There was none better.”

 

“Yusanis was one of the greatest Generals my world ever produced. When he left for that war, it was not lust for battle. His choice was for... a different reason.

 

“My father had met my mother a few years before. They found in each other a mate of body, movement and soul. When the war began, she went to fight. She felt it was her duty for other reasons. When she did, he went for the joy of being beside her, fighting the same enemies, their movement of blade and heart in the same rhythm.”

 

“If your face is any indication, she was a very beautiful woman.”

 

I looked away to hide my blush. “I never saw her face in truth. I was sent by my father to live with his family on Echana when I was still an infant. She never returned from that war. She died in the battle when Malachor V was shattered. Her body was never recovered.

 

“My father returned with his joy of battle washed away in his tears. He entered politics, where one’s battles are fought with words instead of blades and guns. But I am told that the man that went to war, and the one I remember from when I was a child was different from the one that returned. He had an emptiness. As if his heart had been ripped beating from his chest, and still he lived.”

 

She poked the fire. “What happened after that?”

 

“He led the final defense of one of Echana’s moon bases when Revan came against us. Even offered a chance for honorable surrender, he called upon his men to charge and they died to the last man. Revan herself assured that his body was returned for proper burial.” I looked away. I could feel the tears in my eyes, and refused to show them to her.

 

“The problem is our society. The bonds and oaths are everything. A person that forswears an oath is never considered trustworthy again. But one that breaks a bond... That one is damned. My father went to wore to be with the woman he loved. But she was not the one he had bonded with eight years before. My father violated his bond to be with another, and I am the result of that. Both lives ruined. Mine to be lived in shame to show forever what happens when a bond is broken.”

 

I took a ragged breath. This was harder than I thought. “Among the Echani, there is a saying. What your parents have done is carried in your blood in potential. But what does that make me? My parents in their own ways were two stark warriors. They were both honorable people that died for what they believed in. Yet they both broke their oaths. He to his bond mate. They were both foresworn, so I must have that potential too. I have spent my entire life proving that I am a warrior, yet living down what they had done. That I am true to my oaths.

 

“When my sisters swore oaths to Atris, I was with them and swore the same oath. That I would never betray her trust. That I would die before betraying them.”

 

“You do what you must, as do we all.” She said quietly. “I swore an oath to the Order, and it was they that said I had broken it. Did I?” She shrugged. “I do not want to believe that I did but what if they were right? Am I now an abomination? Some thing they should hunt down and slay?”

 

I shook my head angrily. “I told you this for a reason. But before I go on, I ask that you never tell anyone of what has been said, or what must be said next.”

 

“An oath easily given.” She replied. “What you speak of to me is no one else’s business.”

 

I took another ragged breath. “When my father returned for the final time after the Mandalorian Wars, he moved as you do now. It was as if a vital part of him had been ripped away.

 

“He would not speak of what happened at Malachor. It was as if he wished to deny it and the only way to do so was never to speak of it. When I look upon you, I see the same thing, and in hearing of your suffering I see but a glimmer of what is my answer. The answer to a question that has dogged my heels throughout my life.

 

“I cannot believe that you are the monster that Atris paints you as. I believe that like my father, you let your heart lead you into the slaughter, and both of you returned wounded. To look upon you, I feel the spirit of my father yet again.”

 

“I appreciate that.” She looked at me. “That you were willing to trust me enough to speak of it.”

 

I waved it away, embarrassed. “Your words, both expressed, and in the duel with me speak the same, something I could never understand with Atris. I can understand your reason for not fighting her when you came to Telos, but it does not explain why she did not fight you. If you were what she said, only your death could have cleaned the stain of your honor from your name. I found that I can trust you, and I wished to explain how important that was to me.”

 

“I know all of the others companions wonder why I am here. They may have their own explanations, but you deserve to know that it is not simple duty that made me hide aboard your ship. I wanted, no needed to be here with you. I had found part of my soul in you, touched by the words you gave to a callow young girl asking why the sky is blue.

 

“I have sworn an oath to Atris that I will not train as a Jedi, but my oath said nothing of learning to fight.”

 

“I don’t understand.”

 

“Atris sees the entire Jedi order as flawed. Like an element in the matrix of a sword blade which makes it beautiful but weak. Something so fundamental that it cannot be corrected, merely torn down and started over.”

 

“So you and your sisters...”

 

“We were to shield ourselves against the force until the day she sees the last of the Jedi fall. Only then were we to be released from the oaths, Only then could we learn from the only Jedi remaining.”

 

She looked at me calmly. “You have tested me in your way, seen me fight against the Mandalorian, what do you think of me?”

 

“That is why we speak now. I watched your stance and your movements when you came to our Academy. I saw the differences between what they were before you spoke with Atris and what they were after. There are echoes as I said of my father. But there is something more. A strength of will like none I have ever seen. A resilience that transcends the flesh.

 

“Among my people a duel is not just training. It is the closest two children can come to the bonds of later life. It is the closest the unmarried can ever come to the joys of matrimony. For those bonded to others, it is the only permissible way to show their inner selves.

 

I have learned so much from you, and yet I know there is still more that you can teach me. Every moment, every instant teaches me.”

 

“As you teach me.” She said with a chuckle. “A good teacher also learns from her students.”

 

“I must refuse to accept Atris’ characterization of you. She said that you stared into the heart of war, and that sight drove you mad. That is why you were cut off from the force long before the Council stripped you. But I see that you made a choice, and live with the consequences of it. As my father did. As my mother did.

 

“I cannot be taught the ways of the Jedi by you. My oath forbids it. But in any other way, please, teach me. You have become more important to me than any person I have ever met.

 

“I want to be your shield arm, to share the joys and pain of battle as long as there are enemies to face. You are Shaki-Sheniri, War leader. You are one that it is an honor to serve, a pleasure to support, and worthy of the deaths of those that follow in your footsteps.”

 

“No, I am just-”

 

“Do not tell me what I can see. Your stance, your manner, your way. All shouts to the Echani spirit. Please.” I dropped to one knee, looking at the ground. “Take my oath as your servant. Let me be by your side. Please.”

 

“I cannot take an oath of servitude.” I look up stricken. “I have no servant, no serfs, no slave. I may lead, but I am no one’s master. But swear to me that by our blood, by our blades, by our lives, we shall be sisters not of flesh but of battle. until battle is done, or we die, together. Swear that oath and I will answer it. Together. Not one above and one below. Or one ahead and one behind. But side by side.”

 

I wanted to carol with joy! It was the oldest oath known to the Echani, the oath sworn by Echana herself to our planet when our people first came. “You honor me.” I whispered. Then in that same whisper, I repeated the oath, and she took my hands, and repeated them to me.

 

By our blood.

 

By our blades.

 

By our lives.

 

Sisters not of flesh but of battle.

 

Until battle is done.

 

Or we die.

 

Together.

 

Trap

 

Visas

 

It was so easy. To those with sight, night is the time to sleep. To rest.

 

To one such as me, it was time to hunt.

 

I had stood, hidden by both foliage and the force from the eyes of the two within the ship. When the sun set, they moved, but slower, then slower still. Finally I knew they slept. I walked to the hatch that led into one of the secret compartments, Bridged the security system, and attached the lock breaker. It hummed, then the hatch hissed open. It was made to be silent. A customs officer could be sitting at the table in the mess hall, and not hear it. A man standing by the ramp would not hear it. To me it was a tocsin screaming in the night.

 

I climbed into the compartment, and closed the hatch. Then I reached up. My master had the plans of this ship. It had been a smuggling vessel longer than I had been alive, and the compartments were secret only if they did not know the Ebon Hawk by name.

 

I opened the inner hatch. Two of them. One slept behind me about five meters, the other five meters ahead. I stalked silently along the passageway, and stood over the man. He rolled in his sleep, and for a moment I thought he would awaken. I took the mister and sprayed him in the face. His eyes opened, and he was trying to stand and attack when it took affect. He fell, and I caught him, laying him back down. I dealt with the woman, and went into the mess hall. I set the misting bottle on the table along with the hypo sprays of antidote. I had no grudge against either of them, and my master had not ordered their deaths, so they were perfectly safe. from me.

 

This was where I would die, and I found that the most soothing feeling I’d had since my planet and people died. My master was worried about this woman. He would never admit it, for to admit weakness would spell his doom.

 

But he had needed me to find her for him. He needed his blind girl to seek out this menace, for he could not see her as I could with no eyes.

 

I moved the man into the same berthing area as the woman, then I knelt on the soft tiles over the cold steel of the deck. She would be my master if we fought, this I knew. She would fight me, and I would give my all to defeat her. But in my heart I knew she would defeat me. She would kill me, and free me from this slavery called life.

 

So all I had to do was wait.

 

Trap closes

 

Marai

 

I found myself watching the battle circle, idly playing with the com link. Atton was overdue for his call. I was worried, but not overly so.

 

Maybe he had forgotten to activate the com system again. Maybe.. Maybe he had set it to receive. “Marai to Ebon Hawk.” I called. No reply.

 

I repeated it. On the third, there was a click. The voice was female, a sloe eyed voice that spoke of soft pillows, and warmth in her arms. I was moving even before I heard the words. “They are here, Exile. But they cannot come to you. You must come for them. Soon. Before I do what I must.” I felt a cold presence there, and thought of Kreia, of Atton in her hands.

 

The Handmaiden saw me, and ran to my side. We stalked through the camp, and grown Mandalorian warriors moved aside. I told Bao Dur to wait, to find something to repair if need. The guard captain saw us, and there was a guide before we got to the gate. Our channel had not been encrypted, and Mandalore had ordered it. There was a path shorter than we had tread the day before. we could be back to our ship in three hours instead of seven.

 

We moved through the jungle. Death surrounded by the givers of death, and all of us moving through the womb of death that is a jungle. There were no large animals in our path, and only that saved them from slaughter, for nothing would slow or stay us.

 

It felt like forever, but less than three hours later, I could look through the foliage at the bow of the ship. I knelt, scanning it. The interrupter plates were up, so the turrets were not active. No hum of the main guns activated. She might have been a model in a diorama for all the life I saw.

 

Then the ramp came down. They knew we were here.

 

“Stay here.” I ordered the Mandalorians. I stepped from the brush, and waited. There was no purr of motor, not spinning of turrets. The chin gun was still in it’s housing. I felt the Handmaiden move up behind me.

 

We stalked forward, up the ramp into the ship. I signalled, and she moved through the mess hall into the port berthing area. She came back as I looked at the mist bottle and the vials of antidote. she signaled. Two of ours. Looked asleep. Drugged.

 

I pointed at the bottle, and her eyes widened. Together we moved to the starboard berth. we came down the passageway, until we could look into the compartment.

 

She knelt there, meditating. There was a wrap around hood that covered her head from the bridge of her nose over the opalescent black of her waist length hair. Her bee stung lips were full, inviting. She turned her head, and I could tell that she was watching me even through that thick cloth. Then she came to her feet. I motioned for the Handmaiden to wait, and stepped forward.

 

“At last.” The woman whispered. That same voice that would put a man in mind of the gentler things two people can do. Then a beam of scarlet red light sprang from her hand. “Come give me what I need.” She said louder.

 

Then she attacked. I blocked frantically. There was no though of defense in her style. It was pure attack, and even if you struck around her blade of fiery light, it would by only by putting your life in peril.

 

I suddenly felt another presence, and I found myself trying to find it in the room as if it were a real person. The woman’s attack faltered, and I struck out.

 

Revan had tried for years to teach me the Fybylka cut, the fly cutter in the Echani tongue. It is an insult to you enemy. A cut so light that it only broke the skin, leaving a mark to see because you are not worthy of dying quickly.

 

The second blade blocked her cut for a split second, even as the first sheared through the lightsaber behind the focusing lens.

 

She stopped as if she didn’t believe it, then she grunted as I kicked her into the wall.

 

She collapsed bonelessly, and I stood over her. “As I foresaw. My weapon shattered, my life in your hands.” She came to her knees with some effort, then linked her hands behind her back, kneeling forward until her head was bare centimeters from the deck. “The end of my life as I has wished for so long. He wanted your life, but it is a good trade to give my life for yours.”

 

I backed away. “I am not going to kill you.”

 

She looked up, and I could hear the plea in her voice. “But you must! My death is ordained on this day, and better at your hands even in sorrow than at his less gentle touch.”

 

“I will not kill a helpless opponent.”

 

Now it was no longer a plea. She was begging abjectly. “But you are superior as I felt. I am nothing before you and death is what I deserve. By the grace and mercy of all the gods, end this for me. I beg you.”

 

Then I felt her master’s displeasure. She shrieked like a damned soul, clutching at her throat.

 

I threw aside the sword, catching her hands. I could feel the black evil stench of something, and reached out as my hand boiled with light.

 

“If you want her come in person!” I shrieked. The evil faltered, then suddenly we were in the room alone. The young woman was draped like a corpse across my knees.

 

*****

 

Atton took one look at her when he woke, then gently lifted the hood just an inch. For some reason, I got the image of a young boy flush with puberty trying to look up a girl’s skirt.

 

“All right, that explains it. She’s a Miraluka. I’d only heard about them. I didn’t even think there were any left in the Galaxy.”

 

“What is a Miraluka?” I asked.

 

“Pretty secret race. Human or at least close enough to breed. Their race was born on a planet called Katharr. The sun is so brutal there that the entire race moved underground long before the Republic even existed. They live in cave, and the last four generations have been born completely without eyes or optic nerves. Some of them became Jedi when they were still common. They can do what someone called shadow see. They see the world without light and without eyes somehow.

 

They are all pretty tough too, if this one is any indication. It must be hard as hell to kill one.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Well we have bruises in the chest and back from your kick, but those are just the most recent injuries. Both arms and legs have been broken at least once each. Slashes every where on her and some big ones on the abdomen that looks like she went three rounds with a food processor.”

 

“I have never even heard of them. How rare are they?”

 

“Since their planet died? They are an endangered species.”

 

“Their planet died?”

 

“Yeah. Katharr is about half way between Dantooine and Onderon along the mid rim. One week it’s a thriving society of a billion and a half. A week later a ship comes in, and every Miraluka and animal native to the planet was dead.”

 

An entire planet’s people dead. I shivered. “Maybe she know what happened.”

 

“She should, after all it was her people.” Atton looked down at her, and there was something. Pity warred with suspicion. “Maybe they saw it through the force somehow, but she was the only one who fled it.”

 

“You said that before. ‘Shadow seeing’ you called it. How could they see through with force?”

 

“From what I heard, they claim to see on a higher plane than normal humans. They are said to be able to see all of the force around them, and beyond them. Makes me nervous.”

 

“I doubt it would be the same as an X-ray machine, Atton. Besides, it’s not like others haven’t seen your equipment before.” He looked at me, then blushed. “Is she going to be all right?”

 

“If these scars are any indication, anything that didn’t gut her is survivable.”

 

“Let me know if her condition changes. I have to return to the Mandalore encampment.” I looked at that face. She should have been happy,. surrounded by family and children, loved by someone. Instead, she was almost as scarred as that maniac aboard Harbinger. “I will not let anyone harm you again.” I whispered.

 

The Handmaiden stood in the passageway. She is a threat to us.”

 

“What would you have me do? Kill her out of hand?” I asked.

 

“No. Not even that we interrogate her. But her fighting style is Sith. She was trained by the enemy of all that wish to live free.”

 

“Sister of battle, I fight to protect the weak and helpless. Enemy or not what does it say of me that I would strike her down when she is unarmed or unconscious?”

 

She shook her head. “It is understandable that you would give mercy, but we cannot give her too much. Her movements should be restricted. She should not walk free unescorted.”

 

I looked at her, then called Atton. It only took a few minutes to rig up a portable shield generator and seal the door. “See, I can learn.”

 

“Slowly.” I looked at her but she gave me such a sweet and innocent look that I wanted to spank her. Then she dropped her eye in a slow wink. “But before we go perhaps you would be ready for the second tier?”

 

We went back to the cargo bay. She stripped, but this time down to bare flesh. The average person is embarrassed in most societies by casual nudity. She stood as if clothes were merely for comfort in colder temperatures. “You are allowed a weapon. sword, dagger, stun baton. Would you have one?”

 

I shook my head. I stripped down as well, and we faced each other. She flowed toward me, and we fought. She had been holding back the first time, I could feel it, I would not have been able to match her if she had come at me in this way before.

 

Somewhere I found the speed to keep up with her. Again I was anticipating her moves, and reacting to them, but this time it was as if I were a split second off. Not far enough to land any blows, but enough that she was able to change her attack even as I reacted to it.

 

I found myself laying on the deck, and she stood there looking at me. “You are doing well, and your pick up my style with ease. However you are still telegraphing your parries. This you must learn to avoid. The ocean does not ask where the stone is as it crashes on the shore. It merely flows around it when it encounters it.” She began to get dressed again.

 

“Why is it so important to you that I learn this style?” I asked.

 

“As I said when we spoke of Atris, truth is in the battle. You have taught me the truth of your own soul. Now I must teach you the truth of mine.”

[Rain128]

Thank you rain. And no, I will not raise your allowance

 

BOOOOOOOOOO!!!

[Diego Varen]

I've been reading the first three Chapters Mach and they're great. I like the short humour in and the description in the Fic. I'm looking foward to reading the rest.

[machievelli]

Marai

 

Refreshed, I took a shower before we left. I went to see Kreia. She was meditating, and I didn’t want to disturb her. I turned and she spoke without turning. “Not a wise choice.”

 

“What?”

 

“Befriending the Seer.”

 

“The Miraluka? Why do you call her the Seer?”

 

“Her species does not see with the eyes they do not have. They see in a way that can only be explained by a strong attachment to the force. It is a rare gift that has been squandered on her people. It is how she found you when no one else could.” She turned, and I could feel her disquiet. “The Sith come at you in battle. And your reply? You disarm her, bind her wounds, heal her body. Why?”

 

“She was helpless. Unable to strike at me. Begging for death.” I looked away. “Damn it Kreia if I murder the helpless how am I different from the Sith?”

 

“I do not think your thoughts are clear on this, so I will try yet again to explain. She was trained by the Sith, steeped in their ways. If you allow her to travel with us you give our enemies a clear view of what they wish to know with little effort. She is an apprentice of a Sith Lord, and know you that the only way to become a Sith lord is to murder your teacher. I do not wish to see you die for that stupidity. She may be blind, but she had ties to darkness. Other masters to command her. She is a threat to you, to us all. Do not underestimate her. Or her previous loyalties.”

 

“Perhaps her ability to see within the force will help us gain allies.”

 

“Perhaps. But I remain unconvinced.”

 

“Atton said that her colony was devastated. That all of her people in this sector of the galaxy have been wiped out.”

 

“Did he. And what do you make of that?”

 

“It seems odd that a world of force sensitive people would fall so easily to any threat.”

 

“Unless that threat came at them unawares. What do your instincts tell you?”

I considered. “That it had to be of the force, but not visible to the force.” I said.

 

“An interesting view. Before you go one with this quest you have taken upon yourself, how many more lost sheep shall be boarding our ship?”

 

“As many as we need to win.”

 

“Then you had best prepare for an army. For every time I open my eyes, your followers have multiplied like Gizka. An army following their leader into oblivion.”

 

“They came because I asked.”

 

“You are blind to it. They do not follow Marai Devos, the woman that spoke to them. They follow the war leader as the Handmaiden called you. They see the strength of will, the purpose, and cling to it like drowning men on a plank.”

 

“They are my friends, not my followers.”

 

“Do not try to soften what is happening by using a gentler term. Do friends not follow the one who appeals most? When they form a social hierarchy, is that one not elevated to their head? It goes beyond that. They obey without question if it is you that speaks.” I must have looked confused, because she gave a dry chuckle. “You may be blind to it, but I see it. I hear with their ears, see with their eyes, and know their thoughts when they speak away from you. When another makes the decision, there is debate in their minds before they will do it. However a word from you and they agree within their minds, even if their words sound as protest.

 

“The Handmaiden accepted with little question when you spoke of healing the Seer. She was trained to see ones such as the Seer, to kill them automatically. Yet instead she gave a token protest, and even that died when you did not agree.”

 

I looked at her askance. “It bothers you. That they obey me.”

 

“Every group needs a leader. I know many things, but the one thing I know I am not is a leader. I am too arrogant, to willing to speak my mind. When I speak my voice is heard, but ignored. My passion lights nothing in others. They obey you because you are their leader. But perhaps something else sways them.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Have you been so blind you also did not notice the changes in them all?”

 

“Changes?”

 

“Whether it is discussion or battle, they echo you. When you struggle with your feeling, they struggle. When you give into them, they freely surrender. If you would ask them if they were loyal, they would be shocked that you even had to. Their loyalty to you, and the duties you order is as if hardwired on the motherboards of their mind.

 

“Watch them carefully. See their patterns of thought, and how they can be bent to your will. Influence is a weapon, and you will need all of them before we reach the end of this journey.”

 

“I will not treat my friends as puppets. They are living beings, not tools.”

 

“I care not for you definitions. Make use of what you are forging here. It was the Way Revan gained loyalty.”

 

I wanted to throw my hands up in disgust. What was different now from when I had been a General in the war? I turned to go, and she spoke again.

 

“Arren Kae.”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“You have been wondering what woman would be so perfect that she could drag an Echani General from his oath. Her name was Arren Kae. A Jedi master.”

 

“A Jedi is her mother?”

 

“Yes. She loved the man with a fire that could only be quenched in his arms. A crime to the Jedi that spanned ten years. When she became pregnant, she hid it. She gave the child to Yusanis and only then did she admit her failing, and she was punished for it. They exiled her as they did you. When the Mandalorian wars began, she joined the Republic’s army to atone.”

 

“How do you know that?” I asked in a whisper. “She only spoke to me of it last night, and I swore never to reveal it.”

 

“And you have not. I have my...sources. Revan welcomed her. One trained in war and once a Jedi.” She considered, then looked at me. “The force flows readily in the force sensitive. Their children are the ones chosen to be Jedi, since the Jedi foreswear family and children of their own. But if a woman that is Jedi bears or fathers a child, it is like a perfect crossbreed in a flower. The new seed is greater than the sum of it’s parts.”

 

“But why do we not merely-” I stopped at her sardonic laugh.

 

“Do you think the Jedi had not considered it before child? Before the Republic was founded, two of their number did just that. If the child had been better raised, perhaps it would not have ended so badly. The results were so horrible that the Jedi Council of that time banned it to all their numbers. They do not dare to take the chance that it could ever happen again.

 

“Have you never wondered why the Jedi take a child from the family that loves him and immerses him in the Jedi order?”

 

“To avoid countervailing interests.”

 

“The standard answer you learned when you were first a member of the order. No my dear girl, it is because there is nothing so meddlesome as a parent that does not understand what their child is going through. Add to that what would happen if that child were of a Jedi, or two Jedi. Trying to speed the process, or change it because you do not think the teacher worthy or competent. That is what happened back in the mists of time, and the Jedi refused to ever let it happen again. A child of those that are force sensitive can be hidden. A child of two Jedi can no more be hidden than the sun above these worlds can be completely occluded.”

 

She looked at me. “Know this. If you offer to teach her the ways of the Jedi, you will be asking her to be foresworn to Atris. It is best that the bloodline be allowed to die along with Telos.”

 

“But does she know who her mother was?”

 

“I neither know nor care.”

 

“Doesn’t she deserve to know? When we set foot on this planet she felt the force. She was terrified by it!”

 

“It will pass if no one lends a hand to teach her. As for her birthright, who would give this gift to her? I do not have such arrogant presumption. Revealing such things would have profound consequences. That is all i will say on the matter.”

 

“Why do you think I want to teach her?”

 

“Until you are taught, it would not matter. Yet if you persist in this endeavor, having her beside you, gaining her trust, making her your sister of battle, whether you wish to or not you will be training her until the time when the choice will be taken away from you. She will grow in the force until she takes that decision away from you. So take my word of caution.

 

“Spend time with her as you must but recognize that you loyalty should not remain with those you call friends. It should be spent on the galaxy and yourself.”

 

“If I am only loyal to myself, what does the galaxy have to do with it? To me this ship, those we have gathered are the galaxy. I must be loyal to them or I cannot be loyal to any.”

 

“So you will take this precious coin and squander it.” She seemed to consider. “She spars with you. Have you never wondered what it means to the Echani if you spar with her through the rituals and you won completely and utterly? That perhaps to defeat her so utterly will cause her to surrender to you?”

 

“No.”

 

“Few are the thoughts you can hide from me. Such passions are not strength. They are the hidden rust upon a blade that causes it to shatter.”

 

“I have never thought of that.”

 

“So perhaps I am mistaken. But before you go. A gift. Close your eyes. Meditate with me.”

 

I knelt, and went into a mediation seat. I closed my eyes.

 

“Now feel the ship around you.”

 

I reached out. For a moment, I stayed firmly and stubbornly in my head. But then I suddenly felt it. A presence a hundred tons in mass squatting on the ground. I could feel the wind blowing along the hull. I reached out, and part of me was suddenly in the cockpit. I could feel the controls as if they were the nerves in my arms and legs. I knew without thinking about it that like my limbs I could touch them and make them work as if I were the ship.

 

“Excellent. Now feel within it. Listen to the cargo hold.”

 

I shifted perspective as if I had lifted my foot to see if there was a splinter in it. The Handmaiden was stripped down, and I watched her fluid grace, entranced.

 

Atton walked into the bay, and she spun. He dropped into a defensive stance, and only now could I see the effortless flow of his movement. What she and her sisters had seen.

 

The Handmaiden relaxed out of her stance. “When are you going to tell her?”

 

“Tell who what?”

 

“When are you going to stop lying to Marai?” She snapped bluntly. "Few know the Echani styles, and even fewer take them from reflex.”

 

“I just fake it.”

 

“She might believe you, but I know better.”

 

You do.” He relaxed. “And how much of the galaxy did you get to see freezing your cargo hold of in Ice Station Jedi? I knew more about the galaxy before I stopped wearing diapers!” He walked past her, and went to the storage bay. “Next time I come in here, I’m carrying a blaster.”

 

He retrieved some tools and parts. “Oh yeah, I’ve been watching you and our little exi-Jedi friend. Seeing you spar in here. Do you really want to reveal so much of what you know to her?”

 

“Speak plainly if you can.”

 

“Know this woman. Do not make her life any worse than it already is.”

 

“And what would you know of it?”

 

“Maybe I’m telling the truth. Maybe I just fake my way along through life scaring those who know enough to recognize an Echani stance. But if I am not, consider that maybe I know more than the first tier. Maybe I know enough of the etiquette rituals to know what you’re doing with her.”

 

The Handmaiden tensed.

 

“So keep your hands where I can see them.”

 

“Fool.” She snarled.

 

“Schutta.” He hissed back.

 

“Interesting is it not?” Kreia purred. Now extend it to the little machine.”

 

I reached out, and there T3 was. I could feel something wrong, and with a skill I did not know I had, I found the problem. “He has a stuck motivator-”

 

“Leave it for another time. Now go to the engine he is working on.”

 

I reached back, and again, the feeling that something was wrong. “The tuners are out of alignment.”

 

“Now, the final step. Feel for our blind friend.”

 

Suddenly I was there. She was laying on the bed, staring at the ceiling. She was in a trance not unlike the one I was in. I could hear the even one breath in two minutes of the trained Jedi.

 

“Now beneath the breath, listen closer...”

 

I suddenly heard her voice, but her lips were not moving. “...As I walk among the ashes of Katarr, I told myself over and over to feel no fear. It was only afterward that I knew that fear would cause mine...”

 

My eyes snapped open. “I heard her speaking.”

 

“You heard the surface thoughts, nothing more. But many with this skill never reach this point in their training.”

 

“But how could I do that?”

 

“The question is, will such passive listening do more than add a bit of color to the universe around you? What deeper secrets are there in store? Would you perhaps wish to know their secret thoughts hidden deep within?”

 

She motioned. “You may be young, but I am tired and need to rest. Go.”

 

Handmaiden

 

My sister of battle was lost in thought as we returned to the Mandalorian encampment. She watched me furtively, and it puzzled and frightened me. Had I offended her?

 

Just before the checkpoint, a Mandalorian stepped from the shadows. He bore a rifle, and I knew instantly that he did want to kill us.

 

Marai stopped. “What would you have of me, Davrel?” She asked.

 

“I seek to reclaim the honor you stole from me, Jedi.”

 

“I stole no honor, Davrel.” She replied. “If honor could be gained in the training battle circle Cassus Fett would be Mandalore now.”

 

If anything would infuriate him I knew somehow that would. He grew still, the silence before the eve of battle. “I would have you know that Cassus Fett was my grandfather. You stole from him the honor of his life, and stole his life here. It is fitting that I regain it by killing you.”

 

“Why?” She seemed honestly puzzled. “Because i took what he did not have? Cassus Fett was a bully lucky enough to be born Mandalorian so no one would see it as such. He destroyed the home world of the Cathar rather than face them in honest combat. He was lucky enough to face a fool of equal stripe, and the dead of that lay around us even now. Surely your father told this to you.”

 

“No. My father died here with him. They fell to your unnatural skills.”

 

“Cassus Fett died by his own hand. This I swear.”

 

“Because he had nothing left when your forces defeated him! Rather than be blamed for the greatest defeat until then in our history, he killed himself!”

 

“The Jedi have been around for 25 millennia. No one else had considered it a dishonor to die facing us.”

 

“But you took more than that from my people!” He raved. “Revan took our honor, and gave us nothing back! There are no grand wars to fight any more, no honor to be won! Sure our Mandalore had spoken of returning us to our honor and place, but what place is that? Preeminent warriors? Or mere lap dogs to your kind!” He looked at me. “Stay out of this, woman. She faces a true Mandalorian warrior in battle for the last time!“ He raised the weapon.

 

Marai moved. He fired, and she moved aside, the bolt passing bare centimeters from her flesh. She had drawn no weapon. He tried to follow her, but it was as if he tried to target a thought. She spun, sweeping his legs, and caught his body so she rode him to the ground. She slapped the weapon aside, then ripped off his helmet. Her hand arched back into a killing blow, then stopped.

 

“Know this, young Mandalorian. Before the week is out, you will have your fill of battle, and you can regain the honor you think you lost. But if that is not enough, come against me as your own rite demand, and face me there, rather than as an assassin in the darkness.” She flung his weapon into the brush, and stalked past him.

[JasraLantill]

I like your account of the Exile's story much better than I do the game's. All of your character's are good, but your portrayal of Kreia is awesome. So much better than canon. Good work! Looking forward to more!

[machievelli]

I like your account of the Exile's story much better than I do the game's. All of your character's are good, but your portrayal of Kreia is awesome. So much better than canon. Good work! Looking forward to more!

 

 

So why haven't you commented on it earlier? No allowance increase you you.

[JasraLantill]

Allowance? *scratches head to try and jar the rust from the memory gears* The last 'allowance' I received (other than a tax related one) wouldn't even be enough for me to make a local call from a pay phone today. (Although, at the time, I thought it to be a fortune!) Apologies though for not commenting earlier. I suppose I should comment more often. And I will in future

[Jae Onasi]

So why haven't you commented on it earlier? No allowance increase you you.

 

Cause it's kind of intimidating at first to critique the critic. Some people haven't figured out yet that you don't bite.

Nibble maybe, but not bite....

 

Female Jedi don't usually father children, by the way.

 

Nice job on the chapters. I like the discussion between Exile and Kreia here--it's deeper, though she can be just as cryptic as usual. The Mandalorian culture is nicely detailed, too.

[machievelli]

Allowance? *scratches head to try and jar the rust from the memory gears* The last 'allowance' I received (other than a tax related one) wouldn't even be enough for me to make a local call from a pay phone today. (Although, at the time, I thought it to be a fortune!) Apologies though for not commenting earlier. I suppose I should comment more often. And I will in future

 

My dear girl, if I were twenty years younger, I would spank you for the presumption.

[machievelli]

Cause it's kind of intimidating at first to critique the critic. Some people haven't figured out yet that you don't bite.

Nibble maybe, but not bite....

 

Female Jedi don't usually father children, by the way.

 

Nice job on the chapters. I like the discussion between Exile and Kreia here--it's deeper, though she can be just as cryptic as usual. The Mandalorian culture is nicely detailed, too.

 

 

All right, for all of you who have actually read my work, all four or five of you, I always accept constructive criticism. If it's crap, say so, but be willing to give me chapter and verse as to why it's crap. If it's good, say so. My egi needs just as much stroking as the next prepubescent author.

 

As for fathering a child, I know women don't father children, and perhaps I mis-worded it. I meant to suggest mother or father.

 

As for the Mandalorians, I am sick and tired of the 'enemy' being what Gene Roddenberry called 'the Mongol horde in space ships'. A society exists for a reason, and the Mandalorians (Or Mando-a in Canon) deserve that much respect. When I created my version of the Echani, it was for the same reason. I had never read or learned anything about TSL when I wrote my KOTOR fiction, and I didn;t even know the Echani were human, humainoid, whatever. I gave them the same respect I gave the Mandalorians.

[Renegade Puma]

Great stuff Mach. As usual you are on top of the writing game. I love how much depth you have given the characters. This is way way better than the game.

[machievelli]

Handmaiden

 

My sister of battle was lost in thought as we returned to the Mandalorian encampment. She watched me furtively, and it puzzled and frightened me. Had I offended her?

 

Just before the checkpoint, a Mandalorian stepped from the shadows. He bore a rifle, and I knew instantly that he did want to kill us.

 

Marai stopped. “What would you have of me, Davrel?” She asked.

 

“I seek to reclaim the honor you stole from me, Jedi.”

 

“I stole no honor, Davrel.” She replied. “If honor could be gained in the training battle circle Cassus Fett would be Mandalore now.”

 

If anything would infuriate him I knew somehow that would. He grew still, the silence before the eve of battle. “I would have you know that Cassus Fett was my grandfather. You stole from him the honor of his life, and stole his life here. It is fitting that I regain it by killing you.”

 

“Why?” She seemed honestly puzzled. “Because i took what he did not have? Cassus Fett was a bully lucky enough to be born Mandalorian so no one would see it as such. He destroyed the home world of the Cathar rather than face them in honest combat. He was lucky enough to face a fool of equal stripe, and the dead of that lay around us even now. Surely your father told this to you.”

 

“No. My father died here with him. They fell to your unnatural skills.”

 

“Cassus Fett died by his own hand. This I swear.”

 

“Because he had nothing left when your forces defeated him! Rather than be blamed for the greatest defeat until then in our history, he killed himself!”

 

“The Jedi have been around for 25 millennia. No one esle had considered it a dishonor to die facing us.”

 

“But you took more than that from my people!” He raved. “Revan took our honor, and gave us nothing back! There are no grand wars to fight any more, no honor to be won! Sure our Mandalore had spoken of returning us to our honor and place, but what place is that? Preeminent warriors? Or mere lap dogs to your kind!” He looked at me. “Stay out of this, woman. She faces a true Mandalorian warrior in battle for the last time!“ He raised the weapon.

 

Marai moved. He fired, and she moved aside, the bolt passing bare centimeters from her flesh. She had drawn no weapon. He tried to follow her, but it was as if he tried to target a thought. She spun, sweeping his legs, and caught his body so she rode him to the ground. She slapped the weapon aside, then ripped off his helmet. Her hand arched back into a killing blow, then stopped.

 

“Know this, young Mandalorian. Before the week is out, you will have your fill of battle, and you can regain the honor you think you lost. But if that is not enough, come against me as your own rites demand, and face me there, rather than as an assassin in the darkness.” She flung his weapon into the brush, and stalked past him.

 

Confusion

 

Marai

 

I saw Bai Dur working with Zuka. As I approached, I heard him saying. “I just got tired of dropping my hydro-spanner, so I had it cut off.”

 

“A bit drastic.” Zuka replied levelly.

 

“He’s talking about his arm, isn’t he?” I asked. They looked at me, and both looked like a pair of children that had been discussing sex when an adult arrived. I looked at Bao Dur. “Do you honestly think he would care, my friend?”

 

Bao Dur flushed, and looked away. I looked at Zuka. “The battle of Corrigan's float. The commander of the Mandalorian defense sent Basilisks against us.”

 

“Wait a minute!” He protested. “Basilisk’s are great on an assault landing, but on the defense they are worthless!”

 

“I know that. Do you know the weakness of the Mark IIIs?”

 

“Sure. The heat exchanger is open, and it’s big enough that you can put a weapon’s barrel down it.” Zuka replied automatically.

 

“But if you don’t have a weapon?” I prompted.

 

He considered. “Well you could stick your hand up far enough to use a grenade...” He stopped, suddenly looking at Bao Dur with new found respect.

 

“That’s right. Bao Dur, to save a hundred men arme an ion grenade, and stuffed his hand up the heat exchanger of the droid. He was trying to pull his hand out when the grenade went off.”

 

That respect bloomed into admiration. He looked at Bao Dur, then threw his arms around the Zabrak. “Brother!” He cried.

 

“General...” Bao Dur began.

 

“The Mandalorians treasure bravery in an enemy. Especially in an enemy.” I replied. “Treasure it.” I walked past him, the Handmaiden pacing me like an aide de camp.

 

“You seek to cause them to respect us.” She said.

 

“Like the Echani, the Mandalorians respect bravery, especially the reckless kind that comes when you have no options.” I replied. “They will treat him as a brother, because they would expect no less from their weakest.”

 

She nodded.

 

We moved through the camp, and the change from when we had been here before was astonishing. We were a fixture, as proper within those walls as the turrets and minefield that protected them. Thye children acted as if we were Mandalorian. A shy little boy of seven came over, handing me a flower. It was a Kanthis, but had the neurotoxin spines expertly plucked. He nodded to me, then ran away to hide behind his mother‘s skirts.

 

“If only they had seen this side of them.” I sighed.

 

“The gentler side of the enemy?” The Handmaiden asked. “Yes. The Echani teach that every enemy is somash, or soft, and Grathiar, or hard, but only on the face they show, like a coin.” She looked around and her face softened. “As much as I have heard of the brutality of the Mandalorians, I wish those who spoke to me could see this.”

 

We found our way to the battle circle. The sergeant nodded as if we’d only left a moment before. Then he turned to me.

 

“Tagren has asked that you face him if you wish.”

 

I nodded, stepping forward. Tagren was a bit taller than I was, but seemed to make up for it by being twice as wide. The sergeant stepped forward.

 

“Tagren, what would you have?”

 

“Just foot and hand. The way of the true warrior.” He snarled.

 

“Agreed.” I began to strip off my armor.

 

“Wait, Jedi, he will face you with armor.”

 

I looked at him, then at the Handmaiden. “I will not need it.”

 

The sergeant threw up his hands. “All right. Tagren?”

 

“If she wants to throw away the advantage, I will not stop her.”

 

I faced off against him, ready.

 

“Cha!” The sergeant cried.

 

I suddenly knew what he would do. A foot sweep, then a hammer strike as I lay there... I lifted up, and his foot strike went beneath me. I punched into his arm as he turned, and he fell forward. I landed on his back, hand raised for a strike. “Pa-cha!” The sergeant cried.

 

Unlike the discussion with Davrel, this was more in depth. Tagren had made an assumption, and that assumption had put him in peril. I had shown un Mandalorian restraint (The one that said that earned approbation. After all I was not Mandalorian) and showed finesse in my dealing with him.

 

As the sun set, we settled down. This time there was music. The woman not old enough to be warriors served us, and we dined on Boma beast and Zakkegg, a predator much feared.

 

One of the recruits spoke to the Handmaiden, then came over to me. “I wish to prove myself against her, but she refuses.”

 

I motioned her over. “Speak.”

 

“It is not a fair contest.” She said to me. “He moves like a Telosian Zantak. Slow and stolid. His defense is weak, and I could beat him easily.”

 

“Then why have you refused?”

 

“Will it not bother the Mandalorians if I defeat him without even breaking a sweat?” She asked.

 

“If he is that stupid, they would rather it came out in training than in battle.” I replied. “If you feel it too onerous-”

 

She sighed. She stood, facing against the man in the circle. I saw what she meant. He was a stolid mass that would take punishment, and that was his only saving grace.

 

“Borathis. He’s the best of my recruits.” The sergeant passed me the flask. “Hasn’t lost yet.”

 

I wondered about that. I could have beaten him with my eyes

blindfolded, and the Handmaiden would give him his head. “How has he won?”

 

“He slaps them down like an AD tower against shuttles.” The

sergeant said.

 

The Handmaiden faced him, bowed, and they moved. After training not only as a Jedi but an opponent of the woman there, I could tell she would beat him without effort. Yet he was their best...

 

The moved together, and she went for a throw. Suddenly she spasmed as both hands touched her, and I leaped to my feet.

 

*****

 

Handmaiden

 

He was a beast too stupid to lie down and die, but I had been given permission. I stripped to my underclothes. Like Tagren this one made comments, but they were merely wind. I faced him, and judged him as I readied myself. He would try to grapple. If I was that stupid he would use his superior weight to bear me to the ground, where weight meant more than skill.

 

We moved toward each other. He struck at me, and I blocked the blow. As I did, I felt a bolt of lightning run through me.

 

Faithless! A stun baton in his gauntlet!

 

I fell and felt no more.

 

****

 

Marai.

 

I leaped to my feet. “He’s cheated!” I shouted.

 

The Handmaiden fell, then it was as if an unseen hand lifted her to her feet. Borathis looked at her, then struck with the same left gauntlet.

 

The Handmaiden caught his hand, her own hands placed to avoid a segment of his own glove, and she kicked him in the elbow. I gasped as the full fury of a Jedi lashed out at that joint. His armor separated, and for a moment, my mind was relieved. But then I considered.

 

She threw away not his armor but the entire lower arm!

 

“Cheat!” The sergeant cried.

 

“Tell Borathis!” I screamed.

 

She stood there, then moved forward. Her fist hit Borathis in the chest, and his lungs and bones exploded from his back. Then she paused. She stood there, as if confused. Then her hand plucked at her clothing.

 

Frantically I ripped at my own. “Help me!” I screamed.

 

*****

 

Handmaiden

 

I fell and I felt no more.

 

No, that is not true.

 

I was in a darkness shot red with anger fury and hate. I saw my enemy and struck at him. He struck back, and I knew his betrayal. I caught his hand above and below the weapon he should have not had, then I struck at his elbow.

 

The energy I put into the strike would have punched into a ship’s hull. I felt and recorded the destruction of his arm. But he was still a danger. I punched into him, and I felt every erg of energy I possessed translated into that punch.

 

He fell, and part of my mind recorded him falling dead.

 

But still it was not enough. I prepared for the final tier of the order, my clothing shorn away. I was myself as the goddess had sent me into the world, and with only that would I confront my enemy.

 

There were many to face, but one called to me like a Siren. She stood there, facing me as the Goddess would wish. Yet she was hesitant.

 

“Do not make me do this.” She said. I recognized her voice.

 

“Marai?” I asked. Suddenly like a missile I found my target. I leaped toward her. “Marai!”

 

*****

 

Marai

 

She stood over the dead man, her face intent. Her body glowed with the ambient light. And much more. To my eyes I could see the force like a tempest behind her. She spun, and her eyes fixed on me.

 

“Do not make me do this.” I whispered.

 

“Marai?” She asked the question as if it would answer every ill. Then she focused on me, and I could see another beneath that gaze. I knew somehow that Atris was looking at me. She leaped toward me. “Marai!”

 

*****

Handmaiden

 

I struck, but she was not there. I felt for her, used every sense I had, yet she was illusive, a shadow. I struck at her, strived to slay her. But she was mist, she was not there.

 

It was like fighting an ocean wave. She was there, but every blow struck water, and flowed into nothingness.

 

Yet still she was there! Then I felt her behind me. I felt her arm across my neck, in the simplest of strangle holds. Yet my efforts to defeat her were in vain.

 

I felt my breath catch as I struggle to breath, yet I could not stop her. I fell into nothingness.

 

*****

 

Marai

 

Never had I seen such speed. She was a Jedi faced with her enemy and nothing would gainsay her. I strove not to kill, but to contain. She would kill us all if I let her and by being the target of it all, I saved untold lives.

 

I found myself behind her and instinctively I went for a sanguinary strangle. I would not cut her wind, but the blood that powered her.

 

She tried to break the hold, but I moved to block her. It was fighting the wind of a hurricane knowing that a single misstep was my doom.

 

She turned, my body on her back, trying to find her enemy, then she collapsed.

 

“Oath less!” The sergeant shouted.

 

“Check his gauntlet!” I screamed back. The sergeant looked at me stunned, then picked up the loose arm. At first, he was the adult accused of cheating by a child. Then his eyes sharpened, and he pulled the stun bracelet from the gauntlet. “That cheating D'kut!” He looked at me. “I owe your friend an apology.”

 

“You owe us privacy.” I snapped.

 

They moved away from us. I looked down at the slack face. “Come back to me, my sister.” I whispered.

 

Betrayal

 

Handmaiden

 

Come back to me, my sister. The voice said. I wanted to resist, but it was as if a hook had dropped in pellucid waters, caught in my flesh, and dragged me to the light. I found myself laying on my back, looking up into Marai’s face. She had a worried look, as if I were an unexploded bomb.

 

“Are you back in spirit?” She asked.

 

I suddenly felt the bite of the stun baton, clutching my wrist. “Betrayer!” I gasped. “He cheated!”

 

I know.” She whispered. “We all know.”

 

I sagged against her, flesh against flesh. Only then did I notice that we were both naked.

 

“What happened?” I asked.

 

“Borathis has been their best recruit in the battle circle. He had concealed a stun bracelet in his gauntlet. You grabbed his arm...”

 

A bolt of lightning run through me.

 

Then you attacked him, and I recognized Kashin-Dra...”

 

Kashin-Dra. The shadow warrior. The last refuge of the Echani in battle to those willing to pay the price..

 

“You killed him then began to strip...”

 

I prepared for the final tier of the order, my clothing shorn away. I was myself as the goddess had sent me into the world, and with only that would I confront my enemy.

 

I matched you, then tried to stop you...”

 

She stood there, facing me as the Goddess would wish.

 

“But when I spoke you attacked. I did what I had to do so you would not be hurt.”

 

It was like fighting an ocean wave. She was there, but every blow struck water, and flowed into nothingness.

 

She stared down at me. “What do you know of your mother?” She asked softly.

 

“What of her? I told you that I knew little of her as a child. Only a face that leaned over me... Brushed her lips against my cheek, and was gone forever.”

 

“She was Jedi. Her name was Arren Kae.”

 

“Again this is what I already knew.” I chided her.

 

“She was strong in the force.”

 

“As was my father.”

 

“As her child, as their child, it means you could have been, will be strong in the force as well.”

 

“Yes, I know. It was always there, a wave of power below my perception until you came to the Academy. That I was different. That I could touch such power. I think I always knew it.”

 

I stared up at her. My eyes kept going in and out of focus, but she was in preternatural focus. “What oath is more important?” I asked softly. “The oath made as a child to your father or the one made in the bloom of womanhood?”

 

“What do you mean?” She asked.

 

“Because I felt the call of my mother’s blood all these years. Even as I followed Atris, I felt the call of that blood. Of an oath given as a child.”

 

“You make no sense.”

 

“When I was young, before my mother had died, I wanted something. A bauble on my father’s desk. He was not there to get it for me, and I found myself reach for it, and it came to my hand. He was home then, and found me playing with it. He sat me on his knee, enfolded me in those great arms, holding me, and said, ‘swear my child. Swear to me that if one day you feel the call of your mother’s blood, that you will not deny it’.” I looked up at her, and my hand touched her face so gently that she did not even notice the touch. “Ever since her loss at Malachor V, I have felt incomplete. A hollow shell of a person, desperate to be healed.

 

“But this wound felt comfort when I met you. It felt drained as we fought in sparring. Perhaps this wound will be healed.”

 

Aboard Ebon Hawk, Kreia looked up, listening with Marai’s ears. “So it ends.”

 

“I want you to teach me in the ways of the force. I want to be a Jedi knight, like my mother.”

 

“I cannot help you break your oath to Atris.” Marai said. “I will not have you foresworn for my sake. I will not make you follow your father.”

 

“Listen to me. The oath to my father is stronger than the oath to Atris. She demanded that I refuse to do what my Father demanded. I wish to obey my father. Her oath was that I not train to be a Jedi. Not that I that I am forbidden to train in the use of the force.”

 

She was silent, head down, hair falling across her face. During or fight her hair had come unbound. I was astonished by it’s length. “I cannot train you as a Jedi. I am not worthy of that trust. But if teaching you can help you control the force within you, stop you from striking out as you did moments ago, I must. I will train you in the ways of the force for that reason.”

 

“That is all I wish of you, my teacher, my master. I want to feel the world as my mother did. I want to feel for someone what my mother felt. To feel that power in may hands, running through my veins as it did for her. To hear and see and feel what she did when she fought the Mandalorians until she was no more in death at Malachor V.”

 

“Then know this. You have the makings of a Jedi. And as unworthy as I am, I must guide you upon that path.”

 

“I will not fail your trust, Marai. I will live in honor of your teachings as I live in honor of my mother’s face.”

 

“So I hold us both to that trust.” She whispered, then kissed me delicately on the cheek.

 

Aboard Ebon Hawk, Kreia sighed. “Betrayal.”

 

*****

 

Atris

 

I had followed the wandering child of my group from a distance. I had never told her, told them that I could do so.

 

I saw her in anger in a circle of battle, facing a Mandalorian warrior in that horrible mockery they called training. I felt the sting of an electrical charge, and suddenly she was no more.

 

I recognized it. After all I had felt in in Marai, known that I could call her from it. Her thoughts were a red rage of fury and death. I felt a man die, and still it was unsatisfied. Then I saw her. She stood there, facing me as the Goddess would wish us clothed. Yet she was hesitant. She did not know the name of her opponent, and that is necessary for the spell of anger to be broken “Do not make me do this.” She said.

 

This was my chance. She was an abomination, and I directed that fury at her.

 

Yet I failed. It was like fighting an ocean wave. She was there, but every blow struck water, and flowed into nothingness. Then there was blackness.

 

She came back to consciousness, and she was resigned. She had used the last tier in that fight, and both she and Marai had known it. The tier of surrender and superiority. The winner was master in every way.

 

I had not worried up until then. Nothing the girl had said was something Marai would not have discovered by mere ratiocination.

 

But then she had spoken, foresworn herself, and done it with a cheap ploy. Her father had asked the opposite of her as a child and that outweighed her oaths to me!

 

“Betrayer!” I screamed.

 

One of the Handmaidens came running. “Mistress-”

 

She had betrayed us! You sister, the faithless strumpet has betrayed us, betrayed me!”

 

I stood towering in my rage. “Once she was sister of your flesh, but no more! Foresworn I name her!”

 

“Mistress-”

 

“We thought that she merely traveled with the Outcast one from pity, but that was a lie on her part! She seeks the powers that a Jedi would possess, and in so doing she condemns herself, and perhaps us!”

 

The woman was hesitant. Her oaths demanded her acceptance, but this was a sister of flesh. “Mistress, perhaps you are mistaken. Our family does not take oaths lightly-”

 

“Is that so.” I spoke with an angry hiss. “As important an oath as a life bond to your mother? As important as your oath to me? Will you deny that oath whelp?”

 

“No my mistress. You are the last of the Jedi, and it is your will that will se them ascendant again.” The words were a mantra, a litany to keep an angry god at bay. “But how has she fallen?”

 

“It is the corruption of the Exile permeating her being. She will try to teach the faithless one but as she is flawed, so shall the faithless one be flawed. Gather your sisters. Prepare to depart. We will wait until it is needful, but we will be ready to move in a moment.”

 

 

Marai

 

There is the custom among both the Mandalore and the Echani of waiting with the fallen. You know the dead no longer care. They have joined with the Force, gone on to their reward what have you. But to you, the one left behind, there is this friend you knew and loved that now lay upon a battlefield so frightfully alone.

 

For your own sake, for the memory of them, you stayed, keeping the predators and scavengers from them through the night. My own memory flew to a battle. Zagosta: People who do not go to war picture the troops as soulless automatons marching into battle. The media helps with this by portraying battles as sweeps of color racing across a map like bloody slashes, not as the series of inchworm like movements of real armies trying to move, keep themselves supplied, and fight at the same time.

 

When there is a pause in the fighting, the pundits worry of failure, that the army isn’t good enough, and will be destroyed merely because they do not charge on. We had stopped advancing into the mountains, more because we were tired than anything else. We had half of the valley, and the Mandalorians that had been defending still held the other half of the long flat swale. Someone fired, and I moved along the lines to find out why. A heavy blaster rifleman was firing at a figure, and I slapped the weapon up.

 

“Sir, it’s a flipping Mandalorian!” He screamed at him.

 

“Do they shoot our stretcher bearers or medics?” I hissed at him angrily.

 

“Of course not.” He was offended.

 

“The Mandalorians believe that a friend should sit with the fallen if it is possible. You are murdering someone who mourns you bastard.” I flipped on my com link. “Max 2nd Marine units. do not, repeat, do not fire on any Mandalorian who does not cross the dead line. If you do, you answer to me.”

 

The next day we returned to our bloody work of killing. But that night, the enemy knew someone on our side understood.

 

The Mandalorians understood. A quiet recruit brought me a blanket, and I sat with my friend through the night.

 

As the sun rose, Bao Dur came up, handing me a cup of tea.

 

“The ship called. Your new friend is awake, and wishes to speak with you.”

 

“Tell them we will be there as soon as we can.” I brushed the sleeping face still looking up from my lap. “I have things I must attend to.”

 

About an hour later, I felt the Handmaiden’s mind stir. I felt a rush of the force as her warrior mind instinctively searched her surrounding. Only when she was sure that it was safe did her eyes open.

 

“Master-”

 

“No. I am no master. I am still Marai, your sister of battle.” I brushed her hair from her eyes. “I must go to the ship. You will stay and meditate here until I return.”

 

“What have I done to offend you?” She asked bereft.

 

“Nothing my sweet. But you must learn to focus the new skills you will gain. If you cannot meditate, practice, work out. If the company does not offend you, practice with the Mandalorians.

 

“But I must interrogate the woman, and I would feel better if you were here safe.”

 

“Safe? Why must I be safe?”

 

“The most dangerous time for those who use the force is when they are new to it. She would be a destabilizing influence on you.” I leaned forward, hugging her. “I do this to protect my sister from a battle she is not ready yet to fight.”

 

She nodded.

 

We dressed, and I went to find Bao Dur. He had been working on the telemetry computer, and he grunted with satisfaction when the system purred into life.

 

“I’ll be with you in a moment, General.”

 

“Bao Dur, that was a long time ago. My titles are no more.”

 

“I know that General. But there are times when it’s hard to get my head out of the past.” He slid the panel back on, standing.

 

“Can’t you concentrate on what has happened since?”

 

“If I had a home and a place to call my own, I think it might do that. But what can I say about the last ten odd years? I bummed around as a starship mechanic until I started feeling uncomfortable again. Then I’d move on to somewhere new. I couldn’t seem to find anywhere I felt comfortable.”

 

“I know the feeling. When I left the order I felt comfortable no where.”

 

“You would. It was just that the one thing I fought the war for was something I didn’t get out of it. Peace. I figured as long as I kept moving I wouldn’t have to think about it.”

 

“I know the feeling well.”

 

“After about a year, I suddenly wanted to do something constructive. I became interested in helping people not have to fight. I studied shield technology, and planetary defense shields. The ones they had during the war waste too much energy and bleed off to easily. But the credits were always tight after the war. why spend money building a newer more efficient system when the system put in by your great grandfather still works? There was more money in rebuilding than anyone is ever willing to spend on making sure it can’t happen again.

 

I talked with the Ithorians, and they asked me to design the system they’re using on Telos. Not just the standard nothing gets in or out shields of a ship, but something that was flexible, could go around corners, or cut across a hydroelectric dam from the flat side up the glacis without buckling. Shields they could move like furniture.”

 

He looked out over the jungle. “Telos was beautiful One of the most beautiful planets I had ever seen. It deserved better than to be thrown away after the Sith smashed it flat.” He went still.

 

“Then Czerka came. Oh they talked a good game. Good enough that they were able to hire me away from the Ithorians. But it was all a game to them. A slot machine where you pull the lever, and it’s rigged to pay off when they wanted it to. Before Lorso came it wasn’t too bad. Falt was a good guy, even if he had to do some things to pad the bottom line. But Lorso went hog wild.

 

“I was under contract, have you seen their contracts?” I shook my head. He chuckled. “Fifty pages of boilerplate that a lawyer would love to take to bed for late night reading. But you can say it all in three sentences. ‘You agreed to do the job. We can decide to change that job whenever we damn well please but you still have to do it. If you don’t like it, get a new life, because you’ve already given your old one to us’.

 

“They wanted me to start interfering with the force fields around other areas. The main continent is a hodgepodge of cleared section controlled by Czerka, others controlled by the Ithorians, and wasteland. But the areas were laid out by the Ithorians originally, and Czerka couldn’t adjust them, at least not legally. But there was so much that Czerka wanted to get to that was just out of reach.”

 

“Forty million tons of Redrocite near the south pole and all of those old military bases and cities to salvage.”

 

“Got it in one, General. The ore they want to get to is fifteen kilometers from their base under a glacier fifty kilometers in length, but it’s in an Ithorian controlled region. So they wanted me to create a corridor that would run that distance, linking them. Lorso had already put in orders for the mining machinery. That glacier would be melted away, and the ore ripped out before anyone was the wiser.

 

“But I refused. I got sent off to the camp where you met me, and one of the security guard planted Ryll spice in my gear. Got me arrested. But they forgot who I was.”

 

He opened a panel on his arm, and I saw a glowing energy matrix. “You spend enough time working with shield technology, and you find cute little things that don’t have a lot of utility unless you’re a thief. This little gizmo reads the shield harmonic, and by adjusting it here, it neutralizes that frequency. The shield just goes away long enough for me to walk through it.

 

“So I sorta went back to war again. This time the enemy wore Czerka uniforms. I was sabotaging their equipment, but never their shields. The planet wasn’t my enemy.”

 

“You against the corporation.” I murmured. “Pretty steep odds.”

 

“Oh I didn’t expect to win. Just slow them down a bit.” He looked at me, then asked gently. “I hate talking about the war, but can I ask you something?”

 

“Sure.”

 

“Why did you go to war?”

 

I shrugged. “The Mandalorians had to be stopped, and the Republic military didn’t seem capable.”

 

“From you lips to the Maker’s ear. I was wondering what the Republic was doing as the Mandalorians gobbled up the rim. Were they so blind that they didn’t care?”

 

“It was a selective blindness.” I said. “Like Lorso and Czerka back on Telos. We are supposed to ignore what they do because it isn’t our planet they are ruining or our money they are stealing. The senate was just that blind. The Mandalorians weren‘t attacking us, they were attacking those people too stupid to join the Republic before. We were too big for them to digest, so we were safe.”

 

“Yeah.“ He replied softly. Like Iridonia.”

 

“Bao Dur-”

 

“Oh I know that isn’t what you thought. You’re just repeating what they said. May people had colonies both inside and outside Republic space, and they were among the first to fall. But when it was my own home...”

 

“I know. I’d like to think most of the Jedi that went did so because they could not allow other people to be hurt if we could stop it.”

 

“I didn’t join to protect anyone. I did it out of hate and revenge. I wanted to kill every Mandalorian. I wanted to choke the life from them as they had to my home, and if I had to strangle the last one in his crib I would have done it. Before the Jedi came into the war there weren’t a lot of victories, but every Mandalorian death was something to celebrate. You know what I mean.”

 

“I do, but not from direct experience.” I shook my head. “The Jedi are taught that if kill you must, do it cleanly. Don’t glory in it, or cheer. Think of it as surgery where you must spill blood, but you are doing it with the intent to heal the person.”

 

“I couldn’t do that.” He whispered. “I couldn’t separate the hate from the deed. It was almost as if this... This thing within me came out of it’s cage, and nothing would satisfy it but blood.

 

“Then suddenly the war was over. Revan fought and killed Mandalore face to face, and stripped them of their arms. But I found I couldn’t just turn it off. I hated the Mandalorians.

 

“But I came to realize that it wasn’t the Mandalorians I hated. It was myself. I see the callow young man I had been unwilling to swat an insect turned into a ravening monster that gloried in the kill. I hated the Mandalorians for what they had made me do. For letting the monster out of the box, and now I don’t know how to put it back.”

 

“That isn’t how you are.” He looked at me. “What do you think of Zuka?”

 

“Well he doesn’t really have the training to be a tech. He’s picked it up, and is getting good, but he still hesitates when he tries to fix things. Worries too much they’ll take any fumbles out of his pay.”

 

“And Kex?”

 

“He’s no better or worse than any supply sergeant I have ever met. But he never passes out crap and calls it gold. If it doesn’t work he works on it until it does. In fact they told me there’s an old cache nearby with some construction and repair droids. If they could get it open, they would have this place up and running in no time.”

 

“And what have you been doing?”

 

He looked at me strangely. “I’ve been helping out where I can. I’d go bug nuts sitting on my butt while work needs to be done.”

 

“Now think of what you just said. Did the thought that these people were Mandalorian have anything to do with them?”

 

“No...” He looked out the door at the men out there. “All I thought was Zuka needs training, and Kex needs help.”

 

So you are growing out of this.” I clapped him on the shoulder. “You have a beast, but if it is not in the cage now, it is at least placid enough to let them survive with you there.”

 

He sat there lost in thought. “Well I have work to do. Did you need something?”

 

“No, Bao Dur. You stay here and help. I have to go to the ship. I will be back in a while.”

 

“Bring me some tea while you’re there. This Mandalorian stuff is like getting jumpstarted.”

 

“Sure.” I gave him a lazy grin. “Echani fire tea?”

 

“Maker no! I have to sleep sometime.”

 

I made my way to the gate. The Mandalorian Guard captain grunted, then called for a couple of recruits to guide me to the ship. More to make sure I didn’t do anything stupid than anything else. While we waited, he cracked his knuckles.

 

“I don’t like it.” He said. I looked at him. After a moment, he saw my look and shrugged. “We had to pull in our patrols because of that stupid battle overhead. We couldn’t take the chance with the Onderon military running by with full scanners, so we couldn’t even have the satisfaction of cleaning out the larger predators. They’d detect weapons fire.”

 

“But you should be able to move around now. The battle is over.”

 

“Mandalore’s orders. We had three ships coming down on our sensor grid. But where they landed we don’t know.”

 

“Well there is mine, and the Duros. Any idea what the other one was?”

 

“It read as a freighter. but no transponder code.” He shrugged again. “Until your friend showed up sensor grid usually meant using the mark one eyeball.”

 

“So they could have landed a fleet and they wouldn’t have been noticed.”

 

“Yeah, but who? The Onderoni use this place for two things, a place to catch animals they sell, and a burial ground for their kings.”

 

“They bury their kings here?”

 

“Considering a lot of them through their history, I’d want to bury them somewhere they can’t get away from readily.”

 

“You’re almost speaking as if they’ll rise from the dead.”

 

If you study Onderoni history some of them just might.” He looked around. “One thing we were able to pick up before the system went down was signals on the surface. Old equipment of ours and yours detecting sweeps by someone. But when we go looking, we don’t find anything.

 

“But it doesn’t repeat in any sector we can reach. It’s like someone looking for a Search and Rescue beacon that transmits only intermittently.”

 

“Where?”

 

“When the system was fully up I’d have said everywhere on the bloody moon.”

 

The guides arrived, and we set out.

[Char Ell]

Why did you decide to skip all of the underground military base on the Telos surface?

She has five medals of commendation from the Mandalorian was, including the Parliamentary Medal of Honor for Malchior V.

I've noticed the spelling you use for the final planet in TSL is consistent. The game spells it Malachor V. Unless you've decided to change this planet's name in your story. But you did spell it the same way as the game does in post #28 and further on in the story so I guess you're going with Malachor V?

“Irritated Query: Did you think of the 400 kilometer walk we now have because you destroyed the only operation vessel?” Unit 41 asked.

 

Embarrassed reply: No. I merely assumed I would do less damage than that.”

I loved this exchange between the HK-50 droids. One assassin droid annoyed with another.

 

I liked the additional background you provided between Bao-Dur and Marai, how she wouldn't let the doctors amputate Bao-Dur's arm without his permission because she knew that Bao-Dur would be devastated at the loss of his limb in that manner.

 

They were all standing in the mess hall when I arrived.

Does this mean in the central area of the Ebon Hawk? I'm sure you're compensating for the fact that Ebon Hawk, as depicted in the game, doesn't have a place to eat. I'm just trying to visualize what part of Ebon Hawk this part of the story occurred in.

T3 gave a strangled bleep, and Bao Dur said, “What do you mean I’m disturbing...” He turned as he was speaking, then suddenly covered his eyes.

 

“What is going on here?” I demanded.

 

“General, before the conversation goes any further, you dropped your towel.”

A nice add to the story. I enjoy these little tangents because they add a touch of "normal life" to the epic.

Afterward I was just glad that Atton had been busy forward. The sight of two nubile half nude women in gymnastic vigor would have sent him screaming toward the freshers.

So true!

three dozen animals averaging 300 kilos each for a grand total of just under 11 tons-

 

-versus a half kiloton ship made up of a lot of bolted together parts-

I'm not sure I understand the units of measure in this section. Does 1 ton = 1,000 kilos? I'm just used to 1 ton = 2,000 lbs. or just over 900 kilograms.

“He thinks honor is a word in the dictionary between Honky-tonk and Honorarium!” She roared.

Loved this sentence!

My father went to wore to be with the woman he loved. But she was not the one he had bonded with eight years before. My father violated his bond to be with another, and I am the result of that. Both lives ruined. Mine to be lived in shame to show forever what happens when a bond is broken.”

So in this story Yusanis was originally married to an Echani woman, the mother of the Handmaiden's elder sisters, but left her for Arren Kae, Brianna's mother?

“Pretty secret race. Human or at least close enough to breed. Their race was born on a planet called Katharr.

I believe the home planet of the Miraluka is Katarr. No h necessary.

At the last Jedi conclave on the Miraluka world of Katarr, the entire planet was wiped out. An entire race, destroyed... because the Jedi chose to gather there.

Another great story in progress, machievelli! I look forward to reading more. Your story leaves no doubt about your love for the Echani and Mandalorians. And I'm pleasantly surprised that this story seems to be getting more attention than your original KotOR story did.

 

Every time I hear 'Devo', all I can think about is a band wearing red flowerpots on their heads and sporting those ridiculously thin sunglasses.

Dang! Now I've got that song in my head.

"now whip it

into shape

shape it up

get straight

go forward

move ahead

try to detect it

it's not too late

to whip it

whip it good!"

*** whip crack sounds ***

[Emperor Devon]

So in this story Yusanis was originally married to an Echani woman, the mother of the Handmaiden's elder sisters, but left her for Arren Kae, Brianna's mother?

 

That's how it was in the game as well.

 

Another good chapter, machievelli. I look forward to the next one.

[Char Ell]

^^^

*** researches TSL dialog files ***

And so it is.

 

In my play-throughs of TSL I came to understand that Yusanis followed Arren Kae to fight in the Mandalorian Wars. Also that Brianna's older sisters shared the same mother and father and Brianna was only half-sister to them since her mother was Arren Kae. I assumed that Yusanis' first companion had died or the Echani men took multiple wives or something else.

 

I never encountered the dialog where the Handmaiden tells the PC her father went to war to be with the one he loved, but not the one he had pledged himself to. Or at least if I did encounter it I forgot about it.

[machievelli]

^^^

*** researches TSL dialog files ***

And so it is.

 

Now if you can explain to this old fart how you did it, please do. I keep getting dialog chains that have nothing to do what I am looking for.

[machievelli]

Submission

 

Visas

 

I awoke in a room, on a medical bed. A person bustled around, and I turned my face toward him. It was the man I had struck down.

 

“I must speak to her.” I said. He turned, and I could feel the anger. “Why? So you can give her crap too?”

 

“No. I have questions that only she can answer. Please, send for her.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

I sighed. “She is approximately 10.3 kilometers to the northwest of us at this moment. She is sitting on the ground with the one she will train across her legs, both naked, beneath a blanket.

 

She is asleep, but her mind listens for anything that might strike at her. She is at peace.” I moved my head. “She will awaken in a moment. At that time, you must ask her to come to me.”

 

He harrumphed, walking out. A moment later he came back. “Bao Dur would not tell me what she was wearing, but he said he gave her the message, and there were things she had to do first.”

 

“The fact that she has agreed is sufficient.” I tried to stand, but there was a force field over my body. “May I go and meditate?” I asked.

 

He drew his sidearm. As pitiful as the weapon was, I did not gainsay it. He released the field, and escorted me to the starboard berthing area.

 

“I will have the door blocked with a fore field. You can wait her and contemplate your navel to you’re heart’s content.”

 

I went in, feeling the field snap on like an electrical discharge behind me. I knelt, and watched the one I had sought as she spoke to the girl, telling her to stay there. To the Zabrak Bao Dur about was, to the Mandalorians about their situation.

 

When she set out on the path to me, I began to meditate in full.

 

She had done something after our battle. I had felt my master’s rage, and he had struck at me. But somehow she had stopped him. She had left me alive, unwilling to kill me herself, unwilling to merely allow my master to do so.

 

I had surrendered myself to her, and I needed to know what type of master I had taken.

 

She came up the ramp, and down the passageway. The force field died, and she stepped into the room. I turned, bowing from the ground. “My life for yours.”

 

She came over, and knelt before me. “Are you all right?”

 

“I am able to serve. If we enter battle, my only wish is to fight and die at your side.”

 

“That isn’t what I meant. I asked are you healed?”

 

That threw me off. Never before had my master cared beyond the mere ability to move. If I could crawl into battle, he was satisfied. “I have not been asked that question in a long time. My flesh is healed, if that is what you wish to know.”

 

“I am sorry that I hurt you.”

 

“I know that. But I fear that others might see this as a weakness. They will see me healed, know that I have survived, and use it as a weapon against you. Perhaps using me or the others because if you put a blade to the throat of one, they have put it to yours.”

 

“Threatening my friends will get them a swift death, whatever happens to my friends. Who sent you?”

 

“I am a scout and emissary for my master.”

 

“Why did he send you?”

 

“Because he was aware of a disturbance in the force, but unaware of it’s nature. I was sent because the ripples in the force you caused did not feel like that given off by a living being. There is little my master does not know, and the fact that you had eluded his sight for so long disturbed him, though he would not tell me why.”

“How did you find me?”

 

“I... felt you. It was like a sound on the very edge of hearing. Enough to disturb you, but not enough to clearly make out. But as I listened to that music, it suddenly reached across the space between us, and I was compelled to find you for my own reasons.”

 

“What reasons were those.”

 

I bent back forward. “I was ordered to slay you, but as I approached, I knew that I could not. But my master has always sent me on such missions, not caring if I lived or died as long as his will was done. I could not die by my own hand, or allow someone to kill me. You were the first in many years that had the chance, and I prayed that you would end my existence. Allow me to return to the bosom of the force. To be with my family, my people forever again.”

 

“But I refused.”

 

“Yes. And as you have defeated me, I am yours to command. When my master struck out in his fury, you shielded me from that wrath.” I knelt back up. “Why have you done this to me? You could not end my life at your hand, but allowing him to kill me was within your grasp. Yet you stopped him, had the male-”

 

“His name is Atton.”

 

“-Had Atton minister to my wounds. Healed my body. You consider even now helping me learn, and this from someone I tried to murder. Why?”

 

“To the first question, I could not merely stand aside and let you die. As for the healing of your body, I would not leave you maimed any more than I would shatter a stain glass window out of pique.” She leaned toward me, and a hand brushed my face. “As for training, I had considered it, but only because everything your master has taught you is anathema to me. I cannot merely bring you along when everything he has taught you is the pain of not only yourself but of every living being you might encounter. I believe you can be redeemed and I will do this.”

 

I reached up, pushing her hand aside gently. “You must not do this. I cannot allow you to weaken yourself in trying to heal my entire life.”

 

“Helping another is not weakness. It is strengthening to those that recieve, and those that give.”

 

“That may be so, as you would see it. But to my knowledge it is not the way the common man sees it.”

 

She was silent for a moment. “Will you answer some questions for me?”

 

“I cannot guarantee that my answers will make sense or be of any help, but I will try.”

 

“Was you master the one that destroyed Peragus?”

 

“There are many factions within the Sith. My master leads but one, and his people did not cause the destruction you speak of.”

 

“Factions?”

 

“When Revan shattered the Star Forge, when she slew Malak, there was no one to lead the Sith. Those in power fought among themselves, and still do. where one moves, or plots, it is not always known to the others. The only thing they all share is one abiding purpose. To assure that the Jedi do not rise again, to see that all of you are obliterated, expunged from existence.

 

“They believe you to be the last of their quarry and only that hatred binds them to that one purpose. All of those eyes are upon you, and the pursuit will be dark and terrible to imagine.”

 

She considered. “I am told your race is blind. Yet you moved within this ship with ease, and fought well. How can you see without eyes?”

 

“My people once had to use the force instead of the eyes we no longer have. They could see events elsewhere in the galaxy. One of my people could also affect those around them, give briefly the ability to see as they once did.”

 

“You speak as if you have lost that ability.”

 

“My sight was... damaged.” Here, touch my hand.”

 

She reached out, and I allowed her touch. Then I showed her what I saw, the swirling essences of the force within her and around her. The glows of her companions, the animals that wandered between us and the Mandalorian encampment, then the encampment itself. There, like an arc light among the candles, were two forms.

 

“Who are they?”

 

“Can you not see them for who they are?” I indicated the brighter of the two. “She is the one you call Handmaiden. This one is Bao Dur.” I pulled my hand free.

 

She shook her head. “That was... Interesting.

 

“Yet it is merely a tithe of what one of our elders could have done.”

 

“How did you lose your sight?”

 

“When my master dragged me from the ashes of my home world, he showed me my world as it was when he had finished. It hurt me deep inside. since then it as if part of the force had been taken from me, and I do not see as I once did. But being with you, I sense that there was a gift beneath that pain.”

 

“When one endures pain it gives hope to others.”

 

“Yet only by suffering and enduring can certain truths become evident. I feel you are an example of this. That you see truths of the galaxy, your companions, and yourself that no other can see yet.”

 

“Your home world-”

 

Katarr. It is not a subject that I have considered much since it is no more.”

 

“Why did your master strike at them? All I have heard about your people was of the peaceful nature of them.”

 

“The last full council of the Jedi met there in secret. They hoped that our elders could aid them to see what was striking at them from the shadows. Many had already fallen, but it was as if they had merely died for no reason.

 

“They succeeded in a fashion. Their presence was a scent of blood in the water my master could not ignore. My people were incidental to that hunger, but it was a rich meal for one such as him.

 

“The Jedi died, my people died, that which lives on our planet died. Only I still live.”

 

“He came to your world just because the Jedi were there?”

 

“He cannot deny his hunger for long. The Jedi Council was a rich meal as I said, and he had to feast. Any gathering of the Jedi is something he will not resist for long.

 

“But now the Jedi are vanishing. Soon they will be no more, and I fear what he might do then. Perhaps by then he will be able to eradicate even life that cannot feel the force with his presence.”

 

“How could he destroy an entire world! You would need a fleet of ships!”

 

“Oh the world itself is still there. But it circles a stare, empty of all life except for that last scream of pain and fear. Nothing lives upon it’s surface. All that remains are the echoes of those that once were, but no one lives to hear them.”

 

“But it is beyond the capability of mankind to destroy on such a scale!”

 

“It was not a matter of weapons and ships. He used the Force, and the force reaches where no weapon cannot. To the depths of the earth and seas, it reaches, and he drained it all.”

 

“I have seen destruction. I saw Malachor V after the battle.”

 

“It is said that people across the galaxy felt the destruction of that world . But those forces there shattered the world and it is no more. My world is still there. Just empty.”

 

“How did you survive?”

 

“I am not certain that I did. I was there when it struck. To see everything you know, loved, and imagined extinguished like a candle flame. It was as if my sight was snatched away even as I felt the force drained away from my world to leave nothing behind.

 

I am sure there are worse pain, and worse deaths. But I have yet to find one that matched it. when I awoke from that pain I could feel that only I remained. My life, my agony of mind and body was a flicker of a candle in the immensity of space. All that I had ever been connected to was gone as if it had never been.”

 

“But you survived.”

 

“If being a child on a dead world with the bodies of all you knew and loved scattered about can be called living. I wonder at times what would have happened if I had died there. Been with my family, my friends, my people when they went into the ending dark together rather than being left behind alone. If perhaps there had been a way to hide myself from the eyes of the galaxy. Not endured all of the pain and death.

 

“Yet it was not to be. When my master looked upon the planet, he found me. He came for me and among the bodies of all those dead, took me as a woman, then took me as his own.”

 

For some reason that infuriated her. “How old were you?”

 

“I was twelve standard years old. I am now seventeen.”

 

She made a strangled sound, and I could picture her thoughts, of my master laying dead, the manhood he had besmirched removed not with a lightsaber or blade, but with her own hands. Then it faded. “Go on.”

 

“As I stood there, bleeding from his actions, he reached into my mind and forced me to see. To see what he had done not only to my world, but to others before it.”

 

“He made you see what he had done?”

 

“To my eyes, to the galaxy, my world was absent the currents of the force. Swept clean, leaving only stone, metal and the flesh of those that had once lived there, preserved from corruption by the death even of the most minute life forms. There was nothing but emptiness.

 

“Then he showed me other worlds, bastions still of life scurrying across the surface of their worlds like a bacteria infecting the blessed emptiness of space. Disconnected from themselves, their worlds, their place in the order of things. Unable to see the currents of what must be and their effects upon it.”

 

“Why did he show you these things?”

 

“He told me that life was a disease. That the only way to return the galaxy to purity was to remove that infection. He would find that ugliness, that white noise, and in his wake was blessed silence. Where there had been chaos, now there was order.

 

“But I have discovered that for every one that feels the force, there is a different path. Different strengths, different weaknesses. You have your own strengths, as does my master. But his comes with a terrible hunger. He is a wound, a black hole of the Force sucking all force into his heart, and it never escapes. In his wake all life has surrendered it’s energies to him.

 

“And those like you who feel the force strongly are beacons in the night sky, and his eyes are drawn to them, and soon he will go to them if only to put out that blessed light. The only difference for my world was the timing. When he had devoured all of you, we would have been another meal to partake of.”

 

“Tell me where he is.” I could feel her will encompassing this. She would hunt him down, try to kill him.

 

“You cannot find him by yourself. He is always aboard his ship which lurks in the depths of uncharted space. Not even I know where he is unless he calls to me. But even if I could give this information to you, I would not. You are not yet ready to face him.”

 

“Ready?”

 

“You are not the equal of Jedi masters that have already faced him and died. If you face him without your full potential realized, you will fail, and none that he has so devoured went on to the Force. You would be lost to me forever, and I...I cannot bear the though that it would be so. It would be as if I lit a brushfire to burn away a pristine valley never touched by man, shattered a cave’s worth of precious crystals. As if I had smashed the hands of a sculptor, or blinded an artist so he could create no more.”

 

“My life is incidental to this. Your master threatens more than me and mine.”

 

“I cannot, and I will not.” I dropped forward, head touching the deck plates. I would die by my own hand rather than harm you. To preserve you untouched and safe my life is there now only to protect you. I have found peace in my life for the first time since I awoke on a dead planet and I cannot sacrifice that peace no matter how you ask.”

 

“If he is behind what has happened, the hundred or thousands of the Jedi that are no more, I will face him.”

 

“You will, I have foreseen it. But to go now will not avenge the dead. When you stand before him, realize what you face, you must be prepared for he will not give you a chance to run away and return. Confronting him directly will focus his attentions on you and he will move every heaven, every world, and every hell to assure that you do not face him a second time.

 

“Until then I must protect you. Stand by your side and aid you in every other way until you are ready.”

 

“Why? What is so important about me?”

 

“There is... a greatness in you. It does not stem from the force. It is the woman than kneels before me. Her body mind and soul forged by adversity until she is the ancient blade of the Jedi that cut anything. Even without the force you would be a force to be reckoned with.

 

“But the making of such as you is something my Master cannot understand, and would not accept. Because of this you are not even an echo in the force. He found you not by your own actions, but as if you were a planet beyond a system, measured only by the affect you have on the bodies around you. That blindness give me hope for all life. But if you are to survive, you must seek to understand your own nature.”

 

“How is it that you could see me and find me, but he cannot?”

 

“There is much in the galaxy that I can see and he cannot. I fear it is because of the nature of my race. Of myself.

 

“My people spent their entire existence seeing the galaxy by the swirls of energy in it. By the strength of the force within life no matter how small where ever it may be. We understand his blindness better than the sighted would because it is fueled by denial.”

 

She stood. “I have much to think upon. Stay here, rest until I return.”

 

“As you bid, my master.”

 

“And one more thing. I am no master. I may lead, but I lead friends, not servants and never slaves. If you would call me anything, call me Marai.”

 

“As you wish ma- Marai.”

 

Marai

 

The trip back was faster than I had anticipated. I now had an ultimate goal, though my guide was unwilling to lead me there until I had proven worthy by her own lights. Bao Dur had grown past his fury into a mature enlightenment. All in all it was a better day that the one before.

 

We made it back to the camp, and the Handmaiden came to me. Bao Dur was with her, and as much as he seemed to rail against it, he had a thermos of Mandalorian tea.

 

“As I told you Kex said there’s a bunker full of old repair and construction droids.” He brought out a map, and pointed. “Here, about a klick and a half to the west.”

 

“Where that idiot Kumus went.” I looked up. I didn’t recognize the man, but his shoulder flashes said he was the command sergeant major. “And your name?”

 

“Xarga. I’m the one in charge of recruit training. I sent Kumus out there to blow the door, and check out the inside of the cache to see what was usable. But that was three days ago. He’s probably dead by now, the D'kut.” He looked at the map over my shoulder. “If he is there, could you bring him back?”

 

“Bring his body?” Bao Dur asked. I pictured lugging a rotting corpse a kilometer and a half.

 

“Don’t be daft about it. If he’s dead, all we need is his equipment. That will do.”

 

“Nice to have the option.” I replied.

 

We started off along the path leading to the cache. Like the short cut to our ship, this one had been lined with older Mandalorian designed sensor packets. Anyone who saw them would probably assume that they were leftovers from the war. A properly emplaced and designed packet will be usable a century from now.

 

As we approached, The Handmaiden signalled. “The cache, the door is open. And there are... visitors.”

 

The visitors were a family of Boma beasts. They charged at us and we dealt with them swiftly. We went into the tunnel, finding a sealed door, and opened it. we stepped in.

 

The room had the musty smell of a tomb I felt something and looked up. There was a heavy construction droid three and a half meters tall it was standing up completely straight and in it’s manipulator claws was...

 

“Could you possibly help me?” He asked plaintively. He was very young, and very nervous.

 

The Handmaiden held her sides, her face quivering. I bit my lip to keep from laughing out loud.

 

Bao Dur walked over to stand below the droid. “Got yourself in quite a pickle there.”

 

“No, really?”

 

“I’ve never seen that happen before. Care to explain?”

 

“Well I’d blown the doors, came in, found the master foreman unit, and activated it. I was heading out when a pack of Boma charged-”

 

“They don’t like loud noises.” The Handmaiden gasped out.

 

“I wish someone had told me that. I hit the emergency control, and keyed in for it to put me in a place of safety. But the master foreman is only about your size. “ He pointed at a limp figure in the corner. I suddenly saw a mass of droids standing there as if waiting. “It had the Mark IV pick me up, but then a Boma smacked into it, and it was shut down.” He held up the control box.

 

“If it isn’t working, the others won’t work either. And this damn thing is holding me too tight to wriggle free.”

 

Bao Dur walked over, opening the droid’s chest panel. “Shoddy workmanship.” He commented, working on the wiring.

 

“Hey it’s just a construction droid. All it has to do is follow orders.”

 

“But if you build it weak, it breaks easily.” He gave a final tap, and the droid suddenly stood up.

 

“Finally!’ The young Mandalorian hit the controls, and the smaller droid looked first at us, then at him. “No you mechanical morn, they are not the enemy. I can get down.” He keyed in another command. The foreman squealed a high pitch order, and the huge droid leaned forward setting the man down beside us.

 

“I have a feeling your name is Kumus.”

 

“Guilty as charged, Say, you guys wouldn’t happen to have any rat packs would you?” The Handmaiden handed him one, and he ate as if he hadn’t touched food in days, which was probably the case, from the ripped open backpack on the floor.

“Could you do something for me?” He asked.

 

“Sure.” I said.

 

“Could you not tell the sergeant what happened. He already considers me incompetent, and I’d rather not prove it.”

 

“Your secret’s safe with us.” Bao Dur said.

 

The young man stepped over to the hatch opened it, looked around as if he expected another Boma attack, then stepped out. He keyed the box and in a line the droids followed. The last was the huge Mark IV, which had to crawl through it.

 

We waited several minutes, then suddenly it hit us. We roared, we rolled on the ground, we let out the laughter in gales. Finally we stopped. There was nothing remaining of value, so we headed back toward the encampment.

 

I held up a hand, and the others straggled to a stop. Ahead of us, a body lay on the path. I could tell from here that the end had been violent.

 

We approached, and I looked to the side. Stopping again, I patiently said, “You can come out now.”

 

A segment of the forest resolved into a Mandalorian. Unlike the usual trooper, his was a flat gray with an automatic camouflage setting. Even standing still, the world rippled behind him.

 

“Well, fancy meeting you here.”

 

“Hello, Kelborn.” Bao Dur said.

 

“You know each other?”

 

“We talked today while i was fine tuning that camo field of his.” Bao Dur said. “Kelborn is the First blade of the Mandalore.”

 

“I though there were no patrols out.”

 

“I’m an infiltrator.” Kelborn replied. “I don’t patrol, I scout. I was tracking that last ship.”

 

“The Duros-”

 

“Nah. They came down with their transponder screaming for rescue. Typical city boys. The other though. It came in cold, maneuvering jets only Tricky bit of work. I found where it landed, but the ship had left. Then I found him.”

 

I knelt looking at what was left of the body. “Cannocks.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

I lifted the man’s arm, and looked at the unit flash on his right shoulder. “The Iron Brigade. General Vaklu’s personal guard.”

 

“You have done your home work.”

 

“I fought here during the war.” I commented, waving at the jungle.

 

“So did I. I was captured here.”

 

“At least you lived.” I said, standing away from the body.

 

“There is that.” Kelborn hunkered down, looking at the trail. “He came from that way. Walking fat and stupid. Pretty green. He probably never knew what hit him. But he’s not the only one walking around. I’ve been getting snippets of encrypted transmissions from at least three sources.” He took off his helmet. He was about five years older than I was. He looked at me speculatively. “Want to have some fun?”

 

“What did you have in mind.”

 

“A hunt. You be the beaters, I’m the stopper. If I hang back about thirty meters east of here, you can drive them to me.”

 

“Or maybe I talk to them and they merely go.”

 

“There is that. "I don’t mind not killing them if they’re smart enough to run.”

 

“All right.” I drew a line in the air. “We’ll go west as far as the trail allows, then cut back on the one to the south, and push them ahead of us. Assuming all they are doing is scouting, that is what they will do.”

 

“You’ve done this before.”

 

“The last time it was Mandalorians about fifty klicks from here.”

 

“Old days.” He harrumphed. He stood, slipping the helmet back on, and slid back into the brush.

 

We trotted down the trail. I was in the lead, all of my senses extended as far as they would reach. I found a discontinuity. The animals there were nervous. I motioned, and we slowed to a silent pad.

 

I felt them before I could see them. We dropped to our knees behind the shrubs. There were two of them, watching every way as if it would help. “We’ll have to tell the lieutenant about Laane.” The female said.

 

“What that he was an idiot?” The male snarled. “He had the briefing, but he walked right into a Cannock ambush with a big freaking sign that said ‘dinner is served!’.” He snorted in disgust. “I hope this is worth it to the colonel because we’re not making it off this moon alive.”

 

“Wait.” The woman said. She spun. The Jedi is over there!”

 

She opened fire, but she was aiming almost exactly 180 degrees away from us. There was a roar and a Zakkeg ripped through the trees and charged them They are not placid beasts, but they can be avoided by not trying to attract their notice. Moving is bad.

 

Shooting is worse.

 

We walked around the feeding animal. “There are times when stupidity is punishable by death.” Bao Dur commented.

 

“Colonel. Maybe this colonel Tobin who ordered them to shoot us down?”

 

“Possibly.”

 

The other patrol had not fared any better. Three of them had faced off against a pack of Boma armed just with their rifles and raw courage. Not enough when the beasts were angry. We moved toward Kelborn’s ambush and found him crouched among three more bodies.

 

“Nine bodies total?” He asked after we reported. “That’s the lot. I just wish I knew who sent them.”

 

“They mentioned a colonel.”

 

“If so I have to commend you on the nature of your enemies. Colonel Tobin is General Vaklu's personal hound. He won’t wipe his nose unless the General give permission.” He snorted. The Mandalorians believe in leading by example. A toady doesn’t have a long life expectancy among them. “How did you rate?”

 

“I shrugged.” He ordered fighters to attack us and caused that mess in orbit.”

 

“Just like him. Ever hear the old expression, ‘When the only tool you have is a hammer, you start thinking of every problem being a nail’?” I nodded. “Tobin was born with a hammer, and doesn’t believe any other tool exists. And Vaklu needs him.”

 

“What for?” The man I remembered was still angry about the Mandalorian incursion, and the Iron Brigade had originally been made up of survivors of the guerilla war he had fought against the Mandalorians from the invasion almost 50 years ago when The Onderoni had been forced to cede Dxun to the Mandalorians.

 

They had of course had to occupy Onderon when they decided to conquer the Republic, but Vaklu had been brilliant. His men made sure no civilians were included in their actions, stripping the enemy of the chance at full scale reprisals. By the time we took Dxun they had half a million men on Onderon and were losing ground every day. It might even have been a relief if we hadn’t merely sent them all to POW camps when Onderon surrendered, as the Blade to Blade challenge required.

 

“Vaklu is still mad about the Queen’s father taking them into the Republic. He’s her cousin, and they’ve been at it hammer and tongs since it happened. It’ll come to a coup if Vaklu ever believe he can win, and Onderon will go it’s own way again.”

 

That was not good. Onderon supplied a lot of badly needed materials, and the animals of this moon were only the least of it. According to Republic law, trade had to go through the Republic Trade Authority, and getting a trade license through them was like trying to retrieve your weapon from a Cannock by sticking you hand down his throat.

 

“I have to report. Take care.”

 

“Fare in honor.”

 

He grinned, sliding the helmet back on.

 

We followed at a more sedate pace. I felt something, and we detoured. Ahead of us, a young Boma was ripping apart a corpse. Blessedly not human.

 

Wait a moment. I heard Kreia’s voice in my head. It is just what I hoped for. A Boma by itself.

 

It is time for you to learn a paltry skill of the Beast-riders of Onderon. Reach out with your feelings. Can you sense it’s mind?

 

I closed my eyes. Yes, I could feel it. It was concentrating on the meal. Oblivious to all else. I could feel it’s contentment.

 

Good. The force flows through every living thing and if you empty your own mind, you can feel it’s thoughts.

 

Suddenly I was looking through it’s eyes. The meat was nauseating to me, but it was a grand banquet to him. Soon he would feel the urge to breed, and he dimly remembered the last time. I pulled away as it remembered the rutting.

 

They are not conscious of their existence beyond their needs. Memory is moment to moment. Beasts are so much easier to affect than sentient beings. There is no argument with instinct, no questions as to why. But to succeed, you must bridge the gap between sentient and not.

 

You feel it’s consciousness. Yes, that rumble before a thunderstorm that you feel. Now reach out. Use the force to put a barrier between it and that conscious spark. Do it subtly, for they have bred from the ones able to escape if a Beast Rider does this.

 

Mentally I fashioned a web, a glittering mesh of the force, and felt it sink into the mind of the beast. It stilled.

 

I could feel it. The ears cocking back as it heard a noise that was not a danger. Then the wind shifted, and it smelled us. It tried to turn, to attack, but I nudge it’s thoughts away. There is nothing there. I whispered to it. You are remembering another time. You are hungry, feed.

 

It snorted in confusion, and we back away slowly.

 

You have potential In time you could have walked it through the Mandalorian encampment as if it were a pet.

Why couldn’t you have taught me this earlier? I asked her mentally.

 

All things in time, my dear. You will have need of this skill as time goes on... Then she was gone again.

[Emperor Devon]

Now if you can explain to this old fart how you did it, please do. I keep getting dialog chains that have nothing to do what I am looking for.

 

I'll assume you already have Kotor Tool. To view TSL's dialogue files, go to Kotor II/ERFs/Modules. From there you'll see many different options to choose from. To view a dialogue such as Kreia in the morgue, for example, got to 101PER.dlg. You would choose this option because the game recognizes this module as the first one on Pergaus, and the PER indicates the planet is Peragus. From there you would go to 1, and then to 101kreia. Once you open it up, you can click the options there to expand them and view all the dialogue. If you want to actually edit the dialogue, you'll have to tk's dialogue editor for that.

[Rain128]

A few years ago they had a massive reshuffle of the power base. They had gutted themselves in a war of their own. Some say the boss of Telos someone named Davik Kang had caused it, but the rumors were vague. They had almost disappeared from the scene. But now they were back and even nastier. I resumed the recording.[/Quote]

 

 

 

I know its late, but i was going thru a second time and caught this....

[machievelli]

I'll assume you already have Kotor Tool. To view TSL's dialogue files, go to Kotor II/ERFs/Modules. From there you'll see many different options to choose from. To view a dialogue such as Kreia in the morgue, for example, got to 101PER.dlg. You would choose this option because the game recognizes this module as the first one on Pergaus, and the PER indicates the planet is Peragus. From there you would go to 1, and then to 101kreia. Once you open it up, you can click the options there to expand them and view all the dialogue. If you want to actually edit the dialogue, you'll have to tk's dialogue editor for that.

 

 

You people do not understand the depths of my own ignorance. Now that I know, maybe it will help...

[machievelli]

This is a separate post for a reason. The next segment has battle from the eyes not only of those fighting, but from the god's eye view granted by that force seeing ability Marai got from Kreia. so if you have never really expeienced it...

[machievelli]

Transport

 

Marai

 

The camp was bustling, and every adult Mandalorian had a weapon. The children and women still too young to fight were pulled back into some of the interior bunkers.

 

The Guard captain gave me a salute. Not the sardonic ones they usually give to out worlders, but the one reserved for those they respected.

 

“Mandalore wants to see you. We’re going to full alert.”

 

“The men in the jungle?”

 

“If Vaklu finds out we’re here, the fecal matter will hit the rotary impeller big time.” He said. “It’s just the kind of excuse he needs to start his coup.”

 

I nodded. We hurried across the compound. Mandalore was at his desk with Kelborn, and nodded as I came in.

 

“We’re going to a series activation of the mine field in twenty minutes. The best approach for a camouflaged attacker is along here, so they are to be activated first. Every one is on full alert until further notice.”

 

“Chu!” Kelborn ran out, tapping his helmet to activate the com link.

 

Mandalore looked at us. “Kelborn says they seem to be after you. Not even Tobin is stupid enough to drop a corporal’s guard in here if he suspected our presence. So I’ve ordered my shuttle prepped. We leave on the hour.”

 

“I’m ready.”

 

“I’ll send someone to get you.” He dismissed us.

 

Bao Dur caught my arm. “General before we go, the Mandalorians put together a gift for you.” I looked at him confused. He led me to Kex. He, Bralor one of the senior troopers, and Kelborn were standing outside the weapons store. They saw me approach, and they pushed Kex to the fore.

 

“We wanted you to remember us.” The bluff quartermaster started as if reading a badly memorized speech. “Some of this was found since we came, but both Bralor our best warrior, and Kelborn our First Blade gave of their collections. Use it with honor.” He handed a bundle to me.

 

I opened it, and my breath caught. Five lightsabers in varied stages of disrepair lay in my hands. I looked at them, a lump forming in my throat. A lightsaber is a personal extension of the Jedi that made it, and I knew each of these sabers, and the people they had belonged to.

 

“In grace was it given, and with humble appreciation it is accepted.” I stumbled through the proper thank you. “May I always use this gift with honor.”

 

We walked away. Bao Dur motioned toward the machine shop, and I shook my head. “I need to say goodbye to some old friends.”

 

Both of them left me, and I stared at the bundle.

 

Karin, one of my best friends among the Jedi. She had been of the Main Temple as was I. She had been blown apart by an anti-ship mount. If it had not been seen, we would have listed her as missing. There was nothing left of her body.

 

Mach. The oldest of those that came with us. Always laughing, one of the best with a lightsaber I had ever seen. He had been cornered by a company of Mandalorians after Blood Pass. Of the one hundred odd men ten had remained alive. The others had been scattered about his body like chaff.

 

Rian. Always the somber one. She was so stolid and controlled that few knew she was a practical joker at heart. She had last been seen charging an encampment about 200 klicks from where I was. Her body had never been found.

 

Lazasar. A Twi-Lek. He was always the peacemaker. One of the few Consulars who had come with us. He had been shot while under a flag of truce. The men with him, the remnants of two regiments had swarmed the walls, and put every Mandalorian there to the sword. Of the 2500 men that had charged only fifty or so returned.

 

Brianna. A smiling face was what I remembered best. She was always allowing herself to be the butt of every joke, and no one ever considered that she was having more fun that they were at it. Her shuttle had been blown apart right before landing, the parts of her and thirty men scattered across a cone three kilometers long.

 

I held the lightsabers to me, and found that I still had tears for my fallen comrades.

 

Discussion

 

Mandalore

 

I climbed up on the side of the shuttle with Zuka. He’d improved in the last days. That Zabrak friend of the Jedi woman had stiffened his spine. “The portside stabilizers?”

 

“Smooth as silk, Mandalore.”

 

“Are we ready?”

 

“Few more minutes.”

 

I climbed down, then went to a defensive stance. A woman stood there. I had never seen her before. She walked over. looking at my ship with a practiced air.

 

“Is everything ready for your trip?”

 

“Who are you?”

 

“Who I am is incidental to our conversation. My concern is for the one you escort to Onderon. Would you do less for one of your own clan?”

 

“Don’t pretend to understand us, woman. The Mando-a are a race apart from your kind.”

 

“If by a race apart you mean scattered broken and lost, then you are correct.”

 

“Not for long. we will grow strong again, under my banner.”

 

“As yes, yet another great crusade. To gather your scattered brethren and bind them back beneath a single standard.” Her tone was sarcastic. She looked at me, and I felt the laughter within her. Laughing at us!

 

“You always have a ‘crusade’ to fight, don’t you? You chose that as a banner when first you supported, then fought against Exar Kun. Then you used it as a cry to fight the Republic. And how did that one turn out? Revan Malak and that one we speak of taught you the meaning of respecting power, did they not? Revan was too kind to you, your defeat was too merciful. That last battle should be what you and your kind remember. A million and a half Mandalorians alone perished at Malachor V. I should not have to remind you of that.”

 

“Yes. An entire generation gone in an instant. I was there, and the Jedi and their puppets didn’t fare much better. But no matter how many of my blood still float there dead, the Mandalorians are still here, Clan Ordo still lives. And we are being redeemed.

 

"Look at Kex there. He was nothing but muscle to the Hutts on Nar Shaddaa. Kelborn was scouting new planets for a Duros consortium. Fully a dozen are those born on Rakata Prime that are now clan Wordweaver who fought beside Revan herself in that.

 

“I brought them back together at Revan’s behest. I gave them a purpose again. The Galaxy is not rid of us yet.”

 

“Ah but that is the future, and the future is always in motion. Not even a Jedi Master can read it, and you stand there and boast about it! What would you say if I told you that there might not be a great age of the Mando-a? That there is a future where Malachor V was merely the last inhalation of breath before the death rattle of your entire race? That five centuries from now the Mandalorians will be a monster invoked by nurses to make their charges behave at night?

 

“And what do I see of that future now? I see a poor deluded fool wounded by the Jedi, befriended by one, believing in his fevered dreams that he can turn an ocean tide with his bare hands!”

 

I sputtered in fury, How dare this old woman say such things!

 

“Calm yourself, Mandalore. I am merely foretelling what will happen if you fail my charge. You expected to merely act as a taxi and deliver her to her door. But you will do much more than that. You will travel with her and keep her safe. You have a sense of loyalty, and you will exercise it for her. So many masters over the years since the Mandalorian fall, was it not? And only two prey on your mind. One that betrayed you, and the one... The one that abandoned you.” She smiled, and there was no humor in it.

 

“Have you ever wondered where she wanders as we speak, Canderous Ordo of Clan Ordo, Mandalore at her command? Why she gave you orders to bring your scattered people home, then left you alone?”

 

My blood ran cold. I remembered that last conversation. We had run from Coruscant. Not because we were pursued, but because she knew too many would either try to stop her, or want to go with her.

 

We had stopped at an old landing field outside the capital of Darien V. She had taken me to a cantina. There she had bought me a drink.

 

“I must ask you to do something for me, Mandalore.”

 

“Until they accept me, I cannot accept the title. Once you have spoken-”

 

“I cannot speak. There are things I must do. A call that cannot be denied.” She replied. I must go and you must accept my orders.”

 

“What means this?”

 

“Gather the clans back together. Forge them into a sword that can survive all else in the Galaxy, but until you are commanded, you must stay your hand. Do this for me.”

 

I had agreed. Somewhere in the evening, I fell asleep. I awoke in a travelers rest. There before me was the helmet of Mandalore. The symbol of the true Mandalore of the Mandalorian people. The ship and Revan were gone.

 

“How did you know that you witch?”

 

“I know a lot of things, Mandalore. I know so many thing that even now you burn to ask. Of her, of the future But the answer I give will have it‘s price. You will escort her, watch over her. She is more important to me than anything in my life. She is worth a crusade or two.

 

“Show the true spirit of the Mandalore you claim to be. If there is to be a Mandalorian quest, let it be for something they will remember when the stars finally die. Where even if none survive, the word Mandalorian will be synonymous with honor and loyalty.

 

“The one I ask you to protect walks that path. She will find what you seek. She is sister to you and That one by a bond deeper than life itself. Remember that blood tie, even if all else falls behind you.

 

I watched her walk away.

 

I don’t know who that harridan is, but we should have watched her instead of the Jedi!

 

*****

 

Zuka

 

The droids from the cache moved back into the encampment, and I checked the switches. All right series two.” I said over the com link. Series one had gone without a hitch, and there were only four lines left. “Back up lads. Series three.” No problems. Series four-”

 

A blast bellowed, and a body leaped into the air fifty meters from the gate. I triggered five and six without warning, and more bodies flew apart. “We got company!”

 

 

Marai

 

I heard the first explosion, and was already in motion. Something ahead of me alerted me and I leaped. what happened next took all of a second. As I leaped I kicked my legs over, and twisted my body, so I landed, facing the opposite direction. My blade snapped forward, and it suddenly blossomed red along it’s length. Then suddenly there was a man there, clutching at my hands as he fell backward dying. They were using some joining of the force and camouflage and I reached out trying to find them...

 

It was as if my mind exploded outward, encompassing the entire encampment. I could see and feel everyone in it. Some of them were black spots in the force, there, but not there at the same time. Then my mind fragmented further...

 

*****

 

Hand Maiden

 

I saw Marai leap, and knew somehow what she fought, even though I could not see it. I saw another blot of emptiness, and her landing put her back to it. I snapped the control of my vibro-sword to it’s highest setting the whine biting into my nerves as I threw it in a flat arch like a bicycle chain. Marai was stabbing forward, and she turned oh so slightly, the tip of my blade passing her hip.Then it struck, and I saw the man suddenly appear as he fell in parts.

 

*****

 

Xarga

 

The recruits stood there like morons, and I body slammed three of them down before the grenade went off wiping two more from existence like the god’s own whisk broom. I was on my feet, and felt a throat under my hand, felt hands clawing at my grip even though there was nothing there, then suddenly I felt a neck snap, and I was holding a man by the throat.

 

*****

 

Zuka

 

Gods don’t let me screw this up I prayed. We had turrets set up along the entry way and in the first section, and I keyed them, diving for cover. They had IFF systems, and weren’t supposed to shoot at us, but I was the one that wired them up. There was a hammering sound as superheated plasma raked the quadrant, and I looked up as men were blown off their feet. Of course they were camouflaged but these would spike a gnat if it flew across, and spotted the slightest discontinuity in the atmosphere. Not just body heat, but the very dislocation of the molecules as you moved quickly. “Screw me, they work!” I screamed.

 

*****

 

Kelborn

 

I am shadow, I am grass waving in the breeze I thought. I was kneeling in the passageway. Their technology and force was good, but I had been trained to heat the falling of a leaf and they were making a hell of a lot more noise.

 

I cocked my fists back on either side of my body, hands even with my head. I saw them as slight ripples in the air, running toward the Jedi who was back by the hanger.

 

I felt their bodies hit me, and I triggered the blades, 30 centimeters of battle steel shot from my forearm along the guides in my gloves, and they were falling screaming as I retracted them. “Stupid.” I hissed. “As if we don’t know what stealth is.”

 

*****

 

Davrel

 

I’m going to die! My mind screamed. There were coming, and I could see the ripples as men ran through the depleted minefield. We’d killed fifty, a hundred, and they still came!

 

The Big Thunder heavy blaster rifle fired, and I ripped into them with the bolts. They weren’t the little pellets of a hand weapon that will explode against you flesh. They were designed to combat armored vehicles, things with a thickness of a warship on their bows, and guns to match.

 

A man exploded into a mist and still I fired. “Sulash! More ammo! Damn you-” He was looking at me, one eye laying on his cheek. One of them had thrown something, and it had blasted through his head. I felt the urge to vomit, but I grabbed the magazines he had brought, training taking over as I slammed another in and kept killing

 

*****

 

Bao Dur

 

I instinctively kicked Kex in the knee, and he dropped. That saved his life. I recognized the stun staff, my prosthetic arm coming up, the blast of electricity ripping through it. I was lucky. I had worried ever since it had been attached that I would accidentally cause an arc with it, and I had insulated it to the point that I could handle a bolt of raw lightning if it sat still long enough. The charge fried every servo and circuit, but didn’t hit me.

 

Not that it was all peaches and cream. The arm spasmed, throwing me to the die, and I rolled at the assassin struck at me. I was on my back looking up when a blade ripped through the man’s chest.

 

Kex pulled me to my feet. “We’re clear for a moment.” he said. “Sit.”

 

“What?”

 

“You’re going to be worthless if we don’t fix that arm.” He pushed me into a chair, pulled out a set of repair goggles, and picked up some micro tools. “I do this right, it’ll take me just a moment. I do it wrong, you’ll have to get another arm.” He flipped them down, and popped the access panel.

 

“Why are you helping me?” I asked. “Do you know how many Mandalorians I killed during the war?”

 

“Not enough.” He snorted. “We’re still here.”

 

“Seriously.”

 

“You’re on our side in this one aren’t you?” He leaned forward. “Good just the circuit breakers. You do good work. Here we-” The arm clicked, and I saw the diagnostic screen light up. “All right, easy to fix. But better to rewire until later.”

 

*****

 

Mandalore

 

Who dares? I stepped out, and ducked back, a shadowy hand shooting past my face. I caught the arm, lifted, and threw him into the wall. He bounced off, coming into view like a special effect, and I pounced on his back, my hand catching under his chin. I pulled, and felt the explosive crack of his spine shearing. Then I had drawn my weapon.

 

*****

 

Kumus

 

I dropped the magazines at Gun seven, and turned. I dropped, and something came over my head. I was a warrior born and trained. I knew I wasn’t smart enough to be a sergeant, or calm enough to be a scout. They called me the Boma because I was big, and when I got angry, I beat the hell out of people.

 

I came up, feeling the extended arm over my head, and my arms wrapped around the body it came from. I squeezed, feeling arms frantically beating at me, fists pounding on my shoulders, trying to make me let him go. Feet kicked, trying to groin me, but that much I had learned, and those blows hit rocky thighs.

 

There was a snapping sound, and he went limp in my arms. He was crippled from the waist down, and I lowered him until I felt his neck in my meaty fists. I grabbed that throat and squeezed, holding until there was no motion, no breath, no heart beat.

 

*****

 

Marai

 

I was everywhere and no where. I know I was watching myself as well, the man who died as I rounded the first corner was proof enough. The Handmaiden came up, and she was running to my left and slightly ahead, shield maiden to me.

 

A man appeared out of whatever stealth ability this was, and held a grenade. “Jedi! Surrender or they die!”

 

That door led to one of the bunkers, filled with children the aged and women.

 

I hesitated, and suddenly there was a blur. The little boy that had given me that flower had leaped out, biting the hand, trying to get the grenade away from him. The man screamed, and he caught the boy by the throat. Then I was there. I saw the shock in his eyes as the blade went into and through him, pinning him like an insect. I slapped the grenade from his hand, and threw it as if i hoped it would reach escape velocity. Thirty meter up it exploded, shrapnel raking the grass and walls.

 

I peeled his hand away from the boy’s throat. Gods, he wasn’t

 

breathing! “No! I will not kill another child!” I screamed. I lay him down, breathed into his mouth, massaged his chest, felt his heart hammer, then he rolled, coughing.

 

I cried as I saw him, and he rolled back, looking up at me.

 

He coughed again, motioning me down. “I saw my mother do this. Does this mean we’re mated?” He asked in a whisper.

 

I laughed, holding him. If I could have guaranteed his life forever I would have said yes.

 

*****

 

There is a moment where everything catches up with you after a battle. Before that it is a swirl of madness, where all you see is the enemy before you, your friend fighting or dying. You act on instinct, or that poor second, training. And survival was a matter of luck.

 

They did a study long ago that the most men die in the first thirty days of combat. A lot of militaries tried to create training scenarios that would put you through 30 days of hell without killing you, so you had a better chance of survival.

 

But you know it’s training. When the sensors on your clothes went off, they didn’t toe tag you and stick you in a bag, you went back to barracks where some leather lunged sergeant tore a strip off you. You knew that all you had to do was say to hell with it and stand up. They might wash you out, but you wouldn’t have to put up with the crap anymore.

 

But in real battle, it’s the experienced smart and lucky that are still standing afterward.

 

I walked the field with Mandalore. The loses were heavy. Fifteen of the Mandalore, some of them no more than boys were dead. I found Davrel by the weapon he had manned, kneeling beside his own vomit, his eyes on the body beside him.

 

“Davrel.” He didn’t look up. I could hear a keening in his mind. His innocence had been blown to shards with the men he had killed in the minefield. I knelt, turning his head to he was staring in my eyes. “Davrel, it’s over. You did well.”

 

“I... I panicked. I saw Sulash laying there, dying. He was my friend! He was...”

 

“You saw that and you manned your gun. You killed three score of them out there by our count, and it was only after the battle was over that you fell apart.” I pulled him to me, and he cried. For his friend, for the dead he had caused, and for all he had lost in that first embrace with death.

[machievelli]

Departure

 

Marai

 

I went to the repair shop. The Handmaiden joined me. “What are you doing?” She asked me. Bao Dur, whom I had called arrived before I could answer.

 

“What have we here?” He took a loupe, slipped it over his eye, and began looking over each piece with care. “All right, General we have enough parts for two lightsabers.”

 

I looked at him, and the young girl I had taken to train. “This is where it must be your decision, my sister. Will you take up the Jedi’s weapon?”

 

She looked at the fragments sitting on the table. Then at me. There was a firmness that had nothing to do with what she had been taught before. I remembered this time when I was only eleven, a skilled Jedi merely guiding my hands to do that I would do for myself now, what I would guide her to do.

 

“Lead me, teacher.” She said, bowing her head.

 

“The crystals used by the Jedi are usually divided into three sects. The Consular were always the smallest in number. The ones that went to talk rather than fight, though they were well trained in defense. They had the shades of green. The sentinels are our watchmen. They guided us in seeking out those that would destroy what we always strove to protect. Then there are the Guardians, the knights and warriors of our kind. They were the ones that put their bodies on the line to protect all peoples.” I picked up three crystals. They had once belonged to Lazasar, Rian, and Mach. Of those that had given their lives upon this world, I could think of no better to represent us.

 

“I am and have always been a warrior my sister. I shall be one again, if I may live up to that charge.”

 

I held up the blue crystal, and told her of Mach, of his cunning, his sense of honor, his willingness to die facing an oppressor. She had tears in her eyes as she accepted the crystal. I chose Karin’s violet crystal. Sweet gentle Karin with the soul of a poet, and the heart of a Krayt Dragon. Guide me, my sister now gone. Never let me fail this one I teach.

 

I lay the parts down in a line. I picked up the housing. “First you must fix the crystal in the emitter matrix, then carefully inset the lens like so... “

 

*****

 

 

Mandalore

 

I looked at myself in disgust. I had gotten used to wearing full armor again, and to see myself dressed as a common mercenary bothered me. I picked up the heavy blaster rifle, checking it’s weight. My own personal weapon, it had weights in the back so that when I swung it up on target, the barrel didn’t pull the muzzle down.

 

I heard a knock, and Kelborn looked in. “Mandalore, you have to see this.”

 

I stepped out of my quarters. The battle circle was cleared, and the woman and the young girl faced each other. Then like something from a legend, beams of lambent fire leaped from their hands. Both had decided on the saber staffs, twin beams running from their fists. They faced each other, then suddenly they came together in combat.

 

It had been a long time. I remembered watching them all of that faithful journey. Bastila, The foundling Sasha who had been raised for three years by my kind, and discovered her warrior heart in a child. The Cathar woman Juhani, the old man Jolee. And the one I had wished would have been Mando-a by birth, Revan, now merely Danika Wordweaver. The problem with living to my age is that most of the people you remember are dead and gone by this time. I didn’t know what had happened to any of them.

 

They stepped aside, looking at each other appraisingly, then the beams died. Two women dressed as if they had just come off a tramp spacer. Warriors.

 

“If we’re going, we had best get to it.” They looked at me. The older and younger. Both had that same look in their eye.

 

*****

 

Bao Dur

 

I finished tuning the arm, then bent it smoothly. The hyper drive generator had a tuner problem according to the General, and sure enough I was able to detect a slight variance. But to correct it, I needed the arm in it’s best working order.

 

“Got a minute?” Atton was greasy and tired after a long day of repairs.

 

“I’m kind of busy here.”

 

“Really, it’s just a little thing. Won’t take a moment.”

 

I sighed, then got the micro-spanner out, adjusting my eye piece. “I’ll work, you talk.”

 

He moved over beside the workbench. “You’re friend, the Jedi. You knew way back when, right?” I grunted. “How much do you know about her really?”

 

“You mean the General.” I replied. “Sure, I knew her during the war, if that’s what you mean by way back. But I only served with her. So did a few hundred thousand others. Can’t say I really got to know her.”

 

“Better than anyone else on this ship. I just want your opinion, that’s all.”

 

“Opinions. Yeah I have those.”

 

“Now don’t laugh-”

 

“Atton, is there and end to this song and dance? I’m trying to work here.”

 

“Well, I was just wondering if, you know, she and I would be...”

 

I stopped, looking at him, grinning. “You’re serious.”

 

“Hey, you said you wouldn’t laugh.”

 

“I’m not laughing. You’re really serious, and expect me to grease the skids for you? Atton, I was a Tech when I met her, and a Lieutenant in Technical section when we served up to Malachor V. Your guess is as good as mine.”

 

“But what’s your guess?”

 

I straightened the arm. “I guess I’m ready to go back to work.” I closed the tool box and picked it up.

 

“Hey, I’m being serious here!”

 

“And I seriously need to get this fixed.” I waved at him as I opened the deck plate and climbed down.

 

Behind me I heard T3 say something.

 

“Oh so you’re laughing at me too, you obsolete block of printed circuits? I’ll put alcohol in your oil if you keep it up!”

 

*****

 

Mandalore

 

The shuttle was cramped and tight. It was designed for two, and we had put in another seat because we Mando-a don’t need the frills. The younger girl took the forward seat, Marai merely curling up in the back like a massive homicidal cat. I lifted off, and we headed almost straight up.

 

People say some gods have a sick sense of humor and the Onderon/Dxun trinary prove it. Two worlds formed in the space that should have only supported one. Close enough that they should have broken up, instead they spun around a common axis tidally locked in a day almost three times the standard. They should have crashed into each other and been destroyed, Or perhaps their rotation should have flung them apart but the Gods had an off day. Another body, the forest moon Zanetro saved them from that. It rotated around both of them, it’s gravity pulling them away from each other when at a tangent, and together when at the tidal points. This maintained a separation of just over 500 kilometers apart at perihelion, and 2500 at aphelion.

 

Gravity play tricks in such close proximity. The atmospheres of the two bodies intermingled like liquid in a blender. The first settlers back in the mists of history had chosen the slightly larger body. Luckily for them, because the system would have been uninhabited until the next ship if they had chosen Dxun as home.

 

Dxun is home to more predators than any planet except for Deralia. But the largest one on Dxun was only about three tons weight. The ecosystem is extremely active, and the atmosphere thick enough to support large flying animals, and the Brantarii, the ‘demon dragon’ is the largest. There were a lot of them on both world, and pundits postulated parallel evolution, even though it had been disproved so many times through the millennia. Even with exactly the same ecosystem, which they did not have, two planets would not evolve exactly the same animals.

 

But less than thirty years later they discovered that the Brantarii came to Onderon from Dxun, flying straight up like cruise missiles until they were caught by the larger planet’s gravity. They did this because the competition was fierce on Dxun and they could get away, unlike their ground based brethren.

 

How Boma, Cannocks and Drexl had made the trip is still subject to a fierce debate. Some say that an unnamed race had seeded both planets with them before humans arrived 20,000 years ago. Another that the first survey team had picked up pairs for study, and crashed on Onderon, freeing them there.

 

But the humans arrive in the only section of the continent that had been free of them originally. Otherwise they wouldn’t have survived. The first colonists took horrendous losses the first few years. Small brantarii can take something the size of a human child, the larger ones could take a full grown nerf. Boma will eat anything smaller than they were, as will Drexl, and cannock hunt in packs.

 

So they had built the first walled settlement where Iziz is today. That settlement, large enough for about four hundred is preserved near the center of the now 160,000 square kilometer city with it’s thirty meter walls. To those of you from most Rim world it’s huge. But it could be dropped into the average Coruscanti neighborhood and be lost. It is home to over a billion people now. The rest of the planet belongs to the animals and the Beast Riders.

 

We came in without all the problems the Republic ships had been having. After all, our transponder read as local.

 

“It is interesting.” Marai said from were she reclined. “The local news feed is, confused.”

 

“You’re telling me?” I asked her.

 

“It is the trend I am noticing. I have accessed the major media networks, and indexed their past recordings. The new is being systematically suppressed.” She scrolled down. “What is not being suppressed is heavily slanted against the Republic.”

 

“But why?” The girl asked.

 

“Someone wanted the people angry at the Republic. Maybe they want to secede.”

 

We came in over the ocean.

 

“There it is. Iziz.” They looked at the city as we approached. It was impressive. They’ve been shut down tight for the last four months or so. General Vaklu is ready to declare martial law any day now. Even without it, most of the city is banned to uitlanders.” I saw the blank look on the girl’s face. “The unclean ones from the stars. We’re allowed in the Star port, main market center, and the Western Square which is the only area open to the foreigners for recreation.”

 

“How do they feel about having Mandalorians here again?” The girl asked.

 

“Very few people know about it.” I admitted. “I made a secret agreement with the queen two years ago to use Dxun as a staging ground because it already has places for my people to live until we‘re ready to go home.”

 

“They enjoy it there?” The girl looked at me askance.

 

“It isn’t a matter of enjoyment. If the place where you live is dangerous, you learn to adapt or die. You build walls,” He waved at the wall as we passed over it. “Or you find a way to bend nature to your command, like the Beast Riders did for the last four and a half centuries. As much as Vaklu preaches about ‘racial purity‘, his family is more Beast Rider than city dweller.”

 

We settled in, and I shut down. “You do the talking. They still don’t like my people here.”

 

“What kind of ‘secret’ agreement?”

 

I considered. Then shrugged. “I promised not to invade, and if she needs help, she can call us in to fight for her gratis.” I looked at their wary eyes. “My word is my bond.” I popped the hatch seal. “But of course we can’t just stroll into the palace, kick up our feet and order tihaar. Secret means just that. I have an old friend that we can contact in the western square. A doctor of sorts.”

 

Iziz

 

Kavar

 

If she wasn’t half my age, I would have been attracted to Queen Talia. At least until she opened her mouth.

 

“Vaklu is saying the Republic freighter opened fire first? You have already shown me our own sensor records from our ships and ground stations!”

 

“I know that, Your Majesty. But Vaklu is screaming that you are covering it up, and his men have assured there are enough faked records for people to look at.”

 

“This is madness!”

 

“Unfortunately, the common man on the street in your city doesn’t want to hear the truth. The lie says what they believe.” I had to feel a bit sorry for her.

 

The Onderoni had been subjugated by the Mandalorians under Exar Kun, been occupied again after that war when the Mandalorian moved back in from Dxun until the battle. Then the fear the Revan and later Malak would do and end run and occupy them again. Her father had brought them into the Republic, and one of his own citizens had repaid him with a sniper’s bolt right about the time the Mandalorian wars ended.

 

Now her cousin General Vaklu had again taken up the flag of separatism. He’d hoped to be named regent, but her aunt Klassa had gotten that position. The girl had taken the throne officially just last year. He Aunt was still a full blooded beast Rider though. Talia could ride a Boma or Brantarii with the best of them, fought well with both sword and paired daggers. She was lithe and well formed and all of about eighteen years old. Muscles rippled when she walked, and even the long ceremonial robes she was required to wear could not disguise her feline grace. Her voice had the harsh sound of the nomads.

 

“The timing of this incident could not have been worse! A space battle over head, fourteen Republic Freighters damaged and three destroyed. Seventeen fighters lost. My supporters are being ridiculed!”

 

“According to com logs, all of the fighters belonged to Colonel Tobin’s Fighter Wing-”

 

That Schutta!”

 

I winced at the Twi-Leki curse. She swore like a Beast Rider too. If only more of them voted! “Strong words, Your Majesty. But there is no good time for news such as this. We must go ahead with the plan.”

 

“But won’t that bring even more dissidents to my Cousin’s cause?”

 

“For a time, yes. But we both know he is not the real threat. It is his supporters in the shadows that are the danger. We must find a way to drag them into the light. Only then can we strike.” I stopped, and she continued walking for a moment before she noticed. She turned to face me. “Your Majesty, when you prorogue you Parliament, They will be forced to come out of hiding. All of his supporters will have to openly ally with him, and the rot will be revealed.”

 

She sighed, and we walked on. “I fear it is already too late.”

 

“Where there is life, there is hope.” I said.

 

She chuckled. “Tell that to someone swallowed by an adult Boma.”

 

Handmaiden

 

The city was open, spacious, and well designed. But it was still oppressive. The Port Authority officer was almost glad to see us. The two or three hundred coking bays were almost completely empty.

 

“You haven’t been here in a while.” He said to Mandalore. “If it wasn’t for the little shuttles in the system, I might as well sit home and drink. Must be hard to shuttle people from place to place what with the blockade and the Republic gearing up for an attack.”

 

“The blockade I noticed.” Mandalore waved. “But i was just out there, and there isn’t any Republic fleet. Just a lot of angry merchantmen.”

 

“Didn’t you hear about the battle yesterday? A corvette using a faked transponder tried to land a spy team but the Iron Eagles caught them!” He was like an old gossip unwilling to let a good bit of news lie. “Then the two Republic merchant cruisers that had escorted the raider opened fire on them and they had to destroy them all.”

 

“And how do you know that?”

 

“The Data-Free network did an entire series on it just last night. General Vaklu spoke personally.” He sighed. “But it does make my job more boring. Military checkpoints, half the city closed off under local control the new Visa regulations-”

 

“Visa regulations?”

 

“Ah that’s right I almost forgot.” He handed each of us a data chip and a small transponder. “Hook that on your belt. The restrictions stop anyone from getting to the Space Port area without these papers and transponders. It’s just as bad throughout the city. Papers have to be shown to go from cantonment to cantonment. If you don’t have your papers, you can’t go anywhere.

 

But if you’re visiting it isn’t half as bad as those poor bastard in orbit. The regulations require full search and inventory of every Republic ship arriving. I’m not talking the easy ‘what have you got’ I normally do. I’m talking full scanning teams every crate opened and visually inspected, hull and compartments scanned for any hidden spaces. Not even the most daring smuggler would try to bring anything in. Captain-owners are looking at the profit margin and the Corporations have already stopped running to us.”

 

“How long has it been like this?” Marai asked.

 

“This bad? Just the last few weeks. But the original visa regulations are a year old and the first transport checkpoints were tightened four months ago. Bad days. Captain I’d suggest you sit back and find something more... interesting to keep you occupied for a while.” He leered at the two of us. but Marai was thoughtful and I had learned to ignore such comments. “Well, is there any thing else?”

 

“Yeah.“ Mandalore handed him the manifest. “You were supposed to ask ‘what have you got’. Manifest is there, the can is still sealed. It can go into the bonded warehouse. My spare can should be ready, just have them lock it on. All I need is your thumbprint.”

 

We got it, and walked out into the square. If anything it was worse there. We discovered there were also new restrictions on what could be shipped from place to place in the massive city. We passed a lifter full of frozen meat, the driver asleep behind the controls. From the line he was in, he might have been there for more than a Onderoni day.

 

The shuttle to the Merchant quarter had a queue as well. We had an hour wait, and Marai stopped, her head coming up. I sent out that newfound sense, trying to feel...

 

Animals, lots of them. Marai turned from the queue, and went through into the next area. Mandalore merely grunted, and waited patiently as we wandered off.

 

There were cannocks, Boma, Drexl, all in cages separated by their species, and a few young men moved among them, dressed in leather from nape to toe. They spoke softly to their charges, and as they did I felt them reaching out through the force to calm them. It was like yet unlike what I had seen Marai do on Dxun.

 

One of the men saw us, and I saw hope in his eyes. “Fair winds to you, off worlder. Is it too much to hope that you are from Telos?”

 

“I’m afraid not.” Marai answered.

 

His face fell. “Then the winds still taste of misfortune. We will have to wait.” While sad, there was resolve in his words. The Beast Riders were a pragmatic lot.

 

She stood, and I could see her counting. “Why do a hundred beasts sit here still?”

 

“The Ithorians have a ship in orbit even now.”

 

“Seven if you count the Telosians and the ones awaiting consignments.” One of the other men offered.

 

“Silence when elders speak.” The first man said, but it was a gentle admonition. “My younger brother speaks true. But they must wait through the endless unnecessary searches. It is not as if they have thousand of compartment, their bulk cargo ships after all. Yet the customs searches almost seem to concentrate on them above all.” He waved at the warehouse we were in. “It is as if the warehouse were empty, but they needs must rip out the Ferro Crete slab to check under it.” He sighed. “We have stopped taking the beasts, but that leaves our young with nothing to do in the hills but make trouble.”

 

“Why are they called beast riders?” I asked softly. He heard me, and looked at me.

 

“Come.” We walked through the warehouse to a field outside it. Brantarii paced there, tied with a single line to each massive neck. One of them saw me, and his wings spread to their full fifteen meter length.

 

“When the dark wizard Freedon Nadd ruled, we were banished to the wastes beyond, but my people were a hardy folk. We learned of where to hide and live away from the beasts. The mountains became our city. But some of us can reach the mind of the animals, and Goren the great was the first to discover the secret of the brantarii. If captured young, they can be raised as pets by those able to touch their minds. It is the most important step between being bound to the earth, or flying the skies as we do.” He reached up and that massive head, large enough to devour me whole dipped so he could stroke it.

 

“We thrived. Life was hard, and those of us that could fly did what we could for our land bound brothers. We learned that those of us that could touch a beast mind could guide the beast with our thoughts back to feed our people.

 

“Then half a century ago, Galia, princess of the Royal house and our greatest hero Oron Kira eloped. The queen was furious, and even called the Jedi against us. But Those who were sent saw the love the two had for each other, and stood against the Queen and her armies.

 

"They married, and even having her banished as well did not work. When Queen Amanoa died, her chosen successor was weak. Galia was begged to return, and she did. Their love united our people again. But it came with a terrible price. It has begun to unravel, and even our beasts can smell it in the air.”

 

“Your people changed to fit back into the city.” Marai said softly. He looked at her. “Your people were nomads, moving with the seasons along the great mountain chain. Living by what you could wrest from nature. Truth became the currency most dear, and suddenly you were thrown into a place where deceit was as common as truth before.”

 

“Aye, you see the pain of it. Some of ours have fallen to this bitter fruit of deception. They have left the mountains, foresworn the honor of our people. They have become little more than thugs. Queen Talia spent her young life with her aunt among us, and she loves our people, even as Vaklu who was willing to use us in his war against the Mandalorians does not. Honor is something worth more than coin to us, yet when we would not stand with him against our sovereign, he decided we were less than dust. They argue now in full council, and those that support him speak of the ‘creatures’ we are in comparison.” He was not angry, merely saddened.

 

There was a roar within, and we turned. Almost as if an order had been given, we followed the Beast Rider back into the warehouse.

 

People think animals weak or unbearably stupid. A farmer puts up a fence of mere wire strands to hold a herd of half ton Nerf because the beasts do not realize that even the weakest among them has the strength to push the barrier aside.

 

A half grown Boma barely a ton and a half in weight was thrashing about, and before the cage a young beast rider was standing, hands out, speaking. “Calm, my brother, be at peace...” The beast flailed, and his tail ripped through the heavy cage as if it were tissue paper. Like a child climbing from the womb, it began to wriggle out.

 

“We shall have to kill it!” Our guide shouted. The beast riders converged, drawing stun batons and shock sticks.

 

Marai stepped forward, shrugging off the man who grabbed her arm. She extended her hand. “Why are you so angry my pet?” She asked in a conversational tone. The beast turned to face her, then it staggered as it tried to charge. “No, I am unworthy of your attentions.” It struggled mentally, and I could touch the edges of what she was doing, like feeling with blind hands upon a wall looking for a door.

 

She came forward in a slow glide, hand out stretched, and the beast flinched back. But her hand came down on it’s head.

 

“You are hungry, but that is not the most important thing.” She whispered, her hand running across that huge blunt head. “You want darkness, the blessing of sleep.” She motioned to me.

 

“A cage, covered so it appears to be night.” I ordered. One of the men ran off, then came back motioning to me. As soon as I had checked, I came back. “It is ready, Marai.”

 

“Good. There is a cave so near. A cave that is dark and warm, where nothing can eat you.” She moved away and the Boma waddled after her. The cage was open, and she knelt, brushing her cheek on it’s head. “Sleep my love. Soon you will be in open fields able to run and hunt to your heart’s content.” It wuffled in confusion, then crawled into the cage, turning then dropping to rest like a giant cat. Marai closed the cage, and turned.

 

We were surrounded by a stunned crowd of Beast riders. The young man that had failed to calm it hung his head. “Not since my first young Drexl have I failed so completely.”

 

“Not so my young lad.” Marai came over. “You are tired, it has been a long day, and the beast felt your frustration. Do not let that frustration enter your thoughts and you will not fail again.”

 

“I will heed your words.”

 

“The beasts grow more agitated every day, as do we.” Their leader sighed. “It is like the old stories.”

 

“Stories?” Marai asked.

 

“It is said that when Freedon Nadd first came, he used the anger of the beasts as proof of the people’s unworthiness. It is said that there were weeks of our days where they would attack the walls, climbing over themselves to try to kill them. He devised a test that would find this evil, and every one who failed the test and their families were cast from the city to become the ancestors of the Beast Riders.

 

“Vaklu points to the old tales, to the disquiet among the beasts we bring. He claims that the old stories are right, and that it proves that we are the evil of this world, and driving us back beyond the walls will cleanse the city again.”

 

“And what does the Queen say?”

 

“It does not matter. He merely claims that she is the root of that evil, that she has been possessed by it, and only when she is gone will the city be pure again.”

 

The com link chimed, and Marai lifted it. “Yes?”

 

“We’re close enough along to catch the next shuttle if you move real quick.” Mandalore replied.

 

“On our way.” She bowed to the Beast Rider. “Truth is a heady wine, and I think it is time your planet drank deep, even if it drives them mad. Soon it will happen. All you need to do is wait a bit longer.”

 

“We are good at waiting.” The Beast rider replied. “Fair winds and open skies to you.”

 

“May your beast take you to paradise.” She replied.