You broke the set
Now there's, there's only singles
There's no looking back
This time I mean it
The Planet Mandalore
36 BBY
As soon as they saw the Kom'rk fighter touch down, Genet and Ret raced for the farmhouse. He went the long way around but she cut straight through the barq field and made it there ahead of him but out of breath. She could smell the behot leaves on the boil for shig and knew Mama must be entertaining someone in the kitchen.
"Mama, we saw a ship!" the little girl burst in.
A man stood facing her mother in full beskar'gam . He took off his helmet and shook his head. "Manda, Parj, she's the very image of you when you were that age."
Mama beaconed her forward. "Genet, this is my big brother."
"Whoa!" Ret came racing in a moment later. "Uncle Ghez!"
" Oya, verd'ika !" The man hugged the little boy and then held him back at arm's length. "How old are you now?"
"Just turned seven." He made a face at his sister, for beating him there. "She's only four. She probably doesn't even remember you."
"I do so!" Genet sniped but she tucked herself a little behind her mother when the big man's focus turned towards her again.
"Do you know your Resol'nare ?" he asked her.
Genet nodded and began to recite the words, " Ba'jur bal beskar'gam, Ara'nov, aliit, Mando'a bal Mand'alor— An vencuyan mhi. " She liked the sound of the funny little nonsense rhyme so it had been easy enough to memorize.
Her uncle nodded approvingly, "But do you know what it means?"
The little girl didn't but her big brother spoke right up, "It means: Education and armor, Self-defense, our tribe, Our language and our leader— All help us survive."
"You know, Parja," Uncle Ghez ruffled Ret's blond hair. "Their cousins, Gar and Tiber, were already wearing the armor by the time they were this age."
Mama shook her head. "Not everyone has to fight. An army marches on its stomach. Someone has to provide the provisions."
"Is that what your riduur is doing now?"
She nodded. "He and the older boys are loading the harvest into transport to be delivered to Concord Dawn." She looked unconcerned as she went to get the shig off the stove and pour it into cups.
Uncle Ghez picked up a case off the floor, set it on the table, and started to open it. "I thought maybe since you asked me to bring you this that you had changed your mind."
Both Genet and Ret looked curiously into the case to see what it might hold. "Is that beskar?"
"It was your Mama's before she ran off and married your buir."
"Ghez," Mama chided him as she handed him his shig, then reached into the case and lifted out a pauldron. She ran her thumb over the sigil that matched the one on her brother's shoulder.
"You were raised to rally when called," he reminded her.
She set the armor piece back with a sigh. "This will be put to good use."
"When, Parja? We have the Kryze girl on the run. Sources say she's gone into hiding with a couple of jetti aruetii . This is our chance to move in and…"
"And who exactly is Kyr'tsad planning on putting in her place?" Mama lowered her voice and used a word Genet didn't understand but Ret obviously did.
He gasped.
Genet whispered to him, "What's wrong? What's Kyr'tsad ?"
Her brother whispered back, "It's Deathwatch! Now kuur so I can hear them!"
"We may be out here in the middle of nowhere but the last we heard Jango had done a ba'slan shev'la ," Mama was saying.
Genet tugged on her brother's sleeve.
Ret explained, "It means he went into hiding."
Uncle Ghez answered Mama proudly. "Well, maybe we don't need the Fetts. Maybe it's time a Saxon stepped up to rule as Mand'alor ."
Mama seemed to remember that her young children were present. She told Ret to run out and ask Buir and the vode if they would be ready to take a break for supper soon, but he lingered by the door to listen.
"I've really got to get going too, but Parja," Ghez set down his cup and gave her a hard look. "I came as your brother to ask you to join your family in this fight. I doubt if the next recruiter who comes knocking will be as indulgent."
Mama took hold of Genet's hand and they watched him board his ship and take off into the atmosphere before she scooped up the armor case and hurried to follow Ret towards the barn where the others were just getting finished loading the transport.
"Are we going along to take the harvest to Concord Dawn?" Ret asked, confused at the desperate flurry of activity.
"That's only the first stop," Saviin replied, stoically, and accepted a hug from both of their parents before boarding the ship with his twin.
Ret gaped at them. "You mean we're going ba'slan shev'la like the Fett's?"
"Your Mama and I don't believe it's safe for you and your vode to stay on Manda'yaim right now," Buir explained.
Meanwhile, Mama was handing the armor case to Daryc. "The buyer will meet you on Concord Dawn while you unload the produce. You will need to take the credits and use them to make a new start."
"We're not coming back here?" Genet could feel the tears beginning to fill her eyes and trickle down her cheeks, but there was something even worse. "And you and Buir aren't coming with us?"
"We'll send for you if we can, when things settle down here," Buir hugged her tightly. "Or maybe the new place you find will be even better and we'll be able to come and join you there."
Mama also gave her one last hug. "Trust your brothers, Cyar'ika . They will always be with you."
Onderon
Present day
Genna rubbed at the phantom ache in her knee. It didn't really accomplish anything other than give her something to do with her hands. It had been a slow morning and while she'd been hoping to spend some more time getting to know Tech, she had instead found his brother Echo there to meet her when she arrived from her daily trip to the orchard.
He hadn't offered to help her arrange the produce. That was fine. She knew the way she liked it and how it would look most inviting to her customers.
He sat just inside the stall, behind the column that held up the awning, where he couldn't really be seen by the passersby. Genna didn't blame him for wanting to stay in the shade. He had to be boiling in that hooded jacket.
It was the making conversation part that she found difficult. With Tech it had been interesting and she had felt comfortable opening up about her past. Echo's questions felt more like an interrogation.
Maybe Tech's brothers were just being protective. Manda knows the grilling her brothers would have given anyone she was interested in. That was why her own love life had been a series of shallow interactions. Or maybe she just hadn't met the guy she really wanted to bring to meet her family.
Genna sighed. It was also possible that they thought she was somehow mixed up in this thing they were trying to investigate. She wasn't, so she thought she might as well just be honest.
She continued with her story after finishing up with a customer. "So my brothers and I arrived here on Onderon and we had the credits from the sale of Mama's beskar to get the Rupingwood farm and the house and this market stall. Mr Rupingwood had died and his daughter wanted to move up north."
"That's how I have the connections to the greenhouses there and I can order things that aren't in season locally. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Who would have thought that anything would grow up there on an icy rock in the middle of the sea…" She trailed off, unsure if he was really listening.
"Is that where it happened?" He finally broke the silence.
"Where what happened?"
Echo pointed with his left hand across the square. "Every time you look in the direction of the rebuilding project, you rub your leg."
Did she? Genna looked down at her own hand resting on her knee and then across the marketplace to where the city officials still hadn't bothered to complete the work.
"It was during the war. The northerners were besieging the city, trying to get in to help the Rebels, maybe? Not sure what made them finally want to get involved in Iziz politics but we knew they had no love for King Rash. Maybe they didn't know that the rebels had drawn the droids out into the highlands or maybe it was just the chance they were waiting for to break through the wall. Whatever it was, it was chaos when they hit the streets. Nobody knew who was on which side and the civilians were caught in the middle. I wasn't even supposed to be in the market that day but I knew this is where Sav and Keb would be. I heard Sav say, 'run' and di'kut that I am, I ran towards the danger instead of away."
Genna sniffed and blinked back tears. "When I woke up in the med center I was alone and my legs didn't work and they told me both of the twins had been killed."
She glanced over at Echo and noticed him taking off his jacket. Good, she thought, now he would be more comfortable in this heat. Then she started rambling "Saviin and Kebiin were identical. We always joked that they were our very own clones but they were every bit as different as you and…"
The words caught in her throat as she got her first real look at him, and gaped. It wasn't just his pallor but the rivets that were screwed into his head.
He reached out as if to keep her from screaming, which might have been reassuring if some kind of spanner hadn't been attached where his right hand should have been.
To her credit she did not scream. "Kriff!" she choked out. "What happened to you? I don't mean to be rude but…"
He lowered his… appendage and smiled at her reaction. Then in the spirit of full disclosure he bent forward on the crate where he was sitting and began to roll up his pant legs to show her that both of his lower extremities were also made of metal.
"You weren't the only one who lost brothers and woke up to find yourself altered," he said softly.
Genna's gut twisted. At least he could walk. "You had someone there to put you back together again. I would have had to leave Onderon to go to a med center that could do the procedure… not to mention it would have taken our whole savings and Ret didn't want to take over the business so we wouldn't have had any income." She exhausted her rant and looked at him again. He had obviously been through far worse than she could even imagine.
Calmly he answered, "I would have been left for dead if it hadn't been for my captain and Hunter and the others. And the fact that I had intel stored in here that was valuable to both sides." He knocked on his temple with his remaining hand. "We were bred to live and fight and die for the Republic."
"Like the brothers you lost?"
Echo nodded. "We were just regular troopers, my original squad, Domino Squad, and not very good ones until we learned to work together as a unit."
He proceeded to tell her about Cut-up and Droid Bait and Heavy's sacrifice on the Rishi Moon. He told her about he and Fives's advancement to ARC trooper and how they had mourned the others privately. Then he told her about the mission to the Citadel Prison and attempting to rescue Tarkin (yes, she had heard of him, who hadn't?) and the little Jedi master.
He said he remembered the heat of the explosion and then it was all a jumble of pain and streams of data and crying out for his brothers, though he wasn't sure how much of that was real until Rex and Skywalker and the others came and took him out of that place.
Genna was holding his hand by the end of it, enthralled by the tale. That is until the shadow of a customer fell over her business counter. Only it wasn't a customer, it was Tech, and when she noticed his gaze locked on her hand clasped with Echo's she dropped it quickly.
"Echo was just telling me about the Domino Squad," she informed him in a rushed breath. She was almost sure she detected a hint of jealousy at her closeness to his brother.
"Well, I finished with your datapad. It is now running at maximum efficiency and I had thought I might show you the modifications I made to improve…" Tech swallowed and placed the unit down on the counter. "But if you're too busy just now I suppose it can wait."
He turned and started to walk away and Genna wanted to jump up and stop him but of course she couldn't. Instead she called out. "Tech, no, I want you to show me."
He looked back, unconvinced. "It can wait."
Genna hovered herself as quickly as she could around to the front of the fruit stand. "I also thought maybe we could see about that other thing I thought you could help me with."
"What? Now?"
She saw a bit of hope return to his experience and she smiled. "Yeah, it's been a slow day anyway. I could close up a little early and maybe Echo could just keep an eye on things for me?"
She glanced back for confirmation.
Echo, wearing his jacket once again, leaned on the pillar watching them with amusement. "Sure, I don't mind. You two go ahead. Where are you going exactly?"
"The orchard," they said together and both of them blushed.
Tech went on with the explanation, "Genna employs a Togruti family who have been helping her with the harvest but she has found it difficult conversing with them since they speak very little Basic. I told her I would be glad to be of service in translating their business negotiations."
"Well not negotiations really. I just want to make sure that they feel I am treating them fairly and paying them what they deserve for their work."
"I find the care that you take for their well being very admirable."
"Thank you," she lowered her eyes humbly and felt her cheeks color even more. "I really do appreciate your agreeing to go with me."
"It's my pleasure." Tech laid a hand over his heart, sincerely, and then spurred himself to action. "Will you be needing to attach your steering column and basket? I could help… but then I'm sure you're more than capable of doing it on your own."
"I wouldn't mind the help, actually. Maybe you could make sure that all that's working at maximum efficiency, like the datapad?" She picked up the device from the counter and hugged it to her chest before making her way around to the back of the fruit stall where she stashed her things while she was working.
He followed behind her like a lovesick strill and when she was ready, knelt before her to see how the apparatus made its connection to the mobility unit.
Looking down at him from this angle was quite a new thing altogether. They hadn't been in this close a proximity up till this point and when he distractedly wiped the back of his hand over his forehead to brush aside his wavy fringe she found she had to suppress the urge to run her fingers through his hair.
Then suddenly he looked up at her, eyes wide. "I'm sorry."
"For what?" She asked, confused, but distracted by his golden brown gaze staring into her.
"For touching your…"
She realized that his hand had bumped her leg while he was working on the hoverchair. She hadn't even felt it, of course she hadn't. "Oh. No, it's fine. Don't worry about it."
He stood in one fluid motion and took a step back, still studying her through those adorable goggles. "I believe the mobility unit is attached securely. I will need to observe the vehicle in action before I can properly diagnose the efficacy of its operation. I would like to be sure of its breaking and steering capacity after your close call yesterday morning."
"I find the care that you're taking for her well being to be very admirable," Echo smirked at them, once again from under the hood of his jacket.
Genna was amused to realize that she wasn't the only one who had forgotten that Tech's brother was still there with them.
Tech gave his brother a side long scowl of annoyance but he didn't comment. Instead he turned his focus back on Genna. "Are you ready to get going?"
"I am." She smiled and was rewarded with another of his shy smiles in return.