A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there was a sparsely inhabited planet colonized by a small group of humans. This group was being decimated by the droid armies of a Separatist occupation. The inhabitants had lived a simple life with little to no digital technology. They had electricity but farmed and ranched their food. They wove their own fabrics to sew their own modest clothing. And they never expected a war to come from the stars.
The men and boys of the town had tried to fight the droid army, but all paid with their lives. Their old-fashioned single shot hunting blasters were no match for the relentless automatic blaster fire of countless droids.
There were only a few towns on the whole of the planet and the population originally in the tens of thousands dwindled overnight to only a few hundred.
In the last town standing, nestled in a wooded valley, the remaining ladies and girls all huddled in a barn in their last attempt to take shelter from the raging invaders only steps from their door. The darkness of the night covered their flight through the woods and into a large old barn. They hid there waiting for their fate. The far off sounds off the CIS forces became louder and louder as they approached. The sound of their attackers was overwhelming, but not what the ladies had come to expect from the little news that filtered out to them from the surrounding towns. They expected fire, smoke, then the stomping of droid soldiers, and the ironing of their crops by tanks.
The droid army cut and burned much of the woods to flush out the human inhabitants. This last town was a complex of houses and buildings for storage, supplies and trades nestled in thick woods connected by dirt trails.
Sivvy Tierzen patted her youngest sister's shoulder to comfort her. As the eldest in her family she felt an obligation to care for her remaining siblings as her mother did. She thought of her late father and brothers. They're all gone. Someone must try and protect us. Mother is best to comfort them, but what can I do? What do we have left to fight with?
The ground began to quake and the younger girls began to scream. The elder woman quieted them, wiping their tears and holding them close. Sivvy's mind began to whirl as a kaleidoscope of lights and dust from approaching vehicles blew though the planks of the barn. She knew if they ran out the back they would be picked off by snipers. They had seen it happen before. The sound of blaster fire and grinding gears roared as the cacophony consumed all their senses. Fear and hopelessness paralyzed everyone. They were trapped and they were about to die.
"This is the underworld come to life!" mumbled their mother gripping one of her younger daughters close.
Then it all came to a sudden halt.
The women heard mechanical voices and the sound of marching feet coming towards the rickety old wooden barn doors. The sound of gravel and pebbles being crushed underfoot caused Sivvy to spring to her feet. I guess if papa and my brothers aren't here, it'll be me. She picked up a rusty old pitchfork and began to pile up the dried hay over the shaking girls and women.
"Sh! Sh!" She told them. "If you're quiet, they might not know you're here!" she whispered, covering their long floral print skirts and white bonneted heads with the dried grass.
When the several ladies were sufficiently covered, she heard the squeaking of the barn doors opening. Adrenaline burned through her veins like liquid fire. Sivvy was nearly blinded by the lights of the tank outside pouring into the barn. She held the pitchfork in an attack position anyway and readied herself to meet her brothers in the afterlife. Her black curls had slipped from under her white bonnet and stuck to the frame of her sweaty face.
The droids who walked through held bulky black blasters but were a different variety from the swarms of B1s the locals recognized. These technological terrors were white and blue, and their heads looked like mutated human skeletons.
The droids looked around and the one at the front, put his two hand held blasters back in their holsters. The others followed suit. Sivvy then saw the one in the lead reach its two hands up towards its head. She raised her pitchfork up threatening these new monsters. What is happening? Why haven't they fired on us? Are they toying with us? End this torture you bastards!
Sivvy twitched when she heard mechanical laughter from some in the back. She broke into a cold sweat, her heart raced, and her stomach twisted. The droid lifted is head off its shoulders. No, not a head. A helmet! A human! A human man, with buzzed blonde hair and stern golden-brown eyes! A soldier?
Sivvy's eyes went wide at the realization and the man said "Ma'am, I'm Captain Rex of the Galactic Army of the Republic." He reached a hand towards her in a calming gesture and some of the other soldiers removed their helmets as well.
Sivvy could feel they were safe and dropped the points of her makeshift weapon in the dirt floor of the barn.
Rex said "The battle is over. You're safe now. We're here to help."
Sivvy collapsed, dropped her head but clung to the wooden handle of the pitchfork. She let the tears of relief flow. Rex approached with another man who shared his face. "Do you speak Basic?" asked the captain.
She nodded affirmative.
The other soldiers were easily able to find the women and girls hiding under the hay pile in the corner with their thermal sensors. As the soldiers helped the women and girls out of the hay and darkness of the corner Sivvy brought herself to her feet.
"Are you hurt?" asked the captain and glanced at the medic scanning her with a handheld machine.
The medic said "She is healthy and uninjured, sir. They all are in various stages of fright, but healthy. They will simply need some fluids and rest. It will take some time to let their adrenaline settle, but no cases of shock."
Rex nodded to the medic "Thanks Kix. Go on and check on our men again and get yourself some rest. Great job today, as usual."
"Yes, sir, thank you, sir" said Kix. He put in his helmet and ran off through the doors into the night.
The next morning came swiftly. Rex walked about the area surveying the landscape and the damage. He came to a hilltop looking over a few fields of destroyed crops and lifted his commlink and spoke into the small device. "General?"
Several miles away General Anakin Skywalker trudged through thick woods flanked by two troopers of the 501st. He answered "Captain, report."
"As I said last night sir, we have a few injured, but no fatalities. We cleaned up the leftover clankers and found a few locals."
"Excellent, Rex. Glad to hear everyone is ok. Things were swift here too. I should make it over to you in a few days. At that point we can return to the Resolute. We have a few weeks until we rendezvous with Obi-wan and the 212th in orbit here."
Rex let his line-of-sight drift and his eyes landed on a line of freshly dug graves. "Uh...yes, sir." He noticed that nearly half the graves were much shorter than the others. His brow softened when he realized why.
Anakin recognized something in Rex's voice and stopped his walk. He turned off his path and pushed away a few slender branches and came to a cliff edge. "What is it, Rex?" His eyes looked out on a lush untouched valley and forest hills as far as the eye could see. "There's something else?"
Rex was glad the General asked. "The locals, sir." His eyes were still on the mounds of dirt. "All the men...and boys...are gone. Killed trying to defend these little farms." He turned around and saw Fives and Echo in full armor walking along the lines of crops that had been flattened by CIS tanks. He said quietly and sincerely "This place is trashed, sir. The debris...These women don't even have droids to help. They're grieving...I know we normally can just pull out and allow the locals to rebuild, but here... I don't see how they can do it."
"Understood Captain," said Skywalker. And he did. An idea came to mind "Instead of pulling out survey the debris. Maybe we'll find some important intel. If, by chance, the useless debris is cleaned up, recycled or just moved out of the way so be it."
Rex grinned "Yes, sir. Understood. How much time do we have, sir? Before we return to the Resolute?"
"Well..." Anakin crossed his arms and scanned the sapphire sky. "Maybe it's best if we set up camp here and stay until Obi-wan gets here. The fresh air and natural environment is probably better for everyone than a stuffy and dusty rooms of the Resolute."
Rex and Anakin ended their transmission then Rex called Echo and Fives back to his side. He relayed their orders as they walked through the trails to where they had found the women the night before. To their surprise they found the women already working to clear the debris and collecting resources. Rex saw the first young woman he encountered in the barn "Eh, Ms Pitchfork?"
She stood straight and saw the approaching soldiers over her shoulder. She wiped her hands on her simple white apron and approached the men. "Sivvy, Sivvy Tierzen" she corrected.
Rex said "Miss Tierzen, my men and I will be here a bit longer than expected. We would like to collect the debris and remains of this battle." He saw two women carrying a limp battle droid and throwing it into a pile.
Fives nudged Echo with an elbow and nodded towards a few petite women walking large work horses across a field toward a tank. They watched as girls and women harnessed up the massive work horses and tied the other ends to a tank which had crashed into a stone storehouse.
Rex and Sivvy walked away and he said "I guess you're in charge here?"
She giggled "We're a community, Captain. Not the military. We try to find consensus."
They walked through smoking debris and Rex explained his plans for his men and offered assistance with the clean up. While they walked and talked a few girls ran up to Sivvy with some questions about where they were going to sleep that night and they were interrupted again by a woman who had a bag of droid parts she found. Rex took off his helmet and said "Right. You're not the leader here at all." He chuckled.
She said "I...well...I guess I am one of the older daughters and I have experience and knowledge the others don't have yet."
The horses whinnied and bucked, then the girls put the horses at ease and coaxed them to pull. The tank popped free and slid out from the storehouse. The stone structure held despite the large hole in its side. Rex's surprise was evident and Sivvy laughed at his reaction. "Do you think us helpless because we have no machines?"
"Well...I..." Rex felt a bit foolish. "No, of course not."
She smirked at him knowingly. She put a hand on his shoulder and said "The help of you and your men would be invaluable. We have a long list of tasks and having an extra set of hands would be wonderful."
Rex put on his helmet and pressed a comm button over his ear. He opened a channel to everyone and said "Men, I need everyone to take the path to the northeast valley. Bring your infrastructure tools. We have work to do."