Jayce immediately started working the scanners to look for signs of the Separatist presence, and it didn't take him long to find them. Two frigates sat in opposing orbits around the planet. Those two frigates could each hold over a hundred thousand droids. Far more than enough to hold a backwater planet like this.

Val eyed him sidelong. "What ya lookin' for?"

Jayce shrugged in an attempt at remaining nonchalant. "Just checking out the situation. I don't want to get shot at again."

"Right. So where on this dustball you goin'?"

That was the other thing Jayce had been looking for. He still hadn't come up with a grand plan for what to do on the planet. What did ne need to do apart from reporting the number of ships in the system?

A Jedi Knight would do more, would discover why they were here and compile a detailed report of their numbers and forces for a prospective attack. And Jayce had to act like a Jedi Knight if he wanted to be one. So where to go?

Act like a Jedi Knight.

He took a breath and let his senses expand, to feel where the Force was guiding him. All he really got was a vague sense of "forward," with an entire planet in front of him. So instead he picked a spot on the map. Might as well start at the capital.

"Garang," he said, reading the name of the largest, but still small, urban center on the planet.

"You mean right where that military transport is heading?" Val said.

Jayce glanced back at the scanners and, sure enough, a droid drop ship had launched from one of the frigates and was making a descent towards the city.

"I shoulda asked for more money." She eased the ship towards the planet.

They started on an approach that kept them well clear of the frigate. The planet grew and grew in the viewports until it swallowed half the sky. Sounds of wind whipped up as they entered the upper atmosphere. The ride was a bit bumpier than Jayce would have expected.

Not a bit bumpier. A lot bumpier.

An alarm started squawking and flashing red lit up the consoles.

"Oh, shavit!" Val shouted.

"What's wrong?" Jayce asked, a little surprised by the expletive.

"Starboard retro thruster is out. We can't slow down!"

"What? How?"

"Guess that hit we took in was harder than I thought."

Jayce gripped his chair as the vibrations grew worse. A glow of uncontrolled reentry heat was starting to build up on the nose. "I thought you checked it?"

"Okay, you got me!" Val said. "I'm a great pilot, but a bad mechanic! Why do you think I paid Ket Ka?"

The vibrations were growing truly alarming.

"Well, can't you turn around and use the main thrusters?"

"Not while we're already in the atmosphere!"

"So can you get us on the ground without crashing?"

"What did I say about asking stupid questions?"

Jayce shut his mouth and held on. The glow of flames grew larger. Val worked at the controls, trying to keep them in the upper atmosphere for longer to shed off more speed. The hull groaned. There was a banging noise from somewhere in the rear. It was clear the little HWK-290 was not meant to take these kinds of stresses.

"I really should have asked for more money!"

The flames died away. They had slowed down quite a bit, but were still shooting like a bullet over the hills. The intensity of their entry had clearly added to the damage already done. Thrusters were struggling to keep the ship from dropping like a brick. The cropland-covered ground was coming up frighteningly fast.

"Hod on!" Val shouted. Jayce, who was already holding on as tight as he could, somehow managed to grip his restraints even tighter.

The moment of impact came. The seat was forced up into Jayce's butt with a terrific jar. The ship bounced up, then crashed down again, kicking up dirt as it skidded along. Jayce continued to hold on. Then the ship came to a stop.

He opened his eyes. He was still alive. The cockpit was sitting at an angle that suggested one of the engine pods must have come off. Dirt covered most of the viewport, all he could see through it was cornstalks. Val seemed uninjured as well. She was glaring at him with a malevolence he'd rarely seen communicated without blaster fire.

"If Sylvia is damaged," she said, "I'm going to kill you."

She unbuckled herself and stepped across the sloped deck into the back. Jayce slowly undid his own restrains and followed. He found Val looking over the swoop bike. The tie downs had held, and the cargo hold seemed fairly intact. Val flicked the on switch and the bike hummed to life. It was a soft hum, a confident purr compared to the larger ship's clunky growls.

"Seems okay," she said, and turned the machine off.

"You seem more concerned about your bike than your ship," Jayce noted.

"I told you I'm a racer. The Hawk is just to transport Sylvia to the next race. You can always buy me a new ship, but there's only one Sylvia."

Jayce's eyes eyebrows rose. "What makes you think I'm buying you a new ship?"

She glared at him. "Well this one's trashed. You got me into this, so you can pay for the trouble you've caused, Horns!"

"Stop calling me that!" Jayce said. This was enough to test even Yoda's patience. "And all I did was ask for a ride, none of the rest of it is my fault. Besides," he added, "we didn't even make it to our destination."

"I said I'd get you to Dantooine." Val hit the button for the rear hatch. It groaned, opened halfway, and stopped. But it was still enough for her to grab Jayce in surprisingly strong hands and push him out into the long channel carved through the dirt by their crash. "You're on Dantooine!" Just before the hatch groaned shut behind him, his bag flew out into his chest.

Jayce looked around. A clear, blue sky was overhead, and stalks taller than he was surrounded the crashed ship. The only other thing in sight was a hover truck, the back loaded high with hay bales, and the man who drove it.

He was old enough that the tufts of hair that poked out beneath his wide-brimmed hat was going gray. His skin was tanned and leathery. His clothes were simple, loose fitting, and a bit worn at the fringes. A bit of straw stuck out of his mouth.

"If this is the honeymoon," he said with a grunting voice that sounded like air was being squeezed out of him, "then, son, I think you're in for a rough marriage." The man's laughter at his own joke was more of a wheeze that trailed off into a cough.

"Sorry about your field," Jayce said. He wasn't in the mood to laugh.

The man waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry 'bout it. Didn't start no fire 'r nothin', an' jus' glad you're both alive enough to yell at each other."

Jayce took a breath and looked around once more. There was still nothing to see.

"How far is it from the nearest... anything?"

"'Bout forty kilos to Garang," he said. "Ya need a lift, gimme a hand unloadin' these bales at my barn and I'll get you to town."

Jayce quickly agreed and hopped into the cab of the truck alongside the old man.

"Your friend want to come along, too?" the farmer asked.

"I think she needs some time to herself."

The old man's hat bobbed up and down. "Wise man." He turned the truck around and started off over the farmed hills.

"I noticed the frigates in orbit on our way in," Jayce said after chatting with the man for a few minutes. "Why is there a military presence here at all?"

The old man glanced up at the clear sky and made the straw in his mouth wag up and down. "Don't know. They showed up a few weeks back, ain't been bothering me. Though I hear there's something they're up to out east of Garang."

"What's out there?"

"Nothin' much. Jus' the Matale-Sandral estate. Big place, old family, lots of land. Rumor is, the Governor has an interest in somethin' out there. If I was you, I'd keep well clear, got them metal war boys all over the place."

Jayce frowned. "What governor?" There hadn't been any mention of such a formal position in the databanks, and from the way the old man spoke it sounded like it was a new position.

"Governor Zapal. You don't know him?"

Jayce shook his head. "Why should I?"

"Sorry, I shouldn't assume."

"What do you mean?"

The man tapped the side of his temple. "He's a zabrak, same as you. Came with the droids, said he was now the governor of Dantooine. Said he was gonna protect us, but he seems mostly interested in that estate."

"And no one challenged him?"

"Who'd want to?" The old man shook his head. "Feller's got a whole mess o' droids. Besides, don't much care who says they're in charge as long as someone's there to buy my crop come harvest."

The gray top of a round barn appeared over a hill. A moment later the farmhouse was in view. The old man drove the truck up to the barn's wide doors. As promised, Jayce helped the man unload the bales into the barn. The farmer might have been old, but he was strong. Jayce struggled to keep pace. In just a few minutes the truck was unloaded.

Then the two of them hopped into a weathered, brown landspeeder and skimmed over the hills with the setting sun at their back. Jayce tried to get more information out of the old man, but about the Separatists, at least, he had said all he was going to. After a short ride, they arrived at Garang.

At the point where the road ran up into the cluster of buildings in front of the large spaceport, a pair of B1 droids stood in their way and waved them down. Jayce's hand drifted to where his lightsaber should have been, but instead found the R-66 in its holster.

The old man's sharp eyes saw the movement. "Easy, son," he said. "Even if you know how to use that thing, now's not the time."

Jayce pulled his itching hand away from the blaster and tried to act casual as the speeder slowed to a stop in front of the droids.

"Halt!" the droid said in its whiny voice, even though they were already stopped. "State your name and your business here"

"Never needed a reason to visit before," the old man said.

"New protocols put in place by Governor Zapal. Anyone coming through town must register their identity upon entering."

"Well, I'm Odda Lux," the old man said. "And this here's my nephew, Daro."

The narrow head of the droid swiveled quickly to looked between the two of them. "But you're not even the same species."

"Are you really questioning family relations?" Odda said, standing partway up from his seat and full of righteous fury. "So what if my darlin' younger sister went and married a zabrak. You got a problem with that?"

"He raises a good point," the other droid offered.

"Umm..." The under-programmed walking junkpile of a droid didn't know what to do. "Roger, roger," it said at last, apparently the default response to anything and everything. "Move along. Move along."

"Thank you," Odda said. He sat back down and drove the speeder on by.

Jayce shook his head. "Those droids are idiots," he said when they had driven out of earshot. "Not even worth the metal used to make 'em. But you didn't need to lie to them like that."

Odda looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Didn't I? I'm guessin' whatever you're in town for, it ain't somethin' you want those things to know about," the farmer said as they stopped in front of the spaceport.

Jayce frowned and cocked an eyebrow. "Why would you say that?"

"You clearly don' like the Separatists. And you're question askin' wasn't none too subtle."

Odda parked the speeder in front of a farming supply store and got out.

"Listen, I'd tell ya to stay outta trouble," he said, "but I'm guessin' you're not gonna do that. So I'll say 'good luck,' and 'I hope you find what you're lookin' for.'"

"Thank you very much," Jayce said as he got out and started down the street. "For the ride, and for everything." He started off down the street.

The town wasn't much to look at. Mostly it was the large spaceport surrounded by support buildings for loading massive shipments of grain onto bulk freighters. The rest of the town was filled out by support for the farmers. There was a mechanic's shop, equipment supply, a droid retailer, and general stores.

Most of the people he passed along the way had the look of farmers. Most were human, with a few Twi'leks, and one or two species he didn't recognize. A kid in a wide-brimmed, tan hat much like Odda's went running past.

The rhythmic clank of metal feet on pavement announced the droids long before they were visible. A six-wide column of B1s rounded a corner and marched down the street. Jayce ducked into a side alley before he could resist the impulse. He wasn't the only one. The street cleared quickly as the droids approached. There were several hundred in just that formation. They looked straight ahead as they passed. With the warbling hum of repulsors, an AAT tank followed after.

He kept on the move after the parade passed by. He quickly reached the far edge of the town and found the road to the east blocked off entirely by a checkpoint with an anti-repulsor strip across the road and a score of droids to stand watch. Jayce walked on past as if heading east was the last thing on his mind. But he knew that to fulfill his mission, that was exactly where he needed to go.