Chapter 8: A Plan

Tenel Ka Djo came to Jaina and Kev's little patch of ground in the morning and nodded to Jaina before sitting down. The morning mist – the sun was just now rising, and they would set off soon – curled around her lithe from.

"I will be your second," she announced to Jaina.

"No," said Jaina, "Kev is my second. He's been my second for seven years and that's not going to stop now."

"He is a male."

"Yes, he is."

Djo shook her head. "Truly, Jaina Draygo, you are a strange woman, and surely you are of a strange people. My father told me stories of his nation, and he said that it was there as it is here: the women rule in the stars my father came from."

Jaina had to keep herself from rolling her eyes. "Nonetheless, Kev is, and will remain, my second."

Djo looked at her coldly for a few seconds. "Very well," she said. "But if this must be, then I will be your third, for I know this world and its people and more of the Imperial prison masters than you yourself do."

"That's fine."

Djo nodded again and pulled some jerked meat, handing around a few strips and tearing into one herself.

"We are headed to the Dreaming River, the stronghold of an allied clan. Their warriors will join ours, and together we will attack the off-worlders."

"And do you have any plan as to how we'll go about this?"

"That, Captain Draygo, is where you come in."

Jaina sighed. "Alright," she said, "let's start with your weapons capabilities.

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What it came down to, eventually, was that they'd have to sneak in and sack the armories. The Dathomirians had no weapons capable of going through stormtrooper armor.

"Forget getting warriors from this other clan," Jaina eventually said to Djo. "What we need is a small strike team to go in, find the armories, and destroy them. That's going to have to be the three of us, since I don't trust any of your people to do it alone, and you're the only one besides the two of us who speaks our language."

"That still leaves the At-STs," Kev reminded her.

Jaina nodded. "I know. But those are actually more vulnerable to primitive weapons. Of course, that would require some really big stuff. Even in exactly the right place, a spear isn't going to take out an Imperial war machine. I don't see how we could do it."

"We will use the rancors," said Djo.

Kev shook his head. "Too big a target," he said.

"Rancor hide," said Tenel Ka, grinning, "is resistant to these 'blaster' weapons you off-worlders are so found of."

Jaina returned her grin. Despite herself, she found she was becoming emotionally invested in this venture, and with these people. Damnit, why did this always happen to her when the tyrants were involved? "In other, words if we can get enough rancors and enough really big rocks or something – "

" – we can take out their armor!" Kev finish for her.

"Wait, wait," said Jaina, frowning once more. "Normal blasters are one thing, but what about laser cannons? Can rancor hide stand up to that?"

"Not indefinitely, but yes."

Kev, grinning, held out his hand to Tenel Ka. "I don't think I've told you my name," he said. "It's Kev Melet."

Tenel Ka took his hand gingerly, and looked thoroughly shocked when he gave it a good shake. He let go and Tenel Ka snapped her hand back to her body and began rubbing it with its opposite.

"It's called a handshake, Tenel Ka," said Jaina, leaning back against a rock.

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Two days later, they reached the Dreaming River Clan stronghold, and a meeting was called in the war room. Kev hadn't been allowed in, no matter how Jaina or even Tenel Ka argued. He was male, and that was that. He stood across the wide hall from the guards at the war room door, leaning against the wall and whistling an old Nar Shaada drinking song.

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Jaina stood, fully composed, before the audience of warrior women in their animal skull headdresses and their scale armor with Tenel Ka, to her side and a little behind her, standing ready to translate.

"First off," she in a loud clear voice, "I need you to re-think your views on men, at least for now. Kev is my second, he's been my second for nine years, and that's not going to change now just because you don't like it."

A rumble of talk went through the crowed as Tenel Ka finished translating.

"Hey!" yelled Jaina over the noise, Tenel Ka echoing her even more loudly. "I'm not asking you to change your culture. I'm asking you to accept that mine is different."

The rumble died down somewhat, but did not entirely cease.

"Tenel Ka," Jaina continued, "is third-in-command of this operation. Here's how it's going to work." She took a deep breath. "The three of us – Kev, Tenel Ka, and I – will infiltrate the Imperial prison. We'll locate the armories – there'll be one for every three or four bunkrooms – arm ourselves with modern weapons, and use remote-controlled thermal detonators that we should be able to get from the armories – " she paused for Tenel Ka to explain the concept " – to destroy the rest, and as many of their armored units as possible. The explosions should be audible for at least a few kilometers.

"Those explosions are your signal. I want as many of you on rancors as possible, and I want the rancors carrying very big, very heavy rocks. We'll try to get the gates open for you, but the odds are you'll need to smash them down. Take out the gun emplacements after that. Odds are that there won't be enough detonators for us to take do more than damage their armored units – the big attack machines – so finishing those off will also be up to those of you who are mounted."

"Destroying the armories should deprive the stormtroopers of their outer armor, but the inner stuff is still durable. It'll take more than a glancing blow to take them down. I'm counting," she said, "on the skill of those of you who aren't mounted to take them out."

"And you, Tenel Ka, and … Kev will join us in this?" Kirana Ti spoke up.

"No. We're going to free the prisoners," a malicious grin spread across Jaina's face. "Do you have any idea," she asked, "how pissed of they're going to be? Sure, some of them will be too demoralized to fight, but the rest… Just make sure you bring some extra spears to pass around."

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