A/N: Sorry about the delay before posting this chapter. It's a longer one, so hopefully it makes up for it.
Chapter 6 Whatever it Takes
Giles pulled his battered old hover truck up against the wall of his house and shut down the tired old engine. Waiting for him were the members of the militia and Rika, who started to unload the packages out of the back. Tolas noticed that Giles seemed disturbed and asked him what was up.
"What's going on, Giles? You look a little flustered."
"Well," Giles said as he ran his hand over the back of his head, "That gang leader Kaul came up to us and said Dalledo wanted to have a talk with Randal." This caught everyone's attention and they all stopped what they were doing and waited for him to continue. When he didn't, Otzz prodded him.
"And? Did he go?"
"Yeah, he just walked in there like it was nothin'," Giles said with a resigning shrug.
"I'm sure he's okay," Tolas said as he looked at Rika. She at first looked back in confusion, but caught what he meant. She hadn't felt anything concerning Randal in the Force, so she knew that he was still alive, but she couldn't explain that to any of the people around her.
"Oh, I'm sure he is. He knows how to take care of himself. See," she said as she shaded her eyes with her hand as she looked up into the sky at the sound of the familiar engines. "Here he comes now."
Up above, the Destrier came in low and passed over the village. She slowed down and started to turn back around before her landing gear lowered and the repulsorlifts engaged to set the ship down in-between the village proper and the cliff face where the mines were at.
Everyone in the village was now outside and awe struck at seeing a ship land in their small community. The adults all began to walk over to take a look, but the children all ran over and looked around in pure excitement. When the ramp lowered, the children ran to it and stood waiting to catch a glimpse of the inside.
Kayla was the first to emerge and all of the children and those her age began to pelt her with questions about what the ride was like. Randal stepped down next, and looked around until he found Rika and the militia members. He waived them over, and once they were within talking distance he told them about his talk with Dalledo.
"Look, we need to have a community meeting, or whatever you call it." Giles nodded and then whistled loudly to get everyone's attention. As he announced that everyone should gather round to listen, Randal looked back up the ramp and whispered to Geefive, who was now standing beside him.
"I need you to keep the kids entertained. What I'm about to tell these people they don't need to hear." Geefive whistled a sarcastic question back at him. "I don't know, just move around and pop out some of your tools. Kids are easily distracted, and I doubt any of these have ever seen an astro droid." Geefive answered back with an annoyed sounding tweet and rolled out, where he was instantly assaulted by all of the children. As Geefive moved the massive crowd of gawking children away from the crowd, Rika leaned in and whispered in Randal's ear.
"What are you about to tell them? Whatever Dalledo talked to you about?" Randal nodded and then took in a deep breath before he stepped forward where everyone could hear him.
"Yeah. I've got a real bad feeling about this one." When he stepped forward, everyone got quiet and waited for Randal to speak. He looked over the faces that were now looking at him and tried to think of the best way to break it to them.
"Okay, listen up. I'm sure Giles has all ready told you, but I had a talk with Dalledo."
"What did that Hutt-slime have to say?" someone in the crowd yelled out.
"He says he wants to make this canyon his, and he's not afraid to use force if necessary."
"Tell us something we don't know," Cal said as he crossed his arms.
"I talked him into offering 10,000 a head to buy you out of your claims. It's an offer with a time table though; he's given you until noon tomorrow." A murmuring broke out in the crowd as everyone debated whether they should take it or not. After a minute, Giles stepped up on the entry ramp and whistled again for everyone's attention.
"All right, we've heard Dalledo's offer. I guess we should put it to a vote then. Everyone in favor of taking his offer?" A few of the people raised their hands, but mostly everyone just looked around at everyone else, not sure of what to do. "All right, any opposed?" Again only a few hands went up, but still everyone seemed to not be able to make up their minds. "Well come on, people. We have to make a decision on this. Anyone want to say something?"
"I used to work for Dalledo," Tolas said as he spat on the ground. "He's a greedy Hutt-spawn, but he isn't a fool. If he's offering us 10,000 a head, it's because he knows there's a thousand times that in these hills." Otzz laughed and shook his head.
"The way his operation works, sure. He has those fancy mining droids working nonstop around the clock. They could strip these hills bare in little under a year. We'd be lucky if we even get a thousand out of our shafts. I say we take his offer." Another round of murmuring went around the camp.
"Well what if you struck a small vein of Aurodium in your shaft? Would you quit and get off this planet, or would you keep mining for more?" Tolas asked. Otzz didn't respond, but only grumbled and folded his arms on themselves.
"What do you think? What would you do if you were in our boots?" Giles asked Randal and Rika. Randal shook his head and then shrugged his shoulders.
"What I say or think doesn't matter. We're only here to train you, not fight for you. This is your livelihood he's buying. I can't make a choice like this for you."
"Why don't you just sleep on it and make a decision in the morning?" Rika asked the group.
"What if we can't make a decision then? What if it's the same as it is now?" Giles asked as he shook his head and put his hands in his back pockets.
"Then I guess Dalledo would take that as a no."
"Well, we'd be no worse off than we are now," Tolas said in a matter that said he was done with this conversation. But before he turned to leave, Randal called him back.
"Not exactly. He said that if he didn't hear that you all were going to take him on his offer, he was going to send Kaul and his swoop gang in again."
"Well that's what we've been getting ready for, right? I mean, that's the only reason the two of you are even here. I think we've done pretty good so far. I say let them come, we're ready!" Cal said as he turned to rally the crowd. Everyone lightly started to cheer for Cal's words, but Randal shook his head and stepped forward again on the ramp.
"Before you make your decision to stand and fight, there's something you all need to know. Before today, I didn't know who this Kaul was, but I met him today. He's just not some scum Dalledo hired off of a freighter, he's a mercenary; a Mandalorian." The entire crowd took in a shocked breath at the same time. A Mandalorian? Here on Dienzo III?
"Mandalorian? You mean they really exist?" Cal asked. Randal nodded and continued.
"Yes, they really exist. Now I'm sure you've heard a lot of stories about them, and most of them are all tall tales, but they have their roots in the truth. Their mercs are tough, well trained, and they're definitely the type you wouldn't want to run into in a dark alley with. But not only is Kaul one, he's one of the worst you can possibly find. If anyone here has ever seen him up close, you've seen that scar he has on his cheek, and the chrome plated blaster with the red crystal. That red crystal in the blaster has an emblem that signifies him as a member of a nasty sect that call themselves the Death Watch. From what I know, the nastiest and most outspoken ones would brand themselves with the character that best signified their particular "talents". That symbol he wears means that he uses tactics like torture, mutilation, and all sorts of other acts of horror just for fun. And if you decide to stay here, Dalledo's going to send him up here with free reign to do whatever he wants."
The crowd all stared back at Randal and an eerie sense of foreboding fell over the crowd.
"How do you know all this?" Otzz asked, breaking the uneasy silence.
"I've had dealings with Mandalorians before," was all Randal said. Giles nodded his head heavily and turned to the crowd again.
"Well, I guess we know what we'll be facing. Dalledo isn't just giving us this offer, he's saying, "Take it or else." We're going to have to make a decision now." Several people in the crowd looked around at each other, waiting to see if someone else would speak up or not.
"Look, I'm an old man," Otzz said. "If I were ten years younger, I'd say to hell with Dalledo, and tell those swoop riders to bring it on. But I'm not a young man anymore. If it came down to it, I'd fight for what's mine instead of running, but Dalledo's offer is fair. I say we take the credits and go somewhere else and start another place. One where there's no Dalledo wanting to take what's ours."
"Sure, starting over sounds easy when there's trouble on the horizon. But we all know that there's always going to be a Dalledo wherever we go. And if it's really all just about credits, then we're no better than Dalledo himself. But we all know that we're not here just for that. We're here because this is a place that we've built with our own hands, our own sweat. No one can say they were given anything here or had to work for anyone to get it. Everything we have we earned the hard way. And now we're just going to take the 10,000 and walk away from everything we've built? What happens if in the next place we go, the same thing happens? We going to sell everything for 5,000? Maybe less? Or are we just going to say enough's enough, and go back to slaving for a meager wage and hope we can afford to put food on the table for our families?"
"I say Dalledo can go frag himself," Tolas said as he spat on the ground. There was another round of everyone looking at each other, but this time they seemed to be nodding with a clear decision, as if they were all on the same plane.
"Well, I may be old, but my children are still young. We've taken our chances so far, might as well keep going. I vote we stay," Otzz said reluctantly. Everyone in the crowd began to agree and started to throw random insults at Dalledo and his offer.
Randal sighed, and then turned back to Rika and rolled his eyes.
"I knew they were going to say that," he said as he walked passed her and went to his cabin. Rika followed him, and after making sure no one was behind her, she spoke.
"So is that it? Are you planning on just abandoning these people? You said you knew what this Kaul was capable of. Are you going to be able to live with something like that on your conscience?" Randal opened a storage compartment on the bulkhead and gave Rika a sideways look before he reached in.
"I should just take off, I really should." Randal then pulled out several old gun belts, each with a blaster holstered in it. "But I've been hanging around you too long; you're starting to rub off." He handed a couple of the belts to her and then walked back to the entry ramp.
Outside, the militia members were standing around talking about how they would set up in the shallow trenches that were now lining the rock wall. Cal looked up at the two and raised an eyebrow.
"What are those for? I thought you were only here to train us."
"Well your motivational speech changed my mind. We're gonna have to bolster up the defenses here for when they come. I'd rather not have an angry Mandalorian with a bloodlust driving up here with only that wall to stop him," Randal said. Giles nodded in agreement but didn't have any idea as to what else they could do.
"Have someone take these and set up a refuge in one of the mines. Whenever they come, everyone who isn't part of the militia needs to get in there and use these to guard the opening. I wish I had more of them, but these are all I got," Randal said as he handed one of the villagers the small collection of gun belts and blasters.
"Earlier you mentioned another path into the village. Where does that come out?" Rika asked.
"Its right up there," Giles said as he pointed up at a small path that led into up the canyon wall. "It actually goes all the way through the rocks to the other end of the canyon near the flat lands between here and Stonehaven."
"Not many people know about that path, right?" Rika asked, an idea all ready forming in her head.
"Pretty much, just everyone who lives here knows about it, but it's not very obvious unless you know what you're looking for on the other side." Rika smiled and then nodded her head.
"Good. We need to set up a lookout, and it sounds like that path would be the best place for it. Have two of your men go up there and set up a small hidden area where they can watch the canyon. Whenever they see the swoops coming, they can signal us with a comlink." Giles smiled at the ingenious idea and called Cal and one of the other militia members over to tell them about the lookout point. After they gathered a few tools, they set off up the trail.
Randal looked out at the long stretch of land between the two rocky cliff faces and narrowed his brow. He knew that no matter how hard he trained the militia members to shoot moving targets, they were still going to have a hard time hitting anything that was coming in as fast as those swoops could. If only there was some way to slow them down, maybe make them limit their speed. At first he thought that something like that would be impossible, but as he shook his head and turned around, he saw one of the mine carts that they used to haul ore to the truck's heavy trailer. At first he thought nothing of them, but then he saw that the carts had wheels instead of repulsorlifts.
"Giles, is there a reason that your carts don't have repulsorlifts?" he asked, hoping that the reason was what he thought it was.
"What? Oh, well you see, even though we're mining for Aurodium, these hills are filled with magnium, which is worth something, but not much. We can't put repulsorlifts on the carts though, because the magnium interferes with the repulsor fields. It's a real pain too, since that means we have to push the carts manually." He stopped and gave Randal a quizzical look when he saw him smirking widely. Rika was also looking at him with an upraised brow, waiting for the inevitable explanation. Randal thought it was obvious though, so he rolled his eyes as he spelled it out to everyone.
"Magnium interferes with repulsors, and swoops run on repulsors. If we could lay down a field of magnium in the canyon, they'd have to slow down enough to not lose control. And if they slow down, we have a better chance at hitting them." Giles instantly smiled from ear to ear, and ran to tell the other miners to get busy and bring down all the magnium they could break loose. As the group of miners began to run to their shafts, Rika nodded and shrugged her shoulders.
"I never would have thought about that."
"Well, that's why I'm the Captain." Rika didn't humor Randal with a look or a roll of her eyes and instead went off to help the first of the mine carts that were coming down the path.
Otzz wiped the back of his hand over his brow and spoke just loudly enough for Randal to hear him.
"You really think we stand much of a chance?" he asked. Randal looked him back in the eye and told him the truth.
"Honestly, I don't know. From what I've seen, they've got about twenty or so swoops and we've only got twelve rifles. That means you'd each have to take out two riders, but it ain't gonna be like shooting those seed pods. Even if their going slower than normal, they're still going to be shooting back at you. We'd be lucky if we can even take out half of them before they reach that wall, and then they're gonna ride right in. From there it's gonna get real nasty real quick. If only there was some way we could take more of them out before they reached the wall."
Otzz scratched the stubble on his chin and suddenly had an epiphany.
"Explosives! We have several pounds of thermacrete that we use for the mines. We could rig it to detonators and put them out in the canyon."
"I like the way you think." Randal smirked at the old Arcanian and together they started to walk towards the small building that housed the explosives. "Something makes me think that you weren't always a miner."
"Well, I did a lot of other jobs in my younger, more foolish days," Otzz said with a knowing smile. Randal laughed as he nodded and left it at that.
Kayla finished placing a pitcher of iced garnupian pear juice and several glasses on a serving tray and walked outside. At the new rock wall, she could see Rika, who she knew as Ruxandra, overseeing the loading of the trailer of lose magnium. Up the cliff side, she could see Cal walking back down being followed by one of the other militia members, and away from the others where the Destrier was landed she could see Randal and his astromech droid working at a makeshift bench. The two were alone, so she took in a deep breath and headed that way first.
Randal leaned in close as he used his cold soldering gun to fuse one of the wires to the transceiver and then secured it into the fist sized ball of thermacrete. So far, Geefive and himself had constructed nearly a dozen of the small explosive devises and they still had some of the stuff left.
"That ought to do it," he said as he gave the last one a final look over and placed it with the others. They had wired the devices to work off of signals that Geefive would monitor and then set off when a rider got close. They were still going to have to place the devices out in the canyon, but he would do that after he gave his eyes a break. When he looked up, he saw Kayla coming over with a pitcher of something that looked cold and delicious. She smiled widely as she set the tray down on the table and held up a glass.
"You want some? It's really good. I made it myself." Randal nodded and stood from the uncomfortable chair that he had been sitting in for the past hour. He took the offered glass of the cool sweet concoction and nodded his thanks as he took a long delicious drink. As he drank, he looked off towards the others who were working and saw Rika helping the miners unload their carts into the back of the truck. Kayla followed his gaze, and felt part of her inside deflate. She recognized that sort of gaze; it was the same one that she had every time she looked at Randal.
"You love her, don't you?" Kayla asked softly. Randal was taken aback and blinked several times as he tried to recover.
"What? You mean Ri-, um, Ruxandra? No," Randal said with a laugh as he took another drink of the juice. "She's more of a pain than anything else."
"And yet the two of you have traveled together for how long?" Kayla asked with raised brows and a smile.
"About two years," Randal said absent mindedly. Kayla's look turned from one of gentle curiosity to one of confusion.
"Two years? Before you told me it was six." Randal paused as he was about to bring the glass to his mouth and looked at Kayla for a moment before he spoke. He slowly lowered the glass and looked away.
"Well, it's complicated. Let's just leave it at that." Kayla nodded, and for a moment the two stood there in silence as the condensation dripped down on the pitcher.
"If it's complicated, than you'd be free to love another," Kayla said with a slight knowing smile. Randal let out a slow sigh and placed the now empty glass back on the tray.
"Look, you're a great girl, and any guy in this galaxy would be lucky to call you his. But the last thing you need is a lying scoundrel who makes his living working for the scum of the galaxy."
"Is that supposed to be you?" Kayla asked quietly. Inside, she felt herself being broken, but oddly at the same time she felt as if she knew what he was saying was true all along. She only needed to hear it to believe it.
Randal shrugged his shoulders and then continued. "You could say that. What you have here, this whole community and a place to call home, is what you deserve. Not a small cabin in a starship scrounging for credits on the hyperlanes."
"But Ruxandra does?" Kayla asked. Randal opened his mouth to continue, but was at a loss for words. Instead, he shook his head and shrugged.
"Well, that's complicated." Kayla shook her head and crossed her arms over her breast.
"There's that word again."
"Well, it's true. You should find a nice guy who can provide for you, give you a home and a family. And someone your own age, I'm nearly twice as old as you are," Randal added with a laugh. The joke broke the tension their conversation was having, and Kayla joined in the laughter, though her cheeks flushed with embarassment. Kayla picked up the serving tray and was about to walk away before she stopped and turned back to Randal.
"You know, Ruxandra isn't that much older than me." Randal smirked embarrassedly and scratched the back of his head.
"Well it's all pretty-"
"Complicated?" Kayla added with a smile. Randal laughed and nodded his head. Before Kayla left, she said one final thing. "You know, I'm glad we had this talk. It's different having an adult conversation rather than never getting it out. Thanks."
"Don't mention it," Randal said as he nodded, then went to pick up the twelve explosive devices and placed them in a large carrying bag.
Kayla walked towards the others at the loading truck, and oddly felt as if there was a heavy weight lifted from her shoulders. Part of her felt that she should be hurt that Randal had outright refused her, but in a way she knew that he was right. Even if she was overly fascinated with him now, she doubted that living a lifestyle the way he described would make her happy in the long run. In fact, she wasn't really sure how anyone could be happy doing that forever. As she neared the working miners, she saw Randal's companion and decided to ask her how she could.
As Kayla passed around glasses of the ice cool pear juice, she handed one to Rika and smiled at the young Twi'lek. Rika nodded her thanks, but could tell that Kayla had something on her mind. After she waited a moment for the young woman to speak up, and after she didn't do so, she spoke first.
"What's up? You look like you have something on your mind."
"Well, I was talking with Randal just now, and I started to wonder. Living your entire life out of a starship must be dreary, no offense meant of course," Kayla added apologetically. Rika shrugged and looked up at the Destrier and wondered just what the two had talked about.
"It has its moments, but for the most part it can be tiresome." Kayla nodded and looked Rika in the eyes. Rika felt that even without knowledge of the Force, this young woman seemed to be able to see deep into her own thoughts. The thought was unnerving.
"So why do you do it? Don't you want to settle down, have a family?" Rika looked back at Kayla, and though there were a thousand answers to that question, like that sort of thing wasn't desirable or even allowed for a Jedi, but she couldn't tell her that. Instead, she couldn't think of anything convincing to say that wouldn't reveal too much about themselves. True, Randal was happy living out of his ship, and Rika was indoctrinated to desire nothing, but this girl made Rika think from a perspective that she had never thought about before. What if she wasn't a Jedi? What if she was just a regular young woman trying to find her way in this galaxy? Would she be happy in her present situation, or would she want something more? This sudden new and daunting line of thought made Rika nervous and unsure of herself. She didn't like it one bit.
"Well, I never thought about it really," was all Rika could come up with.
"Why not?" She really didn't like this line of thought at all; it was unfamiliar and alien to her. Rika wanted it to stop before she hyperventilated.
"It's complicated," was all she said as she withdrew into her glass and finished off the rest of the frigid juice. Kayla took the now empty glass from Rika and lightly smiled.
"The two of you are more alike than you think." Kayla turned to leave, but she looked back at Rika to say one last thing.
"He loves you, you know." Rika glared at Kayla with wide dumbfounded eyes and found it difficult to find her breath. Of all the things she was expecting to hear, that bombshell was definitely the last one she would have ever thought of.
"What? I don't follow you," she said as she tried to laugh it off.
"Randal," Kayla said as she nodded towards the Destrier. "He may not admit it, but I can tell." With that, Kayla walked away to fill the glasses of the workers.
Rika looked away and stared off at nothing as she tried to collect her thoughts. What was she talking about? Surely she was mistaken. Randal and herself were partners professionally, nothing more. He knew full well that she was a Jedi; sworn off of such things as attachment and love. But yet why now was her heart racing? Why was her breathing ragged and hollow, as if there was a whole nest of rabid gundarks in her stomach? The heat; yes, the heat of working in the sun was getting to her. Clearly Kayla was confused by whatever conversation she had with Randal, Rika knew that that was the answer. To prove it, she would just go up there and find out just what the two had talked about. Yes, that's what she would do.
Brushing off her hands on the legs of her pants, Rika left the working miners and made her way up to the Destrier. She found Randal in the main cabin where he was working on a multichannel transponder box at the holotable.
"Hey, what's up?" he said as he continued to work on the transponder. Rika lightly shook her head and then looked around the cabin, settling on nothing in particular. For some reason she found it difficult to look at Randal directly.
"I just had an interesting conversation with that young girl, Kayla," Rika said. Randal looked up but continued to work.
"She's not that much younger than you, really." He then looked back to the transponder and reached for a tool to continue to work. "So what you two talk about?" he asked conversationally.
Rika opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't find her voice. Why couldn't she simply just say it? It really didn't matter and was a preposterous idea, that Randal was in love with her, but for some reason she couldn't find the nerve to say it out loud. Randal noticed her hesitation and stopped working as he looked up. She could feel her face flushing a light purple hue and she looked away.
"She asked me about the future and if I liked living on a star freighter. She asked me if I ever wanted to settle down and start a family," Rika said as she looked at the deck plating. Randal smirked and then leaned back in the acceleration couch.
"What you tell her?" Rika shrugged her shoulders and shifted her gaze up to the overhead.
"What could I say? I just told her it was complicated." Randal let out a laugh and tightened the last screw on the transponder box and stood up. He got close to Rika and then leaned on the bulkhead next to her. Rika looked up at him and crossed her arms in uneasiness. She didn't like how close he was standing. Why she felt this way, she really couldn't tell. There wasn't any reason for it, but she still felt uncomfortable.
"I told her the same thing. But still, she raises a good point."
"What's that?" Rika said quietly.
"You really want to do this for the rest of your life? Travelling in a freighter from system to system? I'm fine with it, but are you? Maybe you should find a husband and settle down. Try living a normal life." Rika looked Randal in his dark brown eyes and could see that he was serious.
Settle down? Have a family? Have some sort of semblance of what it was like to have a "normal" life? These were all things that she had never even thought about, and before today, the thought never would have passed her mind. So why was it now? Before, her idea of a regular life was serving the Force, and by that the Republic. She didn't need to have a family; the Jedi Order was her family. Even now, they still were. Weren't they?
"A family? The Jedi were my family, and still are. That's why I'll keep searching for other survivors until I find them; even it takes the rest of my life." Randal pushed away from the wall and grabbed the transponder and started to head out of the ship with a suddenness that caught Rika off guard.
"Yeah, it's probably better that way," was all he said before he walked down the entry ramp.
What was that about? Rika briefly made to follow after him and ask what his problem was, but thought better of it. What was going on here? On one hand, Rika felt that what she had told him was right, but on the other she doubted her own words as being what she really believed. What did she really believe? She was so confused and conflicted with her own thoughts that she shook her head and wondered if every Jedi student had to face this level of confusion. If her master was still alive and here, he would tell her to meditate and find her answer in the Force. But he wasn't here, and the answer wouldn't simply come to her.
Instead, Rika went to her only lasting connection with her Jedi roots. She opened the door to her cabin, and opened a hidden compartment in the bulkhead. Inside she pulled out the cold metal cylindrical weapon that was synonymous with the Jedi for a thousand generations; her lightsaber. As she held it, the once familiar feeling of the hilt brought back old memories of being beside her master, both before and during the war that had changed the galaxy forever. She hadn't carried the weapon openly on her belt since the Jedi were branded fugitives, and she hadn't carried it on her person in nearly eighteen months. Randal had told her that even if it was hidden, her natural draw to use the ancient weapon instead of the blaster on her hip would only get her in trouble, and worse yet, discovered by the agents of the Empire.
But now, with these strange and unfamiliar thoughts filling her head, she felt comforted by the elegant device, and decided to take it with her to remind herself of her sworn duty as a Jedi, even if their order was now broken. She hid the hilt of her lightsaber in her inner jacket pocket and headed back out to continue building the defenses.
A/N: A quick note about their being a Mandalorian in my story. There's been a proverbial shake-up in the EU society with the introduction of Mandalorians into the Clone Wars series and how they "changed" them. Frankly, I think the old back story can still fit in with what they've shown in the show. And besides, the show features the Death Watch, and Kual is one of them, so it still works :)