A/N: I would have had this chapter up yesterday, but for some reason the site kept spitting it back out. Oh well, here it is. It's a longer one, with a lot of action! Hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 7 Death Rides a Swoop
Jorg Dalledo paced back and forth in his lavish office, all the while glancing at the ornate chronometer on the fireplace mantel. The time was showing five minutes until noon. Again he turned to the window and looked out into the street towards the westward city entrance, and again let out a muffled curse at seeing nothing. Were those hard headed miners really so stupid that they wouldn't take his offer? It was generous, and much more than he wanted to pay them, but what that freighter jockey said made part of him want them to take the offer. But those squatters were proving to be as much a pain in his backside as ever. They weren't giving him much of a choice in the matter.
"Looks like they ain't going to show," Kaul said from the doorway, a wicked grin across his face that sent a chill up Dalledo's back. Dalledo lightly nodded his head and walked over to his desk. He poured himself a tall glass of brandy and held it up to his lips. He took a long burning drink, and then put the glass down on the desk.
"Well, they brought this on themselves. Take your men and end this. I don't want to know what you do out there, I just want your assurance that they'll be gone."
"Don't worry," Kaul said with a grin born from the nine hells. "When we're done, there won't be anything left to give you any trouble." With that, Kaul turned and left and soon the sounds of whooping cheers and bloodlust powered hollering came up to Dalledo's office. Dalledo pushed the thoughts of what that gang was going to do in the village out of his mind by taking another long burning drink of brandy.
BREAK
Randal let out a yawn as he checked his wrist chronometer. It was three minutes past noon. Everyone in the village had worked long into the night finishing their defensive preparations. An entire field of magnium had been created stretching out a hundred meters into the canyon, and the twelve special surprises for the swoop gang had been placed along the way. They had stopped working only a few hours before daylight, and tried to get some rest before their deadline came.
Randal stood on the entry ramp of the Destrier and surveyed the village's defenses. Stretching from one side of the rocky mountainside across the valley to the other, about fifty meters in length, with a five meter gap in the middle that had a quickly made wooden gate, was the defensive wall. While the wall of boulders was about waist high, and probably would have been sufficient against a raid by the more common type of riff-raff that liked to prey on the innocent throughout the galaxy, it wasn't going to be enough for what was about to come. Working long into the night, everyone in the village had helped dig the ground behind the wall to a depth where a grown man could stand fully erect and still be concealed behind the rocks. Two of these defensive pits were dug, one on each side of the gated entrance. Both of these pits were then enclosed with more of the large rocks from the mines, and though they were running out of time, the villagers were able to cover the tops of the pits with thick wooden planks taken both from the large table in the center of the village and from some of the houses. Gaps were left in the rocks so the militia members could aim their rifles out and fire at the attackers. The backsides of these makeshift forts had a small gap so the defenders could enter and leave.
Randal would have liked more time and some better materials to build the defensive structures, but they did the best they could with what they had. Considering they had built the entire two structures in less than a day, it was pretty impressive. He just hoped that they actually worked, and didn't end up as a tomb.
As he turned to watch the villagers that were still up and about taking supplies up to one of the mines, Rika exited the small house and met up with him near the Destrier.
"So, what do you think?" she asked as she stood beside him and she too looked at the villagers working.
"I've got a bad feeling about all this. Those two forts, or whatever you want to call them, should give us a little more time before they overrun us. But to be honest, I'm just not sure how well we're going to do. What about you? What do you think?"
"Right now I'm wishing I would have taken you up on the blaster training lessons. Never had much use for one before, but now…"
"It's not hard. Just point the barrel at the bad guy and squeeze the trigger. Everything else is basically just luck," he said with a smirk.
"Luck," she said as she let out a slight laugh, though her heart wasn't fully in it. More times than she could count, she had told him that luck didn't exist, and it was merely the Force that guided everything. Randal didn't really buy it, so he always chose to use the term whenever he could. It was one of the little annoyances that she had grown accustomed to, maybe even a little fond of.
The sound of someone barking orders drew their attention. Giles was walking around the slower moving villagers and was continuously telling them to hurry up and get to the mines before the swoop gang showed up. When he got closer to Randal and Rika, Randal held up a hand to calm him down.
"Hey, Giles, take it easy. The swoop gang's probably not going to show up right at noon. They'll be here later if I had to guess."
"You think so?" Giles said in bewilderment. "Why?"
"Well," Randal said with a shrug, "I'm pretty sure they know that we've been awake all night building some sort of defense against them. And they probably think that we'll be expecting them to be showing up at noon. But if we're sitting here, waiting for them to show up at noon, and they don't, we'll eventually get tired. Then that's when they'll actually come."
"Possibly," Rika said. "But they don't know that we were all ready building a defense before yesterday. They could strike at noon and try to attack before we finish up our defenses." Randal opened his mouth to protest, but shrugged his shoulders when he couldn't think of an argument against what she had said. In truth, either was a possibility.
"Well, yes, I suppose you could both be right. Either way, we need to quickly get the rest of the supplies and everyone safely into the mines." Randal and Rika agreed, and went to help take some of the supplies up to the mine.
Up on the plateau next to the old mine, Ral Spero let out a jaw numbing yawn as he stretched his arms into the air as he sat on the ground of the makeshift lookout point. He had been on lookout for the past hour, and though his chronometer showed that it was ten minutes passed noon, there still was no sight of the swoop gang.
Ral gave the open countryside a once over and then reached for his thermos of tea. But as he was about to take a drink, a faint rumbling sound reached his ears. Quickly, he put the thermos down and reached for his macrobinoculars. After he brought them to his eyes and the image came into focus, he saw the large dust cloud that was trailing behind the swoop riders.
Ral frantically jumped up and fumbled through his pockets looking for the comlink. When he found it, he nervously tried to turn it on, but he was moving too quickly and dropped it. To make matters worse, the comlink fell directly into the open thermos. Now trying to avoid going into hysterics, Ral emptied the thermos out on the ground and grabbed the comlink once it fell out, but when he tried to use it, it merely sparked once and became as lifeless as the villagers would soon be unless they got the warning.
Ral began to run before he was even fully on his feet, and ran with such a speed that he didn't even know he was capable of.
Randal handed off one of the boxes of supplies and then ran his hand through his hair. He looked around at the village and noticed that while there were a few people still around, many of the villagers were nowhere to be seen.
"Everyone else all ready up in the mines?" he asked. Giles put one of the heavy boxes into a mining cart and rubbed his lower back as he responded.
"Most of them are, but there's still a lot still in their homes, trying to hide all of their more precious stuff. I've tried to tell them to just get to the safety of the mines, but they won't listen."
"Well I wouldn't worry, there's still some time before they show their mugs around here." Rika narrowed her brow and looked up at the trail that led to the lookout point and saw someone running down, waving his arms frantically.
"Is that the lookout?" Rika asked anxiously as she pointed the man out. Both Randal and Giles looked at the man as he continued to run, and Giles nervously answered.
"Yes, that's Ral." Ral continued to run and wave his arms wildly in the air, and soon the faint sound of his yelling voice came to their ears.
"Their coming! Their coming!"
Quickly Randal looked around at the village and knew that there were still too many people in the village. Even if they started to yell the warning, those that were still inside their homes might not hear. Randal's gaze fell on the triangular dinner bell that hung from a tree branch. Randal ran over to the bell and rang the bell as hard as he could, creating an alarming clanging sound that was certain to get everyone's attention. Within moments, everyone was opening their doors and quickly taking off in a run for the safety of the mines.
As the villagers ran for the mines, the members of the militia gathered around the bell. Randal stopped the ringing when he figured everyone had gotten the message and then motioned towards the two defensive structures.
"All right, this is it. You all know which one of the forts you're in. Remember your training, and keep calm," Randal said.
"And remember, don't begin to shoot until you're certain you can hit them. You don't want to waste your ammo," Rika added as everyone began to run towards the two forts. The group split in two, with Randal, Cal, and Tolas going into the left, and Rika, Giles, and Otzz taking the right.
Once inside, Randal stood by the entryway and held his DL-44 blaster in his hand. The others took up their positions facing the canyon, and nervously put their rifles out of the opening and waited. In the other fort, Rika took up the position by the door while the others took aim. Geefive rolled up to the entryway and beeped a nervous sounding question.
"Set up somewhere where you can see the canyon, but don't get into the direct fire. Set off the bombs when they get close," Rika said in answer to the droid. Geefive whistled a foreboding sounding tone and moved to the edge of the safety provided by the fort. There, he leaned forward and turned his dome so he could get a view of the ominously quiet canyon.
For what seemed like a silent eternity, they just waited. The only sound that came to their ears was that of each other's ragged breathing and the shuffling of their guns along the stones of their protective barriers. It almost seemed as if it was a false alarm, a test to see how well they could get to their posts. And just when that thought tempted to become legitimate possibility, they heard it. At first it sounded like thunder rumbling in the distance, but the rumbling began to grow until it turned into a thunderous roar. The ground beneath them began to shake, and as if they were a storm spewing forth from the other side of the canyon, the swoop riders came into view.
Nervously, the militia members watched on with eyes filled with fear as the swoops raced towards them. Randal craned his neck to watch the riders as they approached the field strewn with the magnium. The swoops began to speed up, and soon they would reach the hidden trap. Randal began to smirk as he thought of the riders losing control of their bikes, and soon he would see it happen.
One of the riders advanced further out from the rest of the gang and was the first to hit the magnium field. At first, his swoop merely wobbled from side to side, but as he tried to correct his bike, his motions translated into overcompensating, and after a few fishtailing swerves, he lost control and fell of his swoop, tumbling into the hard rock where he broke his neck.
The militia let out their first cheer at seeing one of their enemies going down, but the loss of one of their own was a clear warning to the others, who then slowed slightly and held onto their control bars firmly. Randal's smirk disappeared when he saw the swoop members continue to ride forward at a faster pace than he would have liked. At the speed that they were traveling, it would be difficult to nearly impossible for them to hit them.
Not waiting for the riders to get any closer, one of Rika's group opened fire, and soon both militia groups were opening fire on the rapidly approaching riders. Rika frowned as she watched the blaster bolts flying randomly towards the swoop riders. Most of the shots went either too high or too low to even get close. It was a far cry from the precision that she had seen from the Republic troops during the war.
Suddenly, an explosion ripped through the canyon, catching two of the riders and sending them flying to the other side of the canyon. Geefive twittered a surprised exclamation as he readied the next device.
As he rode hard, Kaul made a quick hand motion for the rest of his riders to form up. With a precision due to their professional riding skills, the Sickle Riders formed up in an arrowhead shaped formation with Kaul in the lead. He knew that if there was one explosive device in the canyon, that there probably were others. Instead of keeping his gang spread out, where they were vulnerable to the bombs, they now rode on in a tighter formation. Though this made them more of an easy target for the shooters, their erratic and seemingly random shots were of little concern.
"Come on! Calm down, make your shots count!" Randal yelled over the constant firing. Tolas took in a deep breath, and aimed carefully before he pulled the trigger. His shot fired out, and hit one of the riders square in the chest, sending him flying backwards off of his swoop. The other riders weren't going to take this idly, and they opened up with their own barrage of blaster fire, causing the militia members to instinctively duck under their cover and to momentarily stop shooting. Once the first of the bolts harmlessly hit their rocky defensives, the militia members looked back up and began to fire back.
Two more explosions ripped out from the sides of the canyon, but the tight formation of the riders kept them out of harm's way. Geefive twittered an annoyed series of sounds and withdrew behind the rocks when a bolt ricocheted near his head.
Kaul growled loudly as he continued to race forward, the entire time focusing on the wooden closed gate. That was the weakest point in the villager's defenses and would be the easiest to break through. But as they drew nearer, the continued firing from the defender's rifles made it hard to think of a way to break through. As they drew rapidly closer, Kaul gave a hand signal for the group to split, and when they were a few meters away from the wall, the group split in two and sped along the length of the defensive wall.
From inside the fort, everyone continued to fire, but now that the riders were so close, it proved difficult to focus and aim properly. Randal moved to one of the openings and aimed his blaster before he fired, hitting one of the riders in the back. The rider fell forward and off of his swoop, his bike wobbling out of control and flipping into the dirt.
After the two groups of riders split and ran the length of the defensive wall, they turned and continued to ride back and forth, continuously pelting the rocky forts with their blaster pistols. Kaul sneered and spat as he realized that this continued type of assault was going to get them nowhere, and given enough time, the defenders might actually be able to pick them all off one at a time. They needed to regroup, so Kaul gave a loud whistle and a hand signal and all the riders broke off their attack and started to fall back to the distant safety of the canyon.
As the riders started to fall back, several of the militia members continued to fire, while others started to cheer that the fight was over and that they had won. Randal, though, knew better than that.
"All right, hold your fire!" he yelled out.
"We've won! They're leaving!" Cal yelled as he jumped up and down in joyous victory.
"No, I don't think it's over," one of the other militia members said as he looked out his carbon charred opening.
"They're just regrouping; they'll make another attack pretty soon. Use this time to catch your breath, and make sure you still have enough power packs." From behind Randal, Geefive whistled an annoyed statement. He said that the riders were too far away from the explosive devices and it would be pointless to detonate the others.
"Well, hold off on detonating the rest of them. Get back to the Destrier and bring the bottom cannon online. I hope we don't need to, but we may have to use it if they break through." Geefive beeped in foreboding agreement and turned to head back towards the ship.
"Is that it?" Rika asked as she stepped out of her fort. Randal leaned out and raised his brow in an unspoken sarcastic question. Rika sighed and nodded her head before she reentered her structure to tell the others.
High above the village in the largest mine shaft, Kayla continued to count heads as people entered and waited in the safety of the mines. After the last child was safely inside, she turned to see her cousin coming in having finished her head count from the other entrance.
"Is that everyone?" Loran asked.
"Yes, I think so." But even though the numbers were right, something didn't feel right in her head. When she finally determined what the uneasy feeling was, her heart dropped. "Wait, where's Sara?" Loran's eyes went wide and she shook her head.
"I thought she was with you?!?"
"No, the last I saw her she was still asleep in the house." The two girls stared wide eyed at each other. They both knew that young Sara was a very sound sleeper; it would take an entire herd of stampeding Banthas just to wake her out of a dead sleep. Without saying a word, the two girls bolted towards the mine entrance, but several of the older villagers blocked their path.
"Where are you going?!? It's dangerous out there!"
"My sister! She's still down there!" Kayla yelled as she pushed one of the blocking villagers out of her way and continued to run for the entrance. Loran tried to do the same, but the bulky miner wasn't as easily moved as the one who had tried to stop Kayla.
Kayla ran into the bright sunlight, and though her eyes seared with pain from the intensely bright light, she continued to run all out back towards the village. Down below, she could see the firefight that was ensuing, and as she neared the end of the mountain path, she saw the riders begin to ride away. Could the fight be over that fast? She didn't give herself any time to think about it; all she knew was that she had to find her little sister before it was too late.
Kaul locked up his airbrake and skidded his boot on the dark dirt as he came to a stop. The other riders stopped as well, while others continued to ride around the group, revving their engines in bloodlust.
"What's the plan, Boss?" Diejkaz asked. Kaul sneered towards the defensive wall of the village and readjusted himself on his swoop.
"We need to take out that gate, then we can ride in and really tear them up." All the riders cheered at this and revved their engines in a deadly chorus.
"That gate's in-between those two bunkers. How're we gonna take it out when we're being shot at from both sides?" one of the riders asked. Kaul gave him an evil glare and then pointed at the two defensive bunkers.
"We'll split into three groups. Two of the groups will lead the way and attack the bunkers to draw their fire. The third group will hang behind slightly, and attack the gate. Use your grenades, and blow them all to hell!" The riders erupted into another bloodthirsty roar, and with a quick twist of the throttle, they were off.
"All right, here they come!" Randal yelled as he saw and heard the swoop gang turn and start to make another attack run. Again the defenders opened fire, but the insane speeds of the swoops made their aimed shots go wide. The riders started to reposition themselves, and it looked as if they were splitting into two separate groups to attack both bunkers. Both the militia members in their forts and the incoming riders fired wildly at each other, but it was the riders that made the unexpected move.
In one simultaneous move, the riders from both groups hurled a barrage of grenades that seemed to arc in slow motion as they came down on the two hapless bunkers.
In Randal's, the militia defenders quickly ducked and covered their heads as the spherical explosives started to rain down on the top of their heads. For a second that seemed to last for an eternity, they waited as they heard the metal balls of death bounce and roll around above them before they exploded. The explosion shook the entire defensive structure and roared with the ferocity of a krayt dragon.
For a moment, all Randal could hear was an unending ringing in his ears, and it seemed as if the world itself had slowed down to a fraction of normal time. He had to blink the heavy dust that was now filling the bunker away from his vision and he tried to wave some of it away from his face as he collected himself. He could see the others inside, who were all doing the same. From what he could tell, no one was seriously hurt.
In the other bunker, they too saw the grenades coming. Everyone hit the ground and covered their heads in natural reaction. Rika was too busy trying to shoot at a group of riders that were heading directly towards the wooden gate and only saw the grenades coming down at the last possible moment. One of the riders had a lucky throw, and Rika watched on in both shock and fear as the grenade arced perfectly and entered through the opening beside her.
Acting purely on instinct, Rika threw up both hands and pushed as hard as she could with the Force, shoving the grenade out through the bunker's rear opening. But the explosive device detonated before it completely exited, and the searing flames reached back into the bunker and threatened the cowering defenders. Rika pushed with all her might, trying to keep the explosive blast away from everyone else, but the power was too much for her to contain. The explosion ripped through their protective roof, shattering the boards and sending large timbers to come crashing down. When the force of the explosion hit her, she fell backwards against the rock wall and crumpled to the ground.
For a moment, she couldn't hear or feel anything, but soon she heard the hacking coughs of those around her. With struggling effort, she raised her head and could see the others crawling through the debris. Giles was administering to Otzz, who was favoring his left shoulder.
"Everyone all right?" she asked hoarsely. Otzz looked over at her from his slumped position and tried to smile, but the pain from his shoulder cut it short.
"A lot better than we should be. That grenade came in right through that window." Rika lightly nodded and then stood to help the others who were trying to move one of the wooden timbers away from entryway.
"We got lucky on that I guess," she said with a forced smile.
Outside the man wooden gate, Kaul pulled his upper lip back in a sinister smile at the lack of blaster fire coming from the two bunkers as he crammed the last of his grenades into the wooden frame work of the gate. He pulled the activating pin, and then sped away as the jets kicked up a large cloud of dust and dirt. When the cluster of grenades went off, the wooden gate erupted into a fiery ball of smoldering wood and tumbling splinters. With a venomous cackle, the Sickle Riders revved their engines and raced towards the flaming entrance.
Kayla continued to run for her small house, but the rapid succession of ear splitting explosions sent a massive shockwave out that knocked her off of her feet. When she picked herself up, her jaw dropped in absolute shock as she saw two massive smoke columns coming from the makeshift bunkers, and another thicker burning plume coming from the gate. Soon she heard the revving of the swoops, and it wasn't long before the first of the riders broke through the smoldering wreckage and entered the village proper.
Pushing herself up with all the energy she could muster, she again started to run towards her house, flailing her arms and heaving for breath as she drove on out of sheer will.
Randal could hear the sounds of the swoops coming from the other side of the defensive wall, and after a quick look out the back entrance way, he saw the first of the swoops entering the village. Acting out of pure instinct, Randal leveled the barrel of his blaster and fired one powerful blast that caught the rider square between the shoulder blades and sent the now lifeless body tumbling over the handlebars. But before Randal could take aim at another rider, blaster bolts started to rain down on his position, so he had to pull back to the safety of the smoke filled bunker.
Rika helped push the final timber out of the way of the entrance, and was almost shot point blank as a rider pulled up and aimed directly into the bunker. A red searing bolt flew past her and hit the rider in the chest before he could get a shot off. Rika quickly turned around and saw Otzz holding the smoking blaster pistol in his hand. He lightly nodded to her and she nodded back her thanks. Rika pulled her blaster out of the still new holster on her hip and after hefting the weight of the unfamiliar weapon in her hand, she quickly took aim and started to fire.
Kayla jumped behind one of the homes as blaster shots began to get too close to her general area. She allowed herself only a moment to catch her breath and then took off again. As she ran between two houses, a rider caught sight of her and quickly diverted his path to intercept her. Quickly, Kayla ran around the corner of a house and ran as fast as she could to the other side. When she reached it, she ducked around the corner and leaned against the wall, her breathing now so ragged that each breath was searing her lungs as if they were being cut with jagged glass. At first, it seemed as if the rider had moved on, but soon she heard the sounds of boots walking on the house's wooden porch.
"Come out little girlie, I know you're there, I can smell you!" Kayla tried her best to hide the shudder of revulsion that coursed through her, but her assailant must have heard. Suddenly a wide yellow toothed grinning face of a Nikto was sneering from around the corner. She instinctively jumped at the sight, which only made Diejkaz more excited. He reached out for her with a greedy hand, but she was barely able to move out of the way and started to run again for her house. Diejkaz laughed in evil delight and took out after her.
From inside the bunker, Randal continued to fire from the relative safety of the bunker walls, but without sticking his head out, he couldn't get that great of an aim. His comlink started to beep just loudly enough to be heard over the din of battle, and he pulled back and answered. Geefive anxiously asked if he wanted him to open fire on the gate, hitting any of the swoops that were coming through. Randal was about to give him the go ahead, but Cal jumped up and bolted out of the bunker, running and yelling at the top of his lungs.
"KAYLA!!!" Cal yelled as he took out at a flat out run, throwing all caution to the winds as blaster bolts flew passed. Any thought for his own safety went directly out of his mind when he caught the sight of Kayla being chased by one of the villainous riders.
Randal cursed aloud and told Geefive to hold his fire. After he quickly dropped out his power pack and loaded in a fresh one, he jumped out of the bunker and started to fire as rapidly as he could as he moved to follow Cal, though the incoming shots made him duck and move behind the cover of a large tree where he soon lost sight of Cal.
Rika caught sight of Cal running into the village proper, and then saw Randal trying to follow, but then saw him get pinned down behind a tree. If the riders continued to attack like they were, she knew that he wouldn't last long out there.
Swearing to herself that she would give him a long drawn out piece of her mind if they survived this, she took in a deep breath and ran out of the bunker.
Kayla saw the front door to her house, but the excruciating pain that was now coursing through her entire fatigued body threatened to keep her from reaching it. But a quick glimpse behind her showed that the raving monster was still hot on her heels, and it was enough to push her forward. She reached the door, and threw it open as fast as she could, got inside, and then slammed the door in Diejkaz's face. But even though she fully engaged the lock, Diejkaz merely shot the lock off the door, and then shoved the door inwards, hitting Kayla full force.
Kayla fell flat on her back and tried to pick herself up, but all the exertion that she had put on herself had finally caught up with her. Her arms merely shook as she tried to push up, and as they gave out, she fell back onto the floor. Diejkaz stood in the doorway and grinned wickedly as he watched the frantically panting Kayla try and shuffle backwards.
He watched her as she looked back at him with eyes wide open in fear with pure carnal delight before he moved further into the house. Kayla tried to scream, but she couldn't find the energy to even do that. Diejkaz reached down with his filthy grubby hands, and just when he was about to touch her, the bone-chilling sound of a blaster being set to overload came from behind him.
"Get away from her!" Cal yelled firmly as he leveled the blaster at the assailant. Diejkaz turned his head around to see the young man standing there, and then looked him directly in the eyes. For an eternal moment, the two merely stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Faced with life and death in such a manner that he had always thought would be somehow different than this, Cal's resolve momentarily faltered, and Diejkaz saw it in his eyes: the boy had froze. With blinding speed, Diejkaz both spun fully around and pulled his blaster. But before he could get the shot off, Cal snapped out of his fear induced trance and released the over charged blast directly into Diejkaz's chest. Not even waiting to see if his shot had hit his target, Cal continued to rapidly pull the trigger until his power pack died.
Diejkaz's smoking corpse hit the floor in front of Kayla, who had now found enough energy to pull herself halfway back up using the far wall. Cal briefly looked down at the now dead body only long enough to make sure that he was dead, and then ran over to Kayla and helped her up.
"You okay?" Cal heard himself ask, but his own voice sounded distant and ethereal. Kayla looked up at the distant look in Cal's eyes and nodded her head. It only took a moment for her to remember the whole reason that she was here.
"Sara! Sara's still in here!" She took off for the bedroom, Cal's left hand in hers, but she nearly got her arm pulled out of its socket as Cal was still rooted in his spot. She shook his arm and tried to get him to move, but his eyes were locked on the smoldering corpse of the once living Nikto.
The first overcharged blast had caved in his chest and had killed him instantly, but the other five shots that Cal had hit him with deformed the body into a gruesome sight that he would never be able to forget. Kayla only briefly followed his eyes and instinctively recoiled at the sight. Cal's face became a sickly pale white and he was just a hair's breath away from vomiting.
Kayla had to put a hand on Cal's chin and forcibly turn his gaze away. Cal's eyes took a moment to focus and when they finally did, he lightly shook his head and looked at Kayla.
"What?" he lightly said.
"Sara's still in the house," Kayla said as she took Cal by the hand and led him away from the dead body. In the bedroom, they found Sara cowering in-between her bed and the wall. When she saw her older sister, she jumped up and ran into her arms. Cal ejected the spent power pack from his blaster and reloaded a new one, though he probably wasn't aware that he even did it; he was now wired into survival mode. As Kayla and Sara held each other, crying and telling each other that they loved the other, the continuous sounds of blaster fire continued outside.
Randal pressed his back against the hard surface of the tree and fired blindly behind him by crossing his arm over his body. After the shot, the red warning light on the power pack blinked twice, letting him know that it was running low. Incoming blasts hit the protective tree, shattering large splinters off. If he didn't get away from the relative safety of the tree soon, there wouldn't be much of anything to use as cover left.
He cursed to himself as he ejected the nearly depleted power cell and jammed in a fresh one. Before he began to fire again, he let out a breath and looked up to the sky. "I don't know how we're going to get out of this one." Quickly, he ventured a peak around what was left of his cover, and saw several of the swoops now starting to head his direction. He swallowed what fear might be coming to his mind at what was likely to be his imminent death, and fired at the oncoming riders, but missed by a mere fraction of an inch. He was about to fire again, but something distracted the riders and drew their attention away from him. He threw all caution to the wind and stuck his head out fully to see what it was. What he saw made his eyes open wide in shock, but oddly enough he wasn't surprised at her actions.
Rika ran towards the three swoop riders who were shooting at Randal, and she fired a few shots at them, but her lack of familiarity with the weapon made her shots go wide. But though the shots missed, they did draw their attention and the quickly turned their swoops away from Randal's position and speeded away in a collision course with her.
Rika continued to fire, but her power pack ran dry, making the weapon a useless if not tastefully designed flimsi-weight. Acting on her years of training and muscle memory, she ditched the blaster and reached into her inner jacket pocket. The closest rider fired wildly and after missing, decided to just run her down. But as the swoop was a mere meter away, Rika leaped into the air, ignited her blue lightsaber, and cleaved the head off of the rider.
As she landed, she deflected incoming blaster bolts as if it were as natural as breathing in the air. One of the blasts got deflected right back at its shooter, hitting him in the chest. The remaining of Randal's attackers, the gang leader Kaul himself, sneered wildly when he saw the ancient and synonymous weapon of the Jedi Knights. Among Mandalorians, taking on a Jedi in a fight was a true test of one's skills. He had never had the opportunity to fight one, and after the bloody end of the war, he doubted that he would ever get the chance. But now, fate had given him that chance.
Kaul speed off towards the Jedi, not firing his blaster at her as the other fool had done. Rika saw Kaul barreling towards her, but instead of running, she stood her ground and took up a defensive stance. Kaul had seen what she had done to the first of her kills, and veered off at the last second, jumping from his swoop in an attempt to tackle her.
Rika was at first taken back by his attack; she had been focused on the swoop instead of Kaul himself. But when he veered the swoop away and leapt off, she instinctively threw up her hand and pushed him away with all the might she could muster from the Force.
Kaul's expression changed from one of driven determination to one of confusion as he was hurled backwards with a force that hit him square in the chest, driving all breath out of his lungs. He hit the ground roughly twenty meters away, and rolled unnaturally before he came to a stop on his stomach.
He forced himself backup and ignored the throbbing pain that was now coursing through his body. Clearly he couldn't judge the Jedi merely by her looks; she possessed a strength that far surpassed her physical limitations. As he looked back at her, she was now beginning to charge towards him, her deadly blazing blade held at the ready.
Knowing that the entire assault on this simple mining village was now far beyond what he originally thought it was going to be, he instantly made the decision to retreat. If it wasn't for the intervention of a Jedi, the battle was winnable. But now, the odds fell heavily on the side of the villagers. And besides, Dalledo wasn't paying them enough to take on a Jedi.
Kaul turned and ran to the nearest one of his riders who had stopped, and without telling him anything, backhanded him off of his swoop and took control of it. With a loud whistle and a spinning finger in the air, the Sickle Riders turned away from their attack and raced back into the canyon.
Rika slowed her run and stopped as she watched the remaining riders take off, and after a moment they were only clouds of dust trailing off into the canyon.
For a moment, Rika continued to stand watching the dust clouds, her lightsaber humming strongly at her side. Slowly, the militia members started to exit their battered bunkers and briefly looked around before their eyes fell on Rika. It took a few minutes before any of them spoke, and when they did, it was only mere whispers to one another.
Randal walked up beside Rika, and holstered his blaster. He placed his soot covered hand on Rika's shoulder, and the touch drew her out of her stoic stare at the canyon where the riders once were. She slightly jumped at his touch and then looked up at him, who was giving her a look that both conveyed his thanks for getting him out of a jam, but also let her know that he was annoyed with her. She lightly shrugged her shoulders and deactivated her lightsaber.
"I thought you weren't going to carry that anymore?" Randal asked with a slight smirk.
"I thought I might need it," Rika answered guiltily. Randal let out a sigh and turned to look at the militia members, who were now starting to gather in a single group, all of them still staring at the pair.
"Well, I'm glad you thought that. I guess we're going to have to explain some things, though."
"There's nothing to explain," Giles said as he was the first of the militia group to approach the pair, a wide grateful smile on his face. "I'm sure you had your reasons for not telling us you were a Jedi, but we're just glad you were here. We couldn't have done any of this without you, and we're forever grateful to the both of you." Everyone added their own thankful words, and shook both of their hands and continuously patted them on the back with jarring enthusiasm.