Chapter 7: The Wolf King
The Rebel base was located inside the far end of a crater, a formation that may have been caused by a meteor impact thousands of years earlier, or may have been the result of a more recent terrestrial trauma. Mara wondered who, if anyone, had lived there previously.
It was as rickshaw a camp as she'd ever been in. The accommodations were barely that. Tents and lean-tos, in such a condition that the Imperial Army would have thrown them in the rubbish heap. The bare minimum of shelter resting on the bare minimum needed to sustain life. The men and women there were all hallowed cheeks and sunken eyes with anger burning in their depths. Desperation was at every turn, resting on every rock.
Why? Mara wondered to herself as they passed through. What about the Empire was so horrible that people chose this over its protective rule? As far as she knew, no one was starving. What could possibly drive people to such blind hate? Was it merely that? Blindness? Were they so enraged at the loss of what was to that they were unable to see what had now been provided to them? Surely the presence of a few troops was nothing compared to having real flesh on their bones.
It was a question she'd have posed, perhaps, to her Superior, if she had thought he would welcome that level of introspection.
It was half tent, half cave that they finally approached, led there by instinct and the subtle suggestions of hands on blasters if they made a wrong turn. The fabric dripping from the rocks to form additional walls had more color in it than anything they'd passed so far. Still, it was drab for red. Mara self-consciously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, thankful she'd worn a hood.
"Welcome, friends."
A man stood in the center of the tent. He was stocky, but tall, with hair cropped short and nearly indistinguishable from his weathered and filthy face. A crude patch covered one eye, and though he grinned, it was the hard smile of a man with confidence, not stupidity.
"I'd give you our names," Cassian opened, "but I'm not sure we're in the right place."
The visible eyebrow raised. There was no telling what its counterpart was doing. "And what makes you say that?"
"The lack of security."
The man, and several of his companions, laughed boldly. "Come. Have a seat." He indicated a couple of crates scattered around his meager fire. "We're all friends here." A jug appeared from somewhere, and a pair of cups made of the durable material recreational adventurers favored. "Ale," the man said. "Not the best, but you'll feel it in your gut, and it's not poison."
Mara didn't close her eyes as she tried to read the man, but she felt him strongly nonetheless. He wasn't trying to hide anything. Yet. He wanted to know why they were there as much as they wanted to know why he was. Sometimes the best way to get information was to ask for it. Or, at least, the best place to start.
She took a sip from her cup. Beside her, Cassian followed suit. It was bitter and terrible as promised.
"If you didn't see our security on your way in, they're doing their jobs well," the man said. "We always permit visitors. Men should be free to go where they wish. Whether they can leave again may be a matter for negotiation."
"Men don't have that natural freedom as well then?" Mara asked.
The man genuinely smiled at her, no doubt enjoying the chance to exercise his rhetoric. She planned to let him. He probably didn't get much chance out here. She suspected his companions had heard it all before. So much for not having a leader. "Aye, he does. But once he's on our turf, we have the right to stop him. I'll suffer no danger to our cause."
"Then you are the man we're looking for," Cassian said, jumping ahead. Mara hid a smirk behind her cup. Clearly his work with Organa hadn't made him very patient with political rhetoric.
The man's attention shifted to Cassian and the blunt assertion. "I suppose I am. But then, we all are, by definition. All one man with a common purpose. United, as it were, in a bond closer than marriage. The bond of just cause. What brings you to us?"
Cassian studied his ale for a moment. When he looked up, his eyes appeared open and honest. "The chance to make a difference. The chance to rid our galaxy of its chains once and for all."
Mara could almost believe him.
"And what would you do to see those chains fall?"
"Whatever is necessary."
The man rose, fetched the jug, and poured himself a cup. "There are some who favor a more diplomatic approach to this problem."
"And how many lives would be lost in the meantime? Their way is too slow. Besides." Cassian paused, bit his lip. "I have never seen chains talked off a man."
Their host sat back down, studying Cassian's earnest face. "I agree. Though I should point out there is loss of life, either way."
Cassian's eyes, intent on their interviewer, had none of the softness Mara had grown used to. "Better theirs than ours."
**RogueLegends**
It wasn't as simple as all that. Even Cassian, convincing as he was, couldn't win over an anarchist leader with a few calculated sentences.
"You'll have to prove your commitment," the man, Anders, had said as he led them to the anarchist's small shipyard, tucked into one of the crater's many caves and no doubt under a mineral deposit that made it undetectable from space. "A test, which to a man of your intelligence should come as no surprise." He looked pointedly at Cassian as he said this, and Cassian felt the ground shifting beneath him. "Rian here has a mission. He's got Boadacks and Shimmer here with him already, but could use the extra crew."
On one side of the ramp they were approaching stood a man with a smooth face and horribly scared hands. Another man and a woman stood on the other side. Cassian made a mental note that so far the only lifeforms they'd seen were humanoid.
Anders stopped at the end of the ramp. "The deal is simple: complete the mission, and you'll have a place with us."
"And if we don't?" Mara asked.
Anders glanced at his men. His eyes slid down to the rifles they held, skipped to the blasters at their waists. No doubt more items of similar lethality were hidden in their boots and other places.
He met Mara's gaze evenly. "They have their orders. All's fair in love and war, darling."
A/N: Additional Disclaimer: I don't own the chapter titles either. Points to anyone who knows where I got them.
