Klev took her hand without a word and extended his other towards the young girl, bowed his head solemnly and begun speaking quietly to his Deity. During the oration he spoke thanks for continued health, companionship, and food on the table, then he asked for protection and good aim in the fight that was surely about to happen. When he finished speaking he raised his head and looked at Vera who was still looking quite formidable so he turned to Rylain and nodded sagely. “Please do,”he said in answer to her question. “Then, if you would, there is bread in the box over there,” he said pointing with his spoon.

The stew was hearty and full of large chunks of spicy meat and thickly sliced, strange looking vegetables in a heavy broth; the bread was hard and crusty, but made fresh that very morning. For the most par Klev and Vera usually ate in silence, tonight they looked expectantly at Ryain for conversation.

“So, what’s your story then? Young as you look, can’t be as ‘citing as our last…guest,” she said with a slight grimace. It was not as if she were against bringing people to her cottage to help them, she had done a fair amount of that for several years after her son’s death. She had simply gotten older and, if not wiser, then more aware of the consequences. Then Klev brought the Jedi and, with the orders out concerning Jedi she was all too aware of how things were likely to turn out.

Klev, while aware, seemed not to care so much. He did admit to himself that there were consequences to harboring a Jedi but rather than be concerned for his safety he was more concerned for the welfare of the entire galaxy and, in his eyes, if he could save but one Jedi then surely that Jedi would make good headway towards taking down the Empire. Now he had the chance to save not one, but two and that, he told himself, was worth more than his life.

In Vera’s opinion he was just making sport of provoking the Imperials and (though she would never consciously admit it) she too was starting to feel the spark of youth again. “Well?” She said after a moment of silence. “Pretty girl like you runnin’ from those…those… Well, they’s gotta be somthin’ of a story there huh?” Klev ate in silence secretly planning what to do.

Jedi Knight Raztlain Alies usually took pride in his ability to land a vehicle with the barest (if any) of bumps. This landing would go down as one of his worst and even he cringed when the craft rebounded off the ground before settling. He had stirred so much dust that, when he opened the hatch, he thought, for a startling moment, that he had somehow landed on Tatooine in the middle of a raging sand storm.

Chipper chided him again but Alies waved him off with a hand as he squinted outside and waited for the dust to settle. When it finally did he ushered the droid out and ordered him to do a scan for life forms. The report came up negative save for three in the small dwelling that was just a few miles away. When ordered to scan to his limits the droid reported was the Jedi feared.

“Tell me more,” Vera said after she realized the stew and cleaned it off with the cloth napkin that was in her lap.

By now Klev was finished with his first bowl of stew and ladling out another, all concentration was on the youth as he tore some bread off for himself and started shoveling stew as if he had never eaten before. Or as if it was his last meal.

Raz had ordered the droid back into the ship to keep the sub-systems running in case of the need for quick escape. At times like this the little droid ran a program that would allow it to, when linked into the main computer, actually perform low level flying such as an evac mission.

The Jedi himself was already a mile from the vessel and moving steadily towards the cottage. He was armed, as most Jedi were, with only his saber and the Force just within reach but not yet accessed. It was bad policy to use the Force with the inquisitors about, although it was probably common knowledge that there was a Jedi on planet by now anyhow.

Added (19 Dec 2010, 9:02 PM)
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{(Chat Transcript)}

Rylain dropped her spoon in the bowl when he said that name, a look of unbelief struck her face. Feeling her heart race a bit her hands slipped from the table to her lap and she took a deep breath… “How did you know that?” she asked looking between the two of them now... A moment of hope slipped through her that would spark something in her eyes that they had not seen in the young girl yet... a flash of what happened ran through her mind and her eyes watered a bit... “We got separated…” she whispered sounding so weak and quiet.

Excitement overrode common sense and Vera shot her husband another look; even she was not so absorbed in her feelings as too discount the pain that a Master and Padawan would feel at their separation, never mind the story that they had both been told by Alies about how HIS Master had been killed in combat and how Raztlain now felt that his mission was to find at least one surviving Jedi and, if untrained, train them.

Klev too was taken in the moment and spoke through a mouthful of stew and bread. “Was here a coupla days ago. He’s the lad I been tellin’ you ‘bout. Matter of fact that’s how you came to be here if you take my meanin’. We was lookin’ for ya…well…he was lookin’ for someone…” Klev stopped talking and thought about it for a moment.

Vera, who had not yet heard an account of Alies’ story, went on with what she had just heard. “That’s fantastic dear. I recon you’ll wanna be seein’ him soon enough then. Just left a coupla days ago though, no way to call ‘im back.

Raztlain had looped around to the north of the cottage in hopes that he could come in from the same side as the troops would; he was not disappointed. From his distance he could not get a count on them but the column was thick and long and stirring up a fair amount of dust in its wake. He sighed. “This was a bad idea,” he mumbled to himself.

Rylain frowned lightly when she heard that he was gone. The young girl just started at the two of them for a long moment in silence there was a small change in her feeling that lingered it was a bit tenser for a moment. Though tears slid down her face shaking her head softly... “No... I saw... I saw he is gone...” She said with a firm tone that seemed to tell something different than what she had first thought. Though she moved her hands to pick up her bowl quickly taking it to the sink where she turned on the water trying to clear her mind from the confusion... he was gone right? He would not just leave her would he?

Both of the elderly folks’ confusion was evident now. Spoons were laid down and blank looks were exchanged. “Yes, he is gone,” Klev said softly. “But I know how to find him, and he is waiting for you just outside the system. He came to get you, don’t you see.”

Vera nodded slightly at this, though she really did not know what was going on.

“Of course,” Klev said again. “We should be going ourselves, they’ll be along shortly and we can’t let them find you. Ma’ll get your clothes gathered and you should change, might want something better fittin’n what you got on”

True enough ‘they’ were getting awfully close and there was no way Alies was going to stop it. He had come too late it seemed, but he would not leave them to be taken without a fight either. He started running towards the house, a good two miles still.

The young girl was still confused and turned off the water when she heard them speak of getting ready and closed her eyes slowly for a moment. She walked over to where the cloths were and looked down at what she was wearing with a soft groan. “ I will change “ she called out as if she had blocked all that was going on her mind at that moment in time. She needed to protect them at all costs of her training.. The young girl slipped into her good cloths again fighting her belt around her waist a min and then gave a half smile. She peeked around the corner at them..” Okay, I am ready “ she said very confidently.

Neither Klev nor Vera had been idle during her time changing. Vera, oddly, had concerned herself with cleaning the table and washing the dishes. Klev, on the other hand had gone to the closet and fetched what appeared to be a large (and mostly illegal) cache of weapons. These he had on the table where he was checking power readings and firing pins when Rylain stepped back around the corner.

Vera had stepped into her own room and when she emerged she was wearing travel pants and a light dust cloak. Without a word the shouldered one of the carbines that Klev was finished with. By unspoken consent both of them would play a part in this.

“We’re goin’ out the back, they’s a tool shed just behind the house and further on’s a barn. They ain’t gonna ‘spect resistance from us ‘cause they got none last time,” Klev said with downcast eyes.

Vera looked out the window towards the sunset. “They’re coming, I can see the dust.” Klev nodded and solemnly said, “Let’s move then.” With that he shouldered the rest of the many weapons and walked calmly, and for the last time, out the back door.

Rylain stepped back into the room her eyes widened rather quickly to what she saw on the table. With a deep swallow of her own voice and looked over at him and nodded a little bit. When she heard Ma come out looking over in that direction with a turn of her blonde head to see her. A sigh of relief for a moment though she was unsure what she could do to help.. “ But, wait what do I do?” she asked without even thinking and that slender hand slipped right up and covered her mouth very quickly sudden.. Stepping over like she was going to try and pick up one of the weapons to carry it if he would let her help that was of course. She was unsure how to help and she wanted to stand her ground in some way and fight to protect them. That is what she was supposed to do right?

Klev chuckled some as she reached for one of the weapons and moved his hand off a particularly lethal looking rifle. It was his favorite one, the one he had used only a day before. “You know how to use one of these?” He asked seriously as he headed for the door. Vera was already outside and making good tracks (for an elderly woman) for the cover of the shed. Klev followed without waiting for an answer, she’d come along, and with his weapon. Whether she use it or not was another story.

Alies was close enough now that he could see the armor glinting bright in the sunlight. Apparently these soldiers did not even think they needed the desert tans. After all, what was two old people and one Jedi to a squad of what looked like twenty. A sound made him turn his head in time to see ‘Ma’ scooting towards the back shed at a considerable pace, he stopped long enough to admire her agility before he decided what to do.

She gave him a smile when he let go of the weapon and reached to pick it up from the table. Letting her fingers slip across the metal for a moment. Considering what he asked.. “ Well I um..” she trailed off when her eyes caught they were leave Taking a deep breath picking it up with a tight careful grip. The boots of the girl ran across the floor of the house quickly out the back door as well to see where they were going though she thought that she already knew. Pausing a moment to this Maybe she could draw them away from the older couple they did not deserve to have to fight or anything. A slight nipping on her lower lip a little bit nervous at the moment looking both directions like she was trying to decide which way she wanted to go now.

The tops of their helmets were now visible as they begun to crest the dune. Neither Klev nor Vera had seen Rylain but they knew she was not in front of them. Each of them peered from the side of the shed and Klev, who was kneeling just below Vera so as to give her the ability to sight over him, patted her knee softly. “Are you certain you wanna do this?”

In answer the air was split by the sound of her weapon and Klev felt the heat from the muzzle. The troopers’ eyes had just become visible when one of them dropped. Her real answer was a low cackle that he had never heard before. With the silence (and the cover) broken enemy weapons began to track their way. Only another couple seconds of surprise was left; that in mind both Klev and Vera started firing indiscriminately.

Raztlain had darted to interpose himself between the oncoming troops and his one-time hosts; because of thus he did not see Rylain move either. He had made it some half way there when he too heard the first shot and watched one of the soldiers fall. He, now foolishly out on the open, was also the only person in sight and the only person the troops had to shoot at. He realized his mistake only half a second before his weapon was a blur in his hand and he was retreating towards the shed and the relative safety of the friendly fire from that direction.

A bare few steps into his retreat and he rethought his position. By acting alone he risked a stray shot getting through his defenses, but he cut the assault directed towards the couple in half. Besides, a stray shot or two was very unlikely to hurt the Jedi Knight. He stopped and shifted his feet the opposite direction thereby forcing the troopers to continue their split, and thus far ineffective assault two different ways.

It was then that he first caught the unchecked presence of the other Jedi. While his minds eye tracked the blasters firing his way and his hands, seemingly of their own accord retained an effective barrier against them, his physical eyes turned her way as she lumbered into the battle. Instantly he was of two minds: try to protect the couple, or try to protect the girl. Klev and Vera were well protected by the out-buildings and the fact that they knew the ‘lay-of-the-land’ as it were; the girl (as he noted wryly) was going to get herself killed.

It was, for the moment, something of a stalemate; both all opponents held effectively in place, but Raztlain knew that this would change all too fast. There was little hope that the youth was truly able to handle the weapon she was swinging about; she was quite young by the look of it. The problem was that he was cut off from her by the hail of fire being exchanged and could not afford to cut off Klev and Vera’s suppressant fire. The more immediate problem was that their shelter was rapidly becoming rubbish.

He grimaced and made the choice. Because of their rash maneuvers Klev, Vera, and the girl had left him with only one choice: hold his own. Putting them as far into the back of his mind as he could he opted for full frontal assault, if nothing else perhaps he could coax a few more muzzles his way. He turned and allowed the Force to completely envelope him; blocking shots was easy, returning them effectively was not. Jedi Knight Raztlain Alies closed his eyes and started striding purposefully towards the soldiers, weapon ablaze.

This was, as always, the undoing of a Clone trooper: arrogance. When the lone Jedi (they had yet to see the girl) made an approach this boldly it was all they could do to stop themselves from taking bets on how soon he would go down, and who’s shot would take him. As it was they had all already forgotten about the massacre at the starport and, (disciplined though they were) started to break procedure in hopes of being the one who dispatched the Jedi. The first one made the mistake of stepping out of cover only to have his shoulder ripped apart by Klev.

A white helmet rose above a dune, no doubt to get a better shot at the Jedi, but Klev was not going to let that happen. He sighted in and squeezed the trigger, this time firing for accuracy rather than suppression. He grinned as the soldier dropped and toppled another with him. The second would not be out of the picture for long but every second presented another opportunity.

The Jedi saw that too and with two muzzles silences (if only for a heartbeat) he was able to concentrate just that much more, which made a tremendous difference with a Jedi. He focused on the incoming fire and tilted his blade to the proper angle. One soldier dropped, then another and the remaining Stormtroopers whose weapons were trained on the couple started to falter. Four turned Alies’ direction and he was once again forced to stop his attack and defend himself.

Four fewer weapons made a difference for the old couple. First Vera retreated, secured a location and started laying down cover fire for her husband. He followed quickly. When he arrived he looked at Vera with tightness in his eyes. “Running low,” was all he said, but she understood. They were running low on ammunition, and that meant running short on time.

Alies did not know what to think about the piece of wood flying at him, he sidestepped and returned his attention to the fight rather than whatever the girl though she was doing. The only thing that he knew was that she was going to announce her presence there and then his whole purpose for being on the world would die, and quickly. Then she touched his mind.

He faltered at the touch and a blaster bolt sizzled into his left forearm causing him to stagger back in such a manner that he almost fell. Raztlain was adept at absorbing energy, but that sort of thing took concentration that he was using elsewhere at the moment. All that would come back to her was a sensation of blinding pain as Alies gritted his teeth and struggled to maintain his saber shield.

None-the-less he had regained his composure when several more muzzles turned his direction, but just barely. Now he was sweating. Klev could not see the perspiration, but he could tell that something was wrong both, because several blasters firing in his direction had fallen silent and because Alies was no longer on the offensive. He began to assess what he could do to help, there were several trees scattered here and there that he could probably make it to now; it would put him closer to the Jedi and on a better angle for aiming at the soldiers.

Vera too noticed the situation but, in a move that was a shock to Klev she simply screamed out and ran from cover firing blindly. “BORAN, NOT BORAN,” she screamed over and over and she fired relentlessly. It was foolish, Klev noted after the shock wore off, but it was effective. He could not make it out clearly but he thought that at least four soldier fell to her onslaught before she reached the relative safety of the trees. He used her continued fire to make for a different location which would cause the troopers to split fire once more.

A simple move, but it had worked. Those rifles that he tracked his direction were now silent once again. Jedi Knight Raztlain Alies went back on offence and two soldiers fell to his deflections before they had completed the turn back to the elderly couple.

Four less muzzles made for several tense moments for the remaining soldiers. Two and two they split and, using heavy carbines, continued a relentless firing upon both of their opponents. The four soldiers crept into Klev and Vera’s house instead of trying to go around. From there they moved slowly to the ruined shed. Three stopped there while one deposited his weapon and ran hard towards the barn. He had little time and he knew it so he’d already removed the pins from the two grenades he carried; one he launched through a broken window of the barn, the other towards Klev and Vera.

The three soldiers remaining in the shed kept up and suppressive cover fired for his retreat but despite the fire coming from two different directions Klev turned and put two shots into the single trooper’s neck just as the grenade sailed into the trees. Klev took two steps and kicked it out of the way but it was too late. It blew ten feet from him and he flew through the air and landed in a heap on the ground. Vera squeezed her eyes shut but kept her finger on the trigger firing blindly; she and Klev had had a good life together but she would have to mourn later.

At the same time two more soldiers fell back and entered the house. They now had three locations from which to fire. The three in the shed opened fire on Vera and she hit the deck. Satisfied they all turned their weapons towards Alies.

He was good, but not that good. Twelve weapons firing from three locations were too much to handle, and even he was distracted by the loss of Klev and Vera. He began backing towards his ship knowing that he’d never make it when he felt it again. 'Can I help?' He did not know anything about the other Jedi; hold old was she? How good was she? But he did know that they were both going to die if something did not change.

He closed his eyes and let the force take complete control as he backed slowly. It seemed that, in his mind, he could tell she was in the barn and it was obvious that the soldier had not yet noticed her; if they had some of them would be firing in her direction, or at least going to investigate. ‘They don’t see you. Take the shed, and be quiet about it.’ He hoped she’d understand what he meant. She’d have to sneak around behind them without being seen by those in the house. There was no time to make a better battle plan, if she was carful, and not too youthfully exuberant, she would do fine. She had to.