What a desolate place this is

[Lilla Syrin]

"There's nothing to see. I used to live here, you know."
― Luke Skywalker

The report did her former home justice, yet she had bristled at the tone of the mission brief. It was labelled as a ‘planet heir to an ecological catastrophe in the dim past, and whose vast deserts now support a population of ne'er-do-wells, scoundrels, and hapless spacers of all species.’

It added that, ‘Nothing good comes from Tatooine, and that beings who reside there age prematurely.’

As she sat atop her mount, she forced herself to put these words out of her mind. They would only distract her from the task in hand. Ahead of her, the banthas plodded in single file, leaving only a narrow trail of scuffed footprints across the dunes.

Twin suns hammered down on the procession. Waves of heat rippled like cloaking shields, blurring the distance and making an oven of the Dune Sea. Indigenous creatures took shelter in whatever shadow they could find until the firestorm of afternoon trickled away into the cooler dusk.

The banthas moved with no noise other than the muffled crunching of their footsteps in the sand. Swathed in strips of cloth, the Tusken Raiders astride the shaggy beasts looked from side to side, keeping watch.

Wrapped entirely in bandages, yet still uneasy about the disguise, LIlla looked out through narrow metal tubes designed to shield the eyes from blowing grit. Tucked under her tattered robes, LIlla carried her borrowed saber. Her mouth was covered with a corroded metal filter for the sand; the filter contained a small internal moisturiser to make Tatooine's fiery air more breathable. The other Sand People had tiny ventilators studded around their desert coverings. Only their strongest survived to adulthood, and they prided themselves on it.

Lilla rode on her bantha, hoping to remain inconspicuous in the middle of the procession. The hairy beast swayed as it walked, and Lilla tried not to clutch its scalloped, curving horns more often than the other Tusken Raiders did. The bantha's sharp back ridges were covered with matted fur, and the disconcertingly thin saddle made the ride excruciatingly uncomfortable.

Lilla swallowed, taking another sip of her precious water and biting back a complaint. It had, after all, been her own decision to volunteer — given she had local knowledge.

The procession trudged through fine sand, winding along the crest of a shifting dune. The suns grew even hotter, if that were possible. The banthas coughed and snorted, but the Sand People were focused on a mission. And it was Lilla’s job to find out what the mission was. Which is why she replaced the Tusken Raider when they mounted up this morning and he was currently being looked after by a couple of Republic Remnant troopers.

As she stared out into the distance, she wondered what she had let herself in for. The desolation was a double edged sword. If something went wrong, she had no back-up. No means of escape. But at least there was nobody out here to witness her poor attempt to fit in as a Tusken.

It was a small mercy, but she’d take all she could get.

Which is when she heard the cry of a Krayt Dragon.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

There was little to draw him back to Tatooine, in all honesty. He liked the planet, as barren and bare as it was, but it was far away from where he ventured nowadays. Since his return to activity and aim to build bridges with various powers across the galaxy, Connor returned the planet and place that had moulded him the most.

The make-shift memorial of Corvus Raaf was still there, outside her decayed homestead in the dunes of the desert. Half-buried in the sand, the plain stone plaque that Connor had laid a year or more ago to acknowledge her disappearance in the galaxy meant she was most likely dead –although he refused to believe it. Still, time and the galaxy moved on. There was no need to spend a great deal of time here, but it was nice to return to in these quiet moments to think back to the days when he was a care-free Jedi Knight of the Silver Order.

Republic Master Raaf and Conner certainly had their fair share of adventures across the star-systems, and none of them failed to make him smile at a memory. From tomb raiding in mountainous worlds, to traversing ice planets and volcanic horizons in the search of holocrons and preserving the Light, it was never a boring day with Corvus and Connor around.

Now, all that was a memory.

He let out a content sigh and gave a respectful nod of the head to her plaque, and left her homestead. His boots crunched over the gritty sand back towards his freighter, but he was in no rush and decided to take in the view.

Connor walked to the edge of the dune and looked out into the sun-kissed world, his crimson cowl flapping gently behind him with the warm breeze. Out in the distance he could make out the Jundland Wastes, and another smile formed at the memory of chasing and taking down a Krayt dragon together. That was a moment!

He could hear the dragon calling out, and it seemed loud and it seemed real. Too real.

That wasn’t a memory. That was a real dragon!

Scanning the dunes below him, he focused in on a herd of Banthas moving across the sand. Tuskens moving in standard formation. A few small skeletons of downed fighters from wars in the stars above were dotted in the sand. Nothing that jumped out at him.

The sound of the dragon echoed around the dunes again. He stood and watched the Bantha herd, intrigued if they were on a hunt, or riding into sheer danger. It wasn’t his place to interfere with Tusken Raiders, nor did he want to. Survival of the fittest and all that.

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

The Jundland Wastes. A mutual home for the Tuskens and Lilla – after a fashion. True, she’d left ‘home’ recently. Not the act of a petulant teenager, no longer understood and wishing to spread her wings – but the result of discovering she was a Jedi. Or more accurately a Force sensitive that aspired to be a Jedi. Nothing more and nothing less.

But Tatooine had been home for the years she could recollect where she lived and her parents must have had a reason for leaving her here – which is why she’d been reticent to leave for all those years. But leave she did – to fulfil her destiny. Which sounded pompous if you said it in a certain way. For Lilla it was more a recognition that she was progressing as an individual.

Abandoned to be found by Jawas. A slave. A street rat. A slave again. A would-be spy, a street rat for the second time and now a Padawan. Lilla wondered if the slave and street cycle would repeat. If the Tuskens sensed who she was, it would be unlikely. She’d be dead before dusk.

Of course, finding the Krayt Dragon would have a similar effect. Lilla had heard a few in her time, but never faced one. She always travelled in the opposite direction of the sound of one before. But the Sand People seemed to be heading towards it.

But why?

To kill it? Maybe, but why? Was that a mission worthy of her infiltration? Surely the intelligence gathered provided enough information to suggest they were up to something of galactic-wide security. Or at least going to have a significant bearing on the local population. But – in all fairness – who cared about a few Tuskens dying at the hand of a Krayt Dragon. Or should that be claws?

Lilla shook her head, she was digressing. And something was bringing her back to the here and now. It was the Force. She could sense it. But what was it trying to tell her? Then she heard it again and understood.

The cry of the Dragon echoed louder this time. Lilla had, as previously established, heard more than her fair share. But she’d heard this one before. Not that she was an expert on discerning between Krayt Dragons, and certainly not by their roars. But she recognised when the sound of one was identical to sounds it made the time before. And the time before that. This was no Krayt Dragon they were headed towards. It was a recording of one.

Lilla had no answers from her few moments of insight. In fact, she had more questions. But they were better questions than she had a few minutes ago. And she was prepared in a way she hadn’t been before.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor's fingers drummed in the waistline of his belts as he watched the Tusken convoy head through the Wastes. It was like a survival holo-recording. Brave but dangerous hunters heading towards certain doom as the predatory sound of a Krayt echoed around them in such a desolate place.

He was transfixed - waiting for the dragon to appear suddenly and all hell breaking loose. The sort of thing you don't want to watch, but find it hard to look away from. Yet, nothing was really happening. The herd was moving closer and there was no sign of any danger, bar the dragon's roar which never seemed to change in direction, pitch or length. His brow furrowed slightly. His curiosity got the better of him.

The ship's loading ramp closed and locked behind him.

Fingers flicked and pressed the switches and pulled back the throttle gently.

Connor took off in his ship, but only enough to cause a downdraft that blew sand this way and that and a mini-tornado from the repulsors. With expert precision after what felt like a life-time of flying and not yet crashing, he kept the ship low and headed around the outskirts to the other side of the Wastes. A triangular crevice of stone peaks provided the perfect cover for him to come down in, and as quickly as it felt the journey had taken place, it was over.

He lowered the ramp, grabbed his water canteen and electrobinocs and headed out to what he hoped would be somewhere opposite to where the Tuskens were coming in.

Laying out on a gritty stretch of warm rock, Connor felt like a Padawan again - seeking out a mystery and looking for something terribly exciting. The roar of the "Krayt" sounded again. The electrobinocs soon found the convoy of riders coming into viewin the distance. Now just to see where they went, or what sort of trouble they were heading into...

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla remained patient. It was, she had been told her entire life, one of her virtues. She could play the waiting game better than any of her peers at the governess’s training academy in Mos Espa and she was already notable at the Jedi enclave.

In this hot sun, it would be easy to wish to force something, to push things along to find out what was occurring. Or at very least to nudge things, if only a little.

But Lilla was having none of it. She would remain in the saddle, despite her discomfort, until she was obliged to act — or the perfect opportunity presented itself.

As she remained impassive, she could not help but notice that a few of the Tuskens were growing restless. Were they anxious about the dragon? Had her hypothesis been so wrong?

She pulled the Force to her, gently. And once she felt its caress, she extended her senses to those closest to her. She wanted to know what they were feeling.

What she connected with surprised her. There was frustration at the heat primarily — not what she was expecting to find. And under that she sensed…greed. It was an odd combination and although it added new information for her mind to absorb and make sense of, in the short term it was nothing more than data.

Which is when she saw it. It only lasted a second — but it was as clear as day…and days in the Jundland Wastes were as bright as any in the galaxy.

It was a hand. Nothing more and nothing less.

A few Banthas ahead, a rider was sitting rather precariously. He looked to right himself but was struggling. Which was when he took his glove off and grabbed the pommel of his saddle to readjust his position on the best.

Lilla was no expert on Tuskens, but she knew enough. More than enough to understand what this meant. For the Sand People were unable to show flesh in public — it was taboo in their society. Whoever was sitting in that saddle, they were no Tusken Raider.

But was it another spy like her, or were they all masquerading as Sand People? She wished she’d been able to see who the troopers had kidnapped,to allow her to take his place. It would help answer any number of the many questions currently rattling around her head.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Through his binocs, Connor wasn’t convinced about this setup. Of course, he had no need to see Tuskens passing through the Jundland Wastes, who really cared? But something about the way the Banthas moved, and how loose the formation was didn’t seem right.

He pulled down the binocs and looked with his eyes out into the makeshift cavern of sand dunes and rocks. Focusing in on the herd he felt a strange aura around them, one that, mixed with his gut feeling, gave him reason to be more suspicious than he should have been.

These Tuskens weren’t all Tuskens after all.

If they were, then Force sensitive ones among them needed to be careful.

Was this some potential sacrifice? Some sabotage? Some deceptive show for others to see? He brought back up the binocs and focused.

"Where are you going," he muttered to himself.

One of the riders seemed to struggle and certainly didn’t hold himself with pride or grace that a native Tusken would atop a beast such as a Bantha. Connor shook his head. This was a pantomime performance, and sooner or later one of the actors would slip. Hopefully it wouldn’t call for his intervention.

The Tuskens were gradually getting closer.

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla closed her eyes. She was a competent rider, if not an expert one, so trusted in the Force to enable her to perform a form of Moving Meditation — this time on the back of a Bantha. And as she did so, she was able to focus on her surroundings.

She gently pulled the Force to her. She was careful — gentle even. Slowly, she slowed her senses to radiate outwards. Not just to take in emotions, but to understand who was around her.

She soon gave this up as a bad idea. Yes she sensed and could effectively ‘see’ people — but it told her nothing about them that she did not already know. They were not Tuskens.

But who were they, and what were they doing out here?

Lilla gently pulled her senses back in. There was nothing for it, she would have to be patient. And by the sound of the recorded Krayt Dragon, she wouldn’t have to wait long. It could only be a few hundred metres away.

Then, as they rounded a natural channel in the rocks, she saw it. A crashed ship.

Was this a salvage operation? Or were these the crew, come to repair their stricken vessel? Or had they shot it down in the first place and had come to claim their prize.

Lilla quickly reconnected to the Force and searched ahead with her senses. Unfortunately the ship was too far away for her to reach with her, as yet limited, Padawan powers.

But in another couple of minutes she’d be able to tell if there were any life-signs on the ship.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

The Tusken herd were moving out of range. They were rounding a low lying dune and heading into the more tricky terrain to navigate. Connor got up, crouching as he did, and followed parallel to where they were. He took careful steps across the top of the rocky outcroppings, and lost sight of the Tuskens for a while.

Reaching out with his hands, he balanced on the edges of some rocks, kicking loose shingle away with his boots as he moved away from his ship and across the higher edge of the Wastes. He saw then a possible prize wedged between two large rocky stalagmites; a ship.

Whistling to himself in awe, Connor lay back down on a sandy rock and shuffled forward. A minute or so later, the first Bantha came into view between the narrow passageway that led into the more cavernous area of the Wastes. On first thought, the ship must have come down by human error. There was little he could see from his angle to indicate a fire-fight had taken place in the stars, and it was otherwise intact were the hull not smashed up and wedged between the rocky columns.

This had to be a simple scavenger hunt; drawn to the sight of a crashed ship and coming to investigate and loot what they could.

The area was quiet, and there were no signs of life in the immediate area save for…what looked like…. Connor zoomed in to the rear end of the craft and saw a swoop bike. He bit his lip – this was either a survivor making his way out from the ship, or someone else had beaten them to it and was already inside.

He pulled back to the Tusken convoy and saw them closing in, but with no sign of their intention still.

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

As they added closer to the ship, the riders began to dismount. And disrobe. Clearly they believed that their disguises were no longer required at this point and that the Krayt Dragon recording would keep unwanted trespassers away.

If Lilla was to take a positive from thus, it was likely she’d soon be able to identify the Tusken impersonators. The negative that came with this scenario was that they would be able to identify her.

She glanced around, looking for a way out — but saw none. She decided her best bet was to allow her beast to continue to the rear of the ship and she could disembark there. If challeneged, she could always try a Mind Trick and convince someone she was keeping lookout an maintaining her disguise just in case.

So she guided her Bantha around the riderless ones and as she drew level with the ship, she saw the men that had previously been disguised as Sand People. They looked like typical ruffians. Some seemed to have a military bearing, others less so. Then she caught sight of a tattoo and purposefully scanned the other men for anything similar. Once she’d counted three, she knew it was no coincidence. They were Black Sun.

Whatever was on-board was valuable — and it took this many men to either retrieve it, or protect it.

As she drew level with the rear of the ship, she saw a swoop bike. It looked Black Sun issue and she resumed the rider was an advanced party — most likely the one that set the Krayt Dragon recording up.

As she began to dismount, one of the Black Sun thugs hurried towards her. “Get a move on, we need you to slice through this Quarren firewall if we’re to access the database on this ship.”

Things were about to go from interesting to extremely interesting. Or life-threatening, depending on who you were.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

These were certainly not Tuskens. Connor smiled to himself. They had put on a nice show for those out in the Tatooine wilderness, but now behind the cover of the Jundland Wastes and having found their prize, the façade fell.

Humans, now discarding some of their stolen attire, made it clear they were here for the ship. Be it the cargo or the data, this was probably a smuggling operation gone wrong or piracy at its best. However, it wasn’t something Connor was going to start policing. This wasn’t his business, nor did it concern him of the fact a bunch of luck-pushers wanted something for nothing.

Sure, it entertained him, the notion of a Krayt that was now a lie, but also just what they were after.

He decided to get closer.

As he rolled over and got up, sticking low and moving across the rocky outcroppings, he heard voices down below. The operation was a go it seemed.

Connor jumped down a few feet , landing on a pile of sand, and crouched against a large pillar of brown rock, a few levels up now from the ground and to the side of the large ship. Steam rose from the engines, and there were no evident markings he could see of who the ship belonged to.

He looked down to the pirates and counted four. One seemed to be an observer, the others had already moved away and into the ship.

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Plan for success and plan for failure. That was the Jedi way. But always plan for success first.

Lilla, sadly, had no plan. She had the barest of mission briefs — find out what the Tuskens are up to — but nothing else. She had hoped to slink away when she understood what was afoot and report back. It was simple, it was easy to understand — and it was flawed.

She had few choices and cycled through them in her mind, choosing not the best, but the least bad.

There were three Tuskens — or rather Black Sun gang members, and she was currently alone. No, five, The swoop bike suggested there was another, out of sight, already in the ship.

She could grab the swoop bike and make a run for it? That felt like a good plan. Except who knew what the Remnant would find if and when they returned here. So not a great plan.

She could remove the disguise and bluff her way into the ship. Except they’d recognise her as an imposter immediately.

She could remain in the costume and see how it played out? No, they’d immediately challenge her if she remained a Tusken.

The swoop bike began to look a little more attractive until she had a new idea. Not perfect, but better than any of the others.

Lilla cocked her head back and from her mouth came a passable imitation of a Krayt Dragon.

“What was that?” she heard from the ship.

“Maybe the recording attracted a mate?” another ventured.

Lilla waited and sure enough, the gang emerged, looking rather worried.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

"I got a bad feeling about this," Connor said to himself, shaking his head, his body flat against the thick stalagmite jutting up from the rocks.

It appeared one of the gang was now into playing games, imitating Krayts. And for what gain? To either try and call one to their location or draw attention to the gang from the ship. Either way, it worked.

The faux Tuskens emerged.

Connor had that feeling something was going to go down. The whole situation was shady from the start, and god knows what pirates and scavengers were here trying to strip the ship for themselves. This wasn’t his business, but he was dangerously close to the ground of the canyon now so he had to simply keep quiet and watch, and maybe investigate for himself.

Once this gang had killed each other in the process of working out who was who and who was going to stab them in the back. The Krayt impersonator had stuck out like a sore thumb, so credits on the table he – or she – would be first to drop.

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

‘I got a bad feeling about this,’ LIlla thought as she waited to see what might happen next. She did not want to show herself, or give any outward display of what she was, and she hoped her ruse was enough to get them to head back to the spaceport.

She sensed fear and apprehension. And the apprehension was linked to greed. For as much as they feared for their lives, they feared losing income — and face — more.

She gently fuelled the anxiety about the Krayt by amplifying their emotions. Except now she sensed they were getting jumpy, and unless she stopped, blasters were going to come out.

But she couldn’t take off her disguise without revealing she wasn’t the gang member they were expecting — and she’d run out of ideas.

There was only one thing for it — bad plan or not.

LIlla remained seated on the Bantha and with her left hand, whipped off the mask that covered her face. Her hair flowed as she removed it — clearly marking her gender.

And, suspecting that got their attention, she grabbed the hilt of her borrowed saber from the folds of the cloak she wore and activated it with a snap-hiss. The green blade would draw the eyes of the men away from her face for sure.

“You are under arrest.” What for, she presently had no idea, but she thought it a trivial fact for now. “Come quietly and I promise you a fair trial.”

She had right on her side. She had courage. And she had no expectation this course of action would work.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Nothing seemed to happen for a few seconds, like an stand-off. But then when things DID happen, they happened all at once and it was most unexpected.

Firstly, the solo Tusken imposter revealed herself to be a human woman.

Secondly, the solo female Tusken imposter then revealed herself to be a Jedi of all things.

Connor smirked with the first revelation, but then his eyes popped with the second. That was certainly a display. It was then he had a gut-punch of a memory flooding back to him right there and then. Standing before the crashed ship, surrounded by thugs amid the Jundland Wastes, he saw a woman he hadn’t seen for years. He turned more from his hiding spot to take it in.

Corvus?

He shook his head. He had buried her memory a long time ago. Yet the juxtaposition of imagery here, with the Force aura now radiating with the woman’s confidence, sent Connor back a few years to when they stood side by side doing near enough the same thing; taking down Tusken’s on a quest to hunt a Krayt Dragon in the Jundland Wastes.

With a shake of the head and a pinch of his brow, Connor grunted to himself.

”Pull yourself together, idiot."

But, now what to do?

Was this woman a Republic Jedi? Silver? No, too far out. An Alliance member? That would make sense. Or would the Confederacy be here investigating the Empire? Yes that could be it. She would be able to handle herself, but what if she couldn’t? He was here, doing nothing. Eyes darted between the men and the woman.

”Listen to the girl," he said aloud, stepping from behind the stalagmite, a few meters up above them and the Jedi. ”We don’t want this to get messy. Lay down your weapons."

He made no attempt to move for his lightsaber hilt. It was there. Evident for all to see if they looked. Standing in his navy blue and crimson attire, cloak draped over his back, he looked like some…sorcerer than Jedi.

Yet, he wasn’t a Jedi. But they didn’t need to know that yet.

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla was a Padawan – with all that entails.

Strictly, she wasn’t a Jedi – that title is actually only afforded to those that reach the rank of Knight. And her powers were limited – which was associated to the first point. And the limiting factors were two-fold. Firstly she did not have a broad repertoire of abilities to call upon. Secondly, the ones she did were not in any way mastered, merely competent. For to counteract the two limitationhs, she tended to focus all of her efforts on relatively few abilities. Better to be half-decent at a handful than barely competent at many.

Force Sense and Sight were two she was reasonable at – but distance and obstructions were a hindrance, as was the need to multitask.

Which is a rather long-winded but entirely accurate way of explaining why she hadn’t picked up the fact that another individual was close by. And that he was a Force-user. In truth, he was still too far away to gauge effectively – but his demeanour, if nothing else, stood him out as having supreme confidence. Which tended to go with ability.

Having said that, she probably exuded a degree of confidence that vastly outweighed her level of competence. But regardless, the two of them provided more than double the challenge the gang faced. Less like 2+2 and more like 2x2. Except they both calculated to be 4 – so that was a bad analogy. 22? No, same result!

Lilla was meandering now and snapped her mind back to the here and now.

Could she make a case for 3?

She shook her head. Gang. Fellow Jedi. Arrests. She was focused once more.

Did he just call her a girl?

Lilla glanced down at the group. “Throw down your weapons and nobody needs to get hurt.”

Her gaze then returned to the newcomer. “Did you just call me a girl?”

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor kept his eyes on the gang who appeared to be in that awful hiatus before either complying and throwing down weapons and surrendering, or pulling them out to attack. He hopped down onto the ground level, grit and sand crunching under his boots. He walked forward slowly to be a few yards parallel to the Jedi.

While she spoke to him, it was one of those comments NOT to say while putting on a front to a foe.

”Well, I don’t know. Woman, then. Sorry," he hissed.

The gang were still. One of them was glancing between the two, which gave Connor the clue he was going to be the “brave” one of the group. His card was marked.

”How about we iron out the details later, ok?"

A blaster was pulled from beneath a sway of Tusken robes. He didn’t get the blaster far before Connor raised his right hand and the sandy ground beneath him erupted in a swirl, enveloping him in a mini tornado and swallowing him up. The Force energy around the sand span him up and around and threw him cartwheeling into one of the rock columns propping up the ship, before dropping in a heap back down.

Now his lightsaber was ignited in the left hand, the cybernetic limb, with a devilishly crimson glow all in the blink of an eye. He had forgot that small detail – the Sith crystal was still active and now marked HIS card as a typical Sith, which he wasn’t.

”Last chance – weapons down and give yourself up for a less painful arrest."

He glance to the Jedi again and gave a little nod of the head. What a less than typical situation this turned out to be.

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla had to hand it to him — whereas she looked more like a girl the a Jedi (not that she’d admit that right now…if ever) — the other Jedi looked the part. Or rather, he looked a Jedi kind of intimidating. The sort of person you’d be wary of, even if he didn’t have a saber hanging from his belt. Not a Lilla sort of Jedi at all. She felt more like a ‘help you find that library book you can’t see anywhere’ kind of Jedi. Knowledegable and no doubt diligent but somewhere near a zero on the intimidation scale.

Lilla narrowed her eyes. Woman? Was that better? In fact, why mention gender at all? She had a perfectly good title — Jedi. OK, strictly speaking she was a Padawan and not a Jedi until she was knighted, but nobody needed to know that — least of all him.

But for the sake of the mission, she’d let it slide until it was all over. Or until the men were cuffed. Or at very least, once they’d surrendered.

Lilla sensed the danger at the same time her fellow Jedi acted. He had a significant drop on her, power-wise. And he thought quicker than she did too. Her first reaction would have been to… Well, there was her proof, she had no first reaction. This is why she needed more missions — to be able to think on her feet and not ponder what should happen in theory.

And something wasn’t quite right. Lilla had been with plenty of Sith, and he wasn’t one of those, but his drawing of the Force wasn’t precisely light-sided.

And when she said she’d been with Sith, she didn’t mean she’d been with Sith in that sense — just in their vicinity. When they’d used the Force.

Mind you — the crimson blade on his saber wasn’t doing his Jedi application form any favours. For a few moments, Lilla wondered who was the greater enemy.

He nodded to her. But what to do?

She slid off the Bantha with as much grace as a young woman could, given she was wearing Tusken robes and holding an illuminated saber in one hand. At least she didn’t fall when she landed, but that forward step would have lost her marks in the Jedi gymnastics gala.

She nodded back to him and remained wary. She would not turn her back on him. What if he came her to steal the ship for himself. Her eyes narrowed. This was getting curiouser and curiouser.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor didn’t look at her dismounting the Bantha, he kept his eyes on the goons. He didn’t need to look at her – he heard and saw her in his peripheral vision nearly stumbling backwards as she landed. But she held her grace, and now both stood ground level.

She nodded. He took the lead and walked forward, saber pointed behind his back. Four of them remained at least conscious and ready for action. With a single beckoning of his left hand, one by one they pulled their blasters, butts first and tossed them at the foot of the female.

One. Two. Three.

The final man hesitated. Connor didn’t react. Sadly, all it took was the gang member to shuffle the grip into his palm before Connor swung the blade up from behind in a sharp, precise movement and then returned it back.

A cry of pain, a crumpled man on one knee and a cauterised hand gripping a blaster before him.

”Anyone else?" Connor asked.

The remaining men raised their arms up and stood still. That was enough, and he killed his saber with a sharp hiss, span it in his palm and tucked it into his belt before looking over and giving a smile.

”Care to round them up or call in your reinforcements now?"

There was something awfuly familiar about her now she was close enough to be seen. It was the eyes…and the attitude…and the honest aura. It was horribly eerie.

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla admired form. She certainly didn’t admire anyone who used the dark side, but that didn’t mean she could not learn from the stranger.

He carried himself well and showed just the right level of menace to get the job done. Lilla studied many Jedi and non-Jedi in her time at the Academy. It would be folly to believe that only Jedi were accomplished with a saber for instance. Darth Zannah was a Soresu practitioner to rival the best — even Obi-Wan.

And she’d forgive the stranger his attack, given she did not sense it came from a place of anger or any obvious negative emotion. Nor did he do it for personal gain.

Lilla fished under her disguise and in a pocket of her Jedi clothing she found some cuffs and stepping forward she bound each of them. Until she reached the chap with only one hand. Her brow wrinkled. They didn’t cover this eventuality when they taught her how to use the cuffs. In the end, so cuffed the man’s one good hand to one of the other gang members.

Pleased with her resourcefulness, she turned her attention back to the stranger. “Given the circumstances, there was no expectation I’d arrest them all. So I’m not anticipating any back-up on the horizon. But I could check out the ship’s radio and see if I can raise some transportation that way?”

“Are you…I mean…do you consider yourself…” She sighed audibly. “Look, are you Sith, Dark Jedi or what?” Sometimes the direct question was the best approach

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

She seemed to have things well under control. With a nod of satisfaction, Connor looked around whilst the Tusken-Jedi-Woman made sure this amateur gang were cuffed. There was nothing calling out to him in the guise of hidden danger - no swoop bikes racing in, no modified fighters coming in low or snipers taking shots.

”Please, help yourself." He indicated to the ship and walked with her, knowing the suspects would either try to flee in fear or be rooted to the spot in it. ”And what am I? Well, I'm just..."

What in the Force WAS he? Good question.

”For now, I'm just Connor Harrison, at your service. Complicated and a little rough around the edges, but you'll get to understand me in the end."

He stuck his hand out for her.

”And just what are you? Jedi, or Tusken Raider, Miss...?"

[member="Lilla Syrin"]