Fragments of the Dark

Chapter Twenty Four

Din paused, switching off his helmet's tracking function.

"About 15 or 20 of them came through here on foot," he said.

Celene was to his right, scanning the area.  She pointed to the trees above them.  "And something big sheered off those branches." 

Din nodded and followed the path, coming out into a clearing.  He paused, kneeling down by the damp earth.  A giant print was pressed into the damp soil, nearly the size of his entire body.

"AT-ST," Celene said from behind him.  "Shit."

"Imperial walker.  What the hell is it doing here?"

Celene was already standing, worry etched on her face.  "I have no idea.  If there were an Empire presence on this planet I would know.  I would have known before we landed."

Din rose to his feet.  "This is more than we signed up for."

Back in the village, Din and Celene stood in front of the crowd of villagers, the latter drawing much attention from her colorfully marked face, Din noted.  She leaned against the building, in the shade of the awning.  Din stepped forward.  "Bad news.  You can't live here anymore."

The villagers gasped and grumbled among themselves in shock and anger. 

"Nice bedside manner," Celene muttered to him.

"Think you can do better?"

"Can't do much worse."  She stepped forward, tossing her thick braid over her shoulder.  "I know this is not the answer you wanted to hear, but there are no other options."

"You took the job!" A man from the crowed shouted.  He was echoed with agreement.

"That was before we knew about the AT-ST."

"What's that?"  Someone from the back asked.

Celene folded her arms.  "The armored walker with two enormous guns that you knew about and didn't tell us."

The villagers shifted on their feet murmuring amongst themselves.

"Help us please, you're suppose to help us."

"Yeah, we hired you!"

Omera stood in the front, her hands clasped on Winta's shoulders.  She looked to Din.  "We have nowhere to go."

Celene looked back at him, as if sensing she wasn't addressing her but him.  "Sure you do," she answered.  "This is a big planet.  I mean, I've seen a lot smaller."

This was met with more protests from the villagers as they muttered amongst themselves. 

"It took generations for us to settle here, we can't just leave!"

Celene looked to Din again, uncomfortably he realized.  Neither of them were suited for such... humanitarian work.  After all they were bounty hunters for a living.  Not prone to saving villages.

"We understand."  He said.  "We do.  But there are only two of us."

"Technically," Celene muttered.  "There's another person here that can help."

Din shook his head at her.  "She tried to kill you.  She wants to kill you."

The villages were angry now, mostly at Din's statement.

"What do you mean?  There are almost twenty of us!"

Celene rolled her eyes.  "We mean fighters.  Be realistic."

"We can learn!"

"Yeah, teach us!"

"Please, give us a chance!"

Celene turned to Din, a wary look in her eye.  "I've seen that thing take out entire companies of soldiers in a matter of minutes." 

This quieted the villagers as the reality set in.  Omera stroked Winta's hair and looked at the two bounty hunters.  "We're not leaving."

Din saw Celene's jaw tighten.  "You cannot fight that thing."

"Unless we show them how."  Din said.

Celene looked at him and shook her head.  Behind her, the villagers had heard him.

"Show us!"

"Yeah, teach us!"

Din looked at Celene.  "You up for this?"

The sunlight caught the edges of the bruise along her face. "You know we're going to need her."

He didn't like it. "She'll try to kill you the first chance she gets."

Celene shook her head. "No, I don't think she will." Her gaze fell on the villagers. "Let's start this and I'll find her."

He pushed down the uneasy feeling her words gave him and faced the crowd of people again. "Alright. You got two problems here. You got the bandits, and you got the mech. We'll handle the AT-ST but you gotta protect us when they come out of the woods. And I don't have to tell you how dangerous they are." He looked to Celene. "Celene has lots of experience with these things. She's going to lay out a plan for you so listen carefully."

Celene folded her arms. "Now there's nothing on this planet that can damage the legs on thing, so we're gonna build a trap." She pointed past the last row of huts and to the series of water channels. "We're gonna need to dig real deep, right there, so that when it steps in, it drops."

The villagers nodded in agreement, disappearing to find tools, shovels and anything else useful. Celene looked to the edge of the forest. "I'll be back soon."

Din caught her arm. "Are you sure? I don't like this- look at what she did last time."

Her face darkened. "She caught me off guard. It won't happen again."

He hesitated.

"Din, it will be fine." She nodded her head to the villagers. "Make sure they don't screw this up." Then she was gone.

There was a small tap on his leg and Din looked down to find Grogu there. He bent down, picking up the small being and they both watched the forest swallow Celene's figure.

"Where is she going?"

Din turned. Omera stood behind him, a digging tool in one hand.

"To find someone else to help us," he said. "Hopefully."