Trapped | The Galactic Alliance

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Kana Truden"] [member="Kaiden Rohn"]

Three hours later.

He found himself staring down at the palm of his left hand. Blood seeped from the dressing. Another faint tremor started. With a sigh he reached for some medical tape and started to try and awkwardly bind it himself.

Darkness had fallen. It wasn't their ally. The Yuuzhan Vong had exceptional stealth units that had been scouting their lines. Another few blaster shots echoed off the low clouds overhead. The enemy hadn't made another big push, but in the chaos earlier a group of thralls had slipped through the thin Alliance lines. Two thousand civilians had died before the problem had been contained. Even now soldiers were finding the last of them. Two thousand was small compared to the number still waiting to leave the area, but it still felt like an appalling failure.

Jacen finished the strapped and tried clenching his left fist. If he had to he would tape the saber to his hand. At least someone had found him some light armour.

They couldn't stop the numbers apparently in the Yuuzhan Vong horde. They would make them pay for every metre and then fall back to the edges of the refugee camp, which had been fortified as much as possible.

It wouldn't be long now.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Three hours later, Cathul returns from Karfeddion for another run at getting the refugees out from the camp. There wasn't much time in the first run to go help out the refugees that needed medical attention, but because the first run was about the refugees that needed it, the first run had less people boarding than this one will, and the dropships used by [member="HK-36"] might have saved a few hundred more refugees. Per the reports on the ground, there were 2,000 dead among the refugees, and she cursed herself for not being able to allocate additional resources for medvac, for not being able to countermand High Command's directives. If so, it wasn't the first time she cursed High Command for restricting her freedom of action. Then again, it might not have been wise either, especially since it was med/casvac in a warzone. She hoped that [member="Kaiden Rohn"], [member="Jacen Voidstalker"], [member="Decker Willo"], [member="Lisa"], [member="Middenface McNulty"], [member="Gna Grimwasp"] and, of course [member="Kana Truden"], were safe, if perhaps a little bruised. Some emergency repairs were effected on the medvac line, but here she had the decency to bring in a second medvac corvette to get more of the job done in one go. As they arrive near the landing site with all eight ships in tow...

"Here we go again: we need as many refugees onboard our ships as we can before we can return to Karfeddion with the refugees in tow. As for any non-Vong dead you encounter, take up as many of the dead as you can, store them on the cargo hold and we will bring them back to their families afterward"

Spoiler: Medvac line

2x Dennari-class heavy freighters
6x Kamek-class medium transports (4 en route to Karfeddion)

 

[Kaiden Rohn]

It wouldn't be long now.

Not long at all. He was on a gurney, with an IV in his arm. The light was fading. They were doing everything they could. But the spear through his torso had done it's work. He was clinging to life by a thread, and the thread was strained already before this entire ordeal. In some ways, Kaiden knew this was how it was going to end- and in other ways, he was glad it ended like this. He asked to be brought near [member="Jacen Voidstalker"], at his request. Kaiden weakly reached out to the Jedi from his gurney, watching the man tape his hand.

"I need you to do me a favor, son."

He thought about the two Havoc troops still in the vicinity. He hoped they'd come by before the end. He was thinking about a lot. But the end was most prominent on his mind. He held onto the man's forearm- his grip weak, and his skin pale from blood loss. To say that he would survive the next half hour was a miracle. Anything beyond that was impossible.

 

[Gna Grimwasp]

Gna signaled her ship to get [member="Kaiden Rohn"] aid . also to get her mech it wasn't intended for combat but it was better than nothing.

 

[Kana Truden]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"] // [member="Kaiden Rohn"] // [member="Gna Grimwasp"]​

Three hours had passed and Kana was already feeling like it was eight. The darkness the enveloped the camp spelled trouble for everyone and to keep her mind off of her worries she had taken to healer duties. The force still threw spite in her face when she used it to ease the pain of others, forcing it upon her, but she perservered. Small cuts and bruises she could handle in this state, but anything bigger than that was sure to tire her more than anyone in the vicinity could even afford. It meant looking to children and elders, those that were either too slow to get in the first run of refugees or too stubborn.

A bandage covered her upper arm from the retreat away from the thrall horde, the result of a dumb mistake that had caused her to suffer for it. The children around her looked to her for advice on what to do and all Kana could do was hunch down and treat them the same way she would have treated anyone else. She wasn’t the best with children and she would never claim that she was, the bitter truth wasn’t hers to spit but she did it anyway with words covered in only the thinnest of sugarcoats. It wasn’t looking good, and that fact remained that a few of them were quite likely to die.

Okay, perhaps she wasn’t that brutal, but her instincts had told her that she should have.

No armor covered her, no protection beyond the saber in her hand.

Either she would suffer for it or come out on top.

Eyes set on Jacen and the nearby soldier before going back to the children before her.

How many of these were here because they had been lost in the initial chaos? Did she want to know?

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Kana Truden"] [member="Kaiden Rohn"]

Jacen felt her gaze on him as the soldier made his request. Before he could react to either two beeps signalled a priority message over his comm.

"One moment," he spoke to Kaiden. He turned towards the ground and placed a finger on his ear.

"Contact with enemy forces. A spearhead of light armour and heavy infantry heading for the centre of the line. I repeat..."

Jacen raised his head. Light armour in the Yuuzhan Vong sense meant creatures the size of landspeeders covered in thick plating. Normally with brutal organic weapons. At least it wasn't an advance of Firebreathers - their equivalent to AT-ATs. He cast Kaiden a concerned glance and then moved up to Kana. He placed a hand on her shoulder and spoke quietly.

"They're headed this way. You can help get the wounded back towards the camp if you want," he said. It was an out for the woman if she was drained from the healing. He couldn't make the choice for her. He respected her renewed determination. But he could give her the options. He returned immediately to Kaiden, carrying out a weapon's check as he went. Soldiers were moving now, taking up positions behind barricades brought forwards and trenches dug in. They needed more heavy weapons, or starfighters in the air again.

"What do you need?" he asked softly, kneeling to get as close to eye level as possible. The man had led the brutal charge towards the Herder and paid the price for it. There was always a price to be paid by any set of orders.

 

[Kaiden Rohn]

"I need you to make sure people remember this. And make sure Havoc makes it out safe, son."

Kaiden's hand began to slip. He began to convulse, a fit of the chest as his lungs and his heart began racing to try and keep him alive. He looked upwards at the darkening sky. It was later in the day. All things considered, it wasn't that bad of a day. Especially one to die on. His hand slipped out of Jacen's grasp. Kaiden's body went limp. In his final moments, Kaiden Rohn felt at peace, and felt accomplished. Like he did something. Like he mattered. He felt fulfilled and full of hope for the first time in years. He wanted to tell Jacen more. Wanted to tell her to pass on to [member="Kitt Solo"] that he never quite got over her. Find out what happened to the rest of his squad. Tell [member="Kiyron"] that he was the best friend that he ever had. Thank the Protectorate for being there when the Republic failed him. Thank the Alliance for giving him purpose. Thank the Jedi near him for being with him in his final moments. But he was fleeting, failing at living- and dying. He wanted to do a lot. Wanted to say much more in his final moments than he did.

He wanted to tell a lot of people a lot of things at the end. But life didn't work out like Kaiden wanted. But he made the best of it. And that's how he wanted to remembered. As a resilient man. As a good man. A loyal soldier to the Republic and to the Alliance. He didn't have much, he didn't want much. A lack of having made for a lack of wanting in his life. He led a hard life, but admittedly, an honest one.

Kaiden Rohn died quietly, finding comfort in the presence of the Jedi. He became one with the force quietly, and despite his tumultuous life, peacefully.

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Decker Willo]

Decker wanted to get down to the surface as quickly as possible, to help Mynock 12, @Lisa. But he couldn't, not just yet. He had no idea of the losses down on the ground during the long three hours. He had not received any news on what was happening down there, and no news of his pilot. The war also the matter of the amount of damage his other fighters had taken, two had to pull out from the system before they could have the chance to die. Whatever was left was barely flying along, and he had even lost the astromech that was with his X-Wing. He opened a connection to [member="Cathul Thuku"] quickly, just to let her know he wasn't going anywhere.

"Cathul...what is left of my squadron will help you as long as we can...Just tell us what you need done from us." He glanced down to the surface for a moment. Wishing luck upon Lisa, if she were even alive and everyone else down on the surface.

 

[Wedge Draav]

The X-wing formation broke out of hyperspace and rolled into formation near what remained of [member="Decker Willo"]'s squadron. There was only a small contingent of fighters- three. Three brave souls who heard what was going on and decided to take their own fighters out to help, breaking rank and formation. Wedge was sweating bullets, but he knew it was the right thing to do. He adjusted the temperature control in his cockpit to put it to nearly ice-cold, to alleviate the sweat.

Wedge spoke into the radio, broadcasting over to the nearby fighters. He realized he didn't have a squadron yet- and thus, no callsign. So he made one up.

"This is Razor One, on station. Standing by for mission."

Wedge curled his fingers around his stick and rolled to form up with Decker's remaining fighters. They were going to give the Vong hell- and Wedge was entirely terrified.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Once again, if there is enough to cover the convoy, and one fighter to escort each transport, that would be well-appreciated"

With [member="Kaiden Rohn"] dead, and [member="Decker Willo"] hailing her to let Cathul know that Mynock Squadron wasn't going anywhere, Cathul was ready to have a second go at taking in refugees and offload them to Karfeddion. That was much faster than the first run, where there were more refugees that required medical attention, because nearly everybody that was hit in the first attack, was killed or tended to on the surface by the likes of [member="Kana Truden"]. Meanwhile, [member="Gna Grimwasp"] and [member="Middenface McNulty"] were off to fight the second wave of the Vong once again. And [member="Lisa"] if she was still alive. But to what extent was the arrival of [member="Wedge Draav"] a good thing? Now that the convoy of rescue craft has landed on the landing zone, the unending stream of refugees trickle in as fast as they can while still maintaining order inside the camp. Exactly how much time they had, will depend on the refugees, and how fast they could enter the ships without getting themselves hurt or something.

"Open the doors, stat!"

"Roger, roger"

Spoiler: Medvac line

2x Dennari-class heavy freighters
6x Kamek-class medium transports

 

[Gna Grimwasp]

popping her head out of the truk she swore " Frak dont you die you old fool. " she swore.
damit the ship needed to get here fast if anything they could have saved the guy.
still she needed to organise people. over heah the freighter swooped into view

 

[Kana Truden]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"] // [member="Kaiden Rohn"]​

​

She felt the situation deteriorate around her. Jacen’s words rung in her ears and she looked up to check what he was on about. He was talking to a soldier at his last limb, and she was talking to the kids or otherwise abandoned people of the last refugee run. She didn’t envy Jacen in that regard. She had been the carrier of enough last words. The Jedi Master provided Kana with an out and she nodded her head to take it. Jacen turned back towards the soldier to heed his last word and Kana turned towards the children in her group.

“Okay, kids.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes to allow herself a moment to think. Remember what Avalore had tried to tell her about raising kids, or rather how to get them to listen. “We need to get going again-”


“Are the monsters coming?” One of the children asked with eyes like a doe in headlights.

“Y-” Kana stopped herself. She couldn’t just tell scared little kids that the scary monsters were coming back. That was the opposite of how it worked. “You shouldn’t worry about them.” Kana nodded. “Stay close to me and I will lead you to safety.”

“But I thought it was safe here!” One of the other kids exclaimed.

“It is!” Kana tried to reassure them. “It was. But we need to move or they will ki-” Kill us all. Close call. “Get here.” Kana corrected herself just in time. “So, I need all of you to grab a friend in each hand and just keep holding on no matter what happens.”

“Things are going to get loud, but you are strong together. Stronger than anyone.” Well, that certainly seemed oddly uplifting for Kana. “Do you understand?”

The children all nodded and Kana breathed somewhat easier. “Good. We’ll move once the big soldiers give us the go ahead.”

Oh this was gonna be messy.

 

[Wedge Draav]

Wedge turned his head to either fighter. He had a thought- the situation wasn't going to warrant waiting. He didn't need to wait on orders. He was probably breaking a lot of rules and regulations by more or less stealing the fighter anyway. He rolled his fighter downward, towards the blip that Kaiden Rohn had marked. In his final moments, Kaiden Rohn had given pilots and anyone in the air a clear view of where to hit the Vong. The herder wasn't the big target, but the entire Vong line was. Coral Skippers came screeching behind Wedge as he descended from the sun, gritting his teeth. He gripped the joystick tight and squeezed it.

Plasma bolts spat out from his X-wing and hit the Vong line hard from high. He was too high up to do any significant damage, but there were few hits on the line. Coral skippers came in from behind. Wedge had to get down to the atmosphere. He knew that much about them. Wouldn't be as good there. His X-wing wasn't as maneuverable, but he fancied himself a better pilot. He yanked hard on the stick upwards, going vertical. He spun rapidly, feeling the G-forces on his body as he went higher and higher, the plasma rocks shooting near his X-wing.

The astromech whirred as he yanked it forward, going into a freefall. The coral skippers followed, matching his speed. He rolled to the left again, and slowed his X-wing slightly. He went into an arc above the two Coral Skippers, rolling into a helix-like shape, the adjoining point would be where the Coral Skippers would be in a few moments. As soon as Wedge was above them, he had a shot. The first few shots were sucked up by the Dovin Basal, but the creature's usefulness fell flat in atmosphere.

The two Coral Skippers went down, their chasis falling towards the Vong line. The two-other X-wings also ditched [member="Decker Willo"]'s formation, opting to join Wedge in supporting the ground defense. Wedge squeezed his trigger, barely above the ground. The X-wing's guns littered the Vong lines with a torrent of bolts, and Wedge dropped a few torpedos for good measure. The lightshow from the three X-wings drew a cheer from the defensive line around the refugees. Wedge pulled hard and to the five o clock on his stick, getting into position for another gun run.

"This is Razor One. Stand by for gun runs, over."

[member="Kana Truden"] l [member="Decker Willo"] l [member="Jacen Voidstalker"] l [member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Middenface McNulty]

with a thoom a ship had hit nearbuy as a seat hit down nearby. scanning showed it was a x wing.
sitning over to look at his soaking bloodsoaked back Midden looked to the two soldiers.
" we are going to look at that craft for survivors. you two get them on me. " the Abominor said rolling threw the battle feild to locate the ship
Vong trying to avoid the warmachine as they had seen hundreds get literaly fed to a machine.
the two soldiers slipped as they jumped off the blood slicked back of the alien tank.
" looks like a droid. " said a female soldier.
" well lets jus... lets get it aboard after all droids are saving our ass's today."
" Nice save Human. me like this avoidance of organic supremacy. get the droid in me, Gna can fix it. i'll eat the fighter then we fall back. "

 

[HK-36]

Meanwhile,

The Greycloaks were stationed by HK on few scattered lookout positions as sentries for the refugee camp, watching out into the darkness of a world succumbed to nightfall with their enhanced cybernetic vision, the glow of their photoreceptor eyes, usually prominent with its crimson light, was dialed down, cold and still, to not give away their position by accident. From behind one of the droid's soft footsteps came, the machine turned around slightly, a shattergun rifle held over its lap half covered in the heavy grey cloak the droid wrapped himself in. Feet carefully elevated on large claws treading over pebbles and rubble to stir as little noise as possible approached the being, it was his commander, HK,

How goes the watch?

The droid gave a nod to his Greycloak guard as the droids spoke to each other silently, exchanging quick text transmissions and nothing,

It goes. Quiet so far, little to no movement in our vicinity, they are planning something.

They always are.

HK agreed as he moved next to the Greycloak, both of the machines looking out into the darkness. The Greycloak glanced back behind them towards the camp briefly,

This is a travesty, the Protectorate would have never allowed this to happen.

The Greycloak droid sneered in text communication.

We would have never allowed this to happen.

Another Greycloak joined the conversation, off to the site in another ruined building, another lookout position, hiding behind a ruined section of a wall, almost motionless spare slow brief bobbing in and out of cover to check on the horizon and scan the would-be field of battle.

If they listened to us, if we were in charge again. When the Vong landed on Eriadu to try and raid it during the Siege, Protectorate placed us in command of their defenses, and we had that battle finished in less than an hour. All we needed was for them to listen to us and that field was covered in Vong corpses.

This is not the Protectorate anymore.

HK finally replied to his companions, his own copies.

And we are not in command here anymore. There is nothing we can do about it if they will not listen but keep doing our jobs and help them along the way.

At least back in the Protectorate the soldiers would practically piss themselves from happiness when we came onto the battlefield to fight alongside them. There is no glory in this, helping them stay alive while they still manage to feck up almost every battle we took part in and at the end of the day ignore us at best.

Silently HK pulled out one of his Magnetic Revolvers from his holster as he looked out into the night, replying,

This was never about the glory. If all we did was for the glory then we should have given up a long time ago. Protectorate was a unique situation, we were at the right place at the right time and met the right people. Most of the time the Jedi and other organics consider us either fools or abominations, but still we need them. We will not win the war against Evil alone, not with our current numbers, we need them to fight as well, we need to protect them. Our endless war is not about glory or rewards, it is about doing what we believe is right, over and over again, even if we are left berated or thankless for it at the end of the day.

HK raised his magnetic revolver, taking aim in the darkness,

If the Galactic Alliance will fall, then they will fall, such is the turn of fate. But the First Order and other Empire pretenders will follow soon after. And then their replacements will rise once more and the cycle will begin all over again. Perhaps they will learn on their mistakes, perhaps not, but whatever happens we will survive, and we will keep fighting.


The droid pulled the trigger and the chamber of his revolver whirred slightly, sending out a projectile almost silently from the hard hitting handgun shattergun. The small caliber pellet whistled away, cutting through the night air with a buzz until it flew further and further and finally found its target. A sickly crack of crab armor came in from the distance followed by the thud of a body hitting the ground, either dead or just knocked down.

Enemy movement in the distance, looks like heavy infantry and light armor, report it in.

The Greycloak nodded as the droid raised his own rifle to take aim.


Perhaps this was at the same time as Jacen received his own report about the enemy movements and so did the droids, echoing what they saw, perhaps this was all just a bit of a flashback and the machines were first to notice enemy presence. One way or another they didn't had much time to muse over current political landscape in the Galaxy and their role in it, the time for another battle between the Vong and the Alliance was coming down upon them.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Wedge Draav"] [member="Middenface McNulty"] [member="HK-36"] [member="Kana Truden"]

One cracked as it unfurled, the other hissed as it it swung for him. Jacen brought his blade up and caught the former. That amphistaff was stopped before it could bit deep. He couldn't stop the second. An amphistaff wrapped around his calf. He could feel it breaking the skin as it tightened its hold.

The scouting reports were not wrong. This was a full mixed force assault. The aerial battle had never really stopped. Jacen was a target for every Yuuzhan Vong warrior that wanted to defeat a Jeedai in personal combat. Three of them were trying their best.

The one with his leg pulled to try and unbalance him. As the first recoiled its amphistaff another came in with his own held like a staff. Jacen used the Force to anchor himself down and meet a low strike from the tail and then a high from the hissing head. He retorted with a stab for the head to buy himself time.

Not enough time. He felt the sting of a chazrach's blade across the back of his thigh. Jacen shouted in defiance. He lifted his free leg and stamped down on the middle of the amphistaff's body. It snatched the writhing creature from its owner's hands. Jacen swung twice and killed the disarmed Vong and the Chazrach that had snuck up on him.

A flurry of blaster fire came from behind him and drove the other two Warrior's to the ground. Their armour soaked up and incredible amount of heat but the intensity of fire brought them down. Already their lines in the forest were stretched thin.

"Voidstalker?"

"I'm here. Just." Jacen took a knee. A medic rushed up and started spraying something into the leg the coufee had sliced. It numbed the area and seemed to seal the wound. They could only patch him together for so long.

"Cloaked Vong got past your formation. They're headed for the camp."

"Kana," Jacen murmured. "I need a fire team!" He shouted out. "Everyone else prepare to fall back to the next line."

With any luck the camp itself would provide a more effective defensive position. They'd brought up some heavy repeaters to try and turn to open ground between camp and forest into a killing field.

"Kana," he called into his comm. "Company your way, cloaked Vong. I'm coming as quick as possible."

 

[Wedge Draav]

Wedge finally got comms on the ground, courtesy of the second pilot in his formation.

"We'll cover the retreat. Razor One out."


He rolled his X-wing to get into another strafing run position. Up here, high in the sky, Wedge was more or less immune to the chaos below- but he and the other two pilots had the most effect on it. The Jedi, and the troopers needed them. So every shot was pertinent. Every bomb was of the most importance. To the Vong, Wedge and his mechanical, electrical contraption was a visage of sin, and sinners piloted it. So if it was sin and hell they wanted, sin and hell he would bring.

Their attack formation intersected over three parts, coming down horizontally at an angle- from the sun, to maximize damage to the Vong lines, which had been weakened already. Trees were burning and Vong positions were exposed. In vain, shots came at Wedge and the two fighters as they descended from heaven to unleash hell. He squeezed the trigger again. His X-wing spat out fire, four lasers working together as efficiently as they could to deliver high-velocity, plasma-based death.

The red bolts struck the Vong lines again, inflicting an impressive amount of damage. The real coup de grace for the strafing runs was the photon bombs, and in orbit and against ground targets- caused quite the explosion.

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"] l [member="Kana Truden"] l [member="Decker Willo"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Once the doors are open, hundreds of refugees began to rush forth towards the craft while the remaining craft, led by [member="Wedge Draav"] and [member="Decker Willo"], supported by @HK-36. They seemed to be doing a fighting retreat, alongside [member="Jacen Voidstalker"], [member="Kana Truden"] and [member="Middenface McNulty"]. But they were doing it to ensure the safety of the remaining civilians that were not yet evacced to Karfeddion. Because the heavier case of refugees requiring medical assistance were already loaded on the first pass, this one was not as delicate as the last pass was. It didn't take long until nearly 3,000 refugees were loaded on the medvac line Cathul had for that purpose, filling the ships to capacity. With the line now filled with refugees, the crew began putting some distance between the refugees and the closing doors so that no one gets hurt by the doors being closed before some of the unlucky refugees that wanted nothing better than to get out of that place.

"Just need another few more seconds and I can go back to Karfeddion with the medvac line in tow" She turned to the pilot of the line's flagship. "Close the gates, now!"

"Gates are closed"

"Prepare for takeoff: we are going back to Karfeddion"

With that said, the whole convoy of medvac craft lifted off the ground, headed back to Karfeddion; hopefully the remaining yorik-ets, that is, coralskippers, would not attempt to harry their progress to atmosphere, and, from there, to go forth and return to Karfeddion when they make it to orbit and jump to hyperspace once again.

Spoiler: Medvac line

2x Dennari-class heavy freighters
6x Kamek-class medium transports

 

[Decker Willo]

Decker looked off to his side to see air reinforcements arrive, something he did not expect at all. Yet he was grateful to [member="Wedge Draav"] arrival when he arrived. "Mynock Squadron, form up with Razor" there were affirmations through the communications of the X-Wing.

Wedge's X-Wings dove down to the surface, but Mynock stuck with [member="Cathul Thuku"]'s transports. Coral skippers just kept on coming. The second retreat of the transports began, and Decker pulled off with them. "Cathul, how many more transport runs are needed?" Another of Mynock would not be returning if there was another run, Mynock 7 had taken too much damage. "Another one of my fighters needs to pull out" he added. The droid fighters left by [member="Lisa"] and the ships given to give aid by [member="HK-36"] were a lot of help however, but more than half of Farium was out of commision. "Mynock, pull off with the transports!" He opened a quick transmission to Wedge, and added, "You need any help, Razor One? I can spare a fighter to the ground runs."

 

[Kana Truden]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

The children moved behind her like a trail of innocence that felt so far from right to have her lead. All around the people were leading themselves towards the designated fallback point, an air of desperation and fear laying it thick in the force and making it hard to think straight. She too had felt that way once, on Ruusan before everything else had happened to her as well. The children held each other by hand in a line behind her. She felt the fear bubbling inside of them but there was little she could do, she had already steeled their nerves to the best of her ability, she wasn’t a mother or anything like one.

Her boots slid against the mud and uneven surface. An eye kept darting back and forth between the road ahead, the people that surrounded them and the children tailing her. The sound of blaster fire seemed to come from everywhere and Kana would quietly whisper a curse under her breath as lives faded all around. Her comms sparked to life and she moved a hand to respond.

Jacen. Cloaked vong. He was on his way.

“Chit.” Kana responded right into the comm, her voice lowering to not let the now-curious kids hear what she was saying. “Cloaked ones, got it. I’ll keep the children safe as best I can.”

“... Hurry.” Hand swept from her cheek while she turned to look back at the kids with worry in her eyes. They were taken aback, and she softened up once she noticed.

“There’s been a change of plans.” Kana looked at each one of them. “It is very important that you listen to me and do exactly what I say.”

“If I tell you to hide, or get low, or both, you will need to listen. Okay?” She knelt down to let them form a half-circle around her. Their little heads bobbed up and down. “If I turn my lightsaber on, that will be a signal for all of you to get down right away. No questions, just lie down, hide and stay out of trouble.”

The children looked between one another before looking at Kana with a few nods.

“Okay, good.” Kana sighed. “Let’s keep moving until we find that ship and get out of here.”

Children. Not her thing.