[OOM] Kazic III - Cä-Iudän.

[stuck_mynock]

There's not really any such thing as a morning on Kazic III, but if there was, now would be it. There are people starting to mill around the village, setting up market stalls, and off on a higher cliff, guards running through training.

There's something approaching breakfast (some kind of mostly tasteless porridge) being made in the Tae household, but Jaq is conspicuously absent.

Comments

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

Kate then headed into the kitchen as well.

"Morning."

[stuck-mynock.livejournal.com]

"Morning," Lyman chirps.

The old woman doesn't say anything. She sits, reading through a datapad and frowning.

[ostro_goth]

"Bad news?" Teja asks, looking around discreetly for anything resembling tea or coffee.

"Morning!" he says to Lyman, and the other children present.

[guppy_sandhu]

"Morning Lyman, where's Jaq?" Guppy asks tentatively.

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

Kate glanced around, "He out doing chores?"

She then stepped closer to the old woman, "What's wrong?"

[stuck-mynock.livejournal.com]

"He left before any of us got up. He might be up on the cliffs - that's where he usually goes," Lyman says.

The old woman keeps her voice down so that the children don't hear. "Traders arrived in one of the larger cities yesterday. The Mandalorian fleet is on a path that will take them by here in a few weeks - they've been burning up planets all along the Outer Rim, but we didn't think they'd come this far into the Rishi Maze. A message is being sent to the Jedi, asking for help, and we're going to see how many ships can be mustered for an evacuation."

[ostro_goth]

"War?" Teja asks, grimly, looking at Guppy and Kate.

Of course -- that would be an obvious explanation for the losses that befell Atton when he was young.

[guppy_sandhu]

"Would you lie help packing or anything?" Guppy asks quietly.

Evacuation sounds promising though; perhaps the family will just get seperated.

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

"Still be the problem of getting to the spaceport though, right?" Otherwise they'd be trapped, and that would explain a lot about what could have happened.

[stuck-mynock.livejournal.com]

"Not really a war," the old woman says. "The Mandalorians are fully equipped, with ships, armour, guns, and more numbers. They've already bombed Cathar, which was a warrior culture."

Shrug.

"There's no point packing until we know how many of us are going to be evacuated."

[ostro_goth]

"Cannot you hide in a safe place, underground, where the bombs may not reach?" Teja asks.

Who would just sit still and wait to die?

[guppy_sandhu]

"That won't help if it could destroy the planet." Guppy says quietly.

"I think you should pack, get to the spaceport quickly."

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

"A few weeks, right around when the caravan shows up. Great timing."

[stuck-mynock.livejournal.com]

"There are places we can hide. But the bombing will render the soil difficult to grow anything in, will ruin most of our cities and villages. After the bombing, the soldiers will come to search - the Mandalorians sometimes just kill, sometimes they take slaves to run their ships."

[ostro_goth]

"Why would they visit such devastation upon an innocent world?" Teja asks. "And why do you not fight back?"

[guppy_sandhu]

"Because they'll be bombing us from the air?"

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

"Because they can, and want to. They sound like bullies. Actually, they sound a lot like some of the Skrulls."

[stuck-mynock.livejournal.com]

"If the Jedi come then we can join with them and mount some kind of defense. If not, then we're helpless. All we can do is evacuate those that we can, and hide those that we can't."

[ostro_goth]

"Cannot one equip a space-ship, and shoot the Mandalorians from the skies?" Teja asks.

[guppy_sandhu]

"Can any of us even fly a space ship?"

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

"I haven't, my friends back home. Still. That's one space ship against a whole army though." They only got lucky at the end of the invasion, and that wasn't even the whole Skrull force. Taking on Kree and Skrull armies, they ended up compromising of sorts. She knew how bleak the odds looked here.

[stuck-mynock.livejournal.com]

"Not enough ships on the whole planet," the old woman says, gravely. Then, abruptly: "If you're looking for Jaq, you won't find him too close to the village. A lot of people will be spouting off superstition, and a lot of people will be looking for someone to blame. There'll be quite an overlap between the two, and he won't want to be anywhere near that."

[ostro_goth]

"Why would they blame him?" Teja asks. "He is but a boy!"

[guppy_sandhu]

"It's not his fault." Guppy says. "It's important that he should be taught that."

He sighs.

"If we can get everyone to the spaceport, then maybe we can find someone who can fly a ship to take us with them."

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

Kate commented to Teja, "Because some people are backward and stupid, and just want to point fingers."

She added, "Still the matter of getting there to the port safely in time. We have to be prepared."