EPISODE I - TWELVE: New allies

The light was growing dim as the sun ducked behind the other side of the mountain. Trickster Squadron and Silara proceeded with a good clip, but it was getting dark and they would need to stop for the night.

"Why are we slowing down?" asked Silara.

Dex didn't completely halt his forward motion but was obviously looking for something. Without turning to the group's new addition, he replied, "We've covered some good ground today, but we're gonna have to stop. We can't use our flashlights and it's gonna get almost impossible to see the ground beneath us and the last thing I need is for one of us to discover there isn't any ground beneath us."

"I'm hearing you but we don't have much further to go."

The team looked quizzically at each other in the half-light and turned their attention to black-haired near-stranger.

"What do you mean by 'not much further'?" Browhar inquired.

Dex refocused on Silara. "Are we almost at the installation?"

"No... it's still off that way quite a bit." She motioned in the general direction ahead of them. "We need to get to the rendezvous point and we can set up camp there."

Adria's eyes grew wide and she raised her eyebrows. "Rendezvous point? Who are we meeting up with?"

"Yeah, you never mentioned anything about another group of people," Balagon protested.

"Hey... hey...," Silara responded, trying to calm the tension that had arisen amongst their party. "I didn't really feel like having that conversation earlier on, but there's no way that we are gonna be able to get in there and know where we're going. I mean, until just yesterday, you hadn't damn clue where you were going." Dex shrugged. "Given that lack of information, there's no way any of us would be able to navigate the interior of that facility."

"She has a point," Paloame sheepishly admitted.

"She has a point," agreed Dex. In a move to save face, he moved the conversation along with a few more questions. "Okay, so I take it these people know their way around the complex. How did you find them, who are they and how do you know we can trust them?"

"Look, I know I haven't exactly been forthcoming with a lot of information, but let's just say that they have some pretty intimate knowledge of that place and--and, I think you'll trust them once you meet them too."

Balagon gave her a dissatisfied grimace but acquiesced to her explanation. "Fine. Take us to this rendezvous point."

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The night seemed to fall faster under the cover of the forest. The team reached a deep ravine surrounded on all sides by a dense wall of tall trees. Far below, was the flickering flames of a small fire. At first, they collectively shuddered at the thought of the fire acting like a beacon for anyone who might intend to do them harm. Each one of them slowly came to the realization that they were far enough away from the river and the depth of hollow was enough to hide them from anything or anyone unless it happened to be flying directly overhead. And as it was, the branches reaching across the gap would provide enough concealment in the unlikely occasion that should occur.

When they arrived at the little encampment, they were greeted by an older couple. They looked to be approximately 70 standard years of age. The man approached the group with a kind smile and offered Silara a big hug.

"You were gone too long and we were worried."

"He was worried. I had every confidence that you could take of yourself, Silara," the older woman swiftly clarified.

Silara laughed. "Dex, Trickster Squadron--I'd like you to meet Etler and Irie Anson."

Etler stepped toward Dex and extended his hand. "You're the one I've been hearing about." Dex reached back to the man with a quietly confused look on his face. "It's nice meeting all of you. From the information young Silara has been imparting on us the last few days, it sounds like you are quite capable of helping us."

"Uh, yeah...," Balagon proceeded with caution. "Thanks. So, how are you two involved in all of this?"

Irie gently cupped Etler's arm with her wrinkled hand and grinned. "It's a bit of a story, but to make it short, my husband and I were drafted into service by the First Order."

"Drafted?" Jai questioned with surprise in his voice.

"Yes," Irie resumed with a detectible amusement and resentment in her tone. "When the First Order put up that awful building, they came into K'owan and emptied the town of anyone who didn't already operate a business or its employees. Most of us are farmers, working in the hills and valleys outside of town. My husband and I are more or less retired, but we do have some land that we still work. Unfortunately for us, it didn't really matter how old we were, we were still bodies they could use. A lot of the young folks don't seem to mind the new work because it's guaranteed pay, but a good number of us felt something was truly wrong with the picture."

"We would occasionally hear bits of conversations in town where some of the younger workers were talking about people being moved from faraway towns," Etler elucidated. "Those kids don't know how to keep anything private!"

Silara walked over to them and put her arms around Dex and Adria. "That's true, but it's fortunate for us--and for you! I was there for one of those conversations and I picked up on their concern about the situation. I started asking them questions--"

"Oh, she was very insistent," chuckled Etler.

"He likes that in a girl," Irie chided with a wink.

Adria pointed at Irie with amusement and respect. "I like her."

"And that's how we met. I needed some information, but what I got were people who could get us inside that place. The Force was definitely with us that evening," Silara concluded.

Dex nodded. "I'd say we certainly lucked out. We should probably set up our shelters and start thinking about some shut-eye. Dom, you and Pal start clearing the ground over there and the rest of us will start breaking down the packs and sorting the supplies." He stopped and looked around in a panic. "Are we missing a droid?" he shouted.

Z-PQA rolled out of the darkness and spoke a miffed-sounding stream of beeps and hoots.

Etler looked nervously at Dex. "What did he say?"

"He reminded me that he isn't built for this kind of terrain and that we abandoned him up on the hillside." Dex swung around to look at Zip. "But you got here, didn't you? You're capable... I know what gadgets you have crammed inside that cylinder of yours."

Jai was done and wanted to move things along so he could get some sleep. "If we're finished here, I'd like to wrap up the tasks at hand and hit the sack."

"Right," exclaimed Adria in agreement. "I'll get some of the packs and remove the shelters so Pal and Dom can get those set up once the area's been cleared."

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When everything had been set and organized, Dex took a moment to gather himself and process the new information by the campfire. Irie came over to join him. The amber light flickered across Dex's face, obliterating some of the age around his eyes and mouth. Irie took regard of this but noticed how the lines maintained their haggard residency on his forehead. From Silara's dossier, she learned that he'd experienced loss early in life, but had no knowledge of the details. Dex was easy to talk to and she was feeling curious, so she decided to be bold and ask.

"So... what was it like? Growing up without your parents?" That came out a little less eloquently than she'd intended. Dex slowly sat up and turned to her with a quizzical expression across his face. He was polite and allowed her to recover without saying anything. "I'm sorry. I heard you lost your family when you were young and that--well... that had to be difficult. Where were you from? Originally. And..."

Dex smiled and let out a quiet chuckle. "You really wanna know?" he asked her. "I guess we have the time, but we also need to get some sleep, so this brief history about my life should be enough of a boring bedtime story to put you down for the night."

Irie felt herself blush and focused back on the fire to erase that moment as he spoke.

"Well, I grew up in a lot of places--too many to count, really. My parents were active in the Rebellion. Not the Rebellion proper, but they did like to stir up some local trouble wherever they could." He seemed personally amused by some distant memory and that conjured a faint smile. "My mother was from Hays Minor, which is a particularly poor mining planet, and her father, Saja, famously spoke out against Palpatine during the Clone Wars and didn't stop speaking when the Republic became the Empire. He didn't identify as a Separatist, but mom and her siblings never knew if he'd come home from one of the civilian protests he'd headed up against the Senate. My grandmother pretty much prepared them to expect anything." He paused and took a sip of Cheedoan whiskey from his cup and ran it across his teeth and tongue before taking a hard swallow.

His compatriot at the campfire cocked her head, scanning his face as a million noticeable micro-emotions crossed it.

"Mom and dad met, got married, and settled on Batuu. It was... out of the way; quiet enough for my dad to set up a small shipping business with his dad and start a family. So, I was out on a run with my grandpa and there was an attack on our settlement. My folks were with my grandma, Kessa. All of them perished in the attack and my grandpa raised me, taking me on his shipping runs," his voice trailed off in reflection. "And then he died. I lived. Thanks to him."

Dex closed his eyes, lifted the cup up to his lips, and took another long sip of whiskey.

"I'm sorry to have brought up such difficult memories. My childhood was rather unremarkable--as was Etler's. We both grew up here on Aporoth and married young. We weren't blessed with any children and we have some regrets about that. Sometimes we are lonely, but I guess we're all faced with feeling that at either end of our lives. Still, you were lucky to have seen so much of the galaxy at such an early age. I think that, and your family's history surely informed how you'd become the man you are today." Irie prided herself for having a way of finding the positive aspects of difficult times and this meshed well with Balagon's internal workings.

"Yeah," he chuckled in spite of himself. "Yeah, I guess I was. Honestly, I think a big part of the problem these days is that so many people never see everything that's out there and just don't get how small they really are."

"Small, but important," Irie interjected.

Dex laughed out loud this time and it was a hearty laugh that shook him out of his reflective state. "Important? Don't tell those townie kids that--they and the rest of their generation all think they're so damn important and that's why they can't see past themselves. That's why we're all back in the mess again."

"Yes, those damn... what did Silara call them again? 'Victory kids' was it?" Irie stood up and wobbled as she got her footing. She smiled and rested her hand on Balagon's shoulder. "Well, I'm heading to bed and it's not because of your story. We've got a busy day ahead of us and I don't want this old body to screw things up for us."

"I'll be along in a little bit. I'm gonna run through the plan again and make sure I didn't leave anything out and screw anything up for you. See ya in the morning, Irie," he said with a wink before he settled back with another whiskey and the Anson's roughly drafted maps.