Bankor

"Going to ask something of us, and not even offer a name." Zane raised a eyebrow as he circled around to get a look at the comm. "Ruder then I expected of a Manfolorian."

The wounded mercenary let out a sigh of relief from the medication and looked up at the Mandalorian. His face was void of any expression but his eyes were inflamed. He then looked over to Tethys and muttered, "Five more bombs... 2409." His eyes then began to shut for their final time.

"Eralynn of Clan Varad," she announced. She shook out the dizziness in her eyes and then looked upon her dead follower. "I had hoped to instill fear among you but instead I see determination. Perhaps even anger from a Jedi?"

"Five more?" Galen glanced around with concern. He began looking for the spot where the mercenaries had been hiding, to see if they had left anything there.

Tethys sighs and closes the late mercenary's eyes with gentle fingers. The look she directs at the comm once she's done is a nuclear-grade I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. "Jedi can feel anger as well as anyone. We just don't let it rule us. Nor fear, either."

She frowns.

"Speaking of which, hidden bombs seem like a cowardly tactic for a Mandalorian commander, Eralynn of Clan Varad."

The woman was cute, after a fashion. He didn't have time to linger though, not if there were other bombs in this village.

Sliding away from the comm stream, he made his way to Galen. "We need to find the rest of those bombs." He offered quietly. "Got any ideas on how to do that?" Maybe the force could prove itself useful for once.

"It connects living things." he shook his head. "If there is a way to sense bombs, it's beyond me. We can try to ask the locals, see if anyone else was forced to wear a vest, or we search for wherever they're hidden directly."

"I can get C4N-D1D on a sweep of the area, but that isn't going to do a lot. Maybe we could do a search based on the comms frequency the detonator and receiver were using?" Illyria asked, already stepping away to begin a visual search for lack of a better option available to her.

"Do you consider any trap to be a mark of cowardice upon a hunter?" Eralynn shook her head. "This is not a test of my own prowess, Jedi. It was a test of the men and women of Bankor." She gestured to her clan's symbol upon her shoulder. "My people would do anything for our families. And it is clear that one parent would rather take a chance siding with you than ensuring the safety of the children." She let out a chilling sigh, one of anticipation. "I will remove their children's heads in front of them for this failure.

"As for the bombs, all of them will be on the people of that town. If the candidates had been wise, they would have had a remote detonator to rob you of your prize."

"Then we need to convince those with the bombs to come forward." Galen looked to Iliyria. "See if you can reach them."

"The people of Bankor know we don't have to share a blood tie to look out for them as we would for family," Tethys says with an expression of profound distaste. "That kind of trust is the reason you'll never hold this planet."

She reaches down to cut the comm, her long-fingered hand looming in front of the lens for a moment. "If you want to murder children, come through me first, coward. Carrack out."

Click.

She glowers at the now-lifeless device before calling out to the others, "She could have been lying about the bombs being on the villagers, but we should check." Rising to her feet and brushing the dirt from her knees, she adds, "And we had better offer to evacuate everyone who wants to leave. Any ideas what '2409' stands for?"

"Aliit ori'shya tal'din." The warrior of Clan Varad smiled until her image dissipated from view of the Republic-aligned heroes.

The civilian they had rescued earlier peeked out at the street for any more. "Are they gone?" She looked at the bodies in the street and wretched over; she barely remained on her feet.

"For the most part." Zanebry replied moving to make sure the woman stayed on her feet. "You don't happen to know any other houses they visited? Do you?" He asked before turning towards the jedi.

"Has the sound of a passcode to me, could be one to remove the bomb vests?"

"It could be," Tethys agrees. "I'd be glad not to have to white-knuckle through five more of those things." Now that it's over--mostly over--she makes herself take a few deep breaths. This scene is just about as bad as any she's seen before, and it's occurring to her that an active war zone may test her training in ways she wasn't expecting.

Her boots send ripples through the puddles and thin mud as she sweeps back over toward the others, robes swishing damply against her armor.

"Ms. Acaran, you wouldn't by any chance have a loudspeaker or something like it in your kit?" Tethys tugs her hood up to keep some of the drizzle out of her face. "That might be the fastest way to find the other victims. We could give the town the all-clear and offer evacuation to those who want it at the same time."

As for whether the Resistance and the Republic strike force can scrape up enough transports to evacuate the whole town on short notice... Tethys decides to trust in the Force, or at least in the deference Republic authorities are often willing to give to a Jedi's judgement.

"I can help," the woman murmured. She looked back to where her children were in her home. "But please, all of you. You have to take us with you. If that woman comes back..." She shook her head.

"We'll take you with us." Galen nodded. "We were already planning on it."

"Aye." The man in the hat offered with a nod. "So have your kids gather up the things you need. While you show us were the other bombs are, we'll get this done and all of you evacuated as fast as we can."

"Of course. We can get you to the Resistance." Tethys says confidently. "It's a little rough out there, but you'll all be safe until we get this region secured again."

Tethys takes a quick glance around at her allies. Journalist, civilian of no clear rank, civilian again... Jedi Knight. All right, then. "I'll get on the comm to the strike force and scratch up some kind of transport, if you can find the other bombs without me."

She taps her comm to contact the Republic base.

---
Gonna phone home and ask for transportation for anyone who wants to evacuate. Hopefully they'll be able to send something!

Z could likely get transportation here if need be, but if the Jedi was willing to do it, it was no skin off his back. As the Jedi worked, Z would work on getting the rest of the villagers with Bomb vests gathered, and the devices removed.

Hopefully the pass code they were given would work.

While the technical experts did their thing, Illyria tasked C4N-D1D to capture footage of that for a while. In the mean time, she used her own personal recorder and helped gather and calm the villagers and kids with her patented newsy charm.

It would take some time, but hopefully the codes worked and they would safely remove all the bombs safely with the codes.

The code hastened the process of removing the vests from the civilians. Each was as scared as the last but that fear transitioned to hope when they learned that they would be evacuated by the Republic forces. "You are bringing how many people exactly?" Dispatch let out a sigh. "Alright, but this could be straining on our supplies down the line."

"Thank you so much," the first woman had said, "Thank you."

---

Trust is raised by 0.2!
Each participant gains 5 Duty!

Illyria later that day broadcasts a news report detailing the heroics of Bankor's citizens and the help contributed by the Republic forces, voice over on top of cleaned and processed footage captured during the afternoon's harrowing events.

----
Positive Spin 2 increases the Duty gain by 2.