“It’s fair that you don’t believe us.”
Hunter raised both hands slowly, making it clear he wasn’t looking for a fight.
He let out a quiet breath, voice dropping.
“We watched it happen ourselves.
Clone troopers killed a Jedi Master.
Her apprentice was there too, and the look that kid gave us afterward, we haven’t forgotten it.”
He paused.
“But we never carried out Order 66 ourselves.
We never touched that boy.”
“Later, back on Kamino, we found what was left of Master Shaak Ti.”
Lance cut in sharply.
“You’re saying she’s dead?”
Tech adjusted his glasses without looking up.
“More precisely, we found her lightsaber.
Nothing else.”
Something tightened in Lance’s chest.
Even Shaak Ti hadn’t made it out.
On reflection, it made a grim kind of sense.
Kamino was the heart of clone command; walking out of there alive would’ve been close to impossible for anyone.
He looked back at Hunter, tone flat.
“Keep going.”
Hunter nodded.
“We learned afterward how many Jedi had died at trooper hands across the galaxy.
We understand why you’d be wary of us.”
“But we did defect.
That’s the truth.” His eyes held steady.
“If we still served the Empire, you wouldn’t be looking at just the four of us right now.”
Lance had been reading the shifts in the group’s emotions the entire time, Hunter especially.
The signal underneath the words came back clean, over and over.
No lies.
He let some of the tension ease out of his shoulders.
“Why defect?”
Hunter lowered his hands, gaze drifting somewhere distant, caught in memory.
“After Kamino, Tarkin gave us orders.
Onderon.
Wipe out what he called an insurgency.”
“But once we got there, none of it matched what he’d told us.”
His voice dropped further.
“They weren’t insurgents.
Saw Gerrera was leading them, alongside fighters who’d stood with us against the Separatists during the war.
And civilians, people the Empire had been grinding down.”
He let that sit a moment before continuing.
“Saw Gerrera helped free Onderon.
We know him.
We know what he stands for.
He’s no insurgent.”
“Once we understood that, we refused the order.
Tarkin had us thrown in a cell back on Kamino, treason charges, a death sentence waiting.”
“So we ran.”
A thin, self-mocking smile crossed his face.
Lance stayed quiet through it all.
The Force kept feeding back the same read, steady enough that he was starting to doubt his own doubt.
The truth.
All of it.
Then a bright voice cut in from the direction of the crop field.
“Hunter’s not lying.
Every word of that’s true.”
Everyone turned.
Omega stepped out from between the stalks, walking straight for the ship.
Hunter’s face fell.
“Omega!
I told you to stay in the house.”
She just smiled, scratched the back of her head, and kept walking.
Hunter’s hand shot out on instinct to stop her, then froze the moment his eyes met Lance’s.
Something in that look sent a jolt of pure warning through his enhanced senses.
He understood immediately: any sudden move here invited a very fast, very final response.
The scuffle back in the ship had already made that clear enough.
Even with all four of them working together, they hadn’t stood much of a chance.
He kept still, tension coiled tight, eyes locked on the blade in Lance’s hand.
Omega stopped at the base of the ramp and looked up.
“Please believe me.
I got out of Kamino with them.”
Lance looked down at her.
Bright brown eyes, open and unguarded, nothing hidden in them.
And the Force gave him back the same read as before, no deception anywhere in her.
Something in him wavered.
Days without real sleep.
Am I misreading this?
Could the Force itself be wrong?
He let go of that thought almost as fast as it came.
People could lie.
The Force didn’t.
Which meant an answer was forming that he didn’t fully want to accept.
They mean no harm.
None of them.
Memories surged up uninvited.
Troopers advancing without hesitation, willing to die just to take a Jedi down with them.
The screams and despair of the fallen, still ringing somewhere he couldn’t quite silence.
Then Obi-Wan’s words, and his Master’s, both echoing the same thing.
Trust the Force.
Let it guide what comes next.
Silence settled over the group, broken only by Grogu’s fading cries from inside the ship.
Omega glanced toward the cabin, concern crossing her face.
“That smoke isn’t good for him.
Might want to get him out into fresh air soon.”
“Not necessary.”
Lance waved a hand as he said it, and the Force swept through the cabin, clearing every trace of smoke in an instant.
Hunter and the others exchanged a look.
They’d seen plenty of strange Jedi tricks during the war, but something about that still caught them off guard, even if none of it showed on their faces.
Omega, though, had never seen anything like it.
Her eyes went wide, hand flying to her mouth. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
“How…
how did you do that?”
Lance didn’t answer.
His attention went back to Hunter instead.
“I’ll draw my own conclusions about what you’ve told me.”
He tilted his head slightly, glancing toward the small rise in the distance.
“That said.
Might as well have your two friends come out from over there.”
The whole group’s expressions shifted at once, surprise flashing across every face.
Definitely not an ordinary Jedi.
Hunter didn’t hesitate, waving toward the hill.
They’d never meant Lance any harm to begin with; Cut and Suu watching from cover had just been standard precaution.
Cut and Suu traded a glance, lowered their weapons, and walked out into the open.
Lance studied Cut’s face for a moment.
“You’re a clone.”
“That’s right.” Cut nodded.
“Left the unit a few years back, for reasons of my own.
Been living quietly out here with Suu ever since.”
His voice carried something close to contentment.
“These days I’m just a husband and a father.
Nothing more.”
Lance gave a small nod.
Nothing about that read as false either.
That was when a low engine hum rolled in from somewhere overhead.
Every head turned toward the sky at once.
A dark shape cut across the clouds, silhouette unmistakable.
Hunter’s face hardened instantly.
“Imperial scout.”
He turned to Lance, urgency creeping into his voice.
“We stay out here much longer, they’ll spot us.”
“I know we haven’t earned your trust yet.
You’re free to walk away right now, and we won’t say a word about you to the Empire.”
He paused.
“But if you’re willing to trust us, you’re welcome aboard.
You want off this planet.
So do we.
Same goal.
We can work together, at least for now.”
Omega added her own voice, earnest.
“Come with us.
They’re good people.
Nobody here’s going to hurt you.”
Lance said nothing for a long moment, caught between two truths pulling in opposite directions.
The Force kept telling him these people meant well, that boarding their ship was the fastest way off this rock.
But people were unpredictable in ways the Force couldn’t always account for.
What if trust here turned out to be a mistake, sold out the moment it became convenient?
He weighed it a long while before finally settling on an answer.
Trust the Force.
“You don’t look like enemies.”
The blue blade folded back into its hilt, though he kept his guard up regardless.
“That doesn’t mean you couldn’t still turn out to be.”