FicWad

My name is Canderous, of the clan Ordo. I have been fighting for forty of your humans' standard years. In all my time, I had never met anyone like Kiranna Sunrider. On Taris, I had watched her with some interest as she rose through the ranks of the Taris duelling scene. I was particularly impressed when she beat Twitch with relative ease. He had been the duelling champion of Taris for nearly the entire ten years since the ban on death matches.

Although I was impressed with her combat ability, and I was beginning to see how she might be able to aid me, I wanted to watch her more. When she and her male companion, Carth, headed down to the Lower City, I followed them discreetly. The Vulkars, mistaking them for real Sith, attacked them. There was a moment when I thought Kiranna might be defeated. The Vulkar had her helmet removed and was talking down to her, but she got up and showed him, and me, what she was made of.

I continued to be impressed with Kiranna as she ventured into the Undercity. I had met her there when I was down there scavenging salvage from the downed Republic escape pods. I knew they must have been at least part of the reason she was down there. I had heard her asking around about them, even to Zax. She had guts, that was for sure. I knew it would be useless to tell her that there was nothing of interest down there, but I didn't want her thinking I knew so much about her. I'm the kind of man that plays my cards close.

As I departed with my men, I watched her venture deeper into the Undercity with Carth and that Twi'lek girl, Mission Vao, who had spunk of her own. I was scarcely surprised that she had fallen in with Kiranna. Hell, I knew it was only a matter of time before I fell in with Kiranna myself. I could see there was something different about her. In a way, she reminded me of Revan. Of course, it would turn out that was with good reason, but I'm not talking about that.

Kiranna won the season opener of the Taris swoop races. I saw her performance in the race, and the rather heated battle afterward. I knew if I stood any chance of getting off of Taris, it was with Kiranna, so I sent one of Davik's lackeys to arrange a meeting with her. I wasn't surprised when she showed up, nor was I surprised when she accepted my offer. I knew she wanted off the planet as badly as I did, and I knew her reasons where her own. Besides, certain information could be dangerous, and I thought Kiranna's reasons for leaving Taris might be that sort of information.

Now, I was never one for waiting around, but I had no choice. In Javyar's cantina, I hung around, drinking, catching a couple of games of Pazaak and losing more credits than that game is worth before Kiranna finally returned. I knew that she had what we needed. My eyes and ears around town had told me that there was a break-in at the military base, and I knew Kiranna was responsible. She had Davik's droid with her after all.

Of course, that mouthy Jedi companion of hers wasn't sure I could be trusted, but Kiranna pretty much shot down or dismissed everything she said. Surprisingly enough, the Jedi princess even listened to her.

So I set my ruse into action. I took her and her Jedi friend Bastila to Davik's base and told him that Kiranna was interested in working for him. Kiranna played along nicely, and it helped that she looked the part of a famous mercenary. I threw in the information that Kiranna had bested Twitch in the duel ring, and he was most impressed.

Well, after that the rest was easy.

---

The Ebon Hawk had landed on Dantooine. I wasn't too fond of the idea of being on the Jedi's turf, but I knew it was important to Kiranna that she speak to the Jedi Council. I knew right away that she wouldn't mesh well with the Jedi.

Now, don't get me wrong. I respect and admire the Jedi to a certain degree, but I look down on their policy of avoidance. They avoid violence, they avoid confrontations. Generally, I consider them rather weak. The only Jedi I truly admired was Revan. He bested us in our own arena. He was worthy of my respect and admiration, but I keep getting sidetracked.

Like I said, I knew Kiranna wouldn't mesh well with the Jedi, and that was because she was a woman of action, not inaction. I knew that Kiranna was worthy of my skills, so I stuck around instead of catching the next ship off Dantooine and into another boring job with another crime lord. Kiranna was going after the big dog, Darth Malak. I knew that right away.

Kiranna marched onto the Hawk with her new lightsaber clipped to her belt. I knew how happy she was that the Council had accepted her as a Jedi. "Canderous," she said as she approached me. Now, I'm not much of a mechanic, but I knew a few things about swoop bikes, and I was working on tuning the one on the Hawk, just knowing that on the next world with a swoop track, Kiranna would jump in to race.

I looked up from my work at her, wiping my hands off on an oily rag that T3 handed me. "Yeah, whaddya want?" I asked. Kiranna didn't bat an eyelash. She was used to my manner by now.

"I know what I'm about to ask you isn't going to be very exciting, but just hear me out before you say no," she said.

"Tell me what you're proposing first. Even if it won't be exciting, it's not guaranteed I'll just say no. Remember, I just spent a good chunk of years on a boring planet doing boring work for a crime lord."

Kiranna smiled at that. I'll admit that I never found human females very attractive. They were fragile like flowers that I could just crush in my hand. Kiranna however, was not like most human females. I found her very stunning, if a bit young for me. "The Jedi Council has given me a task to complete before I can become a Jedi. They have told me that none of the Jedi in the Enclave are allowed to help me, but they didn't say I couldn't bring non-Jedi."

"So you want me to help you with your task?" I asked. If my eyebrows hadn't been charred off quite permanently back in my days as a warrior, I would have raised one.

"Not help so much as accompany me," she said. "I think I can tackle the task myself, but the Council mentioned that there are packs of ravenous Kath hounds around. I'm confident in my combat skills, but I still think it would be stupid to go off on my own when I could easily be overwhelmed by the Kath hounds."

I laughed. "I don't think you would be so easily overwhelmed, but sure, I'll go with you. It sounds like you just don't want to be lonely." I could understand the feeling. They say no man is an island. Most sentient humanoid species . . . or any sentient species really, belongs to a society where communication with others is key. The Mandelorians are no different. We had our clans, humans have families and friends.

"Okay, I'll admit that I'd just like someone to talk to," Kiranna admitted with an easy smile.

I went over to the workbench, where I had put my heavy repeating blaster. "Then I'll keep you company and help you ward off the Kath hounds."

"Thanks, Canderous," she said gratefully. "I was out roaming the courtyard after I had finished in the Council," she started, suddenly becoming a bit distant. "A man there named Jon told me that his daughter had been killed by some Mandelorians."

I frowned. "That's not surprising," I told her. I knew she wasn't trying to dance around the subject because I was Mandelorian, and I admired her all the more for it. "Many Mandelorians have become nothing more than savages since we lost the war to the Republic," I told her. "So if you're worried that we might come upon some of these Mandelorians while we're out completing your mission, you can stop. I fight beside you no matter what."

That was pretty much when I swore my allegiance to her. It was probably one of the smartest things I ever did. I felt like a valued member of our little team. Whenever Kiranna needed some extra muscle, she called on me. I was only too happy to help her, finding honour in what she did. She didn't try to avoid violence when she saw that force was what was needed. She was not afraid to take one life to benefit another. I might have thought she was Revan if I hadn't been so certain that Revan had been a male.

The thing that struck me most about Kiranna was that she seemed to understand Mandelorian honour. She was not repulsed by our tactics in war. She understood that difficult decisions were made in war that could cost the lives of many people, but the alternatives could cost countless more.

When Jagi confronted me, Kiranna understood that I had to face him. She went out of her way to go back to Tatooine so I could fight him. She insisted on accompanying me as well. In a way, she was like a Second, someone who would take over if I were to die. I think Jagi misunderstood her intentions. I was impressed though when Kiranna went to take out Jagi's friends, leaving me to fight my old comrade myself.

"Do you want to talk?" Kiranna asked, standing in the doorway from the rec room to the "garage" where I was again working on her swoop bike. I looked back at her. I admired her deeply, and not just because I had discovered that she was Revan. I came to respect and admire Kiranna Sunrider as much as I had ever respected Revan.

"Maybe it would be better if I talked to you. You seem to understand me," I told her. Her eyes softened more than usual, and I knew it was out of compassion and not pity or sympathy. "You can come in," I said, nodding her into the room. She sat down on the metal floor across from me.

"You've been very quiet lately," she observed. "More than usual," she amended. I almost smiled at her.

"My encounter with Jagi has made me think." I shook my head. "I realise now that my people are not what they once were. I do not know that they ever were what I envisioned them to be. I was always so concerned about honour. I know honour is a high precept to my people, but I wonder how many of them value it as highly as I do."

"How do you mean?" she asked.

"I think I may be the only Mandelorian, if not one of the few, that glories in our defeat to the Republic. My people were once noble, at least they were in my eyes, but now, we have become intergalactic bullies. I think of the Mandelorians we fought on Dantooine. How they attacked and killed settlers out of little more than bloodlust! Then I consider the Mandelorians you told me about on Kashyyk, the ones who waited for their opponents to disarm before attacking. There is no honour in any of that!" I spat.

Kiranna looked at me thoughtfully, considering her words carefully. I had never known her to give bad advice. "I think it's admirable that you hold on to your honour, Canderous. You saw that what you were doing on Taris held no honour, so you sought to escape it, and you found a cause to champion that is worthy of you." A smile slowly graced her lips. "You are an honourable man, Canderous. I know you're having doubts about what you did before, but there's no way to change the past. You can only fight for the future."

I considered Kiranna's words carefully. What we were doing now was worthy of me. It was honourable to help Kiranna defeat Malak. "Thank you," I said gruffly. Then Kiranna surprised me. She leaned over and hugged me. Not used to human displays of affection, I slowly wrapped my arms around her slim frame and held her against me. Everything about her was amazing. If she had been any other person, I would have been repulsed by this display of affection, but because it was her I sat there, letting her hold me as much as I was holding her. I had never met a woman like her before.

Kiranna Sunrider is a unique woman. I can never emphasise how much I respect and admire her, and perhaps to some degree, I love her. I know I'd have to fight Carth if I wanted to pursue any kind of relationship with her, and I don't know that she feels the same way about me. I would like to hope that she holds the sort of respect and admiration for me that I hold for her. She is a unique woman, and I feel distinct pleasure saying I have fought by her side.

~Fin