A/N: This is the second story in what is shaping up to be a series of fanfics. There are some spoilers for the first story contained here, so if you haven't read book 1 of the fics, I recommend you do so before continuing :)
Disclaimer: So I own nothing Star Wars, justthe characters I've created and their stories :) Otherwise, everything you see belongs to LucasArts, George Lucas, etc.
Kadira Sal leaned against the ramp of her ship, a sleek Phantom class starfighter. It was the only one of its kind, the design dating back to around the Mandalorian wars, and she was proud of it. Currently, she was using it as shelter from the rain that had decided to hit Mandalore without warning.
"What, afraid of getting wet?"
Kadira turned towards the voice of Ran Scorlo who was inside the ship, leaning down to look at her with a faint smile on his normally serious face. His dark hair was disheveled as always, brushing the scar he had received on their last mission. Ran had hired her over a year ago as a pilot, smuggler, bodyguard, and any other odd job he had in mind. They had just returned from Belsavis, an icy planet where their first 'real' mission together had gone terribly wrong. Kadira had discovered that Ran had hired her to smuggle beings wanted by the Empire out of danger. Unfortunately their target, a senator by the name of Alaida Dain, had turned out to be an Imperial Agent with her sights set on either killing Ran or taking him prisoner.
"You're the one hiding in the ship," Kadira responded, crossing her arms and tilting her helmeted head up at him defiantly.
Ran was unable to see her expression through the green and gold T-visor helmet that marked her as Mandalorian, but he could guess that she was probably grinning. He was beginning to get used to seeing her in full armor, since she rarely seemed to don civilian clothes. When he'd asked her about it, she'd shrugged and said she didn't feel comfortable without the armor or the advanced head's-up display in her helmet, fondly known as a HUD. It fed her information about her surroundings, including a useful 360 degree view as well as an integrated comm system and any information the Holonet had to offer. Ran also suspected it was capable of much more, but had chosen not to ask. Already he had discovered more than one of Kadira's 'toys' as she called them were highly illegal. And not just within the strict Empire.
"Did you get the jetpack you were hoping for?" Ran asked, choosing to pursue a different line of conversation.
"I did. Though I paid an arm and a leg for it," Kadira said wryly, turning around so she was facing him. "Do you know how much that thing weighs? Thirty kilos."
Ran's brows lifted. "An arm and a leg, and thirty extra kilos to carry around? All so you can kill yourself in a memorable way."
"Pessimist," Kadira accused, turning her back on him again. Some people just didn't know how to enjoy life.
"…Care to tell me what we're waiting on?" Ran asked finally, peering through the rain towards Keldabe, Mandalore's main city.
"A friend of mine is going to join us on this mission. Rumor has it he knows something about our copycat," Kadira answered, her eyes scanning the information her HUD was providing. She was referring to the bounty hunter who had blown up Ran's base on their last mission, killing all but Ran and one other. The hunter had also posed as Kadira, even going so far as to use the same armor colors and weapons. "But Ran? Try not to irritate him. He doesn't have my shining sense of humor."
Ran chuckled. "Duly noted. I'll be on my best behavior."
"Good, 'cause I'm not paying for your funeral," Kadira responded.
Ran was silent a moment before speaking up again, causing Kadira to close her eyes in a bid for patience. He spent a week on her ship, totally silent and grouchy, and now that they'd landed he wouldn't shut up.
"What exactly are the skeletons we flew over on the outskirts? It looked like some sort of Imperial base."
"It is," the voice that spoke was masculine, causing Kadira to turn as a figure emerged from the rain.
"Su'cuy gar, Laniff," she said, stepping forward to greet the red and orange armored Mandalorian. They clasped arms, with Laniff nodding in acknowledgement of the greeting.
"Su'cuy, Kad'ika," he said, squeezing her armored shoulder and looking up at Ran, who was still lounging in the doorway of the ship. "The bones you were asking about. It was built as a theme park of sorts, some idiot dreaming of making a profit catering to adventure tourists. The idea failed, and when the Empire came, somebody convinced them it was a sacred temple to us Mandos."
"Truth be told it was basically worthless," Kadira put in, smiling behind her helmet's expressionless visor.
"Worse than that, it was karking ugly. Nobody knew what to do with it. So we sold it to the Imps for their base. Last I heard they still think they're showing some sort of dominance over us by taking over our 'sacred temple'," Laniff said. Removing his helmet to reveal blonde hair and brown eyes, he thrust one hand at Ran. "Laniff Dreysel. Kadira said you had a mission where you might bump into Coorta Mashiri."
Ran stepped forward and clasped Laniff's hand with a nod. "If that's the name of the woman who was imitating Kadira, then yes. No offense, but how do I know we can trust you?" The two men were already looking each other over speculatively, suspicion evident in both parties.
Laniff chuckled dryly, his serious brown eyes crinkling slightly in amusement. "I've known Kadira since before she was a Mando. If anything, I should be asking you that question. You're an aruetii, an outsider. Mandalorians don't trust your kind easily. And I know nothing about you," Laniff's smile was sharp. "No offense."
"Knock it off, both of you," Kadira interceded finally, slapping Laniff lightly upside the head. He ducked and lifted one golden eyebrow at her but said nothing more, instead settling his helmet back into place. "We don't have time for you two to fight over who's the alpha kath hound here, alright? Can we get moving, before Dain and Mashiri get the jump on us?"
Ran shrugged and disappeared out of the doorway, heading back inside the ship. Laniff looked over at Kadira, tilting his helmeted head questioningly.
"You trust him?" he asked simply.
"Mostly. I know he'd have my back in a fight, if that's what you're asking. He might not be too open about himself, but neither are you," Kadira pointed out, crossing her arms. "Cut him some slack."
Laniff shrugged, swinging his sniper rifle over his shoulder. "Fine. But I still think kaysh mirsh solus."
Kadira slapped the back of his helmet again, harder this time. He didn't duck, instead reaching out and giving her shoulder a playful shove back.
"Behave," he mock-scolded, ducking inside the ship before she could retaliate. When Kadira followed, she found Ran just inside the door, eyebrow lifted.
"What was it he said?" he asked with a challenge in his tone. Kadira removed her green and gold helmet, rolling her eyes.
"Translated literally? 'His brain cell is lonely'," she answered, her damaged voice low and rasping without her helmet's vocoder. Ran could also see the burn scar that started at her right cheekbone and disappeared under her armor, something she hadn't ever bothered to explain.
Pulling her straight brown hair back from her face, Kadira lifted one eyebrow at Ran. "What, no comebacks?"
Ran simply rolled his eyes and pushed himself off the wall with one hand. "You and bucket-head come to the navigational room. I'll fill you in on what you need to know before we take off."
Kadira sighed and shook her head as Ran moved off. This was going to be a very long trip.
"Onderon is a fairly temperate planet. Pretty much the only real city is also their capitol, Iziz. Our goal is just outside the city, an Imperial Ordinance base," Ran was explaining, pointing to a section on the hologram of Onderon he had pulled up. Both Kadira and Laniff were typing commands into their HUDs, storing the information for later review.
"We'll need to get inside that base, as all my intel is pointing to Zul Blok being a worker there," Ran continued, pulling up a different image. This one was of a male zabrak. "This is Blok. We know that the Imperials have a strong interest in him, our guess is as a target. We managed to decode a datapad taken from Alaida Dain, who from what we know is a high ranking Imperial agent. Most of it translated to gibberish, but Blok's name kept popping up. Our job is to infiltrate the base and get him out of there. By now he's probably figured out something is wrong. Zabraks aren't known for being stupid. If we can get someone inside and convince him we're not his enemies, then we should be able to get him out and discover why Dain is trying to get to him."
"We know for sure he's being targeted?" Laniff asked, looking up at Ran.
"Blok has been involved in three 'accidents' over the past three weeks. Each time he barely made it out alive. You do the math," Ran responded, lifting one eyebrow.
Laniff shrugged. "Sounds legitimate to me. Kadira won't be able to enter the base, not with the bounty on her head."
"Either you or I will have to go in," Ran agreed.
"Pity Tyron decided to take a vacation," Kadira observed wryly. "He would have loved this job."
"I'll go," Laniff said, ignoring Kadira's comment. "From what I understand, you make a pretty good Advisor. And if I get caught, there isn't a massive bounty on my head."
Ran nodded. "Alright. We'll hammer out the plan more once we get a good look at the ordinance depot. Kadira, I think it's best if you plot that new hyperspace route you mentioned earlier. I'd rather have as much of an element of surprise as you can give us."
Kadira gave a lazy salute and walked to the cockpit, leaving Ran and Laniff to continue poring over the map, discussing Onderon in more detail. She just hoped they could get along at least for a little while.
"I really don't want to have to clean blood off my ship," she muttered, punching the hyperspace coordinates into the Vanguard's navicomputer. As the ship began to rise, Kadira settled back into the pilot's seat, grateful to be on the move once more. She didn't like the idea of leaving Alaida Dain to whatever plans the woman had.
A/N: And we're off on a new story :) Reviews mean the world to me! :)