A/N: Hello, My name is Gehatik. This is my first attempt at writing, and I'm experimenting with writing my Mandalorian Sith Warrior, for whom I'm currently planning out a full-length story that follows the in-game story. Currently I'm sticking with drabbles, but some day... Anyway, a huge shoutout to Cinlat, whose story, Family Is More Than Blood inspired me to begin planning out my own behemoth of a story (and also indirectly inspired the line that is the central theme of this story). I may never get to a full-length book, but this drabble is my first step.
Disclaimer: I do not own SWTOR. If I did, I would not be struggling to pay for college.
Confrontation
"Someone's coming," Lieutenant Pierce's voice whispered over the radio. "Three humans, two armored, along with a Wookiee and a Zabrak, who also has armor. The Wookiee and Zabrak have melee weapons, and the humans have blasters. They'll be in your sight in about thirty seconds."
"Looks like Ba'yair and I are gonna have a lot of fun," Corbin "Tracy" Cadera said, fondling his heavily (and illegally) modified assault cannon.
"Cut the chatter," Pierce replied, subconsciously making sure the safety was off on his own blaster rifle.
"Showtime," Vette muttered, shifting a bit as she always did before an ambush. Her husband, Kadral Lok smiled at her and put a hand on her shoulder as he readied his lightsaber.
"Ready, Jaesa?" he asked his apprentice.
"I am ready, master," she replied. Kadral rolled his eyes, not having time to correct her choice of titles as the targets walked into the storage building. Kadral felt the familiar buzz of adrenaline as the anticipation reached its peak. The so-called uncatchable Voidwolf was finally his. Some would wonder why the newly titled Emperor's Wrath would stoop to what was essentially a bounty hunt. But the answer was just that: bounty hunting was in his blood. The chase, the trap, the capture. All of it had been his life since he was a young boy being trained by his father, a Great Hunt champion. Going on missions like these was one of his favorite ways of relieving stress. The harder the mission, the better, and this was one of his hardest. There was little info on the Voidwolf, and pictures of her were always deleted by an unknown slicer. All that was known was that she wore a beskar mando breastplate (much like his) and jetpack, which she had likely stolen, as she had forgone the rest of a traditional Beskar'gam kit. Even his mother, one of the greatest slicers in the galaxy, could give him little information about her.
He stared at his quarry from behind the cloaking field, but just before they reached the place where Kadral would spring the trap, their leader suddenly stopped, and, without any visible signal, the five intruders suddenly formed a tight, defensive circle. Kadral's team immediately responded, with Pierce and Tracy stepping out from their hiding places behind the targets and leveling their weapons at them as the cloaking field was turned off, and master and apprentice both ignited their lightsabers. No one moved for several tense seconds. Surprisingly, Vette was the first to speak, addressing the woman at the other end of the sights of her dual blaster pistols.
"Risha?" she asked in a surprised tone, her fingers poised on the triggers.
"Vette!" was the equally surprised reply coming from the woman whose sniper rifle laser sight never left the blue twi'lek's forehead.
"Friend of yours?" the Voidwolf asked.
"Yeah, we go way back," Vette replied.
"Small galaxy then," Kadral commented wryly as he lowered his lightsaber ever so slightly. "It seems the Voidwolf and I go way back as well. How's life been treating you, sis?"
The Voidwolf's eyes widened. "Ha'ar chak" she muttered. Of all the imps to run into, it had to be her brother, so-called the Emperor's Wrath.
"Hold on!" the man beside her exclaimed, "You're tellin' me that your brother's a sith?"
"Yeah," Burkyca muttered as she tried to figure a way out of this one. She'd fought sith, and she'd fought mandalorians, but her brother was a different story. She might be able to make it out alive, but she knew she'd lose a crew mate. Or two. That wasn't an option.
"Damn, he's blood. Guess I'll take him then. I'd hate for you to have to fight family," Corso, her husband, replied.
"Family is more than blood," she tersely replied. Corso would lose that fight, and she couldn't lose him.
"Family is more than blood, but blood is still family," Kadral stated, taking a risk and deactivating his lightsaber, but not lowering it. Jaesa could sense a lot of the tension in the room drain because of his action, which she quickly mimicked, but noted that Pierce, the Wookiee, and the Voidwolf's mandalorian-looking Zabrak were still primed for a fight. Vette was next to lower her weapons, giving a small smile to Risha, one of her oldest friends, who reluctantly lowered her own rifle.
"You know the prototype's not here," Kadral commented.
"I'd be a fool to think otherwise, at this point," Burkyca replied.
"So are you going to try to take us?" the Mandalorian Zabrak finally spoke up.
"Sir, may I remind you that the Voidwolf has been an absolute nightmare to Imperial Logistics," Lieutenant Pierce quietly said over the radio.
Kadral paused for a moment. "Last I checked, even the Empire hasn't banned family reunions," he said, ignoring Pierce's angered gasp as he placed his lightsaber on his belt. "Stand down," he commanded.
Stand down," his sister repeated, holstering her blasters. Both sides complied, with Akaavi Spar (the Mando Zabrak), and Lieutenant Pierce being the last to do so. Jaesa sensed that they were not happy about the outcome, but the rest of the crews, including the Wookiee, seemed fairly relieved at the lack of bloodshed.
"And my wife says I'm the only nut in the galaxy who names my guns," Corso told Tracy, after discovering their mutual love of weapons. Burkyca's and Kadral's crews had stopped by a local cantina, with the exception of Jaesa and Bowdaar, the wookiee, who both didn't like cantinas, and Lieutenant Pierce, who was incredibly peeved. Kadral, Tracy, and Corso were sitting at the bar, with Kadral having already given Corso the, "You break my sister's heart, I will personally shatter every bone in your body" talk. The subject had now moved onto weapons, with Kadral making fun of Tracy, whose nickname came from the mandalorian word for fire, Tracyn, and his tendency to overcompensate when it came to firepower, for namingg his guns. To his surprise, his sister's husband had the same habit.
"A guy once told me that there's something 'fundamentally wrong with a man who names his guns,' but if that's the case, I don't wanna to be right!" Corso exclaimed.
"My sentiments exactly," agreed Tracy.
Meanwhile, Vette and Risha were catching up, with Burkyca wondering how her brother met and married this incredibly perky twi'lek. When Vette got to the part where she shot an acolyte in the side of the head during a duel in the middle of a tomb, she realized exactly why. Vette wasn't a Mandalorian, but she was loyal and shared her husband's thirst for adventure. More importantly, she had a snarky sense of humor and utter disrespect for authority that certainly was a breath of fresh air in the stuffy world of Imperial politics. He had found a good partner, just as she had found her's.
"So that was the famous Risha Drayen you've told me about," Kadral said as he and his wife entered their quarters. "I'm glad your meeting didn't escalate further. Good friends are a rare commodity when you spend time with a Sith. Hunting is fun, but it's nice to catch up with people instead of just catching them." Having taken off their armor and weapons, the couple laid down and nestled up against each other.
"I had a great time with your sister. She seems pretty nice. Anyway, we had our fun. I guess it's back to Sith business," Vette said before growling in her cute way. Kadral kissed the top of her head, and sleep took them.
As Burkyca led a completely inebriated Corso back to their cabin on her ship, she thought about how narrowly she missed at worst losing a crewmate, and at best not hearing about the man her brother had become. He may have become a Sith, and even had the mysterious title of Emperor's Hand, but he still kept his Mandalorian honor, an attribute she hoped would keep him from becoming like so many of the other Sith she had encountered. She pondered the path her life had taken, one so far from her Mandalorian culture and clan. Akaavi stopped her just before she got into the door. "I'm glad to see you haven't completely abandoned the Resol'nare. You still care about your aliit. As your brother said, 'family is more than blood, but blood is still family.'" With that, Akaavi headed for her quarters, leaving Burkyca to wonder if she was still more of a Mandalorian than she thought.
Mando translations:
Ba'yair: chew
Beskar: Mandalorian iron, a lightsaber-resistant material metal used to make mandalorian armor and weapons.
Beskar'gam: Armor made from Mandalorian Iron.
Ha'ar chak: Damn it!
Resol'nare: The six tenets that make up what it means to be a Mandalorian. They include wearing armor, defending one's self, helping one's family, obeying the mandalore, speaking the language, and teaching one's children to do the same.
Aliit: family (or clan)