Kar'tan Venn leaned again to examine the bomb strapped to his chest. It had been inaudibly counting down its 30 minute timer for the past 10 minutes, and he was no closer to escaping since his captors had left the small holding cell. Relax, he thought, I have all the time in the world to contemplate my enlightened existence. Or escape, though that might take longer.

Truthfully, he was rather worried, because in the time he had been studying the device, he had determined that it had a baradium core, which would easily vaporize him and his beskar plating. It's a rather elegant solution, Kar'tan thought for likely the third time since discovering himself strapped to the device. Destroy me, leave nothing behind, but the resulting miniature fusion ball wouldn't even scratch the walls. He hadn't thought these pirates could finish him off that cleanly.

The clock counted past 19 minutes.

Kar'tan's attention returned to his escape. Although one of them had pilfered his favorite beskar-weave duster, the pirate thugs had neglected to search him properly when they hastily tied him up. Even so, the armor's portable arsenal was still basically useless: knives invisibly shoved underneath armor plates, his hold-out blaster, a pouch full of detonators, everything was out of reach of his bound hands.

*shunk*

Everything except his Gauntlet Lances.

*shunk*

Both six-inch vibroknives slid out of his gloves' upper plating and thudded behind him on the seat. Working his shoulders in sequence, he was able to slowly slice through the fiber-cord holding him to the bomb and the chair. As he finished shearing the one cord he could easily reach, the whole rig loosened and fell. The bomb nearly hit the floor, but the bounty hunter managed to catch it with his feet and set it down gently. There was no telling how unstable the device might have been.

Seven minutes now, no time to lose.

However, Kar'tan rose from the chair only to discover that while he had been secured to it, and the bomb, with fiber-cord, his hands had been bound by durasteel cuffs. Wonderful, he thought, Still, there's no stopping a Mando on a mission, especially not this one. He took two quick steps and shoved his armored boot through the insubstantial duraplast door and staggered into the adjoining room.

The cafeteria Kar'tan entered was a mess of blaster-scorched, overturned tables and chairs, a number of food trays, and a lot of spilled Nerf Stew. Seven guards turned to look at him, dumbstruck, as he stepped into the furniture massacre. Their bewilderment was rewarded by several precise shots that quickly dropped the whole unit except the one wearing the Beskar-weave duster. Realizing his opportunity for a little revenge, Kar'tan head butted the last guard, bowling the man over, and nearly caved his head in with a number of savage kicks.

Staggering slightly to keep his feet, Kar'tan called across the cafeteria, "You really needed my help against seven guards!"

A voice called back from the door opposite, "He had your duster; I didn't think you would appreciate another blaster hole!"

Story Notes:

*This story is meant to take place in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. I've read many of the novels available on the market, and I think I have a reasonable grasp of what makes an interesting Star Wars book. That said, I know that some of the depictions in the story may contradict what's come to be established Canon (The depiction of Mandalorians is notable here, in reference to their depiction in The Clone Wars TV show). This story is essentially told from a nationalist Mandalorian's perspective; thus, it has much in common with Karen Traviss' depiction of the organization (**Mostly the earlier parts of Republic Commando and Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2).

**Something has come to my attention during my writings. Because of Traviss' work on Legacy of the Force (a series I freely admit that I did not particularly like) and the latter parts of the Republic Commando series, many fans of Star Wars may not want to read about Mandalorians as her depictions tend to put them in an ultra-positive light, while others (Troy Denning, I'm looking at you...) prefer an ultra-negative light. And to be fair, I've started to really dislike her takes on various characters in other settings.

I admit that I am a fan of the depicted culture, (the level of detail that has been put into the society over the course of several book and game series impresses me most of all) but in my efforts on this story, I intend to portray the main characters as genuine characters, not Marty Stus or members of some ridiculous ideal.

As I work on the story, I've realized that this particular part of Kar'tan and Cairn's journey is told solely from their perspective; thus, there is an inherent bias in what is presented to the reader. My personal views aside, many readers may see the situations as grey versus black, protagonist centered morality, or even straight on into outright villainy. I hope that readers will accept these biased appearances for now, on the grounds that this is my first foray into writing, and that the perspective will widen with coming stories.

But if it's unanimously hated, then I'll just finish quietly and go work on some other project.

*I'm open to all criticisms, points of inaccuracy, and suggestions as I write, so enjoy yourselves! I have fun writing these characters and I hope you have fun reading about them.