Sabine stared. She had had some pretty unexpected things happen to her before, but this new arrival made all of them look pitiful.
It was a Mandalorian.
She could tell by his armour, traditional of a male warrior, but with several adjustments. There was a small jetpack on his back, and the whole of his armour was tinted green. This was surprising, as the regulation was the Mandalorian colours of blue and black. She had just come to realise these things, as a scream snapped her from her thoughts, and the Mandalorian threw into the cell, the dead body of a stormtrooper.
Chaos reigned in the cell as stormtroopers and officers alike dove for their blasters.
None of them made it that far.
The Mandalorian stepped down into the cell, over the smoking corpses of imperials, and released the Ray Shield, causing Sabine to crumple up on the ground. The Mandalorian strode over to her, and spoke in the electronically masked voice typical of the armour.
"You Sabine Wren?"
Sabine was, at that moment, to weak to say anything, so she faintly nodded.
"Good. Some big-type person on Lothal got five hundred thousand credits on you, missy, so you're coming with me."
Sabine nodded again. She was cold and weak, not to mention desperately hungry and thirsty. She took one last look at her saviour, then passed out on the spot.
When Sabine awoke, it was in quite a different environment than what it had been before. Before, she had been in an imperial cell, on a star destroyer. Now, she appeared to be on a ship, that was zooming away from said star destroyer, which in turn, now resembled several chunks of durasteel and debris floating in space. She stared, and jumped when a voice in the cockpit snapped her out of her trance.
"Like it? Contract says no witnesses, and this is the easiest way to do it. Must be some contract, no one offers this much on Lothal. What are you hiding, missy?"
The Mandalorian was in the cockpit, and guiding the spacecraft away from the debri field. Sabine stared, and then answered.
"I don't know," Sabine answered truthfully. "I really don't have anything that special, apart from painting and blowing things up."
The Mandalorian chuckled, and typed something new into the Nav computer, and the stars turned to blinding streaks of light, as that all-too familiar feeling of hyperspace took over.
The Mandalorian sat back in his chair, looking pleased with himself.
"Aaaand… We're clear. Another successful bounty hunt. Boy, with this much, I can pay for retirement on its own! Now, about that reward, your obviously pretty special. Five hundred thousand credits isn't something people can just whip outta nowhere. What are you hiding?"
"I really don't know. My friends could never afford that if they sold everything they owned!"
That wasn't, strictly true, as Kanans lightsaber would have fetched enough on its own to pay five times as much, as well as last the whole crew from infants to old age. But the last thing Sabine needed was this guy knowing Kanan was a Jedi. He was the type of person who would collect the reward, then hold Kanan ransom to the empire, and sell the lightsaber, ship, and the rest of the crew. Sabine could see that in him.
She knew.
The moment the ship touched down on Lothal, it was intercepted by two troopers of the LSF. They met the two Mandalorians at the boarding ramp.
"Ah, Fett! You got the girl, good. Now here's the reward, as promised."
The trooper signalled to his comrade, who handed a sealed briefcase to the bounty hunter. It had the LSF seal on it, and as the Mandalorian opened it up, Sabine caught a glimpse of rows upon rows of credits. The bounty hunter snapped it shut, and released his grip on Sabine's arm.
"That's Boba Fett to you boy. Here's your girl, she's useless to me. I'll be going now, only…."
Boba Fett turned to go, and then turned back to the men.
"There's a hundred-credit bounty on every one of you I can bring in. Alive. So…."
The trooper smiled, and nodded to his comrade, who dropped a small leather pouch into Boba's hand. The bounty hunter opened it up, and Sabine saw a gold glint shine on the man's helmet. He closed the pouch again, and nodded at the troopers.
"On second thoughts… I'll be looking the other way now. Get outta here."
Boba Fett left with that. As the ship took off, the troopers turned to Sabine.
"Good to see you back. I don't know when I've ever seen The Chief more panicked. He wanted the best man on the job, and said that if we couldn't get you back, there'd be pieces of all of us in seven different systems."
"Yikes," added the second. "It wasn't pretty. Now let's get you back to your friends, you've got a lot to tell them, I'd bet."
Sabine laughed along with the rest, and as they all piled onto the transport, Sabine reflected on her past.
Maybe not all Mandalorians are that bad, she thought to herself.