I am so so so so so so so so so so SO sorry for the delay. My dad had custody of the study during his stay, which was longer than he originally planned. I hope you all didn't think I had given up on this story, or if I was struggling with tying this in with Guardians 2. Rest assured that I already have plans.

And thank you all for your reviews.

Steve993: I think we can both agree that even bad things like the Holiday Special can have pure gold. After all it was the first appearance of Boba Fett, one of the most popular characters in the Star Wars universe.

Jedi Alex Colbent: I did not want Peter to recognize the Star Wars universe. I wanted them all thrown into a universe they knew nothing about. So I kinda hoped people would pretend that nobody in the MCU would know about Star Wars.

Anonymous: Thank you so much for the potential cast list. I personally like the play it in my mind whenever I play the End Title music of A New Hope.

Chapter 10 - Battle Plans

It had been an hour of trekking through the dark forests beneath the canopy. Groot had let out several bioluminescent spores from his hand allowing them to see through the dark and murky swamp-like ground level of the planet that was known as the Shadowlands. With all the rich foliage of the massive trees, it was impossible for sunlight to enter. Thus all that grew there were dark green weeds and grass that looked rather like old spinach.

Groot was rather fascinated with all the plantlife surrounding him. He once went over to a tree and placed a hand on it.

"I am Groot." There was a long pause, then Groot repeated, "I am Groot," before leaving the tree.

It was hard for Rocket or Chewbacca to tell if Groot was actually communing with it, or thought he was. But they were too focused to worry about it. Chewbacca was eager to find the Trandoshan hunters and get his son back. Rocket was looking left to right every time he heard something, but it turned out to be some other kind of animal.

"I don't like this," the raccoon whispered. "I don't know much about these Trandoshans, but I know hunters. We should've run into something by now."

"I am Groot?"

"I don't know. Like a scout. Or a booby trap."

Chewbacca suddenly roared as five metal orbs suddenly rolled towards them and suddenly opened, letting out yellow gas. In just seconds, the gas enveloped them and they began coughing while they started to grow drowsy.

"Or a frickin' ambush," Rocket groaned before collapsing.

Puk gave a deep sigh as he turned off the lights of his cantina and closed the door behind him. The middle-aged Neimoidian was the bartender and only employee of this small business, and the only crowd it attracted was the wrong kind and it drove away all his employees. His waitresses kept getting groped, so they stormed out. A musician got killed so his band quit. Even his cooks quit once a food fight ensued several days ago. Thus he had to run the entire business himself and was relieved that another day was over.

Just before he could lock the front door, he suddenly heard spurs behind him, indicating, to his annoyance someone had arrived late.

"The bar is closed. Come back in twelve hours."

"I say the bar is open for another hour."

Puk scowled. He could not deal with anymore frustration today. He decided to face this obviously deaf troublemaker as he told him to leave.

"I JUST TOLD YOU..." he stopped talking as he looked at the intimidating Mandalorian mask that a great majority of the galaxy trembled before. "That...the...customer is always right. Come on in, Mr. Fett."

"Thank you," Boba replied in mock politeness before letting himself in. "I'm not here for a drink though. I'm here to meet some people. And it would be wise if you were not here."

"But I need to..." the Neimoidian stopped talking as Boba glared at him, or at least it looked like he did the way the front of his helmet looked at him. "Yes."

As the bartender took his leave, Boba took the liberty of putting two tables together and gathering six chairs, laying a credit chip before all but one.

"Well, here we are," came a high pitched voice as a couple of individuals helped themselves in. One was a Rodian, looking at Boba Fett with bug-like eyes while smoking through his small trunk-like snout. The other was an Aleena, a really diminutive blue alien that had to waddle towards the table. This particular one wore an electronic visor over his eyes.

"Twozza," Boba greeted the Rodian. "Glad you could come. Have a seat." He then looked at the Aleena. "Sorry, Sparky. Couldn't find a high chair for you."

The little alien just opened his wide mouth, showing a set of sharp teeth while letting out a croaking sounding wail before climbing onto the chair next to Twozza. They then heard the door open as a black-furred Wookie who wore two bandoliers and had the hair on the back of his head braided. He gripped a vibro-ax as if he expected any of them to challenge him.

"Shormum," Boba nodded to the Wookie. "Right on time."

The Wookie just grunted as he walked pass the Mandalorian and took a seat.

"Fetty boy!" came a male voice as a human wearing brown armor and a white hood over his head waltzed in with his rifle over his shoulder. "Long time no see."

"Dengar," Fett sourly greeted the bounty hunter who went ahead and took a seat.

"I was surprised when I heard you were the one who sent the invitations. Last I heard, your career was blindly thrown...IN THE PITS!"

With that, he threw his head back and let out a bellow before laughing uncontrollably, taking deep breaths before laughing again. While Shormum remained impassive, Twozza and Sparky joined in the laughter, until they saw their employer decided to show Dengar his own idea of a joke. The human immediately stopped when he was suddenly looking down the barrel of Boba's blaster rifle.

"WHOA! Whoa, Boba Buddy! Easy! Just a harmless joke between friends."

"Fair warning, Dengar," Boba threatened as he lowered his blaster. "The less people to share the reward, the bigger each share."

"If it were me, I would've killed him," came a female voice that was exotic yet menacing. A white skinned woman wearing a red bodysuit and a brown vest slinked her way over as her long fingers stroked her long and thin rifle. She was bald, except for a ponytail that ended at her hips. Her dark eyes showed she was eager to kill. "Still so naive, Boba Fett."

"Still so bloodthirsty, Aurra Sing," Boba said to her with a court nod. "Have a seat, and I'll get started."

She sat between Dengar and Sparky. Everyone kept one eye on Boba, while keeping another eye on each other, as if expecting to be attacked by the other.

"Alright," Boba began. "Right in front of each of you, is a chip containing a thousand credits. You take it, you accept the job no matter what it is. You don't want it, there's the door."

Every hunter took this into consideration. If Fett wasn't going to tell them the job unless they took it, that meant that he didn't want a word about this meeting to leave this table. Whatever it was, it was big. Big meant big pay, but that also meant big danger.

It was barely a minute, but Aurra placed her hand on the chip in front of her then picked it up. And every bounty hunter followed suit.

Boba began explain the job. "The job is a sneak attack on the Spice Mines of Kessel. My client requires a prisoner there. Since Kessel's been under new management since the death of the Emperor, he's unable to get the prisoner himself."

He placed a small circular device in the center of the table, which projected an image of a facility.

"I gathered intel from a Clawdite named Cato. Her shapeshifting abilities allow her to pose as a worker, thus she's been able to provide information to devise a plan. I've captured a smuggler who frequently transports cargo to and from there. We will use his ship and access codes to get us inside. Once we've landed, I will recover the prisoner. I need the rest of you to provide a distraction."

He pointed at a landing pad on the south side of the facility. "There is a shipment of spice that's scheduled for pickup. That's your target. That spice is worth a hundred thousand credits, so they'll be too focused on it to notice me. That spice is also your reward for this mission and you'll be dividing it amongst yourselves should you recover it."

He couldn't help but noticed the raised eyebrow over Aurra's left eye, but he continued.

"Even with this distraction, there's still the surveillance. That's where you come in, Sparky." Fett pointed at a tower in the image. "Here is the security tower. Get under it, then use your magic to make me invisible to any peekers. Any questions?"

"Who exactly is this prisoner we're picking up?" Dengar asked.

"That is between me and my client," Boba answered. "All you need to worry about is getting the spice."

"If we're getting one hundred credits worth of spice, what's in it for you?" Aurra asked.

Boba just stood up and headed towards the exit. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I just need you all to focus on the job. And remember, this is a sneak attack. They cannot see this coming."

He then kicked the door down, revealing the Neimoidian bartender who yelped in fright of being discovered.

"So no loose ends," Boba snarled.

"I...had to..." Puk began to stammer. "I had to stay to close the bar...I didn't hear anything I swear!"

Boba's hand readying his rifle and the looks of anticipation of the other hunters told the frightened bartender that they thought otherwise.

"I have no intention of getting involved in this! I promise you, I won't tell anybody what happened here!"

Boba just pointed the rifle at the Puk's sweating head.

"I know you won't," he simply said before his finger pulled against the trigger.

"Still can't believe you're still alive," Han said to Dash as the group gathered at the freighter. "From what Luke told me, what remained of Xizor's skyhook slammed into the Outrider and left nothing."

"Simply shot into hyperspace before it hit," Dash replied.

"Why didn't you tell us you were still alive," Leia queried. "You could've been a big help to us."

Han just rolled his eyes at Leia's use of the Rebellion to hide the fact that she missed Dash.

"Why else?" Dash replied. "I had no intention of joining the Rebellion or get called again for one of your suicide missions. And Black Sun would have a new leader eventually and would send every mercenary and bounty hunter after me for my part in the destruction of Xizor's Palace. So I faked my death and laid low until Dash Rendar was old news." He then smirked. "Besides, I liked the idea of being remembered as a martyr, yet still alive."

He stood from his seat and ran a hand over a dust-covered crate, one that Han transferred from the Falcon. "However, I still felt like I owe the Bothans," he said bitterly. "So I kept in touch using the code name 'Jet Hawk'."

Han and Leia shared a glance. Luke told Han how, while the latter was frozen in carbonite, the former had teamed with Dash in aiding the Bothans in obtaining the Second Death Star plans, but Dash failed to stop a missile from destroying a group of Bothan-piloted Y-wings. It was a blow to both Dash's ego and his conscience. It was one thing for Dash to miss, but when it cost him the live of his comrades, that was something else. But Luke later learned after Dash's "death" that the missile was a diamond boron missile that was impervious to laser attacks, meaning nothing Dash could have thrown would have done anything.

Before Han could tell Dash this, Drax interrupted.

"As nice as this reunion is, tell us what we need to retrieve and who I have to kill."

"We're not going to burst in and fight everyone," Leia retorted. "We need to be discrete."

"Oh. Well discrete is not my style. I prefer to just go in. I'm no good at strategizing."

"A guy who's straight to the point," Dash commented.

"The point of my daggers," Drax replied.

"Good one. So word got out in the Underworld that Zubagol the Hutt was auctioning off valuable Imperial information. I decided to check it out and see what kind of information I could give to the Bothans. Unfortunately, he's guarding it real well. His palace couldn't even be broken in by a rancor."

Gamora rolled her eyes as she grabbed a loose piece of meal lying around and used a nearby can of old oil, dipped her finger in it, and started writing something on the metal sheet.

"I actually watched archive information on these rancors of yours," Drax spoke up. "From its description, I think one could probably smash this Hutt's fortress to rubble."

With a look of irritation on her face as everyone else looked at him in confusion, Gamora held up the metal sheet, which had the word "METAPHOR" written on it.

"Oh," Drax said in understanding as he read it.

Dash continued. "Anyhow. Despite the high security, he's not completely unpredictable. There are three likely places where the vault holding this data is."

"So we split into groups of three and sneak in," Han suggested.

"We won't have to retrieve the information itself," Leia said. "Maybe we can copy it onto a datapad. That way the Imperials can still retrieve it, and be none the wiser."

"Glad we both thought of that," Dash said as he took out three handheld devices from a backpack he was carrying. "That's why I had these ready. However, I don't think Mr. Nondiscreet should go with us."

It took a moment for Drax to realize he was talking about him. "And why's that?"

"Seeing as you don't like to be discreet, you're not good on a stealth mission. But...we may use you to get us out if things don't go our way. There's a gladitorial match before the auction, and you can pose as a fighter."

Drax smiled. "I believe the metaphorical saying is...'Now you're speaking my language'."

"I should stay close to him to make sure HE doesn't get in any trouble," Gamora said. "Plus it may be better if both of us stay back and cover you if you're dragged before Zubagol. I'm going to need a disguise though."

Han grinned wickedly as he stood up and walked over to one of the crates he took off the Falcon. "Got you covered. Brought this with me by accident, but it may be just what you need."

Han removed the cover and everyone peered inside. Leia had a look of shock and disgust.

"I threw that out!"

"I recovered it," Han replied with a cocky grin.

"I'm not wearing that," Gamora simply stated.

Once again, I apologize for the delay. I hope you still enjoyed the chapter.