So Sorry for the Delay, after writing 9 chapters in January, I was a little burnt out, will be back to my normal output of 1 chapter a month.
Sand was pinging off their armor as they walked from the star speeder to the entrance of the town salon. Andora hated sand biomes. Beaches were fun, but just deserts always irritated her. They had come to Tatooine because Din was fairly certain Boba would be here, but without a direct comms channel they would have to hunt him down on the planet's surface. The town of Mos Pelgo was a humble one, but the wind blowing through was suggesting that a storm was approaching. Cobb Vanth should have a lead for them as a self appointed lawman. Andora had been a bit surprised when Din and brought along a chest plate with them, it was a nice piece of durasteel. Din wanted to give it to Cobb as a sign of respect, and to help the man continue to do his job of protecting his town.
The saloon was mostly men drinking their last rounds to head home before the winds kicked up and shifted the dunes beneath their walkways. Vanth was sitting at a table, leaning back far in his chair as he seemed to be chatting with a few of the others, more boasting about something when their armor caught the light. Andora's armor was her grandmother's armor, styled after a great ancestor of her clan. This armor was more heavily guarded around her midsection with its plated sides and deeper front, easing their concerns for now. Cobb stood up and raised a glass in their direction.
"Well if it isn't the craziest Mando I have ever met. Flying straight down the Krayt dragon's throat and blew the bastard up from the inside!" The bar patrons all raised their glasses in a cheer for Din, who simply nodded. Andora felt her eyebrow twitch under her helmet. Her sweet Pirpak had better not been anywhere near a Krayt dragon fight! With an easy heft Din put the Durasteel armor on the table, smirking at the dumbfounded look on Cobb's face, not that anyone could see it. "Oh boy, talk about putting balls on the table." Cobb noticed Andora, dipping his head. "Sorry about the language Ma'am." She gave a tip of her helmet to him.
"I need your help finding someone. Consider the armor payment Marshall." Din made his voice as deadpan a tone as he could, watching as it had the intended effect of sobering up the man who put his glass down and studied the armor, whistling as he knew that it was higher end stuff.
"Alright folks, looks like I need to get to work. Get me a caff, double strength." The barkeeper nodded, turning on the machine. Bubbling sounds filled the bar as it brewed the drink for him. The other patrons seemed to get the point, finishing their drinks and walking off, the wind picking up and howling into the night. "So what unlucky fool got themselves on your list?"
"It's not a bounty. That armor you had, we need to find its owner." Din watched as Cobb settled the armor on himself, adjusting the plate and knocking his knuckles on it, listening to the sound. The cup of caff was steaming on the bar counter, the man walking up and drinking it back in a quick swig, hissing as he put the cup back, the liquid hot as it rushed down his throat and he felt a bit more alert.
"Oh? Who it belong to?" Cobb was making a few adjustments to the straps, pulling it a bit tighter to his chest.
"Boba Fett." Din adjusts the spear on his back, rolling his shoulders as he waits for Cobb to react. "You've seen him?"
"He took over the Hutt Palace a couple weeks ago, really stirred up some trouble when he killed Fortuna, but him and his enforcer really put a hurting on anyone not falling in line." Cobb finished arming up. "Most of us decent folk were pretty worried when we found out he came back from the dead but he seems to be leaving us alone."
"What do you mean?" Andora felt the hairs on the back of her neck start to stand on end, a bad feeling about her choice creeping over her.
"He must have fought his way out of the sarlacc pit, cause that's where he was last seen. Same day Jaba died Fett went and got upended into the pit by some local boy waving a sword around. Least that's what I heard from the Jawas who sold me the armor." Cobb was grinning wildly as he slapped Din on the shoulder. "Guess you and him are a lot alike, both of ya got swallowed by the baddest things on the planet and came out alive. Must be a Mando trick." Cobb dropped some credits on the bar as he started to move towards the door. "So, guess we're heading off through the Dune Sea towards the palace." Din gently squeezed her hand, the tilt of his helmet trying to read her tensed body language.
"Mhi liser am cuun tkiriyr." (We can change our minds.) He could ask Karga for help, or they could even reach out to the Republic. If she was having this much doubt then he would take them on a different course. With a firm shake of her head she squeezed his hand and forced herself to relax. This dread is just her being nervous. Fett was just as hardy as her husband, that's why she suggested him. He could match Din, so the pair could handle whatever was waiting for them on the planet Wayland.
She was being ridiculous. Fett had found his own kingdom to rule, he wouldn't want her husband's title of a dying people scattered to the solar winds.
Where had that horrible thought come from? Their people weren't dying off, they were just biding their time.
"We should use a magnetic tether, people get swallowed up by those dunes on the best of days, in a storm like this...We should all stick close." Cobb threw on a face cover and goggles as the sand started to move with the stronger winds, the sky dark with clouds and the rumble of thunder. Din and Andora switched the vision settings on their helmets as they followed after Cobb to his speeder. Their transports were secured together with the magnetic leash as Din took up the position behind her, his rifle at the ready as she would drive. She revved up the speeder bike, the magnetic tether making it easier to keep pace even with the increasing darkness. It seemed that Cobb knew where he was going even as the sand and winds started to swallow them up as they moved through the desert. Din was confident they would not run into any sand people as this weather made attacking them more dangerous than anything they could gain.
They had to activate the shielding to protect the engines from the sand as the clouds swallowed them in pitch blackness, their armor vibrating practically with all the sand hitting it, a few larger grains leaving scratches in their visor glass. A secure set of arms wraps around her front, not putting any pressure but in a protective manner around her middle. His arms soaking up more of the sand blasting her middle. She rolls her eyes with a mix of annoyance and affection. Her body was designed to handle being pregnant and doing other things. The over protectiveness was already starting. The sooner they get backup from Fett, the sooner he could focus. She slows her speed as the tether starts to tug on the speeder, turning into the pull.
Eventually they drove through the storm, the winds howling behind them but the sand ahead of them still as the grave, softly packed from being freshly shifted and the moonlight illuminating the dunes. They stopped to shake the sand off, checking the engines were fine and unlatching the tether. Cobb and Din were scanning the cliff sides to determine their bearings.
Paz and Cara groaned as they came too in their cells. Paz's armor was stripped off along with the pair's weapons. White armored bodies were on the other side of the cell doors. The armor was polished and the helmets were an eerily familiar black T visors staring at them.
"Hey, they're waking up." The white helmet jerked in the direction of their cells.
"So?" The other soldier shrugged his shoulders, watching the doorway.
"Should we say anything?" The first one asked, leaning into the other soldier's view.
"You're talking now aren't you." The second soldier turned his helmet and tilted it in a way Paz knew was dismissive from years of using similar body language.
"To them I mean." He says with an open palmed point at the pair in the old holding cells.
"Yeah, ask 'em how the weather is." The helmet tilts away and back in a gesture that Paz was too familiar with when training teens, the mando eye roll.
"Oy, don't need to be a besom about it." (asshole). The first one used the butt of his blaster to smack the other lightly in the ribs.
"Look, our rotation ends in like twenty minutes, far as I see it, them being awake is the next shift's problem." Cara noticed finally that the clock readout on the wall where the other soldier had been staring this entire conversation. She was trying to get a look at the readouts of the console they were manning.
"Don't we need to give them food and water?" The first one was standing up, noticing Cara and Paz now taking a more focused look at the pair.
"Like I said, next shift's problem."
"But-"
"Look if you want to waste time on them, do it. I am just clocking out and heading to the mess hall. The long necks got permission from the Admiral to give us some of the good rations, I am not missing out on cake again."
"Fine...I mean...they're just staring at us is all." The first one leans closer to the second, speaking lower but not low enough to be drowned out by the humm of the red energy grid that made up the door of the cells.
"So stare back, that's all we're supposed to do anyway. The Admiral will be here in like a week or so and then we get new orders."
"Garsa bic, val liser susulur gar." (Shut it, they can hear you.) He ribbed the other with his blaster again.
"Oh suddenly you wanna be quiet now. What does it matter if we talk about that? You realize we're probably gonna have to kill them after they get interrogated right? So it doesn't matter."
"But we'll get reconditioned if we're breaking protocol."
"Vode, they don't care, if they did, we wouldn't be stuck here when they were losing the war. They would have ramped up production and we would be out there in the field."
"But like...we would actually have to kill people if they sent us."
"Vode, what do you think they give us blasters for? Why do you think we have training and drills?" The other one strolls over to the door, looking down the hallway to see if his replacements were on their way down. "Maybe you do need to be reconditioned, you're sounding like a pacifist."
"Meg cuyir gar?" (Who are you?) Paz rasped out, his head still swimming from the dull ache at the back of his skull where his helmet had been ripped off and a blow delivered to knock him prone.
"I'm CTRBW-789, and he's CTRBW-822." The first trooper replied, moving closer to the humming energy field separating the cell from the guard station.
"What the hell kind of names are those." Cara called out, finally able to stand up against the wall and glare at the troopers. The first trooper removed his helmet, his young face a shock to the pair of them. He couldn't be more than 16. The dark skin with black hair and eyes was a set of features that Paz recognized as fairly common among the Mandalorian clans on Concord Dawn.
"Clone Trooper Reserves Batch Wayland. Numbered accordingly." The other one pulled his helmet off as he opened the door for two more white armored troopers who must be the relief watch. Four identical faces, all the same age. "Was there still cake out in the mess hall?"
"Yeah, don't worry Sweets, we left you a cake...real special cake, got some gooey icing on it for ya." The boys snickered, their immaturity now as easy to see as their face. The one they called Sweets smacks them on the chest with his baton on his way out the door, cussing them out as he walks off without waiting for CTRBW-789.
"Hey, so...They just woke up and we didn't give them anything yet."
"Alright." The two new guards put on their own helmets, looking more like intimidating troopers than the teens they were. "Better go catch up to him before he throws a fit right varbe." (nervous)
"It's Masti." (Watchful) He huffed in an aggressive tone before marching off after Sweets.
"So to what do I owe the pleasure of you lot in my palace?" Baba's gruff voice filled the echoing space, only a few other people lounging around the throne room. The sandpit in front of the throne was littered with blood and blaster scorch marks, and they could see the outlines of the trap doors around the space. Andora and Din stirred clear of those spots and Cobb seemed to pick up on it. Boba was in full armor but his body was spread wide and relaxed, blaster in his thigh holster but his hand resting close enough to draw and shoot.
"Thank you fer the hospitality. Mos Pelgo is real appreciative that business has been running smoother than ever since you took control." Cobb spoke up, taking off his mask and shaking the sand from his body to the ground. Boba gave a slight tilt of his helmet to acknowledge the comment. Boba waves Cobb off with just two fingers towards the bar as his business with the Marshal was done. Cobb took a seat as the blue skinned Twi'lek in a full length beige dress came over and quietly took his order.
Fennec was at the bar and drinking with her sniper rifle laid across the bar counter, not taking her eyes off from the trio of Mandalorians.
"Fett...we need your help." Andora broke the silence and took a step forward to be side by side with Din. "Clan Mudhorn needs your skills to rescue two of our clan members."
"What happened, that jedi got himself caught and put the kid at risk?" Boba moved to lean all the way back in his throne, paying more attention but not jumping up yet.
"Cara and Verd Paz are the ones in trouble. They were investigating an imperial base on Wayland when they were compromised."
"You can't afford my prices to go there." Boba huffed out. "Why not ask Bo-Katan?"
"You're the one with the skills I need." Din gently put his hand over Andora's letting her know he had this under control. "She wanted a ship, and I paid that price in full. I'm good for it."
"Oh I know you are Mand'alor. But I'm not foolish enough to help a Vizsla. Last time a Fett met a Vizsla...my dad was stripped of that title you have, and disowned by his own people." Din felt her flinch as Boba easily picked out who she was.
"I'm not a Vizsla anymore..." Her voice was small and unsure. Din hated that tone in her voice.
"Oh, then who are you now?" Boba's gruff voice seemed to be baiting her, wanting to pin her down.
"Name your price Fett, the longer we wait, the harder it will be to extract them." Din wondered if he had come alone if this would have been easier.
"What do I want?" He stood up, motioning to Fennec to join him. "You'll get this new Republic to back off and leave my business alone." He looped his thumbs into his belt, standing tall over the pair of them.
"That's not possible."
"Not for you Mando." Boba slung his rifle over his shoulder, accepting this mission with too much swagger. "That Jedi you sent your kid off with...He's a close personal friend of that high and mighty Princess running the New Republic. It'll be up to you to figure out how to deliver. Plus I keep anything we get from the base."