A Friend in Need: Reawakening

By ChaosSpartan575

A/N: Alright, this is my first story that doesn't involve taking a game or games and altering events or mashing them together into some sort of AU. This is my own story set in the Star Wars verse, set before A New Hope. Anyway, sorry for any mistakes in advance. Reviews and Criticism are welcome.

Disclaimer: I don't own Stars Wars, Disney does. George Lucas is delusional if he still believes that he has a say in anything that goes on now. I do own the OCs so i guess that's something.

Summary: Vetrova Atiniir is your average Mandalorian bounty hunter with heavy emphasis on the average. She's not out to be the best, but certainly not the worst, which is a good way to keep out of sight and make some creds. So when she meets a friend she had once thought dead, she is dragged into a whole mess of problems that seem to stem from this chance encounter.

Khoonda, Dantooine

Techla sat there, bored out of her mind as her mother sold fruit from the stand on the side of the street. Many people, both human and alien walked by, uninterested or too busy to notice. Mother's fruit wasn't bad, her father imported the fruit on his ship every week and they would sell it throughout the rest of the week. Today however, business was slow and aside from the usual regulars no one seemed to want fruit today. "Mom, can we call it a day," she groaned.

Her mother rolled her eyes at the young pre-teen, "No, we haven't sold enough fruit yet."

Techla let out a groan and leaned forward resting her elbows on her knees wishing that she had a datapad with a Holo-net connection. She shifted her right lekku over her shoulder and sighed. A patrol of Stormtroopers walked by slowly patrolling the area, looking for anything illicit happening in this sector which could be anything they felt was illicit today. The Twi'lek let out a breath she had no idea she was holding as they walked out of sight.

Things seemed to slow down as the afternoon began to fade and she saw that her mother looked a bit tired as well, perhaps they would be going home sooner today. That was when Techla noticed her out of the corner of her eye, the Mandalorian woman. The armor and the distinct t-shaped visor on her dome shaped helm with a rangefinder sticking up out of it. The armor was a dull black with dark purple and red accents. Scratch marks littered and peppered its surface. A pair of heavy blasters graced the outside of her thighs with old rifle and long sword on her back. Techla was always told to avoid Mandalorians whenever possible, because whenever one appeared, gunfire and explosions tended to follow or so her father claimed.

It took a few moments to realize that the Mando was walking this way toward her mother's stand. Techla felt some disappointment when the woman turned to look at a different kiosk with filled many different droid parts. She was actually curious about the woman and wanted to know more. The mando shook her head, displeased with the contents of the kiosk and continued toward her mother's fruit stand.

Techla noticed something changed in the way the Mando walked. It was less rigid and somewhat more at ease from what she noticed earlier. The sudden change confused her until all hell broke loose when a blaster bolt whizzed toward the back of the mando's head. She dodged and drew both her pistols and fired at the attacker with controlled accuracy wary of the many civilians around him.

The other attacker had no such worry and fired as he pleased forcing the woman to take a shot to her chestplate to cover a civilian causing her to almost trip and stumble.

Techla's Mother grabbed her and they hid behind their fruit stand as a stray shot or two sailed toward them exploding a couple pieces of fruit on their stand. Techla peeked out a bit to watch the fight only see the other Mandalorian in red and blue armor launch himself in the air via the jetpack mounted to his back. He then launched himself at the Mando woman firing his blaster rifle at her yelling in their strange tongue.

The woman backflipped away as he landed next to her, firing when she returned to her feet, perhaps somewhat before in what seemed like a practiced motion, winging to man in the bicep under his left shoulder plate making him stumble back a step. She holstered her blasters and drew a straight sword with a slightly curved point which was sheathed under her rifle. The other mandalorian drew his blade as well.

They circled each other for a moment until the woman made the first move rolling and slicing upward only to have it parried by the other mando who countered with a side swung swing of his own which the woman danced around slicing behind his knee. Techla cringed when she saw the blood, but found she could not look away from the spectacle. He hobbled a bit trying a desperately to overwhelm his opponent with a series of quick strikes which were dodged rather easily by the woman.

She side stepped again and delivered the final strike along his neck. Blood sprayed at his throat was cut open. He fell to the ground, dead, blood was beginning pool under the body on to the sandy gravel. The mando wiped the blood of her blade with a rag from one of her pockets and sheathed it again. She then bent down to go through the man's gear as if looking for something. She shook her head as muttered something in her bazaar tongue. Then, as if the whole exchange has never happened, she sauntered over to her mother's stand, her armor still peppered with a few dots of the other mando's blood.

She leaned to the side a bit and she waited for Techla's mother to stand. Her mother's body shook as she looked past the woman to the dead body on the ground only few meters away. It was hard to read the woman's expression under the t-shaped visor as she tilted her head. The mando shifted her stance a bit and rubbed the back of her neck awakardly, "So… you got any jogun fruit?"

Her mother shook her head, "Sorry, all sold out this morning."

The Mandalorian shook her head and muttered something to herself before looking back her mother, "Well thanks anyway." She waved politely and patted Techla's head she walked in front of her. Techla watched with awe as the Mandalorian disappeared into the crowd.


After the attack, Vetrova got her shebs out of the area. Other than the massive amount of Stormtroppers that would come to investigate, there was a rule that about the Deathwatch, the radical Mandalorian group that just attacked her. Where there was one, there about five more in the shadows prepared to strike. She couldn't take on that many, she was confident she'd win, but not without getting some form of injury. The man that attacked her was reckless even for Deathwatch. This meant that the man she killed in the market was probably new to their cause and hadn't had much training. Poor or'dinii was sent to ascertain her skill level before the real super commandos tried to kill her.

The hanger where her ship was stationed, was not far and she began to walk at a brisk pace swinging through side streets and alley's the small town boasted to shake off any pursuers she knew were out there. This little farming planet was hardly worth her time, luckily, her business here was handled for the most part. She had already acquired her bounty and had him stored on her ship. She would have left earlier, but felt a trip to the local market could be worth her while.

However, if the attackers were any good they'd know she was skipping town the moment after she was attacked. She wasn't stupid enough to lead them directly to her hanger, but the sooner she got out of here, the better. She was looking forward to getting back home, her boyfriend would no doubt appreciate her return. I just hope that he hadn't got himself locked up by the Imperials, again, she thought.

She snapped out of her thoughts when she saw that the spaceport was in sight, just as crowded as ever. She ducked the Imperial patrols. No doubt they would be aware of her little skirmish in the market. She kept her eyes moving, and checking the 360 degree camera in her helmet for movement. Seeing nothing she continued into the hanger where her ship was parked.

It wasn't the only thing parked there as five men and women in Mandalorian gear stood waiting for her. She sighed, she should have expected this. Her fingers brushed by her blasters, waiting for them to make the first move. The head of the group, a woman in green and gray armor nodded to the rest of the group. Two drew vibroblades and charged. While the woman and the two remaining commandos drew a rifle or their own side arms and began firing.

"Osik," she cursed and drew one of her blasters and started strafing to the right, firing on the blade wielders charging in on her. She dived behind a sack of crates as her ranged foes fired at her. She holstered her blaster and pulled out her blaster rifle. She popped up and fired at the two Deathwatch soldiers with blades charging at her as they came at her. She managed to hit one in the arm and he pulled back. She ducked behind the crate as the other deathwatch soldier jumped over it landing in front of her on the other side. Vet didn't wait and stood up parrying a sword strike with her rifle and stepped within woman's reach, jammed her rifle barrel under the woman's helmet and pulled the trigger. There was a brief flash under the woman's t-visor and she fell to the ground, dead.

She stumbled when she was shot in the back, her beskar back plate taking the brunt of the strike. She dropped back behind the crates as they were peppered with more fire. She stood back up and fired at the woman who was clearly the leader of this strike team. The woman was forced back behind one the ships three struts as Vetrova herself was knocked on the ground on her right her flank, she cursed herself for not remembering the other blade wielder. He had his sword raised and brought it down. Vet rolled out the way pulling out her pistol and firing at the man as he stabbed downward. She was surprised to see that the bolts went through what apparently just durasteel and the blaster bolts cut through the armor with some effort, but he still fell over, lifeless.

She scrambled to her blaster rifle which had fell out from behind the crates when she was knocked over. She reached to grab for it, only to be shot at from another of her attackers. She cursed and pulled out her other pistol and popped up, a pistol in each hand and fired at the one of the attackers as he jetpacked to scaffolding meant for climbing up the top of ships to work on repairs. He was caught unawares and missed the platform. He fell to the ground hard.

She popped out to fire on him as he got up slowly and the others laid down covering fire as she was about to finish him forcing her back down. The bolts stopped coming and then she heard the roar of jetpacks. She prepared herself and waited for them to fly over the crates, guns blazing. When no one came for her she chanced a look only to see nothing, not even the soldier who had fallen. She kept her blasters at the ready as she walked out, checking every shadow and running scans for life signs via her helmet HUD. Finding nothing, she picked up her rifle and holstered it. She checked around her ship for any tracers. It was a beat up old Mandalmotors freighter from the Clone Wars. It was long, and pointed with dart like wings on each side. It worked well enough. She then checked her ships security for any unauthorized entry.

Seeing none she entered, but kept her pistol drawn. Seeing no one right away she holstered her pistol. She walked by a ray shielded cage containing a very bored looking Zabrak male. Vetrova shook her head and went to the cockpit to start the engines. They fired up just fine and she left the spaceport. Once she left the atmosphere she hit a button that electrified the hull. A little gizmo she had made in Keldabe, the Mandalorian capital. Hopefully it would fry the hull of any tracers.

She took off her helmet letting her black-crimson hair fall down to where it stopped just past her chin. She kept her eyes on the screen looking at her DRADIS for any signs of attacking DeathWatch vessels as she made the jump to hyperspace. As the blue and white lights of the hyperspace tunnel appeared, she leaned back only flinch as the pain from the bolt from earlier impacted. This reminded of the one on her chest. While she got the bacta patches out of her medbay, a single question graced her thoughts, why did they retreat and leave her alive? That wasn't like the DeathWatch. Something felt wrong. For now she would just turn in the bounty on Nal Hutta and get back to Mandalore where the deathwatch wouldn't dare attack, right? She had a feeling there was more to it however.


Unknown Ship Mandalmotors Carrier

The deathwatch woman in gray and green armor stomped into the captain's quarters of the Deathwatch ship. She gave a brief salute, "Sir why did you stop us from killing that Mando bitch?" she demanded. One could almost see her expression underneath her helm by the anger in her voice.

Their commander, a man in blue armor with graying hair and a light beard, turned from the window to face her, "I have my reason's."

"We could have taken…" she growled, but she was cut short as he held up a hand, silencing her.

"Just trust that I knew she was too much for you and your men to handle. Now leave me, we have other more pressing matters to attend to then one pretender we happened upon." He dismissed the woman who stormed away in a huff. He walked to the holo-projector near his desk. He switched it on. He rubbed his chin as he watched the mando woman fight off the first assassin in the market. Her blade style had the familiar Mandalorian style mixed with other styles. Her footing, however betrayed another style he hadn't seen in years. One he knew well. He smiled. This woman might do more damage to the pretenders on Manda'yaim alive rather than dead, but he would need more than just fancy moves and footwork to fully ascertain her value. Then again if the attack on Manda'lor's life and Keldabe that he heard whispers about was true, it would have to wait for now.


Nal Hutta Bounty Office

Vetrova jabbed the Zabrak man in the back with her rifle forcing him along the grimy road that bordered the swamplands of Nal hutta. The reality of his situation had set in and he was begging and offering credits he didn't have. She didn't care, because she knew that it was guaranteed that the Hutts had her creds. The Zabrak had lost much composure then, sniffing and shaking. She might have felt sorry for the guy if he hadn't killed a bunch of farmers on Felucia for their spice, spice that was already contracted to the Hutts. She walked him into the bounty office and went up to the front desk.

"I have a bounty that needs collecting." The aqualish at the counter scanned the Zabrak and nodded. Two nikito guards took him from there and the aqualish handed over the creds, all three grand worth to her. She left without so much as a goodbye and returned to her ship. She found someone unexpected standing outside of her ship. She leaned to the side on one hip. "SC-139, wasn't expecting you to be here?"

The "man" in question looked at her. From first glance the droid looked like any other mando with the t-visor and red armor plates, however the lack of flightsuit in between armor plates betrayed any organic qualities it may have processed showing only wires and servos. "Greetings Vetrova Atiniir, I require transport back to Manda'yaim and wished to inquire if you might be of assistance?"

"You don't have to be so formal, S-Cee, your vod after all. I just wrapped up business here and was going to be heading back home as well," She gestured for him to follow as she moved past the droid to type in her key code to get on her ship, the Forgotten. "Besides, I had a run-in with Deathwatch, so having you along is more than welcome."

"Acknowledged," was all the droid said as it followed her up the ramp. The ship soon lifted off and jetted off into space once again.


A/N: The attack on Keldabe and Manda'lor is a reference to White Snow: Contention. It is part of a series of stories by Vhetin1183 which I highly recommend reading.