Flashback: 1 Week Ago
Aurora's Age: (20 Years Old)
Location: Ord Montrell
Aurora sighed as she drank her second shot of Andoan. During her spare time, when she was not working for her main employer or doing her aunt and Pre's bidding, she spent most of her time in a small bar on Ord Montrell.
"Why are you still here drinking your troubles away?" Cid asked from her spot behind the bar.
Aurora sighed again. "Why can't you let me have my drink in peace?"
Cid crossed her arms. "Because you were and still are my main person I can go to for any type of income. At least when you're here, don't drink me dry."
"As your main source of income, I deserve to drink you dry." Aurora huffed in amusement.
"I'm still surprised your mother hasn't found out about you doing all of this." Cid began.
Aurora rolled her eyes. "She's occupied with other things."
"Sure, she is." Cid said in annoyance. "Maybe she's trying to find your father."
"My father is dead…" She murmured. "At least that's what she told me."
"And you really believe it?"
Aurora rolled her eyes again. "I don't know what to believe anymore. My current employer is a complete asshole, like the reason why my aunt and Pre asked me to retrieve the hard drive, was so that they could trade me off like I'm some sort of pawn in their little game to take back Mandalore." Aurora slammed her hand down on the counter. "Damn, I wish they treated me better."
Cid rolled her eyes. "Alright Blondie, are you done being dramatic?"
Aurora just put her head down on the counter in response.
"I guess not." Cid huffed in annoyance.
"I'm useless." Aurora moaned.
She heard beeping coming from her left, which made her look down to see her Astromech droid, R4-G9 being as loyal as ever.
She gave her a small smile and extended her left hand to touch her dome. "Thanks, Geenine, at least you still have faith in me."
"What did I tell you?" Cid asked in annoyance. "No droids allowed in my bar! Shiny must wait outside."
R4 began beeping furiously at Cid which made Aurora smirk in amusement.
"She doesn't like to be called Shiny…except by me." She said with amusement. "And she follows me everywhere, she is staying with me."
"Fine, but I still can't believe that your Death Watch buddies stole her from the Jedi Temple, along with your ship…Jedi-grade Starfighters are quite the prize these days." Cid explained giving the bronze and white droid an eyeroll.
They were quiet for a moment before Cid asked, "What are you really doing here Aurora? Are you looking for work?"
Aurora shook her head. "No, I wish I didn't work for my current employer…I hate it…and I've never hated my job more so than I do now. Back when I was mainly working for you and Death Watch, I loved my job…now that my job is being an assassin 99% of the time…it's not as thrilling. I had to kill an entire family just last week…I felt guilty and so horrid afterwards."
"Can't you leave? Or say no?" Cid asked.
Aurora shook her head. "No, if I leave, Pre and Bo-Katan's wishes are destroyed, and Mandalorian culture continues to be destroyed by my mother."
Aurora put her head face down on the bar and groaned.
Cid rolled her eyes. "Stop being dramatic and get over it!"
"What's her problem?" She heard one of the bar's regular customer's ask.
"Hey!" Cid scolded. "Mind your own business. Blondie is going through hard times, and need I remind you she can kill you in the blink of an eye…so if I were you, I'd back off."
Cid slapped her right hand down and hit Aurora on top of the head.
"OW!" Aurora yelped in annoyance as she sat up, "What was that for?"
"It was for you to stop sulking and to get off your ass." Cid explained making Aurora sigh.
"Look Kid," Cid began, "I've known you since you started in this business, you are one of my best enforcers, and I trust you a lot, which is an honor coming from me because I don't trust many people…except for that one guy that screwed me over by stealing my…"
Aurora crossed her arms. "Your point?"
Cid sighed. "My point is, don't push yourself so hard to your breaking point. There will come a time in your life when you realize that you've had enough doing these jobs…and maybe you're starting to realize that your time is almost up. Do what you love, not what you hate."
"What am I looking for when I get to Coruscant?" Aurora questioned changing the subject.
"Sure, change the subject." Cid replied with an eyeroll. "You're looking for an Astromech droid, most likely and R2 unit. While you were drinking your misery away, I placed the coordinates inside Shiny."
R4 beeped enthusiastically.
"Alright, as much fun as this is, I should be going." Aurora said as she stood up. "Thanks Cid, it's always a pleasure."
"Sure, drink my bar dry and then leave without paying." Cid murmured as Aurora began to walk out with R4 following closely behind.
"That's my plan." Aurora called back as she walked back up the steps out of the bar.
As soon as she was out of sight, Cid walked back towards her office. As she sat down at her desk, she was met with a beeping sound, after pressing the button on the side of her desk, she was met with a hologram.
"The Mandalorian Bounty Hunter you requested is on her way." Cid explained. "I hope you put your best people on the task to catch her…she's a lot more dangerous than you think."
Present Day
Aurora's POV
I continued to look out at the blue tunnel that was considered hyperspace in front of me. Even now, I still consider it to be fascinating, and I've been traveling the galaxy by myself for years. I heard footsteps behind me, and in the next few seconds Ahsoka came to stand on my right.
"It's remarkable." I murmured. "I never get tired of looking out at space."
"I know how you feel." Ahsoka explained as she turned to me with a small smile. "I remember the first time I went off Coruscant. I remember being terrified, but excited. I'd never seen space before…well at least not that I remembered, and I was shocked at how beautiful it was."
I turned to her with a warm smile. "Indeed."
"General!" One of the commanders stationed on the bridge exclaimed. "We are coming out of hyperspace."
Sure, enough within the next few moments, the blue tunnel of hyperspace ended, and in its place a planet came into view along with three warships. However, they were different than the ones I had seen.
"Separatist Fleet dead ahead!" A lieutenant yelled.
"Fire at will." Anakin called from his spot by the holo-table.
The next thing I knew, the Republic warship was engaging in a fight with the Separatist warships. I crossed my arms and rolled my eyes. Ahsoka walked away from me and walked towards Anakin and Yularen. I however continued to watch the one Republic star-destroyer, demolish the Separatist fleet.
"General Skywalker our base has been overrun. There's no possibility of evacuation. They've taken Master Ropal and the holocron memory crystal." A voice said from behind me.
I turned around and realized that Anakin, Ahsoka, and Yularen were speaking to a Clone trooper on the planet.
"Do you know where they've taken them?" Anakin asked
"Sorry sir. We tried to stop them, but they left the outpost." The trooper explained. He began to continue his conversation, but the transmission had quite a bit of interference. Just like that the transmission cut off when the Trooper was shot.
"Transmitter's been destroyed at the force sir." A captain that was on the bridge explained.
"We have to find out what ship Master Ropal is on." Anakin explained.
"Can't you use your Jedi powers to find him?" I suggested as I walked towards the three of them.
"It's not that simple." Ahsoka explained and I rolled my eyes. "Sometimes playing the waiting game is easier."
It felt like we were waiting for hours, but it was about 10 minutes before Yularen made a statement.
"General," The admiral began. "A Separatist command ship is fleeing the battle."
"You think they have Master Ropal on board as a prisoner?" Ahsoka questioned.
Anakin nodded. "I'm sure of it. Admiral, intercept them before they can jump to hyperspace. I'll ready the troops for boarding."
My eyebrows rose. Was this guy insane? When I was in the hanger, there was no large enough craft for landing.
"Boarding?" The Admiral questioned. "We have no boarding craft. We were prepared to land on the planet not aboard another ship."
"You can't be serious?" I said in disbelief.
Anakin smirked. "I am Princess. And thank you Admiral for your opinion."
I rolled my eyes. This mission was going to go to shit so fast I could feel it in my bones.
"Now," Anakin began. "Target their hyperdrive. We don't want them getting away."
As soon as the ship began firing at the enemies hyperdrive. Anakin turned towards Ahsoka and I.
"Come on, we've got work to do." He instructed and both of us followed him off the bridge.
As we were walking down to the hanger Ahsoka continuously glanced at my armor.
"Is something wrong?" I asked in confusion.
"Nothing, just what is that symbol on your shoulder?" She questioned.
I smiled. "It's the symbol of my Clan."
"Clan?" Ahsoka asked.
"In Mandalorian culture, you are born into a specific clan or family. Then whichever family or clan you are born under operates under a specific house or to make it easy for you to understand, a type of political faction." I explained.
She tilted her head to the side. "What clan and house are you under?"
"Clan Kryze, House Kryze." I explained. "Pure royal bloodline unfortunately, hence the color blue."
She crossed her arms "What does it mean?"
"Blue means reliability." I sighed, knowing that anyone who wore an armor with my family crest was far from reliable…at least currently, and in my opinion.
"Mandalorian culture is filled of crime families and violence." Anakin began. "They slaughtered countless numbers of Jedi during the Mandalorian-Jedi War."
"And I could say the same about you Jedi slaughtering countless numbers of Mandalorians." I countered. "Need I remind you what our planet currently looks like due to you Jedi attacking our home world. You have resulted the Mandalorian people to live in domed cities across the planet, since there is no vegetation outside of them."
Eventually, we reached the hanger, and that's when he turned around to face me.
He frowned. "The Jedi wouldn't have needed to attack Mandalore, if Mandalorians didn't decide to continue to conquer the galaxy and destroy civilizations."
I sighed in anger. "We are a people of tradition; the armor I wear is over 600 years old, it has been reforged multiple times, but the wars, battles, blood, and history live have shown through it. We value honor over defeat."
He opened his mouth to reply, but Rex interrupted us…thankfully.
"I've rounded up three brigades, sir. Where are we going?" Rex asked as he walked up to the three of us.
"We're going to board a Separatist frigate, rescue Master Ropal, and recover an archive holocron." Anakin explained.
'And murder Bane.' I thought to myself.
"We have no assault craft, sir." Rex explained. "Only a couple of fighters and The Twilight."
Anakin sighed and looked around the hanger.
"Waiting for orders, sir." Rex replied.
"And the plan is?" Ahsoka asked in amusement.
Anakin skeptically glanced at her.
"Just curious." She shrugged.
Anakin sighed again before looking towards the end of the hanger.
"I came down to see if I could be of any help, General Skywalker." Yularen explained as he walked up to us.
Anakin smirked and pointed towards a couple of AT-AT's at the end of the hanger. "Actually, you can. Activate those walkers' admiral."
My eyebrows rose. This proved it, this guy actually is insane.
"You are not thinking of using those to transport clones to that frigate?" I questioned in disbelief.
Ahsoka turned to look at the walkers. "Well, they are pressurized."
Rex nodded. "And they're equipped with magnetic feet. Hmm. Good call."
"Master, you're a genius." Ahsoka said with a smile.
"This is a suicide mission." I interjected.
"I agree with her Highness." Yularen interjected. "Those walkers are designed for terrain, not space."
"Rex," Anakin began completely ignoring both mine and the Admiral's comments. "Load them up. You two, you're with me."
He and Ahsoka began running towards the walkers. I stood there in shock. I sighed and glanced at the Admiral.
"I'm going to die, surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy." I murmured before running after them.
At this rate, all of us were going to die, all because in the back of my mind I knew this plan wouldn't work.
