Prologue: What If?
What if the Mandalorian Din Djarrin was female? What if she had a grudge the size of the parsec for the Empire? What if she never found the covert? What if she was alone? What if Din could use the Force?
[On some freezing ice block of a planet]
Beep. Beep. Beep. The sound was a familiar one, she both loved and despised. Loved, the sound was like a heartbeat thumping an echo of another's lifeforce. Despised, because the other who was on the other end of the echoing link was usually a criminal of varying idiocy. From bail jumpers to murdering fiends. This one a just a stupid bail-jumper that had gotten in over his head and had accidently aided a rapist. That was one of the things about her that made it impossible for her to work with the Guild based out of Nevarro, she asked questions. 'Know thy enemy' or in her case 'Know thy Prey'.
She walked forward, her mind in many different directions at once, thinking about the guild 'The Guild may hate me, but they're not suicidal enough to come after me. Not yet anyway' … the old hurts 'Brethren, where are you?' … the old hates 'If I see one Imp' … the old pain… She gave herself a mental shake, 'Enough' she thought bringing herself back to the present hunt. An innocent who had committed a crime on accident, who was used by a true monster, and who ran in fear of what awaited them in prison. Beep-beep, beep-beep, beep-beep. She was getting closer. She didn't need to worry, no need to rush. On this icy and desolate rock, there was only one place he could be. She headed for the cantina.
[Inside the Cantina] ~ POV Change
The lone Mythrol regretted coming to this sun-forsaken place where a trio of thugs had him by the arms and were going to cut his glands out for money. He hated the human bastard that got him in trouble so he had to run because he had heard tales of what happened to Mythrols in prison. Now he was under the same circumstance. He prayed for this nightmare to end, he just wanted to go home and never leave. He wanted his parents and siblings. He wanted –
The door to the cantina suddenly opened and the chill gust of wind made everyone turn to look who had come in. The terror he felt for his current circumstances went up. A Mandalorian stood in the doorway. They seemed to pause. Thug Leader as he preferred to call him shouted something at the Mando. At least the knife was away from him. The Mando seemed to ignore him and walked to the bar. Everyone followed their presence. The Mando made it to the bar before the Thug Leader said something else to the Mando.
Part of him was near gibbering from the fact that there was a Mandalorian in the same room with him and that there was an idiot that apparently been in space with no gravity for a long kriffing time trying to intimidate the Mando. The two Hench Thugs let him go as the trio approached the Mando together. He for his part cowered slightly under the table, his legs trembling from a mix of fear and relief. Thug Leader gets up close and repeats himself. The bartender translates it into Basic "He says you spilled his drink. That's fine. It's on me." He is obviously trying to diffuse the situation. The Thugs are ignoring the bartender and surrounding the Mando; the biggest one growling at them, Thug Leader says something and – this part makes him near evacuate the thorax right there – lays a hand on the Mandalorian.
As his hand leaves the armor, the Mando turns to the bartender as said-person slides a full tankard at the Thug Leader. What happens next made him glad he didn't blink. The Mando stopped the mug from reaching the Thug Leader and used it on the two minion thugs; turned punched the smaller of the minions in the face – breaking something, probably the minion's entire face – duck-turns to the Thug Leader, does some kind of jab move in the shoulder area, seized the wrist of the same arm then – he winces in sympathetic pain – as the Mando dislocates his arm. The Thug Leader screams hoarsely then is knocked out with some kind of chop move to his head. The Big Minion had gone for the door to run. The Mando apparently wasn't having any of that. They shot out a grapple to wrap around the attempt escapee's legs and proceeded to drag them back in. The Minion took out a blaster and shot at the Mando. It hit them in the shoulder armor. The Mando twitched, brought out their own blaster and shot at the doorway. It hit the button that closed the door. The Minion screamed and writhed as the door closed on his middle. His bottom half fell to the floor still twitching a little.
Everyone just stared in somewhat horrified amazement. Some actually looked at the Mando with fear as if they would massacre the whole bar full of people for three idiots. The Mando looked around, then went over to the still live thugs. They rifled them and pulled back with a bag of credits each. One they tossed to the bartender, one they put in one of the pouches.
He began to breathe a little easier. The Mando might just be making a stop for fuel or supplies or maybe they wanted to get some food they didn't have to cook or – His thoughts were cut off when the Mando paused again. He found his voice, "Thank you," the Mando turned towards him, "Thank you very much. You have my heartfelt gratitude," The Mando stared at him. He started to feel fear creep back onto him. "Hey, you know what? You take my credits. Buy yourself a drink," As he pushed the credits towards the Mando, they tilted their head. They reached forward and placed a – his heart did a triple-beat – Bounty Puck that flicked on with his face and his name.
He tried to find someway to say this wasn't him, he might have even tried to bribe the Mando when the Mando said the first words "I can bring you in warm," the hand grasped the blaster, "or I can bring you in cold." He looked up and near teared up from knowing it was over. He was going to dragged back. He didn't want to go back, but he didn't want to die either. He had heard stories and warnings. One of them was: Mandalorians do not bluff. Ever.
[Outside the Cantina]
As he followed the Mando out, the Mando grabbed the half of the Dead Minion and dragged it over to the other piece of body. He nearly regurgitated when the Mando frisked the body, pulled out everything of value, putting it away in a sack, then proceeded to drag the body with them. He followed meekly behind; he didn't want to be added to the body count. They came to the spot where an alien was sitting. It rose and said something, the Mando replied in basic "We need passage to the Yards," the alien played something on a recorder-like instrument. A smooth-yellow land speeder came out of the mist and the droid beeped at them. "No droids," He thought the words would materialize as ice it was so cold and the droid took the hint. It sped off. The alien seemed surprised and summoned again. This time a human came up in an old busted speeder. "Where to?" He drawled.
They sped along the ice, with the driver checking over and over in the distance for something. "You know what he's looking for? You're looking from Ravinaks aren't you?" He tried to make conversation. The Mando didn't react, the pilot said "It's clear right now, but be careful near the port. People dump their grey holds out, think it's the whole entire planet it their personal stink pit!" He had to shout to heard over the wind and the speeder. He sped over to a ship that looked like it was based off the Razor Crest, a design from before the Empire. "Here we are," the pilot said.
The ship looked like it wouldn't be able to take off. "You're kidding me, right?" He asked the Mandalorian. "Get out," was the response to his incredulous question. The Mando hopped out with agility and pulled him out, "I'll hire us a Livery Cruise. It won't come out of your end – ", "Shut up," the Mando seemed to have no patience and he wasn't going to test it by continuing to talk. He shut up.
"Hey, it's time to go. Time to settle up." The pilot said anxiously. The Mando gave him the money owed for the ride then hesitated. Turning towards the area they had come from, they tilted their head and said to the pilot "You might wait a moment before you head off." The pilot snorted "I'd stay off the ice if I was you and I've got to go home to the Missus." He turned to drive off and the Mando grappled him out of the speeder. "What the kriffin' hell Mando?!" the pilot yelled. The Mando grabbed both of us by the shoulder and up to the opened hatch. When did it open? The pilot was swearing an aurora at the Mando while I craned around to look after the speeder. It was almost to the edge of the mist when a roar was heard. The pilot shut up enough to look back and gulp. His speeder had just been engulfed by a Ravinak. We didn't need the Mando to urge us up the ramp from there. We rushed up ourselves.
"Stay off the ice! That's the understatement of the millennium!" I couldn't help it. I snapped at the pilot who was grey under his parka. The Mando ignored us and simply closed the hatch and lifted slightly off the ground, but didn't start flying. Both of us were looking at the Mando wondering what they were doing when we saw where they were looking. The ice was cracking, the Ravinak was getting closer. It leaped and the Mando dodged. They managed to let the Razor Crest stay frustratingly out of reach for the monster. The game of hunter-prey continued for several minutes, when the Mando paused. The pilot was praying in some language I didn't know, shaking worse than I was.
The Ravinak breeched the ice once more and – I couldn't describe it. The Mandalorian swerved back and up and fired from one of the antique guns, then the other. The first seemed to be a modified harpoon, while the other was some sort of electric dart that made the Ravinak spasm and scream. The modified harpoon was still attached to the ship and the Mando used it to drag the writhing animal onto the permafrost. The pilot was still shaking but was silent as he stared at the back of the Mando's head. I didn't blame him; I was staring too. It is one thing to hear, another to see before your very eyes a legendary hunter.
The Razor Crest touched down and shut off. The Mando turned to me, grabbed me by the scruff of the collar and forced me to sit down in a chair attached to the wall. The chair had pieces of chains that went immediately to my cuffed appendages. I wasn't going anywhere. The Mando turned from me to the pilot and grabbed him by the arm and – much more gently than with me – marched him over to the hatch, opened it and marched down it with pilot in tow. I couldn't see what was going on after that.
POV Change
Din sighed as she let go of the pilot's arm. The man collapsed just a couple of feet away from the main hatch, shaking as he saw the dying Ravinak up close. I looked over at it. It was impressive. A full-grown bull Ravinak would fetch a small fortune, just in meat and blubber. The tusks, I considered them. The tusks were ivory, worth even more than the meat and blubber. I thought to myself for a moment. Then turned to the pilot. "Your Missus have a name?" I asked. He started and stuttered a name that sounded like 'Rena' though I could have been mistaken. From my belt I pulled a comm-link that I use when I am on-planet anywhere to keep an ear to the ground; making sure I am not in fact stepping into something that I'll regret stepping in. I broadcast "Is there a Rena – wife of elderly pilot for a beat up old red land speeder – on the wire?" I know it was rude, but it snapped the Pilot out of his shock a little to look at me with an offended look on his face and the answer was almost immediate "What did that husband of mine do now?"
I looked down at the Pilot, he couldn't see the raised eyebrows, but he was still blushing a brilliant red. I broadcast "He survived a Ravinak attack and is in need of pick-up," I pause and said "You might want to bring an official with you and appropriate forms for a claiming." The pause was lengthy then the same woman's voice said with a dose of frightened relief "Be right there!" and a man's unctuous voice came through "Seconded. I presume that everyone knows how things are done around here." I ignored the rest because if I didn't, I might have told the man to shut up. I waited. The pilot was getting to his feet when we heard the speeders coming our way. One was manned by a droid. The other by a woman around the same age as the pilot with two little bundles of fur huddled in back. 'So, both the parents are pilots for the speeders,' I thought to myself as both speeders pulled up. The woman and the two bundles jumped out and ran for the Pilot, while a Quarren came out of the droid powered speeder.
They all seemed to gape at the now dead Ravinak and then when they pulled their eyes away from the dead monster, gaped at me. She rolled her eyes at this silliness and went over to the dead animal itself. The Pilot was on his feet and had collided with his family, hugging them for all they were worth. The Quarren seemed to shake himself out of his shock to come over to where I was inspecting the tusks. I planned to take one of the big ones and four of the smaller ones. As I got to work removing the tusks, the Quarren – the second one I dealt with today, the other in two pieces on the lower deck of my ship – came over to me. He blathered on for two minutes before I got sick of it, wheeled and said "One of big tusks and four of the smaller ones are mine. I claim them as trophies of the hunt. The rest will go to the Pilot and his family. You'll do as you are supposed to or I am going to add another body to the tally today." At least that got him to shut up and go away. It took another ten minutes to wrench/cut the tusks I wanted out of the jawbone. The big one was just a little under double my height. The rest I left beside it and only then did I turn to the others in the group.
The Pilot was talking to the Quarren with one arm around his wife and the other wrapped around his tallest child. I looked and saw the smallest was clinging to their father's leg. A pang entered my chest before I smothered it. I picked up the small tusks and carried them up the hatch and laid them down on the deck beside the dead Quarren. The bounty was staring at me, his eyes wide and almost bulging. I smirked under the helmet, turned and went to retrieve the big tusk. The group was still talking, but now it looked like the pilot was signing a few things. The tusk was balanced on my shoulder with the tip dragging behind me. I took a deep breath. This thing was damn heavy. I was halfway up the ramp when I heard someone yell. I ignored it until I had set the tusk onto the deck so that I could close the hatch. As I was setting it down, I felt vibrations on the ramp. I turned with a swiftness that seemed to startle the children, who flinched back and stood fidgeting while looking anywhere but back and at me.
The woman shouted in surprise and started making apologies for her children's lack of manners while rushing over to us. I looked at her, looked at the kids and then reached into my pouch. The Pilot, the Quarren, the woman and the kids, heck even the bounty froze, staring at me. I pulled out two smaller bundles and held them out to the children. No one moved. I sighed and walked down to where they were and bent down and offered the bundles again. "Don't worry. They are only off-world sweets."
The Children hesitated once more and then took the bundles gently from me. They ran back to their mother as I nodded and turned to go. "Thank you, Mando!" I didn't turn back; I just closed the hatch and went up to the cockpit. I disengaged the modified harpoon from the Ravinak corpse and prepared for lift off.
POV Change {Pilot}
He stared at the Mandalorian who had been his last customer. The Mando had cost him his speeder and saved his life. Then if that wasn't enough, the Mando then gave him almost an entire Ravinak to sell and had said something to make the Quarren bureaucrat actually help and not try to swindle them out of any of the profit to come. He almost had had a heart attack when his kids approached the legend and the legend whipped around and seemed to loom over the kids like he was ready to do – something. The wind whipped about the Mandalorian as he pulled something from his belt. My heart froze. Had the kids done something to make the Mando angry? Or –
My thoughts fractured and froze as my heart thawed enough to pound wildly. The Mando had walked down the ramp, bent down to my kids' height and offered the bundles again. He might have said something to them but it was lost to the wind. The kids took them and ran back to their mother. The Mando straightened and turned back to enter his ship. My eldest called out "Thank you, Mando!", but the Mandalorian didn't turn back. The hatch closed and moments later the ship lifted off.
The kids and my Missus came back to me. The Quarren had left already with his copy of the Claiming, while mine had been stuffed into my Parka before I knew the kids has approached the Mando. The kids were being scolded by their Ma as we all went to Her speeder. They opened the bundles. Candy. The Mandalorian had given my kids a variety of Candies from what looked like all over the galaxy. As my Missus drove us back home, I looked up to the sky where I could barley make out the ship that carried the legend away with his bounty.
'Thank you, Mandalorian,' I thought as we neared the house, 'You saved my life, made it so my family can move somewhere better. Wherever you end up, I hope you free and well.'
POV Change {Din Djarrin}
She let out a deep sigh as she left the atmosphere of the ice planet and set a course for the closest Hub. She wanted the bounties off her ship. The idiotic Mythrol bail-jumper was now sniffling in the lower level deck. She set the auto-control on with an alarm for when the journey was about to end. Then she climbed down the hatch to the newest bounty.
POV Change {Mythrol Bounty}
I turned as far as I could to see the Mandalorian come down the hatch again and turn to look at me. I wanted to dry my eyes, but who was I kidding? He could see the tears on my face…
"You shouldn't have run." That statement made me look up, look at the Mandalorian. "What?" I was not understanding.
"You shouldn't have run." The Mandalorian repeated and then handed me something. I looked at it. It was a court case on a data-pad. Startled I read it. "The only reason why you are a bounty is because you jumped bail," the Mandalorian continued "You're lucky I read reports or you would have been brought in cold." I sweated, he sounded like he meant it. The Mandalorian went over to the body of the dead thug and ran a device over him. It beeped and showed him something that made him grunt. He put the device away on his belt, took the two pieces of body and shoved them unceremoniously into a niche. I froze as a saw the remains freeze in carbonite. I trembled as I saw the Mandalorian put the slab on a rack at the end of the deck that looked like a collection of carbonite slabs. When that was done, he returned and rummage through a cabinet on the opposite side of the deck from me.
It took me a moment to realize they were cooking something. It was mouth watering whatever it was. Soup, I would have guessed. They placed it into two bowls and turned to me. "Behave," I nodded.
The Mandalorian looked at me then pressed a series of buttons. A table unfolded from the deck beside me and the chair I was on swiveled to face it. I was startled. The Razor Crest must have been modified extensively to have this kind of tech on it. "Here," I startled when the cuffs on my hands split so my hands could move independently of one another and a bowl of soup was placed in front of me. It had a spoon and a chunk of what looked like a bread of some sort. I looked at it in puzzlement when a slightly luminescent blue-green drink was placed beside it. I looked at the Mandalorian in sheer wonderment.
He sighed through his helmet and said "Eat, you idiot fledgling. The most a bail jumper like you gets is a fine and community service. The rumors you have heard about are true, but only in permanent prisons, where you are sent for life. The courts found you innocent of knowingly assisting the rapist, so you don't have to worry about that. It is another six hours from the next destination. Eat, evacuate if you must," He pointed to a door that opened to reveal a primitive vac-tube and sonic shower enclosure just three feet away from his chair. "And sleep if you can. The chain is long enough for you get up and walk around but I would advise against doing anything stupid. If you misbehave on this ship, you'll be returned to your family in several pieces. Frozen in carbonite for added measure."
I nodded vigorously. The Mandalorian looked at him, nodded then cleaned up. He took the second bowl and poured its contents into a pouch and went back up the hatch with it. I assume for his own consumption. I looked at the meal. My stomach growled. Now that the fear of prison and the fear of what came from such a place was gone, I was ravenous. I ate.
The soup was spicy, but so good. It warmed me down to the bones and left me feeling fuller than I was expecting for a soup. The bread turned out to be a kind of cake with spices and fruits that made flavors explode on my taste buds. I took a sip of the glowing blue-green drink. It was partly alcoholic, but just enough to have a kick in the back of the throat but no more. It was all good and the news that the Mandalorian had given me, made everything that much more delicious.
The meal was done and I wondered where to put the dishes. I saw a sink by the cupboards the food had been brought from. I got up, half thinking that the chains on my wrists wouldn't let me go that far but they did. I washed the cup and bowl and even dried them. I did use the facilities to evacuate and went back to the chair. The chair after fiddling a bit with the controls, actually reclined and the table folded back onto the wall. I reclined back and after everything that had happened in a short while, the adrenaline rush stopped and all I knew was peaceful sleep.
POV Change {Din Djarrin}
There, the bounty was out from the drug in the drink so he won't put up a fuss. He'll be nice and dazed for when I shove him off with the authorities who, once everything was said and done at the trial, will make it an almost slap on the wrist punishment and be quite apologetic for trying to throw the galactic-sized book at him. I despise those kinds of prosecutors almost as much as I despise the criminals who actually do the crimes they are sentenced for.
The Mythrol was now snoring slightly. I know that the chain makes it so that the Mythrol can't come up here but I would rather be over cautious than not cautious enough. I blacked out the windows and took off my helmet. My hair, braided and pinned felt greasy. I grimaced. Being under a helmet all the time did not help keep hair healthy and I happened to like my hair. I took out the pouch of soup and put extra pepper seeds in to add spice. I know most races can't stand the stronger of Mandalorian foods so in cases like this where the bounty couldn't be frozen in carbonite – or at least didn't deserve to be – I make a less spicy dish and spice it up more for my own portion. Saves the good stuff for those who would appreciate it. She mentally chuckled to herself. It sounded like a snobbish Inner Core lady.
When the soup was done, she put the helmet back on and went back down the ladder to the deck where the Mythrol was now snoring away. She looked at the silent alarm on the side of the cabinet by the gun safe. Three hours left. Enough time for cleaning the equipment locked away from prying eyes.
[Five Hours Later]
She had finished cleaning the equipment and had even started a new project of hers when the alarms had sounded for the final approach. She had climbed back into the cockpit and made the necessary maneuvers to land. Din then went and shook the Mythrol awake. He started as she reattached the cuffs together and the chains disengaged from the cuffs when she pushed the proper button on the panel in her vambrace.
She helped him off the chair and pushed him towards the opening hatch. He was breathing a little raggedly and still looking dazed from being woken up so roughly. He walked down with her behind him with a hand on her blaster. She was always on the look out for someone who wanted to be stupid and take her on.
The official who was a part of this arrangement between the New Republic and her was waiting with a wide grin. A family of Mythrols were waiting just behind him with hopeful expressions. The official walked up to them and began to recite who the bounty was, what he had been charged with, the verdict and the punishment. Din Djarrin tuned most of it out listening only to the pertinent information while scanning the crowd even further behind the group of Mythrols. She had landed on the outskirts as usual for her. She never landed in a populated area if she could help it. People tended to leave the ships docked out here for the Jawas to steal from. She smirked to herself. The Jawas knew her and her ship and knew that if they didn't steal from her and instead fixed her ship to have the best and most unpredictable bag of tricks up her proverbial sleeve, she would in turn give them amazing things to trade, some ideas to work out for better trade from others, help out if they had a problem with some competitors who didn't play fair and she wouldn't disintegrate them. The Jawas knew she was very territorial and didn't want to be on the receiving end of her fury. They'd rather point it at someone else and watch with a bunch of snacks to munch on.
She dragged her thoughts away from her thoughts of the Jawas in time to have the official ceremonially take the cuffs off the bounty and let him go to his family. They were all hugging him and crowding around him. She turned to the official who looked back at her with some nervousness. Nervousness?
"I am sorry to say, Mando. But this is the last bounty we have for you. New laws have been put into place," he glanced around and came closer, "I shouldn't tell you this, but it wouldn't be fair not to." He looked around again and whispered "The Bounty Hunters Guild put pressure on the New Republican Senate and made it so that freelancing is looked down on as well," he shrugged and said, "as well as Imp – "he jerked back as my helmet faced him with sudden intensity. He might not have been able to seen it, but he felt my glare. 'Kriffing Greef Karga'.