"what is it?" Ivory asked, worried
"get up here!" Martyr called, Ivory clambering up to the cockpit to see what was going on. What he saw coming out off the platform was 3 regular, if clearly worse for wear, TIE fighters of the kind that, not long ago, had struck fear into galaxy but the truly unnerving thing was leading the trio, a fighter that was clearly some kind of TIE variant but unlike any Ivory had ever seen, with 3 TIE wings, one attached to the top, left and right of the main pod, each split into 2, giving them a menacing pincer look and packing a large amount of firepower.
"what is that?" Ivory asked with great fear as the squad screamed towards them
"that, I believe, is a TIE Defender, an experimental TIE variant that was in development as one of many other Imperial projects competing with the Death Star for funding in the years before the start of the war. All the files I read on it said that it was scuppered by Rebel interlopers and its funding diverted to the Death Star with most of the prototypes destroyed, some captured by the rebels and others broken down for parts by civilians, leaving only a handful in Imperial hands, how a small-timerlike Pex got his hands on one of those few, I have no idea" Martyr answered
"I think the more important question, is how soon can we get the hell out of here!" Ivory panicked
"that's a no-go, they'll know where we'll most likely go and one of the major innovations of the Defender was a hyperdrive, so we're going to have to stand and fight" Martyr noted grimly
"oh, that's just not fair!" Ivory stropped, "ok, second question, how do we destroy it?"
"with much difficulty, as it also comes fitted with a sheild generator" Martyr noted
"for the love of-, ok, let's kill the regular TIEs first and then take on big man" Ivory sighed, loosing a volley of fire into one of the TIEs which hit home blowing it to smithereens then working with Martyr to swerve the ship out of the way of an oncoming barrage of missiles from the Defender.
"it has missile pods?!" Ivory spluttered indigently
"it has missile pods" Martyr stated bluntly as they banked the ship around to flank the TIE fighters, loosing a volley of fire into a second TIE fighter before they were able to react, destroying it. Unfortunately, when the remaining duo did react, they began making a b-line straight towards them, the Defender landing a volley of laser fire on the Razor Crest, shaking the ship the hard and causing some terminals in the cockpit to spark worryingly.
"blast! We can't take another hit like that!" Ivory cursed as they dodged another volley fire while bringing the ship alongside the TIE fighter, sideswiping it into the Defender, destroying the TIE and scraping one of the wings off the Defender, they then boosted the ship out to a distance to avoid the Defender retaliating with a point-blank missile barrage which would have almost certainly destroyed the ship.
"just you and us now, big man" Ivory called out cockily as they loosed a volley of laser fire on the temporarily outflanked Defender as it struggled to come about with its impaired mobility, though when it did come about, it responded to the boast with a proton torpedo which Martyr and Ivory were only able to dodge out of the way of by a hair's length, the torpedo screaming past them, audibly scorching one of the Razor Crest's engines.
"ooh, Mando is not going to be happy about that" Ivory flinched as they once again tried to outflank the Defender
"I think he will just be glad we didn't destroy his ship" Martyr countered as they swerved out of the way of another laser volley from the Defender
"well then we'd be dead, and he wouldn't be able to do anything about it" Ivory posited
"eeh, he is a Mandalorian, I wouldn't take that bet" Martyr cautioned
"fair enough," Ivory admitted, "take this!" Ivory shouted at the Defender as they loosed another volley of laser fire at it destroying another one of its wings on impact, seemingly setting it into a spin before it reoriented itself, aiming towards the Razor Crest and screaming towards it at top speed
"that pilot is insane! give it everything we've got!" Ivory panicked as they loosed volley after volley into Defender only managing to destroy it mere centimetres from impact, debris clawed across the hull, causing quite a bit of structural damage but luckily not seeming to hit anything critical.
"huh, huh," Ivory breathed hard, "lets get out of here"
"don't need to tell me twice" Martyr replied with deep breaths, punching the ship into hyperspace back to Karazak
"ok, I guess your mad flying is good for something" Xi'an admitted as Ivory and Martyr clambered down into the hold
"glad you saw sense" Ivory retorted
"the only thing I'm seeing is credit signs, so thanks for keeping alive so I can spend them" Xi'an said
"thanks, you crazy daughter of a gundark" Ivory barbed
"back at ya" Xi'an retorted with a sharp grin
Ivory chuckled at this saying "now that our criticalness to your survival has been asserted, does anyone have any idea on what kind of mad genius was able to fit a hyperdrive, a sheild generator and that kind of firepower on the TIE platform?"
"well, all the files I read had the names of the Persons of Interest redacted, but rumour within the Officer Corps had it that the mastermind was a fiendishly clever demon with blue skin" Martyr answered with a light chuckle
"like the ones from the Unknown Regions that the deep-space pilots would ramble on about when high on spice back home? How likely is that?" Ivory objected
"not very, but does anyone have any better suggestions?" Martyr asked, everyone remained silent
"well, regardless, they evidently weren't smart enough to stop you from destroying it and allowin' us all to profit enough day" Ran noted. The crew, save for the Mandalorian, who remained stony silent, continued to muse over their credits and the Defender until the Razor Crest dropped out of hyperspace into the Karazak system, Ivory and Martyr returning to the cockpit to dock the ship back in The Whitedrift Exchange.
As the crew disembarked the ship, a voice came over the intercom saying "the whitedrift will be making a hyperspace jump to the Batonn system in 30 minutes, anyone wishing to stay in this system should depart promptly, thank you"
"ah, me and Ivory were planning to stay in this neck of the galaxy, so I guess this is where we part ways, so, thanks for everything, you psychopaths" Ivory said
"the same, pleasure doin' business with the both of ya" Ran replied, shaking Ivory and Martyr's hands before beckoning Xi'an and The Mandalorian to follow him deeper into the station, presumably for drinks.
Before The Mandalorian could follow them however, Martyr put a hand on his armoured shoulder and said "hey, I know your probably going through some stuff, I know what its like to have your morals shaken to their core and honestly, the only thing keeping alive and sane is Ivory, he's my anchor in a murky sea," she breathed, "what I'm trying to say is, I think you need to find someone who you can truly rely on in this mad, mad galaxy. You got that?" she finished, The Mandalorian replied with a curt nod before turning to join Xi'an and Ran in the shadowy tangled web as Ivory and Martyr wandered off into the bright light of Karazak's sun in search of place that was warm but not too warm.