Keldabe, Mandalore (six months after the Caranthyr bombings)

"Get down!"

"Contact left! Contact left!"

"On your six!"

"I'm on her."

Cin Vhetin vaulted over a half-wall and slid into cover behind an overturned table, tucking his rifle close to his chest and grimacing against a sudden spray of blaster fire. He somersaulted to one side as the multicolored bolts bit chunks out of his cover and fired until his weapon clicked empty. He ejected the magazine and fed a fresh one into its housing, listening as blasterfire chipped away at the tabletop behind him. "Jay! Sound off!"

His comm sputtered. "I'm holding my own. Barely."

"Do you have eyes on target?"

"No! I can't see her!"

He cursed and shot again toward the origin of the incoming fire. Chunks of a tall brick barrier exploded into superheated chips and he saw someone dart away down the hall. Taking advantage of the lull, he threw himself back into the field and rushed forward, sweeping his rifle back and forth across the area.

"We're clear," he said. "For now. Any ideas?"

"She wasn't supposed to react like this! This was supposed to be an easy mission!"

He scowled. "Obviously we were misinformed. You're really surprised?"

"So what's the plan?"

"Regroup," he said. "Get to my position. We'll go at this together and clear the apartment. If she shows, we'll overpower her and take her in."

"Two blasters are better than one," she said. "I get it. What's your location?"

"In the main room," he reported, taking in the messy living room and overturned couch. The various junk strewn across the floor made steady footing hard to find and made moving quietly almost impossible. His heavy combat boots crushed a discarded can with a loud crackle, making him wince and pick up his pace. Pressing himself against the corner his attacker had just deserted, he took a moment to boot up his motion tracker to sweep for contacts.

There was a single unidentified figure drawing near his location with purpose. He tightened his grip on his weapon and prepared to spring into action. He narrowed his eyes and thought, Why did I let them talk me into this? This was a bad idea.

But he didn't have time to worry about that. The target was here and was very heartily resisting arrest. That made his job easy: find her, subdue her, and claim the reward.

The contact finally drew close enough and he threw himself around the corner, lashing out with his boot and catching the approaching woman in the chest. His blow knocked her against the wall with a crash and she crumpled to the floor.

He moved forward to continue his assault when the woman raised a hand and said, "Wait! Kriff, it's me!"

He instantly lowered his rifle. "Shab, Jay. I'm sorry. Are you all right?"

She clambered back to her feet, brushing off her jacket. She glared at him and said, "Barely felt a thing. But you need to be a little more careful. Much more of that and I may just start shooting at you too."

"Sorry," he said. "You just took me by surprise."

"Once upon a time, you said that wasn't possible," she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Joke later," he said. He scooped up her pistol and handed it back to her. "We've got a contract to complete and I don't intend to let her go."

She accepted the weapon and checked the charge. He shouldered his rifle and said, "Stay close. We're going to sweep and clear the area room by room, just like the contract on Ord Mantell."

"You do remember we were both shot on that contract, right?"

"But we brought in the bounty."

"We were shot."

He scowled behind his helmet. "But we brought in the bounty. That's all that matters."

She sighed and followed at his side as they moved into the adjoining hallway. She turned, watching his back while he cleared the tiny, cramped, and messy rooms on either side of the hall. "I feel bad about that contract. It was too soon after you got out of the medcenter to send you out there again. You weren't ready."

He narrowed his eyes as they cleared a nearby bathroom. "It all worked out, so I don't know what your problem is."

"None, I guess," she sighed. Then she cleared her throat and said, "Tracker show anything?"

His motion tracker was still as they continued down the hall. Their target had obviously hunkered down, waiting for them and maybe even laying a trap. He tightened his grip on his rifle and said, "Stay tight. She's setting up her endgame."

"How can you tell?"

He nodded to the end of the hall. "Dead-end that way. She's got nowhere to go and she knows it."

"Where do you need me?"

He took a cautious step forward. "Watching my six. If she pulls something on me, you'll be in a prime position to take her out. If she shows, rush her. Get her on the floor however you can."

"She's wearing armor, remember? She's a little more dangerous than I am. Not to mention heavier."

Another step. "Just follow my lead."

He craned his neck, trying to see into the room at the end of the hall as best he could. "Can you hear me in there?"

"Go kriff yourself!" came the predictable response.

He shook his head. "You have nowhere to go! Just surrender peacefully and we can all get out of here in one piece."

Jay snorted. "You've met this woman, right? She's not going to surrender, peacefully or otherwise."

He ignored her. "You're trapped in there. Nowhere to go. This is over and you know it."

"It's over when you get your shebs in here and end it!"

Vhetin cursed and took another step forward. He crossed over the threshold to the final room, wary for movement. "Kriff I hate hunting down other Mandos."

"This was your idea," Jay said. "Just because- watch out!"

Too late. He wasn't quick enough to dodge a large plank of wood as it swung sideways and smashed into his faceplate. The impact shattered the wood and sent him crashing to the ground. While he was still shaking off the effects, he saw Jay obediently leap into action and tackle his attacker around the waist. The attack wasn't enough to bring the armored woman to the ground, but it did make her stagger back a few steps.

Vhetin scrambled back to his feet just as the woman slammed her elbow hard into Jay's back, making his partner cry out and lose her grip. The woman followed up with a boot to the chest that sent Jay staggering against the wall.

Vhetin took three steps forward and grabbed the woman by the throat. With a grunt, he hoisted her off her feet, then pivoted and slammed her down to the ground, crashing through a heavy wooden table in the process. Her helmet came unsealed, bouncing away across the floor. Once done, he planted a boot on her chest, pinning her there, and leveled his rifle at her.

"Yield," he said.

"K-kriff yourself."

He leaned down, putting more pressure on her chest. She coughed and tried to wriggle free, but he kept her pinned against the ground. "I'm not playing with you, Janada. Give yourself up peacefully so we don't have to get really rough."

"A Mandalorian never surrenders or-"

He fired a single shot into the floor right next to her head, close enough to make her curse and cover her ears. Jay stepped up next to his shoulder and aimed her pistol at the woman as well.

"Don't make us stun you again," she said. "Give it up."

"You're persistent bastards," Janada growled, "But-"

Vhetin glanced at Jay, who shrugged and said, "She asked for it."

He nodded, then raised his rifle and firied a stun round point-blank into Janada's chest. The woman let out a curse and sputtered as electricity raced through her system, enveloping her body in blue-white rings of lightning. She spasmed for a few moments then fell still, panting hard. She scowled at them, then nodded and muttered, "Fine… I yield."

Jay instantly lowered her pistol, a grin stretching across her face as she punched a fist in the air. "Hoo-ah! That's another win for us!"

Vhetin's face broke into a grin and he removed his boot from his sister's chest, then reached down and offered her a hand up. She grudgingly took it and let him haul her back to her feet.

"What was the time?" Jay called over her shoulder.

There was a rumble, then a mechanized door in the center of one wall slid open to allow a red-suited MandalMotors technician entrance to the room. He was holding a datapad in his gloved hands and had a wide grin on his face.

"Five minutes even," he said. "A new floor record. Nice work you two."

Jay punched her fist in satisfaction, then turned and motioned for Vhetin to give her an enthusiastic high-five. He responded with a chuckle. "Good job, Jay."

"Same to you, big guy. We've still got it!"

Janada brushed wood chips from her armor and muttered, "Psh, as if. I would have had you if-"

"If you hadn't boxed yourself in like a caged nuna?" Vhetin finished. "Yeah, probably. Lucky for us you didn't."

"So?" his sister pressed. "What'd you think of the new environmental training sims? They ready to hit the military facilities?"

"I'd say so," Jay said. "They felt remarkably realistic. Almost like being on a real hunt."

"Almost," Vhetin repeated.

The engineer nodded, the signaled for the tech to get moving. "That's our seal of approval, vod! Go tell Ume'o that the training sims have been vetted by our beroya friends here and they're good to go."

The tech nodded and hurried out of the room while Janada turned back to the table. She bent down and tapped a few commands into a tiny circular device lying on the floor amid a mess of splintered table and wood chips. With a sizzle and a flicker of light, the cramped and messy room vanished as the holoprojector shut down. In its place was a series of rooms with plain, slate-gray duracrete walls and floors.

Janada scooped up the device, then turned to Vhetin with a scowl. "Did you really have to drop me on top of this thing? These sim projectors are kriffing expensive, you know."

Vhetin grinned behind his helmet. "I know. But what use are they if they don't hold up under a hundred-some pounds of armored Mandalorian? MandalMotors doesn't have a reputation of manufacturing fragile toys."

"You've got a point, I guess," she grumbled. She handed the holoprojector to another waiting technician. She then scooped up her helmet, rubbing her neck. "Nice finale, by the way. Good to see you've got your creepy super strength back."

"It doesn't take someone with super strength to pick you up, Jan. You're so tiny, almost anyone could do it."

The short woman punched his arm good-naturedly and said, "Meeting up at the Oyu'baat later?"

"Actually, I can't," Vhetin replied, checking his chronometer. "I'm late already."

"Late for what? You're not going out with Vachiira again, are you? I thought you broke that off months ago."

"Nothing like that. But I've got training with the Handmaiden. And she'll rip me a new one when she finds out I'm late."

"Go then," Jay said, shoving his back. "I'll keep your sister under control."

"You sure you're up to it? She can be a bit of a handful. The last babysitter I got her ended up in jail with a nice cozy cell right next to hers."

"Ha-ha, vod," Janada said, throwing him a glare and an exceedingly rude hand gesture. "Just get going before that Echani decides to murder you in your sleep."

He set off toward the exit, giving one last farewell before the two women disappeared from sight.

Author's Note: I decided to post an extra chapter since I had already posted the prologue on DeviantArt before. Just consider this the official start of the story. I'm excited to get this one underway. Hopefully it'll prove to be the best White Snow story yet!

As always, comments and reviews are very much appreciated. Let me know what you think!