Freelance Transport Mandalore's Resolution, transport convoy en route to Werda Kurs

The deck bucked heavily underneath Jay's boots, sending a jostling tremor through the passenger bay that had armor clanking and several passengers grumbling. A crate of weapons came unsecured from its crash webbing and slammed hard to the durasteel floor. A red-suited MandalMotors tech quickly moved forward to secure it back to its proper place.

Jay clenched her hands into fists in her lap, taking a deep breath. Vhetin, who had so far been buried in a datapad the entire trip, glanced up at her and cocked his helmeted head in curiosity.

"I never thought I'd see you with flight nerves."

She shook her head. "I'm used to being in the cockpit, Cin. Where I can actually see where we're going? Not to mention all the readouts, displays, and technical evaluations telling us what this kriffing turbulence is all about."

She cursed as the deck began to bounce again, throwing her forward against her seat restraints. She grabbed hold of the seat for a more secure handhold, even though she knew full well she could be ejected from the side of the transport and still remain tethered to her chair.

The interior of the transport was cramped and stuffy, and with more than twenty heavily-armored men and women crammed into a single enclosed area, it was quickly beginning to smell. The dull grumble of chatter echoed up and down the grated durasteel walkway that divided the ship in half, and Mandos occasionally braved the turbulence to walk back and forth to chat with friends or retrieve necessary equipment. As of yet, Jay hadn't found sufficient need to even unbuckle herself from her crash webbing.

Norac Benz, seated across from her, shot her a haughty smirk, narrowing his ice-blue eyes as he chewed on a twig he'd snagged before takeoff. His seat restraints weren't even buckled, and he was sprawled casually in his seat with his foot tapping rhythmically against the metal grated floor.

"Just flyin' through a storm, darling," he growled, a lock of dark brown hair falling in front of his eyes as he regarded Jay with a predatory stare. He hooked his thumbs into his belt and cocked his head nonchalantly, as if to taunt her. "They get a lot of 'em down this way. Wreaks hell with your fancy ships and technical evaluations. Just have to get used to it."

Jay grimaced. "That doesn't help me feel any better. And don't call me darling."

Benz chuckled, rolling the twig between his teeth. "What, you'd prefer aruetii bitch?"

"Hey," Vhetin interceded, voice harsh. "Tone it back."

"What are you even doing here?" Jay asked him. "I thought you and your Berserkers hated modern technology."

"We hate new technology," the clanmaster corrected. "We want to go back to the way things were under the first Mandalores, when our people were strong. Still had flight and space travel back then, aruetii. We just don't need to rely on tech as a crutch like you city folks."

"But-"

"What? You thought we were a bunch of backwards cavemen, living up in the hills with nothing but sticks and stones? Grow up, girl. We're not that stupid."

"That remains to be seen."

A new voice cut in. "Stow it, the both of you. We're almost to the rendezvous point. If you want to go at each other's throats once we're off the ship and in the jungle, be my guest. But as long as you're in transit, you behave yourselves."

Benz relaxed against his seat, folding one leg over the other comfortably. "As you say, Captain Tervho."

The new speaker was a tall, armored woman who looked over at them with a warning glare. She was surprisingly attractive woman of around forty five, with a brilliant mane of flame-red hair tied back into a bundle of long, tight braids that fell over her shoulders. Her armor was colored a deep red and was stylized with a multitude of jet-black stripes. A dark blue cape fell from her shoulders, secured there by thick leather pauldrons that she strapped over her collar plate. She had a pair of angular MandalMotors-issue blaster pistols holstered on her belt a wickedly sharp beskad saber sheathed across her back.

Vhonte Tervho, Mandalorian bounty hunter and legendary Cuy'val Dar trainer, was a sight to behold. She was tough and no-nonsense, a personality trait Jay had come to respect – if not enjoy – during her time in the Navy. Jay had known little about the woman before Vhetin had introduced themselves before takeoff, but in that short time she had already come to respect the woman even without the backstory Vhetin had given her before they took off.

Tervho had been called to service as a clone trooper trainer at the age of eighteen, and had been placed in a position of prominence among the clones on Kamino alongside Mandalorian legends like Jango Fett and Rav Bralor. Tervho went on to serve the Republic during the Clone Wars, commanding an elite unit of Advanced Reconnaissance Commandos in several critical missions. After the Wars, the woman had returned to her previous profession as a freelance bounty hunter, and had gained much fame and fortune as a result. To date, she was the only Mandalorian whose name Jay had recognized before coming to Mandalore (besides Boba Fett, of course) though the recognition stopped at her name and reputation. To see her in person was like seeing the Mandalorian version of Darth Vader, though admittedly without the constant fear of being throttled.

Of course, her own respect for the hunter might have been influenced by Vhetin's own fascination with the woman. If she didn't know better, Jay would have thought Vhetin wanted nothing more than to ask for her autograph. The reverent way he treated the huntress reminded Jay of teenage girls clamoring for their favorite singers; only in this case, Vhetin was obsessing over a heavily armed and armored bounty huntress with a sterling reputation for taking high-stakes bounty missions. As they had begun their journey to the equator, Vhetin regaled her with stories he'd heard of her more famous hunts:

There was the D'orelli contract, where she had single-handed infiltrated a Black Sun base and escaped with her bounty – an Ubese assassin – unharmed and undetected. Jay knew from personal experience that Black Sun took security very seriously, and couldn't begin to imagine what hoops Tervho had to jump through to pull off an undetected kidnapping.

The Quesh contract, where she had traveled deep into the poisoned swamps of Quesh to retrieve three separate bounties, all of whom were categorized as Class Tens, the most lethal bounties a hunter could pursue. To date, Jay only had one Class Ten hunt under her belt and it was more than enough to sate her appetite for a very long while.

And of course there was the Two-hundred-tenth Great Hunt, where Tervho had claimed ultimate victory by a narrow margin, exposing a corrupt Imperial Moff and earning a wash of commendations from the Empire and a personal congratulation from Darth Vader himself. The victory was hailed as one of the greatest pro-Mandalorian public relations stories in the last three decades, and Tervho was surely still raking in the credits from such a win.

All that considered, it was no wonder Shysa had reached out to the woman to help with this mission. She was a superstar among the Mandalorians and, if Vhetin's reaction to her presence was any indicator, a stellar example many Mando'ade sought to emulate.

Now, Tervho was walking up and down the row of passenger seats, trading a few words with the Berserkers and even joking or laughing with some of them. She seemed very at ease with the coarse and unruly men and women of Norac Benz's clan, though that would make sense consider the rumor that the two had once been… close.

She stopped between Jay and Benz, glancing between the two with a raised eyebrow and settling her hands on her hips. "I'm not going to have any trouble with you two, am I?"

Benz settled back in his seat with a grin, chewing on the end of his twig. "That's for you to decide, Captain. Since your Mandalore was kind enough to hand my men over to you, you're the boss."

"Oh really? I'm surprised you'd follow authority so easily, Norac. That was never your strong suit."

"For you, darling, I'll make an exception."

"I'll take that as a compliment. And don't call me darling."

Benz rolled his eyes while Tervho turned to Vhetin and Jay, fixing them with a skeptical stare. "I have to admit, I was surprised when I saw your names on the duty roster. What are a couple of beroya'e doing on a mission like this?"

"Besides the bounty on the Kar'ta Epar'e?" Vhetin offered.

"Nice try. But I looked up your history before you boarded and familiarized myself with your work."

Vhetin looked genuinely surprised, even behind the faceplate of his helmet. "You… you honor me, Captain. Us, I mean."

"Don't get all starry-eyed, Vhetin," Tervho sighed, pulling down a collapsible stool from an overhead compartment and settling down in front of them. The deck heaved treacherously as she did, but she paid it no mind, her dark blue gaze never leaving the two seated before her. "I like to know what I'm getting into before signing off on anything. Call it pragmatism.

"That contract on Telos, hunting down Oppo Tor with Fett breathing down your neck was tough, I'll grant you that. Your deployment with the Protectors on Tachador even more so. But those were both on civilized worlds, surrounded by civilized people." She stared at the two hunters and cocked her head. "You've been on one or two jungle slogs before, Vhetin, but nothing like this. And you, Miss Moqena, well… this is going to be an eye opening experience for you."

She rested her armored forearms on her thighs. "Neither of you two are frontier scouts or pioneers. You're beroya'e, used to working with tech, support, and an arsenal of firepower to back you up. So why sign up for a job like this?"

"A bounty hunter goes where the job is," Jay dutifully quoted from Vhetin's early teachings. "We don't complain and we don't question orders. Once we take a contract, we're committed."

"As much as I applaud your hunter's spirit," Tervho said, "I want you to cut the bullshit. Off the record. What's the ulterior motive here? Because if it's going to endanger my mission, I have a right to know about it."

Jay glanced over at Vhetin, who sighed and said, "You got us, Captain. We do have more reason to come down here. Or rather, I do."

"Explain."

"One of the Rangers that went missing," Vhetin said slowly, "Tamai Vasser. She's… she's a friend. And when I heard she was missing, I knew I would have to pitch in to help find her. I'm not going to give up on her like all the others seem to be and I'm not going to sit back and let someone else look for her. I owe her that much."

Tervho stared into the flat surface of Vhetin's faceplate, which only served to impress Jay more; not many people could stare down a Mandalorian and win. But Vhetin looked down at his lap after a long few moments and said, "I apologize for not informing you sooner. Ni ceta, alor'ad."

"Wer'cuy," Tervho responded. "Forget it. What matters is that you let me know now."

She straightened and replaced the stool back to its place in the overhead compartment. She adjusted one of her pauldrons and said, "Regardless of your motivations, it'll be good to have you aboard. You're a good tracker, Vhetin. If anyone can find your missing friend, I'm sure it's you."

"Ori'vor'e, Captain. That means a lot, coming from you."

"Less than you think, actually. Now settle in for a bumpy landing. We're coming up on the landing site soon."

Her cape billowed around her as she turned and headed for the cockpit. As she passed she said, "As soon as we have boots on the ground, I want to see you in private, Norac. We have things to discuss."

Benz bounced his eyebrows suggestively while her back was turned, a wide grin on his gaunt face. Without even turning to look at him, Tervho threw him a rude hand gesture and said, "Not like that, di'kut."

As soon as the cockpit door had sealed shut behind her, Jay pointed after the huntress and said, "I like her."

Author's Note: A shorter segment this time, though it's kind of necessary. I was looking back over my notes and realized I had one last short scene before the start of Chapter 2. They should be longer from here on out (*he wrote hopefully*). Until the next segment's finished up, happy reading!