"Your entire team fell apart within the first few minutes, Snasniss?" Rhal's voice asked in disbelief.

Snasniss, sitting in his ship's pilot seat, replied in his comm's mouthpiece, "I don't work well with others, Mandalore Rhal." His tone was mocking when he pronounced the title. "Besides, I already have the corpse of Boba Fett's killer in my transport's cargo bay."

"You have that raping droid with you dead?" Rhal asked, still unbelieving.

"I do," Snasniss confirmed. "And I'm on my way to you to deliver his corpse for that fifty thousand credit bounty on him."

"You know that bounty was placed by Mirta Gev," Rhal intoned. "Go to her, and I not only cancel my contract with you, I'll have every available Death Watcher prey on your ass throughout the galaxy."

"Rhal, you can have the whole Force-damned Death Watch come after me, and you'll still be outnumbered," Snasniss said. "But just to humor you, I'll hold off on collecting the bounty until after I find and neutralize whoever's been wiping out your fleet."

"Sure you will," Rhal said with both triumph and bitterness in his tone. "And why the hell did I even ask you to put together a team in the first place?"

"That's what happens when you underestimate Badda Snasniss," the dark-skinned Mando replied with a smirk.

Rhal sighed. But his tone became business-like when he asked, "Where are you now?"

"Heading to the Sagju system," Snasniss answered. "Considering that there's a fleet about to launch there for that little surprise attack on Mandalore, I figured that's where your Nubian starfighter might show up."

Snasniss could practically hear Rhal hold back a gasp of shock. "How do you know about that?"

"Relax, neither Mirta Gev's faction nor the Jedi know about it, just me," Snasniss said. "And as for how I know about it, well... You know what they say, a good magician never reveals his tricks."

"But if that magician wants to keep his job and not end up as just a head of the True Mandalore's platter, he'll tell me how he found out immediately!"

Snasniss rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Fine, fine, I hacked your private systems."

"What?!" Rhal growled. "Why did you do that?!"

"I like to know how my employers are doing," Snasniss replied simply. "That way, my job doesn't interfere with their efforts of a negotiation that's really a trap for his enemies."

"Tell me why I shouldn't cancel my contract with you right now and assign a bounty on your head that would Jabba the Hutt's bounty on Han Solo's head look like a-"

"Because if you do any of that," Snasniss interrupted, "I send the info I got from your systems to Gev's faction and the Jedi, and your whole plan will come apart."

Rhal was eerily silent for a moment. "What else do you know about me?"

"Everything I need to know, and that's all that matters," Snasniss said. "Oh, and don't worry, I'll still hold off on collecting my bonus for delivering the corpse of Boba Fett to his granddaughter 'til after I've completed my contract with you, Rhal. And only because I'm so generous." With that mocking conclusion, he closed the comm.

.

As the Millennium Falcon zoomed through hyperspace with a small Jedi fleet in front, behind, and on either side of it, Han Solo had his head rested against his beloved ship's control board in mild despair.

He was roused from his glumness when a hand rested itself on his shoulder. He looked up to find his wife standing over him with that familiar smirk that he came to love a long time ago in their marriage.

"Still sulking about the Falcon being the negotations' meeting place, Han?" Leia asked.

"Gee, how could you tell?" Han asked sarcastically as he sat back up in the pilot seat. "Wasn't it enough that this was where the Empire and the New Republic signed the treaty here?"

"Han, you know how this goes," Leia said. "It's never enough 'til we're all dead." There was a note of defeatism in her tone.

Han raised an eyebrow. "Is that cynicism I'm getting from you, Princess?"

Leia shrugged nonchalantly. "Where do you think I picked it up from?"

"Right," Han answered. "You know Luke's gonna do that righteous Jedi anger thing where he's not really angry when he chews you out with that attitude."

Leia waved. "I'll be fine. Or haven't you figured out yet that I can slip in and out of the diplomatic thing as easy as you can whip out that blaster of yours?" A new tone that Han liked was now in Leia's voice.

The trademark Solo smirk appeared on his face. "How long do we have 'til we reach Mandalore?"

Leia pointed with a resigned expression. "Only two minutes now."

Han's expression also fell as he shook his head at the readouts. "Where does the time go these days? And to think we vowed to retire after that whole Qreph thing."

"Semi-retired, Han," Leia emphasized. "Besides, it's just gonna be a meeting, maybe a few. Nothing big is going to happen."

"Leia, they're Mandalorians," Han reminded her. "Something's bound to happen, and you and Luke and the other Jedi know that. And as bad as Belok Rhal is, Mirta Gev isn't exactly a saint herself."

"No Mandalorian is," Leia replied. "But, look, Gev isn't all that bad."

Han looked at her.

"Her business with the Qreph brothers aside," Leia quickly added, "I think we can trust her here."

"Yeah, well," Han said as he took out his blaster to observe its charge, "I'll keep my gun set at lethal just in case."

"Don't you always?"

"Good point," Han replied as he replaced the blaster back into its holster. He turned back to the readouts. "We got ten seconds now." When Han's countdown was finished, he pulled the hyperspace lever back to drop the Falcon out of hyperspace with the rest of the Jedi StealthX fleet.

They were now in the Mandalore system, with two fleets of Mandalorian warships meeting at either side. The first fleet was holding over Mandalore's orbit while the other fleet hovered hundreds of millions of miles on the other side.

The Falcon's commboard beeped with the hailing frequency that the Jedi fleet would also get on their own comms. Han activated it.

"Welcome, members of the Jedi delegation," Mirta Gev's authoritative yet shockingly calm and diplomatic voice transmitted. "I, Mandalore Gev, on behalf of the True Mandalorians, thank you for your generosity of intervening on this conflict on our behalf."

A new voice came on the frequency. "As do I, members of the Jedi Order," Belok Rhal cut in. "On behalf of the Death Watch, I, the real Mandalore, Belok Rhal, also thank you for your generosity."

Han was genuinely surprised when Gev didn't automatically reply by calling out Rhal for his osik. At least it seemed like this delegation was off to a good start.

"So," Gev ultimately said, "if Captain Han Solo of the Millennium Falcon would be so kind as to hail us, we may begin the negotiations."

Reluctantly, Han opened up a dual-hailing frequency that transmitted back to Gev and Rhal's ships. "Mirta Gev, Belok Rhal, this is Han Solo. You're clear to board my ship with whoever you want to accompany you." He closed off the frequency and looked up at Leia, who gave him a look that said that she was just as bewildered as he was over how diplomatic he was just then.

They both looked out to the vastness of space as a ship from each fleet departed from the main bodies to travel toward the Falcon.

"Yep, something bad is gonna happen," Han remarked wryly.