Maris was honestly having fun.
Despite the urgency of her mission, she was making a great effort not to be too noticeable. She'd landed on the outskirts of Mos Eisley, far enough that the city's air control hadn't picked her up. Then, she'd paid a young local a handsome sum for his speeder and a ragged cloak. Aside from a couple of appraising looks from a few smugglers too grimy, and moisture farmers too old to hold her attention, her arrival had gone mostly unnoticed, thanks to the city's less than savory reputation as a criminal haven.
She'd then gone into the local watering hole, asked for a couple of drinks and sat at a far corner. The bartender and a few of the patrons gave her some leering looks as the cloak shifted to expose her skin.
Idiots, she thought with a smile. They should've looked at her gold-flecked eyes. Or the saber tonfas attached to her wrists, instead of her behind. She was a wolf amidst sheep, ready to begin the hunt.
"So, what's a Rogue doing out in this backwater?" -asked a cocky young man who sat in front of her. She did not turn.
Well, some sheep might be smarter than the others, she supposed.
"I could ask you the same, Corellian. Or just extract the information from your mind. Painfully." -she said. She was bluffing, of course. Extremely powerful in the Force though she may be, no beings in the galaxy other than maybe the Echani could actually read minds at will. The most Force-users could hope to attain were vague images lacking any context.
She could, however, sense emotions, and there was a momentary spike of fear from the young man seated in front of her. "Look sweetheart, I ain't that gullible. Sure, you could gut me with those fancy swords your kind carries around, but you don't do any mind reading. My accent's just a giveaway."
"Are you trying to get killed?" -she asked, turning to face him. For a human, he was certainly handsome. Younger than her, to be sure, brown haired and blue eyed. He wore red striped black bantha leather pants, and a pilot's jacket over a white shirt. A pair of worn black boots and a custom blaster at his hip completed the outfit that just screamed smuggler.
He gave a suave smile. "Maybe trying to have someone else killed in my place."
Maris was not impressed. "Why should I care?"
"I'm sure you can tell, I'm a smuggler. One of the best, in fact. Thing is, I lost a shipment to some huge warship that tried to board me a week back. One that just so happens to be currently parked over this Sith-hole of a planet." -he said, conspiratorially.
The Rogue narrowed her eyes. The man was being truthful, and he could be of some use. "Go on."
The man's already high confidence boosted. "Now, you might have the locals fooled, but to a Core Worlder like myself, you stick out like a sore thumb. I figure, one of the Republic's best out here, plus a wicked ship like that in the same place, same time? Not a coincidence."
"How can you cope with such deductive skills?" -she deadpanned, but she was interested. Smugglers were, after all, well-travelled. They were usually very good sources of intel, even if they were not always reliable.
The Corellian flashed a smug smile. "Same way I bear the curse that are my good looks and charming personality. Lots of women and booze. Anyway, in my line of work, I hear rumors, right? Why would these guys over us come to Tatooine? A guy's gotta know, especially if he's run into them before. So I ask around, oil some gears with my hard earned credits. Turns out, these newcomers have a history with the head Hutt around here."
Maris knew that, of course. "Get on with it, smuggler." -she said simply.
"Right. I've done some jobs for Jabba before. This last one was a real bad one for me to lose, so the slimeball has it out for me. Thing is, I'm such a good pilot, he has to get the best to bring me in. And who does he hire?"
The Zabrak smirked. "The Mandalorian. Boba Fett's hunting your arse."
He winked. "You know it, sweetheart. The same a-hole Jabba lent to the boys up there for a job ten years back. I hear he broke into KDY, which I'm assuming is the reason that Destroyer looks like it could plow through a fleet and come out without a scratch. Word is, it already has."
Maris thought for a moment. "You've managed to slightly impress me, smuggler. I assume you have a plan already to get me closer to Fett?"
The man leaned back on the seat. "The name's Han Solo, beautiful. And that, I certainly do."
This part is a little short, but I felt it was necessary to give one of my favorite characters, both in canon and in this story, a chapter for himself. Han Solo is going to be a little different than the scoundrel we love and know. For one, he's younger, less cynical. His whole backstory is different, and of course, he doesn't have Chewbacca by his side...yet. He is distrustful of the Republic, preferring to hang out with the scum of the galaxy, and he's definitely got his reasons for that. As to whether what'll happen to his canon relationship with Leia...nothing to say. Lots of interesting things to come, I'd say. Stay tuned!
P.S.: It really does say a lot about the length of this story that it took 20 chapters to get to Han Solo.