Din had never been as far out as Csilla before, he had never had no reason to even think about going to Outer Reaches. But now here he found himself. On a starship heading there with two other bounty hunters who he knew would kill him where he stood if it served their purpose, or at least they could try to kill him. Din had no doubt that he could handle that eventuality if it came to it. That's not what was bothering him. It was the dark Kyber crystal. That's what had made him agree to Bossk's proposal, and that what why he now sat on Bossk's ship, the Hound's Tooth, headed to an ice planet on the edge of nowhere.

The details Bossk had said had made it seem easy, they were to land near some remote ice caves, obtain the crystal from a low level local warlord by whatever means necessary, and then get off the planet again immediately to return to Tattooine. At that point he would be paid. Bossk's contact was waiting somewhere else in the galaxy, and Bossk would deliver it alone...

Din's thoughts wandered back to the crystal. A dark kyber crystal was the stuff of legends to the Mandalorians, and none of the stories ended well. It could be used as the power source of an unspeakably bad laser sword. The legends said that a dark sword would corrupt already evil users. Whoever wanted the crystal, if it even existed, should be kept away from it if all possible. Thats what Din knew he should do if he could.

"Get set you two", Bossk shouted back from his cockpit, stirring Mando from his thoughts, "we're about to drop out of hyper space...we're here..."

Seconds later the ship lurched slightly as they dropped out of hyper space. Mando and Zuckuss got out of their seats and headed into the cockpit to see what awaited them. Approaching rapidly was a large white ice planet.

Bossk performed a scan as the Hounds Tooth cut through the atmosphere.

"I've found the ice caves. Right where I was told they would be" he said as he entered some coordinates into the landing computer.

The Hounds Tooth slowed down as it started the final decent, landing with a soft bump as it came to rest on an ice shelf.

Mando looked out of the cockpit window. As far as he could see was snow and ice. The only feature he could see was gaping entrance to a cave about fifty meters from where they had landed. He could see no signs of life, but he was certain that someone had detected their arrival. He knew local low life tended to have some way of finding out who was close by, even here in the Outer Reaches.

"So whats the plan. How are we going to do this?" He asked the two others.

Zuckuss looked on as Bossk spoke up.

"Well Mando. Its real simple. We ask these people nicely if we can have the crystal...and if they refuse...", Bossk paused as he theatrically drew his pistol from his belt holster, "...we will try a different form of persuasion..."

Before either could reply Bossk stood, pushed through them and headed towards the outer ramp towards the far end of his ship. Mando and Zuckuss looked at each other, checked their own weapons and followed behind.

When all three had reached the ramp, Bossk pressed the release button. He waited as the ramp slowly lowered and then strode down it onto the ice below.

"This is a bad idea", Mando said to Zuckuss, who nodded in reply, and then both of them decended into the frozen wasteland.