Five months after the Battle of Geonosis, Ring of Kafrene, Thand sector
A robed figure walked silently through the crowded streetways of the trading post. The mysterious being kept their head low, their face hidden from view by their hood as they turned on an empty alley and reached a large warehouse. On the outside of the building and next to the door were a pair of thugs sitting on a crate as they played sabacc to pass the time. Both of them, a Sullustan and a Lutrillian, were equipped with heavy armor and had blaster pistols holstered on their hips, and they dropped their game and stood up in haste as the hooded being halted a couple of meters away from them. They were much shorter in height than the thugs, but any other physical characteristics were hidden from view by the robe they wore.
"Hey, you can't be here!" the Sullustan shouted, but the being in front of them stood unfazed
"You heard him. Get lost!" the Lutrillian added, scowling at the stranger.
The mysterious being remained motionless and gave no response, as if unaware of the thugs' orders. The two men frowned at each other in confusion, then after a moment they nodded and moved to apprehend the robed figure.
The Sullustan raised a hand to put on the stranger's shoulder but a blue hand grabbed his wrist. The stranger took a step back and turned before securing their hold on the thug's arm. He was sent somersaulting over the stranger before landing harshly on the cold metal floor, and an open-handed strike to the neck was the last thing he felt before losing consciousness.
The Lutrillian flinched as he saw his partner being handled like a rag doll by this robed stranger. It took him a moment to react, but he drew his DL-18 blaster pistol and took aim. The stranger sensed the Lutrillian aiming at them and dashed to the right, avoiding the red bolt which hit a wall in front of them.
Their identity was revealed as they produced a blue lightsaber and cut the barrel of the blaster with a single ascending diagonal cut. The Jedi extended their hand at him and sent him flying through the air before hitting the durasteel door with a thud.
Chiru waved her hand at the closed door and it opened in front of her. She stepped over the Lutrillian's unconscious body and calmly walked inside the warehouse. Her lightsaber remained activated as she slowly made her way through the building. More guards rushed to stop her but she cut them down with ease. Her movements with her lightsaber were as graceful as they were deadly and she wielded her weapon with great skill coming from years of rigorous training and strict discipline. The blue blade flowed smoothly around her in a circular motion as two more mercenaries, both of them humans, fired at her and she deflected their shots back at them.
"Kill the Jedi!" a Rodian shouted from a catwalk above the Pantoran, but she ignored him.
Moments later a loud crack was heard and his body fell from the catwalk on to some stacked crates. More mercenaries started appearing and she dispatched most of them with ease, while a mysterious figure neutralized the rest with brutal efficiency.
After a few seconds Aturo found what she came for as she saw a Jablogian run away from her. Panic crossed his face as the Jedi Knight approached him, her robe still covering her physical features.
The Jablogian drew a DL-21 blaster in desperation, but Chiru called on the Force and pulled the weapon from his hand. As the pistol was flying towards her she sliced it cleanly in two with her lightsaber, both halves falling to the floor with a clatter.
As the criminal turned and ran for a backdoor, the Mandalorian dropped from the catwalks above, landing harshly on his right knee before rising slowly to his full height as he stood between the Jablogian and the door. Startled and fearing for his life, the criminal fell to the floor and crawled away from the two unusual allies, cornering himself against a crate.
The Jedi Knight and the Mandalorian looked at each other, their identities still concealed. The room fell into silence as they closed in on the terrified Jablogian. Chiru's blue lightsaber hummed softly in the dimly lit warehouse, casting an eerie glow on the scene.
"Who hired you?" Aturo asked with a stern voice, her eyes piercing through the darkness.
The Jablogian stammered, sweat beading on his forehead. "I... I can't tell you! They'll kill me!"
The Master Chief stepped forward, his Mandalorian armor gleaming under the faint light. His voice was low and dangerous as he addressed the trembling criminal. His gaze hardened behind his helmet as his gauntlet blade sprung forward. The glint of the blade caught the Jablogian's attention, and fear washed over his face. "And what makes you think I won't?"
Chiru raised an eyebrow behind her hood, her voice filled with authority. "This is your last chance. We cannot help you if you do not tell us what you know."
"I... alright, alright! I'll talk!" the Jablogian pleaded, his voice trembling.
Chiru deactivated her lightsaber and reached out with a calming presence, but her face was still hidden by her robe. "Good. Now, tell us who you are working for."
"The… The Bloodclaw Cartel. They paid half upfront and said they were looking to buy in bulk," the arms dealer replied, his face illuminated by the dim lights of the warehouse.
"What are they planning to do with all these weapons?" the Mandalorian demanded to know as he nodded to the crates around them.
"I don't know. I swear I was just hired to get the weapons. They never told me anything!"
The Jablogian hesitated, casting nervous glances around the dimly lit room. His breath came in shallow gasps as the Mandalorian moved closer to him and he finally spoke.
"Wait! There are rumors… They are planning something. Something big!"
"Go on," the Pantoran ordered him.
"The Bloodclaw… they have been crushing their opponents f-for years now! Anyone who stands in their way either ends up dead or missing. Word is that the Levaki Syndicate is their next target."
"Who runs the Bloodclaw?" the Jedi asked.
"I-I can't tell you. And if they find out I talked they'll have my head!"
The Master Chief took a step closer and raised his blade. The Jablogian, desperate to cling to whatever chance of survival he had left, immediately corrected his answer to satisfy his interrogators.
"Vol Yumpag! His name is Vol Yumpag! That's all I know. I swear!"
"He's telling the truth," the Jedi Knight concluded, and Karel halted as he heard her voice.
In a moment of deliberation, the room returned to a tense silence. Chiru exchanged a knowing glance with Karel, silently conveying her decision. Enough blood had been shed.
The Mandalorian, with his blade still drawn, approached the Jablogian. His voice was firm and threatening, but not without a hint of mercy. "Leave. Before I change my mind."
The Jablogian, wide-eyed with both fear and gratitude, nodded vigorously, his voice shaking as he thanked them for their mercy. He stammered repeatedly as he supported himself on a nearby crate and got up, then started running away from them and to the door. But just as the door opened, Jansek drew his blaster and fired a stun round at the Jablogian. He tripped over the Lutrillian's body, then fell face first to the floor.
After Jansek fired the stun round, the Jablogian's body convulsed for a moment before going limp. Aturo removed her cloak from her head, turning to look at the Master Chief as he holstered his blaster.
"You do know I can make them just forget what happened here, don't you?" Aturo asked sarcastically, unsurprised by his actions.
"Fear is just as good to make him forget this." He analyzed the contents of the crates around him with his HUD, then moved to stand in front of one of them and removed the lid. He laid eyes on the Class-A thermal detonators inside and took one of the explosives, then programmed it to detonate some time later and placed it back inside the crate. "Word will spread fast about what happened here. Let's get out of here before anyone else tries to get their hands on these weapons."
"Race you to the ship? Loser has to write the report," said the Pantoran with a smirk, her golden eyes falling on the Mandalorian.
"That's already your job," Karel replied as he turned to look at the Jedi Knight, who was acting as anything but one.
"Come on. If you're so sure you'll win then you have nothing to worry about."
The Master Chief considered the offer silently for a moment. It was an obvious trap to get him to do the grunt's work he had assigned her, and in any other circumstance he would have dismissed it. A couple of months ago he wouldn't even have considered the idea of having "fun" during a mission. Now, however, small bets like this one were becoming a regular occurrence.
He nodded tightly, then rushed out of the warehouse before the Jedi could reach him. He leaped over the two unconscious bodies as his jetpack fired into action, propelling him through the air as the Jedi Knight jumped from rooftop to rooftop to catch up to him.
A few hours later, Zero Eight Commando HQ, Coruscant
"You still owe me that report."
Chiru looked up as she walked down the boarding ramp of the Gray Hawk, the Master Chief walking ahead of her.
"It wasn't fair. You could fly," she said as she touched down on the floor of the hangar.
"And you're a Jedi. Use the Force or something," he countered.
"That's not how the Force works."
"Then don't be a sore loser," Karel deadpanned as he shrugged his shoulders and walked through a blast door and out of the hangar.
She rolled her eyes at his attempt at humor and moved to stand by his side, then shoved him playfully. A soft chuckle emerged from him and they fell into a similar walking pace with one another as a comfortable silence fell between them. The clones would salute them as they walked past them, and they acknowledged the greeting with a nod.
Looking back on their first encounter, Chiru couldn't help but smile at the Mandalorian. Even with him refusing to talk about his past every time she asked, she had steadily been gaining his trust to the point where he let small details slip here and then, like how it was his father who he inherited his ship from. His memories were still locked behind that black wall as before, but through the bond between them that was quickly growing stronger, she had slowly managed to weaken it.
"I hadn't heard about the Bloodclaw Cartel before, have you?" Chiru asked, breaking the silence between them.
"I have, though I haven't come across them myself." Karel stopped as they reached a turbolift. "When I was a kid, my father tracked down a bounty to Chaaktil. A spice dealer working for the Bloodclaw was cheating them out of their share and had gone underground, but my father found him and informed them of his location."
Upon hearing Karel mention his father, Chiru's curiosity piqued as she sensed another chance to learn more about him and about Karel himself. The commandos always spoke highly of the man who trained them, with a reverence akin to that she had for Master Di, but they never shared many details about the Lieutenant Colonel with her. Karel certainly never shared his stories either, so she had to approach the matter carefully or else the Mandalorian would close himself to her once more.
Karel pressed the button to call the turbolift, and as they waited Chiru asked, "What happened to the spice dealer?"
"Well…" The turbolift arrived, and they stepped inside. Chiru pressed the button for the ground floor of the building as Karel turned to face the door and crossed his arms. "After the Bloodclaw caught up to him, they tied him to a speeder and drove through a sandstorm while a parasite was eating his internal organs. Somehow the guy was still alive after that, so they tied him to another speeder and-"
Chiru's eyes widened in disbelief as she listened to Karel's gruesome account of the Bloodclaw's methods. She couldn't help but feel a mixture of shock and curiosity at the Mandalorian's words. It was a stark reminder of the brutal and unforgiving nature of the criminal underworld they now found themselves entangled with.
"Wait, they... they did all that?" Chiru interrupted, her voice filled with a mix of horror and intrigue.
The turbolift began its ascent, and Chiru leaned against the wall, processing the information she had just learned. She knew crime syndicates could be ruthless, but such cruelty still troubled her. What surprised her even more was how casually the Mandalorian was describing the events, as if it were just a regular occurance.
"Trust me, you don't want to hear the rest of it," said Karel as he removed his helmet. "The Bloodclaw was bound to a few star systems back then, but if what that sleemo said is true then we're looking at a much bigger threat."
As the turbolift ascended, a brief silence settled between them. Chiru could not yet sense Karel's emotions very well yet, but she had been improving. Hoping to move the topic of the conversation away from the Bloodclaw Cartel's brutality, she instead chose a more direct approach.
"Your father... What was he like?"
Perhaps that was too direct, Aturo thought to herself as the Master Chief's features tightened briefly, his guarded nature resurfacing. She was relieved as Karel's gaze flickered towards her for a moment, his expression softening ever so slightly as a small smirk drew on his face.
"Buir was the best at his job. He trained them, and he trained me. Everything that everyone here knows is thanks to him."
As the turbolift reached its destination and the doors opened, Karel led the way out, returning once again to his stoic nature. Chiru smiled softly as she caught a small glimpse at another one of Karel's memories. She could see Karel's hands working methodically to tie two ropes together from his own point of view, then he looked up at the helmeted head of his father as he analyzed his son's work.
"Good work," Hamar said, his voice echoing and distant before the vision stopped abruptly and she was brought back to the present.
She hurried once more to catch up with the Mandalorian as he was stopped by a clone trooper. Their conversation was lost on Chiru as the trooper handed him a datapad and the Master Chief signed the request for reinforcements for Zero Eight Commando's Nexu Company. The Mandalorian handed him the datapad back and the clone trooper saluted at his two commanding officers before moving on.
Though Karel rarely spoke about his father, Chiru understood that his silence held its own significance. She instead chose to appreciate the trust he had placed in her thus far, recognizing that there were depths to him that she might never fully uncover.
"We have training to do, but why don't you check the Jedi Archives later and see if you can find anything that could help us? I'll talk to one of my contacts, maybe he knows something we don't."
"Sounds like a plan," she replied, smiling at the Mandalorian once again.
They entered a large training room with a circular combat arena at the center, around which seven commandos were waiting for them. The men greeted them with a nod, their blaster rifles in their hands. Another commando stood a bit away from the rest, a red cross painted on his left shoulder plate. Karel ordered Chiru to stand at the middle of the circle as he came to stand next to the medic.
"A battlefield is a chaotic place. Distractions will be present and you will have to filter them out and focus on the mission. For us there are no front lines, nowhere to retreat to when things go from bad to worse. We are often outnumbered and surrounded. If all goes to hell, which it will, you have to learn how to survive in such a situation." He spoke in a more stern, commanding voice than before, and the seven commandos in the circle raised their blaster rifles and took aim at Chiru as she quickly realized the purpose of this exercise. Her lightsaber sprung to life and she held the weapon close to her, breathing slowly to calm herself as she focused on the presence of the soldiers around her.
The first commando fired a stun round at her from her left side and she turned to block it. No sooner had she turned away the soldier now behind her took his shot, then another, and another.
Karel's right hand moved closer to his blaster pistol as he remembered a very important lesson from his father. Never let your guard down.