Ah, yes, I know, Star Wars Legends are not cool right now, and soo many characters doesn't exists... But still Kyp Durron's story is my guilty pleasure, so... why not?
Nar Shadda, 15 ABY
Smugglers' Moon, Little Coruscant, satellite of the planet Nal Hutta, the largest center of lawlessness gathering scum from all over the Galaxy. For some: an abomination. Comparing Galactic City and the main Hutt granary was an insult to the architectural order that was the first planet. For many, this moon seemed to be an uninhabitable place. However, a large part of the Galaxy's citizens treated individual sectors and the chaotic maze of buildings as a last resort. And the criminal world... worked effectively to maintain the place's nasty reputation.
The bounty hunter was observing a skyscraper owned and command center by a man named Kazi Karr. The common criminal seemed to be chasing the legendary Prince Xizor in both wealth and lavish manners. His building even had its own hangar, making it independent of the spaceport. He amassed his fortune quietly for many years by selling stolen information to the highest bidder. His most famous clients included Imperial warlords, including Galak Fyyar, Natasi Daala, and even Admiral Thrawn. Despite the fall, the empire still did not complain about financial shortages. And not only. Several transactions caught the attention of the Mandalorians and that was one of the reasons why the girl decided to accept the job. On the other hand: The New Republic didn't pay too bad either. However, the girl was more interested in the possibility of entering the vault. And the mission was simple: deliver Karra to the Republic. Alive or dead, and it was easiest to shoot him down.
The equipment in the helmet allowed the image to be displayed at a fairly large zoom, thanks to which she could easily observe the guards from a safe distance. The abandoned apartment building was to be demolished within the next month, which was quite an unusual phenomenon in the world where Jak and the fact that a xenobotanical garden was to be built there - the whim of one of the Hutts. This investment was completely pointless, considering the level of air pollution and the need to build something that would imitate the surface of the planet. Maybe even create a microclimate or keep everything under a roof. The trader also boasted a large collection of vehicles - including TIE fighters, all of them operational and regularly flown.
He was currently testing one of his newest acquisitions. A medium-sized ferry resembling a dagger. According to the information obtained, this was now to be his main means of transport. The distinctive shape broke through Nar Shadd's upper atmosphere and calmly made its way to land on the main platform. The woman prepared the blaster integrated with the rangefinder in her helmet and was getting ready to shoot. But then something unexpected happened. A battered X-Wing followed the shuttle and clearly had no friendly intentions. Regardless of the infrastructure of the smugglers' moon, he began firing, but the shields of Karr's vehicle proved to be too strong. Everything then happened at lightning speed. Karr tried to outsmart the enemy pilot by hiding between buildings, ramming ordinary speeders in the process. The second pilot was pursued by TIE fighters and it was only a matter of time before he was shot down. The Mandalorian fired a missile, aiming it so that it exploded in the center of the enemy fighters. The risky move turned out to be effective, but the Republic pilot lost control of the machine for a moment, which did not stop him from continuing the pursuit.
"Har'chak," she muttered under her helmet.
Currently, the two of them were flying past the trader's stronghold. The Mandalorian adjusted the configuration of her blaster and aimed at his vehicle. She lost the only charge that was able to penetrate his shields, which meant a delay in the task and a reduction in profit, so she had to compensate for the losses. And she could only do this by keeping an eye on him at all times, with the help of a prototype Hapan bug with a long-range transmitter. Then she was blinded by the flare of the missile that had penetrated the X-Wing's shields. The pilot could not avoid the crash, but he did everything not to lose control of the machine, which caught the hunter's attention. In this case, regardless of the pilot's level of experience, there could only be one effect. Locating one crashed X-Wing was not easy, even if the crash occurred within one kilometer of the observation nest. Fortunately, the hunter had the vehicle's reference number, which made her task much easier.
She was furious. The pilot, whoever he was, had successfully scared off its target, and it had left the atmosphere of the smuggler's moon even faster than it had penetrated its upper layers. Bribing several people to obtain information about her whereabouts and obtaining a list of individual contractors was not too complicated, but it did not change the fact that the Mandalorian was several dozen thousand credits behind.
Giving this list to the Republic authorities could be used by intelligence agencies to arrange several controlled purchases. And this meant reduced income. She couldn't believe that she had gone to save the pilot. But he was the one who let her get the prize, so whether he liked it or not, it was his turn to help her get her money back. As long as he survived. Besides, the X-Wing's signature belonged to the Jedi Order, and if these prudes were interested in the target, they could easily negotiate a higher sum. Moreover, she had only heard of one representative of this Order capable of such a daring and reckless act. And she had wanted to meet him for a long time. Before she could arrive, several looters had gathered at the scene and dispersed at the sight of the heavily armed mercenary.
It crashed near the workshop, where the fire protection system reacted in time, so she could be sure that there would be no explosion. Perhaps the pilot managed to partially control the machine and deliberately chose this point as an emergency landing site. The pilot lay limply in his seat. His hands were still on the control sticks. She grimaced when she saw his clothes. An ordinary, civilian tunic worn by Jedi knights and a half-worn flight suit. His hair, wet with blood and sweat, was sticking to his face, which wasn't surprising considering his helmet was lying next to his feet, but the male pilot was definitely alive.
"Copaani gaan, di'kuut?"
The man couldn't move. He slowly regained consciousness and realized that he was strapped to a cold bunk. He tried to pull away, but he quickly regretted it because of the pain that was tearing through his skull. The sight of the Imperial droid IT-O did not inspire hope either. He had dealt with something like this before - aboard the Gorgon. He tried to piece together the flashes of the last few days. He remembered giving chase between Nar Shadd's skyscrapers in his X-Wing, but was forced to make an emergency landing. Then someone yanked him out of the cockpit of the shattered machine. Woman. Most likely Mandalorian, but he was too dazed to be 100% sure. There was a gentle twilight in the room. The only source of light came from the droid's photoreceptors and medical equipment. The lamps did not turn on even when someone entered the room. He didn't have time to look at the person - he preferred to squeeze his eyes shut and pretend he was still unconscious. What surprised him was that he didn't sense any hostile intentions in this person's aura. He involuntarily clenched his hands into fists, which most likely gave him away.
"I will untie you if you don't attack me." He heard a woman's, slightly hoarse voice. He nodded gently in response. "I thought so." She purred, immediately fulfilling her part of the 'deal'. "You have a few stitches on your head and you're generally bruised, but don't worry - you don't have any more broken bones to add to your collection, Jetii."
The knight rose from his bunk despite his headache. Only then did he realize that he was practically naked - apart from his underwear. However, the Mandalorian was not discouraged by this sight, but preferred to cover herself with a rough, gray blanket rolled up so that it could serve as a pillow. The girl who talked to him looked like she was still a child. She couldn't have been more than seventeen. She looked a bit like Mara Jade - thick red hair, green eyes... A slightly more oblong face. However, the teenager was taller than Mary and definitely stronger built. She wore a black jumpsuit with black and purple plates of distinctive armor attached, judging by its condition: passed down from generation to generation. The symbols on his pauldrons caught his eye: a mythosaur skull on the right one and the forgotten symbol of the Death Watch on the right one. The girl looked at him in the same way. He brushed back his dark, long hair, revealing an angular face with sharp features. Despite the dim light, his dark brown eyes squinted. He wasn't tall - at least by Mandalorian standards, but three centimeters under five feet made it much easier for her to pull the knight from the wreckage.
"You work for the Empire? And where am I exactly?"
She snorted with contempt at the name of the second power in the Galaxy.
"Onward to Nar Shadda – in the Mandalorian sector. The One Place Hutts Are Afraid to Look. I'm just a bounty hunter... And this robot... is reprogrammed. There is no better equipment for health monitoring." After all, he couldn't let the interrogator die. "And do me a favor, Jettii, and stop the insults. There is no amount of money for me to start working for the Empire." She walked along the room. She wasn't surprised that he followed her with his eyes. "Because of you, I wasted forty thousand credits." She informed him coldly.
The Jedi Knight sat with his mouth open as if to say something, but the woman continued.
"And the three hundred thousand bounty went... So why don't you tell me why you acted like an absolute idiot by chasing Kazi Karr with your X-Wing?"
So he was her hostage, or prisoner. At least that's what he thought during those first few minutes of regaining consciousness. But this woman's emotions were complicated. He couldn't read them clearly. Her cold demeanor seemed like a façade. She wanted to remain professional, but underneath that mask hid regret and a keen interest in him. At the same time, her very presence in the Force was a familiar echo from many years ago. As if he had met her before, although that was unlikely. He knew one thing: breaking an expensive machine wasn't his biggest problem. There was no doubt that he had gone about it the wrong way. He showed off his bravado and stupidity. He looked down. It wasn't the first or last time that he did something that he hadn't fully thought through.
"He traded in items belonging to the Jedi Order. I was supposed to stop him and get back what he took." The Mandalorian suddenly perked up.
"That wasn't the only thing on his mind." She snapped at him. "This guy is widely known for information trading. Of course, he doesn't do it legally. And everything would be fine if..." The Jedi did not interfere. She finished in her thoughts, but the words didn't come through her throat. Karr also messed with the Jedi, so they had a business together. "Now he has barricaded himself in his stronghold and will not leave it without an escort. Initially, I wanted to avoid additional casualties, but if they launched their post-imperial toys..." She shrugged. "Most of the people gathered here want to storm his citadel. And this will probably be the only way to smoke him out. From what we know, he has about a hundred mercenaries, plus a small army of droids. A job for twenty of our guys."
There was an awkward silence between the two that stretched on forever. The man wanted to escape, but he did not know how many warriors were lurking outside. And he didn't have a gun yet.
"I'm Kyp. Kyp Durron." he said casually. The warrior just shrugged, as if she didn't care who she was dealing with.
"I know. I can put two and two together." She shook her head. She went to the cabinet and took out Durron's silver lightsaber cylinder. "I heard about how you barely escaped alive in the Abyss and that practically every bone in your body was broken or cracked." She fired the gun. The amethyst blade slowly extended, almost touching the ceiling. "Quite an unusual color." She disabled the gun and returned it to its owner.
"I'm Freya. And my clan is Vizsla"
He was rather accustomed to extreme, negative reactions: insults, fear, hatred and outright disgust. Several people tried to kill him, and he couldn't stop tormenting himself with remorse. He kept proving his worth. It was impossible for this Mandalorian to have never heard of his action on Carida, but she seemed unconcerned with the lives of the millions he had taken. Vari showed cold, very businesslike indifference towards him. The fact was that she did not like the Empire and felt no connection with the victims of those events. To her, they were just mindless biomass, following the orders of equally cold officers. And she was ashamed to admit that some Mando had abandoned wearing beskar in favor of white plasteel.
"Were you the one who pulled me out of the wreckage?" She replied in the affirmative. This meant he owed her a debt of gratitude. And something told him that she hadn't saved him completely selflessly. Common sense dictated cooperation. Unless he wanted to get into worse shit than he is now.
"I'll help you chase him down," he said in a firm tone. The handshake only completed the pact.
"Then the sooner we get on the road, the better." She smiled crookedly. "You were unconscious for three days. During this time, I snooped around a bit and I hope the guy didn't realize he had a bug installed..."