The Mandalorian

by FourShadow


Chapter 1: The Assignment

"Trust placed in another is trust earned."

Evil plans! As the battles for control of the galaxies continue, so do the desire for more power and forces for the Storm Army! Storm commander Varan must track down special cargo being protected by Jedi Knight Lyra Heartstrings under orders from the Storm King! With many attempts and zero progress, he finds himself desperate and must now call on the help of money grubbing bounty hunters to bring back this mysterious cargo...

Several figures sat in various chairs in a very dimly lit room. A motley collection of hunters of different species all gathered together. The only noise that was ever heard in the room was the sound of some chairs swiveling, or the low growling of others.

A Trandoshan sitting in a chair glared at a woman hidden under a blue helmet with pink markings, and she got similar glares from the extremely pale woman sitting across from her. Her long bony fingers tapped on the table, making every tap echo throughout. Each tap was sounding like a ticking bomb to the masked woman's ears, and she hated it. But she wasn't about to cause a scene before their benefactor arrived.

"So. What'sss your sssstory?" The Trandoshan asked the pale woman, getting no answer.

"Where is that infernal general who sent out the call? I'm starting to believe this is nothing more than a scam," said a bounty hunter with the white hood.

"Wouldn't be the first time it came from the Storm Army," a Zabrak woman commented, twirling a dagger in her hand.

The doors swished open, and footsteps pattered down the hall and into the room. A man in a formal commanding officer suit had marched into the room with a serious scowl. Today was not his day, but he was not going to fail again. His face was stern as he was more than ready to get this meeting done and over with...

"Afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I'm sure you all are wondering why I asked you all to come here on this station instead of meeting somewhere more public. Well that's because I require all of your help on this important mission, hence the want ads I had delivered across the galaxy. And I am glad you all answered..." He turned his head to look at a man with blue skin and blood red eyes, wearing a long coat and hat. "Cad Bane, who needs no introduction. You are one of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy. I could use your skills in tracking down this cargo," Varan said, getting a nod from the hunter.

"Aurra Sing..." A pale-skinned woman, tall and regal with skeletal hands, an orange outfit with twin blasters and a sniper outfit, and dark sunken in eyes looked at him. "Your sniper skills make you one of the best hunters money can buy. I could use you. Embo and Sugi..."

Two figures looked up. A pale Zabrak in a marroon tank top and shotgun held in a holster, along with a purple horn sticking out the back of her head smirked. The other was Kyuzo, who wore a mask on his face, and a circular hat/helmet shield, holding a bowcaster weapon on his back. "You two work quite well together. I'm sure you two can work together on this assignment. IG-88..."

An assassin droid with a swiveling head stood tall and straight, holding a few pistols next to his sides along with a rifle.

"You're one of the strongest IG units man has ever built. Use your skills wisely." Looking to the side, he could see a human wrapped in a brown and white armored suit, with a white hood covering most of his head and face. Next to him was a Trandoshan with a yellow jumpsuit and a slithering noise coming from his breath.

"Dengar. Bossk. I understand you two are formidable hunters. I trust you two will take this job seriously."

Now the final bounty hunter was given attention; a woman in Mandalorian armor, with a dark blue and gray color scheme, and light pink markings on her helmet.

"The one who didn't give me a name, but simply asked that I state you as... the Mandalorian," he said.

The helmeted woman gave one nod, acknowledging him.

"Yes, yes. Anyways, now that you are all present, now is the time I explain the mission. My group of Stormtroopers and I have been tasked to track down a precious cargo that is being held by this Jedi Knight," he projected a hologram of the individual. "Lyra Heartstrings. She's protecting valuable cargo, and has evaded our every attempt at obtaining the treasure she's hiding."

"So you want us to kill her?" Bossk asked, hissing.

"No, my friend. I want that cargo found and brought back to this station in one piece; I do not want it damaged or destroyed. If I find out that it is, no one will be getting paid, and I will be putting the prices on your heads so large, you won't be going near a civilized system."

The bounty hunters exchanged glances with one another.

"Now, I will say this. You may use any strategy or means to get the cargo back, but I want it in one piece. If you have to eliminate those who stand in your way, then do it. But I want it back. Whoever gets it to me, will receive a generous reward of 50,000. Do I make myself clear?"

Everyone gave resounding affirmations of yes.

"Good. Now go, you must bring it back to me. Oh, and one more thing; our spies have tracked the cargo over on Arvala-7. Now get going, and don't come back here until you have the asset."

Everyone was given permission to leave, and so one by one they all left. The Mandalorian waited for everyone else to leave, and then she left, walking right behind everyone else.

So I'm competing against the best bounty hunters in the galaxy. This may be harder than I thought...

Outside the base, there were several ships parked in a few landing spots, all of them reserved for the bounty hunters. There in the other lot, there were only Storm Empire ships and cruisers.

Two astromech droids were waiting for her. One was an R4 series droid with a black cone dome with black legs, a gray torso, and some gold streaks running down the torso and the head. The other was a smaller astromech with a gray dome with yellow streaks, and a gray body with dark gray feet. And two panels opened up showing two small articulating hands that waved at her as she came to the ship.

"Yes, I'm back Cheep, G-G. Start up the ship, we've got to get going, we have our coordinates!"

The Mandalorian's steel boots walked to her ship and marched up the hatch and inside. She slammed the button to close the hatch behind her, waiting for it to fully seal. Climbing up a ladder, she moved up into the main cockpit, strapping herself in, with her astromechs sitting inside, waiting for her. They flipped on some controls, and the Mandalorian entered the coordinates.

"Next stop, Arvala-7."

The thrusters ignited, pulling the ship off the ground and into the air. The landing gear folded inside the ship and the thrusters spun around so they could take off for the skies. The hyperdrive powered up, and in a flash it shot out of the planet's atmosphere on its way to Arvala-7.


As the ship was set on autopilot, the Mandalorian took this time to move over to her workstation, and try to see if she could build something new. She dug through some metal bins, pulling out some spare droid parts. Arms, legs, fingers, some heads, a bunch of random junk. And nearby, G-G stood still, waiting for word if she needed help.

"Birt brrt beep brt?"

"No G-G, I don't need your help right now. I'm just trying to see if I have anything available for another commando... there has to be something..."

"Beep bop boop brit brr."

"I can't just stop to buy something, I'm saving up for more Jawa Juice."

She pulled out a few arms, mostly just standard battle droid arms. She grabbed two, setting them down on the workbench table, next to the torso that had yet to be finished with the rest of the body. And eventually she found a set of legs to go with it; mismatched, but they would have to do. Only one problem.

She dug through another bin, scrounging around like mad, but wound up frustrated. She slammed the box on the ground and rubbed at the top of her helmeted head. And there laid the problem; she had all limbs, but no heads. Another market trip she was gonna have to make, not something she was particularly fond of. Shopping wasn't an issue, but shopping on the black market with all of the shady customers and vendors; it was the seedy underworld of markets. Never know if you're truly buying something valuable, or if you're being conned for your cash. She almost fell for a scam to get incredibly valuable armor and items, but found out soon that it was nothing more than a cash-grab by a shady snake-oil salesman.

"Chirp?"

"What is it Cheep?"

"Chirp chirp chirrrrp chirp."

"We've arrived?"

"Chirp!"

"Okay, I'm coming up," she said. "We'll have to see about making some new ones later, G-G. We're going to have to hit the Tatooine market again."

The Mandalorian climbed up the ladder and got back into the cockpit, sitting back down in the pilot control chair. The ship burst through the planet's atmosphere, slowly heading straight down on some open space, just near a small cliff that led down a hill to a small base. Landing gear unfolded and a pair of legs gently sat on the ground, while the engines slowly powered down.

Climbing down the ladder, the Mandalorian looked at a wall, revealing a docking type of system which had a few bipedal droids standing, currently offline. Most of them were droids she had started to build but had to stop halfway in between, mainly because she had a job to do or not enough time for herself.

Pressing a button, she walked right past them and down the walkway hatch to the outside. She jumped from out of her ship, landing on her feet. Her head went up, looking ahead at the rocky valley. And several figures jumped from the ship right beside her; rebuilt, reprogrammed and repurposed commando droids. Most of them were in peak condition, but some had one or two parts reused from other battle droids. Regardless, they still were functional. And there was even some small marks that the Mandalorian had branded them with so she could make sure they were hers, with the addition of some paint.

The group ran down the path, stopping alongside some bigger rocks to take cover. They were sitting on top of a cliff, and just up ahead was the base they needed to go to. But there was one problem; guards were outside, Ithorian ones at that. And with plenty of guns. The Mandalorian pulled out a set of binoculars, looking down at the activity below, looking around. And a commando droid next to her looked as well, searching for any guards.

Ten guards posted outside,” the commando droid responded.

“Should be easy.”

Wait a minute. New target,” the second commando droid responded, pointing with his replacement arm.

“What new target?”

The bounty hunter looked up, and now she understood who he was referring to. Aurra Sing, marching up to the guards ever so casually. One of the guards saw her and started grumbling at her, yelling something in their native language.

Aurra however did not get scared so easily and she did not pull back. Instead she just faced the one Ithorian who got up close, watched as he went for his gun and—

BAM!

The guard went down, and Aurra’s hands swung her pistols out as she shot the other two standing guards, even looking up at the ones coming from behind her and from up on top of one of the buildings.

“There goes the element of surprise,” the Mandalorian groaned. “Come on, we better get down there.”

The Mandalorian and the commando droids jumped and slid down the cliff they were on, creating dust clouds right behind them. Running into the base, the group threw themselves against some cover just as a precaution.

“Aurra!”

Aurra spun around and nearly shot the Mandalorian who dropped to the ground from near shock. “Hey, hey! I was hired with you! I’m in the Guild for crying out loud,” she yelled, holding up her badge.

“You’re a Guild member?”

“Yes, Aurra, I am,” the Mandalorian retorted. “Now can you not shoot me for two seconds?”

“The bounty is mine. I want that fifty-thousand credits,” Aurra snarled.

“Well in case you didn’t notice, you’re empty handed. And I don’t know how well you plan to get inside just by yourself, regardless of how tough you are.”

Aurra glared at her. “Big talk coming from someone who had to come here with commando droids.”

The Mandalorian growled, looking at the entrance, and then back at Aurra. “How about this; since neither one of us are going to be able to get inside, how about we bust down these guards together? We can shoot them all out, my droids can restrain the Jedi, we get the cargo and split the reward. Fair enough?”

Aurra was honestly thinking of just shooting her in the helmet and ending it now, she didn’t want to be sharing with anyone. But on the other hand, she heard the rumors of how tough these commando droids were and she had things she wanted to do before she died so she wasn’t about to risk it. And if this bounty hunter was as good as the Storm general made her out to be, maybe she could be useful.

“Fine. We’ll bring in this cargo together. But do not get in my way,” Aurra warned.

“You too.”

A red laser shot at a can nearby, and Aurra ran for cover, hiding in the same space as the Mandalorian and her crew of droids. The two of them held their heads back, avoiding being blasted in the heads.

"Okay boys, time to fight! Go!"

The commando droids all rolled out and took cover and positions to shoot at the incoming guards. Some hid behind some debris like cans and the fountain in the middle of the base, others took positions behind beams, sniping at targets up on some of the buildings or coming around the stairs.

One of the guards shot a commando droid in the chest, which did hit it enough to make it bend his back so far he was about to fall... except he just flipped his upper torso back up and just kept shooting.

"I see why you picked commando droids as partners," Aurra commented, firing at some more Ithorians, blasting some of them in the heads.

"They have tough armor, but they're not unstoppable," The Mandalorian said, firing rapid shots to the legs of the guards as opposed to the heads.

"Why are you shooting their legs?"

"Can't run after you without being able to stand, now can they?"

The women ducked their heads from another laser blast, striking an empty fuel cell nearby.

"I'll take them out from that building there, I have a sniper rifle with me," Aurra yelled over the fire, charging for the stairs, shooting more guards along the way.

Rolling from the cover, she stood on her own two feet and fired with the best she got. Two guards hiding behind a barricade fired, and the Mandalorian fired back with two of her commandos, waiting for them to pop out of their space. Once they were back up, all three shot for the shoulders and weapons, taking them out at once. Another guard appeared from the left, holding a machine gun and shooting like a madman, but the commandos shot him more than his gun could.

Another guard came behind, ready to knock the Mandalorian down, but being swatted like a fly from the commando droid accompanied by Aurra firing a single laser into his head did the job. The commando droids saw her taking cover in one of the smaller buildings, right on top the roof. The woman loaded up her sniper rifle, getting into position. She focused it on one guard planning to shoot the Mandalorian in the back and BAM, he dropped dead. Another Ithorian tried to run straight at the intruders a little too late as a laser blast to the skull took care of him, and so did his friend who immediately ran for cover but ran too late.

She kept her eye looking through the scope as she surveyed the courtyard some more, looking for any more guards. Just a bunch of dead bodies on the floor, and a Mandalorian who gave her the all clear signal to come down. She put her rifle away and jumped off the ledge she was on, joining the rest of the group.

"Nice shots, Aurra," the Mandalorian complimented.

"Thanks kid. You're not bad, yourself," she said back. "But you missed one," she pointed to the last guard struggling to get up.

The Mandalorian snapped her fingers, and a single commando droid charged at him to finish him off. He swung a blade around, smacking him in the head hard enough to knock him unconscious. Same tactic used for taking down some of the clone troopers to move quick and fast.

"That should be the last of them, unless there are more inside the compound," the Mandalorian said, turning around with Aurra. The two looked at the doors, feeling how tough the outside was for a second. And off to the side was a control box, most likely locked. “Get these doors open,” the Mandalorian ordered.

Roger roger,” the commando droid replied. His fingers pried the box open, and his fingers started ripping a few of the cords. Some sparks sizzled until finally the doors opened. More guards appeared to blast them, but Aurra shot at them like a cowboy, not even flinching.

Finally, the doors slid open, revealing nothing but darkness inside. It was quiet, with no sounds but their own footsteps. Then in a micro-second, the silence died and a noise had broken it.

"Hold it right there, widowmaker!"

The sound of a lightsaber powering on got their attention, along with the minty green glow coming from the right of the room. A green woman with minty green skin, along with minty green and white hair, golden eyes, wearing tan Jedi robes with dark maroon boots.

"You! I remember you, Jedi brat!" Aurra snared. Her arm twisted out and shot another incoming guard without so much as even a stare.

"You know this Jedi?" The Mandalorian asked.

"Not personally," Aurra answered. "She left me for dead!"

"You assassinated a senator, you crashed an Alliance cruiser, and killed my clones!" Lyra retorted, still holding her lightsaber steady. "I'm honestly surprised you're back to work so soon," Lyra growled.

"Well a girl's gotta make a living." Aurra smirked. "And if you don't stand aside, I will have to kill you. I'd like to haul your carcass back to the Storm Army to make an example out of you, but my time is limited. Now get out of our way."

"Never."

Aurra chuckled evilly. "You really have a death wish today, don't you?"

She didn't give a warning before pulling out her pistols, shooting up a storm at Lyra who tried her best to block most of those blasts. But try as she could, she wasn't fast enough and she felt the hot stinging pain of a laser blast hitting her in the shoulder.

"AGH!"

Aurra laughed maniacally. "Not so tough as you made yourself out to be? Last time we met, I thought you made some claims about how great you are."

Lyra glared. "You're clearly thinking about Trixie. I never once declared myself as that great or powerful!"

"Whatever. Miss Mandalorian, I think your commandos can hold her, right? We should --"

A wailing noise interrupted their taunt-fest, just over in a corner. Lyra, Aurra, and the Mandalorian all looked over at a small hovering container looking thing where the noise came from. That noise, it sounded like... crying.

"What the heck...?"

"Commandos, keep her in place, but don't kill her."

Lyra was about to move but the commandos rushed in and grabbed her, holding her in place. Hands gripping her arms, and an arm went around her neck, holding her back even more.

“No,” Lyra whimpered, trying to fight. "Don't! That's not the cargo!"

The Mandalorian ignored her, and pulled the top off. But when she and Aurra looked inside--

"What?”

A small fuzzy blanket was seen inside the containment piece, underneath a plush snail. A soft pale hand slowly moved the covers off, revealing more of her blue and purple hair. Two soft blue eyes opening and blinking, looking at the two figures standing above her, clearly afraid.

“A baby…?” The Mandalorian gasped. “I thought they said this was cargo, how is this… this is not…”

Aurra did not like the sound of her voice. “Don't tell me you're thinking of quitting this job, are you now?” Aurra said, raising a brow.

“When they hired us, they said to pick up cargo. They never said this 'cargo' was a living child! I will happily steal spice, fuel, weapons, jewelry, credits, I'll even steal a lightsaber, whatever! But taking a child?”

Aurra smirked. “Then if you don't mind, I'll be taking the bounty on this one. After I eliminate our Jedi friend here.”

The guns turned around and pointed at Lyra who still struggled to fight her restraints against the commando droids.

“Hold on, why kill the Jedi?” The Mandalorian asked.

“Oh you didn’t know? I’ve been told that Jedi lightsabers are rather valuable. I think hers might give me a bigger paycheck.”

Lyra couldn’t see a way out of this one. She was held by commando droids, two bounty hunters were outmatching her, and she had no friends out here who could step in to stop her. But as her eyes were slowly closing to await death’s cold embrace…

ZAP.

She heard a body fall and hit the floor. Opening up her eyes, she saw Aurra Sing had dropped to the floor, unconscious. And the Mandalorian’s gun slowly moving back into her holster. She assumed she had used a stun blaster, if she hadn’t killed her. But she was completely shocked; this bounty hunter just turned on that other hunter, unwilling to take the baby. But why?