The Mandalorian

by FourShadow

Chapter 7: Rescue Mission

Author's Note:

We've got one more chapter to go everybody! And it's gonna be a fun one

The bounty hunters took a quick trip through hyperspace, arriving outside the planet of Sullust. A barren obsidian world filled with lava streams. Thrusting through the clouds, they found a space to land on a landing pad, slowly descending down and letting the landing gear unfold and touch the ground.

First to walk out was Cad Bane and Aurra Sing, and right behind them was Sugi and Embo holding a beaten-up Mandalorian in their arms. IG-88, Bossk, and Dengar soon walked out as well, joining the group. The Storm Guards at the entrance let them inside, and just gave little grunts as they walked on by.

And right before them was Commander Varan who was awaiting them, hands behind his back.

"Let's make this fast, tight pants. We want our payment and we want it now," Dengar insisted, cocking a gun at him.

"Relax, my comrade. Just go into the meeting room where we all met before, I have some business to attend to first."

Two commando droids moved in to take the Mandalorian off the bounty hunters hands, and the seven of them hesitantly walked further down the hall to go back to the meeting room where they had all met. Varan just growled, keeping a neutral face as adjusted his suit. "At least Zuckess and 4-LOM were easy to negotiate with," Varan grumbled, walking past them.

Ignoring the bounty hunters, Varan followed his two commando units underground to the prison chambers. Once the door was open, the Mandalorian was tossed into a containment field, and magnetic cuffs held her arms and legs up, hoisting her up in the air in a restrained position. She lifted her head to gaze at the commando droids that were clearly not on her side, glaring at them intensely. If only these droids were on her side, they wouldn't have been slaves to this vicious army...

The well dressed commander marched inside, demeanor as cold as the Storm Army's attacks. He looked at the Mandalorian held captive, not changing his facial expression in the slightest.

"So you're the one who got the child away from me. Sad. You would have been given an extraordinary payment beyond your wildest dreams," Varan glared.

"You were going to do horrible things to that baby. It doesn't take a scientist to understand why you wanted it."

"Who said I wanted to do bad things to it?" Varan snared. "I won't beat around the bush. I don't want to harm that baby. I wanted it so she could be raised. Nurtured. Learn to live among our kind, and to grow with the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the Storm Army... and many others dedicated to our cause."

"Just to turn into another killing machine to wipe out those who don't agree to your views," Mando spat, trying to yank her wrists from her bonds.

"You're siding with the Republic now?"

"No. I'm just stating the painfully obvious, you greased weasel," the woman growled, mocking Varan's accent.

Varan wasn't really emotionally affected. He just smirked as he got uncomfortably close to her body. "Now I'm curious. What are you hiding underneath that helmet?"

Varan moved his hands up, gripping the sides of her helmet. Mando wanted to fight back, but she couldn't. Her hands couldn't grab or move at all, and it was too late. Her helmet came off, and the commander just let it slam onto the ground.

Varan guffawed. "Wow. You know, for someone who hides behind a mask, that is not a face I certainly expected. I honestly thought you would be much uglier."

Her teeth, now visible, were grit and snarling. But this didn't phase the Mandalorian.

"So tell me, lady Mandalorian. You spent the past few days running and hiding to protect the child and the Jedi from us, and the other bounty hunters... yet you choose to work alone."

Mando spat, "I work alone with droids."

"Oh, oh, I'm sorry, with droids. I forgot, you view them as people, unlike us flesh and blood," Varan scoffed, folding his arms with a smug expression. "Funny thing though. You see these metallic beings as living things... yet they are nothing more than buckets of bolts programmed to do what we tell them to."

"Droids are reflections of those who program them. Just like my crew," Mando argued.

Varan then reached his hand to her face, grabbing her by the jaw and yanking her a little close so he could be even more up close to her. Extremely close. "If you were smart, you'd learn to keep your trap shut. I'd gag you but I need some information from you anyway. And by the way... take this as a piece of advice. You can't replace human emotions for lifeless metal trash." His hand let go, pushing her face away from him. "You say you have a crew, but I don't see your crew around. I must say though, if your crew does show up, I will be very surprised."

Another painful shock of electricity was sent through her body, making her scream in agony.

"I'm not wasting my time with you. Where did you take the asset!?"

"I... won't... say... a thing!" The woman panted, trying not to pass out. "I won't tell you a thing! Even if I have to die, I still won't talk. I rather die protecting them than to live and give them up."

"That can easily be arranged," Varan sneered.

One of the commando droids spun an electrostaff around and jabbed it right in her stomach, making her yell out in pain and agony. Her head hung down as she panted heavily, trying not to faint or collapse on the spot.

"Why not just kill me!?"

"Because I want you to suffer. I want you to experience every ounce of pain that penetrates your body, and watch as your energy slowly gives away. I want to witness your demise. Lucky for you, I have other business to attend to at the moment. So, I'll just let you sit there and suffer. I'll come back when I feel like making you suffer some more. Troopers, come."

The two hairy beasts grunted and followed Varan out of the interrogation room, leaving Mando all on her own as she tried to keep herself together and not pass out or faint. She wriggled her wrists around, trying to break out. There had to have been some way to get freed. And she had to get out of here, but how?

---

Back On Naboo...

Lyra sat at a small makeshift table, made out of cargo containers that were sitting inside the hangar. Lyra sat at one end with the baby sitting in a high chair, and Derpy sitting across from her. The Bakers Batch troopers were also sitting with them, all enjoying a delicious lunch. Only one problem; Flurry was pouting in her chair, refusing to eat.

"Flurry, come on sweetie, you need to eat," Lyra said sweetly, patting her head. "You want to grow big and strong, don't you?" Flurry kept pushing her food away, much to Lyra's annoyance. "Flurry, come on." She thought some more, how to get her to eat? Any other times, there was no problem. When Flurry was hungry, she took her food as told. But Lyra wasn't going to hold back. "Flurry?"

The baby pouted, until she saw what Lyra was holding. Her little snail plushie that she always loved to snuggle with at night. She gasped in delight, and Lyra took that opportunity to quickly give her a spoonful of that food. The baby coughed in disgust, but she didn't hack up the food.

"Thank you."

Flurry folded up her arms, pouting.

"Okay, fine, if you don't want to eat now, you don't. But you cannot refuse it forever, understand?" Lyra said, sternly as she pointed a finger at Flurry.

The baby nodded, understanding.

"Good. Now, I will let you down so you can get back to your drawing," Lyra said, getting up. She helped get the baby out of her high chair and set her down on the floor next to her crayons and papers. Someone was kind enough to give them to Flurry to keep herself occupied since they didn't exactly have anything else around here momentarily. But it was effective, and it did keep Flurry's happiness at a good high. "So Derpy, please, talk to me, what has been happening in your world?"

The wall-eyed girl shrugged. "Um, not really anything. We've been doing well on some missions, I'm glad about that. We almost were defeated on Ryloth, but we did fine there. And since we've been doing so good we were granted more access for ships and expansions of troops."

Lyra smiled softly. "That's nice. Any new boys added to the Baker's Batch?"

"Well we did get a new guy, Vargas," trooper Mix said, gesturing to the new 'shiny' next to him who just awkwardly waved.

"Nice to meet you Vargas," Lyra nodded.

"Oh did you tell her the big news?" Bubbles asked.

"Which one?"

"The first one."

Derpy squeaked. "Oh that! Kamino finally approved the commission of Phase II armor, we're going to get Phase II armor next week!"

"That's great Derpy. ... Too bad all my troops are dead, but that's great!"

"Yep! We even got word from Captain Rex, he and the 501st have gotten new armor. Jesse, Hardcase, Kix, Tup, all of them!"

"And how are they doing?" Lyra asked.

Just then, Lyra felt her sleeve being tugged at by an invisible force. Looking down, she saw Flurry reaching her arm out to get her attention, giggling as she pat her arms on the floor. The Jedi nanny could see Flurry had been finished something she wanted to share.

"Hey sweetie, what are you drawing?" Lyra asked.

The little baby raised her picture up, letting Lyra take a look at it. The picture just made her heart snap. A rough display of the baby, herself, and just based on the blue and black scribbles, she saw the Mandalorian woman. She frowned a little, remembering how she left so quickly even though she was offered protection.

And when she looked down, she saw Flurry whimpering some more. She was pawing at a small picture which had apparently been taken inside the ship. Cheep, the astromech droid had apparently snapped a photo and found a way to make it a physical form, showing the Mandalorian holding her and tucking her back into her crib.

"Oh, Flurry..." Lyra slowly picked up the baby. "Sweetie, I'm so sorry, I know you miss her, but I just don't think she'll be coming back."

Just then, a clone captain came running into the hangar, looking for the group who was on their break. “Commander, an unidentified ship is coming this way,” the captain reported. “Looks like a freighter of some kind.”

Lyra was confused. “Kind of a strange transport to be coming back here…”

The Jedi joined the clones and watched as a ship started to fly into the hangar… the same ship that she had been taken onto for the entire trip back. The sight alone made her heart beat, and a smile come back on her face. “She’s back?”

“She, general?” Bubbles asked.

“The Mandalorian, that’s the bounty hunter who brought me here,” Lyra said.

Bubbles and the rest of the Baker's Batch stood together and held their guns to fight as a line of defense, unknowing of the inhabitants of the bounty hunting vessel. The hatch slowly opened up with several amount of steam hissing through. She waited for her to come through, was she going to see her again? Was she finally going to see her once more?

Sadly no, as the only things coming out of the ship were two screaming astromechs who fell and bounced out of the hatch and onto the ground, slamming right on their faces.

“Cheep? G-G?”

Lyra set the baby down and ran over and picked up Cheep, getting him back on his legs, and then did the same to G-G. Their dome heads spun around in several circles, trying to get themselves back to normal, or at least mostly normal.

“Chorup, chirp chirp chirp!”

“Slow down guys, what’s wrong?”

“General, you know these droids?” Bubbles asked.

“They belonged to the Mandalorian. What’s wrong guys?” Lyra said again, petting them both.

“Bwoop boop bwoooo. Brt beep bwoop boop.”

“Captured? Wait, how, who?”

“Chirp chirp chirp. Chirip.”

Lyra was now scared. “Oh no… I knew something like that was going to happen, I just knew it. Why didn’t she try to call for help?”

“Bwoop brt brt beep bwoop.”

“Caught before she got a chance, okay that makes sense,” Lyra tilted her head, scrunching at her temples. “But why didn’t she stay, if she knew this was the case? We could have helped her!”

“Chirp chirp?”

Lyra sighed. “I’ll ask her that myself." But then she got an idea. A wonderful idea. One that made her give a mischievous smirk to the two robots in front of her. "Do you two feel a little frisky?”

The two droids nodded in agreement.

“Bweep bwoop brt boop.”

“We're going to do a little rescuing, boys. Can I count on you two?”

"Wait, where are you going?" Derpy asked, watching as Lyra took the baby in her hands and ran into the ship with the two astromechs.

"I have to go rescue someone! If I'm not back, contact the Temple and tell them to send forces to... um, Cheep, where did you say she was at?"

"Chirp churp."

"Sullust, okay! Send an assault force on Sullust! I'll be back!"

Derpy didn't have time to reply, because the hatch soon closed afterwards. Lyra climbed up to the cockpit, setting the baby down in the metal crib that was still left inside up, and pulling herself in the seat. Except, she felt herself just a little too close to the controls.

"Geez, Mando has the seat so close, how can she drive like this?" Lyra huffed, trying to adjust her seat. She pulled the seat back, and activated the engines, prepping for takeoff. Everyone in the hangar got away from the ship as it started to jump. Flames burst from the engines as it thrust out of the hangar and so it left, zooming up into the sky.

The calculations were made, and the navigation was set, and so the ship jumped into hyperspace to Sullust.

---

While the ship was making good time, Lyra decided to lend a hand to Cheep and G-G below deck. The blasts on the droids had done severe damage, and she needed to help them get them patched up. The two astromechs thankfully knew how to repair them and knew how to bring them back up, while Lyra was more of just an assistant. Sure she tinkered with a droid now and then, but she wasn't any expert. Ships yes, but bots? Not so much.

Note to self, learn droid repair from Mando.

In the time they were onboard, two of the commando droids had been activated once again, and they were able to provide help for a third unit. Only problem was they were on a time crunch and couldn't turn on all four. Lyra would have to settle for three.

The final circuits were fused, and the third of the four commando droids were up and walking again. It looked at Lyra. “Thank you friend. How can we repay you?”

“We need to rescue the Mandalorian,” Lyra suggested, standing back up. “You guys are tough, right?”

“We are,” the commando droid responded.

“Then let’s use that to our advantage. But I need your help with some other things first,” Lyra ordered, helping sit K2's body on the construction table.

“Roger roger.”

--

Eventually the ship arrived, doing a few circles around the land to try and find a good spot to land. Their eyes soon set on an empty landing pad, parked next to one of the shuttles. The crew stared out the cockpit windows, trying to look around and get a feel of the place.

"I cannot calculate how many Storm guards, troopers, or battle droids are inside the base," K2 said, looking through the windows.

"Rats. But what about the guards?" Lyra pouted.

"Bwoop beep bweep."

"No G-G, I'm not going to turn over the baby," Lyra said. She rubbed her temples, thinking for a moment. Her eyes looked over to the crib, and a lightbulb flickered over her head. “I have an idea.”

The hatch opened up, and their attention was given to the Storm Guards still standing outside the entrance. The big hairy beasts growled and glared at the returning intruders. And some battle droids were also drawn to the ship opening up as well.

Some metal footsteps clanked, echoing as they walked out the ship. A pair of purple and gold legs walking out first, following by leather boots, and more metal feet. K2-B4 walked out first, Lyra Heartstrings walked behind him with a set of electro-cuffs, and the rest of the Mandalorian’s commando droid crew walked close behind. The hovering crib came behind them, with G-G close to it, covering their tracks.

“Our arrival is long overdue,” K2 stated. “We have captured the Jedi and the wanted asset.”

The guards looked at each other, and then to the crew that was with the tactical droid. Seemed normal enough, nothing suspicious out of the ordinary. Their staffs moved out of the way, allowing K2 and his pack to walk inside.

“Thank you.”

The droids and Lyra marched inside, receiving some glares from the Stormtroopers and battle droids, but their attention was completely gone once they had walked inside. K2 led the group around the corner, away from the security cameras and into a space where they could sit momentarily. The first commando droid fired a shot at the nearby cameras, hopefully disabling them for the time being.

With surveillance off them, K2 removed the electro-cuffs off of Lyra, freeing her wrists. And one of the commandos pulled her lightsaber out from behind his back and gave it back to her.

“Excellent. Okay, here’s the plan. We need to find the prison cells and get Mando out. We have one job and one job only, and that’s getting her freed. K2, and two commandos, can you find the security offices? We need to find out where she's being held."

"Roger roger."

"Excellent. While you three go, I'll take the other commando and G-G to do a search. Let us know if you run into any problems, and stay online."

"Yes, Master Jedi," K2 nodded.

The group of three went on their way, leaving Lyra, G-G, and the other commando droid to set off on their own path. Lyra's team ran around a corner, ducking the security cameras

"Flurry should be safe on the ship with Cheep and Bee, and they should contact our friends for help if this goes wrong. Now let us get going!"

--

The tactical droid and two commandos wandering the halls, completely blending in with everyone else within this outpost. Not one person or droid suspected that these three were completely out of place, as luck would have it. K2's finger hit the button, and the doors opened up. Inside were a few other battle droids, monitoring security and parts of the base. And in the command chair was a lowly tactical droid, only difference being the colors he was blazed with.

"Who are you?" The tactician asked.

K2 looked to his two commando compatriots who closed the doors behind him and cocked their guns. The battle droids didn't have time to react, as the commandos jumped all around and blasted each of their heads before they could have a chance to fight. Even the tactical droid sitting in the command chair didn't get a fighting chance, he was just blasted on the spot.

K2 pushed his body out of the chair and sat down, looking at the controls in front of him. His fingers typed, looking through the systems. Finally some screens came up, revealing the security cameras for the cells. One of them finally came up, showing the Mandalorian struggling to break free. Looking down, K2 saw a release button and pressed it, watching as the Mandalorian was dropped from her containment field and onto the ground.

Just then, a small button was blinking on the console, insisting that the tactician or whoever was in charge answer it. He didn't hesitate and pressed the button.

"This is Central Command. Please identify yourself."

"TX, it's me you malfunctioning clanker! Look, I'm going to be in a long meeting with these bounty hunters and trying to get them to understand they aren't getting paid, so make sure the Mandalorian doesn't escape! She knows where they are, and we can still use it."

"Affirmative commander."

"Good, now--wait a minute. What happened to your voice? You sound funny."

"A small malfunction, sir, nothing to be concerned about," K2 finished, hanging up right away and not letting the commander talk back. He got up from the seat, looking to the two commandos. "We must move quickly before he finds us."

"We have another problem," one of the commandos said, giving K2 a manifest. The purple and gold tactical droid stared at the console, reading the signals and logs that had been put into the device.

"We must find the Jedi at once."

Meanwhile, Lyra, G-G, and the other commando unit moved down the hallway, trying to avoid being caught by anyone or anythign in sight. So far, so good. No sign of any hostiles to be afraid of. And everyone that passed by so far hadn't questioned the fact that a commando droid had two odd limbs attached.

"Droid."

Okay, now someone did. A Stormtrooper (one of many things the Storm Empire tried to make of their own) stood in front of them.

"Where are you taking this prisoner?"

The commando unit froze. He looked back to Lyra, and then back to the Stormtrooper. "I am taking the prisoner to the prison cells."

"And what happened to your arm?"

The commando looked down, noticing that he a glaringly obvious B1 battle droid arm as a replacement. "I lost it, and was repaired with this one."

"No droid just loses an arm and gets repaired. You better step aside," the trooper insisted.

"Excuse me, I think this guy's got me just fine!" Lyra complained.

"Why aren't you cuffed?" The Stormtrooper pulled out a com device. "Okay, someone send some repair crews, we need to run--agh!"

The commando droid knocked the com device from his hand and swung a sword out. Lyra, in one of the few times she did, gave a smug grin on her face as she looked at him. "Knock him out."

"Roger roger."

The commando droid swung the blade around, conking him on the head hard enough to knock him out. But that was enough to get attention from some nearby battle droids walking around.

"Get them!"

Lyra pulled out her lightsaber quickly, igniting the blade to attack. The battle droids opened fire and Lyra blocked as many of the blasts as she could. The reprogrammed commando unit pulled out his gun and moved against the wall in a defense position, blasting away at the droids as they came.

Two of them were shot down, leaving four more left to go. Lyra ran up to them, slicing up one of the weapons and Force-pushing him against the ground, letting him clatter and bounce. Another one was kicked and sliced in half, while the other two received shots from the repurposed commando.

Lyra almost panicked, seeing one was still online, but thanks to G-G zapping him, he stayed dead. But she heard another coming right behind her. The minty Jedi jabbed her lightsaber into the droid coming behind her, and her face drooped when she saw it was a tactical droid. But by the time she could react, it was too late. The tactician dropped and collapsed on the ground, now destroyed. And around the corner, Lyra saw K2-B4 appear from the doors with the two commandos. The Jedi sighed in relief, glad that she didn't destroy her ally. Frankly speaking, she felt stupid. How did she miss the painfully obvious colors in front of her?

"Did you know that wasn't me?" K2-B4 questioned.

"... No, I didn't. I thought I screwed up. Wait, what are you doing back, did you get the intel?"

"Affirmative," K2 said, holding up a manifest. "She is located in prison cell 11-12-19. But there appears to have been a connection made with Storm forces on Kijimi and Mygeeto."

Lyra's eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

"Transmission logs show Commander Varan has contacted Storm Army forces to extract the Mandalorian."

And then Lyra facepalmed. "Fun. Well we better find her before any more get here. Although just based on how much Varan's wanting to go, I doubt the Storm King or Tempest will want to pursue this quest any further. Come on, we better find her and get out of here."

"Agreed."

And so the crew set off on their way.

--

The Mandalorian was in pain from the drop, but she was still awake. She didn't know what force had freed her from her restraints, but she wasn't about to complain. But she had to get out of here! She saw her helmet just laying on the ground and she slowly reached her arm out trying to grab it. Her hand weakly clamped onto her helmet, and she slowly dragged it to her, carefully sliding it on top of her head. She was still breathing heavily, trying to keep her strength together. She had to get out of here somehow, she was not planning on dying today!

But just as her eyes were getting more tired, she heard a sound of something penetrating through the steel doors. Slowly, she moved her head up, seeing a bright green blade prodding through the sides of the door, and she watched it start to go up, and to the left, and back down like it was trying to cut the door down. It didn't work. And then she saw the blade just go straight through the door and start making random slices and motions all in the door to get it to cut, until it finally came down in a bunch of random pieces.

“What the?” The Mandalorian said, looking up.

“It's meeee!” Lyra squeed.

The Mandalorian tried to get up on her feet, but with very little success. She was able to look right up at her though, staring at her beautiful golden eyes with shock under the helmet. “You… you came for me.”

“I’m not going to let the Storm Empire just take you. And you haven’t done any crimes to my knowledge,” Lyra winked.

"I... I don't know what to say," Mando panted, trying not to collapse again.

“Before I bust you out of here, there’s something I must know… Why did you refuse my offer to stay with us on Naboo for sanctuary!?" Lyra snapped, making the Mandalorian almost jump in shock. "Am I annoying? Do you really not like me?” The Mandalorian was going to speak, but Lyra still kept on talking and it was starting to get annoying. And it didn’t help that Lyra was starting to go teary-eyed now. “Why did you just leave us like that, do we mean—”

“—I didn’t want to leave!”

A deafening silence filled the air as the two stared at each other.

“You… you didn’t want to leave?”

“I was about to, but I couldn't bring myself to go. Honestly I wanted to leave because I know the works of all of those bounty hunters, they do not care who dies or doesn’t if they get a good paycheck. And after everything that happened to get you safely back to Naboo, to get you far away from them, I… I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. I wanted to come back to you, but they found me.”

Lyra was in shock, but her open jaw slowly smiled. “You really care?”

“I do. So much so that… can’t believe I’m saying this, if your offer for protection of the Republic is still available… I’d be more than happy to devote myself to your cause at this point forward. I’m done with the Bounty Hunter's Guild at this point, I’m already a wanted criminal by them and all of these other hunters by now.”

Lyra grinned. “Let’s get you out of here first. Come on.”

She helped the bounty hunter get back on her feet, thankfully not tripping over anything in the way. Mando still had one hand gripping her side, feeling the pain from the shocks and punches.

“Can you still walk?”

“Yeah, I think so. But they took my guns, smart sleemos,” The woman growled. “My guns are all on my ship.”

Two of the commandos moved in and helped Mando stand on her feet. Now that she had some help, she could see better in front of her, taking in who were all of the allies before her. “I see my commandos, K2, and G-G. Where is Cheep?” The Mandalorian asked.

“Oh don’t worry, he's back on the ship."

“Chorup?”

Lyra’s eyes shrunk as she hit her com device. What he said was startling her. “Um… yes, Cheep?”

“Chorp chorp chorp chorp chorp.”

The Mandalorian took a moment, pausing as she looked flat into Lyra’s eyes. “You brought the baby, didn't you?”

“I did.”

“The baby escaped, didn't she?"

"She did."

"Did it at all occur to you that bringing the baby might not have been the best idea?”

“Highly!” Lyra grinned. Mando waited again, and Lyra’s smile faded. “… Oh dear.”

“Okay, lemme just ask you this straight…”, Mando said, struggling to stand up. “Are you out of your mind!?”

“I wasn’t thinking at the time!” Lyra protested.

“They’ll kill the baby!”

“Over my dead body they will,” Lyra pointed.

“That’s what I’m saying, you would be dead too in that scenario!” Mando groaned.

“Well I’m arguing against that!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Why are you yelling at me?”

“Because I love that baby and I don’t want to see it dead, you idiot!” The Mandalorian snapped.

Lyra scrunched at her own face. “I’m so stupid, what was I thinking!?”

“Well is there anyone else you brought with you that could look out for her!?”

--

In fact, there was. Back on the ship, a new droid had been activated. His long stiff legs stood on the ground, and two small little eyes spun around to analyze his location. Behind his back were two weapons to use for combat, and his head was as small and skinny like a cone. And only one objective was on his mind...

"To nurse and protect."

Comments

[Bouncer]

Ooh, an IG droid? This is gonna be good...

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

Nice work, Four. Can't wait to see how this all comes to a head!

[KingYakko5991]

DID YOU KNOW THAT WASN'T ME?

I was also really hoping the commando droid would say "I am taking them to imprison them... in prison."