Chapter Text
Angry red beeps blared, filling the cockpit along with the vibrations of the controls. The toggle wasn’t responding to the pilot’s maneuvers, and the buttons would do nothing to save them now.
Mando felt the engine sputter in his seat. He didn’t need to look out the window to check if the orange light still roared. The Crest was careening towards the desert planet before them, its gravity pulling it forward in an unavoidable grasp.
Mando reached up to adjust the landing gear. He’d be lucky if they popped. That battle had ended so badly Mando was almost embarrassed.
He’d gotten distracted. Mandalorians don’t get distracted.
The child whimpered behind him from the pram. Mando tightened his grip on the controls. He couldn’t say anything to make this up. He’d already traumatized the poor kid enough.
Loud bangs jostled the Crest from behind. The bay door was swinging open and shut. In the silence, Mando could almost hear the faint buzzing of the emergency lights in the lower decks.
He felt the shift as soon as it happened. Mando reached back and shut the pram and secured it, so the kid would be safe. The cockpit door was shut, securing what little oxygen they had in the cockpit.
This was going to be a rough landing.
The roar of the gravity kicked in, the Crest barely managing to hold together as the desert planet filled the windows.
Heat filled the cabin as the ship broke the atmosphere. The roaring filled Mando’s ears, and he braced himself as the ship picked up speed, the sandstorms swirling around them, the kid crying behind him--
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Kae Soota was just on the last wire of the abandoned battle droid when an enormous impact jostled her grip, and the tiny wire was lost. She swore. She’d just spent the last hour trying to get a good grip on that stupid wire only to have to start over again.
A burst of sand blew into the gaps of her shack of a house. Kae frowned. She’d studied the sandstorms on this pathetic planet for the past four years, and this was different. Sandstorms here only fell on every fifth night because of the storm patterns.
This was definitely different. The wind had been powerful enough to crack her door open. Kae squeezed her eyes shut, and blindly reached for her goggles and sand clothes. Once she was well protected, she headed out into the desert.
And what she saw in the distance made her heart leap, then sink to the ground.
Leaped, because there was a way to get out of here.
Sank, because smoke was coming out of it.
Either way, maybe she had a chance.
“Come on, Q!” she yelled at the shed, where her only companion would be tinkering away.
A refurbished battle droid emerged at the entrance, holding something very similar to a decapitated brother. “What is it?” he called in a metallic voice.
“Look! A ship!” Kae grabbed her staff and began to sprint in the direction of what could very well be her only way home.