Chapter Text
The rattle of one of the Corusaunt Bounty Guild's cheap transport ships hummed behind my helmet. I was sitting in one of the many unfilled seats of the cabin, looking at the floor and not in the mood to deal with any of the trigger-happy bounty hunters I had been paired with for this job. I only agreed to work with a team because high price bounties were running low these days, usually i prefer to be alone. Just me, my ship, and the galaxy. Its always been that way for me, since the empire rose that is.
"Never thought I would be working with a mandalorian" I looked to see it was a beefy looking Zabrak who said that. I ignored him, I was used to people being unfamiliar with seeing mandalorians in public. "What so you dont talk as well as not show your face, huh?"
I stared at him under my helmet, the few others of various species were looking at us now too. "I speak to those who are worthy of being spoken to" I replied with a sigh, "You are not one of them."
He started coming towards me, I was half expecting him to punch me in the face. Wouldn't do much of course, beskar was strong enough to hurt him more then me. I leaned back in my seat and looked out the window into hyperspace passing by, "Wow your ego is so sensitive you cant even take a fact you dont like." He stared at me, a disgusted expression on his tattooed face. "Its a wonder you managed to get this job."
"The stories never mentioned how kriffing rude mandalorians are." He actually came at me this time when another hunter stepped infront of him. An orange Twi'lek, short but looked strong enough.
"Hey... Hey.. were just here for the money, just get down there, finish the job, and we never have to see that mandalorian again." I slouched back down in my seat, the Twi' was right. Just get my money and leave.
The rattling engine smoothing out told me we were exiting hyperspace. The planet below looked grey and dead. We descended down to the surface, not long after passing through the planet's atmosphere something large collided with the ship. Dank farrik. We hadn't even landed and we were already being shot at. This ship had no guns so until we got to the surface we had no protection. The ship jostled again, how much more of this can this piece of junk take? I got my answer quickly enough when the front half of the ship was blasted off, leaving me and the other hunters falling down to the surface on half a ship. Screw this, I'll do the job myself. I jumped out of the ship and used my jetpack to fly down to the surface, hoping my black armor blended in with the dead foliage.
The explosion from the ship told me no one else had survived the crash, and I had no way off this planet even if I did complete the job. The tracker on my belt lead me to a small civilization in a pit in the ground. Looking around for entrances to thier uncovered bunker like town through the scanners on my helmet, I noticed a life form on the other side of the pit doing the exact same thing. Turning off my scanner I saw it was another mandalorian. Weird, I never ran into others of my kind outside the covert. I wasnt about to wait around for him to get the bounty before I did, so I got up, assessing the situation. A small group of a species I never bothered to learn the name of was wandering about, unaware of the attack they were about to face. They seemed unarmed, and shooting them seemed a bit cruel, even for me. Instead of reaching for my dual blasters as usual I went for my (retractable) beskar staff. This thing has got to be one of my favorite weapons, simple, yet can go to different lengths and modes for different tasks.
I lept into the pit, using my jetpack to soften the fall and imediatly started knocking people out with my staff. A few farther away had blasters which I deflected with my staff to thier surprise. With my path cleared I proceeded towards the building with the bounty inside. It was supposed to be some rare rock used for fuel in some ships, I didn't really care what it was as long as it was going to pay well. Half way across the town I heard another jetpack descending behind me. I knew that other mandalorian was coming sooner or later and soon he was going to wish he never came at all.
"Thanks for clearing them out for me." He said in an almost sarcastic tone. Up close I noticed his armor was new and shiny silver over a brown flightsuit. Clothing tells a lot about a person, I could tell he was not one to miss out on an expensive bounty.
"No problem" I responded, returning his sarcasm. "You after the same bounty?" I pointing towards the building my tracker lead me to.
"Yep"
"Well then I guess only one of us is going to be alive to get it."
"I hope you understand that that is going to be me."
Before I knew it the fist-to-fist combat had begun, he was bigger and heavier then I was, I would have to use my speed and flexibility to my advantage. I could dodge his attacks easily but when they did come they knocked me over easier then I expected. Remembering the attack forms the mandalorians of my own covert had taught me I used his weak points to jam his arm in a particularly painful direction.
"You fight better then I expected" I said trying to hold his arm in place long enough for him to collapse from pain, "I thought you wouldn't want to mess up your shiny armor."
I didn't even see what happened by the time I made contact with the ground again. I really underestimated this guy. Before I got back up again I grabbed the two Kyuzo Petar I have nested in each of my gauntlets. They lit with the familiar sound and red glow contrasting the black metal. It was time to fight how I do best. Using my jetpack for speed I lept towards the mandalorian, slashing both of my glowing weapons across his chestplate. I forgot they wouldn't do much against beskar for a few hits at least. I continued to use my speed to my benefit, trying to attack as swiftly as possible.
After a few minutes I got him on the ground, I quickly pulled out my staff and switched the tip to spear mode. I thrust the staff towards his neck, the weakest point on any mandalorian, but before it made contact I head the familiar click of a blaster pointed at me. I froze in place standing over the mandalorian, spear at his neck, his blaster pointed at mine.
It was silent for a minute as we both caught our breath until he spoke, "I guess we tie then, you willing to split the bounty?"
"Your not in much of a place to negotiate." I responded trying to find dominance in this situation.
"Neither are you."
I thought about it for a moment, but saw no other way out of this situation. "Fine. But I will need transportation back to Coruscant, the ship I came on was destroyed." I lowered my spear, still cautious he might shoot me, and walked towards the building leaving him on ground.