The Bounty | The Mandalorian

The Job

When you were a little girl, all you wanted to do was travel the galaxy, but you never imagined you'd travel like this. You were currently sitting next to a small, green, frog-like baby as a tin can hurtled his ship into hyperspace. You weren't fully sure what or who you were flying with, but apparently someone in the galaxy had it out for you. You wiggled your chained hands, being a hunter yourself, you could be out of the cuffs by now with a gun to the droid's....man's....alien's...the pilot's head, but something else was on your mind.

"Why didn't you put me in carbonate? I saw the equipment when we came in, you have the means and quite frankly you don't seem like the type to converse with your quarries." You glance at the bug-eyed toad staring at you. "Plus, I could be a danger to your kid. Do you have ears like that under the helmet too?"

"Don't make me change my mind." He obviously didn't find you amusing.

"AH! The tin-man, or should I say tin-thing, speaks!"  He turns to look at you through his visor, for a second you think he might actually freeze you. But instead, he looks as if he's studying you, making a decision. You wish you could crawl out of your skin. Life as a bounty hunter is full of distasteful comments, jabs, and bargaining, but that's not how he's looking at you. Call it a hunch, but he's trying to read you. "Ask me." You prompted, which only made him tilt his metal head to the left. The ship lurched, it was landing. Your stomach twisted as he rose from the captain's chair. You hadn't felt this feeling in years, he intimidated you.

"Get up, we're here." Guess he didn't have time for your questions. But you noticed something new about your escort, the helmet had a modulator in it, he's not a droid. Maybe you could appeal to his humanity.

"Who wants me dead? I'm a bounty hunter just like you, I'm not stupid enough to try and bargain, I just want to know." Your comment was met with silence. When you didn't move, he grabbed the space between your cuffs and tugged you up towards him. Your face just about smacked into the metal of his helmet, your warm breath was fogging over his visor as you searched for any signs of life, hoping to get a glimpse of what your captor looked like under all of that metal. After standing there for entirely too long, he spun you around, pushing cool metal into your hip. "Whoa tin-man, you must be excited to see me." No laugh, grunt or anything, just painful silence as he nudged you towards the door.

The door opened on a familiar planet, Nevarro. What the hell did Greef Karga get you into now? You walked along next to the man, wondering how you could spin this in your favor when you were reminded of the tracking fob in your pocket, the one that had just started blinking before you were tackled by the metal man. The door to Karga's place opened and the tin-man shoved you inside. "To the back." The modulated voice mumbled into your ear, holy gods he was close to you.

"Yeah, I know." Your voice was flat as you approached Karga. He raised his brow at you and you shrugged, sitting across from him. Your new escort plopped down beside you.

"Here's the quarry, I want my—"

"What the fuck is this Karga?" Your cuffs smacked against the table. "You send some guy after me, and send me after him?" Another smack as your tracking fob hits the surface of the table. The whole bar is looking at you right now, curious. You look over and see the helmet staring at you. "What do you want tin-man?" He turns to face Karga.

"She's a part of the guild? You sent her after me?" His voice grew louder on the last question, the commotion caused bar patrons to reach for their guns. You looked at the metal man and kicked him in the shin, hopefully he'd shut up before he got both of you shot.

Karga looked at the two of you. "Mando, calm down. You're my two best hunters and I needed you here—" you cut him off again.

"I would've come if you called, but I sat in his ship next to a slobbery frog child instead?" You huffed. "I didn't mind the part where he tackled and handcuffed me, but 'cmon man." Karga laughed and you breathed out, releasing all the tension in your chest. However you couldn't say the same for Mando, as Karga called him. He was still on edge, his spine stiff as he stared at you. He was processing, the gears in his head turning, his gaze never lifting from you. "Will you tell us why we're here?" You asked Karga, but you didn't take your eyes off of the visor in Mando's helmet. The silence that followed was painfully loud, and almost telling. There was something here you were missing, and you were famous for your intuition. Eventually, you turned your head away to face Karga who was smiling and sitting back calmly.