PURPOSE | The Mandalorian

XXXI

Din followed not far behind me. He jumped down the hatch, landing in a defensive stance. All five of us quickly scanned the hallway we dropped into, blasters at the ready, but no threats charged us or turned the corner.

Yet.

Mayfeld lowered one of his blasters to reach into his pocket. He pulled out a commlink. "Zee," He spoke into it, "Do you have the scans of the ship?"

The link crackled for only a moment before the droid replied. "Yes," He confirmed, "Continue straight."

The vague directions were enough to satisfy Mayfeld as he waved us forward. He took the lead, and Xi'an trailed not far behind, spinning one of her knives on the tip of her finger. Din and I walked next to each other a few yards behind her, and Burg took up the rear.

Din tensed beside me. He said quietly when I turned to face him, "I don't like this."

I hummed my agreement, gritting my teeth when Xi'an turned around and walked backwards while she faced us. "You always were paranoid," She crooned, following up her comment with a high pitched giggle.

"Being paranoid keeps us alive," I retorted darkly, taking my finger off the trigger of my blaster to prevent myself from 'accidentally' shooting her.

"Is that right, Mando?" Mayfeld teased, sounding like he didn't really care how we responded. Then he mocked, tossing us a look over his shoulder, "We're you always paranoid?"

Din's modulator crackled as he exhaled a sharp breath, rolling his shoulders back to alleviate the tension that was building up there.

I rolled my eyes. "You know, I'd really appreciate it if you'd shut the fuck up, Mayfeld," I snapped at him, and satisfaction rolled through my veins when he flinched. And when he didn't respond, I said sweetly with a smirk, "Thanks, darling."

Furrowing his brows in utter hatred of me, he said to Din, "You just gonna let her talk to her superiors like that?"

Oh, my muscles ached for round three with him. I was fuming, but a smug sort of calm came over me when Din deadpanned, "She can talk to you however she wants too."

I could tell Mayfeld had a retort on the tip of his tongue, but he snapped his attention to the commlink when Zero's voice called out, "Zero to Mayfeld, turn left at the next junction."

Still staring daggers at me, he pulled the commlink out of his pocket again and said, "Copy that, Zee. Turning left."

When we got to the next hall, Mayfeld led us to the left, where a little droid on wheels was patrolling the hallway.

"Aww," Burg growled in his gravelly voice, approaching the little droid, "Look at the little mousey."

"Burg," Mayfeld cautioned, but the brute paid him no heed as he chased the little droid down the hallway.

I shot forward when the Devaronian grew impatient and pulled out his blaster, but I wasn't quick enough. And being the dumb-for-brains he was, Burg missed, and the droid sped off at full speed, setting off all the alarms.

"You idiot!" I hissed at Burg over the alarms blaring the words intruder alert, open fire!, "Now the whole fucking ship knows we're here!"

The Devaronian glared at me, but he didn't have time to retort because an entire squadron of heavy duty security droids rounded the corner, letting bright red hell rain down on us from their blasters. The entire crew ducked behind the panels that jutted out from the walls; Mayfeld and Xi'an to our front left, and Burg to the front right. Din pressed me closer to the wall as a blaster bolt skimmed past his armor, both of us sucking in a sharp breath.