Blood and Money - The Mandalorian

The Nexu

     "What are you two doing in here?" he asked at the top of the steps. We stopped wrestling and she got the bottle out of my hand, I looked at Rassen.

     "Nothing, just talking." I grinned as I reached down for the top and quickly handed it to her, where she capped it and turned around holding the bottle behind her back as she looked at Rassen as well. We looked like two kids who got caught doing something bad. 

     "Just talking huh?" he asked crossing his arms. "About what?"

     "About her lack of discipline and following orders." I glanced at Lane, who nodded in agreement. 

     "Yeah, I know who the boss is now." She added. "I'll be a good girl from now on."

     "And don't you forget it." I told her as I headed for the steps. She chuckled at me as she followed. I headed past Rassen who was standing off to the side watching us walk past him hiding smiles. We both went back in through the hatch. Lane opened the door to her room and I stopped to look back at him as he had walked in and the hatch closed behind him. "Hey, you want to help her out and fix that control panel, her room feels like an icebox. It's not really fair for her to freeze to death right?" He sighed.

     "Fine, give it here." He told Lane as she stood in her doorway still hiding the bottle behind her back.

     "It's on the table." She told him, he nodded and walked past us heading over to the lounging area. I glanced at Lane who grinned and rushed into her room to stow the bottle away. I had to admit I felt better about everything, sometimes just talking to her helped. She might be a huge bitch and gets us into trouble all the time, but she is human and having her around kept me grounded. Of course we have our disagreements, like most friends do and we say things like 'I hate you' or 'I wish you were dead' but we both know it's just because we need our space and we knew we can still come together if its needed. She had my back and I had hers. Plus when she started feeling down, I was there for her as well.

            I headed into the lounging area where I saw Sprocket awake on the couch sitting next to Mando. He turned his little head toward me and smiled as he stood up and clumsily walked on the cushions holding up his arms. I reached down and picked him up holding him close and patted his back, then walked over toward the table and sat down setting him on it in front of me. "Are you hungry?" I got up and headed over toward the kitchen area and grabbed something for him to eat. I heated up a bowl of something that looked like oatmeal and grabbed a spoon. I sat back down and handed it to him. "Here you go."

Temen walked over and sat next to me on the bench seat.

     "Mando has told us about the new ship that Lord Clairo is now in possession of." He started watching as Sprocket ate his food. "Is it something we need to be worried about?"

     "No, not really." I handed Sprocket a piece of the bread sitting on a plate. He took it and ate it as he watched us talking.

     "But it is a very large ship, one we have never dealt with before."

     "I realize that, but we're not going to worry about it right now, one thing at a time okay?" I turned to look at him. His purple eyes looked worried. "Relax, he's out there, we're down here. I think we'll be alright." He nodded and smiled.

     "I will always trust your judgement my friend." He answered. I went back to watching Sprocket who was enjoying the makeshift oatmeal and the bread pieces that I was handing to him. He would take a bite of the mash and open his mouth for the bread that I would place inside. 

     "You are sucha a goofball." I smiled at him.

          Suddenly we felt a jolt against the ship. Everyone grabbed onto something as the ship moved a few feet. Sprocket was tossed mid spoon going into his mouth. Temen managed to grab him before he hit the floor.

     "What the hell was that?" I asked standing up and heading toward the hatch. It opened and there stood a huge creature, it reminded me of a large reptilian cat, white with brown stripes and large spikes along it's back. He rushed at the ship again slamming against it forcing it back again and causing us all to be knocked off our feet. I slammed into Mando who caught me as we both hit the ground. I got up pissed off and headed back toward the door. "Rassen, why isn't the shock shield working?!" I yelled toward him as he got to his feet and headed over toward the small control table where he typed in a few commands as fast as his fingers would go. Temen had a hold of Sprocket keeping him close as the creature rammed against the hull again. "If it keeps doing this Rassen he's gunna screw up the landing gear and shove us against the wall." I shouted again.

     "Give me a minute!" Rassen shouted back as the creature snorted and growled toward us and started to rush toward the ship again.

     "Here it comes. Hang on!" Everyone was bracing themselves as it hit again moving the ship another few feet.

     "What the hell?" asked Lane as she had moved next to me and was holding onto the side of the hatch door watching it as well. "Oh shit, I know what that is."

     "You do?" I looked at her confused, since I didn't even know what it was, how could she. "What is it?"

     "Well I don't know the name of it, but I saw it down in the tunnels." She explained. "I had to sneak past it." It started to growl again and scratch the dirt under its feet ready to charge once more. Mando had moved up next to me as well, when the creature came running up the ramp toward us. I moved back right into Mando as it suddenly stopped and made a horrible sound of being shocked by the shield that Rassen had managed to get back up. Cracks of lightning sparked out shooting over its body as it thrashed in pain. It moved back away from the shield as the fur that covered its body was smoking and smelt bad. Rassen walked over to watch it as well as it whimpered from being shocked, but was still looking up at us with hatred in its eyes, all four of them.

     "Do you know what this thing is?" I asked toward Mando.

     "It's a Nexu." Mando told us as he moved toward the hatch. "We need to get rid of it, or it'll just keep coming."

     "Did you not see it's very large teeth?" I asked him. He glanced at me and started to head out. But I stopped him by grabbing his arm. "The shock shield is set too high, you'll be fried." I reminded him. I turned toward Rassen. "Lower it so we can get out."

     "You're not going out there." Rassen stated.

     "Yes I am he's not doing this by himself." I grabbed my weapon and made sure it was fully charged. "Now lower the shield."

     "You know he can take care of himself right? he's a Mandalorian." Rassen gritted through his teeth.

     "I don't care, I'm still gunna help him, now drop the damn shield." 

A/N rut ro....nice kitty kitty

1304W