The thee of them accompanied by MR met up again to have dinner, the chunk of krayt dragon finally cooked to perfection. Asora, Mando and Grogu sat and watched patiently as the meat was cooking, waiting for Peli to return from her trip to dig to join them for dinner.
Peli had previously left to go and rendezvous with the contact who had information on other Mandalorians, and when she returned, she called over at the droid turning the meat.
"Hey, don't overcook it, Treadwell. I like it medium rare! I'm not some Rodian, for crying out loud." Peli wagged her finger disapprovingly at the droid as she approached both Mando and Asora, the two awkwardly standing next to each other, the air changing from awkward to boisterous as Peli approached.
"All right, here's the deal. A Mandalorian covert is close. It's in this sector, one system trailing." Peli informed as she turned towards the Mandalorian, her glossy eyes trailing over the cooking krayt dragon meat then towards Mando, meeting the Mandalorian's eyes as she spoke.
"Are they the ones that left Nevarro?" the Mandalorian inquired as he shifted his gaze down towards Peli curiously.
"Don't know. All I know is that the contact will lead you to them." Peli nodded towards Mando as she spoke, her hands raised to her hips as she waited a moment for him to respond.
"How much will it cost me?"
"Well, that's the great news. It's free. Aside from a finder's fee, of course." Peli beamed, the deal seeming too good to be true, Asora quirked her brow at the statement, what was the bad news if that was the great news?
"What's the not great news?"
"Nothing. Its all great." Peli insisted, the Mandalorian to nod in response, "Okay." He acknowledged as he turned to move.
"However, there is one small skank in the scud pie." Peli chimed awkwardly, looking over towards the armour clad man for a moment before she continued.
"Which is?"
"The contact wants passage to the system." Peli raised her hands in defence for a moment, almost to ensure the Mandalorian knew this wasn't her fault and that this was just business.
"Do you vouch for them?" Mando inquired, leaning down to gauge her response.
"On my life." She insisted eagerly, nodding to herself as she spoke.
"Fine." Mando agreed, turning towards the fire and Gorgu before she could continue.
"And... No hyperdrive."
"You want me to travel sublight? Deal's off." The Mandalorian disagreed, shaking his head as he looked down at the frizzy haired woman. No way was he travelling sub light, especially with the empire after him and the kid.
"It's one sector over." Peli insisted,
"Moving fast is the only thing keeping us safe." Mando defended, gesturing towards himself, Asora and Grogu, his voice firm and rough as he spoke.
"These are mitigating circumstances." Peli argued, her expression bordering on annoyed as she tried to get her point across towards the thick-headed tin can.
"What do you mean "mitigating"?" The Mandalorian persisted, his voice coming off confused and a bit annoyed as he spoke. He leaned down to Peli, almost challenging her to show him what was so important that it needed to travel sublight.
Just as the two finished their last sentence in their squabble a frog lady entered the hangar, waving awkwardly over towards Peli, this woman must've been the client.
The Mandalorian leaned back in surprise for a moment, raising his hands up towards his hips as he leaned down towards Peli again to make a remark.
"I'm not a taxi service."
"I know, I know, I hear you. But I can vouch for her." Peli insisted, raising her hand up for a moment to stop whatever comeback the Mandalorian had to speak with the frog lady.
Asora's gaze shifted from the conversation between the frog lady and Peli towards Grogu, she could feel the awe, and excitement radiating off of him. She shook her head no at him as she began walking towards him, leaning down to pick him up before he could walk himself towards the frog lady's backpack.
The forg lady's backpack was an incubator of sorts, a vibrant blue capsule full of her large eggs. Asora assumed was the reason for the trip, though Asora wouldn't particularly want to eat the frog ladies eggs she wasn't surprised at Grogu's hunger for them.
Asora had seen people eat worse things, but she certainly was not going to let him eat them on her watch.
She carried Grogu towards Peli and Mando as the frog lady left their company to make her way onto the Razor Crest.
"Do you know the husband?" The Mandalorian asked Peli, sparing a glance towards Asora as she joined the two of them again.
"No. I met her ten minutes before you walked in." Peli stated matter of factly, shrugging as she looked over towards Mando for a response.
"I thought you said you vouched for her on your life?" The Mandalorian asked, his voice soft and astounded as he tilted his head to the side slightly, clearly confused.
"What can I say, I'm an excellent judge of character." Peli joked as she reached her hand out, grabbing a piece of cut up cooked dragon her droid had prepared for her, taking a large bite as she looked over to both Asora and Mando happily.
"Better judge of character than most." Asora agreed softly, bouncing Grogu as she spoke, looking between Mando and Peli before back down towards Grogu.
"Well, Thank you!" Peli chimed enthusiastically, sending a wide grin towards Asora before she returned to her slab of meat in hand.
"I am going to go relax in the ship, do you want me to do anything before I go?" Asora asked, looking over to Mando as she inquired. She hoped she didn't have to do anything, to be able to quickly rush off, to finally sleep.
"No." The Mandalorian shook his head, reaching his arms out to grab the child from her arms as he spoke, "Go rest, I've got it from here." He insisted, pulling Grogu from her arms happily as Asora nodded in agreement.
Asora made her way back into the ship, situating herself against the right wall, near a vent. She often found herself getting comfortable in this general area when she needed rest on the ship. The heat from the engines radiated enough onto the wall that made it a little bit comfier to lean against as opposed to the completely cold and solid floor. It was also directly in front of the Mandalorian's and Grogu's sleeping quarters, it gave her a good view point just in case anything we're to happen to the two.
She drifted off to sleep long before the ship left the orbit of Tatooine. The Mandalorian didn't notice though, he was too caught up in the awkward interaction he was currently having with the frog lady to notice the absence of the Jedi Knight he had grown fond of.
As the Mandalorian made his way down from the cockpit after setting up the navigation system and setting them on their course to Trask. His eyes widened at the sight in front of him, his foundling, his kid eating the frog lady's offspring. He rushed over grabbing the child hastily, calling out to him, directing the child to not to eat the eggs as he moved towards him.
"No! No, no, no! That is not food!" he scolded as he picked the child up.
"Don't do that again."
The child burped at him and cooed softly in response, clearly unbothered by his past actions, his meal well worth the trouble he had gotten into. Mando glanced around for Asora, ready to scold her as well for letting him eat the unfertilized eggs but to his dismay he was met with a sleeping Asora, softly snoring as she leaned herself up onto the wall.
She looked too peaceful for someone in a very clearly uncomfortable position, he huffed to himself and then averted his gaze from her towards his child.
"Nap time."
He walked the child back towards his sleeping quarters, placing him in the makeshift hammock that was currently serving as his crib. He looked around the bed for a blanket, turning his head back to glance towards the unconscious girl before back towards his bed.
His cape will have to do for now.
He pulled the cape off of his back as he walked towards her, kneeling beside her to place it around her, a warmhearted effort to make her at least mildly comfortable.
She coo'd softly in her sleep in response to his touch, he felt his heart skip a beat for a moment, scared he had woken her with his kind gesture. He let out a soft breath of relief once a few moments passed, signifying that she was still deep asleep. He moved his hand up, brushing her front braid back softly, he wasn't thinking as he moved, his gloved hand stopping for a moment as it reached her ear.
What was he doing?
He widened his eyes at his impulsive actions, retracting his hand form her profile, taking in her features for one very fleeting moment before pushing himself up from his crouching position and making his way back towards his bed.
He found himself fast asleep moments later, the exhaustion from the past days journey enough to wash his worries away for now.
The three of them were abruptly woken up by violent beeping, the Razor Crest's unharmonious screeches echoing through the ship loudly as both Asora and the Mandalorian jolted up, the two rushing towards the cockpit to investigate the root of this very audible issue.
MR beeped worriedly at Asora as she rushed up, "Y'know if we had MR helping navigate while you aren't there this wouldn't happen."
The Mandalorian grunted in response, pulling himself up the ladder and making his way into the cockpit as Asora pestered him.
"You wanna lug that thing up there then be my guest." He called out, as he made his way into the cockpit and into his chair, swivelling towards the command board, flicking a few buttons as he moved to silence the beeping.
Asora followed suit, situating herself in the chair to the left of him, her ears perking up as they received transmission from the two X-wings that began to swoop onto the sides of the ship, sandwiching the Crest as they began to interrogate the group.
"Razor Crest, M-One-Eleven. Come in, Razor Crest. Do you copy?"
Asora's eyebrows pinched together at the message, what was going on? She peered over her shoulder to the side of her, she took in the X-wing for a moment and let out a soft scoff.
"This is Razor Crest. Is there a problem?"
"We noticed your transponder is not emitting." The new republic pilot inquired, the Mandalorian taking in a small breath as he prepared his awkward rebuttal.
"Yes, I'm pre-Empire surplus. I'm not required to run a beacon."
"That was before. This sector is under New Republic jurisdiction. All craft are required to run a beacon."
"Thank you for letting me know. I'll get right on it." The Mandalorian tilted his head awkwardly, rolling his head back to lightly crack his neck, maker this was awkward.
"Not a problem. Safe travels."
"May the Force be with you." Mando chimed back, his voice soft, slightly uncomfortable to be using the statement.
"And also with you."
As silence filled the hull after the New Republic pilot responded Asora let out a breathy laugh, looking over towards the Mandalorian with her eyebrow quirked cheekily as she joked, "May the force be with you?" her voice mimicking the raspiness of the Mandalorians as she spoke.
"I don't sound like that." He barked back, shifting in his seat as he turned to look back at her then towards the nav again.
"Whatever you say, I think it was very charming. Such fond goodbyes for the New Republic." Asora quipped as she turned her gaze from the grumpy beskar man towards the fighter pilot beside her.
"Just one more thing."
"Yes?"
"I'm gonna need you to send us a ping. We're out here sweeping for Imperial holdouts"
"I'll let you know if I see any."
"I'm still gonna need you to send us that ping."
"Well, I'm not sure I have that hardware online."
"You're a bad liar." Asora whispered as she leaned closer towards Mando, looking over his shoulder at the command board where he most definitely had the hardware to send that ping.
"We can wait."
"You wanna do this instead?" the Mandalorian whispered back, leaning over to her as if to say, 'like you could handle it.'
"Yeah, I... Doesn't seem to be working." Mando trailed off as he responded to the pilot.
"That's too bad. If we can't confirm you're not Imperial, you're gonna have to follow us to the outpost at Adelphi."
"Oh, wait. There it is. Transmitting now." The Mandalorian faked surprise as he flicked the switch, sending the two pilots his ping as the frog lady behind him began wailing at the rude awakening of the whirring beep of the transmission.
"Be quiet!" The Mandalorian shushed as he turned back towards the command board.
"Whats that?"
"Uh, nothing. The hypervac is drawing off the exhaust manifold."
"Carson, can you switch over to channel two?"
"Copy."
As the two pilots switched channels Asora shared a look with Mando, "Do you do this often? Because it does not seem like you do this often." She asked, her gaze lingering on his visor as she offered him a cocky smirk, "No. I don't." Mando huffed out, shaking his head at her as he turned to look back in front of him.
As the Mandalorian stared ahead at the dark abyss ahead of him the two X-wings began to change their wing configuration, their s-foils entering attack positions.
"Was your craft in the proximity of New Republic Correctional Transport, Bonthan-Five?"
Before Asora or the Frog lady had a moment to register what was happening the Mandalorian jolted the ship down, directing the ship towards the closest nearby planet in an attempted escape route.
Asora groaned as she felt the push of the seat belts against her chest, not expecting the sudden jolt. She quickly readjusted herself and tried to brace herself for whatever Mando was attempting to do, for a bounty hunter he wasn't a very good pilot.
He curved the Crest down nearing the atmosphere of his desired planet, the ship whirring through the wind as he curved through the clouds, the speed shaking the ship more and more as he began to reach the atmosphere of the planet.
"Razor Crest, stand down. We will fire. I repeat, we will fire."
The Mandalorian curved the ship around the corner, the shaking making it clear to him that entering the atmosphere at his current speed might break the ship. He turned the ship around the corner and pushed the gears forward dropping the ship down into a free fall as it began to enter the atmosphere at an alarming rate.
"You better have a plan Mando." Asora yelled as she dug her hands into the chair, looking over towards the beskar clad man for any reassurance that he actually knew what he was doing.
"I have a plan!" He yelled back, his gaze on the terrain in front of them unchanging as he spoke, truth be told he didn't have a plan, but he wasn't about to go tell her that.
He ducked the ship into a nearby canyon, directing it around its ridges and peaks as he navigated his way away from the two x-wings.
"C'mon, Razor Crest, don't make us do it."
The pilots command was blocked out by the crew in the cockpit by the whining of the ship as it slid through the air and into a nearby crack in the canyon, slipping out of the X-wings sight just long enough for a second of relief to set in.
The Mandalorian was groaning and huffing as he pulled at the controls, trying his very best to navigate his way through the small opening.
"Hold on." He directed looking back to both the Frog Lady and Asora for a moment before he looked back ahead sliding the Razor Crest onto the ground, skidding it to a very rough and unpleasant stop.
As the ship stopped for a moment, shaking at the abrupt landing Asora let out a loud sigh and reached up to push one of her braids that had come loose out of her way, looking over to Mando for a moment as he began to flick the controls off the two shared a small glance, she sent him a small smile, as if to say, 'thanks for not killing us.'
But the moment was cut short when the ground beneath them began breaking, the weight of the ship causing the ice they landed on to concave, sending the ship down into the planet.
The three of them braced themselves for the fall, gripping onto whatever was nearby as the ship hit the ground again.
Before Asora could think reached her arms out, grabbing onto the Mandalorian as she was pushed forward with the momentum, the two of them smacking into the command board as the ship landed.
Before either of them had a moment to think they were knocked unconscious.
－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－
word count: 2929
𝐡𝐞𝐲! 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐦 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐮𝐧𝐢 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐞,, 𝐲𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐬!
𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧!
𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝!