Star Wars - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Odd Bounty ❯ The Exchange ( Chapter 9 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

She had fallen asleep again...a loud echoing bang startling her awake.

"Rise and shine, beautiful. Its time to part ways."

Telana cowers away from him, shaking her head violently, "No! Don't..." Her head snaps to the side as his hand connects with her cheek hard. Pain explodes and she gasps, nearly breathless from it.

"Now I thought we had an understanding...Don't beg with me, girly. You're nothing but credits to me. You can get up by yourself or I can just use a hypo and drag you in. Either way I'm getting those credits."

She spat at him, "You are greedy. Father says that greedy men die early."

He laughed at her, "Oh, really? Well, I will be living like a king until then, thanks to you. Now move!"

Telana shook her head. She wouldn't budge. Even if he beat her or shot her...she looked at her arm sadly...again...she would not go willingly. No one may be coming to save her but that didn't mean she couldn't try to save herself.

She would fight to hold onto every last inch of freedom she still had.

"You are really asking for it, aren't you? Get up."

She turned her nose up at him, "No."

Heryns pointed his blaster at her and she smiled, an idea bright in her mind. "They won't like me being damaged...might take it out of your credits. You wouldn't want that, would you?"

That made him lower his hand.

Then he backhanded her, the taste of blood filling her mouth and she spit into his face, red flecks splattering across his cheeks and forehead.

He recoiled, wiping his face with a yell, "You bitch!"

And as he raised his hand to hit her again, his ship's communicator went off.

"You stay put. No more nonsense."

He leaned over and turned the speaker on, "Heryns here."

"I trust you have my property?"

"Yessir. She's being a little moody at the moment. Won't move."

"Then sedate her. No payment in full until delivery is completed, Mr. Heryns."

"Yessir, right away."

"Good. Over and out."

He flicked the communicator off and swore, kicking the console before turning his thunderous gaze at her. She shrunk back in fear.

Heryns approached her, pulling a small needle from his coat pocket. "Oh you should be afraid, beautiful. Now come on, time to take your medicine." 

She was thrashing against her bindings violently now...she couldn't go to sleep...she wouldn't. She needed stay away for her plan to work.

"Please...please...I'll go now. Just don't use it, please?"

He grinned, "Damn if your begging isn't sweet music to these ears. You'll behave now?"

'...He did a damn good job in making you so damned innocent with damn near irresistible curves that even I haven't been completely unscathed by you. If I hadn't found out about you being a blasted droid...'

She nodded curtly, throwing her eyes wider and softening her voice more. "Yes. I'll behave. I'll...be good."

Heryns shifted from foot to foot, seemingly hesitant, his eyes looking between the hypo and her until he shakes his head, putting it back into his pocket. 

She let out a soft breath.

It had worked.

'Now what?'

/  -  /  -  /  -  /

It was dark when they arrived to the outpost and Mando grinned. 'Talk about timing.'

"Mando!"

"Yeah?"

"Saw Heryns' ship! I'm going to dock a few bays away."

"Do it. Doctor, stay here."

"But-"

"It will be better if only Fett and I go in."

Fett nodded, "I agree. The armor affords us some extra protection and where we're going? We're going to need every edge we got. Taking you along will just be extra baggage."

Beler jerked his head into a quick nod. "If I must, but please try and get her out safely."

Din checked his blaster before holstering and picking up his rifle and adjusting the targeting array on it, then strapping it onto his back. He picked up the beskar spear next to him and fitted that into his rifle holster. His hand drifted to his right vambrace and doubled checked the whistling birds before sliding a vibroblade into his boot and the sheath on his hip. Satisfied with his preparations he turned to Boba and gave a sharp jerk of his helmet.

"Ready?"

Fett pulled his blaster, spun it in his hand, flipping it before re-holstering it. He patted his rifle and pulled the fastenings for his Jaffi stick tighter.

"Ready. Plan?"

"Loose follow on Heryns. Let him lead us to the client. You're my eyes in the sky."

"Got it." He leaned over and activated the ramp and looked back at the doctor.

"Once this closes, it will have a 20 minute cooldown before it can be opened again. Stay here. Slave-1's defenses should be enough to protect you."

The two armed men quickly and quietly made their way down the ramp and as it closed behind them, they could only hear his voice call out to them.

"Good luck."

Din snorted. They definitely needed all the luck they could get. "Where's the ship again, Fett?"

Fett tapped his shoulder and held up two fingers, motioning down the way from them.

He motioned the other man to follow him as he ducked past troopers, pointing to the bar but just before reaching the door he slid into a side alley. Fett joined him a few minutes later.

"Alright, time to get into place."

Boba smacked his shoulder lightly, "Don't do anything crazy, kid."

"What? I'm not you."

The older man chuckled, "No, you're crazier."

"I doubt that old man."

He gave a mock-salute and activated his jetpack, landing on the roof above moving to settle behind the neon lights of the tavern's sign.

Din's helmet scanned the growing crowd from the darkness of the alley, picking up scattered bits and pieces of dialogue.

'Yeah, apparently someone stole it...from an imperial lab.'

'An imperial lab?'

'I heard its some sort of new weapon...'

'No, I heard a rumor its some sort of immortality project.'

The other person laughed, shoving their friend. 'Immortality? You're crazy.'

'Hey! It was just a rumor.'

He shook his head, his attention now caught on the familiar figure of Heryns dragging a still conscious and upright Telana behind him as he pushed and shoved his way through the crowd. Stopping to backhand a person in the crowd for getting too close.

"This guy is an absolute ass."  Boba's voice cut through the static.

"Keep a close eye on him. I could lose him in this crowd."

And when a rather large group of people passed him, he pushed away from the alleyway and sunk into the mass. His eyes trained on Telana's destroyed arm. She was looking left and right as if searching for something. It confused him how willingly she was going along with him but he shook it off as her being too scared to do anything else.

He had seen the bruises on her face and the split lip she was sporting which had enraged him even more. He had not only shot her arm off but hit her too. The bastard.

The only thing he knew is that he was going to enjoy killing him...slowly.

"They're almost to the main post. What should I do?"

"Nothing yet. We have to find out who the client is first."

"Damn it. I hope you know what you're doing."

'Me too.' He internally replied as he continued to follow the two from inside the crowd. His eyes constantly returning to Telana's back.

'Hold on just a little bit longer. Okay?'

/  -  /  -  /  -  / 

The crowd had converged on them and she had felt almost overwhelmed and she growled low in her throat, baring her teeth at anyone who tried to reach for the stump of her arm that was left. It had gotten to the point that Heryns ended up back-handing one person and threatening to shoot another. As he pulled her along she had the strangest sensation of eyes on her and so she looked around her and just shrugged it off as the crowd being too nosy.

No one was coming for her.

Heryns had proved that with the recording.

Why would he want to protect her anyway?

"Ah ha, nearly there, beautiful." He yanked her forward a few steps faster.

A large gate had seemingly popped up in front of them and she took a deep breath to steady herself or she was going to cry again and she couldn't do that...not now. She could cry later. Not now. She had her own plan.

She only hoped that her father would forgive her for it.

Heryns set to work yelling and belittling the guards. "Open the gate, you kriff-headed jawas. Got a special delivery for your boss here!"

He held up the tracker as he pushed her in front of him and she stumbled, nearly tripping over her own feet. "See! A little damaged but still in working order!"

The guards rushed to open the gate and he pushed her forward.

"Now lets get this exchange done and over with. I'm hungry."

Telana was gritting her teeth, she was starting to get tired of being pushed this way and pulled that way.

/  -  /   -   /   -  / 

"Damn it, kid! Its going to go sideways if we let them go in."

"I know but we still need to see the client."

"Well, time's wasting to save her."

"I know! I'm thinking!" A bright flash of light to his left had sent his arms up to protect his eyes and he grinned.

Perfect.

Din moved silently to the streetlight just diagonally from Telana and held his vambrace up, letting the light catch on the shiny beskar, maneuvering the fractals of light to hit her in the eye. It had had the necessary effect.

She threw her arms up before turning her gaze in his direction. He winced at the full sight of her bruised face and split lip.  

But that was nothing compared to the bright smile that lit up her face when she noticed him. He shook his head and motioned for her to be quiet. She gave an almost imperceptible nod back, the smile playing at the edges of her lips. But when Heryns turned to face her, she suddenly schooled her face to one without emotion. Completely unreadable.

'Good girl.'

/  -  /  -  /  -  /

Light hit her face and she blinked a few times trying to rid herself of it but it wouldn't go away.

'What is that? Where is it coming from?'

And when she turned her eyes back to the crowd her eyes landed on the source of the annoyance and she nearly cried in pure relief. Her heart was fluttering in her chest like a trapped bird in a cage. She shook her head, blinking again and still he was there.

It was Din.

He was alive!

A giant smile stretched across her face and a single tear slipped down her cheek.

Din had come for her.

Maybe he didn't hate her after all.

He held a finger up to where his mouth would be and she nodded.

'Be quiet.' As in don't let them know that he's there. Oh she could do that. Heryns was a monster...who deserved to be punished.

And in the next minute he disappeared back into the crowd and Heryns was talking to her.

"Come on, girly." He motioned her through the gate with his blaster pistol.

She ducked her head, trying to fight back her smile as she followed Heryns inside.

She didn't know what Mando had planned for her rescue but she knew she was happy to see him.

'He came for me.'

/  -  /  -  /  -  /

"Well, their inside. Now what?"

"Now we do our job."

A dark chuckle was his only reply.

Din slunk back to the alleyway and pulled his rifle free before strapping his jetpack on. 

He activated it, landing across from Fett on the adjacent roof. He pointed to himself and then Boba and then two separate points away from the gate.

Fett nodded back and readied himself. It was time.

They both lifted their hands...and activated the devices they held.

They were connected to several small devices planted along the sides of the gates by Fett earlier and they were rapidly blinking red and beeping faster and faster.

"Hey, there's something beeping over here...Shit! Explosives! Get down!"

The small devices stopped beeping for a second before detonating in a brilliant blast of earth and screeching steel as each side of the gate flew open violently. The force of the explosion sending them careening in towards the heart of the compound. 

One side landed on one of the anti-air guns, completely crushing it and the two operators that had been assigned to it that night.

While the other one smashed straight into the building right where the mess hall was, cutting through the few troopers who unfortunately had decided to eat at the wrong time.

Well, at least they knocked first.

/  -  /  -  /  -  /

She stumbled forward into the low lit room, her eyes glowing as they automatically adjusted to the dark.

"So you can see in the dark."

That voice was not Heryns...this was a different voice...accented but polished like her father's voice but this wasn't her father.

"Lights."

The fixtures overhead flared to life and she quickly shut her eyes just as a large explosion rocked the building. She could hear metal being torn and screams of people being hurt. Alarms rang through her mind, loud and abrasive and she tried to shut it out as best she could but she was still bound and missing an arm.

But that didn't faze her too much because Din had found a way in.

"So I see. Your friends, Ms. Veile?"

She nodded. "Yes. They are going to kill you now."

Heryns laughed, "Like hell they will. Tack on an extra fifteen grand and I'll get rid of them, easy like."

"Done. Now finish this quickly, Mr. Heryns. Doctor Grylt!"

"Y-yes sir?"

"Take her and get her prepared for storage."

Ice flooded her and she shook. "No! Not storage. Please?"

"You my dear have caused enough trouble and in just this week alone. You have become a headache. Be glad my superiors don't want you dead. You will sleep just until we figure out exactly what to do with you. Grylt!"

"Very well."

The man approached her, a hypo in his hand. "Now stay still. This won't hurt a bit. We can even get your arm fixed for you...would you like that?"

Telana shook her head, "No I want my father. He will fix me."

Grylt surged forward all of a sudden and she twisted away, spinning and landing her heel right into his temple hard. He crumbled to the ground instantly dead.

"Well, it seems that you are more skilled than we had previously known. No matter." the mysterious man snapped his fingers and guards wearing black armor and red sashes flooded into the room.

She grimaced, gritting her teeth and backing away from them.

'Hurry up Din.'

/  -  /  -  /  -  /

They had both flew in, shots flying left and right until they landed side by side and nodded to each other. All of a sudden they both leaned heavily to their respective lefts shots flying past each other, instantly killing the troopers behind them.

"Thanks." They both spoke.

Fett chuckled. "Let's rescue the girl, huh?"

Din raised his rifle and disintegrated a trooper, "Agreed."

Blaster fire skipped off his chestplate and he fired up into the roof area and knew he had missed the fatal shot, the man screaming as he fell to his death, landing with a loud wet, crunching thump.

Boba leaned forward, pushing his knee out, the knee darts taking out three at once before he spun his blaster and shot two more. One had gotten too close so he throat-punched him with the blaster and flipped him over onto his back, stomping on his head hard. The trooper stopped moving.

"We need to get inside quick! Or we'll get bogged down out here!"

Din ducked down and spun sweeping one man's legs out from under him, before removing his knife and plunging it into his neck before flinging it out and burying it in another trooper's neck. Walking past the body, he quickly bent down to rip it free, wiping it clean and sliding it back into his belt, sending another blaster shot at the roof.

"Kid!"

"Jetpacks, now!"

They activated them, flying up into the air before diving down and into the giant hole in the mess hall.

One got a lucky shot in and hit his pack while another shot grazed his thigh.

He hit the ground hard, tumbling across the flooring until he hit the wall, grunting as he felt ribs crack.

"Shit!"

Fett was at his side immediately. "How bad?"

"Not bad enough." He was still able to fight.

Reaching a hand back to his cloak, tugging it off and tearing it in two. He wrapped it around his thigh, groaning in pain as he pulled it tight. Boba gave him a hand to his feet and nodded once he was steady.

"Ready?" He sent a shot at the door just as it opened, a trooper slumping down right in the opening.

Din limped behind Fett down the hallway, switching from shoulder to shoulder as he shot his rifle. Fett used his wrist rockets to clear a good portion of them but he had still gotten hit in the shoulder. And then the red light started flashing rapidly on his belt.

"She's close. I say about 10 meters. That room there."

"Oh not close enough."

They turned the corner and were face to face with Heryns, their blasters pointed at each other.

Mando growled, "Heryns."

The man gave a light bow. "In the flesh. And about to get an extra fifteen grand for ridding them of you two."

Fett snorted, "You should have asked for more. I almost feel insulted. That is I would if you were a threat at all. You like beating on little girls? Try beating on me."

Heryns laughed, "And what are you going to do, old man? Berate me to death?"

Boba chuckled, putting his blaster away and cracking his knuckles before pulling the gaffi stick free from his back.

"Oh no. You see, I thought I'd use this."

The color fled from his face as Fett took a step forward.

Heryns was frozen but then he recoiled back from him violently and took a shot, which bounced off his helmet. He took another shot and another, retreating back a step with each shot. Until he had no more bolts left and he just chucked it at Fett, taking off into a run.

"Go get the girl, kid. I'll handle Heryns." And Fett stalked off, adrenaline pumping through his veins at the thought of crushing Heryns skull.

Din used the wall to support him, his rifle slung across his shoulders as he limped forward.

8 meters.

6

4

2

0

A set of doors were closed in front of him, locked. He grunted, aiming his rifle and shooting into the door mechanism twice. It slide open quickly and there she was...surrounded by five guards with taser sticks.

He shot one in the chest, disintegrating him and his rifle whined loudly. Magazine was empty.

Farrik. He threw it at one guard hitting him in the chest.

He stumbled in as fast as his leg would let him and he punched one man hard in the face, knocking him to the ground before using his knife to stab another, spinning around him to come face to face with Telana. He immediately wrapped his arms tightly around her, burying his face into her hair and ducked low to the ground, pulling her with him. 

"Don't let go, okay?" She pressed her face into his chest.

And he lifted his vambrace up, letting the whistling birds fly and the three other men dropped instantly.

The sound of clapping filled the air and Din's helmet snapped to the other man in the room who had more than likely been hiding under his desk from the darts.

"Impressive. Exactly what I was told to expect from a Mandalorian."

"And just who the hell are you?"

The man looked visibly distraught by that question.

"How rude and rather uncharacteristic of me not to introduce myself."

He swept himself into a low bow, 

"I am Brendol Hux, Commandant of the Imperial Fleet."