Moon Knight

“Did they find my mommy and daddy?” Aerri asked hopefully to Kandor. “We’ll have to wait and see,” he answered. He wouldn’t expect that quick of a turnaround, but it was conceivable. Mirdala returned several minutes later, looking somewhat relieved. “They need my help sorting through that mess of data. Apparently, Izak remembered that I had something of a knack for it and since we’re already involved…” She let the sentence trail off. “There’ll be a speeder for me in about twenty, unless you two want to tag along. I’m sure you two could find something in the area to do.” “Sure, we’ll head into the city,” he replied. “Find some place so Aerri can stretch her legs a bit.” “Okay, I’ll get us ready if you’ll pack a bag for her,” Mirdala said, taking Aerri’s hand. “And no ration packs. Grab some of those cracker sandwiches I had you get and some cheese or fruit. I’ll grab the extra set of clothes.” Fett feigned innocence and set about his task. ------------ Half an hour later the speeder dropped Mirdala off at the station and Kandor asked it to take him and Aerri to a local park that 2277 had helped him locate. There was a decent field and some kind of playset with various fixed and repulsorlift-equipped obstacles. Ad’ikase of varying race and species, mostly around Aerri’s age by appearances, were running amuck while their adult counterparts sat on benches nearby to supervise. He did stand out a bit here even without his beskar’gam, from the looks of things. It was mostly stay-at-home or single mothers or nannies a decade younger than him trying to look trendy for what was sadly one of their only opportunities for social interaction with other adults while stuffing oversized tote bags full of snacks and tissues under their benches. “Go on,” he encouraged Aerri, who was eyeing the playset a bit shyly and holding on to his pant leg. She still looked a bit uncertain. “I’ll be right here.” He indicated a mercifully-unoccupied bench. Finally she nodded and headed for one of the obstacles. Kandor was immediately glad that Mirdala had seen fit to dress her in bright colors to make her easy to spot as he sat down to watch. He soon had re-established his uplink with 2277 and asked the beskar’ad to start taking him through the news, after checking in briefly with Mirdala. He had to admit, despite his initial reluctance to install the device when he’d joined the Augury, by now he considered it almost indispensable, even outside of operations. While he was catching up on some of the chatter coming out from the criminal underworld chafing under the overzealous Imperial control of Nar Shaddaa he noticed a Twi’lek and two human women eyeing him surreptitiously from the next park bench and chattering just too quietly for him to hear. He crossed his arms and tried to ignore them while absent-mindedly performing a tactical analysis of the playground in case he needed to make a ba’slan shev’la. It was no use. Soon one of the humans came over, fixing her hair slightly and perching on the bench near him. “You’re new around here. Which one’s yours?” she asked, glancing at the playing ad’ikase. When he only responded with a dubious look, she tried again. “Must be that one in the red shirt. She’s cute!” “Suppose she is,” Fett answered -- in Bocce. The woman did a double take at the unfamiliar language but somehow wasn’t put off. “If you don’t mind me asking, are you raising her alone?” “Can we not have the rest of this conversation?” he asked, again in Bocce. Now having picked up on a question but with no idea what he’d asked, the woman started to look genuinely uncomfortable. “Well, uh, we’ll have to talk again sometime,” she said, excusing herself to return somewhat-dejectedly back to the others. She didn’t get far however before Aerri came running back over. “Kandor! I squished a weird bug over there! It went pop all over my hands! See?” she was shouting proudly… in Basic, of course. The woman turned back around to face him, hands on her hips. He gave her a slightly apologetic look. Osik. He quickly turned to Aerri. “Ori’jate. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

The second Golan III platform concluded its construction over Concord Dawn.

On schedule, the second Keldabe-class battleship rolled off the dry dock far above MandalMotors HQ. The launch was simultaneous with the commissioning of a second Golan III platform to join the first. New projects were undertaken. Across the Kelita river from Keldabe, construction began on a planetary turbolaser, a massive weapon capable of destroying capital ships with a single barrage. Downriver from the city, part of the Kelita was to be redirected for a short stretch to help cool the weapon should it ever need to fire. Above, MandalMotors took the information they'd gained by studying and refitting the Lancer frigate that had been in the invasion force and started to create a second one.

In the morning Fett, eternally a light sleeper, awoke to see Aerri attempting to climb down from her cot. He glanced at the chrono. 0630. It would have to do, he supposed. Getting up quietly so as not to disturb Mirdala, knowing she’d had a rough night as it was, he picked up the little girl and carried her outside the bedroom, softly shutting the door behind him and setting her down. She immediately bolted for the refresher, but paused in the doorway and looked back at him expectantly. He sighed, admittedly not sure what he was supposed to do, but followed her. A moment later they managed to get things sorted and headed back out into the living space. “Hungry,” she announced. “Sure, kid,” he said, opening a cupboard in the kitchenette and grabbing one of his breakfast ration packs. He opened the packaging and broke the corner off one of the wafers, then stooped and offered it to her. He pointed at it as she took it. “Skraan.” “Skraan,” she repeated. She eagerly took a bite out of it but immediately made a face, shoving the rest of it back towards him. “Skraan is yucky!” He chuckled. “Skraan is food. Once Mirdala gets up I’ll make something more to your taste,” he said. He moved back into the living area and starting his morning exercise routine since they weren’t going for a run through the city. He dropped to the floor and started doing push ups. Aerri laughed and immediately jumped onto his back, giggling when he continued until he reached the end of a set. “You know, Aerr’ika,” he said in good humor. “You’re a real handful.” “I’ll take that as a good sign,” Mirdala yawned from the doorway. “Why don’t you try what he’s doing Aerri? I already know you’re a brave girl, you can be strong too.” “Come on, let’s try it,” Kandor said, getting back into position. Aerri watched him for a moment, then did her best facsimile. He did another set and she sort of followed along as he counted his reps out loud in Mando’a, Mirdala walking past to the kitchenette. “Solus, t'ad, ehn, cuir, rayshe'a, resol, e'tad, sh'ehn, she'cu, ta'raysh...” Apparently the extra sleep had done his wife good because a few moments later he heard her laughing from the cooking area. “What did she think of the ration pack?” Kandor paused counting. “I think I’ve ruined the word skraan for her…” he lamented. “I’m sure I can fix it,” she promised. “Why didn’t you just offer her some fruit?” “Gotta start her on the good stuff,” he joked between push ups as Aerri attempted her own as well as the counting in Mando’a, with mixed results. That got another laugh out of her. “Well, while you two work up an appetite, I’ll work on the skraan,” she called in Basic. “Why do you two talk funny?” Aerri asked suddenly, stopping what she was doing and sitting upright. “You talk funny, ad’ika,” he replied, switching to sit-ups before offering a better explanation. “Different people from different places talk in different ways, using different languages. Mirdala and I are Mandalorians.” “What’s that?” she asked, leaning against his legs and resting her arms on his knees. “Well,” he explained, forming his words around his reps. “The planet we’re on now is called Borleias. If someone is from Borleias, they’re called a Borleiasian. I’m from Mandalore, so I’m a Mandalorian.” “But people here talk like I do. You don’t. Is Mirdala from Mandalore too?” The girl was full of questions this morning. He paused his reps to rest. “Very close,” he answered. “Do you remember what planet you’re from? That way we can figure out what you are and why you talk like you do.” “I’m from my world,” she stated. “I’m me. And I talk like me.” “Well next time I go to planet Aerri where everyone speaks Aerrese I’ll have to ask if anyone knows you,” he said before starting another set. It had been worth a shot, anyway. Unfortunately Aerri’s still-developing Basic had a very general accent that could have been from virtually anywhere in the mid-rim or parts of the core.

Kandor was halfway through chopping the vegetables when a not-nearly-dressed child came tearing out of the bedroom, his exhausted-looking riduur chasing after her with a nightgown. He glanced up at the proceedings, shook his head and resumed his work. He supposed he would have to get used to this, at least for the next few days, and he wondered not for the first time if he was actually ready to become a buir. After a minute Mirdala made her way into the kitchenette, the toddler now clothed and climbing on the couch. “You okay?” he asked. “Need me to help with the skraan or watch the kid?” “I need to cook for a bit, cyar’ika,” she admitted. “It’s been a hard day and I’m having trouble digging myself out.” “Feeling a bit shell-shocked myself,” he agreed, slipping his hand around her waist. The door chimed and suddenly Aerri dashed over to him, glancing at it uncertainly as she grabbed his pant leg. He frowned down at her for a moment, put down his knife, then picked her up and went over to answer it. “The cot you requested, Mr. Trent,” the beskar’ad outside stated. Behind it was a fold-up bed. Fett let the droid in and directed it to the bedroom where it could set up. Aerri watched curiously. “That’s where you’ll sleep, Aerri,” he told her as the process completed. “Thank the droid.” She suddenly looked a bit shy, but finally spoke. “Thank you, Nan-e-e.” The beskar’ad bowed curtly and made its exit and Kandor carried the girl back out into the living area. “Who is Nan-e-e?” he asked her once Mirdala could hear them. “Another droid?” “My Nan-e-e,” Aerri insisted. He walked over to the couch and sat down, putting her next to him while Mirdala continued her work with the meal. “Tell me about Nan-e-e,” he encouraged her. “Do you miss her?” He guessed at a gender. The child nodded, but then climbed off the couch and ran over to the transparisteel door out to the balcony. “Go outside?” she asked. Fett decided to let the subject drop for now. Ultimately anything they could get from Aerri might help them find where she came from, but it wouldn’t hurt to give her a day or two to get used to them before trying to coax more information out of her. He walked over to her and turned on the balcony lights, as it was already after dark. The pool had an extending transparisteel cover, so he agreed.

Kandor appeared a moment later with the medpack in hand, crouching next to the tub. “Is something wrong?” he asked. Mirdala leaned Aerri forward and showed him the back of her neck. There was a thin but nasty red line along the bottom of her neck near the start of her shoulders. It extended part way around the sides of her neck before terminating, and the wound was patterned slightly. “Rather like a thin chain was pulled off her neck,” he observed in Mando’a. Mirdala nodded as she opened the pack, “That’s what I was thinking. Think you can keep her distracted for a moment while I put this on? It might sting for a bit, but she’ll be okay.” Her tone had remained gentle and soothing as she spoke before she switched back to Basic and addressed Aerri, “I have some medicine I’m going to put on your neck where it hurts. It might sting a little, but I want you to squeeze Kandor’s hands as hard as you want okay?” “No! I don’t want it!” she protested, pulling away from Mirdala. Kandor grabbed a towel off the rack and reached out to grab her. “It’s okay, ad’ika,” he told her. “This will make it stop hurting sooner.” “We don’t want you getting sick,” Mirdala offered, her soothing tone never wavering. “After I’m done I can braid your hair again so it’s pretty, won’t that be nice?” “No!” she protested as Kandor managed to get the towel around her. “K’atini,” he said firmly, bringing the squirming child over to Mirdala. “It’s for your own good.” Mirdala looked up at him surprised with his tactic, but she took advantage of the opening it presented and applied the ointment from her kit and slapped on a protective covering so Aerri wouldn’t be able to scratch or rub off the medicine. The poor girl shrieked the whole time likely more out of everything she’d been through rather than the ointment actually hurting for the few seconds it did. ”I’ve got her,” Mirdala transmitted via her implant as she reached for the girl in the towel-bundle. ”Can you go start the prepwork for dinner while I calm her back down?” Fett nodded and made his retreat. At the store he’d picked up the ingredients for Mirdala’s fish stew, which he’d helped her make during their stay on Hapes, so he knew the drill.

About two hours later Kandor signed the final document with a flourish. He didn’t really have a legal name, but his signature in a rarely-used Mando’a cursive script, was a practically-illegible but reproducible way to at least identify himself that proved sufficient for these matters. The truth was, with the lack of any formal government on Manda’yaim, he had no birth certificate, most of his bank accounts and other legal possessions were under false names, and he technically wasn’t a GA citizen, having been bestowed New Republic military rank in unusual circumstances by joining the Augury under his oft-used pseudonym “ShadowFett”. Several times throughout the process Saresar had remarked how unusually quick their approval process had been as he’d worked with them to explain the procedure and get things squared away legally. Meanwhile they’d done their best to keep Aerri occupied with the toy she’d been given and another snack, and eventually she’d climbed back onto Kandor’s lap and dozed off. Now he gently roused her. “Ready to go, Aerr’ika?” he asked her. The child looked up at him with sleepy brown eyes. “Go home now?” “You’re going to stay with us for a few days while we try to find your parents,” he explained. “Is that okay?” She seemed to think about it. “Okay Kandor,” she said seriously. He chuckled, picked her up, and set her on her feet while standing up. “Thank you,” he said to Saresar. “No, thank you for being ready and willing to watch her,” Saresar replied. He shook Fett’s hand, then produced his card. “Call me if you have any questions, particularly since you two are first timers and don’t have any kids of your own. Otherwise we’ll be in touch as soon as we can place her.” And just like that they walked out of the precinct with a child at their heels. Not what Kandor had thought the day would bring when he’d woken up that morning. He knew it was most likely a temporary arrangement, even if it was possible that the GA would be unable to find Aerri’s parents, in which case they would have a big decision to make. But this was a chance for him and Mirdala to see what it might really be like to be buire. It was a challenge he had declared that he was willing to take on, but he had to admit the suddenness of it made him realize how little earnest thought he had given it. “Whoa,” Aerri said quietly as they walked out onto the landing pad and approached the Justice, having been brought there by 2277. She had reached up to grab Kandor’s hand while they were walking and he’d gone along with it. He looked down at her. “That’s our ship, the Justice. There’s someone onboard that you should meet, then we can go get some proper skraan in us and go shopping for next few days.” His old copilot had been listening in on the process as they’d gone through it, of course, and knew what to expect. The beskar’ad was actually handling the news fine, given that the arrangement was temporary and overlapped with their already-planned downtime. But he was going to go into whatever passed for conniptions if it happened to be extended.

The local precinct was a bit dingy, just like everything seemed to be in this part of Laikos city. The group of liberated trafficking victims filed in and were immediately met with a line to await evidence collection. Mirdala and Aerri were placed near the front of the line, while Fett was immediately taken deeper into the station to give his statement. As usual, the picture he painted was precise and objective. He and Mirdala had observed an abduction and acted according to their moral imperative to get involved. They had been captured stowing away on the speeder truck, been placed in cells separate from the victims except Aerri, then made their escape when they became convinced that they and the girl were in immediate peril. He did not, however, fail to impress upon them his ire at their slowness to act. A police outfit which was responsible for the safety of civilians could never allow bureaucracy to interfere with their duty, and any law that impeded them was against the public interest. From there they expressed their desire to take him through processing but he had enough sway given what had happened that he got out of it. He might have put aside a lot of his old habits, but samples of his DNA didn’t exist in any record system outside of the Justice and the Enigma and he had a vested interest in keeping it that way. It still caused a bit of a fuss, but then, he tended to have that effect on places like this. Eventually they simply released him and he headed back out into the lobby area to wait for Mirdala and Aerri to return.

There was still one issue with the window extraction plan. One good look at it and Kandor realized he wouldn’t be able to squeeze through, although it would be no problem for the small-framed Mirdala and Aerri. The GA SWAT team was now on site, one team working its way through the building from the front entrance with a smaller team coming around back to the extract point with a paramedic or two. "I’ll meet the insertion team and catch up with you both in a bit," Kandor told his riduur in Mando’a before switching to Basic to address Aerri. "I need you to go through the window, Aerri." He picked her up and put her on the ledge, taking the concussion grenade from her. She didn’t appear to be a fan of the idea. She tried to grasp at his arms and immediately started to fuss when faced with the idea of being separated from him. "It’s okay," he said, trying to calm her. "That’s the way home. Mirdala will take care of you until I catch up." His words did little to settle the adiik down, but he knew she would be fine. Mirdala handed him the blaster rifle. "Koyacyi!" She proceeded to climb up and help Aerri through the window and to safety before slipping out herself. Checking the charge on the power pack, Fett turned back toward the danger. With the child safe, his movement was no longer restricted. He kept his implant on GA police frequencies and checked in subvocally. There was one other trick to all of this. "This is Captain Fett. Constable Ad’Goran and the child extracted successfully. I’m heading to rendezvous with the insertion team. I am not in my armor. I am a human male wearing a black shirt and olive drab military trousers. Please check your targets. I will present my badge." The truth was, the GA didn’t have his physical description on record. Until very recently, he had never appeared in public without his beskar’gam. This paranoid level of privacy had bordered on a security risk, and now it meant that without the description he’d provided, he would be indistinguishable from one of the criminals. That taken care of, he moved rapidly through the hallways towards the fighting. Operating solo was challenging without the information provided by his buy’ce and he had to rely on fundamentals. About a minute later, he could hear gunfire, and seconds after that he popped around a corner on the flanks of a group of shabuire that had dug in behind impromptu cover and were exchanging fire with the SWAT team. Without a thought Fett gunned them down from the side, toggling the DC-15’s fire mode to automatic. It was outdated, but it had been good enough for his vode in the Clone Wars and it was good enough for this job. As soon as the last man dropped, Fett set down the rifle and pulled out his wallet with his badge with one hand and raised the other palms toward the corner. "That would be me," he transmitted. A second later the SWAT team rounded the corner and fanned out to watch the hallways. "Captain Fett?" their lead man asked as he approached, looking him over. "Sergeant," Fett greeted him. There was a moment of pause as the man examined him. Clearly he hadn’t ever expected to see anything but the black mask of ShadowFett. "Are you injured? Corporal Darren is prepared to escort you out." Moon Knight shook his head, putting his badge away and again picking up his borrowed rifle. "Extraction not required. How about I add a man to your team instead of taking one away?" ------------------ Less than fifteen minutes and a well-timed concussion grenade later, it was over. The trafficking operation hadn’t been that large and not all of its members were willing to gamble their lives against a well-equipped SWAT team. Their victims, however, were numerous. Mostly vagrants and ne’er-do-wells in tattered clothing, there were others that had been vacationers to the resort just as Fett and Mirdala had been, stuck somewhere unfamiliar and far away from anyone they could call. Kandor exited through the front door at the front of a group of them, those whose minds weren’t too clouded by drugs expressing their relief and gratitude. But Fett immediately departed from the group and headed over to an ambulance speeder where he could see Mirdala talking with some paramedics. Aerri was perched on a cot, wrapped in a blue shock blanket and gripping a stuffed toy in one hand and a half-eaten candy bar in the other which she was munching as one of the medics scanned her for injury. "Su’cuy," he said as he moved over to join them. He was greeted by a large smile from Aerri, the first one he’d seen from her. "Is she okay?" he asked Mirdala.

When his cell door lock popped open, Kandor got to his feet. “Aerri. It’s time to go, ad’ika,” he said. He scooped up the blaster pistol and the little girl hurried out of her cell and back over to him, gripping his pant leg and causing him to nearly trip over her as he headed over to Mirdala. Realizing she couldn’t be underfoot during the coming fight, he scooped her up in his left arm and felt her grab onto his shoulder. In the darkness he was having trouble seeing, but it was clear the Klatooinian was paying for his degeneracy dearly. Mirdala was crouched over his twitching body, her face a mask of rage so harsh that it startled Fett even though he knew that the Klatooinian deserved what she was doing to him. “Mird’ika!” he barked. Suddenly the hapless Klatooinian started to scream, causing Aerri to also shriek, and Fett put a blaster bolt through his temple. “There’s no time. We have to move.” Already they could hear voices coming from outside the cell block. Kandor crouched in the darkness, shoulders perpendicular to the door so that Aerri was as far behind him as possible, blaster pistol trained on the door. Two seconds later a trio of thugs burst in. Armed but undisciplined, they charged in brazenly. Kandor opened fire, and with a sound like the crack of thunder Mirdala called on the Force, slamming them ruthlessly against the cell bars and the stone wall as he picked them off. Aerri cried out again and her tiny fingers dug into his shoulder. This was where there were a lot of unknowns. Without his buy’ce and penetrating radar, he had no clear idea of the building’s layout and could not predict when opponents would be coming around the corner. Without his beskar’gam, he couldn’t make any mistakes. But he and his wife were far more than their respective gear. “I know where the nearest weapons cache is and our way out,” Mirdala remarked, focused now on the objective of getting them all out safely. Sgt. Izak to Constable Ad’Goran & Captain Fett. Clearance granted, SWAT teams en route. “Already engaging, we’ve got one civilian with us, will likely have more.” Mirdala responded verbally as she patched Kandor into the channel. “Twenty-two and the Justice are en route,” Fett said, moving to the doorway. He popped around the corner to the left, using the doorway to shield the trembling child in his left arm. “Aerri, do you remember that story I told you?” Mirdala asked reaching out to sense the enemies coming toward their position. The little girl nodded. “The Warrior and the Treetroll protected me, so that I can protect you now. This might be scary, but we’re both going to take care of you okay?” “Weapons cache is the second door past this junction. I have a feeling we’ll need more than borrowed blasters to get out of here or hold up until backup arrives.” she transmitted via her implant, taking a moment to wipe away the girl’s tears. ShadowFett nodded and made his move. He came up to the junction, gesturing to Mirdala with the tilt of his head. He took the corner to the left and she the right. His hallway was clear, but she opened fire and he spun around just in time to see her drop the second of two of the chakaare, one of them managing to get one errant blaster bolt off in their general direction. The doorway wasn’t much farther and it was unlocked. Anyone expecting an armory would have been disappointed. There was a row of disparate blaster pistols, the most recent model among which was probably a decade old. There was also a Clone Wars-era DC-15 blaster rifle and a solitary concussion grenade. “Better than nothing,” Mirdala remarked, replacing the powerpack on her pistol. “These guys really don’t know how to maintain their equipment. I’ll see if I can patch us through to their comm signals so we can avoid their guys as much as possible.” Fett grabbed the grenade and a powerpack or two, but couldn’t take the preferable DC-15 since he was fighting with one hand. “Do you want me to take her?” Mirdala extended her hands, but the girl only clung tighter to Kandor. “Guess not,” he answered. He didn’t have a pocket that could fit the concussion grenade so he was still short on hands as Mirdala grabbed the DC-15 and began checking it. He handed the small explosive instead to Aerri. “Here,” he said. “Hold this for me please, but don’t touch this.” He indicated the activation pad. It took a bit of force to slide the arming switch into position, so it was possible that she couldn’t turn it on if she was trying, but given how poorly maintained everything was, who could say? By now more men were on their way, having picked up on their location. Fett picked his blaster up again. If there was a SWAT team on their way, they didn’t have to raid the other cell blocks themselves. “You said you can get us out of here? Lead the way,” he told Mirdala.

Time passed slowly sitting in a cell, but Fett still had access to his implant, so he interfaced with 2277 and made sure the beskar’ad knew where they were, then started his usual routine of keeping tabs on what was happening in the rest of the galaxy while making idle chatter with Mirdala. For the moment he kept his present situation in the back of his mind; if GA security forces arrived, he didn’t need to do anything yet, and if they didn’t get their clearance, so be it. He had come prepared to do things himself. Aerri meanwhile continued to sleep, still clutching his arm on the other side of the bars from his body. It was starting to go numb, but he didn’t want to disturb her. Looking at the girl he wondered at her situation. There were no other prisoners in this small cell block, none of the victims he knew were on site. He didn’t know exactly how many cells there were due to the low light, but it was perhaps eight. He and Mirdala were likely here because, whether or not their captors intended to eventually traffic them, they’d been singled out because they’d deliberately infiltrated the truck rather than been rounded up. That probably meant they were awaiting interrogation. But he had no idea what that meant about Aerri. Was it possible that the adiik was more than a trafficking victim? Perhaps her parents were elsewhere in the building and whatever grunts had picked them up weren’t sure what to do with a child. Maybe they had other perverse plans for her. Maybe it didn’t matter and the only important thing was that they liberate her along with the others. One thing he knew for certain was that seeing her cling to him like a liferaft stirred within him a compassion that he rarely felt. Before he and Mirdala had truly connected, he’d always kept himself at an arm’s length from the troubles of other sentients. Even when he’d acted on their behalf, he’d done so in the name of justice or the law or his own sense of duty. That style of insulating himself was effective, and it served to keep him clear-minded and objective so that he could focus his efforts on doing as much as he could, trying to tilt the balance away from evil and chaos in the galaxy as a whole as much as he could as an individual. But the woman who was now his riduur had shown him that people could be worthy of a very personal brand of justice. Because they had some innate value that could never be discovered by simply making tallies of lives saved or lost. Both brands of justice had a place, he thought. He was ready to make objective decisions to save as many of the victims that were trapped here against their will as he could. He’d gotten involved without any contact with a single one of them. But now Aerri awakened with him the latter, and he would go to untold lengths in order to see her to safety. Presently the little girl now stirred fitfully, her lip quivering as she gripped his arm fiercely. “No!” she cried out. “Mommy! Daddy!” Moving his arm, Kandor jostled her awake. “Aerr’ika,” he called to her. “Udesii, ad’ika. It’s okay.” Aerri looked up at him, large tears in her brown eyes. “I want Mommy and Daddy.” He reached over with his free hand and stroked her hair as she started sobbing. “I know, ad’ika. And I will help you find them.” But even as rational has his words were to the girl, it seemed her emotions were bigger and her tears and pitch increased. Kandor had no way of knowing what events had brought the child to where she was now, but it seemed as though all of the upset was finding its way out in that moment. From further down the corridor he heard Mirdala stir and begin singing to the girl. It was one of the older songs she’d no doubt learned from TeVerd. The song echoed against the rock and steel, but seemed to do the trick as the girl’s wailing subsided to muffled sobs as she became transfixed on the unfamiliar words of the Mandalorian language. He continued to stroke her hair, grateful for his wife’s experience.

((More co-writing.)) Kandor looked down at the tiny human girl of no more than three that had been sleeping fitfully on a simple mat in the cell next door. Or at least she had been. Now she stirred and sat up, looking both cold and scared. Large brown eyes looked over at Kandor from under an unkempt mop of black hair that looked like it had been braided at one point. Anger twisted in his gut. Trafficking adults was contemptible; he knew not a word in any language harsh enough for those that would involve children. He slid over towards the bars that separated them. She shied back a bit. “It’s okay, ad’ika,” he said gently, slowly wrapping the fingers of his right hand around the cell bars. She continued to eye him warily. “I’m here to help you. Do you know how you got here?” The girl was shaking, whether it was from fear or cold he couldn’t be certain, but after several seconds she merely shook her head. “What’s your name, ad’ika?” he asked, trying to coax something out of her. When she continued to be silent, he tried again. “My name’s Kandor. I’m going to get you out of here. My friends are coming to help us.” “You’re not bad?” she squeaked out. He gave her what he hoped was a convincing smile. “No. Me and my wife, we’re the good guys.” He paused, then reached through the bars towards her with his right hand, palm up. “Can you tell me your name?” “Promise you’ll take me back to my mommy and daddy?” She moved a little closer to him, her little white nightgown utterly filthy from sleeping on the floor. “I promise I will try my very hardest,” he told her, continuing to hold out his hand. “Aerri,” she shifted shyly, but took his hand in hers. “I don’t like it here.” “Well Aerri, neither do I,” he said. “And so it’s a very good thing we met each other.” “What’s going on cyar’ika?” Mirdala called from the end of the hallway. “She’s not hurt is she?” “She’s okay. She’s scared but very brave,” he said, looking over at the girl. He switched back over to their implants. ”Way I can see it, we can bust out and take our chances, or we can call in the cavalry and let CoreSec clean this place out.” He could hear her sigh from down the corridor. It’s safer for the girl if we call it in and wait. As much as I’d rather crack skulls. We’ve got to be the ones responsible for her. I’ll call it in.

((Long one. Co-written of course.)) Already a little bit tired of overpriced resort food, the two Mando’ade headed into Laikos proper to find some skraan. 2277 advised them about a small place on the edge of a rough part of town that nonetheless had attracted attention for the quality street-food appeal of its menu. Borleias brought all types of aliens through it, usually on their way somewhere else, but sometimes even after they’d gone their cuisine stayed. They ended up sitting outside on a shaded patio which was pleasant in the early summer temperatures. The scenery perhaps wasn’t the most magnificent, the streets and buildings not nearly as well-maintained as in the resort, but in a lot of ways Fett preferred the seedier parts of town. Old beroya and cop habits commonly brought him to such places, and there was never a shortage of things going on. The menu was utterly unfamiliar, but once again 2277 proved his versatility as well as the usefulness of his always-on connection to the holonet as he dutifully answered their ponderings about what they might order even before a waiter came to take them. “Twenty-two is certainly never short on information. You mentioned how you wound up with Flirt, how did he come to join the family?” Mirdala asked while they waited on their food. “Not much of a story,” Kandor answered. “Basically as soon as I left Manda’yaim I realized that even if I wanted to work alone I would need a copilot and a finder who could process information faster than I could. I picked him up on, oh, Nar Shaddaa I think. He’s been upgraded and rebuilt over the years to the point where no part of him left resembles his original configuration, but his memory has never been wiped so he’s had continuity of thought since the beginning.” “But, Flirt you recruited? Tell me about that heist. I’m wondering who in their right mind would have programmed a droid with such a, well, flirtatious personality.” Mirdala and the droid had bumped heads the first time Kandor had loaned the slicer droid to Mirdala’s team during the CoreSec mission to Nubia. The droid’s propensity for meddling, especially when it had come to her and Fett’s relationships had often led to threats or promises on Mirdala’s part to reprogram Flirt. Kandor looked mildly embarrassed. “When I used the term ‘recruited’, I meant it fairly liberally,” he admitted. “I needed a positronic processor for the job, but they’re not exactly easy to come by. This one at one point belonged to a Wookiee named Chenlambec, who died some years earlier and passed Flirt on to his son. That son was victim to a Black Sun attack, though I didn’t realize it until later. Flirt was sitting unclaimed in a vault when I went looking for her and she liked the sound of the challenge I presented to her.” “She certainly had her opinions about me when I first entered the picture. I -“ Mirdala’s sentence trailed off as she saw some movement between two buildings behind Kandor and thought she heard a collective scream followed by a heavy WHUMP. If she had, it was quickly covered up by the sound of two deeper voices yelling at each other about being more careful with the “merchandise.” “What do you think that was?” she asked, glancing at her husband. It was the kind of thing that was easy to dismiss. Someone had probably just been carrying a package and dropped it. Kandor, however, stood up. “I don’t know, but I’m going to check.” He immediately moved toward the source of the noise, reminding himself that he was concealing a holdout blaster but not wishing to draw it and raise alarm if this turned out to be nothing. He quickly arrived at the corner of an alleyway, Mirdala close behind him, where they witnessed a large enclosed speeder truck was starting to pull slowly away. There was a distinct lack of spilled merchandise -- whatever the source of the voices, they must have immediately boarded. “Something feel off about this to you?” he asked his riduur. He palmed a small disk-shaped device and, with the flick of his wrist, tossed it up the alley, where it attached to the truck and started transmitting its tracking signal. Beside him, her eyes were closed and she looked vaguely ill as she reached out with the Force. “Sentient traffickers. Better call CoreSec for back up if you’re planning on doing what I know you’re thinking. We also don’t want to inadvertently bust an undercover op either.” Fett started receiving the tracking data via his implant. “We can’t wait for them,” he said, starting off down the alley. “I agree, but we can’t go in to some unknown operation with half a plan either,” Mirdala said, keeping pace beside him. “You track the truck and I’ll alert the locals we’re in pursuit of suspected traffickers. Twenty-two can back us up. I’m with you on this, but we have careful or we could spark something we don’t intend to.” Switching her channel over to the CoreSec bands, she relayed her Constable commission identifier and Kandor’s CoreSec operational ID to the dispatcher and waited on the line while they verified their identities. Meanwhile Kandor was interfacing with 2277. They couldn’t keep up with the truck on foot unless it stopped again. The beskar’ad had access to a map of the city and he began predicting the speeder’s course and providing them with shortcuts they could take on foot. Never thought I’d hear from you again, LT. Though I guess it’s constable now, the familiar voice of Sergeant Izak took over the CoreSec comms. Glad to hear that you and Captain Fett are still operational. I’m granting you clearance to pursue and operate as needed. We’ll be here to back you up when needed. After several minutes of losing ground on the truck and having it disappear from sight, its tracking signal halted. Now at a brisk pace, they caught up about three minutes later to find it where it sat idling next to another identical vehicle. Fett looked at Mirdala, his holdout blaster in hand. “Do we have our permission?” he asked, although honestly very little could stop him from making a move. “And extraction if needed.” In lieu of a better plan, Fett approached the back of the trucks in a combat crouch, blaster ready while Mirdala covered him. He hoped this wouldn’t just be a shootout when he would rather make it to the main chakaar base. Unfortunately the tracker had a limited maximum range so he didn’t think they could risk missing this chance. The back of the truck was unlocked. It slid open to reveal a cramped cargo area, the half closest to the hatch packed with innocent-looking crates. When he climbed in, however, he reached what appeared to be the front of the trailer well too quickly. He pressed his hand against the wall and looked wordlessly at Mirdala as she closed the hatch behind them and joined him. She approached the back of the wall, her head cocked to the side as though she were listening for something. “They’re behind this wall,” she confirmed. Outside they suddenly heard the hatch of the other truck open and muffled voices. Kandor looked around, then pried open one of the large nearby crates. Sure enough, it was empty. ”Guess this is our ride,” he told Mirdala, this time through their private link. There wasn’t time for her to hesitate, but there was just a split second where she had to fight herself to get into the crate with Kandor. She’d never told him how she was transported before and overwriting the alarms going off in her head was extremely hard. Fett found and gripped her hand, picking up on her spiking heart rate. ”It’s okay. We’re in control.” Tell that to my subconscious. He wasn’t sure if she’d meant to transmit the thought or not, but she did change her breathing rate as she honed her focus. Shortly thereafter, the speeder started moving again, the tracker’s continual transmission continuing to give them an idea where they were. Over the next twenty minutes it made one more stop during which something or someone was loaded onto their truck, but their presence in the crate continued to go unnoticed. Finally it stopped again and there was a sustained period of activity outside the crate as apparently the truck’s entire illicit cargo was removed. The Mando’ade continued to wait after it sounded like it died down, but just when they were thinking about making their move, two heavy pairs of footsteps sounded from outside. “See what I mean?” a male voice was saying, “We offloaded everyone, but there are still two lifesigns.” “Stand back,” a gruff voice responded. Suddenly the top of the crate was flung off and Kandor and Mirdala looked up to see the barrels of two blasters leveled on them. “Stand up! Hands where I can see them!” Fett obeyed, leaving his holdout blaster on the floor of the crate. The two criminals staring at them were human, nondescript other than having generally poor hygiene, and supplemented their blasters with suspicious scowls. “Now what are we going to do with them?” the first one asked. “Not our problem,” the other answered. He pulled the trigger in his pistol and two stun bolts lashed out.

Kandor unbuttoned the top of his shirt so he’d be a bit more comfortable and sat down in an armchair near the bed. When Mirdala didn’t immediately emerge from the closet he smirked, wondering if she had stumbled upon the box he’d surreptitiously left for her to find when they’d headed down for dinner. A couple minutes later, he got a bit more than he’d bargained for. The lights in the apartment inexplicably dimmed and then the built-in sound system sprung to life, playing something in an exotic-sounding double harmonic scale, sonorant wind instruments and drums foretelling what was to come in a fashion evocative of distant desert nomads. The closet door opened and Mirdala emerged, wearing not Deren’s gift but a fiery orange-to-yellow slit skirt and crimson scarf that wound from her neck around her exposed midriff. She moved fluidly with the beat, her dance in some ways martial and not entirely unfamiliar to one whom had seen her fight. Kandor was at once transfixed and taken aback. He’d normally describe Mirdala as modest, and she’d blushed even when describing the mission to him where she’d learned these skills. To see her put them to use, doing something even slightly exhibitionist, was in a lot of ways a very new experience and to him a deeply intimate one. The music continued and she danced her way over to where he was sitting, finally perching upon his lap. He reached up and drew her close and kissed her, enjoying a privilege that none other who had witnessed her performances before had.

((More co-writing.)) The floor of the Borleaisian Bounty Casino was abuzz with a flurry of activity and the noise level that had carried into the evening air had only intensified once they entered the double-doors staffed by a pair of Ishi Tib. Mirdala’s attention was immediately drawn to the flame-like sculpture rotating under the grand rotunda as it slowly turned and the kinetic nature produced artful movements that made it seem to passibly mimic a dancing flame. In several directions there were banks upon banks of various gaming machines as well as nests of gaming tables nestled within. “Want to try something low-stakes?” Kandor asked her. “Most of the card games are fairly simple.” 2277’s voice came over their private channel into their implants. “If you wish to increase your odds of winning, I am more than happy to provide statistical analysis of the most correct decisions.” “I’m good with watching and walking. Never cared much for games of chance,” she answered, clearly still adjusting to the overabundance of visual and auditory stimuli. “Suits me fine,” he said as they walked past a sabacc table where a young human man looked to be on the edge of having a breakdown while a Shistavanen gave him a toothy smile as the cards outside of the interference field suddenly changed value. Fett hadn’t actually played sabacc, though a Moon Knight or two had moonlighted as card hustlers. “You know, the noise level of this place is much higher than I expected. I guess people don’t really seem to care when they’re hungry to win more than they came in with,” she observed after they’d walked for a few minutes, her arm locked with his. “Even the nightclub I danced in wasn’t as loud as this with any of the acts, and I lived next to that place for weeks.” Kandor looked at his wife. “I take it that was Deren’s doing? Have to admit it’s not the kind of cover mission I see you volunteering for.” “It was Viscount’s idea, but training with him was mine. We needed something that would appeal to the mark and I happened to be just his type.” Her cheeks flushed slightly. “It was a challenging mission for so many reasons, not the least of which was coming to terms with putting myself in that sort of potential situation again. The guy was an absolute entitled predatory creep.” She had to stop herself just shy of using Kandor’s name, remembering he was “Yaren” while they were on Borleias. “At least I got pretty good at dancing with a sword and he got dead for funding my brother’s black ops projects that took my uncle.” She took a seat in front of one of the brilliantly colored gaming displays since they hadn’t really seen any other seating other than at the central bar that ran the length of the floor. There wasn’t a whole lot of foot traffic in this area for some reason and with the noise level, there was little chance of the two of them being overheard. “It was really hard not to gut the guy the first night, especially when he thought he was getting me drunk enough to agree to leave with him. I learned it’s possible to accomplish a mission with a team you don’t entirely feel comfortable with or trust beyond their ability to be professional.” Mirdala had never quite been able to place what it was about Vibborin that had made her so uncomfortable. She didn’t think it had anything to do with sharing an apartment with a total stranger. It might have been in the way she could feel him watching her when he didn’t think she was looking. “And there I go again,” she smiled up at Kandor, “Can we change the subject, please?” He squeezed her hand affectionately. “It’s natural to look back in a time like this. Feels like we’re transitioning now that the war is over.” “But to what? Your organization? Hunting?” she asked earnestly. “Tell me about this bounty you found again. The one on the Sith.” “Darth Quietus,” he said. “Powerful dar’jetii, been around forever seems like. During your investigation on Coruscant, he actually showed up at Kuat Drive Yards and commissioned a special ship. Think something like a Star Destroyer, but with most of the weapons stripped down and the insides turned into some sort of casino resort probably not that different from this one.” “So a hostage ship?” she interjected, slightly horrified. “Exactly what I thought. Hasn’t been used that way yet, though,” he noted. “In any case, KDY went ahead and filled the order, but I had them slip in some devices Quietus wasn’t informed about that would allow CoreSec to locate and partially disable the ship if something happened. Being among the very few people who can even link the Shadow’s Gambit to Quietus personally might give us an edge on finding him.” “Do you still have access to your CoreSec codes? You never really resigned your commission with them, did you?” “Technically I’m on extended leave. But finding the Gambit isn’t the challenging part -- it’s meant to attract visitors.” “Well, I’m surprised someone hasn’t tried calling you in considering everything that’s been going on with the GA,” she intoned. “You can ask Soresh, leave isn’t indefinite. They’ll expect you back sometime. You know with my commission, I’m free to roam and I’m not bound to the sector, right?” Kandor shrugged. “I’ll resign at some point. Just not quite ready to burn that bridge just yet. I was never a great cop.”

It wasn’t until dessert that Jaris steered the conversation back in the direction of their military experience. "So, not only can you two fight, but your wife also seems to be an accomplished engineer and slicer. Have you given any thoughts to possibly looking into something more lucrative, say private contracting?" Beside him, Maeve pursed her lips. "I’d thought you’d promised not to work on our vacation?" Jaris turned toward his wife apologetically. "I know, but you can hardly expect me to pass up an opportunity to recruit these two. You should have seen them fight, and that was just a spar against the other." Kandor put down the glass of water from which he'd been sipping. He'd been fairly quiet for most of the meal -- while he was perfectly competent in all the subjects discussed, he simply didn't especially care for the idle chatter. The skraan had been decent and he'd found something with some substance to it, but he got the sense that the restaurant's high price point was more about its exclusive atmosphere and the presentation of the dishes than the actual quality of the meal. He could admit at least that it tasted better than ration packs, particularly dessert, a course he so commonly eschewed. At any rate, he wasn't at all surprised to learn that the man had been playing an angle the whole time. He supposed the good news was that his cover was tight and Jaris had no inkling that he was trying to recruit ShadowFett. "Thanks for asking, but these days I work for myself," he answered, his face a neutral mask as hard to read as his buy'ce. Jaris shrugged. "You could still maintain your autonomy. I could set you up with--" "Sorry, not interested," Kandor interrupted flatly. Definitively. Jaris looked a bit ruffled by his tone. He seemed like he was about to say something when his wife gently put her hand on his arm. "We understand perfectly," she said. "You'll forgive my husband if it seems like he strung you along just to make his pitch. Allow us to pay for your meal." Fett gave a shallow nod. No doubt Jaris' contracting company would pick up the bill. He finished his water as Maeve flagged down the waiter, and a moment later he and Mirdala got up to leave. "Thanks for the invite," Kandor said in the same level tone before turning and heading for the door. "Maybe not all new things are good," he said quietly to his riduur as they entered the turbolift to head back down. "But I'm not quite ready to give up. What do you say we look around the casino?"

Honestly, eating a fancy dinner with strangers was on the list of things Kandor was hoping not to do while on Borleais, and he hadn't expected Mirdala to be interested in it either, but he couldn't fault her for being open to new experiences when they had come here partially to find them. Perhaps even more distasteful to him than the impending hour of small talk, though, was the way that Jaris Drex had gone about it. He and Mirdala had not sparred in order to show off their abilities or gain the admiration of their classmates, and he placed no value in the recognition of his abilities outside of a professional context, so the idea that someone would wish to express their appreciation for what was by no means intended to be a spectacle was bizarre and unwanted. But he would go along with it. A few hours later the two Mando'ade disembarked again from their hotel room dressed for the occasion. Kandor was wearing something that Deren or someone else had found for him -- a well-tailored dominantly-white suit that had buttons covered by a large flap that closed across his body to pin with a small clasp to his opposite shoulder, giving it a distinctive look suggestive of a military dress uniform while also not requiring a tie; furthermore it allowed him tuck a small blaster pistol into an armpit holster to satisfy his sense of caution. Mirdala wore the black dress from her mission on Coruscant, with a mid-length skirt, a modest trim that covered most of her scars, and sleeves that came just over her elbows. Not as extravagant as what she'd worn on Hapes, Kandor found it nonetheless incredibly flattering and told her as much. With a little help from a holomap, they successfully located the Luxdraught and arrived about two minutes early via a turbolift that took them up to the dining area high above ground level. Perhaps the nicest restaurant in the resort, it was awash in reds and golds, wealthy patrons being attended by stylish waitstaff and a large transparisteel window overlooking the rest of the complex, which would no doubt light up as the sun set over the next hour. Drex and his wife were already there, and Jaris came up to them when he noticed them and invited them over to their table. His wife, Maeve, was dressed immaculately, but her demeanor was not one of a doddering socialite; rather, she seemed to appraise the two even as she was introduced and remained attentive from there onward. "So you two clearly have some combat experience, to have skills like those," Jaris said once introductions were out of the way. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. Was that Teras Kasi, Yaren?" Kandor raised an eyebrow. "Surprised you recognized it," he said. "Have much martial arts training yourself?" Jaris waved his hand modestly. "Really little more than a hobby," he answered. "But you must be some kind of military, right?" "Something like that," Fett answered. He glanced at Mirdala, deciding to let her answer for herself since he didn't know how evasive she would decide to be.

After a grueling hour, the class was ending. Most of the attendees were drenched in sweat, their flushed faces betraying their relief that they'd made it to the end of the workout, even if they appreciated the rush it gave them or at least the benefits of daily exercise. Mirdala, however, looked better than Kandor had seen her in over a week. Ever since he'd first met her on board the Enigma he'd seen her fight as a form of catharsis, and this class had proved to be no exception. She'd fallen into rhythm and directed her energy into striking something tangible, and that moment of release from the lurking darkness in the back of her mind had strengthened her. Even as most of the class were sitting down trying to drown themselves in their water bottles, she was still light on her feet and he could sense her energy. "I'm not done either," he told her. He took a few steps over towards the class instructor. "Do you have another class coming in here or is this room going to be open for a bit? My wife and I are looking for a place to spar." The instructor glanced between them. "Guess I failed to wear you two out," she said. "You can stay -- next class is in 90 minutes. I'd ask you to wear pads if you're going to spar in here though." She walked over and opened a nearby equipment locker. Kandor agreed, he and Mirdala strapped on the gear, and then they squared off. Fett kept his eyes on his riduur's. He used a wide stance to lower his center of mass, but he couldn't get it as low as Mirdala's, so he had to rely on his reach and strength advantages against her while she would use agility and leverage to outmaneuver him and knock him down. They knew each others' fighting styles very well and both could get the better of the other despite his greater experience, so when they sparred, he always tried to dredge up something from some past Moon Knight and keep her guessing. Teras Kasi had taken over the core of his form since he'd decided to focus on it on Hapes, but this time he wanted to borrow some footwork from the defensive Soresu jetii'kad form and see where it got him. As a result he began on the defensive. Mirdala twisted and danced around him, testing his defenses with a series of kicks from different angles. By watching carefully for the signs he could predict each move and recall or design the correct block. After one such kick she reversed so quickly, pirouetting and coming in from the other side with a head-level strike, that he barely had time to duck just underneath. But he counterattacked and landed a kick of his own on her flank as she twisted away. A competitive glint entered her jade eyes when he could see them again. She responded well to a challenge. By now their classmates who were still in the room were watching with rapt attention -- these two sparred like a well-choreographed sequence in a holo film. She came in again, this time low and even faster. Slipping past his outer guard, Mirdala delivered a series of punches that confounded his blocks, then put her shoulder in his stomach and flipped him clear over her. He kept his sense of orientation, swung his legs over him, and managed to come down on his feet. He then stepped into her, placing a foot between hers so that when she turned she was thrown off balance. She fell, landing on her back, but while he'd been expecting her to stay there for a moment so they could reset, she surprised him. Like an acrobat she planted one hand on the floor and with a wave-like motion suddenly landed both feet on his midsection, sending him sprawling backwards. She lightly twisted off the contact and ended up on her feet in fighting stance, her knees never having touched the ground. Their spectators were audibly impressed by that one. Kandor picked himself up off the floor, grinning, and reset his stance, then beckoned for Mirdala to attack again.

“That’s more than fair,” he answered, completely satisfied with the answer. It was a little bit early to be thinking about their next hunt anyway, one day into their vacation. He transitioned slightly. “I’ve been thinking about your kit,” he said. “Maybe before our next dar’jetii we should see about upgrading your tech.” “So I don’t nearly stumble into a blind ambush?” she teased, wrapping the towel around her and sitting down on the end of the lounge chair. “Something like that.” He put down his datapad. “Penetrating radar is certainly an option, I could install a system like mine. Some vac sealing and better environmental controls could help you as well in certain circumstances, and that shouldn’t take much more than a new flight suit and neck seal.” It would have helped mitigate her negative experience on Hoth, certainly. “Never did much space work or crazy environments as a JP, but I guess needs change.” It was hard to think about altering her kit significantly. One of the things that TeVerd had always stressed with her was that equipment could fail anywhere and at any time and to be prepared for that eventuality. “Do you think we can get what we need here?” “I keep spares of most of my tech on the Justice, but we’ll have to order at least your soft parts,” he said. “Is there anything else you think you might want to update while we have some downtime?” “Give me some time to think and I’m sure we can come up with more.” She rose, “Now would you like to come help me out of this wet suit?”

Kandor sat partially reclined in a chair out on the balcony, the Borleasian sun beginning to decline in the sky while the air remained comfortable, as it was now early summer in Laikos. Mirdala hadn't quite been ready to set out exploring the resort yet, and he'd readily accepted that and so remained in the room with her. He'd busied himself for the most part working on his beskar'gam, replacing and rewiring the targeting rangefinder and wrist laser. But now he was staring at a datapad and having a silent conversation with 2277 through his implant while Mirdala had slipped into the pool to relax and watch the sunset, wearing flattering-but-tasteful swimwear that Deren had thoughtfully arranged to be left in their closet. Data flowed across his screen, carefully curated and organized by 2277 in the way that he had been for decades of their work together. The Sith had made an aggressive move on Kashyyyk, but now the Imperial Remnant fleet had arrived over Coruscant and were supposedly in talks with the Galactic Alliance. Fett had no particular love for the Empire, having sided against them for admittedly ideological reasons by joining the Augury after he'd become Moon Knight. He remained skeptical that Zinthos' Remnant was truly a different government, situated as it was on the same worlds, its political power base riddled with the same corrupt Moffs and governors as before. But a military alliance with the GA seemed to him a good move so that both factions could focus their attention on the emerging dar'jetii threat without having to worry about the other. Speaking of the dar'jetiise, 2277 soon returned his attention to the bounty he'd mentioned on their way into the resort. He hadn't done the whole beroya thing in a little while now, but all of his potential plans for the future would require huge sums of credits, and if he could destroy a dangerous man in the process, it was worth considering. And the posted reward was more than he'd ever seen for a manhunt in his entire career. "Somewhat-ludicrous bounty out on the head of Darth Quietus," he spoke up, sitting upright in his chair. "Ten million alive, half that dead. If I can verify the posting is legitimate, I think I might know how to find him. Not sure how you would feel about hunting dar'jetiise again in the future. I wouldn't want to push you." Mirdala was a Seeker now and more deadly than ever against Quietus and his kind. But last time Kandor had urged her into hunting SIth -- too soon after her ordeal with the Thalassian slavers -- his insensitivity to her incomplete recovery process and her own stubborn tenacity had built up as pressure until it had exploded aboard the Enigma and they'd parted ways for 8 months. Their relationship was far stronger now, but that was partially due to the important lesson he'd learned. That was, he'd learned how to truly care for her rather than seeing her as a resource.

The Justice rocketed out of hyperspace above the GA world of Borleias. "Master, I am afraid I still do not understand the reason for our visit here," 2277 was saying from his usual station within the MandalMotors vessel's cockpit. Fett shrugged. "We're just taking some overdue downtime," he said. "I have never observed you requiring downtime before, Master," the beskar'ad objected. "There is considerable work to be done. I have discovered a bounty on a Sith Lord with which you have prior dealings, for one." "It will have to wait," he responded. "Tell me -- have you observed the efficiency increase brought on by my partnership with Mirdala and her aliit?" "I admit that I have. It is unlikely you would have been able to accomplish all that you did on Mandalore and Shogun on your own." "For humans, these partnerships require maintenance," Fett explained. "Besides, I'll not be laying around all day, burc'ya. Going to get some work done on our kits and I'll make sure to find their gym. Meanwhile, you keep researching opportunities and we'll talk about that bounty." 2277 considered. "Very well, Master." ------------------------ As soon as Fett landed the Justice -- and perhaps even before -- he knew that on some level they were going to stick out. The landing pad was on the edge of a grand resort a little outside the planetary capital of Laikos, and while Borleias itself was situated along the Namadii Corridor and thus a natural stopping point for traffic traveling between the colonies and the core, making it a very natural place for a bounty hunter as he had often been, this place in particular was geared for vacationers, and mostly wealthy ones. The Justice most closely resembled a tank and was bristling with overt weaponry, but it was setting down on a landing field dotted with strictly civilian designs, especially sleek Nubian and SoroSuub models that proudly announced the wealth of whoever possessed them. He and Mirdala disembarked and were immediately picked up by a speeder shuttle onto which he loaded mainly equipment hardcases and only modest bags for clothing and other possessions. There were a few others aboard, humans and aliens of the upper middle class and above, dressed noticeably nicer than the Mandalorian couple. Kandor looked decidedly like an off-duty military officer in fatigue-style pants and a simple black shirt rolled up to his elbows with a build and haircut that matched, and Mirdala's clothes also tended practical. The ride up to the resort was spent in silence except for a human child who kept pointing things out to his parents in wonder and excitement, eliciting half-concealed smiles from the other passengers. The resort was expansive and outfitted with numerous attractions. It had pools, spas, a casino, outdoor areas with smashball and grav-ball courts as well as hiking paths and other relaxation-oriented options, and no doubt many more things that they didn't see on the way in. There were multiple options for accommodations, but Deren had spared little expense, and the hotel to which they were conducted was the nicest of the three. A pair of beskar'ade offloaded their bags and equipment while Kandor headed up to the front desk where he gave the name "Yaren Trent", under which Deren had placed their reservations. Even on vacation they figured it was appropriate to use false names. From there they were escorted up to their room, a 16th-floor suite larger than Kandor's safehouse on Corellia and decorated nicer than the manor he'd purchased on Chandrila. The room had an oversized bed, lavish furniture, and an expansive outdoor balcony equipped with a small pool. "Well, this is certainly... something," he said to his riduur. "Can't say I've ever been somewhere like this."

Kandor held her at half an arms' length for another moment, savoring it. There was a spark of light back in her jade eyes. "We can leave as soon as we're packed and I let Ops know I'm headed out," he said. He kissed her again, then let her go and set about his task. His beskar'gam still needed a lot of work, although Mirdala had started some of the simple things during her downtime spent here. Even if it was ready to be worn again, though, he would be in civilian dress on Borleias. Although he'd been becoming accustomed to being unmasked in public in recent months, he'd done so primarily within the Mandalore Sector. Going out among the aruetiise in such a fashion would enable him to remain low-key, something that was important if they were actually going to relax, but it still left him feeling a bit vulnerable. The fact that in all his adult life he'd never had the need to keep a low profile and blend in with civilians before Hapes was in many ways telling; this trip to Borleias was perhaps his first actual vacation in his life, as even on Hapes his face had been used as a disguise. And he truly didn't mind the idea of taking it easy for a little while with Mirdala. He thought of it as an investment of time in both of their well-being before their inevitable return to work, however that might look. In any case, he reviewed the state of his beskar'gam as he packed it in the custom padded equipment cases he used to transport it in the rare circumstances when he wasn't wearing it. The fractal-patterned scorch marks from Ab'ki's lightning were almost enough to make him consider repainting it, but it would cost the other scars and marks that he'd prefer to remember. Soon he moved onto the rest of his equipment and besbe'trayce, then finally what meager civilian clothes he owned and wasn't presently wearing. Flirt remained switched off, her salacious commentary presently unwanted. When he'd finished, he placed his call. Ops asked him when he thought he might return, but he simply responded, "When you need me." Finally the pair checked out of the Oyu'baat, made their way down to the Justice, and departed about three weeks after having arrived.

Taking their leave from the Vevuts, Fett and Mirdala retreated to a table to themselves where they ordered some skraan. Kandor was glad to see that his wife wasn't shutting him out completely like had happened over Myrkr, and the social interaction with Mellanie and Kalyani seemed to have a positive effect as well, but she was far from normal. They talked a little about some of the things that were going on in the greater galaxy that he'd found out about while they ate some of the Oyu'baat's famous stew, then shortly after headed back up to their room. "Things are starting to cool off around here," he told her as they entered. "I think I've given the Protectors the push they need." He eyed a small pile of beskar plates that had been stacked over by the collection of chest diamonds she'd received from the Seekers. The plates were some of TeVerd's, which had been split among his ade following the previous night's funeral. In Mandalorian culture, armor never went to waste, but was passed down through generations, often reshaped to fit the newest line of verde as they carried on the legacy of their ancestors. He knew Mirdala would carry on that tradition, but right now they were just one more thing here that was immersing her in her loss and grief with which she was still struggling to come to terms. "What do you say we get away from the Sector for a bit?" he asked. "Resorts aren't usually my kind of place, but I think we could both use something low-key and someone gifted us a trip to one on Borleias." Honeymoons were a tradition that belonged to the aruetiise, but right now the concept seemed practical for a couple who'd spent the vast majority of their first month and a half of marriage suffering loss and injury at the hands of overwhelming darkness. It would be a chance to refocus and figure out what might lie ahead for them both.

On schedule the Golan III was completed and another one was started.

Meanwhile, above the surface, MandalMotors was hard at work. The Golan III platform, as well as the first of the new Keldabe-class cruisers, were completed. Orders were to duplicate the order as soon as it was finished, so construction of another Golan III and cruiser were begun.