Wolven | The Mandalorian

Chapter 6: The Prisoner

Chapter 6: The Prisoner
Word Count: 4,541
*EDITED*

The ship jolted when another shot landed on the hull. Elodie's grip tightened on the seat belt across her torso. Across from her, the child was squealing in delight at the situation. He liked how the ship would dive sporadically from side to side to evade oncoming fire. He made little effort to hold on, instead raising his hands in the air. Reaching over, she tightened the seat belt over his lap to secure him. The voice of the assailant crackled over the transponder, causing the Mandalorian to tighten his grip on the controls.

"Hand over the child, Mando, and I might let you live."

The crest dove to the left in a flip to avoid another shot, and Elodie held her breath to suppress the urge to vomit. It had been a long time since she was last in space, in the throes of a fight.

"Hang on!" Din called over his shoulder, wincing when he heard her heave.

"I can bring you in warm or I can bring you in cold."

Din hauled the ship to an abrupt stop with the reverse thrusters. The halt while travelling sub-light speed caused all three of them to be thrown into their belts with a collective grunt. Elodie threw her hand in front of the child on instinct to prevent serious injury to his small form. The offending ship scraped over the top of the crest and into the Mandalorian's line of sight. In an instant, the other ship was detonated, and the bounty hunters dying screams echoed throughout the cockpit.

He glared at the ship, "That's my line!"

"Losing fuel." The automated voice of the ship sounded among alerts of failing systems.

Luckily, they were over the atmosphere of Tatooine, the golden sandy tundra overtaking the expanse as far as the eye could see. The cockpit suddenly grew dark as the backup generators failed to kick in. The child cooed, scared. Din desperately flicked random switches in hopes of reviving the systems. "Here." She said, reaching across to transfer one wire into the socket of another, and the ship spluttered to life. Din sent her a nod and returned to piloting.

The descent into the lower atmosphere caused another call over the radio, "This is Mos Eisley Tower. We are tracking you. Head for bay three-five, over."

"Copy that. Locked in for three-five." The Mandalorian acknowledged.

Din landed the ship in the hanger and lowered the ramp. The two collectively decided to keep the child in the sleeping compartment on the ship while they scoped out the area. It had been a while since she had visited Tatooine; who knows how much has changed since then? Elodie knew for a fact that the rule of the Hutt's was over, and now the Daimyo was Bib Fortuna after the invasion of the Jedi.

Droids came rushing towards the ship from one of the doors, followed by an erratic older lady. Her hair stood in a wild tussle of auburn curls, and she wore work overalls covered in oil. She was rightly dissatisfied when she saw Din whip out his blaster to fire in front of the droids to stop their approach. "Hey! You damage one of my droids, you'll pay for it."

Ignoring her, he stated, "Just keep them away from my ship."

"Yeah? You think that's a good idea, do ya? Let's look at your ship." She got closer to the wing of the crest, observing the carbon scoring and damage from the fight. When she looked away, Elodie slapped Din's arm as a warning not to provoke her. "Oof! Look at that. Ugh, you got a lot of carbon scorin' building up top. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were in a shootout." She went all around to assess the damages. "Special tool for that one. I am gonna have to rotate that. You got a fuel leak. Look at that, this is a mess. How did you even land? That's gonna set you back."