Wolven | The Mandalorian

Chapter 27: The Guns for Hire

Chapter 27: The Guns for Hire
Word Count: 10,368
Fun fact: I am a qualified midwife in the UK and every time I go to write 'planet', I always write 'placenta' first out of habit :)

Din, Elodie, and Bo-Katan sat in the Gauntlet, preparing to land on Plazir-15. The planet was lush with greenery as far as the eye could see. The terrain was relatively level; the only thing breaching above the treeline were the glass domes dotted around, encasing the civilization.

"There they are." Bo-Katan broke the silence from her pilot seat. Beside her, Grogu was perched in his pram, the curious child peeking outside the window to cure his boredom. Din leaned back in his seat beside Elodie to take a look himself. In a field close by the largest dome, a series of imperial and standard warships were lined up. "That's quite a fleet."

The woman looked proud for a split second before it was replaced by sadness. "It took me a long time to assemble it. Most of it was captured from the Empire."

Elodie shot the red head a small, close-lipped smile, "Impressive. I can see the one we helped hijack from here. I call dibs on flying it when we retake Mandalore."

"Could come in real handy taking back Mandalore. Axe Woves is their leader now. It's going to take some convincing to get them to join us." Bo-Katan was a little nervous about retaking control. The people had lost their faith in her- she had lost faith in herself. She didn't know how to recover from something like that.

"I wonder what they're here for?"

It was a quiet planet. There have been no records of particularly heinous crimes since falling from Imperial rule. "This planet isn't on the New Republic Registry, so I'd guess it's an independent world that hired them for protection.

"Can't imagine Woves will be happy to see you." Din slipped in, trying to get the woman to open up to him a little more regarding tactics. All he got was a far-off look on Bo's face as she scanned the area around them. "Yeah. I'll land outside the fleet's perimeter. It's probably best if we go in on foot."

A fanfare chime rang through the intercom, and a feminine voice called through.

"Welcome to Plazir-15. The Outer Rim's only remaining direct democracy. You've been assigned a docking slip. You will be guided on the assigned path. Engaging automated guidance."

R-5 whirred responsively as the ship jerked and the crew were jolted in their allocated seats.

"What happened?" The Mandalorian questioned, both him and the Wolven reading the Mando'a warning inscriptions flashing across the screen in front of them. Bo toggled some of the switches to find that the ship was unresponsive to her commands. "They've taken control of the ship. I guess we're going for a ride." She huffed, leaning back in her seat.

Gorgu babbles to her from his pram, and the ship lands on the delegated docking site, far closer to the city than they originally planned. They wanted to avoid the city completely, but the leadership of the domes had other ideas.

The trio was met with two droids upon their exit.

"This is interesting." Din grumbled to the two women as they walked over to greet them. The droid parted and allowed the small group to explore further. "Welcome to Plazir-15. Please proceed to your hyperloop pod."

Elodie stopped in front of them. "Why have we been summoned here? We were planning on bypassing the city." The astromech buzzed, but she didn't know binary. The other droid understood her silence as a question and translated, "No ships are allowed to land without expressed permission. Please proceed to your hyperloop pod."