𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 ── ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀɴᴅᴀʟᴏʀɪᴀɴ ✓

2.0

TWENTY.
the tracking fob

🔹️🔹️🔹️

The wind howled against our speeder bikes as we traveled through the planet of Tatooine. I turned to look over at Toro and Mando while they competed with one other on their bikes. I rolled my eyes, pushing the accelerator on my speeder bike; riding ahead of them.

They stared at each other -- shock written all over Toro's face. He watched me; a smirk creeping upon his face.

"You're not as bad as I thought, sweetheart."

"Ugh," I groaned, tightening my grasp on the speeder bike's handle. "Just keep your eyes on the road, big guy."

Mando bolted past Toro, keeping his speed up with mine. I glanced over at him, hiding a small smile behind my mask. That's when Toro caught up with us, riding on the other side of me.

Just then, Mando held a hand up, signaling for us to stop. I slowed my speeder bike down, powering it off as the others did too; Toro and I took off our masks and goggles during the process.

"What's going on?" Toro asked, turning his attention towards Mando.

"Look," Mando began, pointing at something in the distance. "Up ahead."

Toro grabbed his binocs from out of his bag, walking over to get a better view of the tiny figures in the distance. He placed the binocs over his eyes and observed the figures.

"Tusken Raiders," He announced. "I heard the locals talking about this filth."

"Tuskens think they're the locals." I chimed in as Toro scoffed in response. I shrugged, "Everyone else is just trespassing."

"Whatever they call themselves," Toro said, keeping his eyes on the raiders. "They best keep their distance."

"Yeah?" Mando snapped. "Why don't you tell them yourself?"

Just then, Tuskens came up from behind and yelled at us, startling Toro as he took off the binocs. I hopped off of my speeder bike, walking over to the Tuskens; Mando following me.

"Relax." I said to Toro, patting him on the back.

Mando looked at the Tuskens, using sign language to communicate with them. I glanced at him, trying not to show the sign of respect on my face. Toro stared at Mando with a confused look on his face.

"What are you doing?"

"Negotiating." Mando said, watching as the Tuskens replied back in sign language. In response to that, he continued communicating with them in that language.

However, after that, the Tuskens looked at one another with a sudden burst of excitement. Toro raised an eyebrow, "What's going on?"

"We need passage across their land." He said, letting the Tuskens speak once again. Mando turned to face Toro, "Let me see the binocs."

"Why?"

I sighed, "Just do it."

With a bit of hesitation, Toro took out the binocs and gave it to him. Almost immediately, Mando threw it at the Tuskens as a trade.

"Hey! What?" Toro stammered, angrily as the Tuskens jumped up and down with the binocs in their hands. "Those were brand new!"

"Yeah?" Mando replied, causing me to chuckle as he got on his speeder bike. "They were."

🔹️🔹️🔹️

We continued to ride through the deserts of Tatooine; dust brushing past us. Not long after, I noticed a dewback in the distance, dragging something by its foot. This time, I was the one to hold my hand up and signal for everyone to stop.

"Get down..!" I announced, dropping to the ground and crawling over to a nearby hill's ledge. Mando nodded, crawling over to me.

"What?" Toro asked before noticing what was going on. "Oh."

"Alright," Mando sighed, looking at the dewback as it roared. "Tell me what you see."

"Dewback -- looks like the rider is still attached," Toro responded, squinting at the creature and its rider. "Is that her? Is that the target?"

"I don't know." Mando said, preparing to go check. But before he could do anything, I grabbed my blaster and turned to look at the boys.

"I'll go; you boys cover me." I said, standing up as the boys grabbed their blasters. "And stay down, Toro."

"You got it, baby."

I cursed under my breath, quickly running over to the dewback and the rider. From what I could tell, the person seemed to be dead. That's when the dewback began roaring as if it was frightened by my presence.

"Whoa, whoa.." I murmured, placing my hand in front of it to keep the creature still. Luckily, it had calmly stopped moving about, listening to my command.

I walked over to the rider, kneeling down to take a closer look at the person. I turned the body over with my hand to see if it was the mercenary that Toro had been looking for.

However, it wasn't her -- it was just a bounty hunter. Toro shouted up from the hill, "Well, is it her? Is she dead?"

"It's another bounty hunter." I replied, analyzing the hunter's body for a bit longer. That's when I noticed something.. something that made me uneasy.

"Hey, sweetheart!" Toro called out to me. "I hope you don't plan on keeping all that stuff for yourself! Can I at least have the blaster?"

Ignoring Toro's remarks, I spotted a tracking fob on the hunter's belt, making me frown. I stood up, looking out into the distance. That disturbing sound of a tracking fob had made my head hurt in a very painful way, telling me that something bad was about to happen.

"Adalyn, get down!" Mando exclaimed just as I got shot in the right leg, causing me to fall onto the ground. I groaned, quickly standing up and limping over to the boys as fast as I could before getting shot again.

I leaned against the back of the hill, breathing heavily. Toro looked at me with a worried expression, "Whoa, what happened?"

"Sniper bolt," I said as the pain in my leg grew stronger. "Only an MK-modified rifle could make that shot.."

"Are you okay?" Mando asked as blood oozed out of my leg and onto the sand.

"I'll be fine.." I replied, breathing heavily. He stared at me before nodding in response as Toro broke the silence.

"Well, so what do we do?"

I looked over at Toro, "Did any of you see where that shot came from?"

"Yeah, it came from that ridge."

"Alright, we're gonna wait until dark." Mando announced as I placed pressure on my wound with my hands. Toro raised an eyebrow at Mando with a doubtful look.

"Well, what if she escapes?"

"She's got the high ground," I answered, sliding down the hill and strolling over to the speeder bikes for a medical kit. "She'll wait for us to make the first move."

"We're gonna rest; you take the first watch." Mando said to Toro as he walked over to help with my wound. I turned to look at Toro once more with a stern look.

"And don't forget -- stay low."