Chapter Text
“Ugh, wha- Mando!” Cara Dune exclaimed as she looked around groggily, only to see her Mandalorian friend lying nearby, out cold as far as she could tell with all that armor and without removing his helmet. “Kid!” She scrambled up and snatched the Child off the floor, checking him over frantically.
“Oh, thank the Force .” She breathed when her search revealed no injuries. He appeared to just be knocked out, like Din was, and like she probably was a minute ago.
Carefully, not wanting to set off any weapons or ammunition or anything on the walking armory that was her friend (and because he was heavy with all that armor and said armory), she pulled the satchel off of him, pulled the strap over her shoulders, and carefully slid the kid inside.
She wasn’t sure when he would wake up, and it was best to have him close at hand and already prepared to go if this ended up being a combat situation. It might mean leaving Din behind, but honestly, if it was the kid or him, he would agree with it being the kid. Would insist on it, actually. Din could take care of himself when he woke up.
Then she looked around the room they were in. She’d done a cursory glance when she first woke up, just enough to determine that they were alone, but now she took the time to really look. She glanced out the window, and cursed.
It looked like they were on a ship… in hyperspace.
Great.
If this ship’s crew ended up being hostile, then they were trapped.
The only consolation was that she hadn’t woken up in binders or strapped to a table or anything like that.
This looked like some kind of crew quarters that was currently being used as storage of some kind… maybe they were undermanned for the size of the ship, which felt fairly large from the feel of the engines, or maybe it was for guests? Who knew. There were no markings in the room to indicate any kind of group allegiance, which didn’t necessarily mean much. Her bunk in the Rebellion wasn’t exactly covered in rebel symbols. And there were no special apparatus to accommodate for different species environmental requirements or quirks.
The room was orderly, and everything was in good repair, if not nearly brand new. Also of fairly good quality for this being an unused (guest?) crew quarters.
So whoever ran this ship had resources.
That ruled out pirates, or… well, anybody in the Outer Rim and beyond. Which left inner-Mid Rim or Core.
At the door, she pulled her blaster pistol, wished she had her rotary blaster on hand when… Whatever happened to send them here, and palmed open the door to take a cautious look out into the corridor.
She drew her head back in quickly, cursing mentally.
Stormtrooper.
They were on an Imp ship.
She peeked out again to see that the door opening and staying open without anybody coming out had caught the troopers attention.
As a Rebel, her first instinct was to shoot to kill. But… they needed information on what ship they were on, their current assignment, and who was in charge. Whether or not it was a name she recognized could determine their escape strategy. And where they were going would determine how much sabotage they could afford and when they could afford to do it.
She quickly thumbed her blaster to stun, whipped out of her cover, and fired.
He never saw it coming.
A quick glance up and down the corridor showed nobody coming, so she darted out, grabbed her new prisoner under the armpits, and dragged him back into her room before darting back out and grabbing his dropped rifle.
“Ok, Mando, please tell me you have a pair of cuffs on you.” She muttered to herself. She didn’t remember if he’d taken a job recently, or if he was in the habit of carrying them at all times. “Sorry about this.” She apologized in advance for having to search him like this, and almost crowed when she found the cuffs she was hoping for.
Prisoner secure, she rigged the lock on the door so that they wouldn’t have any surprise visitors, and stripped her new prisoner of his armor and anything that might be a communicator before she started searching the cabinets and boxes for anything useful while she waited for Din to wake up.
The first thing Din became aware of was the splitting headache.
The second thing was Cara muttering to herself, along with the sound of shifting objects, almost like she was searching for something.
His groan alerted her that he was awake, and her quick footfalls sounded towards him.
“Oh, thank the Force.” She breathed. “We’re in trouble, Mando.” The use of his call sign was his first clue that they were in hostile territory. She’d asked for, and received, permission to use his name not long after Nevarro, and made use of it when they were alone. She only called him Mando anymore when they were in a fight or others were nearby.
Then the rest of her words registered.
The third thing was that the kids carry satchel wasn’t on his body anymore, and the kid wasn’t at his side. And he couldn’t hear the tiny Foundling.
He shot up, startling Cara, who sat back quickly.
“Kid!” He looked around frantically for a moment before groaning again and clutching his head as his headache made itself known again.
“He’s here. I have him.” Cara laid a hand on his shoulder carefully, and then reached for her side. He followed the path of her hand and slumped in relief when he saw the satchel, kid safely inside. “He’s still out from whatever brought us here, but I didn’t see any injuries.” She reported as she pulled the strap back over her shoulder and handed it back to Din.
He put it back in its usual spot and carefully pulled the kid back out to examine him for himself while cuddling him close.
She carefully hid her smile and wished for a holo-cam.
Not for the first time.
After a moment of allowing himself to just hold hi- the child, Din put him back in the satchel and carefully stood up while running a hand over his armor, checking that all his weapons were in place. He frowned when he realized his cuffs were gone, and tilted his head towards Cara, who sighed and pointed at a corner of the room.
“I don’t know how, but we’re on an Imperial ship. He was in the corridor when I looked outside, so I stunned him. We need information.” She shrugged when his helmet tilted towards her again at hearing that she merely stunned a stormtrooper.
“How’s your head?” She asked after a moment of them both looking at the stunned and cuffed Imperial soldier. “Don’t look at me like that, the way you were holding your helmet was not subtle.” She deadpanned, not looking at him but knowing he was probably doing that head-tilt thing at her.
“I’ll live.” He grunted.
She hummed. “We should probably make finding and raiding the med-bay a priority, then. We’re both going to need to be better than ‘I’ll live’ if we have any chance of making it off this ship alive.” Putting it that way was probably the only way she could be sure he would agree with the need for some medical attention.
The guy used a welding tool as a cauterizer on his wounds on the regular.
A welding tool .
That didn’t inspire much confidence in any of his friends on his ability to take care of himself.
“That armor should fit you.” He said after a moment, looking at the stormtrooper armor in the corner.
“Ugh.”
Leia sighed and shook her head when she entered their small medical area and saw Luke in the bacta tank.
She hadn’t been too worried when Luke didn’t check in. Because she knew her friend was smart and resourceful, she knew that he had a full load of winter survival gear on him, and the cold had been wreaking havoc on all their equipment, especially the comm relays. He also had the Force, as little training as he’d had with his Jedi abilities so far.
Well, ok, she worried, but not that much .
Her worry grew when Han rode out after him, against everyone’s advice. Because now two of her friends were out there, not just one.
It turned out to have been a good call, though.
According to Han, Luke had been found alone, no tauntaun in sight (or survival gear said tauntaun was carrying), half buried in the snow and mumbling something about ‘Ben’ and ‘Dagobah’. They wouldn’t know for sure what happened until he woke up, but the cave they’d found nearby with the remains of the wampa and the tauntaun inside (with lightsaber marks on the wampa) gave a fairly clear picture.
Because of the creature and its proximity to their base, they changed their patrol protocols so that nobody went out alone. One person was in charge of watching for Imperial activity, the other was charged solely with keeping an eye out for any more native creatures trying to eat Rebel soldiers.
“Princess, you’re requested in the control room.” An Alderannian technician (as evidenced by her tear-drop tattoo and use of the word ‘princess’) poked her head in to inform her.
“Thank you.” Leia said with a sigh. The tech gave her a small smile and moved on. Leia glanced at Luke again before walking briskly back to the control center. She did not run, and she did not hurry. No need to incite panic or unease.
“What’s wrong?” She asked when she entered.
“We think we’ve picked up Imperial chatter.” Another technician said. “Nothing concrete yet, we’re still decrypting the code and tracing its exact origin, but it came from this system.” He looked at her grimly.
“Chewie and I found and destroyed that probe droid.” Han piped up from near the door. He looked annoyed about it.
“Yes, I know.” Leia murmured. “It might have gotten a signal out, after all.” She looked down in thought briefly. “Better safe than sorry. Continue monitoring, and get that signal decrypted. In the meantime, start getting the most sensitive equipment onto transports.” In other words, the computers with all their datafiles. Those didn’t need to be left behind for Imperials to find and make use of the information within.
Everything else… it would be a loss if they had to leave it behind, but it wouldn’t be as devastating to the Rebel Alliance as a whole.
“Yes, General.”