Chapter 9
They went back to the cockpit and Jith made another call. Once again Sparrow was blindsided by who she knew.
“Sabine! Nice to see you.”
“Hello Jith, how is the clan?”
“Doing well, my regards to your Mother.”
“Of course.”
“Where are you, still looking for him?”
“Yes, got anything for me?”
“Not yet, still working my contacts though. Say, where are you right now?”
Sabine read off some coordinates and Jith checked it on the flight computer, tracing a line from where they were to the last known position of the cloners.
“You’re pretty close, any chance I could get you to meet us at,” and she read a set of coordinates to Sabine.
“Why?”
“It concerns the safety of all Mandalore. No kidding this is a real threat.”
Sabine spoke to someone off screen. “We’ll be there.” Then she cut the comm.
“She’s still looking for that boy from Lothal. The one who stole the 7th fleet.”
Sparrow checked with Omni via the link. “There was nothing about him or Thrawn at the facility where we were held.”
They heard the sith ship land outside. “Good, it’s here. I left quite a pile of armor and weapons on her. We figured they would be easy to sell.”
“You were going to sell them on that hellhole? Sparrow, I thought I taught you better.”
“You taught me to do what needed done. 4000 year old comm gear wasn’t going to get me in touch with you.”
“Good point.” She chuckled.
By the time they got outside, Sparrow having donned his helmet, the 6 person strike team was waiting. Jith took them into the ship to find a place to bed down while Sparrow went over to the sith interceptor and grabbed a grav sled packed with armor and equipment. It took him two trips to get it loaded on the slaver.
He passed the mando’s in the cargo bay. They were relaxing and cleaning equipment.
“Did Jith warn you to stay out of the med bay?”
He could tell a couple of them were about to test him so he casually lifted a full crate of supplies and moved it out of his way. He had seen two of them struggling to move one of them on the way in.
The message was received.
“Yes, she told us.” He was informed.
“Great, hopefully its an easy mission.”
He headed up to the cockpit where Jith and Caleb were talking with Kitten.
“If you get a chance, he told her, “go down to the cargo bay and shift around a few crates, the reaction is entertaining.”
They all chuckled.
They were about to lift off when they saw a ship coming down through the atmosphere. As soon as he recognized it Sparrow started to fan-boy a bit.
Yup, he was about to go on a mission with Boba Fett! Woot!
“Any advice?” he asked.
“Don’t back down, he respects strength.” Caleb said immediately.
“And don’t insult his honor, he’s pretty touchy about it.” Jith added.
“Great!” He said as he headed for the main hatch.
When he got to the ramp he saw Fett was accompanied by Fennec Shand, who he expected, but also four clone troopers and a tiny old man.
When the old man saw him he came running over and started running his hands all over the armor and babbling excitedly in some strange language.
“He is very impressed by your armor.” Boba said, “and I am too. In fact, I would like to trade.”
The four clones had brought some crates down Slave 1’s ramp. Fett walked over to one and opened it, revealing brand new armor.
“I brought twenty brand new high tech sets of armor. 15 sets of Krayt 210 personal armor and 5 of the new 350 heavy armor variant. It is the best armor available on the market. I will trade you set for set for what you are wearing and any other sets you possess.”
“Wow,” Sparrow thought, “this guy was going to be pretty pissed when he found out what Jith called him here for.”
“I will do you one better, I will trade you an equal number of unworn and undamaged sets instead. My companions and I have grown attached to what we have for now. It is also becoming something of a calling card for our mercenary company.”
“Believe me, I understand.” The former bounty hunter said as he gestured down his body at his fathers, now slightly outdated, Mandalorian armor.
“Give me just a minute and I will retrieve that armor for you.” Sparrow turned and walked up the ramp, grabbing the grav sled he loaded the armor back up.
When he came down the ramp with it the old man looked like he might explode. He came running forward and started pawing through the crate, exclaiming loudly about various finds.
“Well, at least he seems happy.” He commented. “There’s another crate in the ship but that one is almost all weapons.”
Fett acknowledged the comment but didn’t say anything back. Sparrow didn’t have time to play games so he said, “Well, I would move away and let him know to as well. We are about to lift off.”
“I planned on going on the mission with you, and I would like to meet the clones.”
“We already have a crew for the mission, no need to risk someone of your importance. Also, the clones were already sent on to the alternate location. I was told you hadn’t requested them.”
“I get it, it’s you in charge.” Fett responded. “I just wanted to come along and maybe do some looking around.”
“Fair enough. We lift in a couple of minutes though, we have a rendezvous on the way.”
Fett indicated the ship to Fennec with a tilt of his head and she headed on board. The four clones came over to see what was going on.
“Go ahead and load those crates on board then you boys can hang out here, ship is getting full up and this isn’t the mission you were requested for. That one will start when we get back.” He told them.
“Please keep an eye on the Professor as well and assist him where needed.”
“Sure thing.” Said one of the clones cheerfully.
“So,” Fett asked casually as they watched the loading, “You said you are part of a mercenary group?”
“Yes, the Legion.”
“I haven’t heard of it.”
“We’re new.” Sparrow said.
Fett chuckled. “Hiding mando’s as mercenaries is a very old trick. Fair warning, you still have the stance and the Mandalorian walk.”
“Thanks for the heads up.” Sparrow returned calmly.
Once the loading was done they closed up the ship and lifted off. Sparrow led Fett to the lounge where they found Jith and Caleb talking to Fennec. It was obvious they knew each other.
Sparrow left Fett there and headed by the med bay. All the clones were far into their transformations now so there wasn’t much to see. He made sure all had IV solution still running and headed to the bridge.
There he found Kitten and the two synths. Omni was in the pilots seat and Sparrow noted he was actually flying the ship normally for once.
“He’s pretty observant.” He said as he sat down.
“From what I have been told about him he has survived more or less alone in the galaxy for a long time.”
“Yeah. Glad to see he’s got a team together now.”
“I take it since you guys are here the imprinting is all done?” He addressed the synths.
“Yes, everything went as well as could be hoped. We will see what happens when they awaken.”
“I, for one, can’t wait until this bit is over and we are back on our own. Wearing this helmet all the time gets old.” Sparrow whined a bit.
Kitten agreed, “I know, my hair has been itching for hours.”
Sparrow hung around for a while, chatting with his team, but finally decided he needed to show his face, so to speak, in the lounge.
He walked back in to find the group conversing casually.
Fett shot him a look. “I guess I overpaid for that armor.”
“Going rate.” Sparrow shot back.
“How bad is this hit on the cloners likely to be?”
“I’m really not sure.” Sparrow shared. “I am having trouble wrapping my head around someone doing what these idiots are.”
“I agree,” Fennec chimed in, “to clone the mandalore is a really brave move, but then to sell her as prey for these trandoshans… I just don’t get it.”
“Not sold, the logs say traded.”
“Traded? For what?” Boba asked.
“A load of slaves apparently. Which makes even less sense, why trade for slaves when you can just make them?”
“The only reason I can think of is variety. Maybe they only had the ability to make the three clones we have seen so far.” Caleb opined.
Sparrow wasn’t surprised. Caleb may have been getting pretty old but that mind of his was sharp as ever.
“I agree, it’s the only theory that makes any sense. I just don’t understand what the end game would be.”
“You know,” Fennec said, “you can take that helmet off, we are all friends here.”
“Can’t.” Sparrow said, “my people and I picked up a bit of a bug out in wild space. Causes all kinds of issues. It’s purely blood borne at this point but I figure with this many people on board why risk it.”
“Good thinking.” Said Fett. “That armor you conned me into overpaying for will be even more useful then, both varieties have full environmentals.”
“They do? That’s excellent, we may have to switch over now.”
The overhead speaker crackled to life.
“Commander?” Deux let him know that was him so Sparrow responded, “yes?”
“You’re needed in the med bay, the first patient is about to wake up.”
“Let me grab some armor for her and I will be right there.”
Fett waited a beat after Sparrow left and then he speared Jith with a look. “Every antenna I have is waving. There is a whole lot going on under the surface here.”
“Gods willing it’s nothing that will affect you directly.” She calmly responded.
“He’s one of yours, isn’t he?”
“Well, he was. He’s the one who found the battle group. I gave him his own clan now.”
“He’s young, but he seems to have his head on right. Lies like shebs though. Communicable disease.” He snorted.
“Oh no, that was definitely not a lie. One of the biggest things we have going on is trying to fix that situation before it gets out of containment.”
Sparrow went to the hold and pulled out enough armor cases for his whole team. He grabbed himself a heavy and one other in case anyone wanted to try it. The rest he grabbed normal sets for.
When he entered the med bay Akira was sitting up. Again he was surprised she looked clearly different than Kitten. She was the same race as them but she was much taller, and more solidly built, than the other girl.
“Nice to meet you, names Sparrow.” He told her.
“I remember. This is completely weird.”
“I can’t even imagine. Any issues other than that so far?”
“Well, I’m stark naked under this sheet but since I look way hotter than I have in a long time I’m strangely okay with it. My chest is bigger, my shebs is smaller, and the silver skin is really throwing me when I catch my own movement out of the corner of my eye. I almost hit the ceiling when I started moving too. We are very strong it seems.”
“Good genetics I guess.”
She gave him a smile.
“We have guests, if no one filled you in yet, your “mother”, Caleb, a mando team, and Boba and Fennec. We are on our way now to pick up Sabine and one other.” He handed her the armor case.
She threw the sheet off right in front of him and started getting dressed. He whipped around to put his back to her. It felt disrespectful to stare, she’d always been kind of like his Mom, well, not her but…
“All this cloning and changing is SO weird.” He finally said.