“The good news is that we aren’t being followed, for now.” Rochelle stated, she could audibly hear Ashden sigh of relief from that.

It’ll be a few clicks before they get out of the sector. There was no telling if they were still being followed at that point. Better to just not tempt fate for the time being. Even when the coast is clear, Ashden seems shaky, her dark eyes look tired. After what happened earlier this probably exerted this poor expecting mother to her limit.

“Do you need a drink?” Rochelle asked, all she could see was a nod from Ashden.

The amazonian Nelvaanian pulled back from her chair and headed to her small workshop in the main hold area, where she searched for some supplies. She returns to the cockpit with a metal water container and lends it to the expecting mother.

“Here, drink as much as you need,” Rochelle said to her, as she sat on her chair.

Ashden took a discreet sip from the water, and a few more afterwards.

Then, there was silence. For a few long minutes of just waiting for the right opportunity to speak. Surely there was no easy way to break the ice; at this point though, she will probably speak to her as a client.

“So, where should I drop you off?”

Ashden was quiet before responding “I don’t know, I haven’t thought this far out.”

“You… haven’t?” it wasn’t a good start, Rochelle thought.

“It was… it was so sudden!” Ashden then explained, “My mas-hm, husband… We were ambushed.”

“I can tell…” Rochelle faintly said, she could tell she was a valuable target if she was tied to the said merchant “If what you said is true, that means you are alone now?”

“That’s right…” Ashden's delivery was fumbling at best “I don’t know much about the Outer Rim, b-but maybe… is there’s somewhere safe?”

“Hm, well the closest we can call safe near here is probably Lothal, but it's very far away.”

“I can cover the e-expenses! As long as I can start over from there.” Ashden said, you can tell the little hint of hope in her tone.

“If you say so.” Rochelle replied as she checks her navigation system for the potential route, “We might need to jump a few hoops before we go straight to-”

Her ship was hit by a rocket, impacting the top right of the shielding. It was then followed by another one from the right side of the ship. The ship shook violently as a result of the direct impact. Nonetheless, they were surprised.

“What the blasting… they found us already?!” Rochelle jumped a bit as she got ahold of the controls. These bounty hunters were more adept than she thought if they had managed to find them so soon.


“I don’t have any turrets working after the last stunt I did!” Rochelle's best thing was to out maneuver the fighters tailing them. They were constantly being fired upon left and right. The lack of ion shots meant there was no apparent sign that they wanted them alive.

She’s really a wanted woman at this point. There’s no way Ashden’s “husband”, this merchant, was a small fry if they hire multiple bounty hunters tailing them!

Another impact slammed into the hull. Rochelle glanced over to shield levels. They were holding, for now, but a few more hits like that and they would be in deep trouble. That in itself caused a sudden panic attack in Ashden; who was hyperventilating and whimpering in her seat. Rochelle couldn’t afford to make another mistake like that or else harm would befall Ashden and her unborn children. With the best of her abilities, Rochelle tried to outmaneuver the enemy fighters even with the constant barrage of lasers trailing on her wing.

Then another laser hit their shields. It was enough to disable them, if the dreaded warnings on the screen wasn’t bad enough. The look on Ashden’s face was all clear to the amazonian Nelvaanian. At any moment they could die with a well-placed laser or rocket. And she’s not showing any good impression that they would make it out of this alive. And yet she was determined, there has to be a way out of this!

Rockets were trailing on them, the sensors on Rochelle’s ship providing feedback on them as she rolled the entire ship before causing the two guided missiles to collide. This put a smile on Rochelle’s face, but she quickly realized she couldn’t react fast enough with a rocket that was launched in front of them. The only option was to strafe the whole ship and let the lower part take the hit.

They barely scraped the incoming rocket as it impacted their engines. No longer where they have control of their movements as their forward acceleration just dissipated, with only inertia keeping the momentum.

“Blast it…” Rochelle said in cheer defeat. This turned into the worst job she could have taken that day. And whatever happens in the next few minutes, she was damn sure they will end up getting killed in the end.

The two expected to be blown out. Minutes passed, but nothing came. Instead the bounty hunter’s fighters rallied, as they were being attacked one by one by unknown ships.The two stranded Nelvaanians didn’t know what’s going on. Were they being saved? By who? Was it the Republic? All they know is that a few more ships arrived at their location; jumping out of hyperspace.

Soon, one hulking ship towered over the two Nelvaanians’ battered spacecraft.

“It couldn’t be…” Rochelle couldn’t let out any more words.

“Wha-t’s wrong? Are they friendly?” Ashden asks so innocently.

“I fear for the worst.” There’s no way her eyes were deceiving her. It was a fleet of warships with a Kandosii-class dreadnaught in the midst of it. She never thought she would encounter one in her entire life, but here she saw a fleet of them. “What you need to worry about is who it belongs to, and it’s not the Republic.”

“Who… who are they then?” Ashden fearfully asked.

Rochelle paused as she saw the bounty hunter fighters be destroyed one-by-one; their initial attack quickly becoming a desperate rout in the face of this merciless onslaught. Finally, she replied with a tone of fear and dread in her voice.

“It’s the Mandalorians.” Their day couldn’t be any worse now.

As if the very mention of the name startled the beast, their ship received an upcoming message. And it was close. Far too close for comfort.

“S-should we answer?” Ashden's heartbeat rising once more, unsure if she dared to ask such a question.

“At this rate we have no choice.” Rochelle then opened the comms to answer.

“Fear not, traveler” said the voice from the otherside of the comm “We will not harm you.”

Taking a moment to gather her courage, Rochelle responded to the call.

“How can we trust you not to destroy us, Mandalorian?” Rochelle asked with a semi-defiant tone; almost spitting out the name as though it was a curse.

There was a pause from the other end of the comms, and that was when Rochelle finally saw the Mandalorians’ dreaded Basilisk war droids hovering and circling around her ship; like predators drawn to a helpless prey. They were trapped.

“You can trust the fact that we can easily destroy you if we want to.” the Mandalorian coldly responded.

---

Now then, there was a little project that was being worked on in the background. It's related to a nelvaanian mom that I shared a few months ago that suggests there was something more to her story. Well here we have a collaborative effort with  snowpirate-101 and  gothia1565 for almost a year! All for free to enjoy! Expect more artworks with little stories attached to them in the following weeks.

Ashden and art belongs to  Derrysome

Rochelle belongs to  snowpirate-101

Story by  gothia1565 and  Derrysome