CHAPTER 1 IT'S MY HIGHEST bounty Greef Karga said From his side of the table the Mandalorian looked back at him It was never clear whether Karga was telling the whole truth In the man's role as a local agent for the Bounty Hunters Guild he scattered half truths rumors and out right lies the same way he used Imperial credits and bounty pucks as tools of maintaining some uneasy ever shifting balance balance among the hunters he worked with and the shadowy figures he served It was nothing personal just business Let's see the puck Mando said referring to the small holographic device that contained information about the bounty No puck Face to face Karga paused Direct commission commission Deep pocket The Mandalorian wasn't surprised Often the most profitable profitable work came with the least amount of information usually
for the protection of the client who didn't want their business business known to the public Underworld All I know is there's no chain code Karga said not bothering bothering to hide his impatience Do you want the chit or not The Mandalorian took it It was never really a question Even for an experienced hunter like himself whose reputation reputation preceded him pickings were slim from the Core Worlds to the Outer Rim After the fall of the Empire the galaxy seemed to have lost its way There was little economic stability stability or rule of law and if the New Republic's promise of peace and prosperity had yet come to pass it hadn't trickled its way down to a backwater planet like Nevarro On those streets and a thousand others like them smugglers and thieves local warlords and thugs all conducted their business in the shadows and sometimes even in broad daylight More and more of the time crime flourished but for bounty hunters the criminals themselves were worth less and less As he walked along the back streets on his way to meet his new client Mando thought about the immediate future his next assignment and the next and the one after that Countless faces forgotten planets their names reduced to credits paid and owed These targets formed a chain of their own an endless stream of bounties extending off into some uncertain future The Guild expected hunters to bring their bounty in with no questions asked and forgetting about it
just as quickly afterward was part of the trade which suited the Mandalorian just fine He already had too much he couldn't forget The roar of explosions the terrified faces of his parents gleaming with sweat all of it still vivid and jarring as they rushed with him through the street their entire world falling to pieces behind them in the Great Purge Beyond it all was the Creed Somewhere between the darkness of the past and the vague blur of the future the road itself remained clear Wherever Wherever he went the skills and strength of the Mandalorians provided the path beneath his feet a destiny that would always be waiting for him It was the Way
