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
CHAPTER 2 GREEF KARGA SAID you were coming Mando stood in front of the Client letting the silence play out around him For a supposed safe house the room didn't feel particularly safe Walking in he'd found four stormtroopers in dusty battle scarred armor surrounding him blasters at the ready Like the Empire they once served the troopers had been stripped of their official authority but not of their menace These days they worked fought and killed for whoever offered the highest pay What else did Karga say Mando asked He said you were the best in the parsec The Client's expression didn't change He was a man in his seventies with white hair and an accent Mando couldn't place but his distinguished distinguished mannerisms hinted at a former life as a highly ranked Imperial officer He also said you were expensive It wasn't a question and Mando didn't bother to answer it There was a muffled clink as he watched the old man
unfold a piece of soft black fabric across the table in front of him to reveal a flat rectangular plate of metal lying at the center of the red lining He was aware of the troopers behind him leaning in for a closer look Even they couldn't disguise their interest in such a treasure The Mandalorian knew its name at once Beskar This is only a down payment the Client said The rest will be waiting for you on delivery of the asset Alive added the anxious bespectacled man standing next to him The Client had introduced him as Dr. Pershing and the doctor's excited entrance into the room a moment earlier had nearly gotten him shot before the Client had asked Mando to put away his blaster Proof of termination is also acceptable for a lower fee the Client said not bothering to acknowledge Pershing's sputtering sputtering objections I'm simply being practical Bounty hunting is an uncertain business The old man waited allowing the meaning of the words to sink in The beskar belongs back with a Mandalorian It is good to restore the natural order of things after a period of such disarray He raised his eyes upward Don't you agree Agree or not the job was his and the beskar with it The Client had provided him with a tracking fob and the quarry's last known location The hunt awaited
