Chapter 001:

Chapter 1: Tour and Arrival

34 BBY (Before Battle of Yavin) - 2 Years before Canon

Sector/System: Mandalore

Location: Hyperspace / Hyperlane Exit

Jack's POV:

Right after I left the cockpit I walked back and opened each door I came across for a quick look inside, I found out that to the cockpit's right were three doors, and across them three more doors. I knew the furthest was my room since I left from there a moment ago.

I looked into the first room to my right, I pressed the door sensor on the wall and it swooshed open. Inside I found a lot of trash and filth from two crewmen now dead.

I was glad I had my helmet on so I would not smell the stench.

'What a mess, I can't even see the bunk beds in all of this, if the smell is just as bad as the room looks, man, I'm glad I have this helmet on.' I thought to myself.

I quickly left the room and closed it, then went to the room between this room and my room and opened it up.

"Much cleaner, kind of expected of a communication specialist… huh so that is how they planned to deal with me interesting." I shook my head, looking at the console still active showing a large-scale plan to intercept my ship with multiple large-scale freighters.

"Truly idiots thinking they would succeed never thinking I might survive" I scoffed.

'Or be taken over by myself from another universe, oh well.' I thought right after.

I quickly put the files of this plan onto a USB-looking stick and closed the console down.

After putting said USB stick into one of the pouches on my leather bandoleer I left the room.

After leaving I turned to the three doors across from this one, returning to the first room in the row, and entered it.

"Bunk Beds, and again a complete mess… I'm starting to think killing them was a good thing after all." I grumbled looking at the empty bottles and empty food bags, I turned around and left.

"Sigh, I guess the last bunk bedroom is also filled with trash like the other two bunk rooms." I sighed while walking into the last room and was surprised.

"Huh…clean… a bit to clean… I'll look through their stuff later and see what I can find for now let's see the rest of the ship." I left in surprise and went to the last door going inside.

Inside I saw a clean metallic-colored floor, with a shower in the back with the door open and a shower head on the wall, to my left I saw a sink to wash your hands.

After I pushed it up I saw two small doors.

When I opened it I saw these toilet seats, you would normally see on the train or airplanes of my old world.

"So this is the bathroom huh… not bad, I think I will try the shower later." I said looking around

When I left the small bathroom I looked across and saw what was clearly an escape pod, so I turned to my left going further into the ship leaving all the rooms behind me.

After walking a short minute or two I came across a door to my right, around the corner of the wall was another console, looking at that console I could see numbers and meters all in green, it was the console for energy distribution.

Going through the door I found myself in a massive hangar-like room, to my left I found another console that was offline likely for the cargo bay doors or something, because looking at the massive number of crates stacked highly to the ceiling with binders around pairs of four to keep them in place during maneuvers, what else could this massive room be otherwise?

Walking through the bay to the door in the back I was met with a cold air that I knew since inside my helmet I saw a number drop down from a comfy 20 Celsius outside to -20 Celsius inside, this let me know this was the cold storage.

And judging from the body bags I guess they are my former crew, likely former me, put them here so they would not rot and stink up the ship.

When I left the room and closed the door I saw the temperature meter return back to how it was before.

After that, I left the cargo bay and closed the door behind me.

Straight ahead of me, I could see the open engine room. To the left in an outcropping of the wall a console station for engineering.

To the side on the right, I could see the big glowing yellow spool outlines that were spinning around all two of them, likely the engines, within the center was the hyper-drive core, big with glowing neon blue lines denoting it was in use.

"Huh… guess hyper-drives look like old sea mines from my old world." I mumbled, walking passed after taking a good look.

Walking past I saw to my left a hallway with an open hatch, checking it I saw it was a maintenance hatch with enough space to fit three fully grown adults, well humans I think doubt the same number of Twi'Leks or Togruta would fit due to those things on their head, whatever it was called again.

"So that is where they hid their things, I'll have to check what they hid in there in a bit, for now, let's check the last parts of the ship before I do any of that." I said looking into the hole and seeing crates and bags, some still open and showing gems

I walked away and back to the engines and took a left to go past, to where I had not been to look yet at the right side, of the ship.

Walking by I could clearly see inside an outcropping, the same type of console for the engines as on the other side I had passed before, the same with the console to the right side of the door, I am now walking towards.

"Huh, guess this one is for the engines just as well as for the cargo bay behind the door, so for both?" I said while thinking, looking at some of the same things I had seen on the console inside the other cargo bay.

"Whatever, I'll figure it out when I get a chance to do so and am on the ground so nothing can fly off into space." I shook my shoulders and walked through the door.

Walking inside I saw the same as before, many boxes in groups of four piled high to the ceiling, again with binders around them all keeping everything in place, but this time I also saw large bulky machines or equipment for something, guess those are the medical machines from the cargo list I saw before.

"Interesting I hardly saw them, guess me before, made sure to surround them with the boxes in case of inspections." not sure why but I'm sure some files will let me know that information later on.

"Let's see in the back here is likely another cooler." I said walking past the cargo towards the door in the back, however, what I found there was different than expected.

"Orange flooring? and those are workbenches?" I questioned out loud.

I walked to the workstation against the back wall and saw many tools and some oil stains or at least I think they were oil stains.

"I guess this is the workshop area, a pile of badly damaged weapons… guess that was what they tried to use against me to take over the ship? well, it's all scrap now." I said looking at a big pile of badly damaged pistols and rifles on the ground with bent barrels and dents all around.

I quickly left both the workshop and cargo bay behind going out the door into what is the engine room.

Walking straight ahead after leaving the cargo bay behind me, I found two blast doors one on either side of the hallway.

"Guess that's the way out of the ship, better leave it closed… rather not find out what would happen to me in hyperspace…" I said with a slight shudder looking to the right blast door that had a sign of keep closed when in flight.

"Let's see what is behind the left blast door since that would go further into the ship and not outside I hope." I said pressing the sensor on the wall to open the door.

When the door opened I was astonished by a personal storage room, filled with planks to place items, cabinets, and lockers, with big boxes on the side for other stuff that might not fit in the lockers or planks.

"Even more I will have to look through…" I said, looking at all the bags and small boxes haphazardly, all over the place.

I decided to close the doors and continue on my way, straight to the left, if I continue that way I should reach the Cockpit in a bit.

Walking further I walked right away into a large lounge area, a console to my right against the wall, with all kinds of readings of the ship, but likely also to watch movies, or TV when in normal space, or what the equivalent is called in Star Wars.

Further inside, I saw a light beige long couch against the wall. Enough for four maybe five to sit comfortably, with a somewhat round console thing in front of it, likely for movies, TV, or whatever the thing is supposed to be.

In the right corner of the couch against the wall was another console with a chair that could turn around in front of it.

Straight across the lounge was an open kitchen or galley since it was a bit too small to be called a kitchen.

The kitchen had to the left some cabinets with supplies, with to the right some form of microwave, or at least some type of it, in the middle against the back wall was a large yellowish counter, that had two energy pits or plates to cook on.

Under the counter, I saw two small doors likely holding some pots and pans, or a dishwasher-type thing since I did not see a sink on the counter.

"I'll figure out how everything works later let me see what is to the sides, right next to either side of the cockpit, I did not see those small hatches there before." I said, walking to said small hatches

"I see so that's a maintenance hatch.'' I said, after seeing lots of small pipes and cables with some circuits sticking out here and there, going all over the place, into the floor and the wall where the cockpit is.

Closing the hatches back up, I decided to check all the areas where potential valuables were hidden, possibly by my former crew.

— — — — —

Of all the things I would not have said, it would have taken too long to look all over my ship for anything those idiots had tried to hide in terms of valuables.

Sadly I was sorely mistaken, half a day left when I toured my ship, twelve hours total, the touring took me less than thirty minutes, reading up on as much as I could so I could fly the ship and practice through simulations for another four hours.

That left me with about seven hours and thirty minutes left, which I used for another few hours to do some simple drills, look up how to use Mandalorian equipment, and some weapon drills on how to load and unload them, a quick tutorial on grenades how to activate and deactivate them.

All that so I would not look out of place among Mandalorians, but also to stay alive since I doubt I'm leaving any time soon.

That left close to not much time left for anything else and even that flew passed as I looked around for the things hidden by my former crew.

"Well, gotta say I'm impressed, when did they get their hands on all of this anyway?" I said.

What I was looking at and impressed about was the loot I managed to find, I had made a short list to keep track of it all.

Money list:

Republic Credits: 50 boxes with chits and loose credits.

Tatooine/Hutt: 25 boxes of Pegats, 65 boxes of Truguts, and close to 40 bags of Wupiupi.

Calamari Flan: 5 boxes.

Gems: 100 different sizes of boxes and bags.

Crystal: 1 box of a pale blue almost white crystal

I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw all this in front of me in the lounge, I kept checking my list and then back to the piles of crates and bags.

"Wow… how did they hide this much, without 'me' back then noticing? The file said they were working for me back then, for close to two months." I wondered.

I decided to figure it all out down the line or just forget about it, they're dead now anyway, when I reach Mandalore I really should figure out the exact number of everything so I know what I have to spend in case I need to.

For now, I closed all bags, boxes, and crates and moved them all into the personal storage area where most were taken out of and put everything in an orderly way.

The box with some type of pale blue crystal I put in my room, mainly to keep it safe but also because it reminded me of something.

And when I said time flew by, it was not a lie.

*BIEP* *BIEP* *BIEP*

An annoying beeping sound came from my wrist like those irritating alarm clocks of my old world.

Pressing the button to shut it off, reset it, and switch the entire thing off to prevent accidentally having it go off in battle.

I suddenly felt a hard shake of the ship, indicating it left hyperspace. This made me close the door quickly, and hurry to the cockpit in question, what I read was if you leave hyperspace you do not wish to stick around too long at the exit in case more ships show up in your exact place of exit, no matter how small the chance for collisions would be.

When I sat in the pilot's chair and took the controls in hand I noticed something peculiar on the sensor readouts.

"What are drifting ships doing out here so close to the hyper lane exit, did something happen?" I said.

Looking outside the cockpit window I saw these old freighters just floating there, with dark discolored parts around the outside of the hull.

Many had containers on the outside stuck to the ship with what looked like magnetic clamps.

"Are those small thrusters on the containers? What is going on here?" I questioned when I suddenly remembered that plan that I had copied on the small USB from the former communications crewman.

"You gotta be kidding me. Well, we are in Mandalore space. They won't have a good time if my people notice them, outsiders." I shook my head, never noticing I called Mandalorians my people.

'Note to self, If I get out of this, refit the ship to have more weapons.' I thought to myself.

I quickly pressed a few buttons and went full throttle passed one of those freighters, when I did I saw something coming out of one of the weird-looking freighters, three fighters that quickly tried to get close to my ship.

Looking at them I saw this bulky arrow-centered cockpit in the middle with two wings each with two engines, one on top of the wing and one on the bottom of the wing all close to the cockpit making four total.

At the end of each wing, I could see one blaster or laser, and I guess it could shoot pretty fast since they are fighters after all.

"They can't even keep up, man they must not maintain their ships." I said looking at the distance between me and them getting wider and wider.

"Time to inform folks we have company in our territory." I quickly pressed the communication button and only heard static.

The static denoted to me someone was jamming my signal.

"Well… guess they are slightly less stupid for thinking of jamming, well time to have some fun and see how good they are." I said after watching the three fighters from before following me when five more came from my right.

I decided to fly into the nearby asteroid field, with a smile on my face.

— — — — —

On one of the old falling apart-looking bulk freighters hanging around at the edge of Mandalore system space, near the Hyperlane exits.

Inside the bridge of the biggest ship of them all sat in the captain's chair a tall man with brown skin with black lines going all over the place and small horns on his head in a crisscross way.

This man is the Zabrak captain, leaning his head on his hand while said arm, the hand and head held up was on the armrest.

The man, who looked bored and annoyed, of nothing to do or with his orders or something else who knows.

"Boss, a ship has just left hyperspace... It's them! boss." another brown-skinned Zabrak said suddenly.

"Mmm? Send some fighters to intercept and guide those idiots into the ship, we can't stick around too long." said the boss, in a gruff and grumpy voice.

"Understood sir, three headhunters just left." the same Zabrak from earlier said.

"I'm not able to communicate with them. There's something blocking communication between ships." said a green-skinned man with two tentacle things hanging over his shoulder and chest. This man is a Twi'lek.

"Sigh, those bastards already used the jammer. A bunch of fools! doubt we can stay much longer." The boss said with a sigh, facepalming.

"Ehm… one of the carriers just launched another five headhunters to flank the ship boss, they even have a troop carrier following." the green-skinned Twi'lek said.

"THAT BASTARD!" the boss yelled, hitting his armrest with a balled fist.

"Order those three to pull back and…" the boss failed to finish speaking when he got interrupted.

"BOSS! The target flew into the asteroid field and the others are still chasing, however, our boys are pulling back as ordered." the green Twi'lek spoke up.

"So those idiots failed to get the ship, that means that Mando is alive, and likely in a bad mood." The boss Zabrak frowned when he heard this coming from behind.

When he and his crew turned around they became a little pale.

What they saw was a beautiful human woman walk in, long black hair flowing down her back, pale face almost like a ghost but with eyes shining with such a bright red as if you looked at a light too long making you squint.

She is seen wearing a full suit of black armor on her entire body covered with a long black trench coat, and on her feet a pair of combat boots.

On her waist, what was gleaming were a pair of twin silver-colored hand blasters, however on her chest was a mark, something any criminal in Hutt employ knows and fears the most.

This mark a white sideways skull with a hole in the head with two swords keeping the skull lying in the middle denoted her as a loyal follower and protector of her Hutt boss, but also as the executioner on the Hutts command making sure that important missions go right or kill all involved or survive but fail to complete.

"Commander." The Zabrak boss stood up and hit a fist on his chest in salute followed by the rest.

"Carry on, report on the situation." the woman said in a chilling cold voice, with no show of emotion on her face.

"Understood commander, the target "Wayfarer" came out of Hyperspace a short moment ago, we launched three headhunters to escort them to dock with us, however…" the Zabrak boss said, starting to sweat slightly when her gaze fell on him.

"However all communications with other ships are blocked due to jammers being activated by whoever was carrying them, I also ordered our own three fighters back when I noticed that the target "Wayfarer" moved into the asteroid belt, followed by five headhunters of Buzz his group who were followed by a troop transport as well." he continued to scared to stop.

"That is all? "Captain Zorbak?" the woman said in that same icy emotionless voice.

"Yes, commander! After that you arrived." the now named Zabrak, Zorbak said.

Just when she was about to speak they saw a few bright flashes not too far away inside the asteroid field.

"That fool, being a glory hound, Buzz will get us all killed by drawing the Mandalorians' attention." Zorbak growled out.

'This mission is already a failure from the start, Buzz does what he wants, at least Zorbak uses his head, it is why I choose to be on his ship, knowing he won't rush into death and at least follows orders.' The lady thought.

"Send someone disposable with a shuttle over to Buzz to relay the order to carry on with the 'main' mission, and to follow orders, or I will turn his lizard skin into a new trench coat." She ordered Zorbak in her icy cold emotionless voice, then took a seat in the captain's chair.

"By your command" Zorbak answered and gave out the order.

— — — — —

Just before that took place on an enemy ship's bridge, we can see Jack fly into the asteroid field followed by multiple fighter craft.

"Let's see how skilled you all are." I suddenly turned my ship from left to right, up and down evading small rocks of the asteroid field I found myself in.

I could see them doing the same thing showing they are not rookies in terms of flying.

"Alright let's try this." I quickly pulled on the controls sharply to go straight up, I pressed the engine controls to go a bit slower and used my side thrusters on the side, top, and bottom of the ship, to angle the ship so I would go straight up in the end like an old rocket fired into space.

Doing this I flew upwards a massive asteroid, moving across the uneven surface dodging hills and rock outcroppings of crashed asteroids.

"So they can fly huh… they're even moving faster to keep up." I said when suddenly alarms started going off.

"Missiles? So they no longer care about having my ship and a possible Mandalorian captive or my suit of beskar huh." I grumbled.

I quickly made my engines go full throttle again. Just when another alarm went off.

"Oh… that is not good!" I said, my fists clamping the controls tightly.

What I saw on my sensors was none other than the nest of a massive Space worm, and it was awake judging from the sensors.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!!" I started cursing, unlike what Han Solo did in the movie as part of a scene, this ain't a movie set but real life.

"No more playing around, I need to get out of here." I slightly pulled the controls to move further upwards and away from the asteroid, ending up facing the enemy. I doubt my ship will be intact if I'm doing what was shown in the movie.

Pressing a new button I used the overclock on my engines, having them go way into the red and likely damaging them.

I could not risk not doing this, it's like an afterburner from the old world but for an entire ship.

And not a moment too soon either, not even three or so hundreds of meters something flew out of the ground.

To say I was panicking was an understatement, what showed up not too far away was a massive worm-like creature going straight up with no end in sight.

"Fuck… to close way too close." I grumbled with a shaky voice watching the missiles behind me hit the creature.

If I was already panicking then I doubt the headhunter pilots stayed calm, but to my surprise out of the five fighters one slowed down and did some fancy corkscrew upwards to follow me while the others flew straight into the side of the beast in bright flashes of explosions.

But what surprised me even more was the fact this one turned around to where the pirate ships were followed by the troop transport.

I pressed the engine's icon and went back to normal flight speed, no longer overclocking my engines and slowly damaging them with degradation.

"Sigh, that ended anticlimactic, but man what a nasty surprise… no wonder this big rock is not active with mining operations." I said with a big exhale of air trying to calm down.

I slowed down even further so I could figure out where the massive spaceworm would land, so I could then fly on and away from that area.

"When I continue forward I'll head straight for the MandalMotors Shipyards, I'll drop off the food and water supplies and inform them that outsiders are scurrying around the outer edges of Mandalorian space." I mumbled still in shock, looking over the sensors for the landing area of the beast.

I hoped those pirates were only there for me and not for another reason, however, I shook my head at that thought, they would not be stupid enough to stick around too long.

Then again, they might be, they are pirates they ain't too smart to begin with.