The Mandalorian: Beskar and Bone

Chapter 8: The Redemption

Mando held Elaine close to him as Cara and Karga searched for a means to escape.

 "Is there another way out?" Cara asked desperately.

Karga shook his head. "No, that's it."

Mando got an idea. "What about the sewers?"

Elaine lifted her head and looked at him. "Sewers?" She asked in a small voice.

Mando nodded. "The Mandalorians have a cover down there, they can help us escape."

"Yeah, sewers are good." Cara agreed.

Mando set Elaine down and began to use his thermal vision to look for a way out. "Checking for access points."

Cara shifted her blaster. "What the hell are they waiting for?" She risked a glance at the troopers, her face falling when she saw an all too familiar weapon. "Hold up. They're setting up an E-Web." She huffed.

"It's over..." Karga muttered hopelessly.

"I found the sewer vent." Mando announced. He moved to the far side of the room where a grate hid behind a few chairs. After moving the furniture, Cara and Mando attempted to pull the grate off to no avail.

Karga peeked out the blasted window again. "It's assembled! How long until that thing's cleared?"

"Blow it?" Cara suggested.

Mando checked his belt. "I'm out of charges."

Cara hefted her gun. "Get out of the way!" She fired at the grate, and Elaine sensed her start to panic when the grate stayed put."

"You're astute panic suggests that you understand your situation." The man outside said. "I would prefer to avoid any further violence, and encourage a moment of consideration. Members of my escort have completed assembly of an E-Web heavy repeating blaster. If you are unfamiliar with this weapon, I am sure that Republican Shock Trooper Carasynthia Dune of Alderaan will advise you that she has witnessed many of her ranks vaporize mid-descent facing the predecessor of this particular model."

All eyes turned to Cara. The veteran had visibly paled at the mention of her name and the loss of her comrades.

"Or perhaps the decommissioned Mandalorian hunter, Din Djarin, has heard the songs of the Siege of Mandalore, when gunships outfitted with similar ordnance laid waste to the fields of Mandalorian recruits in The Night of a Thousand Tears."

Elaine looked up at Mando and was sure if she could see his face he'd have an expression similar to Cara's. But the man didn't stop there. "Or perhaps even young Elaine Solace, the last of her kind, has a memory of her home being laid waste to, shortly before her planet, Ovain, was destroyed by the Death Star."

Mando looked down at Elaine, she was stareing blankly, her brown eyes wide with shock. She was too young to even remember her home being destroyed, and now she leaned the horrifying truth. He reached down to her, and the girl clung to his arm like a lifeline.

"I advise disgraced Magistrate Greef Karga to search the wisdom of his years and urge you to lay down your arms and come outside." The man continued. "The structure you are trapped I'm will be razed in short order and your storied lives will come to an unceremonious end."

Everyone looked at each other, unsure of what to do. Karga shifted his weight before asking loudly, "What do you propose?"

"Reasonable negotiation." The man answered, earning scoffs from them.

"What assurance do you offer?" Karga asked.

"If you're asking if you can trust me, you cannot. Just as you betrayed our business arrangement, I would gladly break any promise and watch you die at my hand." Elaine swallowed her bile as he continued. "The assurance I give is this: I will act in my own self-interest, which at this time involves your cooperation and benefit. I will give you until nightfall and then I will have the E-Web cannon open fire."