12 | THE POLICY

The team entered the Imperial ship with their weapons drawn and with their guards high. The droid—from the Razor Crest—was communicating to them through their coms and was controlling the ship's surveillance and locked doors for them as they went. "Alright, were on the clock. The second they engage those droids, they'll be all over us." Mayfeld told his team, as he was the leader.

"I know drill." Mando responded to him, and began walking off down the white corridor to find a place to hide. Celeste followed while the other three stayed behind, anticipating droids to march in and attack them.

Once Celeste and Mando were far enough, Celeste let go every single world she was holding back to him. "What the fuck was that?! You never told me about this girl, and you let her get all up on you like that? I bet you like it, too." Celeste spoke loud enough for him to understand her anger but low enough so the others couldn't hear them from afar.

"I haven't done anything." Mando shook his head at her, stopping in his tracks to have that conversation despite the high risk situation they were in at that very moment.

"You're such an asshole. Now, you want to gaslight me? Wooowwww." Celeste began to speak louder as time went on.

Mando placed his gloved hand over her mouth, but it only made her begin to yell obscenities at him. "Have you already forgot everything I told you, yesterday? I've never told someone those things, ever." Mando huffed at her.

"What things?" Celeste played dumb just to hear him say the words, her voice still muffled from him covering her mouth. She folded her arms, with her blaster in hand, still.

"Stop playing around, Cel. You know you're more important to me than her." Mando finally uncovered her mouth.

"You showed her your face, didn't you?" Celeste narrowed her eyes at him. Mando looked down at the ground to avoid having that conversation.

"I love you, okay? There, are you happy now? I know you just wanted to hear me say it." Mando sighed, defeatedly. Celeste smirked in satisfaction.

Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted when they heard blasters going off in a nearby corridor, possibly where the others were. A few droids had cornered the other team members and were shooting their blasters at them as they tried to take cover in the exposed area. Mando hurried in from behind the droids. "Cover me." Mando instructed Celeste, who took cover and began shooting at the droids with her blaster.

Mando ran toward them and swiped one of them to the ground. He kicked, shot at and used all his gadgets to fight the droids. Celeste shot at the droids farther away from him, not confident enough in her self that she wouldn't hit Mando. With much ease, Mando took out nearly all of the droids with the exception of a few of them hitting him with their blaster right on the beskar. Fortunately, the beskar held up and made the shots bounce right off of him.

Once he was done ridding the corridor of the droids, he looked around to see all the scattered droids parts around him. The team came out of hiding and there was a mixed reaction of those that were impressed and those that were jealous. Mayfeld brushed past Mando and commented: "Make sure you clean up your mess."

Mando looked over at Celeste, his half composed stature telling her that he was annoyed. She responded with a shrug, knowing he was the one who decided to show off and therefore should deal with the consequences that came with being that person. "It seems your presence has been detected. Redirecting security alert away from your position." Zero informed the team through the coms. The team proceeded through the ship and reached a door that was closed.

"Z, open the door!" Mayfeld shouted into the com.

"But, I'm detecting an organic signature." Zero replied, reluctantly.

"Yeah, okay. Alright. Just open the door!" Mayfeld shouted and Zero obliged. The door hissed open and behind it revealed a New Republic soldier manning the control room the team was trying to enter.

The soldier pointed his blaster at Mayfeld and shouted "stop!" They all froze in their tracks. "Just stop right there!" The soldier was clearly frightened as his blaster was shaking in the presence of five infiltrators.

"You put down your blasters right now." The soldier nearly pissed himself saying that as he was outnumbered. The team causally continued walking into the control room, their own blasters still drawn and pointed at the soldier.

"There were only supposed to be droids on this ship." Mando mentioned to Mayfeld. Celeste could sense an innocence, and a light coming from the man. He seemed to just be doing his job, and now, he was fearing for his life.

Mayfeld looked over at the control panel to find where the person they were after was staying. "Cell 221." Mayfeld announced. "Alright, now for our well dressed friend." Mayfeld turned around to deal with him, but the soldier held out a little white box with a button on it, threateningly. Mayfeld's blood seemed like it dropped to his feet as his face went pale. "Woah woah woah. Hey hey. Easy. Put that down. Come on." Mayfeld tried to convince the man to put the box down.

"What is it?" Celeste asked aloud.

Mayfeld clicked off his safety on his blaster. "Easy! Nobody has to get hurt here. Just calm down." Mando tried to deescalate the high tense situation.

"Helllllooooo? What the hell is that thing?" Celeste asked, again.

"It's a tracking beacon." Mando answered her.

"He presses that thing, we're all done. A New Republic attack team will hone in on that signal and blow us all to hell." Mayfeld elaborated.

"Are you serious?" Xi'an gasped.

"Yes, I'm serious!"
"You didn't think we needed to know that?!"
"I didn't think we'd get to this point!"
"Yet, here we are."
"Are you questioning my managerial style?!"
"No, sir."

Xi'an cackled at the angry man. "Hey, listen to me. Hey, hey, hey." Mando waved at the soldier to pay attention to him in a soothing manner. Mando put away his blaster to show he was peaceful toward the guy. "Look, put it down!" Mando barked at Mayfeld.

"Are you crazy?!" Mayfeld's eyes nearly bulged out of his head as Mando began to give him orders.

"What have you done to him, Celeste? He really has changed." Xi'an snickered at Celeste.

"What's your name?" Mando asked the soldier.

"It's Davan." He sputtered our.

"Davan. We're not here for you. We're here for a prisoner. If you let us go about our job, you can walk away with your life." Mando tried to fix the situation for everyone.

"No we won't." Mayfeld ruined all of Mando's work with three words.

Celeste pinched the bridge of her nose. "There he goes again..." she muttered.

"You realize what your gonna bring down on us?" Mando pointed his blaster at Mayfeld as Mayfeld pointed a second blaster at Mando, adding to the one that was still pointed at Davan.

"You think I care about that?"
"We're not killing anybody."
"Get that blaster out of my face."
"I can't do that."
"Get that blaster out of my face!!!!"

Mayfeld shrieked at Mando while his gadget that he wore on his back pulled out another blaster and pointed it at Celeste, this time. "Don't!" Mando pulled out another blaster and pointed it at Burg who was getting heated and pulled out his own weapon.

The room grew tense and, suddenly, the situation was solved when Xi'an threw a dagger at Davan, killing him instantly. "Would you both just shut up?" Xi'an groaned.

"Crazy Twi." Mayfeld took a deep breath after holding it in for a little bit during the confrontation.

They all lowered their weapons once their conflict was sorted out. Celeste looked down at the tracker and noticed it was starting to blink. "He turned it on." Celeste sighed.

"Zero to Mayfeld. Zero to Mayfeld. I've detected a New Republic distress signal honing in on your location. You have approximately 20 minutes." Zero announced to the team their limited amount of time.

"We only need five." Xi'an assured them, then they all ran off to continue their job.

Once they reached the prison cell, they quickly opened up the door and it revealed Qin, Xi'an's brother behind the door. Mando stared in disbelief at Qin. "Funny, the man who left me behind is now my savior." Qin growled, there clearly was still some residual hatred left between the two.

Haaa, Mando did the same thing to me. Celeste thought to herself, allowing her to let out a little laugh. "What's funny, girl?" Xi'an hissed at Celeste, thinking she was laughing at her brother.

"Oh nothing, nothing." Celeste sighed, relishing in her own comedic thoughts.

Mando stepped up face to face with Qin right outside the door to the prison cell. Burg took the opportunity to kick Mando into the cell and Mayfeld quickly pressed the button to lock him in. Xi'an quickly took hold of Celeste and cackled in her ear. "Who's laughing now?"

Celeste grunted as she struggled to kick and yank herself free from Xi'an and the others that were now getting a grip on her. "Celeste!" Mando called after her through the bars of the cell.

"Mando!" She shouted back as she continued to fight against the team.

"You deserve this! We'll make great use of the girl, we've heard she's worth a pretty penny." Xi'an shouted at Mando as the rest of them dragged Celeste off back toward the ship.

As they ran off with her down the halls, the doors of the corridors began shutting closed. The team was having difficultly escaping the corridors they were being trapped in. The light suddenly cut off and red emergency lights began to flash in the halls, darkening the setting, making it more ominous. "Zero to Mayfeld. He has escaped!" Zero announced in the coms. The four, plus Celeste who was behind carried over the shoulder of Burg, stopped in their tracks. Xi'an groaned and pointed her dagger at Mayfeld. "I told you we should've ended him!" She scolded his call. The team then quickly lost contact with Zero soon after.

Celeste could barely see in the red lighting. The team continued to hurry down the corridor, but once they reached a division of the hallway, the doors instantly shut, separating Mayfeld and Qin from Xi'an, Burg and Celeste. "No!" Xian banged on the door.

"It's all right, you and the Devaronian, split up. Find Mando and kill him! The girl stays with Burg. Then find a way back to the ship!" Qin instructed Xian and Burg through the door.

They obliged and hurried off down the halls, splitting up. Celeste found that to be her time to try and fight off Burg. She kicked and screamed, knowing Mando would be looking for her. Burg slammed her down on the ground, causing her to groan from the aching pain. "Ow..." she rolled over to her side, but Burg then grabbed her by her legs and dragged her down the hall. She used her hands to try to stop her from being pulled away. But, her hands only skidding across the smooth floor.

Burg took her to the control room to find Mando and she was still being dragged across the floor by one leg, this time. "You little—" she kicked at him with her free foot. But, because she was laying on the floor, she could see the ceiling above her and she spotted Mando above them. He had crawled into the ceiling, above the grated tiles. He placed his pointer finger up to where his mouth should be, and Celeste stopped struggling against Burg. She smiled, devilishly at him, then Mando shot down a grappling hook to wrap around Burg's throat from above.

Burg managed to grab the role, while being choked, and pulled Mando down from the ceiling. Burg grabbed and tossed Mando around like a toy. The two struggled as they fought against one another while Celeste crawled over to the control panel. Once  Burg was right in the doorway, Celeste pressed a button to close the door on him. The door shut horizontally on him, but he caught the door and began to lift it up off of him. Mando hurried over and pressed a second button, closing the second layer of doors that closed vertically this time.

Celeste sighed out in relief and threw her arms around Mando's neck. "This was a bad idea." She took a deep breath to slow down the pace of her racing heart.

"No kidding." He held her close, glad that they hadn't gotten far enough to hurt her yet.

"I've got to get back to the kid." Celeste told Mando. He nodded at her, not suggesting he was going along with her. "You're gonna go after them, aren't you?" She asked him. He nodded, slowly, unsure as to how she'd react. "No questions asked, right?" She raised a suggestive brow at him.

Mando nodded briefly at her. "No questions asked." He reiterated.

She ran off back to the ship, and made it back before anyone else did. Upon arrival, she spotted the droid searching the ship for the child. She held her blaster out and creeped up behind him as he stalked out the baby. The baby tried to defend himself using the force as he closed his eyes and reached out his hand. Before the baby could exert himself, Celeste shot the droid in the head. It's circuit boards sizzled as he shut down and collapsed to the ground. The baby thought he had done such a thing and looked at his hand, but, when he looked back over to where the droid was once standing, he spotted Celeste with her blaster pointed at where the droid was.

She put down her blaster and embraced the child in her arms. "You were so brave." She complimented his efforts, receiving a sweet baby noise from him.

Mando entered the ship soon after with Qin in his possession. "What—" Celeste began to ask.

"So we'll still get paid." He answered the question he knew she'd ask. "No questions asked, right?" Mando reminded her. She nodded and pursed her lips at him, pinching herself for allowing them to agree on such a concord.

* * *

Mando quickly turned in Qin to Ran and took the three shares of money they earned. Mando, Celeste and the child all took off as soon as possible to get away from the backstabbers. "What happened to the tracking device?" Celeste asked Mando as she took a seat in the copilot chair.

"Qin tried to pin it on it, but I left it with him." Mando informed her.

Celeste smiled off into the blackness of space. "By the way, this whole no questions asked thing was only for this mission, right?" Celeste asked Mando.

Mando didn't want to answer that question, so he attempted to distract her by taking off the glove of his right hand and grabbing her hand in his, intertwining their fingers. "I guess that means no." Celeste rolled her eyes, receiving a soft chuckle from Mando.

Suddenly, right before Mando jumped into hyperdrive, Celeste spotted three X-Wing fighters appear before their ship. The fighters flew right past them and toward Ran's space station, where Mando left the tracking device at. "Oh my god." She spoke out in awe of the New Republic fighters. Then, Mando pushed the ship into hyperdrive to get them out of there before things got too ugly.