Straggler

Aggressive footfalls echoed in the halls of the cruiser. Koska did her best to walk off her fury, but the seethe did not seem to have a conclusion. The urge to insist she was right felt greater than the urge to accept the situation as it was. It baffled her that Mandalore could have a history so marred with wrath and suffering, and yet people would only recall the ancient glory. How much trouble had come of fools wantonly clambering to reach those long-gone heights? To look back on the tale of their people and see the value of tradition as the lesson to be learned felt like a deliberate misinterpretation to her.

The thought of abandoning Bo-Katan and her efforts flickered in her mind for less than a heartbeat. She banished the thought for good. As distant - and, at times, infuriating - as Lady Kryze's mission and methods could seem, there was no real alternative. Koska wanted to see her homeworld restored; not necessarily to its military apex, but rather to its place as the secure home of the Mandalorian people.

No one was in a better position to do so than Bo-Katan Kryze. The woman was of lofty birth, willing to fight for Mandalore, and most importantly, was one of the few surviving leaders from before the Empire. Her involvement predating Mandalore's true fall was useful as prospective allies could conflate her leadership with the way things used to be.

All of this was to say that there was no shortage of fuel to the furious blaze in Koska's breast. Deciding that walking was not going to cut it for her, she quit wandering and instead searched for some manner of fitness facility. She searched and searched until eventually, the elusiveness of such a place contributed to her frustration too.

"Dank farrik! Did the Imps not exercise? No wonder they're a bunch of pushovers without their navy."

Koska hunted on; her search devolving back into wandering as she struggled to make sense of where a fitness centre would be if not where she had already looked. Her scouring led her back to the detention area where hushed cursing sliced through her fog of anger. She adopted a stealthy approach and peeked around the corner. Someone was standing outside Moff Gideon's cell, tinkering with the panel. It was not Lady Kryze, nor Din, nor anyone else that was supposed to be there. They were trying to undo the door confining the Moff but having quite the time of it.

"Remind me: did you, or did you not serve on this vessel prior to its seizure by the Mandalorians?" came Gideon's impatient voice through the open speaker.

"With all due respect sir, I think it's plenty obvious by now that they changed the lock. Seeing as your berating isn't helping with that, perhaps you would rather contemplate why they would do so; if only to give me the quiet I need to focus."

Koska drew her blaster and approached. "You can stop what you're doing now," she said, her tone making it clear that it was an order.

Expletives tumbled from the cell's speaker. The figure outside snapped toward Koska and raised their hands in surrender. The Mandalorian did not recognize her, but her uniform and badges marked her as an Imperial Communications Officer. Koska had no idea where she had come from, but it was plain that her intent was to spring the Moff, then likely slip away in an escape pod.

"Back away from the door," the warrior commanded as she moved closer. The officer complied though her expression remained defiant. Koska deactivated the brig's speaker. "Where have you been hiding?"

The officer held her gaze and said nothing. Her visage was flat, but her eyes burned with anger and resentment. "I asked you a question," Koska said in the event that the officer was plain daft.

"And how many more will you ask before you decide you're done with me and drop me out an airlock?"

"Fewer, if I get the feeling you're not going to answer any of them." The Mandalorian extended the arm holding the blaster, hoping to remind the officer of her mortality.

"I'm not telling you marauders anything." It was not a claim, nor an assurance, but rather a statement; a fact being relayed.

The two stared at one another; the officer daring Koska to pull the trigger, and the Mandalorian daring her to give her a reason to. Personally, Koska would not have minded ending the officer then and there; anyone clinging to the Empire this long after its demise was some variety of fanatic, and a danger to everyone else in the galaxy. However, she was not an immediate threat to anyone, and consulting the others was the responsible thing to do.

Koska ended the staring contest, moving to the cell door and inputting the new code. A rejecting buzz sounded. She entered the code and again was met with the buzz.

"Having trouble?" the officer taunted, leaning to look over the warrior's shoulder.

Koska shot her a look. "What did you do to it?"

"Nothing. I tried opening the door and it wouldn't respond. If there are any issues, they're consequences of your meddling with the system." The officer had all the tells of honesty about her, but Koska was sure the panel had worked fine before she arrived.

Uninterested in tampering further and potentially releasing Gideon, Koska chose to find a new place to confine the officer. In the detention area as they were, she retrieved a set of binders to move the officer more securely.

"Cuff yourself," she ordered, holding them out in one hand with her blaster in the other.

"No," the officer rejected. She said it flatly, but it still struck Koska as juvenile.

"Do it now," she repeated, raising her blaster again. The officer simply stared at her. It was a hollow threat and they both knew it. Koska holstered her weapon and stepped close.

The officer snapped into action, throwing a punch that would have truly hurt if the Mandalorian's reflexes were any less sharp. A kick followed, aimed at the side of Koska's knee. She shifted enough for it to land without harming her. That was as far as the Imperial got before Koska went on the offensive. She dropped the binders, drove the wind from her opponent's lungs with a jab, then took her by the collar and choke-slammed her into the deck. No serious damage was done, but it was enough to daze the officer and give her an idea of how outmatched she was. By the end she was looking up, blinking away stars as Koska loomed over her, securing the binders.

"I would ask that you don't try anything funny again, except that that felt wonderful for the frustration I'm dealing with, and I've got a lot more where that came from." With one hand she grabbed the binders and pulled the officer to her feet. She ended dangerously close to Koska, still slightly hunched as her breath returned, she looked up into eyes that gazed back with resentment, and a twinkle of sadism. "As soon as you can speak again, you're going to tell me the next best place on this ship to hold your sorry carcass; and for each place you take me that isn't to my liking, I'll demonstrate an ancient Mandalorian interrogation practice. Understand?"

The face that met this proposal was very much like those spitefully blank ones before, but Koska saw something else there too; something she did not like.