Chapter Text
“Entering atmosphere in ten.” With one hand, you flipped several switches along the console, ignoring the red alarm flashing and blaring overhead. With the other, you held onto the yoke, pulling hard in an attempt to soften the angle of entry. “Put your helmet on and strap in, love. I’m going to try to land in a clearing, but the forests are pretty dense.”
Boba took a moment to check if you were properly strapped in first, even making sure your flight helmet was secure, before settling into the co-pilot’s seat and buckling up. “Ever crash before?”
“I’m a seasoned professional, of course I’ve crashed before. Only on jobs, though.” You tried not to think about the fact you were still wearing your wedding robes, loose and flowing and elegant, now torn and singed in spots from scalding hot plasma. It had taken you days to convince Boba he didn’t need to wear his armor for the ceremony, and you were kicking yourself for it now, although he’d luckily insisted on keeping the helmet nearby. At least his head would be protected.
Entry was rough; despite using both hands, you couldn’t keep the yoke steady, and it continued to dip into a steeper angle as the turbulence rocked the ship. Gritting your teeth, you pitched hard to the left, managing to jerk the ship towards a break in the trees. You ended up clipping the tops of a few, but it slowed the ship down a little before it made impact with the ground. The front shield shattered, your respective helmets protecting you both from glass in the eyes, and the seatbelts kept you from getting thrown around the cockpit, but the whiplash was fierce. The ship went skidding across the clearing until it eventually hit trees again, which finally brought it to a stop.
There was definitely smoke pouring out of the ship, but nothing appeared to be immediately on fire, so you took the moment to let your head fall back and sighed. Your riduur was already freeing himself, moving over to check on you, his scent thick with worry and the need to protect. Although you had put on a brave face, he could still smell your fear, and now that the adrenaline of imminent danger was beginning to fade, the panic you’d smothered was starting to permeate the air. Boba took his helmet off and leaned down to press his face to your neck, wordlessly soothing you, and you closed your eyes, humming in comfort.
“How are you holding up?” he asked, pulling away to scan you for injuries.
You could only shrug. “I’ve been to worse weddings.”
It had taken over a year to plan the ceremony. The Senno compound was promised for your usage, as it was an incredibly secure, easily fortified location. Initially, both you and Boba had wanted it to be a somewhat low key event, but once word got out that the legendary Boba Fett was getting married to his mate, everybody jumped at the opportunity to impress the crime lord.
Not that you complained—a fair amount of the gifts were for you. Impressing an alpha by catering to their omega was a wise move, and as much as Boba didn’t want to be swayed by any of it, he did end up taking note of which gifts pleased you most.
Fennec and the Sennos were in charge of security and spent a great deal of time ensuring that nobody would be getting in and out without their knowledge. Everything leading up to the event had been fine: people who were turned away stayed mostly cordial, nobody tried to blatantly smuggle in weapons, and there hadn’t been any assassination attempts. Boba told you not to worry about things, and for once, you didn’t. Aside from picking the cake and some of the decorations, as well as arranging the honeymoon (on a pleasant beach you were determined to make Boba enjoy), you spent most of the days leading up to the wedding lounging and being pampered, an indulgence you had never allowed yourself before. Even the hours just before the ceremony were spent dressing yourself up until you were pleased with yourself and with no regard to how anyone else would look at you. Boba would be happy so long as you were happy. You knew that without a doubt.
It wasn’t until the middle of the ceremony, both you and Boba entranced with each other, that it all fell apart.
Though the Hutts had been losing ground in many systems across the galaxy, they were not a force to be ignored, and though Boba hadn’t been the one to kill Jabba, he was the one currently holding what was once Hutt territory. And so, it was for that reason that the windows were blown in just as the rings were being exchanged, smoke flooding the room, followed by heavy blaster fire as the Hutts began to lay siege to the compound. Several ships hovered around the building, mercs pouring out from them and in through the windows on various floors.
Boba dragged you to the ground before you knew what was happening. His helmet had its own chair nearby—in place of his father, who would have wanted to be there—and he was quick to snag it and put it on, quickly taking stock of the situation. Most of the people present were also dangerous figures, but they’d been stripped of their weapons at the door. That didn’t stop them from fighting back at a disadvantage, and Fennec arrived soon after with Senno’s heavily armed security at her back. You clung to Boba, who shoved you behind him for protection, even though he didn’t have his armor. You’d teased him that morning for keeping a blaster on his hip, but he made great use of it, cleanly shooting down anyone who came his way, as he could see clearly through the smoke with the use of the helm.
You squeaked when Din appeared at your side, putting a hand on your shoulder. “They’re here for you and Boba. You both need to get out of here.”
“My ship is in the docking bay,” you said, already planning your escape route. “Once we get off-planet, Boba and I will find somewhere to lay low. Boba?”
He returned to you the moment he heard his name. “Are you alright?” His voice was almost tender when speaking to you, a sharp contrast to the fury you knew was roiling in his veins. He wanted nothing more than to stay and fight, to burn through the scum that had the audacity to ruin this moment, and you knew you had to reel him back in.
“Din is going to get us to my ship so we can escape.” Just by the way his shoulders tensed, you could tell he was about to refuse, so you took his hands in your own and brought them to your chest. “Please, cyare. Getting you caught in a bloodbath is exactly what they want. Don’t let them have it.”
Boba had to take a long, slow breath before he nodded in agreement and looked to Din. “Lead the way, Djarin.”
It wasn’t an easy feat to get to the docking bay; it had taken a considerable amount of fighting just to get to the elevator, and when you’d arrived, the elevator had been broken, the cables cut to prevent its usage. Din had his jetpack, but it wasn’t designed to carry him and a man Boba’s size, nevermind adding you as well. Boba was beginning to weigh his options as far as climbing down before Din handed over the Phoenix. “Djarin—”
“Just take the damn thing,” Din said, exasperated. “I’ll be fine. Get out of here.”
After a moment of hesitation, Boba sighed and began putting it on. “Thank you.” Din simply nodded. “We’ll get in touch once we’ve lost them. Try not to forget about us, vod.”
“Couldn’t if I wanted to.” They briefly touched foreheads, then Din turned to you, repeating the gesture. “Take good care of him, ad’ika. I’ll see you both soon.”
If you spent too long on this moment, it would only hurt more, so you murmured your thanks and focused on helping Boba get situated with the jetpack. Rapidly approaching footsteps from the other end of the nearby hall got Din’s attention, and he gave you a quick farewell before turning and stalking down the hall, ready to deal with whoever was foolish enough to come running.
The descent down the elevator shaft was a little rough, but Boba eased down to the docking bay, setting you on a precarious ledge so he could pry open the doors with his hands. You suspected it wasn’t easy, but raw fury was enough to fuel him, and it made for an impressive sight as he wrenched the durasteel apart and stormed into the bay.
The mercs guarding the ships weren’t expecting anyone to come through the elevator doors, and they sure weren’t expecting that person to be an incredibly pissed off Boba Fett.
They didn’t last long.
You ran through your pre-flight checklist the fastest you ever had in your life while Boba watched for any new arrivals. He’d taken them down quickly enough that they hadn’t managed to radio for help, but someone was bound to notice their absence sooner or later. You called out to Boba without looking over your shoulder. “My ship’s guns haven’t seen use in a long time, but you’re welcome to try them.”
Boba glanced around your ship. “Don’t you have a droid to co-pilot?”
“Used to! Got trashed a while back and never bothered to get a new one. Not like I see combat often.”
“How’d you manage to trash it?” After you loudly snorted in response, you could hear the grin in his voice. “Broke it over the head of an alpha, didn’t you?”
“I did not. They kicked the droid and broke the poor thing, then I tossed the alpha out over a volcano. They put up a fight, and the droid ended up falling out with them. Tragic stuff.”
You didn’t give Boba any notice before taking off, knowing that he was paying attention and trusting him to brace himself when necessary. It was better to clear orbit before making an FTL maneuver, but launching yourself into a hyperspace lane from here was, in theory, not too difficult. Unfortunately, while you might have been able to do all of those things if you weren’t impeded, you struggled to do it while under fire. The Hutt mercs spotted and identified you far faster than you expected, and you had to focus on simply breaking through the atmosphere to escape. With a sharp incline and full throttle, you’re fairly certain you did some damage to the Senno compound as your ship lurched upward, but that would be just another thing on the list of repairs to make later.
Several of the Hutt ships followed you out of orbit in hot pursuit. Regardless of your piloting experience, your ship wasn’t a fighter—it was made for hauling cargo long distances, not evasive maneuvers in firefights. “Boba, can you get us ready to jump to the nearest lane?” You’d do it yourself, but you were busy weaving your way through an asteroid field in the hopes of losing your pursuers. One ship collided with a rather large asteroid, and both broke apart into pieces on impact, while the rest seemed to handle themselves just fine.
You quietly cursed them for being competent.
Boba took up the co-pilot’s chair and started inputting commands, but he paused after a moment. “It’s going to take too long to get to a hyperspace lane. We should try a smaller jump.”
“No offense, love, but I’d rather we not run into a planet and explode.”
“I won’t run us into a planet.”
You would have protested more, but one of the ships had broken out of the asteroid field and was now attempting to flank you to push you back into the open. Gritting your teeth, you took a sharp dive, all of your attention focused on maneuvering. “Fine, but if we explode and die I’m going to be so fucking mad at you.”
“Duly noted,” Boba dryly replied, resuming his work at the console. FTL jumps in small stretches weren’t exactly safe, especially in unfamiliar sectors where you weren’t sure where the nearest star was and you risked flying directly into it if you weren’t careful, but Boba was more than capable of performing the impossible in most regards, and you decided to trust him with this. It wasn’t like you had much of a choice otherwise, anyway.
It doesn’t take long for him to ready the coordinates. “Trajectory’s set and the warp drive is ready to go.”
Despite your efforts, more ships have arrived in pursuit, and you’re having a hard time keeping out of their reach. “On your mark, cyare.”
He flipped the switch. “Entering hyperspace in three…two…one—”
Just as your thrusters lit up, milliseconds away from making the jump, one of Hutt ships managed to land a direct hit, rattling your ship and setting off an internal alarm. There wasn’t enough time for either of you to react, and the ship jumped into hyperspace.
It should have taken roughly an hour to reach the coordinates that Boba set. Your ship lasted a whole 5 minutes before it abruptly dropped back out of hyperspace.
Despite dropping below the speed of light, you were still moving at speeds that could be considered obscenely high depending on how close you were to other celestial bodies, and as it turned out, your little jump landed you on a direct collision course for a nearby planet. So nearby, the gravity of the planet was already starting to pull you in. When you tried to fire up the reverse engines, they were unresponsive, and cutting your thrusters wasn’t enough to stop the momentum of your ship.
“We’re going to have a forced landing,” you said as dispassionately as you could, while mentally preparing yourself to crash land on an unfamiliar planet in an unknown sector.
Boba nodded and stood. “I’ll get you your helmet.”
Din was silent as he approached Fennec, but even though she had her head in her hands, she still heard him coming and spoke without looking up at him. “What a disaster.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Din said plainly. “You did everything you could.” The violence had ceased hours ago, but the scene was a complete wreck. Around them, a mix of Senno’s security and Boba’s mercs were tallying up the bodies and surveying the damage.
Fennec finally looked up, and for a moment, it looked like she wanted to say something else—but she ultimately decided against it. There was no point in feeling sorry for herself, and even less point in trying to argue with a man like Din. Instead, she stood up, rubbing her temples in a weak attempt to fight off the impending headache. “Any word from them yet?”
“Nothing.” Din glanced around at everyone around them, uncertain as to who should be privy to what information, but seeing as the only news was no news, he figured this much would be alright. “They said they’d make contact once they’re safe. I’m sure Boba’s going to stay low until he’s absolutely certain to send a transmission.”
“Perhaps I could be of assistance.”
Fennec and Din glanced over to the skinny little human nearby, hands in his pockets, one brow raised, arrogance in his stance. It took them both a moment to recognize him, and Fennec ended up speaking first, eyes narrowing at the man. “Kapoh. How’d you survive, you sniveling little coward?”
“I hid under a table, of course.” At Fennec’s pointed disdain, Tem simply scoffs. “Do I look like a mercenary? You and I both know I would have died out there if I hadn’t.”
Din remembered you telling him that Boba rarely had patience for Tem, and he was quickly beginning to see why. He also remembered that Tem had helped you out with the Ghursians, as well as simply providing you company while Boba was gone. Since Fennec was already antagonizing him, Din opted for a softer approach. “You said you could help?”
Tem glanced over at Din, and a smug grin crept onto his face. “I most certainly did, tin can. While I was hiding like the sniveling little coward I am, I bugged one of their ships.”
Din couldn’t hide the surprise in his voice. “From under the table?”
“It’s different than a physical tracking device. Spliced into the digital systems, set it to ping its location to my holopad every standard hour or so. I can also change the frequency or ask for an immediate ping.”
Fennec shook her head. “You didn’t think to track the ship the Fetts took?”
“Of course I did.” Tem rolled his eyes far more than was necessary. “Their ship stopped responding hours ago. I know the pilot’s ship is an older model, so the electronics might have crapped out, or maybe Boba found the bug and purged it, thinking it was from the Hutts. But, if it’s not either of those, then...”
There was silence as Din and Fennec exchanged a concerned glance with each other.
Tem took the moment to pull out his holopad and start swiping through various complex screens flooded with information. “The Hutt ship I have tabs on left to pursue when they took off, and they’ve been lurking around the same system for a while now, so they must have some idea where Boba and his mate are.”
Din nodded, mostly to himself. “I’ll go. Give me the coordinates and—”
“I’m coming with you.” He looked to Fennec, attempting to dissuade her with his silent stare, but she was far too accustomed to Boba’s presence to be even remotely intimidated. “The head alpha and head omega of our pack are in danger, do you really think I can just stand by and hope things will be alright?” A fair enough point; her own steadfast nature aside, the compulsion to help is as deeply ingrained into her as it is into Din, both being the most trusted alphas of you and Boba.
Fennec turned to Tem, and he immediately held up both of his hands in surrender. “I don’t like that look in your eyes, Shand. You’re about to ask me to do something shitty, aren’t you?”
“You’re coming with us.”
“Ohhhhh no, I don’t think so. I might be a beta, but I’m not exactly eager to be crammed on a ship with two riled up alphas. I’ll keep an eye on things here and keep you updated, how about that.”
She started to take a step closer, likely to deliver some sort of threatening persuasion, but Din stepped in. “That’s fine. Let us know if anything changes.”
Tem waved them off as Din headed off to the docking bay, Fennec walking alongside him. “It would’ve been convenient to have him nearby.”
“You really want to be stuck with his attitude and complaining the whole trip?”
“...Fair enough.”
The first thing you did was take inventory of what emergency supplies survived the crash. You always kept some aboard your ship for these types of occasions, but unfortunately, the compartment they’d been stored in was halfway crushed into the ground. There was enough to last you the first few days, at the very least. After that, you started to inspect the extent of the damage to the rest of the ship.
Boba, meanwhile, scouted out the surrounding area. From orbit, the planet had looked uninhabited, but there hadn’t been enough time to look it up or run a scan. He was only gone for a few hours before returning, significantly more relaxed than when he’d left. “Nothing but forests around us. Plenty of things to hunt. There’s a river about an hour from here—further than I’d like, but manageable.” You nodded as he spoke, not looking away from the hole in the hull you were studying. “What’s the verdict on the ship?”
“Well, the good news is, the engine is mostly intact, along with the main thrusters. It’d be a little tricky, but if I made the proper repairs, we’d be able to manage a rocky launch and find the nearest refueling station.”
You sensed Boba approaching, but didn’t look over until he was right at your side. His brows were furrowed in suspicion. “What’s the catch?”
With a sigh, you kicked at the hole in the hull in front of you. “The fuel tanks are punctured.”
“Of course they are.” Boba shifted to stand behind you, chuckling as you jumped when he put his hands on your back. Once he started rubbing your shoulders, however, you melted into his touch. “What about communications?”
“Mmm…since the fuel’s gone, the ship’s systems are no-go, but I have an emergency transmitter on a solar battery. If we set it out in the sun, we can put out a short-range distress signal. Should reach across the system. But…”
“…anyone would be able to pick it up,” Boba finished. “That’s fine. We can make that work.”
You glanced over your shoulder to raise a brow. “You’re not worried?”
“If the Hutts come after us, they’ll bring a ship. One that won’t have a punctured fuel tank, hopefully.”
“You’re going to take down an entire ship’s worth of Hutt mercenaries specifically outfitted to take down the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy?” Though your words were questioning, there was a clear smile on your face and teasing in your voice.
Boba squeezed your sides and grinned as you giggled. “I know you don’t think so little of me, cyar’ika. Are you trying to rile me up?”
“Depends. Is it working?”
“Let me at least get a camp set up before night falls. Then, you can push my buttons all you want.”