Vigilante problems (Burden of the Mandalorian)Pt.1

[Andrew Lonek]

Andrew shot her a look like she had just said the sky wasn't blue. "Not my upgrades, Mandogirl. Trust me."

He moved on to her blaster next. Valah hesitated when he picked it up — her custom WESTAR-35. It had been with her longer than any ally ever had.

Andrew turned it over with surprising reverence, examining the scuffs, the burns, the way the power cell barely clicked in place.

"Good piece," he said honestly. "But you're bottlenecking its fire rate. Old tech's great until it gets you killed."

He started pulling parts from his kit — tiny calibrators, new energy coils, a sleek sighting module — and within minutes, her rugged, worn weapon looked... sharper. Deadlier.

"Modified the firing chamber. Gave you an adjustable energy output." Andrew handed it back, grinning like a proud mechanic. "Low power for suppression fire. High power for... well, you know. Making a statement."

 

[Valah Hagen]

Valah tested the blaster, feeling the new smoothness in the grip, the ease of the trigger pull. She hated to admit it, but the improvements were good. Really good.

She looked at him, arms crossed. "Why help me?"

 

[Andrew Lonek]

Andrew shrugged, flashing his usual cocky grin — but there was something real underneath it this time.

"Because you remind me of someone," he said. "Someone who thought they had to do everything alone... until they realized they were a lot more dangerous with the right backup."

 

[Valah Hagen]

Valah studied him a moment longer, the city's rain tapping against the cracked windows like a ticking clock.

Finally, she gave a sharp nod. "Fine. I'll listen."

 

[Andrew Lonek]

Andrew smirked, tossing her a compact energy shield generator next. "Good. Lesson two — you're gonna love this."

 

[Valah Hagen]

That night, as neon bled into the dark alleyways and thunder rolled over the dying city, two very different warriors prepared to light a fire under Sector 44 — a vigilante and a genius in a metal jacket — gearing up for war.

And this time, they weren't fighting alone.​

 

[Valah Hagen]

The Mayor's "gathering" wasn't subtle.
High walls lined with durasteel, armed guards every ten meters, surveillance droids crisscrossing the skies above like mechanical vultures. Inside, Sector 44's worst crooks — politicians, ganglords, corporate sharks — laughed and drank under glittering chandeliers, pretending the rot outside didn't exist.

From the roof of a nearby crumbling tenement, Valah peered through a battered electrobinocular, studying the entrance.​

"Thirty guards, maybe more," she muttered. "Could blast through."

 

[Andrew Lonek]

Andrew stood beside her, arms crossed, a sly grin playing across his lips. His freshly modified armored jacket gleamed faintly in the moonlight, powered by tech no one on Eyok had ever seen​

"Sure," he said. "You could kick the front door in like a raging rancor."

He held up a small holo-projector and thumbed it on — it displayed a simple plan. "Or... we make an entrance they'll never forget."

 

[Valah Hagen]

Valah looked at him, then the projector, and let out a low, amused growl.

"Fine. But if this blows up in our faces, I'm leaving you behind."

 

[Andrew Lonek]

Andrew winked. "It won't be the last time."

 

[Valah Hagen]

Ten minutes later.

The guards outside the gates tensed as a low hum filled the air. A strange whirring sound, growing louder.

One of them stepped forward, scanning the darkness. "You hear that?"

Before he could finish, something metallic slammed into the ground between them with a heavy THUNK — a homemade "disruption emitter" built from salvaged droid parts and a few pieces of Andrew's own armor.

The emitter sparked once...
Twice...
Then detonated in a burst of crackling electromagnetic energy.

Screams echoed as weapons jammed, security cams shorted, and every commlink in a three-block radius fizzled to static. In the chaos, the guards stumbled, blind and deaf.

And from the smoke —

BOOM.

Valah Hagen dropped down like a thunderbolt, WESTAR-35 blazing with sharp, surgical precision. Blaster bolts pinged off her upgraded armor as she moved with deadly efficiency, taking down guards with stun rounds and brutal takedowns.​

 

[Andrew Lonek]

A second later, Andrew Lonek — jetpack roaring — descended beside her, wrist blasters flaring, palm-repulsors knocking guards clean off their feet. His style was... a little less surgical, a little more "chaotic genius."​

 

[Valah Hagen]

"You're late!" Valah called over the din, blasting a lock off a side door.

 

[Andrew Lonek]

Andrew grinned behind his tinted visor. "Fashionably!"

 

[Valah Hagen]

They burst through the gates and into the party, the music inside cutting off mid-beat as terrified elites scrambled for cover.

The Mayor — a corpulent Sullustan with a jeweled sash — tried to run for the panic room.

Tried.

Valah tackled him into a polished table, shards of glass flying.​

 

[Andrew Lonek]

Andrew casually zapped the nearby security console with a repulsor blast, locking down all exits.

He turned to the gaping crowd, voice amplified through his suit's audio.​

"Good evening, criminals, cowards, and cowards who are also criminals!" he announced, arms wide. "Sector 44 is officially under new management."

 

[Valah Hagen]

Valah hauled the Mayor to his feet, pressing the barrel of her newly-upgraded blaster against his temple.

"Time to pay for what you stole," she growled.

The Mayor, still trembling, tried to straighten his sash with shaking fingers, but Valah jammed the blaster harder against his temple, forcing him back against the broken table.

"Talk," she barked.

"I-I had no choice!" he stammered, his wide Sullustan eyes darting between her and Andrew, who stood casually nearby, inspecting a very expensive bottle of liquor he'd snatched off a tray. "You don't understand! They... they own this city now. I'm just a figurehead!"

Valah grabbed him by the collar and yanked him closer. "Who?"

The Mayor swallowed hard. His voice dropped to a desperate whisper. "The Circle."

 

[Andrew Lonek]

Andrew's head snapped up at that. His easygoing smirk faded into something colder, more calculating.

"The Circle?" he repeated slowly. "Tell me you're not serious."

 

[Valah Hagen]

The Mayor nodded frantically. "They're everywhere. Businesses, enforcers, even offworld. I just— I just wanted to survive!" He tugged at his collar like the very name had tightened it around his neck. "They said if the sector stayed desperate, they'd invest. Control. Profit. If I deviated, even once—" he cut himself off, glancing nervously at the dark corners of the room, like agents of the Circle might emerge from the shadows.

Valah sneered. "So you sold out the whole city to save your skin."

"They would've killed me!" the Mayor cried. "You don't know what they're capable of. You can't fight them!"

 

[Andrew Lonek]

Andrew set the bottle down with a clink that sounded almost deafening in the silence that followed. He walked over slowly, voice calm but sharp as a vibroblade.

"Let me guess," he said. "First it was little favors. Then bribes. Then full control. And somewhere in the middle... you decided the people out there weren't worth saving anymore."