Sᴛᴀʀ Cʀᴏssᴇᴅ #CrossoverTime

Hello everyone, Thrawn here taking part in the latest ET challenge, the #CrossoverTime. For this one, there's both art and writing. Progress pics will be added at the end of the post. This is a crossover between Guardians of the Galaxy and the Mandalorian.

Sᴛᴀʀ Cʀᴏssᴇᴅ

"Where are we?" Quinn asked, his head aching from hitting the control "Ahh crap! The nav is messed up!" Rocket shouted discontentedly, "We are way off course" he said calming down "and I mean waaay off… and almost out of fuel" he scratched his head. "Great, just great. Remind me again why we let Drax do the calculations for the jump?" Quinn's voice raised, "Don't put the blame on him, you are the one who proposed it, or don't you that night when you got carried away in drinks, and elsewhere?" Gamorra replied laughing at the frozen look on Quinn's face "Fine!" He barked after a couple of seconds "find some planet we can land and put out a distress signal" he said to the raccoon.

A beep appeared on the edge of the radar on the Razor Crest's s, an emergency beacon by the looks of it, though on a different frequency from the galactic norm. The helmeted man decided to take a look as it was a violation of flight rules if he simply ignored it. Thirty minutes later he reached the ship, it was in perfect conditions so he armed the canons in case of a trap then opened a comm channel "This is the Razor Crest speaking, anyone alive?" Suddenly realising he had never followed a distress beacon, a voice replied "Uhm, hi. I am Star Lord, captain of this ship. We seem to be a long way from home and without fuel to return, could you help us with that?" The static buzzed confirming that the voice had stopped talking "I can tow you to Nevarro, there we can talk properly." He said clearly "Yes! That's great" an enthusiastic voice replied.

After a long travel in sublight speed, they reached the dark planet of Nevarro, they landed the ship next to a small city surrounded by basaltic rock formations and lava fields. Both ships lowered their ramps and faced each other "My name is Din Djarin, I'm a bounty hunter. I know a guy here who can help you out." He saw the man with an awkward helmet approach him alongside five figures of species he had never seen before, "Thank you for your help, I'm Peter Quinn and we're the Guardians of the Galaxy." The man extended a hand and, after a small hesitation, Din shook it. They both turned their attention to the little figures who were playing with each other like lifelong friends "Whoa, that's Yoda!" Quinn said excitedly, "What's a Yoda?" Din asked weirdly "Not a what, a who." was the answer "He's not Yoda, his name is Grogu." The four figures looked at the little green being then at each other "We'll just call him Baby Yoda."

"Who's the tree guy?" Din asked "I am Groot." The rooted being replied "What are you?" He asked again, having the same answer, "I am Groot."

"I got it, you're Groot. I asked WHAT are you?" Din asked once more, "I am Groot." The answer was more excited this time, Din shook his head. The rest of the group burst out laughing, "What's so funny?" Mando asked impatiently "Ah, whoo, I didn't laugh like that in a while." Quinn paused to catch his breath "He only says that phrase, and only Rocket here can understand what he says." Din calmed a bit "Fine, let's get going if we're done with presentations."

The cantina door slid open and the strange band of seven walked in, "Mando! Come!" A dark skinned man called them from a big table sitting by himself. They sat down and exchanged curious glances at each other. "You brought new friends, where did you find them?" The man, named Greef Karga, directed the question at the beskar armoured individual "They need fuel and they are far from their planet. Their ship is on the ground, could you run a sweep on it and check for any damages?" Greef looked deep "I can, but it'll cost them." He changed the look to Quinn "do you have credits, Imperial, New Republic, Mon Cala, another I can work with?" Quinn took a data chip out of his pocket and placed it on the table "What is this currency? I've never seen it anywhere in the galaxy, you really must be a long way from home." He slid the data chip back to Quinn "Tell you what, you do a job for me and we call it even. Sounds good?" The band nodded after a brief discussion.

"Make yourselves comfortable" Din said as they boarded the Razor Crest. They sat in the cargo hold whilst Din went up the stairs to the cockpit. The ship took flight, leaving the atmosphere and then jumping into lightspeed. When the ship returned to normal space, a dust coloured planet filled out the viewport, Din honed in on the fog beacon Greef had given him. He landed just outside possible scanner readings then opened the ramp. "We storm in, get the cargo, get out. Got it?" He gave the orders as he checked his weapons and gauntlets. "Easy peasy."

Binoculars revealed twelve men surrounding the building, all visibly armed. "Let me go first" the raccoon stepped forward as they reached the settlement, he pulled out a bazooka, aimed and fired. The shot burst a hole through the closest wall, taking down three guards shifting patrols. The alarm was off, they charged the building at max speed. Quinn and Rocket had the most similar choice of weapons to Din, though Drax, Gamorra and Groot preferred more unorthodox ways of fighting, nonetheless, very effective. He was impressed. They cleared the perimeter defenses swiftly then entered the building. Their resistance was bigger than the intel had provided. Din and Quinn took the flanks, Rocket covering below the red coated man, Gamorra and Drax charged with bladed weapons, the latter shouting "This is too easy for me!" Whilst almost hysterically laughing as he slashed his opponents with convicted swings of his two elongated knives.

They reached the room where the asset was supposed to be, the small sapient tree grabbing it and wrapping it securely in a nest of branches. They were heading out when six more men ambushed them at a round intersection. The swordsmen veered off in different targets, Mando and Quinn covering from the middle of the room. As Mando turned to shoot one of the men, Quinn saw the other ready to fire at the bounty hunter's back. "Look out!" He shouted, grabbing him, switching positions and firing a direct hit on the man's chest. "Thank you" Mando said with a heavy sigh, "Din-nada!" Quinn said loud enough for everyone to hear, they were recomposing as the struggle was over "Really Quinn?" Rocket snorted, "I bet you've been holding that one since you learned his name" Gamorra said mockingly, "Come on guys, you all thought it. Don't put it on me." He said as they walked back to the ship.

A few hours later and they were back in Navarro, Greef was already waiting for them when they disembarked "How did it go?" He opened his arms in a gesture of welcome back "intel was wrong but we got the package." Din said giving the case over to him. "Your ship was running on something we'd never seen before, we had to make some adjustments in order for the ship to run on Tibanna. It'll get you home safely." Greef said to the group "Are you sure you don't want to stay, you have the competences of professionals and I can pay you handsomely." He gestured kindly, Quinn replied "Thank you, but no. Our place isn't here and we have people to save. Best of luck in your investments." Greef nodded "Likewise".

Quinn turned to Din "I guess this is a farewell, thank you for your help." Din answered "Yes. It is. Thanks for having my back in there. I hope your trip home goes smoothly." The other man nodded "Can I just make a last favour?" Din said yes, and the other man stopped next to baby Yoda and took a small device out of his jacket. He posed next to the small being and clicked a button to take a photo. This was one for the ages, he thought. The rest of the group was already on their ship, shouting at him. He shouted back "Oh Frak off! Get those vectors right this time will you?!" Soon after, the ship was barely visible from the ground, returning to the stars it belonged in. It had been a strange encounter, Din thought as the sun set and he returned to the cabin, to Grogu, he slept very well that night.

How conveniently stars crossed sometimes at the most random of times, and yet each would shine brighter as their paths separated once again, enriched by diversity and discovery of otherwise unknown realities.

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#StarReview

Till next time and May the Force be with you!