Star Wars: Blue Quartz/ Chapter 5: Negotiations

There was this decently sized village that the Death Watch took the Rebel squadron to. People that belonged to the disbanded clan of neutral warriors stared Carg and his squadron down as they walked in the snowy surface. Some of them snarled at the Rebel squadron while others just loaded and polished their weapons. Carg was soon greeted by the clan leader named Bo Katan- female, around five foot ten, covered in Mandolorian gear. Mandalore was the home-planet of the Death Watch, same with Carlac. They were followed by other Death Watch guards. "I am Bo Katan, leader of the Death Watch by default after the tragic death of Pre Visla. State your business," the leader spoke. Fil and Carg exchanged glances and Carg stepped up.

"We apologize for the unexpected intrusion, but we are in desperate need of assistance. See, our major has been corrupted by some sort of... something," Carg stated.

"They called it Winter Terror," a guard of the Death Watch said to Bo Katan.

Katan chuckled. "That's not what it is called, but whatever. There is a rare and priceless substance called Blue Quartz that can help drive out the worm," Katan informed. "Oh where are my manners? Let's get out of the cold and inside my house." Carg nodded to his troopers and they all entered and were greeted inside with some warm coffee.

"How do you know it's a worm?" Fil asked.

"Believe me, these are common yet deadly viruses on Carlac."

Timin leaned over to Fil and whispered, "Why are these guys treating us like we're kings? They are supposed to be a tribe of warriors."

Fil removed his recon trooper helmet and replied, "I don't know, but if they ask for our guns, refuse."

Carg removed his helmet too and was asked to sit down, so he did. "This Blue Quartz- I think I've heard of it before. How can we retrieve it?"

"That's just it, we need your expertise with your scanners and our own expertise with the terrain. Together, we can get what we both want," Bo Katan said. "Listen, this is worth a lot of money and ever since Maul has taken over Mandalore, we have been ever so poor."

"Maul's dead," Fil chimed in, firmly.

"Uh, yes, I think I know that, thank you," Katan answered. Fil didn't care for that. Carg sensed that Fil could not care less for the tone in that remark of her's and the remark in general so he just stared him down, Fil soon got the message.

"When do you propose we head out?" Carg asked, calmly. Leland and Gold Leader looked outside, extremely curious on why and even how those people of the Mandalorian Death Watch could just stand outside with their guns like that. It drew curiosity to them. It was below frigid outdoors.

"I'd say anytime is good. The wind will probably never wind down until next Spring." They all saddled up with heavy, warm clothing on them.

"Ponds? This is the captain. We have a lead and we need you to filter the scanners to only pick up anything that is formed of macrocrystalline," Carg ordered. There was no response, not even any sort of interference. He tried to get Ponds on another frequency- still no reply.

Fil overheard what Carg was trying to do over the communications system and just shook his head and mentioned, "You should've trusted us not to trust Ponds, Captain."