After the battle on Nevarro, the surviving Mandalorians were scattered across the galaxy. The Mandalorian shouldered the heavy responsibility of returning the small green child to its own kind, while also searching the stars for his own people. Only with the guidance of his fellow Mandalorians could he navigate the covert network and chart a course for the child's return home. Therefore, no matter where the Mandalorian went, the child was always by his side.
The crime boss, one-eyed Gor Koresh, claimed to have information about surviving Mandalorians. The Mandalorian arrived at his raucous fighting arena, where two Gamorreans were battling to the death on the platform, much to the delight of the gambling crowd below. Seeing that his Gamorrean was about to lose, Gor drew his blaster and killed the opponent's fighter. Outlaws were outlaws, with no regard for rules or honor. Gor didn't want payment for the information; he wanted the Mandalorian's shiny armor.
Surrounded by the gang, with multiple blasters pointed at his head, the Mandalorian was accustomed to such situations. A small tracking missile launched, instantly taking out most of his opponents. Gor fled in terror. The Mandalorian calmly dispatched the remaining thugs, chased Gor out the back door, and used his grappling wire to hang him upside down from a lamppost. Desperate to live, Gor quickly revealed that a Mandalorian had been sighted in Mos Pelgo on Tatooine.
The Mandalorian was puzzled. He had spent a long time on Tatooine and had never heard of other Mandalorians there. Regardless, it was a lead. However, someone like Gor could not be left alive. While the Mandalorian had promised not to kill him, he hadn't promised not to let him die. The lamppost was shot out, and pairs of red eyes belonging to wild mechanical hounds lit up in the darkness, fixing on the prey hanging from the post. Amid Gor's cries for help, the Mandalorian and the floating pram containing the child walked towards the Razor Crest.
The Razor Crest landed at a repair station on Tatooine. After IG-11's self-sacrifice, the Mandalorian's attitude towards droids had changed; he no longer repair droids from approaching his ship. When Mos Pelgo was mentioned, Peli Motto grew concerned. Mos Pelgo was an ancient mining settlement once controlled by the Empire, located deep in the desert on the other side of the planet. After the Empire's fall, it was engulfed in conflict and was nearly razed to the ground.
Peli was happy to look after the child, but the Mandalorian had to keep it with him. Riding a speeder bike borrowed from Peli, the Mandalorian journeyed deep into the desert. After several days, he found the few remaining mining camps. The people in the camp were wary of strangers. The Mandalorian entered the cantina, always the best place to gather information. Before the bartender could answer his questions, a figure stood in the doorway, clad in armor made of Beskar.
The figure's armor was quite worn, but the distinctive T-shaped visor, scarred chest plate, and jetpack equipped with rockets unmistakably identified him as a Mandalorian. The man took a bottle of spotchka and two glasses, sat down at a table, removed his helmet, and placed it on the table. A Mandalorian never reveals his face to outsiders. His name was Cobb Vanth, a former miner. When the Death Star was destroyed and the Empire fell, before the miners could celebrate, a gang of lawless raiders stormed the camp.
Many miners were slaughtered. In the chaos, Cobb stole a crate of supplies from the raiders' vehicle and fled into the desert. Unexpectedly, the crate contained valuable coaxium, which was worthless to a starving and thirsty man. Rescued by passing Jawas, they were willing to trade anything for that crate of coaxium. Cobb chose this set of armor from their collection of scavenged goods. With it, he single-handedly eliminated the raiders and became the protector of the camp.
Over the years, Cobb used this armor to fight off Sand People and keep the camp safe. Therefore, he could not agree to the Mandalorian's demand to return the armor. They drew their blasters; it seemed only one would walk out of the cantina alive. Just then, the ground shook. Cobb and the bartender paled, ignoring the Mandalorian's blaster, and ran nervously outside.
Sand waves surged across the desert, sweeping through the entire camp. It was a krayt dragon. Moving beneath the sands, it swallowed whole a bantha—a mammoth-like creature used by the miners to carry goods—in one gulp. Sated, the krayt dragon burrowed back into the sand and returned to its lair. Cobb made an offer to the Mandalorian: if he helped kill the krayt dragon, he would surrender the armor.
The krayt dragon was cunning and could sense the vibrations of a ship. The Mandalorian's idea of using the Razor Crest was by Cobb. The only way was to find its lair in the desert and attack it with weapons. The Tusken Raiders were the masters of the desert; the Mandalorian sought them out for information. In fact, the Tuskens were very familiar with the krayt dragon. Its lair was in a cave within a massive sandstone rock formation. For generations, they had studied its digestion cycle, sometimes even feeding it banthas to extend the time it stayed in its lair.
To eliminate their common enemy, Cobb and the Tuskens had to temporarily set aside their hostility and cooperate. But when the Mandalorian and Cobb witnessed the krayt dragon's true size outside its lair, they realized they had underestimated the task. After a heated discussion, the Mandalorian decided the camp's miners would also provide support. The Tuskens promised that if the krayt dragon was left to them, they would never raid the camp again.
The Tuskens might be fierce raiders, but they kept their promises. Cobb organized his people, loading all the mining explosives onto two banthas and transporting them to the lair. From the Mandalorian's observation, when the krayt dragon fed, only its head and neck were exposed, suggesting its underbelly was a vulnerability, kept hidden deep beneath the sand. The miners buried half the explosives in the sand in front of the lair. The Tuskens imitated bantha calls to lure out the dragon, and Cobb pressed the detonator at the right moment.
A massive explosion left a giant crater in the ground, but the krayt dragon was nowhere to be seen. Enraged, it burst out from above the cave entrance, spewing stomach acid that killed or severely injured those it hit. The krayt dragon's hide was incredibly thick; the Mandalorian's blaster and Cobb's rockets were useless against it, only making it angrier.
Spotting the other bantha, the Mandalorian conceived a plan. He took hold of the bantha's reins while Cobb fired his rocket launcher to draw the dragon's attention. The krayt dragon swallowed the Mandalorian and the bantha whole, then burrowed deep into the sand. Moments later, it erupted from the ground, opening its mouth as the Mandalorian jet-packed out. The remaining explosives on the bantha detonated violently. With a final mournful cry, the krayt dragon collapsed onto the sand, stirring up a storm.
The Mandalorian's armor had protected him from the acid. He glanced back at the motionless krayt dragon. Miners and Tuskens alike erupted in cheers. With the krayt dragon gone, the Tuskens would no longer raid the camp. Without hesitation, Cobb removed the armor and handed it over to the Mandalorian. Somewhat disappointed, the Mandalorian took the armor and the child, mounted the speeder bike, and began the journey back to the repair station. He didn't notice the pair of eyes watching him from a high sand dune.