(Four)
OC in use: Xonos Darkgrate
Location: Naboo
Timeline: mid-Clone Wars-era
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I scoff. Girls. They tend to be easy targets. Almost too easy. I didn't think that they were easy to take down because they weren't experienced or just as good as other fighters, but their strengths tended to be with their speed and agility. In fact, most bounty hunters wouldn't dare going after one because of that type of unpredictability. Not me, I've always had the particular skill of being adaptable to my opponents' way of fighting. Which made it overly easy to take down my enemies. Girls or otherwise...
I almost consider turning off my holopad when I look at the actual bounty. I didn't even take time to register the actual reward. A brief glimpse at how many digits there were was enough. I shut the holopad off and stick it back into its holding pocket. Whoever wanted this target gone was willing to pay a lot. This meant that this girl was probably going to be harder than the others I've taken down. Firstly because I'm not the most famous of bounty hunters so that means the employer must have sent hunter after hunter to get this girl. Up until I was the next option on the list.
I consider declining the mission for a moment, but the astonishing number of credits revive my past enthusiasm. I stand up, stretch a little, and remove my blade from its holding place. I move forward, blade now activated and humming in hand. I cut a smaller sized hole through the cargo doors. I don't even have time to properly exit. The force of the air rips me out of the cavity I made in the cargo doors.
I don't even bother using my spare parachute. Here in Coruscant, free airspeeders are everywhere. I keep falling until a small green airspeeder not much larger than my own bed approaches under my falling form. I dive through the air and land on it just as it whizzes by. A Quermian screams at me in his own dialect before I give him the boot. I turn the speeder around and watch as the former-owner falls down past the other speeders. Even policing vehicles. "Only in Coruscant..." I mutter under my breath.
Time is of the essence. If the employer really was as desperate as the bounty indicated he was, that meant that he was most likely impatient with slower results. I had to get my gear fixed, or I'd be the one ending up with a blaster bolt through my chest instead of the girl. I'm sure that's what happened to the other hunters before me.
I head to the only place that I know that wouldn't hand me over to the authorities or rival hunters. It was expensive, but it was worth it even if it did take some time to repair. I stop thinking about these things as soon as I board the next ship. I can't have distractions. Each one would only serve as weight on an already full mind. I can't have that when fighting someone who would already be much faster than me.
The holopad had said that the new target was staying around relatively the same system. I checked the coordinates, but the results were less than desirable. Whoever the target was, she was smart. She took unpredictable paths throughout the planets and moons. Even going so far as to fly straight back to the same place before taking to jumps forward. One thing was clear, however. She didn't want people knowing where she was heading, but going in a singular direction was her mistake. She was going to a straight line, and there was only one planet left untouched. Her destination, albeit her final one...
It is only on that planet that I realize just how desperate my employer was. On the course of jumping two planets, I was forced into combat with other bounty hunters I could only guess were also hired by my employer. I guess my definition of fast really wasn't. As I finishing off my latest competitor with my ion-pistol, I realize how few cartridges I have left. This wasn't good news as I would probably have to depend on the pistol for taking down my target. Most people can't take down a trained female in blade combat, but then again, maybe she didn't have a blade. And I'm not "most people" either...
It's only been one more day. I'm on the destination planet, Tatooine of all places... I'm waiting at the side of a squat, clay building. Not a cantina. I've been to this sandlot before, and I know better than to go into one of those. This is about the only "safe" port on Tatooine. Most others are owned by Hutts, which meant that any sane-minded pilot would be landing here. Anywhere else would risk gangs, predators, or overpricing. On Tatooine, this was the best place to land, and if my target was coming on a ship she'd be landing here.
I had to wait for hours, sitting in some makeshift stall or semi-shed that a fat Gran sold to me for a few credits. "Good things come to those who wait," such was true when I saw a dusty ship hovering over the port. It was dusty, yes, but not dusty enough. It wasn't from Tatooine. I wait in my stall, just in case more than one person exits the ship. After the ship is parked, the entrance ramp is opened. One person leaves. Nobody else...
I jump up from my own little stall. Pistol in hand. All bounty hunters have a little piece of gear that distinguishes them from the rest. A little piece of gear or some type of attack that no one else can replicate. For me it's a cybernetic eyepiece. I'm not one-eyed, but that piece of technology provides vision when there really is none. Therefore, I haven't taken it off since the first mission I went on with it. I switch it on by twisting it to the right. Immediately a dark screen replaces my former vision in my right eye; in a second, all heat signatures light up on the small piece over my eye.
I begin running towards the port. A sandstorm tearing at my form and the town behind me. I see my target run as well in the sandstorm. Most likely because of the sandstorm itself and not me; she couldn't know that I was here. Then again, she must know by now that multiple hunters were coming after her. Not exactly good news for either party.
As I follow her, I see other signatures on my right eye's vision. Things just got even more complicated from then. The target found her way around and started hunting her own hunter. Lucky me for staying some ways back I suppose. Suddenly, someone tackles me from out of nowhere. I drop my pistol when my wrist is crunched under my attacker's boot. I lift the left side of my body and grab the pistol from the ground. A quick shot upwards finished the problem. I examine my wrist and decide that a bacta patch later will fix it, but I have to finish the mission. I won't let others do it for me...
I run after my target, and consequently confront two more of her hunters. It takes me much longer to take both of them down, especially with my broken wrist. Once I deactivate my blade and slip it back into place, I use the last of my strength in my right hand and reload my pistol with its last cartridge. I walk a few meters to the alley were my target's heat trail led me. Once I'm there, I see that there's two signatures. I only have enough shots to finish off one. I take in a big breathe and prepare to jump in using the element of surprise, when suddenly something stopped me from doing just that. One of the heat signatures dropped drastically in a moment, and it wasn't my target's. I step over to take a look and see a slumped figure on the floor. Big and bulky, which confirmed that my target won her little scuffle.
I look over with my pistol raised, ready to shoot take down my target. But she isn't standing. She's on the floor too. By the looks of it, she was unconscious because of blood loss, but she wouldn't die. No, not a big enough wound. A pity as I was hoping that I wouldn't have to fight anymore this day. Then I look down at her form again, unconscious. Not much honor in shooting an unconscious target...
"Who cares..." I mutter. I point my pistol down and aim at my target. Then a voice, quite loud despite the howling wind and the stinging sand, made its way into my ears just before I feel the full force of two hard boots on my chest. Falling backwards, I didn't even hear my attacker when she spoke the first time, "Sorry, buddy. This girl's mine." I stand up, taking a moment to regain my senses. I glare at my attacker who, incidentally, was also a girl. I can't see her face through the sand and wind, but I'm able hear her when she speaks again, "Listen up, I'm taking her to my employer. You, on the other hand, can leave without a scratch. Just leave me alone." I squint, partly because of the current wind's conditions and partly because I don't trust her either. I reply, "That's too bad. I'm already pretty scratched up. I'd hate to go home for nothing."
"Looks like you will be," she says before activating some type of weapon on her arm and holds out a dagger in the other. I frown beneath my respirator. I came here expecting a fight with a trained girl anyways. Fate evidently doesn't disappoint... I raise my pistol and fire.
to be continued...
