Bounty Hunters: Chapter One

--Ta-lek System. Human Year (HY): 3025; Galactic Standard Year (GSY) 45,215--


"Blink, can you turn that beeping off," Martin said. A moment later, the noise that had been bugging him cut off, though was followed by an impatient sigh. "You know, the silence won't make the ship move faster." From behind him drifted a floating sphere, lights twinkling and blinking in various colors. His AI companion, Blink followed it with "I've got as moving at low burn with our momentum carrying us the rest of the way. What more do you want?"

Shrugging, Martin said "The beeping was a start. How close are we now?" Re-checking their position, Blink stated "We can engage our engines now; entering the dark side of Gren, their sensors won't be able to detect us." He felt the rumble roll through the bridge as the engines began their burn, the subtle tug as the ship accelerated towards the planet.

Gren and Tra were, frankly, the only unique thing about the Ta-lek system; tens of millions of years in the past, a rogue planet, later named Tra, had entered the system and collided with the planet of Gren. The collision shattered both planets, yet the fragments still orbited the space where Gren had been. All that was left now, was what resembled nothing less than a shattered bowling ball.

These days, the system played host to pirates, their base located somewhere in the center of all that rock and dust. And on that base....was Martin's current contract. "And we're sure Gozo didn't put the word out on this one?"

"With an Eldritch, there's never any certainties."

It sits in a room near a window in an abandoned building overlooking a very busy looking club. It gazes out of the window and looks down at the patrons all having a nice time. Unbeknownst to them all, It has come to cast an air of despair across them all. Unintentionally, of course. This is Its line of work and once It has been given a directive, It follows until the directive is complete.

"This intel is correct?" It asks to seemingly no one in particular in a very mechanical voice that can barely even pass as human, what with the filter that is forced upon it. A human voice echoes in Its head. A female one. "Lehrik, Hang 'em High bar. You're hunting a Tsk'kree who's been missing out on some gambling payments, orders are dead or alive. Notes I've gathered say he enjoys hanging out on the second floor balcony and his favorite poison is dark red in color." The human voice ends her debrief. "If you kill it, the contractor will no doubt see it on the news. So no need to get the ship messy trying to bring it on board. You got it?"

It nods and grabs the sniper rifle next to It. It brings it up and brings it to the second floor balcony of the flashing bar. Many figures can be seen through Its scoped vision, a few Tsk'kree cross Its line of sight, but none of them have any alcohol. "The time is correct?" It asks to Its cohort. "Yea, he should be there enjoying himself right now. You don't have eyes on him?" She responds. "This one thinks the target is using some trick to conceal itself. Or the target has decided to not feed his vices on this night." It tries to bring a new angle on the situation, but then quickly decides to scan the third floor balcony. One lone insectoid stands on the verge of falling off of the railing and plummeting to the ground below.

"Yeah well....with luck we're the first ones here," Martin said. The ship came in low, curving over Gren as it arced towards the great divide. The plan was simple: once they reached the edge of Gren's mantle the Venator would shoot down towards the core, inside the dense field of rocks and dust. According to the bounty details, the pirate base was inside that death trap, along with the target.

Martin had checked over every scrap of gear he was taking with him, enough times that he knew it all by heart now. It would have been pointless to do it again....and yet he still checked over his heavy pistol. At least it beat sitting in silence.

"Do you have a visual of the target yet?" The female voice asks.
"This one believes so, but it appears that gravity has cut in to claim this bounty." The metallic voice responds.
"Wh-what? Wait, he's falling? Will we get the commission if that happens? The female voice inquires in a concerned tone."
"Well, this one believes the contractor cannot pay Suicide for taking our target's life." It aims the crosshairs squarely on the tipping Insectoid's head. "Besides, this one has gone through the long and arduous trouble of climbing this abandoned building. It does not want this trip to be a waste of our time."

Without a second moment to process the situation, the metallic man's finger finds the trigger and presses it. A resounding crack leaves the end of the rifle's barrel and the insectoid flings itself forward as a blood and brain trail follows it from the entry point and the exit wound. The people standing out on the second floor balcony and the ground floor patio stop their activities as if they had heard the sound over their extremely loud music. It can even see a few of the partygoers on the second floor reacting to what he can only think of as the thud the insectoid made as it dropped to the floor. They distance themselves from the larger group and go to investigate.

It leaves no time after this, placing the butt of the rifle on the decayed wood next to him and grabbing a bulky suitcase on the other side of him. With a resonating click, the suitcase opens, revealing indentations for what appear to be, and soon confirmed to be for Its rifle as It begins to quickly disassemble it. Once finished, It stand next to the window and gazes at the situation below. The investigative group had found the corpse and the club was in the process of evacuation. It sends the feed it had been recording to its accomplice and departs for her location swiftly after leaving a calling card on the chair with only one single word written in bold letters, "Wraith"

"Martin," Blink suddenly said. "We may have a path." That got his attention; a path through the debris field was invaluable. "What makes you so sure?" he asked her, sitting up straighter. "Small gravitational distortions," she replied. One of the screens lit up, displaying data which did not make much sense to him, but all the sense in the world to her. "From what I can tell, it's not natural. Best guess? Those pirates are using outdated grav-generators placed in the field to create a clear path for their ships."

"Think we can use it then?" he asked her, leaning forward. Sighing, she said "Nope. I'm plotting a course around them; they may not have left explosive booby traps but that doesn't mean they wouldn't put sensors around the path, check for any IFF's that don't match their own." The AI chuckled though, adding "But, on the bright side those grav-gens do help make less rugged routes that run next to the entry point. Not enough that we won't get banged up, but our shields can take it."

Araenys sat in the chair watching Veleshi with on of the captives. They'd raided a ship, not two days past and had pulled a nice haul of El'Lyss as captives. Three were already dead from the torture, and Veleshi looked to be about to make a fourth. He wondered if they'd get to actually sell any of them this time. The ship needed a couple of patches and he loved to window shop.

He chewed his lip and stared at the smallest one in the cage. She'd make for a nice slave, he reckoned. Fetch a good price on Eldur. But then again, the smallest always screamed the best.

It takes to the back end of the building facing away from the nightclub and finds a window It can slink out of. If it were human, it would feel the nice breeze through the window as the window was slid open. Without that pleasure, It steps out onto the fire escape and begins making Its way down. As son as Its feet hit the ground, multiple sirens rip through the air. By the sound if it, they were only a few blocks away and speeding quickly to their destination. It hits the corner of the building and peeks around it to see multiple light sources flashing and lighting up the night sky. Officers pour out of the vehicles and begin to scout out the bar.

It stands up straight and adjusts the collar on its jacket. It brings up the map of the city and plots the course to the ship. "Officials have entered the area. This one is evacuating now. Send the recording to the contractor." It says. "I.. didn't expect you to record it, but I guess that's somewhat better than waiting for him to watch the news reports." The female voice replies. "This one believed that would be the better course of action." It says, calmly walking the back streets and away from the seizure inducing lights.

Veleshi yawned as she stepped off of the slave's head, kicking it in the teeth as she did. She turned to her first mate, clearly bored.
"This one's no fun," She said, "It's already broken. I can't have fun with something that doesn't even try to fight back. Do you want it?"

Araenys spat on the floor in disgust. "I don't want your leavings. Give it to one of the dogs." Or sell it he thought. A little bit of money round here wouldn't hurt

"Excuse you," Veleshi replied, looking outright disgusted by her first mate, "This creature is a living, breathing thing. You don't have a right to judge her like that."

Araenys raised his eyebrows at her. "Says the woman who has just stood on her head for the last five minutes." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"Yes!" Veleshi shouted, "I didn't insult her for no reason! She has feelings, you know?!" Veleshi sighed. "Tell the others that she's fair game. I don't want a toy that doesn't even work right."

Araenys stood up, nodding. "Aye, Captain." He walks to the door and leaves, heading up the stairs on the other side and into the crew quarters where most of the crew are located.

"There's a slave down there thats free game for any who wants it."

Couple minutes later, and the Venator was slowly weaving through the drifting asteroids. Blink had them on a precise path, following the gravity distortions without directly crossing into the path. Thankfully, it appeared the pirates were fairly practical: their base wasn't at the core of the damned field, otherwise the human and AI would have been there for months trying to get to them.

As it happened, the pirate base was located within one of the asteroids in that field, by the looks of it one roughly one kilometer in length and nearly as thick as a battlecruiser. Other than that, any specifics on the base were nothing but guesswork. For example, Martin was pretty sure that the pirates had either hollowed out the asteroid for their base, or took advantage of some features on or within it for them to move into.

And that wasn't counting external sensors, weapons, doors that may or may not be hidden, the number of pirates in there and how well armed they were.......basically, he was flying in there blind. "Boy Gozo sure does want me dead on this one doesn't he?" he asked Blink. She made a snorting sound--which was still weird for him to hear on account of her lacking a nose--and said "You work with an Eldritch, expect to get screwed over hard by an Eldritch...."

A light rain begins falling. The harder drops hit Its arms and light dings emerge from the impact. It leaves the safety of the back alleyways and brings itself to a sidewalk into the sea of people and aliens rushing to enter some kind of shelter to shield themselves from the unexpected rain. It uses the crowd to escape from anyone tailing It. It is not like It had anticipated someone to be following It, but there was always a slight chance an officer had managed a glimpse. The sidewalk begins to open up into the town's circle, an impressive looking area, much more impressive than the overall city combined. Large buildings loom over a stone fountain and at the base of most of these buildings are shops. A tourist would enjoy this area for what it is, but for It, this circle is a prime place for an ambush.