Private A Contract

[Lia Ka Rai]

Coruscant
The Works​

The smell of burning ozone and slag filled the air of the Works. So close to the shining heart of the Galactic Alliance so much pain resided. It, like the lower levels of Coruscant, never saw the bountiful galaxy that radiated from this central star system. No mater who ruled, this place always rippled with fear and longing. Even with what she had planned, in its larvae stage deep in the corners of her mind, she knew this place would not change. But it made for a good meeting place. Her yellow-orange eyes looked over the scarlet skyline of the Works as Republic Engineering and other mega-corps pumped the Coruscant sky's air filtration drones with toxic fumes.

"Thank you for meeting with me Bounty Hunter," she said, turning from her view of the skyline to look down on the figure standing in Mandalorian armor too old for this era. Koda Fett . Renowned bounty hunter, Jedi killer, part-time Voxyn for Darth Carnifex himself.

 

[Koda Fett]

CORUSCANT - Lia Ka Rai​

The Senate, the Jedi. Both considered the Mandalorian a wanted man; a price sat over the beskar of which few wished to come collect themselves. To return to the capital of a triumphant Galactic Alliance seemed a fool's errand, but with all the ties entrenched into the underworld of the Core that one could be stuck in them forever, a trip past their customs became a simpler task. It could have been the promise of credits, or maybe there was a soft spot in the cold, vacant place some once believed a heart lied for Kaminoans and what once was. Their tones soothed him, at least.

He strode across the inside of the abandoned, or otherwise untended to portion of Coruscant as the skyline bled across him, the hues of dusk cast over the bounty hunter and his armoured frame. The blaster left over his shoulder, slung.

"You offered good credits. I'm not picky." His voice grasped out from under the helmet.

 

[Lia Ka Rai]

Koda Fett
​

Picky. An apt choice of words for the mercenary. She turned and glided towards him. It was hard to believe the man still lived. She reached up and took the man by the chin of his helmet, turning him this way and that as if inspecting a head of nerf ready for the auction.

"You are an old thing," she purred. "Older than many realize. Though I'm sure your Kennel Master understands what he has in you." In her other hand she brandished a silvery shard of metal, its edge glinting in the Coruscant twilight. With a swift motion she moved to swipe the blade under the Mandalorian's helm.

 

[Koda Fett]

CORUSCANT - Lia Ka Rai​

Boyhood memories returned with the touch. Slender beings that seemed to be so full of grace, though only understood a callous touch. The white halls, the near-blinding lights that lined them, the smell of rain, the sound of thunder, the sight of lightning. It was there, here, all in a touch that stole his sharp reflexes from him. His gloved hand swatted her own aside, of half a mind to grasp and twist and break.

"I have no master," he rebuked bitterly, "you don't know me."

Though the swiftness of the Kaminoan saw the instrument streak across his neck, both tearing into the fabric around it and collect a thin line of blood from a superficial wound. His breath hissed from the sting, though one arm snatched for the blade wielding forearm and the other her tall, thin neck. He did not deign to speak, though an expectant glare seemed to come out from the tilt of the T-visor.

 

[Lia Ka Rai]

​

"On the contrary, I know you better than you know yourself." Lia smiled a predatory smile lacking any mirth or well intent. The Mandalorian held her wrist in a tight grip, rage bubbling up through the visor. She could feel it in the Force, his anger. She allowed him this though. Her slender fingers let go of the blade. The flat of it was more a scoop and as it floated through the air towards her other open hand, a transparisteel barrier activated, turning blade into test tube.

"This is a start," she said prying her wrist from the man's hand. "But as I said...You are old. Very old." She raised the tube up to her eyes, tilting it back and forth. There wasn't much blood but there would also be skin, hair follicles, and maybe if she was lucky, even a bit of sweat from the torn suit.

"The Jedi have known war for far too long Koda. But this peace, it has made this new generation of Jedi...Softer than their elders. We will not be ready when they come." No one would be. It would be an event unlike any to have occurred before in the Galaxy.

"I will have need of your services. There is another like you I have found. A man out of time."

 

[Koda Fett]

CORUSCANT - Lia Ka Rai​

Blood, sweat, trimmed hairs. She would have it, does have it. Hints of DNA from another time, another era, still left to wander.

"Hm," the Mandalorian rumbled a bitter sound with the release of his hold.

"There is no one like me." He retorted in the cast shadow of the Kaminoan. In denial, refusal, determined to reject all that was and will continue to be. He turned from Lia and slow steps carried him towards the large cargo door that breathed in the rest of an evening bathed Coruscant. You want to remake me, he mused, him.

The pitch visor rolled over his armoured shoulder. "What's coming?"

 

[Lia Ka Rai]

Koda Fett
​

"There is a convergence coming. Powers move even now through the Galactic void to this end." Lia's eyes glazed over, her eyes focused on some far off thing unknowable beneath the glare of Coruscant's light. She stepped forward through the doors.

"You have spent your life hunting, searching for belonging. You claim yourself Mandalorian but have no family to speak of. You call yourself a mercenary but heed no guild. You are a man out of time and a man without a cause Koda Fett." She cocked her head to the side, her long neck craning to peer into Koda's visor. Her eyes narrowed.

"Return with me to your home. Your birthplace. I will have need of more than your blood there. The Sith are strong and I know your proclivities for their lax hold on your activities...But the Jedi will lead the fight to come and they will need allies if we are to survive." She flowed around him. Again her hand lifted his chin to the air, her yellow-orange eyes widening to take in the warrior. Yes. He would do.

"Come with me to Kamino."

 

[Koda Fett]

CORUSCANT - Lia Ka Rai​

"Do not pretend to know me, Kaminoan." He said with calm vitriol, as if the name of her very species was to be a grave insult. "You only know so much as I allow, and you would do well to remember those that found themselves falling from my good graces."

Her slender hand rose to meet the lip of his helm once more, though the Mandalorian was prepared to swat it aside much quicker. Though there was no denying the truth in her words did not bode well for anyone, and while he may care little for those that dwelled in this galaxy, he was still one of them.

"You lose your hand next time," he warned, "you aren't my mother, I'm not your property."

The sounds of distant industry rung out across the Works, with the sound of wind and the speeders that soared across them. It blew at his side cloak, softly. Kaminoan cloners in need of his DNA, to place his face beside the Jedi that saw him as a horrible enemy, perhaps there was some worthy satisfaction to be found in it. Whatever the result.

"Before I agree, tell me everything you want from me."

 

[Lia Ka Rai]

Koda Fett ​

"The hyperspace anomaly you fell through has diluted your DNA beyond what I wish. The others like you that I mentioned have...Similar circumstances. Together though, we might be able to make something great." Lia folded her lanky arms into her robes and smiled at the threat.

"I need you to collect them for me. I also will need you to take Kamino back...From your people. You will have help."

 

[Koda Fett]

CORUSCANT - Lia Ka Rai​

The smell of rain, hot and steaming off duracrete.

"Collect clones, reclaim Kamino, clone us some more. Is that the right of it?" His helmet tilted, "You want to make another army for the Jedi? Last I recall, it didn't work in their favour. Sounds to me you're investing a lot in a failed plan, but, if you've got the credits..."

 

[Lia Ka Rai]

Koda Fett ​

"The Clone Army of the Lost Republic was manufactured by an enemy of the Jedi," Lia said calmly. She smiled at the clone playing bounty hunter. "You don't have to be coy with me Koda Fett. I know you do this for more than credits." Family. Legacy. Failure. Belonging. She shrugged. "But bring them to me unharmed...Or as unharmed as possible. I do not think many of them will come easily."

She began to walk away but paused and turned to him.

"Do not think to increase your pay by bringing me ancestors of the Fetts or those of the Skirata lineage. Those lines have not only been diluted with centuries but the varied genetics of the Mandalorian people. They will be of no use to me."

 

[Koda Fett]

CORUSCANT - Lia Ka Rai​

A callous scowl split his lip beneath the helm, a harsh shift in his eyes. Only the glint of the evening sun reflecting from the black visor showed, looking to the departing Kaminoan from within scarred armour.

"Pure," he remarked coldly, "I got it."

The usual obsession; made them all property, pieces on a board, their warped strands of DNA the missing part of the puzzle to stave off this convergence. The Mandalorian cast a final look towards the industrial sector, stepping onto the ledge, falling from view.