Private A most strange hunt

[Tibera Jessen]

Evander of Alpheridies

Normally bounty hunting was out of Tibera's mission profile, this was an exception to that rule. This wasn't some guild job that offered in some far flung cantina. This job came from a hand delivered letter by some rich mystery man, one who could afford Tibera's considerable fees. The Mercenary was wary of the job from the moment the letter mentioned hunting a rogue force user. Tibera was a firm believer in the force, having seen just what that ancient religion could do to a person up close and personal. They had no intentions of letting themselves get crushed by some invisible thing.

The letter explained the target as a woman named Zalma, a witch of a woman hiding on the planet Manpha. It didn't say much about what she could do with her force powers, only that she was considered to be very dangerous. That would almost be helpful if it wasn't so bleeding obvious.

A thought refused to leave Tibera's head as they made their way to the spaceport. Who did this witch tick off to put such a large private bounty on he head? The letter was simply signed "Your friend, Briggs" which was no one the Merc recognized. Whoever it was, best to not mess around with this guy.

Chartering a ship for Manpha was not cheap, most travel pilots had no idea where the place even was. Only one old banged up freighter was going even near that sector. This Briggs dude was going to be getting a hefty bill for travel expenses, sure as shooting!

Supposedly Tibera could expect help on this mission, another hunter would be joining on the fun. It would have been nice to be told a little about their dancing partner, but that seemed like it would buck the trend of being overly mysterious. Instead they settled in on the freighter and waited for the jump to the swamp planet. Hyperspace jumps always gave Tibera a knot in their stomach.

Planetside Tibera wouldn't feel much better than they did in the ship. The whole planet was one muddy and humid hellhole. Waist deep muck and stagnant, filthy water as far as the eye could see. That wasn't even to mention the local flora and fauna...

"Really wish these missions would take me to a nice beach resort of something! I guess it's better than freezing my tail off somewhere..."

 

[Evander of Alpheridies]

"Sorry, but there's no way this piece of junk is going all the way to Manpha," the Ugnaught mechanic said, gesturing to Evander's x-wing . "You'd be lucky if it gets you to the next space port."

"You told me you could fix it," Evander crossed his arms, irritated.

"I did. But there's only so much I can do. My advice would be to trade it to a scrapper and buy yourself a model that isn't at least a hundred years old."

"I didn't ask for your advice," The Miraluka grumbled. "You can keep it here for now, then. I'll find myself a different form of transport. And don't you dare sell it while I'm gone!"

"Who would wanna buy this junk?" The mechanic muttered as Evander threw him some credits and walked away. Evander didn't want to admit it, but he was right. His ship was falling apart, but he couldn't bring himself to sell it. He needed enough money to buy himself a new ship while keeping the old one. That was what made this new job so important.

The Miraluka considered the envelope in his hand. 'Dear sir,' it had begun, 'I have heard rumours of your great hate for force users. If this is true, then perhaps you would be interested in hearing my proposition...'

Well, he was right, whoever this Briggs person was. He was interested. Of course he was! He was being offered money to do what he loved, hunting force users! Evander didn't care that the target was described as dangerous. He would take them down or die trying. He smiled at the thought as he paid to board a freighter with the last of his cash. His smile immediately vanished. Kriff, if this job didn't pay well, he might have to turn to eating his bowcaster rifle bolts.

"Really wish these missions would take me to a nice beach resort of something! I guess it's better than freezing my tail off somewhere..."

Evander looked up from where he had taken a seat. Nearby, an individual was talking, complaining about their destination. Was the mission they were talking about the same as his? The letter did mention he would have a partner.

"What mission would that be?" he asked, walking over to them. "I don't suppose you're after a force user?"

 

[Tibera Jessen]

"Good guess, yeah I'm here looking for some old hag. Pretty sure I'm gonna to buy some...new boots..." It took a moment for Tibera to actually look at who she was actually talking to. This guy barely looked old enough for a speeder license. "You sure you're here to hunt a witch? Not for nothing but you seem a bit young for a bounty hunter. Either way name's Tibera, and it looks like we're all that made it to the rendezvous point. If Briggs hired anymore hunters then they must be lost."

The hope was that more hunters might show up later, just the two of them versus a powerful force user wasn't good odds. Not that Tibera lived life caring about the odds, they'd done some pretty dumb things just to make a little money. A little crawl through the muck with this young gun probably wouldn't even break the top five worst of them.

Scanning the area around them, Tibera couldn't see any ships or signs of camps. Though with the combination of swampy terrain and waist high grass in some places, it was a fools errand. It was a wonder anything but lizards and mosquitos would call a place like this home, let alone sentient life. If this witch was somewhere near here, it'd be hell trying to find her. A person could disappear for life in a muckhole like this. One thing that crossed Tibera's mind was how quiet the area was. It was like all the animals had been scared off, not even frogs were croaking.

It was safe to say they weren't buying a vacation home here, but something was seriously creeping Tibera out. There was a sound of a splash nearby and instantly the Mecenary brought up their rifle. With an itchy finger on the trigger they looked over to where the splash came from, nothing but a three eyed amphibian looking at them. Good way to look like a gun wielding psycho maybe, but the animal remained unintimidated.

"Frag me..."

Evander of Alpheridies