Private Anonymity

[Kalen Genet]

Ryloth wasn't the sort of planet that Kalen came to often. As prevalent as slavery still was on the world, it didn't sit right with him; beyond that, between the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the old Mandalorian Empire, the current enclave near rimward even now...it seemed like there were always a lot of people around he didn't want to deal with. But a man in his line of work couldn't always afford to deny going where the credits were, and if that meant running some spice to Ryloth, then he'd do it if he had to. Especially if it would help keep some grubby Hutt from finding it worthwhile to give him a rope necklace and a new hang-out location, or a play date with their newest pet.

At least, with how empty this space was of governments, it made it a lum run for somebody that hadn't been considered a lumrunner for a few years now.

The lack of recognition suited him just fine though; he'd had to switch ships after that fight near Kuat, and he couldn't use all the credits as anything except a security fund unless he wanted to paint a target on his back, something that he'd made a small, profitable but not too profitable smuggling career by avoiding. Leave the crazy runs to the kids crazy enough and lucky enough to pull them off; let him take the easy jobs and waste some time exploring the floating rock gardens instead, since it was a day that they were even emptier than normal.

Not that that wouldn't stop him from carrying his pistols anyways; it was Ryloth, after all. "Would hate for someone's majordomo to decide I looked worth trying to take."

Koda Fett

 

[Koda Fett]

Kalen Genet ​

It seemed as if all the difficult trails had become rare, rarer than most as of late. For most of these men had not elected to run, nor become hidden themselves and instead fortified their own corners; fire and flame rooted them out on most occasions, his armour able to withstand all that their returned fire had been able to muster, as if none of them ever stood so much as a chance in the face of their own demise - a fierce T-visor that demanded their surrender or their lives. It mattered not in the end, the credits were all the same and Fett had them in bountiful spades.

For those that refused to be found, it invited a new set of rules.

From one system to another, the Bounty Hunter trailed the name 'Avram Mesenshuk' and all that it meant. It meant little, in the end, but the reluctance to offer information had soon been revealed: contracted to the Hutt Cartel, it was one measure to remain untouched, Fett decided. He was never fond of those worms, but their credits made them tolerable. But Avram had been an 'Avram' once further, more intensive scrutinisation came to be; a face that never matched, a vanished associate, a noticeable wound transferred from one man to another.

Interesting.

But all roads came to an end, and no matter the initial belief that another system needed to be ventured to next, to continue the trail, it was not; the Floating Rock Gardens, it seemed, had been the final destination for his hunt. Avram had run out of room to run, and Fett had come to collect. He travelled not by vessel nor craft, rather by mount on the rear of a Rycrit. It had taken him across the vast deserts, to see the rock formations and ravines, the tourist location seen in the distance and for a moment, Fett failed to do much else other than marvel at their own existence. But there was a time for such, and that was not now.

He arrived behind and above Avram, situation on rocks aboard his mount. The Twi'Lek sun framed Fett, his armoured frame concealed the sun and cast a shadow seen before his modulated voice called outwards in an answer to the idle remark made;

"Tell me," Fett called out, his blaster held as if a child in his arms, "You come out here, alone, and is it still Avram Mesenshuk or does Kalen Genet return from the dead to marvel at some rocks?"

 

[Kalen Genet]

The rising shadow that fell over him was actually fairly comfortable, for a moment, before he realized it probably meant somebody was watching him. "Sithspit," he muttered to himself, making to head deeper into the rock spires like a perfectly casual tourist before the voice stopped him. He blinked once, resisted the urge to reach for his pistols, and turned around slowly to face who had addressed him. Trying to convince himself for a moment that it was just some random bounty hunter, although the words that had addressed him were certainly beyond what most bounty hunters would bother trying to unearth.

And to his combined surprise and lack thereof, for entirely different reasons, it indeed was not some simple, random bounty hunter. He'd never run afoul—or even into—the man himself through the years, although there were few in the galaxy who wouldn't recognize the man brave enough to wear that specific pattern of armour so openly. Koda Fett, really? For little old him? He almost felt honoured.

Still pretty damn worried though.

"Genet?" he called back, voice neutral. "Man's dead, after a fight on Daluuj. I watched them melt his armour down with the body still in it." Melted with a body still in it, anyways. "People like him and us don't just come back from the dead, not like those zealots with their glowrods."

Koda Fett

 

[Koda Fett]

He rolled one limb over the mount, his firearm still held and half-aimed towards Genet or Avram, whichever one the man ahead of him felt himself to be. His boots fell to the rocks beneath, the dust rose and fell as Fett stood firm over the other.

“You lie,” the Bounty Hunter accused, “I’ve done my research, I’ve seen all the records. You can lie some more, or tell me the truth. It doesn’t matter, the reward is one Avram. I’ll collect either way.”

Kalen Genet

 

[Kalen Genet]

Of course, it could never just be easy. Or, it could, but that would require giving up on the lie he'd lived for over a decade by that point, which wasn't easy to do. Kalen hooked his thumbs into his belt loops, noticeably away from the grip of either of his blasters, and rocked on his heels a bit. "He did die," he said softly, with a small shrug. Whoever 'he' was was left unspecified, at least for the moment, as he still wracked his brain, trying to figure out what would bring the galaxy's most notorious bounty hunter down on him. Even stealing a frigate from KDY didn't seem to necessitate that sort of heat.

"What's got you looking, anyways? Slow couple of months? You'd have to have gone digging quite a bit, checking information from ten different sectors, to find everything you say you know." He wasn't even sure if the kid melted down with the armour had any identification beyond the one from the planet he was born on and his contract with the mercenary company that had hired them both, and Kalen had taken and altered the former, and paid to have the latter 'updated.' It would have meant a lot of digging to piece it all together in full, unless the kid hadn't been the green farmboy looking for adventure he'd thought.

Not that it mattered much anymore. "You're not the type to waste time talking when you've found your man, Fett, not from all the tales spread around about you—what gives?"

Koda Fett

 

[Koda Fett]

"Slow, maybe." He considered, the soft tilt of his helmeted head and the shrug of his shoulders followed afterwards. The Bounty Hunter motioned forwards, slowly, the rocks crushed underfoot as his blaster remained loosely fixed on Kalen. He noted the placement of the thumbs, yes, but the transition across was no doubt a short one - Avram made himself seem as no more than some mere man, but this was Kalen Genet; more than the lies told to Fett.

In his interest, all the time that could've been used elsewhere was instead thrust onto this situation. It wasn't common for a less-than-standard contract to make itself known, even if this had been discovered by himself and not the issuer.

"You've heard tales. Go on, tell me what they say about me."

No one so much as dared to talk of Fett once he entered the room, so all those stories eluded him.

"I'm a curious man, it was that which led me to you."

Kalen Genet

 

[Kalen Genet]

"Curious? About some second-rate smuggler with a shoddy record? You really must be bored."

The blaster pointed his way was a beyond-uncomfortable reminder that he was absolutely the underdog in this situation. The armour, too, though less so; he actually had some experience with it, knew where to shoot to make it hurt. But the bounty hunter would know he knew as much. He'd need some very good shots, and Fett would need only one. Talk be damned.

But at the moment talk was all he had going for him.

"Koda Fett, best in the galaxy. No loyalties except to the contract and the highest bidder, always gets his man, always sees a job done. Sound familiar?" That much, certainly, the bounty hunter had to have heard. It'd be insane if he hadn't. "They say you're fearless, Fett. Sure the armour helps, but I still wouldn't want to walk into a swarm of bolts with it. Or try to hunt down the saberjockeys." The hunter was too close for comfort. Hopefully he didn't have crushgaunts on, or some sort of mobility aid in his armour.

He probably did.

Sithspit.

Run or fight, he'd probably lose, and soundly. Koda might be a Fett through and through, with a track record like Boba and Jango...but Kalen was no Han Solo. Luck was more often against him than for him. "But you do all that and more, and when they aren't talking about how good you are on the rim, they talk about how rich you must be. Makes going after a smuggler for curiosity's sake stand out like a sore thumb, wouldn't you say?"

Koda Fett

 

[Koda Fett]

"Indeed," Fett answered wryly, "Be a waste of time, maybe, let someone else secure a name for themselves on the lesser bounties. If it was some second-rate Hutt runner that I came after, that is. Tales or not, one detail was excluded: I'm no fool. In front of me is the Mandalorian Kalen Genet; traded his armour for a second chance at another life, one not his own, and instead the real Avram was switched into that armour on Daluuj. Kalen, now Avram, watched."

Noble, understandable almost.

His research was finished, his hours of examination, all the effort to ensure there was a trail. Kalen had done well to cover his tracks, to let Kalen die and Avram be reborn instead, but such evidence had been able to take someone so far before it fell short - most had not bothered to see themselves that far, but Fett was interested. It was a difficult trail, to link it all as one, and that much made him curious. He wasn't able to say no.

"I'm sure that sounds familiar, too familiar even. If not, then I'm interested to learn about the identical wound." He nodded, his blaster barrel beside the motion, towards the cause of the odd stride - the wounded stride.

Kalen Genet

 

[Kalen Genet]

Kal's jaw set hard as Fett gestured at his leg. One of the few tells to the swap years before. It would be worthless to lie about it, by this point. "What can I say, Fett?" he replied, thumbs slipping from his belt loops and spreading out in a helpless gesture. "I got tired of killing a bunch of kids in front of me and watching more die right beside me. Hell, by any standard other than Mandalorian, I was still a kid myself." He'd certainly been stuck with the limp for over a decade, by that point. One bad incident with a frag grenade and without a kama to cover the gaps, a little bit of nerve damage later, and it never worked right again.

"So what's the plan, Fett? You know the truth. Avram's dead, and the one left behind is just a drifter without clan, family, friends, or even a set of beskar'gam to keep him company." Nor any real willingness to participate in a fight he was guaranteed to lose, honour-be-damned; might as well accept it bravely than try to fight out of it like an idiot too scared of the unknown to accept he'd lost. "How far does this curiosity of yours take you?"

Koda Fett

 

[Koda Fett]

"It has taken me as far as I needed it to." He answered, a coldness to the tone.

The Mandalorian had been no less of a threat once Kalen had finished; his firearm raised, still, and the rest of his armaments no less useful than the moment before. He was a cautious man, to say the least. But some considerations had been made, Kalen's own tale milled about inside his mind. It made sense, the idea to run and to cower, to throw it aside and start anew. To some, that is. Fett had heard it all before and was convinced he was to hear it once more.

"Either run back to Kestri and atone for the cowardice, or I hand you over to Kuat. I'm paid either way."

Kalen Genet

 

[Kalen Genet]

Kalen's eyes narrowed. Had he heard the man right? Giving him a choice? But all the same, calling him a coward... "Bastard," he muttered, a familiar anger seeking to rise through the calm exterior. "Cowardice? To throw everything I'd ever known to try and make it so that some kid I couldn't keep alive might be remembered as something other than a vainglorious fool that threw his life away for the promise of a few credits? Cin vhetin, ba'slan shev'la." There was venom in his tone, to match the bounty hunter's ice. All the same, even as he said the words, he knew they wouldn't be accepted.

At the very least, his luck had certainly managed to ruin any chance of leaving much of a good memory for Avram regardless, save one good rescue op on Saijo. A rescue op that would be completely invalidated by the ignominy of being caught by Koda Fett on naught more than a whim and handed back to KDY, one good record that would be wiped away, leaving Avram nothing more than he would've been to begin with. Barely even a footnote, a death record on some holonet file.

"Sithspit, Fett, you really do have me stuck like a dianoga in a trash compactor. The hell even is Kestri, anyways? Is that where all the bucketheads running around here are based?"

If he dropped Avram's name, went back to the clans, started being Kalen again...then the kid got to be the smuggler that helped save Saijo and managed to steal an entire frigate from under Kuat Drive Yards' nose. That was a hell of a record for anybody, and would bring honour to the name, even if Kalen had to accept dishonour for it. It would be the more cowardly, far more dishonourable choice to keep to Avram's name now, and ruin everything he'd done through the years just because he couldn't bear to be Kalen Genet again. "Sithspit," he cursed, again, but with less fire and venom in his voice.

Resignation, more like.

"What makes you care so much? Never took you for the traditionalist type, unless both the news and tales about you are missing something pretty damned important."

Koda Fett

 

[Koda Fett]

He swore an oath, made a vow; the Iron Father coaxed it out of him as payment for his own services, rather than allow credits to do. Beneath all the bravado, all the cold exterior, Fett was a man of his word above all else - if not for their word, a man was worth no more than the muck beneath their boot. The Bounty Hunter had his own sense of honour, his own code, and few others that fallen somewhere to see it. He considered it a rare case, this one, Kalen had taken all the turns needed to create a situation that even Koda Fett failed to find inexcusable.

Cowardice, maybe. But there was a chance, still, for him to be returned to Kestri.

"I don't." Fett answered, so definitive;

"The Enclave is on Kestri, new Mandalore or so I hear. Go there or Kuat, it matters little to me."

Kalen Genet

 

[Kalen Genet]

So his guess was right. Kestri was where they all were based. Now it was just go there and see what they'd make of him, or if they'd even accept that he was who he said he was...or if they did, whether or not he'd get shot anyways. Or go to Kuat and ruin Avram's memory. "Udesii, Fett, I'll go to Kestri," he grumbled. "Even if they don't believe me or are of the opinion that I should be shot for taking someone else's name, I'll at least die as a Genet." But he wouldn't turn to leave, not yet...if Koda would even allow him to, or if he'd find himself escorted to this 'New Mandalore.'

There was one, more important question left.

"How big was Avram's bounty? I stole a damn state-of-the-art frigate in his name, so it had better be something good for the galaxy to remember him by."

Koda Fett

 

[Koda Fett]

"Half a million," his answer was swift and certain, "He stole a craft worth millions, no doubt worse than me awaited him on Kuat."

To the misfortune of the Kuati, Avram Mesenshuk died. He was not theirs to have, but a few scarce memories of a man that died to one that was a better shot in the end. Fearless, Kalen called him. Maybe so. It hadn't mattered much. His mind rested easier in that no oath to the Kuati had been made. He told the truth to them. There was no score on Kalen, he was a free man.

"Go now." He waved back behind him, the direction of the nearest town.

Fett remained for a time, he had not moved to accompany Kalen.

Kalen Genet

 

[Kalen Genet]

Kalen nodded, executing a quick about-face and starting to limp his way back on towards the exit from the rock gardens. After a few paces, though, he stopped, looking back over his shoulder at the armoured warrior. "If I am to be a Mando again, Fett," he started, eyes trained on the other man's visor, "I'll remember you as the one that let me walk away with my life, not the one that had to kill Avram Mesenshuk. I owe you, if you need me. Haat, Ijaa, Haa'it." Half a million credits. They must've managed to retrieve the ship eventually, then, because if they hadn't the bounty would probably be for all ten million that the ship was worth new.

And Avram was dead, not being drug back to them in chains. It was a good memory for the kid. Better than only being known as a random farmboy with more bravado than sense, left dead in a mud pit on some backwater world. "Hope you can sleep easier being the villain of his story than I could trying to give him a good name." He turned back toward the path, and walked on, leaving Koda Fett alone among the floating rocks.