Private Run

[Faegard]

O U T E R ~ R I M ~ S P A C E

A B O A R D ~ T H E ~ P H A N T A S M​

I couldn't believe it.

Returning to Dathomir had been the only thing on my mind ever since I'd found out who I am... what I am. The desire to return home had utterly consumed me. Don't get me wrong, I never held it against my parents for keeping me from my home (at least, not after my initial blowout at finding out), but as soon as I was able, I went back. I'd wanted to learn more about my home, my heritage. Too bad that wasn't what I got.

What I got was the Sith.

They had taken over Dathomir - my home. It was strange to feel so attached to a place I couldn't remember, to feel the urge to defend a people that were unfamiliar to me. Yet, my heart broke when I found them there, occupying that sacred place, subjucating the Nightsisters. In another life, I would have numbered among them. Maybe I would have bent to the Sith. But, raised as I was by Jedi, my reaction was to reject them.

Maybe that had been a bad idea.

But it wouldn't matter if I didn't live to regret it. In the end, it took only one narrow escape to frighten me into retreat, to seek out a means of defending myself. The Sith concern me, but I had no plans to meet them head on in combat. So now, here I was, hiding out in the outer rim, aboard the Phantasm. Right now I sat curled up on my bunk, gazing out the window at the blackness of space yearning beyond into forever. Billions of stars pierced the void like tiny pinpricks of light. Somewhere out there was Dathomir, chained to the Sith.

Glancing down at the datapad in my hands, I let out a sigh, right before the Phantasm chirped at me. With a grimace, I pulled myself from the bunk and made my way to the cockpit.

"What is it, Darling?" I cooed to my ship, casually perusing the controls.

"Is someone out there?"

 

[Ardgal Raxis]

Rashae was gone. The trail had gone cold for a year now. Ardgal was never one to admit defeat, he couldn't. It was not in his programming. However, there was a 98% chance she was gone forever. RMIA needed him, Virgil needed him, they were running out of credits to blow.

He needed a war to fight to bring those funds back. Several fortunes had been spent trying to find Rashae. He would have felt regret, if he could feel anything. The sting of failure was intense, but the survival matrix chip in Ardgal's head locked those feelings out. His primary function for now, was to bring the funds back to the clan.

And once again he found himself embroiled in a religious war. The warrior patiently, quietly thumbed the flechette rounds into his pistol, counting each one. His thumb moved with precision, dedication, pure intent. Each one had this whoring religious fanatic's name on it.

With a single, fluid motion he rammed it into his pistol, ratcheted the slide back, lodging a round in the chamber. His hand holstered the Hussar pistol between the S-3 Sonic and his Punisher. The warrior leaned forward looking over his holotable with a mix of filmsi notes and holographic displays. With the permission of the Sith governing counsel, it wasn't hard to obtain all of the relevant data regarding this escaping, rogue religious fanatic from Danothomir.

His eyes glanced over the blood-stained filmsi records one last time before nodding. There was a 78.69% chance the evidence added up.

"Please, please," came the whimpering cries of the dealer. His voice was slurred and hissy, like the voice of one who had his jaw broken, teeth pulled out, and lips split. "Please, I swear that's all I know. She bought the nightshadow and left with those coordinates. You--you--you have to believe me."

Ardgal turned, facing his victim. From behind the coat of blood, the man's one working eye was earnest, shinning with a please for mercy. What was left of his body was strapped to the chair; the nubs of his bloody hands and feet, tied to the arms and legs of the chair. What little skin was left on his body was coated in a sheet of dark crimson that soaked the once-white shirt and once-navy blue service pants to his body.

His jaw moved, moving disjointedly like a screen door in the middle of a windstorm sweeping across Concord Dawn. "P--please," sprays of blood showered from his lips, landing on the durasteel floor, "You-you gotta believe me."

Ardgal unclipped his Punisher, nodding once. The lights glistened off his stoic face as Ardgal brought the barrel to stare at the man's face. "I do."

The single, silent round tore through his skull, shredding whatever was left. The body jerked once, the force of the impact knocking it back on the floor. A pool of what little blood was left in the corpse pooled behind the shattered skull. Ardgal holstered his pistol, putting it back in its place. "Oya. Time to hunt."

***​

The Atonement came out of hyperspace where Ardgal had calculated where the whore likely would be hiding. Or as close as he dared bring the Corvette without alerting the prey. Virgil cocked her head at Ardgal, the flourescent lights gleaming off its dark black-and-blue surface. "Are you sure?"

"I must do this alone," Ardgal answered, placing his helmet on his head. It sealed around him with a hiss-click, pressurizing almost instantly. "I am confident I can handle a single acolyte myself."

Virgil nodded, ever loyal, ever willing to submit to her cousin. He had lead them this far, even through his insanity. Never before had she met an equal warrior leader and never again would she follow another. "Oya, vod."

The Slatin-shuttle left the Atonement, Ardgal at the controls and the only one onboard. He had been hunting creatures, great and small, sentient and not, living and dead, force-powered and not, for quite some time. They all had one thing in common; fear. Fear made you make mistakes. Fear made you run. Fear made you reckless. Fear was your weakness.

He switched on all frequencies, broadcasting at maximum power and maximum volume for all to hear in the region. "Greetings, Little one. This is Ardgal Raxis of Clan Raxis, CEO of RMIA. I razed, raped, and enslaved Pzob. I fought the gods on the edge of reality. I enslaved the Yuuzhan Vong. I was the avatar of Yun-Yammka for nearly a decade. I tortured and killed in the name of the Pantheon. I caught, tortured, and killed the child-murderer Utiin." he paused, letting the words sink in before making his offer, "I know you are here. Surrender now and I will make your death painless."

Faegard

 

[Faegard]

The Phantasm responded to my words.

Upon the main console, the communication indicator chirped again. Sliding into the pilot's chair, I drew one knee up to my chest, wrapping an arm around my leg and resting my head on my knee as I reached out with the other hand to flick the switch, opening communications. I was surprised at the unexpected sound. Who else would be way out here? Surely it wouldn't be Sith, right? No one knew I was--

Greetings, Little one. This is Ardgal Raxis of Clan Raxis, CEO of RMIA

Chit.

A powerful chill shot down my spine as I listened to the chilling message in its entirety. With a gasp, I stared at the console, feeling the warmth of my ship's heating suddenly vanished as a wave of cold panic crashed over me. Time seemed to freeze for several moments, leaving me floating in the void of the outer rim, staring at the screens on my ship's console, trying to comprehend all of what I'd just heard.

I swallowed, hoping to calm my spinning mind and slow my racing heart. It didn't work. Closing my eyes, I drew a deep breath in, then out again, swallowing once more. There we go, I could think a little clearer now. First things first. I ignored the message and glanced instead at the status of the Phantasm's stealth systems.

CLOAKING DEVICE: ENGAGED​

Good. Lifting a hand to tuck a strand of hair back behind my ear, I moved over to the communication panel. Another pause, a few more deep breaths; finally, with a shaking hand, I flicked the switch, leaning towards the receiver.

"I've no quarrels with you, Ardgal," I began, grimacing at the shaking in my voice, "you won't find me out here. Save your time. Find a bounty worth hunting, not a girl who just stumbled accidentally onto the wrong planet"

Well... that was half-true. The bounty was technically legitimate, egregiously unfair as it might be.

I could only hope that this hunter saw things the way I did.

Ardgal Raxis​

 

[Ardgal Raxis]

She took the bait.

While a cloaked ship, especially one of that magnitude couldn't be tracked with ordinary means, if Ardgal's sources were correct (and they always were with that level of torture) then she was flying a ship that was virtually untraceable. At least--to a lesser being. Ardgal was a born, bred, and created hunter. Never once had a quarry escaped him and the Mandalorian wasn't about to start now.

When she replied, his long range scanners began to follow the signal, it wouldn't give an exact location, just a cubic radius of about 100 meters. His helmet's HUD, linked directly to the ship lit up the round sphere of voided space her signal was coming from; it was 12.5 degrees to the left on the X axis and 30.5 degrees on the Y axis upward.

But now was not the time to play his hand. The Slatin-shuttle carried forward on at its cruising speed on its vector. The moment she knew he was onto her was the exact moment she could run. With her cloaking options there was a 98.95% chance she would be lost in the wind at that point.

But there were other ways to see the invisible. The defense chip in Ardgal's mind recalled the time he cornered the Defel in the back alleys of Bespin. The darkness cloaked the already near invisible creature. Cut off from technology, from toys, every hunter had his greatest tool. His ingenuity.

His fingers flipped one of the switches on the console. A stream of golden, yellow liquid began to vent out the left side of the Slatin.

"I'm not sure you understand the Wera Verde," Ardgal said, his voice cold, harsh, and montone. "I have put my hands to hunt you and I will find you. Credits are not a question, nor is it a matter of worthiness. I have deemed you a worthy target and I will find you. And then I will consecrate you."

The golden trail continued as he passed the radius where his sensors had pinged the witch-child's location.

"I have seen planets torn apart by your religious feuds," he continued, buying himself time with truth. "Mothers ravaged and children slaughtered in the crib for your disagreements of belief. I do this for them." His HUD's 360 feed showed he passed the radial zone. The trail of fuel had expanded, giving a column of glistening tiny beads. It was beautiful in a way, like a lethal belt of small, shimmering stars.

"I do this for them."

His right hand gripped the control for the Blaster Turrets atop the shuttle. It swiveled, a single crimson burst struck the fuel line, igniting it in a massive ball of white, yellow, and red flames.

Faegard

 

[Faegard]

I sat in the cockpit, my eyes wide and fixed upon my console.

My options were to stay where I was, or to fire up the engine and get the Phantasm out of here. The latter was tempting, but I'd heard of Mandalorians before. They were like hunting dogs; excited by the prospect of a chase. Besides, I was hidden, here, so it was safer to stay hidden until something changed. Besides, maybe I could still reason with this hunter in particular.

It didn't take long for him to respond.

My heart sank as he spoke, rebuking my suggestion and seeming to further cement his decision. Shifting slightly in the seat, I listened as he proclaimed to have some reason to hunt me down. I felt my upper lip curl, my stomach sinking as I was lumped in with a group of people I'd never even met. My breath came out in a slight huff. Ignoring all else, I leaned in towards the console,

"You would pin the sins of an entire people on a girl who's never even met them? We share blood and magick... that's all. I've never raised a hand against another. The Sith didn't post that bounty because they believe witches are evil. They posted it because not all of us will yield. Do you..."

I trailed off for a moment.

It was as if the realisation had suddenly dawned on me. The bounty. It was kill on sight. I went cold, a shiver racking my shoulders. I'd felt fear plenty, especially originally escaping Dathomir... but terror was altogether different. I let out a soft sigh, feeling a quiet, almost timidness come over me.

I do this for them

Suddenly I glanced up, looking out the front of the ship in time to see a huge, rolling ball of flame exploded all around me. I gasped, frozen in panic for a moment, watching as the plumes of fire enveloped the Phantasm. Of course, I was safe from the flames inside the cockpit. At first, I couldn't understand it; this fire had nothing on the extreme heat and stress of re-entry into atmo, why would he bother? All it would do was...

Oh no.

I leapt for the flight controls, reaching for the engine controls before I halted.

Even though it was a whisperthrust engine, the propulsion would still push the flames away; revealing where I was. But... if I stayed still, and he had any kind of heat-scannin tech on board, then I was a sitting duck anyway.

"Ancestors be with me."

I whispered to myself, engaging the engine and attempting to roll the phantasm away from the ball of flame as subtly as I could. I prayed that I could slip away before he spotted the cold spot in the flames, or see the subtle puff as the engines engaged.

It was my only hope.

Ardgal Raxis​

 

[Ardgal Raxis]

The flaming decoy had worked--better than the warrior could have anticipated. His scanners picked up the flash of light--with her shadow over it, just like a ship passing in front of a star. He would have felt a shimmer of pleasure and satisfaction through his brain if the neural inhibitor hadn't bisected his nucleus accumbens and rendered his feelings of pleasure non-existent. The closest thing to pleasure he could or would feel was the knowledge of a job well done when he had finished nailing this apostate to a wall.

The poor foolish girl's puff of her engines gave off her position, but just for a moment. The fireball was intense, a truly worthy blast to help him find her before dissapating into the nothing of the void of space. She moved slow enough to not be detected, nothing came up on the Slatin's scanners as it did a 180. But Ardgal didn't need that. A sliver of heat showed against the endless, cold chasm of space. Where there was void against heat--now there would be heat against void. It wouldn't last forever before her ship dissipated the heat. With the nightshadow coating he had approximately 13.768 seconds to act before she was gone again.

"I would murder every one of you, flaying you alive, cleansing you with holy Vong fire till your souls are gone and the cursed Force with you for what you have done," He said in an even, harsh, unfeeling tone. "But for now," he reached across the console, thumbing the shuttle's launch tubes live. A holographic display lit up inside the warrior's helmet, with a mere thought, he selected his projectile of choice. The sound of the cylinders holding the shuttle's payload rotating echoed through the ship. The console's red light blinked, indicating the target lock had, for now, engaged the dissipating heat signature. "You will do."

His thumb depressed the joystick, a pair of blue lights streaked from the Slatin, hurling forward towards the invisible girl. In an instant, they seemed to expand, sending out radiant, glistening webs of blue-white energy. Bands of pure ion and electricity arced from one line to the other, sparking against the darkness, wrapping and filling the area around where the heat signature was.

"Make peace with your gods," he said, firing the Slatin shuttle's engines to full blast towards the impact zone.

Faegard