Public Swift As A Coursing River: Bounty Hunter Boot Camp

[Lachadann]

TRANDOSHA

The whole bounty hunter training program was in a maze with weeping metal walls three meters high, all overgrown with vines, razor wire along the top. The current goal - today had seen many goals and would see more - was to be the first to catch and shoot one of a limited number of bobbing, pockmarked repulsor spheres.

All this while being pursued by nighthunters. Lean, large of tooth, whippy of tail, their cry threw Lachadann back to her childhood on Naporar. They'd already eaten a gloriously equipped human with equally glorious hair, which put a certain urgency into everything. Charric pistol in hand, Lachadann eerk-eerked her way through the maze and kept an eye out for a bobbing of sphere. She could feel the jungle's heat right through her shell and life-support system. People arrived at this training program at different times and different levels of qualification, all seeking to get up to speed, get in the game.

Parvati and interested others
No posting order other than, like, not posting right after yourself; grab a partner or fart around or throw a wrench in the works.

 

[Karesh]

Karesh stood there around the others. His red eye looking the competition up and down, finishing the cigar he had between his lips. He threw it to the ground, using his booted foot to smother it. He looked up at the person in front of him.

"Oi, see you lot on the other side." The mercenary then charged into the maze with his combat dagger in his hand and his blaster at his hip.

 

[Lachadann]

As Karesh stormed away into the maze, Lachadann crouched awkwardly and pinched the cigar stub beneath her metal fingers. She straightened up to inspect it and get a whiff. She normally favoured thin cigarras and stim-sticks for practical reasons, but flattening the already-stomped stub, she embedded the cigar successfully in her mouth slot and took a drag.

Conveniently, the cigar stayed there without needing to be held. That done, she unholstered a second charric pistol and eerk-eerked into the maze.

A nighthunter appeared almost at once, and Lachadann discovered that it simply was not interested in her, hungry as it was. It shoved past, sending her tottering, and she opted not to waste a shot on it. Who might know what the future could hold. She focused on finding one of the remotes.

The cigar only had a couple of drags left in it. She knocked the depleted stub free and got to work in earnest.

 

[Karesh]

As he got further into the maze, Karesh realized he felt something following him. He didn't want to turn too fast to alert whatever it was, but he needed to act. Gripping the knife in his hand, he prepared himself for what he knew was about to come next.

"Get fecked!" He cussed as he pivoted on his heel, using the momentum to increase the strength of the swing. The knife made direct contact with the beast's head. He was very lucky once he saw the beast slump to the ground. Realizing what he was up against he took a gulp of air, "Fething mutts." He spat as he twisted the knife out of its head. He turned and tried to see if Lachadann saw the kill. If she did, he would have had a cheeky smile on his face when she looked at him.

 

[Lachadann]

The maze was downright invigorating. Lachadann had done rather a lot of things in the short time she'd been free of the sarlacc, seen rather a lot of worlds. The goal was life - to see and to do - to claim the existence that she'd longed for eternally.

So while she paid good attention to the prospect of remotes, the nighthunters, the bounty hunting trainees, and the Trandoshan floating fortress overseeing the entire affair - the people sponsoring this, hoping for skilled recruits - while she paid attention to all of that, most of her focus rested on this beautiful place. These beautiful vines, the greenery, the (hungry) wildlife.

Hot as it was, and her life-support's cooler was cranked to maximum, she took in the experience above all.

As a result, when the first remote bobbed into sight, both her shots missed. Howls rose as other trainees zeroed in on the target sighting. Bumped, she staggered and saw Karesh grin at his success. The nighthunters, she realized, were as much a target of prestige as the actual remotes.

"Will you keep tooth? Tail? Make a dagger or a whip?"

 

[Karesh]

Karesh kept the smile as the blue robot spoke. He wiped the blood off of his blade onto the corpse of the nighthunter. "I don't need any new trinkets just yet." The mercenary said in the direction of Lachadann . His red eye glowed brightly as he looked her up and down. His smile slowly returned back to his face, and he raised his blaster this time, aiming for just over the droids head.

A shot rang out and the balster bolt whizzed right by her, and into a maze wall behind them. The droid it was intended for bobbed and weaved back around the maze,. "Damn things are hard to kill, eh?" He chuckled toward her. He then motioned for them to both continue further into the maze.

 

[Lachadann]

A mental image took hold: herself emblazoned with the trophies she would gather. That was predicated on the kinds of hunts she'd win, which was predicated on the kinds of hunts she would take. (Which was mostly predicated on getting her license, hence coming to Trandosha.)

All further contemplation along those lines was aborted by her focus on where that gun was going. She considered shooting him just on general principle, but as the seconds ticked on and his actual intent became clear, she never quite reached the threshold of 'yes, shoot this fether.' For one thing, she'd never actually killed before. For another, maybe this was just how bounty hunters socialized. All her work in this field so far had been solo.

She left the dead nighthunter and went along with Karesh , though she doubted it would last; he walked faster than she did.

 

[Karesh]

The mercenary was faster than Lachadann was, and after a bit they got sort of separated. He knew she was behind him, but he also knew he needed to make sure he was able to focus on the objective at hand.

With one finger on the trigger of his blaster, Karesh's red eye was scanning the maze, it was able to pick up on thermal imaging, so he would switch to that setting every so often to make sure there were no nighthunters prowling.

In the distance he could hear the howl of a beast and another hunter clashing, it sounded like the bounty hunter was losing as well.

 

[Lachadann]

The maze still had its appeal, the greenery and all, but it was losing out to the practical stresses and more exciting possibilities, the what's next of it all.

A nighthunter slipped from a T-junction and went, like those before it, to ignore Lachadann. She fired both charrics without compunction and connected once, fired again and only hit once again. These hands had great utility, but dextrous they were not. She'd been looking into contact traction pads on the fingers for much better control. She'd need to invest in that in a serious way.

He'd looked Panathan, she realzed belatedly, a world not so far from Chiss space. Or once a world, anyway: it, like Csilla, had been destroyed during her long sleep in the sarlacc.

As shouts rose from elsewhere in the maze, she got to work on the nighthunter. The oversized teeth would be a decent first trophy ever.

Karesh

 

[Karesh]

Swaying back and forth beneath the tall walls of the maze, Karesh fired off a few rounds at some camouflaged nighthunters who were trying to ambush the next person who walked up. This was enough to scare them off and back into the maze a bit.

"Fething mutts." He repeated under his breath. His hands gripping tighter to the blaster now. He wanted to press on, and that's when he saw another floating orb. He let off two more shots, these almost hitting it.

He cursed under his breath, and vowed to himself to hit the next ones that came up.

Lachadann

 

[Lachadann]

She had a shoulder bag for useful things, and the big teeth went in there. Later perhaps they'd be a necklace. Nighthunter bone and tooth were bizarrely tough and energy-resistant, and every little bit helped when you carried as many vulnerabilities as Lachadann did.

She patted the bag and got back to charric work. She was fairly sure she'd missed the bobbing targets, and she had to take it up a notch. It wasn't like getting your hunter's license was a matter of just showing up for a certain number of days. These things took evaluation, sponsorship, and anyone might be watching from the floating fortress up there.

One of the targets floated into sight and out again, but down the same straightaway she'd come from. She took off hobbling as fast as she could and wound up following it along a branch she hadn't seen before, and then into - well, Karesh again. Mazes, right? He fired and missed at the one she'd been chasing.

"Perhaps we could make a net with the vines," she said.

 

[Karesh]

"Oi, you're a smart bot, aren't ya?" He said as he grabbed one from above his head. He knew he would need to keep a lookout for any beasts trying to ambush them. Luckily he still had the thermal setting on his vision.

With his other hand, he put the blaster back into its strap to reach up and grab another vine and pull it down. Karesh was now using his might to pull the vines, trying to collect as many as he could. "Do you know shitall about weaving?" He asked, an almost laugh in his voice. "No one invited me to make friendship bracelets when I was a little brat."

The hunter looked back up, past Lachadann . The coast seemed clear for now.

 

[Lachadann]

"Some." Shades of sarlacc digestive tendrils. "I know some."

She fairly quickly made a triangle of vines, then tied parallel vines across it, then shifted ninety degrees and interwove another parallel set perpendicular. All common sense and yet not particularly easy until she staked down the three corners with sticks. She kept an eye on both Karesh and their surroundings. Within a few minutes she had a crude triangular net around a meter and a half to a side.

"You should do the throw. Not my best skill."

A nighthunter started stalking them and got a charric bolt singeing its whiskers for its trouble. It backed away.

"I am Lachadann of the Chiss. You?"

 

[Karesh]

Karesh watched as the droid went about its business. For it being a protocol droid that seemed rather....old, it was able to make the net quite quickly. The man helped where he could, snarling at a few approaching beasts and raising his blaster to them. They quicky took a corner and went after other prey.

After the net was made and the charric bolt rang out, Karesh took the net in his hands and started wrapping it up so he would be able to get good distance on it when he went to throw it. Lachadann started speaking again as he was finishing. The mention of the Chiss gave him a bit of a shock, because in that moment a lot of things made more sense. Mostly, the color of the droid.

"Karesh." He paused, wiping the thoughts of Panatha from his mind. "Proper shame what they did to your planet." He offered some semblence of condolences. He wasn't one to really experience empathy, so he wasn't sure what the proper reaction was. "They blew up my home too, the bastards" He nodded to her. The silence started to fill the air for a bit too long. They were here to win, not to gossip.

Karesh turned around, keeping the net taught so he would be able to launch it at a moment's notice. "Do ya see any yet?"

 

[Lachadann]

"I know. Damn them all. Empires and Maw and Jedi. But damn their money into my pockets yes? - THERE!"

The bobbing remote actually froze. Maybe there was a simple droid brain in there very surprised to be yelled at. More likely, it was being operated from the floating fortress, and had audio pickups, and she'd startled the operator.

As Karesh made the throw, hopefully, Lachadann fired her charrics - not at the target but at a swathe of dry overgrowth beside it. Flames roared up loudly, very loudly, which might give them a longer chance at hitting it. She switched her aim to the remote and fired, hoping charitably that Karesh got a hit in too. He seemed like a jackass but not bad for a jackass.

 

[Rostam Khavarzai]

TRANDOSHA

Shoot an orb. Rostam didn't like blasters. He instead had a preference towards swords and pikes. In truth, he thought the Nighthunters were far greater prizes. Hide and bones that were resistant to a strike from a lightsaber. Then there was the issue of the walls, barbed wire, and vines. As a Night Wind Assassin, he typically would have simply scaled the walls and to a high vantage point. But perhaps this lesson was to make him improvise.

Rostam moved down part of the maze. He could hear the claws of one of these 'Maalraas' behind him. He let out a long, smooth exhale. Suddenly and violently, he spun, a dagger leaving his hands. In a split second, the beast lunged... Only for the poison-coated blade to catch the beast in the eye. It fell from its lunge into a heap at the Night Wind Assassin's feet.

"That should buy me a few more minutes."

He rounded another corner of the maze, looking for a repulsor sphere.

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Suddenly and violently, he spun, a dagger leaving his hands. In a split second, the beast lunged... Only for the poison-coated blade to catch the beast in the eye. It fell from its lunge into a heap at the Night Wind Assassin's feet.

Overhead in the floating fortress, Jerec spilled his drink. He squinted at the dead critter and - "replay, replay" - had a droid call up the footage on one of the many viewing screens around. Jerec and a Togorian and a Weequay exchanged impressed mutters as they took another look at that dagger throw. Hot damn. Several people here started thinking hard about the kinds of jobs you could farm out to someone with that particular skillset...

 

[Karesh]

Karesh nodded in agreement with her words and then it happened, she gave the word and shouted for him to release the net. Turning quickly on his heel, the mercenary locked into the orb with his eye. The moment of fear in the droid gave him a chance to really get his aim precise.

The net left his hands with gusto, flying through the air toward the now firey surroundings of the droid. Her shots landed well, and the fire was a good thought on her part. As the flames kicked and the droid was stunned, Karesh's blaster bolt landed nanoseconds after Lachadann 's. They had finally taken down one of the droids

"Good job, mate." He barked in excitement. His red eye flared from adrenaline. A feature often used to intimidate, he now used in excitement.

"What's next?" Elsewhere, he knew others were doing the same. Rostam Khavarzai .

 

[Lachadann]

Mate. Interesting. It occurred to Lachadann that she hadn't actually had a friend in...centuries? Hecklers and heckled, the kind of company you'd find in a sarlacc's stomach, but even as a Chiss sky-walker in her youth she'd only really had handlers. Before that, she'd been, feth, barely verbal, taken young. Which wasn't to say she was ready to declare Karesh her bosom buddy, but it was interesting, wasn't it, the idea of maybe finding a friend out there someday, maybe even through doing this kind of work.

"Next we could do another," she said thoughtfully, "or we could go up there and see what is in."

She gestured up at the floating fortress.

"Bet they have good cigars. Good drinks."

 

[Rostam Khavarzai]

Rostam stumbled upon two hunters, Lachadann and Karesh . "Save the drinks and cigars." He said, interrupting their conversation. "A Jedi does not float about like these orbs. They tend to deflect blaster bolts back at you."

He looked up above them for a moment, trying to see who was running this game. "How about some combat droids armed with Sabers or something?! That and the Maalraas would make a more interesting challenge!"