Private The Art of the Chase

[Leenic Ellsil]

Tags: Y Ycrah Vuvvaun
Location-Varno Market, Vengler
Time-19:30
Objective-Capture or Kill Kleern Vlapu
Armament-Kyr'am's Gaan, Lightsaber, NT-242, JT-12 Jetpack, Beskar'gam

The hubbub of the market had died down nearly half an hour ago, with the setting sun giving light to the last few spacers still shopping for supplies before they returned to their ships. It had been quite the day, shown by the many shopkeepers caressing large pouches filled to the bursting with credits and spice as they packed up their stalls and shuttered their stores. One figure stood out amongst the remnants of the crowd, however, rusted beskar armor acompanied by a hefty armament of weapons giving a stark contrast to the flight suits and empty holsters that most folks passing through would wear.

The Mandalorian, Leenic, had propped himself up against the side of one of the shops, staring out into the empty marketplace through the expressionless visor of his helmet. He had arrived at noon that day, immediately clearing out a spot for himself with his intimidating presence, as well as getting plenty of rumors spread around as he made inquiries at both the local tavern and with several shop owners. The most popular one had been that he was an enforcer for the Eternal Empire, perhaps an ISB agent, as he had flashed a badge indicating his status among Task Force 99 (although none aside from himself knew it was no longer valid). So, reasonably, many had elected to steer clear of the Mandalorian when he had taken up a makeshift post in this spot, leaving him plenty of time and space to finish up whatever he was doing.

However, after seven and a half hours, Leenic had not been able to identify the Rodian that he had searched for, and was starting to think that the bounty puck that had led him here was going off a faulty tracker. Sighing, he pulled it off his belt for what felt like the hundreth time that day and clicked the button on the side, watching as the hologram of a male Rodian appeared, along with his name and a small tracking map showing that he was somewhere within a 6 mile radius of Leenic. Frowning, he studied his face again, trying to figure out if he had somehow missed the target among the crowd of spacers, natives, and lost pleasure cruisers that had seemed never ending a few short hours ago. After a couple more minutes of studying, he deactivated the puck and opened up a communication channel with his U-Wing, waiting a few seconds for the Sat Com antenna to connect.

A few seconds and a soft chime later, Leenic heard the robotic voice of his pilot come over his headset. "Yeah Boss?" The android said, the faint sound of the engines whirring letting Leenic know that the ship was moving. "Need a lift or something? Been bored out of my circuits up here, and King is not very vocal company."

"I need a thermal scan of the area." Leenic said, chuckling softly at the mention of his Krayt Dragon plusie. "And quit your whining, we talked an hour ago."

"Right, Im sooooo grateful that you remembered to ask how my fuel levels were before you cut off comms without warning." The driod replied, the sound of buttons pressing coming over through his voice. "Annnnnnd bam, the scan should be online and on your HUD in a few seconds. Need anything else?"

"No, but thanks." Leenic replied, glancing down at the thermal imaging map that appeared in the bottom left of his visor. "Alright, going radio silent again unless I need something. Talk in an hour."

Before the pilot droid had a chance to leave him with a snarky reply, Leenic shut down the comm channel to gain himself some silence to focus in. Once he was sure he hadnt been walked up on, Leenic shifted his vision down to the loading map on his visor, waiting to see who exactly was still within the town with him.

 

[Ycrah Vuvvaun]

In another part of the small, rather dull town, the slightly slouched figure of Ycrah sat inside a currently-vacant building, one of the few that had a second floor, or just any sort of elevation in general. This environment didn't really work well with the scaled hunter's style of doing things, but if he could pull it off, the reward would be worth it. For hours, Ycrah had surveyed the market, carefully watching each member of the bustling crowd, trying to match them to his target: A Rodian smuggler that had apparently been quite elusive.

He audibly snorted at that word.

Elusive.

He'd heard it many times, so many times that it had lost its meaning to him a bit. He'd brought those described using that word back all the same, dead or alive. This couldn't be any different.

And yet. . . He had to admit, this one was proving to be a bit different than the rest. Either that, or his bounty puck was malfunctioning, and he was sent in the complete wrong diration, as even after so many hours, his target was simply not showing their face. This part of the market was the most populated part of town, and almost everything done in this settlement was done through this hotspot of activity. He'd seen some definitely-shady figures throughout his stay here who likely had targets on their heads too, whom he might be able to turn in for some smaller rewards later, though still- No sign of who he was hunting.

How frustrating, wasting my time like this. Just come out, you little rat.

The town was quieting down now. In the cover of the increasing darkness as the sun set, without any prying eyes to see him, Ycrah would probably do a sweep of the town soon to look for any possible signs or traces of them, any hidden areas usually unseen by the average citizen. He slowly got to his feet, gathering his equipment he'd set up in this temporary base, and slinked his way down the stairs. Making only the faintest of sounds as he opened and closed the door behind him.

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

A few more seconds passed before Leenic's thermal imaging came on, the small square showing a grey image of the city he was in, with several bright white dots where he and the people of the city were located. He watched people move about their homes, seeming to all be in a completely normal state of mind for the night. Using the small datapad to maneuver the camera over the city, he stopped when he noticed a completely vacant building overlooking another nearby section of the marketplace. Alright, that looks useful. He mused, using the thermal map to scout the surrounding area before closing out the image and looking around. Once certain that he still had not been approached by any unsavory figures, Leenic pushed himself up from the wall and began making his way towards the building.

Keeping his head on a swivel, Leenic hardly saw anyone out by now, the setting sun had seemingly sent all life within the town back to their homes. Empty streets and wayward scraps of trash were all that were out to greet him, which was exactly the way he liked doing these missions. less people meant less collateral, and less collateral meant that he could keep more of his pay. And it also meant it was that much harder for the target to disappear into a crowd.

Lost in thought, Leenic hardly noticed when he arrived at his destination, taking a moment to clear his head as he approached the dilapidated entrance to the building. Once at the half-opened door, he lowered his rangefinder antenna and flicked its intergrated thermals online just to make sure no one had slipped inside before him. Slowly drawing his pistol, Leenic looked around the room he was in, figuring it to be what was some sort of living room or recreational area for one or two people. He sensed a force echo somewhere nearby, quite possibly the memory of the young family leaving the home, but figured it would be best to clear the rest of the building before exploring its past.

Now moving towards the rear wall where a set of stairs led up to the second flight, leenic cautiously pied the corner into a room that appeared to be an old kitchen and dining area, a couple rusted out pots and pans being the only things to greet him. Sighing softly, he walked inside of it, looking over the entire room with his thermal vision to be sure nothing was waiting in the shadows for him. Once satisfied, he turned back to the hallway, looking around in it before turning to face the stairs.

With any luck, he would be the only thing alive in here.

 

[Ycrah Vuvvaun]

As Ycrah was reaching towards the door, he picked up on a noise. Footsteps, coming closer, coming. . . To his exact location. He made a slight growling noise as he quickly looked around, scanning for any possible places to hide. This whole building was practically falling apart, clearly hasn't been used in a decent while. Little to no furniture. . . Mostly open space. . . Moving back up the stairs would either get himself cornered, or make noise that would immediately alert this new figure to his location.

Wait a minute- The stairs.

He swiftly but silently slipped beneath the steps laying flat on his back and keeping as still as possible, holding his breath as he saw the figure slowly enter the room. He looked closely at him, recognising the rather distinct type of armour.

Hmm. . . A Mandolorian? What would one of them be looking for here?

He waited until the armoured figure had hopefully gone up the stairs before slooooowly starting to get to his feet, flipping his hood up over his head for some extra concealment as he considering his options.

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic watched the stairs carefully as he approached, not noticing the hidden trandoshian underneath them as he slowly made his way up into the second level of the building. As he progressed forward, Leenic pulled the guns sights up and aimed at the room above him, his finger resting gently against the trigger. A few tense steps later, and he was on the top floor and scanning the room for any signs of life. Once satisfied by the apparent lack of anyone, he holstered his pistol and made his way to the window, kicking aside a half-rotted chair and kneeling down off to the side.

"Guess this is as good a place as any." He mumbled, slowly pulling his NT-242 off of his back and setting up the bipod on the base of the windowsil. "Clear LOS across the market. No one is gonna sneak through here un-"

Then he felt it.

There was another presence in the building, downstairs somewhere. He couldn't pinpoint where exactly in the downstairs they were, but he knew they were there. "The force is one hell of a thing." He mumbled, immediately jumping up and pulling his pistol out again. Then he took off running, coming down the stairs two at a time before skidding to a halt with his pistol raised.

"Whoever you are, you need to come out now." He said, his free hand subconsciously reaching over and plucking his saber off of his belt. "If you dont, I wont be nice when I find you."

 

[Ycrah Vuvvaun]

He completely froze, hearing the voice call out to him. There’s no way he was spotted. He didn’t knock anything over, didn’t stumble, nothing- This new figure had something very strange about them. Seeing the coming downstairs, he panicked a bit, finding himself cornered.

He pulled the bo-staff from his back, activating it and just holding it in a defensive position, the hum of the electrified ends of it filling the room and casting a slight light across the immediate area. Though, he didn’t attack. Just kept in place.

”What do you want?” He inquired with narrowed eyes. He didn’t make a move forwards at all, realising that he was at a disadvantage here. “I have no business with you, whoever you are.” He managed to gather his words. Though he usually wasn’t much of a conversationalist, he had to choose his words and tone carefully here.

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic whipped around as soon as he heard the bo-staff activate, taking a few steps back to get fully out of his melee range. "I am looking for a Rodian." He said, switching off the safety on his pistol and hearing the cartridge inside of it whir as it charged the first shot. "So if you're here helping him, I suggest you put down the bo-staff and tell me where he is at. My pistol leaves no chance of its target being alive once it hits."

Truth be told, Leenic was a bit shocked that a trandoshan was here. It wasnt often they were found without a group to run with, and when they were it typically meant (at least form his experience) that there was an ambush waiting nearby. Figuring it best to make sure he wasnt being snuck up on, Leenic opened his comms channel back up.

"PD?" He said, cautiously checking around but not pulling the barrel of his pistol off of the trandoshan's chest. "Run a scan of the area, show me all signs of movement. I dont care if its a scrap of paper or a tank, show me it moving."

"On it sir." The robot replied, and Leenic saw the thermal imaging map shift back to its loading screen.

"You, trandoshan, if you have any friends now is the time to talk." He said, resting his finger back on the trigger. "Because if you don't you'll be the first of them to die."

 

[Ycrah Vuvvaun]

“I am. . . Also looking for a rodian,” he remarked in reply, starting to put some pieces together in his mind, figuring out what the situation might be, “And I work alone, I assure you. I don’t need ‘friends’ to do my job,” Ycrah stated, in a semi-proud tone, confident of his abilities. He lowered his weapon somewhat, seeing that it might not do much good in his current situation. He had to try talk his way out of this.

”Kleern Viapu,” He recalled the target’s name. “Smuggler. That’s who I’m after.” He didn’t move, but just nodded his head towards his belt, where the bounty puck he had been using to track the criminal with was currently placed.

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic listened to the man for a moment, keeping his blaster pistol trained on the center of his chest as the movement sensor feed came through onto his helmet. Sure enough, nothing showed up anywhere near them, and Leenic had to admit that either this trandoshan was telling the truth, or his partners were really good at hiding. When his reasoning was explained, however, Leenic flipped the safety back on for his pistol.

"You're lucky that you remembered that." He said, moving the barrel off of his chest and pointing it towards the ceiling. "Although something as simple as that is hardly reason enough to trust someone."

He then held out his hand, pulling the bounty puck into it and activating it, watching as the same face of his target appeared in front of him. Scoffing, he tossed the puck back to (what he assumed to be) the other hunter. "Well, you should clear off anyway." He said, staring down at the trandoshan. "I've got the upstairs spot, and since you did a horrible job with defending this place, it might just be best if you go after an easier target. Maybe a credit thief is more your speed."

 

[Ycrah Vuvvaun]

He caught the puck as it got thrown, raising an eyebrow at the various comments made by the other hunter, managing to keep his cool for the moment. He understood that losing his temper wouldn't exactly help him here at all: It was rather unprofessional. "Pfft. You're one to talk. I don't exactly see you parading around with any bounties in tow, so we're on equal ground here," he remarked, standing up a bit straighter. "And I wish you luck with that. The target didn't come by any area I could see from up that all day, even with the possibility of being concealed by the crowd. Probably hiding in whatever hole he lives in," Ycrah said as he opened the door. "Much less chance to see them now, so you're gonna have a lot of fun staring at nothing for the next while."

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

"Ive been around the block far more times than you have, and you'll probably never even dream of the credits I've made off some contracts." Leenic scoffed, turning to face him as he walked past. "And staring at nothing is part of the job, although I wouldn't expect someone as green as you to understand that."

Once the other bounty hunter walked through the open doorLeenic made his way back up the stairs, kneeling down and putting the butt of his 242 back on his shoulder once he made his way to it. Lowering his rangefinder, he would stare into the scope, letting it automatically adjust to the sightline and range he was sitting at before sighing. With any luck, he would be out of here within the hour, but it wasn't like he had never waited several hours for a target to appear.

 

[Ycrah Vuvvaun]

"Well, that's what I've been doing for the past while, so don't you start talking to me about being green," He remarked with a snort. "Prove it, then. It's reeeeal easy to lie about experience," he murmured before exiting the building. This unexpected visitor was doing nothing but distract him, so he decided to rather head outside a bit earlier than he originally planned to, both to start his rounds around town and attempt to search for his target, and to clear his mind.

Sticking closer to the walls of the buildings on the sides of the roads and pathways, the trandoshan slowly started walking, keeping one of his hands tightly gripped around the bo-staff now slung over his back. His narrowed eyes kept a close eye on the darkened alleys and corners, and every here and there he turned to look back at the building he now knew that that other hunter was residing in- He kept a close eye on it, just in case he tried anything funny.

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic simply rolled his eyes under his helmet in response, electing to ignore the trandoshan for the time being. It was an entirely fair comment, mainly since he had never been "famous" to any extent, and his long vacation from the actual act of hunting, but still got under his skin a bit nonetheless.

Eyeing the empty courtyard, Leenic took a minute to focus himself on the task at hand. Switching his rangefinder back to thermal mode, he stared through the magnifying sight, occasionally glancing down at the movement sensor map to make sure he wasn't missing anything. After a couple minutes of this process, he glimpsed a new source of movement on his map, positioning himself to look in the direction it was located in.

When he did, lo and behold, he saw the target. The middle aged Rodian seemed to be alone and attempting to sneak his way towards the landing platform. "Gotcha you slippery little bastard." Leenic mumbled, firing off a shot at him. He missed, but barely, with the bolt slamming into the wall a bit left of his head. Frowning, he moved to adjust his positioning, but by the time he had his sights on target, Kleern had darted into a back alleyway.

"Karabast!" He said aloud, standing up and jumping out of the window, using his jetpack to propell him towards the alleyway. "Aint gonna get away that easy, Rodian!" He shouted out into the night. "No one escapes me!"

 

[Ycrah Vuvvaun]

Ycrah swung around when he heard a shot go off, first thinking that he was its intended target, but when he saw the brief flash of cover from another street, the trandoshan knew that it could only be one thing- Whoever that other bounty hunter was had spotted the target. Sure enough, just a few moments later, he saw the mandolorian rocketing off in the same direction went, and by the way he was shouting, Ycrah put it together that he'd missed his shot, and the bounty was now on the run. Seeing the direction the other hunter had jetted towards, he started bolting along a street that ran parallel to that one.

Though the fact that he usually didn't wear any armor made him more vulnerable to being targeted by any kinds of weaponry, it also gave him a lot more options when it came to maneuverability, making him a lot more nimble. Soon, he started catching glimpses of the rodian he was after, at which point took his bo-staff back out, switching it from the electrostaff-esque mode it was in during his confrontation with the other hunter to its other, which function as a long range blaster.

Dead or alive. I might have to end up taking the first option.

When he had a line of sight, he fired a few bolts that all scattered around the target's feet as, as he kept darting to the left and right too. The Trandoshan growled in frustration, starting to run once again so that he wouldn't lose them, making sure to once again stick close to buildings and walls.

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic landed on a rooftop near where his target dissapeared, staring at his motion sensor map for a moment before turning to face what he assumed to be the rodian in question. "Come out, come out, wherever you are." He said, staring through the scope of his rifle as the rodian slipped out of the alley, darting across the road. Leenic popped off another round, this one hitting him in the shoulder and causing him to topple to the ground. Smiling at the sight of him struggling, Leenic got back up to his feet, taking off running along the rooftops.

Now he just had to hope he would make it there before the trandoshan.

 

[Ycrah Vuvvaun]

The trandoshan in question was also bolting towars the target, keeping an eye on the Mandolorian as he got closer to the target. He switched his bo-staff back to it's melee mode, the two ends of it crackling to life, casting a light yellow glow around it as the distance between him and the Rodian got gradually shorter and shorter.

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic dropped off the roof, slipping his 242 back over his shoulder and drawing his pistol as he sprinted around the corner. Getting himself fully prepared for a fight, he popped open the cartridge and swapped out the plasma bolts for slugs, clicking it shut and spinning it around. Even if he only had four shots, he was sure as hell going to take down anyone who stood in his way, with extreme prejudice.

 

[Ycrah Vuvvaun]

The Trandishan kept to the shadows that the nooks and passages the alleyways provided. Though he had little knowledge on mandolorians, he knew enough to he aware of the fact that they were no joke. He would have to see how this one reacted and adapt to that if necessary.