The Bounties of Bespin

[Kai and Gerda]

Setting: A hangar bay on Bespin.

~*~*~​

Still carrying the increasingly heavy corpse of the businessman he had killed earlier, Alyosha finally made it to the spaceport. No one seemed to be around, and he was able to drop some of the pretense of helping someone who’d had “a little too much to drink”. The businessman’s head lolled, exposing the fatal wound in his neck, and Alyosha didn’t bother trying to hide it.

His shuttle, the Greylancer, was in sight. He started walking faster, intent on leaving the planet as soon as possible. After narrowly avoiding disaster back at the club, he was impatient to deliver the body before things got any more out of hand. At least he wouldn’t have to wait for any more elevators.

Gideon Saigo

 

[Gideon Saigo]

Alyosha Drutin

He wouldn't have taken the tracking fob considering the target's last seen location was deep in the InRim. Not a good place, lately, for Mandalorians. A good infochant who owed him a favor informed him of the target's last seen location as Bespin. The Outer Rim. Where the Mandalorian usually worked. He hesitated at first, due to the bounty being posted by an individual rather than through the Bounty Hunter's Guild but the risk of that was excused through the high reward expected.

When the tracking fob started rapidly beeping as he marched down the Bespin hangar bay corridors, Jair turned a swift right on a corner and by pure luck ahead of him, possibly two dozen feet down the corridor a man identical to the target's appearance carrying another man, who seemed drunk (it was hard to tell).

The Mandalorian didn't silence the fob.

Its eerie beeping grew faster.

A blaster pistol materialized in the bounty hunter's hand.

"I can take you in warm or I can take you in cold."

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Alyosha heard the beeping of the tracking fob before he saw Gideon Saigo . As it grew louder and faster, he positioned himself behind the limp body of the businessman, using the corpse as a shield.

But as his free hand moved instinctively to grab his blaster, he recalled with dismay that he had left it in the shuttle to avoid attracting unwanted attention from security. He had only the vibrodagger which he had used to kill the man—a weapon designed for close quarters combat, useless in all but the most specific of circumstances.

He chided himself for not being more prepared, but what’s done is done. He wasn’t totally resigned to his fate yet, but he could recognize when the odds were stacked against him escaping. At least, for now.

“You can’t bring me in cold,” he replied, his tone subdued. “You won’t get your money if I’m dead.”

 

[Gideon Saigo]

Jair couldn’t tell whether the man who the target positioned in front of him as a human shield was knocked out or dead from this distance. Yet, it hardly mattered to him.

The Mandalorian clicked a button on his vambrace and a holo projection of the target’s wanted poster appeared. Alyosha Drutin. Alive. He wasn’t wrong.

“Well then...” Jair aimed his blaster at the lower portion of the target, or well - the human shield. “I can bring you in warm or...less warm?”

He pulled the trigger.

 

[Kai and Gerda]

So the Mandalorian had rushed into a confrontation without knowing his target was wanted alive? This one definitely wasn't the brightest bulb in the fuel station 'fresher.

While the Mandalorian brought up the holographic poster and absorbed information he should have already known beforehand, Alyosha took the opportunity to reassess his surroundings, looking for the nearest exit. There was none save the one from which he had come, which was now blocked off by the hunter.

His best option was to make a run for the ship. If the Mandalorian boarded after him—and the dunce probably would follow him anywhere, given the hefty price on Alyosha’s head—he could deal with him within the familiar confines of the Greylancer, where his other weapons were stocked.

But he didn’t count on the Mandalorian being dense enough to fire at him anyway.

Alyosha narrowly managed to leap out of the way, abandoning the corpse in the process. The body collapsed on the ground as dead weight, having taken the brunt of the hit, its lower half charred and clothes smoking.

It was only after Alyosha hit the ground running that he realized the bolt had burned through to his left calf, searing the flesh. He wasn’t incapacitated, but it hurt like hell with every step.

Amidst the pain of the wound, he forced himself to focus on getting to the ship. Taking care not to run in a straight line, he bolted toward the loading ramp.

Gideon Saigo

 

[Gideon Saigo]

The notion that Drutin might surrender peacefully evaporated the moment the man tossed his human shield and dashed away into a dock. Jair fired a few more bolts aiming for the man's feet but narrowly missed. He hurried down chasing the man who had now gained a substantial distance from the bounty hunter. The thought of using his long pulse canon rifle was out of the question, the wanted poster was clear - no disintegrations.

Despite his armor, Ordo was able to run fast. Unlike the rest of the galaxy, Mandalorians felt their armor as second skin rather than a necessary burden against mortal wounds. The prey and the hunter entered the dock one after the other but for all the speed the Mandalorian could muster, Drutin's quick feet seemed to be one of the fastest he had ever witnessed.

Out of many options, the Mandalorian unloaded a whole mag at some of the hanging components of the dock's roof aiming to create obstacles for the runner and slow him down enough for Jair to catch up to him.

Alyosha Drutin

 

[Kai and Gerda]

The air reeked of burning dust and ozone from Gideon Saigo ’s heavy blaster fire. Just ahead, the roof of the dock exploded in a shower of sparks, a chaotic mess of wires hanging from the smoldering port.

His shuttle was not going to fly without repairs, delaying Alyosha’s departure from Bespin whether he could take care of this hunter or not. The Mandalorian was spiteful as well as stupid.

The sparks were bad enough that he reconsidered trying to get through to the ship’s interior. His civilian clothing, meant to allow him to blend in with the general populace, would offer no protection against electrical burns, and even if he did get through, the Mandalorian, with his armor, wound follow him in relatively unscathed.

The Mandalorian was getting closer, his boots pounding down the hall. Alyosha turned around to face him, backing into the smoke generated by a tube that had been blasted. That Mandalorian armor was thick, but it had soft spots in the neck and joints. He unhooked the vibrodagger from his wrist and waited.