Private The Stolen Autoblaster

[Hilal Vizsla]

Current Outfit

Location: Takodana

"Thank you for calling the Armed and Ready Weapons store emergency hotline. All available agents are busy attending customers. Please remain on hold and we'll get to you shortly."

"Oh come on!" Hilal slammed her fist on the table causing her glass of Jawa Juice to nearly fall. She sat in the Takodana Castle trying to call support for ages, but they were all "busy." Hilal wondered what the hell these guys were doing all this time. Were they busy watching Twileak dancers on the Holonet? Were they asleep on the job? It was irritating as a customer to be treated like this and these employees wonder why they get pissed off at them. "I hope they didn't lose that Autoblaster I plan on installing to my Heavy Armor." Hilal muttered angrily sipping her Jawa Juice.

Last week, Hilal had purchased a brand new Autoblaster minigun edition from the Armed and Ready store on the Holonet. She planned on modifying its rate of fire increasing it to 6,500 blaster bolts per minute and also installing a limited A.I that she created to auto aim to any targets. Hilal imagined the Autoblaster as a shoulder mounted machine gun that swivel in a near 360-degree angle giving maximum coverage. However, while tracking the package yesterday, Hilal noticed that it was getting error message and was trying to figure out the reason. The service though was horrible as Hilal had to wait for hours before hanging up and calling back again. At least a Bith band playing some Jazz in the background quelled some of Hilal's anger.

"Hello and welcome to Armed and Ready Weapons Store!" A Protocol Droid appeared in front of the Holoscreen of Hilal's watch. His robotic voice sounded very bright and cheery compared to the frustrated and annoyed expression Hilal made when she called the company. "It's about damn time!" Hilal groaned. "I've been in your waiting queue for two fracking hours!"

"Now ma'am!" The Droid said in that same smarmy tone that made Hilal want to reach through the screen and rip out his voice modulator. "We need you to remain calm, we assure that you're call means everything to us."

"Then why did I had to wait for so damn long?" Hilal snorted derisively.

"Because we had other customers to attend to." The Droid said. "Now how can I help you?"

Sighing heavily, Hilal began to send the Droid the information about her order. "I've purchased a brand new Autoblaster from you last week," Hilal said. "Yet just yesterday the order just read error. I want to know my status of my order, It was supposed to arrive on Takodana today."

"Now let's see here....." The Droid typed on his Holocomputer. "Okay first thing have you tried refreshing your browser?"

"What?" Hilal frowned. "Are you kidding me?"

"Have you tried refreshing your browser?" The Droid repeated the question causing Hilal to shake her head. "YES! Over and over again!" She shouted. "It didn't work!"

"Have you changed the batteries on your Holowatch?"

"Hey! Dumbchit!" Hilal roared. "The Holowatch that I created for myself doesn't USE batteries and besides it has NOTHING to do with this error!"

"Ma'am!" The Droid replied. "Calm down!"

"Don't tell ME to calm down!" Hilal said. "I've paid an entire Bounty Hunting contract just to pay for the Autoblaster!"

A pregnant silence filled the air while Hilal was fuming with anger. Finally, the Droid spoke which did little to assuage Hilal's anger.

"Are you calm?"

"Okay, I'm calm." Hilal replied taking a deep breath.

"We're calm."

"We're calm."

The Droid then typed in his Holocomputer. "Have you tried enhancing your Holowatch's Wi-Fi capabilities?"

"FRACK YOU!" Hilal screamed on her Holowatch immediately turning it off. "Damn it!" Hilal slammed on the table again wondering how the hell is she going to get the Autoblaster now. She then realized that the everyone in the entire castle was staring at her. "It's customer service," Hilal said. "They suck."

All the patrons nodded at Hilal giving her a sympathetic look before returning to their activities. Hilal began to massage her throbbing temples. "It's chit like this is why I'm better off making my own weapons." she thought.

Marigold

 

[Marigold]

Marigold was rather vulnerable, coming to Takodana of all planets. It was dangerously close to Gallactic Alliance territory, and it's only safe to assume that they would have influence here, one way or another. And yet, her mission has been of utmost importance to her, even if there was no monetary reward for such. Now equipped in underweave armor that would make her more durable. She hid majority of it under her robes and shirt, as well as a large, red cloak, now woven anew after so many hits that it took.

Though just with weapons on her back and hidden in her waist, one could tell that she was a bounty hunter, and. To be honest, she liked it that way... Less chances that anyone will mess around with her. And it's not like she has done that much to be followed on a daily basis... Still, she went to the castle, wanting to relax before the mission. Have a drink, but for whatever reason. Her gut feeling told her that she needed to be here too. And who she was to deny it's call?

And she did enter, just on time to hear the ramblings of a girl, the bounty hunter chuckled to herself while listening to her woes, ordering some good, old-fashioned beer as she always did, sipping. "The package probably got intercepted halfway through, or they lost it... That's why you don't buy chit without guarantees." She shrugged, the young huntress wasn't trying to blame Hilal, moreso speaking in matter of fact tone, after all, couriers were often not as heavily armed. And thus, stealing from them wasn't that uncommon. "Tried checking the last location ping before the connection went dead?" She spoke in more carefree tone. Somewhat confused at herself deep down as to why she was giving advice to a random person, unmprompted, helping them, rather uncharacteristic of her, not that it mattered for Hilal, who probably never seen or heard of her before.

Hilal Vizsla

 

[Hilal Vizsla]

Current Outfit

Hilal continued to aggressively sip her Jawa Juice her cheeks still flushed red with anger and her temples still throbbing. Now what? Customer service was useless and it looked like Hilal was not going to get a refund on her now lost Autoblaster. "I bet if I asked them about a refund," Hilal thought. "They're going to say turn the payment options off and on again."

Just then, a woman cladded in a red cloak and light underweave armor approached Hilal saying that her package was likely intercepted. "That's what I suspected as well," Hilal sighed. "But I'm guessing customer service doesn't want to admit that their packages are being hijacked." No comapny wanted to admit that they were unreliable in sending a customers paid items, but not admitting it will just create moments like Hilal just experienced. "Either hire mercenaries to protect your ships or choose better Hyperspace routes!"

The woman was more relaxed than Hilal was already giving out better advice than that stupid Droid ever did. "Honestly I haven't," Hilal said taking another sip of her Jawa Juice. "When you want to have something done right......."

Hilal turned on her Holowatch attempting to call her Droid Companion: DVA. An image of DVA appeared, slumped against the copilot's chair in Hilal's starship. "Hey DVA sorry to disturb you but it looks like there's a delay in getting that Autoblaster."

DVA gave a disappointed beep while Hilal chuckled. "I'm sending you the link to the purchase tracker," she said. "I need you to track its last location ping before it went silent. I have a feeling that the delivery ships were ambushed."

DVA nodded and the screen shut off, Hilal then smiled at the woman. "Thanks for the suggestion," she said. "Why don't you sit down and I'll buy ya something? It's the least I can do for helping me. The name's Hilal of Clan Vizsla."

Marigold

 

[Marigold]

"Corporations can get even worse than that, but hey. Glad I could help." She nods, sitting down by Hilal's side. "Name's Marigold, of uh..." She cleared her throat. "I'm a bounty hunter, I guess." She wasn't part of no clan, she didn't even know what kind of clan Hilal was talking about, Marigold was more or less, clueless about the grand history and culture of the galaxy, having been isolated from majority of it.

Though she did observe Hilal contact her droid companion, she didn't pay much attention to it, quietly nodding. Surprised that unprompted advice also lead to unprompted reard, was it how the galaxy was? Couldn't be, at least not all the time, regardless of her doubts and inner thoughts, she did have to continue the conversation.

"So, autoblaster huh? These things are heavy last I've heard, I prefer less bulkier weapons, so that I can be quick on my feet. But raining down a flurry of shots sounds like it uh, could be quite fun." Humming to herself, turning attention to nowhere in particular. "Heard anything of Trandoshans lurking on the outskirts?" Marigold asked, of course. There were lot's of rumours about trandoshans pushing it with their activities on Takodana, no mater how small they were.

Hilal Vizsla

 

[Hilal Vizsla]

Current Outfit

Hilal drenched her tongue with more Jawa Juice trying to remain cool after her little blow up. Her mood lessened when Marigold introduced the same way she did but it was a bit awkward. "It's nice to meet a fellow Bounty Hunter," Hilal said. "I hope the Hunt has been treating you well. It has for me but let's just when it comes to weapons and equipment, it's best to build it yourself."

Which was something Hilal was doing anyway, but chit like an Autoblaster was something she could've built blindfolded. Part of Hilal wanted to say: Frack it and start making plans for an Autoblaster, but she spent a lot of credits on it. The last she wanted to do was to have all that hard earned credits go to waste. "The Autoblaster is for my Heavy Armor I'm building for myself." Hilal explained. "As you can see, I'm not the strongest Bounty Hunter in the Galaxy so I rely on Power Suits to increase my strength and durability. My Mandalorian Armor while my pride and joy is no match for bigger creatures like say: A Rancor. My Heavy Armor can not only match it in strength but will carry an arsenal that will match small PMCs."

Marigold then asked a pellicular question about Trandoshans raiding in the outskirts. "Not that I know of," Hilal shrugged. "Trandoshans aren't stupid enough to start raids so close to the Galactic Alliance's boarders. They'll be likely attacking planets in the fringes of the Mid Rim and definitely in the Outer Rim."

Hilal took another sip of Jawa Juice eyeing Marigold out of curiosity. "Why do you ask?" She said. "Got a bounty to claim?"

Marigold

 

[Marigold]

Marigold hummed to herself, barely touching her drink. Listening to Hilal attentively. "Dunno' how the Hunt has been treating me, no strong feelings as of late." She admitted, a heavy sigh escaping her. "Yeah, it's easier said than done though, I'm not exactly the academics smart to build or modify my own stuff, even the ship I have, I'm plannin' on taking it to Corellia for proper modifications."

Chuckling as Hilal explained her setup, there was a hint of genuine interest and adoration for a proper bounty hunting gear. "Not bad, my budget is on the lower end so I have just my underweave, my light armor underneath the robes. And, well, a sniper blaster, a blaster pistol, and my favorite - vibro-sword. It's kinda barebones so I doubt I'd be able to take on a military trained squad by myself, but I prefer not to fight directly when I know the opposition is too strong for that."

A nod escaped her as Hilal talked about Trandoshans. "Not a bounty, I just want to find and cut them all up." The young huntress said, with apparent detachment, her tone full of venom. She didn't need much of incentive to go and kill, it seemed.

Hilal Vizsla

 

[Hilal Vizsla]

Current Outfit

Hilal raised an eyebrow when Marigold said she wasn't sure how the hunt was treating her. An unusual answer but Hilal let it slide. "Hey if you need help looking for any contracts," Hilal said smiling. "I can point you send a list of the planets that still have contracts available. If there's one thing I've learned as long as there's two people, someone wants to sabotage the other."

There's always work as a Bounty Hunter as long as you know where to look and more importantly, if you're willing to look. Hilal took that lesson to heart and managed to be swimming in contracts. "May I see your weapons?" Hilal asked when Marigold mentioned that her budget is on the lower end. "I can improve upon your arsenal at a cheap price! Those weapon models are very easy to mod! I just need to know what upgrades you're looking for!"

Hilal then chuckled when Marigold mentioned that she wanted to kill every Trandoshan she saw. "You won't get any pushbacks from me," Hilal said. "Trandoshans have been ramping up their raids against locals around the Mid Rim lately."

Trandoshans were ruthless Bounty Hunters as well, Bossk was one of the nastiest Bounty Hunters Hilal read. No contract was too terrible for Bossk to take on, he would kill his targets with a morbid pleasure. While Hilal enjoyed fighting, she tried to keep it professional, but Bossk was more of a sadist than a Hunter in Hilal's eyes. "Well DVA should be able to find the last-" Hilal looked down and saw her watch beeping. Blinking, the Bounty Hunter bought up the virtual screen and saw the last known location of her package.

"My droid found the coordinates of the delivery ships location!" Hilal smiled. "It's in the middle of the Chommel Sector." She turned it off and got up. "I'm gonna have to go there immediately," Hilal said. "And see what's going on I've paid a small fortune for that Autoblaster and I'm NOT going to have it go to waste."

Marigold

 

[Marigold]

"Heh, there's no shortage of work. For sure, I just know that not every single work can cater to my skills, I don't think of myself as an expert. And neither do I possess a band of mercenaries to make up for my shortcomings in other fields. So y'know, most of my contracts usually get limited to simple stuff, which doesn't pay on it's own, or it's very different flavor of 'I want this person dead or captured'." She took a heavy sigh.

"Then there's the fact that I wouldn't work with certain kinds of people, like said Trandoshans, or, that I wouldn't take upon specific type of jobs, like well, capturing slaves, war refugees and what not, is it self-lmiting? I guess." A chuckle escapes Marigold as she's asked about her weapons, she sets down an E-11 Sniper variant, a vibro-sword, and a small, Coronet Arms light blaster with a scope attached to it. Like one could imagine, all of those were public-market, mass-produced items, except the sword...

"My sniper rifle suffers from rate of fire problems, it can pack a punch and it punches through all but specialized heavy armor with relative ease, on a pretty damn long range, wouldn't be surprised if I could shoot from the other end of the planet with that thing, but see, with strong plasma comes a lotta' issues that no one bothered to fix, that being that this chit overheats after five to six shots, and takes longer to cool down."

"The pistol is fine, I guess I'd want it to pack more of a punch, but it'd increase it's size, and I kind of wanted a firearm I can use when the E-11 ain't going to cut it, like tight and closed spaces, swinging bulky rifle around is a problem, but a pistol is a lot easier to handle, I want to keep it that way. Reliable."

Despite having a rather depressing, somber aura around her. She seemed rather passionate in talking about her loadout, though, last came her vibro-sword. Upon getting a closer look, it is revealed that it's quite... Although being rather old, it's craftsmanship appeared to be fine-tuned, with various decorations along the custom-made sheath, featuring an emblem of a flowing river, though. Hilal couldn't precisely say which company, or nation did it belong to.

"It's... I-" Her voice, shifted to a more quiet one, a whisper. She gulped whatever tension was building up in her throat and let out a shaky sigh. "It's perfect the way it is." A minute of silence, she acknowledged the pressure Thrandoshans were putting on the Mid Rim, that was, partially. The whole reason why she was here. "I'd go with you, that sector is Mid Rim and all that, but my ship is a civilian hull with minimal weaponry, it'd get gunned down by pirate warships easily." Frustrated sigh escapes her. As she looked at the virtual screen briefly.

Hilal Vizsla

 

[Hilal Vizsla]

Current Outfit

Hilal definitely needed to set limits on which Bounty Hunting contracts to take on. It put her in awkward situations on more than one occasion from unknowingly working for the Sith during the Great Hyperspace War, to getting backstabbed by her clients. Hilal definitely had a lot of stumbles during her short career. "It's good that you're placing boundaries," Hilal responded finishing the last of her Jawa Juice. "I'm still learning as a Bounty Hunter, I've only been one for about a year and I've messed up badly."

Still, a smile slowly crept across her face. "But with mistakes comes experience and I'm definitely going to draw the line." Hilal said. "That means no working for slave catchers like those dumbchit Trandoshans!"

Hilal then looked at Marigold Sniper Rifle. "Well, the common problem with rate of fire," Hilal explained. "Is usually because the slide the one that dispels the heat can get faulty leading to inconsistent rate of fire. A good cleaning could take care of that unless you want to mod the Sniper Rifle to fire faster, I can provide with some high velocity mods that I can install."

She looked at Marigold blinking when she said that she wanted to come. "Ummm sure," Hilal replied chuckling nervously. "I guess I could use the help especially since is out in the middle of space. Who knows? It could be a trap."

Marigold

 

[Marigold]

"I've been a bounty hunter since I learned how to hold a weapon, so, been doing that for a pretty long time, just recently started getting big jobs, for a good reason. No one hires young folk, at least, not willingly." Last few words spoken with venom and hostility, just a fraction of hatred that resided within the young huntress, despite being clearly upset, a heavy sigh brought her back down to her otherwise dull tone. "I'll take into account the good cleaning, but ehh, we probably want to do that later, don't want to take anymore of your time than I already have."

"Oh, it's most likely a trap. It better be, I have some steam I want to blow off." She spoke, a smile twisting into a grin as she can only imagine what kind of bloodshed she'll be able to inflict. "Right, uh, um, yeah... I'll uh, if you have an open spot in your ship, then count me in." She pauses, grinning. "It's going to cost ya' though." Marigold spoke, with audiable sarcasm in her tone. Standing up, she secured her weapons back in their respective holsters, a smirk appearing on her face.

"Let's go and get your autoblaster back, Hilal." Despite having sounded nothing but vicious and at the times, maniacal, the conviction in her words seemed nothing short of her will to help her. Marigold was ready to follow Hilal whenever she was ready.

Hilal Vizsla

 

[Hilal Vizsla]

Current Outfit

Hilal liked Marigold's attitude, if you have pent up aggression what better way than to take it out on some nerf herder slavers? "Any killer of slavers will always have a spot on my ship!" Hilal stated getting up. "In fact to establish a good friendship, I'll clean your Sniper Rifle for free and next time you come to my shop, I'll give you a 50 percent discount on your first purchase!"

She had been getting better in developing her business acumen. It helps that she was investing in her shop creating partnerships and getting in better items to sell. Still, It was best to always ensure that customers always come back to buy. Hilal hoped her generosity would convince Marigold to go to her for weapons modding and repairs. "Here's my card!" Hilal rifled through her bag and handed her card. "Now come on my Autoblaster awaits!"

Hilal rushed towards her ship and saw that DVA already had the coordinates set in her cockpit. "Excellent work DVA!" Hilal smiled. "Let's do what those fracking services are too damn lazy even bother doing!"

Marigold

 

[Marigold]

Marigold nodded, despite her expression being mostly covered by the hood, one could feel tinge of appreciation. "Thanks, I'll think about that, I don't have a whole lot of funds, so anything helps." A smile perks up on her face, as she is walking in hastened pace, though not running like Hilal did. "Sheesh, gotta conserve that energy, you'll need it to beat up the courier once we get to him."

As she walked into the cockpit, and settled down. The young huntress would look around the ship. "Right, we got the coordinates. If you want to, I can set course through the NavComputer, I got some pretty classy navigational skills, we'll arrive there in like, in a blink of an eye! Hah." Knowing the location was one thing, but charting an optimal course to avoid needlessly overloading a hyper-drive as well as get there faster was also an important of space journeying!

"I bet it's the pirates, it's gotta be." She continued engaged in a banter with Hilal, seemingly slightly more open than the usual. "How long have you been bounty hunting? You got a shop and everything, must be a professional, eh?"

Hilal Vizsla

 

[Hilal Vizsla]

Current Outfit


"That's where I come in!" Hilal said beginning the takeoff process. "I provide a high-quality service at a low price! Even though I've been Bounty Hunting for about a year, I'm more than aware that Bounty Hunters spend more credits maintaining their equipment!"

It was through Hilal's services, that she was able to generate funding needed her Mandalorian Armor: Her pride and joy. "Punch in the coordinates!" Hilal said slowly pulling the throttle and accelerating from the space port. "And you can say that I am a Professional!" Hilal said as they left the planet's atmosphere. "I still have a lot to learn though!"

Marigold

 

[Marigold]

Marigold punched in the coordinates after a few seconds of calculating the fastest path. "This should cut our flying time nearly in half." She murmured to Hilal. Looking up to look at her. "Guess you could say I'm a professional too, mountain of corpses doesn't built itself, does it?" Mercenary smirked. "I don't have as many funds but usually my average gear gets me through missions, combine that with some quick wit and yeah, I guess I'm earning my keep." She'd speak, with some semblance of pride. "It's been pretty slow though, on the jobs I mean. Most work I do is not official, like say, helping you out." And that unfortunately, didn't pay well.

Eh, at least she felt good about herself. Guess that's a plus.

Hilal Vizsla