CONFRONTATIONS PART I
Bossk sat alone in the cockpit of his ship, staring into the cold emptiness of space.
Alone with his anger.
Fett had done it again! Bossk honestly didn't know how that pathetic, meddling little bounty hunter could have so much kriffing luck. Standing up, he smashed his fist into the wall, dragging his claws down the solid panel that had been completely marred by scratches and ugly claw marks.
Bossk ran through the events in his mind again and again, trying to figure out what he could have done differently, trying, in fact, to figure out what had happened at all. One minute he had been heading back to his ship with his hard merchandise, the next he was on the ground and Fett was escaping with his captive.
Bossk had been engulfed in fury, and as a result the spray of blaster fire he had unleashed was erratic and uncoordinated. None the less, he had succeeded in hitting Fett in the leg.
That brought him scant pleasure, knowing that Fett would be suffering from the pain of a blaster burn.
He could almost smell the burning of Fett's leg, the roasting of his--
Bossk was wrenched out of his most pleasant train of thought as the stars in front of him distorted themselves, flashed, then dropped *Slave I* out in front of him.
Fett was fast, Bossk gave him that.
Before *Slave I* had even finished the reversion to realspace it was screaming past him, spewing red death like a terrifying dragon out one of the Trandosian fairy tales Bossk had never paid much attention to as a child.
Launching himself into his chair, Bossk scrabbled wildly for both the shield and weapon controls simultaneously. He managed to get off a few volleys before *Slave I* was past, dropping a missile behind it as it went.
As Bossk flicked one of the oversized switches on the control board, built to accommodate a Trandoshan's overly large hands, all of the Hound's Tooth's shield power shifted aft to protect it's self from the immanent explosion.
He had not counted on Fett's trickery.
At the last second the missile performed a summersault and careered into the forward section of the *Hound's Tooth*.
Bossk snarled as he attempted to return the shields to normal, succeeding only partially before the explosion hit, tearing through shield and hull alike.
The ship rocked violently in response to Fett's attack, throwing Bossk to the floor as the control board lights flashed red and, in some cases, blinked out completely. As *Slave I* spun around to finish of the *Hound's Tooth*, Bossk lunged for the communication board and sent Fett a one way com burst, which, provided it was small enough, would force Fett's ship to record and replay it, whether he wanted to listen or not.
"Fett, Orba will die!" Bossk gargled into the com mike, cursing the forced brevity of a com burst.
There was a pause that seemed to drag on forever, where Fett may or may not have paid Bossk any heed, may or may not have fired before the message reached him, may or may not have done a thousand things that would result in Bossk's destruction.
Eventually, Bossk knew through the fact that he was still alive that Fett had heard the burst, probably spending that moment of doing nothing simply to torment Bossk. How he HATED that wretch!
He dug his claws into the control panel, ripping apart the delicate wiring for the weapons that had already been rendered useless by Fett's missile.
Finally, Fett responded.
"What do you mean? Speak fast."
Bossk was momentarily drained of his rage as he returned the communication.
"I've set explosives in the *Sun Pearl*." gloated the Trandoshan, pleased that his planing had finally paid off, pleased that he had finally given himself an edge over Fett. " If I trigger the switch Orba will be nothing more than a greasy speck in space."
"Then why shouldn't I just blow you up now?" Queried Fett, sensing a catch.
"I've got a separate transmitter in my hold that's hooked up to my internal sensors. They're all at critical right now, and if they detect even the slightest change in my hull integrity, or if they go off-line, the transmitter will detonate the bombs. You can take me down, but Orba comes too."
After a moment's pause, Fett's voice returned, harsh as ever.
"Alright, you win. Deactivate the explosives and I'll dock with you."
Bossk knew that Fett's concern was born not out of any love for the Hutt, or anyone else on the *Sun Pearl*, but rather an awareness of his finances. Orba often needed the services of bounty hunters, but very seldom hired anyone other than Fett; this was, in fact, one of the very few occasions on which Orba had declared an open bounty on someone's head. This meant that if Orba passed away no bounty hunter would miss him much except Boba Fett, and he would miss him a great deal. Giving Bossk this bounty to prevent Orba from dying would still benefit Fett in the long term.
Bossk, though, was still wary. He had been the victim of Fett's trickery far too long to do anything that the hunter suggested.
Besides, he hadn't hatched yesterday.
"No way, Fett." He snarled "Power down and do what I tell you." Another pause.
"Very well." Fett suited action to words as Bossk watched over the extremely limited sensors he still had, powering down shields, weapons and every other system except communication, one after another.
"Now put the merchandise in your escape pod and jettison it." Commanded Bossk.
There was an even longer pause this time. Bossk was beginning to wonder if something had happened to him, hoping it had, when *Slave I* launched its escape pod.
Not wanting to be the victim of another Fett trick, Bossk ran as full a scan of *Slave I* and its escape pod as he could, focusing on scanning for life signs.
Most sensors and scanners were rendered useless by the large metal content of ships, as well as their shields. Bossk, however, had "acquired" a special bio-scanner that could penetrate metal hulls and give accurate life sign readings. According to his scans, there was indeed one life sign one each vessel. Unless Fett had managed to wire together a life-sign masking/falsification array, which would have taken considerably more time than Bossk had given him, not to mention knowing that Bossk could search for life signs in the first place, things were as they should be.
Still....Bossk, for once, didn't want to leave anything to chance. Setting the explosives to detonate in five minutes, he activated his tractor beam, fortunately still fully functional, and dragged the escape pod into the hold, ecstatic that he had at last got one over on Boba Fett.
Bossk sat alone in the cockpit of his ship, staring into the cold emptiness of space.
Alone with his anger.
Fett had done it again! Bossk honestly didn't know how that pathetic, meddling little bounty hunter could have so much kriffing luck. Standing up, he smashed his fist into the wall, dragging his claws down the solid panel that had been completely marred by scratches and ugly claw marks.
Bossk ran through the events in his mind again and again, trying to figure out what he could have done differently, trying, in fact, to figure out what had happened at all. One minute he had been heading back to his ship with his hard merchandise, the next he was on the ground and Fett was escaping with his captive.
Bossk had been engulfed in fury, and as a result the spray of blaster fire he had unleashed was erratic and uncoordinated. None the less, he had succeeded in hitting Fett in the leg.
That brought him scant pleasure, knowing that Fett would be suffering from the pain of a blaster burn.
He could almost smell the burning of Fett's leg, the roasting of his--
Bossk was wrenched out of his most pleasant train of thought as the stars in front of him distorted themselves, flashed, then dropped *Slave I* out in front of him.
Fett was fast, Bossk gave him that.
Before *Slave I* had even finished the reversion to realspace it was screaming past him, spewing red death like a terrifying dragon out one of the Trandosian fairy tales Bossk had never paid much attention to as a child.
Launching himself into his chair, Bossk scrabbled wildly for both the shield and weapon controls simultaneously. He managed to get off a few volleys before *Slave I* was past, dropping a missile behind it as it went.
As Bossk flicked one of the oversized switches on the control board, built to accommodate a Trandoshan's overly large hands, all of the Hound's Tooth's shield power shifted aft to protect it's self from the immanent explosion.
He had not counted on Fett's trickery.
At the last second the missile performed a summersault and careered into the forward section of the *Hound's Tooth*.
Bossk snarled as he attempted to return the shields to normal, succeeding only partially before the explosion hit, tearing through shield and hull alike.
The ship rocked violently in response to Fett's attack, throwing Bossk to the floor as the control board lights flashed red and, in some cases, blinked out completely. As *Slave I* spun around to finish of the *Hound's Tooth*, Bossk lunged for the communication board and sent Fett a one way com burst, which, provided it was small enough, would force Fett's ship to record and replay it, whether he wanted to listen or not.
"Fett, Orba will die!" Bossk gargled into the com mike, cursing the forced brevity of a com burst.
There was a pause that seemed to drag on forever, where Fett may or may not have paid Bossk any heed, may or may not have fired before the message reached him, may or may not have done a thousand things that would result in Bossk's destruction.
Eventually, Bossk knew through the fact that he was still alive that Fett had heard the burst, probably spending that moment of doing nothing simply to torment Bossk. How he HATED that wretch!
He dug his claws into the control panel, ripping apart the delicate wiring for the weapons that had already been rendered useless by Fett's missile.
Finally, Fett responded.
"What do you mean? Speak fast."
Bossk was momentarily drained of his rage as he returned the communication.
"I've set explosives in the *Sun Pearl*." gloated the Trandoshan, pleased that his planing had finally paid off, pleased that he had finally given himself an edge over Fett. " If I trigger the switch Orba will be nothing more than a greasy speck in space."
"Then why shouldn't I just blow you up now?" Queried Fett, sensing a catch.
"I've got a separate transmitter in my hold that's hooked up to my internal sensors. They're all at critical right now, and if they detect even the slightest change in my hull integrity, or if they go off-line, the transmitter will detonate the bombs. You can take me down, but Orba comes too."
After a moment's pause, Fett's voice returned, harsh as ever.
"Alright, you win. Deactivate the explosives and I'll dock with you."
Bossk knew that Fett's concern was born not out of any love for the Hutt, or anyone else on the *Sun Pearl*, but rather an awareness of his finances. Orba often needed the services of bounty hunters, but very seldom hired anyone other than Fett; this was, in fact, one of the very few occasions on which Orba had declared an open bounty on someone's head. This meant that if Orba passed away no bounty hunter would miss him much except Boba Fett, and he would miss him a great deal. Giving Bossk this bounty to prevent Orba from dying would still benefit Fett in the long term.
Bossk, though, was still wary. He had been the victim of Fett's trickery far too long to do anything that the hunter suggested.
Besides, he hadn't hatched yesterday.
"No way, Fett." He snarled "Power down and do what I tell you." Another pause.
"Very well." Fett suited action to words as Bossk watched over the extremely limited sensors he still had, powering down shields, weapons and every other system except communication, one after another.
"Now put the merchandise in your escape pod and jettison it." Commanded Bossk.
There was an even longer pause this time. Bossk was beginning to wonder if something had happened to him, hoping it had, when *Slave I* launched its escape pod.
Not wanting to be the victim of another Fett trick, Bossk ran as full a scan of *Slave I* and its escape pod as he could, focusing on scanning for life signs.
Most sensors and scanners were rendered useless by the large metal content of ships, as well as their shields. Bossk, however, had "acquired" a special bio-scanner that could penetrate metal hulls and give accurate life sign readings. According to his scans, there was indeed one life sign one each vessel. Unless Fett had managed to wire together a life-sign masking/falsification array, which would have taken considerably more time than Bossk had given him, not to mention knowing that Bossk could search for life signs in the first place, things were as they should be.
Still....Bossk, for once, didn't want to leave anything to chance. Setting the explosives to detonate in five minutes, he activated his tractor beam, fortunately still fully functional, and dragged the escape pod into the hold, ecstatic that he had at last got one over on Boba Fett.