The sunshine broke through the clouds over Bespin as a small airship made its way undetected towards the giant hovering city. Its thrusters hissed as it made its decent towards a small jutting landing platform on the citie's edge. As the vessel settled itself down upon the platform, a figure hooded in rags watched from a small crevice in the machinery that controlled the platform. With a grunt, he made his way from his spot towards an open doorway, disappearing from sight. The door of the spaceship opened at that moment, revealing a darkened interior. The echoes of feet hitting metal pulsed around the quiet air surrounding the landing pad as a figure made his way from the vessel and into the bustling streets of Bespin. As the figure made his way towards the streets, he began fumbling with a large device that seemed to be mounted upon his wrist. An image appeared upon it, and the figure paused to examine it. With a slight sigh, he touched the screen and it went blank and dark as he moved onwards. Small lights upon the ceiling of the hallway he walked through illuminated the mans features. He was of a normal height for any human, his face shadowed by slight wrinkles of age. His hair was of a dirty blonde color, its texture slightly ragged with countless amounts of action.
The street had come into full view from the hallway this man had been walking through. The people and aliens from different planets walked, ran, crawled, and slimed their ways towards their desitinations. They were completely unaware of this person who had just emerged from a random doorway in the city. Just as the man made to step out into the street, a large robot using a single wheel to move popped in front of him, blocking him entirely from the crowded streets.
"Name and city registration please." The robot figure asked. The man looked upwards towards the sensor relay upon the droid's head, and made a sigh once again.
"My name is Mahlon, and that is all you need to know." Spoke the man. With a swift movement, he hit a button on his belt, causing the droid to sputter and spew random nonesense. With a large blast of a siren, the droid drove off at full speed towards the center of the bustling crowd, causing mayhem and confusion. As the chaos insued, Mahlon calmly made his way through the people towards the heart of the city.
The noise of the people began to subside as Mahlon's boots clinked against the metal grates of the more formal distric of the city. Walking ever so calmly and well paced, he only stopped every so often to get a glimpse of his surroundings and moved on. As he traveled, the rag-covered figure made its way towards him, hiding every time Mahlon stopped with bated breath, hoping he doesnt get caught.
Mahlon stopped for his final time as he stared towards a small building sitting upon the outskirts of the bussiness district. He raised his arm, and began fiddling with the device mounted on his wrist again. It gave off a low beep, followed by two short deep beeps. With this, Mahlon pulled from his hip a well developed blaster, extremely slimmed from the nozzel to the grip. He suddenly realized that the situation didnt need the weapon and quickly holstered it and made his way into the building.
As he stepped through the door, a figure bolted from an old desk. Mahlon reacted swiftly, running at the figure with a deadly speed. In no time he came upon the creature and swung with a hard left, connecting with it's skull and sending it crashing through piled debri.
"K'lork Mahc. Age seventy-three, height five feet, seven inches. Species Gran, and finally bounty worth." Mahlon stopped speaking as he read off from his wrist mounted device. He sighed and started again. "Twenty hundred credits. Fortunately im not here to collect on such a indecent bounty."
With this, Mahlon reached down towards the crippled form and picked it up from the throat.
"Your wanted dead by my organization, and are worth far less than the price on your head. The man who put up the bounty has also been taken care of by my fellow colleagues. Any last words K'lork?" He said effortlessly. K'lork glanced down at Mahlon, and with an obnoxious expression spit at him.
"Knew you would resort to that." Mahlon said.
"If you knew I would, why didnt you kill me beforehand?" The gran questioned. With a slight flick of his wrist, Mahlon sent the alien flying towards the opposite side of the room.
"Your former experience as a bounty hunter has me itching to fight you hand to hand. Care to try your luck?" Said Mahlon tauntingly. The gran stood from his spot of impact. A grin broke from the wrinkled skin that was K'lork's face.
"Im guessing your with "them" aren't you?" He replied, shifting himself into attack position. "Now i know that I'm not leaving this alive."
Mahlon glanced at the Gran, and heaved yet another sigh.
"Do me a favor K'lork, don't bore me to death. I've better things to do than fight someone using the anchient style of martial arts." He said. K'lork ignored Mahlon's words, and charged with a deafening yell.
With a swift kick towards Mahlon, K'lork began his attack. Mahlon quickly stopped his foot, but no more. In aggravation, the alien attempted to pummel Mahlon with his fists. Left, right, left, right each jab was easily blocked by K'lork's foe. In a desperate move, the gran pulled from his pocket a large vibro-blade knife.
"It's over! You're disarmed and I have the upper hand!" K'lork yelled as he swung wide upon Mahlon. With his signature sigh, Mahlon kneed his opponent in his upper chest, pinning him against the nearby wall. K'lork paused, then began to laugh hysterically.
"So thats it huh? I wasn't even worth the effort to come out here was I? If anything, I truly hope I wasted your time." K'lork coughed out as he grinned slightly at Mahlon. He attempted to speak more, but became overwhelmed with coughing, his assassin yet to remove his knee.
"I did what had to be done. You were a threat to the order, and knew too much of our dealings. You should have forseen this coming." Mahlon said.
"Forseen that they would send their top assassin Mahlon after me? That I could never have anticipated." K'lork retorted using his last breath of life. Blood began to pour from his mouth as his body shuddered one last time. As swiftly as he had planted it there, Mahlon withdrew his knee, and protruding from his knee's armor was a foot long blade with jagged edges, all of it covered in a thick layer of K'lork's blood, along with pieces of his heart.
Mahlon ripped a piece of his victim's clothing from it's body, and used it to wipe clean the blade that had pierced his foe. His job was finished here, and he began to make off when a figure standing in the doorway he had come in caught his attention. The figure was clothed and hooded in rags.
"Be off beggar, I have no need to deal with you." Mahlon demanded as he stepped towards the door. The figure did not budge, but instead began to speak.
"I've been watching you, Assassin Mahlon. I almost had the urge to stop you." The figure said with a sarcastic tone. Mahlon chuckled, but dropped his tone and attitude back to a serious and authoritive tone.
"Really? And yet you did not do anything to stop me. No, you couldn't do anything to stop me. You are but a beggar." He replied. The figure threw off his rags to reveal an old jedi outfit. Tattered and torn, it seemed to have been through many battles, but these details were not Mahlon's concern, for the man had drawn a lightsaber hilt from his side. He did not ignite the blade, but pointed the grip towards the assassin.
"Do not call me a beggar, murderer. You will do well to remember that I am the jedi nomad Xander. Your decision to murder that alien was a terrible and ill thought out one indeed." The jedi growled. His facial features were clear now, as was his height. He was a solid six feet, his face seemed fair, but was marred by a hideous J shaped scar on his jaw. Xander's hair was brown, but was parted by a scar line near his left side. His eyes were worn with thought and constant frustration, consisting of a light orange color.
Mahlon stopped walking towards Xander, and reached for his pistol in its holster.
"Never criticize my work, Jedi!" Mahlon growled back, firing several shots in the process. Xander was the faster, igniting his lightsaber and reflecting the shots back towards his attacker. Mahlon rolled to the cover of a nearby desk. From the desk, he peeked around the corner to view Xander's saber. The color orange pulsated down the entire blade of energy as it's weilder pointed it in a defensive position against any oncoming attacks.
"I've never met a Jedi that could react so quickly to my draw. Tell me, what significance did K'lork have to you?" Mahlon questioned from behind his cover. Xander extinguished his saber and put it away, calmly walking towards the assassin.
"He had come to me looking for protection. He knew he was being hunted, and K'lork promised me a decent sum of money if i could keep him from harm's way. I truly didnt care for the creature, but he didnt deserve to die like he did." Xander finished, reaching his hand down towards the crouching Mahlon. He looked towards the Jedi, then grabbed his hand as he was heaved to his feet.