I been roleplaying in SWTOR for a while. Sazikane is one of my main charas, and this story is a little snippet out of her life.
Bounty hunters surprise
The female looked up from her papers, ice blue eyes following the movement of a human male. He looked harmless enough to make the woman raise an eyebrow. Sazikane graped her datapad and checked if she had the right person. His hair has changed color from blond to brown, and his cloths fit the locals. He didn't walk like someone who had a price on his head. She went over the add again. Something about this smelled odd.
Jonathan Exstone walked down the block of houses and was about to turn the corner. She took a last sip of her coffee, rose from her chair and put down the two credits she owned the cafe.
Slowly she followed him, always making sure she looked like a normal local woman busy with her day. As far as Sazikane could tell, she did a decent job.
She turned the corner and looked down the street. This one was a busy town, a bunch of people were moving over the asphalt. Sadly non of them were her target. She checked the sky, walls and roofs. It was impossible that he reached the end of the street before she could follow. No sign indicated he escaped by means of an air-travel. This world was way to backwater for a speeder not automatically causing a crowd of starring people. She checked the storefronts, with a quick glance, her eyes falling on a door left slightly open. It was one of a few doors which didn't belong to a store, she rose an eyebrow.
"Spells trap", she thought, nevertheless she approached cautiously. Making sure she didn't tip any wires as she slowly opened the door a little more. It gave a dramatic squeak, causing her to seek cover in the doorframe. It was old, wide and ornamented. The huntress strained her ears for any signals from the inside. Coming up empty. She drew one of her blasters, her other hand got the dataglasses out of her pocket. She wouldn't deliberately put herself in the line of fire. Slowly she got onto her knees and slide the barrel of her gun through the slight opening. She activated the blasters camera via her implant and watched the darkness in the room take shape on her glasses. As normal vision didn't bring the results she was hoping for, she switched to night vision, showing a room full of chairs and tables partially covered with sheets. Probably a pub, a closed one by the look of it. Then she switched to infra red, and rounded it up with thermal vision.
Foodprints lead to the other end of the room, considering the space between the hotspots, he had taken too a faster pace as soon as he entered the room.
He knew he was being followed. She cursed.
A slight tickle of cold woke in the small of her back. Familiar and unwelcome, yet she knew resistance would only split her resources, and that would make her sloppy. She ignored the cold, going over her tactical options. A few passersby threw her strange looks. If she didn't want them to call the cops, she should probably get up and away from the door.
A bright smile aimed at the people made them quickly return to their own business. Sazikane uncliped her datapad and hailed her slicer.
'Give me the blocks blueprints', not explicite telling where she was, her slicer would know it better than herself. Then she joined a young couple in-front of a store. Only halfheartedly looking over the goods displayed, her real focus stayed on the door to the pub. Yet nothing there seem to move.
A few minutes of nerve-wreaking wait passed by, till a low peep confirmed the arrival of her desired data. She used her implant to connect the pad with her glasses and went over the prints.
All houses on the left side of the street had a connection to the sewers. The blueprint of the house with the open door, flashed in red giving details about it. She let the tactical intel run past her brain unfiltered, leaving it to her training to pinpoint anything useful. Seconds later she send a request for details on the second house to the left of the red entrance.
Seconds passed. Sewers, Sazikane hated them. She thought about the possibilies of ordering her mandalorian armor, yet should her target leave the sewer and go to a public place, Sazi was sure to gain unwanted attention by this planets authorities, flashing all her beautiful weapons and tech.
If he stayed down there and encountered her in a fight, she might be lacking defenses she needed.
Just to make thinks even more juicy, this warrant was an 'alive only'. The first foreshadowing of the hunts difficulties filtering through her thoughts.
Another peep announced another steam of intel, which she relayed to her glasses. The couple has long since gone down the street, leaving her alone in front of the store. She turned and walked down the stairs to the abandoned warehouse, pulling her datapad and holding it in front of the doors primitive electronic lock. Seconds traveled by before the light flashed from red to green. A small smile played over her lips. Sazikane loved to work with experts. She opened the door carefully. Surprisingly this door swung inwards without as much as a sound. The light from the entrance showed dark gray concrete with a thick layer of dust on top. Automatically she checked for wires and other hints of this place being booby-trapped. Coming up empty, she entered and closed the door behind her. Wouldn't do to make the authorities drop on her, collateral damage was bad for her line of business. The warehouses lightning was a lot better than the pubs, it smelled of old fabric and dust. Following the path to the lower levels she kept her senses alerted but her mind on the decision she was about to make.
Go in after him, or wait for her armor? All had equal amounts of pro's and con's. Her fingers extracted a golden coin perfectly fitting into the palm of her hand. One side was showing the 8 sided star representing life, the other side was the emptiness of the void, symbole for Death. She threw the coin.
"Tail for in", she muttered to the universe and closed her eyes while the coin was middle air. It landed in her palm with a soft sound of metal hitting leather. She opened her eyes and looked at the eight-sided star. A sigh left her lips, as she put the coin back into her pocket.
"As good a day to die, as any", she gave the primitive door which would lead to the sewers a soft push. This one also swung soundless, giving way to a bunch of stone steps.
Sazikane drew her blaster and mad her way down, keeping to the wall to provide cover to her back. Before she reached the end she had to switch her glasses to night vision, enhancing what little light still entered through the warehouse. She passed an open metal door and was surrounded by the smell of human excrements. A shudder ran down her spine as she imagined what wildlife might life down her. Sazikane didn't worry about security, somehow open doors didn't point toward the authorities paying this place much a mind. That counted wanton sloppery in her eyes. She gave a shrug and switched to thermal as even night vision went black. At least this way she wouldn't fall into the slowly flowing liquid, which was considerably warmer than the surrounding stone. Her eyes focused on the small traces of humanoid footprints coloring the stone a spotty green on the blue. She gave a smile and followed them.
It looked like he was taking to a fast pace, but Sazikane saw no need to run headfirst into a trap, times with her teacher who focused on explosives, has taught her to mind her steps and always be on a paranoid lookout for wires. Slowly decending the walkway down into the earth, the waterway became wider every few meters. The small inflows of water, were to small to hide much in them, so Sazikane only paid them little mind.
The ambient low sound of running water grew louder and louder until she could have screamed without anyone hearing it. The cold at the back increased in intensity. This was a formidable place for an ambush. If she lost her glasses she would be blind and deaf, and going over the barrier would make for quite a deep fall by the sound of it. She put her back to the wall and walked sideways like a crab, activating the tactical program of her implant to spare herself the search for traps. Than she resumed following the heat-signature on the floor. The steps weren't as widely apart as before, which just proved her suspicion correct.
The cold became more noticeable with her paranoia kicking in. A hint of air hit her cheeks, smelling of sweat and sickness, her pulse gave a jerk. She dropped to her knees a vastly familiar sound penetrated the roaring waterfall, she rolled to the side, a flash of red followed her movement, missed her and cut the concrete, leaving a red line. Instinctively she fell into full bloomed battle trance. Giving the center of her attention a slow down in time, while the rest of the world faded out into nothingness.
She took another evasive roll to the right and pulled her vibro knife, the blade came alife, she took another roll this time full body contact on the floor giving the slightly enlightened feet of her target a stab. It landed and caused her enemy to curse in imperial accented basic.
He took another angry swing with the red stick, Sazikane pulled back her middle and spin in a wide circle both times evading a hit. She was about to take a roundhouse kick to his knee pit but redirected the attack into another evasion as his chosen weapon finally filtered through her brain. Lightsaber! He took a defensive sweep as if he seek to block Sazikane attack.
A SITH. The damn hit was a sith. That explained a lot. And she was unprepared and vastly undergeared! She took a roll away from him as he tried to slice her in half with an overhead attack. Her free hand went to her left boot and pulled a blowgun loaded with sleepdarts. She gave the thing a rapid flicker of her wrist and watch the dart collect with his lightsaber. Sazikane had little hope for them to hit, since she knew they could easily defend themselves against blasterbolts. Yet her attack proved to push him on the defensive. His feet and hands took the traditional stance of Soresu. Now she had to keep him on the defensive till she could think of something else to do. The mandalorian went in for the attack, trying to hit home, knowing it wouldn't connect, yet keeping the fast paced hits going. She knew that style was invented to tire out their opponents, that they would wait for an opening to strike. She would have to create that one, to lure him into false victory. Sweat was rolling down her face, she moved her foot a slightly bit too much to the right, and prepared herself for a counter. Like a beautiful stage-play he went for the attack she anticipated, giving him the falls impression of being weak on her left side. Her fingers let go of her blade in the right hand and caught it in her left one while she gave her full bodyweight to the fall. She used the angle to penetrated his left middle section with her knife. His lightsaber missing her only by inches.
He gave a painful scream and hold his side with the offhand, his anger becoming an almost visible thing. Sazikane had taken the hit with the floor and used the physical energy to bring distance between the Sith and her. A slight change of his feet announced a switch of saber styles. It wasn't a style she recognized, so she went for her blaster, switching fires to auto and pulled the trigger. The Sith staggered back after being hit at different locations on his body. Sazikane had yet to witness again, how fast a force user could move if they wanted to. His saber rose right in time to intercept any vital hits. The rest of the shots were rendered useless by the underlying armor. He gave a roar and extended an arm, she knew already what would follow and tried to dive to the left. Another intensive source of light burning itself into her retina. And than there was pain, endless pain. She had been too slow.
Her mind fell numb as he glutted her with lightning. Turning every sensation into agony. Her weapons went flying as she hit the floor. The torrent of energy stopped leaving the huntress twitching on the floor for some time. A cruel smile played on the Sith's lips. She was good. Better than most. But she wouldn't beat him.
"Another hunter. Tell me who send you!", his voice sounded almost gentle but his reaction, when she failed to give the desired answer was not. Another steam of lightning hit her body.
Sazikane would have screamed her lungs out, if she had enough air left in them. Right now she had to fight for every small amount of oxygen. Hell, she had suffered chokes on occasions, which were annoying on their own. But lightning freaking hurt!
Her vision was running in colored stripes and black spots. Hours seem to pass till it turned back to semi normal, she felt her muscles giving involuntary twitches. Her limbs numb even though every cell was screaming in pain.
His orange eyes were almost close enough for her to headbutt him, sadly her body was giving her commands zero heed, so she was forced to notice that she was hanging middle-air defenseless. The huntress hoped he wouldn't drop her down the waterfall. Her burning skin would infect or she would simply drown… in human excrement.
He released the force hold and she prepared to hit water. Luckily her fall was short and the landing hard.
"I WANT A NAME!" he roared at her. And still she wasn't yielding. She would have told him, if she knew, but the association usually kept the clients name off any adds. Also she couldn't have formed a word even if her life depended on it.
He licked his lips
"Oh I will have a lot of fun with you", her eyes translated the tongue into black snakes winding over cracked flash. He gave her a painful kick to the rips. Her vision went black again.
She woke to a stab of cold in the back of her skull, first she thought he had put her own vibroblade in her brains, but it took only a split second to recognized the Touchs full bloom.
The rest of Sazikane's thoughts felt like bubblegum, cause it took her a few seconds longer to notice she was face down in the dirt. The Cold did not stop at its already painful level and got even more potent. It helped her a little to shake off the bubblegum.
The huntress suffered another kick to the rips, and than a boot on her rip cage. A stab of fear traveled to her stomach as she saw him playing with lightning again. The Sith made it jump in between his hands, fingertips extended. Yet a part of her knew as long as he kept playing with her, she would be in pain, but still alive.
"Talk! You scum!", and he threw the force at her. Sazikane's vision slowed down even more, she could watch how he extended one of his fingers toward her and how the lightning build a small arch between him and her body. It was almost beautiful. The Cold seem to open like a flower inside of her thoughts, its pain drowned out the lingering seering fires of his lightning. Was she offered a choice what power to die by? The choice was made before the thought was even finished, she knew the Cold. Her mental equivalent bit her lip and than reached for the core of it. She had the feeling of punching a wall made from liquid nitrogen. Going full on instincts she drew the Cold into herself. It polled into her chest and for a moment she thought her body was dissolving in acid. Yet it didn't matter, she was pure purpose, will made flesh, a suns fire in the void. The world went black and in the middle of that black her opponent took shape, glowing and flickering with life. She took her Cold and poured it over him. And than there was nothing.
Pain was the first thing she felt after the blackness started retrieving. It took all her will to simply keep breathing. Every small amount of air, seem to be burning its way down and up. Hours seem to pass until the pain slowly lessened, and she was able to focus her mind elsewhere. She welcomed it like an old friend, because it meant she was still counting the living.
She felt as if she had been burned alive, or alternatively flayed. Her eyes gave her the impression of being boiled in her skull. The thoughts of blindness swirled through her thoughts, evoking the first real emotion aside from pain. Fear.
If there was another Sith, or that one got up before her, she was toast. Even a baby could kill her easily right now. She felt weak in a way she had never experienced before.
A low amount of light interrupted the everlasting darkness, making her dismiss the idea of blindness.
"Cutter?", she knew the voice. Her slicer. The voice sounded positively worried. The young woman entered the place from a sidedoor, Sazikane haven't noticed. She proved to have better commonsense than Sazi, because she was wearing a full set of mandalorian armor, completed with helmet. The other woman kneed next to her and checked the pulse, breathing and eye reaction on her partner.
"You look like crap"
"Do tell...", hissed Sazikane in return. Her voice sounded like sandpaper. She fought her body for every centimeter and managed to sit against the wall. Her eyes traveled over to the Sith. The huntress noticed she didn't kill him. A flicker of life remained inside him, glowing like a candle.
"Freeze him", she whispered, not having enough energy to get up yet. The girl gave a nod, rose and went to checked his vitals. Another nod joined the first one, than she stood and activated her wristband. A low hiss indicated the release of liquid carbonite. The slicer activated the hover function on the carbonite-block and turned around to give the floor a sweeping glance. She found Sazikane's weapons and her glasses, and a zylidric object. The young woman took it off the floor and gave it a thoughtful inspection.
"For real?"
"Shit's a red", Sazi confirmed her suspicions. Her slicer gave a curse in mando'a and cliped the lightsaber to her belt. Then she continued retrieving Sazikane's equipment off the floor.
"Never gonna believe anything they say about you is overrated again", the laugh she gave sounded a little nervous as she helped the huntress to her feet.
A few days passed in which Sazikane busied herself with getting her health back into stable levels. They took to hyperspace most of the times, the low humming songs of it smoothed Sazikane's nerves immensely. She still couldn't explain how she sent a Sith into the dirt. Nor could she explain how she managed to survive in the first place. She shock her head and rose. No sense in dwelling on what price Death would demand for the usage of his power. But knowing him, he would prove his eccentric idea of humor yet again.
Her ice blue eyes lay on the carbonited enemy of hers, the finger of her left hand absently minded traveling over the cold steel of her mandalorian skinning knife. How badly she would love to take the blade to his skin, and make him scream on her terms. But she knew if she tried, he would simply force-roll her and her victory would turn a defeat all to quick. Also she didn't know if her contact would pay if she brought him in pieces. She let the blade disappear in the inner pocket of her black coat as her slicer entered the cargo bay.
"Time to turn shits in. I charge double. And if contact ain't paying, he gets priority on my list", her slicer gave a nervous smile. Before she established a secured connection to their contact
Two blue holograms came alive, one of them heavily interfered by static. The other showing Sazikane in mandalorian armor with helmet.
"Got your cargo save and sound. I demand hazard pay, that one was a hand full. Double of the original sum", her voice sounded matter of fact.
"Prove!", her contacts voice sounded less than happy about her demands. But she hadn't expected him to be. Even if he paid the demanded extra, chances was he would still land on her list anyways. Sending her against a Sith, and without adding that small little detail. Sazikane wouldn't have taken that suicide run had she known.
A flash of their prisoners bioprint run over the screen. Their contacts eyes seem to come alive with happiness.
"Impressive. I'm pleased, let me check on my account", her connection went on hold, the huntress looked at the screen and wished to strangle him. Pleased…. She had to fight the urge to give him a piece of her mind. His image returned and even through the bad connection and the blue of the hologram he looked paler than before.
"Denied!"
"Come again!"
"Denied. I can't pay more than originally agreed up on."
"Listen. You pay up or cargo goes out the airlock"
He got even more pale.
"No no… please….", he went silent for a moment.
"I give you different corrdinates for drop-off. You will have to talk payment over with my boss", hyperspace coordinates flashed over the screen. Sazikane instantly run it through the starmap and starred.
"Dromund Kaas?! That's not even funny!" she let a hint of the Cold enter her voice. She saw its effects on the man in form of a shudder. But probably he was more scared of what his boss might do to him, if she just threw the cargo out the airlock and disappear.
"My master wants to receive his price himself", he was sounding close to panic.
"Let me guess…. Sithlord?", a sarcastic undertone mixed beautifully with the Cold.
"Y… yes. Yes...", she put him on record and on mute to take a long hard think.
The huntress turned around and looked at the block of carbonite, halfway blocking the main airlock. She could still give him the boot. But if she did it, she would land on some Sithlords shitlist. Also she would be losing credits. 35 thousand was still better than zero. Even though her chances of sweet-talking a Sith into paying hazards was slim to nonexistent.
Memories of her fight and his ugly delight in her pain floated to the surface. If she kicked him in his carbonited state he would be floating in empty space till someone found him and brought him back to life. If she released him of the carbonite and aired him after, he would have a painful but way to quick dead ahead of him.
A cold smile gathered on her lips as she put her eyes back on the still talking Imp. This one was wanted ALIVE, any Sith wanting someone alive spelled pain and trouble for the receiving end. Her smile turned into a smirk as she made up her mind. Sazikane's goal had changed though, and he was on her list anyways. Maybe his boss would join it, depending how the meeting would go.
"Fine, give me the name of my contact", her voice sounding slightly less rough than before.