Prologue
"So, what do you think this beast is that Mandalore wants you to take down?" Mako asked curiously while pulling a mod for her tech out of her storage locker in the ship's cargo bay. When she'd first met the little cyborg Phystte had been hard on her. As a human bounty hunter, she'd been relegated to joining that motley team for a chance at the Great Hunt, but after everything that happened – from the Braden's murder to working for the Empire to scrounge up enough credits to make it day to day – Mako had transformed from annoying side-kick into full-fledged partner. And it surprised Phystte that she really appreciated having Mako around to count on.
They'd won The Great Hunt together. Even though it was her name posted with the few other notorious champions, Phystte knew she couldn't have made it this far without Mako's tech expertise and willingness to brave everything from killer droids and rival bounty hunters to vicious beasts and republic soldiers. They had started out as wary allies, now they were sisters-in-arms, though they didn't look much like sisters. The Hunter was nearly ten years her senior, darker complexioned, and she had the scars and wear to hint at a hard life. Phystte smirked slyly at her little tech, which definitely improved her looks. She'd been smiling a lot more of late with her. Not a bad thing, she thought.
"I don't know. But chances are if the Mandalorians haven't killed it yet, it's got to be big," Phystte marveled. "Could be anything, so best keep on our toes."
"Oh I'm always on my toes with you around," Mako laughed lightly.
"Hey, hey, what's all this giggling I'm hearing? Are you gals having a good time without me?"
Mako and Phystte heaved a collective sigh. Neither one of them were all that fond of Gault, though Phystte distinctly liked him less than Mako did. Not that he was a terrible guy… okay maybe he was a bit terrible, but for a Devaronian that's basically saying he wasn't half-bad. He gave them both a semi-disapproving glare and waved his hands at them in dismissal, only too used to their not-so-welcoming responses.
"Fine, fine. I'll leave you two alone to do whatever girly bonding thing it is you're doing," Gault announced.
"Sorry, Gault," Mako started.
"Why are you sorry?" Phystte asked. "He's lucky I actually agreed to his sleazy scheme. I would have much rather shot him and been done with it."
"Ouch," Gault replied. "Now you've gone and hurt my tender feelings. That's no way to make friends, my little hunter."
"Who says I need friends," Phystte quipped, used to being alone. Before anyone else could answer though she quickly added, "I've got Mako."
Phystte motioned to Mako with a jab of her thumb and Mako beamed at that. It had taken her a lot of time and effort to get through that thick durasteel armor Phystte had around her heart. She was undoubtedly a hardened woman, but Mako didn't mind. It took someone tempered like her to be able to take those bounty jobs and to make the tough calls. And really, once she got through it, Phystte was loyal to a fault. She'd never admit it, and would probably blast her to smithereens if she mentioned it to anyone, but Mako was pretty sure Phystte had a soft side to her. And she was determined to bring it out one of these days.
"You need more than one friend to get good around this galaxy," Gault informed her. "I make all these extra credits for you on the side, the least you can do is pretend you don't still want to shoot me and stuff my body in a crate."
"We made a deal, Gault. I would never blast you," she replied.
"Well that's a relief," Gault started but before he could feel comfortable Phystte spoke up again.
"I'd freeze you in carbonite and hang you on the wall… right over there," Phystte countered with a smile, pointing at a nice big empty spot near the cargo locker. If she hadn't smiled, Gault would have been worried. As it was though, he hoped she was developing at least a small sense of humor.
"At least there would be a chance someone might thaw me out. A slim chance, but a chance none-the-less," Gault supposed. "Now if you ladies don't mind, I think I've had my fill of our hunter's entertaining personality for one day."
"Ah, leaving so soon?" Mako giggled a little. Gault just shook his head and walked back toward his bunk. Once he was mostly out of ear-shot Mako spoke quietly. "You should really think about going easier on the guy."
"Why? He can obviously hold his own. And after everything he put me through on Tatooine, he deserves a bit of razzing."
"Maybe," Mako agreed tentatively. "But he's been with us for over a month now and we're kind of stuck with him. You can't let him go in case he decides to reveal that you didn't kill him. And if he's going to be a permanent part of the crew, it'd probably be best to stay on his good side. After all, he's right and we don't have so many friends as to not need another one."
Phystte knew Mako was right about that and she sighed, giving in. Had Mako said the same things back on Dromund Kaas when they were here the first time, Phystte would have told her off and probably booted both her and Gault off the ship, had he even been on the ship then. As it was, she'd never felt like she had people she could depend on until now. Maybe she was letting her guard down too much. But Mako hadn't let her down once so far, and Gault could have back-stabbed her plenty of times already but instead he continued to help out despite her less than friendly attitude toward him.
"Yeah, I'll work on that, I guess," Phystte conceded. "But only if you do the same. After all, I'm not the only one giving Gault a hard time."
"It's a deal then," Mako stated. She fiddled with her vibroblade, shining it up. "So back to Dromund Kaas. You know I actually liked it there."
"I'm right there with you. After slugging through planets like Tatooine, I'll take Dromund Kaas anyday," Phystte agreed.
"So does that mean I get to come with you on this one?" Mako asked eagerly. Phystte had been taking Gault along lately, mostly because his sniping came in handy on the rugged terrain of Alderaan, but also to keep a close eye on him. However, he'd proven for the most part that she could trust him to keep to his word. Not that she trusted him implicitly at this point, but she didn't feel like he'd run off with her ship if she went planetside anymore. Mako also took that extra down time trying to slice into SIS's databases for more information on that Project 32. With her doing all she could for the moment though, and being back in familiar territory, she wanted to get back in on the action now.
"Sure," Phystte answered. "Besides, we started this together."
"Yeah, I know, but the Great Hunt is over and you're the Champion now," Mako reminded her. "I'll understand if you want me to stay behind."
"Nope," the Hunter reiterated. "I want you right there with me. Besides, animals usually want to get up close and personal. I'll need your healing skills to take on whatever this beast thing is."
"Alright!" Mako chirped loudly. Phystte's raised brow made her stop mid-jump and clear her throat. "I mean, I'll go get ready."
They arrived at the Mandalorian camp by late morning. Phystte wasn't exactly happy with the terse welcome Jogo gave them. That Torian kid almost made up for his friend's blundering… almost. Mako was a complete mess with all the young men around. Phystte couldn't remember the last time she saw her blush so much. She shook her head and pulled her along toward the cave. When they got there, Mako found her head again.
"I wonder why there are so many Mandalorians here?" Mako thought out loud.
"Heard them calling this beast a sith-spawn. Must be big if they've got their men stationed all over," Phystte commented quietly as they crept through the cave.
"How will we know which beast it is?" Mako whispered, the darkness closing in around them as they delved in deeper.
"With a name like the Ghost of the Darkness, we're sure to know it when we see it. Now we just have to make sure we live long enough to tell everyone about it."
"No kidding," Mako agreed. Then she smirked slyly. "So that Torian guy…. He's kind of cute."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Just that you weren't nearly as mean to him as you usually are to everyone else," Mako replied.
"I'm not mean to everyone," Phystte countered. "I'm just not nice."
"What are you talking about, you're like the galaxy's biggest hard-ass. It seriously took me two months before I could get you to crack a smile!"
"If all you were looking for was a smile, you could have just bought me a drink, Mako," Phystte laughed softly. "I smile a lot more once I've put away a few pints."
"So what's your excuse for smiling now?" Mako said a little angrily.
"Now I just like you… and you finally used a dirty word," Phystte smirked at her friend and Mako's angry brows softened until she smiled back.
Her eyes immediately looked suspicious though, "And you've completely dodged the question…"
"Look out!"
Phystte pushed Mako down and she didn't even realize what was happening until she heard blaster fire. Mako screeched slightly, but she didn't have time to really let any of her fear kick in since before she knew it, Phystte called out for some help while in the middle of fighting some of the beasts. She recalled the Mandalorians saying those ones at the entrance were the smaller ones, but they were more than four times the size of the Hunter. As Phystte blasted away, Mako remembered now how handy is was that the bounty hunter was like a walking arsenal. The monsters growled loudly against the blaster fire but they were no match for Phystte's pistols and missiles.
The Hunter huffed at the end of the battle, popping one of the dying, but not quite dead creatures in the head and silencing its pitiful growls. "You were saying something?"
"Wha… oh… um…."
Phystte smiled. "It's okay, kiddo. If you can't remember, then it probably wasn't important."
Mako shook her head. "Nuh-uh. You're not getting out of that so fast."
"Getting out of what so fast?"
"You know what!" Mako nearly shouted and Phystte shushed her.
"Geez, you want to bring the whole cave in on us?" She motioned her hand to keep quiet. "Knock it down a notch."
"Sorry…" Mako whispered sheepishly. "But you know exactly what I'm talking about, Phystte."
"Okay fine, if it'll keep you quiet - yes he's cute," Phystte replied. "For a Mandalorian."
"I knew it!" Mako quietly yipped. "You're never that nice!"
"Hey… I'm nice sometimes," Phystte countered back emphatically, though trying to keep her voice down as well.
The cave was filled with the creatures though and they spent a good portion of their time trekking through the cave fighting them. Mako managed to take down one on her own to her immense satisfaction. She guessed all that training with Phystte was finally starting to sink in. Though she still worked much better on the tech side of things, it was nice to have some blaster tricks to help her round out her skill set.
Throughout the cave they popped some spore-like plants which seemed to affect the beasts, and examined some toxic seeds. Phystte jerry-rigged some of the seeds into some aerosol canisters they found laying around the cave, hoping it would help against whatever lay deep inside. They came to huge dark opening and peered inside. Phystte put her arm out, stopping Mako, then pointed to a very large looking boulder. For a moment Mako wondered what it was Phystte was trying to point out to her, until she saw it. The massive boulder that seemed to span half the cave wall had eyes. It must have caught their scent, because it suddenly rose and lumbered toward them.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Phystte gasped at seeing the true size of the creature before letting loose a barrage of missiles at the giant thing and rolling away from a colossal swipe of its massive claws. She let loose the contents of the spray, hoping it might help out, not that she would know the difference at this point. Slamming it with everything she had loaded at the moment, Phystte tried to dodge another swing of the Ghost's claws. She couldn't move fast enough though and she grunted out in pain as the impact tossed her into a nearby rock.
Mako screamed something inaudible while tossing a kolto grenade at Phystte which brought her to her senses quickly. She couldn't let anything happen to Mako. Jumping back up she stunned the beast with her electrodart and ran up to it, ramming its back with a rocket punch before hitting it again with a reload of missiles to distract it from her little tech. The creature turned and she ducked away from its clumsy attempt to catch her. Backing up she aimed for one of the beast's eyes and took it out with a power shot from her blaster. It reared up, roaring and clawing at its face.
Phystte smirked even as she huffed for breath. "Looks like you have a weak spot, beastie."
With that she reloaded her missiles and rockets and aimed for its belly. She barraged it until he roared again, opening his gigantic jaws. "Say ah," Phystte quipped before letting loose an explosive missile down the monster's throat. It detonated on impact with the creature's mouth and it shook its giant bloody head, angrier than ever. Blinking its one good eye, it focused its rage on the Hunter standing before it. The Ghost of the Darkness roared, the sound reverberating through the cave causing the walls to quake and bits of rock and dust to fall, then rushed toward Phystte.
"Oh shit," she managed to say. Hitting the button for her jet pack, she flew up and let loose another round of rockets, but it wasn't enough. The beast had gone berserk. It grabbed her foot and flung her down to the ground, slamming her like a little rag doll once then twice. Suddenly, it dropped her and Phystte struggled to breathe and crawl away when she felt the relief of kolto enveloping her. She looked up to see that Mako had stunned the monster for a few brief seconds and knowing this was probably her last chance to take it down before it rushed her partner, Phystte rolled over on her back so she could face the beast and let loose everything she had left.
Six missiles and two different types of exploding rockets plus an incapacitating rail shot. Even after all that the Ghost of the Darkness still stood, though it wavered a bit. Shaking its head it made another terrifying roar, and the Hunter resisted the intense urge to curl into a ball and cover her ears. As it stood back up, seemingly confused, Phystte aimed one last power shot to the Ghost's other bright yellow eye and it finally faltered about and fell, the cave shuddering lightly when it hit the ground. Mako rushed to her side and Phystte let her head fall back with relief, her body feeling like it had been trampled by banthas. The instant burning of med pacs and kolto brought an unhappy groan from Phystte's lips and she grit her teeth against the strange knitting pain until the cool relief kicked in. She sighed and coughed up a puddle of blood.
"Don't you ever scare me like that again!" Mako started.
Phystte coughed again instead of laughing like she meant to. "Me? Wasn't that thing scary enough?"
"I'm serious. After everything we've been through together, you can't die on me now," Mako protested a bit angrily. Phystte could hear the tears in her voice even though she couldn't see them on her face with the darkness of the cave and the grime covering them both.
The Hunter chuckled softly at that. "I'm not dead." She tried to get up, but everything still hurt. Her nerves felt raw and her bones protested movement. Slumping back down into the cold hard ground, Phystte grimaced. "I think I'll just…lay here for a while."
Mako sighed and gave her another round of kolto, "Come on. If you don't walk out of here soon, the Mandalorians will think you got eaten and Mandalore won't finalize your big payoff."
"Can't have them giving my credits to someone else now, can I," Phystte mumbled as she rolled over with a sharp grunt. She heaved a big breath then pushed herself up on her feet, shaky at first but somewhat able to regain her balance. Mako tried to slip under her right arm to help support her but an unhealthy groan from Phystte caused her to rethink the action. Instead she simply stood close enough to try and support her if she needed it and applied another rapid scan to try and staunch the worst of the pain. Burning flicks of lightning shot through Phystte's leg when she stepped forward, but each new step seemed to dull the intense pain a bit more. Either that or she was just getting used to feeling like hell. "Let's not do that again… ever."
"I agree," Mako chirped.
Phystte stumbled over to the Ghost of the Darkness, blasted a few extra times in the head just to be certain it was dead, then pulled out her vibroblade and started cutting into its chest. Chopping at its chest made all sorts of unpleasant noises and Mako turned away as Phystte reached into the big hole she'd just made. Pulling out the heart with a sickeningly strange sucking sound, she wavered back a little. "Gah, that stinks. Whosever idea it was to keep dead animal parts as trophies is just crazy."
"Ugh…" Mako noted in agreement, trying to cover her nose. "Here, we can use this to carry it in." She held out an old sack, no doubt something they picked up on the way in to maybe sell at the markets later. Mako had gotten really good at scavenging useful things here and there. Phystte dumped the smelly, bloody heart into the bag then twisted the top up to seal in the worst of the reek. Together they made their way back through the cave, Mako giving her a med scan when she could. The Hunter would need real rest and better kolto treatments than they had out here on the field to repair some of the injuries she'd sustained.
Phystte limped, favoring her left side a bit, but as they neared the entrance to the cave, she tried walking more upright. It helped that the Mandalorians all started cheering as they came out of the cave. So much that Phystte resisted the urge to limp at all, despite it hurting to walk that way. Mako hit her up with a bit more kolto, which helped, but she'd need a full round of treatments when she got back to the ship to take care of all that internal damage. Mako nudged her when she spotted Torian at the other end of the camp with Jogo. Phystte gave her a tired raised brow and sighed. The last thing on her mind right now was impressing some young man, especially looking the way she did covered in grime, blood, and ash.
Jogo couldn't seem to believe it which made her want to deck him despite the soreness in her arms. Torian at least was respectful and Phystte had to admit to herself that so far out of all these Mandalorians, she liked this guy – sensible, yet not afraid to speak up. Of course it could be that next to Jogo, any man seemed like an improvement. The added plus was that the kid was definitely easy on the eyes. For a few moments she wondered what the scars meant. Some mandalorian ritual? They were going on about her victory, but after a couple minutes everything started to get fuzzy around the edges and all she could think about was getting back to the ship so that Mako or Toovee could fix her up.
By the time they left the camp, Phystte was limping and favoring her left side again and her vision swam with strange blue halos. Mako looked at her a bit concerned and gave her another healing scan. The halos diffused a little and Phystte blinked rapidly, refusing to pass out just yet. "Sure you don't want to hit the med center here in the city? It's closer than the spaceport," Mako suggested but Phystte just shook her head and regretted it, her stomach protesting that much back and forth movement.
"The sooner we're back on the ship, the sooner we can get back to the Spirit of Vengeance," Phystte stated. Hearing her goal out loud seemed to bolster her resolve and she stood slightly straighter and marched a bit more briskly in the direction of the nearest speeder checkpoint. "Besides, I could really go for some of Toovee's new Alderaanian stew."
"Still can't believe it," Mako mused, catching the Hunter's arm as she tripped on an upturned root and helping her rebalance herself.
"I know, that thing was a real monster," Phystte agreed and silently thought she had the injuries to prove it. "I'm almost surprised we got out of there alive."
"Oh, yeah it was, but that's not what I was talking about."
Phystte raised an inquiring brow. "What were you talking about?"
"I still can't believe you were actually nice to that guy!" Mako teased with a wide grin plastered on her face. Phystte just shook her head.