This story is a salute to two of the greatest scifi masterpieces of all time; Cowboy Bebop and Star Wars.
Daren Stone walked onto the lift, the doors sliding close behind him.
"Floor 147," he said in a calm, slightly bored voice.
Daren stood just under 6 feet tall, and had a medium, muscular build that gave off a thin appearance, shaggy dark blonde hair, a strong jaw line, and 3 day facial hair. He was dressed entirely in black. Black pants with several pockets running along the sides. Black combat boots. A black t-shirt that showed off his abs. And a black jacket that didn't button up. He looked like a man going to a funeral.
Darren reached into his jacket and pulled out a pack of cig sticks, he held the pack over his hand and shook one out, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter, he put the cig stick to his lips and lit it up.
"Those things will kill you, you know," said the COMlink in Daren's ear.
"Says the man who goes through two packs a day," said Daren breathing out the smoke.
"Hey, I'm quitting."
"Yeah, me too," said Daren, loudly inhaling the smoke.
Daren reached into his jacket and pulled out a small metal object the size of a kiwi, he pressed in on it with his thumb and it began flashing red. The doors to the lift slid open and Daren tossed the object around the corner.
KABOOOOOOOM!!!!
"What the hell was that!?" shouted the voice over Daren's COMlink.
"Someone just threw a thermal detonator," said Daren grinning slightly.
Daren reached to his side and pulled out a D97 Czerka Anti-personnel Heavy Blaster, then with a mad glint in his eye rushed out of the lift and into the smoke caused by the thermal detonator, 6 bodies lay groaning on the floor and ahead of Daren were three guards taking aim at him with their blasters. Daren flicked the setting on his blaster to concussion and shot the nearest one in the chest, the force of the shot sent the man flying through the air, a smoking hole in his uniform. Without slowing down Daren kicked up with his leg, his boot connecting with the next guard's jaw, ducking underneath the man's falling body he took out the 3rd guard with a vicious uppercut to the chin. The entire fight took 2.5 seconds.
Daren continued running down the hall, closing in on his target.
Laughter burst from Daren's COMlink.
"You're gonna love this! Greedo's guards just found out about the 500,000 credit bounty on his head, they've decided to collect for themselves!" cackled the voice.
Daren chuckled, "It's an ironic little galaxy, isn't it?"
"The guards are moving Greedo to Hangar D for transport, there's a lift about 200 feet away that will take you directly there, shouldn't be anyone between you and the lift."
Daren rounded the corner to the lift and came face to face with at least 20 guards, for a split second Daren and the guards stared at each other, then the guards opened fire. Daren quickly ducked back around the corner.
"Daren hold on a moment, I just picked up some com traffic from the guards there should be about 20 guards stationed at the lift."
"Thanks for the heads up Jace," said Daren dryly.
Ding
Daren heard the doors to the lift slide open followed by a lot of gunfire. Daren peaked around the corner and saw the guards facing off against a group of mercenaries that had just come off the lift.
"Shit, how many bounty hunters are there in this building?"
"Greedo only owns floor 147, floors 62, 91, and 133 are occupied by mercenary companies, so I'd say you're looking at at least 800 people."
"Nothing like a little competition," muttered Daren.
The gunfire stopped and Daren looked around the corner, to find everyone dead. Daren walked through the dead bodies, his blaster pointed to the corpses, careful for any survivors; he got to the lift and cursed. The control panel had been destroyed, the lift wasn't going anywhere.
"The lift is broken."
"Then take the stairs Hangar D is 5 floors above you,"
Daren muttered what might have been a huttese swear word, then took off towards the stairwell.
-
Jace Conway punched in the ignition sequence on his dashboard; he felt the deck shake as the Ragtime's engines warmed up. At 6"3 Jace was a muscular man, his strong arms looked like they were capable of inflicting a lot of pain, and the rest of his appearance didn't do much to change that impression. He had close cropped a short goatee and wore light brown khaki pants, with a dark brown tank top, and black combat boots. But his most defining feature was his left eye, which was absent from his face, it had been replaced with a glowing red electronic eye, the bone and skin around his left eye had been replaced with polished grey metal.
Jace's hand wrapped around the Ragtime's controls, "Showtime," he said in his deep voice.
Jace had purchased the Ragtime 3 ½ years ago. It was a Republic Bulk Freighter left over from the Mandalorian Wars 10 years ago. She had 8 laser cannons wired to eight droid brains, and a small hangar deck capable of holding 4 starfighters, though currently only two were docked there. Jace had found the old girl rusting in a junk yard on Selonia, he bought the ship for the rock bottom price of 50,000 credits, to this day the previous owner swears he got the better deal.
Jace felt the ship give a violent shudder and the engines shutdown.
"So that's how you want to play it?" he shouted into thin air.
Jace reached to the side of his chair and pulled out a metal pipe, he took the pipe and started violently beating the durasteel dashboard; he was suddenly knocked to the floor as the engines started back up and the ship rose into the air.
"That's what I thought," he growled, getting back into his seat and taking hold of the controls.
Jace keyed his ear COMlink.
"Daren I'm on my way, how close are you to the hangar?"
"It's two floors above me," came the panting reply.
It sounded like Daren was running up the stairs the whole way.
Jace smiled, "No pain, no gain,"
"Go to hell," was Daren's reply.
Jace grinned and stared out the view port, and out over the endless ocean before him, Jace loved water worlds, he had grown up by the ocean on Corellia, and whenever he saw water worlds like Manaan he felt like he was home.
BOOOSSSHH
Jace heard the sonic boom and a second later he saw the source, a dark blue four winged starfighter with a tinted bulb shaped canopy flew over the Ragtime, and it looked like they were both headed in the same direction.
"Greedo is one popular guy," Jace mused.
-
Drool was dripping from Greedo's snout as the fat rodian was pushed along by his so called "guards."
"I'll double what you'll get from the bounty what is it? 500,000? I'll give you a million!"
The lead guard snorted, "And how are you going to do that? The government froze all your accounts when they issued the bounty, and I already know you were too cheap and stupid to have any off world accounts. Just consider the bounty a pay bonus, FOR US PUTTING UP WITH YOUR SLIMY ASS FOR 5 GOD DAMN YEARS!"
I really should start treating my employees better, thought Greedo. Greedo used to act as the distributor for Terron Enterprises, the largest kolto manufacturer on Manaan, then they found out he had embezzled over 20,000,000 million credits from the profits, needless to say they were less than pleased, they went to the government, and the government froze his accounts and issued a 500,000 credit bounty on his head. All said Greedo was having a really bad day.
"2 million?"
"One more word and I'll start blasting off fingers," snapped the guard.
-
The doors to the hangar stairwell slid apart and Daren came charging through, blaster in hand. The doors to the hangar were open and a salty breeze was coming in from the ocean, besides crates the only thing in the hangar was a single starship, its boarding ramp was lowered and two armed guards standing guard at its foot. The doors on the other side of the hangar slid open and 8 armed guards accompanying a fat Rodian strolled through, the two guards by the ramp ran to meet them. Daren took a guess at the strength of the starships hull and reached into his jacket and took out 3 ion grenades and a sonic grenade, keying their magnetic locks he lobbed them across the hangar at the starship where they magnetically attached themselves to the hull and started flashing red.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOM
The starship's hull was enveloped in a fiery electrical storm, the blast made all the guards drop to the ground for cover. Daren flipped his blaster to fully automatic and fired a stream of blaster bolts over there head to keep them there.
"You know the drill, hands where I can see them, don't try anything stupid or people start dieing etcetera, etcetera."
He saw a woman casually reaching to her side.
"If you like having your brain inside your head, I'd take your hand away from that blaster,"
The woman reluctantly withdrew her hand.
"I'm a licensed Bounty Hunter, that means I have the legal authority to arrest anyone I see committing a crime, and what I see here is a group of armed people aiding in the escape of a dangerous fugitive," said Daren
"We weren't helping him escape! We were trying to turn him in!"
"I'm just telling you what I see," said Daren shrugging.
"However I'm willing to let bygones be bygones, all I want is the rodian, just as soon as he's secure you all can go on your merry way,"
"Fracking bounty hunters," muttered the guy apparently in charge.
Daren keyed his COMlink, "Jace, I got Greedo, it looks like we'll be eating good tonight," said Daren grinning.
"Daren, I think you got incoming,"
"Huh?"
Daren heard the roar of ion engines, a dark blue four winged starfighter with a tinted bulb shaped canopy appeared at the entrance of the hangar.
"I knew this felt to easy," sighed Daren.
-
Talla Ronin watched the scene before her with interest. Talla was a blue skinned twi'lek; she had the kind of body that drove menwild, flawless skin, legs that went on forever, perfect breasts, full lips, beautiful nose, intelligent almond shaped eyes. Her beauty made her job much easier; not many fugitives expected a bounty hunter to come packaged in a body like Talla's.
She smiled triumphantly, "All I want is the rodian, the rest of you can leave."
"Kiss my ass!" shouted the man in black.
Talla opened her mouth in outrage.
"Look buddy, maybe you don't get it, I have enough firepower in here take out the whole damn hangar!"
"What's your point?" he asked.
"This is my point!"
Talla aimed her laser cannons at the small starship in the hangar; she opened fire on it, turning it into fiery molten slag.
While Talla was aiming at the starship the man in black had reached into his jacket and pulled out a thermal detonator he threw it at Talla's ship where it magnetically attached itself to the hull. Talla immediately turned the laser cannons towards him and saw him shaking a radio device at her.
"This detonator has a range of 5 miles; I suggest you get moving because in thirty seconds, I'm going to push this switch, and if you're in range during that time they'll be picking pieces of you and your ship off the street."
"Oh, you are sooo going to pay for this," shouted Talla, laughing hysterically
"Tick tock, tick tock," said the man in black smiling
Talla keyed the engines and blasted away from the hangar.
-
"Whoever that was is going to be really pissed when they figure out that detonator was a dud," commented Daren
Using the distraction the lead guard pulled out his blaster and aimed it at Daren.
"Sorry Bounty Hunter, but I'm not going to let you have this one, I've been putting up with this fat bastard's shit for 5 years, this bounty is mine,"
"I thought we were supposed to share it!" shouted an indignant guard.
"The guy with the gun makes the rules," said the lead guard.
"Wait a minute, who are you calling fat!" shouted Greedo outraged.
"SHUT UP!" shouted Daren and the lead guard.
"You'll be dead before you can pull the trigger," said Daren narrowing his eyes
"We'll see," said the lead guard
"YOU CAN BOTH GO TO HELL!" shouted a guard, pissed off by his leaders betrayal, he reached into his uniform and pulled out a thermal detonator.
Daren shot the blaster out of the lead guard's hand but the guy with the detonator surprised by the shot, accidentally keyed the detonator and dropped it to the floor where it magnetically sealed itself to the deck.
Daren stared at it for a split second, "Shit," he growled, then hauled ass in the opposite direction.
KABOOOOOM
The blast sent Daren rolling across the floor, but the only thing that he hurt was his pride. Daren got up and stared in the direction of the blast, everyone but him was a charred corpse; he stared at Greedo's bloated, burning body for a few seconds, then turned around.
Daren keyed his COMlink.
"Jace did that bounty say dead or alive?"
"No, it said alive,"
"That's what I thought."
-
Talla pulled the detonator off her ship and saw stamped in white letters across the detonator DEFECTIVE. Her right eye twitched in barely concealed rage, she couldn't believe that son of a bitch pulled one over on her. Defective thermal detonators were really useful when you wanted to make somebody pee their pants, and they were cheap to come by too. Talla angrily threw the detonator into the ocean and took a deep breath, opening her eyes she climbed on top of her starfighter and relaxed against the canopy.
"You win some you lose some," she said, trying to console herself.
But if she ever came across that bounty hunter again he would be the one doing the losing. Talla reached into her dark blue jacket and pulled out a remote, she used it to turn on her starfighter's radio, dialing up the volume she leaned back and listened to the afternoon news.
Talla wore her usual outfit; a pair of tight fitting shorts dark blue shorts that didn't reach her knees, with a holster containing a blaster hanging loosely from the side, stylistic black combat boots, an extremely tight fitting light blue tank top, that started above her navel and drew most peoples eyes to her ample cleavage, and a light dark blue jacket.
"And in other news today, former Terron Enterprises executive Greedo Burlak was killed today in an explosion in one of Xerox Tower's hangars, there by rendering the substantial bounty on his head, void."
Talla perked up, maybe today wasn't such a bad day after all.
-
Jace stood over the stove in the Ragtime's kitchen; he reached for a shaker of spice.
Jace poured some spice over the simmering vegetables and noodles, he shook the pan around making sure to cook all sides; then poured the food into two bowls.
"Dinner's on!" shouted Jace
Jace grabbed the bowls and walked into the center of the ship, the area served as a makeshift living room, with two couches a coffee table, and a view screen hanging overhead.
Daren was fast asleep on one of the couches, sleeping seemed to be the man's only hobby. Daren shifted on the couch.
"Sarah…." He muttered in his sleep.
Jace set the bowls down on the table and shook Daren's shoulder.
Daren grunted and sat up.
"Food," said Jas, sliding Daren's bowl across the table at him.
"Where's the meat?" asked Daren staring at the bowl.
"You have to bring in bounties if you want meat," growled Jace, digging into his bowl.
Daren took a bite of the food, chewing carefully, then, reasonably sure that the food was edible he dug in.
"You said that name again," commented Jace.
Daren spooned some more food into his mouth.
"You'll have to tell me about this mysterious Sarah one of these days," said Jace finishing off his bowl.
Daren put down his bowl and grabbed the remote from the table; he used it to turn on the view screen, he then laid back on the couch.
Jace shook his head and grabbed his notebook computer from off the table; he set it on his lap and opened it up.
The screen glowed blue and an emotionless voice issued from the computer, "Welcome Jace,"
Jace signed on to the Manaan System Net, the computer network for the Manaan Star System. Jace ran a search program, looking for bounties, private security work, and freight, the kind of stuff he and Daren were suited to handle. The search finished and Jace scanned the results, he read them out loud for Daren.
"There are 32 bounties left in the system, all of them small fry's, nothing over 20,000 credits."
10 years ago that would have been enough credits to bring hundreds bounty hunters crashing down on you, but after the Mandalorian Wars and the Jedi Civil War the Republic's currency had tanked, it was worth about a tenth of it's pre war value, and that value was dropping. The Republic's road to recovery was hampered by the loss of the vast majority of its Jedi, the people that had managed to hold the Galaxy together for the past several thousand years; the loss of two thirds of its military strength, which was due to the fact that they didn't have the credits to pay their soldiers and upkeep their fleet. But most of all, the Republic's recovery was hampered by the hundreds of criminal organizations that had gained massive strength in the wake of the Jedi Civil War, chief among these organizations was the Exchange, which accounted for over half of all criminal activity in the galaxy.
"Fine by me, I'm tired of this damn system, I'm more than ready to move on," said Daren, not looking away from the program he was watching.
"Yeah, in order to do that we're going to need the fuel to leave it, and to get that we're going to need money, it would also be nice to have something to eat on the way."
Daren shrugged.
"Wait this is interesting, Tarnor Huwatt, the owner of the Ocean Dream Casino, is looking to hire some experienced muscle to guard a shipment of something valuable, until they can be transported off world. The job pays 80,000 credits each."
Daren gave an animalistic grin, "I smell meat."
-
"Nobody gets through here unless they're on the list!" said the bouncer, in a rather stupid sounding voice.
"Oh come on," said Talla batting her eyes
She bent over slightly revealing a little cleavage to the bouncer, "Pleeeaaaase?"
"Ohhh, just this once," said the bouncer stepping aside, to let her through.
"Thank you so much," said Talla, giving her sexiest smile.
"Oh it's nothing," said the bouncer waving a hand through the air.
"Dumb ass," muttered Talla as she stepped into the club.
Men are truly the weaker sex, thought Talla. All you had to do was show them a little boob and they'd do anything you want.
Talla looked around the club; it was a rather seedy joint, on stage were 8 dancer girls dancing proactively to fast pace techno music, groups of patrons sat gawking around them, as if to emphasize her previous thought. The club had a dark atmosphere; the only lights in the whole place were over the stage and over the bar, Talla made her way to the later.
"Give me a Flaming Jedi," she said to the bartender.
The bartender snapped his fingers and winked at her, then started mixing the drink.
Talla rolled her eyes, "Where's Rool?" she asked the bartender.
"Rool who?"
Talla un-holstered her blaster and sat it on the counter, her finger resting on the trigger.
The Bartenders eyes widened, "Oh! That Rool! I believe he's in the back playing pazaak,"
"Good boy," said Talla sarcastically.
The bartender nervously handed Talla her drink, she downed it in one gulp, then holstered her blaster and made her way to the back, she approached the doors and they slid open, revealing a group of thuggish looking people playing pazaak. One of them, a man with dark brown hair and a scarred up face laid down his cards and glared at Talla, with a look of pure hatred.
"Talla Ronin," he said muttering each syllable with disdain.
"You got some nerve bringing your ass into my club after the shit you pulled last time,"
"I missed you too Rool," said Talla sweetly.
Rool pulled out his blaster and aimed it at Talla's forehead.
"Don't tell me you're still angry about that little incident on Corellia," said Talla dryly.
"Angry? No, I'M FURIOUS! You pulled out at the last minute and left me and my crew for Corsec to pick up! Do you have any idea what I had to do to get away from them?"
"Bake them cookies and say you were sorry?" asked Talla grinning.
BOOM
Rool pulled the trigger of his blaster, but instead of a blaster bolt shooting out and into Talla's head, the blaster exploded, badly burning his right hand.
"A backfire, what are the odds?" said Talla innocently.
Rool cursed loudly and his men pulled out their blasters.
Talla eyed them all with a cold calculating gaze.
"I came here on business," said Talla, in a deadly serious voice.
"I got a job for you."
"If you do it you'll have enough money to buy a club that doesn't smell like a rancor's ass, are you in?"
Rool glared at her, then said very reluctantly, "What's the job?"
Talla smiled, "I trust you've heard of the Ocean Dream Casino?"
-
Daren and Jace were standing outside a reinforced durasteel door, in a gleaming white hall with Tarnor Huwatt, the Selkath millionaire. Huwatt was a member of the Selkath species, the wet green skinned native inhabitants of Manaan.
Tarnor Huwatt looked over the two men before him; he could tell from their appearance that both of them knew how to fight. The larger man had obviously suffered a devastating injury; his left eye and the area around were completely cybernetic. He could tell from the other man's movements that he had extensive combat training. He nodded at them slowly.
"You'll do," he said in his slippery accent, then he turned around and left.
"Well that certainly didn't sound vague or menacing," said Daren trying to scratch his back.
"Why do we have to wear these damn uniforms, they itch to high hell."
Daren and Jace were wearing white uniforms with golden lapels on the shoulders; they looked more like cleaners than hired guns.
"Huwatt wants us to look inconspicuous."
Daren snorted, "Well that's a lost cause; all anyone with half a brain has to do is take one look at that glowing red eye of yours to know we're not part of the cleaning crew."
"What I want to know is what's behind these doors," said Daren, pounding on the durasteel.
"Something worth paying us 80,000 credits a piece to guard for one day. Whatever it is they must be expecting trouble."
"Oh good you're close by," said a short man who had just walked up.
"Someone made a large spill in the underwater observation room, could you hurry along and clean it up."
Daren and Jace exchanged a sly look.
"This is the last time Jace!" shouted Daren
"Just calm down man," said Jace, managing to pull off a serious look.
"No one respects me around here! You probably don't even know my name!" Daren shouted at the short man.
"Umm…Umm..."
"THAT'S IT!" shouted Daren pulling out his blaster.
"I'm going to kill all you sons of bitches!" shouted Daren, grinning madly.
Jace grabbed Daren's arm and pretended to struggle with him.
"Run!" he shouted.
"I can't hold him for long!"
The short man ran screaming down the hall, and Jace and Daren burst out into laughter.
"That was fun," said Daren, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.
"I get to be the crazy guy next time," said Jace.
"Jace, we both know you can't pull off crazy,"
"You're right; it takes someone who's naturally crazy to do it,"
"Exactly,"
-
Rool and Talla jogged down the long white hall, trailed by 8 heavily armed mercenaries carrying blaster rifles.
"How the hell did you get the entire Ocean Dream security plans," asked Rool amazed.
Talla grinned slightly, "I guess you can say I have an inside informant,"
"Impressive, we should team up more often,"
"I'm pretty sure this is going to be our last job together Rool," said Talla dryly.
Talla and Rool approached the reinforced durasteel doors.
Rool turned to one of his men.
"Moro, get to slicing,"
One of the armed men slung his blaster rifle over his shoulder and took out a security spike and went to work on the door, the doors slid open instantaneously, the room was dark inside.
"That was easy," said Moro.
A shadow passed over Talla's face.
PEW! PEW!
The blaster bolt hit Moro between the shoulder blades and he feel to the ground unconscious. The next one nearly hit Talla, but she fell to the floor just in time. The blaster fire was coming from inside the hall, cloaked guards! that asshole never said anything about cloaked guards!
The group activated their shields, the cloaked guards responded by changing their blaster fire to concussion, when the blaster bolts hit the shield they sent the man falling backwards from the force of the blast.
"Enough of this shit,"
Rool took out an ion grenade and threw it in the direction of the blaster fire, it exploded and two men crackled like lightning then appeared. They immediately charged into the crowd, dancing around enemy blaster fire. Talla recognized one of the men as the guy who stole her bounty yesterday, she aimed her blaster at him, but Rool's men kept getting in the way. Soon the only one left was Talla herself.
Talla pointed her blaster at them and they did the same.
"If you surrender now, I won't have to hurt you two."
Daren smiled, "What do you think Jace? Should we surrender?"
"Definitely, her nine friends were probably just a warm up act compared to her."
"Those idiots? I let you take them out; they were getting in my way."
"Oh! They were getting in her way, I think you're right Jace, we should definitely surrender and spare ourselves the pain."
"What you should do is stop talking! You're giving me a headache!" snapped a voice behind them.
Daren closed his eyes in embarrassment.
Talla grinned, "Did I just pull a fast one on you?" she said in a shocked voice.
"Ah ah ah, don't turn around, just drop your weapons."
Daren and Jace sighed and did as they were told.
Rool walked around them a blaster in each hand.
"Anyone else still concious?"
"Yeah boss, right over here," said a man getting to his feet.
Talla winked at Daren.
"Consider us even for yesterday," she said smiling.
"That was you in the blue starfighter?"
"Yep,"
"You two can walk ahead of us," said Rool, pointing the blasters at them.
Daren and Jace exchanged a look that said that they would like nothing better than to rip off Rool's arms and beat him unconscious with them. But they did as they were told and walked into the dark room.
"Treasure time," said Rool happily.
Lights exploded in the room, Rool looked around to see over 50 guards pointing blaster rifles at him, Tarnor Huwatt at the head of them. Rool and his remaining man dropped their weapons and put their hands in the air.
Huwatt addressed Daren and Jace.
"Thank you Mr. Stone, Mr. Conway, you played your parts well,"
"Ummm…You're Welcome!" said Daren, acting like he knew what was going on.
Huwatt next turned to Talla.
"Well done Miss Ronin, here's the payment we agreed upon," said Huwatt holding out a case.
"All 100,000 credits,"
"You bitch! You set me up!" shouted Rool.
"Pretty much," said Talla unconcernedly.
"What do you want with me?" he growled at Huwatt.
Huwatt eyed him with a cold gaze, "During the Jedi Civil War you worked as a mercenary for the Sith,"
"What the hell of it?"
"Remember that little operation you pulled on Yag'Dhul; the selkath officer you assassinated?"
"Oh get ---"
"HE WAS MY SON!" roared Huwatt.
Rool's face went white; it was at that moment he realized he was not going to survive this situation.
Huwatt composed himself and turned to Daren and Jace.
"Go to the Human Resources Department before you leave, your checks are waiting there."
Daren and Jace turned and left not wanting to stay any longer, Daren paused at the exit and took one last look at Rool, then left.
-
Daren and Jace boarded the Ragtime's ramp.
"About time you two got here," said a voice.
Daren and Jace whirled around to see Talla Ronin reclining on a couch reading a holozine.
"I've been waiting for over an hour, don't worry I already parked my starfighter in the hangar, right next to that ugly read one."
"What do you mean ugly?" asked Daren indignantly.
"Better question," said Jace, "What the hell are you doing on my ship?"
"Hitching a ride if that's okay with you,"
"It's not,"
"Oh good then, I already unloaded my gear into one of the rooms," said Talla, not looking up from her holozine.
Talla got up from the couch.
"I'm going to my room to get some sleep, take off whenever you want."
Daren and Jace were quiet for several seconds after she left.
Jace turned to Daren, "What the hell just happened here?"