"Well," Tarron said slowly, his voice crackling over the speakers of the comm system, "I'm afraid I don't have much to tell you."
"Ha!" Jay victoriously clapped her hands. She held out a beckoning and to her partner. "I win. Hand over the spoils, big guy."
"And the little info I did manage to scrounge up," Tarron continued, "you aren't going to like."
"Oh kark it all," she muttered, her face falling.
"Spit it out, then," Vhetin said, sliding into his seat. "We're on a tight schedule."
They were sitting at the duraplast table in Void's small mess hall. Tarron had answered the comm after a single hailing tone; proof of how alert he was. Vhetin admired the man's devotion. If his intel was useful, it would be a perfect day.
"Okay," Tarron said through the comm static. "Transmitting the data now."
The comm hummed, signaling a long-distance data download. Jay leaned forward in her seat, unconsciously drumming her fingers against the tabletop in anticipation.
"I fed the recording you sent me through a couple vocal analysis programs yesterday. It took forever to get a positive match, but once the results were fed through Imperial databases…"
"You found something?"
"Take a look for yourself."
With an electronic sizzle, a shimmering blue-white hologram sputtered to life from the transmitter. It displayed the rotating image of a woman dressed in simple black combat armor, the likes of which Vhetin had never seen. Accompanying the holo were documents that looked like Republic-era identification records. Whoever this woman was, she'd obviously been around for a while — and had run afoul of the former galactic government more than once during her career.
The woman was tall and lean, with her hair shaved so close to her head that nothing but stubble remained. She seemed to be in her early or mid-thirties, though different humanoids aged at different speeds. Vhetin didn't see anything overly threatening about her, but he knew from experience never to underestimate potential opponents. She had already proved herself to be resourceful and knowledgeable about her competition.
"Who're we looking at here, Tarron?" he inquired, leaning forward and folding his hands on the tabletop.
"This is the Republic ID record for one Kalyn Farnmir. Human female, age thirty-three."
"Criminal record?"
"Apparently she was caught and arrested during an Imperial raid on one of Kassh's bases a few years ago. She used to be a pretty frequent employee of Midnight Ultraviolet's upper echelon. It didn't stop Kassh from selling her out to save his own skin, though."
"So she's obviously no friend of Kassh or his organization," Jay said, glancing at her partner. "At least not anymore."
"She was released from Imperial custody two months ago on probationary status," Tarron continued, "and she disappeared almost as soon as she cleared the bars of the prison. Since then she's made quite a name for herself among the Coruscant hunting guilds. There's a warrant out for her capture and arrest; a ten thousand credit reward if you're interested."
"I don't think so," Vhetin said. "I haven't stooped low enough to start hunting fellow hunters."
He leaned back in his seat and frowned thoughtfully behind his helmet faceplate, folding his arms across his chest. "Kalyn Farnmir... the name sounds vaguely familiar."
"She apparently used to be a big name towards the beginning of the Clone Wars, but some nasty business ventures set her back a couple steps. All I could dig up was that her partner sold her out, tried to whack her, and failed."
"Wait, wait, wait," Jay said, holding up her hands in confusion. "Did you say at the start of the Clone Wars?"
"Interesting, huh? Imperial medical reports say that biologically she's thirty-three. But if her recorded birthdate is accurate, she should be in her fifties by now. I'm still trying to figure that one out. My best guess is carbonite freezing."
"What happened during the Clone Wars that made her lose her edge?"
"Don't know. The last bounty she brought in was a Gammorean gangbanger a few months after the Battle of Geonosis. After that... nothing. She just disappears from the galactic scene until her business with Kassh."
Jay frowned and shook her head in confusion. "People don't just disappear. She had to be somewhere."
"Ba'slan shev'la," Vhetin muttered. "Strategic disappearance. Something – or someone – forced her to lay low for almost twenty years."
He grunted and settled back in his seat, his thoughtful frown hidden behind his helmet face plate. "I can see why she'd want to get to Kassh first. And why she'd go to such great lengths to scare us off this mission. If he really sold her out to the Imperials, it would make for some pretty bad blood between them. It's personal to her, not just a job."
"Fierfek," Jay sighed. "And she's just the beginning of our competition. Tarron, how long do you think we have before this Farnmir woman gets to Kassh?"
There was a long pause over the comm. Then he said, "There's every possibility she's at Kassh's base right now. She probably thinks you two are out of the game, so she may be moving in for the kill."
Vhetin hissed and pushed away from the table, heading for the cockpit. "Not if I can help it. Thanks, Tarron."
Jay followed her partner, hastily grabbing the comlink and following close on her partner's heels. As Vhetin strapped into the pilot's seat, she thanked Tarron for his information as well and signed off the comm. She took her place in the copilot's seat and strapped in for a quick takeoff.
"Okay, so we know who our competition is. What do you think?"
"It's simple," Vhetin growled. "We get to Kassh's base before Kalyn Farnmir does. We capture him before she does. And we turn him in before she has a chance to stop us."
"And if she tries to steal Kassh from us?" Jay asked. "She doesn't sound like most of the other gun-toting thugs we've encountered."
She already knew the answer, but Vhetin responded anyway. "If that happens, we force her to back down. By any means necessary."
Jay sighed and settled back in her seat as Void rumbled and took off. "I was worried you'd say that."
As Void blasted through the atmospheric sector, Vhetin scowled and cracked the knuckles of his left hand by slowly making a tight fist.
So this Kalyn Farnmir woman thought she had scared him off, did she? That wasn't just an underestimation of his resolve... it was downright insulting. He was not the kind who would run because of a simple threat against his life.
As Void swooped between two towering oxygen-production towers, he took the ship off self-pilot and manually guided her down towards the coordinates Sekha had given them. He saw a facility far below, shrouded in the shadow and smog of the oxygen towers. It was hard to tell from here, but Kassh's compound looked like nothing more than an old collection of office buildings surrounded by a high chain-link fence.
That was their best bet. And it was exactly twenty-point-three-eight kilometers southeast of the Atmospheric Enhancement Sector's center, just as Sekha had said.
I guess her spies are better than I gave them credit for, he reluctantly thought. They're certainly better informed than the last time I worked with her. I guess I owe her a thank-you card or something.
He set the ship down on a landing pad a few hundred meters from the complex, outside the range of the security turrets Sekha had warned them about. He locked the ship's systems so no unwanted passengers could access Void's database or command console. Tal Wam had wound up helping them in their hunt, but he'd be damned if he let another stowaway sneak aboard his ship.
Jay was waiting in the armory. Stocked within the small storage bay were rifles, pistols, grenades and rocket launchers along one wall. Along the other were vibroswords, his small collection of contraband lightsabers, and an old bow and arrow set that he used from time to time.
Jay was staring at all the weapons with something akin to wonder, deciding which one would be most useful for their current mission. After a moment she just drew her own pistol from the holster on her hip and began restocking on ammunition. She fed a cartridge of tibanna gas into the pistol before noticing Vhetin standing in the doorway. She holstered the weapon and turned to him with a smile. "Howdy, partner. Have we arrived?"
He nodded and entered the room, grabbing his saber-staff from a set of hooks on one wall. "I set the ship down a ways north of Kassh's base. If we run into any advance forces, I want to be ready for a quick getaway."
"Has Farnmir already been here?"
"I can't tell." He hooked his staff against the specially-adapted clips on his rocket pack, then reached for a nearby weapon rack. "But you might want to take this-"
He tossed her a compact, short-stocked DC-17 battle rifle of the same kind favored by Imperial Commandos. She caught it clumsily and looked at him with surprise.
"-just in case," he finished. He grabbed a rifle of his own and checked the sight calibration, staring down the holographic sights and syncing them up to his HUD systems. "Ammo's in the crate in the corner."
He snapped back the charging rod with the flat of his palm, hearing a satisfying whine as the tibanna gas within the rifle built up to assist in the creation of a lethal blaster bolt. Jay mirrored the action, a little slower and gawkier. She'd trained with the weapon before, but obviously not enough to be fully comfortable with it.
"Well…" She shouldered the weapon. "I guess we should get this over with."
He nodded and left the room without another word.
A few minutes later and they were both carefully creeping down Void's exit ramp into the darkness of the streets surrounding Kassh's base. Vhetin took point, keeping his rifle leveled at the area ahead. He tightened his blaster against his shoulder and a holographic targeting reticule appeared in the center of his HUD. He clicked the safety off and stepped onto the street below, scanning his surroundings for the slightest sign of movement. Besides a single torn sheet of fabric, draped from a nearby window and fluttering in the breeze, there was nothing.
Jay crept down the ramp behind him, her pace slow and cautious. Vhetin couldn't blame her for her caution. A deserted, foreboding street stretched off into the darkness ahead of them. Waste littered every corner and dangling wires threw sparks onto the duracrete below in sporadic showers of light. A mynock screeched somewhere off in the distance, the forlorn cry echoing away into the darkness.
Vhetin squinted to see through the smoky gloom and clicked on the light mounted to the end of his DC-16. If possible the illumination made the area even creepier, casting angular shadows across the walls and ground. He was very aware of the sound of his own heavy bootfalls on the duracrete beneath his feet.
"It's so quiet," Jay whispered.
He sighted down his rifle, paying careful attention on putting one boot down in front of the other as carefully and as quietly as possible. Stealth was difficult for a man in full-body Mandalorian armor, but with talent, experience, and attention he could move as quietly as a Kashyyyk night panther.
He shook his head. "That's not right. This close to the atmospheric enhancement sector, the machinery should be deafening us. Something shut down power in this area."
Jay looked up at the oxygen towards stretching high above their heads. "And… just what could do that?"
He shrugged with a concerned frown. "A meltdown. A maintenance blackout, maybe. Or maybe someone took control of the power station and shut it down manually for some reason."
She obviously didn't buy any of those possibilities. Her lips pursed and she muttered, "And the most likely cause?"
"A firefight." His jaw tightened. "Tibanna gas reacts violently with pure oxygen. If blaster bolts started flying, someone would have had to shut down the machinery or risk carving out a mile-deep crater in the ground."
His partner visibly grew edgier at the news. She tucked her rifle against her shoulder, finger hovering over the firing stud. "So chances are good that Farnmir's been here already. Great."
"Maybe. But besides the quiet, I'm not seeing any signs of a fight."
He suddenly straightened, leveled his rifle at a nearby wall, and squeezed the trigger. Three quick shots in swift succession. Pap, pap, pap! The staccato snap of the DC rifle shattered the silence and echoed down the alleyway. Jay shouted in surprise and jumped away from the flashing blaster bolts.
The noise — both the blaster shots and her surprised cry — slowly faded back to silence.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Jay hissed furiously, crouching close to a building's wall for cover and glancing around for signs of approaching guards. "Are you trying to get us killed?"
He held up a hand, signaling for her to be quiet. His helmet cocked to one side and tuned up his helmet's audio receptors to maximum power. They picked up the breeze whistling through broken windows, the compound's fence creaking quietly, and the distant chug of machinery. He could even hear the coolant rivers pounding through the massive pipes beneath their feet.
But no sounds of life. No shouts of surprise, no bootsteps rushing their way. Nothing.
He waited for a moment longer, just to be sure. Then he sighed in relief and his rifle lowered. "I think we're alone. If there was anyone here, they would have attacked by now."
"Please tell me you're joking," Jay said. "What about all of Kassh's guards? What about the kath hounds?"
"What about them?" Vhetin replied, gesturing around at their surroundings. "They would have heard the blaster fire. They should be here. So where are they?"
Jay opened her mouth to shoot back a reply, then promptly closed it again. She frowned and looked around, obviously listening intently for incoming noise as he had just done. Then with a weary sigh, she clambered to her feet again and returned to stand next to him. "This just keeps getting better and better."
"I think Farnmir beat us here," he said as he began walking once more. "Even if she didn't, someone did."
A few meters further down the street and they came across a splash of purple-blue blood along one wall. Vhetin stopped and touched it gently, rubbing the slightly sticky substance between his gloved fingers. His HUD's analysis program showed it was Duros blood. But where the Duros was now, he could only guess. There was no sign of the alien or whatever had killed it.
Jay's lips were pressed into a tight, concerned frown. "I have a bad feeling about this."
"Me too." He shouldered his weapon and set off again. "But we still have a job to do. Don't let fear get the better of you."
She scoffed. "That's easier said than done."
"Let's just see if we can find the entrance to the facility and take things from there. Keep on your toes, okay?"
She cast a last nervous glance at the blood splattered across the wall, then nodded and followed close behind him. His helmet's readouts easily picked up the quick speed of her heart, her respiration rate, and the way her fingers trembled as she reached up to adjust her ponytail. She was afraid, despite her best attempts to appear calm and collected.
He didn't blame her. Something about this place felt very wrong, like the entire area had been pulled from a bad horror holovid. Between the silent alleyways, the bloodstained walls, and the silent machinery, it was… creepy. There was still no sign of a larger fight, but something had definitely hit Kassh's compound and hit it hard.
Vhetin had once had the displeasure of traveling through a ghost town on the ancient prison world of Belsavis. Local gangs had passed through not long before he arrived, taking all the locals into captivity and locking them away in the planet-prison's primordial vaults for the entertainment of the prisoners. Men, women, and children across the town had vanished overnight, as if vaporized where they stood, and the local stormtrooper guard had vanished along with them.
The memory of the town still haunted Vhetin if he lingered on the thought too long. He remembered the way there was still food on the tables, how holomonitors and houselights had been left on. How a single swing on the playground had creaked back and forth in the breeze. Walking through the ghost town, Vhetin had felt a cold sensation in the pit of his gut, as if he could feel the terror and confusion of the townsfolk as they had been snatched away from their homes.
The sensation now was not that different. That sense of newly-passed terror, of having just barely missed a terrible disaster, lay thick and heavy on the air. He felt an unwarranted shiver race up his spine and scowled behind his helmet. Keep it together, Cin. You need to stay focused.
After a few more minutes of searching, they came upon a meters-high fence with large signs that read in Basic: Beware! High Voltage!
Vhetin looked up and down the perimeter fence and saw evidence to the contrary. There were large sections of the barrier that had been crushed by a huge duracrete pillar, severed at its base by what looked like a large-bore turbolaser bolt.
Power was out in this area as well, then. If there had been a charge running through the fence, it would still be sparking even under the weight of the pillar that had crushed it. But all he saw were dull gray chain-link wires twisted around a cracked duracrete column.
Using hand gestures, he signaled for Jay to move up towards the column. She quickly took point in a crouched run, sweeping her blaster over the area as her eyes darted about looking for hostiles. Vhetin followed close behind, watching their rear. She clambered up onto the top of the fallen pillar, wary not to catch her foot in the cracks that had torn the duracrete apart, and dropped to one knee on top of the toppled column. She scanned the area beyond, jaw tight and eyes narrow, then signaled back that all was clear. Only then did he move forward, hopping up onto the top of the pillar in two tall leaps.
As he passed through the fence, Jay right beside him, he activated the video-capture unit mounted along the side of his helmet. He'd want a record of their explorations here for future reference.
The courtyard within the electrified fence was every bit as still and silent as the outside. And just like the outside, there was no obvious signs of a fight. It looked as if the entire complex had simply been deserted. If not for the freshly-fallen pillar, Vhetin would have believed the area had been abandoned years ago.
The silence didn't last long. There was a crash in the distance and he spun toward the sound with weapon raised. Jay also dropped into a battle-ready stance, preparing for a seemingly inevitable attack. They were back-to-back now, each keeping their full attention on their own side of the pillar. Vhetin's motion tracker showed nothing, his light revealing nothing but more twisted fencing and broken duracrete chips.
"It looks like this pillar was pretty tall," Jay whispered to him. "It goes on for a while. Must have been a hell of an explosion that knocked it down."
"Let's follow it," he replied. "It might take us right to the center of the compound. But keep an eye out for those turrets Sekha mentioned."
"You keep an eye out for the turrets," she shot back. "I'm keeping an eye out for the damn kath hounds."
Vhetin snorted, then switched positions and took point. Jay easily pivoted with his motions and moved to watch the rear. They moved with the synchronized grace of warriors who had drilled for hours on end for just this situation, rotating in unison like cogs in a machine. Once their positions had been reversed, they slowly and cautiously crept on.
A few meters ahead of them the pillar broke up into chunks that they had to carefully hop across like stepping stones across a stream. Vhetin almost slipped on the last pillar chunk and his foot dislodged a shower of loose duracrete chips. The chips went skittering across the pad beneath the toppled column.
Jay winced, obviously waiting for blaster bolts to scream toward them at the sound. She crouched lower and braced herself against an inevitable ambush. But none came. After a few seconds she opened one eye, then ever so slowly straightened.
"Uh... okay." She cleared her throat to stop her voice from shaking. "I'm able to admit when I'm wrong. It looks like no one's home. Someone beat us to it."
"Looks that way." Vhetin's own heart was pounding in his chest. He'd been sure that such a sloppy slip-up would have spelled death for them both. "But don't let your guard down until we have proof."
"So what's the plan?"
"We split up," he said. His motion tracker still wasn't picking anything up, but he wasn't willing to relax just yet. "I'll head to the right side of the compound, you take the left. Keep in constant contact and tell me if you find anything. Anything at all."
She nodded and double-checked her ammo clip, just as he taught her. She slapped her open palm against the magazine and tucked the blaster tight against her shoulder. Her finger hovered over the firing stud, ready to fire at a moment's notice. "Copy that. Good luck."
Vhetin hopped down off the pillar and helped his partner to the ground as well. Once they were safely away from the toppled column, he parted ways with her and made his way into the darkness. Through his helmet's 360-degree vision, he could clearly see as she dwindled away into the dark. After a few short moments, she was gone.
His HUD's gamma filter was triggered by the dim lighting and sprang to life at its highest setting. Within moments the area around him began to glow a highly contrasted black and white, chasing away the shadows. It was a jarring transition, but the courtyard became much easier to see.
Not that there was much to see in the first place. The compound was a drab, boring collection of duracrete buildings spread out across a similarly boring duracrete pad. There were stacks of supply crates and power pylons scattered about here and there, but nothing conclusive that suggested it was a criminal base of operations.
So where are the signs of battle? Where are the bodies, the blaster burns?
His analytical side sprang into action, formulating a list of possible scenarios.
The attacker could have decided to just kill Kassh and be done with it, he thought. Could have somehow snuck in and planted some kind of pule vaporizer. It would have incinerated everyone in the base and the wind would have done away with the ashes.
Or they could have lured the Midnight Ultraviolet forces away from the compound, away from the defenses set up here. If they created a big enough distraction — like shutting down the environmental processors — it would have drawn the guards safely away.
Or, he continued to think, maybe Kassh was never here to begin with. Maybe he just… packed up and moved on. It's possible, and it would explain the lack of life here. Makes our job tougher, though.
He paused near a rickety-looking amalgamation of snake-like power lines and durasteel girders. It was a conduit tower, intended to transfer power to the rest of the complex. He looked up and saw the device was powered down just like the electrified fence.
"Someone must have cut energy flow to this power grid before they hit it," he reported into his helmet's comm. "Smart move, as ambush tactics go. Anything on your end?"
"I'm about thirty meters from the pillar," his partner replied, voice garbled by the static of her comlink. "I'm near some kind of supply shed. It's heavily damaged, probably from grenade fire. No power on this end either."
"That takes care of the turrets, then," Vhetin said. "Probably what our mysterious attacker was planning from the start. Remove electricity, the turrets and the fence goes down, and the guards are lured away from the base. Smart."
"If you say so," Jay sighed. "But there's still the matter of the armed patrols and the freaking Kath hounds."
"Not to mention the Gen'dai enforcer," he reminded her.
"What exactly is a Gen'dai anyway? I've heard of them before, but…"
"Oh, you know," Vhetin slowly stepped over a fallen conduit cable. "Big, bulky aliens with ropy purple muscles. Like if you bulked up on steroids, then stripped your skin off."
"And what's so terrifying about a guy with his skin stripped off?"
"Besides the fact that Gen'dai are more than three meters tall, wear near-impenetrable body armor, and are virtually impossible to kill?"
"Oh."
Vhetin picked his way across a pile of debris that had apparently flown loose from the toppled tower, keeping his gaze half on the area ahead of him and half on the tiny rectangular window along the top of his HUD that showed his helmet's 360-degree vision.
"As far as I know," he continued slowly, "I've only ever met one. A bounty hunter named Durge."
"You're kidding." Jay's voice was shot through with disbelief. "Please tell me you're kidding."
"No," he replied with a frown. "Why?"
"You've seriously never heard of Durge?"
"I only worked with him once. He's ruthless and bloodthirsty. Not really my type." This was a surprising change of pace; usually it was him providing Jay with information, not the other way around. "He has a reputation for high-stakes bounties, usually taken dead rather than alive. Apart from that things get bogged down in rumor and hearsay. What do you know about him?"
"Please," Jay said. "You don't give me enough credit. You're talking to the girl who wanted to join the non-clone branch of the Republic Grand Army at age six. I was probably the most politically-aware girl on Corellia at the time. I learned everything about the Wars that I could."
"I never pegged you for a historian."
"Technically it was current events back then."
"Fair enough. So what can you tell me about Durge?"
"Well, I know he worked for the Separatists during the Clone Wars and was responsible for almost as many slaughters as General Grievous. He spearheaded the chemical weapon attack on Naboo and personally fought Jedi Master Windu face to face on two separate occasions — and survived both."
She paused and he could almost see her confused frown. "I heard that General Skywalker and General Kenobi had flown him into a sun, though. Everyone assumed that he was dead after that."
Vhetin reached out and traced his gloved fingers along the wall of a nearby building. Seared through the side of the building was a melted, meter-wide hole. If he recalled correctly, Durge's weapon of choice was a huge arm-mounted turbolaser. Interesting...
"Well, either we have another Gen'dai on the loose here," he murmured, "or everyone assumed wrong."
"Creepy," Jay observed, then fell silent.
After a few minutes more of silent observation, Vhetin activated his comm again. "So what exactly is it with you and kath hounds?"
"What?"
"You seem nervous about the kath hounds Kassh is supposed to have here. Why?"
"Oh..." she hesitated. "One of my neighbors had a kath hound as a pet when I was a kid. It was constantly trying to jump into our yard and come after us. One day the monster managed to attack one of my brothers. He spent two weeks in the hospital while the doctors stitched his face back together afterwards. Those cranial horns can do serious damage."
"Was he all right?"
"More or less. One of his eyes never pointed the right direction again. But I've been scared of kath hounds ever -"
She broke off without warning. For a moment Vhetin thought their connection had been severed, but he could still hear a hint of audio backwash from her end of the comm.
"Jay?" he said, turning in her direction. "Are you there? Jay, come in."
"Yeah, uh..." she paused. He heard her gulp loudly. "I've got blood over here. And... and a body."
"A body?" he echoed. "Who is it?"
"Hard to, uh... hard to tell. Um... there isn't much left."
"What the hell does that mean?" He shouldered his rifle and sprinted in Jay's direction, leaping over the fallen pillar in two great bounds, landing hard, and setting off again. He skidded to a halt only when Jay came into view. She was kneeling next to a pool of blood, which showed up black on Vhetin's highly-contrasted HUD. She jumped when he came into view, looking over at him with wide eyes. When she realized it was him she relaxed and let out a long breath.
"I'm glad you're here," she whispered. She gestured to the pool of blood. "What do you make of this?"
Vhetin set his HUD's gamma filter back to normal and shone his rifle light on it. The pale white light shimmered as it reflected off the bloody pool spattered across the duracrete ground — the pool was orange. He frowned and cocked his head as he observed the streams of blood stretching off to the right, like someone had dragged something heavy through the puddle. He gestured in the direction of the gory streaks.
"Is that where the body is?"
"If you're stomach's feeling strong, it's right over there." She pointed to her right, deeper into the darkness. She quickly turned away again, putting her hand to her lips to cover her mouth. Vhetin frowned, got to his feet, and stepped in the direction she had indicated.
"Just follow the blood," she added quietly as he left.
The sporadic trail of orange blood led some distance away from the original pool. That meant that either the body had been dragged in that direction, or the dying being had crawled a fair distance before finally expiring. As he got closer, he began to put more money on the former.
There was no body, at least not to speak of; just a truncated waist and legs and a mess of gory entrails. The victim had been wearing a greenish coverall that had been ripped to shreds in the attack. Vhetin knelt near it and saw they were slash marks along the ragged hem made by either a dull vibroblade or — more likely — teeth.
He reactivated the comm channel to his partner. "Well I have good news and bad news."
"Good news first, please."
"The body isn't Kassh."
"Well at least we haven't gone all this way for nothing." She hesitated, then called back, "And the bad news?"
He grimaced. "It looks like your kath hounds are loose."
"Son of a-"
A long howl echoed through the compound.
Vhetin's gaze snapped up, his HUD instantly converting into combat mode. The holographic display that stretched across the interior of his helmet lit up in reds and oranges as his HUD transferred to thermal imaging. Readouts showing ambient temperature, wind direction, and the chemical makeup of the air fizzled out, to be replaced with tactical information about potential cover or sniper roosts. A small window appeared in the bottom left of his HUD, showing the amount of ammunition in his rifle.
Jay sprinted out of the darkness behind him with rifle held at the ready. Vhetin glanced at her and nodded in encouragement, standing to his full height and dropping into a combat-prepped stance as well. Another howl, from somewhere ahead of them.
"Where are they?" Jay hissed, the stock of her rifle tucked tight against her cheek. She swiveled back and forth, shining her rifle light through the darkness. Vhetin didn't answer, tense and wary of any signs of hostiles. His HUD couldn't pick out anything, no matter how high he set his sensors, but—
BOOM!
A bright neon-green turbolaser bolt roared to life in the dark, racing toward them with a crackling rumble of thunderous noise.
"Down!" Vhetin yelled, tackling Jay from the side and driving them both out of the way of the laser bolt. The crackling beam smashed into a building behind them, fanning out into a bright emerald blob of light before exploding against the duracrete and melting a meter-wide hole in the building's wall. Vhetin hunched his back, using the hard plating of his armor to shelter both himself and his partner from the rubble.
"What in the hell-?" Jay began to say, raising her head and shaking hair out of her eyes. Chips of hot duracrete – rubble from the exploded wall – began to rain down around them and pepper the ground. Another deep rumble began to build from the somewhere up ahead.
Vhetin scrambled to his feet, grabbing Jay's wrist and dragging her up with him. "We have to move!"
Another bolt shot through the darkness and raced by them, missing by less than a meter. It hit the same building and the roof erupted in a fountain of debris. Jay pulled her wrist from his grasp and swiveled to fire in the direction of the emerald turbolaser fire, but he shoved her blaster down and frantically gestured at her.
"Run towards it!"
"Are you crazy?!" she shouted. She raised her rifle again and opened fire towards the source of the turbolaser bolts. "We'll be vaporized!"
"If we get closer, it won't be able to attack! It'll risk hitting itself!"
Jay cursed and hesitated for a half-second. Then she cursed again, louder, and sprinted in the direction of the huge laser shots as fast as her feet could carry her. Vhetin fired off a few bolts of his own as a distraction, running to the right to draw the fire away from her.
Still, it was a big gun. Vhetin had to somersault to one side to avoid another lethal laser bolt. It plowed hard against the duracrete behind him with a detonation of fire and sound, sending molten duracrete pattering against his rocket pack and the back of his helmet. He winced as a few lucky chips began burning through his flight suit.
He ignored the pain and gritted his teeth, forcing himself to move faster, as fast as he could manage. He pelted through the darkness and fog until another building came into view ahead of him. Built low to the ground with a curved rooftop, this structure looked identical to any other in the compound save for a single thing.
A huge, hulking silhouette stood before the front entrance door. Easily three meters tall, the shadowy being was a hulking mass of armor plates, mechanical implants, and rock-hard muscle. A contoured durasteel helmet covered the being's head, not dissimilar to Darth Vader's death's-head facemask.
The being stepped forward into the minimal amount of ambient light to reveal steel gray armor plating painted with red and purple flashes. A rough purple Mythosaur skull was painted across his contoured chest plate — but Vhetin knew this creature was no Mandalorian.
Jay slowed and stopped next to Vhetin, rifle aimed squarely at the being as it took another lumbering step forward. Its boots hit the ground with a dull thud reminiscent of the armored footfalls of an Imperial walker.
"You're late," Durge boomed. "I was beginning to wonder whether you were going to find your way here at all."
The monstrous Gen'dai snapped the armored fingers of his right hand. On cue, the slinking forms of three kath hounds crept out of the shadows and flanked him on either side. They snarled, saliva dribbling down out of their tooth-studded mouths, and tossed their horned heads. Their taloned paws scraped at the ground as sinewy tails lashed back and forth in anticipation of blood.
Jay winced at their warbling bark, then let out a quiet breath. "Oh good. He remembered the kriffing hounds."
"You should have stayed in Bloody Dawn territory," Durge thundered, stretching to his full height with a dark rumble of a snarl. "Sekha can't protect you here. Not from me."
"I'll take Durge," Vhetin murmured. "My armor will protect me. You have to go for the hounds."
"I'd be lying if I said I was excited," Jay said, shifting her balance from foot to foot. "But if you want to take on the nine-foot death monster, be my guest. On three?"
Durge's mounted arm cannon began to rumble and glow green. He pulled back the massive charging rod with a tremendous crack and began to raise it towards them. The weapon started to charge with a building whine and Vhetin tensed at the impending fire.
"Ah... let's just run at them. Now!"
They both broke for their separate targets. Vhetin raised his rifle and fired off as many shots as he could manage as quickly as his finger could mash the firing stud. Bright bolts of blaster fire screeched toward the towering hulk, popping harmlessly with bright flashes of sparks against his armor. As soon as he was close enough Vhetin leaped into the air and prepared to hit him with a powerful roundhouse kick.
Durge anticipated the move and caught Vhetin by the head, plucking him out of the air as easily as swatting a fly. He swung his captive around his shoulder and threw him hard, muscles rippling beneath his thick plate armor. Vhetin grunted in pain as he was smashed into the side of the building behind the massive hunter, hard enough to crack the duracrete. He crumpled to the ground, his rifle clattering out of his grasp.
The Gen'dai was on him before he could recover. The pounding booms of Durge's huge bootsteps swiftly drew closer and came to a halt behind him. Before he could rise, the Gen'dai planted a huge studded boot in the small of Vhetin's back and sent him flying through the air again. He landed in a heap a few meters away, coughing and holding his chest.
Again, Durge's vise-tight grip closed around his helmet and he gasped as the titanic alien began to squeeze. His armor held, but the pressure was enough to send rippling waves of pain through his head.
Durge lifted his prisoner up to face his ridged mask and his scarlet eyes glowed malevolently within the shadowy confines of his ancient battle armor. His armor creaked as he squeezed – if possible – even harder.
"This is far too easy," he rumbled. "Your reputation claims you are quite the fighter, Mandalorian. The real thing is rather disappointing."
Vhetin grunted, curling his legs up and shoving his boots against Durge's facemask. He kicked out as hard as he could and tore himself free from the Gen'dai's grasp. The alien staggered back a few steps with a surprised grunt, his grip loosened.
Not wasting a moment, Vhetin pulled his two pistols from their holsters on his belt and let loose with a volley of blaster bolts as he flew back through the air. He ignited his jetpack in a sharp burst for an extended flight time. The snapping of his pistols echoed through the darkness, the flashes at the end of the barrels lighting up the shadows around him and painting his armor with bright red highlights.
The blaster bolts pinged off Durge's body armor and ricocheted away, leaving nothing but small dents and scorch marks. The Gen'dai shrugged off the shots with an irritated toss of his helmeted head and stomped after his opponent with footsteps heavy enough to rattle the ground. Vhetin landed and rolled backward in a hasty reverse somersault, tossing aside the useless pistols and yanking his saber pike from his back. The sapphire blade sprang to life with a crackle of igniting plasma.
Snap-hiss. The sound was instantly recognizable across the galaxy.
Only now did Durge pause. Even his super-durable body armor wouldn't stand up to the concentrated energy blade of a lightsaber and both hunters knew it. After a silent moment, the huge blaster cannon clanked, rotated, and slid back into his arm with the mechanical grating of metal on metal. His hand appeared through the gap it left, folding out from his armored gauntlet. He flicked his wrists and clenched his massive hands into fists as a meter-long vibroblade sprang from one gauntlet, a spiked flail and chain from the other.
"You truly wish to play this game, Mandalorian?" Durge raised both arms, activating the humming vibroblade and making the flail swing lazily. "Very well. Then let us play."
With an otherworldly roar the Gen'dai leaped forward, swinging his flail at Vhetin's head. Vhetin ducked under the weapon and slid his saber up, not even bothering to aim. With a target as big as Durge, he was sure to hit something.
Sure enough, the saber severed Durge's vibroblade and sliced open his chest plate with a metallic shriek, melting a thin stripe of plating away. The massive alien took a step back and clapped a hand across the red-hot slash in his armor. Dark blue blood leaked from between his armored fingers, dripping down the front of his durasteel chest plate to patter to the ground at his feet.
A rumbling snarl of rage built up from within Durge's helmet and his eye sockets filled with a blood-red light. He looked up at Vhetin and rumbled, "You'll pay for that, Mandalorian scum."
Vhetin grinned beneath his helmet and motioned for his opponent to bring it on. He swung his lightsaber through the air in anticipation as the huge bounty hunter planted his feet for a charge.
Durge was lumbering forward almost before Vhetin had time to react, swinging the flail at the Mandalorian's head and balling up a giant fist for a punch to the gut. Vhetin dodged the flail, but wasn't fast enough to avoid the blow to the stomach; the meaty, armored fist hit him like a speeder truck to the gut. He doubled over, all the air knocked out of his lungs as Durge swung the flail over his head, preparing for a powerful downward stroke.
Vhetin gritted his teeth and threw himself sideways, out of the flail's path. The spiked ball at the end of the chain smashed against the duracrete ground and carved out a small impact crater with a shower of rubble. Durge bellowed, yanked the weapon up into the air again, and stomped after his prey once more. He roared at Vhetin in a language he couldn't understand and his shielded eyes pulsed red with fury.
Vhetin slashed upward with his saber and caught the Gen'dai in the chest again, carving a perpendicular slash to compliment his earlier score. If Durge felt the blow, he didn't show it. He backhanded Vhetin across the helmet and the smaller hunter was knocked back through the air, crumpling into a ball as he landed hard on his head.
Pain washed through his back and neck, sweeping over him like a hot wind. He grimaced behind his helmet and clenched both hands into fists as he fought to rise to his hands and knees. Blood was pouring from his nose, dripping down into his neck sleeve in uncomfortably warm rivulets. It had spattered the inside of his helmet, tinting his HUD a sickly reddish-black and blurring his vision of the world outside his armor.
Time to change tactics, he thought as he clambered to his feet once more.
He crouched low and brushed his fingers across the keypad on his left gauntlet. A set of crosshairs inlaid themselves over his blood-smeared HUD and he centered them on Durge's massive chest. A blink of his eyes triggered his rocket pack's offensive systems.
He felt a concussive jolt between his shoulder blades. Then, with a rushing explosion of exhaust, the missile mounted on his jet pack blasted away from its housing and shot through the air toward his opponent. It screamed through the air with an otherworldly whistle, propelled forward on a brilliant tail of fire and smoke.
Durge saw it a moment too late, rearing back in surprise. He attempted to move out of the way, to sidestep out of the rocket's path, and instead caught the projectile square in the stomach. There was a flash of light and the bulky bounty hunter vanished in a billowing cloud of light, flame, and smoke. The boom of the explosion shook the courtyard hard enough to knock Vhetin off his feet again.
He lay there for a few moments, his body screaming in at least ten different places. Then with a groan, he rolled onto his stomach and thought, Fierfek, this is getting old.
Every limb was trembling with effort, every nerve seeming to scream at him to simply lay down and rest. But he ignored all these sensations and crawled to his hands and knees, forcing himself back to his feet. His lungs still wouldn't quite draw in a full breath and his head was still pounding from Durge's iron-hard grip.
Did I get the son of a bitch? he thought dazedly, ripping his blood-splattered helmet off his head and tossing it aside. He sucked in a clear breath of muggy Coruscant air. Is he finally dead?
Fate seemed particularly unkind to him today. The thought had barely passed through his mind before a deep groan sounded from behind the cloud of smoke wafting from the missile's impact site. Vhetin hefted his pike once more, preparing for another attack.
Durge did not disappoint. He came charging out of the smoke, arm cannon extended and glowing a sickly yellow-green with overcharge on one arm. His armor was warped, blackened, and twisted, but still largely intact. Part of his face mask had been blown away, revealing mottled purple skin and gnashing teeth. His red eyes shone through the darkness as he stormed straight for Vhetin.
"What does it take to kill you?" Vhetin shouted at the Gen'dai, backpedaling frantically to avoid flailing fists larger than his head.
"I... am... INVINCIBLE!" Durge screamed as he lashed out with the flail. Vhetin threw his momentum backwards and back-flipped out of his opponent's reach, now driven completely into defensive tactics. The battle-scarred alien roared, spittle flying from the exposed portion of his mouth, and leveled his arm cannon.
Vhetin had enough time to see the targeting sight along the side of the weapon glow red before it fired. He cursed and rolled sideways, the turbolaser bolt missing him by less than a foot. He felt the heat of the laser on his bared face as it screeched through the air past him. A second later it detonated, lighting his back with a sickly emerald glow.
He ignited his lightsaber as he came to his feet, darting forward and slicing down before his opponent could attack again. The saber hissed, Durge screamed, and the arm holding the massive compound turbolaser separated from his body and hit the ground with a thump. A spray of purple-black blood splattered Vhetin's armor and the duracrete beneath his feet.
Durge arched his back and roared, clutching his stump of an arm, and Vhetin grinned triumphantly under his helmet. Yet his triumph was short-lived.
Barely seconds after the severed limb hit the ground, pinkish-purple tendrils snaked from the cauterized stump of Durge's arm, creeping out from the severed red-hot armor like fast-growing roots. Before Vhetin's eyes, they solidified into rock-hard bicep, forearm, and fist. Before Vhetin could marvel at the speed of his foe's recovery, the Gen'dai warrior backhanded him across his unarmored face with a fist as hard as stone.
He flew head-over-heels, bouncing across the duracrete before bumping up against the base of a power conduit tower. His head hit the metal support struts with a hard clang and stars burst in his vision in a dizzying arc of tiny pinpricks of light. He tried to rise, failed, and feebly let his head hit against the durasteel pylons behind him, panting hard and holding his aching chest.
This wasn't working. He couldn't match Durge in hand-to-hand combat, even with a lightsaber. The Gen'dai was simply too big and too strong. He needed an edge, something that would give him the striking distance necessary to stop him.
With a grimace, he craned his neck and looked up at the tall power conduit tower that stretched above him, maybe fifteen meters into the air. It was tall enough that maybe…
Pounding footsteps signaled Durge's approach. Even as Vhetin looked back to the ground ahead of him he could see the armored behemoth's shadow looming through the darkness, heading for him with purpose. Those baleful scarlet eyes cut through the gloom like the flashing eyes of a wrathful rancor.
Vhetin had nowhere left to run. So he let out a tortured groan as he scrambled back to his feet, then tightened his grip on his lightsaber, ready to fight once more.
Jay screamed as the first kath hound leaped on her, driving her down onto her back. She punched and kicked the snarling animal in every place she could think of, but couldn't get the thing off her.
The hound – a huge canine beast with mottled black-green fur and sharp cranial horns – blasted her face with hot, stinking breath as it tossed its head and snapped its jaws. She punched it in the ribs to no apparent effect. A second and third punch to the neck and shoulder was met with similar failure. It barked and snarled as hot tendrils of drool dribbled down its maw and onto her jacket.
She finally managed to grab hold of its muzzle before it could bite down on her arm and used it as a handhold to pull it off and away from her. She yanked upward on the creature's snout with all her might and it leaped away with a pained yelp.
Before she could even roll onto her hands and knees, another of the three kath hounds barreled hard into her side, knocking her off-balance once more. She dug her hands into the creature's beige-brown fur and tried to shove the thing off of her. It was no use. The hound was too heavy.
"Damn you!" she shouted, reaching frantically for her fallen rifle. The third of the beasts snarled at her, baring its teeth and pawing at the ground as it crouched low over her weapon.
She punched the beige-brown hound in the ribs, hard enough to make it yelp in pain and hop a half-step away. She took advantage of the momentary pause, rolling sideways towards her blaster, and let out a shout of triumph as her hand wrapped around the rifle's contoured grip. The black-green kath hound tried to leap at her extended arm, but she pulled back in time to avoid the creature's gnashing teeth.
She staggered to her feet and squeezed the trigger, unleashing a volley of bolts at the nearest creature. The brown-gray hound let out a high-pitched yelp and loped off into the darkness, whining the whole way.
The battle fell still as her blaster shots faded into the silence. The other two hounds stared after their retreating companion, then slowly turned their yellow gazes back to Jay as if weighing their chances of victory. She knew she had to change her tactics if she wanted to survive the next few minutes. These were more than just mindless, bloodthirsty beasts; they were obviously more intelligent than she previously thought.
The two remaining hounds began fanning out, circling her in opposite directions. Their paws padded almost silently against the duracrete ground and their eyes blazed with an eerie illumination in the gloom. Jay quickly reloaded her rifle and snapped off two warning shots to keep the creatures at bay. The intended target dodged both of them and growled at her again. It crouched low to the ground and snarled at her, baring its sharp fangs and letting out a low bark.
She heard the sudden patter of paws on duracrete and spun, snapping her elbow out as she did. She caught her would-be ambusher in the jaw, sending it sprawling to the ground. The hound whimpered and scrambled back to its feet, tail lashing, and leaped again before she could move away.
Fangs sank into her arm and she screamed in pain, staggering under the sudden weight. The hound latched tight, writhing and shaking its head as it tried to drag her down to her knees. Fire washed up Jay's arm. The other kath hound saw its opening.
A heavy weight slammed into Jay's back and shoved her to her knees. She heard the snarling of the second hound, felt its hot saliva dribble down her back, felt its claws cut through her cloth jacket like it was flittersilk.
Pain was overwhelming her now and the stink and snarling of the hounds invaded her senses. She could still feel the hound latched onto her arm raking its head back and forth, its teeth lacerating the skin of her forearm. The one on her back sank its teeth into her shoulder and adopted a similar shaking routine, trying with all its might to pin her to the ground and leave her chest and throat open to attack.
She didn't have anywhere to go, nor did she have a plan for how to dislodge her attackers. So instead of fighting she simply shoved backwards, falling right on top of the creature behind her. A half-second later there was a sharp, wet snap and a high-pitched squeal of pain. The teeth vanished from her shoulder and the hound at her back scrambled away from her, yapping loudly.
Freed from the weight of the beast on her back, she was about to curl up, grab the hidden blade sheathed down her boot, and stab down at the hound still latched onto her arm. The humming vibroblade sliced open the kath hounds muzzle with a sizzle and a splash of blood. The monster yelped and released her, hopping back a few steps and dropping into a predatory slouch.
The chaos of battle ebbed for a split second and she craned her neck to see the first hound limping away on three legs; the fourth was bent at an unnatural angle with a sharp sliver of bone protruding from its black-green fur. Her weight had snapped its leg. It wouldn't be in any mood to fight her again soon.
But the last hound leaped back into the fray before she could even draw in a full breath, trying to take advantage of her momentary distraction. It sailed through the air toward her, teeth bared and aimed for her throat. In a last, desperate measure, Jay hefted her rifle up and squeezed off a single shot. A brilliant bolt of blue light was loosed from the barrel with a loud pow.
The bolt hit the creature in the leg and the hound stumbled and crumpled to the ground with a pathetic whine. Before she could give herself time to think, she raised the rifle and fired again, hitting it in the neck and then again in the stomach. Not satisfied, she mashed the firing stud and unloaded her entire ammo cartridge into the hound's belly.
The beast twitched and died, falling onto its side with a slow grace belying its ferocity. It huffed out a short wheeze, then fell still.
Quiet overwhelmed her: no more snarling, no more snapping jaws or scrabbling paws. Just the distant hum of a lightsaber and the occasional concussive boom of Durge's turbolaser.
The fight was over. Jay gasped and fell to her knees, pressing a palm against the deep gash on her shoulder. Her body was shivering violently from adrenaline and pain, and every muscle seemed to be on fire. Blood — both hers and that of the hounds — stained the ground all around her. She had at least four bite wounds and two gashes on her left arm, as well as another deep bite and surely countless lacerations across her shoulder and back.
But she was alive! She'd won! She took a deep breath and looked around, laughing in lightheaded triumph at her victory. Then she raised her rifle and shot the dead hound again, just to be safe.
An explosion split the silence, loud enough to force Jay to cover her ears.
What... Vhetin! She hoisted her rifle up again and, despite her wounds and the exhaustion tugging at her limbs, staggered to her feet once more. Where is he? And where's Durge?
A huge neon green blaster roared through the darkness, punching through a building behind her. She ducked as the building exploded into chunks bigger than she was. A second later she threw herself to the ground as huge jagged hunks of building flew over her head, propelled on an expanding ball of fire.
Well there's the big one.
She raised herself to her hands and knees, scanning the darkness for the source of the deadly cannon bolt. With a gun like that, Durge would be able to vaporize her from a position well out of range of her blaster rifle.
A quiet clang drew her attention. She turned her head and saw a dark, man-sized shadow scaling one of the power conduit towers a few meters from her. Pulling himself hand-over-hand, Vhetin was scaling the durasteel tower with almost unnatural speed. He stopped twenty feet above the ground and hung there, igniting a single blue lightsaber. He watched the ground below intently, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Huge, booming footsteps rang through the quiet of the compound. Jay scrambled to her feet, ducking down behind a large industrial barrel as Durge drew closer. Her breath hitched in her throat, her heart thudding uncomfortably hard against her breastbone.
The Gen'dai's hulking form lumbered through the darkness only a meter from her hiding place. He was holding his cannon arm, which had been severed at the shoulder, like a rifle. Where the arm had been was now a rippling, pink-purple mass of flesh and muscle that flexed and undulated with every movement. As Jay watched, the multicolored arm suddenly dissolved into a twisting mass of fleshy tendrils that reached for the cauterized end of the damaged cannon arm.
Durge held up the cannon arm and the two ends meshed together like the intertwining tentacles of a Kamino kraken. A second later he flexed his now reattached limb and let out a low rumble of fury. The cannon let out a short burst of steam and began to charge once more.
Jay's eyes widened at the sight. If he could reattach body parts, what hope did they have to stop him?
He lumbered off once more, the arm cannon now glowing bright green. A red targeting laser sprang to life and swept the area, slicing through the shadows with a hum. Jay had to press herself closer to the wall as the sight passed by her hiding place.
High above, Vhetin was forced to move to a more secure place on the conduit tower. His foot slipped along the way and his armored boot made a soft clashing sound against the durasteel beams near him. Durge's ravaged mask snapped toward the sound. His cannon swiftly followed.
Oh no. Jay's blood ran cold. I can't let Durge find him up there!
She leaped from cover before she could think better of it, firing at the giant bounty hunter as she did. The Gen'dai grunted in irritation as blaster bolts ricocheted off his back plate and turned to face her. She kept running, firing fast and wild as she fled.
The blaster bolts just bounced off Durge's dirty gray-purple armor, leaving little more than tiny scorches against the gunmetal gray plating. She must have hit him fifteen times but he just kept stomping toward her, oblivious to her efforts and refusing to even flinch under the onslaught. His arm-mounted cannon let out a high-pitched whine as he brought it to bear on her.
The cannon exploded in a fan of sickly green light and a blazing green laser bolt flashed toward her. A heartbeat later the ground exploded beneath her feet, carving a meter-deep crater in the duracrete ground and tossing her into the air. She landed in a smoking heap and screamed, her rifle clattering far from her reach. A bolt of agony ripped through her and the world dissolved into a wash of fire.
Durge lumbered forward, stopping beneath Vhetin's perch and holding the cannon towards her. Jay's eyes streamed with hot tears, but through the hazy vision she could easily make out a turbolaser barrel larger than her head, the cannon barrel spinning and glowing bright emerald as it charged.
"Far better than you have challenged me, girl," Durge thundered, his scarlet eyes glowing malevolently within the confines of his ghoulish mask. "Die knowing that you didn't even make me break a sweat."
High above, Vhetin released his grip and plummeted down through the darkness toward the unsuspecting Gen'dai. His lightsaber raced through the darkness and sliced down through Durge's neck with a sizzle of blazing plasma. The Mandalorian landed hard in a clatter of armor plates behind the massive Gen'dai, rolled, and came up in a combat-ready stance, his saber blade aimed directly at his opponent.
No counterattack came.
Durge was standing stiffly, his turbolaser lowered and his other hand twitching sporadically. Dark blue blood pooled on the duracrete below him, pouring down from the white-hot gash in his neck and chest. Waving purplish tendrils emerged from the saber wound, peeking through the seared armor like inquisitive worms seeking rain.
Then his body separated into diagonally-sliced halves that fell apart and hit the ground with heavy thuds. His massive armored hands twitched twice, then fell still.
All was still.
Vhetin waited, saber held high, for a few moments more. His breath came in short, harsh gasps and his grip on his lightsaber trembled violently. When Durge did not rise, he approached the severed halves of the corpse slowly, nudging the larger piece of the body with his boot. Unsatisfied, he pulled back and severed Durge's armored head with a single swift slash of his blade.
Jay was distantly shocked at the brutality of the action as Durge's head split from his trunk with a splash of the same dark blue blood. Then she gasped in pain and curled into a tighter ball, watching wisps of smoke wafting up from her body. Pain raced through her veins, swallowing every sense available to her.
The Mandalorian straightened, panting hard, and looked around the clearing. As soon as he saw Jay's limp form he instantly sprinted over. A hand fell on her shoulder – a gentle motion that nonetheless sent agonizing spikes through Jay's body. She whimpered and curled up tighter, shrinking away from his touch.
"Jay... Are you all right?"
"D-do I l-look all right?" she stammered, her eyelids flickering. Even the labor of speaking broke her down into agonized shivers. Her vision was wavering and watering so badly she could barely pick him out of the shadows around him. She couldn't even begin to make out the features of his helmetless face as it hovered over her.
"You're going to be fine," he reassured her. He gently pulled off her jacket, wrapping it around her like a blanket. He patted out the smoldering burns on her back and shoulders with surprisingly gentle hands and said, "Can you walk?"
"S-stop asking s-stupid questions."
"Okay," he sighed with a terse nod. "So you can't walk. We still need to get out of here. It's obvious Kassh isn't here, the CSF is probably on its way, and Muscles back there isn't going to stay sleepy for long."
"W-what are you t-talking ab-bout?" she asked, wincing as he extinguished a still-flaming section of her jacket. She craned her neck up and stared again at the severed sections of Durge's body. "Y-you cut the b-bastard in-n half."
"Unfortunately, that won't keep him down forever. He was flown into a sun and still didn't die, remember?"
Jay squeezed her eyes shut and said nothing more. Vhetin put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "You're going to be fine. A few bacta injections and you'll be good as new. I'm going to get you back to Void, then we'll head out of here, all right?"
With careful motions he hauled her to her feet, slinging her arm around his shoulders and supporting her weight. Her mind was growing hazier by the minute, and she felt sleep tugging at her eyelids.
She tried to look over to see his face, to get a look at the man behind the helmet as he helped her limp back to the ship. The question had been nagging at her almost ever since she'd met him. But her vision was swiftly growing darker, and she found it harder and harder to keep her eyes open.
She blinked once, then slipped away into unconsciousness.
Vhetin half-carried an unconscious Jay across the ruined courtyard, very aware that Durge's truncated limbs were beginning to twitch and move once more. He quickened his pace, pausing only to grab his saber pike and replace his helmet. The interior of the bucket was still splattered with blood, but he didn't have time to clean it. He needed to get them out of here as quickly as possible.
What in the hell happened here? he wondered one last time, glancing around the clearing and still capturing everything on his helmet's recorder. The ruined courtyard, the toppled pillar, the lack of power, the deserted compound…
All pointed to an obvious conclusion: someone had beat them there. Their mysterious competitor, Kalyn Farnmir, perhaps? Or perhaps a new party, newly arrived to the hunt.
Even Durge showed evidence supporting that theory. Their fight with the Gen'dai had been costly, but the giant mercenary had not been in top condition. He'd been recovering from a recent battle, still suffering from recent wounds. Vhetin was no pushover, but he knew both he and his partner would be dead if the Gen'dai had been fighting with all his strength.
Yes, someone had already been here. Someone else had eliminated the perimeter defenses, lured away or incapacitated the guards, and attacked — and defeated — Durge before he and Jay had ever arrived. If it had been Farnmir, he had severely underestimated her abilities. She was obviously a far more capable warrior than he originally given her credit for.
Normally he would have dropped everything and set all his resources to heading after his competition and removing them from play before any further setbacks. But with Jay wounded and Durge already on the mend, Farnmir was currently the least of their worries. He needed to get his partner to safety and get away from Coruscant. Then and only then could he find a new vantage point to start his hunt again. It was a setback to be sure, but everyone was still walking away alive. For the moment.
As Void's familiar spearhead shape came into view through the smog, Vhetin let out a sigh of relief. His ship had never been a more welcome sight.
Well, he thought as he carried Jay up the landing ramp, there was that time on Bogg Five, but... that doesn't really count. She wasn't my ship back then.
He wasted no time securing Jay in the medical bay, vaguely realizing it was the second time since meeting her that he'd done so, and hooked a bacta IV into the back of her hand. He stayed for a moment to make sure she was going to be all right, setting his helmet systems to warn him if her vital signs changed, then headed for the cockpit to warm up the ship's engines.
Halfway there, an explosion shook the deck and threw him hard against the bulkhead. In the relative quiet as the ensuing rumble died away Vhetin heard the muffled, roaring scream of an enraged Gen'dai outside.
He sighed and let out a grunted curse. "Oh kark it all..."
He sprinted for the cockpit and threw himself into the copilot's chair, hitting several controls as soon as he was able. He didn't even bother with the usual necessary pre-flight systems check, gunning the engines as fast as safely possible. The deck bucked beneath him again and the shields drained to half strength. Sparks popped over his head, dancing through the air. The lights in the cockpit flickered, but power wasn't drained — not yet.
Void groaned as the engines fired and the engines howled, but the ship didn't lift into the sky. Vhetin frowned and increased power flow. The floor trembled and jumped beneath his feet, the entire vessel shaking around him, but still didn't take off. It just shook and bounced on its landing struts, scraping hard against the ground. He pushed the engines to two hundred percent, hearing another bellow from Durge.
He tapped in a command to bring up the external video feed. A hologram sprang to life in midair before him, displaying the front port view of the ship — all clear. He quickly switched to the top rear view and this time the view very clearly showed the culprit: Durge was back and angrier than ever.
Most of the alien's armor had been abandoned back in the base, and all that remained was part of his stomach plates, sections of his leg armor, and his arm-mounted cannon. The rest of his body was exposed to the muggy Coruscant air, revealing Durge's true nature: a hulking mass of pinkish-purple muscle that flexed and rippled with every movement. He was easily three times larger than before, and his right arm was nothing but flexing tendrils of muscle tissue. That arm was currently embedded within Void's engine housing, keeping the ship firmly rooted on the ground.
"No one survives!" Durge opened a tooth-studded maw and bellowed, "NO ONE SURVIVES!"
Vhetin popped the cap on a glowing red button on the command console, his clenched fist hovering over it. Durge roared again, obviously attempting to rip the engines from their housing and cripple the ship before it could escape. The Mandalorian's face pulled down into a scowl as he pushed the engines to three hundred percent, spraying fifteen-meter flames back at Durge. Blue-white fire enveloped the Gen'dai and his muscles blackened and crackled from the heat. The alien warrior roared in pain, his eyes glowing red as thick strands of saliva flew from his mouth.
"Get the hell off my ship," Vhetin growled, "you disgusting son of a bitch."
He hit the red button. The deck bucked as if hit by another of Durge's turbolaser blasts. A crackling sound passed down the hull and Vhetin lost video contact as a supercharged electric current flashed across the ship's exterior, burning Durge's tendrils away from the metal with a loud sizzle and a flash of light.
A high pitched shriek of pain could be heard from outside and a freed Void shot into the sky at last, blasting away from the abandoned complex. The engines screamed, propelling the freighter into the sky on a pillar of fiery exhaust. Durge's enraged roar followed Void into the sky, loud enough that Vhetin heard it from his place in the pilot's seat.
But after a few moments the Midnight Ultraviolet base – and the enraged Gen'dai left there – was lost amid the endless city-sprawl of Coruscant. Void rocketed away from the atmospheric sector and climbed for the lower atmosphere.
They were free. They were safe.
As Void headed for orbit, Vhetin collapsed back against his seat and let out a long breath, pulling off his bloodstained helmet again and letting it bounce across the floor. His hands trembled, his face was pale and splattered with blood, and his breath was coming in short gasps. He ran a hand through his hair, managing to do nothing but smear it with blood as well. Yet he couldn't help but laugh with giddy relief.
According to the different readouts on the control console, Void was only slightly damaged: a crack in the housing of one ion engine, an overheating electro-current capacitator, and other minor problems. The important thing was that they had escaped more or less—
Well, not unharmed, he thought, thinking of Jay. But alive at least. And able to fight another day.
He swiveled in his seat, struggling back to his feet as his muscles screamed in protest. He and Jay both had taken a hell of a beating at Durge's hands, and it would take some time before either of them were in any shape to fight again. But they were alive at least. Many who had fought Durge could not claim the same.
He shook his head. Sekha's information had been accurate, but it had cost more than he'd realized. Jay would be fine, walking and talking as usual in just a couple hours, but it was still too close for comfort. Going to Kassh's facility had been a dangerous gamble and one that had not paid off in the end. Kassh had vanished to the wind and any potential trail as to his whereabouts were now cold. Vhetin couldn't begin to wonder where to start now.
But the hunt wasn't over. Not yet, at least.
Their Twi'lek friend had not been one of the corpses found at the compound. Chances were good that he had fled or that he had been captured by Kalyn Farnmir. Farnmir herself had obviously survived the attack, as she hadn't been splattered across the ground at Durge's feet. Pair that with the evidence that Durge had been injured and that he'd been functioning well enough to attack them…
It meant only one thing: the Gen'dai had talked.
He didn't know how the huntress had managed it, but she had obviously somehow wheedled enough information out of Durge to warrant a hasty retreat, leaving the Gen'dai very much alive and very angry.
That meant she was now their only lead.
We need to find her, Vhetin said, and pray she hasn't beaten us to the target already.
