Chapter Six -- Lifeless Eyes.
The two soldiers wandered the streets of Taris, intent on getting supplies. As they walked along the busy streets, Carth, who remained silent, thought of his home planet: Telos. He pessimistically wondered how -- and if -- the war-ravaged planet would survive. The more he thought about his ill-fated home and its inhabitants, the guiltier he felt. If he had-
"We don't have any caffa, do we?" said Nace, interrupting Carth's mental laments.
Carth, puzzled and lost in thought for a few moments, turned his head towards her and asked, "What?"
"Caffa -- we're out, aren't we?"
It dawned on Carth what Nace was talking about. "Oh, yeah. We don't have any left."
"Well, unless we want to start every day with a fight and a visit to the cantina, I think that we should go and get some."
Carth nodded, then quickly turned his mind back to his thoughts. Nace, however, bluntly brought him back to the present again.
"We should probably get some clothes too -- mine are, uh --" she stopped speaking cautiously, searching their surroundings for any eavesdropping Sith. "-- stained."
Carth nodded abesntly, saying, "That sounds like a good idea."
"We're going to need some food too --"
"Alright, alright! We'll get food too. Just, please be quiet. I -- I have a headache."
Nace, finally realizing the annoyance she was imposing on him, quickly stopped talking. Instead, she preoccupied herself with her surroundings, searching for stores and shops that could prove useful. She entered those she found promising, being trailed by a moping Carth.
While browsing her chosen stores, Nace heard whispered gossip from Tarisian customers, discussing current issues on their planet. Through the suppressed conversations, she discovered that most of Taris' inhabitants didn't enjoy the Sith, or the martial law that came with them. In fact -- from what she gathered -- most would defy the Sith if they thought that they had a chance. Trouble was, the universal thought was that the Sith were impervious; and, for the most part, the Tarisians were right.
Though the possibility of an outright rebellion was slim, Nace was surprised to find as much dislike as she did. Perhaps there wasn't as much overwhelming support for the Sith as everyone thought; maybe the Tarisians were just afraid of them. Nace couldn't help but be disgusted at this fact; fear was not the proper way to earn respect.
Meanwhile, after he had finished moping, Carth had worked up enough courage to join a few of these conversations. Though most of the gossip was of no use to either him or Nace, he did find out some valuable information; if the rumors were true. According to several Tarisians, the remaining escape pods from the Endar Spire crashed into the UnderCity. He also heard a bit of off-hand gossip saying that some Republic survivors were being cared for by some Upper City doctor; maybe it was that doctor that had given him a discount?
After Nace had gotten the supplies they needed, she found Carth and they exited the market area. She found him in a considerably better mood in which she left him, raising her spirits as well. Her disposition was heightened even more when Carth told her the good news.
"This is great! Now we have some idea of where to start looking!"
Carth nodded, a grin stealing its way onto his face.
"We'll have to go as --"
"Davik says you missed your last payment."
Nace froze, searching her surroundings. From what she could tell, she and Carth had walked into a nearly empty section of the market area, probably due to it's drab looking stores. They looked to be alone, save for an old man, who was being bothered by two mean looking Tarisians.
"Davik doesn't like you missing payments!" threatened the second Tarisian.
Carth slowly took Nace's arm, and silently led her behind an empty booth. They crouched low to the ground, peering cautiously around the corner; this situation didn't seem like something they wanted to be involved in.
"Here -- I've got 50 credits! A down payment. That should buy me some time, right?" the old merchant pleaded.
"Sorry, you're out of time. Now its all or nothing. Davik can't have people not paying his debts!" the first Tarisian replied.
"Bounty hunters," Carth whispered in Nace's ear, his hands moving to his blasters. Nace reacted similarly, removing her hands from their shopping bags and resting them on the hilt of her short sword.
"But I don't have that much! How can I give you credits I don't have?" reasoned the poor man.
But the bounty hunters wouldn't be deterred. "That's too bad. Davik's going to want to make an example of you! You're coming with us," said the second mercenary.
The merchant had been obviously afraid before, but judging by the look on his face, he was absolutely petrified now. "No -- help! Somebody help! They're going to kill me!" he yelled hoarsely.
Carth's mouth neared Nace's ear once again and whispered, "I know we have to be careful about drawing attention to ourselves, but are we just going to let them drag this guy off?" Nace jerked her head no, and rose from her crouching position, pulling out her sword slowly and threateningly.
The first bounty hunter saw her rise, and said, "Hold on a second. Looks like we've got ourselves a witness here!"
"Davik doesn't like witnesses," threatened the second mercenary, pulling out a blaster and pointing it at her.
"Leave this man alone or you'll have to deal with me!" yelled Nace angrily, pointing her thumb at her chest.
"Guess we'll have to teach you to mind your own business!" the other bounty hunter replied, pulling out his blaster.
Using lightning fast reflexes, Nace dodged the first few blaster bolts headed her way. In a few consecutive movements, she zigzagged towards the mercenaries, ducking low to the ground in order to make the bounty hunters' target smaller. There proved to be too many bolts headed her way, however, for she had to stop and duck behind another booth. She peered slowly around the corner, but was met with a barrage of blaster bolts. Frack, why didn't I bring my pistol? She thought desperately.
Nace was not doomed to die, however. Behind their original booth, Carth darted quickly around the corner, firing his blaster pistols with amazing accuracy. His bolts hit and killed the first mercenary, causing him to fall to the ground. Before the second bounty hunter could see him, he returned to his hiding spot, effectively confusing the remaining bounty hunter. The bewildered Tarisian started firing random shots towards Carth, obviously hoping that a stray bolt might hit him. Out of necessity, Carth returned fire, as the mercenary's shots were getting close to the mark.
Nace used the firefight as a distraction, zigzagging once more until she reached the bounty hunter. Using the hilt of her sword, she knocked the blaster out of his hand. Before he had a chance to react, she lashed out with her foot, causing the mercenary to fall flat on his back. Desperately, he reached for his blaster while on the ground, but Nace had other plans in mind. Before he could reach his blaster, Nace trust her short sword downwards into his gut, killing him effectively.
After the adrenaline of the fight wore off a little, Nace pulled her sword out of the bounty hunter and placed it back into her belt; she moved her arm onto her forehead in an effort to stop the headache she knew was about to come. Meanwhile, Carth holstered his blasters once more, rose up from behind the booth with their shopping bags, and walked towards Nace and the old man who was cowering behind his own booth. Once the merchant had seen that they meant him no harm, however, he rose up as well, thanking the two.
"Thank you -- I owe you my life! Those bounty hunters were going to take me away and kill me! My wife warned me not to take a loan from Davik. Now I can't pay him back. It's not good to owe a crime lord money. He'll just keep sending more bounty hunters after me until I'm dead!" The old man rambled, clearly shaken.
Nace's heart went out to the poor merchant. She wished she could give him some of their credits, but they needed everything that they could get; her and Carth didn't have anything to spare. "I'm just glad we could help," she told the man sincerely.
Still afraid, the merchant gathered what little wares he had and began leaving his booth. "I'm getting out of here before any more of Davik's goons show up. You should do the same," and without even a goodbye, he was gone.
Nace and Carth watched the old man leave, surprised at his abruptness. "At least we got a thank you," Nace remarked, taking some of the bags from Carth. While taking some of their supplies, her eyes met with the lifeless eyes of the bounty hunters. "What do you think we should do about the bodies?"
Carth looked at the dead mercenaries with a grimace, and said, "I hate to say it, but they should be fine here -- no one comes around, and there's nothing pointing the crime towards us. Messing around with these guys might stamp our names all over them."
Nace nodded, then looked up at Carth. "We should take the old man's advice and get out of here -- he was right, someone could show up."
The two left the scene shortly after making sure that they had everything; they needed the supplies that they had bought. They departed slowly, sore from their quick, but lethal battle a few minutes previous; the dull, lifeless eyes of the mercenaries the only witnesses.
Disclaimer:
Nace is mine, everything else isn't. YAY.