Legend of the Harp

Episode III: The Crucible

Chapter 10: Along Came a Spider

*Bounty Hunter Snare, Castanea*

Snare was just finishing rappelling down from her craft and securing herself to one of the very solid tree branches. She was quite good at the task. As a female Harch, she had a number of limbs and was used to moving in three dimensional environments.

Not many Harches left their homeworld. The rest of the galaxy was too different from the webs of home. The values held by most other sentients were too strange and opaque. The food they ate, too unappetizing. However, Snare wanted a chance to see new places, hunt new game. So, Snare had left her homeworld and become a bounty hunter. She had gotten what she wanted. The pile of Credits she had accumulated didn't hurt either.

Snare had found the galactic market for bounty hunters was well developed. There was a lot of competition. It seemed any idiot who could strap on a blaster wanted to call himself a bounty hunter. Even some idiots without a blaster.

To be successful, Snare had realized, she needed to carve out a niche, build a brand. Snare had succeeded. It was now understood that Snare was the best bounty hunter in the galaxy for forest habitat located quarries.

It wasn't a huge niche, but it drew a steady and lucrative income. Of course, Snare hadn't earned this reputation without spending endless hours, days, years in arboreal environments, moving from tree to tree, slowly but steadily tracking her target. The result was always the same.

Snare also knew she depended on her team. She had slowly, but steadily, accumulated a team of other top professionals who were known for their ability to work in a forest canopy. Getting them to join her team meant less competition. It also made her stronger. She was not arrogant enough to believe she was the best at everything, she was good, very good, but not that good. She used the strengths of those on her team to her advantage. No single bounty hunter could ever hope to be as good as she and her team could be. As the members of her team lent her their strengths in the hunt, they also lifted her to greatness.

First among Snare's team was her intended mate, Claw. They had not yet mated, for when Harch mated, the female ate the male. Yes, in the more 'modern' galaxy, there were now ways for a male Harch to fertilize a female Harch without being consumed.

"Perhaps you would like to use the new way to mate so you need not die?" Snare had asked her intended once upon a time when she had, perhaps, imbibed a bit too much blood wine.

"When you are ready to mate," and even in this degenerate new galaxy, mating was always at the female Harch's discretion, "I shall have lived long enough." Claw responded.

It was believed that the male contributed not only his zygotes, but his spiritual virtues to his young. Certainly, as Snare had reached out and used the spike at the tip of one of her arms to stab and eat the newborn of the new way, they seemed far less viable then the young of a strong male Harch who had been consumed in the mating process.

Along with his brutal efficiency as a hunter and effectiveness as an XO, his traditional values were what attracted Snare to her intended. It didn't hurt that he had a very well-rounded thorax as well.

Even as Snare got herself situated on her branch, she could hear Claw giving commands to get the team organized.

Among her other crew was a human clone. As the clone army had been disbanded, a small percentage had been inducted into the new Imperial Military. However, the clone troopers had been subjected to rapid growth techniques. Those techniques made the clones much more cost effective as they could be sent into battle more quickly. Of course, while the clones had been trained and had the bodies of adult men, they were still only eight to ten years old when they were sent into combat. The rapid grow techniques that had been used on the clones, chosen as much for their economy as their effectiveness, had meant that many clones would not age well. A handful of clones were lucky and aged gracefully, the Imperial Military had chosen among those to retain in service. Any rapid aging defect, and regardless of service record or skill set, the clone was cashiered.

Snare's clone was one of the cashiered. His name was Twitch. His left eye twitched relentlessly, hence his nickname. Twitch had been one of the clone army's finest ranger/scouts, a top ARC Trooper. Twitch had also been one the clone army's best snipers.

"Does that twitch effect your aim?" Snare had asked Twitch when they first met.

"Don't shoot with that eye." Twitch replied using an economy of words which was his custom and which Snare appreciated.

Then Twitch had pulled out the sniper configured E-7 rifle that was his preferred weapon and put on a display of long distance accuracy that was almost supernatural. After the shooting demonstration, Twitch had blindfolded himself and done a full disassembly, cleaning and re-assembly of the rifle. Snare had hired him on the spot. A decision she had never regretted. The Imperial Military's loss had been her gain.

With one of her lower left eyes, Snare could see Twitch had already set up in a nearby tree and was scanning the area with his rifle's long-range optical sight.

Nibbs was already pulling away with Snare's ship. Nibbs hadn't been hired because she was so battle worthy herself, but she was reliable, also a good pilot. Experience had taught Snare that bringing her own ship down and providing her quarry with an expensive piece of gear, the ship, to escape her and leave her stranded was a bad idea. So, she had found a pilot who would put them down and then go back up into orbit until called for. She could come back from time to time, as needed, to deliver extra supplies, though that was rare. What was important was that Nibbs would come back when called, she wouldn't wander off with the ship. Nibbs would even come back through blockade and into a firefight as necessary and had done so more than once. Nibbs might go down fast in the bar fights she liked to pick, but she had an unnatural ability to fly and evade which is what she was hired for.

Eventually, Snare would retire and would eat all of her team ending with Claw. Then she would produce her offspring. It seemed the greatest gift and compliment she could offer them.

The Imperials had worried a Sciuridae fugitive was on the planet. A Sciuridae! As if a cowardly Sciuridae warranted such treatment. However, Credits spoke, and the Imperials were speaking loudly. Snare would find the Sciuridae, take the foolish Imperial Credits and move on to the next job.

Snare also knew the Imperials had apparently already sent their own team and someone had interfered and stopped them. That meant there could be more to this job than was explained. That was typical. Snare expected such things and was always cautious.

Within moments of landing, Snare's team came upon the dead troop transport that had interfered with the Imperial transport.

Snare, a good tracker in her own right, had a Canis tracker on her team. The Canis applied his extraordinary sense of scent and his other tracking skills to the situation.

"One survivor from the ship." The Canis reported.

The Canis then led the team on a loop around the ship.

"She stopped here for a bit. Then went…this way." The Canis reported leading them.

They made their way through the undergrowth for a bit when the Canis reported, "A male wearing Imperial gear picked up her trail here."

This was interesting. They hadn't even picked up the Sciuridae's trail yet.

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