Taris' sun slowly slipped below the horizon, turning the sky behind the rising domes of the Republic colony a blazing span of orange and red brilliance. The canopy of towering trees glittered with the gold light of the setting sun. Torian could hear something screaming off in the distant wilds, somewhere beyond the wreck of twisted metal and stone that made up so much of the wasted ground on the planet. He sniffed, trying to discern if anymore of the Rakghouls were close enough to the colony to prove tiresome. Although if the maddened creatures were approaching, they were coming from downwind, because their stench wasn't obvious right then. But that persistent screaming was proof enough they were nearby.
Torian scanned the perimeter of the community with a discerning eye, looking for the soldiers who moved in and around the outer edges of the colony, counting them carefully. He knew they were looking for him, had been for the past three days he'd been crouched in and around the colony, watching and scouting them out. A simple task, one that he'd jumped at when Fett said it needed doing. He could hunt across the terrain, track the traitor, even as he watched and gauged the enemy below. He constantly looked for signs the traitor was nearby, was living, breathing.
Now, he shifted slowly on the rough blanket he'd thrown down against the upper edge of the rock-strewn trench, easing the strain imposed on his upper chest as he held himself up against his bent arms, sighting down the end of a long-barreled rifle.
The settlers were a varied lot, actually, composed largely of Togruta and Cathar. There were some other aliens and only a few humans. Except for the soldiers. The Republic soldiers that mostly came and went from the compound were predominantly human, with only a few aliens counted among them. They would arrive at varied times in bulky, heavy transports that brought supplies the settlers used in their fields and constructions. It was the tiny number of garrison soldiers stationed at the colony permanently that hunted for him now, so maddened they were now pressing the search into the darkening hours. Probably because Torian's rifle had managed to take the heads of two Republic officers and then a hard-nosed Cathar soldier. He'd heard the surviving soldiers calling for his own head after the attacks. Amusing, that they thought they'd manage to take it from him, he thought.
He himself used the attacks to judge the capability of the garrison to respond to a viable threat. Watching the soldiers scramble about like children playing a game of hide-and-seek against one lone Mando assured him Fett's squad would easily squash the entire colony, send the Republic laandur fools who thought they could challenge such wilds fleeing back to their spaceport. He watched them, now, though, as they prepared yet another futile search to find him. He was curious why they'd choose the darkness for the effort, until he saw that it was a Cathar leading the effort.
A friend or brother, perhaps, of the soldier he'd killed before. The male was intensely resolute, at least, his feline features stiff with angry determination, Torian saw. A Cathar would be better able to move through the dark than a human, his sight at night better than Torian's own. He'd want to get close, so he'd move fast, use his retractable claws to strike out against what he'd assume was fragile human skin. Imperial snipers wore lighter armor than a Mando did, anyway. And the Cathar couldn't know yet it was a Mandalorian he was bent on hunting.
Torian breathed out slowly as he eased himself back off of the incline towards the gear he'd stored nearby, pulling the rifle around so that he could break it down into its varied parts and store it away in his pack. Instead, he hefted his preferred weapon, clutching the electrostaff close as he moved slowly, almost melting a course around the various ruins and brush that surrounded the colony's perimeter.
He could hear the troopers moving through the area, stamping and grunting as they went along. Every so often the Cathar would hiss at them for silence. Torian only shook his head, as he approached the wide trunk of a massive tree, its branches lifting high into the dark nighttime sky. He stopped there, soundless, concentrating on the movement of his enemies nearby.
The men were whispering to each other, not realizing their voices carried so easily through the dense underbrush. "Damn Imp bastard … wish he'd get chewed on by a Rakghoul."
"Better than trudging through this shit of a planet in the dark, yea. But with our luck, we'll be the ones that run into a Rakghoul."
A third man grunted, then. "Rather fight an Imp to be honest. Rakghouls scare the piss out of me. Mindless beasts that used to be men … gives me the willies."
"Yea but a Rakghoul cain't use a blade or blaster to kill you."
"Cause claws are better?"
The last speaker's voice came from nearby, the behind the same tree where Torian was hunkered. That man stepped around the bend of the tree, snorting in disgust at the thought of being clawed to death and stopped hard, shocked. Torian actually smiled at the look of surprise on his face as he regarded the Mandalorian standing there. Torian whispered to him, "Dead." Torian's hand shot out, swinging his blade in an arcing motion against the soldier's vulnerable neck, just above his armored vest. The blade almost sang as it perforated the soft flesh under the man's chin, releasing a cascade of blood to stream down his front. Torian watched his eyes go wide with surprised dismay as he tried desperately to draw air into his lungs through the gurgling mess of what was left of his throat.
"What? Tooms, what are you doing over there? This isn't the time to take a piss, you know. Tooms?"
Torian grabbed the front of the man's armor, gripping him hard so that his hands didn't slide against the blood all over the man's armored chest. He pushed him forward and around the tree, propelling him like he would a battering ram. Then he released him, pushing him hard towards his fellows. The dead man flew towards his companions, one of them yelling out, "What the fuck …?" Then there were shouts and several groans as the bloody corpse hit them, so that the entire group fell down onto the ground in a heap of tangled limbs and increasing gore.
Torian stepped closer, placing his hard booted foot against the dead man's back and pressing forward, leaning his full weight against the pile of soldiers enough that the two who lived were effectively pinned in place. He stared down at them, saw them glaring back at him. "Where is the other one? The Cathar?"
"Fuck you!"
"Not interested in that, actually. Not with you, at least. Tell me."
The smaller of the men was starting to gasp under the weight pressing on his chest. He grunted, "You're no Imp."
"Good. We're making progress."
"He'll kill you!"
"We'll see. Once I meet him."
Torian glanced around, eyeing the darkness. He leaned forward again, pressing harder against the men. He heard the snap of one man's ribs under the pressure, listened as he squealed from the pain. The other one began grunting and panting as his ability to breathe became constrained. Torian just cocked his head, listening, straining to hear something from out of the dark, using the men's pain to draw out the last one of his enemies.
The men at his feet were gibbering by the time Torian heard it, discerned the subtle scrape of claws against stone, followed by the movement of the Cathar as he rushed from around a pile of weathered rubble to rush towards them, snarling. But Torian fired his jetpack and jumped high and out of his reach, landing with significant force on the back of the dead soldier, hard enough to break the corpse's spinal column with a loud snap of sound. The Cathar stumbled as his target suddenly disappeared, but he pulled himself back from running face first into the tree.
Torian's jetpack-fueled leap was powerful, squashing even further the two men under him. The slighter soldier screamed out one more time, just as his diaphragm was compressed enough to smother his beating heart. The man died fast. The other one yelped an agonized call, one that was cut off suddenly when Torian's staff whipped down to crack hard against the side of his head, crushing his skull in a single, solid motion.
"You're Mandalorian! Bastard! I'm going to enjoy killing you. Especially now!"
Torian calmly regarded the Cathar, watching his eyes even as the man's furred face twisted into a hate-filled visage. The feline darted to the left, a feinting motion, but Torian was already responding to his real direction. The Cathar seemed almost to run into Torian's swinging staff as he jumped straight towards the Mandalorian. The electric ends of the staff blared suddenly, sparking light enough to brighten the scene in a brilliant blue wash of color for one long moment. A Cathar scream filled the air, then, as the electricity broiled through the man's body, leaving him twitching there on the ground.
Torian yelled out, "Kyrayc!" He raised his hand high, his blade clutched hard. The Cathar snarled a mean yelp of sound as he looked up, in time to see the glint of the metal as the knife-edged weapon flew down, hard. Torian's blade pierced the Cathar's abdomen, sliding through muscle and flesh until the merest tip met the soil behind his back.
The Cathar grunted, snarling. He snapped up with his fangs, baring the blood-stained edges of his teeth. But Torian pulled his head back and out of reach. He knelt there, over the Cathar's dying body, watching the pain that filled his face. The Cathar snarled again, spitting out the blood filling his mouth, "I hate you! You and your friend!"
Torian grunted softly. "Out here alone, cat."
"You lie! I saw the other one myself, skirting the edges of the fields only four days ago. Hunted him. It's why I wasn't here when you shot Yirry in the face!" The Cathar coughed up some more blood. Torian climbed to his feet, frowning down at him. The Cathar suddenly smiled, "Or did your friend die, too? Killed by a Rakghoul maybe? Poetic justice, hmm?"
Torian knelt down, placing a single finger against the blunt end of the dagger's hilt that still protruded from the Cathar's stomach. He slowly pressed down, before shifting the knife forward … then back again. The pull and drag of the blade against his tender, bleeding flesh speared the Cathar with renewed agony, and he screamed, the cries ringing out through the darkness.
Torian cocked his head, regarding the pained figure in front of him. "Describe the Mandalorian you hunted."
"What? No! Stop! Don't do that again!" The Cathar almost whimpered when Torian touched the dagger's hilt again. Torian stopped, staring at him with his finger frozen in place. "Not … he's not your friend? Okay! Just don't! He was … big, bigger than you. Hair on his face, his chin. Some … paint across his eyes. Armor … Mandalorian armor, it's how I knew what he was. Green armor, blended in well. Brown … brown eyes. Brown. Like your eyes. Who is he?"
Torian ignored the question. "Where did you track him?"
"East! East of here, I swear. There's a transport station near there. Full of Rakghouls. You'd know it. Lost the tracks around a pool full of contaminated water, started hiking back."
"He was alone? No team?"
"No. No one I saw. Until you tonight."
Torian grunted. "He's not Mandalorian."
"He wears armor like you do."
Torian yanked the dagger free of the Cathar's belly, listening to the scream that echoed through the space. He shook his head down at the desperately bleeding feline, who was coughing and gagging against the blood now pooling in his mouth. "He's dar'manda. Traitor. And he'll be as dead as you soon enough."
The Cathar didn't even grunt when Torian plunged the dagger into his heart, ending it.
Just a few Mando'a words this time around:
Laandur - delicate, fragile, or, as an insult, to mean weak or pathetic. Do NOT call a Mandalorian woman by this word.
Kyrayc - killed, dead
Dar'manda - Not Mandalorian; not an outsider but one who's lost their heritage or had it stripped from them, thus losing their identity and even soul, unable to reach the Manda, the Mandalorian version of Heaven. Soulless, basically. Regarded with absolute dread by traditional Mandalorians.
