Shadow's Odyssey 2: The Chaos Continues
Gungi entered the Bounty Hunter's Guild HQ. He dragged his capture across the floor, a murderer, wanted in two star systems and thus, someone Gungi could actually profit off of. He preferred these kinds of jobs for multiple reasons. It was easier to bring someone in than help them get away and it made the galaxy safer to actually put bad people away instead of just deny them what they want.
As Gungi turned in his capture, he noticed Bossk in the corner, staring at him. Gungi and Bossk had been bitter rivals ever since he joined the guild. They gave each other dirty looks every time they saw each other, but this time was a bit different. This look was more… smug.
Gunig wondered what prank he had come up with this time. Last time, Bossk had sabotaged his ship. Gungi had got him back by breaking the heater in Bossk's ship. Not enough to kill him, but enough to make interplanetary travel very unpleasant for a cold-blooded lizard.
It wasn't that they didn't want to kill each other, it was that it was against the rules of the Bounty Hunter's Guild. If one of them turned up mysteriously dead, fingers would immediately point to the other. For now, pranks and petty insults were the best they could do.
Gungi kept a sharp eye out and a tight grip on his credits as he made his way back to his ship. He got into his ship and began to fly away. Mere minutes after takeoff, Bossk's ship began shooting at him. This surprised the wookie. Bossk had to know he would get in trouble for such a blatant attack on a fellow bounty hunter.
There was no time to think about it. The shields, already weakened from the fight with the murderer, were failing. Gungi ran for the escape pod and launched himself back towards the planet. His escape pod crashed into a building. Luckily, no one was home at the time. Bossk's ship hovered over the building.
Bossk himself dropped down, spraying blaster fire. Gungi ducked for cover behind a couch. He roared a question at the lizard.
"It may be against the rules, but once I collect the bounty on you, I'll be all set for retirement!"
Somebody must have realized that Gungi was helping people get away. He growled and ignited his lightsaber. Bossk met Gungi's charge with a dioxious grenade. The poision gas burned Gungi's nose and throat. But he had to ignore the pain and defend himself because Bossk started shooting again. A shot hit his shoulder, making him drop his lightsaber. Two more hit his leg, causing it to fold under him.
He fell on his side. Bossk put away his blaster and slowly walked up to the downed wookie. He pulled out a knife.
"Your pelt is going to look great on my wall."
Zatt was in his office, looking over financial reports. He got a call from the head of security.
"We have a security breach. An unidentified ship has entered our restricted airspace."
"Have you tried contacting them?"
"We have but we've gotten no response. They're headed straight for your tower."
Zatt looked out the window and saw the ship approaching. "Shoot it down."
Security forces around the bank fired at the ship, but it remained on course. Zatt, realizing what was going to happen, ran for the door.
The ship crashed into his office with a great screeching of metal.
Zatt peeked back inside. A droid climbed out of the wreckage. It was an assassin droid known as IG-88. Zatt ignited his lightsaber and sprang for the droid. It fired its blaster. Zatt extended his hand and absorbed the blasts. He threw his lightsaber, quickly decapitating the droid. It fell to the ground.
Zatt brought the head over to him with the Force. The eyes continued to glow and stare at him.
"Who sent you here?" Zatt demanded.
The droid did not respond, but that was to be expected. A quick hack into its memory files would yield all he wanted to know.
Zatt began to leave the office again when sensed something was… off. He heard a clanking noise. Zatt turned around to see the droid's headless body rise up again and aim its blaster. He shot it with Force lightning. It collapsed once again.
"Nice try but you'll have to be sneakier than that."
Then the droid's head exploded.
Katooni was on her way to a meeting. These meetings with the Trade Federation were always long and boring but she needed to be there to make sure they didn't do anything shady. It was days like this that Katooni wished she could have been the bounty hunter.
She arrived at the meeting room and paused to mentally prepare herself (and maybe procrastinate a little). Then Katooni opened the door and found all the Trade Federation leaders tied up on the floor.
Aurra Sing stood there with her rifle pointed at the door. Katooni immediately dived to the floor and just dodged the first shoot. She ignited her lightsaber as she returned to her feet and blocked the second. Aurra tossed the rife aside and brought out two pistols instead.
"Who sent you?" Katooni demanded.
"Sorry. Client confidentiality and all that." Aurra began firing with the pistols.
Katooni blocked and tried to move in closer, but Aurra kept her distance. Katooni used the Force to yank the weapons away and destroyed them with her lightsaber. Aurra tried to make a run for it but Katooni Force Pushed her against the wall.
"I will ask you again. Who sent you?"
"You're smart. Figure it out."
"Fine then. We'll do this the hard way."
Katooni entered Aurra's mind. Unlike Sidious, she tried to keep the process as painless as possible. But she would not be denied. After searching through Aurra's memories, Katooni found that the answer was Jabba the Hutt. Not really the biggest surprise in the world. But as she examined the memory more closely, she saw that Jabba also picked out several other bounty hunters to go after her friends. He wasn't just trying to get rid of her, he was trying to get rid of the Jedi. But- uuuahhhh!
Katooni opened her eyes. She felt an immense stinging pain in her stomach. She looked down and saw a knife blade that had been hidden in Aurra's boot penetrating her guts.
Aurra stood back up, rubbing her head. "So now you know. It's a shame you'll bleed out before you can tell anyone."
Byph sneakily entered Jabba's Palace. The protocol droid he had hacked into had stopped transmitting. It could just be that Jabba had broken it in a tantrum, he wouldn't think much of having to replace it. He may have even decided to torture it, just for fun. Either way, he would most likely have to place a new spy device somewhere.
He headed to Jabba's throne room to find it concernedly empty. This could only mean one of two things. Either Jabba found someone he wanted to sacrifice to the sarlacc pit or…
All the lights in the palace suddenly went out.
It was a trap.
Byph ignited his lightsaber and stood ready. He closed his eyes and listened carefully. He felt the presence of four people slowly closing in on him. Boushh took the first shot. Byph froze both the shot and the bounty hunter in place. Dengar popped out of hiding and sprayed blaster fire. As Byph was blocking, Embo threw his shield helmet at him.
Byph ducked, and the shield hit Dengar in the face. He lay on the ground, holding his face and groaning. Zuckuss jumped out with a flamethrower. Byph created a Force Barrier to protect himself from the fire. Boushh was still frozen in place.
Embo threw a knife at Byph's back. He threw his lightsaber and it cut down the knife before continuing on to stab Embo. Dengar got back up, blood oozing out of his nose. He pulled out a grenade and threw it at Byph.
The Jedi used his power to redirect its path, so it landed at Zuckuss's feet before it exploded. Dengar, after seeing Zuckuss's body parts paint the wall, decided to give up and run. He didn't make it far before he was struck in the back with Force Lightning.
Byph turned his attention back to Boushh, who was still frozen. He pulled the bounty hunter closer, positioned him in front of the still-frozen blaster shot, and let go.
As the last one fell over dead, Byph heard clapping. The lights came back on.
Shadow was sitting on Jabba's throne, applauding.
To say that Byph was confused would be an understatement.
"A beautiful performance indeed. I can see that Petro was not exaggerating your power. You will serve me well."
Byph was even more confused. He did not remember Shadow talking like this.
"I'm sure you're confused. Not to worry. It'll all make sense in time."
In the blink of an eye, Shadow raced over to Byph and knocked him out with a swift kick.
Ganodi was sitting in her ship, calculating her next hyperspace jump. Her emergency distress signal started beeping. She answered the call and a hologram of Petro appeared.
"Petro, what's going on?"
"We have a serious emergency. Everyone's in danger. I've tried contacting the others, but none of them are answering my calls. Return to the temple and don't stop for anything!"
"What's happening?"
"I don't have time to explain. I'm still trying to wrap my own head around it. Just meet me back at the temple." Petro ended the transmission.
Genodi reset her coordinates and jumped to hyperspace.
