HUNTERS Part II

Bossk smiled grimly as he watched Fett and '88 blow each other to smithereens. He had been hoping to have their blood, or circuitry, on his hands, but an enemy killed by another is better than an enemy killed not at all.

Bossk's claw flexed involuntarily. That was an old saying that he had never believed, a fable created by old hunters who were too tired and ill to kill anyone themselves anymore but too stubborn to let go of the power that they had become intoxicated by and just die.

As he thought that an image of Cradossk sprung into his mind.

Yes, he thought, your time will come soon, old fool.

His father had, for too long now, held onto the power and glory that was rightfully Bossk's. When the time came, it would be Bossk's pleasure to devour him, just as he had devoured his brothers and sisters in the birth pits of Trandosha.

But now was not the time for that.

He had graciously offered to join up with the inexperienced findsman Zuckuss and his partner 4-LOM; to share his greater expertise and skill so that they would all have a better chance of acquiring the bounty at the end of this hunt.

Like a fool the Gand had refused.

Bossk's claws twitched again.

*At least if you had joined me I would have killed you quickly.*

But now the Gand and his partner were going to have to be taught an object lesson as to what happens to those who ignore Bossk.

*And this way is going to hurt a lot more.*

After the Gand had made it quite clear as to what he thought of Bossk's offer, Bossk had ordered one of his other thugs, one of the more intelligent ones that had joined up with him, to surreptitiously hack the *Mist Hunter*'s onboard computer system. Now it was, among other things, continually sending him live sensor data.

*It's almost as if he is working for me. And when his time comes, I'll know precisely where he is.*

Smiling, Bossk double-checked that the nav-computer was finished the lightspeed calculation. Reaching out he placed his claws firmly on the hyperdrive levers and pulled them towards him.

Just how would he spend all those Credits?

In the vast emptiness of space, a helmeted figure sat alone, surrounded by blinking consoles and flashing lights. The coldness of the vacuum was reflected in the coldness of his visor as he scanned the instruments arrayed in front of him.

The probe, which was now hidden safely in the debris field of his own making, was scanning the Geonosis system dutifully. The bounty hunters Zuckuss and 4-LOM, aboard the *Mist Hunter*, were revealed easily to him, despite their minimal sensor-stealthing. Bossk, on board the *Hound's Tooth*, was even easier to spot, his ship had no stealthing engaged whatsoever. IG-88 and the *IG-2000* were hidden far better than either of the others, still, to his experienced senses, they were just as obvious.

And now that all the pieces of the puzzle were in place, it was time to put them together.

Reaching out, Fett triggered the jump to lightspeed and watched as the starscape transformed itself into the tunnel of hyperspace and he entered the one place in the galaxy that he felt truly safe.

Closing his eyes, Fett dozed off.

Bossk's gratitude that Fett and IG-88 were both dead had soon given way to the rage that he always carried with him.

HE should have been the one to kill them.

Their blood should have been on HIS claws.

Bossk was still brooding darkly as he dropped out of hyperspace and shot towards Geonosis.

He was still brooding, in fact, when the space behind him flickered and spat out *Slave I*.

He was caught completely off guard. *Slave I* blasted towards him like, quite literally, a ghost out of hell. Still, his reflexes had been honed by a lifetime spent as a bounty hunter and he had the *Hound's Tooth* spinning round to meet Fett before he was even aware of it. His claws dashed simultaneously for the firing, shield and thruster controls as Boba Fett circled him once, blasters firing, then went charging back out into space. The *Hound's Tooth* chased after him, laser cannons spewing red and green bolts of destruction as it went. Bossk was only beginning to recover from the mixed shock, disbelief, anger and even a slight bit of relief that he might be able to kill Fett himself after all when *IG-2000* came blasting out of the planet's atmosphere, blaster blazing away at Bossk's ship. It was a futile gesture; Bossk's spin to chase Fett had brought him out of the droid's laser range.

In front of Bossk, *Slave I* spun round and shot past, spewing death as it went. Dropping three proton torpedoes as it passed, *Slave I* moved on to engage *IG-2000*.

The *Hound's Tooth* shuddered as the heavy explosives detonated against its shields. Bossk twisted it around for another pass at the battle raging behind it.

Battle was a poor choice of words.

Slaughter was more accurate.

*Slave I* continued to pour raw energy into *IG-2000*'s shields as it flew past; then spun around and passed again as *IG-2000*, the agile craft that it was, had twisted halfway around on its axis, its guns now brought to bear on empty space. Fett's ship delivered the *Hound's Tooth* one final blow before blasting towards empty space, only a pair of small canisters and the destruction it had left behind testament to the fact it had ever been there.

Two small canisters.

Bossk snarled as his brain caught up with the events, curses flying unhindered from his jaws as he scrabbled uselessly in an attempt to move the *Hound's Tooth* away from the heavy explosives in time.

He failed.

*IG-2000* had sped far away, the sleek and deadly craft was built for speed, but Bossk was sitting right next to them as they detonated.

A halo of blue energy pulsed out, slicing through the *Hound's Tooth*'s energy shields like a knife through a soft dairy product. Bossk was thrown to the deck plating as the ship rocked under the force of the explosion. Clawing his way back onto his chair he managed to get his talons back onto the control panels.

The status lights on the boards were all blank, indications of complete system failures.

Bossk had no idea what was still functional, but, from the sounds echoing back through the ship, he had absolutely no interest in going back to find out manually.

Chances were he would be facing cold vacuum.

Cursing horribly, Bossk set to work attempting to fix the comm unit, trying to ignore the fact that should Fett or IG-88 miss each other, the blaster bolt could very easily vaporize *Hound's Tooth*.