Some Never Do
A Star Wars Fan Fiction
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, although I do own most memorabilia and nearly every published book about it known to mankind. Sintas and Ailyn Vel are property of… Dark Horse Comics and whoever came up with them. Not me. I just can't remember the person's name right now… so there.
Chapter One
Stolen Bounty
A few years before the time of A New Hope…
Sintas knelt before the ramp off her small starship. It was a rickety thing; a used star fighter, but it was all she could afford, and it suited her just fine. She pulled her mid-calf length boots up straight and stashed a vibroblade within a hidden pocket in her khaki pants. She stood up and made sure her all of her weapons and armor were securely fastened and she smiled as she patted her trusty pistol.
It was very unlike the rest of her. Her khaki pants with several pockets were fraying at the edges. The scant armor on her torso was scratched and dull, and the shirt beneath it was practically rags protruding from the edges of the armor. The metal toe and heel of her boots were scuffed and dented. Her pale skin was smudged with grease from her several weapons and her ship, and her stringy black hair was messily pulled up with a piece of cloth, although her shaggy bangs refused to be confined and dangled angrily above her eyes.
Her pistol's silver metal gleamed brightly and the slender curvature of the handle fit cleanly in her spidery hands. She smiled at it before keying the password into the door of her ship. The door creaked as it slid to the side. No ramp extended from the ship to the ground two feet below; she just hopped down and the door closed automatically after her, a hushed click signaling the lock.
She began her way out of the hangar, her arms loose by her sides and her head slightly bent over. She picked her way through the crowds easily, avoiding looks, and turning down alleyways easily; this was her home planet, anyway. She slipped into an elevator to the lower levels after passing a rather persistent vendor. While the doors opened on the lower level she took her pistol out of its holster; you could never be too careful down here, she thought as she stepped out into the dark underworld of Coruscant. Sintas slinked through the dirty streets, dodging beggars and drunkards alike, before halting before the entrance to an unnamed cantina.
Throwing a cautious glance over her shoulder, Sintas nodded to the bouncer and stepped through the sliding doors into the dank bar. She squared her shoulders and her eyes roved the crowd. There were a few Trandoshans at the bar, growling about something, multiple screens behind the bar displayed the underground swoop races and creatures of all species lounged about the tables, but only one table attracted Sintas' attention. In a far corner of the cantina, a rather haughty human sat at a table surrounded by women of all kinds, including a scantily clad, blue-skinned Twi'lek with an elaborately jeweled headdress. The Twi'lek was draped over the man's shoulders and he was stroking her chin affectionately, almost ignoring the rest. Sintas nodded to the blue-skinned Twi'lek girl and she smirked deviously, her pointed teeth glinting in the dim light. The Twi'lek girl gracefully slipped from the man's grasp and caught his hand with an inviting smile and batting eyelashes. A badly concealed look of carnal hunger crossed the man's face as the Twi'lek girl led him from the table of women. Sintas followed them at a distance as the Twi'lek girl led him into the back rooms of the cantina.
A man stepped in front of Sintas and grabbed her by the shoulders. "How's about ya give me a little kiss'mm? Them Twi'lek's and other dancers are all over that rich scum," he drunkenly leaned on her and with a disgusted grunt Sintas ducked underneath his reach and bypassed him. An alien tried to pull her over to sell her some sort of drug and she waved him off angrily. Even the bartender put in his bit. A feeling of panic welled up inside Sintas' chest as she struggled to get to the back of the cantina, never before had she felt so crowded. A blaster bolt and a shriek drew the attention of the entire cantina to the back. Sintas froze in trepidation, only feet from the door to the back hallways, still surrounded by a curious crowd. Her partner did not have a blaster… The door to the back hallways swished open and a pathway cleared to straight to the exit. A man clad in green and gray armor and a smoking blaster stalked from the door, proceeding straight through the parted crowd out of the cantina. Sintas' eyes never left the armored man, her head turning until he left. All eyes seemed glued to him as he walked through, although his visored gaze seemingly never wavered from straight-ahead. The cantina slowly resumed its original buzz but Sintas hurriedly scrambled into the back hallway. Sintas readied her blaster and pushed open the door to the room she and her partner had scouted before.
"Sintas!" the Twi'lek girl rushed forwards. "He stole our kill!" she pointed into the room and Sintas stared on in dismay. The man the Twi'lek had seduced into the room now had a four inch blaster wound in his chest and laid sprawled on the bed.
"Oh no," Sintas sighed dejectedly. "That was the best deal we'd gotten in months," she lowered her blaster and shook her head. The Twi'lek girl peeked out the doorway and quickly hopped back in.
"Well, whatever. That Fett guy beat us to it; we'd better get a move on," she stated as she started out into the cantina with Sintas close behind.
"That Fett guy? That the Mandalorian?" Sintas asked as they made their way through the cantina. The Twi'lek girl nodded her head, making her head tails sway a bit.
"Yea. He's been around forever," Sintas guessed that the Twi'lek girl was rolling her eyes about now.
"Then why have I never heard of him?" Sintas asked. They reached the streets and wove around the parked speeders and garbage.
"Because we aren't in the same circuit," the Twi'lek stated. "He's been doing mostly Imperial Bounties, like on Jedi and stuff. He's a real big shot, I've heard, very expensive."
"Then why did he just take our bounty?" the Twi'lek girl swiped an ID card into a slot near a door to a large shabby building.
"I don't know. No more Jedi to hunt?" she replied as she and Sintas stepped into the lower levels of the dilapidated apartment building. They took a shaky elevator to the fourteenth floor and walked to the second door on the right. The Twi'lek girl swiped her card and entered a password into the keypad next to the door. The door swiftly slid open and the two bounty huntresses stepped into their apartment. Sintas plopped down on the musty couch in the tiny living room. She took her pistol out of her holster and opened a maintenance kit that sat on the floor next to the couch. She began to pick the miniscule particles of dust and grime from her prize possession as her partner disappeared inside the bedroom to change.
"Hey Keela," Sintas called while cleaning her pistol.
"Yea?" the Twi'lek girl named Keela replied from the other room; her voice was slightly muffled as she seemed to be struggling with pulling some piece of clothing over her head.
"Have you lined up any other bounties?" Sintas asked. She closed one eye and squinted the other as she held her pistol up to the light, studying how the artificial rays bounced off the polished metal. Keela came out of the other room, still straightening her chain mesh tunic over her black leotard and shorts. Keela arched one of her finely plucked eyebrows and tilted her head to the side, making the jewels on her headdress chime against each other.
"What do you think? That bounty would have set us for over a month," Keela put her blue hands on her curvy hips as she stared down her human partner.
"Okay, maybe not. I guess we'd better look at the listings then. I have bills to pay on my ship," Sintas sat up a bit as Keela shrugged and sat at the rickety desk that took up the rest of the living room. She quickly established a link to the Bounty Hunting office and began scrolling through the local listings. The blue skinned Twi'lek flipped her head tails from her shoulders and continued searching.
"Smuggler, bad gambler, blah, blah, blah.Oh hey, how about this one? For 300 credits, a… runaway journalist, oh wait, that's an Imperial Bounty," Keela began to continue her search but after holstering her pistol, Sintas shoved her over, somewhat gently, and went back.
"I like the runaway journalist," Sintas said as she brought up the info screen. Keela jutted her fine lower lip out in a pout at sharing the small seat at the desk.
"I thought the Imperial Bounties were off-limits to us? Ya know, too risky?" Keela glared at her partner. Sintas' eyes scanned the screen.
"That's because they usually are, but this guy doesn't look too hard. Come on, Imperial bounties are usually in the thousand credit reward range, nobody's going to be looking for this measly guy," Sintas persuaded and Keela stiffened.
"Measly guy? He's worth 300 credits! 150 each, do you know how much stuff that can buy me? Not to mention it covers my bills, I don't know about you," she leaned back and Sintas turned her gaze to her.
"I mean, he's a measly reward compared to normal Imperial Bounties, not our normal bounties. He's practically a godsend. And come on, he's not even a murderer or anything. He's lucky if he knows how to shoot a blaster," Sintas said and Keela stood up, rubbing her bare arms.
"If he's so easy, then why don't the Imperials just pick him up themselves?" Keela asked, playing with the winding gold band on her right arm. Sintas had a matching one on her left arm. She shrugged.
"He's probably not worth their trouble," Sintas shut down the connection after loading a copy of the runaway journalist's info onto her datapad. She stood from the small seat and looked at her dubious partner. "I'm going for him, are you with me or not?" Sintas asked her Twi'lek friend. The other girl regarded her with an almost pouting gaze as she mulled it over. Keela reached into a nearby trunk and pulled out two slightly curved vibroblades. She quickly sheathed them in their proper places attached to the belts wrapped around Keela's slender thighs.
"If I don't go, you'll get killed. So I guess I'd better, besides, we're a team, right?" Keela said with a small smile. Sintas' own face lit up with a smile of her own.
"Right," she answered, and the two clanged their armbands on the way out, laughing at the sheer magnitude of sound that the two tiny pieces of metal could make.
Author's Note: Mwahaha! Alright, the second chapter is finally up! I was going really well there for a while, but then I got caught up in moving out of the dormitories and junk, and totally forgot about writing! gasp Well, a wonderful review reminded me, and here is the consequence: a new chapter! Yay!
All right, here are most of the stories about or related to Boba Fett I have read: "Last One Standing" from the Tales of the Bounty Hunters; The Mandalorian Armor; Slave Ship; Hard Merchandise; "A Barve Like That" from the Tales from Jabba's Palace; all of the Boba Fett Clone Wars stories; Young Jedi Knights: The Emperor's Plague;Young Jedi Knights: Shards of Alderaan; Young Jedi Knights: Jedi Bounty; Young Jedi Knights: Diversity Alliance; The Bounty Hunter Wars; Galaxy of Fear: City of the Dead; the first four chapters of The Accursed One Lives; then a LOT of comics, including: Enemy of the Empire; Death, Lies and Treachery; Bounty on Bar-Kooda; Twin Engines of Destruction; Bounty Hunters; Zam Wesell; Jango Fett; Open Seasons; Dark Empire II; Star Wars Tales TPB Volume 5; Star Wars Tales Volume 7; Shadows of the Empire; Boba Fett; and Underworld.
I'm sure I am missing some, but I just thought I would let you know that I have done my research. :-)
