Tatooine. Mos Espa. 4ABY. 9 pm local time
The wind howled as the Thishian approached the Mos Espa, the dual sunset shining over the sandstone buildings. Little expression showed through his mask as he pulled up the hologram of the Twi'lek that was barely old enough to be considered fully matured, yet she had already killed many. How could she be so young yet feared so much? He slowed his speed bike as he entered the crowded streets scanning the crowd and making his way to the Mata cantina and hotel: her last known location. The streets were full with the stands of farmers almost giving their products away to anyone that would lay eyes on them, trying to rid themselves of the product as a huge dust storm approached the capitol. He ignored the chaos as he shut off his bike and entered the cantina. He approached the counter as the last of the drunks left.
"Unfortunately, due to the upcoming storm, we will be closing shortly," the droid behind the counter said as it put the last of its juice processors into storage mode.
"Bounty hunter 1617, I am here on a personal request from captain Joahn " the Thishian calmly stated as he pulled out his identification card as well as the holoprojector of the Twi'lek girl. The droid looked at the two Items presented before him and processed the information.
After a few moments, he hesitantly stated "She is in apartment 192" knowing what the imperials would and could do if you failed to comply with his demands. The Thishian stared at him for a moment before retracting the presented information and collected the key card to the room and drew his blaster from his shoulder harness. He slowly approached the corridor to the apartments, flicking the safety switch-off of his a280c rifle. He approached the door hearing nothing but the howling wind and the faint chatter of salesmen. He loaded a paralysing round in preparation for engagement, Tagge wanted her alive for interrogation. He swiped the key card and silently entered the apartment hallway, looking only through the sight of his rifle as he walked through the rooms. There was a rustle in the room ahead.
"Who are you and why are you here?" a voice asked, the Thishian approached the room where the voice was coming from.
"You already know the answers to those questions" He responded as he entered the room only to find that the room was void of anything except for a man-sized crate. He approached, thinking she was hiding within it when out of the upper corner jumped the girl. She wielded a metallic knife, an outdated combat weapon… the predecessor to blasters and lightsabers. She had attempted to stab him in his back using the surprise and disorientation to her advantage. Little to her knowledge, the Thishian had a backplate on that was not the standard stormtrooper armour and therefore had no gaps in it for her to exploit and stab him through. A small scuffle ensued but she was disabled after the Thishian had tugged on her Lekku, a weak spot of all Twi'leks, and he shot her with the paralyzing round.
"I have a lot of credits, how much are they paying you?" She asked as she lay there, her body slumped over, the Thishian contemplated, if he expected her bribe, then he would be considered an accomplice, therefore being charged with the same crimes.
"You are what? Seventeen and already on a killing spree? What is in the safe"
"Why do you care?"
"I'm not the one that is paralysed with a blaster to my head." he said as he approached and with a small movement of his hand the box presented a keypad. The Thishian looked at her, she looked away, not wanting to give up the code.
"If you let me go, I will give you the code and everything inside the safe"
"I don't need your permission to get inside, though I would like to know what it is you were smuggling here"
"Do you want me to pull on your Lekku again?"
"Beskar. That is what is in there. Lots of it."
The Thishian walked to the window, the dust storm was now right above them. He got a pair of restraints out of his bag, still pointing the blaster at her and placed them on her wrists.
"This storm will not be passing any time soon. We will need to wait until tomorrow" he said as he sat down. The thishian got a spider droid out of his bag and started fiddling around with it, setting it to safe breaking.
"You won't get into it." she says, looking at the droid.
"Just like you thought you wouldn't get caught, yet you still did." The Thishian snapped back as he put the droid onto the keypad, It immediately started working the buttons and ripping into the mechanics underneath it. It took only mere minutes for the little droid to crack the safe. The girl looked stunned at the sight of a tiny spider droid opening a safe that cost her over 10,000 credits. The Thishian pulled up on the handle to reveal a neat pile of 48 Beskar ingots.
"Echuta!" she says angrily
"Listen here, you are getting on my nerves. Now shut your mouth or I will shut it for you." The Thishian threatened. "Now sit tight." he said as he walked to the next room and collected a carrier for the ingots. He then silently filled the box with the Beskar and sat down next to it, not taking his eyes or muzzle off of her.
Next day. 4 am local time
Hours had passed since the two had spoken or moved and the dust storm appeared to be over. The girl had regained her movement and was now sitting up against the wall on the adjacent side to the Thishian.
"My name is Achata." the Twi'lek girl said as the Thishian got up and collected the carrier of Beskar.
"I don't care." he said signalling for Achata to get up. Together they walked past the droid at the counter of the cantina.
"I hope you enjoyed your stay." it gleefully stated as Achata looked at him with a disappointed expression. The Thishian loaded the carrier onto the back of the speed bike and handcuffed Achata to the speeder in a seated position. He would usually land closer to his target so that he could walk but Mos Espa was the biggest city on Tatooine and there were no landing pads near the extraction point that was big enough for his dynamic class freighter. They slowly weaved through the streets, still full of sand from the sandstorm the previous night. Once out of the city, they were able to pick up the pace to much greater speed. Not long after, they reached the moonlight discovery, The Thishian's freighter, transport and home. It was a Dynamic class freighter with a lot of modifications. The most prominent of which were the carbonite chamber, the two quad cannons on the top and on the belly of the ship and the addition of a self-built droid for autopilot and the operation of defensive mechanisms called I2-R3. She was mostly made from scrap but I2 had the intelligence of a protocol droid, the maneuverability of an imperial security droid and she had the biggest attitude in the entire galaxy.
"It is a nice ship" Achata complemented as she was uncuffed. He once again put the muzzle of his rifle against her head and guided her to the starboard dormitory which had been converted into a carbonite freezing chamber. Achata stood in place knowing that this was her last moment of what you could call freedom. He pushed the last of the buttons and one swift motion a metal cylinder came up from the ground and went back down again, revealing her frightening body half sticking in carbonite. The Thishian for the first time expressed sorrow through his blank helmet, no one this young should be put up to the trial, Twi'leks especially as they were often enslaved in the masses, leaving them little money and options except the life of crime.
"The ship is ready" stated I2-B3.
The Thishian quickly ran down the access ramp and pushed the speeder into the ship's garage. He sat down In the cockpit and started ascending the ship to the hyper-lane.
"Start plotting a course to Coruscant through the Corellian Run and the trade spine"
"Was this the last one"
"Yes, this was the last one, we just need to get back to Coruscant and then you can have the biggest oil bath in the galaxy." he said, looking out of the window gazing at the planet with the second-worst police force (after Corellia), feeling happy that he was off of the planet.
"About time, my joints are rusting"
"Ok, hit the hyperdrive!" and with a small flash of light, the ship was gone from the atmosphere.
Coruscant. Containment and interrogation sector. 4aby. 11 pm local time
In a flash of light, the Mandurer came out of hyperspace.
"This is Coresont air and space traffic control, please identify?" buzzed out of the radio.
"This is MD-199 light freighter cargo precious" the Thishian responded
"This is CAASTLC, MD-199 light freighter you are clear to land on precious cargo pad 4"
"Copy that" and with that, they exhilarated in real-time towards pad 4. After a few minutes, he was landed and was being greeted by captain Joahn followed by a squad of stormtroopers
"I trust you have got them all?" he asked
"Yes," the Thishian verified, nodding for the two closes storm troopers to collect them.
"I shall inspect them and then you will receive your payment of 29,000 credits" and with a small nod, the stormtroopers started unloading the criminals, all of which were frozen in carbonite. There were 7 in total, all had a scared or shocked expression on their faces. Tagge walked past and looked at all of them before concluding.
"I am pleased with your work, 1617 and will pay in full, take these ones to the interrogation rooms and begin extraction. Bring out the credits." and with that command, one of the storm troopers transferred threw him a small sack of chips.
"I hope we are able to work together again soon." and with that, he turned and left him standing on the landing pad.
"Did it go well" I2 asked when he returned
"Yes, he was very happy, go locate an oil bather and landing pad that you like and we will go in the morning. We will stay here tonight, but then we need to do something about the Beskar." the thishian said.
Coruscant. Leisure sector. 4ABY. 10 AM local time
As I2-R3 lay in his bath, the Thishian contemplated what he should do with the Beskar, he could give it back to the Mandalorians, sell all of it or make it into armour. It was a metal that could (supposedly) resist blaster fire if it was foraged by the Mandalorians. If this was true, then it would be an asset to him, he had been shot at many, many times and this would reduce that risk.
"Ok, I am done," I2 said, coming out of the bath.
"Great, go ahead and clean yourself off" the Thishian responded, "We still have business to complete"
"I thought you said that twi'lek girl was the last one." I2 said, questioning him.
"Oh, yes, she was, it is just that on the way" the Thishian leaned in "I caught her smuggling some Beskar"
"So?" she asked, wiping the oil with paper towels.
"I took it and can get us both armour upgrades" He answered
"Oh, that would be useful." she said, removing the last of the oil from her internal processors.
"Then let's go." the Thishian said, leaving the building and walking over the bridge. He looked over the city planet and in the distance he could make out the senate. He hated Coruscant, It was too… metallic, void of any colour. He would hopefully retire soon, on a colourful planet, Naboo for instance. But that is, if he makes it to retirement.
"Where are we getting these upgrades?" I2 asked
"Mandalore, That is why I asked for the Calamari Flan, they don't want the imperial credits" they walked up the ramp and got into their respective cockpit seats.
"Starting calculations for the jump to the Mandalore sitem" I2 confirmed. She turned to him looking like she was contemplating asking something. "Do you know how little sleep you get?" the Thishian looked puzzled. Sleep, that is what it was, he had not thought how little he slept when he was hired. But then again, he was on a time frame and sleep just stopped him from doing more work.
"I can take It from here if you want to catch up on some Zs"
"Thanks I2, do you want anything?"
"Rights" I2 said with a blank expression. The Thishian, rolled his eyes and went to his bed, within moments he was asleep.
I2 looked at the Thishian "Hit the hyperdrive" she said as the thishian had and with a flash of light, they were off on their next adventure.
