Luke
"I got eyes on the targets." A young voice rang out in the silence. It's owner was a small whipcord thin man, no he was more of a boy in reality. He was perched on a tall spire that overlooked the bustling spaceport, eyes trained on the ever coming and going of sentient beings. He had been keeping watch through a scope of his longblaster.
"Good." An older voice came over the bucket's comms. "Stay there, little one. I'm not far from your position."
Their targets were a set of two Mando'ade and a single female. They had arrived in a truly ramshackle piece of junk. It looked like half a hyper jump from falling completely apart. The hull of the ship had a decent amount of carbon scouring on it. Like it had recently been in several fire fights. If the bickering of its passengers were any indication, they couldn't seem to stay out of fights. The girl had been small, lithe, petite. Young. Big brown eyes could be seen through the scope of the longblaster. If he had to guess, the boy would've thought her similar in age to him.
"They're on the move." He commed his partner, easing for his feet, still in the shadows as he attempted to track their progress. "Leaving the hangar bays headed south. South-east?"
"Stay in position." The elder barked, wind screaming around the mic pick up. "I'm almost there."
The boy didn't reply, eyes scanning the crowd, looking for their quarry.
"Luke?"
"Luke! We go together! You hear me?"
The bounty on the Mando'as was large. Nearly 500 credits each. The one for the girl had been a thousand. They couldn't afford for him to wait for more experienced backup to arrive. He had to stall them now.
"Luke!"
The boy slung the rifle over his shoulder one handed, the other easing the vibro knife out of it's sheath on his hip. As he melted from the shadows behind the trio.
"Luke?! Dammit kid!"
It was almost difficult to block Buir's voice out as he tried to sink into that calmness that always seemed to help him on the hunt.
The bigger one split off from his companions headed towards the busy street. The two left were smaller, slight. Won't give as much trouble as the Big One. Not that Luke underestimated the two left. But the Big One's weight and height had a heft to it, he didn't really want to fight with. Not by himself and with two other targets within reach.
'Good.' The boy thought. 'Just Girly and BeanPole left.'
They had been tracking the trio for months, nearly half a year even. Following them as they hustled from one part of the outer rim to another. Always managing to somehow slip from the grasp of the Imperials that chased them and the bounty hunters that caught their scents as well.
But finally. Finally they had managed to find them slipping.
Luke eased out of the shadows, knife held so the blade was against his forearm and attempted to grab the girl. He barely gave BeanPole anytime to get into a stance before Luke had sliced the blade across his ribs and was spinning with the girl. Managed to hit him in the temple with the back of the knife even, before the two finished their spin.
"Din~"
Her companion was good and out by then. Curled up on the middle of the road, holding this side where the armour weave didn't quite cover. As soon as she heard a hitched step, Girlie was already spinning around. Blasters in hand and pointed his direction.
'Good reaction timing,' the new hunter thought. A sharp pointed grin revealed teeth as he tilted his head. 'But those reflexives weren't quite fast enough. Not to his level anyway.'
"I don't know who the Kriff you are, asshole." She snarled. Brown eyes alight. Her feet were shoulder width apart, not favoring any specific side as she stared him down. Her hand and shoulders were taunt, barely giving him any openings to work with.
'She'll be good in a fight.' He thought, watching for a telegraphed move anywhere as he holstered his knife once more. He would use it, but it wouldn't work. Not against her. That was okay, maybe he could out wait for her to make a move.
"You want a fight, sha'buir?" She snarled, bolstering the blaster and raised her fists. "I might enjoy this a little."
"Lei'ka, you di'kut." BeanPole scrambled to his feet, not being stopped for long. Huh. He had been down shorter then Luke would have thought. "You can't just put fight every single person you come across."
"Shut up, Din."
Luke smiled in response, eyeing the girl. She was his height, slight. This might be a challenge to him for once. He inclined his head, settling into his own stance across from her.
The grin Lei'ka revealed had too many teeth to be considered appropriate in polite company. And it was far from tame in feral carnivorous company.
She made her move first, throwing her weight behind a punch that he easily directed and flowed around. Knocked her to the ground with a thud. She came backwards with a feral grin on her face and a kick to his back leg.
ALOR'IKA CHRONICLES
The air busted out of her chest leaving her deprived of oxygen and a flatter of teeth. Hard rocks and concrete dug painfully into her spine where she had landed. And Leia had landed hard. She hadn't taken a hit like that in years. Not since the beginning of when Jesse had finally convinced Rex to train her in ARC.
Leia wheezed, groaning as she slammed her left heel into his knee, trying to get him to fall, maybe even a stumble even. The stranger fell, but Leia was still struggling with trying to breathe that she couldn't pin him straight off.
He didn't have the same height or experiences like her uncles, but he definitely had the movements of someone trained. Trained well. Just like her.
She needed to pin his arms. Fast.
Legs came upwards, hauling his body backwards at the same time that he grabbed the front of her shirt. And they were in motion across the ground once more. Both of them traded off who got the upper hand in a series of blows and shifting weight too fast for anyone to pinpoint what exactly happened.
Space. I need space to move. Leia heaves, knocks an elbow into a bare throat and lungs free in the few seconds that he falls back.
Her opponent is good. Good enough to give someone with a decent amount of ARC training and grappling with opponents bigger than her enough trouble. That in itself is unusual. Leia is already sizing him up, throwing up arms to block the incoming blow to her face as a shin aims for her gut.
She knew as she fell once more that if she let up for even a moment, the other would have her pinned belly up on the floor within seconds and that it would all be over.
Her blaster had already been kicked away within seconds of him knocking her down the first time. In the last mad scrambled grapple of tangled limbs and heaving bodies, the knife from his hip is lost.
Fine. She could work with that. Snarling, Leia kicked upwards, using that flexibility that she had retained from being the smallest in any group, and hit him square in the jaw as she lunged upwards. Open hands hit him square in the sternum.
Maybe that would stall him.
Hopefully.
Leia heaved herself upwards and tumbled over to Din. Her friend was just attempting to get up, his progress slowed considerably by the flowing red that coated the hand pressed against his side.
Sithing karked hells that looked deep!
"Come on!" Leia ordered, throwing his free arm over her shoulders and yanked them into a stumbling run.
"Who the hell was that?!" Din panted beside her, every gasp a wheezing painful inhale.
"I don't karking know! You want me to turn around and ask?!" Leia snapped, seeing the hangar bay in the distance. "And you really need to lay off the Uj'alayi!"
"If we get out of here, I'll give you a week's worth of them!" Din yelled, stumbling a few steps before Leia grabbed his belt and hauled him forwards.
On their heels was the bounty hunter and a new companion. Possibly a partner? The new guy was wearing armour and a helmet that Din didn't quite recognize. He wasn't quite Mando'ade but there was definitely a reason the two were wearing red painted armour.
"That Mando'ade beskar'gam?" Din asked, head too fuzzy to really note the details.
"Now's not really the time, Din!" Leia railed at him, dropping her friend as they stumbled up the ramp and she took off in a stumbling tilt to the med locker.
Her head swam, fingers shaking with adrenaline and fear that she hadn't felt in ages as Leia attempted to pry the cabinet door open.
Her hands hadn't had this intermittent tremble to them in years and experiencing it again while Din was bleeding out!
"Come on!" Leia's fingers fumbled, finally jolting around the clasp. "Sithing hells! Work kark you!"
"Lei'ka?" Din's breathy words, send a jolt through her nervous system. Shocking her fingers into working as she finally slammed the door open with a bang.
Bacta?
Bacta?
Right, bacta on th- Leia grabbed a jar, other hand fumbling for the packet of triage bandages that she needed.
Kix taught her how to stock the med cabinet ages ago. Made sure she had memorized the order and contents for hours. Bacta and pressure gauze always were in easy reach. "Bleeding'll kill a man before anything else, ad'ika."
Leia finds Din pale, shoulders hunched. Side heaving and beginning to sit in a pool of his own blood, while it coated his fingers.
Takisit.
"Hold still, you chakaar. You want to bleed out on the floor?"
That too was all Kix's training. Don't ever let yourself panic while you're up to arms in a brother's blood.
Calm.
Right, she needed to be calm, while she did this. No shaking of hands.
She knew what to do. Kix had made sure of that. Especially with his no nonsense ways, he had made sure that she knew how to patch people back up.
Leia breathed and she grabbed some graze with a free hand. Yanked Din's hand away and slammed the other onto the wound. Put pressure on it. Stop the bleeding.
Din froze, some base level of his consciousness understanding an order and it was not a good idea to disobey. Not right now.
"Where's Paz?" He asked, trying to bring his brain into focus, as he flinched backwards from Leia's rough touch. She had the worst bedside manner in the whole Tribe.
"Hopefully getting back with those supplies." Leia peeled the gauze back, trying to determine how fast the blood was soaking into it.
Din flinched backwards, teeth clamping together with a clack as she pressed down harder.
"I told you to hold still didn't I?"
"Sweet force, that hurts."
"It's supposed to hurt." Leia slapped his shoulder, grabbed the bacta by her hip and pried the lid off. "It's just deep. So we're good on that front. But I really need your flak vest off so I can get this stuff on properly."
Din nodded, free hand tugging on the clasps.
"Sith. I don't have enough hands." Leia grabbed his blood coated hand, slammed it in place of her's and finished unbuckling the armour pieces.
"Stop. I got this. Just hold that." She slapped at his free hand, yanked the armour off and tugged at his flight suit, quickly becoming exasperated at him. "Would you work with me here?"
Din nodded weakly, shrugged his good arm out and huffed as she eased the other side down as well.
"This is gonna stink." Leia promised, scooping a handful of bacta free and slathering the knife cut.
Not only was it deep, it looked like it curved around his ribs just enough to make it frustrating for her to stitch closed. She looked up in the black T visor. "I can't close this with a needle. I'mma have to wrap this."
"Do it." Din sagged backwards. "Get it closed."
Hours later, Leia sat at the top of the ramp watching the sun set overhead. Paz still hadn't come back yet and it was making her worried. She knew Din would be okay long enough to track the older brother down, but she still didn't enjoy leaving him alone and injured. Not with the skills of that single bounty hunter on their tails. But on the other hand, she knew Paz couldn't face the hunters by himself. Nor their tail of the ever present Stormies.
She glanced backwards in the direction of where Din was knocked out in his berth, sleeping off the painkillers she had forced into his system. No, she couldn't leave him. Not like this. Not wounded.
She'll just have to wait until the morning to track Paz down and try and bail him out of trouble. Leia sighed, slapping the control to raise the ramp closed once more. They'll be fine for the night. The security measures were in place and nothing was gonna get past that during the night.
"Hold on for us, Paz."