Later

The sky was pitch black when one of the snipers said, "Hey... I think I've got something here."

Kalyn looked up from her own scan of the area surrounding the warehouse. "What is it?"

"Movement in Sector Gee-Nineteen," the black-clothed human replied, fiddling with the infrared adjustments on his rifle. "It could be nothing... just a hawkbat or someone's lost gizka, but-"

"Let me take a look," Kalyn said, crawling on her belly towards the man and his rifle, careful to press herself as close to the roof of the warehouse as possible. The man shifted aside to allow her access to the rifle. She tucked herself into position and sighted in on Sector G-19: a square-meter division of the area on the west side of the warehouse, near a speeder access lane.

She squinted, making the computerized scope zoom in, and saw a dull red blob dart across the road. She increased the infrared level and was able to pick out several more blobs, of vaguely humanoid shape. They were all motioning to each other and moving quickly across the area at a low crouch. Clearly, they did not want to be seen.

"What do you think?" the sniper asked, rubbing his tired eyes. "Just an animal right?"

The man sounded nervous; Kalyn couldn't blame him. Her own heart was pounding, and it was only partly from excitement that her hunt was almost over. As much as they may deny it, fear was an old friend of even the most veteran of bounty hunters.

She'd known for hours that Kassh wasn't going to show his ugly face in broad daylight. He preferred attacking at night, and now it seemed that her theory had been correct. Here they were, right where she wanted them.

She turned to the trooper. "I don't think it's an animal, unless animals have learned advanced recon tactics. Send up the alarm."

"What?"

"Send up the alarm."

The man blinked for a moment, then nodded and turned away, pressing a finger to the comlink in his ear. Kalyn activated her own comm and said, "Hey Rookie, it's Farnmir here."

"What's up?" Jay replied, sounding bored. "Another duracrete leech trip the perimeter alarm?"

"No. I've picked up movement along the west side of the warehouse. Advise you check it out, over."

There was a pause, then the other woman replied, "Okay. I'll see what's going on, then relay the info to Vhetin. If it is Kassh, do us all a favor and keep an eye out for his snipers will you?"

"Copy that," she replied, settling herself back behind her own rifle and moving the weapon over to the western side of the roof. She shifted for a moment, moving into a comfortable, stable shooting position before sighting in on the red blobs still scurrying through the shadows.

"What's the deal, Rookie?" she asked after a few minutes of tense silence. "Friend or foe?"

"The guards say it isn't one of their patrols," Jay replied. "I don't know. Can you get a better view?"

"No," Kalyn replied blankly.

"Okay. Um... what do we do now?"

"Besides wait for them to start shooting?"

"Yeah"

"We can be proactive," Kalyn said, shifting her position and carefully placing her finger on the firing stud of her rifle, "and take 'em out before they get organized."

"Kalyn," Jay said, "wait for a second. We don't know who we're dealing with, and we don't want to give away your position before we're ready for-"

Farnmir pulled the trigger and the echoing crack of her rifle drowned out the Rookie's voice.


"Farnmir," Jay said, "wait for a second. We don't know who we're dealing with, and we don't want to give away your position before we're ready for-"

Jay instinctively ducked, her voice cut off as the loud crack of a sniper rifle split the silence above her. She saw one of the distant shadowy figures crumple to the ground and she drew her pistol, muttering, "Damn it."

"All units," Farnmir's voice said over the open comm channel. Her voice was surprisingly calm, a matter-of-fact tone that spoke to her extensive experience in this kind of situation. "We have unidentified contacts approaching from the west. Regroup and engage. Repeat, regroup and engage."

"Stay where you are!" Jay said to the guards closest to them. "Do not move until we know what the hell is going on!"

A projectile sniper bullet slashed by her face, close enough for her to feel the wind created by its passing. She staggered back, losing her balance and sprawling back on the duracrete. The bullet hit one of the human guards in the chest and he flew back with a scream.

She quickly rolled over to stare around at the darkness around them as the other patrol guards scrambled to cover. The warehouse was situated in a huge hundred-meter duracrete plaza, far removed from any buildings. But even as Jay watched, four yellow bolts sporadically flashed from a tall skyscraper across the plaza, screeching through the silence to pop and flash against the ground around them.

Four snipers, just like Tarron said, she thought. She tapped her ear-mounted comlink and snapped, "Farnmir, get off your ass and take those snipers out!"

"I'm trying!" the huntress snapped back. "They're wearing some kind of heat-hiding suits. It's masking their thermal imprints, and making it a bugger to hit them."

She cursed again and switched comm channels. Around her, guards took cover behind large shipping crates or down behind walls built to stop speeders from parking too close to the warehouse. They occasionally jumped up, squeezing off shots at the advancing Midnight Ultraviolet mercenaries. As soon as the mercs were in range, they began firing back. The air was soon filled with multicolored blaster bolts and the acrid tinge of ion burn.

Within the span of a few seconds, the battle had officially begun.

"Vhetin," she said into her comm, scrambling to her feet and firing at the approaching mercenaries, "we've got company up here. We're holding out, but you might want to keep on your toes. If they get past us, your position is going to be flooded with hostiles."

"All right," her partner replied. "Stay safe up there."

"Copy that."

She ducked down next to Jao-Dun behind a large supply crate. Blaster bolts popped and zinged off the ground just behind her heels as she threw herself to safety, back pressed securely against the crate. The Zabrak grinned at her as she fired.

"Having fun yet?"

She glared at him. "This isn't the time to be making jokes."

"I'm not," he said, popping his head and blaster around the crate and firing three shots from his short-stocked rifle. Two bodies fell to the ground a few meters away, twitched, a lay still. The Zabrak grinned his yellow-black grin again, moved back behind the crate, and grunted, "I live for this."

"Then you're crazier than I thought," Jay muttered as she carefully sighted in on a lumpy mass that could only have been a Gammorean. She fired three times and the dark figure stumbled.

Two more sniper shots flashed over her head with loud cracks, the projectile bolts invisible against the dark sky. Sparks lit up the darkness as bullets ricocheted off the duracrete at Jay's feet, making her scramble back to safety.

"Damn it," she breathed, letting her head hit back against the crate. Her heart was racing in her chest, her body flooded with icy currents of adrenaline. "Farnmir, how close are you to taking out those snipers?"

Three swift shots - a staccato crack, crack, crack - echoed almost directly over her head, and the other bounty huntress replied, "I'm doing my best. I think I got one of them, but-"

Her transmission was cut off as another sniper bullet ricocheted off the ground near Jay's foot. She yanked her boot back as Jao-Dun laughed and fired out at their enemies again.

"Try harder!" she snapped.

As her Zabrak companion peeked out from his end of the crate, he reported, "The targets are approaching fast. Sniper team, focus your fire on them while the bounty hunter takes down the snipers. Get ready for a volley on my mark."

"Be careful not to shoot any Twi'leks," Jay added. "Kassh is to be taken alive. Repeat, we want him alive."

The comm channels were filled with affirmations as Jao-Dun busied himself reloading his blaster. Jay hazarded a look around her end of the crate and saw that the mercenaries were close enough to be seen in the light of the mounted glowlamps set up a few meters from the warehouse. It was a motely assortment of humans, Nikto and Gammoreans. The usual fare, if Tatooine was any indication.

"On my mark..." Jao-Dun murmured. "In three... two... fire!"

Every sniper rifle fired, releasing a deafening boom punctuated by the white-hot flashes at the end of the gun barrels on the roof above them. Those few mercenaries that were in view crumpled or were blasted bodily off their feet, dead before they could scream.

"Nice shot sniper team!" Jao-Dun cried, punching a gloved fist in the air. "Reload and prepare for another volley."

Two more sniper shots erupted from the roof of the building, and Farnmir said, "I got two more of the snipers. Only one left... oh kriff!"

Jay saw it too: the approaching silhouettes of five huge Darktrooper droids. They stomped forward, heedless of the Midnight Ultraviolet mercs they shoved or trampled underfoot aside as they went. As one, they raised their arms and unleashed a barrage of bolts from their arm blasters and their shoulder-mounted cannons.

Jay ducked back behind the supply crate as the blaster and cannon bolts exploded around her, sending guards flying and making chunks of duracrete erupt from the walls and ground in explosions of smoke, fire, and debris.

"Damn," she muttered, reloading her pistol. "They're here sooner than we thought!"

She glanced over at Jao-Dun. "Ready to spring the trap?"

The Zabrak grinned. "I thought you'd never ask."

He pulled his comlink and shouted, "All guards in the vicinity of Sector G-Thirteen, fall back and reinforce rear positions! We're about to unveil our welcoming present. You have ten seconds!"

There was a chorus of agreements and affirmations over the comm as Jay silently counted, Ten... nine... eight... seven...

The Darktroopers trudged closer, their storm of blaster bolts gouging and denting the durasteel crate she and Jao-Dun were using for cover. She flinched as a bolt ricocheted off the metal near her shoulder. At Jao-Dun's signal, she pulled a remote detonator from her belt and thumbed open the control hatch.

Three... two... one!

She pushed the red button in the center of the detonator. The entire square bucked beneath her feet.

Past the guard barricade, all the supply crates detonated as one. The reactive coolant fluid they had hidden within them ignited violently in roaring flashes of pale blue fire. The explosion enveloped Darktroopers and MUV mercs alike and the firefight stopped for a few moments in a haze of flame and smoke. When the smog cleared and the roar of the explosion echoed away into the distance, the square beyond was littered with debris. Nothing moved and silence descended on the duracrete courtyard.

Jay let out a relieved sigh and tossed the spent detonator aside. "Well," she panted, "that's one problem taken care of."

Their break wasn't going to last long; already, mercenary reinforcements were approaching from the shadows at the end of the courtyard. But it was a relief just to be able catch her breath. At her side, Jao-Dun grinned like a child given a sweetcake, staring out at the explosion site.

"You just made my day, bounty hunter. Let's hope your Kassh guy wasn't in the middle of all that."

"Let's hope."

"Nice work," Farnmir said over her comm. "I bet the Imperials saw that fireball from orbit. In fact... oh sh-"

The rest of her transmission was cut off, and Jay sat up, instantly alert again. "Farnmir?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

Even as she asked, the bounty huntress came vaulting off the roof of the building, shouting, "Move! Move!"

Two more snipers followed her, landing hard on the duracrete and tucking their rifles tightly against their bodies to avoid damaging the fragile weapons. Another explosion ripped the night, accompanied by a blinding flash of orange-white flame from the roof of the building. The ground bucked beneath Jay's feet again, this time sending her sprawling.

"What the hell was that?" Jao-Dun snapped as Farnmir took cover behind a nearby barrier. Jay scrambled back to her feet and behind cover, emptying her pistol's magazine at the approaching mercenaries as they took advantage of her momentary loss of footing and opened fire at her.

Farnmir threw aside her sniper rifle when it clicked empty and drew her silver-plated pistol. "I picked up more troops approaching from the east. One of the buggers tossed a thermal det up right into the middle of us. We're surrounded."

Jay motioned for guards to fan out and protect their rear, then ducked as a bright red blaster bolt sizzled through the air and missed by only a few centimeters. She looked up and fired three times before being forced to move back to safety while she reloaded. As she did, she spotted another dark figure sprinting for the door of the warehouse.

At first she thought it was one of the guards, fleeing in cowardice for the safe halls of the base, but she noticed that there was a single flapping lekku protruding from the base of his skull. The other one was nothing but a stump against his head.

She cursed and activated her comm. "All guards form up and fall back inside the warehouse!" She yelled and fired at a lanky human hefting a deceptively large blaster rifle. "We're surrounded, and there are mercenaries inside! Repeat, fall back into the warehouse!"

"Come on!" she shouted. She grabbed Jao-Dun's wrist before the Zabrak could fire again, yanking him toward the warehouse doors as Farnmir rolled out from cover and released four hastily-aimed shots at the approaching enemy to cover their escape. Other guards joined them, shouting and firing and dying as blasterfire chewed the air all around them.

As the defense force retreated into the safety of the warehouse, one of the guards shouted over the building's intercom system, "Kassh's troops have entered the base! Kassh's troops have entered the-"

The rest of the transmission was cut off by blaster fire.

"Form up!" Kalyn roared, motioning with her arm. She took cover behind a thick durecrete pillar and reloaded her pistol. "Those kriffers are right on top of us!"

Jay and Jao-Dun followed suit, as did the rest of the guards. Together, they dug in and waited for their enemy to show themselves. The Midnight Ultraviolet troops didn't disappoint. Within moments they came crashing through the main doors with weapons blazing. The unluckiest among them were cut down by a rainbow cloud of blaster fire.

But there was one person suspiciously absent from the battle: Kassh had vanished into the depths of the warehouse, no doubt heading straight for the crime lords' hidden vault.

Jay triggered her ear comm. "Vhetin, get ready. I think Kassh is headed right for you."


Vhetin waited, flexing his gloved grip around the contoured grip of his saber-staff in anticipation as he heard Jay's voice shout, "All guards form up and fall back inside the warehouse!"

Come on, Kassh, he thought with a scowl. I'm right here waiting for you.

Without warning, a howling Weequay came running down the stairs, brandishing his empty blaster rifle like a club. Vhetin ducked the first clumsy swing at his helmet and brought his saber-staff up at the alien's chest. The snap-hiss of the igniting blade drowned out the Weequay's howling, followed by a sizzle as the glowing blue blade sank into the Weequay's chest. The alien's brown eyes stretched wide and he fell back without a sound.

Vhetin straightened, deactivating his weapon and returning to his previous stance to wait. It wasn't long before more of Kassh's troops made their way towards him. He quickly and efficiently dealt with them; they were simple hired guns, no fair match against a Mandalorian. Soon the passage around him was littered with bodies, the walls and floor scorched by blaster fire and lightsaber burns.

Vhetin didn't move. There was only one way to get to the crime lords, and Kassh knew that as well as he did. He'd have to go through the black-armored warrior if he wanted to get to his prey.

Unfortunately, Kassh seemed to be throwing all of his forces in his direction before he moved in himself. As he waited, the loud clomp clomp clomp of metallic boots sounded from the top of the stairs, and Vhetin's HUD picked out the approaching form of a Mark-III Imperial Darktrooper.

He slumped in disappointment. He'd hoped that Jay and Farnmir had destroyed all five Darktroopers with their coolant fluid explosion earlier. It seemed that he wasn't that lucky.

The mechanical trooper turned its red photoreceptors on him and raised its arm-mounted cannons, rumbling, "Step aside and place your weapons on the ground. Failure to comply will result in immediate termination."

Vhetin didn't answer the droid; he just activated his saber-staff and darted forward, hoping to take it by surprise. No such luck; the Darktrooper seemed to anticipate the aggressive move and swung its massive arm. He moved to dodge, to pirouette and slash the arm away. But his armor slowed his defensive spin and the blow caught him in the chest, driving him into the duracrete wall hard enough to send web-like cracks up around him. His armor took most of the force out of the blow, but it was still enough to wind him for a moment. But only a moment.

He darted forward before the droid could recover and swung his staff down, severing the droid's arm at the shoulder. If the trooper registered the damage, it didn't show it. It instead swiveled its shoulder-mounted cannon to face him and fired.

Vhetin didn't think, just ducked and somersaulted forward as instinct demanded. The rocket took another huge chunk out of the wall and red-hot chips of duracrete flashed by the huge droid's faceplate as it approached. It made a fist with its remaining arm and a long vibroblade sprung from its arm, activating with a metallic buzz.

Vhetin got to his feet again, bringing his own weapon up in a defensive position as the Darktrooper approached.

As soon as it was in range, the Darktrooper swung the vibroblade at him, specifically aiming at the weak points in his armor: under the armpits, the ribs, and the neck. Vhetin avoided the first wave of attacks, though the vibroblade did scratch a long, thin stripe of paint off his beskar'gam's chest plate. The swipe left the droid off-balance and he brought his saber up and sliced up through the control panel on the Darktrooper's chest. No effect. The war droid stomped forward and raised its weapon again. Vhetin ducked out of the way of the next slash and severed the trooper's shoulder cannon with a quick slice.

The trooper spun with surprising speed and caught Vhetin in the chest with a powerful punch. The bounty hunter sprawled back on the floor, struggling to get to his feet. As the droid raised a foot, preparing to crush his chest in like the droid on Tatooine, Vhetin rolled out of the way and scrambled to his feet behind the Darktrooper. He sliced upward with his lit saber pike, spun, and stabbed the droid. This time, his blade sank right in the fuel intake port that supplied power to the rocket pack built into its back. The sparks that flew from his saber's glowing blade ignited the fuel within and the trooper suddenly exploded into motion, propelled back down the hall by the force of the escaping flame. With an blast of light and shrapnel and a last metallic scream, the trooper smashed into a durasteel wall down the hall and vanished in a concussive blast and a cloud of flame.

Vhetin slumped to his knees, winded by the force of the droid's attack. He took a few moments to catch his breath, then straightened again and deactivated his saber pike's blade. He opened a comm channel to the other members of his team.

"How're you doing Jay?"

There was a grunt from her end, followed by the high-pitched snap of her blaster. "Tough going," she replied breathlessly. "The guards are holding their own at the second security checkpoint, but we won't be able to hold 'em all back forever. Any sign of Kassh?"

"Not yet," Vhetin said, narrowing his eyes at the passage ahead, which was now littered by flaming puddles of fuel and smoldering bits of Darktrooper. "But he'll make it past eventually. Do you think he's actually here this time?"

"Oh yeah. I spotted him heading inside just a few minutes ago."

He nodded, satisfied. "All right. You know the plan. When he-"

"Oh kriff!" she suddenly said. "Damn it, there he is! All forces, do not kill the Twi'lek! Repeat, do not-"

The rest of the transmission washed out in static. Vhetin searched the other comm channels, but caught nothing.

Damn, he thought. They must be jamming our communications.

He ignited his saber-staff once more and tensed, waiting. If the guards were holding their position at the second security checkpoint, that meant Kassh would be here in just a few minutes.

I'm ready for you, Kassh, Vhetin thought grimly. Come and get me.


Kassh somersaulted behind cover, managing to take out two of the guards at the fourth security outpost as he did. After he'd sucked in a fresh breath to calm his aim, he pulled a thermal det from the clips on his chest and lobbed it towards them. With a resounding explosion and a wash of flame, the det completely demolished the barricades at the checkpoint. Well-placed shots from his rifle quickly dispatched the few guards that survived.

With his path clear, he set off towards the stairs that would lead him down to the crime lords' meeting room. With any luck they were still barricaded in there, sucking their thumbs and hoping Cin Vhetin would be able to save them.

He knew Vhetin and his new partner were here. He'd spotted the girl only moments before, as he'd snuck inside the warehouse. And seeing as Vhetin was the most skilled bounty hunter present - save for maybe that damned Farnmir woman - he was most likely guarding the targets.

No matter, he thought, his hand almost unconsciously resting on the lightsaber hilt buckled at his hip. I came prepared.

He came across three more guards on the lower floor, each dug in place within a cavernous storage room. Luckily, many of the rooms were full of supply boxes similar to the ones he himself had stolen to get his hands on his new lightsaber. Cover was plentiful and he could move from stack to stack with ease. He made his way past the security checkpoints without too much trouble. It was slow going, his progress hampered by the tenacity of the defenders, but he was in no real rush. Xizor and his ilk had nowhere to run now. He had his quarry trapped, once and for all.

The final flight of stairs came into view at long last. He jogged forward, hopping down the steps two at a time in his haste to reach the bottom. And when he came to the lower hall, he found - surprise, surprise - none other than Cin Vhetin, standing in the center of a small battlefield crammed into the cramped hall. No less than twenty bodies lay sprawled on the floor, all of them showing signs of lightsaber burns, high-heat amputations, and other cauterized wounds.

The Mandalorian took three slow steps forward, blue saber-staff ignited in one hand.

"Put your weapons on the ground and your hands behind your head," he said slowly, pointing the glowing blade at Kassh's chest. His voice was low and full of suppressed fury.

Kassh grinned impudently and tossed his rifle aside, pulling his own lightsaber off his belt and activating the green blade with a familiar snap-hiss. "I don't think so," he said slowly, unholstering a pistol in his other hand. "I rather enjoy my freedom."

"You don't want to do this," Vhetin said, his expression unreadable through his helmet's T-visored gaze. "You're worth more alive."

"Then stand aside," Kassh shot back, "and let me get on with my business."

"No."

The Twi'lek grinned again. "Then let's play."

The battle did not begin immediately. The two combatants kept themselves frozen, sizing up the other and waiting for the opponent to strike first. There would have been focused silence between them, but the clamor of battle surrounding them made true silence impossible.

Vhetin made the first move, vaulting up the stairs and stabbing forward with his pike. Kassh easily dodged the blow and batted the saber aside. The hunter used the counter to his advantage and spun in a full pirouette, coming at him from his other side. Kassh backpedaled and blocked the blows while firing with the pistol in his other hand.

Kassh had a definite advantage. With a saber in one hand and a blaster in the other, he could unleash a flurry of blows that even Vhetin wasn't fast enough to counter. Even as he watched, three of his shots hit Vhetin in the chest and stomach plates, making him flinch away and granting Kassh an opening for more attacks.

But for all his ferocity, he had traded away his strength and speed. He was hard-pressed to keep up with Vhetin's powerful pike attacks with a one-handed combat stance. He'd trained with melee weapons before, but didn't have the degree of experience and the hefty weaponry the Mandalorian had at his disposal. He was holding his own, but just barely.

Their fight took them back up the stairs, sparks cascading around them as green and blue clashed and spun through the muggy air. Kassh bared his teeth in concentration as sweat beaded his brow, throwing all his speed and might into the duel. Vhetin's faceplate was as expressionless as a corpse and he pushed forward with a ruthlessness of intent that Kassh would otherwise have found admirable. Every strike, every counterattack, was meant to disable and cripple, but not kill; Kassh knew he was worth more alive than dead. It was a battle fought with the skill and precision for which Mandalorians were so celebrated.

His distraction cost him. Vhetin landed a kick in the middle of Kassh's face, his boot easily breaking the Twi'lek's nose. Kassh barely felt the blow, his pain soothed by adrenaline, and he responded with one of his own; he pulled back his saber and fired his pistol three times at point-blank range into the cross-bar of Vhetin's visor. Sparks flew as the rounds burst against the weaker transparisteel T-visor, cracking the metal into a thin radial spider web. Vhetin grunted in shock and surprise and staggered back, holding his helmet.

Kassh moved to press his advantage, raising the lightsaber over his head. But Vhetin wasn't out of the fight yet. He whipped around and slammed the blunt end of his lit pike into his opponent's solar plexus, winding him and forcing him to stumble away in dazed confusion. After a few pained and breathless moments during which they both regained their focus, their fight continued.

They fought their way back down the hall through which Kassh had fought only minutes before. A cadre of guards who had come to reinforce their fallen comrades seemed to debate whether to interfere, glancing down at their blasters with an air of futility. Witnessing the clash of lightsabers before them, they seemed to deem their intervention futile and rushed off to help their fellows in other parts of the warehouse.

It wasn't long before Kassh was losing both strength and ground as Vhetin's seemingly unending stream of brutal slashes and stabs wore at his stamina. The Mandalorian was good, there was no denying that. He possessed a strength and depth of training Kassh lacked. He was increasingly beginning to feel like an ewok battling a wookiee. To combat such a superior foe, he needed a different tactic.

So when their battle carried them to a side passage, he fired twice into Vhetin's already-wounded shoulder and took off down the hall as fast as his legs could carry him. Vhetin shouted in pain and fell back, holding his smoking and bleeding arm.

Kassh grinned and took cover in the shelter of another nearby side passage, blocking the bounty hunter from view from around the corner. If he was lucky, he could double back past him and get to the crime lords before-

The butt of a blaster flashed into view and cracked hard against his forehead. He tripped, his momentum sending him sprawling unceremoniously across the floor. He blinked stars from his eyes and tried to rise, but a boot in his back pushed him back down.

"Hey there," came the voice of Vhetin's partner. The girl. Even now, she pressed her knee into his spine and the barrel of her weapon into his neck. "We've got a lot to talk about, you and me."

"Do yourself a favor," Kassh grunted, his face pressed against the cold duracrete floor. "Cuff me now before you get hurt."

The woman snorted, her pistol still dug into the base of his neck. "I don't think so. I've got you right were I-"

She was cut off when Kassh suddenly rolled over, activating his lightsaber and slashing it across her face. She started and jerked back, the humming blade missing her by mere centimeters. She stumbled back, startled off balance, and Kassh scrambled to his feet once more. He vaulted down the entire seven-stair flight to the floor below in a single bound, landing hard and continuing deeper into the warehouse without looking back.

That had been far too close, even for him. If he could fall back to a defensible location, to a place where he could lie in wait for his pursuers…

But as he turned another corner he saw the angular shadow of the Mandalorian approaching from the end of the passage. His lightsaber pike was lit in one hand and as he stepped closer, he growled, "You've brought me on quite the merry chase, burcya. But that chase is over. Put your weapons on the ground."

Kassh turned, meaning to double back the way he'd come. But even as he spun around, the woman jumped down the last few stairs and approached from behind, pistol raised and aimed steadily at his chest.

"Hands in the air," she said with a scowl. "Don't make us drop you where you stand."

Kassh scowled right back and raised his own pistol at her. He glanced over his shoulder, pointing the saber blade in Vhetin's direction. "Back off. I'm not going to be brought in again by the likes of you scum."

"Give it up, Kassh," Vhetin said, dropping into a combat-ready stance. His saber droned on malevolently in his grasp. "The guards are mopping up your mercenaries as we speak. The crime lords are safe, and you're cornered."

"You've lost," added the woman.

Kassh sneered at them both in turn, lip curling in fury and disgust with equal measure. "You may think you've won," he panted. "But you've forgotten one thing: only one of you is wearing armor."

He turned his gaze to the woman and fired three times.

She screamed as the scarlet bolts tore through her thin jacket like a knife through flimsi. She dropped her gun with a clatter and sprawled to the floor, arms and legs flailing. Kassh grinned and shot her twice more to ensure the job was finished. She took one last gasp and fell still.

"Jay!" The Mandalorian's voice was shot through with dismay and he took a single step forward. Kassh brandished his saber in his direction and Vhetin's gaze snapped to him. That expressionless T-visor was made all the more threatening by the transparisteel that had been cracked by Kassh's blaster shots. It refracted the light, painting it in a multitude of colors that flashed dangerously in the illumination.

"Back up," Kassh threatened. "Now."

Vhetin didn't listen. With a shout of fury he threw himself forward, whirling his pike in a dazzling arc in front of him. There was no restraint now; the bounty hunter was working to kill. The change was both dramatic and dangerous.

Kassh scowled in concentration as their duel began again, and with renewed he knew there was no going back. He had some skill with a blade, but he was no match for an enraged Mandalorian like Vhetin. His defense had barely held before. Now it all but crumbled.

Sparks lit the dark hallway and threw menacing shadows up on the dirty walls. Vhetin drove Kassh back down the hall, spinning and slashing with all his strength. Kassh did his best to transfer to the offensive with detrimental results. With his guard already faltering, shifting attention only made him all the more vulnerable. First he took a slice to the shoulder, then a light blow to the left leg. As Vhetin pressed his attack, his lightsaber casing blue arcs around his black-armored body, Kassh began to actually worry for the first time in many years.

He raised his pistol but the glowing lightsaber carved it in half, taking the better part of his left hand with it. The wound smoked and smoldered and his scream echoed through the hall, but his concentration on the task at hand didn't allow him pause to dwell on his wounds. He was now acting purely on instinct, doing his best to block Vhetin's attacks.

He quickly realized, however, that the seemingly infallible bounty hunter was tiring; he could hear the man panting, his breath coming in gravelly gasps over his helmet's vocoder. His wounded arm was doing little more than hanging at his side, blood leaking down from the wound Kassh had delivered earlier. The strength in Vhetin's attacks was fading, and his defense with it.

A cut, a kick, and a swift uppercut; Kassh managed to slam the hilt of his saber across Vhetin's helmet as the bounty hunter pulled back for another stab at his chest. The hunter faltered, taking two steps back and shaking his dazed head, and Kassh moved forward for a killing blow. He raised his lightsaber, cradling his wounded hand to his chest, and stabbed forward.


"Hurts, doesn't it?"

A voice, speaking as if from the distance of many years and many more miles. Yet it had only been less than a month since then; curious. A face faded into view, wavering through watery vision. As it slowly resolved and clarified, it revealed itself to be the face of a clone.

Tammer!

But no, it wasn't her old friend, the prison guard. This clone had only stubble for hair and was wearing a sympathetic expression, touched by an ever-present smirk. Jaing. Jaing Skirata.

"Wait till you feel the real thing," he said, his voice echoing as if from down a long tunnel.

The image stuttered like a hologram, then shattered like glass with a painful explosion of noise and feeling. Jay gasped, her eyes flying open as she clutched at her stomach and chest.

"Cheating is fine," came Vhetin's voice, echoing like Jaing's. "But it's more than what's fair and what's not. You have to do whatever it takes to win. You need to be able to kick, bite, pull hair-"

Get shot, she thought with another gasp. She rolled over onto her back, seeing sparks fly through her hazy vision. Beyond her wavering world, she could see Vhetin was engaged in another duel with Kassh. Her partner was holding his own despite an arm soaked in blood. But she could tell even in her state that his shoulder was slowing him down. He was favoring his other arm, using his wounded limb as little as possible. It was a clear weakness.

Even as she watched, Kassh raised his pistol and aimed clearly for the wounded arm. Vhetin planted a foot forward before the shot could fire off, hooked his pike around, and sliced the blaster in half. The blade also cut through most of Kassh's hand, leaving behind little more than a cauterized stump.

Kassh's scream of pain and anger seemed to snap some sense back into her, and she shook her head to clear it.

Get up, she thought to herself. Get up. You've still got a job to do.

Slowly and with a groan of effort, she pushed herself to her feet and limped toward the duel. Every muscle screamed in protest, but she gritted her teeth and moved forward. As Vhetin pulled back for a stab, Kassh caught him across the helmet with the hilt of his lightsaber. Her partner stumbled back beneath the force of the blow.

Now was the only moment she would get. As Kassh stepped forward and drew back for a killing stroke, Jay raised her pistol and shot him in the back of the head.

A blue-white ring of energy spouted from the end of her pistol barrel. It enveloped Kassh with a hiss and pop and the Twi'lek suddenly convulsed. The lightsaber slipped from his grasp, bounced once, and deactivated with a hiss. Kassh fell to the ground as well, quivering and letting out little grunts with each spasm as the stun bolt got to work on his nervous system.

Within moments, he was unconscious.

Vhetin jumped into action; dropping his own weapon and whipping a pair of stun cuffs from a pouch on his belt. With a single motion he pulled Kassh's twitching hands behind his back and snapped the shackles around his wrists. Once done, he slumped and let out a long breath.

"Got the sonofabitch…"

He glanced up at Jay, panting hard. His T-visor was cracked and splintered in three different places, his armor was marked with blaster burns, and the sleeve of his wounded arm was stained red to the elbow. He looked like he'd just fought through hell and back, and she was sure she looked the same.

"Are you all right?" he asked, cradling his wounded arm against his chest. "How did the armor hold up?

Jay grinned and lifted the hem of her shirt, revealing the armor-plated sparring vest worn beneath. The blaster bolts from Kassh's pistol had hit her in the stomach and chest, leaving the light-grade beskar plates burned and twisted, but intact.

"I'm fine," she panted, running a hand over the warped metal. "Sore as shit, but still alive.

"But," she said, lowering her shirt with a weary sigh, "next time you can play dead while I distract the bounty. 'Kay?"

He nodded with an exhausted chuckle and pulled a comlink from his belt. "Farnmir," he breathed, "is the warehouse secure?"

"Affirmative," came the reply. "The last of Kassh's thugs are cornered in the southeastern supply room. There's only one way in and out, and the room has no clear cover. We've got 'em."

He nodded, visibly going limp in relief. Jay joined him in his relief; they'd captured their bounty, their employers were safe, and none of their team was dead. That was a mission accomplished in anyone's book.

Jay pulled her own comlink and dialed in a code. "Jao-Dun," she said, "we need a med team down in hallway C-Eight-Three right away. We've got a stunned Twi'lek and a wounded Mandalorian down here."

"Sure thing," the Zabrak guard replied.

Vhetin glanced up at her, tipping his head to the side in obvious defiance, but seemed too tired to argue with her. He let his back slap against the wall behind him and slowly slid down into a sitting position.

"And," Jay added with a triumphant grin, "inform Prince Xizor that he owes us a hundred thousand credits."