Chapter 18
Bounty Hunter
"This should hide your identity well enough, as well as provide a basic amount of protection," said Xho Fk'ta as he handed Ahsoka an armored mask. "I have modified materials here in the ship, as well as incorporated some of the technology from your friend Bryn Arc's damaged ARC trooper helmet. He can teach you how to control the displays with eye motions and blinks should you choose to use that method."
"That might take a while to get used to." Ahsoka turned the mask over in her hands. It looked a lot more scary than she was used to, with a T-shaped visor obviously salvaged from Arc's helmet, but instead of the blue and white plasteel that normally made up the face, there was a dull, blank durasteel instead. "I'm going to look like a wannabe Mandalorian wearing this."
"Possible. This is for when you choose to take on bounty hunting missions. Riella Masso may earn a reputation for herself." He handed her a bracer. "This also has control functions for the Whipclaw's systems as well as your helmet displays, so you need not use eye motions unless you choose to. It also has a single-shot spread of shock darts, I salvaged the projector from L'Larr's shock net rifle. The armor piece was too small to fit the entire shock net inside, so I adapted it. It should prove capable of at least stunning any opponent in close range, even other Jedi."
"I'm amazed that you managed to get this much done. Thank you, Xho."
Xho clicked his mandibles together. "I owe you my freedom and my life. And you dedicate yourself to helping find and save others. Even though I may never be able to repay you, I can at least choose to follow your example and do what I can to help those in need. The best way to do that in these tumultuous times is to help you do what you do better. You may want to paint the mask to match whatever persona you choose for Riella as a bounty hunter. I am familiar with the technology used by both ARC Troopers and Republic Commandos, and I have modified the visor to incorporate both. Which means that it will have a faint blue glow when activated. You may want to take that into account when you decorate it."
At this point Ahsoka was getting used to Xho's rapid speech and occasional non-sequiturs. "I'll do that. Since I can't hide my montrals, maybe I should go with something that looks like another Togruta's facial markings. Make people think I look completely different."
"Perhaps. For now, Jedi Tano, I am afraid that I will not have time for lessons on your helmet's controls. I must leave with the Red Drexl to assist with Bryn Arc's new prosthesis. We will see you on Susevfi soon. I must retrieve ZT-47 and board the Red Drexl."
"Thank you, Xho. This makes my job a lot easier. And you're right, this work you've done may save the lives of many innocent people, bystanders and hunted alike."
He nodded to her and walked towards the Whipclaw's ramp. Ahsoka inspected the inside of the mask. It looked like it was made to seal against her face, and there were sturdy straps that went around her head. She tried it on, and found that her hearing felt enhanced, while her sense of smell felt like it was mostly gone. The mask seemed to have air filters, which could be handy when dealing with smoke or poison gases. It also seemed to have hearing enhancement, as she found that she could hear the small sounds of Xho's leathery feet walking down the ship's ramp, along with the faint capacitance hum of the magnetic clamps holding the ship to the deck in the low gravity.
"Time to pick a paint job. What's the last thing Jedi Ahsoka Tano would want on a face mask? And the first thing that bounty hunter Riella Masso would want?" Ahsoka asked herself as she removed the mask and turned it over in her hand. "I've got a long hyperspace jump ahead of me before I get there."
The first thought that entered her mind was to copy the fierce tattoos of Savage Opress, or Darth Maul, the Zabrak Sith Lords. Or maybe paint it bronze, and decorate it to look like the mask of Mandalore the Ultimate from history.
"No, I don't want to copy someone else. I need to make Riella Masso work for me," Ahsoka said as she turned the mask over in her hands. Still thinking, she headed towards the cockpit to start warming up the engines.
A few minutes later the Whipclaw was underway to Susevfi.
Once the ship was safely in hyperspace, Ahsoka returned to the engine room and started laying down blocking tape on the mask. It took most of the trip, but by the time the ship was ready to revert out of hyperspace, the mask was done.
"It's not a masterpiece, but I think it'll do."
Staring back at her was the mask, no longer dull metal. Now it was a pattern of violet, red and blue. She'd copied the scale pattern from a predator on Onderon, the Dxunian Stalker. It seemed appropriate to take her mask design from a predator that was normally orange and red, and modify it to match the colors of the glowing blue visor of the helmet that she wore as a disguise. This was Riella Masso, bounty hunter.
She held up a shiny piece of scrap metal and looked at her distorted image. It was easy to shift her thinking, her mannerisms. Just think in purples and blues instead of oranges and reds. Ahsoka was orange. Riella was blue. Complete opposites.
Ahsoka headed back up to the cockpit, and found herself adopting a bit of a swagger to her walk that she'd never had before. After spending a year working closely with a cocky Corellian pilot, however, imitating that kind of attitude came pretty easily.
Ahsoka sat down in the pilot's seat. She found that the heads up displays in her mask were distracting at first, but once she dropped out of hyperspace, the display automatically linked up with the ship's computer and started relaying course information.
"Useful," she said, "I'll just have to try to get used to it."
She heard a soft sound behind her, a slight creak of leather shifting.
"I wondered when you were going to come out of hiding. You know you really should have stayed with Jyssa and the Drexl."
"Aw man, you knew I was here? I thought I did a good job of hiding myself," Nat said from the gunner's chair.
"You did. If I'd known you were here before I jumped to hyperspace, I would have turned right around and dropped you off back at the asteroid base." Ahsoka turned the pilot's seat around, and Nat gasped when he saw the intimidating scale patterned mask and blue T-visor instead of her familiar face. "I'm on a mission that might end up being dangerous. Coming along like this was reckless, and maybe dangerous."
"I've managed to survive this long. I'm not a youngling, I'm a Padawan! I came in third in the sparring competition last year. I'm not afraid."
Under the mask, Ahsoka smiled.
"You will be, little one. You will be." She turned the pilot's seat around and locked it back into flight position. "There's no Jedi council left to tell us what to do. We have to learn to trust ourselves, our training, and most importantly, the Force."
"I've spent the last couple weeks just trying to survive. I need to do what a Padawan does... otherwise I don't feel like a Jedi at all."
"You're reckless, little one. You know, you never would have made it as Obi-Wan's Padawan." She flipped a set of switches, preparing to pull the ship out of hyperspace. "But you just might make it as mine."