The same old Khan

[Khan Morren]

Khan Morren was left to his own device. His employer gave him the next few days off as they docked in a spaceport on some back-water planet he had never heard of. It was better than a core world. He wondered how far his name had gotten in the authorities after killing those men.. Probably not far. No one really cared what happened in a fringe world like Bakura. Nevertheless, he felt safer here than in most places.

He roamed the streets that were filled with merchant kiosks, where an unsavory stench which was the underbelly of a society filled the air, leaving slight contortion in Khan's expression to reflect it. He wondered what there was to do. The space within the time that he had not figured it out was predictably filled like a void with thoughts of the past. His mother, his father--the man he killed on Bakura. It was an all too familiar pattern that inevitably led him into his next thought--where was the cantina?

His question was answered quickly as his green eyes ventured down the road across each building. The cantina was up ahead. He hadn't let alcohol touch his lips since Bakura but it seemed like a great idea now. After all, he had a few days off and it wasn't like he was going to get his life together anytime soon. He had gone from one of the lead pilots for Bakura Exports to manning a ship for a pirate. He had no family and no future. He veered from the road and headed into the cantina.

He couldn't say for sure that it was any better in the cantina than outside, but at the very least--the variables of the aroma were more akin to what he was used to. There was the ever-present mist of smoke from those partaking in such, and the smell of alcohol. It made him want to vomit at first, but he swallowed the urge and the thought as he sat down at the bar.

It was just at the end of the workweek, and the beginning of the weekend, so the chairs were filling up and the room bursting with a spectrum of different species. His eyes focused on the entity behind the bar, which was an attractive Twi'lek. She approached him with a cute smile and alluring eyes.

"I haven't seen you around. Are you from off-world?"

She leaned onto the bartop and honed in on him as though he was the only person in the room, exposing her cleavage in the tank top which barely contained them. Khan's eyes didn't move from her own though, and he couldn't help but smile at the prospect of a woman. He hadn't had one since he became a pirate.

"Yeah, trying to forget where I came from. Can I get a noonian fixer..and your name?"

She made him the drink, and they talked for a little while as he drank more than a few. Ultimately the rush came in and she went off to take care of the guests. He turned from the bar and looked around, taking a swig of his beverage. He started to feel the alcohol invigorate him, livening up where he had felt dead for quite some time.

​

 

[Khan Morren]

Through the night there were plenty of things to see. There were a few bar brawls that ended up in some bouncers kicking some alien ass, and in the far-right, he could hear the periodic cheering and awe-struck gasps at the pazaak table. It seemed the later the night went, the harrier those games became. On a planet like this? He was sure the games were full of all kinds of cheating and seedy types. Khan was never much for gambling, and here lately, he -really- tried to stay out of fighting unless it was business-related.

It seemed there was something business-related after all. Khan's green eyes shifted toward the door as an aching feeling began to form in the pit of his stomach. Something told him he was about to be getting into some trouble. It was like someone cued some intense music precipitating an action scene in one of those holo-films. His eyes narrowed and he sat his drink down, half-turned toward the bar as he eyed the beautiful twi'lek bartender once more and tossed some credits down for his drink.

Please don't be right...

He spoke to his gut instinct, but just as he did, the automated door activated and slid open. No-one stopped what they were doing, and the mixture of merry-making and pandemonium ensued regardless of who stepped through that door. Khan on the other hand had his eyes glued on the man. Something was off about him, or rather--there was a feeling in Khan that he wasn't the typical patron coming into the cantina for a drink.

He was of Rhodian descent. A real spacer, Khan thought. He had a dark air about him and was well-equipped to boot. He had a utility belt that had what seemed to be explosives of different types and a blaster that looked like it could put a hole in Khan if he wanted. The Rhodian though made an extra amount of effort to not look back toward Khan, despite the man's eyes being dead set upon him. Khan stood up, and as the Rhodian passed by, he went out the door.

As he moved through the door, the breeze felt nice against his skin. It was undoubtedly augmented by the alcohol however the uncomfortable feeling he received moments after was a catalyst to sober him up quite quickly. As the door slid shut again, he shot an eye back. The Rhodian was talking to the bartender and gazed in Khan's direction as he headed out. It was obvious to Khan at this point that his gut feeling had been right. The Rhodian was looking for him.

Khan pushed past the street and through the merchant kiosks, which by now were closing down for the night. That being said, most of the street was empty which did not help Khan in the slightest. He hugged the corner of a building and moved into the dark alleyway, where his back met the wall and his adjacent eye peered into the street. He saw the rhodian bounty hunter exit the building and look around, speaking in their native language presumably to themselves.

Khan moved. The Rhodian dismounted his blaster from its holster and aimed it toward Kan and the corner of the building in almost an instant. The quick draw maneuver was followed by two bolts that exited the barrel of the weapon in quick succession. They knicked the corner of the building, scorching the building and knocking some of the low-grade material from which it was formed.

Khan twisted and headed down the alleyway. Who did he kill that a bounty hunter would be sent after him? He hadn't known the guy but whoever it was, someone thought enough of them to send a trained killer after Khan.​

 

[Khan Morren]

All that he could hear is his own heavy breathing and the shuffling of feet. He could see the bounty hunter behind Khan from the corner of his eye as he turned the corner. There were some trash cans just as he did and his knee slammed into one of them despite his best efforts to sidestep fluidly and continue running, which caused his balance to be off-set and for him to stumble forward. He caught his fall with the palm of his hand as it slammed into the dirt before pushing him upward into a run again.

"Stop Khan Morren!" The Rhodian had the typical voice of one and exclaimed Khan's name as he fired yet another bolt that was aimed to dig into the human's back. Khan ducked just in time, as though he could feel the heat of the bolt along his back to warn him of its fast approach. He knew that he couldn't out-run and dodge the bolts through sheer luck forever. If he didn't do something quick, he'd surely be dead.

He cornered again and reached to his belt. He had a SE-14 Blaster Pistol, a reliable weapon that he hadn't had the misfortune of having to fire just yet. He held it firmly within his hand as he pulled it from the holster that it was suspended from before leaning back and lifting the front of his feet to slide on his heels. He would slide across the dirt as he aimed his blaster toward the corner. As the Rhodian peeked out from it, the trained professional quickly saw what was going on and pushed back behind the corner as Khan fired a bolt.

The bolt slid across the alleyway and across the opening into the alleyway which he was trying to transition from. It eventually knicked the wall and ricochetted into the air. As Khan's slide came to a stop, he found himself beside some trashcans which he rolled behind, nestling his blaster between two of them as he steadied it on the corner.

"Wherever you are coming from, you better go back. If you come across that corner, you're going to be one dead Rhodian," Khan warned the bounty hunter with a snarl, steady and ready to fire at any moment.

"There's nowhere to run, Khan. You killed the wrong man In Bakura. His dad is an executive in the Bakura Mining Company. He wants you dead, you kriffing scumbag," the Rhodian enlightened him to the nature of the situation. It made more sense now. It was just a random guy to Khan, but to someone else, it was a son. It just so happened to be the son of someone wealthy and part of the very piece of shit company that left his family high and dry when his father died.

Khan gritted his teeth. Even as he had the guy dead-to-rights in a position where he couldn't do anything, something still didn't feel right. Khan had a bad feeling like when the Rhodian first made his appearance in the cantina. He turned his head, and just as he did, he saw a blaster pointed at him. It was another Rhodian.

"Compliments of my employer," The Rhodian announced as he prepared to let off a bolt. Khan's eyes widened, and he gritted his teeth as he soaked in what may be one of his last moments in this universe. The Rhodian pulled the trigger.

 

[Khan Morren]

They both stared at one another, as though something was imminent which did not occur on the timeline expected. It was a split second later that they determined the reason, as the blaster within the hand of the Rhodian ignited into a fiery explosion of energy. It encroached the entire form of the bounty hunter and the immersed body could be seen from Khan's perspective as a tattered silhouette that was accompanied by a scream of pain.

As the smoke subsided, the bounty hunter was seen several feet from where he stood, with both debris from the walls beside him and pieces of his body that were detached from the power of the explosion. Khan was just as surprised as the Rhodian who peeked over and saw that his comrade was dead, with Khan now aiming his blaster towards the bounty hunter with several fired bolts catapulting toward him. One caught the bounty hunter in the shoulder and sent him spinning back behind the corner.

"You're next, you kriffing bastard!" Khan announced as he gritted his teeth. He had no idea what occurred, but whatever it was seemed to have saved his hide. He pushed off the ground and moved into a stand as he fired off several more shots. By now he could hear speeders from afar racing to their location. In the dead of the night, on this back-water planet, the only thing a speeder meant was something he didn't want to stick around and see. It was likely some type of authoritative figure.

He could hear the Rhodian cursing Khan and head off as well. He didn't get the second one, but since he ran off, the only thing that the pilot had to worry about now was evading those who were going to investigate what just occurred. He thought about what they had said. The person he had killed back on Bakura was the son of a wealthy mining executive, which Khan felt pleased about.

He hated them, and he honestly hated the wealthy. They were the ones that exploited his father and left his family to starve. It was almost like he was drawn to becoming a pirate more than forced into it. Now he could pray on wealthy nobles and companies. He pushed through the store as he headed to the other side. He could hear those gathering outside to see what had happened. Chances are they would look in this building pretty quickly. He lurched forward and pushed through the window in the front.

His adrenaline was starting to pump and all he could think about was his escape. He moved out of the area swiftly and headed back to his ship. It was the safest place to be, and since he hadn't said much to the Twi'lek other than flirting, he hoped she wouldn't sell him out to the authorities. As he made it back to the spaceport, he boarded his ship and slipped into the bunk. It was the dead of night and there wasn't much movement, but he didn't stop to make conversation either. He hoped he could just stay quiet until they left the planet.

He laid in his bunk, back on the bed and arms bent so that his hands would stack upon one another with the back of his head on top of them, leaving him to stare upwards towards the cold durasteel ceiling of his sleeping quarters. Now that he was out of danger, his heart quit pumping so quickly and his adrenaline subsided which left him to consider what had happened. How did the bounty hunters track him down? The men who smuggled him off of Bakura must have given information. He had to be on his toes from now on. If they knew where he was, they also knew who he was with and what he did for a living.

He never thought that he would be running from his life. As far as he knew it, there was at least one more rhodian bounty hunter who wanted him dead. The thing was when it came to kill or be killed, Khan was just too stubborn to lay down and die.

[End of thread]