All Fun and Games...Until Someone Loses Their Head

[Via Dolorosa]

The Sith Lady stood on the bridge of her Wyyrlok-Class Star Destroyer, Meshuga, with her hands interlocked behind her back looking down at the assortment of bounty hunters. She was amazed how quickly they flocked here when the mention of credits ringed like bells in their ears. She detested bounty hunters for their greed, but also knew they were a necessity. Financially speaking, it was far cheaper to employ a few bounty hunters to scour the galaxy for one individual than wasting precious Sith resources in attempt to achieve the same outcome. And if a bounty hunter died while trying to apprehend or kill their quarry, that was one less greedy shutta in the galaxy.​

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"Ladies and gentlemen," she began addressing both genders. With the armour and helmets some of them were employing it was difficult to differentiate between the two. "Your services has been required to hunt down a Jedi. [member="Venris Helion"] is his name and that is all you need to know."​

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Through the Force she could feel their excitement rising. Bounty hunters, especially the grand ones, enjoyed hunting Force users like Jedi and Sith. It was the greatest challenge in their eyes, or so she had been told by the three she killed years ago who foolishly tried to claim the now void bounty on her. ​

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"You are free to use any methods at your disposal. The terms are such." She saw the shift in their body language in anticipation of the monetary value. "The Sith will pay one-hundred thousand credits if brought back alive and fifty thousand if brought back dead. If the latter occurs, we only desire the Jedi's head as proof of completion. Information as to his recent whereabouts and his appearance will be uploaded to your ships."​

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She turned around walking away from them. The brief time spent in their presence was enough for her to endure for a lifetime.​

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[member="Ray Valerio"]​

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[Ray Valerio]

Ray stood amongst the bounty hunters in the crowd as they waited forntheir hostess to arrive. She appeared by then railing above them, watching as they all grew quiet and looked up at her. She began to speak to the group, briefing the on their assignment. Ray smirked beneath his mask at the mention of a force user, many of the others also grew eager, a few became nervous.

As the moment they all had been waiting for arrived, everyone grew silent in anticipation. A few people scoffed confident, saying it was more worth it to bring his head for fifty thousand, than go through the trouble of capturing and transporting him. Ray was in it for the credits, the most he could get too. If it was possible, he'd bring the man in alive.

 

[Venris Helion]

[member="Ray Valerio"]

An untold distance away from this gathering of bounty hunters, far from the presence of the Lady of the Sith who had commissioned their service and the reach of the Dark Side, a freighter was travelling through hyperspace, leaving behind the world of Tortuga that served as the home base to the Expeditionary Fleet. This freighter, the Renegade Knight, was a new addition to the Fleet under the command of Venris Helion, member of what was being called 'The Rogues Circle', a collection of Force Users who had come together when forming the Fleet to exchange knowledge and training. Some considered it to be the Fleet's own Jedi Council...but Venris knew for a fact that not one of its members were above so much as being a Knight as of yet, let alone a Master.

The Fleet had provided personnel to man the Renegade Knight, a solid crew of twenty who could easily pilot and maintain the vessel on a normal voyage while Tortuga provided more long term maintenance. They all were at work now, acquainting themselves with regular operations of the Nova-One Freighter and slowly settling into a relatively comfortable cycle of work over the previous few hours of travel.

Meanwhile Venris was meditating in his quarters, blocking out the humm of the ship's engines, the chatter and foot falls of crewman passing by outside in the corridor and the glaring lights that stared down on him. Venris pictured himself in the eye of the storm, surrounded by a swarming mass of smoke and shadows, closed in on all sides chaos and darkness yet remaining firmly in place.

And out of that chaos, he saw something around him...many robed figures standing in a circle with green smoke swirling about them-

"Captain," The voice from the intercome shattered Venris' concentration and ended whatever vision he was having, "We are nearing our destination, sir."

Rising to his feet with an irritated sigh, Venris tapped the intercom button. "Thank you Helmsman, carry on."

Whatever he had seen, it brought him back to a particular warning that had been given by the Witch at Tortuga. She'd spoken of some horrible fate that he would have to work hard to avoid...and kark it if she could actually provide any details. Ever since then the marks that she had left on his back burned whenever he thought too hard on her prophecy...and whenever she visited him in his dreams to taunt him with this alleged fate.

Putting aside thoughts of the future, Venris focused on the present and changed into his usual attire before heading for the bridge.

 

[Venris Helion]

Teth had pretty much always been a world of outlaws at best and a world of the Hutts at the very worst, but that was precisely the reason for Venris' visit. Once the Renegade Knight had settled into orbit Venris had left instructions with his crew and then took a shuttle down to the surface, landing far from any settlements among a series of high cliffs and jungle foliage.

After hiding his craft, Venris began his trek along a clearly defined trail through the jungle. He saw signs carved into rocks and trees, marking the way to his prize. As he walked however, Venris could not help but feel a burning sensation from the marks covering his back. He reached over one shoulder instinctively and retracted the hand just as quickly. He could hear the voice of the Witch who had marked him already, whispering a thousand things and nothing at the same time.

Venris tried to block the Witch out, but she was a persistent one who would not be ignored....he had learned that the hard way.

Soon he found relief in the form of the final sign, and pulled aside a heavy rock to reveal a crate. Using both hands, Venris heaved and slowly pulled the heavy metal container out of the hole until it rested on the ground before him. Crouching, he tapped an access code provided by the party that had sold it to him and grinned as he opened it to find a collection of data crystals.

What were these to contain? Just...a lot of information on the movements of Hutt and Sith patrols. And beneath that, in the bottom of the case, was the actual heavy stuff: lots and lots of rocks.

...

Only a kriffing Hutt.

Venris sighed and shook his head at the immature prank and pocketed the crystals, about six in total before turning to make the trek back towards his shuttle, muttering bitterly under his breath.

[member="Ray Valerio"]

 

[Ray Valerio]

As he sat in the pilots chair of the ship, he flipped a few switches and pulled a lever. The ship woke up as lights turned on and the engine began to him and pur. He looked out the window at another hunter, a Rodian male who had stolen a target from Ray in the past, and he didn't forget debts. The prize for that particular bounty had been quite high, and thus the payback had to be high as well. Ray pushed the lever forward and grabbed the controls as his ship began to lift off the ground.

He flew through the exitand began to head off into the distance, gaining altitude as he moved. Suddenly, a large explosion was heard as the Rodian ship exploded. The bomb Ray used only cost him a portion of the debt owed to him by that scum, but the revenge was far higher a cost.

As he broke orbit he put the ship on auto pilot, the datapads information stated that the target had reason to be near Teth. It was a planet full of criminals and scum of the universe, but Ray had done several jobs. He read over the information several times, learning the most he could about the man he was supposed to bring in, he was nothing if not efficient.

The ship broke from hyperspace just outside of Teth, and the young Mandalorian piloted it down into the planets atmosphere, landing at a docking station. Shortly after he had rented a new model speeder bike and was speeding out of town.

As he stood atop the hills with his binoculars he scanned the vincintity carefully, checking all directions. A few hours later he spotted a shuttle heading into the middle of nowhere. The binoculars were folded up and placed in a pouch on the side of the bike, Ray quickly made his way to the location.

There were several curious signs as he drew closer, and weird signs went hand in hand with sith and Jedi. It didn't take long for Ray to find the location that had been visited by the target, though he arrived a bit too late. What was left was an opened crate, nothing to noteable, it had clearly been looted already. Ray kicked the metal box a bit annoyed, every minute he took was a minute someone else could be catching up.

Something caught his eye as he prepared to leave. The crate was filled with stones, but everything else important had been taken. This meant the stones were simply there to weigh down the container, a childish act perhaps a prank. Of course the planet was ruled by the Hutts, meaning if his hunch was right then they had something to do with this mysterious container.

Ray scowered the area for awhile before deciding his best shot was to track down the hurt that arranged for the box to be placed where it was. He destroyed the crate, erasing the possibility of another hunter picking up the same trail he had.

[member="Venris Helion"]

 

[Venris Helion]

[member="Ray Valerio"]

Venris returned to the landing site of his shuttle and stored the crystals in a secure container stowed beneath the floor panels before activating his com link with a tap on the underside of his left wrist. "Renegade, package has been secured and I'm ready for liftoff. What's the status of our escape vector?"

After a burst of static he heard a response from the officer left in charge of the freighter. "Negative on departure, boss. A whole mess of armed ships have entered the system and a lot of them are actively scanning any vessel they get close to. Hyper lane routes are a no go until the Hutts get sick of them clogging up traffic and send their own ships out."

"How does this apply to our mission?" Venris asked.

"Well we did just pick up something from your contact," The officer replied, "A bounty has been issued on you, boss...if I weren't afraid of an impending death and if you weren't who you are I'd be half tempted to try for it myself. These ships showed up only a short time after it was posted...and it's a Sith bounty."

Venris sighed. "So I'm stuck down here. Great...and all my plans for the day go down the sarlaac pit." He sat down in the pilot's chair. "These Sith like to hold a grudge."

"Well it's not a surprise. The Fleet focuses mainly on Sith targets, you had to expect some notoriety from this."

"True, however I'd been counting on my colleagues receiving it while I slink around in the background like usual," Venris crossed his arms and stared through the canopy, "Must have been that job on Nal Hutta...or maybe that raid we did on that freighter near Korriban.my, we've been a busy bunch of womprats, haven't we?" He let out a humourless chuckle. "Alright...I'll relocate and link up with the contact. He'll give me a place to lay low until these bounty hunters get bored or the Hutts Chase them off."

Engaging the shuttle's thrusters, Venris began to fly at a low altitude across the jungle, heading towards the nearby settlement that was home to Jodola the Hutt, a minor member in the cartel who knew how to keep his head down d more importantly keep a deal. He was Venris' contact among the cartel, and by extension that made him the Expeditionary Fleet's contact among the Hutts and a very valuable associate to have.

The settlement, barely thirty miles from the site where Venris had found the crate, was of moderate size, housing several thousand citizens of mixed species and acting as an active trading port, which often lead to the population quadrupling on a regular basis as merchants, smugglers and transports from across the planet and off world landed to do business. Jodola had a comfortable life here, ruling over his small but profitable territory and conducting deals out of the gaze of the more powerful Hutts, who never took double dealing very well despite dealing in it often enough themselves.

Venris landed his shuttle and passed the customs officer a few credits to alter the landing records, making them indicate that the shuttle had never landed and no one by the name of Venris Helion had ever entered Jodola's Port. All he had to do was keep low with Jodola for a while and then he'd be able to head back up to the Renegade and hightail it out of this system.

Easy, right?

With Venris however, easy plans rarely went as they should.

(On my iPad at the moment, hence the lack of coloured text.)

 

[Ray Valerio]

Ray was familiar with the hutt in the area, Jodola. He wasn't a high ranking member of the hutt cartels, but he was good at avoiding unnecessary confrontations. Not to mention his dirty little back stage deals made him quite wealthy, unofficially of course. Ray had done a job for him awhile back, some drug smuggler had stolen some information from him, a sizeable amount of credits too. Ray was passing g through the area on a supplies run when he was introduced to the hutt.

Of course the young bounty hunter took the opportunity, the reward was the highest one he had received at that point, plus it was good to have a contact in the hutts and the criminal underworld. The smuggler was some big time guy in his mind, but was really just a bug compared to the real cartels. Still, with the money he had taken from Jodola, he was able to afford two decent bodyguards. Obviously, they weren't on a Mandalorian level though, even a young one. The bodyguards were dealt with and Ray brought the thug back to the palace, receiving a small bonus for doing so.

It didn't take him long to arrive at the palace, he parked his ship and approached the door. Two guards stopped him to ask his business at the palace. "I'm here to speak to Jodola." He spoke, his voice a bit muffled through the helmet. They said something over the com system and a moment later stepped aside and nodded, allowing him to enter.

Ray waited while one of the dancers did her best to impress the hutt, who seemed to be enjoying the show. The band finished the song and the dancer quickly scurried off of the floor and into the crowd. Now was his chance to approach the hutt. He was greeted fondly as Jodola indicated to a trophy head, the one of the man Ray had delivered to him. Jodola let out a low laugh as he wiped his face and looked to Ray curiously.

Jodola was pretty forth coming with the information, of course it was very limited. Apparently Jodola had put some sort of crystals out there in the crate for a Jedi contact of his. That was as much as he claimed to remember, saying he never took the man's name. Regardless, the Mandalorian knew it had to be his target. He thanked Jadola for his time before making his way into the crowd.

He stood over in a corner that had a good view of the main floor, the entrance, and Jadolas perch. He connected the datapad image of Venris to his helmets scanner. He looked around the room from time to time as he waited, the scanner not showing any matches. Until finally there was a soft beep. Ray turned his head to the entrance and saw a man enter, he smirked as it seemed the man had returned to the hutts palace. He slowly moved through the crowd to stand a little closer to Jadola. He watched from the crowd, his eyes following the man, he figured he'd wait until the right moment to catch the target. It looked like he was going to get that reward after all.

[member="Venris Helion"]

 

[Venris Helion]

[member="Ray Valerio"]

Jodola dismissed the dancer once again as Venris stepped up. The Hutt chuckled and greeted him, his translation droid picking up to convey the Hutt's words to Venris, who was not as well versed in Huttese.

"The Mighty Jodola welcomes you back to his harbour, Jedi Venris Helion," The droid stated, "He hopes that you had no trouble finding the crystals."

Even as Venris smiled and lifted his hood back, he felt the Force call out to him, warning him of...something. He couldn't tell what it was exactly in this crowded room, but there was something wrong.

"I've said it before Jodola, I'm no Jedi." Venris began, "And I found the crate without a problem...I appreciate the extra weight you tossed in too."

Jodola cackled a bit before taking a deep gulp from a large mug. The droid continued to translate as Jodola spoke to the human. "The Mighty Jodola thought you would find it amusing. He asks why you have returned to his abode if all is well?"

"There are bounty hunters surrounding this planet and scanning every ship that comes and goes," Venris explained, resisting the urge to glance around for the danger his senses screamed were present. "I'm just looking for a place to sit until the Hutts get tired of having their transports waylaid and chase them off."

"The Mighty Jodola will of course accomodate a good business partner such as yourself, Venris Helion." The droid chirped, not able to convey the growing sense of anticipation that Venris felt coming from the Hutt. Something was definitely up, and Jodola knew what it was.

"In that case I won't bother you," Venris nodded, pulling his hood up. "I'll just take a seat, grab myself a drink and show myself out when it's all clear." He walked over to a darkened corner of the room and slowly sat down, eyes scanning the crowds as the music resumed again, a Twi'lek appearing to set down a drink for him. He nodded and accepted the drink, but did not break his concentration.

Jodola knew not to break a deal...but he also knew how to drop dead weight when it brought trouble to him, hence why Venris still trusted the Hutt about as far as he could throw him without the use of the Force.

 

[kingray13]

((Omit))

 

[Ray Valerio]

Ray made sure not to face the two as they coversed. The music room was too loud to make out most of the conversation. Ray managed to pick up a few bits however, such as, "Bounty Hunters" , "Jedi", the mention of the crystals again, but most importantly, " Venris Helion". Ray felt a mix of emotion about the pieces he heard.

On one hand he knew this was definitely his target, and these crystals might be of interest to [member="Darth Venefica"], hopefully earning him a bonus. It was also good that he made it here apparently unnoticed. On the down side though, he knew bounty hunters were looking for him, had he run into some others already? Had someone else picked up his trail somehow? It was only minorly concerning but it was still worth taking note of.

He noticed the target and Jodola both becoming a bit anxious, possibly for different reasons. He heard the Jedi bid goodbye as he walked away from where the hutt lay. Ray vanished in the crowd and re appeared beside Jadola who smiled nervously at him. "It seems you weren't completely honest with me before, Jadola." He said in a low voice so only the hutt would hear him, unless they were amplifying their senses. The hutt quickly began to apologize and try to weave some tale of how he forgot something or another or that he meant to say something else. Jadola even went as far with his excuses as to claim it was Ray who's personal translation of huttese was the cause the miscommunication.

Ray held a blaster rifle in his hand, brandishing the weapon as he held the hutt in his gaze. "Enough talking Jadola, I don't want your lies." He murmured quietly. "I want to know everything you and the Jedi spoke about." He then waved a finger and the translating droid reappeared. Ray looked the hutt in the eyes, though his own weren't visible, "So I want misunderstand anything." He said with a hint of humor and distaste. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure [member="Venris Helion"] was still in his corner, he was. He had to make sure to pay attention to both the hutt and the Jedi.

 

[Venris Helion]

[member="Ray Valerio"]

Venris tensed as he saw an armoured figure levelling a weapon at Jodola. Guards throughout the throne room/club began to reach for their own weapons.

"Venris Helion explained that despite picking up the shipment of data crystals at the specified location, he was alerted to the presence of mercenary vessels throughout the Teth system that are scanning and stopping entire ships." The droid translated for Jodola. "He expressed a wish to remain here until the Hutt enforcer ships could be ordered to remove these bounty hunter vessels and allow him to leave without incident."

Venris noticed Jodola glancing his way while taking a deep sip from his drink. Setting the glass down, Venris focused on the armoured man, possibly a bounty hunter...possibly here for him if he was like the ones in orbit. His senses were still warning him of an unknown danger, but his eyes told him everything he needed to see.

He couldn't take any chances...he had to leave. Now.

Venris' eyes wandered to the center of the room's ceiling where a floating sphere emanated multicoloured lights over the dancing and drinking patrons. Seeing that as his opportunity, he raised one hand and unleashed a stream of red electricity that flowed from his palm to the sphere in the span of a second, causing its target to explode and plunge the room into near total darkness. And in that darkness, Venris began to dash through the now panicking crowds towards the stairs leading back towards the front entrance.

 

[Ray Valerio]

Ray listened as the hutt began to tell him what the conversation had been made of. The only new piece of information hebgained was that the crystals being talked about held some sort of data. That wasn't quite good enough though. "What was in the data crystals?" He asked a bit annoyed as he glanced at the guards that noticed him by the hutt. It was only a few of them, and they shouldn't attack unless commanded to or if Ray attacked Jodola.

Before the hutt could give an answer, some red stream of energy struck the disco ball like decoration hanging from the roof. The sphere exploded, sending small pieces of glass and thin metal flying everywhere. Ray looked over and saw [member="Venris Helion"] running intonthe crowd. Ray smirked as he realized he had been found out.

Before the Jedi could get lost in the crowd, Rays jet pack spit out flames that lifted him into the air. He hovered over head and scanned the crowd, quickly locking his eyes back on his target, it was much easier to see him with a birds eye view. The nozzles that sprayed fire tilted and Ray began to quickly fly forward, the blaster held tightly in his grip as he drew closer to the man.

Ray flew towards the entrance, zipping right over the man's head. He now hovered in front of Venris as he held the weapon pointed towards the man.

"Don't make this any harder than it has to be." He warned as he kept his weapon and eyes locked on the man. "Surrender now and I won't put a blaster bolt in you." He suggested as he slid his finger to the weapons trigger, ready to fire if necessary.

 

[Venris Helion]

[member="Ray Valerio"]

Venris slid to a stop as the armoured man flew right past him, instinctively unholstering his Thunder Gun and levelling it at the man. Usually Venris couldn't hit the broad side of a Bantha with a gun, but a Thunder Gun was best used up close, and this was as close as he could get without the man's blaster being jammed up his nose. He took a few steps back as the man issued his ultimatum: surrender or die.

That armour looked strong, but not enough to withstand a direct hit from a lightsaber. And that jetpack could be overloaded with a burst of Force Lightning, but first Venris had to keep the man talking...

"Lovely offer," Venris replied, pretending to think it over for a few very tense moment before shrugging his shoulders. "...I accept your terms."

He loosened his grip and let his gun dangle from one finger sticking through the trigger guard. The point of this was to do what the man was not expecting, the exact opposite of what a reasonable minded person in the bounty hunter's position would expect actually. If this man was a veteran then he was used to targets fleeing or fighting for their lives, but one who would level a gun at him at point blank range, on the verge of a fire fight and with a massive bounty from the Sith on his head suddenly surrendering should at least fail to register for a moment in his mind.

It should work...unless the armoured man had a wide variety of captured or neutralized targets to his name who had liked to think they were being unpredictable.

"You've got me," Venris said with a smile as he slid the gun back into his hip holster, "Take me away, officer."

He would act when the man made a move, be it to apprehend him, disarm him or even just shoot him. Venris felt the Force surging through every vein in his body like an adrenaline rush, pushing his heart rate up, enhancing his reaction time and making it easier for him to act when the bounty hunter came to a decision on what to do.