Tatooine Dawn

[Julian Valentine]

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"Can you trust her?" Svel Droma asked Julian Valentine, both their eyes looking down at the same datapad. A small projector displayed a hologram of Keira Verd of the Mandalorian Empire. "Family is more than blood," the Red Raven answered. He hardly recognized her now. It had been what, ten? maybe fifteen years. The same could be said for him, he wasn't the same scrawny kid the Ravens pulled out of the gutter. He also went by the name Valentine now, not Solo.

The two of them stood in a decrepit courtyard, waiting the arrival of Ghorua and Keira. The land was home to an ancient trading post that had been left to rot for centuries. Built upon an oasis, it was an unnaturally lush landscape in conflict to the rest of Tatooine. Although lush was a poor choice of words when you compared a place as dreary as this to Alderaan or Naboo. A stone trading post stood behind them, walls collapsed, windows shattered. A watchtower of questionable structural integrity loomed over the oasis while a small guardhouse was situated at the base of the tower.

Valentine took a seat on a wooden crate as he observed the work yet to be done. Explosive charges were to be laid out at key foundations throughout the trading post and guardhouse while auto-turrets would be placed at handpicked windows to provide the targeting chips maximum visibility. Keira's ship would be strategically placed a fair distance from the buildings and supply crates surrounding it. A large pavilion would be pitched up next to the outpost so it gave the semblance that someone was living here.

R-TechApp Man Traps, a gravity-based trap, would be buried under a thin layer of sand around Keira's ship. Entrances to the watchtower and buildings would have Mesh Traps ready to snag a stray foot and electrocute the victim. Tripwires laid out in the hallways of the buildings where packing nets waited above. EMP charges would be buried in strategic locations along with extra weaponry and ammunition. Koda Fett didn't know it yet but he was about to walk into a maze of traps.

 

[Keira Priest]

There were parts of her past Keira buried deeply enough that even she forgot about them, and this was one of those. The Red Ravens hadn't crossed her mind since she was much younger, and what had concerned them then seemed trivial now in the face of all that she had witnessed since that time. Still, when a name from that part of her history came calling, she couldn't help but answer, if just out of sheer curiosity. It had soon turned to something far more complex, though even after the intent was explained she was still there to stay. She recognized the man they were hunting, and though she didn't owe a long-dead syndicate any loyalty, perhaps that was part of it as well.

Her ship settled on the ground at a location that had been pre-designated, and from there she took a moment to gauge her surroundings, gaze catching on the two figures some distance away. Former Ravens, the both of them, and with her arrival they numbered three. After a moment of silent observation she stood, fully armored save for the helmet clipped at her waist, and exited the ship. Her armament for her venture outside was sparse, comprised of her pistol, dagger and tomahawk, with the rest of her weaponry stowed away. That would come into play later, if and when it was necessary.

They'd chosen a suitably abandoned locale for the battle, with enough cover and concealment that a strategic approach was always an option. It was a fight she was almost disappointed she couldn't take part in, though she would be providing her own assistance from the sidelines. If worst came to worst she would intervene directly, but until then her function was nothing more than an advisor on how to exploit the weaknesses of their shared opponent. Luckily for them, she'd spent a fair amount of time learning how to defend and kill her own people if it came to that. Witnessing a fair share of splintering and civil wars did that to a person.

Another glance was spared to her surroundings as she neared the pair, assessing the structural integrity of the nearby buildings and deciding that if all else failed, they could just as easily collapse a roof on the head of their target and call it a day. That worked just as well as anything, and as long as there were no discrepancies about the condition in which he remained, she was perfectly content with arranging such a thing. "Well, this definitely isn't Antecedent."

[member="Julian Valentine"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

LOCATION: TATOOINE, OLD OASIS
EQUIPMENT: IN BIO
CURRENT MOOD: GRIM

Ninety percent of the battle happens before the battle.

It was one of the first lessons any self-respecting bounty hunter learned. It was a simple concept, but was often overlooked by the more inexperienced, or the careless, or the now dead hunters. Do the homework, work the angles, do everything in your power to gain as many advantages as you can.

Ghorua never cut corners during this phase. He made sure to know every vector, every option, every snippet of information he could scrounge up. But with this particular job, he didn't leave anything to chance.

This was personal. Very personal.

The Shark didn't come in his own ship, the Jawsome. Instead, he had hired a smuggler to take him, and had sent his daughter Minna with the ship to the other side of the galaxy. Whenever in public, Ghorua activated his holographic disguise matrix, passing him off as a rather large Dowutin. He recharged his armor in Mos Taike, rented an airspeeder, and booked it toward the designated area.

It took a few hours more than Ghorua would have liked, but it was discreet.

He arrived at the Oasis as [member="Keira Verd"]'s ship touched down, and he breathed a small sigh of relief. The pieces were coming together.

Ghorua stepped out of the speeder onto solid ground, an obsidian obelisk of muscle and beskar. His dark black armor glinted coldly in the sunlight, but held his helmet in one gargantuan hand, showing off his thick skin, dark eyes, and darker expression. He plodded up to the trio of smaller forms, not saying anything yet. On any other day, he would arrive with a joke and a chuckle, his signature charisma propelling him into the engagement. Not today.

Today, he had to be professional. He had to be smart.

And, more than anything, he had to be ruthless.

- [member="Julian Valentine"] -

 

[Julian Valentine]

"Get going, Svel," Julian said and jabbed a thumb into her hip. She squirmed and laughed, rose to her feet and began to walk towards the immense KR-TB Doomtreader that was in the spot Keira's ship would need to land. "Good luck, Julian Solo," she said and blew a kiss in his direction. He smiled and turned his head downcast at the mention of the name he had thrown to the wind. He looked up and barked at the Ugnaught by the loading ramp, "Hey! Boltz, don't you do me a dirty again. Get her to Antecedent, Lysle can protect her. Do what you want with my ship once she's safe. It's yours." The Ugnaught growled and grimaced, but nodded in agreement and guided Svel onto the large freighter. The end of an era, he thought as he watched the ship take off.

It was only an hour when Keira's ship began as a dot on the horizon and continued to grow, the roar of its engines echoing across the vastness of emptiness that was the Tatooine outback. The vessel reared itself, spun and lowered its landing gears. Then a plume of dust caught the bounty hunters gaze and he turned from his seat on the crate, peering out across the dunes to see a speeder making its way to the Oasis. He checked his datapad and saw that it was Ghorua the Shark that pinged on his scanner.

Julian had yet to place the bounty on Keira, but the bounty hunter had left a breadcrumb trail to this oasis. Not big enough for someone to realize it was a trap, but not too small as to make it a pain in the arse to follow. Once he posted the bounty, he knew Koda would take it, and it would be a matter of days before he arrived. It was starting to sound like a bad joke; a bounty hunter, a shark and a mandalorian go on a camping trip on Tatooine.

Lost in his thoughts, Julian hadn't even noticed Keira step out of her ship. Her voice brought him back to reality, "Well, this definitely isn't Antecedent." Julian looked around, raised a hand to his brows so as to shield his gaze from the harsh twin suns, he peered across the emptiness once more and remarked, "Well I'll be karkin' damned, it isn't!" He rose from the crate and closed the distance between them, he offered her a calloused hand that was worn from years of hard work, especially the dirty kind, "Lysle appreciates your efforts in this. I have a grudge for Koda, so does Ghorua, but Lysle really only wants to kark off Gorba the Hutt. Crime politics," he finished the sentence as if that explained it all. Koda was Gorba's lapdog, as well as the Sith Emperors, a former enemy of the Red Ravens.

Then the speeder was upon them, the plume of dust passing them and spreading out. Julian coughed for a moment, rose his arm to his mouth and squinted so as to not irritate his eyes. "Good choice," Julian remarked on the grim bounty hunters transport, he understood the seriousness of the situation just as well as Ghorua. Ghorua had been defeated by Koda before, the Shark was determined to win this time. While Julian hadn't been defeated, he hadn't won either; Koda had fled before Julian could finish him off. He didn't like rogue bounty hunters interfering with his work and Koda needed to be taught a lesson. "Dare I say when we have him, Ghorua you can personally transport him back to Mos Eisley tied by his feet behind your speeder."

Valentine turned around and cracked open one of the many crates. "Blasters, slugthrowers, demo charges, auto-turrets, traps of every make, we've got 'em, choose what you want and mark where you've placed what so we don't accidentally set anything off." Julian reached into the opened crate that was packed with explosives, "This crate is full of MM-40 thermal charges, can take down a bunker. I'll be packing the outpost with this stuff, fill in the walls with it, if Koda tries to find cover in that building he won't have time to regret that decision before he's buried alive." He motioned to the other crates, "We'll hide weapons under the sand in key locations to meet every demand we have. Let's get started." Julian pulled out a bundle of the thermal charges and hung them over his shoulder.

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

"I'd like that. I'd like that a lot."

Ghorua let loose a quick smirk, and looked around. This little plot the three of them had concocted together was mostly the product of Julian's intelligence, while Ghorua and Keira had augmented it slightly. Ghorua was more than okay with taking a back seat on the planning. He knew Julian, and he'd experienced Julian's cunning firsthand. If there was one man who could lay the perfect trap for a veteran hunter, it was Valentine.

That didn't mean Ghorua didn't have an active role. A lot was on all of their shoulders. Julian suggested they begin, and Ghorua couldn't show his agreement quick enough, hefting a crate his old mentor had brought along.

"Let's," his voice rumbled menacingly.

Ghorua knew he couldn't walk into the sand; that might leave footprints, and tip off their prey. So he busied himself around the makeshift campsite, taking care not to leave evidence of his passing. He checked crates, taking note of which ones would hold Valentine's weapons, and which were empty.

His first order of business was the entrance to Keira's ship. It would be an enticing escape for one of Koda's talents. It was a small area, and required the enterer be low to the ground; the perfect location for grav traps.

Ghorua opened up the crate, and placed it gently on the ground, marveling at the grey slabs of metal within. One of these could immobilize a wookiee, and probably Ghorua as well. His ship had a training room where the gravity could be adjusted, and Ghorua had never dared turn the dial up that high before, and for good reason. It was dangerous.

It would do.

Ghorua laid out the slabs around the entrance to the ship, and spread sand over the area, making it seem as if it weren't there at all. But if they were stepped in, they would pin the target to the ground. Ghorua marked them quickly, making sure neither of his allies got caught in them.

Next step; the campsite.

- [member="Julian Valentine"] - [member="Keira Verd"] -

 

[Keira Priest]

When he offered his hand to shake Keira did so, and if it weren't for the crushgaunts she wore her hand would have been just as calloused, years spent as a warrior adding a certain roughness around her edges that hadn't been present before. Both of them had changed, but it seemed Lysle's business hadn't. "Right back into it like he never left. He's picking up right where he left off, it looks like." Of course, for the short period she'd known the man, that didn't strike her as out of the ordinary in the least. He'd always been three steps ahead, and this was no different. Perhaps a bit more personal, but something about crime always was.

Picking up an autoturret and a whipcord launcher, she followed Julian into the building. While she wasn't sure exactly what she was going to do in order to make this work, she would figure it out. The idea had struck once packing the walls with explosives had been suggested. Anyone with sense would do what they could to evacuate the premises before that, but she wasn't inclined to let that happen. She would improvise something and figure out a way to make it work, though she wasn't keen on dismantling all of the turrets into her jerry-rigged trap. Maybe two or three, but no more. They still needed enough to keep their opponent pinned down elsewhere on the battlefield, after all.

"I've had to deal with him before. My people aren't friendly with Gorba either, and Koda was hellbent on starting another civil war for a while. One of those di'kutla exiles." It was her version of small-talk, regardless of whether he chose to respond. After a few moments of fidgeting with the turret she removed the power cells, setting them aside before picking up the whipcord launcher and fitting it into the same slot. It took a bit more doing to connect everything to the trigger mechanism, but after doing so she placed the mechanism near the center of the room, out of sight from the entrance, marking it so everyone was aware.

Standing straight, she again looked to the man that may as well have been a stranger, after all the time that had passed. "If he walks onto my ship, I'm putting a round in his head. No hard feelings, 'lek?" Flashing a smile, she turned to exit, going to retrieve another turret and launcher in order to manufacture another of her makeshift traps.

[member="Ghorua the Shark"] | [member="Julian Valentine"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

The campsite. It was easily the most crucial area for Ghorua. It was where he'd be hunkered down, for days, weeks on end, waiting for Fett. It wouldn't be comfortable, for sure, but his father had said nothing worth doing was. Ghorua, despite all his love for his old man, would politely disagree.

Sleep was pretty comfortable, and pretty important.

Now that he thought about it, sleeping out here probably won't be all that comfy.

The supply crates around the area were already well placed, but needed Ghorua's personal touch. He created a small caldera of boxes for himself, giving him ample cover from all sides. He took off his armor bit by bit, until he was left in his black wifebeater and dark shorts. He was beginning to sweat, but that was expected in the Tatooine suns. Out of his speeder, he produced a solar charger he bought on-world, and set up his suit's power pack.

He unrolled a bedroll, a few other essentials, and finally, a comm. He smiled as he took it from the passenger seat, then let his face fall again as he got set to work. A few grav traps were set in obvious pathways between crates, covered by inconspicuous desert-colored tarps.

He looked over to the pair of [member="Keira Verd"] and [member="Julian Valentine"], wondering how they knew each other. Julian had told him she was an old Raven, but that was where it was. But as they spoke, Ghorua could see there was more there. It made him miss his own friends. His daughter.

Oh well. On to the next thing.