"I'm glad to meet someone else with a similar view on Forcies. Sith are pretty bad, and I wouldn't want to be caught in a disagreement with one, but Jedi can be so much worse!" The Chiss might not have lost his arm to a Jedi, but there were many things he held against them. Indeed, Jedi were one of the few subjects Sy' had allowed a degree of unprofessional dislike to grow.
The two continued to surprise him. Sy' gave a toothy grin as he raised his arm in mock defeat, "Alright, alright. So my story you say? Settle in, this is a long one. That goes back quite a bit, further than this little piece of work." He nodded to the empty socket before seeming to look of into the distance. "I was a hunter, always have been. But when I started out on that little slice of the galaxy I called home I was a hunter of beasts, the non-sentient variety. We didn't have the dangerous things like Rancors, man-eating plants, Sarlaacs and what have you. I guess you might say our regular predator was a relative of the Kath Hound, but boy were they nasty pieces of work. My main hunting target though was the local herbivores, big creatures that munched on the local trees and bushes. Easy prey, made lots of noise and moved about as slow as a dying pod racer. Back then I had both arms, a fierce determination, and far too much ego for my own good. You see, in my town, I was one of the few hunters, better yet, I was the only one that had a slug thrower of my own, a family heirloom. So I was a pretty big deal, I'd go around with my gun everywhere. I'd get into fights, who wouldn't when you're young and foolish. I duelled a few folks, sent some home in boxes, others got to walk away. I made the mistake of taking up an offer from an offworlder, claiming he was part of some rifle competition. Never did find out what happened, he took what credits I had, promised me my first round would pay dividends aplenty, and disappeared. I made ends meet by taking odd jobs for the local crime syndicate, solo hunting wasn't paying as well anymore with the influx of cheap off-world foods and more efficient hunting guilds. It's never been a sport, this hunting business. I've always been a hunter for the joy of the game and more importantly the payoff, whether it be meat traded in, valuable parts, or even bounties. Gotta keep alive somehow eh."
As if to prove his point he raised his hand in a gun pose and pulled the figurative trigger, "It started with game hunting, bringing down specific beasts to be made into trophies. I remember the night I was given my first 'real' hunt. The prey was a nobody, some human who'd been skipping out on payments for years and hopping around whenever he caught a whiff of the syndicate. Nothing impressive really, he lived in the wilds and I took him easily. But that started something. Been doing this ever since." He bemusedly sighed before continuing, "I've gotten better obviously, learned how to hunt in the urban jungles as well as the real ones. This particular incident," the Chiss indicated his missing arm with a slow, displaying wave from the present appendage, "happened on my first expedition on a frozen planet. You ever been to a world like that? Snow as far as the eye can see, and forget about the weather, those lovely sun-filled days are far below freezing. The name is a little fuzzy, something with a number in it... Palsinc five? Kepzo two? Alzoc three? All I know is, I will never take a job on a frozen world without someone else to back me up. You get stranded, or something mucks up, you're isolated totally, and few of us sentients are designed to handle that atmosphere."
"I was sent to hunt a local creature, something nonsentient for once. I guess I felt a bit of nostalgia, going back to my roots of hunting something that didn't think real hard. I figured it would be easy, I did my research on cold worlds and took the necessary equipment. I spent the first week moving away from what little civilization existed, the wild creature, some sort of escaped exotic animal from another world, had about a month's head start and the local snowstorms had thrown off most attempts to trace it. Well, as you can imagine, trying to find a lone animal was about as difficult as... about as difficult as it would be here I imagine. Eventually, I trekked into a valley, massive ice spikes as large as skyscrapers all about. I wasn't prepared for my beacon to short on me, I guess the cold just did it in or something. But shortly afterwards, I was ambushed by the monster I was sent to hunt. Nothing I had been told prepared me for the sight of that thing. Spikes all over, with a hide like Duranium, poisonous spittle dripping from its mouth even in the freezing temperatures. The creature must have been starving because it smacked me once and it didn't even wait to see if I was dead before it starting trying to nosh on me. It grabbed hold of me right about here in its massive maw," he indicated to an invisible point on where his arm used to be, "and just began shredding me to bits with his clawed hand. It tore through all the weatherproofing and armour I had. I think the adrenaline got to me, because I didn't even think before grabbing a fusion cutter and getting to work on my arm. Burned it clean off. This beasty did not take kindly to that but seemed quite content to snack on my arm. I tried to get a shot off, even used a grenade or two to try and end the beast. But, as with some of the best hunts in life, the thing slipped away into the storm. Never did find out what happened to it. I spent the rest of the day trying to set up a shelter, but by nightfall, I was exhausted and I fell into a coma. Woke up fifteen days later in a hospital ship halfway across the galaxy, no one I asked seemed to have answers as to how I ended up there or why. After that, well, my hunting days seemed numbered. But, I've gotten good, better in fact, and I'm shooting with the best of them. I think someday I'd like to go back to that little world, go for a rematch. Maybe I'll keep its arm as my first trophy." His voice began to trail off for a moment, the Chiss falling into some other thought, before returning his attention to the two ladies before him. He gave a chuckle and concluded, "And that is that. Not my best story, but definitely one that will stick around for a while. What do you think? Any good? I shared it with some kids once, but their parents didn't appreciate it; got me kicked out of a daycare centre once. Probably should have seen that one coming."
Willow & Ivy