We Are Always Watching You

[Armand Temi]

Juliette Sasko had just finished a training run and now in the port side hangar, she was instructing a random TIE mechanic on the location of a malfunctioning sensor when she heard a gruff bark behind her. “The Squadron Commander wants to see you in his office, Sasko.” She was still in her flight suit from the run, her dark hair tied up in a ponytail atop her head. She set her helmet down and followed the officer to the Squadron Commander’s quarters on The Scourge.

“Am I in trouble again, Commander Renaldo?” asked Juliette expecting some type of scolding, for what the maker only knew.

“Not this time. Close the door.”

Juliette narrowed her eyes at Renaldo and warily did as he instructed. Luckily she always kept a vibro blade strapped to her thigh in case he got fresh with her. Ever since her first day at the Imperial Academy, the pilot had learned the hard way about stepping into small enclosures with superior officers and trusting that her body wouldn’t be manhandled in some way shape or form. Plus, there just weren't that many female pilots aboard The Scourge and human males were still the Imperial's prime target for recruitment. Juliette was attractive sure, but honestly she thought most of them would grope a Trandoshan if given the chance.

As she sat down across from him Renaldo said: “I’ve heard you are interested in special assignments.”

“What kind of assignment?”

He opened a physical dossier with flimsiplast inside and handed it to her to read. “The Empire doesn’t take well to one of our colleagues being murdered in cold blood. This man had a family, he had promise within our organization. He was executed by an individual, a former Imperial soldier named Tobias Wraith.”

He leaned forward and directed her eye to a line on the flimsi that showed the payment she would receive. It was quite a hefty sum to be put on the head of someone so young as this renegade and signaled to Juliette that as clean-cut as Wraith looked, he was extremely dangerous.

“Why me?” asked Juliette. Of course she was interested in making the extra credits but the reason that she was tapped for the job didn't completely make sense. “Why not an Imperial Agent?”

He frowned and said, “We have sent agents after the target before and well, he normally either kills them or he quickly evades them. Either we are sending the wrong men or we need to try a different strategy. Something more subtle.”

The pilot was pretty sure she knew what he meant and no more explanation was needed.

“He was last spotted on Nim Drovis doing something with Silk Industries. Not sure what the company makes and frankly we don’t care. You are not going to do business with him... unless that is part of your cover. But ultimately, you will be there to capture him or eliminate him. Now, that’s all the information I have,” he said brusquely. “Pack your rain gear and some thick boots. Nim Drovis is rainy for most of the year and is mostly swampland. You leave tonight.”

She glanced at the dossier once more. “Can I keep this?” Juliette asked and after he nodded yes, she tucked it under her arm. As she rose to leave, Renaldo said:

“Thank you for your service, Miss Sasko. If this job is completed there will be more.”

“One more question. You keep saying we. Who is we? Who has really hired me for this job?”

“That is something I cannot answer. But just know always, pilot that we are always watching you.”

Well that's kind of a hella creepy thing to say, Juliette thought but she didn’t linger anymore in Commander Renaldo’s office. This turn of events gave her much more to think about other than a malfunctioning sensor. She left her TIE repairs to the engineers and went straight to her bunk to figure out what type of weapons she may need to take down an evasive killer. “A subtle approach,” is what Renaldo said was needed. She had something in mind but after searching her bunk found she didn’t have the right supplies. But once she arrived on Nim Drovis in the morning, she would be able to go shopping for the exact materials needed to neutralize the target.

[member="Tobias Wraith"]

 

[Tobias Wraith]

Nim Drovis​

Middle of Fething Nowhere​

The taserblade ran over the fungus, the Grassley substance falling into his microlab as he ran his blade against it. Making haste to close the top, he activated analysis mode as rain poured down on him. Every drop echoed over the hood of his large rain coat, and he had to make sure to not stand still. Constant rain in a swamp was a perfect recipe to get stuck, and eventually eaten by some predator. Bare hands tapped the device in his hands, waiting to see if he had actually found what Jorus had asked him to. Is this light ever going to quit blinking? Patience was not a virtue he had ever mastered, he could fake it.

The Imperials had taught him all he would ever need to know about that.

A grim expression fell over his features as his lips folded into a frown. Hatred boiled to the surface for a moment, and then the memories faded. Not now Toby, just focus on the task. His trademark smile came back as he sat the case down on the speeder he rode in on. Another twig broke in the distance, and he quickly pulled the rifle off his should and quickly ducked by his speeder. The barrel of the Hyperion Rifle the only thing visible as he adjusted his scope. Haggard breathing slowed as he slid his hand to his belt, shutting off the mapping device be was wearing. Scanning the tree line, he found nothing out of the ordinary.

Unless man eating reptiles are normal, or my life is that weird.

BEEP!!!

Shouldering the rifle quickly, he looked at the results. "Looks like I found your acid fungus, Jorus." Placing it in his Wild Space kit, he zipped the bar up and checked the straps on the speeder. Noting the spot where he found it on the map, he revved the engine and shot off towards the cave where his tent was set up. The swamp turned to a green blur.

I'll need to get away from this interference before I can radio him.

Wraith bit his lip in frustration as he leaned forward, his hood flying behind his back. I'll close down camp in the morning and radio the Jackdaw in for extraction once this storm subsides. Plans where spinning in his mind, and he occasionally checked his radar for anything. He was constantly on edge with all the hunters he had met lately. Tobias gone so far as to fake docking papers at false star ports so people couldn't find his ship.

With a little luck the wouldn't catch on.

[member="Juliette Sasko"]

 

[Armand Temi]

Location: Shady Lanes Motel near the Wookiee Codpiece on Nim Drovis

Commander Renaldo wasn’t kidding about the rain. Juliette thought maybe he was exaggerating but no. It rained literally every minute of the day on Nim Drovis. Juliette’s hair was an absolute womp rat’s nest with the humidity, and everytime she went outside even with an umbrella, she would return completely drenched and have to change her clothes again. And after her arrival, she had needed to trek around Nim Drovis the entire afternoon, visitng dingy shop and hovel alike, collecting supplies in which to hunt her target. How did anybody live on this rock, she thought? The weather was affecting her mood, making her mopey, glum and depressed.

But no matter I have a cure for that, the pilot thought. Juliette relied on all sorts of tips and tricks learned from the military like the use of stimshots in order to perk right up. She drew a stimshot needle out of her suitcase and jabbed it into her bicep. The spice coursed through her veins, giving her an immediate jolt.

She next drew out a variety of other instruments from her case: a pair of stun cuffs, stolen from The Scourge as well as a small Needler. She disassembled the weapon and laced the Needler darts with Renatyl, a fairly potent sedative. She also tucked a packet of Renatyl dust and Manax Root Poison dust into her large black leather handbag in case of emergency.

She wasn’t planning on using any of her tools tonight, however. Tonight, flying high on her stimshot and with very little sleep, she planned to gather intel on Wraith’s whereabouts. Juliette wiggled into a strapless black and red dress and slipped on some very high heels. She walked to a cantina named The Wookiee’s Codpiece which was lined inexplicably with a pink plush material on the walls.
The pilot sat down at the bar, ordered a glass of blood-red sangria and began making conversation with the server, a squat male Drovian who moved around on a little motorized cart behind the bar. Juliette flashed a smile and a couple of credit chits, sliding the picture of Tobias Wraith towards him. “Does this man come in here ever?”

The Drovian examined the picture and then dramatically held it up to the light as though he were a detective. In his nasally voice he answered, “I’ve seen this man in the cantina before, yes."

“Do you know anything about him?” she pressed. Juliette didn’t want to ask too many questions right away but she did have the Drovian’s attention right now and might as well make good use of it.

“No,” he answered and then he zoomed down the bar on his cart to serve another patron.

Juliette looked around the catina but she recognized no one that resembled Wraith. She heard the Drovian's voice up the bar saying: "Big storm coming tonight! Luckily we'll still be open."

[member="Tobias Wraith"]

 

[Tobias Wraith]

Rule number one in not getting killed by bounty hunters was simple, keep your eyes open. Tobias was very good at that, at least if beautiful women weren't around. If that happened, he usually had to look at rule number two. Back to the first rule, Wraith constantly had his eyes over his shoulders. His experience in tracking missions had showed him how that worked. All one had to do was get their prey in a box, crowd the area with blaster fire or many guns.

So he avoided the bars he normally frequented, even if the storm was raging. He had followed Jorus' advice, and stayed far away from all those he worried it. It had made the journey less than pleasant, and far from ideal. Sitting with bugs at a campsite had nothing on being around a bunch of drunks running from their pain. It allowed him to forget he last and fall back on what gave him trouble with rule one.

Beautiful women, the root of all evil. Well except for Force users, they weren't fun either.

Rule two had him falsify where his ship was at. That had been easy, the underground had set it all up for him. He had even landed in the city proper before leaving and having the Jackdaw take off and orbit the world. His camp now packed up, he simply waited for go ahead for extraction now that his supplies were packed up. Which led him to rule three.

Pay off your friends so they can be your eyes.

So his speeder pulled up right outside the motel, he threw his coat off as he entered the building. Clad in a simple shirt and trousers, his sharp features and lithe frame his only defining characteristics. That, and he had a big pistol in his hand as he wiped water off his short, tawny hair. Crossing into the bar, he saw the women I'm question and leveled his Woebringer pistol right at [member="Juliette Sasko"]' s head.

"I'm Tobias, what do you want?" Then his azure pupils met hers, and he looked her over.

Feth, not a beautiful woman.

 

[Armand Temi]

Juliette heard the gun click at her head before she heard the voice. She turned her head slowly so any sudden movement didn’t get her a blaster bolt through the brain. The pilot came face to face with the prey she had been hunting. He was much more handsome in person than in his pictures, she would give him that. But how did he...?

The karking Drovian, she thought. She tried to catch the eye of the alien bartender but the wretched creature was all the way on the other side of the bar, mopping up a spill. She next recalled what Commander Renaldo had said about Wraith and bounty hunters: he normally kills them or he quickly evades them. Well he certainly wasn't kidding. Since there were two choices and the outlaw wasn’t evading her, Juliette figured that she was about to be executed right then and there in the kriffing Wookiee Codpiece Cantina.

Her senses sharp from the stimshot, her hazel eyes searched him, glancing down his muscular body and back up to his face again. Her mind spun to come up with a reason that she would be looking for him, any reason really…

We are always watching you.

Juliette tilted her head to the side, her long black hair falling like an inky waterfall nearly down to her ribs. “You are being watched Mr.Wraith,” she said. “I can’t tell you by who, why or how, but I’ve come to warn you.”

And in a way, there was some truth to what Juliette said. Ever since she had landed on Nim Drovis, she had this unsettling feeling that she was also being watched along with Mr. Wraith. In fact, she sensed that in the cantina at this very moment, strange eyes were upon them, judging their reactions and watching their every move. Or it could just be the amphetamine racing through her bloodsteam making her extra paranoid?

“What’s your poison?” she asked with a subtle pout, back straight on the barstool, so that her ample figure, tattoos and mile-long legs were on prominent display. Juliette would continue to make use of all available tools she had right now - even a corporeal one - to distract Tobias Wraith and keep him from uncovering her true intention.

[member="Tobias Wraith"]

 

[Tobias Wraith]

Death wasn’t caused by bolter shot, a blaster round, or weaponry. This statement tended to confuse many around the galaxy, because they most assuredly would disagree that a weapon would be the way to kill someone. Tobias had a different opinion on the matter, one that his military and now Jedi instructors would agree with. Distraction was the bane of all existence, if one stayed focus on the task at hand they could survive. A blade, or a lightsaber was only dangerous to the unfocused mind. Same principle applied to gun fights or unarmed ones, a focused mind was the quickest way to survive.

Even though he knew this, well it still happened.

His eyes, those treacherous blue eyes looked up up and down despite the fact that he had his Woebringer out and pointed at her. Had he just shown up on his own before leaving, she would have had him dead to rights. Every hunter before had been a burly, alien species intent on just trying to slaughter him for the credits. This time, it seemed the One Sith had decided to go on a different tact, and thankfully he hadn’t been around to be caught unaware. She wasn’t wearing armor, and that dress made his eyes linger away from what she was doing for far too long.

“You are being watched Mr.Wraith,” she said. “I can’t tell you by who, why or how, but I’ve come to warn you.”

Her pouty lips and the way she tilted her face made him pause, and he simply looked her over once again. Stims and alcohol were pretty fun, but a beautiful woman was the most dangerous vice of them all to him. Tattoos covered most of her legs, and boy did they go on for days. Her dress was so tight he knew there were no weapons, so he relaxed in that regard...well except for her bag she had. Youth, and relative inexperience with beautiful women made his mind wander to what other ink she had on her body, and his arm started to relax with that thought.

“What’s your poison?” Her voice caught his attention as he walked away from her to give him some distance, and to make his mind function like it should. Tobias didn’t holster his weapon, instead he laid his arm on the bar and kept the barrel pointed right at the woman who was offering him a drink. Relaxing just a bit, he sat down. His interest was piqued, but not just for her appearance.


“Okay, go for it. Let me tell you what I already know.” A grin crossed his handsome features,”I know you’re not a typical hunter. You know my last name, and I mean the one I was truly born with. Which tells me you’re getting orders from the higher ups, and not some hutt who’s pissed I didn’t get my shipment in on time. So, that means they are finally chasing me down seriously since they realized that a loose end from their child soldier program is still alive and kicking.” That smug grin held firm.

“Am I getting close tall, long legs, and beautiful? You have to be a pilot based off the ink, I’ve got some of my own.” What he didn’t say was that some of it was by choice, some forced upon him. “So, I’ll take whatever scotch they have. You go for the bag, or I see you spike my drink I will kill you. So tread carefully.”

What either of them knew, was that they were being watched, and that it was about to get very bad for the pair who were currently at odds.

[member="Juliette Sasko"]