Its Nothing Personal

[Ecks]

Tyrena was one of the best known cities on Corellia. Split in two by a large river, it was connected by bridges and a single grav train, and was a major tourist destination for the other inhabitants of the Core worlds.

Ecks sat in the common area of his ship, Razor's Edge, running a rag over his blaster rifle. There was an assorted pile of power cells and grenades on the table in front of him, and a friend standing by the coldbox searching for something to drink.

Friend. The big Falleen grunted, holding up a hand and snagging a can of beer that was thrown in his direction. There weren't many people who could call the bounty hunter their friend. In fact, in all the worlds there were only two.

[Damon Frey]

"I thought I left some fruit juice in here..."

It was getting close to business time, and Damon found that with all the details of the job rolling around in his mind, he couldn't conclusively remember if he actually had brought more to drink. Ecks kept a stable supply of beer on hand, but that sort of drink didn't lend itself well to current needs.

"Crap...I'll have to grab something once we land, I'm gonna need more calories before we get to work..."

In truth, he was probably very well prepared for this mission. Even though the shi'ido was currently keeping an average height and build, his weight was pretty high, plenty of extra mass there for whatever extra needs he might need to force on his body. It was just the unknowns that plagued him. Being a shape-shifter conditioned him with an overbearing eye for details, but it had the side effect of causing undue stress when faced with variables. Although he'd never admit it, he admired the calm casualness Ecks exuded before a job. It was one of the few traits he found he couldn't mimic to a fine precision, but that also didn't stop him from giving it the occasional go.

"I'm assuming you'll have enough blood in your alcohol system by the time we land...Or should I hit the med-bay and get an IV ready for you"

He glanced back at Ecks with a wry grin.

[Ecks]

He grunted, popping the top and slurping the golden liquid inside. "Falleen have a high tolerance for alcohol. As I've said before." Ecks set down the can and took apart the E-3 blaster rifle, putting the pieces on the table and making sure it was clean inside and out.

The bounty hunter reassembled the rifle and leaned forward a bit to put it in the holster that was strapped to his back. He rolled his shoulders to check the weight, and then took the E-3 out and set it on the table again. "There's some blumfruit juice in the cupboard. Didn't make it to the coldbox yet."

[Damon Frey]

"I shouldn't have expected it to top beer on the priority list I guess."

Damon left the coldbox, giving it a light nudge to shut it on his way to the cupboard. Warm juice wasn't exactly tasty, but it was going to have to suffice right now.

"I'm not even sure what exactly attracts you to that hellbrew. If you didn't talk so much I'd believe they'd taken your tongue along with the eye."

[Ecks]

Ecks ran a thick fingered hand over the shiny hull of his new ship. He'd needed a new one for years, but the specifications he wanted weren't cheap and it had taken a few bounties to cover the costs. Razor's Edge was sleek, thorn shaped, and twice as fast as she looked.

And she looked fast. The Falleen's lips curved up in a smile, but after the ship was locked up he was all business. His topknot was tied up on his head instead of flowing down to his shoulders, and instead of armor he was wearing thick brown coveralls. The cotton fabric was lined with an energy dissipating metal, a thinner version of what Stormtrooper armor was made from, but wouldn't do much about blunt force trauma. The name tag on the coveralls read Xazor, a common enough Falleen name.

Ecks walked to his destination, picked up the heavy crate he was going to deliver, and loaded it carefully into the back of a cargo speeder. The bounty hunter squinted into the sunlight as he drove to the estate of Strago Keldrona (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/member.php?u=5099), an exotic plant and art loving Elomin who was rumored to be a small time crime lord.

Black Sun didn't like him. Black Sun wanted him taken out.

Ecks was happy to oblige. Parking the speeder, he walked to the back, unloaded the crate, settled it onto a repulsor lifted furniture dolly, and pushed it slowly up the walk to the service entrance of Keldrona's estate. "Delivery," he rumbled, shading his eyes with one hand as he held out his carefully forged credentials. The security guard perused the datapad thoroughly, but handed it back with a grunt.

The bounty hunter tucked the 'pad into a pocket of his coveralls as the crate was scanned by a second guard, and then pushed the heavy statue further into the coolness of the mansion.

[Damon Frey]

Damon knew when he touched ground on the planet and traveled to the estate that this was going to be a fairly complicated mission. Two marks, one location and a very very large sum of money. Strago Keldrona, a small time crime-lord with delusions of grandeur that were a few big jobs away from no longer being delusions. It was easy enough to see why the Black Sun would want him dead. The Black Sun didn't become who they were by allowing competition to flourish. The bounty hunter, Ecks, however was a bit of an enigma. The dossier didn't mention the reasoning behind the hit (as they rarely did) and Damon wasn't dumb enough to ask questions.

The mission itself was clear enough. Keldrona was given a heads up that a bounty hunter had been sent for him. He would capture or kill Ecks, then Damon would move in and kill Keldrona, and then Ecks, if the falleen was still alive. As an extra precaution, Damon intended on hiding Keldrona's body after the kill, assume his identity, and acquire the security holos as proof of both deeds.

Up to this point, everything was as planned. Ecks was using the cover of a mover bringing in a statue. During the hours before, Damon had removed the statue and assumed its form. Afterword, Ecks had hidden some weapons in the statue's base and crated the whole thing up. As added insurance, and to pass the time, Damon went ahead and dismantled the sonic generator in the vibroblade and rerouted its power directly into the blade's handle, which would give a nice little stun on activation. The blaster's power core was removed and the blaster itself was disabled, just to be on the safe side.

With all the details taken care of, Damon was now executing one of the easiest infiltrations of his career, stand still and don't blink. They were now through the security checkpoint, and cool air washed in through the cracks in the crate. They were inside now. After a few minutes Damon felt the abrupt shift of the crate being set down. A few seconds later, the front of the crate was pulled off, and he was staring into the beady eyes of the over-sized falleen.

The disguise held up. Ecks kneeled to the base of the statue, and after a quick glance to his left and his right, he pulled his weapons out of the shielded compartment and tucked them into his overalls. It was a waiting game now.

[Ecks]

After making sure his weapons were secure and hidden under the bulky coveralls, Ecks muscled the statue out of the crate. Then he discretely inquired about the refresher to a Twi'lek maid, and used the excuse to leave the area he was supposed to be in.

Keldrona's schedule had him in his office working on paperwork. Or, more likely, with another maid or intern working on him. Small time crime bosses were all the same. They had different morals, different reasons for doing what they did, but in the end you could always count on them partaking of their own product and harassing their employees. Its why they stayed small time, they could never see the big picture.

For such a big being Ecks was relatively light on his feet, and he made his way quietly to the second level of the estate. There was a huge inner courtyard that was covered with a twenty five foot transparisteel ceiling and filled with enough greenery to choke a herd of nerfs. Taking a secondary hallway away from the courtyard, he found the inner office where the Elomin was supposed to be.

He pulled his vibroblade out and put a hand on the door controls.

[Damon Frey]

Now that Damon was alone, he stepped down off the statue base, did one more scan of the room and joining hallways. It was all clear. Quickly, he shifted into the disguise of one of Keldrona's security personnel, mimicking clothing and all. A scan of the building had indicated that on the eastern wing of the second floor, there was a single room with a very large power output. This had to be the central security observation center.

Judging by the lack of any alarm, Damon deduced two things. One, Ecks hadn't made a move yet, and two, all eyes were currently watching him. It was the one gamble in the mission, shape-shifting in the obvious presence of security cameras, and the lack of alarm didn't yet guarantee that it had gone unnoticed, but prospects were good.

Not wanting to risk being trapped on a lift, (in the event that he had been compromised) Damon made a quick jog up the stairway leading to the second floor. Coming to the control room door, he took a moment to still his nerves then hit the comm button on the wall.

"I was told to check in..."

The next few seconds drug out. If they were alerted to his presence, he could be walking into a trap. They could start asking questions, and he might provide a wrong answer. He was committed now though, which made it easier to put these doubts aside. Then, the red light on the door blinked green, and the voice on the other end of the comm calmly replied.

"Come on in."

The voice didn't betray any tension or nervousness at all, which Damon found reassuring. As the door swung open, two security guards were sitting at the table, obviously focusing the large green 'mover' that was currently making his way through the estate.

"Show's about to start..."

One them started to speak, but before he could complete the sentence, a small vibroblade found its way through the back of his neck, severing the spine and the windpipe in one thrust. Before his partner could react, Damon was already in motion, coming across with a hard right handed blow that knocked the man unconscious. A quick slice across the man's throat would ensure he wouldn't wake up screaming, and most likely not at all.

Now alone in the control room, Damon grabbed one of the men's key cards and tucked it away. There wasn't a place to hide the bodies in here, so if anyone came in, Damon would have to kill them as well. This wasn't likely to happen though, as all of the estate's security were heading toward the wing that Ecks was currently in. While he waited for that part of the plan to come to fruition, Damon went through the passed few minutes of the security footage until he found the bit where he'd shape-shifted and promptly deleted it, just in case that opportunity was later denied.

On the screen now, Ecks was coming up on a small office room...

[Ecks]

The door opened after he waved his sliced keycard in front of it, which hadn't been cheap to acquire, and Ecks quickly stepped in. There was a desk, right where his intel had informed him it would be, and a large office chair that held a brown skinned Elomin.

Strago looked up, eyes wide as Ecks' thumbed the sonic activator on his vibroblade, and then the bounty hunter felt a shock in his hand as the knife shorted out. His hand muscles seized, letting the vibroblade drop to the carpeted floor, and then he grabbed his blaster rifle out of his coveralls. Boots were loud in the hallway behind him, but he aimed and squeezed the trigger three times before the door opened, and when he realized that it wasn't working he threw it at the mark, hard enough to dent his horns had it connected.

Instead the E-3 blaster tumbled end over end and bounced off a personal shield just as security guards burst into the room and tackled him to the ground while Strago watched and laughed.

[Strago Keldrona]

Oh this was too good, really. Strago leaned forward as the big Falleen bounty hunter was knocked to the ground, watching with interest as his guards went to work. He'd been advised to have a double in the office, but he'd been certain that his security would be there in time to stop any foul play. And they had been, but a few seconds too late. Good thing the hunter had had so much trouble with his weapons - although the personal shield would have taken care of anything that had managed to come his way.

The hunter roared like some kind of beast, grabbing a guard by the head and twisting it until it popped and the man's face pointed towards his back. Other guards kept hitting him with stun clubs until he was finally subdued, hands stuncuffed behind his back and face down on the carpet. "Excellent, excellent!" Strago clapped his hands, deactivated the shield, and rose to his feet.

"And one from me," he added, walking over and kicking the Falleen in the ribs. The hunter grunted, a bit of green blood staining the carpet from a split lip, and Strago kicked him again for good measure. "Take him downstairs... and soften him up for me. I'll be down in an hour to... talk to him."

[Damon Frey]

With Ecks subdued Damon was mentally preparing for the next few stages of his plan. His attention shifted off Ecks and onto Keldrona. The man was high on his own ego at this point, which would make him a bit careless. All Damon needed now was the right time and place. No guards would be preferable, but that was a major longshot. He couldn't just wait for the man to go to sleep, because once the excitement with Ecks was over, somebody would eventually notice the missing statue, and that would lead to more discoveries, such as the two dead bodies sitting a few meters away. The place would be locked down in a heartbeat.

Keeping Ecks and Keldrona on the two main displays, Damon started flipping through the different side displays til he settled on the hallway just outside the room he was in. There was a supply closet nearby that he could stash the two bodies in, but that carried risks. He'd have to pull them from the control room out into the hallway, which would leave him open to be spotted by any random passerby. There was also the matter of blood. Both men were drenched in it at this point. He could clean them up, but that would take too much time. His best bet right now was to stay in the control room and keep an eye on the surrounding areas. If someone came that way he'd have ample time to prepare and would have the element of surprise working for him.

Back on the main display, Ecks was securely bound to a chair with a few guards taking turns getting their blows in. Damon scowled silently. He wasn't a saint by any stretch of the imagination, he'd killed more people in his lifetime than he could count, but torture never set well with him. There was a certain courtesy to a quick clean death. Emotions warred in him. He could walk down there right now, kill off the guards, and let Ecks have a merciful end, but that could throw the entire plan off. If one witness escaped to warn Keldrona, then the whole thing came crashing down. Necessity trumped emotion this time, but Damon couldn't help the sickening feeling of it.

[Ecks]

Teeth gritted, Ecks only grunted as the guards punched him. His weight hadn't helped the guards as they'd moved him, and the stun sticks had been used repeatedly while he'd been going down the stairs. His coveralls were stripped off of his upper body and tied around his waist, and there were already dark green contusions raising on his skin from where he'd been beaten.

He looked around muzzily during a momentary reprieve, yellow eyes taking in all the details he could of his surroundings. A guard loomed in front of him, split in two, and then resolved back into one being. Ecks managed a wicked smile before the guard hauled off and punched him in the temple.

"Ow, dammit, that freller has a hard head!" The guard spat on the hunter and stumbled backwards, clutching his hand as his fellows roared with laughter.

"That's why you go for the body," explained another, demonstrating with a well placed kidney punch that would probably have Ecks pissing blood, if he lasted that long.

[Strago Keldrona]

He couldn't wait an hour, gleefully rubbing his hands as he made his way down the stairs to the basement where the bounty hunter was being held. Someone sent to kill him? Strago Keldrona?! He was outraged by the very notion, and had been more than happy to set a trap for the unwary hunter after he had received the anonymous tip.

And now he would find out who had sent the Falleen to take him out. Strago stripped off his outer robe, tossing it at one of his human guards as he entered the cell where the hunter was stun cuffed to a heavy metal chair that was bolted to the duracrete. There was green blood dripping from the being's mouth, and his skin had faded to a dull brown to match the floor and walls.

"Ah ha ha ha," Keldrona crowed, "Not so feisty now, are you." The Falleen slowly lifted his head, yellow eyes gleaming as he fixed his eyes on the Elomin. "What is your name? Who financed the bounty on my head?"

The hunter mumbled something, and Strago strode forward, grabbing the alien's topknot of hair and yanking his head back. "What was that?!"

The Falleen spat a gobbet of verdant blood on Strago's overtunic. "Your mother." His face cracked into what looked like a grin. "Last night."

Strago shrieked with rage, "Don't talk about my mother!" He brought his head down, headbutting the Falleen's skull with his hard cranial bones and opening up a cut with one of his horns. The hunter groaned, rocking back a little against the cuffs which promptly shocked his wrists and ankles at the movement. Keldrona released the being's hair, demanding something to wipe off his clothes in a high pitched voice. Once the blood had been blotted up, leaving a green stain of course, Strago grabbed a stun baton and hit the hunter solidly in the ribs.

"Who sent you?!" Whack. "Who placed the bounty on me?!" Thud. "Who sent you?!" He put as much as he could into the last hit, and could hear the being's ribs cracking as the hunter grunted in pain. But he didn't say anything, only glared defiance once he caught his breath.

Strago looked about, and grabbed a metal utensil from an unsuspecting bodyguard who was trying to eat his lunch just outside the cell. "Stop... looking at me!" The crime boss launched himself at the Falleen spoon first, and after a moment of struggle lurched backwards, his grisly prize in his hand.

The hunter roared his pain, drowning out Keldrona's continued questions about who sent him. The Elomin threw the hunter's right eye on the ground in rage and stormed out, snatching his outer robe from the guard who'd been holding it.

[Damon Frey]

It appeared that Keldrona couldn't wait to get his hands dirty. It was expected, it fit his personality. The more the plan fit into place though, the more Damon thought about it. When you think you know something, that's the greatest barrier to learning. He let the details roll around in his head.

Letting Ecks fall into a trap suddenly didn't make sense. While it was convenient for Damon, it wasn't the smartest play by the Black Sun. His orders were to let Keldrona kill Ecks, then kill Keldrona afterward. In the case of Ecks managing to kill Keldrona, then Damon was to kill Ecks. The more he thought about it, this was the absolute worst way to play it for the Black Sun, but at the same time, the Black Sun didn't make mistakes like this. If Ecks were to reveal his employer after being captured, a very very real possibility, and Keldrona were to survive, then he'd know the Black Sun were gunning for him. He could go underground, he could send assassins of his own, it was a mess they wouldn't want to chance. Even worse case scenario, both marks survived and exchanged information.

Damon cursed himself for not seeing this angle before. He'd dumped so much thought into the logistical end of things that he'd lost sight of the bigger picture. With this new found clarity, new details began to illuminate in his mind. Of the two marks, Keldrona had the better chance of surviving the ordeal. That meant one of two things. One, he didn't pose very much threat to the Black Sun, not even as a potential future threat. Two, Damon was also being double crossed, and Keldrona had been tipped off about both threats. The first scenario seemed more likely. If Keldrona had known about a second assassin, his security would be much more alert, he wasn't THAT dumb. Also, Damon's dealings with the Black Sun had been very straight forward, he got the mark, he dealt with it, he collected money. He never rubbed elbows or had any unnecessary association.

The Black Sun must have wanted things to happen this way. They knew Ecks would be tortured, which suggested the hit was personal. From what little observation he'd had, Damon could wager that Ecks was a proud individual, not easily bullied. Someone like that could easily make an enemy with a group that didn't take no for an answer. He might have even learned something that he shouldn't have, it was hard to say. Either way, the more Damon thought about it, the more it infuriated him. The way he'd been played, the nature of the deaths.

At that moment, on the security screen, he saw Keldrona arrive at the room where the interrogation was taking place. The man took off his outer robe and threw it to one of his lackeys. This was going to get nasty. Something had to be done!

It was rare that Damon let emotion begin to cloud reason, but for the life of him, he couldn't let this pass, not this time. The emotion fueled him now though, and mixed with the hyper alertness this sort of deductive reasoning required, gave him a new sense of boldness. Abruptly, he rose from his seat. He'd spent enough time looking at the monitors, he knew where everything was. Important rooms, guard detail, all of it. He knew what to do and how to do it.

Damon leaned over and yanked the chair he'd been sitting in off the floor and heaved it forward, smashing the surveillance equipment in front of him and strode out of the room. The turbolift was faster than the stairs and carried little risk at this point. Stepping in, he hit the button for the basement floor and waited. After a few seconds, the door opened and he was facing down the long hallway that led to the main reactor room. Without breaking stride, he readied his vibroblade in his right hand. After a sharp left turn, he came face to face with two guards standing outside the door to the reactor room. Without hesitating, he spun to his right, slashing the throat of the guard to his right. Before the guard on the left could react, he was now face to face with Damon with what looked like chitinous spike sticking through his throat. Damon withdrew his hand and let the man fall to the floor. He shifted his left hand back into an actual hand, then kneeled down, wiping the blood on the man's shirt and grabbing the keycard that would access the door.

The door opened up, revealing the large reactor generator array providing power to the entire estate. With all the exotic plants and luxuries Keldrona enjoyed, this place was generating a huge amount of power. Damon strode between each generator, turning them to maximum output. On the other side of the room, a warning screen was already coming up, warning of an impending reactor overload. Estimated time was thirty minutes. He took a few seconds to reach underneath and rip out as much wiring as he could. The control panel shutdown, but the reactors were still going full tilt as he jogged back out of the room, closing the door behind him. His vibroblade made quick work of the outer door panel. The room would stay locked until they could slice through the doors.

Damon took the turbolift back to the ground floor and started making his way back through the estate, killing any guards he came across and leaving them where they fell. As he approached the hallway leading to the room where Ecks and Keldrona were, he paused for a moment. This part would have to be pulled off with precision. Outside the door was one of Keldrona's personal body guards, a man that would probably be hand picked and very quickly recognized. He would have to be killed silently, not even a thud on the floor, and the body would have to be hid. Taking a few steps back, Damon opened a nearby door which led to a small sitting room. It wasn't the best place to hide a body, but in the commotion that was about to happen, it wasn't likely to be checked. Leaving the door open, he walked back out, casually striding up to the guard. The guard was about to speak when Damon darted toward him, shifting his hand back into a spike mid swing, catching the guard under the chin and driving upwards into the brain. The guard slumped dead almost instantly and sagged forward, with Damon gently catching him and lifting him onto his shoulder. He dumped the body back in the prepared room. As he shut the door, he shifted his appearance to mimic the guard he'd just killed. At that moment a loud roar sounded from across the room, muffled by the walls but still quite clear.

Damon cursed silently and started back across the room when the door shot open with an angry Keldrona storming out of it.

"SIR! It appears the falleen had an accomplice, we believe he's holed himself up in the main reactor room...I need to get you to safety."

[Strago Keldrona]

"What!?" Strago looked up from where he was dabbing at the reptillian blood on his clothing at the security guard. "Another one?" He felt a trickle of fear ice its way down his spine, but even as he let himself be hustled away he shouted for the guard to be doubled on the Falleen's cell.

"And get someone down to the reactor room - flush out whatever rat you find in there." He followed his guard quickly, irritated at this new turn of events.

[Damon Frey]

Confusion ran rampant all over the estate now. There was a smaller detachment of guards first sent to the reactor room, but with the growing amount of bodies found on the way, and the door sealed shut, more or more were heading down. Damon checked a wall mounted chrono as they passed. They had a comfortable fifteen minutes left, but one didn't like to push things. As he rounded the corner with his Keldrona following close behind, Damon checked behind him, making sure the coast was clear. Stopping at the next doorway, He opened the door, motioning for Keldrona to enter. Keldrona darted inside, but was quickly stopped short by a hand grabbing the back of his tunic. A sharp pain lanced through his body as he stared down at a spike jutting out of his chest. As the spike was withdrawn, he fell forward onto his side and rolled over on to his back. The last thing he saw was his own guard's boot coming down and crushing his windpipe.

Once the deed was done, Damon reached down and sorted through his victims effects, coming at last to a commlink. He took it with him as he stepped out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Still alone, and now striding back toward the room where Ecks was held, Damon could hear some chatter about the reactor room door being jammed. He hit the button on the commlink.

"Give me a report on the falleen assassin."

The voice was Keldrona's, even down to a slight edge of fear tinged anger that caused a quick and sharp response.

"He's secure sir, do you want him eliminated"

"NO! I will deal with him personally! All of you get down to the reactor room and help them with that door, I don't want the accomplice escaping!"

"Yes sir! Understood!"

Down the hallway, Damon heard the commotion of the guards quickly leaving the interrogation room. Once they were gone, the whole wing took on an eerie silence. His disguise was still that of Keldrona's personal guard, so if he were spotted now, he could say that he was sent to make sure Ecks was still secure, but Damon hoped that wouldn't be required now. As he opened the door, he was greeted by a grisly sight. On the floor just in front of him, was a disembodied eyeball, and just ahead, Ecks was still secured to his chair, slumped over with a good amount of blood covering him. Damon shut the door behind him.

"Ecks, can you hear me?"

[Ecks]

Ecks didn't pass out from the pain of having his eye scooped out like a melon ball, but once Keldrona left he just slumped against the chair and his restraints as though the fight was out of him. The guards made some jokes ("Didn't see that coming, did you? Got your eye on us, do ya?" and others, equally bad) but left him alone for the most part.

There was a great deal of commotion and boots were running about, and Ecks managed to crack his remaining eye open as the door opened, and then shut, leaving him inside with just one guard.

"Ecks, can you hear me?"

Interesting - this being knew his name. The Falleen remained loose in the chair, head sagging to the side as blood dripped onto the floor from his face. They took my eye, not my ears, drenface, he wanted to say, but instead he stayed where he was, waiting for the guard to get closer.

[Damon Frey]

Ecks was good at playing possum, no doubt about that. Most people would have been gulled, and in the rush of the moment, Damon almost was as well. But at the time same, one doesn't spend their entire life mimicking people without picking up on the minutia.

There wasn't time to waste though and while his next action wasn't the smartest of choices, it was going to be crucial. Damon COULD just knock the falleen out and drag the man out of the place, but that would take more time, and if he were spotted, well, Ecks might be minus one eye right now, but he could probably still fend for himself pretty well.

Throwing caution to the side, Damon stepped forward, speaking calmly.

"I'm going to get you out of here, but we don't have a lot of time."

Ecks gave no indication that he was listening at all, and honestly, he might still be half in and half out, and running on instinct, which wasn't likely, but time didn't allow for certainty. Leaning in a few inches away, Damon spoke in the same tone.

"Can you walk?"

[Ecks]

Ecks waited until the guard was right on him, offering freedom in some twisted game to break him down even further no doubt. Then the Falleen threw his head forward, catching the guard in the nose with his heavy brow bone.

The being stumbled back, cursing and holding his face, and Ecks lunged forward, lifting his body up off the chair as the stuncuffs shocked him and held him to it. "Nnnggh!" He flexed his big arms and the metal chair creaked and groaned under the strain.

[Damon Frey]

"Augh!"

Damon stumbled away a bit, holding his face partially from the pain, but mostly to reshape the damage, keeping his hands over his face so Ecks wouldn't see the process at work.

"I halfway expected that..."

Shaking off the pain, Damon stood back up straight, watching the bounty hunter strain against the stun cuffs. The best guess at this point, Ecks saw the opportunity for a one on one match-up where he could kill a lone guard and escape. As admirable as this was, and it really was, they simply didn't have time for a wrestling match.

"This is pointless Ecks. Sit down and I'll undo your binds, we don't have TIME for this."

Damon was slightly frustrated but trying his best to contain it. Ecks' actions were completely justified though, so Damon couldn't really be angry at him. The problem was though, that either Ecks couldn't hear him over all the straining, or simply didn't care to listen. Something drastic was in order now. Turning on one foot, Damon came around with a sharp kick to the stomach. It was done with a certain nicety, not too hard to cause any real damage, placed to avoid the ribs, but still powerful enough to get Ecks sucking air for a few seconds.

"Now listen! I've gone to great lengths to create a diversion so we can BOTH get out of here, so it's GOING to happen. We have two options. One, you calm down and let me undo your binds, and we walk out without a fuss, or two, I knock you out and drag you out of here by your feet."

Damon narrowed his brows and leaned back down face to face with Ecks once more.

"Now, I apologize about kicking you, it was a necessity. I would rather you be awake for our little escape, but it is NOT required. You have exactly ten seconds to make that choice, or we go with option two..."

[Ecks]

Wheezing in the chair, Ecks took a moment and relaxed. "Get me loose."

He could always kill this being later if it came down to that. He flexed his hands and then subsided, the 'guard' coming close and undoing the cuffs. As they fell away Ecks rose slowly to his feet. "Whats your angle?"

[Damon Frey]

"We'll have more time for that discussion later. We've got a shaky ten minutes before this place becomes a crater, and I'd rather not be here when that happens..."

They had more like a confident eleven minutes, but that was beside the point. Reaching behind his back, Damon pulled a small blaster pistol that he'd brought in case things went really south. With blaster in hand, he opened the door and took a quick glance outside, confirming that the coast was still clear. He turned back around, and flipped the blaster around in his hand, holding it by the barrel, offering it handle first to Ecks.

"Don't use this unless you absolutely have to, it's noisy as hell and we need to be quiet. I've killed a good bit of the guards and made a diversion down in the reactor room, should keep the rest busy."

[Ecks]

Ecks took the blaster in his large hand, and looked at the guard. Then back at the blaster. In theory anyone who was an enemy of his wouldn't be stupid enough to hand him a weapon.

In theory.

"Fine." He kept the point of the blaster pointed a little down, and added, "What do I call you?"

"Damon." The human looked down the hall again, and then led the way out of the room. Ecks followed, wary and weary. The corridor was deserted, as promised. He was having trouble looking around - every time his eyes moved the right socket would flare up with fresh pain.

"Where's Keldrona?" Ecks rumbled.

"Hell, presumably," answered Damon, leading the way up the stairs. Ecks paused at the bottom, then followed him up. They found themselves in the room with the crate and statue that he had trucked in a few hours earlier... but the statue was nowhere to be seen.

[Damon Frey]

It was the easiest infiltration and escape of his career, with a lot of really complicated distraction in the middle. It was also the first job where Damon had failed to kill his mark, which didn't bother him as much as it should have. This was probably the worst day of Ecks' life. A job went completely sour, he was beaten, his eye was ripped out, but still, he kept his sense of self and sound reasoning. As they left the compound, Damon found himself filling with admiration. He'd seen a great many people on the brink of death, very few could keep themselves in this kind of control.

Outside of the estate, it was fairly quiet. Ecks was probably inside his own head, trying to make sense of what was going on. Damon was trying to figure out what they'd do when they got back to Ecks' ship. He had a lot of tough questions to answer, and possibly a fight. He'd risked much to get them out alive, and it wouldn't sit well to turn right around and kill the man.

Nearing the ship, Damon blinked, his inner time-sense breaking him out of his train of thought.

"It's almost time... I wonder if any of them figured it out."

He turned and looked back at the estate. No one was fleeing out in a panic. Ecks, turned with him just in time to see a roaring pillar of fire erupt at the site of the estate.

[Ecks]

Ecks watched the explosion impassively, the blaster still in his hand. They'd been walking on the streets since leaving the grounds, and still had at least a mile before they got near the spaceport. A few civilians had looked at him askance, with his bloodied and bare upper body and drooping eyelid, but at this point he didn't much care.

Except that if they'd taken his rented speeder to leave the estate, then he wouldn't be ready to drop from exhaustion. Sirens started up a few blocks away, most likely fire and police being dispatched to the Keldrona estate.

His remaining yellow eye gazed on the pillar of black smoke in the distance, imagining Strago's body crisping up in the rubble of his mansion. It probably smelled like shaak bacon in there. After another moment, the Falleen untied the arms of his coveralls and tried to shrug it back on. His left shoulder was slightly separated, and his right ribs were almost certainly broken, making the process more than a little painful.

Still, the coveralls were stained with his green blood, so if the police came by looking for anyone suspicious, he was standing out like a smashed green thumb.

He looked at Damon. Before he went any further with him, he needed a question answered.

"Why?"

[Damon Frey]

"When Keldrona went inside with you, I realized that they were going to torture you. Left a sour feeling in my stomach. I'm sorry I didn't stop it in time."

Damon glanced over toward Ecks. His voice was somber, regretful. He knew in the back of his mind that they were far from out of the woods, and he couldn't let emotion get the best of him, but the farther they were away from that mess, the more doubts started to plague him. Why didn't I stop things earlier? Could I have gotten there quicker?.

"I'm sorry about the walk too, the speeder truck was rigged with explosives, I could have disarmed them, but I don't think I'd have made it in time."

Giving Ecks a quick once over, he could tell the man was hurting. Possibly some broken ribs, hopefully no internal bleeding, but nothing was certain. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a speeder parked just up the street.

"I can hotwire that speeder and get us back to your ship, I can tell you're hurting."

He knew that he hadn't answered Ecks' question, but he hoped he could distract him long enough to get him back to the ship. Why wasn't an answer Ecks was going to like, and fighting in the middle of the street would have been a very bad idea.

[Ecks]

He followed the guard (former guard?) to the parked speeder, leaning against it tiredly as the human popped the door and crossed some wires under the steering column. it coughed and then started up, and Ecks climbed into the passenger seat as Damon sat up behind the steering wheel.

He waited until they were on the street before he moved, and Ecks moved fast, despite the pain in his body. He pressed the muzzle of the blaster to Damon's body, just under his arm where it was lifted to hold onto the steering wheel. "How do you know me? Are you the one who tipped Keldrona off to me?"

[Damon Frey]

Damon sighed slightly.

"I didn't tip Keldrona off. That's all I'm going to say right now, but I'll make a deal with you. I'll get us back to your ship, you get us off this rock, and I'll answer more of your questions."

The gun wasn't a real issue. For a normal humanoid, one shot from that blaster would be deadly. For a shi'ido, however, internal organs were much different. They could be moved around, and most damage could be easily repaired.

The falleen coughed a bit and stifled back a groan. He was obviously getting fed up with all the mystery, but was keeping his temper under control.

"If I don't like the answers I get, I'm still gonna kill ya..." Ecks grunted some as he spoke, cracked ribs starting to wear on him.

Damon shrugged slightly. The spaceport was just ahead now, and he was checking the mirrors. They didn't look like they were being followed, and it wasn't likely to happen anyways. He pulled in and brought the speeder to a stop.

"I'm almost certain you won't, but I understand."

[Ecks]

The walk to Razor's Edge went by without comment, Ecks still clutching the blaster, though it was set on stun. Every step was a new agony, and he had to try three times before he got the security code right. It was probably a good thing he hadn't gotten that new retina scanner installed, he thought a bit darkly.

The hatch unlocked, slid open, and the ramp began descending. Once it touched the duracrete of the landing pad, the Falleen began walking into it, in his haze forgetting and leaving Damon at his back. In the end it didn't really matter, because he took three steps into his ship and pitched face first to the deck, passing into blissful unconsciousness with the blaster still gripped in his hand.

[Damon Frey]

Getting onto the ship had been a bit awkward. For a few moments, it seemed like Ecks had forgotten Damon was even there. The even bigger surprise came when the man passed out right in front of him. Even though Damon knew intellectually that Ecks was certainly bruised and beaten enough to warrant such a thing, the escape from Keldrona's estate and the speeder ride to the ship was giving him delusions that the bounty hunter was superhuman.

Getting Ecks to the ship's medbay (at least, what he was passing as one) was an ordeal in itself. The man was completely out, so he was all dead weight, and there was a lot of weight there to begin with. In the medbay, there was a small bacta tank off in the corner, with some medical supplies hanging up on the wall. Damon pulled the man up and wrestled him onto a small fold out cot, with his head slightly raised, just in case he needed to vomit or cough up any blood. Applying bacta patches was semi difficult, due to falleen being covered in scales, but he did the best job he could with it. He put one large bacta patch over the man's now empty eye socket, and wrapped a tourniquet snugly around his head to help keep it on. He considered disarming Ecks, but figured the man would be a little more comfortable if he woke up with a blaster in his hand.

Getting the ship airborne was a bit of a chore. Damon didn't actually own a ship, but he'd flown enough to know the basics of it. He managed to get them up and out into space without blowing anything up or making a big scene, so all was going smoothly for the most part. It would probably be a few hours before Ecks woke up, which would give Damon time to think a bit more on how he was going to explain things.

[Ecks]

Ecks slowly opened his eyes, only to find that one was bound up and he could only see out of his left one. He was reaching up to investigate the bandage when the memory came flooding back.

There was a holdout blaster in his right hand, and he slowly sat up, head woozy from lying down. Ecks gingerly touched the bacta patch over his right eye socket but found it to be secure and the pain was less than it had been. After a moment he realized that Razor's Edge was flying, and from the hum in the deck plating they were in hyperspace.

The bounty hunter lurched to his feet, boots clanging to the deck, and worked his way out of his cabin and into the hall. The ship was fully lit and there was a man sitting in the cockpit. Damon, no doubt.

Ecks put his hand on the bulkhead for balance as he walked up the passage. "Where are we going?" he rumbled.

[Damon Frey]

"Outer Rim, Tatooine. No Black Sun or Imperials to worry about there. I've been there before, I doubt we'll attract any attention."

Damon was about to move out of the pilot's seat when he heard a bit of a grunt from Ecks, who plopped down in the co-pilots seat. The big falleen adjusted in the seat for a moment to accommodate his busted ribs and grumbled, "It's fine..". He had walked in still carrying the blaster Damon had given him, but set it down on the console after he sat. He gave Damon a bit of a stare and said, "Now how about those answers?".

Damon paused for a moment.

"The Black Sun hired you to kill Keldrona. Then they sent an anonymous tip to Keldrona to let him know you were coming. I was to be the cleanup man. Once you were dead, I was to move on Keldrona. Both of you were marked for dead, but it was made clear that you were the bigger target. I don't know what happened between you and the Black Sun, the dossier didn't give any more details."

It was out in the open now, and Damon honestly wasn't sure to expect. While every bit of the falleen said that he was a man with a temper, he'd shown a great deal of poise and control when they'd escaped together from Keldrona's estate. It wasn't often that Damon couldn't figure out the basics of what a person was going to do based on motives and demeanor, but Ecks was a bit of a mystery to him at this point.

[Ecks]

Every time he moved his remaining eye the muscles on the bad side twitched as well, making every movement painful. Breathing was tricky too, and sitting...

Ecks felt like he'd been stomped on by a line of banthas. But he couldn't just crawl back and get in the tank, not without more clarification. Damon wasn't Keldrona's goon. He was also working for Black Sun.

Black Sun wanted Ecks dead.

Ecks wasn't dead.

"Black Sun's not going to be happy with you." It was stating the obvious, but the Falleen still couldn't figure out why Damon hadn't just killed him. Not that he didn't appreciate it. "I appreciate it," he said. "I don't know why Black Sun wants me dead. Guess I should find out."

[Damon Frey]

"You don't owe me anything."

He nearly blurted the words out before pulling himself back under control. Appreciation is a heavy burden for a guilty conscience, and despite saving the Falleen's life, Damon couldn't help but feel bitter at himself. If he'd have acted sooner, Ecks would still have both eyes. The cuts the bruises, busted ribs, all that would heal. Losing an eye is a life changing ordeal. There were always bionic implants, but rare was the account that vision was ever the same again.

"If the Black Sun figures out that we're both alive, they'll probably come at us full bore. Every detail about the hit on you makes it seem like a vendetta. It would have been much simpler just to use Keldrona to get you to a predictable location and have me kill you quietly. They had to have known Keldrona would torture you first. The way of it, just too many very bad scenarios for them should the plan fail...they aren't that sloppy."

[Ecks]

"Not usually," Ecks agreed. Who in Black Sun had it out for him? He'd completed Sun bounties in the past, but couldn't figure who might... His head was killing him, and his ribs felt like they were jabbing into his lungs with every breath.

He slowly sucked in some air and said, "If I'd been successful and killed Strago, you would have just shot me." It wasn't a question, and Damon didn't answer, just looked at him. "Its supposed to be just business. Whoever did this to me... this was personal.

"I can't think right now," he inhaled a little heavily, a trace of pain visible in his remaining eye, "and if you were going to kill me you would have done it long ago." This speech was getting pretty long. "I'm going for some tank time. Help yourself to whatever's in the coldbox... 'fresher is in the cabin..."

Ecks pushed himself up out of the copilot's seat gingerly as he finished talking, and couldn't keep the wince off his face. Damon nodded, and the Falleen made his way slowly back down the passage to his cabin.

Carefully stripping off the bloodied coveralls and removing the patches from his body, he stepped into the tank and pulled the mask down from above his head. The glass container closed automatically as he placed the mask over his nose and mouth, and bacta began oozing up from the bottom, covering his thick skinned feet and working its way upwards. The mask sealed to his scaly skin and he forced himself to breathe slowly and easily as it pumped in a sedative. Ecks pulled the sensor pads from the mask, attaching one to his chest and another to the side of his head, wires trailing back to the life support mask. The CPAP system would keep forcing air into him and the system would monitor his vitals while he was out.

As the ryll infused bacta kept pumping into the tank the hunter tried to think about who he'd pissed off in Black Sun, but he would sink into unconsciousness long before he figured it out. Maybe I'm worth more alive than dead...he thought, but at that point he was too close to passing out to even care.

[Damon Frey]

The trip to the outer rim was a long one, and while he ate very little, Damon took the opportunity to get some very needed rest. He'd awaken a few times and checked in on Ecks, who was sedated in the bacta tank recovering from his injuries. Even though Damon knew intellectually that Ecks didn't have many options other than trusting him, he still found it touching that the Falleen would willingly remove himself to Damon's care.

Ecks seemed to understand Damon's position somewhat, and didn't appear to harbor any real resentment toward him, although, once Ecks was awake and fully lucid, that could very well change.

Damon's thoughts drifted, and he started to think about his situation with the Black Sun. The account that they were paying him through currently held a sizable amount of credits, but most likely they'd have a watchdog on that account checking for activity. Pulling from that account now would likely attract unwanted attention. He wasn't broke now, but he would definitely be needing work soon. It wouldn't be difficult to take on a new identity and go back to working for the Black Sun, but he was so sickened with them now that he wasn't sure he wanted to. There was never a shortage of bounties from the Empire, but those usually had live capture clauses which wasn't Damon's strong suit. On top of all that, he could easily imagine the Empire keeping a much more discerning eye on who they employed.

These thoughts were on his mind as he settled back into the pilot's seat. They would be arriving on Tattooine soon, and Ecks probably wouldn't have too much time left in the bacta tank.

[Ecks]

The next sound Ecks heard was a quiet beeping, and then he blinked open his eye. He could see dim shapes through the murky bacta, and then there was a pop and a gentle sucking by his feet as the viscous liquid started draining out. Once it was drained he reached up and released the mask from his face, and took the sensors off his scales. His ribs were still tender, but not as bad as they had been.

His eye socket twinged a little, and he had to turn his head to look to the right, which would take some getting used to. As the mask withdrew into the top of the tank the water shower turned on, rinsing off the last of the bacta in a warm wet rush. The Falleen carefully stepped out of the tank when it was through, pulling his topknot through his hands to squeeze out the excess water, and padded over to his dresser to find some clothes.

Pulling on fresh black cargo pants Ecks fished out a tank top, but made sure to wrap his ribs tightly before putting on the shirt. He walked out of his cabin, prepared to find Coruscant visible through the viewport and Damon holding a blaster ready to stun him. Instead they were still in hyperspace and the man was sitting almost exactly as he'd left him.

The blaster was still on the console where he'd left it, too. Ecks walked into the cockpit, his bulk doing a good job of taking up all the excess room, and sat heavily in the co-pilot's seat. His eye tracked to the navicomp where it still said they were en route to Tatooine... and they were almost there.

"Didn't change your mind?"

[Damon Frey]

"I started to when I couldn't find any meat in the kitchen, but then I found some good fruits and decided to give you a pass..."

Damon was certain Ecks still had some questions but figured it would be best to keep the mood light for now.

"Feeling any better?"

[Ecks]

"I don't eat meat," he said, and then nodded. "The dip helped; I do feel better."

Ecks cracked his knuckles loudly as Razor's Edge reverted to realspace and Damon took over manual control of the ship. He didn't really like that someone else was flying her, but he knew that trying to fly so soon after losing half his eyesight was probably a recipe for disaster. He'd need time to adjust to the situation.

"I think I will need a patch," he said. "Something spiky."

After a few more minutes of traveling at sublights in silence, Damon queried Mos Espa for permission to land. After he got it Ecks shifted a bit in his seat. "So. How did you get into Keldrona's estate anyway?"

[Damon Frey]

Damon glanced over toward Ecks with a slightly arched eyebrow.

"Really wanna know?"

Ecks answered with what sounded like a questioning grunt and narrowed his stare a bit. Damon gave him a nod and finished bringing the ship in for landing. As it settled to a stop, Damon stood up and turned to start walking away. As he did, his skin, his clothing, his entire body took on a liquidy texture. After a few moments, it became natural looking again, only this time with different clothing, a darker skin color, and a noticeably different face. Damon glanced back toward Ecks.

"You carried me in through the front door..."

[Ecks]

There was silence behind him, and then Ecks started laughing. It sounded a bit like rocks falling off a mountain at first, and he got slowly to his feet and followed the shapeshifter out of his ship.

"I won't be doing that again," he managed. Damon only smirked as they walked into the bright Tatooine sunlight.

Present day...

"The security is minimal, at least on the lower levels," Ecks rumbled. "Its more about keeping people in, not keeping them out."

He pointed at a few different areas of the hologram that was floating in the middle of the common area. "Entrances here and here, but once we find our mark we will be using another exit." He paused.

"You'll have to pose as a doctor." Ecks crumpled up his spent beer can and lobbed it into the garbage can without looking. "I'm not carrying you this time."

"That's what you said at that brothel on Nar Shaddaa," Damon retorted, "And we both know how that turned out."

Ecks just grunted and began holstering his weapons.

(continued... here)