A new kind of bounty hunter (Intro RP)

[Chase Merik]

Legend has it -- and we're talkin' about history so old it can only be called legend, or maybe even mythology -- that before the Old Republic was even an idea and Corellia was considered the frontier of human expansion into outer space, hell when the Selonians were probably the only aliens we even knew about ... government authorities would contract civillians to help bring in fugitives from the law.

When someone broke out of prison or tried to take advantage of due process and jump bail, peacekeepers just didn't have the resources to track them all down and bring them in ... not with a whole new breed of criminal being born every standard time part. That's where bounty hunters came in.

I don't know what happened in the last 10,000 years to turn the galaxy into such a lawless, wild place. No one does. It's not just that it grew too big or too crowded. In this reality of Empires rising and falling, beings who can move things with their mind, weapons that can destroy whole solar systems, and big slugs wielding more power than all of the above combined ... it's every sentient creature for himself.

Today being a Bounty Hunter is just an excuse to be able to shoot someone. It's become another extension of the underworld. Legit governments can't hire bounty hunters anymore. Half of them are wanted more than anyone they'd be hunting down, especially the good ones.

So what do you do about the dreks who aren't running away from a Hutt, but from the law?

[Chase Merik]

After two days it looked like a washout. For 52 hours we had been holed up in a rat's nest with a specially rigged sniper rifle and a surveillence setup probably worth more than the whole building. Just when I was about to chalk up the stakeout to a paid vacation, the target walked right into the crosshairs.

For 3 months this barve had been blasting through system after system, leaving a trail of bodies in his jetstream. The hunt led him here to Corellia and, true to form, he followed it. The worst mistake he ever made. I swept the street with the macroscope and confirmed the ready signal from my partner. Sera's cover was a hooker, allowing the leggy brunette to blend in perfectly on the street not 3 meters from our perp.

I didn't even want to think how much the custom rigged restraining bolt mounted at the end of the rifle had cost the taxpayers, but all that mattered was it had a clear shot at the battle droid on the street, trying to look inconspicuous under a holocaust cloak. Intel had a report on him longer than Han Solo's. We knew he had elctronic counter-measures up the tailpipe. He was a walking tank with so much insulation he could probably get hit by lightning and shrug it off. So CorSec spared no expense.

"Bravo team I have the shot. Do you have Zeke in the net?"
"Affirmative. On your signal."

One ... Two ... With only a muffled burst of air to warn him, 4-LOM suddenly jerked forward and locked up solid. Readouts from the restraining bolt scrolled green across my scope and I was out the door in seconds.

Sera was already on top of the droid with a magnetic clamp just in case his automatic defenses were able to override the bolt ... a trick that had gotten 4-LOM out of too many other attemps to pull this off.

"Bravo team, what's your 20?"

The only reply was static. Suddenly there was a scream and a blaster shot. I dropped the comlink and drew my DL-18 seconds before I knew the cloaked Gand would push his way through the crowd. We called 4-LOM's partner Zeke because even scrambled frequencies couldn't be trusted around either of these two. And they had an almost unprofessional talent for watching each other's back ... unprofessional for their line of work. If Zuckuss wasn't yet another bounty hunter who used his license as an excuse for terrorism ... I'd probably want him for my partner, too.

I'm not sure exactly what happened next. I've replayed it over and over since then, but the cybernetic optic recording still doesn't capture how fast it all went down. Sera was slow on the draw because her hands were tied with the droid. I remember I fired. I remember Zuckuss fired back. And I remember Sera screamed.

[Chase Merik]

I ran into the middle of the street, following my own cover fire. Zuckuss was gone by the time I reached Sera. I knelt down and rolled her onto her back by her shoulders.

"No. No. Tell me you're wearin'," was all I could say. The wound was still hot, but I could feel the reinforced vest underneath that ugly fur coat she wore to heighten the effect of the disguise. There wasn't much left of the vest where the blast had hit. Those things were only slightly more useful than Stormtrooper armor against a heavy blaster.

Sera coughed. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. She'd have a bunch of broken ribs. Bacta breath for a week, but she'll be okay. She still needed to get to a medcenter fast, though.

"What the frel are you doing here?" she croaked. "Get that sonofabitch." I smiled, then bolted. Yeah ... she'll be okay.

Zuckuss left a trail so obvious a nerf could have followed it. I caught up to him 4 blocks away and a level up, bulldozing his way through the crowd. The shot kept fading in and out in my tactical display. Too much pedestrian traffic. I cursed in more than a few languages and cut across to head him off.

Half a block later, Zuckuss turned a corner and doubled over from the force of my boot to his gut. I yanked him back and slammed him against the wall, blaster following through. The barve struggled and almost got out of the hold till I got a good solid grip on the "air" hoses on his armor.

I ripped the panel off his chest and held it up to his face. "Before you think about doing anything stupid I want you take a good long look at the atmosphere readouts of this planet." Every facet of his bulging eyes seem to grow wider when I tugged on the mask for effect. He took the hint and I pushed his head around with the barrel of my blaster.

[Chase Merik]

Twenty minutes later we were back on the scene of the light fight, Zuckuss leading the way in restraining cuffs. I handed the Gand over to the CorSec locals and eventually found Sera with the rest of our team inside the temporary base we had set up.

My partner was lying back, barely half awake while a 2-1B treated the blast wound. Jerad and Mikisha, otherwise known as beta team, watched from the side. I took a second to confirm Sera was alright, then turned and nodded at the other two with a smile. They smiled back.

And I decked Jerad across the jaw. Mikisha just looked stunned and tried to put his hands up, but that just made it easier for me to slam him against the wall.

"Where were you? You said you had Zeke secure!" The other man sputtered out a lame excuse for an apology, which only torqued me off even more.

Everyone in the room had their attention on us now, so I finally dropped him, but never let the glare off him. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't stare a man down through cyberoptics. "If she dies ... it's your ass."

Finally a voice broke the tense silence, "If I die it will be from testosterone poisoning." I turned slowly, easing off with a smirk once I was sure the two nerfherders knew how serious I was.

"The Commander tells me we've got a VIP waiting to talk to me. I'll be back after I get rid of him."

I walked out, making sure to put the game face back on and keep my eyes locked on Jerad until I was through the door.

[Chase Merik]

The VIP was none other than General Pash Cracken, a genuine New Republic hero. I was almost afraid to find out what he wanted with me. My Army days were long behind me.

We were standing in the middle of the chaotic mill of agents and security droids when the gray haired military man started his spiel. "We've been watching you for some time," he said. I wanted to look surprised, but I couldn't.

"I'll be blunt. You never should have left the Service. You could be doing a hell of a lot more good working with us." I had always got the impression they never wanted me to leave in the first place. That confirmed it. "Doing this is a waste of your talents, and quite frankly ... it's a cop-out."

"Oh that hurts," I lied with the same flat tone he was giving me. "You want something from me, General? If so you're doing a lousy job of asking."

"We want you to work for us." Before I could open my mouth he interjected, "as a civillian ... your terms. The NRSF is getting drawn too thin. With everything going on out there you'd think the war was still on."

I actually waited for him to finish. That probably surprised him, too. "We're reforming the Skiptracers. It's what the Old Republic used before the days of the Bounty Hunters Guild. We just don't have the resources to run down every wanted sentient out there. The New Republic is still in too fragile a state."

He started losing me there, trying to get all patriotic. "The one thing we do have, though," he said, "is money." Okay, nice save. "You'll be doing the same thing you're doing now ... just doing it for us. And if you stop lying to yourself, you'll admit that at least part of you wants to be back in the game."

I wouldn't go that far, but he had me interested that I took his datalink number and said I'll think about it. He and I both knew that was a yes, but I had to make him work for this one. Like he said, this was on my terms, now.