Angel with the Scabbed Wings (Open challenge)

[Garrett Blade]

The ship was a wreak. A three hundred metre long rupture in the hull was easily noticeable through the vegetation that had grown over the entire shell of the Imperial Star Destroyer. It must have been lying there for decades. No doubt the tear in the hull was the cause of its demise. The ship was lying on the ground at a 23 degree angle due to the uneven landscape. Bakura was quite lovely this time of the year, yet the nights were just as cold and dangerous as anywhere else in this wretched galaxy. A shadowy figure was lurking just outside the derelict spacecraft. Stood before the gaping hole, Garrett breathed in deeply. Years of silence smelt bitter and dusty, the drafty air was moist and cold. A howling wind whistled through the titanic structure. Garrett, after a few more seconds, made his way inside.

He had no idea what he hoped to achieve in here - it was just something to do! Once inside, he made his way up to the starboard side, which was the side sticking up off the ground slightly. It wasn't too steep, but the darkness provided another challenge. His footsteps echoed through the blinding blackness. After a minute or two, he had reached yet another opening. Another hull rupture. This one a lot smaller, yet still noticeable despite the efforts of the concealing foliage. As Garrett stared up at the three moons, his attention was diverted as he could hear footsteps echoing...near the hole where he had entered...

[Tassk]

The voice echos through his mind, "Why don't you try your hand at a angel fallen from grace."

The hunter had shook his head, "No, I am a professional not someone to fulfill your amusement."

The voice retorted, "Well consider this a trial of your skills, you are required to defeat and capture him. Then I will consider putting you on our payroll. Plus I generously offer 50,000 credits."

The hunter simply stated, "If you must!"

Tassk had tracked Garrett flight to Bakura using a tracker beacon and transmitter. The hunter followed the trail of the darksider through the dense foliage and undergrowth carefully. Underneath his custom New Republic flightsuit, Tassk was wearing plastisteel/ceramic blast plates designed to deflect blaster bolts, along his spine ran a cylinder frame containing a live ysalamir. Like a natural blind, the hunter was never detected through the Force.

Tassk stepped through the gaping breach in the hull of the star destroyer wreckage, his eyes did not have to adjust to the temporary abscence of moonlight. His footsteps echoed on the durasteel floor of the corridor, Garrett pivoted around to face the eerie yellow glow of two eyes refracting moonlight before noticing the mini-mortar rifle leveled on him.

"click!"

"BOOOOOOOOOOM!"

The corroded and rusted bulkhead behind Garrett explodes into shards of deadly missiles, swarming the darksider's backside like an angry nest of wasps. The trandoshan hunter loads in a new, different round into his Relby...

[Garrett Blade]

Garrett fell three decks down an open access duct. The hatches must have worn away in the atmosphere. The ship must have been in a sore state before it crashed for that to happen. Zero or little hull integrity perhaps! The shards were embedded in his skin like an army of ticks. He didn't have time to pull them out one at a time, so he didn't bother. He was already slightly peeved, so it didn't take too much effort to concentrate his anger into a raging inferno that literally melted the shards. Sure - it hurt like hell - but it would only last a few seconds. Much preffered than walking around like a living pin cushion. Garrett gathered his wits about him. It wouldn't take that hunter long to find him. There - another access duct. It ran from engineering (where he was) all the way to the engine room. Perhaps there was something there he could use. Carefully checking up the duct he had just used as a makeshift elevator, Garrett sprinted to the duct and disappeared inside...

[Tassk]

The trandoshan ran over to area that Garrett seemed to have disappeared in thin air, discovered an access duct.

He growls, "Damn!"

He peers deeper inside the duct and finds a emergency service ladder. Slinging the v-10, he crawls inside, hand grabbing the first rung, the hunter begins his descent. After descending about a half a floor, Tassk unclips a C-22 fragmentation grenade, activates the three second timer, tosses it forcefully down into the darkness.

"BOOOOOOOOOOM!"

The walls of the duct shake with the explosion, smoke billows up the shaft as he continues his descent. Upon reaching the third level, the hunter swiftly unslings the v-!0, scans the area around quickly for any signs of an ambuse.

Tassk being a master tracker, sniffs the air and smells fresh blood, with his infra-red vision he looks down, finding a puddle of blood. A talon swipes through the blood, he smells it, then licks the blood off his talon. Following the blood trail, he charges after the acquisition with v-10 held ready before him but cautiously peering around corners...

[Garrett Blade]

The blood trail ran down a long access duct that must have ran for almost three hundred metres. It turned right and carried on for twenty-five or so metres. Another left turn and a steady decline below the adjacent tunnel led to a small room. An offline power generator was up against the left wall. An exhaust tube was cut open next to it, with hot, steaming exhaust gas venting off into the room, a small pool of blood on the floor before it. The blood trail then carried on, out of the power room and down another cramped access duct. Eventually, the trail came to a vertical access shaft, with several blood marks on the steps that led down...

[Tassk]

The hunter following the scent of blood, raced through the maze like corridors of the duct. He peered around corners carefully, occasionally hearing a groan through the walls like this ancient wreckage had not completely settle yet. Tassk's head constantly pivoting subtly in both directions, keeping his eyes peeled for ambush. He crouches with v-10 held at the hip as he sprints down a steady decline.
The hunter enters a small room with a generator against the interior bulkhead, the pipe running from the generator to the along the base of ceiling is spewing forth hot steam. Tassk observes it has been cut intentionally, he smirks, thinking lucky his vision is nightvision not heat-registering.

The hunter looks back up the way he came, making sure there is no one there. He crosses the room slowly, avoiding the hot steam, notices spots of blood running to the dark shaft up ahead. He carefully investigates his surroundings, the room is largely bare and could not hide a man Garrett's size.

He peers up the shaft unable to anything beyond his sight, not even blood on the rungs above head. Slinging the v-10 across his back, he descends once again, peering up and down the shaft frequently.

His feet touch down on the floor, in one swift motion he has the v-10 unslung and leveling it in all directions. Before him now is the engineering corridors beyond that he knew was the auxiliary power generators, they were not very far from the fusion reactors that drove this great vessel through space...

[Garrett Blade]

The amount of blood being lost wasn't a problem. Not nearly enough for him to bleed to death. The problem was that as long as he was bleeding, it would be a lot easier to keep track of him. If only there was some way to confuse this hunter. Garrett had an idea of what he needed to do, but he needed to find somewhere to hide first. Looking around in the darkness with his enhanced vision, Garrett noticed a sign on the wall across the corridor from where he was hiding behind an alcove. "Storeroom" was imprinted in big, bold letters, yet the colour was unknown to Garrett. An arrow pointed down the corridor, which split into a T-junction roughly thirty metres down. Perhaps that would suffice. But first, he needed to lose this hunter, who had just appeared at the bottom of the shaft.

[Tassk]

After surveying the area surrounding the base of the ladder, assured of no undesired surprises, Tassk found the trail easily by the small puddles of his acquisition's life fluids. His thick forked tongue licks across his upperlip, the scent of shed blood remains strong in the air.

The great vessel is full of ghosts, occassional moans of stressed metals and other materials of the ship's dead technology. The trail leads him to a entrance of a corridor, at the head of this corridor is a sign stamped into the durasteel wall saying "Storeroom" with an arrow pointing down the hallway, ending in a T-junction. Two blind corners. He smirks, his acquisition is not a fool nor stupid.

Tassk reaches into a deep pouch attached to his webgear, retrieving what appears to be a set of custom goggles, places them on his head with lenses held over his brow for now. The hardware is a Neuro-Saav motion sensor with target lock!

The hunter stalks after his prey, eyes wary and v-10 held ready...

[Garrett Blade]

Garrett very cautiously peered around the outcropping wall. The hunter stood just a few feet away from the access shaft. He was quite tall, even for a Trandoshan. The weapon he held surveyed all directions in unision with his eyes. How could Garrett slip down the corridor without himknowing? Yes, a trail of blood would give the game away. But Garrett just needed to get down the corridor without being seen. Once he'd done that, the hunter could come all he wanted - Garrett would at least have more time to think, and possibly have more tactical options than in this narrow corridor.

Garrett slid back into the wall. Something rubbed against him. An electronic flare was attached to his utility belt. It was one of the new high-powered devices that could most certainly blind the naked eye. But this hunter was wearing image-intensifying goggles of some sort or another. Even better. Unsure exactly what type, Garrett would need to take that into acount. On the side of the wall was a fire extinguisher, miraculously unharmed despite the ships condition. And since it was for infusionatic fires (since this was engineering), it gave off a much warmer extinguishign gas - much warmer than the temperature of this corridor, and certainly much warmer than Garrett's body temperature. So that was infra-red/thermal taken care of. And the flare would brighten up the place and temporarily blind him if he was using night vision (which would make sense since he could track the blood trail). One last thing was needed.

Garrett unclipped the flare and attached it to the extinguisher. he then attached a small fragmentation grenade to the extinguisher and set the detonation mode to impact. Garrett peered around the outcropping once again. it seemed as though Tassk was looking in Garrett's general direction. The doubt was there, so Garrett threw caution to the wind. Aiming for an overhead panel that now rested against the wall next to the hunter, Garrett hurled the makeshift "distraction bomb" and turned to run down the corridor. He was twelve metres down the corridor when it exploded. The corridor was lit up intensly, whilst steam errupted around Tassk. The fragmentation grenade would suppress him slightly, and possibly return the earlier favour of the shards. Under the cover of his distraction, Garrett belted down the corridor and dashed around one of the corners.

Thirty seconds later, the flare deactivated and was used up - plenty of time!

[Tassk]

Tassk is looking down the corridor, when a figure appears then a large heavy object is flung in his general direction. Tossing his v-10 up into open duct space above as he hops upwards, catches his hands on the edge of the opening in a single fluid motion curls himself up and into the duct itself a second or two before the corridor erupts with an explosion that fills the space in which he once stood with extinguisher gas and shrapnel.

Some of the gas drifts up into the durasteel duct while the majority settles to the floor. Tassk curses once, retrieving the v-10, he drops back down to corridor below. His ears are ringing and eyes are stinging from contact with drifting gas. He looks down at a piece of shrapnel stuck deep in his left forearm. He pulls it out out of his tough sinewy flesh with a wet sucking sound.

(This acquisition is very elusive with a great deal of ingenuity. Where does the storage room corridor lead to? How many exits can it have?)

Tassk contemplates. The trandoshan takes a step forward and kicks an object, looking down, he sees it is the mangled remains of his Neuro-Saav goggles.

[Garrett Blade]

As Garrett carefully made his way through the dark corridor that could have ben leading Garrett anywhere, he stretched out with his feelings. For some reason, Garrett could not sense this Trandoshan hunter. It was as if it simply was not there. That must have been it! A ysalamiri! This was no foolish hunter like that time on Nar Shaddaa. That Barabel was just an amateur. Garrett would need to somehow eliminate the pesky worm-like creature if he was to gain the upper hand. Perhaps there was something lying around this awful graveyard that might be of some use to him...

[Tassk]

A strong, burning phosphorus-like odor wafts from one corridor, leading the hunter down the correct walkway. The trandoshan concludes that Garrett lit up a flare to mask the scent of his blood. Keeping his back against the wall, Tassk deftly stalks Garrett, staying in the deepest shadows. The walkways are littered with debris causing him to be wary of his step.

The imperial star destroyer is an incredible 1,600 metres of cavernous wreckage. Likely stripped clean soon after it's destruction by whatever navy occupied Bakura space at that time, then later pirates and other low walks of life would have crept in to scavenge whatever was left. This massive technological ruin is not the most ideal place to begin a hunt for a very elusive acquisition, but a welcome challenge for a trandoshan hunter.

Tassk moves swiftly through the darkest shadows, comes upon a corridor leading right, looking straightforward he sees nothing but darkness beyond his vision. Relying on his olfactory senses instead, he peeks quickly around the corner, the corridor is empty. Entering it, he moves to the far wall, ten metres up is a another corridor leading left. Pieces of broken equipment are strewn all over.

As the hunter nears the corner, he hears a low shuffle. Peering around the corner he finds Garrett, Tassk whips around the corner leveling his v-10 on his acquisition, fires off a concussion-stun round flying at 2,000 feet per second squarely at Garrett's chest...

[Garrett Blade]

Garrett noticed the concussion blast speeding towards him. How could he miss it? It lit up the entire corridor! Thinking fast, Garrett lowered his knees slightly before flipping backwards. His reflexes, aided by the force, were uncanny. The concussion blast barely skimmed his chest, slightly burning his clothes but not damaging his body. He landed on his feet, facing the same way as before. The light had moved down the corridor further now, but he could still see the Trandoshan down the other end of the corridor, staring in bewilderment, or at least that was Garrett's guess - not being someone who is an expert at Trandoshan facial expressions.

Deciding that this coridor was just too boring for a Sith such as he, Garrett ignited his lightsaber and slashed away at a wall grating in between two venting pipes. Steam gushed forth, but it did not stop Garrett from diving through. Then, his hand emerged again in the corridor, holding a small, spherical device. A beeping sound could be heard as Garrett rolled it at a high speed down the corridor towards the Trandoshan hunter. The thermal detonator was set to explode in three seconds from now, and Garrett was already running down the garbage shute with his speed enhanced by the force, his face cut open by the overhanging panel, that was rather sharp, as he ran at such a tremendous speed...

[Tassk]

Tassk seen the small spherical object long before the first beep sounded, instinct drove him spinning back around the corner from which he came without a second's reluctance.

1.....

Running at full speed towards a nearby piece of abandoned generator in the hall up ahead with his rifle tucked in.

2.....

Tassk leaps with body fully extended, clearing the top of the abandoned machinery, landing with a perfectly orchestrated left shoulder roll.

3.....

The corridor just beyond the huge piece of debris fills with incredibly bright white light, like a minature star, as the explosion roars like thunder reverberating violently down the halls well beyond the hunter.

Tassk carefully stands, the aftermath has left burning ash and embers clouding the corridors. His taloned hand lightly rests on the object he dove behind, it collapses into the precipice he was standing a mere foot from.

The burning ash finally settles revealing the detonator had disintegrated the whole corner, both walls included. The internal workings are exposed, wiring and fusion pipes are melted, large pieces of duracrete dangling from it's reinforcing mesh. Tassk looks down and can see the whole deck below the floor upon which he now stands.

Loading a new round in his rifle with a graver determination, he retraces his steps down the corridor, it is time to re-group. The sith is armed with a lightsaber, meaning he had better be very careful how he corners his acquisition.

Wandering down the corridor, he comes upon a room, kicking the door open. He whips into the room with the v-10 levels at any and all objects. It is empty. Digging through the debris and tools, he eventually finds a engineering map of this great section of the star destroyer. Guided by the map, he successfully finds the security command center, entering it. It is time to hatch a new plan and see how much of this hardware is still operational.

[Garrett Blade]

He could not see out of his right eye. The gash in his forehead was deep and flowing with blood, which ran into his eye. It was slightly annoying, but Garrett revelled in the pain he felt. He fed off it, making him stronger. The room he was in was dark. Then again, was it a room? It could have been a hallway, afterall he could not see very well out of just one eye. No, it was a room of sorts, too big to be a corridor or hallway. There was various equipment scattered about the floor, as Garrett discovered when he fell over a large pile of the stuff. Perhaps it was a worskop or sorts, with the various tools scattered about the entire room. or perhaps it was once a well organised area of the ship, now nothing more than a void that had been re-decorated Beirut-style.

This Bounty Hunter was good. That was for sure. And if he was wise, he'd stay away from Garrett for a while. It wasn't very clever for somebody to hang around Garrett when he was pissed off and only able to see out of one eye.

[Tassk]

In the security command center, Tassk studies the engineering map via a holovid. The transluscent three dimensional image of the star destroyer's engineering corridors casts a ghostly blue glow in the room. After locating the security command center, scrolling, he traces the brilliant images back to the specific engineer corridor that was vaporized by the detonator. Moving the image up to where the durasteel grating was breached by the sith, the holovid informs that his acquisition has entered the maintenance shafts. Loading up the map of the maintenance, The hunter locates a route that is most strategically sound.

Shutting down the holovid and tucking it into the pocket of his yellow jumpsuit, Tassk peers around the security chamber. Small clouds of dust lift with each step he takes, strewn around are various broken blaster weapons, looking in bad need of cleaning and repair. The armory was picked clean by space scavengers, walking to desk with a console sitting atop it. An old ripped Imperial Security Corporal's uniform coat hangs over the back of the chair. Tassk begins rummaging through the filedraws, finding nothing, he reaches his taloned hand underneath each individual filedraw. The second one renders a security passcard, he grunts putting the card in a chestpocket. Giving the room one more thorough look over, he rerequisitions three cryo-ban stun grenades and glowrod, clips them to his web-belt.

Stepping out the security command center, he stalks down the proper corridors. Stopping Tassk peers at the grating of the wall, unsheathes a vibroblade, activating it, the powerful blade cuts through the durasteel like butter. A few minutes later he is stalking down the maintenance corridor with a downward incline, with v-10 held ready. Kicking through another piece of grating, the hunter enters an immense corridor, switches on his glowrod to ultraviolet setting, searches for prints in the dust laden floor...

[Garrett Blade]

On the other side of the large room, Garrett noticed that a small light had appeared in the darkness, and was moving about. No doubt the bounty hunter was looking for him. The hunter scurried about on the ceiling, examining the dusty surface for something - any clues that might lead to the whereabouts of Garrett.

Garrett turned himself upright, still clinging tightly to the chain. Had he walked across the room, the hunter would have found footprints. Luckily, this Star Destroyers mechanics bay was fitted with ceiling-mounted winches that ran along a rail. When he swung across, Garrett almost collided with the wall, but slowed himself down with a light pressure wave through the force. He quietly lowered himself down, and dropped to the floor silently. The hunter was standing directly under another one of the winch rails. The hunter was standing between Garrett and the winch itself.

Garrett would not be able to propel the winch the entire way, due to the ysalmari on his back. But if he could build up enough momentum, that should do the trick. Garrett closed his eyes and concentrated on the winch. Suddenly, it began to move towards the hunet, slowly at first, but gradually picking up speed. After a few seconds, it was moving at a rapid rate towards the hunter. But suspecting that the hunter would realise the imminent danger, Garrett needed a distraction. On the wall next to Garrett was a power distribution panel. Garrett placed his hand over the panel and transferred a generous amount of energy into the power network. Suddenly, the lights in the room came to life, the filaments on the verge of disintegrating. It was so powerful that both Garrett and the hunter had to shield their eyes. But Garrett would still see what was going on through the force, and the winch was only a few feet away from the hunter...