Coruscant
Level 1313
Cadu Leszek had not visited Coruscant since his stint as a Sector Ranger years ago, but everything looked and felt and sounded the same: chaotic. Coming from his recent adventure on Lothal, it had been somewhat of a rude awakening to zoom through the cloudcover and be met by the durasteel behemoth that was the spires and other contructions of the New Republic capital. To call it the hustle and bustle of city life would be a gross understatement; calling something a distinct part of life in a city only made sense when there was something antithetical to compare it to. Coruscant, however, was nothing but city. Planet-wide city. A city-planet. 'An ecumenopolis', in academic jargon. Didn't matter much what name one gave it; it was no way for any sentient being to live. Choose Kiffu over this any day, clan violence and all included. At least you get to die under an open sky with rain or sun or snow on your face.
The bounty hunter squinted as a small personal transport speeder careened past 'Arluy's Cause', zooming across the freighter's cockpit viewport, gone in the blink of an eye. He leaned forward, eyes following the speeder as it circled upwards in the underworld portal, towards the tiny shimmering dot at the end of the ginormous cylinder, the exit to Coruscan'ts surface. Gods-damned maniacs, he thought, veering the Cause into another lane of mostly spacecraft, putting some distance between himself, the small planetary speeders and their reckless drivers. The sooner I'm out of here, the better.
Needless to say, it was work that had brought Cadu to the New Republic capital. Easing the Cause into a soft, spiralling descend, the Kiffar kept one eye on the spacecraft in front of him while he looked over the bounty description on his datapad:
'Ferrin Lone
Bounty lodged by the Sector Rangers.
***
The Acquisition is wanted for, among other things, the bombing of a government
building on Corellia; the murder of a New Republic diplomat and her family;
the maiming of several Sector Rangers as they raided his hide-out on Nar Shaddaa.
***
Lone is considered highly capable and dangerous, fast on the trigger, unlikely
to show mercy or let himself be captured. He's wanted dead or alive.'
Cadu tapped the buttons necessary to access the hologram of the acquisition provided by the Guild. The ship's cockpit projector lit up and formed a grainy, blue-white image of an individual wearing Mandalorian armor. It was surveillance footage; the Mandalorian could be seen dual-wielding a pair of blaster pistol, firing fast but methodically at an opponent not visible in the hologram. Suddenly, he stopped firing and holstered his blasters; Cadu had to think that the opponent was an opponent no longer, not a live one, at least. The T-visored head turned slightly, almost as if it looked at the security camera, almost as if it wanted the camera to record him. And then Lone strode out of sight of the camera, and of Cadu.Although he tried to not let himself be governed by his pride and arrogance - bounty hunters who did tended to live glorious but very short lives - Cadu had not been able to say no to the challenge. A Mandalorian. Famed warriors. Perhaps it was the Kiffar in him who couldn't stand down from a challenge like that. Whatever it was, Cadu had accepted the bounty, and he was here now, on Coruscant, where the intel provided by Cadu's contacts in the Guild had led him. And where, he suspected, the trail would go cold. A Mando does not end up working as a bagman for the Syndicates without the ability to cover up his scent.
A short while later, the bounty hunter veered the Cause out of the air traffic lane it was in and into a hangar he had contact upon his arrival on Coruscant to be able to dock in. The cockpit shook familiarly as the landing gear sat down on the duracreet. Cadu rose from his seat and went to the cargo hold where he donned parts of his armor that he could inconspicuously wear underneath a duster coat. It meant that he had to leave behind the helmet, and he replaced his chest armor with a tan-colored armored vest much less likely to draw unwanted attention to itself. It would be lunacy to go after Ferrin Lone without his proper gear, but Cadu didn't think it likely that he would encounter the Mandalorian anytime soon. First, Cadu needed to track his whereabouts. Provided that he succeeded, he would have time to double back to his ship and prepare himself before he took on Lone. First stop would be Deebi's Dungeon, a seedier-than-average cantina not far from where Cadu had docked. He knew someone there, an informant from his time as a Sector Ranger. Perhaps, this individual would be willing to part with whatever information they might have about Lone. There was, of course, also another approach to the issue of finding Lone; be on the lookout for other bounty hunters here to collect the prize of the Mandalorian's capture.
@Nefieslab