The Hunt

[Lupe]

Nar Shadda, dubbed the Smuggler's moon, a cesspool of underground miscreants and low-born filth. It was a despicable place, by all accounts, especially for someone who followed Mandalorian values, such as Lucius. Yet, somehow, this place was alive, it had a heartbeat unlike any other. It's people were always active, and it was no different the day Lucius walked onto one Nar Shadda's many landing pads. This particular landing pad was like every other, it was barely held together and was bustling with activity, aliens of all kinds walking to and from the entrance. Remembering what the moon had a reputation for, Lucius went over a few precautions in his head. First was to keep his armor on at all times, second was to keep his credits in a secure compartment inside his armor, and lastly was to have his finger on the trigger at all times. With that in mind, the bounty hunter walked towards the exit of the landing pad, pulling out a datapad from underneath his cloak, looking at it. On the datapad was the reason why Lucius was Nar Shadda, a contract given to him by Emperor himself, it was a hit on a particular human from Naboo named Barnaby Wapplethorp. Barnaby had made the grave mistake of stealing Imperial Secrets and leaving a trail that led directly to him. Now, Lucius was not a supporter of the Empire, far from it, he still had fresh memories of the Mandalorian Exodus, but still credits were credits and the Emperor was offering a lot of them.

Thus Lucius took the contract and came to Nar Shadda. Luckily for him, his contacts from his service as a Mandalorian General still held true and he was able to contact a few Mandalorians on Nar Shadda for the location of Barnaby, and that's where he was headed. It did not take long for him to reach it, a small cantina with a small neon sign that said The Return of the King. Lucius walked in casually, not really drawing attention to himself, and sat down at the bar, ordering a shot of tihaar, all the while scanning the cantina for Barnaby.

 

[Rom]

Barnaby Wapplethorp was not what anyone would call an impressive man; tall and thin with lanky arms and knobby knees, thick glasses and limp brown hair that grew in a tangled mop on his too large head, the Naboo journalist was not a person that most people would look twice at; and in his line of work as an investigative reporter, and now a man on the run, that tended to work out in his favor. Barny, as his friends (if he had had any) would call him, had spent the past three days on Nar Shadda waiting for the freighter that would take him into Alliance space where he could present the information he had found... information necessary for the war effort. He hadn't been working on anything serious, hacking the Imperial database trying to find news on the recent disappearance of a man in connection with the murder of an Imperial pilot, when he had stumbled upon several top secret files detailing what appeared to be fleet movements leading to the heart of the Core and plans for the attack on Coruscant.

Almost immediately his terminal had been locked and armed Imperium Guards were rushing his wing of the data center, and it was only through the quick use of an exposed air duct that Barnaby had escaped and made it to the Spaceport. That had been a month ago, and in that time he had been hopping from system to system, praying that he had lost the agents he knew to be following him before dodging another kill-team and leaving the planet. So far things had been quiet on Nar Shadda, and he could only hope they stayed that way.

The Return of the King was his cantina of choice, the crowd mostly full of regulars and the liquor cheap. Barnaby had set up shop in a corner booth covered in shadow, his darting eyes moving between the exits and his half-full glass of Corellian Whiskey. 'Two more days Barnaby.. just two more days.'

 

[Lupe]

Lucius continued to scan the cantina for signs of Barnaby, before coming up with....... absolutely nothing. The cantina was packed, full of aliens of all types, but then again what cantina in Nar Shadda wasn't. Still, Lucius was not about to leave without his mark, especially with so much riding on the completion of this contract. Failure could mean being black listed, which meant that no one would work with you, and that, in the bounty hunting business at least, was a death sentence, since it could also mean that bounties could be put on you. So, Lucius decided that maybe he wasn't looking hard enough, so this time he did a better scan of the room, remembering some of the things he learned in the Rangers when it came to finding HVTs, which was the army's version of bounties. It came to him that he should look for secluded areas, that provided enough secrecy to hide but enough crowd to make it seem un-secluded.

That's when the bounty hunter began to glance at the corner booths, looking each over one with scrutiny, but at the same time trying not to make it so apparent. The first one he analyzed was of two scruffy looking mercenaries discussing job opportunities by working with The Crucible, that was none of Lucius' concern, however, so he moved on. The next corner booth was occupied by a couple doing some rather unsavory things in public, which caused Lucius to cringe in slight disgust before finally turning to the third booth. Now that was an interesting sight, an unremarkable man, sitting alone, now that called so little attention that it called a lot of it. Either that man was hiding from someone, or he was waiting for a contact who was doing the hiding, either way it called attention to Lucius, so he decided to take a closer look. Luckily, that didn't mean him getting closer to the man, instead it simply meant adjusting his cybernetic eyes to a new zoom level.

Once zoomed in, Lucius could tell that it was his target, Barnaby Wapplethorp. The Bounty Hunter grinned and took a sip of tihaar, before calling the bartender over. The bartender was a rather burly Cathar, who managed not to get his fur into the drinks. He spoke with a rather thick accent "Yesssss, how can I help you?" he asked the rugged bounty hunter. Lucius looked up and responded "Could you refill that man's drink in the corner?" he asked before dropping to a lower tone and sliding something across the table "Also, put this in the refill, bonus is in there to. Even bigger bonus if you say that it came from one of the female patrons." Lucius had slid across a few hundred credits alongside a small vial, in that vial was one of the deadliest poisons in the galaxy. The poison would enter Barnaby's system and cause his lungs to liquefy, depriving the Naboo air and effectively killing him without a trace. The bartender looked at the Bounty Hunter for a few seconds, trying to decide whether Lucius was sincere about his offer, after a few seconds he simply took the credits and vial walking to go refill the drink after dumping the vial into the refiller. Lucius nodded, he didn't doubt that the Cathar would do it, Nar Shadda was a tough world, credits meant everything there.

 

[Rom]

Barnaby relaxed into his seat a tad as he drained the rest of his glass, the whiskey burning pleasantly in his gut as he observed the night-life of the King. It had it's own unique draw, being so small and out of the way compared to the night clubs and cantinas that usually cropped up on every corner of Nar Shadda, with a trusting atmosphere and a loyalty to regulars. His tab, under an assumed name, had been paid for another few days and the barkeep was excellent, always able to know when the Naboo had run out of booze and when he needed another. If he hadn't needed to get to the Core so desperately, he may have considered staying; Nar Shadda was a planet where you could always find a story, and profit if you were clever and lucky. Perhaps...

Barnaby groaned and knocked his head down on the tabletop, driving the thoughts away with a dull thunk of flesh and bone meeting durasteel; there was no point in pondering the what ifs and maybes of staying on Nar Shadda. The Empire hadn't given up yet, and he sincerely doubted he would be able to afford a good enough fake identity to keep himself safe from their hunters. His only hope rested with getting to the Alliance before the Core fell. They would be able to set him up with a new name and credentials, maybe even a commission for his work. "Hero of the Galaxy. Heh, wouldn't that be something?"

He thought nothing of it as one of the cute waitresses brought over a second glass of whiskey, simply raising the glass in salute to the Cathar at the bar as he had done for the past few days. His watery eyes stared down into the depths of his mug, considering the past, the future, and everything in between. He had a chance here to make a difference.. and he refused to squander it. Raising the glass to the ghosts of his past, Barnaby Wapplethorp murmured, "To Barnaby, the savior of the galaxy." and took a long draw from the cup.

~~~~~

Moments later the sound of glassware shattering would draw the attention of the bar as the newcomer sitting in the corner slumped down with a weak gurgle, fingers twitching uselessly for the mug that had rolled from his grasp and impacted the floor with the loud finality of lost hopes and dreams.

Barnaby Wapplethorp... unimportant and undistinguished Mr. Cellophane himself; dead.