A Bounty collected

[Logan Shivers]

Target: Crystala Juall

Bounty: 931,241 credits.

WANTED DEAD

Last known location: Mid Rim regions.



Logan studied the pitiful information given to him about his required target. The lines of text blurred in and out of focus, his head still spinning a bit from the heavy drinking session that had finished just a couple of hours ago.



Logan had left the Hunter’s Lodge and got straight into the Black Dragon. His bridge crew already hard at work making the ship ready to depart. Now, Logan sat at his desk in the Commanders ready room. He opened the bottom drawer and retrieved a leather pouch. Opening it, he took out a set of syringes and after checking them, gave himself a jab.



Stims were something he was supposed to be staying away from, but there was just nothing better to sober you up and sharpen your mind in an instant. The cool fluid pumped through him and seconds after injecting himself, Logan tensed with the effort not to scream. This mixture was damned good, but it felt like it set your blood to boiling for what felt like hours, but in fact was a mere couple of seconds.



That ritual over, he shook his head and studied his bounty board again. The tracker sat on his desk, displaying nothing but a low probability result. But Logan had already got his team into action. Sen, his ever ready master of information had already been sent out in the Emerald Priestess, a YT-2000 and he was using all his underworld contacts to try and track this individual down.



The door bleeped at Logan and he looked up in time to see Aima enter. The pretty little Zeltron girl had proven herself to be a most able assistant in the past few months since her release from the FHA Special Forces Academy.



“Ship is ready boss, breaking orbit and heading out of the gravity well, any idea on a direction of travel yet?”



Aima of course had picked up Logans relaxed attitude towards addressing her colleagues. She had given a salute, but if you did not study her, you would have missed it as her hand barely flicked towards her chest. It did not mean she had no respect, she just concentrated her attention on more important things.



“Sen should be getting in touch any time….”



A communicator on the desk bleeped and Logan smiled, the timing was excellent.



“Now!.... “



He tapped the accept comms link and watched as a fuzzy image of Sen Cavi appeared on his desk in miniature.



“Sen, your timing is, as always, impeccable. What news?”



“Very little I am afraid, target appears to have truly gone to ground. Some unreliable rumours that she may have headed to Bright Jewel to try and lose herself amongst the crowds there, but I am not convinced. I could head over there…”



“No, Bright Jewel is relatively close to us. We will take the Black Dragon there and take a look around, you continue on to other contacts of yours and get me something more solid to go on.”



“Got it, gonna head down south, got some contacts in those southern regions that might bear fruit, will be back in touch in a week or so, safe travels.”



Sen’s holoimage blinked out and Logan looked up at Aima. She was already heading out of the door and raised her hand to him.



“On it boss, Bright Jewell it is.”



Logan took note of just how crisp and clean her robe was. She did take so much pride in her appearance and it gave him pause for thought. He looked down to see that his own robe was covererd in various drink stains and was looking rumpled at best. That would not do, a night out was a night out, but looking like a gutter rat on your own flagship was even lower standards than Logan was willing to go to.



He got up and made his way to his cabin, removing his robe and dropping it into a collection bin for the service staff to pick up and clean. He decided on comfort for now, they would be in hyper for days so no need for carrying around weapons. A clean pair of black trousers, his robe and bare feet. He was becoming less and less keen on the restriction of boots. Even adapted to his Trando feet they were just not as good as feeling the ground under your own bare feet.



It was probably wise to sleep, having not had any the night before, but a side affect of his stim intake was a complete inability to sleep for at least four hours after injecting. So, Logan headed to the ships gym for a workout. He was aware that he had been added to the listings for the UFC championship, something he had no doubt agreed to at some point whilst drunk… but he would not remove his name, that would lack honour. No, he would take part and he would do all he could to win. So, the gym it was.

[Logan Shivers]

Arrival at Bright Jewel System.

“Sir, the Black Widow is ready, along with the 3 Ministry Shuttles are all ready to depart, crews on board as instructed. Should we send escorts?”

“No, this is a neutral system, no need to make them think this is some sort of invasion. Call all stop and remain in place, don’t bring the Black Dragon any closer to the planet. Inform Argon I am en route and tell the shuttles to depart.”

Logan turned off his comms unit and swung out of his bed. It took him no more than a couple of minutes to put on his black fatigues, boots and grab the large kit bag he had prepared before taking his nap. No more than 10 minutes after receiving the call, he was boarding the Black Widow, the ATR-6 transport he always had ready to move, with his best and closest troops on board.

The Eagle, Kestrel and Hawk could just be seen in the distance, having already exited the docking bay and making their way towards Ord Mantel. The second Logans feet had left the boarding ramp, the pilot was beginning the Black Widow’s move out of the bay, ramp hissing shut just as the ship exited into space.

“Have we got landing permits yet?”

“Yeah, all three shuttles are dispersing and landing as planned, we will land in the main starport. Local authorities are alerted and are cooperating very well, they have agreed to search any outgoing ships for our target, all security systems are on the lookout. Images of the target have been provided.”

Aima was lounging in the co-pilot seat, casually scanning over the instruments, but letting Cora do the piloting. Both wore black fatigues but Aima had hers tightly bound with leather straps, each holding a sheath to a bladed weapon of some sort. That girl never knew when to leave her knives behind. She would no doubt have her FHA robes on board despite the nature of the mission not requiring them.

“Ha!, they no doubt don’t want criminals hiding out in their little tourist resorts… don’t blame them. Good to know we have the locals on board.”

In the main cabin Logan could see Argon, well, it was impossible NOT to see Argon, taking up two seats, his customary shotgun resting on his lap. He nodded to Logan when his gaze swept over him. Next to him sat two other Gamorreans, Mako and Absk. Neither quite as large as Argon, but both powerful Gamo’s in their own rights. Behind them sat the Wolfpack, a team of 12 Trandoshans that had remained loyal to Logan from the Pitch Black days and led by a grim looking T’doshok called Zeyssh. The Wolfpack had been on station in one of Pitch Black’s outlying settlements on Binquinaros and when the troubles had started, they had fought tooth and claw to beat down the defectors. They had been a full battalion, 13 lived through the battles and only left the planet once they had scoured it clean of any deserting scum they could find. Unfortunately this action led to the planetary authorities reclaiming all lands and banishing the Pitch Black soldiers, but they left with pride in their hearts. Two years after the events, they had found their way back to Comra and been re-united with their beloved leader. Now, the Wolfpack took orders from nobody other than Logan, and tended to stick to him like glue.

By nature of their experience on Binquinaros, the team were urban combat veterans and Logan would put any one of them against his very best and not be certain of the outcome. Perhaps even Argon might meet his match with them. They all wore their distinctive white wolf capes, the wolfhead sitting proudly on theirs like a hood, fangs hanging down over their faces as the lower jaw of the once predators removed to help turn their hides into ornamental capes. Beneath that cape, Logan knew they all favoured EE-3 rifles and light combat armour. They all saluted Logan with a fist to the heart, but said nothing.

Logan took a seat opposite Argon and took out his tracker from his bag.

“Lets see if there have been any further updates on our prey whilst we have been in hyperspace shall we?”

The contraption bleeped and buzzed as it updated itself with any information it could find relating to the requested target. It would link to Sen’s network and pull through any uploads, along with scan various security networks in the region to find any mention of their target. Ten minutes later it returned a result – no further update. Logan threw it back into his bag in frustration. He did not do patience very well.

Reaching into his bag, Logan took out his Rykk and its sheath and strapped it across his back. A hunting dagger went into each boot and he took out his own shotgun, cleared the breach, checked it, loaded it and set it across his lap. He tied a webbing pouch to his waist and placed the tracker in there, along with spare ammunition for his shotgun.

As his preparations finished, he felt the slight vibrations that indicated their entry into atmosphere and a quick descent. Good, they would be on the ground soon. As if on queue, Aima came through from the cocpit,

“Black Widow travel hopes you have enjoyed flying with us boys and girls, please strap in and get ready for landing, we will be bumping down in about half an hour.”

Logan smiled at her sultry, sassy tone which, when combined with her looks and who knew what other tricks, captured the entire rooms attention, male and female alike. Despite not one other humanoid being in the room, she still seemed to draw everyones rapt attention. She was definitely an asset, Logan was just not entirely convinced that she had not bewitched HIM in some way!... He shook his head, then cleared his throat in a raspy hiss.

“OK, gear up, remember local security is friendly, locals are too. Unless you see our target, assume all are friendly. Make our presence known, but be NICE! No pushing around the maggots. You all know your tasks?”

Logan let his eyes scan across the room as his troops nodded their assent.

“Good hunting. Lets hope this little stopover is worth our time. Stay alert.”

[Logan Shivers]

Logan stood in the shadows of an overhanging building, his keen eyes watching the entry to a tavern that was further down the narrow alleyway. Aima was by him whilst Cora was around the back with two members of the Wolfpack, keeping an eye on the only other known exit. The tavern was rumoured to be the base for a local gang and Logan wanted to get in touch with the local underworld, see if he could find out any more information about his target.

Not wanting to draw undue attention to themselves, both Logan and Aima had put a long leather cloak on over their fatigues. Aima was, as usual, wearing more blades than Logan cared to count under her cloak, whilst Logan had his shotgun in a tight holster at his thigh. It did show as a bulge, but that was better than waving it around in full sight. In his hand he casually held his Ryyk blade, in its sheath.

Logan knew that the remainder of the Wolfpack was about, but he could see none of them, which was good, it meant others would not likely see them too. It was always good to have back up when going into unknown levels of danger. The local security forces had warned them against visiting this place, which had just made Logan more certain that he wanted to go take a look.

“Ok, lets go have us some drinks and see what happens.”

They strolled up to the door, the diminutive Aima looking almost childlike in proportion to Logan, but the girl had learnt to use her petite size to her advantage. It was amazing what you could do when everyone ignored you as a threat, seeing you only at best as a target or somebody that could be ignored.

The door screeched on rusty hinges as it opened and the denizens inside briefly stopped their conversations to check out the newcomers. Logan did not let himself stand silhouetted in the doorway however and made his way to the bar without hesitation, Aima at his side, playing the dutiful Zeltron companion.

“Something cold and frothy, twice.”

He could not be bothered to look at what drinks where on offer so just hoped for the best. He was not displeased by the dark red ale that was dumped on the bar in front of them. He dropped a couple of credits on the bar and added a couple more.

“Hear this the place to find things out that don’t want to be found out?”

The bartender looked him up and down and scowled.

“This be the place for strangers to get into trouble for asking the wrong questions.”

“Seems to me the questions got to be asked first, or local goons too weak to talk?”

The barman held Logans gaze for a short time, then shrugged and pointed to a booth in the far corner of the room.

“No skin of my nose if you go get killed, ya paid. Go sit over there, you will get company, not my fault if you don’t like it though.”

Logan studied the interior of the tavern. This place was not a stranger to violence. The tables and chairs where bolted down, the walls showed a variety of scuffs, pits and burn marks where various projectiles had left permanent marks behind and the windows had bars across them. It was poorly lit, barely any daylight making its way in and only a few dim strip lights added their meagre luminosity to the room. Well, if you could not see the floor well enough, you didn’t have to bother cleaning it, that was probably the owners motto. Logan smiled to himself, yes, he knew this sort of bar very well.

They made their way to the allocated table and Logan sat himself so that he could get the best view of the tavern. Aima sat on a chair just out of the confines of the booth, her back to the room but free to move if needs be, she leant her elbows on the table and pretended disinterest, whilst in fact she was keeping a sharp eye on Logan and his actions. It was not long before he discreetly signaled that two sentients where heading to their table. He also signalled that a potential three more stood at the bar watching them with more interest than they should.

Aima pretended at surprise when two Sanyassans took a seat uninvited at their table. She played the part of a terrified girl very well. As expected, the two newcomers completely ignored her and gave Logan their entire attention. Their demeanour was sour and clearly meant to intimidate, their clothing patched, studded and some form of gang emblem was stitched onto the top of each of their sleeves.

“You been asking questions Trando, we don’t like questions here.”

Logan considered the speaker calmly. He took a long, slow sip of his beer and carefully placed his mug down.

“No, not yet, but I will be now that you have graced me with your presence.”

Neither of them liked his response, and they were clearly not used to their intimidation going completely ignored. The Sanyassan who had spoken, an ugly, one eyed brute snarled at Logan and his companion pulled out a large knife.

“Oh yeah? And what if we cut your tongue out Trando? You still going to be asking question then?”

Logan smiled amiably, again completely ignoring the intimidation,

“For somebody who does not like questions, you ask a lot of them. Seems only fair that I have a turn no?”

One eye stood up, pulling a knife of his own and his companion lunged at Logan who did not move a muscle. Aima however had moved in a blur of motion and sliced at the wrist holding the knife before it had got close to Logan and in the same fluid motion, she had kicked hard at one-eyes hand, knocking his knife out of his hand. She came to a halt, crouched on the table top, having not spilt either her or Logans drink, a knife in each hand, her arms extended out so that each Sanyassan had the point of a blade pricking their necks.

Logan calmly looked at each of the two thugs in turn, settling his gaze on one-eye as he appeared to be the more senior. The other was holding his bloody wrist, trying to stop the blood from pouring out of the deep wound. Both glared back at him, murder in their eyes but neither moved.

“Now, why don’t you sit down like good little hatchlings and lets have a nice, civilized discussion, what do you say?”

As Logan spoke, he calmly reached down and pulled out his shotgun and appeared to aim it at Aima, but he instead rested the muzzle on her shoulder, aiming it at the three other gang members who had started to walk over from the bar.

“And perhaps tell your playmates over there to go back to propping up the bar, it looks so fragile it might well fall over without their support.”

One-eye flashed a hand signal and the trio reluctantly retreated back to the bar. The two Sanyassans did not speak, but both slowly sat back down, their eyes blazing with hatred and flicking between Logan and Aima. Once seated, Aima sheathed her blades and did a back flip from the table, landing right in her chair. She reached out, grabbed her drink and took a sip. Placing it back down, she smiled a beautiful, beaming smile at the two thugs,

“Sorry, but he doesn’t like knives pointed at him… and it was better that I made that point before you made him angry. Hope that wrist heals up ok for you there…”

Logan raised the shotgun and rested it on his own shoulder, his blade was still in its sheath and resting across his lap. He took another slurp of his drink and looked at one-eye.

“I am looking for someone, a scumbag wanted by my employers. I have reason to believe he came past this lovely little city and want to know when he left, and where he went. So… are you the person able to get me that information, or are you just a gutter rat trying to play with the big boys?”

“We don’t snitch on our own..”

Logan interrupted him,

“I don’t remember saying anything about him being one of you… interesting, so, tell me, what do you know?”

Silence enveloped the table as the two thugs sat in a stubborn silence. This was interrupted by a bleep from Logans communicator. He took it out and accepted the call from Zeyssh.

“Company incoming, count ten, armed, about five minutes.”

Logan did not bother to respond. He looked at one-eye and pointed his shotgun at the other Sanyassans head.

“Time is up it would appear. Talk, or your ugly frind will meet the Scorekeeper sooner than he would like… and you will come with us and one way or the other, will talk.”

One-eye sagged just a bit, but enough to signal to both Logan and Aima that he had wilted.

“I don’t have that information, you need to talk to Bartho the Hutt, runs an underground transport system from the starport. Shop next to it selling furs, find him there.”

Logan smiled,

“There, that was not so hard was it?”

He downed the rest of his drink and stood. Before either thug could react, he had smashed the heavy shotgun against both their skulls with a nasty sounding CRACK. Both thugs fell limp to the floor and Logan stepped calmly over them. He looked at the trio by the bar who were reaching for weapons and fired at them. He had loaded pellets rather than a solid slug round and at this range, the spray of small pellets peppered all three with enough force to drop them. They would not be dead, but certainly injured enough to not be any further nuisance to him.

“Come on Aima, lets go, back exit I believe.”

Logan saluted the barman with his sheathed blade and the two walked out of the rear exit and back into the daylight, making their way towards the Starport.

[Logan Shivers]

Standing outside the fur shop, Logan and Aima looked like a most unlikely couple, even more so to be perusing fur rugs.

Having replaced his shotgun into the rifle bag, Logan held that in one hand, the other held his Ryyk, casually resting across his shoulder.

"Lets go meet slugface the butt and see if he can help us without raising too much of a fuss."

"You know he's gonna try play the all-powerful crime lord right?"

“Well, then we show him that he is mistaken.”

They stepped into the shop and got greeted by a protocol droid that obviously had a greeting speech rehersed and was its standard routine. It had only got a few words out before Logan had shoved it hard with his hand on its face. The unexpected violent action sent the droid tumbling to the ground.

“Damned tin cans…. Why do so many insist on using the things?”

Logan carried on past the now protesting droid and entered a back room in which he found two burly looking human guards.

“Looking for buttface the slut, you boys know where I can find him?”

The two startled guards rose to their feet and reached for blasters. Logan sighed,

“I guess you are not planning on being helpful.”

Before they had managed to point a weapon at him, he swung his sheathed blade, knocking one blaster out of the nearest guards hand and continuing the swing to slam it into the second guards head. A sharp CRACK announced the skull splitting blow, which brough a grin to Logans lips.

Meanwhile, Aima had reached the first guard, now weaponless and had one of her stiletto daggers halfway up his nose, holding him at her mercy, a beautiful smile on her face.

“When you are asked a question, it is rude to point a weapon in reply. Did your mothers not teach you anything?”

Logan smiled to himself, Aima was REALLY getting good at this… she was really taking after him. He thought he knew what a proud father might feel like, watching their child learning the family trade and doing it exceedingly well. He turned his attention to the guard on the floor and nudged him with his foot. No response at all.

“Oh dear, looks like I hit him too hard. You humans have soft skulls. Now, where was I?... Oh yes, slimeball the fat, where is he?”

“Wasn’t it ballsack the wrinkled boss? Sure that was his name..”

“fatty the Slug?”

“no… no… it was… bongo the bug?”

“Close Aima.. no, it was something like… AH!, yes, I remember now, Bartho the Hutt, yes, that was it. Now, where is his slimyness?”

The guard looked to be in a true rage, but an impotent one, any move he made would likely end up with him having the full length of that stiletto driven into his brain. It took him a few moments but he managed to compose himself enough to carefully point towards a wide ramp that spiralled downwards from the rear corner of the room.

“Down there.”

“Ah, thank you. See Aima, civility CAN work. Now, how many more of you guards might we have greet us down there?”

The guard remained silent so Aima pushed a little on her blade. His head tipped back even further and he winced in pain, a dribble of blood coming out of the impaled nostril.

“Think carefully my friend, Aima here is looking quite excited about picking your nose. A disgusting habit I grant you, but who are we to judge anothers quirks eh?”

The guard flicked his eyes between the two of them, the stunning Zeltron that he may have otherwise have been desperate to take to his bed, and the large Trando, with a somewhat crazed, toothy grin plastered on his face. Deciding he was not paid enough to deal with psychopaths like this he gave them all the information they wanted.

Logan nodded with satisfaction and when Aima retracted her blade from the guards nose, Logan punched him hard on the left temple, knocking the man unconscious. The two headed towards the ramp and Logan retrieved his shotgun from the rifle bag. He looked at Aima,

“You may want something you can shoot with young lady.”

“Got all that I need boss, lets go.”

As she joined him at the top of the ramp, Logan noticed that she had a brace of throwing daggers in one hand, a triangular throwing blade in the other. He shrugged, cocked the shotgun and let his blade hang from a leather loop on his waist.

“Lets go see our new friend.”

The ramp went quite far down, Logan had to admit he was impressed, he had been in mines that did not go quite as deep. Once they got to the bottom, they found that the human guard had actually been telling the truth, the ramp had lef them to a large, dimly lit room where there appeared to be some high stakes gambling going on at a multitude of tables, dancing girls of many races were in hanging cages and mostly naked servers of all genders and races served the patrons, the slave collars clearly visible around their necks.

A cluster of five guards that had been standing near the ramp shouted and ran at the uninvited intruders. Logan just pointed his shotgun and fired twice, calmly but quickly reloaded and repeated. The scattershot dropped the first four guards to the ground, groaning and screaming in pain. The last took Aima’s throwing triangle in his throat. Logan reloaded, this time with solid slugs, not wanting to risk hitting an innocent slave. He spotted another guard coming at them from across the room, blaster raised. He got a couple of shots off but they went wide, Logans did not. The heavy shotgun slug hitting him in the chest. It punctured his light armour and exited his back in a spray of blood.

The room went quiet, apart from the groaning of the injured guards. Both Logan and Aima moved deeper into the room, constantly scanning it for threats. They Could see a large Hutt situated by a roulette table, two human slaves at its side.

Before the stunned occupants of the illicit den could regain their wits and do anything stupid, Logan raised his voice to a loud, clear tone.

“Nobody move, nobody gets hurt. I don’t want your credits, your valuables and I don’t particularly want your lives, but will take those if forced. So sit tight, don’t do anything stupid, and we will be out of your dirty hair shortly. Any objections?”

The room remained silent and Logan made sure to meet the eyes of every single non slave in there and pierce them with his glare.

“Aima, lets get Zeyssh and the Wolfpack down here.”

She nodded and took out her comms unit, calling the Trandoshan squad into the den. They had been gathered nearby, as back up and on seeing the volume of slaves in the room, Aima knew exactly what Logan had in mind.

Logan confidently strode across the room and stopped a few feet away from the large Hutt, his weapon steadily levelled at its face.

“Bantho the Hutt I assume?”

The Hutt responded in its native language and a nearby droid translated.

“How dare you come into my domain and…”

Logan swong his shotgun around and shot the droid in the head, blowing it clean off.

“The next one will go through YOUR thick head, sure one of your lackies can give me the information I need. Now, this is simple, I ask, you answer, you stay alive, I leave. Clear?”

The Hutt glared at Logan, murder in its eyes, but it just nodded.

“Good. Get another tin can over here to translate your mumbo jumbo and the next thing I want to hear is that you have a log of the illiegal transits that you arrange off planet.”

A short wait ensued whilst another protocol droid was brought in, the one from the fur shop as it happened, and while still glaring at Logan with hatred, the Hutt confirmed that such records did exist.

“Good. Now, send one of your slaves to go fetch while we sit here and keep each other company.”

As he spoke the noise level in the room raised a notch due to the entry of the Wolfpack. They spread out, expertly covering the room and their leader approached Logan.

“Welcome to our little den of iniquity Zeyssh. Round up the slaves, take those collars off and have them escorted to the starport. Have a shuttle arranged for them to transport them to the Temple of the Fallen. You stay and keep me and Aima company if you would.”

Zeyssh nodded and moved off, giving his team orders. The room became much more active, but with the careful oversight of the Wolfpack, there was very little in the way of trouble.

Eventually, the male slave that had been sent off for the requested travel logs returned and handed a datapad to the Hutt.

“Make sure that is in standard and hand it to my lovely assistant over there please. Fully unlocked and un encrypted so we don’t have any more misunderstandings.”

The Hutt ran his stubby fingers over the datapad and then handed it to the slave, who in turn gave it to Aima. She immediately began to scan its contents. Logan motioned for the slave to go join the rest who were gathering in the centre of the room.

It took a few moments, but eventually Aima nodded. Yes, he was here, left five days ago. But… well, according to this he left on four different shuttles.”

Logan turned his gaze to the Hutt, the question clear in his expression. The Hutt spoke, and the droid translated.

“Many of my clients purchase multiple tickets so even I don’t know where they actually end up going. It is more money for me so I don’t care.”

Logan looked at Aima who nodded her head.

“Yeah boss, looks like he is telling the truth, others have multiple entries as well.”

“Ok, note them down and lets get going. Get the message out for all other teams to extract.”

Ten minutes after that, the room was empty of slaves and the Wolfpack had left, leaving only their leader behind. Logan moved away from the Hutt, stood in the centre of the room and faced the occupants, slowly turning in order to encompass them all.

“Thank you all for your cooperation today. As promised, I have no interest in you or your belongings and as you were all such good boys and girls, I don’t have to take any of your lives. Well done, you get to live another day. I do however, have a distinct dislike for slavery and it really does offend me, so…”

He shot the Hutt right between its large eyes, the slug tearing through the thick skin, hard skull and out the back, leaving a splatter of dark red and grey gore on the wall and ceiling behind the Hutt. The large body slumped, but did not topple over, its mass keeping it upright.

Logan rested his shotgun on his shoulder and headed to the ramp, picking up his rifle bag on the way. Aima and Zeyssh flanked him and the trio left, but not before Aima could turn around, smile sweetly and blow a kiss towards the occupants,

“Good evening sweeties, hope you enjoy the rest of your day.”

[Logan Shivers]

The Black Dragon remained on station in the Bright Jewel system, waiting for the remainder of its deployed troops to return, and also awaiting on Logans orders as to its next destination.
Logan was studying the list of destinations to which their target had purchased tickets to.

“Send a message to Sen, he is currently in the Southern regions, he is to visit Barab and Pelgrin and see if he can find any signs that our bounty arrived at either destination. Those shuttles were both direct without stop-overs so he was either on them, or not.”

An officer nodded and moved away from the command desk and its confluence of officers.

“Argon, get a squad together and load up the Black Widow for an extended journey. I want you to follow the path of this ticket, Viscoth, Avinolia, Nimban. Get moving ASAP.”

Argon nodded his large head and lumbered off, his huge bulk blocking the doorway for a brief instant, then he turned the corner and was out of Logans view.

“Cora, have a team ready, we will drop you off at Maal in one of the Ministry shuttles, take the Kestrel….”

“Sir, that planet has numerous islands and large water mass in between, one shuttle may prove a hinderance….”

Her interruption was appropriate, she new the planet better than Logan. He brought up the map and studied it. It did not take him long to nod in agreement.

“Yes, you are right… take all three shuttles, if you do find signs of his arrival it will be prudent to have flexible search capabilities.”

Logan turned his attention to Aima who was casually leaning up against a bulkhead. He studied her briefly before continuing,

“Aima, we are heading to a familiar hunting ground. As soon as Argon has departed set us a course for Huk. If you wish to stay onboard…..”

Huk had been the planet where Aima had spent some time in a cage, waiting to be sold as a slave in the undergound trade that was thriving on that planet. Logan had rescued her, amongst many others and he was conscious that she may not wish to return. She interrupted him though, a look of reproach on her face.

“You have not taught me to shy away from things, but to confront, so do not expect me to avoid performing my duties simply to avoid bad memories.”

She stood and removed herself from the room, heading to the bridge to relay orders to the crew and Logan was left with Zeyssh in the command cabin.

“Sshe a strong thing for meat maggot.”

As loyal as Zeyssh was, some of his in built prejudice towards any race that was not Trandoshan was hard to disguise, no matter how hard the soldier tried. He was an old veteran, much, much older than Logan and so it was something that Logan tolerated, knowing that at least he TRIED to set ingrained behaviours behind, it was more than many were willing to do.

“She is headstrong Zeyssh, she is capable, she will be truly excellent once she hits her prime, but this may prove…. A distraction for her.. no matter what she currently thinks. Make sure you keep one eye on her once we are on the ground on Huk.”

The soldier nodded, thumped his fist to his chest in salute and left, leaving Logan alone. He sat down in his over-large chair, lifted his bare feet and rested them on the desk and reached into one of the drawers and retrieved a bottle of spiced rum. Nothing to do now but wait, so…. He popped the stopper and took a deep pull of the spicy content. Logan sighed, rested his head back on the chair and closed his eyes. He did enjoy his moments of peace…. They were few and far between recently.

[Logan Shivers]

Logan woke up with a stinking hangover. He was sprawled on his bed, still in yesterdays clothes. Grimacing, he forced himself up and made his way to the shower, a very COLD shower.



Quarter of an hour later he felt and looked fresh, presentable and ready for the day ahead. He glanced at the timer display and noted that it was still over a day to go before arriving at Huk. That made it currently day 7 in hyper…. And the last 24 hours had been a blur, spent with Zeyssh and Aima in the ships galley, drinking and playing cards… time to catch up. He was hoping that at least some reports might have come in from Sen or Argon.



Making his way to the command room, he made a mental note to himself not to gamble against Aima… she was a demon! Either that, or cheated brilliantly… either way, he had lost enough credits to buy a speeder or two.



Entering the Command room he noted the duty officer was already waiting with is daily report, but no sign of either Aima or Zeyssh. Logan seated himself and tapped in his authorisation code on the terminal access pad.



Whilst he waited for that to load up, he turned his attention to the officer.



“Morning Acer, what do you have for me today?”



“Good morning sir. You have two encrypted messages awaiting you. One each from Argon and Sen. The awaited updates I would guess. Our own progress is steady, nothing new to report, all systems nominal, no abnormal reports or failiures.”



“Good, thanks, dismissed.

Oh, Acer…. Have the galley send up breakfast, and have somebody throw a bucket of ice on Aima and Zeyssh.”



The officer crooked a smile and gave a casual but respectful salute as he left.



“yes sir, will do.”



The desk terminal loaded and Logan decided to read Sen’s report first. If he found signs of their bounty all the way over in the Southern Outer Rim… well, he would need to deal with it himself as it would take the Black Dragon a good couple of weeks to get on location. He punched in another code, allowing the terminal to open the encrypted message and began to read.



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Sender: Sen Cavi

Date: Y22 D44 Galactic Standard



    - Arrived on Pelgrin four days ago. The planet is an outlier and only has one spaceport whish has a record of the shuttle arriving, but our target was not on board, it showed a passenger manifest with one     passenger missing, apparently did not board on departure. I have left a small team to continue digging, just in case, but pretty sure that will end up being a dead end. Took an overnight shuttle to Barab with the     remainder of my team. Again, only one Starport, but on approach noticed a number of small landing pads so have split the team, hired some vehicles locally and will conduct a more thorough search. Starport     passenger manifest shows the Bright Jewel shuttle arrived on schedule and once again, it was one passenger short. Again, claimed that the passenger did not board and shuttle departed Bright Jewel without him.     Made contact with local underground and my current thoughts are that our target has not come to Barab either, but a more intensive search is underway just in case. Should be able to report with further update in     24 hours. –



End of message



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Well, that was two down, if Sen had a gut feel that neither location was their targets destination, Logan knew him well enough to trust that feeling. Sen was a veteran. He knew his business. But, he was thorough, so if he was wrong, he would deal with it.



He tapped at his console again and brought up the report from Argon.





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Sender: Argon Hagui

Date: Y22 D45 Galactic Standard



    - Landed Viscoth. Shuttle landed and gone Y22 D38. Scum not on shuttle. Security say he not get on at Bright Jewel. You want me go to Avinolia? –


End of message

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Logan was surprised…. That was a VERY wordy message from Argon… he had a sneaky suspicion that the lumbering Gamorrean had help with that one… but either way, it looked like that would be a dead end too. He composed a quick message back asking Argon to do some more digging around in the local underground and to then check on the next destination just in case.



He was about to turn away from his terminal when it bleeped to inform him of a new incoming message. Logan opened it up and found that it was from Cora.


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Sender: Cora Woodle

Date: Y22 D45 Galactic Standard.



    - Initial findings are that the target did not disembark the shuttle service in this system. However, there is a thriving underground and we have located several illegal landing pads that we are in the process of     checking. Passenger manifest for the shuttle shows that our target did not board at Bright Jewel. We will continue searches to ensure this is not misinformation. End of report. –

    

End of message

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That last report brought a grin to Logans face. If all those reports were correct, then the final destination to be checked stood a better chance to bear fruit. And as he was familiar with Huk, he was confident that if their target had set foot on that planet, Logan would find him.

[Logan Shivers]

Arrival at Y’rill starport, Huk.

The Black Dragon settled down on the allocated landing pad within the sparsely used starport. A number of small freighters and planetary shuttles were its only other occupants and most looked in poor state of repair. Amidst the fog created by venting coolants and engine fumes, a metallic clunk signaled the lowering of the boarding ramp.

Logan emerged with Aima at his side, Zeyssh and the Wolfpack following behind in a loose wedge formation. Once clear of the cloud of fumes, Logan halted and waited for the Starport officials to arrive and it was not long before a small shuttle settled onto its skids nearby and two suited Yam’rii disembarked. They were escorted by a protocol droid and approached without trepidation.

Logan had respect for the Yam’rii, they were a very strong race and did not omit pungent odours like the humanoid races tended to. He waited for them to approach and then gave a shallow bow as a greeting courtesy. The larger of the two officials made a series of clicking and hissing noises for an extended period of time before falling silent and allowing the droid to translate.

“Welcome to Huk once again Legacy Guardian Shivers. We are pleased to have you back. I am informed that you are seeking a quarry, but this time on a more official basis than your usual expeditions here. Either way, if it rids our planet of another denizen of the galactic underworld, then we will do what we are able to to assist.”

Over the years, Logan had built up a good relation with the planetary authorities because most of his visits resulted in the capture or killing of slavers, something the Yam’rii appreciated, irrelevant of how violently that may have been accomplished. They did not like their planet being used by such scum and any aid in their efforts to cleanse the planet was welcomed.

“Greetings Governor and thank you for taking the time to meet me personally. I am sorry that we could not send you information ahead of our arrival, but we believe our target is aware that there is a bounty on her head and so may have been monitoring communications. Her name is Crystala Juall and we believe she may have arrived in the past week on a shuttle transport from Bright Jewel.”

Logan handed over a datapad with all the tracking information they had and the Governor gave it to his assistant who checked his own datapad and began to cross reference information. After a while he seemed to nod and the two officials began to chatter between themselves. Logan could not tell what was being said, but he felt that it was positive. Finally, after what seemed to be hours but was more like ten minutes, the Governor turned to Logan and handed him back his pad.

“Your intelligence gathering seems to have served you well Legacy Guardian. This individual did arrive eight days ago on the scheduled transport from Bright Jewel. She has remained on planet as far as we are aware.”

As the droid translated, the assistant chittered away excitedly, pointing at his datapad screen and showing the governor some images that appeared to be security camera footage. Once the droid had finished its translation, the Governor continued.

“It would appear that she was met at the Starport by two individuals that are known to us. Ga’ard Sandar and Shilk Tavok. Both are linked to smuggling rings that we are trying to dismantle and are violent, dangerous individuals. If she has dealings with them, we will be happy to see her dealt with. If you also happen to deal with any of the smugglers in the process, I think we could add some value to your current bounty as a sign of gratitude.”

The governor handed Logan a datacard and once he dumped its information into his pad, he saw a list of names and images of known members of the smuggling ring.

“We are aware of the location of their base of operations, it is approximately two kilometres South of the Yar’iil mountain range in a narrow valley. The forests are particularly dense around there and not accessible by ship or vehicle. Also, please note the name on that list in red. He is an informant working for me in our efforts to infiltrate and dismantle this ring, please try to avoid killing him as our efforts will need to continue after you have your bounty in order to fully dismantle the entire operatioin.”

Logan studied the information and handed it to Aima.

“I know this region well enough. Get two KAM’s ready, we will use them to get to the foothills on the Eastern side of the mountains and go on foot from there. Plan for close quarter combat, the forest around there wont give opportunity for any sniping.”

Logan turned to face the Governor again and saw Aima jog up the ramp and back into the ship as he did.

“Thank you Governor and we will do our best to ensure your asset is not harmed. Thank you for your assistance. If it is well with you, I will leave the Black Dragon here for now as it would be hard to miss it flying around the mountains and I don’t want to give advanced warning to our target if possible.”

The Governor nodded and then bowed.

“Good hunting worthy one, come and see me again before you leave.”

And with that he turned and boarded the shuttle to leave.
Zeyssh approached Logan, he was looking at a datapad of his own, Aima no doubt having sent him all the relevant information.

“Look like large gang maybe? How many we take?”

The Wolfpack and one more team, the Angels are still with us so get them informed and tell them we leave in two hours. Zeyssh, keep the armour light and dig out the cammo gear. We will try to go in quiet, but be ready for it to turn noisy.”

Zeyssh nodded and turned to leave, barking orders at the Wolfpack before heading up the ramp and into the ship. Logan stood there a moment longer, studying satellite images of the target area to try and work out the size and layout of the hidden base, but it had been well constructed and not much was clear to see. He shut it down and put it into a pocket in his fatigues. As he turned to head on up the ramp himself, he noted that Aima was already directing the two KAM’s out of the ships hangar and onto the landing pad. He smiled to himself, proud of the efficiency of his team being put to good use once again.

[Logan Shivers]

Two Ketrifee Air Movers lifted off from the starport and flew low across the top of the buildings and out of the city. As soon as they hit the tree line the pilots lowered the vehicles to skim across their tops, avoiding the ancient, giant trees in their efforts to stay low and fast.

Aboard the Lead KAM, Logan leant out of the open door, keeping an eye on their progress. Even at this speed and altitude he knew the region well enough to recognise his surroundings. He waited until the peaks of the mountain range came into view over the rushing green of the carpet of trees and then stepped back inside and slammed the door shut to cut out some of the noise. Now, with just the whine of the KAM’s engines to compete with, he raised his voice just above his normal speech level.

“Gear up, drop off is in ten. Aima, get on the Comms and let the Angels know.”

The Wolfpack began to double check their gear, making sure power packs were charged, weapons clean, straps tight and many other little double and triple checks trained soldiers do before entering a field of operations. This did not create a bustle of activity, but just a quiet, methodical movement as they went over well practiced movements.

Logan stuck his head into the cockpit briefly and got a nod from Aima to confirm the second team was notified and he opened the KAM’s outer door again, welcoming the wall of air that hit him like a giant fist. Although he was expecting it, the ferocity of it still almost knocked him off his feet. But as with everything in his life, he found the challenge thrilling and he used all his strength to push back against the invisible wall of air and fixed himself in a position once again hanging out of the side of the vehicle.

His desired landing zone came in to sight right on time and the two KAM’s throttled down and deployed their air brakes, decelerating at a rapid rate. As soon as they hit the small clearing the vehicles dropped like stones and came to an abrupt stop with their undersides not much more than a fingers width from the grassy ground. Already half out of the door as he was, Logan wasted no time in jumping out and clearing the way for the rest of his team. Less than sizty seconds later the KAM’s were lifting off and disappearing behind the surrounding trees. They would head back North and then West, going around the tall mountains to wait for further commands in the western foothills.

Everyone had their orders and the soldiers split into their triplet groupings. Each triplet consisted of a scout, sniper and close quarters specialist and each had a specific entry point mapped out so that they would all enter the enemy compound in a surrounding action that would limit any escape into the wild which would lead to potentially lengthy and tedious searching.

The Angels, being Diathim were by far the fastest of the gathererd force and so had the task of going around the encampment to approach from the opposite side, whilst the Trandoshans from the Wolfpack would form the northern side of the attack. Logan, Aima and Zeyssh would be joining in the attack but with very specific targets. Aima was to infiltrate and locate the Governors agent and ensure he was not accidentally killed. Zeyssh was carrying an RPS-6 rocket launcher ontop of his usual kit, his task to ensure that any vehicles or ships in the base did not depart. Logan would be hunting their specific bounty target and ensuring that he made the kill and left the body recognisable. As his kit was fairly light in comparison to Zeyssh, Logan also carried two spare magazines for the rocket launcher, just in case Zeyssh decided to go on a rampage.

Without needing further instructions the triplet teams had already began to slip into the surrounding forest and soon it was just the three of them remaining. With a grin on his face Logan motioned to his companions in this hunt.

“Shall we partake my friends?!”
They headed off into the forest, heading directly south on a course that would put them at the northernmost point of the enemy encampment. Aima took point as she was scouting for them and Logan took high point, flitting from tree to tree in his agile, almost ape-like manner that he so enjoyed doing. It was both efficient and silent and Zeyssh, who was trotting along on the ground on his own wondered at times if his fellow T’doshock was still above him somewhere. It was only a cursory thought however as he fully trusted his chief and long time friend to do the task assigned. He also had to admit with some resignation that with his force abilities, Logan was by far the better suited to that task of the two of them and, although he would never openly admit to this, was generally the better hunter.

They made good time through the forest, and it was not long before Aima appeared silently ahead of Zeyssh and signalled him to stop. A second later Logan dropped down from the trees and the trio gathered in a quiet conference.

“One sentry fast asleep about 100 metres that way, one more, this one awake, same distance over that way, ahead is clear to the encampment. It looks busy.”
Logan nodded in assent.
“Yes, it is, at least 30 individuals. Aima, we are ten minutes to going live, take care of those sentries quietly. Zeyssh, good little spot for you just the other side of that giant trunk over there. I will be above you spotting. Keep your comms units on, text only.”

Logan accompanied Zeyssh to his chosen position and dropped off the two spare magazines for the rocket launcher. In a quiet voice he described the layout of the camp ahead of them and provided the location of two barges and a GAT-12 Blastboat.

“That gunboat will be hard to knock out with the rockets, but its boarding ramp is down and the door is facing us… think you can get a shot inside that thing?”

Zeyssh smiled a toothy grin,

“Sure, but what if somebody we don’t want turned to mash is in there?”

“I will let you know once I have spotted our two targets.. if one might be in there… we will see.”

Logan left him then, scrambling up the tree trunk that must have been 5 meters across at least. He kept on climbing until he had reached a vantage point above most of the surrounding trees. It allowed him to see into the clearing where the camp had been set. Using his macros he began to scan the faces of the sentients carefully, trying to spot the two important ones. Their prey and the Governors agent. He scanned face after face and was beginning to get a bit pushed on the timetable when he at last spotted the Governors agent. He was sitting by a fire, cooking something. Their kill target was not visible though. He may be in one of the barges, or the gunboat and Logan did not like either option. He made his decision and sent a message to all members of the attack force.

“Governors agent by central cookfire, blue/green clothing. Kill target not een, may be onboard one of three entities. Must not permit any to leave. Confirm green to go.”

He watched as one by one, the teams reported in as being in position. Once the final team reported to him he sent the go signal and confirmed to Zeyssh that he should take out the gunboat as discussed, they could not risk letting that thing lift off.

The attack was announced to the unsuspecting villains by the hiss of Zeyssh’s first rocket shooting through the camp and into the doorway of the gunboat, right on target. A concussive Whoomp and a belch of flames from said doorway drew the attention of anyone who had missed the rocket flying in.

Voices began to shout in alarm and two more explosions rocked the site and just like that, the barges and the gunboat were out of action. Not destroyed, but they would not be going anywhere anytime soon. He put his launcher on the ground and took out his shotgun, running into the camp. He came face to face with a Chiss and wasted no time shooting a hole in his unarmoured chest. A human was coming at him and got the second slug in his ugly face, then Zeyssh reversed grip, held the shotgun by the hot barrels and swung it against another humans head. The loud crack it made on connection was satisfying and Zeyssh doubted he would be getting up after such a blow. He looked around to find his next target, holstering the depleted shotgun and pulling out his blasters.

Logan rushed past Zeyssh, his own shotgun blasting twin holes into a large Whiphid and then he was using his beloved Ryyk blade to fend off a blow from a well aimed mace, pushing it aside to open up the attackers body for a hard kick that sent him sprawling. Logan wasted no time in a follow up and was soon pulling his bloody blade out of his opponents shattered skull.

Zeyssh had stayed with him and the two realised they had some breathing space, their immediate vicinity clear of threats. Logan scanned the camp to see how things were going whilst reloading his shotgun.

All around the camp, its inhabitants had been caught by complete surprise. The tide of the Wolfpack storming in from the northern side, blasters maing short work of anyone they came across, whilst the Diathim from the Angels squad soared in like silent death and took out sentient after sentient with swift, deadly accuracy. There were a couple of pockets of resistance however as some of the swifter thinking and acting defenders had used the damaged barges as protection and appeared to be well armed enough to be holding his force at bay for now.


After leaving Logan and Zeyssh, Aima had slit the throats of both the sentries and positioned herself as close to the camp as she could get without risking being spotted. She had seen Logans message about the location of her target and so when the go signal came, she used the chaos of the surprise attack to make her way towards the fire pit in the centre of the camp. As she made no noise, she had little trouble not attracting attention to herself and only one person, a rather ugly Gamorrean took note of her. She hurled a knife at him, sinking it to the hilt in his meaty shoulder. But the blade barely seemed to bother the lumbering reptilian and he charged at her. Had he done the clever thing and rached for his blaster he would have stood a better chance, but instead he tried to attack her by swinging his hammer like fists in a fury of blows. Not one landed as the lithe Zeltron danced around the attack and slashed at the back of the Gamorreans legs as she twirled past. The blow severed one hamstring and as the brute turned around to follow her he stumbled on the unresponsive foot and fell to his knees. Aima jumped and kicked hard, sinking the toe of her boot right into his left eye socket. She used her other leg to stamp on his shoulder and flipped in the air, landing behind the Gamorrean who was now clutching at his eye and howling. She sunk another of her blades into his neck, severing the spine and the screaming ceased. The encounter had taken seconds, but it was enough time for her target to have got to his feet and get his own weapon. Aima turned to find him aiming the barrel of a blaster at her head.

She blinked, wondering why she was not dead already but decided against pondering the matter. She dropped to a roll towards the hesitant agent and felt the heat of the blaster bolt sear the air above her.

“Great, I get the one that I cant kill, but he wants to fill me with scortch marks.”

She muttered to herself as she completed her roll, jumped up and smashed her fist into his face, connecting squarely between the eyes. The agent stumbled back, dropping his blaster but did not go down.

“Shit, you got a thick skull, think that broke my hand, bastard!”

Aima hissed as she stepped towards the stumbling agent ignoring the searing pain in her right hand. With her left she pulled out another blade, one with a particularly heavy pommel.

“Sit down and behave mr undercover agent, no skin of my nose if I kill you, but you aint going to be killing me…. Understood? I can throw this just as well with my left hand as I can with my..”

Aima did not get to finish as the agent decided that it was worth the risk to run for it. She threw her knife and it hit him hard in the back of the head, pommel first as it was designed to do. The blow was enough this time to send the agent to the ground and Aima wasted no time in securing his wrists with a pair of cuffs. She left him lying on his stomach and sat on his back, a knife in her good hand, making sure that nobody got to him.

It was not long before she was joined by two Diathim from the Angel squad who relieved her of her burden. She nodded at them in thanks and made her way through the camp to find Logan. She noted that the fighting only seemed to be coming from one location now, a cluster of apparently well armed and armoured bandits using the barges as cover. She found Logan standing out of direct line of fire, but watching the situation with a grimace.

“Something wrong boss?”

“BAH! Still not sure where our kill is… and that lot are making things difficult.”

“Not for long…”

Aima nodded her head to the side and Logan saw Zeyssh taking aim with the rocket launcher. He had been so engrossed with the shoot out he had not noticed Zeyssh going back to collect the weapon. He considered stopping him but decided against it, this needed to be done with, he had better things to do with his time now than play shoot out with scum.

He watched the flare of the rocket and then, almost like time had slowed down he saw the thing arc down and slam to the ground almost at the centre of the bandits. The explosion that followed sprayed bodies, and body parts all over the camp in a fountain of gore.

“You better hope we find our target Zeyssh… or you will be searching through THAT mess to identify him.”

At that moment Logans comm unit bleeped quietly and he looked to see a pleasing message.
‘target located onboard GAT. Unconscious, not dead.’

“Saved by the bleep Zeyssh, we got our man.”

Logan headed towards the gunboat, Zeyssh and Aima following close behind. He nodded at the Trandoshan guarding the boarding ramp and trotted up and into the ship. The damage from the rocket was impressive and a couple of electrical fires were still blazing and sparking away in the entrance corridor. The air was thick with an acrid smoke, but they soon found their target in the small ship. He had been in a cabin and so protected from the majority of the explosion, but his cabin door had been blown inwards and by the looks of it slammed right into him.

Nodding in confirmation and satisfaction, Logan took out a scanner and took a holoimage of the target to send to the Guild as confirmation of the kill. Once sent, he took a knife from Aima and neatly slit his throat.

“Crystala Juall, I pronounce you dead…..”

Logan wasted no more time in the choking smoke filled confines of the gunboat. The three left and once outside, taking deep breaths to clear their lungs, he took stock of their situation.

“Scour this place, see what you can salvage, KAM’s are 20 minutes out. Good job.”

They had pulled it off with nothing more than a few injuries. Just as well, this bounty had definitely been more hassle than the reward warranted. But, a hunt was a hunt after all.