The sleek black Imperial droid stood behind the desk and handed out the dataslates containing the bounty, "This one is within our jurisdiction" she said with a sweet voice obviously programmed to make people feel at ease. The Protocol droid waved, "Just read over it and you should be fine."

It seemed straightforward, get the Slicer for a Imperial show, and yet the fake smile on the droid would set the hunters off.

Nala glanced over the data slate, memorizing the pertinent information, before handing it back to the imperial droid. Despite the data slates appearing to be the cheapest and, thus, most disposable of Imperial Issue, Nala didn't believe in taking chances. She'd heard too many stories of data slates being stuffed with trackers, hacking programs, or (in one case) high explosives to keep a data slate just because someone handed it to her.

Once done she stepped back, crossing her arms and leaning forward so the voluminous black cloak she was wearing seemed to envelop her. It only took a moment for her to type 'Prep for Tarvis IV' on the keypad of one of her wrist bracers. Astar, the Star Venturer's droid brain, would know to begin preparing for a hyperspace jump to the planet and pulling any public information available on the planet.

This meant she had time to eye her fellow competition, trying to see who were just the usual alk-heads with more firepower then brains and who might actually be a threat. As she eyed them, she made a mental note to have her nails redone before arriving at Tarvis IV. As (supposedly) a bored debutante with a taste for excitement 'slumming' it, Nala would want to look her best... and few people ever considered what the proper chemical compound, delivered by Nala's sharp claws, could do.

Edited by Nodrog on Oct 2nd 2019 at 7:12:32 AM

Imperial Bounty Office

As Nala wondered about them, one of those "alkheads with more firepower than brains," walked into the bounty office. It was around noon and, for Arch Pendor, that meant he was already nursing a nice buzz for the day.

"Thanks man..." Arch slurred to the droid as he took the proffered data and read it over. Seemed easy enough. Data slicers tended not to be especially difficult to subdue. Though he prided himself on being able to outshoot the brawlers and outbrawl the shooters, the Nautolan preferred targets he didn't have to fight.

"You sure are a shape in a drape in that little outfit you got there, man." Arch said to Nala, flashing his trademarked winning grin at her. Maybe she dug the whole "scummy musician turned bounty hunter" vibe and maybe she didn't but Arch was always one to shoot his shot. Plus, he didn't exactly have a ship at the moment and maybe she'd be kind enough to give him a ride.

"You willing to split the work on this Wado cat?" he asked the Zygerrian.

Nala fought the urge to sneer, then thought better of it. "I don't do charity." she said, features curled in a way that even a non-felinoid could tell were meant to register disgust. "Nor do I need help, even if I thought you could provide any."

She waited, curious to see if the bounty hunter would respond. Most likely he would either respond with a boast of some special skill or piece of knowledge, or by taking a swing at her. In the latter case, she could count what would follow as a warm-up for the work-out she would do once onboard the Star Venturer.

Edited by Nodrog on Oct 10th 2019 at 10:15:04 AM

Imperial Bounty Office

An individual in a long poncho strolled in. Their species or gender were not readily discernible. They graciously accepted the data slate and starred at it for only a few seconds before handing back to the protocol droid.

"And I'll be seeing you later." The individual said to the droid in a seductive cadence before turning to the other bounty hunters that were there.

"Greetings, fellow hunters in arms. I don't suppose any of you would be willing to collaborate on this particular job?"

Nala sighed, then began speaking slowly. "It's... a... slicer. Not a Hutt lord, not a pirate king, not a noble surrounded by retainers. You two can stay and talk team up, but unless the Empire started paying per bounty hunter instead of per bounty, I plan to tackle this one by myself."

Edited by Nodrog on Oct 10th 2019 at 10:13:26 AM

"If he really was just a slicer, you don't think local security or the Imps themselves would have been able to snag him?" Arch asked the lady rehtorically. He nodded at the newcomer bounnty hunter.

"I'm down for a team up, pal." Arch said.

The door slid open and in walked a rather stoic looking individual, he stepped up to the Bounty Droid and accepted the Dataslate.

"77, copy the files."

"Of course," said another droid following him.

"What are we looking at?"

"Slicer, clever, never been caught. Probably has good protection or is just hard to track."

"Hm. Tarvis, we'll head there."

"Of course! Why wait when you could just rush in."

Lance looked over and saw a gaggle of Bounty Hunters sitting there, "Are you all after the same bounty?"

Nala gave the new comer a quick look over, then dismissed him as a Fett-Wannabe. While armor had it's place, a full body suit slowed the wearer too much for Nala's taste. She preferred any armor in her presence to be worn by someone else who, willingly or unwilling, could be maneuvered between herself and danger.

She gave a dismissive shrug to the question and turned to head back to the dock.

Imperial Office

The individual gave Arch a thumbs up.

"Nice to see someone is willing to come along."

He turns to Nala.

"Oh c'mon, where's your sense of adventure? Don't think of this as an easy job, think of it as a breather, a vacation where we get to capture someone in the end."

"My sense of adventure ranks far below my common sense, sense of self preservation, and..." Nala paused for a moment and gave a shudder of disgust, emphasizing the movements so that they could easily be seen. "...sense of smell. Enjoy your pow-wow."

She turned to stalk down the hallway. Just as she took a step, her wrist-bracer beeped and allowed a synthesized, androgynous voice to speak. "You know, you COULD be nicer. The Star Venturer could easily accommodate more passengers and I would greatly enjoy..."

"Astair, what have I said about eavesdropping?" Nala demanded, speaking through the wrist bracer's comm-link to the droid brain that ran the Star Venturer.

"That it's fine as long as we don't get caught."

"I meant about eavesdropping on ME."

The sound of an open comm-link being hastily closed was Astair's only response.

Edited by Nodrog on Oct 10th 2019 at 10:13:03 AM

"You have a ship huh? Wouldn't you like to split the fuel costs?" Arch asked cheekily. "Plus, a bounty that hot - we're definitely not going to be the only ones after this cat. It'd be cool to have more guns on your side, all I'm saying."

The figure pulled back his cloak, revealing a distinct IG series head. They gesture to Arch.

"See? This one gets it. C'mon, it'll be fun."

Nala hissed in frustration. "FINE. You want to do this? We pair up." She pointed at the one she could at least use as a scratching post without breaking a nail on a metal exterior. "Art, was it? You're with me. Bolthead there can team up with the Manda-Snore-ian over there."

Edited by Nodrog on Oct 10th 2019 at 10:12:27 AM

"Testy aren't you?" Lance commented about Nala, "Clearly never seen police gear."

"Maybe she's just angry we'll probably get the bounty first," 77 added, his tone oozing smugness.

"Be careful everyone, Wado has not been caught for good reason!" The Bounty Droid added.

Lance ignored her and stepped out, and back into his ship.

The Cutter Corvette soon took off from the Asteroid station and flew off in the direction of Tarvis IV, 77 at the helm as Lance set about preparing his equipment.

Bounty Office

"Arch, actually. But if you're giving me a ride, you can call me whatever you want."

Space

"Appreciate the ride, lady. You got a backstory behind that pretty face you got there?" Arch asked, trying to make some conversation with this testy Zygerrian as he inspected both his pistols and made sure they were ready for whatever lie ahead.

Star Venturer, En Route

The Star Venturer was laid out as a luxury transport, designed by Nala to look like a rich girl's toy. As such it had a central lounge with a large holo-table designed to function both for playing a variety of games and to serve as a dining table, surrounded by high end auto-chairs. Instead of sitting in one of the padded, automated chairs that would have automatically adjusted to seat Nala in computer optimized comfort (with heating, cooling, and massage options), Nala was pacing up and down in the hallway.

"Have a backstory? Yes." Nala snapped, then pulled out a device that looked like the hilt of a light saber. She turned it on, allowing an orange glowing electro-whip to emerge from the handle. "Plan to share it? No."

Over the ship's loudspeaker came the synthesized sound of a throat being cleared, in then Astair's voice. The drone-brain running the ship, Astair's voice had been carefully calculated to be pleasant, non-threatening, and non-gender specific. "The Lady Nyalta Huntressa the Third, Star of the Cosmos, is an incredibly private person." Astair said. "She has even claimed multiple times to me that she is not a true Lady, despite that being the identity which she used when purchasing and registering me. Be assured, however, that as the lady's private runabout, I will do all in my power to insure your comfort while on board."

Nala lashed out, arm swinging the whip so that the glowing orange tip hit a spot on the wall. Several small, black marks indicated earlier strikes on the insulated inner surface; in act which caused only cosmetic damage and no actual pain to the ship;s drone brain. Still, Astair supplied a faint whimper and cry in response to the electro-whip.

"Rather then discussing our past, I would discuss our future." Nala said, then gestured at the table to use her still active electro-whip as a pointer. Floating above the surface of the table was a rotating image of Wado T'Varian, his two lekku draped over his shoulders. "Namely, plans and fallback options for capturing him."

Edited by Nodrog on Oct 10th 2019 at 10:10:34 AM

Arch smirked and then shirked when Nala used her whip. What happened to civility in the bounty hunting game? Granted, Arch had never been around when bounty hunting had been civil but he'd heard stories before about a time when it had been. The late, great Jango Fett would not nearly have been such a jerk, Arch decided. However, the Zygerrian seemed a bit testy and so, Arch amused himself by playing a single player rhythm based holo-game that he was amazing at. He had not lost his skills and would have been content to play it until they landed when Nala did the surprising thing and spoke.

"Look, I'm not much in the way of bounty hunting specialists . I'm pretty average or below all across the map. But I've had some experience and, in my experience, there's no way a guy like that is confident or skilled enough to be his own muscle. He's probably hired a local gang or paid a few bodyguards to be his protection while he sits on this info. So maybe first things would to be find the local information broker and find out what kind of muscle this cat's working with." Arch suggested.

"That is... not actually unintelligent." Nala admitted. She clipped the whip back onto her hip. "It's true he might have hired bodyguards. My thought was that he seems to have some 'hot' intelligence he might be looking to sell. If we can convince Wado that we're potential buyers for his information, then we'll be in a position of him looking for us rather then him looking for us. Of course, one of use would have to pretend to be a buyer and the other person pretend to be a body guard."

Edited by Nodrog on Oct 13th 2019 at 11:04:58 AM

Lance checked his weaponry and began to ask 77, "What do you think we'll deal with?"

"A droid at the very least. A slicer like that probably stole something big, droid army if we're lucky... oh hey can I break his legs?"

Lance stared, "Why do you want to break his legs?"

"You never let me break anyone's legs!"

Lance rolled his eyes and got back to the path on hand, he tapped his finger to his chin pondering, "Slicer, possible droid presence, stolen imperial data. He may be more difficult."

"Wanna team up with the others?"

"Save it for if the mission becomes too difficult."

Star Venturer

69 was milling about, admiring the interior design of the craft.

"I have to say, you do travel in style. You host parties often? Oh we should totally host a party after. I can call up some of my old flames."

Theu saw Nala crack that whip real good and mocked a shiver.

"Oh, I like that. I like that a lot."

They took a seat in one of the chairs and propped their feet up onto the holo-table.

"Well usually a blaster slug between the eyes is a good backup plan."

Star Venturer

"No offense there Sweet Cheeks but I think me and Metalhead should be the ones posing as the bodyguards. You definitely look more like the information buying type than us hardened hardheads. Maybe get the Mando wannabe as backup." Arch said, cracking a grin.

"I'd say once we dock, we should start hitting up the cantinas. Nothing like drunk lowlifes to give you info on what's hot and who's selling it."

Nala looked 69 and Arch over carefully, then nodded. "Excellent point." Nala said. "We'll do it your way. Do either of you have any actual computer slicing skills? If not, one of your first assignments in the Cantinas... besides remaining sober enough to find your way back to my ship... will be to find a local slicer."

Tarvis IV was a luxury planet, blue oceans as far as the eye could see, beautiful beaches, and massive cities that seemed made of crystal and glass... of course anyone who was familiar with the region knew all this was at best a fancy disguise for the truth of the planet.

Tarvis IV was a shady underbelly, where the local law enforcement enacted brutal punishments and were allowed to do so, where people were sold into indentured servitude and outright slavery, and many citizens went missing in their own hospital beds.

The Cutter landed and Lance stepped out, placing his helmet on and getting the seal to click, a HUD appeared before his eyes as he saw the other ship land.

"What do you say? Work with them?" 77 asked.

"It's the logical step forward."

Nala stepped out of her cabin, dressed in disguise. A pair of large, tinted glasses covered most of her upper face,a hud projector and com-net link built into the frames. A high end, water-proofed data pad was cradled in her left arm. A glittering black bikini clung to her body, leaving her arms, shoulders, and most of her torso completely exposed. Around her waist was slung a gauzy, sheer black sarong skirt, leaving her left leg completely exposed, and having a black leather pouch hanging from her right hip. Leather sandals on her feet revealed that both her finger and toe claws were painted with a golden polish. Several gold bracelets and an ankle bracelet completed her outfit.

"Astair, watch the ship, standard security protocols." Nala ordered. She turned to look at the other bounty hunters. "Is one of you going with me as a bodyguard, to build my cover, or are you both going to hit the local booze-pits?"

Edited by Nodrog on Oct 18th 2019 at 9:20:38 AM