On the hunt again (PM to join)

[Halcyon]

A cloaked figure wandered through the vast desert, almost aimlessly. The cloak was a tan that blended in with the desert, tattered, worn and used, much like most of the planet's inhabitants. It seemed almost to fit in with the planet's surroundings. Anyone viewing the wanderer would have thought him either lost or foolhardy for believing he could face the desert's elements on his own. But he was neither, he knew exactly what his destination was.

Just over the horizon, the wanderer spotted his final destination, and shifted his weight to move the massive object that was attached to his back and wrapped in layers of bandages, much like the wanderer's hands. Just ahead of him was what appeared to be a small camp. Wasting no time, he made his way to the camp.

A group of smugglers were loading a freighter with what was likely stolen goods, not that the wanderer really had any concerns with any of that, in all honesty, petty theives were really the least of his concerns. But he was certain that what he was looking for was inside the freighter. He approached the freighter. Several of the smugglers stopped and watched him, placing their hands near their blasters.

The one closest to him, a rodian, placed a hand out to stop and demanded in his tongue that the wanderer leave immediately.

The wanderer smiled politely, "I'm sorry, I believe I'm lost, if you could just give me some water so I continue my journey I'll be on my way."

The rodian turned and pointed towards one of the tents, and that was when the wanderer took his opportunity to strike, sprinting forward faster than humanly possible and planted a blow square in the rodian's stomach, bringing him down to the ground.

The other smugglers quickly drew their blasters and prepared opened fire on the wanderer, who was now moving far faster than any human had any right too. Moving swiftly, he got behind one of the smugglers and grabbing him in an iron choke hold in with one arm, grabbed a hold of the smuggler's gun arm, and used his hapless, victim to pick off each and every one of the other smugglers, before snapping his neck and dropping him soundlessly to the ground.

One of the smugglers, this one a bothan, was still alive and struggling to try and grab his dropped firearm. The wanderer stepped on the smuggler's wrist and slowly applied pressure to it, waiting until he heard a popping noise.

"Where's Rav Gratel?" demanded the wanderer.

The smuggler, whimpering, pointed to the freighter.

The wanderer removed his boot from the smuggler's wrist and in one quick motion kicked the nearby blaster into the air and grabbed it handily, before callously shooting the smuggler in the throat.

"Thanks," replied Cuir to the bothan's now smoking corpse.

Unperturbed in the least, Cuir tossed the blaster aside and headed towards the freighter, a small smile appearing on his face, this was starting to almost become fun.

[Halcyon]

Cuir made his way to the freighter, it was rather large, used for carrying items in bulk. Vessels of this type were typically found in Republic convoys carrying war materials, such as tanks, landspeeders and other weapons used in the war efforts, either that or doubling as troop transports. Finding his target in this vessel would not be easy.

Cuir clenched one of his hands into a fist in excitement, it was always more fun with a handicap, obviously by now they would've been alerted to his presence, and as the repulsorlifts whined with the familiar sound of them powering up, Cuir knew he had only moments to get on board.

The loading ramp had already started to close, Cuir sprinted to it and leaped grabbing the lip of the door, before pulling himself up and over and tucking and rolling as he hit the ground as the door slammed shut narrowly missing his body. Cuir stood, ready to draw his weapon. It was a cavernous bay filled with all sorts of contraband, and several small fighters as well. That was a bit of a surprise, this ship was well prepared for combat, and likely heavily modified as five guards surrounded him with blaster rifles trained on his body. He felt the ship rumble as it took off. This might pose a problem.

Cuir knew he was fast, but there was no way he could draw his sword in time to block all of their attacks.

Cuir heard laughter from the shadows, as a man walked forward his arms clasped behind him, "Well played bounty hunter, but you clearly didn't think this attack all the way through."

Cuir grinned sheepishly, "Sorry, to disappoint you, I improvise a lot."

Rav Gratel laughed, "Oh, my and you have a sense of humor too. You are quite amusing bounty hunter."

"I'm glad you think so," Cuir replied, "Well now that we've had this interesting chat, I doubt I can ask you to just give up quietly and come with me."

Rav laughed again, "You certainly are a foolish one, it's amazing you've managed to live this long bounty hunter," His face grew serious, "Now I'm going to have to ask you to surrender your weapon."

Cuir shrugged and slowly drew his sword holding it out, blade down for someone to grab. One of the riflemen came forward to grab it, and fell over as he dropped it from it's sheer weight into the ship's decking. With the noise Cuir used the distraction to his a small blue button on the comlink sewn into his glove. The guard who had dropped the sword looked up at him with incredulity, and Cuir shrugged dismissedly.

He held his hands forward for someone to come and bind them, and another guard did so with a pair of stun-cuffs. Cuir was more than familiar with them, if the wearer tried to break free of them a nasty shock was delivered. the more the wearer struggled, the greater the shock.

Rav snarled at the idiot who had dropped the sword, "Leave it, we'll have someone else come and grab it. Take this bounty hunter to the holding cells. We'll kill him later." Rav nodded to one of the guards

One of the other guards hit him in the face with the butt of the rifle. Cuir's head twisted slightly and blood began to dribble from his mouth, but the blow didn't knock him to the ground like it should have.

Rav was startled slightly, but recovered quickly, "Get this scum out of my sight."

The guards began to lead Cuir away, as he wiped the blood off the side of his face, and managed to recieve a nice jolt from the cuffs for his effort.

He looked into Rav's eyes, and gave a cold, merciless grin, "Remember when I kill you that I gave you the chance to come quietly and peacefully."

There was a slight twinge of fear that shot through Rav's eyes, but it vanished just as quickly, there was no way any normal human, no matter how good he was, could escape this.

Unfortunately for Rav, he had yet to realize that Cuir was far from being a "normal" human. And as the guards led him away, Cuir enjoyed thinking about the look on Rav's face when he finally realized how much danger he was actually in.

[Halcyon]

Cuir walked between the 5 guards leading him, 2 in front and 3 in back, as he headed for the holding cells. He kept his head bowed down low as he prepared himself, it was getting to be about time. He had played around with these fools long enough. He chuckled out loud to himself.

One of the guards, didn't seem to appreciate Cuir's sense of humor, slammed the butt of his rifle onto the back of his head, knocking Cuir to the ground. It hurt but pain was something Cuir had gotten use too over the years.

(Theme Music)

Cuir pushed himself up slowly, "Try that again, and I promise I'll kill you."

The guard sneered and prepared to slam the rifle down on his head again, when an explosion rocked the ship, knocking the guard off balance, and Cuir wasted no time. He stood quickly and slammed his fists into the side of the guard's head knocking him to the ground.

Spinning quickly he landed a foot into the stomach of one of the other 2 rear guards then slammed an elbow into the chin of the 3rd guard before the front guards could even turn to get their rifles to bear on him.

In one smooth motion he pulled his arms apart snapping the links holding the stun cuffs together, he shot forward and clipped the guard in the face with a round house that must have felt like a brick. The final guard realizing the uselessness of his rifle in such close range came when into a traditional fighting stance, and aimed a right hook at Cuir's head.

"Won't be that easy," sneered Cuir as the he deflected the blow with his left hand and slammed his right fist into the guard's face, sending him down with a bloody mess.

The first guard had begun to stand and charged at Cuir's now exposed back, Cuir moved out of the way, twisting to the side and wrapped his hands around the guards neck, with a sickening pop, broke it.

Cuir scowled, "I told you I'd kill you."

Rav's voice came over the ship's intercom, "We're under attack by an unknown vessel. All hands prepare for combat. Repeat: All hands prepare for combat."

That'd be my ride, thought Cuir.

Well he was slowly running out of time now. Cuir sprinted back towards the hangar bay, tossing his tattered robe aside revealing his black combat gear. He just needed to pick up one thing, and then it was on to the bridge.

[Halcyon]

Cuir slid his sword into it's sheath on his back, barely pausing as he changed direction and sprinted towards the bridge. The ship rocked again as another blow slammed into it, but Cuir managed to keep his balance and keep running. The ship was pretty large, and Cuir didn't have time to wait around.

His ship, Darkness Falls, had been fully slave rigged, and was doing exactly as it was programmed in attacking the freighter, but sometimes in computers made mistakes, and Cuir thought it'd be an ignominious way to die, being killed by his own vessel that is.

One of the crewman walked out of one of the hall doors. Startled by the appearance of a man carrying a giant sword, he reached for his blaster. Not wanting to lose anymore time Cuir leaped towards one of the corridor's walls and pushing off with his foot did a spin kick through the air into the crewman's face. Cuir landed and took off sprinting again, not even bothering to check and see if the crewer was still alive or not. He had no time for things like that.

If his memory was correct, ships of this design had another massive cargo bay, which then led to the bridge. And as he saw the open massive door he put on another burst of speed........

........and skidded to a stop as nearly two dozen gunmen pointed their firearms at him.

Rav looked on from a holovid, and smirked as Cuir drew his sword.

"That fool doesn't have a chance," muttered Rav, to no one in particular.

The other two officers on the bridge made similar noises of agreement before bringing their attention to the attacking vessel. Rav knew that this vessel was somehow connected to this bounty hunter on board. Likely they were here to rescue their comrade after he had killed Rav, but they weren't likely to get that satisfaction.

"Intensify all firepower," demanded Rav, "I don't want that bounty hunter to have anything to go back to if he somehow manages to survive."

Rav took a second to glance back at the holovid, and immediately wished he hadn't. Of the 2 dozen gunmen, only one was left, and as the blond bounty hunter swung his ridiculously over-sized sword he managed to deflect one of the rifle shots back into the gunman, before re-sheathing the sword, and somehow managing to begin prying open the blast doors that led to the bridge.

By the time Rav had managed to turn around Cuir was already in the bridge with his sword redrawn.

For the first time in his life, Rav was actually beginning to feel real stirrings of fear.

Rav reached over and hit a button on the console to his captain's chair, he wasn't about to die alone.

"I've hit the self-destruct sequence, bounty hunter," sneered Rav, who now believed he had attained at least a small victory, in outmaneuvering Cuir, "Now you can choose between living or finishing me off for your bounty."

Cuir snarled, when out of the corner of his eye he saw one of the other two officers draw his blaster and take aim. Rav recognized the danger first, at seeing Cuir already deflect a blaster bolt once, cried out, "No! WAIT!"

But the officer fired, and as the blaster bolt bounced off Cuir's blade and hit the transparisteel viewport, and while all viewports were treated to be blaster resistant, it was usually only on one side. So when the first crack began to spiderweb, everyone on board knew what was going to happen next.

The hole appeared and then the rest of the viewport went out of the window with it. Cuir moved fast and slammed his sword into the decking and held onto it as everything not strapped down was sucked out the viewport. Rav tried to hold on, but couldn't manage to hold onto his gripping as he was sucked out into the cold oblivion of space.

Cuir was slowly starting to lose his grip as well, only to have to emergency airlock seal close over the viewport.

Taking a moment to catch his breath Cuir swore to himself, the bounty for Rav being dead was far smaller than alive.

He looked at his wrist chrono, well no time to waste now, the ship was going to self-detonate at any second.

Re-sheathing his sword, he made his way to the escape pods. Hopefully the slave circuit on his ship wouldn't quit before it rescued him.