Pre-NuTL: Manhunters

[Nefieslab]

Well wasn't this a surprise... the Mando was attractive.

And the comedians on Coruscant joked that the only difference between a mando man and a mando woman was the lack of a beard - well, she definitely didn't have the beard but that was the least of it. Her helmet had taken more damage than he thought but she refused to be parted with it.

That fitted the mando stereotype.

He looked at her for a moment before glancing at the speeder that was rapidly disappearing as it approached the spaceport. Weighing it up in his mind for a second, he moved back into the room proper and began to pull up one of the terminals. He nodded to her.

"I don't like leaving jobs half finished - even ones that were just traps to get me killed." he admitted bluntly before tapping away at the display's holographic interface, "The Sith have enough sway to lock down the spaceport."

He didn't mention that it would burn through every scrap of goodwill this Imperial Intelligence branch had earned because it didn't matter to him and it didn't matter to her.

"Source a speeder and we can pursue." He paused before raising an eyebrow at her, the corner of his lip twitching into something of a smirk, "Unless you aren't feeling up to it right now - in that case I can get the spaceport staff to log his ship's ID. Help you track it."

It would be a lot easier on Imperial resources... but he had just challenged her. He really doubted that she would turn down the challenge. If she did, it would be to try and inflict violence upon him for daring to challenge her like that but he was a bit further away from her now so he was reasonably confident he could get away with it.

@Sreeya

 

[Sreeya]

Get a speeder to chase? What did he think this was, some sort of action flick? She shook her head, deciding that he had no further useful intel to offer. Before he even got to his second suggestion, she was already climbing out of the window. She hooked her grapple line and quickly dropped down to the levels below, entirely ignoring the searing pain that coursed through her body with each movement.

As soon as she landed, she quickly rushed over to a nearby speeder, trying her best to hotwire it. Pride got in the way, and she was delaying precious moments. Ned had done it so easily, and she still hadn’t mastered the art fully. After trying for a few moments, she angrily punched the console, an alarm beginning to blare. It would be a matter of moments before she was swarmed and Kath was getting away during this all.

The explosion at the front had already drawn considerable attention, and now she was landing herself in a worse spot. She glanced all around, hoping the insufferable merc wannabe was around, “Hey! I might uh…. Need your help again,” She had to practically choke out the words through gritted teeth. Her ego was cracked from having to ask for help, but this was the fastest way to catch up to Kath. She knew once they got in the air, she’d be able to trace him. She had been able to identify what his speeder looked like and the direction it curved. There was no doubt he was heading for the nearest spaceport to catch a way off the planet.

 

[Nefieslab]

Did she... did she jump out of the god damned window while he was trying to help her?

She actually had.

Honestly, Eddard just stared at the open window for a moment in surprise before he managed to reboot his mind enough to actually respond to the fact that she had just jumped out of the window while he was doing his best to lend her some assistance despite having no stake in this save some personal pride. The only response that he could come up with was concise but it worked well for this situation.

"How rude."

Still... he didn't stop sending off the information and instructions to the spaceport to seal it off so he supposed he might just be bowing to his pride a bit more than was typical for him. Running a hand through his hair, he used the Force to grab a grapple line from one of the dead thugs and attached it to his belt before hooking it to the side of the window like she had and rappelling down.

It was about halfway down the building when he heard the sound of a speeder's alarm blaring.

He was on the ground and moving to the speeder when she, through teeth that were literally gritted, asked for his help. Or rather, implied that she might need his help. If he wasn't feeling the need to see Kath dead quite so much, he would have just looked at her and waited for the guards to attack her. But as it was?

"Get out of the driver's seat."

Climbing into the speeder's driver's seat, he leaned down and began to the process of hot-wiring the speeder into working again. Just like before, he positioned his body between her and the wires so she couldn't see exactly what he was doing - all she would know was that it worked.

He climbed into the back seat, letting her drive.

"He won't be leaving the planet on anything large than a freighter - so entrance three on the second floor is where we need to go at the spaceport."

He had two lightsabers at his waist but he resolved to only use them as swords, as a mercenary would, and instead made sure to reload his blaster pistol again as she drove. This was already proving to be a long day.

@Sreeya

 

[Sreeya]

She didn’t need to be told twice, hopping over to the other seat to let him work. This time she watched him carefully, attempting to learn what he was doing. Even then, he moved too quickly for her to truly understand, and she sighed, “You should show me how to do that. Useful skill,” She muttered barely audibly. She doubted he wanted to teach her much of anything after she had made it clear she found him to be a problematic distraction. There was no doubt he thought the same of her and was now entertained by seeing a Mandalorian be somewhat helpless.

She was surprised to see him hop to the backseat to let her drive. She quirked an eyebrow, her missing helmet now exposing the expressions she wore on her face, making her a lot more human than she had been before. She quickly came to her senses and got in the driver seat, revving up the engines to get them in the air. Within moments, they were whirling towards the spaceport at top speed. She zoomed in and out of traffic, cutting close calls and whizzing past other speeders.

It took them only a few minutes to reach the spaceport, and she landed close to where Ned had indicated. A quick scan revealed the speeder she saw rushing away with Kath in it. She barely parked the speeder before she hopped clear over the side of it, landing with a painful crouch before bolting towards the port.

She despised working without a helmet, her face out in the open and easily identifiable. For now, she put her broken helmet back on, revealing only half of her face. She made her way towards the second floor, hearing an argument break out as Kath was loudly complaining about how long it took them to get a ship ready to get off planet.

She made her way out towards the hangar to spot a few operatives that were explaining to Kath that he couldn’t simply commandeer one of the ships. He stopped arguing and looked up as he spotted her. He roughly shoved the operative out of the way and made a beeline for one of the ships, but not before she leveled her gun and shot him square in the chest. One shot was all it took, and he dropped to the floor. Everyone else scattered, screaming bloody murder and rushing to report the incident.

“Shit,” She muttered as she rushed towards the fallen body of Kath. She crouched down to hoist his heavy body up with some difficulty, glancing over at Ned, “Can you bring the speeder up to this level? I need to bring the damn body back.”

 

[Nefieslab]

Eddard was rather amused that she asked him about teaching her how to hot-wire, mainly because it was odd to find a mando who would admit that they didn't know something and ask someone like him for assistance in learning. He was still busy doing the work when he replied however.

"Only if you can teach me something in return - know how to play poker? I never learned."

It was both a flippant remark and something of a curiosity.

Eddard truly hadn't ever learned how to play poker after all so it would be informative if she bothered to 'pay'. He would be able to teach her as well since he was only using the Force to speed it up - he did actually know how to do it all himself. For Imperial vehicles only though, which was something of a downside.

He was the second to leave the speeder and he didn't do anything to catch up with her - just keeping a steady pace. By the time he arrived, she had already killed him and the crowds were panicking. Eddard waved away the head of security and gave him a look that the man recognised before nodding and calling his men off.

And that was the last of the local influence gone.

Bring the speeder around?

What was he, her driver?

Regardless, it caused fewer issues to just grab the speeder, which he drove right up to the side of her, ignoring how this was supposed to be for pedestrians only.

There weren't any pedestrians.

"Was he worth the effort?" he asked her bluntly, eyebrow slightly raised, "Credit wise?"

@Sreeya

 

[Sreeya]

She was thankful that he didn’t argue when she told him to get the speeder. Alarms were raised all around and she had precious moments to act. As the speeder came up, she ran for it, ignoring all the pains from the grenade and wheezing under the weight of Kath. She launched him unceremoniously into the backseat and hopped into the passenger seat, “Go go go!” She looked back, ducking as a few blaster bolts fired in their direction. From the looks of it, some of Kath’s men had finally caught up to the scene.

She breathed heavily as they began to get away, finally relaxing for the first time tonight. She reached for a cigarra, lighting it as she inhaled deeply before blowing it out. She let his question linger for a moment before answering, “He’s worth the effort even after I split the bounty with you,” She didn’t look at him, the wind coursing through her hair as they made a getaway. The next stop would be to the agency that issued the bounty. It wasn’t a part of the official planetary government, but it was notable enough for her to trust it.

After a long moment, she fidgeted with her helmet before speaking, “It’s Raz,” She said simply, offering nothing more.

 

[Nefieslab]

Well it seemed that his level of flying was well suited to one type of flying - getaway flying.

With how he was already moving the speeder into evasive moves as soon as the mando was in the car, the blaster bolts slamming into nothing but the bodywork as he allowed himself a small smirk as he accelerated. It was... mostly a controlled acceleration? The point was that they were moving, they were moving fast and Eddard was having the first good time he'd had since he'd actually arrived on this backwater planet.

Force be good he loved speed.

If he had been alone as the speeder shot out from the spaceport towards the agency? He would have laughed but he wasn't alone so the smirk was the best that was going to happen. Even undercover, there were some things that Eddard was just not good at and expressing himself openly was one of those things.

Honestly?

He was tempted to bum a smoke from her.

"Take it out of my cut if I ask for a smoke?"

Might as well ask.

He was silent for a moment as they flew further down towards the agency - acknowledging that she had actually told him her name. It had been something he'd asked for awhile back. Might as well respond in kind.

"Eddard." he admitted simply, "Ned is for friends and family."

Hence why the Sith witch from before had used it, to try and get under his skin.

As they approached the agency, he pulled up outside before hopping out of the speeder first. Grabbing Kath, he threw the man's corpse over one shoulder for ease and followed her lead.

@Sreeya

 

[Sreeya]

Raz glanced over with surprise clear on her face for a moment as he asked for a cigarra. She shrugged after a while, tossing him an extra along with a light. Raz took them closer to the agency that issued the bounty, but they had a short journey yet. When he reintroduced himself, she quirked an eyebrow, “Why did you mention it was Ned first then?”

She snickered to herself, shaking her head before going back to puffing on the cigarra. She was already beginning to think of the next job she would take on, her mind far away from the situation at hand. At the very least, she realized Eddard didn’t pose a direct threat…for now. She had no doubts that he felt the same towards her, though he probably trusted her even less. She had a history of being an opportunist, and that had been a part of her personality for as long as she could remember. As she blew smoke out her nostrils, she thought of the time she shot a man trying to help her in the leg. The faintest smile graced her face.

“After we drop Kath off and collect the bounty, I will make my way off planet. Where do you want to be dropped off?” It was the least she could do. She wasn’t normally in the habit of being a taxi service, but he had gone out of his way to help her complete a job when he didn’t need to. As she kept driving, her mind wandered back to the Sith woman from earlier and how this had all been planned from the start.

“How big is that woman’s network? Will this follow us?” She hated that there was even an ‘us’ in this, and it made the normally solo hunter uncomfortable. Raz was always guarded by nature, and this was a problem that needed help from people outside of her close social circle.

@Nefieslab

 

[Nefieslab]

He caught the cigara and the lighter in the same hand, snatching them out of the air deftly as he continued to drive with one hand. Popping the cigara in his mouth, he lit it before tossing the lighter back over to her. Taking his first pull from it, he hummed a little bit and the corner of his mouth twitched up slightly.

"Maybe you caught me feeling uncharacteristically friendly?"

She was being awful nice.

People being nice was something of a trigger for Eddard, being the paranoid man that he was he tended to think that there was a motive behind every move, even when there wasn't. Honestly, it wasn't often that he found someone he didn't have any motives behind helping him. Maybe she just felt like she needed to pay off a debt? In the end though he would take her up on her offer because he had another mission to get to.

A nasty bit of wet work with a fellow Sith he actually knew to be a damned good assassin and not a waste of space like the woman he had served with, and killed, here.

"Manaan alright by you?" he asked with a slight raising of his eyebrow, "If it's out of your way then just anywhere a guy can buy a reasonably priced ship that isn't here - I doubt you want me tagging along as some kind of sidekick."

It didn't seem like she needed a sidekick if he was being honest.

Ah.

"I'll be focusing on it." he told her simply, "I'll be their main focus because I'll be making a nuisance of myself - weeding out her supporters and the like. You shouldn't suffer any blow-back from this."

He glanced at her with a small smirk.

"Might help your rep though."

Having a lethal man and a detachment of Sith Imperial Intelligence try, and fail, to kill you? That was a decent mark up he'd wager.

@Sreeya