Chapter 4: Bounty Hunters

*Eiiih-eeeih-eeeih~!* An annoying siren woke me up, followed by a rumbling throughout the whole damn ship.

“Red Alert! Red Alert! All crew to battlestations! I repeat, all crew to battle stations! We’re under attack!” A man was shouting through the speakers and hurting Midnight’s ears. Mine were fine, but it was still annoying.

“Master, what are your orders?” Izsha let go of me and floated a few feet above the bed.

“Get ready for battle, I guess.” I yawned and looked over at the silly cat that was trying to cover his ears with his paws. I reached out and placed my palm on his head. Some glowing purple goop oozed out of my wrist joint and engulfed the kitty before he could escape. I wiggled my fingers a few times and then the slime transformed into a rubbery cocoon. It was durable and could keep him alive in the void for a long time, if necessary.

“Inefficient.” My cute Drone gave a critique, “He is our weakness.”

“I know, right?” I snorted and chuckled as I pushed off the bed. Taking a breath, I hovered for a few seconds, before falling down onto the metal floor. It’s wild how you can just release a certain frequency of energy waves and counter gravity.

I waved my hand behind me and Midnight’s cocoon flew over to my back and stuck there. Then I looked over to the green suitcases. They were made by my people. A semi-organic material that they use for a lot of their technologies. It could block blaster fire if necessary, not to mention surviving in a vacuum. Makes you wonder why they didn’t use it to make body armor?

“I guess it’s the same reason that the Jedi run around in robes and tunics instead of armor.” If you think about it, the Jedi used to wear armor way back in the Old Republic days. And then they only started wearing some armor during the Clone Wars. Or at least a few Jedi started doing it. Like ‘General Kenobi’.

“Master, focus. Battle imminent.” Izsha actually scolded me! How adorable!

“Don’t worry, Kid, I’m getting serious now.” I wrapped my hands around my throat, covering the red skin with purple slime. The goop moved up across my face and ears, morphing into a simple and convenient black mask. The material covering my eyes was transparent. Even if I could use the Force or grow some extra eyes, it’s a little unnecessary.

*Pew-pew~!*

*Boom~!*

*Rumble~!*

There was fighting in the hallway. The ship outside hadn’t even boarded us yet, but I guess the bounty hunters inside couldn’t wait.

“Jakoli! I should’ve known you’d be here!” The Zygerrian hybrid was using a glowing yellow energy whip to strangle that random security dude I saw the other day.

*Pew-pew~!* The green-skinned Rodian dude fired a blaster pistol and blasted the poor bastard’s head off, but the cat-girl managed to avoid taking any damage. She darted back behind a big ass Ithorian that stupidly left their room at the wrong moment. A blue beam flew past and burnt a hole through his left arm, before melting the surface of the wall behind him!

“Echuta!” Jakoli shouted as I took a step outside my room. I saw him pull out a silver orb from his hip and press a button to make it start beeping rapidly. Then he threw the ball at my face with all his strength, before darting inside the open door to his left.

“Thermal Detonator?” I caught it and pressed a few buttons, deactivating it immediately. What? Was I supposed to just take a grenade to the face for no reason?

*Crack~!* I reached back with my left hand and caught the energy whip that was constantly trying to electrocute me. Sparks shot all over the place and my palm was getting kinda toasty.

“Langeshi! Surrender to me or you’ll die like everyone else on this ship!” That nameless Zygerrian girl was holding what looked like some kind of detonator in her free hand, while the other was holding the energy whip.

“Okay.” I looked up and so did she, just in time to watch those pincers come down on her shoulders!

“Aaaaaah~! No!” Was all she had time to say before Izsha chomped down on her pretty little head. The cat-girl’s body went limp and floated upwards, affected by the energy field around the Drone.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Zygerrian Essence acquired.” She bragged as she continued ripping apart the headless corpse, tearing the cat-girl’s pretty blue outfit to shreds in the process…

*Beep-beep-beep~!* The grenade in my hand started beeping suddenly!

“Shit.” I threw it into my room and ‘pulled’ my suitcase out, before closing the door!

*Boom~!* The ship rocked! The sirens went even crazier than before!

“Master! Escape!” Izsha threw away the Zygerrian remains and floated over to my side.

“Yeah, we should probably go now.” I placed the big rectangular green case on Izsha’s back and she secreted some gooey purple slime to hold it in place.

*Boom~!* Another explosion rocked the ship and the sirens shut off, so did the lights and even the gravity! Red emergency lights came on and then the gravity returned, but only about a fourth of what it was before.

*Taao-taoo-taoo~!* A different blaster sound came from down the hall. There were also some screams, before a tall figure in red and gray Mandalorian armor appeared. She was holding a gray blaster pistol in each hand and aiming them at me. But then she started firing at Izsha!

*Tao-tao-tao-tao~!* The green bolts hit the armor on her head and bounced off to the sides, but left behind scorch marks.

“Cut that shit out!” I reached out with both hands and ‘Force Grabbed’ her wrists, turning the guns away from us. She bent down and a fucking rocket shot towards us from her ‘jetpack’! I moved out of the way and Izsha did the same, but when the rocket reached the end of the hallway behind us it obviously exploded! The flames engulfed the whole damn corridor!

“Eiiiiii~!” Izsha let out a high-pitched screech and I was in a lot of pain as well. More importantly, Midnight’s cocoon was burning!

“Maaooou~!” I could hear him crying in pain and feel him struggling to escape.

“Master! It hurts!” Even her telepathic voice sounded much higher pitched and desperate.

“I’m sorry.” I breathed out a sigh and the fire was instantly extinguished. The ground and ceiling creaked, warped by the heat and pressure. The Mandalorian ahead of us was fine. She raised her right hand and shot a wire out of her wrist. It wrapped around my throat and tightened. Then a jolt of electricity shocked me slightly.

“I’m sorry for being so passive.” I took Midnight’s charred black cocoon off my back and placed it on top of the green suitcase on Izsha’s back. Then I darted over in front of ‘Vhonte’ and took a blaster bolt to the face. But I grabbed her throat under the fancy helmet and growled, “Stop.”

“Surrender!” She shouted at me and tried to fight back, but no matter how much Mandalorian training she had, no matter how much of a ‘supersoldier’ she was… She was just a human.

“No.” I pulled off her helmet. Bright red hair, just like her armor. Pale skin, probably from wearing the helmet all the time. Blue eyes…

“You’re gorgeous.” I smiled behind my mask, then I tossed the helmet away and placed my right hand on the side of her face: “I can fix that.”

“Wait! Wait, aaaagh~!” She actually didn’t scream that much or that loudly considering how brutally I was rearranging her muscles and bones. Actually pretty impressive tolerance for torture.

After about a minute of having her face and skull ‘massaged’, she shouted: “We can talk about this!”

“Talk about what?” I raised an eyebrow, “I was just punishing you for hurting my cat. Now I’m gonna feed you to my daughter.”

“Hiss~!” Izsha floated over and used her pincers to remove the wire from my throat.

“Credits! Fifty thousand!” She had her facial features returned to their previous pretty proportions, though that didn’t really mean much to a monster like me.

“Fifty thousand Credits for your life?” I looked at her helmet and then her armor, “The Beskar in your suit is definitely worth more than that.”

“Not for my life. For your bounty.” She raised her left hand and aimed her wrist-mounted flamethrower at my face, but before she could do anything, her whole body seized up.

“I can literally turn you into a Womprat.” I removed my mask so that she could see my handsome tomato face, “If you’re waiting on your friend, he’s probably about to steal your ship.”

“Jakoli has no friends.” Vhonte struggled to breath, not to mention speak, but she still managed somehow.

“You didn’t come here alone.” I looked over to the right and ‘felt’ someone over there. A strong will, but not much in the way of the Force. Maybe another Mandalorian.

“No. I didn’t. Now you can either come with me and accept your fate, or we can both die together.” She had a serious expression on her cute face. She was really willing to die with me rather than failing her Bounty Mission.

“Vhonte, that’s enough.” A somewhat familiar voice came from a communication device on her right wrist.

“Jango, what the frak are you doing?” She glared at her wrist.

“It’s over.” Jango motherfucking Fett was apparently her partner, “What’s your name, Kid?”

“Amon Kal. Not gonna lie, I’m kind of a fan.” I snickered and finally let go of the ginger girl’s throat. To make sure she didn’t do anything particularly stupid, I didn’t remove the paralytic venom coursing through her veins. She just kinda slumped to the floor as I took the communicator off her wristguard.

It was a small disk with some buttons on it. I pressed one of them and a small holographic image of the Mandalorian Bounty Hunter appeared. Silver armor with some blue on the faceguard of his helmet. Brought back memories of my first childhood.

“Always nice to meet a fan…” Jango didn’t sound very enthusiastic, “Fifty thousand Credits. You have my word that we’ll leave and won’t bother you again.”

“Damn it Jango!” The girl somehow managed to shout before coughing violently and nearly passing out.

“Fifty thousand Credits is nothing to me.” I shook my head and made a counter-offer, “Okay, how about this, a million Credits and a ride to Tatooine.”

“I’m not paying a million Credits.” He refused immediately, “Fifty thousand and a ride to Tatooine.”

“Is fifty thousand Credits a lot?” I looked towards the limp girl on the ground and she just glared at me. She couldn’t even speak anymore. If I didn’t remove the venom soon, she might actually die or at least get brain damage.

“For fifty thousand Credits, you could buy a decent ship.” He didn’t seem very impatient considering the circumstances.

“A small ship on Zonama Sekot sells for like a million Credits though.” I shrugged and complained, “Hell, my Mom was selling my puppies and kittens for five thousand Credits each!”

“You could buy a human for less than that on Tatooine.” Jango groaned, “Fine. Instead of Credits, I’ll give you a thousand Peggats. If you’re headed to Tatooine, then you won’t be needing Republic Credits anyway.”

*Rumble~!* The ship shook and then an automated female voice announced, “Self-Destruct sequence initiated. Please evacuate immediately.”

“Okay, I’ll settle for a thousand Peggats, whatever.” I hung up the call and stuck the tiny holoprojector back onto the girl’s wrist. Then I spat on her face, administering the antivenom in a safe and painless way. It started working quickly, but I still kindly grabbed her ankle with one hand and her helmet with the other, dragging the Mandalorian towards the airlock at a brisk pace.

“Master, humans are dangerous.” Izsha whispered into my mind. Even though she had already healed from the mild burns before, she was still traumatized from the experience.

I leaned down and rubbed my face against her smooth head, “They might be weak and fragile, but they’re still the most dangerous monsters in the Galaxy. Always remember that.”