The
Hunt Begins
FM/LT Death Knight/Nemesis 3-3/Wing XX/ISD Subjugator
(whizzer2001@email.com)
"Damn!" had been his first word, as he had finally acknowledged the fact that he had failed the Bounty Hunter's Guild entry test. The marker had said, "You do not necessarily need to be smart to be a bounty hunter, but you are dumber than the average person."
The night before, he had gone to the bar with his fellow bounty hunter candidates, and had woken up the next day with a terrible hangover. That was his first mistake. His second was copying off the person next to him. Luckily, he did not copy all of it, and the person next to him got such a bad mark that he was executed.
And now here he was again, going for the test for the second time. His name is Karka Valore, and his lifelong ambition was to be a bounty hunter. But a strange turn of events led him to be a different kind of bounty hunter…
Finally, the last question, he thought. 'What is the leader of the Bounty Hunter's Guild called?' He had to think hard about his interpretation of that question, as it was tricky. However, he only had 2 minutes left to finish it, so he decided that he would write down, "Dark Prince Trench".
And now, finally, it was about 5 minutes from his first hunt briefing. He was getting nervous, as he had heard many rumors about what happens in the briefings, and the new tactician was not going to be any less vicious. He was a cruel man, who's only fun was killing newbie bounty hunters, like Karka.
He made sure he went about 5 minutes early to get a slightly less death-rated seat. Unfortunately for him, everyone else had had the same idea. So, he decided to use reverse psychology, figuring that Vesuvius (the Tactician) might actually reward him for his bravery. So, he went for the absolute killer seat, and kept his blaster pistol at the ready. Most bounty hunters were relaxing, because they knew that Karka, in the kill seat, was probably going to die, and not them.
They knew wrong. As the tactician came in, he had a remote control in his hand, and every single seat suddenly erupted in a blaze of lightning. Most hunters were killed instantly by the arcs of fiery power, but a few hunters managed to get up in time. Karka didn't have to get up, as his seat was not booby-trapped.
The tactician then explained the mission to the remaining hunters. A holocube had been stolen from an Imperial Interdictor Cruiser, the Mell. The mission was to either, 1. Recover it (Reward of 400,000 IC and a Hunter's Pride Medallion) or 2. Discover its location (Reward of 100,000 IC). Obviously, they wanted it recovered, so they didn't have to get it themselves. If you only discovered the location, you may not leave the Tactician's office alive. It was harsh, but harsh is the way of bounty hunters.
Karka quickly ran out of the room, not even looking behind him. He raced straight to his ship, and as soon as he took off, he heard the low thud of an anti-orbital ion cannon. As he turned his ship around to see what the ion cannon was for, an ion blast hit his cockpit, fracturing the fuselage and shattering the transparisteel. It wasn't that long a drop to the ground, but the main problem for Karka was that his ship was extremely heavy, and dropped at a terrifying rate. The last thing he saw was the image of the Tactician, who fired the ion blast, smashed into oblivion on the glossy, black material of the hangar floor.
When he finally woke up, the Dark Prince was standing over him, muttering something. Karka tried to listen, but his hearing was too badly damaged from the explosion. Instead, he found himself asking, "How long have I been like this?"
The Dark Prince
only answered, "Well, thankyou for killing the Tactician. Only a fool would
do that, and we can't have fools running a guild as big as this. Now it is time
for you to pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and get back to the mission."
"Yessir," was his answer, but he didn't feel like getting up again.
When he hesitated, the Dark Prince simply sent a jolt of electricity through
the clean hospital bed he was lying on. Well, that got him up.
The Dark Prince was so pleased that Karka had killed the Tactician, that he gave him a limited edition V.S.400A Viper Starfighter, and a Dreadnaught. So, Karka now had a Dreadnaught and a very fast starfighter. The only question now, was, which ship? He thought he might take the Dreadnaught, because he would probably be fighting capital ships, but decided against it, for it was far too slow for his tastes, and needs.
He monitored local info sources for 3-4 hours, then decided to head to Cardooine, where there had been reports of a priceless ancient artifact being sold. Unfortunately, Cardooine had a tropical, rainy, rebel world, so it would be difficult moving around.
Heading to Cardooine at faster-than-light speeds, he arrived there shortly. After setting his ship down, he looked for the seediest, dirtiest bar he could find, and sat down in the darkest corner. Bars were always the best place to find information.
He waited 5-6 hours, and thought nothing was ever going to happen, but, all at once, it did. A strange man walked in, ordered the hottest drink there was, and chucked it all in Karka's face. While Karka was screaming at the ground, the man kicked Karka in the head, at pulled out his blaster pistol. He set it to stun, and shot Karka.
When Karka woke up, he felt as if he had been here before. He was under a table, feeling stoned, when he saw a message scratched under the table. "Trust not what you have seen, but what you believe," said the strange message. The man who had shot Karka was no-where to be seen, but, somehow, he knew, that that strange man had written this cryptic clue.
Actually, the strange man reminded Karka of the Dark Prince. He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind, and headed back to his ship. There, he flew back to the BHG HQ, went to the Tactician's Office, switched his blaster to stun, shot the new tactician, searched him, and found the holocube inside the top pocket of his coat.
How it got there is still being investigated, but the new Tactician had his records thoroughly searched, and was cleared. The old Tactician was executed, and Karka Valore was made Specialist of the BHG. He never did get his reward, though.