Pieces of the Puzzle

[Ghev Dralin]

((OOC: Feel free to drop in, this thread will probably tie into the main storyline pretty soon))

Rori
100 Kilometers west of the ruins of Restuss

Dannyl stepped through the rusty old door, careful not to snag his jetpack on the narrow opening. Despite the fine Nabooian architecture of the relatively small building, it had obviously fallen into disrepair. It even smelled bad, too, despite the filter in his Mandalorian helmet.

Spying a light coming from the next room, Dannyl proceeded, holding his customised carbine in one hand, the other on his belt, ready to unhook, arm and throw one of his cryoban grenades if necessary.
In the next room, Dannyl spotted a protocol droid, rust-red in colour, tending to various trophies littered in some sort of shrine at the other end of the chamber.
Mounted Bantha heads, tusken rifles, coloured crystals, even old life-day trinkets. Organised junk, a testament to the mundane achievements of a mediocre spacer, he thought to himself.
"Good day to you sir, how might I be of service?" the droid asked, polishing the hilt of a rather ornate and impractical sword.
"They sell those things by the dozen down at the Mos Eisely bazaar" Dannyl said, gesturing at a mounted Kashyyyk Bantha head.

"I beg your pardon sir, but my master shot this beast on his very own" the droid replied, indignantly. "The only purchase he made was the mount".
"Yeah, yeah" Dannyl muttered, unimpressed, looking around at the items on display.
"Perhaps you'd be interested in purchasing a new weapon, or armour?" the droid suggested, regarding Dannyl's battered apparel with apparent distaste. Dannyl found it wondrous how the blank face of a protocol droid could still manage to display so many emotions.
"Not today" he replied, stepping through the owners holopet, a small Squall hopping around the floor, glittering in blue light. Dannyl had no idea that the holopet craze had lasted this long, not that he'd ever taken much of an interest.
"A new vehicle then? My master sells jetpacks at the very generous price of 70 million" the droid continued. Dannyl scoffed.
"I have a jetpack, thanks, and I made it all on my lonesome" he retorted. "And don't even begin with the offers on BARC's and AT-RT's. Those relics ain't worth even a quarter of the prices you vendors ask" he said, as the droid began to speak again.

"Suit yourself, sir. What may I assist you with?" the droid asked in a defeated tone.
"I tracked a man here, earlier today" Dannyl said, withdrawing a holo-projector, much smaller than the obscene devices splaying images of Star Destroyers and forgotten Rebel heroes at the far side of the room.
"Yes, he was a customer, and a fine one at that" the droid said, standing behind a make-shift counter.
"I wanna know what he was buying, and what he talked about" Dannyl said bluntly, tucking the holoprojector back into his belt.
"Absolutely not. It's against my programming to discuss the personal affairs of customers without my master's consent" the droid replied huffily.
"And where is your master?" Dannyl asked.
"My master travelled to Tattooine no less than 13 months, 2 days, 5 hours and 33 seconds ago. He was hunting Krayt dragons" the droid replied, matter-of-factly.

Dannyl stared.
"Is something the matter sir? Your vocabulator seems to have malfunctioned" the droid said, as it began dusting the artefacts once again.
"Your master went hunting Krayt dragons over a year ago, and you expect him to return?" Dannyl asked, wondering if all this time without maintenance had fried the droids logic circuits.
"You shall just have to wait for him, if you really desire the information you requested. Oh, I imagine he'll be bringing sacks full of Krayt pearls..."
Dannyl levelled his blaster at the droid's back.
"Ok, I'm not requesting, I'm demanding. If you have any sense of self preservation, you'll give in" he said.
"Sir, you are violating the 'no weapons' policy of..."

Dannyl squeezed the trigger, blowing a crater through the droid's midsection, and side-stepped as it fell backwards to the floor.
"Fine, I'll take what I need by other means" he murmered, holstering the carbine at his lower-back, and severing the droid's neck bolts with the cutter mounted to his wrist gauntlet.
Carrying the head under his arm, Dannyl exited the old shop, and climbed onto the swoop waiting outside.
With the droid's memory core, I can play back the entire event, and track that Jedi slime wherever he disappeared to.

[Ghev Dralin]

Kashyyyk
Rodian Hunters Camp
South-West of Kachirho

Dannyl stopped his swoop, and dismounted, his boots crunching through the dry grass. The air was filled with noises; birds cawing, insects buzzing. To his left, Dannyl saw a small herd of Kashyyyk Bantha's, most of them climbing the hillsides to reach the lush stalks of grass growing there. One of them eyed him, then returned to its grazing.

Blaster shots sounded in the distance, followed by the strilling call of a Varactyl.
"Say stranger, wanna do me a favour?" said a voice, speaking in Rodese. Dannyl turned around, and regarded the small Rodian who'd approached him.
"Not particularly" Dannyl muttered, and began walking away.
"I pay well. Ever hunted Varactyl?" the Rodian continued, trotting alongside Dannyl.
"I'm hunting something else" Dannyl replied, leaving the safety of the camp.
"Woah stranger! You're going in there on foot?" the Rodian asked, no longer following, having stopped at the final canopy of the hunters camp, as though he daren't enter the Varactyl hunting grounds.

"I'm not stupid enough to attack those things for credits" Dannyl called back, then activated his jetpack, rocketing into the air, before coming down under the cover of the thick foliage covering the hillsides.
After hacking into the droid's memory core, he'd discovered that his target had been buying ration packs and jungle survival gear. An off-the-cuff remark about Varactyl-riding had been the tip-off, though, since the only jungle planet known to have it's own Varactyl population was Kashyyyk.

Climbing through the dense wildlife, Dannyl eventually found himself overlooking a pathway through the hills. Glancing left, he saw an open field, full of Varactyl stalking smaller animals, though leaving the Bantha's alone. In the gulley, there appeared to be a small outpost. Zooming in with the in-built macrobinoculars of his visor, Dannyl confirmed that it was a Wookiee watch-post, though he didn't care to find out why it was there.

Turning to his right, he saw a Varactyl silently plodding into the mist, away from him. Deducing that there'd be more Varactyl in that direction, Dannyl fired his jetpack, and landed smoothly behind the beast. Whether it hadn't noticed, or had chosen to ignore him, Dannyl didn't know.
The beast stopped, and sniffed the air. Dannyl tensed; through the mist he could make out the silhouettes of more Varactyl, more than he fancied fighting.
With a shrill cry, the Varactyl sprinted forward into the mist, as a crack of thunder split the air, and the heavens opened up. Rain quickly turned the ground into a slippery, soggy mess, and by the time Dannyl reached the Varactyl paddock, his boots and shin-guards were filthy.

"Ok, where are you...?" he muttered to himself, scanning the area. Unfortunately, the area was incredibly thick with fog, and his oxygen filter had failed to kick in, which meant he was flooded with the rancid stench of dirty animals and rotting meat.
Avoiding the Uller's that had grouped nearby, he scanned the mists to his left, and his HUD alerted him to a human presence.
"There you are" he smirked, and began jogging along the base of the hill. The ground here was more mud than grass, and the rain had made it slippery, and flecks of mud spattered his armour.

Eventually, the mists began to clear before him, and the absence of Varactyl was noticeable. A large mound lay ahead of him, and only upon approaching it did he realise it was a nest. The human, however, was nowhere to be seen.

It was Dannyl's HUD that saved him.

Flicking to the 360-degree view, he barely saw the huge talons sweeping toward him, giving him a second to react. He ducked and rolled into the nest, and the razor-sharp claws swiped gouges through one of the eggs.
"What the..." he shouted, getting to his feet and getting a clear view of his assailant.
A Varactyl, larger than any he'd encountered, was glowering at him, it's tail whipping savagely through the air. On it's back, a human had made a makeshift tether from vines and a saddle from the hide of a Bantha. In his hand, barely visible in the sunlight which broke through the rainclouds, was a beam of radiant green; a lightsaber.

"I was wondering how long it'd take you to find me here, Shysa" the Jedi called, as the Varactyl lunged, it's beak snapping into the nest, destroying it and sending Dannyl rolling to the ground. Dannyl remained in a crouch, and launched the missile housed in his jetpack, but the beast wove it's head to the side and the missile passed by, exploding harmlessly in the air.
"I hope the reward is worth the damage you're about to sustain" the Jedi continued. Dannyl rolled again as the Varactyl slammed it's foot down on the ground, narrowly avoiding being crushed. It swiped again, and this time one of it's talons ripped the jetpack from Dannyl's back, and he watched as it clattered to the ground some 20 meters away.

"What's the matter, bounty hunter? You don't seem fond of chatting" the Jedi laughed. Dannyl wondered if perhaps something had gone wrong; Jedi weren't normally this thrilled during a fight, even one they had the advantage in.
"I think your time on the run has skewed your sense of morality" Dannyl grunted, jumping over the lashing tail of the Varactyl, then ducking beneath it's sweeping claws. He drew his carbine, and leaped onto the beast's flanks, pulling himself up onto it's back.

A lightsaber swiped at him, though he pulled back just in time to avoid it, and almost lost his balance.
"So, Jerrik, how long did it take for you to turn to the dark side?" Dannyl asked, firing three shots at the Jedi, all of which he predictably deflected.
"I didn't turn to the dark side, but the Jedi abandoned me!" Jerrik shouted, slashing at Dannyl horizontally. Dannyl blocked the attack with his gauntlet; Mandalorian iron was resistant to lightsabers.
Clubbing at Jerrik's head with the butt of his carbine, Dannyl almost failed to notice the Varactyl's tail lashing overhead.
Ducking as his attack failed to hit its mark, Dannyl avoided being swept from the beasts back, but received a sweeping blow across his chest from the lightsaber, leaving a long black scorch mark across his breast plates.

"Save me the sob story, I'm only interested in how much you're worth" Dannyl grunted, leaping up and head-butting Jerrik in the chin. The Jedi roared in pain as the Mandalorian helmet split the skin and cracked bone, and reacting quickly, Dannyl punched him hard in the face, sending him toppling from the Varactyl's back.
Unfortunately for Dannyl, Jerrik unleashed a desperate Force-push at the same time, hurling him to the ground. Both men scrambled for leverage over each other, throwing punches and kicks, splashing mud everywhere.

Dannyl found himself pinning the Jedi down, and raised his hand to punch Jerrik in the face. Lightning flashed through the sky, and Jerrik laughed, blood and rainwater running down his cheeks.
Pausing to wonder what was so funny, Dannyl gasped and cried out in pain as he was swept aside; the Varactyl hadn't forgotten him.
He crashed into the hillside, and hooked his arm through a tree root which had been exposed from the sliding mud. The Varactyl was charging, and Dannyl realised he was at head-height; it's open beak revealed a gaping black gullet and tonsils which vibrated against each other as the beast let out another of it's distinguished shrill cries.

On the ground, Jerrik was still laughing, watching as the Varactyl closed the distance between itself and it's armoured prey.
Dannyl extended his free arm, and a 20 meter cone of flame belched from his gauntlet, into the face of the predator. The beast roared, and retreated, the plumes surrounding its face burning and shrivelling, until the rain doused the flames. It approached again, cautiously, and Dannyl fired another burst, warding the beast off.
"No..." Jerrik muttered, pushing himself to his feet, as the flamethrower died down and the Varactyl prepared to pounce.
Before Jerrik could re-establish his mind control over the wild beast, it leaped, and Dannyl raised his arm higher...

The explosion echoed throughout the paddock, and Jerrik watched in horror as the Varactyl caught an anti-infantry rocket in the throat. The beast thrashed as it collided with the hillside, almost crushing Dannyl as he let go of the tree root, then slid to it's death at the base of the hill.
"Well played, bounty hunter" Jerrik hissed, throwing his lightsaber at Dannyl, who crossed his gauntlets in time to block the spinning blade. The hilt bounced to the floor, and Dannyl crushed it into the wet mud with his boot, feeling the metal pop apart at the seams beneath his sole. Looking down, he saw the glint of fragments of green crystal poking from the ground, then smirked to himself.

Jerrik launched himself forward, straight toward Dannyl, and the hunter knew he had him; a cable shot from his gauntlet, entangling the Jedi, and Dannyl stepped aside, allowing Jerrik to crash into the scaly hide of the dead Varactyl.
"No sudden movement" Dannyl said, levelling his wrist-blaster at his captive.
"You win this round, Shysa. I accept defeat" Jerrik panted, closing his eyes; the Jedi was obviously in as much pain as Dannyl was.
"But do you accept death?" Dannyl asked. Jerrik opened his eyes, shocked.
"The bounty is worth more alive..."
"Less trouble if you're dead. We'll leave it to chance" Dannyl said, withdrawing a dated cred-coin from his belt. "Heads, you live, tails, I haul your carcass to the Remnant in a body bag" he said.
"Wait..." Jerrik began, but Dannyl had already tossed the coin, and caught it...