//------------------------------//
// Stories of Battle 
// Story: Bounty Hunter Anon II 
// by Sunny Solaire 
//------------------------------//

"Mom and dad are back!" You laugh as you step aboard your ship again after Sunset, taking a deep breath through the nose as you remove your helmet.

Oh, it feels so damn good to be here again. Everything is exactly how you left it. Your weapons in the armory, your speeder bike you bought on Tatooine, the main hold, it's such a beautiful sight. Sunset removes her helmet and stands in the doorway of the main hold, looking at everything with a smile.

"Sunset..." She looks back at you as you move to stand beside her and wrap an arm around her. The both of you look at your beautiful ship together, still smiling. "...we're home."

She giggles and squeezes you around the waist in return before heading to the cockpit. "Now let's get the hell out of here."

"Good idea." You chuckle.

You turn around and see Pinkie behind you, also smiling. "Did I ever tell you I really liked your ship Anon?"

You cross your arms and look her straight in the eyes. "Don't get any ideas, Pinkie. It's mine."

Sunset calls back from the cockpit. "It's mine too!"

You glance toward the cockpit for a second before turning to Pinkie again. "Right. It's hers too. I bought it though."

Sunset calls back from the cockpit once again. "I bought most of it!"

You roll your eyes and turn toward the cockpit. "Will you stop?! I'm trying to make a point here!"

She calls back. "Make the point correctly then! I picked it out, I paid for most of it, you just picked out the color!"

"It's my favorite color!" You reply.

Sunset starts to laugh. It makes you laugh too.

Pinkie starts laughing as well. "You guys are so cute!"

You set your helmet down on the table in the center of the room, still chuckling. "Heh. Thanks."

Sunset calls back the cockpit once more. "I'm cuter!"

"I know that!" You say.

You smile wide and Pinkie starts laughing again.

The engines click and hum as Sunset starts up the ship. They hum a bit louder as the ship warms up and you walk into the armory to remove some of your equipment.

"I'm gonna head to the cockpit too, okay Anon?" Pinkie says.

"Alright, Pinkie." You reply. "Tell Sunset to just stay in orbit for now. I'll be there in a minute."

"Okie dokie!" She heads toward the cockpit and the ship rumbles beneath your feet as Sunset takes off.

After removing your jetpack and weapons, you grab your datapad nearby and call Rarity. Time to see who this contact of hers is...

---

You press another button on the ship's controls as you begin your ascent through Naboo's atmosphere. It really is a beautiful planet, especially from up here. You can see the cruiser you all were just aboard, the spaceport, the entire city of Theed, and the Queen's palace. They all shrink as you continue through the clouds.

A voice from behind cuts you off. "Hiya, Sunset!"

Pinkie's here. Great.

"Hey, Pinkie." You reply calmly.

She takes a seat in the co-pilot's chair on your right and swivels back and forth. "Anon says to just get into orbit! He'll be here soon!"

You nod. "Okay."

The ship continues to break through the clouds and the blue sky starts to get darker as you press through the atmosphere. Pinkie spins in circles in the chair a couple of times, giggling to herself. The chair squeaks a little bit as she swivels it.

Why is she in here?

"Do you need anything Pinkie?" You ask.

She looks at you and gasps softly. "Oh yeah! I do, actually!" She stops spinning and faces you completely. Her smile fades, but her attention does not. "I was curious about what happened on Dantooine."

You glance at her, but keep your attention on the viewport window. "What do you mean?"

"Well... Like, you didn't like being there, right? Like, you had yucky, woozy feelings when we were in the canyons?" She clarifies.

How did she know that?

You stare at her completely. "Yeah..?"

She scoots closer, just a bit. "And, just before the bomb went off, you felt that wave of yucky woozy feeling in your gut, didn't you?"

"Yeah... Yeah, I did..." You say softly.

That's strange.

Now that you think about it, she said something at the same time you felt that feeling in your gut. Like, "Oh goodness" or something like that.

Pinkie looks back toward the rest of the ship for a moment and you follow her gaze. It's just you two in here. Anon is doing whatever he's doing right now.

"What do you think about the Jedi and the Force, Sunset?" She asks you quietly.

This is weird.

"Together? I don't know." You shrug. "I'm not too fond of the Jedi, if that's what you're asking. I know the Force exists, but I don't understand everything about how it works. Even though I'm Force Sensitive, I'm not familiar with-"

She cuts you off. "Oh! So-So you do know that you're Force Sensitive?"

You nod. "It was a recent discovery, but yeah. I have barely enough midichlorians in my blood to be Force Sensitive."

She blinks once. "Oh! Okay!"

She breathes a sigh of relief and looks out the viewport into the sky, now being dotted with distant stars as you leave the atmosphere.

"Is that what this is about?" You ask. "All those weird feelings in my gut before, that was the Force?"

She nods. "Yup. I felt it strongly around the Enclave too."

You accelerate the ship more and get yourselves into orbit around Naboo.

"What did it mean?" You ask.

Pinkie takes a deep breath. "The Force is very strong there. Those are old ruins that once housed and trained many powerful Jedi Knights."

Including Revan.

She continues. "All those craters and holes around the Enclave and in the canyons were from Darth Malak's ship when he killed them all. All those people who died, their life force, their energy, it still speaks to those who can hear it. Even after all this time."

All you felt there was uneasiness and nausea. You were able to push past it, but it was still there.

"So..." You begin. "All that queasiness I felt, that was the Force telling me that tons of people had died?"

She nods. "Basically."

Wow. That's not even a little bit fun.

This makes you hate being Force Sensitive.

You shake your head, still confused. "Then, what about what I felt just before the bomb went off? You felt it too, right?"

She nods. "Yeah I did. That was just you sensing immediate danger. Have you ever felt that before?"

"Maybe I have, I don't know." You say. "I don't usually pay attention to how I'm feeling when me and Anon are on the job. We both just push past it until the job is done. Then we can mess around."

She smiles and giggles a little. "Like your little back and forth you had with each other just now?"

"Yeah, stuff like that." You smile as well. "Anon is a great guy, and he knows how to be fun. He actually has a great sense of humor. You should hear some of his jokes when he gets in the mood. But despite that, he's still a no-nonsense Mandalorian. When it's time to work, he works. When our work is finished, or it's just us, then he brings out his fun side."

"And what do you think of that?" She asks.

"It's nice." You smile. "I like to think I'm the same way. It's why we work so well together."

Pinkie hums softly and leans back in the chair a little as you press a few more buttons on the control console.

"So what's the deal with you two?" She asks. "Are you guys, like, a thing?"

You smile a little. "Yes. We're partners, both professionally and personally."

"Cute!" She replies. "How did you guys meet?"

You clear your throat. "We both grew up on Mandalore. Not together though. We were part of different houses. I, from house Shimmer, and he, from house Ymous, obviously. We both trained and fought separately before we met during a skirmish about a year or two after I completed the Verd'goten."

Pinkie cocks her head. "The what?"

"The Verd'goten." You repeat. "It's the Mandalorian's rite of passage into adulthood. Everything before then is just considered training. Then, at the age of thirteen, young Mandalores prove themselves in real combat against real enemies. Those who came back brought tales of his or her achievements and was legally seen as an adult among the Mandalorian Clans."

Pinkie looks a bit surprised. "Wow, an adult at thirteen? That's wild."

You shake your head. "Not really. It's just different from how the Republic does things. It's our culture. Once they come back, they share a drink with everyone and enjoy the victory with their friends and family. The first of many victories."

"Fun!" She smiles. "What did you do for yours?"

You're about to answer when Anon comes walking into the cockpit. "What did she do for her what?"

You smile and look up at him. "I was just about to tell her what I did for my Verd'goten."

"Oh, that's a good story. Please, do tell." He leans against the wall and Pinkie looks at you expectantly with a smile on her face.

You giggle and look at Pinkie. Anon has heard this before.

"We had heard reports of a small battle taking place between two groups over a world just outside Mandalorian Space. I can't remember which one. Whether they were pirates or smugglers, I couldn't tell you either. All we knew was that they were a prick in our side that needed to be removed... We had been developing an experimental type of spacecraft that was armed with powerful ion cannons and industrial-grade armor plating, but didn't have any engines. To launch it, our cruiser was equipped with a massive rail gun that propelled it toward the enemy at extremely high speeds through space. The idea was that it would only be used to board enemy cruisers by firing its ion cannon to disable their shields for just a moment and break through their hull."

Pinkie gasps softly. "Woah."

Anon smiles at that, but stays silent.

You continue. "I had been one of the first to volunteer to sit in the pod. Once our ship engaged the two trespassing ships, they would fire me toward them. I could see battle raging outside the barrel of our ship's rail gun. My heart was pounding out of fear and excitement over what I was about to do. When I was given the green light, I grasped the controls tightly and pressed myself against the back of my seat. Then they shot me like a bullet. The G-force was insane. For the briefest of moments, I weighed a couple tons. Even at that speed however, I had about thirty seconds to decide where I wanted to impact."

"Could you control where you wanted to go?" Pinkie asks.

You shake your head. "Not much. It didn't have any engines, remember. I used what little maneuverability I did have, though,  to steer myself toward the bridge of the nearest cruiser. Once I had a lock, I fired everything my ion cannons had until the shield broke in that one section. Then, I finally penetrated the hull. The crew inside had no idea what was happening. I got a little cooked from the explosion and the sheer force of impact, but I shook it off and broke out of my pod."

Pinkie is on the edge of her seat. Anon looks expectant too, even though he already knows what will happen.

"The hallway I was in had already re-pressurized the new breach in their hull by the time I got out of the pod. The alarm was blaring, and flashing everything red. I quickly got free from my pod and headed toward the bridge, killing anyone that got in my way. Once I got there, I killed the guards, the captain, and anyone else I saw until I was the only one alive. My mind was racing, and I headed to the cruiser's controls. The terminal was still logged in as the dead captain, so I used an override command to put everything into the sublight engines, and set the ship on a collision course with the other cruiser. I then blasted the bridge's viewport window and was sucked into the vacuum of space. From there, I watched as the two enemy cruisers collided with each other and exploded into a massive fireball, all thanks to me. It was the moment of my life."

Pinkie's smile widens. "That's amazing! Oh, I bet seeing that was the coolest thing ever!"

You giggle. "I can't describe exactly how it feels, being in the emptiness of space, with nothing between you and the collision of fire and metal mere kilometers away. It's incredible."

Anon chuckles as well. "I wish I had met her before that so I could've seen it myself. Probably would've been the second most amazing thing I saw that day."

"Oh, stop it, you." You blush a little and he chuckles as he walks over to give you a quick kiss.

"Awww cute!" Pinkie says happily.

You smirk and glare at Pinkie with Anon. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

Pinkie giggles and stands up. "Alriiight, you two lovebirds, I'll leave you alone. Thanks for the story, Sunset!"

You nod at her. "You're welcome, Pinkie."

She skips out of the cockpit, still giggling to herself.

You kiss Anon again and return your attention to the control console as he takes a seat beside you and sighs. "So what else were you two talking about?"

You give a content sigh. "Nothing much. She did have a question for me about something that happened on Dantooine."

"Like what?" He asks.

You shrug and look at him. "Well, apparently, I was sensing the Force a bit down there and she noticed it."

He turns to you. "Really?"

You nod. "Mmhmm."

He hums as well. "That's pretty cool, I guess."

You give him a little half-smile and return your attention to the controls. "So where are we going?"

"Oh, right." He clicks. "Take us to Nal Hutta. Rarity's contact is a Hutt named Filthy Rich."

"Filthy? Really?" You lock in Nal Hutta's coordinates and prepare to make the jump to lightspeed.

He shrugs. "Well, he's a Hutt. Of course he's filthy."

You scoff and smile. "That's racist, Anon."

He grins. "It's not racist if it's true."

You giggle and the ship's computer finishes the necessary calculations. The hyperdrive whirs to life and you grab the throttle.

"Shouldn't we tell Pinkie to brace herself?" Anon asks.

You push the throttle and the ship lurches forward for a split-second before flying off into hyperspace. From behind you in the ship somewhere, you hear Pinkie cry out in surprise and fly into something, knocking it over as you make the jump.

"Oops." You smirk.

"I'm okay!" Pinkie says loudly from behind.

You smile and Anon starts to laugh. "Ha! Come on. Let's go get her."

"Alright." You smile at him and the both of you stand up and make your way back into the ship to help Pinkie.