//------------------------------//
// The Duel 
// Story: Bounty Hunter Anon III 
// by Sunny Solaire 
//------------------------------//

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1FjYlP9Isk

Gilda immediately starts firing her blaster at you. You quickly run to the left and fire your blaster pistols back at her, but she activates her jetpack and takes to the sky. She continues to rain blasterfire down on you as you take cover behind an antenna base. The roar of her jetpack gets louder as she approaches your hiding spot.

You activate your jetpack and take flight as well. As soon as she's back in your sights, you blast her a few times in the chest with your pistols.

She grunts and falls back a bit, but remains airborne. "Ha! Not bad, Anon!"

She quickly strafes to the right and resumes firing her blaster at you. The first couple of blaster bolts strike you in the chest, but you're able to move quickly enough to dodge the rest of them. Her heavy blaster rifle packs a punch. Your pistols could wear her down over time, but they're much weaker by comparison.

It is imperitive that you keep her attention long enough to allow Rarity and Sunset time to escape, but if you can kill her here, that would be perfect.

You strafe in the air until you're right behind the antenna to give yourself a bit of cover, but continue firing at her as best you can. A few of Gilda's blaster bolts hit the antenna as she returns fire, but most whiz past you. She's going to have to get closer if she wants a clear shot.

Her jetpack grows louder in volume. She's closing in.

You quickly descend back to the ground and peer out from behind the antenna to fire at her some more. She's coming right for you. One or two of your blaster bolts hits her in the torso, but she doesn't seem fazed. You lower your weapon and take to the sky once again, flying right at her.

As you get closer, you lift your robotic arm and brace for impact. Less than a second later, you collide with Gilda in the air, the force of your collision knocking your heads together and making your HUD flicker for a moment. The force of the collision breaks a few sections of your robot arm, but it also makes a noticeable dent in her armor plating, and she grunts from the impact.

She isn't out though. At the same time, she grabs your jetpack and pulls you down hard, trying to make you lose your balance in the air. Unfortunately, it works, and you start to lose control of your flight.

You try to regain your balance, but Gilda grabs your shoulders, reels her head back and butts her helmet against yours. You grunt and release your grip on her as you swerve around uncontrollably in the air, your jetpack twisting you around so your back is to her. She immediately takes advantage of this and fires at your jetpack a few times, making it spark and flicker. It's about to explode.

Without a second thought, you release your jetpack from your back and fall to the ground. Your jetpack flies around on its own for a few moments before crashing into the base of the antenna and exploding. Luckily, you weren't too far off the ground, but you still hit it with a hard enough thud that it hurts your legs like hell.

You curse under your breath and turn back to face Gilda in the air. She's already on her way down toward you, her blaster at the ready. She fires at you, but you dive forward and roll. She slams into the ground right behind you.

You immediately get to your feet and swing your arm around behind you, knocking the blaster out of her hands before punching her in the face. She reels back, but blocks your blow before you manage to punch her a second time.

You growl as you assault her as hard as you can, trying to break through her defense, but she stays firm. Her hand-to-hand combat form is just as good as yours. After a few more blows, she counters with a cross to your helmet that catches you off-balance.

"Suffer!" She snarls.

She grabs you by the shoulders again and pulls you down on her knee. The impact hurts bad, and makes a loud cracking sound that echoes inside your helmet.

Immediately, you expect the worst: your neck is broken.

You open your eyes and see that the impact merely cracked your helmet's visor, just in front of your mouth. The crack was just the sound it made. Thank the Force, you're not dead.

However, the impact flings you backwards and you lose your footing and fall onto your back. You look up at Gilda as she raises her leg up and brings it down on your face, but you catch it in your robotic hand and grip it tight. Using all the power you can muster, you command the servos and mechanics in your arm to push her backwards as hard as you can.

You manage to throw her a few feet away. You're a bit surprised.

Shaking it off, you quickly get to your feet and charge at Gilda. She staggers back a few more paces when she recovers, but you slam into her like a train, knocking her off her feet and pushing her to the ground.

You grit your teeth and straddle her torso, grabbing onto her neck with your right hand and squeezing hard. She gags as you choke her and tries to pry your hand loose as you pull back your left arm and start punching her in the face again and again. With each impact, her visor cracks and breaks more as your metal fist doesn't hold back.

"Rrrrghh!! Gonna! Kill! You!" You growl.

You continue your feral assault until her helmet actually cracks and breaks off a little on her right side. You can see Gilda's mouth, nose, and right eye. Her pupils are like pinpricks as she glares at you. Your robotic fist has nearly been destroyed as well. Two of the fingers have broken off.

As you prepare to deliver the killing blow, she releases her grip on your wrist and presses a button on her gauntlet. Her jetpack roars to life beneath her and you're caught off-balance once again.

You release her neck as you're dragged a few feet along the ground. Gilda takes to the sky. She discards her helmet and drops it to the ground. It breaks a bit more on impact.

Gilda turns to face you in the air again. Her confident, cocky look had been replaced with one of pure, unbridled hatred. She takes off towards you at full speed.

You quickly retrieve your blaster pistol and fire at her, but she dodges your blasts in the air. When she gets closer, she suddenly raises her fist and fires her whipcord at your feet, ensnaring your left foot. Your eyes widen in surprise as she flies directly over you and yanks the whipcord, making your leg fall out from beneath you and dragging you across the rooftop.

You yell as you drop your blaster as you are helplessly dragged toward the edge of the roof. You try in vain to reach to your leg in a desperate, final attempt to cut the fibercord around your ankle, but Gilda erratically swerves back and forth in the air. You can't reach the whipcord.

Finally, you reach the edge of the building and fall toward the ground. The cord around your ankle tightens as it swings you forward, but its all that's keeping you from falling right now. You're like an animal in a trap. Kilometers directly below you is the planet's surface. You're beyond the edge of the actual city now.

You look up at Gilda as she looks down at you, hovering in the air. She's got a crazed look in her eye and she's bleeding from the corner of her mouth.

"You still put up a damn good fight, Anon!" She shouts. "But I'm not in the mood for games..."

You grunt as you dangle there, unable to free yourself.

"No..."

Not like this...

She flashes you another grin and cuts you loose. The taut fibercord snaps and whips around in the air as she drops you. You scream as you look down at the planet's surface and begin your long descent.

What can you do now? Your jetpack is destroyed. You can't fly and save yourself. Is this it? Is this how you die?

Time seems to slow as your memory flashes to Sunset.

Your darling Sunset.

How you first met, your first mission together, when you first kissed, when you got your ship, your entire life with her. More recently, when you both first met and fought Pinkie at Nar Shaddaa. Or when she saved your life by cutting off your arm.

Or the last thing she said to you...

"Be careful, Anon."

Be careful...

...

You will not die like this.

You open your eyes and frantically look around for something, anything to save you. Although you haven't cleared the bottom of the bridge city yet, but you're far enough out that you won't be able to reach out and grab anything.

However, you have one last hope.

As the ledge of the city creeps up closer and closer, you point your left arm at the ground and ready your whipcord. A few seconds later, you fire it at the base of the bridge city. The hook whizzes through the air toward the metal foundation until it finally embeds itself in it. The whipcord immediately becomes taut as it begins to carry your weight and swings you closer to the base of the bridge.

You shut your eyes as you brace yourself. "Oh, this is gonna hurt..."

You swing towards the metal wall and, a second later, you impact on your left side. You let out a scream as your body strikes the wall hard. You're pretty sure you felt a few ribs crack. Sure enough, it hurts like hell.

You grit your teeth and grunt loudly as you try to endure the pain in your side. Breathing heavily, you look around for Gilda. No doubt she was watching you as you fell.

Your robotic arm is keeping you from falling to your death, and is otherwise useless right now. Your whipcord was not designed to hold onto this much weight for very long. That hook will not stay in the metal foundation forever.

You steady your breathing and try as hard as you can to keep as still as possible. With another grunt, you shakily reach for your blaster pistol with your right hand and pull it out, ready for Gilda. She's not here yet, but she can't be too far.

You reach up to your left gauntlet and press a button, activating your comms. "Urgh... Sunset! Come get me! My jetpack is gone!"

She replies a second later. "We just left the building! Where are you?!"

You cry out in pain again. "On the edge of the city! I'm literally hanging by a thread! Hurry!"

"I'm on my way!" She replies.

You cut your comms. You grunt and continue breathing hard as you wait. The pain in your ribs is excruciating.

"Hurry, Sunset..."

---

"Okay, Limestone... Come get me..."

You are Rainbow Dash. Right now, you're flying away from the city in Anon's ship, and leading the Sith away from him and Sunset while they rescue their friend, Rarity. Anon's fighting that other Mandalorian right now, Gilda, but you've got to keep Limestone's attention.

You level out the ship and fly down to the canyon below the city. Gilda's ship is chasing directly behind you and has opened fire. You reroute some power to the rear deflector shields and hit the throttle. The canyon below you is filled with hills and mountains. You're going to try and lose her in there.

Limestone hits you and you jerk forward a little bit from the impact. You've got tons of room right now and you can't personally return fire while flying away from her. Your gunner isn't doing a good job.

"Uh, Pinkie? Any time you wanna help, that would be great!"

Pinkie whimpers on the other side of your comms. "But... She's my sister! I can't!"

"Pinkie, open your eyes!" You shout. "She's trying to kill us! Knock her out of the sky, or at least make her stop following us! Just do something!"

Pinkie stammers some more. "B-but... What if I hit her on accident? I don't want to kill her! She's-"

"RRRRAAAGH! FORGET IT!" You bang your fist down on the control console and growl in frustration. Why wouldn't you be frustrated? Pinkie's being stupid!

You take another breath as you continue to avoid Limestone's blasterfire. Keep it cool, Rainbow. You're a Mandalorian now. Don't get so frustrated that you lose focus on what's important. You don't want to disappoint Anon or Mandalore. If Pinkie won't help, then you're on your own.

You swerve to the right and push the controls forward, making the ship plummet straight down. Limestone follows behind you as you accelerate toward the planet's surface, still firing at you.

A moment or two later, you pull up and swerve to miss a thin mountain. You're just above the canyon floor now. It's really narrow down here. One wrong move, and you're done for.

You stick your tongue out and concentrate. You've flown the Kessel Run in fourteen parsecs. You can do this. Just stay focused.

Another one of Limestone's blaster bolts hits you in the rear, making the ship jolt again. Your shields are stilll holding though. She'll have to hit you a lot harder if she wants to take this ship down. You aren't about to give her the chance though.

As you swerve around boulders and rocks, you take a left down a narrow valley. Limestone is still on your tail. Anon has to have some weapons on this ship. Pinkie's shots are inconsistent, inaccurate, and very few, so you have to do something.

Finally, you see something that catches your attention.

"Seismic charges, huh?"

Those might work.

You shift your focus back to the viewport and keep yourself in position so you don't crash. Another bank to the right is coming up ahead. You accelerate and turn the ship onto its side so you turn easier. The gravity in the ship shifts as well, and you feel everything being pulled to the right, but you stay focused.

Limestone slows down a bit behind you. She's obviously not the ace pilot that you are. As you enter this new canyon, you level out and press a button on the control console to prepare to release a charge.

Limestone keeps following you on your scanner, but she's a bit further behind you now.

You grin. "Perfect."

You release the charge and it goes flying into the canyon wall. A few seconds later, every sound inside the ship and out seems to fade away for a second. Then, a loud buzz erupts from outside. A notification on your control console flashes like crazy to indicate that the mine has gone off.

On your scanner, you see the blue ring of seismic energy spread out from the side of the narrow valley, splitting the rocks and earth in two and sending them crashing down behind you. Limestone slows her ship down and swerves around the bigger rocks, but you have no doubt that she hit a few smaller ones.

You laugh and prepare another charge. Once Limestone is for sure back on your tail, you release the charge into the opposite direction. A few seconds later, the same loud buzzing sound erupts and the bomb begins cutting away at the valley. This time, Limestone's flight path is significantly deterred as she strikes a falling boulder.

"Yes! Haha! Take that, Sith!"

You slow your ship and pull up out of the valley. As you take to open skies once again, you gun the engines and flip around. Limestone is still in the valley, trying to recover from the impact.

The ship orients itself in the air and you're now looking down at the valley you were just in. Limestone is just barely pulling up and into clear skies. You grin as you target her ship and pull the trigger on your controls. The ship's forward cannons start blasting her relentlessly.

Limestone accelerates and swerves as she tries to shake you, but you stay on her, continuing to spray her ship with blasterfire. Now it's time for you to chase her.

"Rainbow, no! Stop shooting!" Pinkie shouts.

You growl under your breath as she begs you to stop firing over your comms.

"I can't do that, Pinkie. She needs to be stopped." You reply.

"Then just stop her! But don't kill her! Please!"

You hesitate for just a moment. The sadness and desperation in Pinkie's voice is more than apparent. Despite how much Limestone has tried to kill her and her Jedi sister, Pinkie still cares about her. If that isn't unconditional love, then you don't know what is.

You sigh loudly. Against your better judgement, you stop firing at Limestone and she flies away. Her ship is damaged in some places, but she'll live.

Pinkie lets out a breath of relief. "Thank you, Rainbow! Thank you, thank you!"

"Yeah, yeah..." You sigh.

Every fiber of your being is telling you to kill her. Her ship is crippled, and she's wide open. She's tried to kill you so many times lately. This is the perfect opportunity.

But for Pinkie, just this once, you'll let her go.

A sudden blaring on your control console cuts off your train of thought. It's Anon's location beacon.

You turn on your comms and contact him. "Anon! What's going on?!"

He doesn't reply.

You flip around in the air and head back to Zarra before immediately contacting Sunset. "Sunset, what's wrong with Anon?! Where is he?!"

She replies a moment later. "He says he's hanging off the edge of the city! Get to him and save him, Rainbow! Hurry!"

You gasp and accelerate the ship as fast as you can, following Anon's beacon. "I'll be right there!"

---

You grunt loudly as you continue to dangle. Your robotic arm is damaged in a few places and sparking. It's also pulling on your injuries and making the pain more excruciating by the second.

You huff and puff as you endure the pain. It's killing you though. Another sharp sting in your side makes you groan again.

"Damn it, Sunset, where are you?" You say aloud.

You look up and around for any trace of her, but she's nowhere to be found.

Out of the corner of your eye, you spot some movement. Off in the distance, you see your ship quickly approaching the city.

You breathe a sigh of relief. Rainbow saw your beacon. It doesn't look like your ship is too damaged. Rainbow must've taken care of Limestone.

She slows the ship down directly beneath you. You can see Pinkie sitting in the topside gunner seat. It's a bit of a drop, but you're willing to endure a bit more pain if it means safety.

You're about to cut the fibercord, when suddenly, the topside cannon on the ship swivels and points directly upward. A second later, a missile hits the top of your ship and explodes. Rainbow swerves the ship a bit as it's knocked off-balance.

From above, Gilda flies towards you and starts blasting your ship. She's not firing as relentlessly as before though. She's clearly injured.

"Don't you know when to give up, Anon?!" She shouts.

You growl and point your sidearm at her. It hurts, but you grit your teeth and fire a few shots. She turns her focus to you and dodges your blasterfire before moving in toward you. That same, fiery look is in her eye as she closes in.

You think quickly. There's nowhere you can go from here.

Just before she reaches you for the killing blow, another blaster bolt hits her jetpack from above and she's knocked off-balance. Her eyes go wide open in confusion, and you both look up.

Sunset, with Rarity in her arm, is quickly descending toward you and shooting at Gilda with her own blaster. She hits Gilda again and again, blasting her jetpack until it starts to spark and malfunction, just like yours did.

Gilda roars angrily and quickly flies up and away from you, back to the city's ledge. You keep firing at her until she's out of sight.

You exhale and lower your blaster, holding onto your side as Sunset stops her descent right in front of you. "Anon! Are you okay?"

Rarity is holding onto her for dear life and her eyes are closed tightly.

"I'm fine!" You grunt. "Get Rarity aboard then come get me! Hurry!"

She does as you say and quickly lands on the roof of your ship. Rainbow has it under control again and has brought it closer to you. The airlock on the roof opens and Pinkie climbs out, reaching for Rarity and helping her inside while Sunset comes back for you.

You grunt loudly again as she holds your side and finally relieves the tension that was constantly put on your side from hanging on the side of the bridge. The fibercord is cut and Sunset carries you down to the ship as quickly as she can. Pinkie grabs you when you're close enough and helps you inside. Sunset follows right behind you.

Once you're finally inside the main hold, you collapse on the floor in a heap, crying out in pain again. You feel Rainbow gun the engines and take off.

Rarity is leaning up against the wall and holding her stomach while looking at you with worry. "Anonymous! Darling, are you alright?!"

You take a few deep breaths before nodding, mouthing the word 'yes' under your helmet, but not actually saying it.

Pinkie and Sunset rush to your side and help you sit up. You wince and grunt as they help you shakily get to your feet.

"Anon, you and Rarity need a doctor!"

...Wow, Pinkie. You think so?

You exhale and lean against the central computer. "We need to get to Mandalore... We have no time to waste." Pinkie holds your arm and doesn't let go. "Pinkie, go get some bacta and tend to Rarity... Give her something for the pain."

She nods and slowly releases you. "Okay, Anon."

Rarity sits down behind you in one of the seats and whimpers as she holds herself.

You look at Sunset. Her helmet is still on, but you can tell she's absolutely worried.

You grunt again. "Thanks for saving me again, love."

She breathes out a chuckle and wraps her arms around you in a hug. "Anything for you, Anon."

You return the hug as best as you can, wincing at the slight pain. Any pain you endure is worth it for her. The two of you rest your helmets against each other as she holds you.

The hyperdrive whirrs as Rainbow makes the necessary calculations and jumps to lightspeed. Finally, you're on your way back home.