Bounty Hunter Anon II

by Sunny Solaire

A Den of Thieves

"See anything?" Pinkie asks.

You look behind you to see if anyone is following. "Not yet. Keep driving around though. Anon said that they are definitely looking for us."

Pinkie curves around another corner, turning left. She drives into another semi-open field. This one also has a large impact crater off to your right.

That bad feeling in your gut still hasn't gone away. What is going on with you, Sunset? Snap out of it. You've got a job to do.

Pinkie drives out of the field and enters another narrow section of the canyon. This section curves right and leads into a small, secluded grove of trees.

Pinkie slows to a stop beneath a large one and looks around. "This seems like a good spot to wait."

She's right. It's out of the way and quiet. It's not bad, but a vantage point would make it better. The canyon wall is too steep for the speeder to drive up, but the both of you alone could get up there easily.

"Let's ditch the bike and head up there." You point to the top of the ridge. "If they find the bike, that's fine. We can move without it."

"Okay!" Pinkie nods.

The two of you disembark and jog over to the wall's base. Pinkie leaps up and grabs a small, rocky ledge and begins climbing up while you activate your jetpack and fly alongside her.

Her use of the Force to make her this agile is impressive. She quickly leaps and jumps from ledge to ledge as you push a few tree branches out of your way and make your way to the top. You land just before Pinkie makes her way up and stands beside you.

She gives you a wide smile before looking at the environment around you. The wind is much stronger up above the canyon wall. It whistles around you both as you examine your surroundings. You open up your HUD and locate the Enclave about 300 meters away. You mark it and send the info to Anon.

"It's this way." You point in the general direction and turn to Pinkie. "Let's get in close and do some recon, but watch yourself on the way. I'll contact Anon when we get there."

You activate your jetpack, propelling yourself into the air and begin to fly over the rifts and canyons toward your destination. Pinkie is on foot below you, easily jumping across the gaps she meets and staying on higher ground. Understandably, she's lagging behind you just a bit, but she's keeping up.

There aren't any speeder bikes below you right now, but you keep your eyes peeled. Hopefully, you don't run into any more. You'd rather not deal with them right now.

Up ahead, you notice an elevated ridge on the perimeter of the Enclave's grounds. There are a couple of trees there that can provide a bit of cover. It seems like a good spot to land. Pinkie is still leaping and jumping over the small canyons. She's a little behind you, but she's still managing to keep up.

When you land on the ridge, you immediately crouch down and stealthily make your way to the cliffside. A couple seconds later, you hear Pinkie right behind you. She's panting. You turn around to see her on her hands and knees, wheezing hard.

It makes you chuckle a bit. "You okay?"

She slowly looks up at you and nods, giving you a shaky thumbs up and smiling weakly. "Y-yeah... I'm o... I'm okay, just... I'm just tired..."

You can't help but laugh at her. "Well, you have a bit of time to rest. I'll let Anon know where we are, and we'll move again when he gets here."

She lets out a small giggle before collapsing onto her side and rolling over to her back, still panting. "Yay..."

You smirk before turning your attention back to the Enclave and activating your comms.

---

Your comms beep and Sunset's voice comes on in your ear. "Anon, come in."

"I'm here. Are you two in position?" You sit up and prepare to start up your speeder bike again.

"Yeah. We're on a ridge overlooking the Enclave, just on its perimeter." She replies.

"Alright, I'm on my way now. Were you spotted?" You ask.

"I don't think so." Sunset says. "We didn't see any patrols in the canyons on our way here."

"I saw one about three minutes ago. They're still looking for you." You say.

"Alright, well, we're pretty secluded and speeders can't make it up here, so I'm not too worried about them finding us now." She replies.

They ditched the bike.

"Good." You say. "Send me your location and watch the Enclave for any movement. I'll be there soon."

Your speeder bike roars to life and you look around to make sure the coast is clear before shifting it into gear. Your HUD blips and a little nav marker comes up in front of you. Sunset is about 750 meters away. Not too far. You rev the engine and speed off toward the marker and head into an opening directly in front of you.

A couple of seconds pass by when your comms activate again and Rarity's voice comes on in your ear. "Yoohoo! Anonymous?"

Fantastic. She has intel on Discord's whereabouts.

You keep your eyes open for anything as you bank left and continue through the canyon. "Hey Rarity. What have you got for me?"

"Well, unfortunately I don't have much, darling." She says. "This Discord covers his tracks pretty well. It's proving to be quite a challenge, even for me."

Damn. Discord must be good if even Rarity can't track him down.

"Is there anything you can tell me about Rancors?" You ask. "Have you heard about any activity involving them?"

You reach a larger open field with one path on either your left or right. Sunset's marker is on your right, so you head that way and continue driving through the canyons.

"Not much, I'm afraid." Rarity replies. "I had heard a rumor that a few places on Dathomir were having problems with poaching a while ago, but there wasn't even a name to go with the accusations, so I didn't think it was worth looking into at the time."

"Look into it again and see what you find." You say. "Pinkie told me that Discord loves Rancors. It's the only lead we've got."

"Be careful, Anonymous." Rarity cautions. "She's a thief, remember? Of all the people you shouldn't trust, she should be at the top of that list."

You shake your head. "I never said I trusted her."

You reach the end of this stretch and come to a dead end, forcing you to stop. Your HUD indicates that you're about 200 meters away from Sunset's position now. That isn't too far. You'll ditch the bike here and fly to her.

"Well, I'll get back to digging then, darling." She says. "There's a few more arenas around the Outer Rim that I've only glanced at, so I'll see what else I can find."

"I appreciate it, Rarity. Thanks for keeping me in the loop." You say.

The smile on her face is present in the sound of her voice. "Anything for you, Anonymous."

You deactivate your comms and look up and around at the closed off canyon that surrounds you. You dismount the bike and activate your jetpack, taking off into the air. A gust of wind hits you as you ascend above the ridge and it pushes you back a bit, but you lean forward and power through the gale.

You continue to rise high above the network of canyons and head toward Sunset's marker on your HUD. As you fly, you get a better look at the Dantooine landscape. These canyons stretch out for miles. Anyone who didn't have a jetpack or the ability to jump high would probably wander around this maze forever, hopelessly lost.

From up here, you can see Sunset's location, right on the outskirts of the Enclave's perimeter. Out of the corner of your eye, you notice a bit of movement from the canyons below. Another speeder bike is navigating its way through the maze. He's likely too focused on not crashing to notice that you're overhead, but you descend at a faster pace, just to be safe. You'd like to keep the element of surprise for as long as you can.

Just ahead, you clearly see Sunset and Pinkie Pie crouching beneath a pair of trees. They both turn to look at you as you land, but Sunset turns her attention back to the Enclave.

You crouch down as well and move between them. "What have you seen?"

Sunset shakes her head slowly. "I'm not sure, but it doesn't look like they're after old Jedi ruins. Only a couple of them have gone inside the Enclave itself."

You use your helmet's viewfinder to zoom in on the Enclave. Just beside the building, on the concrete footpath, are a small group of five looters and thugs. They're standing around and doing nothing, almost like they're waiting for something.

There are a lot more thugs here than you expected there would be. It looks like they've been here for a while. Maybe they've already taken everything they want from inside the Enclave.

Or maybe there is something else going on here.

Sunset taps your shoulder. "Anon, look."

She points to an opening in the perimeter canyon wall on the right side of the Enclave. A flatbed vehicle is emerging and making its way toward the building. It's carrying some cargo crates. The smaller group of thugs notice it and start to approach.

"Did you see that before I got here?" You ask.

She shakes her head. "No I didn't. That's the first time I've seen it."

Of all the cargo crates on the vehicle, one of them catches your attention. You zoom in further on the vehicle to get a better look at its payload.

Your eyebrows raise a little as your viewfinder zooms in. "Oh, wow."

They're not crates that it's hauling, they're metal cages. Inside each one is an angry, four-legged animal.

"Are those Kath Hounds?" Sunset asks.

"I think so." You look at them harder. Orange-white coat of fur, thick, hairless tail, and a very small pair of horns on their heads. They're Kath Hounds alright.

"So that's why they're here." Sunset says. "They're poachers, or trappers, or something."

Pinkie speaks up from behind you. "I thought Kath Hounds were extinct."

"They're not. Not yet, anyway." You reply. "They're endangered, illegal to own, and worth a whole lot of money. Crime lords are usually the ones who buy them."

You've seen a Kath Hound up close only one other time. Way back when, they used to roam all over these plains, according to what you've heard. These days though, they're extremely rare to come by.

You look over to the other side of the Enclave at the larger pile of crates again. It looks like they're waiting for a pickup. These thugs are going to be on high alert now that they know you're all in the area. They just don't know where you are, specifically.

"What are you thinking, Anon?" Sunset asks.

You zoom out and glance over to Sunset for a moment before looking back to the Enclave. "What these people are doing, an operation this big and this organized couldn't have been kept under wraps this long without help."

Sunset nods. "I agree. A politician, maybe."

With all the corruption in the Republic senate, you wouldn't be surprised.

Now that you think about it, it would really make the most sense. This little setup they have here had to have been going on for a very long time. Why is it only now that the Republic has decided to start negotiating with Dantooine on having extra security around here?

The Republic didn't know. A corrupt political influence would have kept them in the dark all this time. The secret finally broke after a while though.

Which means...

"If it was a politician keeping this under wraps, then they likely know about Dantooine's negotiations that are going on right now..." You say quietly.

Sunset perks up. You can't see her face behind her visor, but you know what she's thinking. These negotiations are jeopardizing their sweet deal on making a few extra credits by selling Kath Hounds. They're going to want these negotiations to fail at all costs.

Senator Octavia Melody is at risk.

Sunset whips around and looks to the rough direction of the compound you were all at. She looks back at you after a second and stands up. "Me and Pinkie will head back as fast as we can."

You nod. "I'll try to shut these guys down and find out who's behind all this. Both of you do whatever you can to protect the senator."

Sunset nods and turns around. "Pinkie, come on!"

"W-Wait! Where are we going?" She asks.

"Senator Melody is in trouble!" Sunset says.

Pinkie quickly gets up and follows Sunset. You turn your attention back to the Enclave, hearing the roar of Sunset's jetpack behind you as she flies away.

Her voice comes on in your comms. "Hope you don't mind if we take your bike, Anon. It's closer."

"Take it." You reply. "You need it more than I do right now."

You shut off your comms and stand up. The incoming lift that's carrying the Kath Hounds are almost on the other side of the Enclave. That's likely where the shuttle will pick up the cargo, if there is one. There's about twelve thugs that you can see in this area. You're willing to bet that there are more inside the Enclave. That's probably where you'll find any shipping information.

Taking these guys out will be relatively easy. You have an aerial advantage and they're in a small, boxed in space. They won't be able to go too far.

You take out your blaster rifle and do one last quick glance at the environment before you take a few running steps forward, you leap into the air and activate your jetpack. The roar of the engines echoes in your ears as you ascend into the air and head toward the building.

Author's Note:

The ruins of the Jedi Enclave.

A Kath Hound.