Bounty Hunter Anon II

by Sunny Solaire

Laying the Groundwork

After getting Pinkie situated again, Sunset went into the armory to remove some of her gear and you sit them both down in the main hold and contact Rarity through the ship's computer a few minutes later. It was time to make a plan.

Her holographic face comes into view above the table in the center of the room. "Hello, Anonymous and Sunset!"

"Hey Rarity." You say.

She smiles and looks at Pinkie. "Oh! You must be Pinkamena Diane Pie."

Pinkie smiles and nods. "The one and only! Call me Pinkie!"

She returns the smile. "It's nice to meet you, Pinkie! I'm Rarity."

"Nice to meet you too!" Pinkie replies.

Good, we're all getting along.

Rarity clears her throat. "Well, now that the pleasantries are out of the way, I suppose you're all curious about my contact."

Sunset speaks up. "Does he really go by 'Filthy'?"

Pinkie straight up busts a gut laughing. "What?!"

You chuckle. Rarity does as well. "Yes, darling. That little nickname was given to him by those he had previously dealt with, and it sort of stuck. He is very successful and he isn't afraid to play dirty to get what he wants."

He's an extremely aggressive businessman. In a... manner of speaking.

She continues. "Anonymous has stated that he needs some items of... How did you put it exactly, darling?"

"Items of questionable legality." You say again.

"Ah, yes." She snaps her fingers. "He needs some of those for this little endeavor he wants to go on... Which I'm very curious to know the details of."

All three of them turn their full attention to you.

You clear your throat. "Okay. Now that we're not under the prying eyes and ears of the Republic, I can get into my 'evil plan' with a bit less worry of anyone listening in." You turn your attention to Pinkie. "Pinkie. You are in the dark the most on this, so I'll explain everything from the beginning... Rarity, bring up the message please."

Rarity's holographic image fades away and is replaced by Hoity Toity's still image, along with many other details you had found and given to her.

You continue. "At the Jedi Enclave, I found a datapad. It contained shipping records, details on the cargo, and a pair of aliases for the recipients of the illegally obtained Kath Hounds: the Twins. AKA, Flim and Flam... Along with those things, I also found this message."

You press a button on the table and play the message to the girls for the first time.

"...alk to me, what is going on there?! Did you get the shipment?! Is the bomb in place?! Answer me! I want Senator Melody DEAD! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?! DEAD!"

Pinkie gasps and covers her mouth.

Sunset just stares at him, shaking her head. "What an idiot... He didn't even try to be subtle or hide his identity or anything."

"His carelessness will cost him dearly." You add.

"Who is that?" Pinkie asks.

You reply. "That, Pinkie, is Hoity Toity. He's a rich, corrupt Senator for the Galactic Republic. We're going to break into his fancy apartment building in Coruscant's upper city, and kill him."

She looks at you. "A high up guy like this? For free?" You nod. "By your own choice?" You nod again.

"You could be a great help to us on this, Pinkie." You tell her. "This is the guy who killed a bunch of innocent people on Dantooine."

She looks at the still image of his face again. "Why not let the Republic deal with him though?"

Sunset stands up before you can answer. "Because the Republic will take too long, Pinkie. This guy is a lying, corrupt piece of Bantha fodder. He has a position of power in the Republic, and he deserves to die as soon as possible. If we wait, he could pull some strings and make himself look innocent. We have to do this now."

You grin and she stands beside you. "Couldn't have said it any better myself."

Sunset looks to you briefly and grins as well.

Pinkie looks at you both for a moment before smiling a little. "Alright, I'm in. He's a rich bad guy too, so maybe we can steal some stuff when we get in there."

You grin. "I was ready to play that card if you were having doubts about doing this with us. This guy is definitely loaded."

She giggles and Rarity's face comes into view again. "So what is your plan then, darling?"

You look at her and rub your chin for a moment. "Well, that is actually why I wanted to brainstorm with you guys for a bit. We need a specific plan of action with this... Pinkie, you're the professional thief here. What would you do?"

She scratches her head and hums to herself as she thinks. "You don't happen to have blueprints, or at least a picture of his place, do you?"

Sunset speaks up. "We have a few cameras aboard this ship. I can pull up an archive image of it from when we brought in Adagio."

She moves over to another computer panel on a far wall and presses a few buttons. Rarity's image fades once again. Taking her place is footage of you, Sunset, and Adagio exiting the ship on Hoity Toity's rooftop a couple of weeks ago.

The footage moves to another camera and you get a grainy, albeit better view of his building from a different angle. Sunset pauses the footage and Pinkie steps forward to get a closer look at the building. She stays silent for a few moments as she studies it.

"What kind of gear will we have?" She asks.

"I'm hoping for some piece of tech that can help us disable some security." You reply.

"What kind of security does he have, specifically?" She asks.

You shake your head. "I'm not sure."

She hums. "You should've scoped this place out, Anon. Gathered some intel, ya know?"

You curse silently. She's right, that's a rookie mistake. You should've gone to Coruscant first.

Maybe she has a method.

"Well, walk me through what you usually do when breaking into places like this." You say.

"Well, for me, there's usually a party involved. I get myself invited, make a few flirty faces, show the guy I can be fun in more ways than one, then I swipe his keys, guns, valuables, or anything else I want. Sometimes it has to get messy though. I have fun no matter what kind of messy happens, but whether the messy is fun for him depends on if he's cute or not..." She grins and winks at you. "If you know what I mean~."

"Good hell..." You groan.

"Oh my word, Pinkie!" Even though her face is not visually present, Rarity can still hear everything in the room. You press your palm against your face and Pinkie starts laughing again.

Sunset sighs loudly and snaps her fingers a few times. "Okay, Pinkie? For real. We don't need to hear about your lovelife. Get to the point."

She continues laughing as she looks at you all. "What? It works great for me!"

You can't help chuckling a little. That was kind of funny.

"She's right." You say. "Let's stay focused."

Pinkie giggles and looks back at the picture again. Her giggles fade after a second, but her smile doesn't. "Anyway, as far as getting intel goes, I say we wait until nighttime and use a few probe droids to get a closer look at the building."

Sunset points to a different building's rooftop on the picture. "One or two of us can stand on that rooftop and scope it out from further away."

Pinkie nods. "Good idea. I can't be much help if I don't know what I'm getting into."

You silently curse yourself again as you think of how much money you could save if you had done that first. Oh well. You're already on your way.

"You know, while we're going to Nal Hutta, can we stop at Nar Shaddaa first?" Pinkie asks. "I have some of my stuff that can help us out."

That's right. You picked Pinkie up on Nar Shaddaa.

"Sure, we can make a stop." You ask. "What kind of stuff are you grabbing?"

She grins. "Lots of high-tech thief stuff! Sticky gloves, glass cutters, one or two distractions I can use, you know. Most of it can only be used by me though."

You nod. "We'll take all the help we can get."

Sunset speaks up. "Do you have any signal jammers?"

"I do, but it's a small one." Pinkie replies. "It only jams radios that are close to me."

You look back at the picture of the apartment building again. On the roof, you notice a small communications dish between a pair of antennas. Jamming a signal would be easy if you could get up there. Pinkie's probably isn't anywhere near powerful enough to do it though, if she's to be believed. Even if it was modified. You'll have to buy a better one.

"Well, unfortunately, I didn't look far enough ahead and now it's too late to go to Coruscant and scope this place out better." You admit. "When we get to Nal Hutta, we'll buy the basics and work with what we have when we get there."

"Mistakes happen sometimes, Anon." Pinkie says with a smile.

True, but you still hate it when they do happen.

You continue. "Right now, we need a bare minimum plan. A simple foundation for something more detailed later on. How are we going to do this?"

Pinkie and Sunset think for a moment. Rarity's face comes into view once again. "Well darling, as I said before, the Republic knows who you are. They have worked with you, and they have undoubtedly done their research. It's safe to assume that they know your style."

You're usually pretty discreet unless you simply cannot be. Pinkie is well versed in stealthy infiltration, ironically. You have no idea how much the Republic knows about her though. They could know everything, or they could know nothing.

"Do you think the Republic would consider us if the assassination was blatantly obvious?" Sunset asks.

You all look at her as she speaks.

"Like, just be reckless? Go in guns blazing?" You ask.

She nods. "The illusion of being reckless, yes. We could plan to be so over-the-top loud, that there's no way the Republic would suspect it was us. It goes against our M.O."

That could work. You like the idea of the Republic not tailing you all over the place. It would mean that you'd have to be fast though. As soon as news got out, Republic security forces and possibly even a few Jedi would race there to stop you.

"Maybe." You say. "We'll hold onto that plan. I'm not opposed to it."

Pinkie speaks up again. "I still say we try to be stealthy. Maybe cut a few security measures before we go in, you know?"

"I agree with Pinkie, darling." Rarity says. "It's safer, and if you cover your tracks well enough, then there's no need for all the excitement."

Sunset argues once again. "You can never be sure of anything though. Covering your tracks can work, but destroying your tracks completely can work even better, if you do it the right way."

All these plans can work or fail. You can see that.

"What if we do a bit of both?" They all look at you. "We can go in quiet and really stealthy, kill the senator, then go out with a loud bang."

You bring up a smaller picture of the apartment building next to Rarity's face and point to a window on its side.

You continue. "See that window there? We can plant remote explosives there from the outside. Whoever is inside can also plant remote explosives all over the place. Hoity Toity lives near the top of the tower, so maybe we plant them in key points around the building and bring the entire top of the building down."

Pinkie looks at you like you're crazy. "You don't wanna destroy the entire tower, do you?!"

"Of course not! I just want to destroy his penthouse." You reply.

She gives a relieved sigh and Sunset leans in to look at the picture. "How would we get out of there?"

You think for a moment.

"I'm thinking we use the explosion as our escape." You say. "Maybe we could set the explosives off at different times. The ones by the window can go, the person inside can jump out, then the rest of the explosives can go a couple seconds later."

Sunset hums to herself. "That's quite a long fall though."

That's true. Using your jetpacks would give you away as Mandalorians, too.

"What if someone else had a speeder and flew it down to catch whoever was falling?" Pinkie asks.

That could work. Whoever was flying it would need to be good though.

You look at Sunset and she looks back at you and nods. "I can do that."

You smile at her. "That only means we're getting the best."

She smiles back and looks at the picture again. "Well, I like it. It's crazy enough that it just might work."

"I do too!" Pinkie says.

"Rarity, what do you think?" You asks.

She looks unsure. "I still don't know, Anonymous. It seems risky."

You chuckle. "I think you worry too much. It's us. We can do it."

"Well, someone has to worry about you!" She smiles back at you. "I'll see if I can't get any more information on the Senator's apartment building for you. Like blueprints and whatnot."

You nod. "Thanks Rarity."

Her holographic face fades away and you turn off the table's projector.

Pinkie exhales. "Now what?"

Sunset folds her arms. "Well, we have a while before we reach Nal Hutta. I say we get a little rest."

"Good idea." You reply. "It's been a long day."

"Okie dokie!" Pinkie walks toward another hallway that leads to some guest bunkbeds, leaving you and Sunset alone.

You look at each other but say nothing. You smile at her and she smiles back.

You exhale. "Alright, I'm going to take your advice head to sleep for a bit."

"Sounds good." Sunset nods. "I'll be in there soon."

You turn around and head toward the hallway that leads to your room. "Nighty night."

You reach your room and step inside, closing the door behind you and removing your armor. Once it's been removed, you lay down in your bed and take a deep breath. It's been a while since you've had a decent rest. You're looking forward to this.

You lift your robotic arm up and look at it. It's scraped in a few places and suffering from minor damage. It will still work for you though.

You lay it down at your side and take another deep breath as you shut your eyes. Tomorrow is going to be interesting.

Author's Note:

Holotable in the main hold.

Pinkie is good at what she does.