Nico's Gambit

The Hunted

Masses of bodies swirled around Odette as people hurried to get to transports to take them to somewhere other than Ord Mantell. She looked at signs to find the transport going to Coruscant. A mercenary stood off to the side in his dirty uniform, looking bored.

"Pardon me," she said, copying her father's unusual accent. "I was wondering you could tell little old me where I can find the transport to Coruscant."

The man looked her up and down, and just for a second she thought his eyes widened. "Down that hallway to your left," he said.

She turned to her father and Corso. "Guess we'll mosey on over to this-a-here hallway, Pa." They headed in the indicated direction, but she looked over her shoulder at the officer. He was speaking into an arm com. Her eyebrows creased.

"What's got you spooked, hun?" Nico said.

"Not sure yet," she said. "Grunt back there's got my hackles up. Started talking into an arm com the moment we turned our backs to him."

Nico nodded. He pulled his duster over his right holster but walked casually towards the hangar bay. The only ship inside was much too small to be a transport ship. The hangar bay was deserted. She flipped the release straps on both her blasters. Something didn't smell right about this whole setup.

The gangplank of the ship opened, and two figures emerged. Theyambledy towards the trio.

"I know you. You're Xo'ru," Odette said, hands on her hips. "You've got quite the reputation, bounty hunter. Who's the fishface?"

"Come on, boss," the other said. "Let's blast them and get this over with."

"No, Kindin," Xo'ru said. "Rogun wants them alive. My apologizes for my rash friend. Seems he hasn't learned the finer points of contract specifications yet. We'll just take you to Rogun in carbonite. No muss, no fuss."

"You want Skavak, not me," Odette said. "He's the one that has the ship with Rogun's weapons shipment on it."

"Rogun doesn't care who did what," Xo'ru stated. "You're all going in and he'll sort it out later. Now please stand still for the carbon freezing. My friend's trigger finger here is a little twitchy. Wouldn't want an unfortunate accident to happen."

"No, thanks," Odette said, holding her hands over her blasters.

"You really should have surrendered," Xo'ru said.

"I just want to start killing things," Kindin said as he drew his blaster.

Before anyone could blink, Nico had shot the Mon Calamarian through the head.

Diving for the nearest cover, Odette looked over at her father. "We've got to kill Xo'ru. He won't stop until we're over at Rogun's on a spit."

"Unfortunate these bounty hunters always seem to die for the wrong employers," Nico said. "You make so much more money by living."

"Uh, folks, it looks like he's got a grenade out," Corso said.

"Fantastic," Odette said.

"Hit the floor," Nico yelled out. Corso and Odette flattened themselves to the floor.An enormous explosionn ripped through the air and Nico wasthrownw back a few feet before landing on his back with a large grunt. No one moved for a few seconds.

"What in the hell was that?" Odette said as she got herself to her feet. She looked back over to where Xo'ru had been standing. The only thing that remained was a creepy purplish sludge splashed across the floor. "Nico? Dad?"

She ran up to the old smuggler. He groaned and then patted his body down. "Damn it, I forgot my lighter."

Odette sunk to the ground, putting her head between her knees.