The hulking Trandoshan known simply as Grot stalked the mean streets of Nar Shaddaa. Grot despised the decadence of what he called the soft skins but his work often brought him to places like this. His quarry on this occasion was a recent addition to Clan Plagueis if the Dajorra Intelligence Agency were to be believed, a female Chiss. He was told he could bring her in alive or return with some authentication of the kill. Either suited Grot; he would gain a trophy or a larger amount of Jagganath points to enhance his already considerable standing with the Scorekeeper. Luckily, Grot had brought some help to assist him with locating his prey, a DRK-1 Probe Droid covered in cloth and ornamented with various tribal totems that had served him well before.
His quarry would fall to him.
Grot stood out like a fish out of water, towering above all those around him, yet the locals had enough of a survival instinct to not mess with the Trandoshan with a couple of big irons on his hip. The local security forces would be more willing to intervene, but the stranger hadn’t made himself a problem, not yet anyway. Grot felt the heavily polluted air work its way into his body through his nostrils, taking in the sight of the pop-up shops, some selling what passed for local cuisine, some more illicit goods while the storefronts that were more heavily protected and appeared to be various underworld arms dealerships. A hunter would do good to come to a place like this for supplies, though it was far from an ideal hunting ground. Finding his prey, even though he had some prior knowledge of the environment, would prove a challenge.
Scudi Ferria had never made her way to Nar Shaddaa before, so everything was a learning experience for her. Of course, she’d had a lot of those recently. The only reason she’d come here was to meet Jaraxxo, a semi-reliable contact of hers, for a few drinks. She knew he liked the seedier areas but her lack of familiarity with the planet had led her to completely the wrong part of town. The Plagueian had to keep looking around since her escort, a droid she called Bastion, would be worth a fair bit of change just in scrap, let alone as a functional weapon. Little did she know that the droid wasn’t the most coveted of hers on Nar Shaddaa.
Beep... Beep, Beep, Beep Beep. The sensor array on Scudi’s back had picked up something and it was moving closer to her. Naturally, the beeping had drawn a lot of confused eyes to the Chiss, who decided it best she leave the rather shady-looking cantina and take her chances out on the streets. Exiting the establishment, she took a right turn. The noise coming from the array was maintaining a constant frequency now, which didn’t bode well. She was being followed. By whom and why she didn’t know, but she’d have to figure that out some other time. A slug raced through the air and penetrated the array, stopping the beeping but not removing any of the dread the woman felt approaching.
“Alright, which of you sleemos did that? This equipment doesn’t come cheap you know?” Clearly incensed, Scudi’s frustration could be seen as well as heard. Nobody responded, but there was a rather large Trandoshan following a quaint little probe droid approaching. He seemed the most likely perpetrator, so she addressed the lizard directly, “I don’t know who you are, but leave me alone.” With the completion of her warning the female spun on her heel and proceeded to walk away, a hand covertly reaching for the blaster she kept on her in case of emergencies.
Scudi knew from looking at the scaled sentient that he was more than she could handle, although that usually wasn’t saying much. The guy, however, looked like a mobile tank. The droid with him, though, that was definitely something she could use to her advantage.
The Chiss looked back to see if she was being followed, she didn’t see anyone but there were a few choice locations for cover she suspected. She resumed her unguided walk through the winding streets of the city world. If she was being followed, she could always draw some attention away from herself. Taking her hand off the blaster pistol, Scudi drew out her datapad and began navigating through it as any reasonably normal sentient would. The more she could make herself look like some random local the better. Scudi went into Bastion’s settings and enabled his surveillance protocols. Bastion peeled off to distance himself from his owner to aid her attempt to blend in. He could always make his way back. From an improvised hiding spot, Grot watched on.
The Trandoshan waited until he saw the Super Battle Droid depart; the fewer obstacles in his way, the higher his odds of success would be. Grot fired from his cover, hitting the broken sensor array on his quarry’s back. This alerted the Chiss who picked up her speed, forcing him to emerge from his cover and re-engage the pursuit.
The hunter noticed his victim was walking towards an area he knew, an indoor shopping area. There were doors and such, so maybe the target sought to give him a decent chase after all. It had been fairly easy up until this point. There may not have been many punches, kicks or much firing, but the two were engaged in what they both suspected would be a very painful game of cat and mouse for one of them. Grot noticed that the target didn’t move with much of a pace; she might even have been slowing ever so slightly. Whether it was fatigue or an intentional tactic was unclear. Grot sporadically fired at his target when he could, keeping his shots tightly Killing civilians would cause local security to get involved, but as long as he stuck to his target they seemed content to sit back and watch. Scudi ducked. If she could keep herself in the crowd, the Trandoshan was seemingly averse to firing. He would need a new plan if he was to isolate his target, but luckily he had options.
Looking at his arsenal of explosives, inspecting each type of grenade’s appropriateness for the mission, he ran each through his hand before settling on the Sonic Imploder. The Trandoshan twisted the shell, prompting the red light indicating the grenade was live to appear. He arched his back and leaned back with his arm coiled, ready to spring at a moment’s notice. After a brief moment of calculating the trajectory, he sprung forward, tossing the explosive in Scudi’s direction.
A clang could be heard as the explosive landed close to its intended target, causing chaos as people sought to run away but only collided with each other. Then the device imploded, sending out a shockwave powerful enough to knock those in the blast radius to the ground, Scudi included. Grot was conflicted then. He could kill his target from here with his slugthrowers, but that would damage the head, which he’d want as a trophy. He also risked prolonging the inevitable if he approached her. Grot preferred the Jagganath points and began to make his way over but stopped when he heard the sound of a laser cannon meeting metal. He looked to see the Super Battle Droid had destroyed his probe droid.
Now Grot had two choices: avenge his droid or focus on the mission.
