“He was just a young man, a scrawny punk!” a human shouted to the medical droid that sutured a new cybernetic, an arm, as for whatever reason he had just lost one.
“I’m sorry sir, I do not follow.” the medical droid chattered back in binary, understood by the anxiety and pain riddled gun for hire.
“The schutta that did this to me!” he shouted, lifting his nub from the table eliciting a response that made the multiple droids surrounding him pin him down to the table as he growled.
“Be calm sir, you must remain calm. Start from the beginning.”
Bloodied lids closed over green eyes as the mercenary steadied his breathing and with a gruff voice began to spin his tale.
“I was hired by the Collective I should'a known when I received the holo that this was going to be more than what I bargained for,” he sounded off, “I was to simply track down a young punk Forcie, kill him, and bring his head back for mounting.”
“And?”
“And, that's obviously not what happened you hunk of tin.” he shouted again. “Let me paint a picture for you.”
Corellia was a rambunctious place, filled with a rowdy people. In fact, I felt right at home, being from Wild Space and all. The birds spoke to me and the Corellian hounds snapped their jaws at those who passed by. The marketplace was filled with caged animals. Creatures for sale. Intel told me that the kid enjoyed spending time there. He was apparently some kind of swoop racer, a big deal.” The man gestured with his organic hand, animating his words. “They were right, he was there, barking at a Sullustan who obviously tried to gouge him. I thought, finally, I found him. He had a Bryar pistol on his hip, a lightsaber hilt strapped to his back hidden from the ordinary eye, and a hidden blade bracer on his left forearm which wasn’t hidden for long as he pressed it to the alien’s throat. I had my work cut out for me. That was for sure. So, I took to the crowd with my westars ready to strike. I took cover behind a stall but my cover was blown when the owner of the stall knocked over a stack of droid processors, a racket that drew attention to my place of concealment. As expected, I opened my eyes after cursing under my breath, only to see the young Forcie staring directly into my soul. I knew he saw me when he flashed a smirk and turned to face me. Doing the only thing a merc such as myself could do in such a situation, I brandished my weapons and fired off a series of shots. Unfortunately, it was like he saw them coming as he juked to the left, then to the right. My shots rang true, only not into their intended target. He was fast, slithering like a snake through the crowd. Yet, he wasn't fleeing, he was advancing, his eyes never leaving mine, not for a second. That smirk on his handsome face curled into an angry expression and with an eerie precision I had never witnessed first hand, he drew the cylinder on his back and a blue blade burst from its core to deflect my next series of shots with the same ease it took for me to pull the trigger. The hair on the back of my neck stood up for the first time in a long time. I knew things weren't going to go well. He instilled fear, for someone so young, there was just something about him that stirred an uneasy feeling in my gut. The anger in his eyes, I’ll never forget it. It was like he had buried a tremendous amount of gilt or angst. Something that tugged at his heart strings, something he himself couldn’t control. I remember his black hair was hypnotic as I watched the single braid sway with his movements. The image of him drawing closer haunted me, even now. But, I had a job to do and I wasn’t about to go down without a fight. Afterall, there were credits at stake, a lot of credits.So, I stood, looking back now, that wasn’t the correct response, yet, it was the stance I took. I twisted my body behind a pillar that held up the walkway above me and fired off more shots, only, something happened that caused me to stop in awe. I watched as my last shot froze in place, suspended in the air in front of the kid. It pulsed as if it were alive and as the Corellian pureblood stepped out of the line of fire, it exploded into a condenser behind him. He growled, as his anger became too much for him to bear and then it was too late. I heard a latch to my right and the sound of a gate fall open. Another growl filled my ears but it wasn’t from a human, it was from an angry predator. My eyes shifted towards the sound and before I could respond, a corellain hound leapt from it’s confined quarters and latched onto my right arm.” He continued flailing his arm and blood sprayed onto the table. “Then, I saw a flash of blue before my eyes, the barrel of my unoccupied pistol fell to the duracrete and then I saw another flash, but that flash was different as what followed was a searing pain. An overwhelming agony that caused me to forget about the hound latched onto my arm. I fell to the ground and as the adrenaline coursing through my veins plummeted, I could see my limb laying next to my head. The hound let go briefly but ran off with it. I looked up as my eyes welled with tears and the burning lightsaber fell within centimeters of my neck before stopping. The only thing he ever said to me was ‘tell whoever sent you, Corvo is still alive’ and like a phantom, his blade slid back into his palm and he disappeared into the crowd.”
The droid paused but did not respond.
“His name was Corvo, that name will be burned into my mind until I die.” He growled in pain, looking at his newly grafted cybernetic. “I guess this will never let me forget, eh?” he finished.
“I guess not, sir.”