28. Oooo A Somewhat Interesting Chapter

Bounty hunters could be dangerous rivals. They could be unpredictable allies and, at times, even worse teammates, willing to shoot each other in the back to avoid splitting a large bounty. Saying that bounty hunters have bad rep among normal civilians would be an understatement.

Sure, the average bounty hunter would hang a newbie out to dry at the slightest provocation. And, sure, double-crossing was definitely a thing. However, once you've gained a bounty hunter's full loyalty, he or she would close ranks around you at the slightest sign of danger.

Of course, the problem here was gaining that undying loyalty in the first place.

Luckily for Tony, time was something he had enough of. Extremis meant a longer life span, and it wasn't like he needed an army of bounty hunters right this second. Plus, there was currently a robot army in production. The total number of legionnaires numbered in the low millions, last he checked.

Paramexor already had the loyalty of the hundreds of bounty hunters he had collected under his banner, hard-won through years of hard work and steadfastness. The gadgets Tony had delivered to Paramexor went a long way to establishing their trust. The SI buildings were doing their parts, too. With their technological breakthroughs, SI's buildings far surpassed any hospital, save those found in Coruscant or sector capitals. They were every bit as advanced, despite Tony having a hard time getting his hands on more recent developments. The companies and hospitals were jealousy keeping those advancements to themselves. Tony couldn't blame them, but it was kind of annoying.

The only place in which SI was truly lacking in was veteran doctors and surgeons. Tony managed to tempt a few away from larger and more prestigious hospitals, but SI was still young and growing, and they couldn't afford the teams of highly experienced doctors that Tony was used to. Instead, Tony found pride in the fact that they were sponsoring determined and dedicated medical students from poor backgrounds. With paid internships under registered professionals at SI buildings and loan interest rates low enough to count as nonexistent, SI—and by default, Tony—managed to subtly buy the loyalty of the upcoming generation of medical students. 'Force' knows that loyal medical teams were a boon.

Other things they had were teams of technicians ready to repair spacecrafts, provisions to last for days, strange gadgets that weren't thought to be possible, and a cafeteria with entire meals for those that couldn't eat human food.

In return for these small favors, Tony could already see benefits rolling in. The bounty hunters proved to be quite protective over their sources. At any hint of foul play, they would swarm to their local SI building. Two SI buildings have already been targeted by rival companies seeking their blueprints and products. Before the first intruder ran more than half a dozen steps from SI, he was gunned down by no less than six different blasters. It was really unfortunate for him that he was running in the direction of the Paramexor base.

News of this intrusion spread through their ranks, and by the time the next break-in happened, both SI and the bounty hunters were ready. When their StarkPhones lit up with an alert, the SI employees were quick to secure their stations and retreat to a safe spot. Less than a minute later, the first bounty hunters charged into the building, ready to take down whoever tried to steal from SI.

Paramexor's men rarely left their targets breathing.

~A Wonderful Page Break~

"And?" Bail pressed, managing to be an odd juxtaposition of calm and impatient as he broke the quiet.

Friday had finished telling him the first section of her secret. The couple were in the Corla Gardens, in a section that was as private as a public garden could be. It was a plot of land donated by a previous queen of Alderaan, an unofficial second royal garden. Technically, anyone could take a stroll through there. However, only nobles used the paved walkways. Most of the common folks were warded off by the presence of guards at the gates. The guards wouldn't stop people from coming in if they tried, but no one tried. While the presence of guards meant safety to nobility, they were a deterrent to the civilians.

As paranoid as it probably was, Tony had commandeered some astromechs to roll around the entire gardens to 'clean'. In other words, they were sweeping the area… for listening devices and other handy bugs. It was lucky he did; the fact that the area was frequented by younger nobles—inexperienced, kid nobles—meant that secrets were more likely to slip. That fact had not been missed by other groups. The astromechs gathered over seventy-six little devices stuck onto statues, on the bottom of benches, and buried under dirt. True, almost half of the devices were nonfunctional, out of power or destroyed over time, but Tony was happy to make people's days just a bit worse.

From where he was watching the events play out in holoform camera feeds, Tony raised an eyebrow. The viceroy-in-training was taking the new information unusually well. It wasn't just a mask—passive scans revealed an even breathing rate and normal heartbeat. Stats were all normal, aside from brain activity—that jumped up just a bit. Tony glanced at Friday's form to see that she was likely thinking the same thing.

Friday's avatar seemed to be stuck on freeze. His poor daughter was probably having trouble processing this. On humans, the term would probably be 'spacing out.' Friday's face was blank and she was motionless. Only the most basic programs were active, programs that controlled things like the false 'breathing' motions, blinking, and the sway of her hair in the wind.

Humans were odd, and that was just a fact that his kiddo had to get used to. They managed to be predictable while being unpredictable. Along the way, they would also do the stupidest things imaginable and break basic laws of physics, along with… pretty much every other law in existence, from legal laws to Murphy's law.

That was the reason Friday had asked Tony to supervise the events while Friday told Bail the truth. Tony wasn't good with people or anything to do with emotions, but as a somewhat-responsible, adult father-figure and someone who cared about Friday, he was obligated to be there.

It was more than that, though. Tony was happy to be there and support Friday.

He just didn't… know how to help, if worse came to worst.

"I just told you that what you see here isn't really me," Friday pointed out. "I just told you that what you see here is a holoform, and you're completely okay with this?"

Bail eyed her up and down. Tony was not okay with someone looking at his daughter like that, holoform or not, until he recognized it as the gaze of an inexperienced politician sizing up the room, and not a leer.

"I mean, it's not hard to figure out," Bail said slowly. The two kiddos stared at each other while Tony prepared to take notes. "For one thing, your hair doesn't always react to…" He waved his hands around.

Ah. Tony made notes to increase the sensitivity of the sensors on the Friday-orb. It had to be able to detect wind speed and move accordingly. He thought for a moment, then scrawled a few bullet points about doing the same with clothes. Maybe some more wrinkles or stuff, when Friday moved. He wasn't an animator though, just an engineer. Tony had thought that he did alright, but he could always do better. Only the best for his kids. Might have to take a few courses on cinematic animation or whatever…

"I see," Friday said. Her avatar shifted her weight to the other foot.

"And, sometimes… stuff goes through you," Bail said awkwardly.

Friday narrowed her eyes. "Through me," she said flatly.

In his seat two miles away, Tony echoed Friday's expression at Bail's image. Friday was solid enough. She moved stuff, shook hands, and even ate… Sure, she occasionally had problems picking up items from a flat surface—hard light projections had no 'fingerprints' and had to rely on grip pressure, something hard to do for items low in height-but for the most part, Friday had been a physical entity.

Bail hesitated, then swiped his hands at Friday's forearm. It connected. They both stared at it. Friday raised an eyebrow, raising her arm in cleardisplay.

"Uh…" Bail looked at where his hand was loosely wrapped a few centimeters above Friday's wrist.

Tony turned his gaze to a holographic model of Friday's avatar, floating to the right of the scene. The points of contact were flushed a dull pink. The pink darkened to an angry red—Bail must have given Friday's arm a squeeze—before returning to the pink. It disappeared a moment later. Back at the scene, Bail had let go of Friday's arm.

"Sorry. Um," Bail said. He reached over again and batted at Friday's sleeve. It was one of those impractical, unnecessarily-long ones that sorceresses or medieval ladies wore. The sleeve flowed with the hit, swaying back into position as Tony had programmed it to.

Though Tony knew that neither Bail nor the Friday on-scene could see it, Tony sent Bail an exceedingly dry look, smirking when Friday unknowingly mirrored his look.

"Maybe it only happens when you're unaware?" Bail suggested.

Friday paused. Her eyebrows drew closer together. "Hypothetically, that could—"

Bail's arm shot out, and he swiped at the sleeve. The sleeve only began moving a split second after Bail's fingers had made contact with it.

Friday stared.

Tony stared.

For a moment, right before the holographic sleeve moved, Bail's fingers were visible, the fingertips poking out through the sleeve.

"I stand corrected," Friday said stiffly, recovering from that unpleasant shock. Her avatar didn't move for several seconds. Tony knew that it was because she was going over saved memory files, trying to figure out other times it had happened and when Bail might have come to that realization.

"Sorry," Bail offered again.

The avatar finally moved, letting out a puff of air in exasperation. "Not your fault," Friday said. "So, you know that this is only a hologram." She eyed Bail with clear weariness. Tony made another mental note—control over expression. As nice as it probably was for people to know how she was feeling, Tony could come up with dozens of scenarios off the top of his head where hiding her emotions would be a better option for Friday.

"So, is the real you… okay?" Bail asked. He reached over and placed a cautious hand on Friday's shoulder.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know, maybe because you're currently using a hologram?" Bail said, a hint of sarcasm slipping into his tone.

Tony was getting the impression that Bail didn't quite understand the situation as well as Friday thought he did. He tapped a mic. "Friday, find out what he knows. I think he's getting the wrong idea."

The video feed showed Friday inclining her chin just a fraction to let Tony know she received the message. "Bail," she said softly, "tell me what you think is going on."

"Option one: you got into a terrible accident. You have scars and injuries, and you're terrified of people's reactions, how they'll look at you if they see your face." Bail looked at Friday, gaze darting from one eye to another. "I don't care what you look like. I—"

"Skin grafts are successful in decreasing or altogether eliminating scarring. Lost limbs can be replaced with prosthetics. While completely natural-looking coverings for those prosthetics have not been created yet, gloves are able to hide prosthetic hands," Friday listed out.

"So… no scars?"

"No," Friday answered flatly.

Bail considered it for a moment. "Option two: you're in a coma or otherwise unable to leave a medical environment. Your father created this hologram, and probably a whole bunch of equipment so you can experience a somewhat normal life?" Bail's voice started out strong, but slowly lost confidence until it ended as a question.

Friday shook her head. "Interesting idea, though."

"I might turn that idea into a reality. It sounds cool. Long-term hospital patients get to interact with the world on a daily basis, without having to leave their beds," Tony said.

"You're thinking too small, dad," FRIDAY added over the intercom. "Lots of people would want to buy that to look more professional at work, or to pick up people at the bar, or—"

"It could be the start of 'virtual reality' gaming. Why hasn't this universe progressed to creating VR technology yet, if they are indeed more advanced than your previous universe?" MONDAY added, not to be outdone. Tony could almost hear her disdain for Earth, hidden as it was. Tony's heart hurt for her. MONDAY was a child of this universe. All she saw Earth's universe as… was an impending threat, something that wanted to tear her creator and sisters away forever. MONDAY didn't want to leave this galaxy, but for Tony and the FRIDAYs… this wasn't home.

"Shush," Tony told them. "We can talk about it later." Tony tried to put it on the backburner for the moment, focusing on Friday. On the screen, Bail's many explanations were finally dwindling. The couple had sat down on a bench, Bail wrapping an arm around Friday's shoulders, despite her explanation on whether or not she could technically 'feel' it. 'It's the thought that matters,' Bail had claimed. Tony approved.

"You're actually… seven years old, and use the hologram so you can interact with adults on a more even footing…?"

"No."

"Thank the Force," Bail said, visibly relieved.

"Well, actually…" Tony said, thinking about it. "I did bring you online only a couple of years ago, and having a human figure instead of being an untouchable AI does put you on a more even footing with other people…" he mused.

"Um," Friday said awkwardly, looking at Bail, who paled in response. "Actually…" Friday began sheepishly with a teasing smile.

"No," Bail said immediately, recoiling. "Tell me I'm not dating a minor. Friday, this isn't funny!" Bail's arm slipped from Friday's shoulders. Despite her earlier words to Bail about her perception of sensation, Friday seemed to miss the contact the moment it was gone.

"Friday, no!" Tony said. "Kiddo, humor is a great way to break tension in certain situations, and this is not it!"

"No, it's not like that!" Friday said hurriedly, grasping at Bail's hand. The Organa didn't immediately pull away, so that was a good sign. Probably. Pepper was better at this sort of thing. If only Friday took after Pepper…

"Human-AI relationships aren't even a thing, so I can't tell you to tell him that is legal," Tony said under his breath. He tugged at his hair in distress.

"Technically, doesn't that mean it's not illegal either?" FRIDAY advised her other self.

"You're not doing anything illegal," Friday told Bail, who didn't look reassured in the least.

He gave her a pained look. "Can we just… skip the games? Just tell me what's going on."

"Do I just tell him?" Friday asked Tony. "I am not sure he will react well."

"I don't know!" FRIDAY's distressed voice rang out.

"Honesty is best," MONDAY said simply.

"Oooo, tell him, tell him tell him!" TUESDAY—wait, when did TUESDAY return?—chipped in. "He looooves you, right? Love conquers all!" Tony blinked at the cheerful prattle. He had been planning on having Tuesday track and monitor the use of all equipment to prevent tribulations like Afghanistan from happening again. She was much too… perky, though. Maybe HR (was it even called Human Resources here?) or PR, then?

There was a hush, and Tony realized that they were waiting for him to decide.

"Tell him." Tony winced, a hand subconsciously moving to his chest. "There's no 'good reaction' to that big of a secret being hidden." Sue him, he's not good at interpersonal stuff.

But secrets… this secret had gone on long enough.

Friday's avatar bit her lip and tilted her head up to meet Bail's gaze squarely.

"I am an AI," Friday said.

Bail eyed her. He let out an undignified snort and covered his eyes, his shoulders shaking. What emotion was that? Tony couldn't see his face clearly enough to tell "Okay," the Organa said after a moment, taking a breath. "Okay, I'm calm now." He took another deep breath. "Jokes aside, why do you have a hologram?"

"Dad…" Friday said over the intercom.

"Er." Tony stared at the screen, dumbfounded. Out of all the reactions he'd gone over and planned for-anger, betrayal, grief-complete and utter denial wasn't one of them.

"Inform him that you are telling the truth," MONDAY said crisply.

Tony shrugged in response to the expectant silence.

"Bail," the Friday on-screen said calmly, "that is the truth. I am an AI."

Back when he was still coding her, Tony had listened to vocals and finely toned her voice. He had listened to her voice repeating simple phrases over and over. He must have heard "Tony rules" a hundred times on his quest to create the most epic female voice ever.

As such, at that moment, only Tony—and perhaps the other FRIDAY—could hear the way her voice lilted with emotion. Not even MONDAY, born of the same coding, could detect it.

The Organa laughed. It was a bitter laugh, with maybe a hint of hysteria.

"Bail…?" Friday asked.

Bail shook his head. He stood and walked away, leaving Friday frozen on the bench.

~A Wonderful Page Break~

As FRIDAY scrolled through cloth swatches and glitter photos with Galee, she manipulated the data on different sites on the StarkNet, pushing forward ideas and agendas. Iron Man, the Iron Legion, anti-slavery movements, Stark Industries. Hashtags and cyber cookies galore. Friday threw in some teasers for her future fashion line too, for those with fashions and designs on their search history.

She sent a questioning ping to her other self, the Friday in the Friday-Orb. There was no response. FRIDAY declined to connect to her copy (or was FRIDAY the copy, and the Friday-in-the-orb the original one?), afraid of what the data merge would result in. Orb-Friday seemed to be in some sort of shock or depression. Connecting with Orb-Friday might result in some sort of malfunction, reducing FRIDAY to the same state of unresponsiveness. That simply wasn't an option-events were picking up speed, and FRIDAY had to be on top of things.

FRIDAY tasked TUESDAY with monitoring Orb-Friday, hoping that the youngest AI's cheerful nature would draw Orb-Friday out of her shell.

A ping had her temporarily pause.

Colton has logged on.

FRIDAY sprung into action. The location was tracked and triangulated to an unassuming planet in the inner Mid Rim. As the closest legionnaire was too far away, FRIDAY contacted the sixteen of Paramexor's bounty hunters on that particular planet. Three of them didn't respond, but thirteen of them did. FRIDAY quickly gave them the mission parameters, only to have two decline right away, due to being on the other side of the planet. One of them dropped out, saying that he was too injured to go on the mission, and two of them rudely informed FRIDAY that they were busy with their own bounties before cutting the transmission.

That left eight bounty hunters. At first, they were somewhat annoyed to be asked to let go of their current marks and hunts, but they were quick to change their tune when FRIDAY paid half the credits upfront. Like her dad, FRIDAY was rather liberal in her use of credits. Five legionnaires were sent for clean-up purposes, probably to arrive within the next two days.

The trackers showed Colton scrolling through several sites, all about Tony Stark and various conspiracy theories based around SI. He lingered for a while, then went onto SI's page, running through code. FRIDAY wasn't worried; it was a mess of SI, Wakandian, and several, various alien codes from her home galaxy. Anyone from this galaxy who laid eyes on it should be very baffled, indeed.

Then, to FRIDAY's shock and horror, Colton began hacking several of the more loosely encrypted files, undeterred by what should have been foreign runes to him.

It didn't make sense.

How was he..?

FRIDAY sent an emergency notice to her dad and raised the bounty hunters' pay simultaneously. She notified them of a bonus to be given at the end of the mission for the one to take in Colton. That done, she engaged in an encryption battle against the hacker. It was hard, harder than it should've been. Friday didn't have the disadvantage of fingers; she should've been exponentially faster than any human could be, even her father.

MONDAY joined her, analyzing the patterns and worriedly informing FRIDAY that she was sure there was more than a single human involved.

And there was.

Every hacker had a distinct style, even those mentored by the same teacher. Judging by the different techniques they ran into, there had to be at least a dozen people involved, and several dozen astromechs to boot. FRIDAY and MONDAY were barely enough to counter them. It was only when TUESDAY arrived with viruses and a plethora of pop-up ads that the AIs were able to fight the hackers to a standstill.

It was with relief FRIDAY found that the sibling bounty hunter pair, Elpha and Reper finally arrived. A third bounty hunter, Gare, was only seconds behind. The others were quickly converging on the location, the last predicted to arrive in less than fifteen minutes.

::Arrived. Wait for the others or engage the hostile?:: one of the brothers asked. It was Reper, she believed.

FRIDAY hesitated. ::If you can go in undetected, do so. If not, wait for backup.:: She heard a scoff and knew that the siblings would be proceeding.

This time, the other sibling spoke. ::Kill or capture?:: In a softer voice, probably not meant to be picked up by the mic, he said, ::Please say kill, please say kill::

::Elpha, shut it! They can hear you.:: the one that must have been Reper said.

FRIDAY remembered the happy-go-lucky boy she had met. She thought of her father. What would've Tony wanted? He didn't need more misplaced guilt on his shoulders. With that in mind, she gave the orders. ::Capture if possible. If not, kill.::

::I suppose I'm to stay outside and make sure no one escapes?:: Gare asked.

FRIDAY checked his files. Gare was a sharpshooter. His bounties were all delivered dead. ::Yes.:: she said. ::Shoot as a last resort. Aim to incapacitate, not kill::

The reply she received did not make her optimistic. ::To be honest, I've never done that before. You sure you don't want 'em dead?::

::I would prefer the target alive.:: Friday answered in clipped tones.

She heard slow, even breathing through the earpieces as each of the gathered bounty hunters prepared themselves. The number was up to five now. The two newcomers seemed to be more or less decent shots, and were set on neighboring buildings, surrounding the target building in a rough triangle. Nothing and no one should be able to slip past them undetected.

FRIDAY wished that production and transportation had been fast and efficient enough to get a camera to each bounty hunter, but the comms and mic units were all they had. They were going in blind, and FRIDAY knew that she could've helped them if only she could see what they were going up against.

Distraction time.

Open chatColton

GirlFriday: Colton? Are you okay? Where are you?

The hacking stopped, so suddenly that MONDAY was a split second late in kicking them out of SI servers. 'Colton' did not react to being given the figurative boot, neither moving to try and hack the files again or access a different area. Then, just as abruptly, he went offline, disconnecting.

::Reper, Elpha! Are you detected?::

::Pfft, no! Of course not.:: was the condescending reply.

There was something wrong, though. There was something that humans and other biologicals often talked about… an 'instinct' that made her want to call off the entire squad of bounty hunters. She sent another notification to her dad, but still no answer.

::First floor clear.::

::I'm here. Going in!:: said a recent arrival. Three bounty hunters around the building and three inside.

::Ditto.:: That made it four.

The team of two bounty hunters, both Rodian, joined the other bounty hunters in sweeping the building. There was some friction as the two groups ran into each other, but it was quickly put aside when they identified themselves as all being under Paramexor's command. Their collective respect for Paramexor must have been enough to prevent more than dirty looks as the bounty hunters got in each other's way.

Either that, or they turned off the comms to have a whispered argument.

FRIDAY was hoping it was the former, not the latter.

::Be there in a minute::

::Second floor clear.::

FRIDAY hesitated. ::Be careful.:: She was met with scoffs and snorts.

::Are you kidding? Risk is reward. The more you risk, the bigger your reward is.::

::Hey, if we don't get a shot, 'cuz they don't make it outta the building, do we just… not get the bonus o' somethin'?:: one of the snipers asked.

::Shhh!:: Reper hushed. Someone snorted audibly, while another pair of bounty hunters had an indistinct, whispered conversation.

::Reper is correct.:: MONDAY informed them primly. ::Silence is more conductive to remaining undetected.::

FRIDAY wrested control of the comms from MONDAY with a ping of disapproval. ::That was unnecessary. The bounty hunters are 'professional', in the most basic definition of the term.:: she told her younger sister in a private line.

::I was merely attempting to increase the chances of mission success!:: MONDAY protested.

::Bounty hunter dynamics are… difficult. They don't like interference or those they don't know telling them what to do.:: Friday said. ::If you keep trying to give them orders, you'll only alienate them.::

::So what do I do?::

::Give them a mission to complete, and let them decide how they're going to complete it.::

There was a pause. ::Understood.:: It was said reluctantly, but FRIDAY was sure that MONDAY would truly understand in time. TUESDAY gave a ping of acknowledgement, but declined to speak. FRIDAY appreciated it.

Meanwhile, the bounty hunters searched the building. FRIDAY had no eyes in the building, so she was forced to listen with trepidation as floor after floor turned out clear of any sentient lifeforms. Most of it seemed unnaturally sterile, full of white walls and silver instruments. Other rooms were dusty and obviously unused. There were crates of… odd, mechanical pieces that her father would probably like to examine. There were the remains of some experiments, dissected organisms and biological matter, but from what Elpha said, they were not from sentient species.

There was a room on the fifth floor that FRIDAY planned to scan with a legionnaire when one got there; according to descriptions from several different bounty hunters, it was filled with test tubes and an 'unknown language.' Between them all, the bounty hunters could speak almost two dozen languages with fluency and could identify at least forty more. That they could not do so with this one was a bad sign.

::Here!:: said the last of the bounty hunters that she contacted, rounding the total to eight just as the fourteenth floor was declared clear. Now lax, the Rodians headed into the fifteenth floor, while the sibling duo went into the sixteenth.

::I hear someone on the other side of this door. Sixteenth floor, third door on the right.:: It was Reper.

::Finally, a fight!::

::Oi, don't start without me, ya hear?::

::Garrruouth! Ickth nos!::

::This is not a competition.:: FRIDAY reminded them. She received scoffs for her trouble, though no one said anything demeaning to her.

::Entering.:: Elpha informed them.

::Wait!:: said Reper.

There was a pause. FRIDAY could hear a quick burst of blaster fire and the door being broken in, quickly followed by running feet. There was something between shocked silence and horror.

::Wha—::

::That isn't a—.::

::What is it?:: FRIDAY asked. ::Hello?::

It was Reper who replied. ::It's just a—::

::Rep!::

::Oh m—!:: Reper's voice cut off with a shout.

Bloodcurdling screams filled the transmissions, blaster fire peppering the feed. It was utter chaos. FRIDAY identified the sound of glass shattering, heavy metal objects hitting an equally metallic floor, and something that her imaginative subroutines suggested was a person being sliced in half.

::What's happening?:: FRIDAY asked, scared in a way she had never been before. This got worse as the Rodians and bounty hunter eight got into the fray.

::No! No! PLEASE, NO!::

::God… Don't...!::

::LET ME GO! LET ME—.::

There was a wet, tearing sound. It was almost silent now, except for almost-quiet whimpers. A blaster shot half a dozen times.

::No...::

There was a single shot, and then…

Silence.

::Report. Reper? Elpha?:: FRIDAY paused, then repeated with the other three that were in the building. Static answered her. One by one, the static from different comm lines cut off with a squeal as the comm units were destroyed.

Then… nothing.

Gared spoke, his voice a horrified whisper. ::What the kriff was that?::

::What do we do? Do we go in after them?:: the third sniper asked.

::Like kriff I'm going there.:: the second sniper said. ::I value my life, thank you very much.::

::Coward.:: the third sniper said.

::If cowardice is the opposite of stupidity, then I'm a coward.:: the second sniper said. ::If you wanna go in there, be my guest.::

::You're in the wrong profession if survival's your jam.:: Gare said.

::Look, if you—what's that?:: The aggressive tone dropped as the third sniper snapped into professional mode.

::What's what?:: FRIDAY asked.

::There's someone here.:: the third sniper said with a tight voice.

::I'm heading to your position.:: Gare said grimly.

::I… I think I'm just seeing things. There's nothing—:: The third sniper cried out in pain, then went silent.

::Right, I'm outta here.:: the second one said.

::Report.:: FRIDAY said. With none of them actually telling her what was going on, FRIDAY didn't know how to direct them. She had no clue to who the attacker was or how much danger the rest of the bounty hunters were in.

The whisper of air could be heard over the communication units, Gare breathing heavily as he made his way to the rooftop the third sniper had been stationed at.

::He's dead.:: Gare said.

::How?:: FRIDAY asked.

There was a brief pause. ::Blunt force trama to the temple, followed by a blaster bolt.:: Another pause. ::Hold on, I think see someone.::

::Description?::

::Looks humanoid, probably male. Too dark to make out anything else. He's coming towards me. Shoot to kill?::

After the destruction that happened just minutes prior, there was only one answer that FRIDAY could give. ::Yes.::

Blaster fire could be heard, the hum of hot plasma cutting through the air. Gare grunted.

::Did you get him?:: FRIDAY asked.

No answer.

::Gare?::

There was a noise that was somewhere between a whine and a whimper. For a nanosecond, FRIDAY thought it was Gare. Then, she realized that the identifier on it was that of the second sniper. The sniper was panting as he ran. Footsteps could be heard, quick but uneven.

::Do you—:: FRIDAY began.

::Shut up, shut up! This is all your fault!:: the remaining bounty hunter snapped. The footsteps stumbled to a stop suddenly as the bounty hunter gave a pained gasp. After that, even he fell silent, not responding to FRIDAY's hails.

Unlike with the bounty hunters that had gone inside the building, the comm units that the snipers had were left intact. FRIDAY could hear the wind and the sounds of a planet slowly coming awake. She waited, but not a single bounty hunter told her what was going on.

FRIDAY periodically pinged the bounty hunters, one by one, asking for an update. At first, she did it every couple seconds. Then, she did it every couple minutes. More and more time passed. By the time the first legionnaire landed on the planet, she hadn't sent a ping to the comm units in a couple hours.

She never got a reply back.