Chapter 86

22BBY

Renn had to admit he liked Dantooine. Its wide expanses of grassland, gentle rivers and rolling hills made the planet quite serene.

The majority of the outer rim planet's industry was primarily agricultural, and farmsteads and estates dotted the planets landscape, like the one in the valley bellow Renn.

Renn watched the farmers go about their work, not quite unaware of his own existence. They knew Renn was there, they didn't know exactly where 'there' was.

Not that they would have been able to find Renn even if they did know where he was. As he was currently lying prone under a rocky outcropping, his armours active camo rendering him basically invisible to anyone searching for him.

He was surveying the valley through the scope of a Valken-38X sniper rifle that he had 'liberated' from the republic armoury on Kamino, before heavily modifying and personalising it, and was starting to grow slightly impatient that his reason for being here had yet to arrive.

Renn had been lying below the rocky outcrop, high up on one side of the valley, for several hours now and was starting to wonder if he would have to go looking for them himself, when three speeders crested the far side of the valley and began descending towards the farm bellow him.

The trio of vehicles was made up of two speeder bikes, with two occupants on each, and a single repulsor truck, with only the driver on board it.

Renn smiled maliciously as he zoomed in on the figures riding on the speeders, just to be sure they were who he was expecting, and sure enough the five figures were dressed and armed like the typical pirate scum that plagued the outer rim.

They were the reason Renn was on Dantooine. He had been hired by a group of concerned farmers and landowners to deal with a pirate crew that had landed on the planet and constructed a crude fortress before demanding exorbitant taxes from the surrounding farms and estates, 'taxes' that were taken more often than not at blaster point.

The pirates had even killed several farmers that had tried to resist and keep their possessions, money and/or harvests, the pirates weren't picky they wanted everything the people of Dantooine possessed.

It had quickly become apparent to the people of Dantooine that the pirates weren't going to leave and would just keep stealing more and more and that it was beyond their capabilities to get rid of them.

And after calls for republic aid were answered with excuses about "the republic navy being too spread thin dealing with the current galactic crisis to allocate resources to minor skirmishes at this time," and that they should, "wait for further assistance."

Not wanting to wait while they and their families were being oppressed and killed, a group of Dantooine's citizens had pooled what wealth the pirates had yet to steal from them and decided to hire a bounty hunter to deal with the problem.

And after some consideration about the pros and cons of guild bounty hunters, and their solve response times plus their exorbitant fees, they had decided on an independent bounty hunter.

Independent hunters could sometimes be unreliable, not having anywhere close to the same oversite that guild hunters did, so it was crucial to pick one that had a good reputation.

And fortunately for the people of Dantooine they managed to hire one with one of the fiercest reputations in the galaxy, The Wraith.

Renn had agreed to the request to save the farmers from the pirates and had even negotiated the farmers into paying him significantly less than what they had originally offered him.

Not many people, aside from Renn's close friends and family, knew that 'The Wraith' wasn't actually a bounty hunter to make money. It was merely a convenient way for Renn to gain combat experience, as well being a hobby for him.

Still though he would dispatch the pirates with the cold professionalism that The Wraith had become known for.

He centred his rifles crosshairs on the head of one of the pirates riding on the speeder bike and exhaled softly, before pulling the trigger.

-

Jeirt hummed happily to himself as he tapped the controls of his repulsor truck, on its way to collect what was owed to them from the pathetic farmers on this rural backwater.

He had to admit it was a brilliant idea by the captain to land on this planet. There was plenty for them to steal and the people were weak and easy to intimidate, plus with how bloated and overworked the republic was they would be long gone before any republic ships could hope to threaten them.

As the first farmstead they would raid in this weekly rotation, they had a list of farms and properties 'subservient' towards them and would hit them in sequence every week, Jeirt let out a grin.

Maybe this time someone would try something stupid, like standing up to Jeirt and his colleagues when they arrived, and they could have some 'fun' with some of the villagers to remind them of their place.

Jeirt turned to Tron, on one of the bikes, to suggest they try to force that outcome, when Tron's head exploded.

Chunks of cauterised flesh and a mist of blood splattered across the pirate riding on the back of Tron's bike's face, and Jeirt watched in horror as the Tron's now headless body slumped forward on the bike's controls.

The bike then pitched forwards, its nose digging into the soft Dantooine dirt, before the laws of physics sent the back of the bike, which was now moving much fast than the front, flipping up into the air.

The blood covered passenger on the back of the bike let out a scream of terror as the bike cartwheeled, before the scream was abruptly silenced by the screech of crumbling metal as the bike slammed back into the earth, turning the rest of Tron's body and his terrified passenger into a bloody smear.

Jeirt watched as the second speeder bike moved in front of his truck, the pirate riding on the back spraying ineffectual blaster fire towards whoever was shooting at them.

Ineffectual, because neither Jeirt nor the madly firing pirate knew where the enemy sniper was.

A second shot from the sniper ripped through the chest of the man driving the second bike just as it was cutting in front of his truck.

Jeirt was driving too fast, and the bike was too close for him to stop in time and so he was forced to listen to the sickening crunches and feel to juddering crunches as the speeder bike and its occupants went under his truck.

One look back was all Jeirt needed to learn the fates of his two colleagues. The powerful repulsors, needed to keep the large and heavy truck suspended in the air, had crushed the pirates, and turned them into a messy paste.

Jeirt felt sick and he started breathing in short, panicked breaths. His truck was much slower than the bikes and so evasive manoeuvres wouldn't help him much, and the thin viewscreen in front of his head wouldn't save him from whatever blaster rifle had savaged him friends.

He opened his door and flung himself out of the truck. He landed badly and gasped in pain as he twisted his ankle, but he was free of that death trap of a truck.

Jeirt began running away, moving in unpredictable zigzags hoping to confuse whoever was shooting at him and his friends.

He'd made it almost a hundred meters and he was beginning to hope that his creative movement style had saved him when he a searing pain cut through his right leg.

Jeirt collapsed screaming to the ground as he looked down to see a large chuck of flesh blown away from his upper leg by a blaster bolt.

The blaster bolt had cauterised the wound and so he wasn't in danger of bleeding out, but the pain and the damage the wound had caused was enough to keep him on the floor.

Jeirt lay there crying and in pain, waiting for the sniper to fire again and claim his life. He didn't know how the sniper had missed a kill shot on him when the rest of the pirates had been killed almost instantly but expected a second shot to finish the job soon.

But the second shot never came and Jeirt began hoping that the sniper had assumed he was already dead, and so he started lying still pretending to be a corpse.

He didn't know how long he was lying there but after a while he heard the crunch of boots trampling the long grass surrounding him. He fought the urge to whimper in fear, he couldn't see whoever was coming but it sounded like they were close, almost as if they were right on top of him.

That was when the air above Jeirt shifted and warped to reveal a large man in menacing black armour staring down at him and Jeirt stopped his poor attempts at playing dead to start whimpering as he recognised the man's armour.

Every pirate knew that armour, armour that belonged to a bloodthirsty demon that would hunt pirates mercilessly thought the galaxy, and they knew seeing it in person could only mean one thing, death.

"Hi there, Let's have a chat, shall we?" The voice sounded like a demonic whisper, the man's helmet causing it to distort and sound like rusty gears being dragged across a polished metal floor.

Jeirt whimpered again and felt a wet sensation fill his pants as his bladder loosened, the sour smell of ammonia filled his nostrils as he looked up into the emotionless red visor of The Wraith.

-

Renn grimaced as he looked down at the snivelling pirate, his helmet's heads up display helpfully letting him know that the man had wet himself and he was quietly grateful that his helmet blocked out unpleasant smells.

"Congratulations, you've just gained the opportunity to keep living." Renn said, trying to act a bit theatrically.

It was clearly working as the pirate now looked up at him with a mix of pure terror and a slight amount of hope.

"R-really?" The pirate stammered weakly, the hope that he might survive clear on his face.

"Sure," Renn said, leaving out that it was an opportunity that probably would be beyond the pirate's reach. "You've just got to do something for me."

"W-what do you want?" The pirate said, looking like he was sure Renn wanted to remove his kidney or something, clearly The Wraith's merciless reputation was preceding him.

"Nothing major… just that you drive your nice little repulsor truck back to your base for me. I'd do it myself but unfortunately as you can see, I'm obviously too masculine and well dressed for anyone to believe I'd be a pirate" Renn said and saw the colour drain from the pirate's face.

"I c-can't do that. They'd k-kill me if—" The pirate's pleas where abruptly cut off when Renn drew his slugthrower and pressed it against the man's temple.

"I'll kill you right now if you don't. Your choice." He said in a cold brutal tone.

The pirate gulped in fear before nodding his head rapidly in agreement and Renn reluctantly holstered his pistol.

"Good choice," he said before hauling the pirate to his feet and roughly leading him towards the waiting repulsor truck.