03-07-2017, 05:53 AM
Ghost tugged the brown hood of their camo suit to shield their eyes from the blazing sun above and adjusted the binoculars's focus. Through the low-tech but reliable tool they saw the targets... no doubt about it, those were the ones. Ghost's sharp eyes recognized the characteristic scar on the bald woman's hand, and the tattoo on the young man's face, as they had been described by the bounty-giver. They must be unaware that they were being hunted, to display themselves so openly. And even though they occasionally checked their surroundings they never displayed any signs of suspicion. Of awareness that they were being watched.
Ghost lowered the binoculars and slid towards the edge of the small plateau that they used as a vantage point. From this angle their quarry would not notice the Speeder hidden behind the stone pillar, and even if they did the camo cover that Ghost had tossed over it disguised it as another brown rock, just like the dozens of others around it. At the top of that pillar Ghost also was in a good position to observe the unsuspecting pair of desert iguanas that were their targets’s quarry that day. A rich individual, someone from Coruscant, had recently expressed their desire for one of these iguanas, likely to keep as an exotic animal. Or maybe to eat it. The case was, as Ghost knew from their little wiretapping, that someone of the trafficants had to go and poach one and bring it back, and whoever was in charge had assigned those two to that task for that day. Of course, they would not be back.
The bounty hunter deployed the bipod of their sniper and steadied their breath while adjusting the scope. Deviation would be... 8,2° to the left, judging by the wind’s force, and at a distance of 300m the bullet drop would need to be compensated for by aiming six lines above. The best time to take the shot would be when they had caught the iguana so as to obtain videographic proof first. Ghost put a darkened lens over the scope to obtain a similar effect to sunglasses and hide the treacherous scope glare, and turned on two of their mask-mounted cameras. Optic cameras, they called them, because they were mounted onto the same goggles that let Ghost see their surroundings. In fact, if they needed to they were able to turn the camera on so as to provide a live feed of what they saw to Ghost's eyes, while blocking the goggles to prevent individuals from scanning Ghost's eyes through them - extreme safety measures, one may say. But now the necessity was to record the ongoing events from two different angles: once through the rifle scope, providing a zoomed-in view, and once without the scope for a wider area coverage but of the same thing.
"Bountyhunt #32, Log Entry #4. Time of day, 10:47AM... location, Endless Dunes verse, the rough coordinates are... longitude 17,6 degrees, latitude 10,8 degrees. Date... is attached to the recording. Presently tracking the two individuals... described by Bounty #2725 on the Imperial Bounty Board, after identifying them as targets.They appear to be attempting to catch a desert iguana. Waiting for decisive visual evidence of poaching before engaging targets at sniping distance." And silence. Now to lie in wait while remaining observant. The two poachers moved as predicted, with planned movements to corner and catch the larger of the two iguanas. Ghost left the cameras on all along. There was more than enough juice in the battery and disk space on the hard drives to record all day... and every detail was important.
Eventually they moved in with the man wielding a large net and the woman holding something that Ghost presumed to be a sedative to use at close range. They had no high-power guns on them... perhaps to avoid raising suspicion at the Coruscant gate. Ghost once more steadied their breathing, adjusted the rifle's position and tracked them until they finally cornered and trapped the iguana with a net. "Evidence obtained. Log pause." The video feed was cut and Ghost felt a little burst of adrenaline through their veins, readying them for what was going to happen. "Ghost protocols initiated."
The sound of the sniper being fired tore through the quiet Dunes, but before the two poachers could even reflexively react, let alone consciously, the sedative dart hit the man square in the neck. The fine needle penetrated his skin and reached a vein with surgical precision before injecting its payload which sent him off to dreamland, all in less than half a second. Ghost needed not to check that their shot had landed, nor pull the sniper back to reload a dart and chamber it with the bolt-action lever, their hands moved on their own. The woman, initially shocked and paralyzed from the supposed death of her companion, did nothing to prevent the iguana from tearing through the net and escaping as rapidly as its legs would carry it. Then she dove to the ground, searching for cover from the unknown assailant and scampering for her Communicator. She never reached it. She hadn’t realized that Ghost was in an elevated position and that the little rocks she sook cover behind did nothing for her at that angle. While she was reaching into her pocket, Ghost’s second shot hit her square in the nape of her neck.
"Holding still makes you a better target", Ghost murmured before packing up. The sniper was swiftly tucked away but kept ready in case that the sleep darts did not work as intended for any reason. Luckily, they did, as became evident when Ghost arrived on their speeder and found the two sound asleep. The camera came on again, only one this time. "Update to Bountyhunt #32, Log Entry #4... successfully subdued the two HVTs with sedative AG-190 'Grim's Touch', administered subcutaneously at around 11:03AM." They would not wake up no matter what without the antidote... and if left untreated, after 24 hours their heart would cease to beat as the effects became too strong. As such it was important to note the time of the hit and to hurry. Ghost put both of them on the back of the speeder, held by belts so they would not fall off, and collected the net as well as pulled out the darts. Then they set off to Carrefore again. While driving they called the office.
"This is Dr. med. Parnelle’s office, front-desk, you’re speaking with Graham, how can I help you?"
"Good day, Graham. Ghost here. I'm about to cash in a bounty... two people, the troopers should be visiting you in some three hours.”
“Got it. Thanks for the heads up.”
“Anytime. Long live the Emperor.”
“Long live the Emperor.”
The bounty turn-in point was manned by Stormtroopers, but Ghost ignored them. They drove the speeder onto one of the parking spaces and locked it, then went inside leaving the two sleeping beauties on the Speeder but taking the sniper rifle along. There had been attempts of stealing their weapons off the Speeder during previous turn-ins, to reverse-engineer the custom sedatives that Ghost was using, so they did not trust this time, or any in the future, to be different.
"I'm here to turn in Bounty 2725", they declared as soon as a Stormtrooper had led them to the back. "The targets are on my vehicle."
"That bounty is only live targets. Are these two alive?" the Stormtrooper asked.
"Affirmative. They are merely sedated. I have also obtained proof in the shape of videos of their attempted poaching."
"Good. You know the drill, upload the data at our terminal while we collect them." While the Stormtrooper left the room Ghost pulled a small USB stick from their drive, holding a copy of the two video files, and plugged it in rather than hooking the hard drive up directly. More precautions... Coruscant accepted freelance bountyhunters as a 'necessary evil' but if they could keep tabs on them, such as with computer viruses on their hardware, they would try that. Conversely some computer-savvy bountyhunters tried to upload their own viruses to the network when passing data, for various reasons. Ghost preferred to avoid all that. They took the stick back out and tossed it into a trashcan then waited for the Stormtroopers to return.
"And the antidote for those two?" asked the Stormtrooper after it was established that they were alive.
"Substract the costs for two doses from my payout as usual", replied Ghost. "AG-190 was used, you have about 21 hours left before their death, so that's 16 hours to administer the antidote. The usual contact has them for you." Their “usual contact” was of course Doctor Parnelle. She got a decent payout each time that Ghost cashed in a bounty, by selling them the antidotes that Ghost gave to her in exchange for two favors.
One, by providing a failsafe like this the Empire had to pay Ghost rather than pulling in the prisoners but refusing to pay for it, or forcing them to give up the antidote at gunpoint. Ghost had none on them at any time, the only one who did was the doc, and the Stormtroopers knew that whatever the antidote was, it took 3 days to produce - too long to save the sedated hostages if they forced Ghost to recreate it. Parnelle herself knew nothing of the antidote’s secret composition and only released however many doses Ghost named when informing her that the Stormtroopers would come around. No sample to reverse-engineer it. The Empire may not like the extra hassle, but they wouldn’t burn that bridge by forcing anything.
And two, Doctor Parnelle had promised to help Ghost if ever they got injured, on the job or off of it, and off the record - no document trail for snoopers to backtrace. She was one of the very few people who had seen what was beneath Ghost’s suit, and the only one still alive. This business agreement was mutually beneficial for them, and surprisingly stable.
Soon the Stormtroopers informed the front desk that everything was in order, and Ghost collected the payment, minus the fee for two doses of antidote. They were gone before the courier sent to retrieve the doses from the doctor was back. No point staying in that place any longer.
Ghost lowered the binoculars and slid towards the edge of the small plateau that they used as a vantage point. From this angle their quarry would not notice the Speeder hidden behind the stone pillar, and even if they did the camo cover that Ghost had tossed over it disguised it as another brown rock, just like the dozens of others around it. At the top of that pillar Ghost also was in a good position to observe the unsuspecting pair of desert iguanas that were their targets’s quarry that day. A rich individual, someone from Coruscant, had recently expressed their desire for one of these iguanas, likely to keep as an exotic animal. Or maybe to eat it. The case was, as Ghost knew from their little wiretapping, that someone of the trafficants had to go and poach one and bring it back, and whoever was in charge had assigned those two to that task for that day. Of course, they would not be back.
The bounty hunter deployed the bipod of their sniper and steadied their breath while adjusting the scope. Deviation would be... 8,2° to the left, judging by the wind’s force, and at a distance of 300m the bullet drop would need to be compensated for by aiming six lines above. The best time to take the shot would be when they had caught the iguana so as to obtain videographic proof first. Ghost put a darkened lens over the scope to obtain a similar effect to sunglasses and hide the treacherous scope glare, and turned on two of their mask-mounted cameras. Optic cameras, they called them, because they were mounted onto the same goggles that let Ghost see their surroundings. In fact, if they needed to they were able to turn the camera on so as to provide a live feed of what they saw to Ghost's eyes, while blocking the goggles to prevent individuals from scanning Ghost's eyes through them - extreme safety measures, one may say. But now the necessity was to record the ongoing events from two different angles: once through the rifle scope, providing a zoomed-in view, and once without the scope for a wider area coverage but of the same thing.
"Bountyhunt #32, Log Entry #4. Time of day, 10:47AM... location, Endless Dunes verse, the rough coordinates are... longitude 17,6 degrees, latitude 10,8 degrees. Date... is attached to the recording. Presently tracking the two individuals... described by Bounty #2725 on the Imperial Bounty Board, after identifying them as targets.They appear to be attempting to catch a desert iguana. Waiting for decisive visual evidence of poaching before engaging targets at sniping distance." And silence. Now to lie in wait while remaining observant. The two poachers moved as predicted, with planned movements to corner and catch the larger of the two iguanas. Ghost left the cameras on all along. There was more than enough juice in the battery and disk space on the hard drives to record all day... and every detail was important.
Eventually they moved in with the man wielding a large net and the woman holding something that Ghost presumed to be a sedative to use at close range. They had no high-power guns on them... perhaps to avoid raising suspicion at the Coruscant gate. Ghost once more steadied their breathing, adjusted the rifle's position and tracked them until they finally cornered and trapped the iguana with a net. "Evidence obtained. Log pause." The video feed was cut and Ghost felt a little burst of adrenaline through their veins, readying them for what was going to happen. "Ghost protocols initiated."
The sound of the sniper being fired tore through the quiet Dunes, but before the two poachers could even reflexively react, let alone consciously, the sedative dart hit the man square in the neck. The fine needle penetrated his skin and reached a vein with surgical precision before injecting its payload which sent him off to dreamland, all in less than half a second. Ghost needed not to check that their shot had landed, nor pull the sniper back to reload a dart and chamber it with the bolt-action lever, their hands moved on their own. The woman, initially shocked and paralyzed from the supposed death of her companion, did nothing to prevent the iguana from tearing through the net and escaping as rapidly as its legs would carry it. Then she dove to the ground, searching for cover from the unknown assailant and scampering for her Communicator. She never reached it. She hadn’t realized that Ghost was in an elevated position and that the little rocks she sook cover behind did nothing for her at that angle. While she was reaching into her pocket, Ghost’s second shot hit her square in the nape of her neck.
"Holding still makes you a better target", Ghost murmured before packing up. The sniper was swiftly tucked away but kept ready in case that the sleep darts did not work as intended for any reason. Luckily, they did, as became evident when Ghost arrived on their speeder and found the two sound asleep. The camera came on again, only one this time. "Update to Bountyhunt #32, Log Entry #4... successfully subdued the two HVTs with sedative AG-190 'Grim's Touch', administered subcutaneously at around 11:03AM." They would not wake up no matter what without the antidote... and if left untreated, after 24 hours their heart would cease to beat as the effects became too strong. As such it was important to note the time of the hit and to hurry. Ghost put both of them on the back of the speeder, held by belts so they would not fall off, and collected the net as well as pulled out the darts. Then they set off to Carrefore again. While driving they called the office.
"This is Dr. med. Parnelle’s office, front-desk, you’re speaking with Graham, how can I help you?"
"Good day, Graham. Ghost here. I'm about to cash in a bounty... two people, the troopers should be visiting you in some three hours.”
“Got it. Thanks for the heads up.”
“Anytime. Long live the Emperor.”
“Long live the Emperor.”
The bounty turn-in point was manned by Stormtroopers, but Ghost ignored them. They drove the speeder onto one of the parking spaces and locked it, then went inside leaving the two sleeping beauties on the Speeder but taking the sniper rifle along. There had been attempts of stealing their weapons off the Speeder during previous turn-ins, to reverse-engineer the custom sedatives that Ghost was using, so they did not trust this time, or any in the future, to be different.
"I'm here to turn in Bounty 2725", they declared as soon as a Stormtrooper had led them to the back. "The targets are on my vehicle."
"That bounty is only live targets. Are these two alive?" the Stormtrooper asked.
"Affirmative. They are merely sedated. I have also obtained proof in the shape of videos of their attempted poaching."
"Good. You know the drill, upload the data at our terminal while we collect them." While the Stormtrooper left the room Ghost pulled a small USB stick from their drive, holding a copy of the two video files, and plugged it in rather than hooking the hard drive up directly. More precautions... Coruscant accepted freelance bountyhunters as a 'necessary evil' but if they could keep tabs on them, such as with computer viruses on their hardware, they would try that. Conversely some computer-savvy bountyhunters tried to upload their own viruses to the network when passing data, for various reasons. Ghost preferred to avoid all that. They took the stick back out and tossed it into a trashcan then waited for the Stormtroopers to return.
"And the antidote for those two?" asked the Stormtrooper after it was established that they were alive.
"Substract the costs for two doses from my payout as usual", replied Ghost. "AG-190 was used, you have about 21 hours left before their death, so that's 16 hours to administer the antidote. The usual contact has them for you." Their “usual contact” was of course Doctor Parnelle. She got a decent payout each time that Ghost cashed in a bounty, by selling them the antidotes that Ghost gave to her in exchange for two favors.
One, by providing a failsafe like this the Empire had to pay Ghost rather than pulling in the prisoners but refusing to pay for it, or forcing them to give up the antidote at gunpoint. Ghost had none on them at any time, the only one who did was the doc, and the Stormtroopers knew that whatever the antidote was, it took 3 days to produce - too long to save the sedated hostages if they forced Ghost to recreate it. Parnelle herself knew nothing of the antidote’s secret composition and only released however many doses Ghost named when informing her that the Stormtroopers would come around. No sample to reverse-engineer it. The Empire may not like the extra hassle, but they wouldn’t burn that bridge by forcing anything.
And two, Doctor Parnelle had promised to help Ghost if ever they got injured, on the job or off of it, and off the record - no document trail for snoopers to backtrace. She was one of the very few people who had seen what was beneath Ghost’s suit, and the only one still alive. This business agreement was mutually beneficial for them, and surprisingly stable.
Soon the Stormtroopers informed the front desk that everything was in order, and Ghost collected the payment, minus the fee for two doses of antidote. They were gone before the courier sent to retrieve the doses from the doctor was back. No point staying in that place any longer.
"(Note to self: insert quote & picture once I find stuff)"
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