Predator's Tale
Walking into the dimly lit lounge, Mustang and Typhoon saw Predator
sitting by himself at one of the tables in the lounge, his face
bathed in a soft bluish light coming from the small glass set in
front of him. "Hey fly boy!" Mustang greeted Predator and as both
he and Typhoon sat down at the table.
Studying the dark, flaming liquid sitting in front of their squad
mate Predator, Typhoon asked "What's that you're having?"
"It's called flameout, a little something I learned of at Obroa
Skai, during a stop I made there, just as I was transferring to
the Liberty. "How about going a round with me?" Predator
asked.
Speaking for both himself and Typhoon, Mustang said with a wicked
grin on his face "Sure, as long as you're buying!"
"Hey Mixer pal, could you get a flameout for both of my friends
here please?" Predator yelled across the lounge towards the bar
tending droid. In a few minutes Mixer arrived at the table carrying
two glasses of the same dark beverage Predator was having. "Thanks
Mixer, put 'em on my tab," said Predator as Mixer set both drinks
on the table. Typhoon and Mustang were already reaching for the
drink when Predator stopped them saying, "Hold it you two."
"Light 'em up!" Predator told Mixer.
Following Predator's request the droid extended a miniature flame
projector from one of his three appendages. With it Mixer first
proceeded to warm the underside of both glasses. When the beverages
appeared to be rather hot, Mixer lit the liquid itself. It burned
with a bluish flame. Once both drinks were lit, just as Predator's
was, Mixer put in a straw in the center of the ring of fire on each
of the three beverages. As he did so he announced, "The drinks are
now served."
"Ready to commence the competition?" asked the bartender droid.
In nearly perfect unison, both Typhoon and Mustang turned to face
Predator with a puzzled look in their eyes. "Was there something
you didn't tell us?" inquired Typhoon.
"It's actually very simple," answered Predator. "The object of
the competition is to see who can chug-a lug their drink the fastest
after Mixer gives us the go, and that's it." Predator said in his
most innocent manner.
"Ready?" asked the droid again.
All three Buccaneers responded "Ready!"
Mixer started the countdown, "3...2...1...Go!"
Mixer had barely finished giving the go and all three pilots had
started sipping their flaming drinks as fast as they could through
the narrow straws. In just about three seconds the contest was over.
Mixer announced Predator was the victor. Although he had won by
not much more than a tenth of a second Mixer's precise sensors could
keep track of all three contestants simultaneously with complete
accuracy.
When both Typhoon and Mustang tried to breath they made a gasping
sound as the strong drink burned their tongues and simultaneously
froze their throats.
Predator who was already accustomed to the flameout only gave out
a long "Ah! That feels good!"
After partially recovering from the strange sensation, Predator's
squad mates, still with a hand to their throats asked, "Where did
you find out about this drink?"
"It's kind of a long story, you got the time?" asked Predator.
"We don't have to report back to duty 'til twenty one hundred,"
responded Mustang.
"It's only nineteen hundred, right now. We have plenty of time,"
answered Predator.
And so Predator began...
This story takes place right before I arrived on the Liberty
about a month ago. As you might have learned from my bio, after
a couple of my clansmen and I escaped from an Imperial ship, we
were found by an Alliance task force. It was then that we decided
to join the Rebel Alliance. Once we were on board one of the task
force's ships, we were taken to the CRS Independence to be
assigned to a squadron.
I was berthed on an old, battered freighter called the Leery
Pyrate to rendezvous with the CRS Liberty. I expected
the trip to be a short one, only a pair of days in hyperspace. Unfortunately,
the hyperspace control unit burned out and we had to look for a
safe haven until we could get it fixed or replaced. As it turned
out the nearest spaceport was on Obroa Skai. Without further incident,
we arrived at Obroa Skai and landed on platform 35.
As I started making my way down the Leery Pyrate's boarding
ramp, I was startled by the feel of the "wrong end" of a weapon
digging into my back.
"I have been waiting for you, young one," said a heavily hissing
voice. Reflexively I spun around and caught a glimpse of my assailant,
his features hidden by the shadow cast by the ship's landing struts.
Halfway in my desperate attempt to reach my blaster, I caught the
butt of a rifle full on the stomach. The hard blow sent me collapsing
to the ground gasping for air.
While lying on the durasteel floor of the landing pad, I saw my
aggressor step into the light. His reptilian-looking face and huge
bloodshot eyes now became clearly discernible beneath the powerful
flood lights of the landing pad's illumigrid.
"Bossk!" I managed to cough out with what little air I could muster
into my lungs. Mixed feelings of both hatred and disbelief haunted
my mind as I lay on the floor beneath the bounty hunter.
"Thought you could get rid of me that easily?" The bounty hunter
asked with a trace of bravado in his voice as he stabbed the barrel
of his disruptor rifle into my ribs.
"But how... " was all I managed to say in a tone of bewilderment.
"What in the Empire does it take to get rid of this guy?" I asked
myself. I'd practically tossed him out an air lock the last time
we faced each other. I thought I'd gotten rid of him permanently.
It seems he wasn't interested in telling me how he had survived
the massive decompression and scarcity of air, commonly associated
with being in a ship's cargo hold at the moment of venting it into
space.
Removing my blaster from its holster, he performed a sensor frisk
on me and took several other items which had shown on the scan;
among them my vibro-shiv, comlink, and a couple hundred credits.
As he gestured with his disruptor I got back on my feet. After all,
it was an invitation not many would have refused, knowing the mess
those things are capable of, especially at point blank range. It's
no wonder they're illegal in most sectors of the galaxy.
Half walking, half being dragged, Bossk and I made our way into
a drinking establishment by the name of Kontiki Point. I could hardly
see anything in that dark smoke filled place but as we moved further
inside I could see Bossk signaling to a couple of Imperial Stormtroopers,
who I hadn't noticed were laying in wait just beside the very door
through which we had come. It suddenly dawned on me that Bossk wasn't
looking for revenge, he was going to turn me over to the Imperials.
"Why?" I blurted out. "Why not just kill me and be done with it?"
With a grin that sent shivers down my spine he replied, "It's more
profitable to turn you over to Grand Moff Lytton and collect the
bounty on your head than just killing you now."
In a surge of courage or sheer stupidity I tried to get on his
nerves. "What's the matter? Getting soft?"
Bossk seemed to loose his temper for a moment as he jabbed his
disruptor into my ribs, then in a controlled manner said, "Don't
push it, I could just as well settle for the 'dead' reward." As
a way of punctuating his statement he shoved his weapon into my
ribs again. From that moment I vowed to myself that if the disruptor
so much as touched me, I would shove it up his reptilian rear and
fire it first chance I got.
I calmed myself down and realized that this approach was getting
me nowhere. It was time to try a different strategy. With one of
my most innocent smiles I asked "Don't I at least get a last request
before you turn me over to the Imperials?" It became evident that
the bounty hunter had no sense of humor, since after I made my smart
mouth remark I caught the butt of the disruptor in my ribs once
again. I bent down in agony as I felt a few of my ribs crack.
The bounty hunter didn't seem to be to big on attracting any unnecessary
attention from the clientele. With his disruptor concealed underneath
his flight suit he made me follow him to a table right beside the
bar, where we would sit until the Imperial troopers came to take
me away. Whether the bounty hunter would decide to end it there
and then, or would turn me over to the Imperials, it seemed fairly
certain that I was on the verge of taking the 'final jump'.
I was desperately trying to come up with any idea for my escape,
unfortunately there weren't a whole lot of choices left. Before
I could think over my plan, I saw the Stormtroopers' highly polished
armor as it glistened beneath the soft light of some sort of glow
rod that formed the letters of the establishment's name. As soon
as the imperials came into view, most of the crowd in the bar started
running out of Kontiki Point. Luckily I looked away from the Imperials
on their way in. Directly in my line of sight another light source
caught my attention, it was a bluish flame set on a glass, no doubt
a highly intoxicating beverage. When I caught a glimpse of how close
the Stormtroopers were, I knew it was time to act. I waited for
the Imperials to move in a bit closer, then in a flash I reached
for the flaming beverage and threw it square on the bounty hunter's
face. In a shriek of agony he threw his hands to his now burning
face, immediately dropping the disruptor to the floor on the other
side of the bar.
There it was, the chance I'd been waiting for. The Imperial troopers
had begun spreading a barrage of laser bolts. I dove over the bar
for the disruptor, just narrowly avoiding being hit by the troopers'
fire. I grabbed the disruptor and aimed it at the troopers. After
pressing the trigger all I saw was a bright, fiery discharge hit
one of the troopers. The disruptor's recoil made me loose my balance,
as for the Stormtrooper I had hit, let's just say he was now covering
plenty more ground. The three remaining Stormtroopers found partial
cover behind one of the tables. With another powerful blast from
the disruptor, a good sized hole had been left on the table, and
two of the remaining troopers lay dead. The last thing I saw before
being thrown against the wall behind the bar was the surviving trooper
scrambling for his life, apparently in no hurry to join his comrades.
Strange behavior for a Stormtrooper indeed.
There on the wall beside me was the terrified bartender who hadn't
been able to leave the place before the gunfight. As I looked over
the bar in search for any more Imperials, I nearly got my head cut
off by a vicious looking vibroblade wielded by the hand of none
other than Bossk. I had completely forgotten about him. As I looked
at his somewhat disfigured face I could see that he was out for
blood, bounty or not. He charged towards me and jumped over the
bar lunging with the vibroblade in his hand. I barely had time to
react, but I was able to roll out of the way. Reflexively, I reached
for the disruptor only to find it a couple meters away, those few
meters seemed more like a couple of light years. I thought that
was the end of me. In the effort to elude the attack and fire the
weapon, my head hit a bottle filled wall. The last thing I saw before
everything went black was the bartender, in a heroic effort, reaching
to the bounty hunter's head with a bottle he had kept in his hands
all this time and smashing it against his skull as hard as he could...
As I came to, I expected to see the underside of the top bunk in
my quarters aboard the Liberty, instead I found myself in
a strange place, with a strange face looming over me. After a while
I recognized him as the terrified bartender caught in the firefight.
As I tried to get up I felt a colossal ache in the back of my head.
As the bartender opened his mouth I thought I was gonna get it,
to my surprise the bartender said in a sympathetic voice "Take it
easy son, rest a while."
Still in astonishment I asked "You're not mad about the mess?"
"Naaw, I figure I owe you for helping me get rid of that bounty
hunter, he'd been harassing a few of my best customers. Besides
the damage isn't too bad," he answered with a smile on his face.
"Still you got to admit that you were pretty lucky that flameout
was there, no other drink burns quite that hot."
"Where's Bossk?" I asked.
"He won't be running around the galaxy anytime soon. The local
authorities saw to that," Replied the bartender with a broad smile
spreading across his face.
As Predator finished his story he said, "So that's how I got my
favorite drink, after all, it saved my life. Besides it's quite
strong and tasty at the same time, don't you agree? What do you
guys say to another round?"
Before answering Predator's question, Typhoon stood up and exclaimed,
"Hey everyone, drinks are on Predator!"
The crowd that had gathered in the lounge cheered as they raised
their newly filled glasses and toasted, "To Predator!"
Predator only mumbled "Oh great, there goes my week's pay."
