He looked up from his drink as the Mandalorian entered the cantina. The
man really knew how to make an entrance. This was not the Mando that
Gekko was used to see. Instead of the ragtag armor, the bounty hunter
now wore armor made of beskar, a rare type of steel that the
Mandalorians used for their armor before the Purge. These days it was
hard to come by, and now Mando wore a whole armor made of the expensive
material. Gekko snorted when Greef Karga greeted the man loudly and
mentioned that the other bounty hunters would hate him. Oh, he was so
right.
Gekko followed the Mandalorian with his eyes as he walked
over to Karga and sat down across from the guild master. They were not
talking loud enough for him to overhear, but he saw Karga show the
Mandalorian two beskar bars. The share he had received for his efforts
in hiring the bounty hunter.
But the Mando was not the only one
tasked with finding the quarry. Gekko touched the tracking fob in his
pocket, which he still had. He was also sent, but wasn't as lucky as his
rival. He looked up from his drink again when he heard the Mando ask
what would happen to the quarry that had been delivered. This was
clearly against the guild's code and did not go well with Karga. Shortly
after, Gekko saw the Mandalorian leave the cantina, and the hapless
bounty hunter was pretty sure the man was leaving the planet to hunt
down the Mon Cal shown by the puck the guild master had given him.
Gekko
downed his drink and ordered another as he thought about his bad luck
and whether he should ask the guild master for a new job.
But it did
not come to that, because after a while his tracking fob went off. To
his surprise, he saw how many of his fellow bounty hunters were really
busy hunting for the quarry the Mando had delivered, because their
tracking fobs went off too. Karga received a call and shortly thereafter
they set off to intercept the rogue bounty hunter.
They
positioned themselves near the Mando’s ship and waited patiently for him
to appear. Gekko stood near Karga, waiting to spring into action.
When
the Mandalorian finally arrived with the quarry, Greef Karga demanded
that he put down the bundle. The Mando refused and the battle began.
First, the man took out many of the attacking bounty hunters and managed
to jump onto a hover sled. Forcing the droid assigned to the sled to
start the engine and drive to the ship's landing pad, he almost broke
through the blockade. Almost, but then Gekko saw Karga take aim and
destroy the droid. The Mando was trapped. All the remaining bounty
hunters rushed towards him, pretty sure it was over for the man who had
broken the code.
But then the tide turned. Out of nowhere,
Mandalorians with blazing blaster rifles came flying to the rescue. They
were everywhere and extremely maneuverable thanks to their jetpacks.
The bounty hunters could not withstand the onslaught, and the Mando fled
to his ship.
It was over, and it would take a while for them to recover from the incident.
Gekko was lucky that he was one of the few survivors of the shootout. He looked up at the sky, where the Razor Crest was heading for orbit. He smiled behind his breathing mask.
The
Mandalorian was no longer the hunter, but the prey. And the day would
come when Gekko would claim the bounty on the ex-bounty hunter.
