Chapter Text
Natamai wrinkled her nose as she stepped off the shuttle, why did all her jobs take her to such nasty places. Hutta smelled like shit, then again so did anywhere there were Hutts, but Hutta had to smell the worst. She was going to assume the gunk she was forced to walk through was mud, it was simply terrible smelling mud. Jiguuna was a shithole, probably literally. A disgusting town, ran by a probably equally disgusting hutt. She wondered what in the galaxy could be so big that Braden had asked her here on such short notice.
She was in a foul mood as she trudged through the muck of this disgusting planet. She really hated Hutts. She passed various individuals, vendors, smugglers and other bounty hunters, even a few who’d cornered their targets. One of the targets, some alien she didn’t bother to get a good look at, shoved her as he ran past. She was in no mood and shot an electrodart into the guys back, shocking him to the ground long enough for the hunters after him to pick him up. She rolled her eyes, ‘kriffing banthashit hunters who can’t do their own kriffing jobs’.
She turned towards the lights and music and quickly found her way to a third rate cantina, what seemed to be the only one in this shithole of a town.
Natamai paused and pulled out her datapad and checked Braden’s message again. This was the right place, unfortunately. Hopefully, she could get this business wrapped up soon and get back to the more civilized parts of space. She groaned internally, keeping a careful mask in place, this was hutt territory, not a good place to let your guard down, and strod into the cantina, heading past the bar and towards the rooms in the back, following the directions that Braden had sent.
She stepped into the room and looked around quickly, noticing crates of weapons and ammo and supplies. A large Nikto sat at a table off to the side of the room, tinkering with a blaster. Several others sat alongside various parts and a large bottle of blaster oil.
A younger dark haired human girl stood near one of the large data stations typing away while Braden paced. Mako, he called her, this tiny wisp of a girl must be his daughter. He’d mentioned her more than once during their chats, adopted her a few years back if she recalled correctly. Some kind of slicer? Seemed to be setting up security systems.
“Sure thing, Braden. We’ll be– Hey now.” She smiled over towards Natamai and she tried to get a read on the girl. She trusted Braden, mostly, well as much as she trusted anyone she met through work and she was his daughter so a point for her, and the girl didn’t seem to have any reaction to her not being human, so either informed, doesn’t care, or both, enough to work with until she knew what they were working on.
Braden turned to her and she could swear he was almost smiling. “Hey indeed, the main attraction is here. Team, this is Natamai Shabre, the girl we’re pinning all our hopes on.” ok what are you up to Braden, what do you have planned? She thought as she shook his hand and tried to act like she knew exactly what was going on. She wasn’t going to let new people see her at anything less than her best and most confident, even if she was still a bit confused and irritated about why she was on this backwater rock.
Braden rocked back and put his hands on his hips, nodding sharply just once, he might as well be grinning, she started to get damned curious and a bit excited and hoped he was getting to the point. “Best shot I’ve ever seen and nerves of steel. She’s great hunt material, alright.” The Great Hunt. Seriously. She’d heard that it was gearing up, Bounty Hunters all over Nar Shaddaa had been whispering about it for awhile. The Mandalorians all seemed especially excited about it. But their people sponsored the thing, so that was expected. But why the hell hadn’t Braden included that in the message. He’d wanted to tell her in front of the team. Testing her somehow or something. She’d worry about it later, they’d have a long talk about it, deliberately withholding information was something she detested in people she worked with, even temporarily. “What do you say, Shabre? You ready to meet your team?” Ok, maybe just this once she’ll roll with it. Braden had been good to work with before, she’d cut him just a little slack, Great Hunt and all.
She let herself smile and the thrill of what could be the best hunt she’d ever been on spread. This was going to be awesome. “My team… I like the sound of that.” She hadn’t worked with a good team in ages. Reputation was everything in their line of work and Braden’s reputation said he worked with good people, well people that were good at their jobs, the morality of their profession was all relative.
“Get used to the idea. To win the Great Hunt, you’ll need support, structure and intel.” He stepped over to the data consul. “Let’s do things official-like. This is Mako, a little genius I picked up years ago on Nar Shaddaa. She provides intel and tech.” He actually smiled as he talked, clearly as proud of her as if she was his own.
Mako smiled fondly back at him before glancing over to Natamai slightly cautious “Hope you’re as good as the old man say”
“Oh, I’m even better!” She grinned at the girl. Caution around a new variable to the established group, a good survival trait.
“And the big bruiser is Jory” Braden leaned a little more of the consul and gestured to the Nikto, who’d put down the blaster he’d been tinkering with. “He handles the heavy lifting and provides security for our base of operations.”
He spoke in clear Huttese, “[[Greetings. I am at your disposal. Feel free to make us all incredibly wealthy and famous.]]”
She actually had to let out a laugh at that. “Don’t you worry, big guy, I plan to.” She was still excited, but pulled herself together enough to appear at least a little professional. “Nice to meet you both. Let’s get to work.”
Braden clearly agreed with her and dived into his breakdown of the Great Hunt and the next steps for getting into it. “Little Mako is the most rabid fan of Hunter history this side of Geonosis. What she doesn’t know about the great hunt isn’t worth knowing.”
“I also know the names of every great hunt winner: Bloodworthy, the Defenestrator, Jewl’a Nightbringer” She hadn’t thought it was possible for Braden to look more proud of the kid but she’d been wrong.
“Every bounty hunter who’s won a great hunt went on to massive glory and riches. - Which is why we’re here.”
Nat grinned, “So we shoot shit, kick ass, split the riches and you take the glory. I can work with that.”
Jory laughed outright at that. [[“This girl understands the way the galaxy works”]] Nat was going to like this guy. He seemed the type she got along with, in it for the money and willing to do the work. A true professional.
“What’s our first move?” she asked, Braden had always been the man with a plan in the time she’d known him. He’d have come up with a strategy or he wouldn’t have called.
Mako answered first. “Here’s what I know so far. The Great Hunt has two parts: The Mandalorian elite and freelance bounty hunters sponsored by influential crime lords. There’s no time to make you a Mandalorian. That means you need a sponsor.” She nodded, becoming Mandalorian was more difficult than just making people think you were one so a sponsor made sense. Also explained why they were here, to do some work and get the attention of whatever sponsor Braden had in mind. Probably a Hutt. Blagh.
“Nem’ro the Hutt runs this stinking little town. I’ve got just enough pull with that gangster to get you an introduction.” Yep, working for a Hutt. She always hated that, but they paid well for as awful as they were. She’d done it before, she could do it again, it’d take her bigger places than ever this time, it’d be worth it. At least there was a reason that they were meeting here instead of Nar Shaddaa. “Mako, scan for every bounty in the area. I want the nastiest, most brutal, untouchable scum you can find.”
“I’m on it, one nasty character coming up…” The girl started typing away. Nat finally noticed her implant, how had she missed that? She’d need to be more observant or they were spaced. She crossed her arms and shifted her weight, waiting for the rest of the plan.
“First we need to get you situated as a big time hunter, at least as far as the locals know. Then we contact Nem’ro.” That got him a scowl. Ok, so she might not have the clout just yet for the biggest bounties, but she wasn’t exactly unknown. She made a more than comfortable living the last few years off her work. She was even able to buy her own apartment, she had contacts and pull of her own, hell, there were a lot of areas on Nar Shaddaa she could walk safely ‘cause she was so established only idiots wanted to mess with her. The other areas were full of idiots. It wasn’t like she was an unknown rookie, she was just young.
Braden continued on to describe how they were going to plant rumors about her exploits and build a bigger reputation for her offworld while she established herself on the planet. She didn’t like the idea that everything she’d built wasn’t enough, but for now, she’d go along with it. And she had to admit, Mako seemed impressive, almost enough to justify how proud Braden was off the kid.
“You find a target, I’ll take it down hard.” There was no way she was letting her doubts or irritation stop her from making some money and certainly no way she was missing out on the Great Hunt, she’d do the job and add it to the list of things to sort out later.
Mako popped up. It’d only been a minute or so, but the girl already found something. “Check this out…Vexx, Correlian, champion quick-draw artist, wanted for robbing 15 imperial military pay stations”
Nat had to let out a low whistle at that. The man had guts… or no brain, one of those.
Jory echoed the thoughts of everyone in the room “[[Of all places to get credits, why would any sane being rob an Imperial pay station?]]”
She snorted “Got that right, big guy”
Braden seemed satisfied. The guy almost never even smiled, except apparently when it came to his kid. “This Vexx is either a madman or a glory hound–and he’s obviously dangerous.” According to the information Mako started feeding her, she was headed right into the gang war she’d seen on her way to the cantina. It wasn’t like this would be her first gang war she’d found her way through, but it was always irritating. They slowed her down, and gang wars were messy, at least in her experience. There would be plenty to shoot though and that was always fun, she could give her new flamethrower a good test run before she got there.
It was finally time to go to work. She rolled her shoulders, fingers already twitching towards her blaster. “Excuse me, I have a safe house to shoot up.”
She nodded to Braden and Jory, and turned to head out. “Be safe out there.” she heard Braden call after her.
She spun back towards them and sent her most mischievous grin at him while taking a few steps backwards. “Now where would be the fun in that.” she spun around out the door and headed back to the street.