Chapter 10
Skurn gazed down at her new hand in amazement; it was almost like her old one had never been cut off. She flexed and moved it a bit to test its abilities to find them more than satisfactory before looking up at the Kaminoan. "It's perfect."
"Well of course. You know that we work to achieve nothing but perfection here and creating a new hand is much simpler than creating a new human."
Always ignorant of their arrogance it seemed. Skurn stopped admiring it and pulled down the sleeve of her new armor. "Yes but it seems you are still skilled at making those too."
"Our cloning technology has only gotten better since the past failures."
"But they've never seen real combat, how do you know their any better?" She challenged.
"Their training is far better than that of the original and the non clones currently in use." The male Kaminoan responded simply. "As it was ordered."
"Ordered by who?"
"A client who wishes to remain anonymous."
Skurn's gaze flickered to the clones below, their white armor nearly blended in perfectly with the floor and walls. "What if I said I needed to take them for a test fight?"
"That is expected." He responded. "After all you've done to help with this, it is only reasonable to let you test them."
That unnerved her as well. Since when had she been a part of their creation? She shook off the thought; perhaps in his age he'd been mistaken. "Get them ready. I don't want to stay here long."
"Be aware, they do have one defect." She turned back around to face the vain Kaminoan. "They have a high midichlorian count, we would have scrapped them all if we were not ordered to keep them around."
"What does that mean in a battle?" She asked in confusion, she'd never heard of that before.
"It should not hinder them much." He responded simply before leaving her alone.
Skurn looked down at the clones below... what was under those helmets? New footsteps distracted her and she turned her attention back to the group of bounty hunters staring at her with only half interest. She was suddenly glad she was wearing her helmet so they couldn't see her eyes sizing them off incase this went bad.
"We traveled across the galaxy for this, it better be good." Bossk growled in his reptilian voice.
"Especially since there's a price on your head, and I'm assuming your friends are here with you? Why shouldn't we all collect the bounty the First Order has?" Castas commented.
Skurn glared at them under her helmet. "You would have done it already."
"That doesn't mean we take orders from you. We owe Boba not you and he's dead."
"Which means it falls to me, his apprentice." She growled back.
Bossk glared back at her. "I demand a challenge by combat over this."
"Alright. But I get to choose the location." He nodded and she continued. "Outside, right now."
"We aren't expecting anyone else... It sounds fair." Castas agreed. "If Bossk wins we collect the bounty, and if you win we tell you everything the First Order is planning and help you defeat them."
"You can't risk that Skurn." She glanced behind her to see Alder glancing between them. "I mean, I won't allow it."
"You aren't my boss. Now do you want their help or not?" Skurn snapped at him.
Kylo's brother fell silent, anger flashing through his gaze, before he turned and walked off. No one could even tell he'd ever been hurt after the treatment he'd received. She shoved past the two standing in her way before going outside onto the slippery metal landing platform and taking out her blaster, no one here liked Jedi so it was best not to use their weapon of choice in this fight. A moment later their fight began, no signal was given to start their fight, only the blaster shots... a bounty hunter needed to always be prepared for a fight even without the signal because battles didn't start out saying 'we're about to attack you right about now'.
Bossk's attacks came fast, his blasts nearly hitting her several times as she dodged and waited for an opening. Hopefully she could finish this in one shot... if she could just get a high enough spot... Skurn activated the jet pack on her back, something she wished had been fixed to be on the boots like her original suit but she could fly with this just as well. She rolled midair before doing a flip and firing, showing off a bit to prove she still had it in her, and to tactically hinder his aim. Bossk however, wasn't about to fall for an old trick it seemed and her first shot missed before the second grazed him as she expected. What she didn't expect was for him to take out a thermal detonator and get it jammed in her jetpack as she dove down to kick him in the chest. She tried reaching around to get it out before it blew but was forced to abandon the effort to dodge the next attack.
"What is going on here?" Rey's voice signaled that the others had arrived.
Skurn ignored them, unlike Bossk who seemed to think she'd pause at an ally's voice, and gave him a good mark to the knee before managing to just throw the jetpack aside. Bossk didn't seem to want to give in though and a second later a blast narrowly missed her face before his boot kicked into her gut. She glanced over to see Alder trying to keep the others back as he explained what was happening, a part of her was grateful he was at least respecting the rules but another part wanted him to help, especially when Bossk started dragging her to the edge by her throat.
"Skurn, use the Force!" Kylo's irritated voice shoved into her head. "What do you think you're doing? Do you want to die? I didn't go through everything just for you to get yourself killed! Especially not for my brother!"
She focused on pushing him back out and struggled to reach for a hidden knife, and then she felt herself being dropped to the ground by Bossk mere inches from the edge. Skurn glared at Kylo when she saw the bounty hunter's blank look, he was interfering, she could easily win but if anyone realized what had happened and spoke about it then this could only make more enemies for them to fight.
Bossk's eyes regained their normal look, though new fury was held there as he sent a quick glare at her friends before knocking her knife away as she lunged at him. Skurn tried another tactic, sweeping him to the ground while jumping to her own feet, but he seemed to know that move as well and quickly countered so she found herself hanging off the edge, her hands starting to slip on the wet landing pad.
"Alright, you win! Just turn us in." Her heart skipped a beat as she felt her body slid farther down. "Bossk!"
The reptilian like bounty hunter shook his head and held the blaster at her head. "My employer wants you all, I'll give him all but one. Think of it as returning that favor you asked for... Trust me, this is a better way to go out than your friends will. There won't be any torment before you die."
Skurn did the only thing she could think of in that moment: let go. Kylo's fury was rushing through her mind in words that came too fast and ever changing for her to make sense of as he lectured mentally at her. She wasn't done yet though because she could still use her grappling gun to avoid what could've been a watery grave. Taking aim, the grappling gun snagged a spot on a lower railing and caused her to come to a jerking halt a level above the water. She gave a sigh of relief and started retracting the line to bring her up to safe ground before feeling the line loosen. Looking up she saw a Kaminoan breaking the line and for a second its face seemed to morph into a very familiar enemy before returning to that unmarred face of perfection... Now she knew why Alder had been worried, and if what the Force had just shown her was true...
She had to warn them. "Kylo, stop this is important!"
There was a calming in her mind as he hesitantly listened. "What?"
"Snoke...the Kaminoans-" The line broke and the world went dark as she met the water.
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