[Fic] Enter Calo Nord

[RC-1162]

I always fantasized something like this for Calo Nord's first bounty. He's portrayed as cunning, quick and sharp, but not exactly experienced in the trade. Okay, here we go, hope you enjoy it!

*****

 

Enter Calo Nord

 

The Tarisian Lower City was not a place to be if you were one of those people used to city life on the Upper Levels. Here, things were very different from the polished activities of the Upper City. Almost around every corner there lay piles of wreckage and the aftermath of a gun fight. Gang wars raged uncontrolled by authorities and hundreds died by the day. It was through this unstable place that a short stocky man in a blue and brown overcoat and with goggles on walked undaunted and calm. On first sight one would either pity him, that such a small and soft-looking person had to die out of ignorance, or one would laugh at this man’s daring to venture into the dangers of the Lower City without even a visible weapon to protect himself. The man made his way into the Cantina of the Lower City, called Javyar’s Cantina.

 

Making his way around the Cantina, the man attracted many looks, since he appeared nothing like the kind of person who belonged in this rough section of society. Unbothered, he made his way to Zax the Hutt, the one he was searching for.

 

“It’s Zax, isn’t it?” he asked the Hutt.

 

<Yes. I am Zax. What do you want?> The Hutt replied in his native Huttese.

 

“I want to know if you have any bounties to offer,” said the man, coming straight to the point. The Hutt chuckled at this.

 

<What, does your gun shoot cotton balls? Bounty hunting is a dangerous profession. You don’t look up to the task.>

 

In response to this, the man pulled out a heavy blaster hidden inside his overcoat. Without looking over his shoulder, he pointed the gun back and fired a shot. It hit a Tarisian sitting at the bar square in his back and the man dropped dead. The people around just looked to see where the shot had come from, then went back to their drinks, clearly used to such kind of things. A few minutes later, a pair of Rodians picked up the body and dragged it out of the cantina.

 

“I believe those aren’t cotton balls,” was all he said.

 

<You’ve got guts,> the Hutt said. <I like that. Let’s talk business. I have just the job for you. It just came in yesterday morning and nobody has asked for it yet. You want it?>

 

“What is it?”

 

<A Tarisian Noble by the name of Alaan Garn. Apparently he failed to supply some vital information to the local Crime Lord, Davik Kang. In response, Davik put a bounty on his head. Think you’re up for it?>

 

“I’ll take it,” the man said without hesitation.

 

<Yes, and I’m sure we’ll see you dead in tomorrow’s news. But I admire your courage…or overconfidence.>

 

“How much do I get?”

 

<Fifteen thousand credits, non-negotiable. Here’s a datapad with the location of his penthouse villa and other details.>

 

“Done. I’ll be back soon.”

 

<Sure you will. Hey, what’s your name?>

 

The man had already turned around and was on the way out.

 

“Calo,” he called back. “Calo Nord.”

*****

Following the directions in the datapad he received from the Hutt, Calo Nord made his way in an airspeeder to Garn’s penthouse villa. Parking it in the visitor’s area, he walked around till he reached a side door of the building. As he neared the access panel, a security camera popped out and an automated voice spoke out.

 

“Visitors please use the main entrance and state your name and business.”

 

Pulling out one of his blasters, Calo shot out the camera and started working on the console quickly. The camera he had shot would surely attract attention. In less than a minute, he had successfully sliced the door’s lock and it hissed open. Walking inside carefully, he looked around. He had entered a long hallway and on the other end was a patrolling combat droid walking away with its back turned to him.

 

Silently making his way to the side and hiding behind a pillar near the wall left wall, he pulled out his other blaster and prepared his energy shield for action. He jumped out from behind the pillar and shot twice at the droid. Both were right on target and the droid blew up into pieces.

 

His presence now certainly known, Calo ran down the halls, looking for his target. After a minute of searching, he came to an elaborate wooden door. Sure that his quarry was inside, he activated it and the door slid open, to reveal a man seated at a desk, whom he recognized as Garn from the pictures in the datapad.

 

“Who the hell are you?” Garn demanded, standing up.

 

“Calo Nord,” Calo replied as he raised his blasters. “Remember it, ‘cause that’s going to be the last thing you’ve heard for a long time.”

 

“Wrong move, pal,” came a gruff voice seemingly out of nowhere and suddenly, half a dozen bodyguards emerged from stealth fields and trained their blaster carbines on him.

 

Cursing himself for not being cautious enough, Calo took a running dive to the side as he was greeted by a hail of blaster bolts. Taking cover behind an overturned durasteel coffee table, he pointed his blasters out from over the top edge and fired at random, hoping to score a shot in passing.

 

He heard a lot of shuffling and all of a sudden the firing stopped. Cautiously, Calo poked his head out and looked around, a couple of chairs were overturned, but the room was devoid of people. Confused, Calo stood up and surveyed the room more closely, and he noticed a small escape door set into the far corner of the room.

 

He quickly made his way to it, but halfway there, two shots rang out from behind him, one bouncing off his energy shield and the other passing over his head. He turned around, blasters outstretched, and saw a mini army of combat droids, all with blasters ready.

 

Recognizing a lost battle, Calo turned and ran for the small door. It was a small, steep passageway heading down. He came out of it into a large speeder hangar just as an airspeeder with Garn and his bodyguard troupe was leaving it.

 

Wasting no time, Calo ran to one of the other parked speeders and powered it up, pushing it to full power, he shot out after them. For a few minutes he couldn’t pick them out, but a second later he spotted the erratically maneuvering airspeeder. Gunning the engines, he raced behind them. He took out a blaster in his left hand and pointed it out of the canopy. Drawing ever closer to his target, he fired a couple of shots.

 

They all went wide, but the people in the speeder were now in a state of panic and were flying more dangerously. Trying hard to stay behind them and lining his next shot, Calo almost didn’t see the cargo ship coming at him from the side. Noticing it at the last moment, his eyes went wide and the adrenalin surged through his body. He pulled on his control stick hard and barely evaded it, scraping the top of the ship with a loud guttural noise. Dropping back behind Garn’s airspeeder, Calo accelerated hard till he was just about 5 meters behind the speeder.

 

At this range, the bodyguards sitting in the rear seat turned around and open fire on him. The first few shots hit his windscreen, cracking it. A shot from one of the guards, however, managed to hit Calo square on the wrist and knock his blaster out of his hand. Grunting with pain, Calo withdrew his arm and kept up the chase.

 

Dipping and weaving through the maze of buildings and other speeders, the two speeders danced gracefully, the distance between them never wavering. Gripping the control stick hard and bearing the surge of pain it caused in his hand, Calo kept up his chase. Through the cracked windscreen, his visibility was greatly impaired, but he tried to stay on Garn by making out the shape of the juking airspeeder in front of him.

 

Realizing that Calo was in a dangerous state, the pilot of Garn’s speeder desperately tried to shake him off with swoops and spins and other dangerous maneuvers that airspeeders clearly weren’t designed to do. Calo made absolutely no attempt to replicate those stunts and just flew on straight, following the now clearly discernible airspeeder. Understanding that Calo wouldn’t take the bait, the pilot stopped trying to lose him and shouted something at the guards in the rear.

 

Nodding at the pilot, they raised their blasters again and opened fire again. The cracked windscreen gave away under the barrage of bolts and shattered into a hail of hot fragments of plastic. Calo raised one of his arms to shield his eyes and ducked to the side to get out of the guards’ line of sight. Letting go of the stick for a second, he reactivated his energy shield and sat back up, greeted by a renewed barrage of bolts. Those which made contact simply bounced off his shield.

 

Relentless, he grabbed his other pistol and held it straight out in front, now having the advantage of a straight shot. He aimed carefully and fired three shots, two of them scoring hits on the speeder’s engine and the other going wide.

 

Garn’s speeder engine sparked and exploded, obliterating half of the speeder and sending the other half, along with those who had survived the first explosion, into the dark depths of Taris. Calo brought his speeder to a hover and watched the remains of Garn’s speeder fall out of sight. Then, his first bounty hunt completed, he headed back to Javyar’s Cantina to get his payment and a mug of Tarisian Ale to help take care of the pain in his wrist.

*****

Walking up to Zax, Calo tossed the datapad he was given onto the floor in front of Zax.

 

“It’s done. I’ll take my pay now, in cash.”

 

<Ah yes, it’s you. My sources tell me you’ve taken care of Garn quite well. I think you can make a name for youself in this trade.>

 

“Cut the chatter,” Calo snapped. “I don’t have all day.”

 

<Yes, yes, your money.> The Hutt waved forward one of his aides, who handed him a pouch, which he subsequently handed to Calo. <There you are. Well done.>

 

Calo ignored the Hutt and snatching the pouch, zipped it open and started to count the credit ships inside. When he was done he looked up, and didn’t appear to be pleased.

 

“There’s only five thousand in here.”

 

<Yes, well you see, you’re a rookie, technically, and we at the bounty office don’t see why we should pay rookies the full amount for their first bounty, seeing as it could have been blind luck.>

 

“Luck or not, Garn is dead and you said fifteen thousand, non-negotiable for his kill. Non-negotiable works both ways.”

 

<Now listen, come back later and I can give you another bounty, if you can deal with that, I’ll pay you your bounty for that, along with the ten thousand I owe you now. How about it?>

 

Calo simply raised his pistol at the Hutt and said, “I took out seven men with two shots a few minutes ago. I’m sure as hell I can take you out too.”

 

<Now now. Don’t get hasty, the Exchange would swoop down on you in less than a day if you do that.>

 

“Yeah? Try me.” Calo said, still holding his blaster aloft.

 

<Like I said before, you’ve got guts, Nord. It’s going to get you killed one day, but you got big guts.>

 

“Thank you, I’m aware of that, now if you just hand over my ten grand I’ll be on my way.”

 

Sighing, the Hutt spoke to his aide, who nodded and walked into an adjoining room. He returned a moment later carrying another pouch and tossed it to Calo, who caught it and quickly counted out its contents. Satisfied he looked up and nodded once at the Hutt, turned around, and walked to the bar.

*****

“Hey Davik,” the Mandalorian mercenary Canderous Ordo called out. “The Hutt sent you something he wanted you to see.”

 

Davik Kang, head of the Exchange on planet Taris, turned around to face his top man, who tossed him a datapad. Catching it, he quickly read through the text and played a video footage that was given along with it. Shutting it off after he was done, he turned thoughtful. Looking down, he played the video again.

 

“Hmm, Calo Nord, eh?” he mumbled to himself as he watched the aerial duel between Calo and Garn’s men. “Sounds promising.”

 

THE END

[Sabretooth]

Ah, a good one, RC! I like the storyteller style of your writing. It is clear and uncomplicated. The story in itself was a hard bounty hunter tale. In my opinion, it was something that you'd find in a Dark Horse comic book, and it was pretty much average Star Wars fiction.

 

But you've woven Calo Nord perfectly! The story definitely makes for one entertaining read and I must commend you for your innovative title!

[RC-1162]

Thanks Sabre, I had an idea like this bumping about the first time I played KotOR and read Calo's datapad.

 

Oh, and just a note: I'd like to make it known that one of my classmates helped me with this fic by beta-ing for me. I know she won't be reading this right now, nor is she a member of LF, but I just wanted to give her the credit she deserved since this isn't 100% my effort.

[Sabretooth]

Oh, and just a note: I'd like to make it known that one of my classmates helped me with this fic by beta-ing for me. I know she won't be reading this right now, nor is she a member of LF, but I just wanted to give her the credit she deserved since this isn't 100% my effort.

 

She understands Star Wars? I'm damned impressed, RC!

[JasraLantill]

I liked this tale a lot, RC! I've always wanted to read a story about Calo's history, too, and now, thanks to you, I have. Don't even have a single criticism, except that it's too bad I can only give you one vote. Very well done!

[Bee Hoon]

A few more commas in places would have been nice, but well done!

[Darth InSidious]

Well done. Simple, but effective. In places, the use of language was a little samey, but that's all that can really be said to criticise this one. In future, I'd recommend varying your language a little more - try using a few participles just to mix things up a bit. Also, you used whole units of time - a minute, a second - quite a lot, which began to jarr a bit. I'd recommend mixing that up a bit, too, and varying it - after all, things don't tend to happen in real life in round units

 

7/10.

[Emperor Devon]

I liked! Overall it's well polished and feels very complete. It feels a bit simple, though - I'd have liked to see more of the character's emotions and thoughts, and maybe a slightly larger vocabulary. Still, very well done! The action scenes are described very well and Calo Nord was in-character.

 

My score: 8/10

[Jae Onasi]

I liked the idea, and I liked all the action. I never connected with Calo, however. You tell us a lot about what he's doing, but you don't tell us anything about how he feels about getting shot at. I'd think he'd have some kind of reaction--heart racing, pulse pounding, something that tells me he's nervous or excited--he's just way too calm here.

 

Also, if the guards had shot his windscreen enough to crack and break it, why didn't they keep shooting enough to take him out completely? You may need to explain that a bit, especially since you say he's flying straight, and that pretty much guarantees he's a great target.

 

Other than that, a fun story to read.

[RC-1162]

Thanks all! I enjoyed writing this and I'm happy many of you enjoyed too.

 

@ Jae: Yes, Calo was flying straight, but the other guys weren't, so because of their own twisting and jumping around, they'd not be able to get a clear shot, so they didn't try. They did fire at him continuously after the driver ordered them to, only Calo was protected by his shield.

 

And about the reactions, I showed him calmer than expected because, according to his wookieepedia page, he had killed his enslavers and his own parents before taking up bounty hunting, so I figured he wouldn't be that influenced by all those reactions, I did put in a few of them, but I'll take in your suggestion and try to put out a re-write. Thanks .

[Empress Padme]

Since theres not a lot of Calo Nord stories I read it out of curiousity. I love Zax's remarks the most. You got that Hutt down. It was an interesting take on a underated KotOR character.