Transmission Interrupted

Pav Radon was about ready to call it a night. He’d trailed his mark in and out of cantinas for the past few hours and was starting to suspect the Static Watchers surveilling the Kijimi starport had made a bad call. Pav could hardly blame them. Sitting up in that dank apartment all day watching the comings and goings through macro-binoculars gets tedious. Sometimes, an active imagination is the only way to quell the boredom. Pav had already endured too many nights peering through windows and idly cracking open koja nuts than he’d like to relive. He much preferred the role of the Mobile Watcher - staying on the move and calculating both where his mark would go next and how to follow on without being detected. The job required an astute sense of the city. The maze-like layout of the ancient Kijimi streets could confuse even the most experienced Watcher.

His mark, a middle aged Drabatan male had caught the attention of the Watchers due to his noted “lack of luggage”, departing the starport. It was admittedly pretty thin reasoning. Nevertheless, Pav dutifully stalked him on his jaunt of the city. The Drabatan had a rough exterior but under the warm glow of the cantina lights, he was quick to smile and even quicker to buy a round - in exchange for some conversation. Pav had watched from across the room as he engaged the regulars with his lighthearted banter.

Now the city was quiet save for the cold wind blowing in off the river. Pav dropped further back and watched as the Drabatan urinated against a wall and stumbled off towards the frozen canals. Feeling his comm link buzz in his pocket, Pav backed into the shadows and pressed the device to his ear.

“Our man inside the starport tells us that he boarded a civilian transport from…Boonta. That’s all we know for certain.“

“Business or pleasure?” Pav asked sarcastically.

“Looks like he has down…pleasure.”

“Hmm”

Pav ended the transmission and realised he’d lost his mark. Quickening his pace to catch up, he stopped dead before rounding the corner. The sound of buttons being tapped and an electronic whirring noise hummed in the darkness.

The distinct sound of Huttese being spoken followed.

Pav reached into the inside of his coat and slipped the appropriate language chip into his Aural Translator.

The Duros’ red eyes were fixed on the male fidgeting with his gloves when the unmistakable image of a Hutt face flickered into view above the holo-terminal.

The Drabatan turned and began speaking the harsh tongue of the Hutts. “Master, they’re here. The locals have told tales of their presence. I will need time to parse the truth from the lies.”

“And where do these scrap rats dwell?” Came a booming voice in response.

“I only have a name. The Lo-“

BZAPPPPP

Pav’s mark was out cold before he could finish his sentence.

The Hutt grunted with dissatisfaction and ended the transmission.

“I’m gonna need a pick up” Pav spoke into his comm. “Our friend here has had too much to drink.”

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Did a lot of iteration on this build. Looked at some concept art of Kijimi to decide on certain details. The goal of the edit was to achieve the kind of neo-noir vibe you might see in a Clone Wars episode about the underworld. I used double exposure to illuminate the shooter's face. The holo is based on Bjorn's tutorial. Thanks for looking! Feel free to critique.

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