Star Wars The Clone Wars: Cuy'Val Dar#Wattys2016

Twenty-Two

Null awoke to find himself lying sprawled out onto the floor of his ship, a nasty cut just above

his eye. He cursed under his breath and shoved himself onto his feet, looking around groggily. What had happened, he wasn't entirely sure, but as he glanced at the viewport, he saw the ship was on the ground. 

How...?

He decided not to put too much thought into the question at the moment, remembering that Bacsa was there. He looked around quickly, his eyes scanning the floor and he spotted his weapon a few feet away and quickly retrieved it, clipping it to his belt, again looking around warily. He checked the ship's position and saw it was in a landed position on the ground with the ramp lowered. He slowly walked to the back and down the ramp, his eyes turning scanning his surroundings. Everything appeared to be abandoned, but he didn't doubt that Bacsa was out there, just waiting for him.

Null spotted the bounty hunter's ship in the distance, parked and locked up. He glanced back up the ramp, wondering if Bacsa was aboard his ship. He quickly turned his gaze forward again and stepped off the ramp, bringing up his weapon and shifting his gaze from side to side cautiously. He spotted what looked like a quick movement several meters off, then suddenly something slammed into him from behind and knocked him onto his knees. Enraged, Null stood up and spun around, ramming his weapon into the thing that had knocked him off balance before it darted away again.

It was fast. Almost too fast, but Null could see it was humanoid. Now he understood how Bacsa had caught all his brother's off guard. They had never even seen him. The ARC growled lowly.

"I know you're there, coward, now come out of hiding, stop with the tricks and fight me," he hissed, narrowing his eyes and again raising his weapon, watching the landscape. There it was, the darting movement between the rocks that made up the landscape. Null quickly trained his weapon on the area but it was too late. He cursed under his breath and looked around again, walking forward slowly. Alert to everything that was happening around him, he stalked into the middle of what looked like a large clearing.

"Bacsa!" he yelled, his voice echoing around the clearing. The bounty hunter was nowhere to be seen at the moment. Null turned and suddenly he spotted a dark blur racing towards him. He fired off a couple of shots at it, his blood boiling with rage, however, Bacsa dodged the shots and grabbed Null's weapon from his hands, throwing it several meters away. Null thought about going after it, but stopped.

"Go on. Fetch you little gun back, like the Republic dog you are," Bacsa mocked, now standing a couple feet away. Null wasn't going to be taunted and undermined by a piece of osik like Bacsa and he narrowed his eyes, pulling off his helmet. Usually, one preferred to keep their helmet on while fighting. Null had been taught that when it go serious in a fight, you wanted to be able to see the fear in your enemies eyes and smell it on their breath and so he threw his helmet off to one side, a growl rumbling in his throat as he stalked towards Bacsa. The bounty hunter didn't look scared at all, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched Null approach. However, he tensed slightly when Null got close enough to do damage.

Null's hands were curled into fists and as soon as he got withing a foot of Bacsa, he shot forward on his feet and slammed his fist into the man's jawline, even though it was protected by a helmet. There was a distinct clicking noise and Bacsa's head snapped back, his teeth clacking together. The bounty hunter staggered, then yelled and old Chiss war cry and kicked Null in the chest, the power of his blow shoved the ARC back a couple of feet. Null's teeth were bared, his eyes wild.

No wonder they consider them unstable, Basca thought and put his hand up into a fighting stance, instinct taking control of him. He saw Null rush him, and sidestepped, whirling around and kicking Null in the back.