There was nothing quite like the blackness of space. The feeling of floating endlessly without limits… it was a feeling that would never get old to Harry. To be truly independent was a great feeling. Though sometimes, there was a need for fulfilment, to do something.

For Harry, fulfilment came in many forms. Sometimes it was merely the needs of the flesh, while other times it required something a bit more mentally stimulating. And of course, there was the fulfilment of his bank account. And, when you could get a few of those things at the same time, then that was something Harry was interested in.

His spaceship wasn't top of the line, but it was quite good. An Aggressor-class assault fighter, it was new-ish, and heavily customized, as is tradition amongst the guild. Harry liked it a lot, especially since one person could crew the ship by themselves, though there were additional crew cabins as well as a bunk room, and of course, cells for captives. Standard bounty hunter kit.

The captain's chair was pretty much the most comfortable thing ever, as required for someone whose primary means of wealth accumulation was to pilot the ship all across the galaxy. The consoles were within perfect distance of his hands, and the display was at the exact height so he didn't have to crane his neck. It had taken Harry a bit to get used to the idea of high-tech computers, given what he was as a wizard, but the existence of Jedi across the galaxy has necessitated a means in which to shield electronics from the Force, and thousands of years of innovation have made it not even remotely a problem.

Not having much else to do, and having an unscratchable and endless itch in the form of a need to adventure, Harry pulled up the bounty board through the holonet. There were a few different filters he could toggle to filter out the type of work he wanted, thanks to his veteran status in the bounty hunter's guild.

Being a veteran gave him access to some high-level contracts, though given that he worked solo and that those types of bounties tended towards mercenary work rather than detective work, he didn't take them too often. Instead, he accessed the local board. It wasn't a matter of seeing if there was anything, it was simply a matter of seeing if there was anything interesting.

In a galaxy where the population was in the quadrillions, there was always bounties. Some got snatched up quick, some managed to last for days, some were free for all, and some weren't. There was always the chance of running into another bounty hunter running the same job.

In the outer rim where he was currently, he had his pick of the lot. There was less law enforcement out here, so many had to resort to alternate means to accomplish what they needed to. There was a lot of money to be made for unscrupulous individuals.

There were all sorts of bounties available. Anything from a trade escort, to local nav mapping, to headhunting. A trade escort wasn't really Harry's speed. His ship, the Rowena's Revenge, wasn't a warship, though it did have enough armaments to do some serious damage. And that kind of job, more often than not, was outright boring in the instances where they didn't get ambushed.

Seeing as how the Revenge wasn't equipped with the necessary sensor equipment to map unexplored systems, that really left Harry's only choice of headhunting, though that was the most common type of contract. It was actually a very diverse field, with pay scaling from pretty much nothing to enough to retire on, with jobs either focusing on the "alive" part of wanted dead or alive, or the "dead" part.

Harry had started out like everyone else, running on a crew making a few hundred credits per job, until he saved up enough to get his own junker of a vessel, so he could choose his own jobs, build up a name for himself, and not have to split the profits amongst his crew.

Right now, Harry still considered himself mid-level. He had a name amongst the Guild, but he was still relatively unknown and off-the-radar where it counted. And he didn't really want to get that much higher either, as that's when the big names came out to play. Going after a contract worth fifty thousand credits meant that pretty much anyone and everyone would be on it, all the bigs guns, perhaps even bring some people out of retirement. Harry wanted nothing to do with that kind of notoriety, so he tended to stick a tier or two below that. It was still great money, yet he wouldn't have a target on his head, and other guild members more or less respected when someone called dibs on a bounty of that level. It wasn't worth getting killed over two-thousand credits, but fifty thousand was enough to change someone's tune. It was enough to buy a new starship, and without a starship, you weren't anyone.

The Rowena's Revenge had cost nearly three-hundred thousand credits, so suffice to say, Harry has had a few successful jobs to his name. And he wanted to keep going. He liked working without a crew, but if he could get like minded people with the same vision, he would consider going bigger. An old corvette could be had for under a million credits, and would be the perfect sort of ship to run a crew out of, or even multiple crews. A mobile floating headquarters.

Such an endeavor was quite far away in the future though, but it always good to have goals.

Looking through some of the older contracts, a few potentials popped up to him. He quickly went through them, deciding on relevance and sorting them based on preference. There were tons nearby at Lola Sayu, but Harry wanted nothing to do with that place. There was a prison there that was specifically built to hold rogue Jedi, but it had been captured by the Separatists. Nothing good would come from even being in the same system as such a place. It wasn't the kind of place that was known to the public, but the Guild's database was quite extensive.

Harry quickly marked it off the list. Entering that system was the exact opposite of keeping a low profile. Plus, the system was quite hard to get to.

That left quite a few options at Lianna, which was a local shipping hub out there in the rim, which also meant a decent variety of jobs, though quite a high likelihood of stepping on others' toes. There was also a fair amount at both Galidraan and Felucia. It was the later of which that jumped out to him.

It was an older listing, nearly a week old, and the price offered had been escalating daily. It was clearly some sort of desperation involved, and as he read it, he realized why. The Felucians were pretty passive people, with the vast majority of them being farmers of some sort. They supplied quite a few words for the Republic, though there was a continual planetary hazard, so it wasn't exactly a vacation hotspot. They had been invaded more than once by the Separatists for their exports.

That wasn't what interested him, as that's not what the bounty was about. What did interest him, is that when push came to shove, the native Felucians would not just roll over, and could have a vindictive streak. Such as when a Felucian mayor's daughter got kidnapped for ransom by a crime lord, the mayor did not hesitate to put a price on the crime lord's head instead of crumbling to the blackmail.

It was as clear as day as to why no one had taken the bounty so far. Going after a crime lord was not something most bounty hunters would consider, as there was a tendency for that to be bad for their health, and long term prospects. Crime lords have long memories, and would not forget someone who slighted them. Harry wasn't deterred. It was the type of job that he'd likely look into even if there wasn't a monetary reward. As a personal rule, he wasn't a fan of kidnapping, not even for political reasons. If he could do the job and feel good about himself and get paid, then that was all the more reason to look into it.

But first, he pulled up the data on the crime lord known as Helman Voosk. It was best to be aware of whom he was messing with before intervening. After all, morality or not, he wouldn't tangle with a major criminal syndicate for a mere 4,800 credits. Some of them had influence on multiple sectors, let alone systems or planets.

Voosk was a bit more than a minor crime boss, but not by much. A decade past, there had been a turf war between him and a few other petty thugs, which he won. He then consolidated the remnants of the gang to form a decent sized criminal empire, with a couple dozen smuggling ships on his payroll, as well a security force that protected his estate on Felucia, though his actual whereabouts was not in the system. Criminals tend to not have their current location readily on file.

It sounded impressive up front, but Harry had seen his share of smuggling vessels, and in nearly all cases, they were junkers. There was no point in buying a shiny new spaceship for a hundred thousand credits when you could get one for a couple thousand that would serve just as well, and you wouldn't lose your ass on it when it inevitably gets impounded.

The real red-flag on this guy's importance was the fact that the bounty on him was only 4,800 credits. If he was a big deal, it would have been more. Not to mention the fact that this guy was extorting a mayor for a payday… that wasn't what crime lords in the the big leagues did. Extort galactic senators and embargo a planet yes, blackmail a mayor from an outer-rim planet, no.

With all that knowledge now firmly in Harry's mind, he clicked "accept" and immediately put in a call to the person who created the bounty, a Mayor Melos Miassis. The call beeped for nearly an uncomfortable amount of time before it finally went through. The holodisplay in front of Harry projected the mayor's image.

"This is Mayor Miassis," the mayor said. Felucians were interesting looking humanoids, with pink skin and an almost reptilian looking head. The mayor wore a blue hat with a triangular insignia on it.

"Bounty Hunter Potter," Harry replied. "Calling from the Rowena's Revenge. I've accepted your bounty on Helman Voosk. 4,800 alive, 3,600 dead, paid upon successful return of Alinna Miassis."

The mayor blinked in surprise and took a moment to collect himself. He briefly conferred with a datapad off to his right. "Yes, I see that you've accepted it," he said. "Thank you. I will transfer coordinates to your ship. I do not care if you burn his entire estate to the ground, but my daughter must be returned to me unharmed."

"Right," Harry said. "I do, however, still require more information. Information that might not necessarily be in my database. Troop strength, reasoning behind the kidnapping, things that will help me not get killed, if you get my meaning."

"Voosk is a thug with delusions of grandeur," the mayor snarled. His thick Felucian accent shone through his grasp of Galactic Basic. "He's blackmailing me, but not for money. He wishes for me to step down from my position, so he can insert himself as Mayor. I told him over my dead body, and then he took my daughter. If I don't get my daughter back soon, I may have to considered complying with his requests. This position is not worth my own child's life. She's all I got."

"I understand," Harry said sympathetically. "I'm a highly trained bounty hunter. This is what I do. Now, can you tell me anything about the resistance I can expect to face? Does he have any tanks? Gunships?"

"Voosk commands bullies and thugs," the Mayor said. "Very few of them have any actual training. They won't be heavily armed, but they will be armed. No gunships, but he does have anti-aircraft emplacements around his compound. Maybe a few walkers. His people are the kind that are very quick to resort to violence, even murder, but will fall apart at the first sign of their own lives being in danger. Their loyalty only goes so far as their paycheck."

"Got it," Harry said. "I've received the co-ordinates as well. I will return your daughter to you as soon as possible."

"Thank you," the Mayor said.

Harry closed the link and immediately set a course for Felucia. It was only a handful of systems away, but it would still take a few hours. In the outer-rim, outside of a few main trade routes, some of the hyperlanes could be quite perilous, especially when the Separatists or Republic were making heavy use of them. Luckily, the route to Felucia wasn't on one of the main hyperlanes directly, but that just meant he had to be a bit more careful in the corridor, as there would be more jumps. Space was vast, so the chances of hitting anything was quite slim, but it was still quite dangerous.

With the course set, Harry engaged the drive and the Revenge quickly built up speed. Once ready, he toggled the hyperdrive lever and set it to one. It took a moment to setting in as the light outside the ship blurred. Then, he clicked the lever once more to nought point five. At this speed, he risked not being able to respond to his proximity sensor in time if something were to get in front of his ship's course.

Being in space, let alone hyperspace, never failed to amaze Harry. Hyperspace was something completely different though. Moving faster than the speed of light was awe-inspiring, and he could see hundreds of streaks of different colored light go by, illuminating the cockpit. It was quite a sight... up until the point where the ship gets smashed by a gravity well and he got evaporated on a subatomic level. But, the collision would at least be beautiful.

With the autopilot on for a few minutes, Harry got about to preparing his gear. He had already decided on a stealth mission. There wasn't really any satisfaction to killing thugs, even if they deserved it, so he prefered to get in and get out. If possible. He always had a plan B though, in this case, his magic. Not to mention, his bounty only specified Voosk, so he always had to be careful about collateral damage.

The armory was at the back of the ship, near the engine room. It wasn't a big ship, so it wasn't actually that far of a walk, but the space was well-used. The armory wasn't large, but it contained three lockers on the far wall that held three suits. Most bounty hunters were quite identifiable by their signature getup, and Harry wasn't much different, except he tried to keep a low profile so people wouldn't recognize him on sight even when wearing a suit.

The suit on the far right would be the one he'd be using. It had a dual layer cloaking system, the first layer being a simple, yet expensive, personal cloaking unit, and the second being a more comprehensive invisibility enchantment built into the front armor plate. It was a light set of gear overall, with an composite mesh that would help reduce his heat signature, and it was also light enough to not restrict his movement.

Getting into the gear took some effort, as the latches for the shoulder straps had to be done with one hand, but Harry managed easily enough. He took his dual-action blaster out of it's charging cradle and hooked it into his holster. He hoped he wouldn't need it, but he always hoped that, and he always ended up using it. He then took his stun baton and hooked that to his other hip. It was strong enough to stun most living creatures, as well as short out various electronics. Lastly, he made sure his wand was still holstered to his wrist, and his spare attached to his inner thigh. He'd never go anywhere without them if he could help it.

Once Harry was all geared up, there wasn't much to do but wait, and have a cup of tea. It was kind of amazing the variety of tea one could find across the galaxy, and it was definitely one of the upsides to leaving Earth. That and just the beauty of it all.

Eventually, the Revenge made it it to Felucia with no problems. And, if he did run into a problem, he could just activate the stealth systems and run. It hadn't happened yet, but the option was always there. He was just one bounty hunter amongst a guild of thousands, in a galaxy of quadrillions. There was no reason for him specifically to run into problems, though anything could happen

Felucia was a beautiful, but dangerous planet. Even from orbit, it was colorful, with a myriad of deep blues, reds and greens, but it was deceptive. The entire surface was either water or jungle, though the jungle could vary a bit such as jungle-swamps, or jungle-mountains. There was no getting away from it.

It was the jungle themselves that were dangerous. Most jungles on any planet were very dangerous, but the ones on Felucia were amongst the most dangerous in the entire galaxy. The plant life there grew at visible speeds, and could swallow an unattended ship whole in just a few days. To go along with such dangerous plantlife were the various toxins that every single plant gave off. Some were minorly harmful to humans, but other could be outright deadly within minutes, if not faster.

With such dangerous plantlife came just as dangerous animal life. They had to be, to survive the deadly jungles. Most notable perhaps were the jungle rancors, which were huge hulking beasts, as well as acklays, which could sever someone in half with their mantis-like appendages, armor and all. Most people who wandered into the jungle by accident never returned, and their bodies would never be found.

Despite this, the native population had managed well enough. There were small cities around the planet, and a functioning society, though most of the population inhabited smaller villages in clearings throughout the world. They had even managed to tame the land enough to where their primary profession was farming.

As such, the Felucians themselves weren't really of any consequence. The planet, however, was rich in resources, many of which were rare and only found on Felucia. Those business that thrived in rare exports could really make bank. It was for this reason, Felucia had found itself occupied at various times through the war by both sides, and several battles had left the planet scarred.

Approaching Felucia, Harry noticed that the planet was still in a state of conflict. In the southern hemisphere, he could see several Republic warships in orbit, though they didn't seem to be in battle currently. There were a couple of distinctive Venator-class star destroyers, a staple of the Republic army, as well as a single Acclamator-class assault ship.

On the far side of the planet, Harry detected three Separatist dreadnoughts floating in space, not doing anything. Harry had no idea if they were waiting for reinforcements or what, but he was suddenly getting a bad feeling. He didn't want to be anywhere near a warzone, but he had already agreed to the job.

The one small annoyance was that Felucia didn't have any real space infrastructure in place. They did not build starships, or have commercial fueling depots. There were just a handful of docks groundside near the major cities, and most businesses had private ones, though most of those businesses were foreign.

The coordinates of Voosk's compound lead him away from the Felucian heartland and to the southern jungles. Civilization was few and farther between down there, with the only real breaks in the landscape coming from large industrial compounds. All things considered, Felucia was a pretty good place for a remote company headquarters, if only because no one went to Felucia who didn't have to go. It was a beautiful place, but far too hazardous.

Harry made sure to enable the Revenge's stealth long before he got anywhere near the compound. Usually, ships could not stay stealth for long, as heat build up could become a problem, but judicial use of magic had amplified his ships heatsink capabilities a hundred-fold. And if that wasn't enough, he could just outright enable the invisibility booster. That led to all sorts of other potential issues though, so he tried to not rely on it.

Voosk's compound was in the middle of the jungle, like Harry expected. Then again, nearly everywhere could be described as "the middle of the jungle." But it was exceptionally true for Voosk. The nearest town was Mayor Miassis's, a hundred kilometers away. And beyond that, there was no one else.

The compound itself was well guarded. Voosk's gang was made up of several different races, including Humans, Aqualish and other expected species typically found in a criminal enterprise. There was even a Sugi patrolling the walls and occasionally using a flamethrower to clear encroaching plantlife. Voosk himself was Felucian, but it made sense that a gang with an offworld presence would be made up of outside species. What Harry didn't see were droids, and that was a good thing. Perhaps the Felucian environment wasn't good for their circuitry.

The compound wasn't large. In fact, Harry would go so far as to say it was smaller than he was expecting, and a bit ramshackle. It clearly wasn't a high-profile operation, though Harry knew looks could be deceiving. Even with daily maintenance, buildings could quickly wear down on Felucia.

There was a series of hangars covered with camouflage to help maintain the smuggling fleet, and probably a few other ships. They mayor had said that Voosk didn't have any air support, but Harry knew from experience that they would likely have something. One couldn't maintain a fleet of smuggling ships without having some way to protect them in local orbit.

Overall, the whole operation reminded Harry a bit of a drug plantation. There were armed guards, mysterious buildings and a remote forest. Add in the blackmail and kidnapping, and it fit the description of a cartel to a T. Harry would not be surprised if they were smuggling drugs either - Mayor Miassis hadn't specified, and he hadn't asked.

Once Harry categorized the potential entrances and escape routes, Harry piloted the Revenge a fair distance away, out of range of their local sensors. It would not do to have his cover blown before he even started. Being in stealth was not a catch-all.

Finding a clear enough area to actually land the ship was a bit difficult, but after a few minutes of searching Harry managed to find one. The ground was a bit swampy, but he was confident his ship wouldn't be swallowed in a couple of hours.

As for the plant life and any other intruders… that took some special precautions. Precautions that weren't available to most other people.

The first thing Harry did was put a bubblehead charm on himself. The air on the planet was technically breathable for humans, but that really only applied outside of the jungle. Inside, it was hit or miss. The jungle itself was critical for the recycling of the air, but at the same time, there were a ton of dangerous spores and the like, stuff Harry really didn't want to breathe in.

A little bit of magic also went a long way in making sure Harry still had a ride off the dangerous planet. Once parked on the ground, he got out and began tracing a circle on the ground around the ship. It didn't have to be a perfect circle, it didn't even have to be a circle at all. It was just where he wanted the boundary for his spell to extend out to, and having a physical representation, even a temporary one, made the spell easier than visualizing it all in his head. Incantation, wand movements, even the wand itself, were all components in a spell that made it easier to cast the more of them that were used.

Once satisfied, Harry began loading the area up with magic. It was a practice he had done many times in the past, whenever he had to park on a planet without using a docking hangar. Sometimes he had to keep a low profile and leave no trail that he was there. Sometimes he simply had to go undetected by his target. Other times, it's simply because there was no other option.

He had a spell to stop encroachment, another to stabilize the ground the ship was on, a second one to hinder plant growth, one more to prevent animals from crossing, and a third to further inhibit plant life. It was critical to make sure nothing got into the ship or affected it in any way. The end result was a layer of spells that nearly created a stasis field inside, as well as keeping all sorts of monsters out. Most of it was spells he had learned back in Herbology during his formative years. It wasn't perfect, and couldn't be without a significantly larger amount of time put into the effort, but it would do for a few hours.

The trek through the Felucian jungle towards to Voosk compound was a bit more intense than he had hoped, but such came with the nature of accepting a job on Felucia. He'd deal. It was a long trek, but getting out would be much easier.

The outside of the compound wasn't nearly as impressive as Harry thought when he has seen it from the air, and he hadn't been impressed at all then. The fence was more like a rampart, with a platform for guards to patrol on. It wasn't terribly high, though higher than his eyeline. It seemed to be made out of some sort of durable metal, though the paint had long faded and it seemed to be corroding in places. Every dozen feet or so there was a flamethrower mounted on a gimbal to combat the living jungle, as well as a flamebar at the bottom of each wall, which was little more than tubing with holes every few inches that spat out flames when activated.

It was a crude method of keeping the jungle at bay, but effective.

There wasn't an actual way into the base at ground level. The fence was an enclosure, the outer boundary. There was no reason to go into the jungle, so there wasn't a gate. It's not like there were roads and vehicles to drive on them. The only way in or out of the base was by air. Or by Harry simply jumping over the fence.

It was a basic technique, one of the first that the Jedi taught their younglings. Harry wasn't a Jedi, but they all used the same thing. Harry and hundreds of other planets called it magic, while the Jedi called it the Force. Either way, with it, Harry had used it to make himself invisible, and then used it again to bound over the outside wall, a good fifteen foot leap. He landed on the walkway with barely a sound.

Pausing, Harry tensed to see if he had tripped any alarms. He started moving again five seconds later, taking in a headcount as he did so. There were ten or so guards patrolling the wall, though Harry would use the word "patrol" loosely. They walked around and had fun shooting at animals that got to close to the wall, and overall, did very little patrolling.

Harry hopped down off the wall and made his way to the inner buildings. From the outside, most of them looked identical, and even of the ones that weren't, he had no idea which one was the one he wanted.

There was nothing for it other than to check each building. The captive would likely be in some sort of holding cell or a fortified room, and there would be guards on her door at all times. That meant it was unlikely she was in the hangar, which was the largest building.

Excluding the hangar, there were around twenty buildings. A pair of them were some sort of growhouse, judging by the transparent panelling and artificial lighting, and nearly naked workers. Harry quickly ruled that one as well, without having entered it. Harry didn't know exactly what was going on in there, and he really didn't want to find out.

Moving around the base was a bit tricky. There were quite a few foot patrols and it was a bit more busy that Harry had been expecting. There were well-armed, which meant that Voosk's operation was a little bit bigger than he had been told. But still nothing he was too worried about. The mayor's intel was likely a bit old, and he probably didn't have deep contacts.

The inner buildings were all of a roughly similar layout. Generic, quickly buildable, and made somewhere offworld. He's seen them a hundred times. A quick charm and Harry was able to walk through the wall, while remaining invisible. It was rarely a useful spell, but the walls on this type of modular building were thin, and did not contain anything that would inhibit him, such as wires.

The first building he went through was as generic and boring as they came. It was a food storehouse, full of food that would keep for months, if not years, even in the Felucian jungle. That in itself wasn't interesting, but what was were the sensors mounted up in the corner of the building. Video and audio, that was it. Not that he was disappointed, but that was pretty standard. Thermal sensors were only ever standard issue on far more complex operations, or usually enabled when an alarm actually got tripped. What Harry also noticed was that there was no fire suppression system. He filed that nugget of information away for future use, if necessary.

Moving on, Harry popped out of the building the same way he had entered, removed the charm, and then added it to the next building, and repeated the process. Walking through the wall was a very odd sensation, and Harry always half-wondered if that's what it felt like to be a ghost. He hoped he'd never learn the answer to that.

Harry was a bit of an adrenaline junkie, and walking into a blind room was always a bit of a risk. For as easy as it was to use magic to break into a non-magical building, it was still quite exciting. Still, easy was good, easy meant easy credits, but part of him just wanted something to go wrong just so he had a reason to let loose. Sometimes, it was almost too easy, and that was always a bit worrying.

There were a few bunk houses, a shower complex, a mess hall, a lounge, and an officers quarters. It wasn't until he got to the officer's quarters that he noticed something was amiss, and that was that there were no other buildings. That's when he realized that that particular building had a sublevel.

A quick use of a revealing spell told him that the sublevel was similar enough to an actual building that he wouldn't be able to sneak through the ceiling. It was made of some variant of duracrete, and had the typical piping and wiring that one would expect in a city house. Ghosting in through a live wire was a good way to get killed.

The entrance wasn't hidden and it wasn't guarded, but it was secured with a heavy door. Luckily, there was a decent amount of traffic coming and going, so all he had to do was follow someone else through the door without making too much noise

The subfloor was much bigger than Harry had realized on first glance. It seemed to cover at least half of the complex and go under many of the other building. It was just as well guarded as well, with an almost constant influx of men coming and going. There wasn't any higher level of security, such as an eye scanner, or even a dna scanner, but the constant presence of guards meant it would be hard to sneak in without being noticed. It was a drug smuggling outfit, not a high-tech wetware cloning facility, so Harry wasn't terribly surprised with the situation.

The hallways were annoyingly cramped, which combined with the high amount of traffic, made it quite difficult for Harry to sneak in. He had to take it slow. Checking each individual room was annoying as well, since he had to be very careful with the one-way transparency charm he used to look through the walls without entering.

Most of the rooms seemed to be where officers slept, but a few had more nefarious purposes. There was one that seemed like a torture room, and another which was a pleasure room, thankfully not in use. Though, now that Harry thought about it, they both could have been pleasure rooms.

Going past the pleasure rooms, Harry turned a corner and walked nearly right into two hulking Aqualish men. They walked side by side down the hallway, talking in low tones, and if Harry hadn't dispelled his bubblehead charm upon entering the building, he would have bumped into them.

As soon as the two Aqualish men passed, Harry got off the wall and let go of a breath. Immediately they paused.

"Did you hear that?" the first one asked. He had a thin reedy voice that belied his tusked face.

"Yeah," the second one said. He was the bigger of the two and had a second set of eyes, unlike the other one. "Sounded like air."

"Sounded like someone breathing."

"Could be the ventilation. You know how this place is."

"Yeah. I hate this place. Can't get out of here fast enough. Boss has me for a half a ton to Arda."

"That's not an easy route," the other commented. "Better you than me. I'm tagged for Voss."

"Ah. The miners eat the shit up…"

The voices trailed off and Harry let go of a second sigh of relief. That had been too close. He had to be more careful. Some species had better hearing than humans, and most had much better smell. Magic could only help so far, and when motion is added, it was almost impossible.

As Harry continued down the hallway, dodging the occasional thug, things seemed to be getting nicer. The walls were cleaner, the lighters were brighter. The men walked with straighter backs. Harry knew he was close.

Moments later, Harry came across a room with a heavy door, similar to the one at the beginning of the hallway. It was open, and inside Harry saw a Felucian who could be no one other than Voosk. He was currently talking with one of his underlings about some task. It was a strange dynamic. Voosk couldn't have been more than four feet tall, and his voice was not intimidating at all. Yet he commanded the far taller and larger human with authority.

Harry snuck behind the man, paying extra attention to not bump into any of the assortment of random devices that were scattered around. Harry wasn't sure what half of them were, but he'd guess some sort of antiquated filtration system off an old cruiser.

Behind Voosk were four doors, just as heavy as the one that lead to Voosk's office. A cursory inspection revealed that one lead to Voosk's personal chambers, another was a long passage that lead somewhere, perhaps even outside the complex, and the other two were cells. One of them was occupied with a Felucian who bore a striking resemblance to Mayor Miassis. Though, to be fair, Harry couldn't tell any Felucians apart, not even their gender, without hearing their voice. She could have been anyone's daughter, but the context of his mission almost certainly meant she was the mayor's daughter.

The cell was small and cramped, even for a Felucian, but it had a small cot and a waste bucket. Harry had seen worse conditions, had been in worse conditions. Thankfully, the other cell was empty. He liked his missions to have as few complications as possible, and a second prisoner would have complicated things.

Once Harry determined the captive was not in any immediate danger, Harry turned back around to face Voosk, and waited. For someone from such a passive species, the man sure liked to talk quite a bit about his criminal enterprise.

Harry felt like he waited fifteen minutes before Voosk finally dismissed the man. As soon as Voosk was by himself, he used his stun baton to stun the man, and then quickly shut the heavy door to the office. It closed with a heavy thump that shook the room.

Then, he turned around and addressed the Felucian girl.

"I'm here to rescue you," Harry said. "Your father hired me. Try to not make any noise, and close your eyes. My ship is right outside."

The Felucian made a squeak in surprise upon hearing his disembodied voice, but he paid her little mind. Instead, he focused on the door to the cell. A simple alohamora didn't do anything, which indicated a more complex, shielded electronic locking system.

With time of the essence, Harry quickly accessed Voosk's terminal at his desk, which was conveniently open. He scrolled through the options wantonly, finding a few choice ones worth sabotaging. The first casualty was the anti-aircraft system, which would perpetually be stuck in maintenance mode for the next three days. He hadn't even seen an anti-aircraft system, but he was glad it was now disable. The final measure was to lock the main office door, and unlock the one on the Felucian girl's cell.

Once that was done, Harry turned back around to the Felucian girl, who had dutifully covered her eyes with her hands. Harry tossed Voosk over one shoulder, and grabbed the girl by the hand, and with a brief thought, apparated them straight out of the room and right inside his ship.

Mission complete.

The mission run time was just a bit under two hours. The original hike to the base had taken a bit of time, as had inspecting every single building. His ship was still perfectly fine, the preventive measures still in place. Nothing had even come near it. As expecting, getting in to the base was much harder than getting out. That was the nature when having the ability to teleport, but only to a place he knew well.

"We're there," Harry said to the Felucian. He had already forgotten her name. "You're safe now. We're going to take a quick trip over to your father's."

She squeaked in surprise but didn't let go of Harry's hand.

Harry dumped Voosk into a holding cell while the little Felucian looked on in morbid curiosity. Harry then beckoned the girl to follow him up into the cockpit, where he patted the co-pilot's seat. "You can sit here," he said. She seemed to understand Basic well enough, and took a seat while staring around at the controls in fascination. She had probably never been on a starship before. Harry had a similar look once upon a time.

Powering up the ship took a moment, and a few seconds later, they were up in the air. Retracting the landing gear, Harry immediately set a course for the mayor's location. While doing so, he updated the Bounty Hunter's log to indicate that Voosk was in captivity, and the daughter was safe. Harry only dropped out of stealth when he was many kilometers away from Voosk's compound. He briefly wondered how long it would be for them to realize that Voosk was no longer there, and how long it would be for someone else to step up and take over his spot. Hopefully the mayor had enough influence to call in an actual dispatch to take the operation out. The Felucians didn't have much of a police force, but they had enough.

The Rowena's Revenge was quite fast, even at sub-light speeds. It didn't take more than five minutes to take off, fly a hundred kilometers, and arrive at the destination.

The Mayor's town was fairly large, but it was still a town. It did, however, have an actual dock, and a brief exchange with the control tower had him express rushed into it. Getting a priority docking was always nice for Harry. It made things simpler.

Once docked, Harry lowered the ramp with the press of a button. He took the girl's hand and led her down it, right into the Mayor's arms who had arrived immediately upon hearing that he was docking. He lifted her up in his arms and spun her around, speaking to her in fast paced Felucian, which Harry didn't understand.

After a minute, he turned back to Harry. "Thank you for returning the gem of my life to me," he said. There were tears in his eyes. "A million credits wouldn't be enough to pay you, but I will pay you the agreed upon fee."

"What do you want me to do with the prisoner?" Harry asked. "I've got him in a cell right now."

Mayor Miassis nodded and let out a loud whistle. Several guards immediately came forward. "We'll take him into holding," the mayor said.

"Good enough for me," Harry said. "Though, I will say, I disabled the defenses around the compound. It might be a few days before they re-establish themselves, so if you wish to get rid of a thorn in your side, now is as good of a time to do it as you're going to get."

"Oh, I intend to do that, and so much more," the Mayor said. "I will teach the criminal scum what it is like to threaten my family. I will make sure that no such incident ever happens again."

"Good, good," Harry said. Upon going back up into his ship and releasing Voosk into their custody, he checked a datapad and noted that the funds had been transferred into his count. He then returned to the mayor.

"It looks like the payment has gone through," Harry said. "It was good doing business with you."

"And you too," the Mayor said. He held out one long, three finger hand, and Harry shook it. "Safe travels."

Harry boarded his ship without looking back, and closed the ramp. In the grand scheme of things, 4,800 wasn't a lot of credits. But, if he could earn that much a day for an entire year, he'd have nearly two million credits. Enough to buy a capital ship, assuming, of course, that credits were still worth something if the war ever came to an end. And that didn't seem to be anytime soon. He could still see the warships in orbit, though thankful they weren't in battle. He wanted to be far away from the system when that started.

Pondering that thought, Harry took the helm and disengaged from local traffic control and lifted off. Once in orbit, he immediately started looking for the next job. It was never too early to start planning for his next meal.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

This is what I worked on for NaNoWriMo. 50k words in 1 month. The end result was about over 8 chapters which are a bit less polished than I had hoped. So with that in mind, I am looking for feedback. Grammar and spelling is always a plus. If you think the chapter is boring (very likely, given my writing style), a bit wordy at times, or perhaps something is not explained enough or outright wrong with what we know of SW canon, feel free to drop a message. I'm a firm believer in constructive feedback.

Similar to my other stories, this is my attempt at normalizing what we tend to see in HP/SW crossovers... whatever normalizing means. No Jedi bashing, no multi-thousand word introspection from every single character every time Harry casts a spell that defies everything everyone knows, no Harry being the one random guy that just happens to have every answer to every problem and single handedly wins the war for him and his allies just because they happened to run into him at the right time in the right spot.