Project Alpha: Marstel "My Own Backyard..."

[GuardianElite]

Ok this is Marstel's Backstory, he is RT and Karolin's Bounty Hunter brother - They all belong to a Project called 'Alpha'. As we learn a little of his background, Marstel is brought back into the 'game' by an unforeseen occurance....which he will carry around with him forever after this story. This takes place long before Marstel meets Kat (Dremmess) or has any contact with the rest of his family for a long time.

Hamner's image sneered at his brother, Marstel was unmoved, "Just you consider this offer! You are throwing your life away on some out of the way, no where planet...when you could be using your gifts for so much more!", Marstel folded his arms over his massive chest, remembering that he would once again have to change his Holofrequency so no one could reach him. This was becoming a regular thing. He changed his Holofrequency, his brother Hamner or some other member of the Alpha clan finds it.....he puts up with annoying calls. He looked at his brother's image, smirking.

"Yes. It's out of the way. Jus' the way I like it. We have been through this. Not you or anyone else is going to change my mind. I don't want a part of your War or anyone else's, I am happy right where I am. And until someone comes looking for trouble, I'm going to stay in my own backyard.", Marstel spoke in his same monotone he always took with his brother, Hamner. The fact that he uttered more than two syllables also spoke volumes to the fact of how deadly serious he was. Marstel was not a conversationalist, he hated to talk, choosing to let his actions speak for him. This conversation with his brother always went the same way, Marstel even considered putting a Carbo-plast cut-out of himself in front of the Holocomm and recording what he just said, his responses never changed. Of all of his siblings, Hamner was by far the most annoying and never took 'No' for an answer.

Hamner grinned wickedly at Marstel. "How long till the Republic tracks you down? Huh? A week...a month. Do you seriously think that the fools in charge of the Project are going to let an asset like you just walk away? I am offering you a fresh start. You don't have to take odd jobs to stay fed, you don't have to hide with us.", Marstel mimicked Hamner's mouth with his hand as he talked, "Stop that! How dare you mock me! I am a Dark Lord of the Sith, the Emperor's Wrath! I will have you beaten and brought here in chains! I will--", Marstel reached for the termination button, looking neutral at his brother.

"This conversation's over.", he hit the end transmission button and changed the frequency of his Holocomm once again, using an illegal scrambler he obtained on one of his jobs. Wiping his giant hands on his overalls, he opened the front door to his two room shack looking out over the sun-lit landscape of Dantooine. It's purple fields of wild grain and trees reflecting nicely on his plot of free land. No one to see him, no one within distance of him. He loved the solitude, to just grow things, and to plan a harvest...to just live. Looking back at his Holocomm, he wondered why he even had that thing in his house before remembering, work; those rare odd-jobs that he would take.

At times Marstel did take the odd, locator job or bounty hunting job to supplement his income. It was during those moments that he stopped being a farmer and had to rely on his genetic enhanced abilities. It was also during those times that he felt the most confined, like a prisoner unable to escape what he had been bred to do. But thats not what he wanted to do and his personal will was much stronger than most, another gift of the project. Those jobs were few and far between now. Finally, he had saved enough money to buy all of the land before him. It would be his, no one to tell him how to live. He picked up the hydro-plow, strapping it to his massive frame to stabilize it moving to the field he was working with shortly before Hamner rudely interrupted him. Taking a deep breath, the plow rising slightly on his massive chest he gazed at the land around him. Groves of transplanted, sweet Alderaanian Apples swayed in the breeze off to one side. On the other, Nerfs grazed happily on the land that Marstel was yet to put a plow to. He wanted the animals to take care of clearing some of the land for him, they chewed endlessly as he looked on. At some point the plow would be put to that land as well, after he was finished grazing his livestock on it. This was life...living. Real living, he depended on no one for anything, if he wanted he could have given up the Bounty Hunter racket all together, but there were always more jobs to do on the farm and always a shortage of credits. Sweat was already beginning to bead on his forehead before he even set the plow to dirt. It was not designed for one man to push, usually this model came with a grav-lifting device, but Marstel liked the hard work. He wanted to do it, it made him feel closer to his land.

Setting the plow into the purple hued dirt, Marstel began the painstaking process of once again tilling his land, making it ready for planting. Moving swiftly for such a huge machine being strapped to him, he made quick work of one row and finally two before hitting something that caused his plow to stop. Not knowing his own strength, Marstel attempted to push through the obstacle before the machine whined in protest finally busting several hoses spraying the surrounding surface with hydraulic fluid. He frowned cutting his contraption off and kneeling to uncover the massive rock just beneath the surface. Standing up with the massive rock in his hands he pitched it over his head into another part of the field, angry that he'd not had the better sense to just stop and investigate instead of trying to power through a rock of that size. Now he would have to replace the hoses on the machine and clean up the fluid. Another day shot, but at least he knew he could fix it.

He opened the shed behind his house looking curiously for some replacement hoses. He found all manner of items, mostly related to bounty hunting. But no hoses. He frowned again, he would have to make another trip into town and that did not please him. Marstel was not a people person and he hated having to deal with persons he needed something from, unless absolutely necessary. Pushing his ancient speeder out of the shed he took the tarp off, not even bothering to change clothes, he hopped on cranked up and sped off...in search of new hoses.

Gorstow sat on the border of two districts and was the center of where country and city life met. It was not unusual to see high class speeders passing through on the way to a major star port or to see rural folks just in for supplies. Marstel stopped his speeder in front of one of two junk shops in town. This particular shop always dealt in farm equipment and always seemed to have what he needed. Marstel put his head down and lumbered into the shop hoping like hell the girl that always seemed to be working the counter wasn't there, which of course on this day, she was.

"Hiya, Marstel! Long time no see...I was beginning to think you were avoiding me!", she smiled as she spoke, a beautiful green skinned Twi'lek known as Perty, by those around her. Marstel thought she was exactly that, Pretty. He bit his lip upon seeing her slowly approaching the counter and placing his hands on it face down. He cracked an awkward smile back to her, not saying anything, mostly Marstel always locked up in the presence of a woman, "When ya gonna invite me out to that place of yours? I been meaning to get out there, but I don't want to show up uninvited." Marstel continued to smile awkwardly, he wanted very much to invite Perty to his place, but had no idea how to ask her. The one bad thing about so much solitude was, no women. Being a man, Marstel definitely wanted the presence of a woman around. On his odd jobs, he'd even met a few he thought might be worthy of bringing home. But, it always ended badly...too much drama, too much baggage or just plain crazy. Marstel didn't need that in his life, but Perty was different. Although he would never openly admit it, he really came to this junk shop just to see her. He could have bought new hoses from a dozen places, but only this place had Perty. She cocked an eyebrow at him, placing a tiny finger under his massive chin, "Hey. You giving me the silent treatment again or are you going to tell me what you want?", Marstel's first reaction was to say, "You.", but he held his tongue.

"I'm sorry Ms. Perty....I...uh...need two hydraulic hoses for an FM-16 Hydro-plow...", she smiled at him turning around and making a show of flashing her backside while looking through her computer.

"Not in here. Must be out back...Erris would know....", Erris was the junk shop owner and proprietor of all things junk AND Perty. She was enslaved to him, but he treated her fairly well, more like an indentured servant at that point. Erris walked in from his warehouse frowning at Marstel, he was not fond of people who often flirted with his slave girl, but viewed Marstel as mostly harmless. After all he never said much, Erris didn't even know if the guy was running on all cylinders. In fact, Erris suspected that Marstel had a slight learning disability, he stopped short of treating him as such. You don't go around calling a guy Marstel's size a 'retard' and get away with it.

"What brings you back Marstel? You flirting with the help again?", Erris knew full well Marstel was incapable of flirting, but he said it anyway for the benefit of Perty and to let her know her flirtations toward Marstel never went unnoticed. Erris rounded the counter looking at the information Perty had called up, "Hydraulic hoses? You bust a plow?", Marstel just nodded looking away from Perty on purpose, "I got those in the back, just let me--", Erris was interrupted by the entrance of several gruff individuals all wearing the red colors of the local swoop gang, "The Destructors", they eyed Marstel up and down as they approached the counter, one of the guys jumping over the counter to molest Perty. Marstel frowned, but remained still his hands still palm down on the counter surface, not wanting to cause trouble.

"Erris. Your late! You owed us for this month, last week...time to pay up.", the leader of the gang spoke up continuing to eye Marstel. Marstel could could feel the eyes on him, a man of his size rarely went unnoticed and more often than not attracted trouble, this was no exception. Marstel did everything he could to look safely harmless to the gang. Erris began speaking nervously.

"I-I told your boss I would have the credits at the end of the week. You shut me down for three days, your last visit. How do I make credits if I can't stay open...", the leader walked slowly behind Marstel rounding him to come face to face with Erris on the other side of the counter.

"Not my problem Old Man, the boss says you pay...so you pay. Or do we need to make another example?", the leader looked over at the man holding Perty who then quickly drew a vibro knife out to place at her neck, "You say we shut you down last time...what say we take the 100 out of her?", Marstel came off the counter slowly at seeing the knife to Perty's throat, dropping his hands to his side and taking up a hidden fighting stance, he spoke in his normal low monotone, this time all business.

"100 what?", the leader changed to look at Marstel and Marstel repeated his statement, "He owes you 100 what?"

The swoop gang leader smirked looking Marstel up and down again, "100,000 credits. But you don't look like you got that kind of scratch so why don't you do yourself a favor...leave. Go find another junk dealer and forget you saw us, we got real business here, farm boy.", the swoop leader turned to look back at Erris as Marstel dropped the small bag of 5000 a piece credits on the counter. All of the greedy gang members instantly looked down at the bag.

"That's 200,000. You take em...you leave and don't come back.", the swoop leader greedily tore into the bag looking at the denominations, before drawing his blaster leveling it at Marstel.

"Seems I underestimated you Mister. What is it my Mom says, 'Never judge a datapad by is cover screen.' That covers you...", the swoop leader made the fatal mistake of taking the gun off Marstel to point at Erris, "...but that still doesn't cover yo---", he never finished as Marstel smacked the gang leader in the throat with the blade of his giant hand grabbing the man by his pants simultaneously as he boiled over shoving him face first out the door. There were 3 other men in the room, but Marstel focused on the man with the knife on Purty.

"Now...do yourself a favor. Drop the knife, I may let you walk out of here.", the other gang member lowered the knife slowly, looking at his companions, one of the men behind Marstel spoke up.

"He got no gun, no knife. How good can he be?", the knife wielder answered.

"You wanna find out?", Another asked, as he scratched the holster strapped to his leg.

One of the gang members grabbed Marstel's wrist as the knife wielder lunged at him from over the counter. Using pure strength, Marstel pulled the guy on his wrist into the side of the counter knocking the wind out of him as Marstel turned to the side avoiding the knife and elbowing the knife wielder in the chest. As the melee continued all of the swoop gang clearly outmatched, the leader now recovered from being thrown out of the door leaned his hand in, with his blaster wildly firing to try and hit Marstel. He hit one of his own men and the melee continued until a shrill scream stopped them. Perty leaned against the back counter, hand over the smoking hole in her chest and slowly sank down to the floor.

"Lets go! Lets go!", the leader cried as the gang hussled out of the shop cranking up their speeders to make a fast get-away. Marstel jumped over the counter and grabbed Purty looking down at her as she finally gave out, dying from the blaster wound.

"This is all your fault! You shouldn't have interfered! I would have paid them and that would have been it...now look what you've done!", Erris kneeled down next to Purty looking down at her, "I'm sorry Purty...I'm so very sorry." Marstel stood slowly, bringing himself to his full height, he looked down at Purty and Erris with his neutral expression before rounding the counter on his way out the door. Erris stood running to the counter.

"Don't be a hero Marstel. Don't get involved with this, this is for the local authorities.", Marstel turned his head in the doorframe looking back at Erris.

"I'm already involved.", and Marstel cranked up his ancient speeder heading back to his farm.

Marstel reached his house as fast as his speeder would take him, moving purposefully to the shed in the back and punching some keys into a hidden pad located in the floor. The floor of the shed slid away revealing the Cortosis Pursuer Armor and twin Rangehunter DC-7 pistols. He set to work donning his armor...looking behind him at the massive untouched speeder under the tarp. Standing up and looking himself over, he unholstered one of the pistols, slapping in a power pack and listening to the weapon power up in the other. The time for his solitude had ended.

[GuardianElite]

"I swear Boss...it wasn't us. There was this huge guy in there! He shot the girl and then he shot one of our guys!! I barely got out of there!! It was crazy!!", the younger swoop leader wiped the blood from his nose looking up at the Gang's senior leader, a cybernetically enhanced human of about 30 who was unimpressed. He sneered at the group before him, clearly shaken from something.

"So let me get this straight?!?! Some BIG crazy guy...enters the shop and just starts shooting. For no apparent reason?!?! Either your lying or we got a serious problem with the people of this town. Someone this crazy and unafraid of 'The Destructors' has to die....find him!", the Senior Leader stood screaming at the gang assembled, "That means all of you!!! Not just these clods!" The men began to move slowly toward the exit of the delipitated warehouse, but were not moving fast enough. Drawing his pistol and shooting the nearest gang member, the senior leader holstered his blaster as the man fell, "That means now! Find him!"

Plasteel and duracrete rained down on the assembled gang members knocking most of them to the ground and stunning the rest as the overhead exploded reveling a descending Marstel, firing and dropping charges down below him, he gritted his teeth, "You don't have to find me. I'm right here." Reaching the bottom, he snapped his rappel line off shooting like a surgeon....1,2,3 gang members before turning the flame thrower on the rest at the door. Those that didn't run were fried instantly. The senior leader was knocked down by one of the charges but quickly regained his footing only to find Marstel standing over him, blaster at his head. The man turned red gritting his own teeth speaking through them.

"Who the hell are you?!?!"

Marstel didn't smile or gloat, speaking in his same neutral monotone, "Just a man who wanted to fix his plow." he squeezed the trigger thus ending the reign of the worst gang in town. Marstel turned, holding both pistols at the ready, looking at the survivors of his onslaught. They all dropped their weapons holding up their hands as he began to walk slowly past them. Arming an incendiary grenade and tossing it over his shoulder to their swoop bikes in the front of the warehouse, he spoke again softly.

"Time to find a new line of work. Take up farming, I hear some land is about to become available."

Explosions rocked the warehouse as the fuel cells of the bikes caught and ignited from the incendiary grenade's heat. A fine mist settled over the road to scurrying gang members running for cover and avoiding the scene. Finally, at the end, the local authorities arrived one of which grabbed a fleeing gang member...

"What happened here? Who did this? Republic? Imperials?"

The gang member only pointed into the smoke and mist unable to speak...and Marstel walked fading away into the night, cloaked by his carnage.

Marstel didn't take his armor off, looking down over himself in the moonlit night on Dantooine. Standing in his field and looking up at the moon, he activated his Holocomm contacting his accountant.

"This is account 117-8976-B, I want to sell all my holdings...land...everything.", he swallowed hard, "Transfer all the money to this account under the name, 'farm boy' to Erris' Junk Shop....tell him it's for him to find Purty's family and to give the money to them. Tell him if he doesn't I will find him...he will understand." Marstel disconnected placing the Comm back on his belt and kneeling down taking a handful of dirt in his hand and allowing it to run through his fingers.

"Would have been nice...would have been nicer if I would have brought you out here to see it.", he thought of Purty but let the thought pass out of his mind quickly. Resolving to never let another woman he cared about pass through his life again, he stepped away and bumped something with his foot. He reached down picking up 'the rock' and quickly dropped it back down to his feet drawing his blasters. Emptying both barrels into the rock, he continued to squeeze the trigger long after the power cells on both exhausted, the metallic empty click still sounding in his head. He never knew how long he stood there..just squeezing that trigger until he finally reached down to pick up a shard and put it in his pocket. Grimacing he went into his house to collect a few things...the only thing actually, to put in his pack. Glancing at the collection of Holos he smiled slightly at the images: Him, his brothers...and his Sisters, Karolin and Mrysti. Behind them the large expansive Jedi Temple on Coruscant stood as background. He wordlessly put it in walking out of the house and back to his shed uncovering the new speeder he only used for 'jobs'. He pushed it out of the shed moving it to the front of the house. Standing and taking one last look at his house he thumbed a hidden switch on his belt. The explosion rocked his once peaceful land as both house and shed in the back were consumed instantly. Marstel stretched his leg over his new speeder, drawing one of his pistols and firing at the old ancient speeder he used on the farm. He murmured to himself, "Cant escape destiny I guess..." Pushing down on the accelerator, Marstel set off for the spaceport....

Neon lights lit the inside of the Slippery Slopes Cantina on Nar Shaadda as Marstel nursed a drink keeping to himself for the most part. He never really did take his eyes off the door, not that he was expecting someone, just bounty hunter paranoia. Sitting in front of him, along with his drink was his personal Holocomm...he had made a promise to himself and was building the nerve to live up to it. Touching the activation key, he was about to key in the frequency for his Sister Karolin when a very gruff, very beautiful little female Zabrak bumped him slightly at the bar. Her yellow, reddish eyes looking at him sarcastically...she nodded giving a very curt, "Sorry", in a crisp Imperial accent. Marstel continued to stare long after she had already turned around.

"Is there something I can help you with?", she turned around eyeing him angrily, "It is really not polite to stare, I already said I was sorry...", Marstel shook his head slightly, realizing he was still staring.

"Yea. You did. I...uh...I'm...", she cut Marstel off.

"Your what? Your an idiot? That much I gathered...not much for words are you.", that Imperial accent bouncing off her every syllable. Marstel looked away, not wanting any trouble from her and returned to his drink. After an awkward moment, he took his drink in hand standing to his full height, moving his large frame from the seat. She called out to him.

"Excuse me. Large person who doesn't have a penchant for words...forgetting something?", she held Marstel's Holocomm in her hand, he reached for it and she quickly drew it out of reach, "You know...it's not a good idea for a bounty hunter to leave this lying around. Someone may find it...and decide to hunt you.", she finally handed it to him after an awkward silence. Marstel clipped it to his belt, turning to walk away. "A thank you is always appropriate when someone does something nice for you." Marstel turned looking at the small woman angrily, he spread his arms out at her.

"Thank you.", he again turned to walk away hearing the whine of a blaster powering up and drew his own. Behind the small Zabrak a man uncloaked pointing his blaster at her head. Marstel quickly put a shot through the man's shoulder stepping past the woman to level his blaster at the man on the ground, "You know this guy?" Marstel felt the tip of a small holdout blaster at his temple, looking out of the corner of his eye to see the small Zabrak woman holding it.

"No.", she spoke again crisply in her Imperial way, "Nor do I know you.", Marstel slumped slightly feigning defeat. She relaxed the barrel giving Marstel his opportunity, he quickly spun his arm around her's pinning it behind her back and her stomach against the bar. He leaned into her back as she dropped the blaster laughing slightly, "I didn't realize you were into the rough stuff, Hunter...if you would have told me sooner we could have skipped all of the foreplay." Marstel released her bending down to retrieve her blaster and handing it to her, he looked over at the man still on the floor at their feet.

"I'm not with him." Marstel started to walk away again and the little Zabrak woman bit her lip calling out.

"Hey. You didn't ask me...but I will tell you because I think you want to know...I'm Katiaran."

Marstel smiled before turning around to face her rubbing his hand over the rock in his pocket.

"Marstel."

[Zyera]

Eeeeee I love it! :3