Bankor

On the trip back on the shuttle, one of the captives began to stir. Melv coughed and looked around from his position among the strike team. "What the kriff?!" He tried his best to squirm free and then focused on Captain Alderaan. "Wait, wait, wait, I know you. What are you doing here?"

---

Destiny Flip for Drama

Zanebry let his eyes drift over to Melv as he woke up. "It'd be wise if you kept quiet, Melv." He said softly, a frown appearing on his features, Niall didn't need to have this guy awake and talking.

Niall's jaw tightened as he turned to look at his sister's killer.

"I should hope you remember me, Melv." He said, his voice crisp, precise, cold. "On Nar Shaddaa. The bounty on you was dead or alive. 'Alive' was my choice." A hint of bitterness in his tone at that.

"A better question is, what are you doing here?"

The man lowered his eyes. "I was recruited by Clan Varad. A dream come true for me, huh?"

Niall looked around, at the Jungle, at the nearby dead, at his squad, at Melv's injuries. "Seems like." Niall said dryly.

He shook his head. "Follow my friend's advice, Melv. You and I don't have anything more to say to each other."

The captive scoffed. "If that were true you wouldn't have said anything in the first place." He looked away at an empty spot in the shuttle.

Luth sighed and looked toward Niall with slightly raised eyebrows, then looked toward Melv. She shook her head and sighed, looking out the window.

Delmi walked over to the group huddling around the man on the ground, “So... we taking him prisoner or...? I wouldn’t let him go, just gives the enemy one more gun.”

She put her hand on her blaster, “I can finish him off if it bothers ya too much. No reason to listen to an asshole who killed your sister Cap. Unless you’re interested in what he has to say...”

Niall shook his head. "There's no difference between me giving the order and me shooting him myself. Or rather, there is, but it's not one I care for."

He exchanged a look with Luth, and then looked back at Delmi. "However, if he speaks again, I would be honored if you stunned him for me." He shot a hard look at Melv before going back to looking out the window.

"In the end... I have to believe that this is right." Niall said, sighing.

"Approaching it this way is the way you need to approach it," Luth, replied, breaking out her cigarette for a moment before putting it back in her pocket. Damn habits. "That's the important thing for now."

Melv laid back in his seat. He closed his eyes and sighed. "I would have done the same thing, hunted my sister's killer. Sickness took her, though. Can't kill that."

Delmi whipped out her pistol in a flash and set it for stun while aiming at Melv’s face.

“I believe the cap said ‘shut up’ in his nice and amiable way.”

Melv's words did get a response from Niall. He sat up suddenly, his lips pulled back in a grimace. "We are not the same!" He hissed at the man.

He subsided, though, at Delmi's quick reflexes. Taking a deep breath, he turned, gazing out the window.

The bounty hunter tapped his feet on the shuttle. "I don't have a heroic reputation, that's for sure," he added.

Zane reached over, putting a comforting hand on Niall's shoulder. "Don't listen to him."

He looked towards the man in the seat. "The galaxy is full of sob stories, hell I could tell a few myself. What matters is what you do after them, and you my friend made the wrong choices."

Reaching into his pocket, Zane pulled out his smokes, and with a quick move flicked one between his lips. "That puts you on my side of the fence." He squeezed Niall's shoulder. "Not his." Letting his hand slide off the captain's shoulder, Zane pulled out his lighter and lit his cigarette.

"Now if you want to tell your story, I'll listen later. But you hush up for now, or I won't be kind enough to let the pretty lady right there shoot you."

Delmi readies herself so if the man opens his mouth again she’d blast him before a word came out.

She asked the group then collectively, “So what now?”

Luth stood up and looked around. "How'd you end up pulled into this, Delmi? Niall's a friend of yours?"

She nodded, “Here to help whatever way I can... Cap’n said he could use some muscle. So... voila.”

Once more, Niall settled back, giving Z a nod. "Thank you." He murmured.

He took a moment to look at each of the assembled people. In a way, he picked them for this mission because he expected that they'd understand the need for vengeance. But they'd helped him to do the right thing, not because it's what they would have wanted, but because they knew that it's what he probably wanted.

Niall smiled, settling back in his seat.

“So... we’re gonna lock this guy up then?” She asked again. “What’s the plan? And what’s our story?”

Niall glanced over, shrugging. "Yes. Turn him over to SIS for interrogation. From there, into military custody."

His eyes flickered over to Melv, then back to Delmi. "Ordinarily, he'd be held as a prisoner of war, and either punished appropriately or turned back to the opposing forces after end of the war. As it happens, though, we already know he'd be a wanted man in the Republic."

"As for our story..." Niall's lips quirked. "The truth, of course." He sighed. "This was a military operation, and a military objective. I don't expect there will be any trouble from the personal angle."

“Yeah? Wow. Being famous has its perks.” Delmi said with a nod.

"At least it lets you choose assignments," she noted to Delmi with a small, amused smile.

“Guess so.” She said with a nod. “Get a transport and everything.”

Zanebry relaxed back into his seat, ripping his hat so it covered his eyes. This was a military op, but he wasn't sure it would end exactly how niall predicted. Still that wasn't his place to say.