Loic Monerat & The Lizard Brain Spice Smuggling Syndicate by Chris Herron, Greg Provan (book club suggestions .TXT) 📖

rolled it towards his assailants. A laser blast took him in the top of one his wrists but it wasn’t a direct hit. Nonetheless the Trandoshan howled in pain and anger. Loic thought then, through frustration alone, Bossk was going to bite his face off. Instead he fired a couple of shots off and when the grenade exploded he dashed for the exit at the far end of the room. Okkra's men were disorganised, disorientated, or dead. A couple of laser blasts came at Bossk and Loic but they made it to the other side of the room and through the archway. Bossk stole a glance in his retreat, hoping to see Okkra's corpse but it appeared that the Hutt had managed to slither off before the second grenade was unleashed.

 

“Move it, or die!” Bossk thrust Loic before him through a winding upward passageway. Loic obeyed. There was no telling if Bossk would at any minute decide the most important think was saving his own scales and liquidate Loic on the spot. The passageway branched out, neither of them knew exactly where they were going but it was obvious that they were below ground level. Bossk marched Loic before him by the nape of the neck, his claws dug painfully into Loic’s skin, drawing trickling rivulets of blood, but the trickster wasn’t in a position to moan about it.

 

They heard footsteps and guttural cursing coming from round the corner. Bossk palmed Loic back against the wall and waited. With the footsteps coming ever closer Loic could only wonder at what violence would be unleashed. His heart beat in his chest like a funeral drum. Terrified he could do nothing but impotently bare witness. Just then a trio of Gamorean guards rounded on them, Bossk used the moment of surprise and lashed out a huge fist. The first of them fell with half his face ripped off. Reputably fierce, fearless and powerful, to their credit the other two Gamorean’s didn’t miss a heartbeat. One of the green-skinned beasts swung his pike at Bossk’s head and the other swung a mighty blow to the bounty hunter's midriff. Their strength was prodigious. Bossk was unimpressed, the blows had no discernible effect on the Trandoshan except enraging him further.

 

Loic thought about running back the way they had come but knew Okkra's men were hot on their trail. In the moment he had wrestled with his indecision Bossk had dealt with the two Gamorean guards, one’s throat had been ripped-out and the other’s brain was smeared down the wall. A snarling, frenzied, blood-crazed reptilian face goaded Loic further into the labyrinth underbelly of the arena. Loic didn’t know how he was going to get out of this one. He had gotten himself in a few undesirable situations before but this was the pinnacle.

 

It was too soon yet for his life to flash before his eyes - but it seemed like it was, the early loss of his father Luc Courleciel Monerat, to the tail-end of The Hundred Year War and what brief and faded flashes of memory he still possessed of the man’s face, his uniform, his overstated moustache and goatee. Then thoughts flared to his ecumenopolis home planet, Coruscant, in the Core Regions, an incandescent planet, beautiful and visibly vibrating from outer space. His last thought though, before Bossk dragged them into a turbolift, was not of his mother’s sweet face, but of spice, beautiful, all-consuming spice, he thought hungrily of the two bags he had lifted from the patrons of the spice den, nestled in his ‘safe’ pocket, he wished he could just have one last hit before……that’s it!

…Bossk stabbed him into the turbolift and Loic stumbled and connected roughly with the wall inside. A laser blast came screaming forward, the dragon-like bounty hunter sensed it and crouched but Loic wasn’t so fast, the bolt seared past his ear, scorching his skin, already blistered from the grenade blasts, the shot hammered harmlessly into the wall behind him but it left him blinded and discombobulated for a few seconds. Bossk’s return fire was precise, cutting down three henchmen one after another, as the rest of Okkra’s motley mafia began to pile down the corridor they had just left. The turbolift doors started hissing closed and just as the gap was about to close Bossk fired off some cover shots and hopped back into the lift with Loic, leaving a grenade rolling down the platform as he did so. After a few seconds of the lift rising upwards, there was a muffled explosion from below and the elevator vibrated with the force of the shockwave, but continued upwards, seemingly undamaged. Bossk had hit the button for the docking bay – the basilisk-like bounty hunter was almost safe, Loic was about as safe as a wamprat in a Rancor pit, but the cunning captive had a plan…

 

…He had a plan, but did he have the mettle to execute it, now that they were in a confined space, Bossk was even more terrifying than ever, he looked as if he had grown an extra foot and his fangs an extra inch since they entered the lift. The sweat on Loic formed a thick, cold layer that stung his eyes and saturated his tunic. Terrifying tales of the treacherous Trandoshan told over tankards in taverns trickled through Loic’s memory now; Bossk, the name itself was Dosh for ‘Devours His Prey’, Bossk’s father had named him that after Bossk’s first act upon hatching was to devour each of his unhatched siblings. Bossk was possibly the only bounty hunter to have ever bettered Boba Fett in combat, and he was famed for his exploits throughout space; prowling the Kashyyyk system hunting Wookies, tracking down and destroying Jedis, and being personally hired by the likes of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine to do their most important work.

 

Loic trembled hysterically, if he was going to do this he’d have to do it just right, as the doors opened, but what he was about to do was going to require a surplus of courage. Bossk’s repellent odour was by far the most pleasant thing about him; 6ft 3in, 113 kilograms, armoured green-hued scales, yellow eyes that gleamed, devouring everything in their field of vision with their pernicious gaze. Rows and rows of needle-like yellowed fangs, rotten with the decaying flesh of the Trandoshan’s meals, usually live victims. Three enormous claws on each hand that might as well have been daggers; a flick of one of Bossk’s overextended arms could disembowel a wampa. All this before you even get to the Relby-v10 micro grenade-launcher clutched to his chest, as well as his additional flamethrower, detonators, and standard-issue blaster, all situated about his person. Yes, this was going to take boundless bravery from the bedraggled, beaten, bloodied, barbecued and burned-out spice-bum Loic Monerat.

 

It was now or never, besides, what choice did he have, a ping and a green light indicated they had reached their floor, the docking bay where Bossk’s famous ship, a modified YV-666 Light Freighter named 'The Hound’s Tooth' would be situated. The Hound’s Tooth was a flying 4-man prison, Wookie slaughterhouse, and warship, famed and feared throughout the Galaxy, and that was going to be Loic’s current destination, where he would be locked up and delivered to Sarkraa. He could not let that happen, at all costs, even that of his life. Loic had been nervously fingering the two wraps of glittering spice in his pocket, briefly regretting the waste of spice, but recognising it as his only option, he waited as the doors slid open and Bossk turned to drag him out and then Loic let fly….

 

Twin bags of spice caught the Trandoshan tormentor squarely in both of his bulging, bloodshot, bug-eyes. The creature staggered back, clawing at his face, ululating agonizingly, spice burned like a motherfranger if it got in your eyes, Loic knew this, he darted beneath his oppressor’s wildly flailing and deadly-taloned Ophidian arms, and dashed out of the turbo lift, the outside air hitting his lungs like an elixir as he sprinted forwards, frantic, desperate freedom lay just ahead…

 

Loic bolted from the tormented Trandoshan as the scaled bounty hunter impotently padded rough useless hands to its burning eyes. Bossk cursed in a terrible sibilant voice, a soul-jarring howl which promised nightmare revenge. The docking bay was a half-open affair, about halfway-up one of the many great thrusting city spires, which like pins from some greats beast's back, stabbed at the misty sky. The surrounding towers gave a weak Loic an unwelcome vertiginous effect, bile roiled in his pigeon chest but sheer terror gave impetus to his suede and leather boots. The bounty hunter's ship was at the far end of the docking bay landing, somehow even it almost exuded an almost palpable alien malevolence. Bossk had acquired the ship, modified it suitably, after Han Solo and his wookie co-pilot, Chewbacca, had destroyed his previous ship. The Hound's Tooth sat like a sleeping creature of prey, dirty tan, reinforced armour plates bolted to an elongated hull. Who could guess at what horrors had taken place inside that hull? Bossk was famed for his hatred of Wookies, as were most Trandoshans, one of the few species to match them in strength. How many of the great proud beasts has Bossk skinned and tortured inside that hellish ship.

Loic had a decision to make. For some reason he remembered voyeuristically spying on his sister's amorous encounter with an impassioned rebel officer in the family mansion. It was strange that in situations of duress the brain would ponder unrelated fripperies. Loic had to make a split-second decision, a skilled thief, he could hot wire his way into most ships and cruisers but the Hound's Tooth was an unrealistic acquisition. If there was a chance he could steal it, given the ship's powerful engines, he could escape to the other side of galaxy before anyone knew it. But Bossk was a professional, before Loic had set foot on the ship's cargo ramp it would recognize an intruder and zap him with some-or-other cruelty. In fact, Loic noticed in horror, the ship was showing signs of life. Lights were coming on - no doubt Bossk had a voice activated control system - despite the Trandoshan's anguish he was moving to ready himself. On the other side of the hangar were some skiffs and light hovercrafts. These were Loic's only chance.

 

Just then, several things happened at once; The Hound's Tooth dropped a laser cannon which spun seeking Loic who had to dive bald-headfirst along the floor to avoid the fire; several of Okkra's guards had pushed through into the hangar, some firing on Bossk's ship redundantly, and the most quick-witted at Bossk himself, who was hissing behind a pile of palliated cargo crates. The Hound's Tooth advanced AI system registering blaster fire turned its gun onto Okkra's goons. Several were immediately consumed in bursts of conflagration. Bossk could dally no longer, still experiencing unutterable pain he forced himself forward, firing off blind shots behind him, towards the safety of his ship's hull. As the bounty hunter reached the entrance ramp a laser blast tore through his shoulder, spraying the outside of his ship with his pustulent oozy blood. Bossk rolled in unceremoniously and the blaster-immune door shut behind him. The ship made a light corkscrew, somewhat unsteadily, taking fire from an array of Okkra's goons. Their feeble blasters were no match for the Hound's Tooth's armour. If they had any cunning they would have bolted back inside and faced Okkra's wrath, as it was, Bossk sent them a volley of incendiaries killing them all instantly, turning the docking bay into a charred scrapheap.

 

Loic flew in between buildings on his stolen skiff. His shivering hands managed to get the light craft hot-wired just before the Hound's Tooth took to the air. Rain smacked down on his bald head and ashen face as