Stories of the Venture (Freeform Serenity)

[MrEdwardNigma]

General Blackburn
Bounty-Hunter and Veteran

The General looked at the crumpled piece of paper in his hand, scribbly writing all over it. He'd gotten it in a bar, not far from the Eavesdown Docks area for spaceships. The man had laughed. A gamble, he'd said. General Blackburn would take whatever he could get now. He had a job lined up on the planet. There was a certain man, who was of some notability on Persephone, and this man had a bounty on his head. Individual contractors, quite obviously, as the Alliance were unlikely to need assistance in law-keeping on a core planet. The problem was, these contractors wanted him alive, and if he kidnapped him his friends would want the General dead. So he needed to ensure he had transport before kidnapping the man. A gamble was good enough for him. He'd stormed into battle with less than that.

The General crossed through the junkyard, paying little heed to the barking dogs Louie had on chains near the fences, and after a bit of looking he found four people standing by a stripped ship. They didn't seem to be doing much but standing around. The General dropped the large reinforced suitcase he'd been carrying on his back onto some metal plates and debris with a thunk. He adjusted his hat to the sunlight reflecting off all the steel and glass in the junkyard and then took out a thick cigar and a lighter.
"You, over there. You the captain of this wreck? The Duke?" he asked Kenneth, and then lit his cigar.
"I'm here for the job"
He puffed out a cloud of smoke from his cigar and added "Does that piece of shung-hau even fly?"

If you were an idiot you might mistake the General for a regular muscle man, as he was indeed quite muscular, especially considering his age. His collection of scars, unshaven grey beard and poor hygiene would only support this theory. They'd, off course, be utterly wrong, as a second glance could confirm. The General wore a tough, worn brown trenchcoat, which was suspiciously familiar to those the Browncoats had worn during the war. There were even lighter patches on his shoulders, where one would expect his stripes to be were it a military uniform. His broad rimmed leather hat and red scarf with white polkadots on it were clearly intended to hide his identity should the need arise. The most notable feature, for those with a better insight in people, were his piercing, shifty blue eyes, that seemed to stare right through you, through everything, but occasionally quickly dart to another direction and then back. Whatever the General was, calling him a mere muscleman would be a gross understatement.