For as long as I can remember, I've been a Hunter. It started when I was a child; of course, back then it was child's play (quite literally). Small animals quivered in fear at the sight of me - or so I made myself believe. As I grew up, I got better. Started hunting bigger, more dangerous game. On my 18th birthday, I graduated to my first human kill.
The poster had read, "Wanted: Dead or Alive". Beneath it was a number that I thought was a fortune, and a picture of someone I recognized. How could I not? He'd raised me.

Beside his picture was another face. A face I didn't recognize, but the accompanying name was one I knew well, and I made it my mission there and then to hunt him down. The Savior. The man who had freed our planet from being a feeder for Slavers, then vanished, only popping up when he freed another planet from the Empire's version of "peace". There was only one person I knew would have answers, and that man's picture was clutched in my hand.

I didn't mean to kill him, although I don't regret it. My surrogate father's death acted as a catalyst for the Hunter I was to become - hesitation and mercy were the end of many great Hunters I've known since then. I have neither. I don't think he would have killed me, but he had taught me to hunt and knew the tricks of the trade. All I really wanted was information, but he was a cornered animal. I didn't have a choice.

The information I took from his body took me offworld for the first time on my own. I went to his contact with news of his sudden death, saying that I was to be his replacement. Looking back, it's easy to see how little I knew and surprising I've survived as long as I have. But I survived.

The League contact - Belos - refused to hear about my lead, instead starting me out small with some partner contracts, hunting down small offenders and ideally bringing them in alive. I always seemed to outlive my partners, though, when things went south. My first partner, Drako, died when he tried to engage a sharpshooter at range. Of course, Drako was always an idiot, never reading briefs and just assuming his ancient bloodline "magic" would protect him. Yeah, not from a .50 caliber Echo round to the eye.

My second partner, Veelox, was far smarter. Veelox... she and I had a complicated relationship, mostly because I could never admit my intellectual inferiority to her. To be fair, her entire species is brilliant; their Sages are said to be the only beings who can comprehend the absolute laws of the universe, and their Engineers are responsible for pretty much all of the military and civilian tech that society runs on. But Veelox was a Strategist beyond compare, doomed to have my idiot self as a longtime partner and lover. She died to a graviton bullet meant for me. I didn't even get to say goodbye.

Partner three had a unique fighting style that only worked once. I don't even remember his name - I think he went by "Kamikaze". I brought him and the target in alone - what I could find of them.

When Belos assigned me a fourth partner, the creature reached out to shake my hand; I shot him in the head before turning my handcannon on Belos.

"Enough with the partners," I told him. "I've proven myself, time and again. It's time I work alone."

And so I did, for a while. I became a renowned Hunter; the best, some would say, in my quadrant. Others would say the best in the galaxy. Either way, there was one place no one wanted to be: in my crosshairs. Criminals who learned I was tailing them started turning themselves in. It wasn't good for business.

Up until a few weeks ago, I'd been considering retirement - Hunting had begun to lose its flavor now that I would spend days, weeks, months, or more tracking a target only to lose the bounty. The only thing that kept me going was my true mission, which I never forgot once through all these years: to find the man in the photo. He was the only target that mattered, and his elusiveness only made him that much more interesting. In my ten years as a Hunter, I hadn't heard a whisper of him before it was too late - until now.

When Belos messaged me the brief, I almost didn't believe it at first. Assassin at large, it read, Wanted for conspiracy against the Empire, stage five felony law evasion, numerous murders of public figures, and just being an all-around asshole. I wasn't sure that last one was a crime, but I gained a lot more respect for the Savior than I already had. I quickly opened the file, expecting almost nothing to go on and finding instead a solid lead. Right on my homeworld. I scoffed at the irony, then spoke out to no-one in particular.

"I'm coming for you, dad."

Original: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/am8rwj/wp_you_are_a_bounty_hunter_and_for_the_last_10/efkygsm