Pfffffffffffffft.
“Ahhhh! What the…”
That’s all the Jedi had time to exclaim before the crowded senate chamber started to panic. Mandalorians never landed on Coruscant in broad daylight, let alone in such a well guarded place by Jedi, none the less. Never!
But this was no average Mandalorian. It was him, the Republic’s most wanted here in the heart of the capital of the Republic. Even among the startled and panicked commotion every one of his footfalls could be heard, could be felt echoing through the floor of the senate chamber.
Never before has such a bold move been made; certainly not against the Jedi by anyone less than what was commonly understood as their equals in power, the Sith; but the senate perhaps and not by a mere hunter alone. This intrusion is the first since the Sith attacked Coruscant so many years ago and a bolder move as well! He walked toward the faltering Jedi with a cautious confidence. The Jedi reached for his saber.
It was ripped from his grasp and met midpoint between him and the Hunter. A device shot out from the Hunter’s left arm, snatched the Jedi’s saber, and returned to the Hunter. In hand of the Hunter, with the aid of exoskeletal suit modifications, he squeezed the elegant weapon until it cracked and sparked declaring it no longer operational.
The Hunter continued toward the Jedi, he picked out the crystal from the destroyed saber and stuffed it in a pouch on his belt in time to react to a leaping Jedi intent on kicking him.
The Hunter pivoted moving his hands around the Jedi’s foot, grabbing his ankle, and pulling him down. The Jedi crashed into the floor with a horrid snapping sound. The Hunter had seen to it that the Jedi wouldn’t be fighting back now with broken ribs.
The Jedi motioned to use the Force on the Hunter but nothing happened. “Wha…what have you…what have you done to me?”
Behind a combat helm with a T-shaped visor and forest green paint projected a metallic, almost recorded voice, and towering over the Jedi at just shy of two full meters tall, “You made the same mistake Malgus made. You thought you have control. But now you see that control is merely an illusion. It is not about control as much as it is about understanding and processing the circumstances faster than competitors.” But the Hunter didn’t mention his own Force sensitive abilities. That would have given away far too much.
“Wha…wha…do you want from me,” the Jedi begged.
“Take me off the list. I’m not the Republic’s enemy. You know who I am. You also know I’m not guilty of the charges the Republic has levied against me. I will not stand trial in a court that is nothing more than a mockery of justice, an illusion, a trial of bread and circus tactics to appease the masses into empowering the various galactic banking clans and those in high office. Tell the master of your order, this Satele Shan, to search the secondary data base on Tython. There she will find a pure copy of my record, unaltered. Someone, or something, in your beloved and corrupted republic has set me up. Make sure your master knows she is just another puppet in the long line of puppets that have guarded the oldest empire in this galaxy masquerading as a voluntary republic of republics.”
With a pained voice, “How….how do you know this about Tython,” the Jedi asked.
“It doesn’t matter how I know. What matters is that the list of crimes I’m accused of is false. And I won’t tolerate being charged with the deaths of anyone who attempts to take me unjustly into custody of an entity I do not recognize as legitimate beyond the unwarranted violence it employs to command respect. And I’m sure as hell not sticking around to be subjected to the shortsightedness of an order that is overly confident in its abilities, in its wisdom, and in its arguments that more thugs paid with stolen credits is the way to build peace. Search your feelings and tell me I am hiding the truth about this.” The Hunter continued.
There was a brief pause. The Hunter became aware of the silence in the emptied senate chamber. He had only a few moments before security would arrive.
“There is no lie, no deception in my motive here, Jedi. It is true that I work for the Empire on occasion but that allegiance extends to defensive contracts only. I’ve killed other Jedi before in self defense only. I will not hesitate to kill you or others to defend myself today. Because your organization protects the Republic and you blindly serve I could have wasted your life. I didn’t because I want exoneration and truth to set me free. I have every right to end each one of you for crimes against my past. So know that your order lost some more to my skills after the stunt Captain Duma pulled. Those Jedi fired on me first after being part of a trap to arrest me while falsely believing I was responsible for killing Republic personnel out of cold blood on Ord Mantel.” The Hunter reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a data chip tossing it onto the chest of the broken Jedi.
“Take that data chip. Match that to your records and contact the names on that list. There are those in your order who can verify that information. But before you do anything else, tell Satele Shan to BACK OFF. I know her where-a-bouts. I can find her just as easily as I can get back into this chamber.” The Hunter stopped short, pulling his blaster out to the ready.
Booted footfalls, hard and fast, were approaching the chamber. The Hunter flicked a switch on his right forearm. A soft pale blue glow illuminated around him and then faded. Three Jedi came running into the chamber.
The broken Jedi on the floor behind the Hunter tried to warn the new comers. “NO! Wait! He’s not…”
The entering Jedi all illuminated their sabers and affected aggressive fighting stances coming at the Hunter. The Hunter lit them all up with a furious hail of blaster bolters from his modified weapon. Deflected bolts ricocheted off the Hunters personal deflector shield, a device illegal in some Republic territories. While the Jedi were busy deflecting the bolts, the Hunter raised his left arm and fired in rapid secession six micro darts that the now defending Jedi didn’t notice.
Within seconds each Jedi was stumbling. The first Jedi’s saber was ripped from his hands in the same manner the broken Jedi’s was. Before the first saber could return, the Hunter released another device from his other arm and captured the second Jedi’s saber. The third Jedi attempted to throw his saber at the Hunter.
That was a mistake. The Hunter caught the saber and fired a single blaster bolter into the chest of that Jedi. He dropped in place. Each now succumbed more quickly to the serum than the broken Jedi on the floor behind the Hunter. Two shots cowed them much faster. This gave Erikson time to charge them with a boost of his jet pack. None of them had expected this. He knocked back and against the closed door they entered. The two fell stunned.
The Hunter walked over to the Jedi he blasted a hole through keeping his blaster trained on the other two. He reached into another pouch on his belt and pulled out a capsule of some sort. He kneeled next to the dying Jedi and crushed the capsule across his wound. The blaster bolt missed his heart and lungs but ripped through the first layers of the Jedi’s skin and muscles. Luckily all three were human meaning the healing agent would work faster.
The powder from the capsule bubbled and sizzled on the wound. Noticing this, one of the Jedi remarked, “What kind of killer gives kolto powder to his victims?”Standing and crushing the three light sabers as before, removing their crystals, the Hunter began explaining.
“I’m no killer, you fool! You’ve got it wrong. But before I go…” The Hunter swung his blaster at the second Jedi he took a saber from making a large gash in his face. “That’s for Tatooine. I know you tried to set me up. The Mandalorion you’re looking for is Garnash. He killed your padawan. Not me. Come after me again and I’ll finish what I just started. I don’t appreciate you setting me up on Tatooine like that. You’re lucky I have no desire to earn an honest death mark.”
The Hunter turned back towards the broken Jedi dropping the three broken sabers on the ground in front of him, “Make sure they know everything. I mean EVERYTHING!”
The broken Jed
i nodded weakly. The Hunter looked toward a darkened corner and nodded towards someone. All of them were surprised. None had noticed another individual there. By the time the two exited and returned to their transport additional Jedi arrived in the senate chamber. Mako was glad no other security personnel showed up. She really didn’t want to have to shoot at anyone even though that’s why she was there.
Her husband was good at what he did. Perhaps he was too good. They were both innocent of the crimes levied against them by the Republic; but the Republic didn’t seem to care until that day. They knew about her husband, Erikson, but still had no idea who she truly was. That’s the thing about being one of the galaxy’s greatest slicers. Few know they exist and such knowledge becomes the equivalent of a cold war arms race between other slicers.
So far as they both could tell there were no records in any of the Republic’s databases or the Jedi’s concerning the rest of the crew except for Blizz. But whatever they had on Blizz had to be a bad joke. For a society and order that prided itself on being too evolved to discriminate they certainly laid a thick foundation of hate for Jawas and Tusken Raiders.
“Hopefully they will deliver that message to their master. We might be on the payroll of the Empire but we’re not responsible for their crimes. Some of our jobs were questionable but we only killed in self defense; and the defense of others who were not provocateurs of unwarranted aggression anymore than the standard Republic soldier.” Mako felt the need to vent to her husband about these things from time to time. It made her feel better and he didn’t mind reinforcing the fact that he loved her by giving her what she wanted and needed when she wanted and needed it. It was better to get these things out of the way. Taking these kinds of venting sessions back to his captains quarters he shared with Mako wasn’t good for their alone time.
Mako continued. “No matter, I don’t think we will ever be rid of this life. The war isn’t going well for the Empire. We know we can’t trust the Republic. Both are pretty much equally responsible for the horrific state of the galaxy. But what are we going to do about it with so many people believing in these ridiculous ideas about order and control?”
Erikson was every bit of as much of a thinker as his wife. “The Hutts only have the power they do because of the laws forbidding so many things. I was turned into a hunter by the Republic’s and the Empire’s war with one another. The Republic stole my cargo ship. The Empire stole my family. And the only reason I was able to save you on Nal Hutta was because I was discarded there by Imperial negligence which made me realize I needed help.”
“Now we, and the rest of your crew, are all you have. And we are all each of us has because of this war. None of us have any family left accept each other now. Damn the Jedi. Damn the Sith. Damn both of their governments. Damn them all!” Mako was a rarity in the galaxy. Few understood her grief. Erikson knew it and probably better than she did.
His suffering was even more horrific because he remembered all of it. It wasn’t a story for him to uncover and simply empathize with. He remembered it every waking moment that wasn’t distracted by a mission or the beauty he called his wife. For now though, an outer rim world was beckoning to him. Gault and Blizz had some information that piqued Erikson’s interest and promised to reveal clues about another mystery which surfaced just a few years ago. One in which had been revealing clues dreadfully slow over the last decade.
Chapter 03
God Hunters
Star Wars: The Hunter's Gambit: Book 1, Revelations Page 2
