Star Wars: Holocron
This is a story I began some time ago, and I suppose I'll post it to see if people think it is worth finishing! ~ REX
Chapter 1: Lair of the Hutt
“It’s ludicrous how two people can take on a whole security force and kill a Senator without being seen or heard.”
“They were stealthy, I can assure you.”
“Well, we have no leads, we cannot possibly track them down. They deleted all security files.”
“What were they after?”
“Senator Ralben Bixbyn, and few of his computer files and precious belongings.”
“Computer files?”
“It seemed Bixbyn had some illegal operations going somewhere, but those two hacked into his network and wiped everything clean, so we don‘t know where, exactly.”
“And the precious belongings?”
“Mostly just jewelry. And his wallet. Long gone.”
“I daresay that wallet had lots of credits in it.”
“Of course, he’s a Senator! Senators always have vast amounts of cash stored on some moon near their home world or something crazy like that.”
“And you have not found any other leads?”
“No. We had an eyewitness, but he died of his wounds.”
“What kind of wounds?”
“It looked as if he had been burned. All clothing, hair, skin, and muscle had been burned off where he had been hit. We think it was an illegal blaster weapon of some kind...”
“Hmm...I am unsure about that.”
“It is possible that it was a charric weapon. He had been thrown back against a wall after being shot, he said.”
“What else did he say?”
“He could not describe them, but he managed to tell me that they moved faster than humanly possible. They also used an array of silent but deadly weapons. The woman entered first and disarmed most of the security guards. The man entered second and used various knives, including this...”
The police officer pulled a knife out of a bag with a gloved hand, treating it as evidence. It was small and handheld, the sharp edges silvery and stained with blood. The officer pushed a button on the hilt of the knife and the blade jumped forwards eight inches.
“We did a search on such a weapon. It’s known as a punch-dagger.”
“It is a deadly weapon, to be sure. Who was it used on?”
“Senator Bixbyn. We found it embedded in his gut. Wasn’t pretty...”
“Thank you, Officer Lorn, I believe we have heard everything we needed to hear.”
“Any time, Master Jedi.”
The two Jedi walked off of the screen. The officer and his cohorts continued milling around, cleaning up the mess and putting dead security guards in body bags. The woman watching the security screen chuckled as the officer swiped some of the jewelry that had been left behind.
“Do they have any leads, Ranica?”
“None at all, Arthus.”
“Good, very good...”
Ranica and Arthus were the two that had killed Bixbyn and stolen precious information on his illegal smuggling operations in Hutt Space. The two of them had been called many things: assassins, hackers, insurgents, terrorists, spies, ninjas, and many more. But only the Jedi knew what they really were. They were Dark Jedi.
Arthus Brand was a tall, burly man. His hair was black, spiked and bleached at the tips. He wore the robes of a Jedi Knight, but had dyed them black and gray, much darker than the calm brown shades of the Jedi. He was still young, about twenty-five years old. His face was very chiseled and his body was brawny and tan. He had once been a Jedi Knight, but decided that it was too much for him, and freed a Dark Jedi from the prisons to find power on a different route.
Ranica was a nimble, curvy girl. Her hair was blonde and styled like that of an Alderaanian princess or noblewoman. Unlike the commanding robes that Arthus wore, she wore red neo-leather trousers and a matching jacket, an average civilian clothing. She was nearly twenty. Her body was curved and her skin evenly tan and smooth. She had never been a Jedi and had received training from a Dark Jedi on Tatooine, her home world.
What they were currently doing was looking in on the apartment of Senator Bixbyn through the security system. Ranica was an expert hacker, and had been stealing the computer files from the Senator’s computer, as well as taking control of the lone security holocam they had left active. Ranica and Arthus had destroyed the rest of them by snipping wires or using the Force to fry them with bolts of fire from their palms.
“Cut the connection to the camera, we don’t need to watch them any more.”
“I want to have Officer Lorn blackmailed, put him out of service for awhile for stealing. He’s the head of the law enforcement being put on our case.”
“Alright, make a copy of it and send it to whoever you plan on sending it to. We’ve got to get to Traleth and show him our success. I much desire to see if he’s held his end of the bargain.”
Ranica made a copy of the holocam video and sent it as an untraceable file to the police department as quickly as she could and then cut the connection as Arthus had said for her to do. Then the two of them left their quarters and marched out onto the streets of Nar Shaddaa.
The night was bustling with activity. Cantinas were crowded, the airspeeder lanes full of zooming ships, and lights were bright. Aliens and humans alike were shuffling from shop to shop, club to club, looking to participate in the nightlife of Nar Shaddaa. Whether they were partying in clubs or wandering aimlessly, they were on an exciting and dangerous planet nonetheless.
Arthus and Ranica had to be careful on nights like this. Bounty hunters were very common on Nar Shaddaa, and they were wanted for murder. When they had first arrived on Nar Shaddaa, they were attacked by a foolhardy bounty hunter with lots of guns. Guns are not enough to kill two highly dangerous Dark Jedi though. Their attacker was pummeled to death by Arthus’s buzz-knuckle-bearing fists.
After their sojourn from their apartment, they arrived at their destination. The tall building was covered in beryllius, a silvery metal that gave the building a worn look, but Arthus knew it was just a decoration. Underneath was alantium-axidite armor plating. Ranica admired the beauty of the beryllius for a brief moment, then followed Arthus to the entrance.
They walked into the building through the spinning glass door, directly into the nightclub that Traleth owned. Karduran Acrobats flipped around on trapeze and made human pyramids while Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes played some fiery music, the leader of the band playing a fast, upbeat solo on his kloo horn.
“Arthus, Red Shift Limit and Proton Overload are scheduled to perform after the Nodes,” Ranica alerted him with a teasing grin. “Aren’t those my favorite bands?”
“Yes, but our meeting with Traleth is a more pressing matter,” Arthus said quietly. “We can come down stairs later and listen, if you like.”
“Oh, alright...”
Suddenly they were confronted by the club bouncer, a Rodian with twin blaster pistols at his waist. He asked for their tickets to get into the club, since Traleth had hired such expensive and highly sought-after bands for the evening.
“You do not need our tickets,” Arthus assured passively, waving his hand in front of the bouncer’s face.
“I do not need your tickets...”
“You will let us enter the club without paying, since we are friends of Traleth.”
“I will let you enter the club without paying, since you are friends of Traleth...”
“You will lead us to him.”
“I will lead you to him...” The Rodian looked confused for a moment, then motioned for them to follow him. They went up a flight of stairs to a private elevator. The lift took them up a few floors and stopped. The Rodian stepped out into a dim room. The office was circular and was made of various types of stone, with paintings and sculptures by famous artists scattered throughout the room.
“Your Excellency, I have brought you visitors that said they were friends of yours...” the Rodian said uncertainly.
A voice answered, speaking in Huttese. “Yeepo, I told you that I did not want visitors.”
Arthus replied in Huttese, shoving the bouncer aside. “Have you forgotten that our meeting was scheduled for this time, Traleth Anjiliac Ruirea?”
Sitting on a mirripin near the far side of the room was an enormous Hutt, a slimy, slug-like alien with short, stubby arms, huge brown eyes, and a wide drooling mouth. The greenish-brown skin of the creature was incredibly thick, covered with an oily mixture of mucus and sweat. The boneless creature was like a massive blob.
The Hutt laughed heartily. “Welcome, Arthus Brand. I did not expect to see you again so soon.”
“Your ‘test’ was not amusing, nor was it difficult. Bounty hunters and assassins are hard to come by unless you have contacts within Aic, Black Sun, or the Mecrossa Order. I suggest you do not waste them on us.”
Traleth laughed again. “I found it impressive,” the Hutt said. “It shows that you alone are better than ten of my best assassins. You have been with the Mecrossa Order before, have you not?”
“That is where my skills as an assassin and poison-maker come from, your Highness,” Arthus told him, bowing. “Ranica trained with Aic and is an expert spy, as you know.”
“Yes, I know...” The Hutt sat in thought for a moment. “So, I have received word from my sources that Senator Ralben Bixbyn is dead by your hand.”
“We committed the murder last night. Ranica hacked the building’s security system and removed all holocam files, and made sure that they knew nothing other than a man and a woman killed him. Jedi have been put on the case, but if we have fears of them, it fuels our power.”
“Did you bring the coordinates of Bixbyn’s illegal smuggling routes?”