STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- The Hunter

Started by Captain REX44 pages

Snith folds his arms and breathes deeply, then lets his shoulders sag.

"I already knew about that whole... thing," Snith says. "It's actually the reason I'm on the job... next to revenge, of course. What I told you before was not a lie, just not the whole truth."

"Listen, I'm getting a bit sick of all of these little half-lies. How about actually telling me the full truth?" Rylis says, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes.

"More like half-truths. Hardly the point. Storytime."

Snith wanders around you and seats himself on the hood of the landspeeder.

"So, you've heard a part of the tale of Darth Luunis and the Control, then."

"Half-truths, half-lies...either way, point's still the same. Every time you've said you were coming clean on what was going on you were still hiding stuff." Rylis snaps back.

"And if what was on that record was a part of it, then yes. But that's all."

Snith nods.

"Darth Luunis was a product of hard times in the Sith Order. It was after the times of terrifying power wielded by Exar Kun and Darth Revan, but long before the reviving of the Sith threat under Darth Ruin. The Sith had been reduced to clans, sects left over from the Sith War with only a fraction of the power.

"So, chaos abound in the Sith ranks. Clans fought for control in feeble attempts to unite themselves. At some point, Darth Luunis emerged as a powerful competitor in the neverending Sith game. He tried to conquer another clan, but his sect was demolished in the conflict. His minions destroyed and his apprentice slain, the crazed Luunis came to Tatooine seeking death. Apparently he sought out a krayt dragon in the Dune Sea, hoping it would eat him.

"No such luck, though. Instead he wandered deliriously in the desert for days before happening upon a deep cave. Hoping it was the lair of a krayt dragon, the Sith Lord entered. Instead of death, he found the Control.

"Still with me?"

"Insane Sith Lord tried to take over, failed at doing so, came to Tatooine to die, and managed to fail at THAT. Got it." Rylis said, rolling her eyes.

"So what is this 'Control'?"

"The Control," Snith corrects you. "Are you familiar with the Infinite Empire at all?"

"Not much, other than it took over most of the galaxy about 30,000 years ago. One doesn't generally pick up much in the way of ancient history on the streets."

"I figured. But good enough, they invaded everyone and everything. Any idea on their involvement with Tatooine?"

"I assume it was one of the planets under their power."

"Basically. But the natives tried rebelling, which is why Tatooine is an unwholesome desert wasteland now. According to historians, where we are standing now could have been a dense rainforest. The Infinite Empire bombed the surface relentlessly until all the jungles were reduced to ash and the soil had fused into glass. Must have been quite a sight."

"I have to admit that that's kind of hard to believe. Anyway. What's that to do with the Control?"

"Well, the Infinite Empire emerged in the time before the Jedi Order, so the Force was a relatively unexplored part of the Galaxy that only the Infinite Empire seemed to have any knowledge of. They created of lot of strange talismans and technology based off of their special knowledge of the life-giving power... and the Control was one of them. It must have been left behind on Tatooine before the orbital bombardment.

"The races that eventually became the Sand People and the Jawas had lived underground in caves until the Infinite Empire relented. The Control became an idol of sorts, something they prayed to for protection. But not being sensitive to the ways of the Force, it was basically just a stone object that did nothing.

"But Darth Luunis knew otherwise. Whatever it's original purpose, he corrupted it to serve his will and exert his will over others. He used it to incite the tribal wars amongst the Sand People against the settlers millennia ago. He made people do a lot of terrible things in his name, just because he could.

"It only worked on the weak-minded, looks like, because Luunis tried using the Control on a Jedi Knight that had come to end his reign of terror. He died shortly after when the Jedi didn't fall for it."

"Hmmm. The recording I found mentioned the Nobog Corporation. Where did they come in an all this?"

"Ela Nobog was in charge of mining operations on Tatooine when Darth Luunis made his diabolical scheme known. Profits were already bad on Tatooine, but he ruined it for them by killing their workers and destroying their equipment. Really pissed them off when he stole their newly designed sandcrawler and turned it into a murder weapon. When he went, since they couldn't kill him themselves as he was already dead, they claimed all of his junk.

"But the Hutts claimed that Luunis and his sandcrawler were on Hutt terf when the Sith Lord died. They loaned the Nobog Corporation men to fight Luunis with, and demanded that his possession be given to them as payment for the outstanding debt that the Corporation had.

"Both sides wanted to just sell the damn thing, and luckily enough it disappeared under the possession of the Hutts during the New Sith Wars."

"What was the point of even trying to mine this ball of dust? ...never mind. So the thing disappeared? I'm guessing it reappeared at some point."

"Oh, you bet it did. Far from Tatooine, too. Ever heard of Garel?"

"It's nowhere I've ever been, no. I take it that's where it reappeared?"

"Yup! Place specializes in mining gasses from its core. A lad calling himself the Puppet Master appeared in possession of the Control and comandeered a gas mining station, enslaved the crew, so on. The Jedi took care of it, but the Control ended up vanishing again.

"Finally, it reappeared again, this time with the Golden Serpent. They've got a weird penchant for artifacts from the Sith times, going back to their founder stealing something of worth from the Sith. But my father managed to get the Golden Serpent to agree on a price, and after three thousand years, the Control was the rightful property of the Nobog Corporation..."

"Agree on a price? Why not just steal it? I heard a group managed to pull one over on the Serpent once..." Rylis replies. "So, you got the Control back. What happened with it since then? I know something did, since you say that's why you're here."