CONTESTS

Orba lay on the giant repulsor sled that sat at the head of his throne room, nestled away in the center of the *Sun Pearl*.

Thinking.

It was something that he seldom did. Orba had a natural talent for manipulating existing variables and a chronic inability to create new ones. Therefore, figuring out how to do something with various resources was something he could do, while figuring out how to do something completely new, with no guidelines whatsoever, was his major weakness.

Remembering a time when he had, as a slugling, managed to get his mother to do something that she had been vehemently against by way of a complex plot involving a 3-PO droid and a small group of visiting Jawas, Orba reached into the tank beside his throne that kept the tree frogs that he liked to snack on. Absent-mindedly, Orba slipped it into his mouth, crushing it against the top of his palette with his powerful tongue as it continued its attempt to escape his great jaws, crushing it into a pulp that slid down his throat. Engrossed in thought as he considered what to do, Orba reached into the tank again, pulling out a second, a third, a fourth. Only by the time that he had picked up the thirteenth did he actually notice it. As he held it in a vice-like grip it squirmed violently, attempting to escape and return to the safety and comfort of the nutrient-filled jar and its companions. Orba had, while attempting to fall asleep one restless night, decided that the amount that they squiggled and their taste was directly related.

Reaching into the jar again, Orba was disappointed to notice that he held the last one in his hand. Throwing the frog, which was almost as large as his lieutenant's head, into his mouth, Orba belched in disgust.

How was he expected to think on an empty stomach?

Waving his bowl away to be refilled he called in the Rexxian hunting dogs that he kept as a source of amusement aboard the *Sun Pearl*. Perhaps a little contest of strength would help lighten his mind and focus on the task at hand.

Contest. The word lingered in his mind as the dogs were brought out. Contest...

Hours later he had it all figured out.

A "Tournament of Hunters"; a gigantic competition between all the best bounty hunters and mercenaries in the galaxy.

A competition worthy of memory for years to come.

Orba salivated at the thought. Not only would he bring DarkFire out, he would create history. And that wasn't even considering the tremendous entertainment value that such a contest would have. Orba could make thousands of credits charging people to watch his tournament.

His tournament. The words were like sweetened tree frogs to him. Finally, after competing with Jabba and Durga and all the other powerful Hutts for so many years, he would show them that he could do something worthwhile too.

Turning round, Orba started to rumble out instructions as his lieutenant started typing them into his datapad.

This would certainly be something to remember.

Ch'tek sat alone in the small cave on the side of the mountain in which he lived, meditating.

Stretching out with the Force, he became one with the surrounding landscape. He could feel the animals, the plants, the rocks; everything around him was part of him.

As he felt the Force flow through him he became aware of a faint flicker on the edge of his senses. Reaching out, Ch'tek could feel the subdued emotion rippling off whoever was creeping towards him.

Subdued ripples to anyone else, waves of bitter hatred to Ch'tek's experienced senses.

Trying as hard as he could without being detected, Ch'tek probed the mind that was approaching. Intense fury rolled over Ch'tek as he searched the violent mind, cold fury, stripped bare and raw, focused fury, directed at Ch'tek and the entire Jedi Order.

To Ch'tek, it was a very familiar mind.

The mind of Aurra Sing.

Aurra Sing advanced towards the cave in the mountain from which she had first felt the disturbance in the Force. It was a natural disturbance, created by a Force-user.

A powerful Force-user too, she had felt them in her ship all the way out in space as she had dropped in-system to make a hyperdrive correction.

Coincidental, some would say, that she had dropped into this system to make her correction, not to mention right when the user was meditating. She knew that they must have been meditating, she had lost the sense several times since then and was sure that whoever it was that she had sensed knew she was coming.

Still, she was not taking any precautions.

Her swoop bike was stealthed, not a single sensor could detect her and no noise was detectable from the repulsors.

Focusing, Aurra engaged her battle senses and prepared for the thrill of the hunt.

Ch'tek stood at the mouth of his cave and viewed the small speeder rushing to meet him. Calmly he readied himself for the inevitable conflict.

Aurra slipped off her swoop and landed gently on the grass, her stance an easy combat one. The bike sped off on auto-pilot, circling what was bound to be the combat arena at a safe distance till Aurra called.

Reaching out with her senses Aurra searched for her prey. It did not take long.

Lunging out at her from a tree, Ch'tek called his lightsabers to him from where he kept them, fastened to his loincloth at the small of his back, and spun down on Aurra. Calling her own sabers to her hands she easily blocked Ch'tek's attack, sliding out from under him as he landed beside her. Spinning his blades continuously on either side of him, Ch'tek started to force Aurra back under his relentless attack.

Calmly, Aurra inserted her blades into Ch'tek's green typhoon, stopping his mad attack and momentarily holding him open. Bringing her knee up she delivered him a swift kick in the stomach.

She had expected that he would become dazed, or at least winded; the power of her kick was not insignificant. She was, therefore, caught almost off guard when Ch'tek completely ignored her kick and grabbed her leg with his foot.

Aurra had never before noticed his long, prehensile toes.

Spinning her around as though he had her with his arm, Ch'tek spun her into the tree, following quickly afterwards. Landing with her back against the tree Aurra blocked Ch'tek with her saber and kicked him again, this time placing her foot on his chest and using the tree as leverage to force him backwards. Ch'tek brought his sabers up and in as he fell backwards, forcing Aurra to execute a backflip in order to preserve her leg.

A backflip into a tree is never recommended.

Spinning back, Aurra smashed her head into the great arbor behind her before twisting awkwardly in mid-air and crashing full bodily into its trunk.

Pressing the advantage Ch'tek bounced off the ground and swung in towards Aurra, one of his blades colliding with hers and the other slicing cleanly through the tree. Aurra rolled over and up in order to block that saber too before vaulting up and into the limbs of the great tree and then again onto the ground as the behemoth toppled over towards Ch'tek. Dodging out from underneath the tree he dashed towards Aurra on all fours like some kind of primitive beast before launching himself up and over her head. Landing behind her he dashed her on the side of the head with his tail as they both twisted around to meet. As Aurra met Ch'tek he placed his foot on her chest and pushed, assisting himself with the Force. Aurra backfliped again and landed ready to block Ch'tek's next advance.

It never came.

Ch'tek was simply standing there, roughly five meters away from her, his leathery green skin glistening in the sun, his breathing heavy.

They had fought each other many times in the past but he had never tired as easily as this. Pressing the advantage she leapt at him, not even breathing hard. Perhaps all these years had taken a greater toll on the Jedi than she had imagined.