I don't own Star Wars The old Republic or it's characters, only OCs, this is a fan fiction only. Edited by Mandalore the Freedom.
As Jack and Mako walked towards Juda's desk, they ran into the Twi'lek adviser from before in the cantina. The guy told him to make the delivery to Nem'Ro personally, Jack just did that.
Mako waited outside the room, Jack nodded to the two guards within the room, a large Mandalorian in brown and yellow armor and a female Zabrak in light orange armor with a cloak. Jack walked over to Nem'Ro and he saw the Hutt smiling. "Is that what I think it is? Oh, do show us don't keep me in suspense." Nem'Ro had dreamed this day happening.
Jack opened the container very carefully. "One Rancor egg, in pristine and healthy condition. I hope you are happy with this." Nem'Ro indeed was as he ordered his new senior beast master to take good care of the unhatched egg.
The new beast master, a dark skin human, took the container away very carefully.
"Thanks, Jack. You made one of my childhood dreams come true." oh he couldn't just wait for that Rancor grow up and eat his enemies, he was getting shivers thinking of it.
Mako from outside, couldn't help but to smile as she saw the happy look on Nem'Ro's face. "As fate would have it I have a bit of a surprise for your both. A representative of the Great Hunt is here to register the token and to give you both instructions on what is going to happen next."
As soon as Nem'Ro said that, a large male bone masked alien walked around the throne, Mako quickly saw who it was and pulled out her blaster and aimed it at his head, ""Hey! that's the guy I saw stalking me, get him!" Jack had to jump in to stop her from blasting this person's head off.
"Whoa, Mako stop. How about we hear what this all about before we jump the gun?" Nem'Ro's guards moved in just in case, pointing their weapons at Mako and Jack.
The bone masked person and Nem'Ro nodded their heads, he sign his guards back off, they backed off. "I am sorry if I startled you young lady, I am Grataa. I came to give your Hunter his instructions and to register his token that is true, but I also came fearing the worst. I have been hearing disturbing news regarding the other participants of the Great Hunt. I came to check if Tarro Blood is behind these proud hunters dropping out or simply dying."
Jack told Mako to relax. "I know, he has been pretty much following us since we left the cantina. This person didn't seem to have any business with us so I didn't bother to talk to this person about the reason he was following us."
Mako was still mad for some reason, "That may be true but he didn't follow me into the women's bathroom now did he?" the bone masked person looked like he was cleaning his throat as Juda and several other females in the audience chamber glared at him. Grataa cough in his hand, he was damn luckily his mask hid his face.
"I eh.. was investigating another matter at the time, but worry not, I was not following you, I was chasing down a possible lead about Tarro Blood's actives." Grataa had heard about some Female Rodian that had been hired take out Mako, so he went take her out... but that end up leading to the women's bathroom area... boy did that caused trouble, he could see several females within the room glaring at him.
Jack apologized for Mako's behavior, even though he understand why she was angry. Grataa said it was no problem.
"To the matter in hand, I need to see the Token to regist it. This is done to prevent someone stealing your token and wishing to take your place in the Great Hunt." Jack took the token out of his pocket and showed it to him.
He used his scanner to register it. "Now that this is done. You are to go to Dromund Kaas, seek the Mandalorian Enclave and there after a brief ceremony, you will be told what the next phase of the Hunt will be."
Jack decided to disclose something to him and those present. "As for Tarro Blood, he is responsible for killing my friend's mentor and our weapons expert Jorry. He did so by letting his own lackey do the killing. The coward would not even fight an honorable duel."
The bone masked person nodded his head and decided to show that he already had a copy of the security video. "Yes, that is why I was so moved to keep an eye on both of you. The killing was regrettable, atrocious and without honor. The fact that he actually didn't shoot the killing shot complicates matters however, everything he did was with in the rules of the Great Hunt. As despicable as they may be."
Jack offered a quick word of advice to both of them as a parting gift. "Tarro will not be a problem for long. He will eventually become a target and I will end him then. It is just a matter of time." Grataa nodded but he decide leave word of advise.
"Thank you but be wary, Tarro Blood did almost win one of the Great Hunts before, he is skilled in his own right as well as cunning, be ready for any traps he may set up." Jack nodded and thank him for the advise.
Jack then looked at Nem'Ro, "A thing becomes as you treat it. You can have this beautiful little kitten and if you treat it as a monster, that kitten becomes a monster. My suggestion is this, if you want to have a companion, a friend that you can spend time with treat your Rancor as such. Otherwise watch your back, cause a monster doesn't care where his meal comes from just that it does."
Nem'Ro thought about it, he might have to do that, it wouldn't be first time a Hutt was eaten by it's own Rancor.
Jack and Mako walked away from the room, however the Mandalorian bodyguard stops them. "Hold on, if you're gonna fight Tarro Blood, I thought you should know, I know the lackey you spoke who killed you're mentor." T
hat made both Mako and Jack stop, Mako quickly looked at the man. "Wait, you know him? who is he?" Jack was wondering the samething, only thing he could tell was the lackey was also Mandalorian by the armor, he caught symbol of a skull on his chest plate.
The Mandalorian cross his arms. "His name is Sedyn Kyne, his a vicious bastard that disgraces the name Mandalorian, and quite to my shame, his my cousin." that made both Mako and Jack stop. "Wait, his you're cousin?" asked Jack, not he thought about it, the man before him did kind of look like him.
"That's right, am Adenn Kyne, he was exile from my clan not too long ago after he left behind me on this stinking rock, nearly got me killed too." Mako shook her head, sounds like Tarro keeps quite a disgusting company, Jack agreed with her. "So you have any advise regarding Sedyn?" Adenn nodded and leans on the wall.
"Sedyn Kyne is no pushover, he enjoys the thrill of battle, however he'll use any advance to his use, he'll size you up, look for any weakness, once he sees it, he'll go for it, he might study any recordings of you and you're partner here get firm idea of you're fighting style, he might back off and use his rockets if things don't go well for him, also carefully of a build in blade he has in his gauntlet, it's cover in poison." Jack and Mako looked at each other, sounds like things are gonna get interesting.
Jack nodded to him and thanked him for the advise, Adenn shrug. "Just do me a favor and don't let him live, my people don't need scumbags like him and that hut'uunla Tarro Blood. K'oyacyi beroya." though Jack and Mako didn't catch what Adenn might there, they can tell it wasn't disrespectful and they walked out of the palace.
The two went straight to the space port, however Jack then gave their tickets to a father and his son, talking about getting away from a control freak wife. "Just so that I know, do you even have a way of his world? Cause you just threw away two perfectly good tickets."
Jack looked at Mako and told her that the kid and his father needed the tickets more than they did. As he walked over to the space port, he saw that his friend was being threatened by a rather nasty looking character. "Hey Blade do you need a hand?"
This caused the big guy to look mighty upset. "I AM THE REAL RED BLADE YOU WORTHLESS BASTARD!" Talia was smiling as this gave her the perfect opportunity to take care of some of the thugs working for the big guy.
"Would you? that be great Reaper!" this made the last shout that he was Jack the Reaper, the thugs ran away for dear life. It seems he made quite the name for himself on Nal Hutta.
The bug guy tried to intimidate him by using a lightsaber he clearly took from a fallen Jedi. Jack smiled as he caught the lightsaber and with his free hand he broke the guy's hand off.
The big guy screamed, "And we are just getting started. Hope you brought your red shoes cause we are going to have a good time." Jack kept working his way around him and each time he tried to attack he would rip a limb off. It took a few minutes before he was an armless, legless stump if his former self.
"You were right Mako these gloves are really fun." Mako looked away, that was probably one of the most brutal things she's ever seen.
That was when Talia took out her blaster and shot him between the eyes to put him out of his misery. "Remind me never to be your enemy Jack. Couldn't you have killed him quicker?" Jack looked down at the corpse.
"Why would I offer him what he never offered any of his victims? See you around, Blade." Talia nodded but not before she shouted out to Jack.
Jack walked out to the where he ship was, "I told you it's Talia between us. Yeah, see you around Jack!" Jack nodded to her, he and Mako went towards where his ship was at.
Mako had to admit that she was liking the ship and it was definitely one of the most useful she had seen, it looked almost like a rare D5-Mantis Patrol Craft but much larger and it was color red and black. "So where did you find this beauty. You know how rare this model is?" Jack told her he took it from a bunch of slavers.
It didn't matter to him to get to know the specs at the time.
Mako looked the pamphlet that Grataa gave her. "Good thing I read quickly. We have to go to the Imperial Fleet station. There we are supposed to receive some extra training and gear. I hope I can get you some better armor than that."
Jack looked almost hurt by her comment. "I will have you know that Braeden gave me this armor as a gift." Mako told him that even though she loved Braeden like a father, she always knew that he was cheap when it came to gifts. He retorted this comment by asking her to explain her armor then?
She was happy to do so she told him that Braeden was given this armor by an old friend before he died.
"Jack there is the other problem of properly registering your ship. Unless you want to be mistaken for the band of slavers you killed, we have to go to the Imperial fleet to submit the proper registration paperwork."
In the end she won and they set the ship to go to the Imperial fleet. The thing that surprised him was that he didn't even get off the elevator to the main floor of the station when someone was trying to get his attention.
He walked over to a bald fair skin who clearly Mandalorian, he was wearing yellow and blue Mandalorian Iron armor. "Good, your sponsor Nem'Ro has asked us to make certain that you are properly trained for the great hunt. I am Rally Master Kelborn, It seems he wants to make sure that his investment does well." Jack sure didn't like the sound of that last part.
"You will be given training in one of two specializations. Go down to the training center and look for two other Mandalorians like me. If you really want to win the Great Hunt, you must be able know other skills for this, don't limit yourself just for one skill."
Jack was not going to take it easy in these so called trainers. "I was trained by Revan and I was trained since I can remember. These guys better be good or so help me I will plaster their guts all over that floor." Rally Master Kelborn raise his brow, it seems this man had quite a temper on him, he hoped the man's partner will keep that anger in line.
Mako could see that the Rally Master's words did not seem sit well with Jack.
She did try to calm him down, but the way he often was treated almost as a child was a bit of a taboo with him that made him boiling mad. The two made their down to where the trainers were at, everyone made sure clear their way, they did not want get in anger armored man's way.
Jack was cracking his knuckles by the time he got there. He took off the crushgaunts to do so, he put them back on as he saw his supposed trainers.
One was a large man in his forties and the guy next to him was smaller in his early thirties. They were both wearing blue Mandalorian armor. It was clear these two were not amateurs but he was still quite angry. The smaller man then saw him coming down.
"So this is supposed to be the prized employee of one Nem'Ro the Hutt. Somehow I am not impressed. Hope you are ready for some tough love training junior. Cause you are going to get a crash course in combat."
Jack didn't answer he simply took a stand that neither have ever seen. It was the hand to hand style his mother taught him. The big guy tried to rush him and tackle him he grabbed him and kicked him up in the air, however much to Jack's surprise, the large man was able land on his feet, breathing heavily but not out of the fight.
"I guess I underestimated him. This is going to be fun." the smaller man crack his knuckles. Two other Mandalorians were also taking interest, a Female Zabrak in different mode of gray and red armor and another male Mandalorian in green and yellow armor, similar to Mako's armor.
Mako decide to handle the registration of the ship. She knew they would be doing their little exercise for a while longer anyways, why get in the way?
000
Thirty minutes later, there were quite bit of damage in small area they were at, both the trainers were breathing heavily, Jack himself was leaning on railing, he had small black eye and some blood dripped out of his mouth. "So had enough?" the shorter of the two asked him while whipping his brow.
Jack spit out some blood from his mouth and grinned. "Not even close, I am just getting warmed up. So come on don't disappoint me we got a lot more fun ahead of us." they looked at Jack and smiled. People decide started taking bets, the two Mandalorians were exchanging credits.
"100 credits says the rookie there wins Deagan." said the Female Zabrak as she place credits on a table, the green armored Mandalorian, Deagan grinned behind his helmet. "You're own Bulga."
000
After two hours and a half of fighting, the trainers decided that they saw enough. "Damn, I haven't fought that long in a good long while. I got to say you sure know how to make people like us happy. Thanks for the decent fight." said the smaller man, spitting out blood.
Jack saw the two other Mandalorians were now exchanging credits, seeing the Female Zabrak looking rather happy once she took the credits from her fellow Mandalorian.
The big guy smiled. "If Gen is saying that, I say that you got this thing in the bag. You got decent combat stance and strategy. Your armor has to feel as comfortable as a second skin, wear armor like ours without the proper training and you will pay for it in the end."
The shorter guy finally got his second wind. "Zaakeg, this guy doesn't seem to have a problem with that. He does need help with his heat management and weapon load out though. Why only one blaster? What you want to look pretty or look yourself in a mirror? Got a free hand better use it with an extra blaster."
Zaakeg was shaking his head. "Forget him, Gen is a mean little Gundark that learned that a good offense is the best defense and ran with it, I see it your best bet is Powertech training and just happens to be my area of expertise. I would like to know my student however, what do I call you?"
Jack smiled and looked at him with a serious look as he said that." You can call me Jack, but since your are a Mandalorian, you might know me better as the Reaper of Malachor Three. It was there that I gained the supposed nickname of the Reaper."
Zaakeg didn't believe it, but Gen called it bullshit. "If you were the much feared Jack the Reaper, you been old enough to make my ancestor look young. He was raised by a pair of Jedi and was respected by Mandalore the Ultimate, fought in the Mandalorian Wars with Darth Revan and Darth Malak, that was couple hundred years ago. How can you be alive if you are him?"
Jack crossed his arms across his chest. "You got your facts wrong. I was raised by Revan who I love as what she is, my mother. And his name was Malak, not Darth Malak that some people like call him. Why am I alive? while fighting on Taris, I caught some weird disease that makes the rakghoul plague look like the common flu. I had to be placed in carbonite freezing till a cure was found. But if you want to see me use a weapon?"
Jack got his lightsaber out and as the blade appeared, Jack took a stance, they could not believe what they saw, that stance was one Jack the Reaper was known take in fighting. "I guess I could use my lightsaber to show you what fighting a Jedi Master feels like."
Zaakeg told him it would not be necessary, they already know what was like fight force users on that level, he also apologized for any insults on their behalf. Jack put back the lightsaber and told him he was not insulted for their remarks.
"You got to understand that many have tried to claim to be you in the past. Trying to use your name to gain some higher paying bounties. It never ended well for them since they couldn't live up to your reputation. As time went by, you sort of became the Mandalorian equivalent of the boogie man. A story that Mandalorian mothers told their children to make them train harder." said Gen, he remember encountering one of those jokers, poor son of a bitch got himself rip apart by a Gundak.
Zaakeg then decide show more skills to Jack here. "Come on, we will need some space for this and believe me, this will be a true joy to teach you." Jack nodded and follow the two to another room where his new training would begin.
000
Three hours later and much work done, Jack was ready for the Great Hunt. Gen saw him train and he was already counting the money he would make on his bet for the Great Hunt. "I know who I am getting to win the title of Grand Champion, I pity the fool that has you as an opponent." he haven't seen anyone like Jack pick up skills that fast before.
Zaakeg handed him his new armor, a set of Mandalorian armor that was same model as theirs. "For Gen to say that it high praise indeed. Just give them hell for us and I consider myself well rewarded." Jack nodded, he thank him for the armor and left the area, Jack found a room where he can change into his new armor.
After Jack finish placing on the helmet, he felt really good. "Man, this feels even better then the armor Braeden got me." Jack had no idea how advance the helmet systems were like, he could set the visor to different sets that can help him in fighting.
Jack then made his way to where Mako was likely at, he saw where she was at and walked over to Mako.
"So Mako how is the registration coming along? You want to grab a drink while we wait for the Imperial bureaucracy to finish the paperwork? Maybe a light lunch? I got to say those two made me work up a healthy appetite." Mako raise a brow on the new armor Jack was wearing, it was typical blue Mandalorian armor you would see most Mandalorians wear, but she had to admit, it look good on Jack.
Mako told him the registration was done and she even managed to get her hands on some nice adrenals and stims for future combat. She did however agreed that a light lunch would hit the spot at the moment. However they decide talk to the Rally Master before doing that.
They walk over to him, he looked impressed at sight of Jack. "Back in one piece, more or less." he could make out Jack was tried from training and fighting Zaakeg and Gen Vizla. "Most would have turned back or died before getting pat on back from Zaakeg or Gen, much less get a gift from them." Jack shrug.
"I thought we all got along all fine enough, the armor was a good bonus too." he tights his fist, enjoying feeling with crushgaunt and the armor, Rally Master Kelborn was surprise about this. "The only thing Zaakeg and Gen have ever agree on, is you're chances of winning the Great Hunt." Jack raise a brow, huh looks like he made quite a impression on the two.
Mako and Jack talked to the Rally Master for couple more minutes, before Jack decide chose the Powertech training. After that, they said their farewells, however as Jack and Mako walked away, Rally Master Kelborn could help but think for moment. 'So that's the student of Revan, I wonder if he knew the Exile?'
Rally Master Kelborn's clan fought with Meetra Surik or better known as the Exile during Dark Wars, a woman whom was very close friends with Revan, making lot of people believe they were sisters.
He looked forward seeing him in this Great Hunt.
"So you got any food that you will not eat? Just asking to be sure to avoid having the Droid on our ship make it." Jack looked at her a bit confused and asked what Droid was she talking about?
"Oh that's right, they didn't have those back in the day. When you register your ship they send the registration to the on board Droid. Since your ship doesn't have one that is compatible with the data. They had to give us one. Pretty nice of them to be sure."
Jack looked at her and asked for her to tell if she had any foods she didn't like. "Slimy foods, I can't stand the feel of them in my mouth. And you?" Jack decided to shock her by saying he could not stand the taste of anything with spinach in it.
"I swear my mother put it on my plate as a form of punishment. She often would say that I couldn't leave my seat till I finished all of my veggies, and of course there was this awful spinach salad."
Mako laughed as she heard him say that. "You got a loving mother then, she just wanted you to eat a healthy diet so that you grew up to be big and strong. I say from what I have seen she did the right thing." a waitress then came over to them.
After she went away, Jack spoke.
"Would you believe me if I told you that he made the very blanket I used till the day I was placed in carbonite?" Mako asked him if he knew how to saw and knit. Jack told her Malak would never admit it but he told him that if he hadn't been a Jedi, he would have been a wonderful clothing shop owner.
"You didn't call him a seamstress did you? " Jack laughed as if actually remembering the look on his face. He was angry as hell once HK 47 started calling him a Meatbag steamstress, boy did Revan laughed at that. Mako however then decide ask a question.
"I gotta ask, the way you talk about Malak, it's not like the things I heard he did in the Jedi Civil War, nearly destroying Telos, Taris, killing billions of people. What change him into that?" Jack lean back in his chair in deep thought, Mako was right. The way he heard what Malak or Darth Malak did in that war, he sounded like he become a monster.
Jack was quiet, before he finally spoke. "You know Mako, I have been wondering the same thing, that does not sound like the Malak I knew, even less about when he turned on Revan. The Malak I knew was like a brother to me, a brave man would rather die then turn on his friends. I don't know, I wish I knew what happened to him or my mother for that fact." the two were quiet after that, they decide just eat their food, not wanting get cold.
Maybe in Great Hunt, Jack might found more answers to what happened to Malak and Revan all those years.
