A long time ago in a galaxy far,
far away...
Star Wars: The Most Dangerous Game
Chapter One – Waiting in the Blind
[3,667 BBY – Fourteen Years Before the Treaty of Coruscant]
"Killing a Jedi is two parts concentration, one part intimidation, and three parts evisceration—the order of application is left completely to the hunter in this case. The universe is chaos, after all, and every fight with a Jedi will differ from the next and the last. Take it from me," said the hologram, hefting a crate into view. He tilted it slightly so that the viewer might see its contents.
The hologram grinned. The crate was full of lightsabers. "I've met more than a few of them in my travels."
Shae Vizla smiled along with the hologram, and began the process of taking apart her rifle for the third time that night. It had been some time since she'd required the use of one, and she far preferred the use of the twin blaster pistols at her hips during the regular course of her work, but circumstances had changed in a hurry. The "up close and personal" option wasn't going to be viable in the near future.
She ejected the power pack, unhooked the barrel, removed the scope, and listened to the rifle power down when she carefully, carefully unplugged the cell. The weapon became lifeless in her hands... and in under half a minute if the timer on her data-gauntlet was to be trusted.
Not bad. Could be better.
"The notion that a Jedi can't be killed is a widespread one. Talk to the right person on the right planet and some will tell you that the Jedi are invincible. Some will say they're immortal. Others will compare them to gods—or claim that they are gods." The hologram shook his head. "If find yourself buying into that particular notion, put it out of your head at your earliest convenience. Because I'm telling you right now, with this unwieldy pile of lightsabers as my proof..."
He leaned in. "Killing a god isn't as hard as you think."
Shae put the holodevice to sleep and reassembled the sniper rifle. She took note of the timer, fourteen seconds, and shut down her gauntlet, as well. With everything switched off, she found herself in pitch blackness. Intentional, of course. She had spent most of the afternoon making sure every window, every crack, every doorway, every broken seam... every breach made by time, the elements, or blasterfire, all of it was sealed so that no light could get in or out of the apartment.
Only a standard day ago, she had been reclining in her favorite seat in The Slippery Slopes Cantina on Nar Shaddaa, drinking a glass of dakaar juice and wondering if the new contract in her queue would be worth looking into. Now she was navigating a darkened room with lengths of thread she had torn from a broken couch in the corner and tethered to key locations in the apartment. The thread she had tied knots into led her to the living room window, which she had covered with a tattered comforter.
Pulling away a corner of the comforter from the window allowed a dim beam of moonlight into the apartment, faintly illuminating the decay inside like a ghostly afterimage. Her temporary lodging might have been a little more upscale in its prime, but words like that held no meaning at all on a planet that had been dead for a little over three hundred years.
Taris had most definitely seen better days—but, again, circumstances can change in a hurry.
Looking out through the opening gave her an unobstructed view of a vast expanse of collapsed and mangled skyscrapers that stretched out into a broken horizon. Thin columns of toxic mist spewed from chasms that led deep into the ground, where ancient fuel lines and chemical deposits had created a volatile cocktail that made much of the former ecuminopolis uninhabitable. Even though the sector in which Shae was currently holed up was one of the safer parts of the world, she could still smell fumes like sulfur pressing their way into the apartment, making her nauseous if she took in more than easy breaths.
Aside from the mist, which climbed free of the endless wreckage to join the layer of perpetual fog that nearly enveloped Taris's upper troposphere, nothing else moved. Lights got lighter and shadows grew deeper as the moon passed somewhere overhead, but otherwise: nothing.
Good, she said to herself. I still have time.
Replacing the corner of the comforter brought the pitch darkness back into the apartment. Shae used the knotted thread to find her way back to the middle of the living room, where she had unpacked all of her worldly possessions... which really wasn't all that much.
She checked them all off in her mind... The N-415 sniper rifle. A half-box of ration bars, which might last her three days if she was strict about it. A water canteen, about a day's worth if she didn't travel. Her twin D-88 blaster pistols. A holoprojector. Her data-gauntlet. And, finally, her utility belt, which was mostly lined with power packs for the pistols but had two more compartments for a commlink and a grappling spike launcher.
Not much at all, even by her most relaxed standards. Then again she wouldn't even be on Taris if she'd had a choice in the matter. This was supposed to be just another hunt for just another bounty, and not even a high profile one. It was going to be her last hunt of the year before returning home in time for summer, ideally with a more-than-decent credit stash to her name, and this particular bounty was ideally going to take care of the fuel costs and equipment maintenance, nothing more.
Going for the easy money, which she had long ago promised herself she would never do, led her into taking a contract without being properly prepared, which was yet another promise she had broken over the course of this week.
Being on Taris with three guns and scant rations, that should've never happened. But here she was.
"Here I am," she whispered, and toggled the holoemitter to continue playing the recording.
The image of a man with short-cropped hair wearing an old Imperial uniform flickered back into existence, throwing blue light in all directions. Just enough for Shae to see her supplies strewn upon the ground. She picked up the sniper rifle and contemplated taking it apart again.
"The thing about gods is that they have rules," said the hologram. "Jedi have rules. If there is one lesson you take away from these recordings, this is the one to take note of, boys and girls. If you know the rules, you can break them. A Jedi can't. You find that line that they won't cross, it might as well be a sheer cliff to them. That cliff is where you find your advantage..."
Shae hit the timer on her data-gauntlet and began to break down the rifle.
"And after that... it's only a matter of reaching out, taking them by the shoulder and, calmly, pushing them over it." The image of the man chuckled under his breath. "And let me tell you: nothing in this galaxy falls quite like a Jedi. You really have to see it for yourself to appreciate the spectacle of it all." He tucked his hands behind his back and nodded to his potential audience. "My name is Lieutenant Jaq Rand of Darth Revan's Sith Empire, and this is the end of instruction one. Good luck... and keep counting those cards."
The hologram faded away, taking the light with it just as Shae was finished reassembling the rifle. The timer on her gauntlet read thirteen seconds.
A few feet away, another light pulsed through the darkness. Her commlink had turned itself on in the presence of a signal. She stared at it, knowing full well what that meant. Her grip on the rifle grew tight enough that her fingers ran cold, and her heart pulsed in anticipation of what she would hear.
The filter had been turned off, so the signal came straight through the comm. Light static, waxing and waning, and then, "Come out, Shae," a voice whispered, and heavy breathing followed. "Come out, come out wherever you are..."
A slow exhale through her nose calmed her nerves. Once again she shut down all of her devices and carefully followed the knotted thread back to the window. As quickly as she dared, she pulled back a corner of the comforter, bringing the ruined landscape of Taris back into view. This time, down between the rubble and the mist, she saw things moving... and they were moving in her direction.
"Come out, Shae! Come out!" the voice hissed. "It's time for you to die now!"
Shae backed away from the window and went for the rifle.