"One golden case." Detective Vinden Sandhed muttered to himself as he held onto his designated datapad, carefully inspecting every detail. This was the case he has been dreaming of, the one case that would launch his career forward, possibly to the rank of Captain.

The war between the Republic and the Confederacy had only led to crime levels increasing. Slavery, smuggling, spice, murder, there was no end on Coruscant and beyond. With a new wave of clone troopers deployed to the planetary guard and by extension, the Republic bureau of investigation, the department had suddenly found an influx of trainees to aid in open cases.

The clone assigned to Sandheds division was a young recruit named Leroy, who had brought him his aforementioned golden case. The case itself was a missing persons report, but it was the who which was what made this case so important.

Bruxa Morei, the Tarissian prince.

Vinden thanked the clone detective and opened up the holoprojector to view all the information inside. Bruxa Morei of Taris was a member of the Tarissian royal family, his father, Stollux, had declared Taris' neutrality in the clone wars alongside Dutchess Satine of Mandalore. Despite the planets stance in the war, Taris had it's own small military in which Bruxa was an aspiring naval commander, long groomed to becoming admiral.

One year into the war, Bruxa led a small flotilla of Tarissian corvettes to aid the evacuation of the people from the neutral world, Kestalon. A dwarf planet that had suddenly been thrown off its orbit by unknown forces, causing dangerous tsunamis, tornadoes, lightning storms and wildfires.

Bruxa's Fleet returned with dozens of refugees, however his command ship, The Pomoc, didn't. It was initially assumed lost with all hands attempting to safely land at one of the designated evac zones.

"Why is this registered as an open case?" Leroy asked, unsure of what he was missing.

Vinden looked at the young clone, admiring the genuine interest in the job. He'd seen his fair share of complacent agents who are just happy to coast their days until retirement, it was nice to have a young fresh perspective.

He began scrolling through the information in front of them until an image of a badly damaged star fighter appeared over the projection table. "See this here? This is a report from the extraplanetary clean-up company, Nubian Clear Skies. They usually pick up undeclared hyperspace rings, debris from broken satellites, stray asteroids, you name it. Anyway, they picked up a heavily damaged Tarissian fighter drifting towards one of Naboo's moons."

"The fighter was from the Pomoc?" Leroy then followed up, looking at the report more closely, realising that bringing closure to the Tarisian royal family might sway their allegiance towards the Republic.

"The registration indicates so, yes. The fighter was empty, but the cockpit remained intact. Strange that a ship this small gets damaged with nobody to pilot it. What's stranger is that the black box reveals that the fighter had previously pinged off an old Republic satellite near the galactic edge, just past hutt space."

Leroy then brought up a map of the galaxy and highlighted the Naboo moon of Ohma-D'un, as well as the Hutt controlled moon Nar Shaddaa. "Which destination do we head to first? The Naboo system might contain some clue as to what happened, it's the most recent destination of the fighter."

Vinden began to stroke his short beard in thought. "Hmm, true. We would have a narrow window before any trail goes cold... However, I imagine that the report contains all the necessary information from that sector. Nar Shaddaa is an information goldmine if you know where to look, the area of space where the fighter was last seen would have been picked clean, but word gets around. Our best bet is to meet with a reliable informant on the moon."

"Who's your informant?"


"Grakkus the Hutt! How are you, my friend?" Vinden almost shouted, his arms outstretched to bring the colossal space slug in for a hug.

The loud clattering of Grakkus' cybernetic legs making their way towards the detective and his clone accomplice echoed throughout the garage which the Hutt made his place of business.

"Hahaha! Vinden! It's been too long... Tell me you have something for me." The Hutt bellowed with anticipation, his stubby, slimy hands cupping an invisible ball, like a child excited for a new toy.

"You know I always keep an eye out for things to add to your collection." The detective said playfully as he placed a small copper necklace into the Hutt's hands.

"OhhhHOHO! Ahhh... I've been searching for one of these for decades. How did you get this? I must know." Grakkus demanded, eyeing up his new prize possession.

Vinden set up a crate as a chair and sat down as he explained. "Booked a Corellian smuggler a few weeks back, mostly spice, couple DC-17's, even an old Czerka antique weapon. Amongst all of it was that little trinket, there."

Leroy gently grabbed his superior's shoulder and ushered him away for a few seconds. "Sir! That's evidence tampering!" He hissed.

"Calm down, rookie. The galaxy isn't as black and white as you think it is. Sometimes you have to bend the rules ever so slightly to make it a safer place. The sooner you realise that, the further you'll go in this job." The detective explained.

"But sir, I-"

"Are the two of you done?" An unfamiliar voice caught everyone's attention.

Two more figures stood in the hallway to Grakkus' garage, both cloaked and disturbingly skinny in their appearance. One of the men pulled back their hood to reveal a grey skinned alien, bald, lacking a nose, large orange eyes.

He was a Neimoidian.

Leroy narrowed his eyes at the insignia tattoo on the alien's neck, it was that of the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

"Seps!" He shouted as he aimed his weapon at the enemy, only for the second hooded figure to pull a weapon in response. It wasn't difficult for everyone to see that this was a droid. More than that, it was a tactical droid.

"Hold your fire." The neimoidian raised his hands in surrender. "I am Ladron P'dumat. Detective Ladron P'dumat of the Raxus Central Police Department. We've not come here to fight, we're here for information. Once we have it, we'll be on our way."

"The Seppies have a crime unit? Don't you just shoot first, ask questions never?" Leroy asked rhetorically, his aim unflinching.

P'dumat casually crossed his arms. "Crime happens all over the galaxy, clone. Republic space, Separatist space, Hutt space, it doesn't matter. What matters is Justice."

"And who does your justice serve?" Vinden finally addressed the duo.

"We are investigating the re-emergence of a ship under the command of Bruxa Morei. It is logical to suggest that finding more ships will lead us to him." The droid answered in a deep synthsized voice.

"Hold up! This is our case. How did you even know about the fighter?" Vinden stepped forward, raising his finger in accusation.

"Not that it's any of your business, but you've reached the same point in your investigation as us so I'll humour you. We received a copy of the black box flight recordings of a Tarissian fighter. It was sent to us by Nubian Clear-"

"Clear Skies... It seems they sold us both the information." Vinden summarised.

"Bruxa Morei isn't missing." The cybernetic hutt chimed in, somewhat confused. "He was just here last night. Traded a Dathomiri scroll in exchange for information."

"What kind of information?" P'dumat walked towards him, ignoring the Republic officers.

Vinden also turned and walked next to him. "Not so fast, old friend. Remember, we paid your fee first. We get exclusive rights to that information."

P'dumat scowled the detective before noticing the trinket in the hutt's hand. "Ah, yes. Such an impressive Jedi Credit. However, what I offer in exchange for the information is invaluable in comparison." He gloated as he reached beneath his robes and brought out his hand, spreading his bony fingers apart to reveal a glowing blue cube covered in intricate metal detailing.

"A Jedi holocron..." The mighty Grakkus whispered in disbelief, dropping the necklace on the floor and slowly reaching up to grab the relic with both hands.


"A holocron! A kriffing holocron! We almost had it!" Leroy began ranting as the two Republic detectives made their way towards Vinden's personal shuttle.

"Yep. Almost." He grumbled, clearly worried about the implications of a separatist intervention.

"We should just kill them and take the information." Leroy continued to rant as he held his pistol in his hands.

"You know we can't. Neither of us have any jurisdiction here, we're lucky that P'dumat gave us the courtesy of walking away peacefully. There's about a dozen or so laws that we've already broken just by being here, can't afford to break one of the big ones." Vinden corrected the clone.

"Where'd that slimeball even get a jedi holocron?!" Leroy asked in frustration.

"Probably Count Dooku himself. The guy was a Jedi before he defected to lead the Separatist movement. I imagine that P'dumat is reporting directly to him." He explained, focused on their ship in front.

"Separatist scum..." Leroy spat. "They think they can find Bruxa and gain favour with the Tarissians."

"It's worse than that, Rookie. Taris is right under Mandalore in the hierarchy of Neutral Systems. If Taris aligns with the Seps, dozens if not hundreds more systems might follow. And if under enough pressure from her allies and her people as a result, Dutchess Satine of Mandalore will lose control and they'll return to their warrior ways. Can't imagine mandalorians of old would side with the Republic, can you?" The clone's trainer theorised.

Leroy stopped before the ramp if the shuttle. "I studied the history of the mandalorian wars, Sir... Even with clones, I don't think the Republic would stand a chance."

"Which is why we're going to find Morei so that that doesn't happen. Grakkus said he traded a Dathomiri scroll for whatever information the Seps gained. I say we head there and see what the witches can tell us."

As both detectives took their seats and initiated takeoff, Leroy looked down in confusion. "Sir... If Bruxa Morei is alive and dealing with the likes of Grakkus the Hutt... Is there any chance that he's operating illegally?"

Vinden entered the hyperspace coordinates for Dathomire before turning to his partner. "It's possible. Not surprising given that he obviously knew the price of Grakkus' information, add that with the fact that he even had a nightsister artifact... It's more than likely that whatever happened to Morei all those months ago changed his perspectives on morality as a whole. Either way, it's not important. What's important is finding him... You just let me worry about what happens when we do."