Disclaimer: I own neither StarWars nor DragonAge and I do not claim otherwise. I am using their characters, plots, and settings for my own ammusment and not for financial gain.

AN: Heloo, it has been such a long time since I last posted, and I finally managed to get some free time to think on how to write this story. Especially in the times that we currently find ourselves. I decided to rewrite the story as it was and repost the chapters for when I returned to reread them… oh my god… the grammar, the mistakes, the cringe… I hope that with this rewrite the story in itself will be better, cleaner and easier to read. Now off to the story. Will not promise anything about updates. Learned the mistake.

Time: Star Wars: The Old Republic, somewhere between 12 ATC and 16 ATC

D5 Mantis, Arkanax POV

The crew was nervous, to say the least. Not because the job was hard nor that it was a complex one, but for how it felt strange and unusual. Sure, there is somewhere a list of all the weird jobs we had to do and bounties that were collected, but this one seemed specific in that strange gut feeling type. In short, the contract was not complex, but in its simplicity lies the danger of it. The contract was more of a letter, an invitation for the Grand Champion of the Great Hunt to meet and talk the business, for the Champions expertise was needed for the job.

Usually, this kind of job would be dismissed, thrown away without a thought to care, for a simple reason. The letter could be a trap, from still angry and prideful Jedis, which should be a contradiction, or from a Republic secret service that loves to do the Republics dirty job. Simplicity and delivery of contract stayed the hand that would decline the request. It was sent to his own personal communicator, upon which Mako did a number of modifications to protect from any type of hacking attack or tracking subroutines recently, and was coded by an Old Imperial Intelligence script. And not anybody could pull this kind of stunt, for only people of great power and even better connections could pull it. Imperial Intelligence was a stinker and paranoid with their codes… the only one I could think of who would decide to use it freely and knowing I had the cypher for it would be … Cipher 9.

Our history is not that great… No matter what people may say about me, I do not yet see myself as a true Mandalorian. I was taught Mandalorian history, culture, language, and code of honour by Torian who was raised as a Mandalorian. I am aware of different ideas of how to interpret the code, and that in a way, while each Mandalorian respects The Code, each one has a slight addition to it. One of mine additions to my code was to always avoid killing bystanders and those without a bounty on their head. Unfortunately, not every job can be a clean one, and there were people which duty, code of honour and principles clashed with what I had to do. The one of the saddest examples was a Jedi apprentice Thendys, whose master was bounty that I was sent to collect. She sought peaceful resolutions, but the fates and those who she served decided otherwise. Who would have thought that a Jedi master could harbour such a great amount of hatred, grudge, and bloodthirstiness hidden behind a mask of peacekeeper.

On the other hand, Cipher 9 was a ruthless being who would walk over the skulls of bystanders to get a job done. I had great misfortune to see one of his works, the blowing up of a skyscraper full of people just to get the Republic's attention focused there so he could bait out his own target. Of course, that is not information that anyone knows, but when you know to collect rumour about some people of renown, see the news about the destruction of the building and the assassination of a Republic leader, it is not so hard to connect the dots to know what happened.

And now that … butcher was sending an invitation, a contract my way but not on his behalf. The more I think about it, the scenarios get worse. I should probably go and see what is it all about, but be prepared for the fight for a life. Question is how to make it so that the rest of mine crew would not be caught in the worst possible situation that could be, or rather how to keep them as safe as possible from the machinations that this simple yet frustrating invitation presented us.

"Boss, Blizz made you some coffee to think better. Need a Boss to be more optimistic. We gonna fix it tip top."

"Thank you, Blizz. How is the ship? Do we have enough spare parts, or shall we get some? "

"Don't worry, Boss. Blizz loves the ship, already has prepared spare parts and spare parts of spare parts. Managed to acquire them very cheap on Tatooine. Good trade with other Jawas, very happy. Must check them again, hope Boss thinks of something out."

I was happy for the little fella. We met him on Hoth, one of the coldest ice planets, rescued him from prison, and in return the ship managed to get the best mechanic the crew could think of who. It is not a bad thing that he cares for crew as a we are all part of the same family… family that is tight knot group. A complete opposite to the certain old ex-gang leader of the Black Sun. I should still check those parts that Blizz mentioned he got on Tatooine. No matter how genius Blizz was and his ability to make something from almost nothing, it would not matter if some parts were of poor quality or were picked up from somewhere, and with Jawas, you should always double check. But that might come after I resolve the matter of the mysterious contractor. The ship was already close to Taris, the meeting point specified on the contract. What is the saying, that bandages should be swiftly torn away, or was it apart?

"Crew, the captain is speaking. I have come to the decision that we should see what the given contract sent to us is all about. We shall dock on Taris space station in about 16 hours. Get a good sleep and double-check your gear. We do not know what to expect, but make sure you have on you several vials of rakghoul serum and that your suits are tightly sealed. Do not wish anyone to get bitten or infected with rakghoul plague. If things go south, keep your head cool and weapons hot. Mako, Gault, you are coming with me on the ground. Blizz, Torian, you take care of the ship and be ready to depart at any given time. I do not like this mission at all, but as with all the other weird jobs we have done, the sooner we finish it, the sooner we will go back home. That is all for now. "

Now done with that, I could focus on more enjoyable things… like sharing the room with my wife Mako.

On Taris, Galas Lausk POV

"Of all the places in the far far reaches of galaxy, did we truly need to plan the rendezvous location on Taris? Not that I am complaining, I truly am in love with the place and can't hide my excitement from the high possibility of getting poisoned just by breathing the air or touching the polluted water, or that some of the wildlife sees me as nice morning meal before they, I do not know, maybe decide to take you a big fella for a lunch? Don't get me started on how happy I would be to maybe turn into one of the natives, the Rakghouls. Wonder how the Twi'lek rakghoul would look like..."

"I can assure you, nothing will happen to you, Vette. It seemed like the best place to do the meeting in secret while making inroads with some of the plans we have on short budget of leeway time we still have. We were already here once, and if there was not a cute Twi'lek who was always asking me to find a cure for this plague of Rakghouls, we would still be spending our secret honeymoon on a nice tropical beach far away from the bustle and hustle and plotting of the Sith Empire and its politics. "

And there it was, a playful shove. I knew she would react like that, and it never stopped me smirking about it, knowing I won this exchange of the small talk and sarcasm. It is good to unwind like this when we can, away from much of the inquisitive eyes in the Empire that put the importance of Humanity and purity of blood in high regards, while threating others as below them or as slaves that are disposable. The maintenance of the image of the Emperor's Wrath is a harsh duty, but a duty that I shall do. For it would do no good to the galaxy if some other Sith, a more bloodthirsty one, would take the mantle of the Emperor's Wrath. Combine all of that with my ambitions to change the way that Sith do have some of the understanding of the way the things need to be done and you get the image of a wall of muscle and bones, clad in armour impenetrable by mere soldiers and morals. A machine of death, a juggernaut that cleaves everything in his path.

This is not the first time we visited the Taris, and I understand the apprehension of staying a remaining for any of prolonged time on the planet. Learning of the Rakghoul plague, and knowing that a single bite or a scratch from one of the Rakghouls would be able to turn anyone into one of the Rakghouls made me start focusing on the knowledge of bioanalysis and medical synthesis. Yes, there are already some serums and antidotes that could protect a person from the Rakghoul plague, but once it truly takes a hold on someone, there is no cure for the afflicted person. There is nothing preventing the process of transformation. Death is a mercy then.

It terrifies me, and wishing to conquer my fears while doing something that would benefit the whole of galaxy, my studies led me to some discoveries about the Rakghouls. Well, not only mines, matter you. When Vette managed to find out what I was secretly researching, she decided to tag along and help a whole lot by contacting a great number of archaeologists and experts in Rakghoul history. Contacting one of my old "friends" in Sith order, a Sith Inquisitor by name of Chakara, who was now a Dark Councillor of Sith, led us to even greater understanding of the Rakghouls. Chakara and I, we trace back our history when we were both apprentices in the way of Sith, before we raised to our current power and station. We helped each other out, and while she was more of the bookworm and historical enthusiastic type, that never made me try and get on her bad side. Pureblood Sith strong in the force as she is is not someone you wish to cross over. I did not think she would help me a whole lot, especially after we parted ways when we had to do our duties away from Korriban, yet she did with great deal of benevolence. She even besmirched me for trying to trick her into helping me, which I did try as it worked when we were apprentices, and not openly asking for her help for what are the few true friends for. Well, she did tell me that her help would not be for free, and that her condition for helping would be to be fully involved in the given project of finding a cure for Rakghoul plague and that planning and plotting around the politics and power plays of the Empire should be left to her, while I do the whole lot of heavy lifting… as we did in the apprentice days.

With Chakaras help and Vettes sources, after several months of hard work of investigating and research we managed to find several of the clues and information pertaining the Rakghouls, or rather their beginnings. For you see… the Rakghoul plague was in a way man made. A Sith created the plague with the intent of putting everyone infected by the plague under his control, allowing him to seize great number of slaves, ready to become his army, if he could truly control them in such great numbers, which we doubt that it was possible. For the strength in the force to directly control great numbers of people would be unimaginable to accomplish, and if it was possible to do it, I fear what would happen. There are the reasons why the manipulation of masses is studied in a way that force is not used, but rather other techniques are studied, techniques which even the non-force sensitive could apply. The more believable part of the research that we found was that the first Rakghouls were made by the use of Sith magic and alchemy, but that does not explain how the Rakghoul plague was made to affect even those who should have high resistance to the Sith magic and alchemy. The records pertaining the Sith who created the Rakghouls hinted to him spending decades in Unknown Regions before emerging on Taris and unleashing the Rakghouls. While the information was almost non-existent, there were enough clues to approximate the location of the crashed ship of the Sith on Taris.

The only thing that left to us was to go and find that ship and see what secrets it holds. Taris is well known to be a dangerous location, so going alone without any of the backup or mercenaries would be unwise. We decided to hire a bounty hunter, one of the great renown that we learned of. There are several reasons why we decided to hire him instead of some common mercenaries. His track work on his bounties showed us that he is not just a butcher, but rather a person who does not resort to violence at the drop of the hand, but that he can back the violence with top notch state of the art technology and improvisation skills. Another reason why we hired him was that he did not have any strong connections with the Dark Council of the Empire, which would definitely try and oppose our mission of finding cure for plague. Chakara pulled some of her contacts and connections and managed to rope the services of Cipher 9 to contact the bounty hunter and set up the meeting.

I know that Veete was nervous with all this waiting on the meeting point and a person who is with us. Chakara could not be here, for it would raise to many of the raised eyes why the two prominent figures are going at the same time on Taris, but there was someone named Dr. Lokin who joined us, someone from the entourage of the Cipher 9. That did not bode well nor sit well, but the doctor promised that he was not on the mission for Cipher 9, that he joined us of his own volition. He was radiating off the wrong vibes, and if I read the force correctly… a bit of Rakghoul vibes. The doctor did say that he is interested in seeing the bounty hunter with his own eyes too. And here he returns from a small errand I sent him on of gathering the samples of fauna and water so that Veete and I could have some alone time.

"Doctor, do tell me, why are you interested in evaluating the bounty hunter? Do you not trust your… associate to pick the right person for the job? "

"My lord, we all know that it was not Cipher 9 who picked the bounty hunter, just that he made the contact. I have a vast interest in your projects and some of the research in bioanalysis that I managed to dig out that were your work, my Lord. Meeting on the Taris and asking for the help may hint at some of the things you plan, and I find myself wanting to see what comes at the end of it. Evaluating the bounty hunter myself would be in a good faith. You never know with bounty hunters, if they are truly good as they are said to be or if they have patrons that elevate them above their own means. "

"Do you question the soundness of my decision, Doctor? The Decision of the Emperor's Wrath? "

"No, no my Lord. This servant of Empire would never dare to question your decisions. I just merely state the facts and observations that I learned through my life so that you, my Lord, may have a wider source of information to come to your own conclusions. "

"Good. Well, good thing that you rejoined us when you could, for it seems that we do have company. "

I sensed two people in the force approaching us before I truly saw them. Both of them were clearly Mandalorians, or at least had the connections with Mandalorians for the armour they wore was dead giveaway. By their builds, the leader was a male, while the one who followed him was the female. The leader, his muscular strong build, the way he walked, even the feel in the force, were in some clouded way familiar to me, yet unknown. A mystery to figure out when time was available. Well, I say that I sensed two people, but a bit later I sensed a third one, moving more on the catwalks and hiding in the shadows. A backup perchance if things went sour? Probably. Right before the group of two of Mandalorians did stop in front of us at the meeting point, I did manage to catch some words in the Mando'a. The fascination did take from my initiative and let the doctor speak first on behalf of the group.

"Good day, bounty hunter. Are you here for the contract? "

"Yes"

"Well then, do meet me, the Doctor, and my associates, Sith warrior Marlin and his companion Twi'lek. Now if you are here for the contract…"

"If we are going to play a game of lies, tricks, backstabbing, and betrayal that usually follows Sith deals, I will turn back and go home no matter how many credits you throw at me. I know very well that this Sith juggernaut is not Merlin. So, come clean about the job so that I can decide to even form a contract with you. By the way, call me Cabur and my companion Shusai for the sake of contract. "

I see that the bounty hunter does not mince with the words, and that I should take the initiative from the Doctor otherwise we may lose Cabur.

"This is bit refreshing, talking openly. The mission is to provide support and escort into the zone on Taris that we believe is connected with the history of Rakghouls and their arrival upon the Taris. Knowing the story may help us … deal with the Rakghouls as everyone should do. The pay will be quite high for the kind of job but there will be emphasis on the discretion and confidentiality of the job. Once the job is taken, you will not be able to leave the planet and will not be able to talk to anyone about the job even after finishing it. Being open as much as we can before you accept the job, I will divulge my name to assure for who you will work. Galas Lausk, that is all that should be known of me. Do you accept the contract as it is given right now, even with the information that I divulged to you in show of good faith that I would not otherwise do? Also, in spirit of good faith, would you kindly pull away the friend of yours on the catwalk? His presence does irk me on my senses and makes my lightsaber eager to ignite. "

I heard that there was again some exchange of the words on Mando'a, and then I felt the presence of sniper moving away. Then I did feel something flying my way, but it was of no threat signature in the Force. I caught it in my hand and saw that it was a communicator.

"As it stands right now, I think we will accept the job, but I will still need to check with my crew. No bounty hunter worth his creds would dismiss his crew thoughts about the job. I threw you a personal communicator though which we shall stay in the contact. It is encrypted in the way so that it can communicate with only one other communicator, which I will keep. We will send you a message shorty if we decided to take a job or not. Now about the confidentiality of the job, I can promise you that everything talked in here will be as if it never happened and we have never met. "

With that said, the hunter left the meeting point with his companions in the tow. Well, all in all, that went better than expected. The "good" doctor hid the annoyance with my actions well, but not really that well so I would not notice it in the Force. The doctor was a valuable pawn, an asset, but he knows that I am the commander of this operation and have the final word. Now, that we did get in contact with bounty hunter, only things left are to wait for his response and readying the team for the expedition. With or without the hunter, he would go and see the expedition done and unearth the secrets of the Rakghoul emergence on the Taris.

Several hours later, on the Fury-class Imperial interceptor, Galas Lausk POV:

While the crew was doing the last checks on the inventory and serums, the communicator has started beeping, showing that the message was received and ready to listen to. The message was a short one but to the point.

"We accept the contract. Because of the nature of mission and place, the members will need to spend some time together to see how we all work together before heading deeper into the Taris. In the meantime, we will get the needed equipment that will be enter into the price of contract. The total price of is in the rest of message. "

It seems that we managed to get the bounty hunter on our side. One that promises quite a lot… and that intrigues my senses. There is more to him, and I do want to know about it.

Thedas: Unknown POV

The cogs are starting to move, and great events will take place. Blight is on the horizon, and the winds of change are coming. The world will not wait to get hurled into chaos, it will embrace it no matter the thoughts and feelings of others. And chaos, change, fate, who knows what anymore, will shape those who will fight and survive. A change is coming to all and nothing will stay the same. Only those who presume to know nothing will be the ones with wisdom in these times. Good will become evil, evil will become good, the protectors will turn into aggressors, the caged will free themselves, and fear will rule over all. Or will it? you never know with it… and that is the wonders of the life and time.