Ryluk Shouja

"Hey, I'm a bounty hunter, not a poet."

- Ryluk Shouja to his fiancée, Lymie Chamna

Ryluk Shouja was a bounty hunter that lived during an era of change, and worked under the Galactic Republic, Galactic Empire, New Republic, and the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances. He was considered one of the most competent bounty hunters in the history of the galaxy in his prime.

His career as an active bounty hunter spanned 106 years truncated by his first eighteen years and last twenty-five years. He lived to the age of 149, nearly half again the normal lifespan of the average Human. During that time he married Lymie Chamna, who gave birth to a son. His son's true identity was kept a close secret to protect the young boy from assassination and kidnapping attempts.

Ryluk disappeared with his wife and child into the deep Outer Rim for several years, only reappearing three times over seventeen years before emerging from the Outer Rim with Lymie and returning to live a relaxing life on Coruscant. They became good friends with many young people, creating the perfect cover to visit with their son, whose identity remained a closely guarded secret, even until their death. Ryluk died of old age three years after the death of his wife, Lymie, in 102 ABY.

Early life
Ryluk Shouja was born on J't'p'tan to Karla and Skylkan Shouja in 47 BBY. Both Karla and Skylkan were born Corellian, so it followed that Ryluk would become a Corellian citizen as well. It turned out that Skylkan was not the greatest father figure, being a smuggler and con artist and keeping his true occupation hidden behind the job of a trader, even to his family. He was killed when Ryluk was still only a toddler of two, and Ryluk was brought up under the impression that his father's death was an unfortunate accident.

Life on J't'p'tan was hard for the boy. His mother tried to teach him Corellian culture, all the way down to the Corellian Gambit version of Sabacc, which remained his preferred system of Sabacc throughout his life. He was harassed for being a human by his peers and the locals of J't'p'tan, and especially by a retired Trandoshan mercenary. The mercenary would beat Ryluk extensively whenever the boy was unfortunate enough to cross his path. When Ryluk was fourteen, the Trandoshan mercenary pulled a vibroblade on the boy and slit him from left hip to right shoulder, leaving the boy for dead and laughing as it walked away. Ten minutes later, a visitor to the planet, Lymie Chamna, the daughter of the honest Coruscanti trader, Akak Chamna found the unfortunate boy and took him to her father. The kindly trader adopted Ryluk and took him offworld, where he healed his wounds. The only mark that remained on Ryluk was a thin, white scar from his hip to his shoulder.

Ryluk had four years of peace until Lymie's father died of a rare, untreatable heart disease. The two of them mourned her father's loss, Ryluk just as much as Lymie, as Akak had been just as much a father to him as to her in the last four years. Akak left a sizable amount of credits to the pair, who had fallen madly in love in the four years they had been together. Ryluk, a tall and strong young man decided to pursue the exciting career of bounty hunting. He bought a wreck of an old Pursuer-class enforcement ship and fixed it up, adding his own modifications as he did so. He named the ship the Lymie. He also invested his remaining credits in the Corellian Stock Market, making shrewd investments and becoming a powerful force in the economic world.

The businessman
As well as a bounty hunter, Ryluk Shouja was a major businessman. He originally invested in the Galactic stock market, and made his first million in his early years, shortly after Akak died. This offset the grief of the death somewhat, giving both Ryluk and Lymie something to celebrate after the tragedy of Akak's death. He also bought several companies and subsidaries, most of which profited from his management.



Parable Weapons
The first company Ryluk purchases was a company called Parable Weapons, once a major shipbuilding corporation/weapons manufacturer that had passed its prime. After purchasing the company, the bounty hunter started a new line of high-quality blaster weapons, which caught on instantly and saw wide use through the galaxy. His influence on the company led them into a new era and pulled them up from their previous status of being "average weapons producers."

Parable became a highly successful weapons company under his leadership, producing such luxury weapons as the XS-1500 sporting blaster pistol, but the company also produced heavier blaster weapons, such as the XL-2140 heavy blaster pistol. Parable was the manufacturer that custom-built the 34x advanced blaster pistols that Ryluk gave to his son.

Ryluk had no qualms about selling to the Empire during the Galactic Civil War, and Parable made a good profit selling the XB-x prototype blaster rifle to Imperial troops. This weapon was the first in the successful XB line that provided high-quality weapons for security teams and commando units alike.

Hybar Mining
Aside from weapons manufacturing, Ryluk owned two small mining subsidiaries, the first of which was Hybar Mining. Hybar Mining was a small company that operated in the Corellian system, turning a nice profit by selling valuable ores from its claims to out-of-system buyers. The company had kept a low profile and remained in its corner of the system until Ryluk took over management and expanded operations.

While this would have been good for the company, the increased activity attracted the attention of the Corellian Mining Corporation. The CMC lowered prices for their ores and forced Hybar to sell out, much to Ryluk's chagrin. However, the CMC at least had the decency to buy Hybar for a decent price, and offered to keep Ryluk as the CEO, but the bounty hunter refused, saying that the position would take up too much of his time.

Netronica Mining
After the failed attempt at Hybar mining, Ryluk bought a second mining company called Netronica Mining, which focused its operations on asteroid belts in the Outer Rim. Because asteroids are mainly rock, the mining company had been struggling to mine enough ore to be worthwhile. After Ryluk took over, Netronica expanded and began building mining facilities (backed by Ryluk's personal fortune) on planets.

Netronica did much better than Hybar, becoming a lesser-known but still reliable mining company. To supplement this asset, Ryluk bought a refinery on Corellia, and sold ore at a reduced price to the refinery to sell to Parable at a reduced price, lowering the cost of Parable's weapons and allowing the company to sell more of them, raising overall profits.

After Ryluk's dissappearance, Netronica went public, and when the bounty hunter dissappeared, there was nothing left of his company but a few loose shares for him to reclaim.

Galactic Stock Exchange
"If only playing the stock exchange was as easy as he makes it look..."

- A stockbroker after Ryluk's short-sell of Po'Tas Communications

Ryluk was not only the owner of several companies, but also shareholder of many more. Ryluk bought hundreds of shares of stock early in his life, making shrewd decisions and sitting on the stocks until he needed money or they reached a point where the only place they could go was down. In this way he made millions, financing his purchases of his armor and the companies he later came by.

The most profitable venture Ryluk made was his short-sell of Po'Tas Communications, a fast-rising company that was projected to keep going straight up. Ryluk found a flaw in their communicators and short-sold seven hundred shares, making nearly one million credits in less than a week. The third party he short-sold to was not pleased, although he was also a milti-millionaire who, like Ryluk, made part of his living on the stock exchange.

Ryluk's endeavors in the stock market made him a good reputation in the business world, and he made several rich and powerful friends that helped him out of more than one sticky situation.

Ryluk's net worth was estimated to be 127 billion credits by HoloNet News in 96 ABY. This included the cost of his house, his starships, the net worth of his companies, and his own personal fortune.

The bounty hunter
"You're impossible." "I pride myself on it."

- Lymie to Ryluk

Ryluk started off as a small-time bounty hunter, and would have found it hard to survive had it not been for his business investments. But as he grew older, he grew more experienced. By the age of nineteen, he was a major force to be reckoned with. At this point in his life he left Corellia to explore the galaxy around him. He wound up with a group of smugglers that were captured by a Chiss patrol in the Unknown Regions, and wound up serving on a Chiss Cruiser for nearly two years. During this time he learned the Outer Rim trade languages of Sy Bisti and Taarja, as well as the Chiss trade language Minnisiat and Cheunh. Ryluk received much of his formal combat training and received the equivalent to a military college education while he was with the Chiss.

His sharpened mind and lightning-quick reflexes served him well, and by twenty-one, after he returned from the Unknown Regions, he became known as the most notorious bounty hunters in the galaxy. At twenty-five he bought a very expensive nearly one-of-a-kind, custom made fireworm-scale armor suit, able to stop a heavy blaster bolt. While still attached to the fireworm, the silicon armor plates were rumored to be able to stop a lightsaber. However, when the fireworm died, its scales lost some of their strength, so if Ryluk's armor could really stop a lightsaber was never proven.

With the help of his natural ability, training, and equipment, Ryluk became a force to be reckoned with. He excelled at hand-to-hand and ranged combat, and became proficient in melee combat, all of which served him well. These skills saved his life multiple times, especially when dealing with resourceful targets, such as those that could afford to hire mercenaries to protect themselves. With his large arsenal of weapons and skills, this hunter was unofficially named the most resourceful mercenary of his day, which only added to his reputation.

Ryluk did very well for himself. He scored several major bounties throughout his career, solidifying his position at the top of the hunting field. Many with prices on their heads trembled at the mere thought of Ryluk hunting them, because his reputation spoke of him as not only invincible, but infallible and infinitely cunning. Whether this was true or not, it aided his career and made his work much easier.

Through the years he actively hunted, Ryluk became accustomed to having things his own way. He became quite adept at bargaining and was very stubborn when discussing his decisions, traits that many found annoying but few pointed out for fear of angering the hunter. He remained solid in his decisions whether they were the easiest way to complete his objective or not, only changing his mind when he was proven wrong. This often got him into more trouble than the situation warranted, but his impressive skills always got him out.

Notable bounties
Ryluk had several notable bounties over the course of his career. The first was Lythe Kre’fey, a rogue Bothan who had used his contacts in the Bothan Spy Network for his own personal gain. Locating the Bothan was relatively easy; once Ryluk narrowed the possible planets down to J’t’p’tan, his birthworld, it was only a matter of finding the building the Bothan had occupied. The armored bunker in the middle of the capital city looked a likely candidate, and Ryluk broke into it after using a few thermal detonators to clear the turrets away from the walls and using an armor-piercing charge to blow a hole in the wall large enough for him to crawl through. He extracted the Bothan from his location within the garrison and returned to collect the bounty placed on him.

While leaving J’t’p’tan after collecting Lythe, Ryluk accidentally destroyed the Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser the Chancellor’s Will, which was attempting to intercept the bounty hunter so that the captain of the ship could collect the reward on the large bounty offered for the Bothan. Ryluk used his holoflage generator and sensor-stealth mode to confuse the Dreadnaught, and fired a missile on a line-of-sight track at the cruiser. The missile struck its target directly above one of the fuel lines, and since the Dreadnaught did not have its shields raised, the explosion ignited the fuel and blew the engines apart. The fuel in the lines caused a chain reaction that resulted in the destruction of the power cells and the ultimate destruction of the entire capital ship. Ryluk quickly escaped to hyperspace.

When he reached the capital to collect his bounty, the button-pushers operating the landing sequences unlocked the wrong landing platform, forcing Ryluk to hack into the Senate building to collect his bounty. Security didn’t recognize the infraction at first, but he had to stun several security force officers on his way out.

As a direct result of these two crimes, Ryluk was blackmailed into his next bounty: the assassination of Gibranna the Hutt, a notorious crime lord whose base of operation was the Hutt homeworld of Nal Hutta. Ryluk reluctantly accepted the mission and landed on the planet, his excuse was to turn in a bounty the Hutt had asked for. Gibranna was suspicious of Ryluk’s actions, as the bounty was not worth enough for the fame of the hunter to pursue, and kidnapped Lymie as assurance that Ryluk would not attempt anything against him. However, the effect was the complete opposite: Ryluk was angered by this overt action against his fiancée and overcame all qualms about the job that he had previously held.

Gibranna was assassinated later that day, and five prisoners were liberated from the cells of the Hutt crimelord: Hojs Ceray, a wealthy Aar’aa and the bounty Ryluk had collected on, his fiancée, Lymie Chamna, and the three other prisoners in her cell: two Twi’lek dancers, Astan’alkar and Kyl’ta and a Selonian dancer, Karsimis.

Hunting Lymie
Aside from Hunting bounties, Ryluk also had to hunt Lymie on occasion. Being the love of his life, she was constantly threatened with kidnapping by some evil or another, and several times was captured by crimelords or exceptionally resourceful criminals in an attempt to gain some leverage with Ryluk. All they gained was death. The most notable attempt was Gibranna the Hutt, shortly after the accidental destruction of the Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser the Chancellor's Will. Ryluk was blackmailed by the Republic to assassinate Gibranna and the Hutt found out, kidnapping Lymie to ensure that Ryluk would not attempt to complete the mission. This only hardened Ryluk's resolve, however, and signed his death warrant again, this time by Ryluk's hand, not the Republic's, and Gibranna was assassinated later that day.



The attempts on Lymie's life had an annoying habit of falling on very important days, such as Melona the 28th, the day they had chosen for their wedding in honor of Lymie's parents. The first year they tried to get married, they were attacked by mercenaries hired by the Cathar Honor Guard of Gibranna. After Ryluk retrieved Lymie from the clutches of the Cathar and destroyed the outpost they had used as a prison station, he returned with Lymie and resolved to wear light body armor under his suit the next wedding. However, the next wedding was subject to a terrorist attack, completely unrelated to Ryluk, destroying the cathedral they were being married in and killing the priest performing the ceremony. This pattern continued until they were finally married Melona 28, 21 BBY by Tesh Vohore.

One attempt on Lymie's life was foiled by Ryluk's personal Tac-Spec FIII Footman droid Erudite. The droid was able to kill the invaders before their mission could be completed, thus saving Lymie's life and foiling the plan of the Cathar Honor Guard, who was ultimately behind that particular assassination attempt. This earned the droid the respect of Vakanem, a Wookiee who had declared a life debt to Ryluk, and solidified the droid's importance in the household. Despite the quick work on the part of Erudite, however, Lymie was shot in the back and in critical condition for nearly a week. After her recovery, Ryluk made a point of hunting down the Cathar Honor Guard and exterminating them permanently.

Ryluk always succeeded in bringing Lymie back to Corellia, no matter where she was or who had taken her. Those that managed to kidnap her rarely lived out the day, and invariably never survived. Some managed to hang onto their lives for longer than others using deception and intrigue, but in the end, they all wound up corpses.

Hiding hunter
Ryluk was forced to give up large-scale bounty hunting during the Clone Wars when he took a job for the CIS to sabotage the Clone production facilities in 21.8 BBY. He succeeded in planting the detonators, but he enjoyed the freedom given to him by the Republic, so he removed the detonator pins from the bombs and returned to the CIS headquarters to collect his bounty. The CIS gladly paid him, as their sources in Tipoca City had told them that Ryluk had successfully contacted him and Ryluk left. The CIS found only after he had left that the detonators would not work. The result of this act was the First Battle of Kamino, in which the CIS source was killed.

As for Ryluk, he got away scott-free, except for the massive bounty put on his head by the Separatists. When he returned to Corellia, he immediately sold his house to Lord Fenron, the alternate identity that Ryluk had made in case he ever had to hide out. The Lymie went into storage in a secret vault beneath the mansion and the Pilot's Delight, Ryluk's second ship, took its place on the landing pad.

Ryluk arranged for his disappearance to the Outer Rim regions of the galaxy, constructing an intricate wall of lies and deceptions cleverly mixed with truth and rumor, creating a nearly impenetrable impression that he was hiding from the Confederacy in the Rim, dodging from planet to planet. The locals unwittingly helped him; after hearing the reports of his disappearance, many sightings of the bounty hunter were reported to CIS sources, which invariably led to an investigation down the complete wrong trail. During the height of the war, the CIS eventually gave up their search for the hunter, preoccupied with internal matters and the complications of war. By this time, however, Ryluk was operating with the Liberators Pirate Organization on Najiba. He kept his identity a secret known to only a select few on the planet, and eventually was forced to kill nearly everyone who knew his secret.

The Lord Fenron lived as a notorious hermit, and officially, it was only his droids and him that lived in the Mansion, which remained called the Shouja Mansion long after Ryluk "left." The lord remained indoors most of the time; when the hunter needed to come and go, he used secret passages under the mansion that led either to hangars unconnected with the mansion or to a Parable Weapons storehouse located outside the premesis of the mansion.

After becoming the reclusive Lord Fenron, Ryluk adopted many habits of the fictitious lord. He became somewhat of a hermit in his private life, reflecting the hermit's personality. No one ever saw him, at least as the lord, coming or leaving; in fact, he didn't come or leave for the entire first month of his life as a lord, but lived in the house with just himself, Lymie, Vakanem, Erudite, and the various maintenance and cleaning droids that worked in the house.

During that month, Ryluk, Lymie, Vakanem, and several specialized droids dug a tunnel out of the Shouja Mansion to a small warehouse just outside the grounds of the mansion. The storehouse belonged to the company Parable Weapons, which was, of course, owned by Ryluk. If the bounty hunter needed to come and go, that was generally the path he chose, unless he was leaving as Fenron, which was an extremely rare occurence. The lord only left the mansion if he was going to his ship, or on a very rare occasion going into Coronet for various business meetings. Occasionally Ryluk traveled to Coronet simply to see what the news anchors would speculate on his doing. His droids built a series of tunnels to various hangars and warehouses while Fenron ruled the Shouja Mansion, which allowed Ryluk to come and go as he pleased.



Being as rich and reclusive as he was, Fenron was the subject of much attention from news reporters. However, the best HoloNet News shot ever taken of the lord was a shot of his hooded figure entering a private covered speeder from behind, taken from nearly three kilometers away and digitally enhanced. Fenron became quite popular, and his entire life was speculated on and a book was even written about him. Ryluk bought the book just to see what his fictitious lord had done during his lifetime.

Under the guise of Lord Fenron, Ryluk was no less of a shrewd business operator. He managed his portfolio and communicated with the managers of his companies from his home, which had an untraceable transceiver. Parable Weapons continued functioning as normal, although several officers were questioned by the Confederacy of Independant Systems as to the whereabouts of the owner of the company. Netronica Mining, however, slowed its production considerably, as Ryluk was not able to manage it as thoroughly as he had before being forced into hiding. The company kept afloat, but due to poor management began falling closer to the black.

The Mukhabarat
The Mukhabarat was a little-known but exceptionally efficient Assassin's Guild that operated out of the Happy Skies Casino and Yuhanna Arms, both owned by the leader of the guild, Justin Rettik. In 21.5 BBY, Ryluk tracked them down under the guise of Lord Fenron and asked if he could join. At first the recruiter only scoffed at him, but Ryluk knocked him flat and had the recruiter's vibroblade out in an instant. "Just to prove my skills to the unbeliever," Ryluk said.

The recruiter took him to Rettik, who recognized the bounty hunter for who he really was. Ryluk's life stopped being boring shortly after that.

The bounty hunter was quickly promoted to Captain due to his exceptional reputation that was too good to waste as a mere foot soldier, and he became the Chief of Security of both Yuhanna Arms and Happy Skies Casino putting him in a very powerful position in the organization.

Despite the influence he had over the other six Captains, Ryluk refrained from abusing his power, securing his position in the guild by making wise decisions that earned him the respect of his peers. He also took on several assassination missions, although he restricted himself to only the ones he deemed justified, whether from prior acts or voices.

Assassinations
Each assassination carried out by Ryluk had an exceptionally well-researched reason behind it, and the assassinations generally followed the wishes (unnamed, of course), of the Republic and the justice that it stood for. Each assassination was carried out in a nearly perfect fashion, with no evidence of the assassination left at the site except the body. Even though he sometimes used his disruptor, officials investigating the crime scene chose to "overlook" those minor details, as they unofficially really wanted the targets dead, or really did not care whether the target lived or died.

Ryluk’s first mission was to assassinate a male Twi’lek who had been an instigator of violent riots on the core planet of Coruscant. The riots were generally limited to the non-Human dominated sectors, but affected several large factories on the planet, generally destructively, so a very informed (and wealthy) company executive ordered the assassination of this Twi’lek from the Mukhabarat. The Mukhabarat, knowing of Ryluk’s skill but wishing to see it proven through an assassination on the busiest planet in the galaxy, ordered the bounty hunter on the job.

Ryluk passed his test with flying colors, selecting a Verpine shatter gun from the arsenals of the Mukhabarat to do the job. He pulled the job from a roof two kilometers away, shooting the target while he was turning to face the crowd. The Twi’lek’s own momentum carried him in the opposite direction of the momentum provided by the shot, throwing all pursuers completely off the scent while Ryluk made his escape to report back to Corellia. Justin Rettik was so pleased that he immediately promoted Ryluk to Captain and gave him the position of Chief of Security over both Happy Skies Casino and Yuhanna Arms.

His second assassination was an easier, but still difficult assignment. A Republic governor had received a death threat, and an interested third party decided that the current governor was more profitable for him than the one that would be elected in his place, so he hired the Mukhabarat to eliminate the offender. However, the name was not supplied, nor was the general location, so the job fell to the token bounty hunter of the guild.

Ryluk backtracked the HoloNet threat, using much of his extensive slicing knowledge to do so and was able to extract the name of the offender. After a quick consultation with his information sources, Ryluk located the planet of origination of the threat; with luck, the target was still there when Ryluk arrived, having not expected the transmission to be backtracked that easily. Ryluk pulled the assassination off with a well-thrown blade and pulled back off the planet before the authorities could discover the deed.



End of the assassin
After a line of several completely successful assassinations, Ryluk decided to take some well-earned time off in the Happy Skies Casino. However, it was not the luxurious rest and relaxation that the bounty hunter expected; instead, in the middle of the night, Ryluk was woken by an attempt on his life.

Apparently, somewhere in the line of assassinations carried out by Ryluk, a bounty hunter had caught on to who he was and tracked him back to Corellia, hoping to pull off the kill and collect the massive bounty put up by the Trade Federation. Unfortunately for him, he underestimated Ryluk’s improvisation (and knack for quickly rigging high-quality security devices), and paid dearly for it. After losing his left hand to a quickly drawn vibroblade, the would-be assassin was chased down through the halls of the Happy Skies Casino and finally killed just inside of the doors leading out into the main casino floor, where he would have been home free from vibroblade attack. After Rettik found out, he apologized several times and promised to step up security. However, Ryluk refused the offer of staying the rest of the night, saying that he preferred the security systems of his own house over the openness of the casino rooms. Rettik conceded the point and Ryluk returned home.

The next day, Ryluk returned to announce his intention to leave the Mukhabarat and return to his Hunting in the Outer Rim, after he had been approached by a representative of the Liberators Pirate Organization. He promised to return to the guild eventually, and Rettik let him go, thankful for the service that had already been provided.

Hunting as a lord
After leaving the Mukhabarat, Ryluk did not have much to do with his time, so he decided to take up Hunting again. He cast his fireworm-scale armor aside, settling for a three million-credit suit of armor, manufactured by Parable. He also cast off his DXR-6 and DP-12s in favor of a pair of Parable Weapons XL-2200 heavy blaster pistols, tweaking them significantly enough to suit his purposes. He also carried a Parable XS-1500 sporting blaster pistol as a backup during this time period, essentially turning himself into a walking Parable Weapons advertisement.

The contracts Ryluk collected during this time period were all relatively small but always very difficult, which allowed Ryluk the thrill of the Hunt without much attention being drawn to his figure. The body armor featured an attachable full-mask helmet, which he used when negotiating with his contractors. This extra feature allowed him to remain anonymous even when dealing with beings that would probably have seen him. The contracts were almost completely limited to Outer Rim missions ordered by small-time governments or smuggling organizations with limited HoloNet access.

The end of the lordship
During the middle of the Clone Wars, Ryluk was commissioned by the Liberators for a job in the Outer Rim. He accepted this task and sold the Shouja Mansion back to himself and arranged for a perfect disappearance of Lord Fenron to an obscure system in the Unknown Regions. Along the way, the lord had an "accident", which destroyed the entire ship and all evidence that the lord never really existed. The fake Fenron supposedly had his entire fortune on the ship, and details of a will were never needed to be figured out.

The CIS heard of this development through several of their information channels, but after five assassination attempts were completely thwarted by Ryluk, Erudite, and even the house itself, they decided to give up on killing the Hunter themselves. The only other option for the CIS would have been to send a full task force to attack Corellia, which they were not able to spare the ships for.

Shortly before leaving for the Outer Rim, Ryluk purchased six SD-6 "Hulk" infantry droids and five JK-13 security droids to protect his house and fiancée.

With the Liberators
Ryluk first met the Liberators in 21 BBY on Najiba while hunting Chin Chaldak, a wealthy Coruscanti Human for a Hutt named Delga. Ryluk later realized that he was duped and that Delga was secretly working for Chin, but it took the kidnapping of Lymie to bring him around. It was around that time that Tesh Vohore contacted the Hunter and informed him of a plan to return Lymie to him. Ryluk agreed, but was later arrested by Chin and charged with treason, and sentenced to fight, weaponless, against a dozen armed Najib. He won the battle and the favor of the people and was allowed to move freely around the immigration compound before he was charged again.

The second execution was even less sporting than the first. Ryluk was weaponless against an Acklay. To top it off, Lymie was scheduled for execution in the same way at the same time, and was placed at the top of a large pole in the center of the arena. Just when things were looking completely hopeless, Tesh put Ryluk's armor in a carriage pulled by a small beast of burden native to Najiba.

With the reinforcements of the fireworm-scale armor and eight-inch vibroblade tucked into it, Ryluk killed the Acklay and rescued Lymie from her captivity on the top of the pole. Ryluk swore to kill Chin for what he had done. However, fate was not so kind to him, and it turned out that Tesh needed Chin and protected him by telling Ryluk that it was a Republic admiral behind the kidnapping, not Chin.

After the liberation of Najiba, Ryluk and Lymie were married in a double wedding with a Twi'lek couple by Tesh in a semi-legal ceremony. Ryluk appeared in full battle armor, remembering the former attempts at marriage that had been thwarted by unexpected attacks or completely skipped by missions that lasted longer than expected. Shortly after the wedding, Lymie was kidnapped again, by the admiral, who had by now earned a double death mark: Ryluk's and Tesh's.

The Liberators caught up to the Republic fleet above Druckenwell and Tesh organized a rescue party to penetrate the heart of the fleet, the modified Hammerhead-class capital ship, the Guidance. After landing in the hangar and fighting his way through the clones and closing blast doors, Ryluk managed to arrive just in time to see the admiral pull a blaster on his newly wed wife. Ryluk cringed as a shot rang out, but was relieved to find the admiral in a crumpled pile on the deck and his wife safe and sound as Tesh emerged from the back of the bridge with a smoking DT-12. Tesh renamed the Guidance the Honest Pirate and added it to his fleet.

Ryluk's next mission with the Liberators was to track down and retrieve a Korun mercenary named Ethe Ertes. Ryluk found him on Clantaano III and brought him back to Kinyen, where Tesh was waiting. The Hunter found out that Ethe was the mercenary responsible for taking Tesh's wife on the trip back. After retrieving Ethe, Ryluk was temporarily placed in charge of the Liberators as Tesh traveled back to Coruscant. Tesh jokingly warned him not to blow up his Dreadnaught, as Ryluk had a "record" for it with the Republic. Ryluk good-naturedly protested that it was not his fault. Shortly after Tesh's, Ryluk journeyed with the pirate to Hjim, where he helped Tesh free his wife. Ryluk continued fighting alongside Tesh until shortly after the second Xian Uprising. After that Ryluk left with Lymie to return to Corellia.

Eventually, Chin turned on Tesh again and Ryluk was hired to kill him, spurred on by Tesh's admittance that the kidnapping of Lymie had been Chin's idea in the first place. Chin died at the end of Ryluk's blaster.

Post-Liberator life
After his brief period aligned with the Liberators, Ryluk decided to return to Corellia and take up his old position with the Mukhabarat. He was awarded the position of Head of Security of Yuhanna and Happy Skies, and his old lieutenants were transferred back under his command. He decided to operate out of the Shouja Mansion, where he lived with Lymie, now his wife, and their complement of droids.



In the Mukhabarat, Ryluk mostly managed security issues, as his back began showing the signs of wear he had inflicted on it during his younger years. He had a personal medical droid who was able to drastically slow the process, but little by little, both his eyesight and his physical strength began to deteriorate.

Despite this setback, however, Ryluk was still known as one of the most fearsome Hunters in the galaxy. He still pursued high-difficulty bounties and even managed to successfully complete twenty-three high-profile assassinations for the Mukhabarat over a fourteen-year period, which was a record for the guild. His last assassination was completed in retaliation to the assassination of Justin Rettik, and targeted the four secret leaders of the Genoharadan bounty hunter's guild. The successful completion of this mission resulted in the Genoharadan being set back centuries and marked a glorious end to Ryluk's career.

Lymie became pregnant with their first and only child in 76 ABY. Six months into the pregnancy, Ryluk left Corellia for the Unknown Regions in the Outer Rim, away from the society that both loved and hated him, each for their own reasons. Before he left, he sold the Shouja Mansion as a museum.

Akak Shouja was born in 77 ABY on a remote planet in the Unknown Regions, where he lived with Ryluk and Lymie for seventeen years before returning to Coruscant to live on his own. Ryluk followed him, purchasing an apartment and living near his son, but anonymous enough to protect him from attack. Ryluk kept his legacy a secret from his son even until his death.

Death of the hunter
After returning from the Unknown Regions in 94 ABY and purchasing a home on Coruscant, Ryluk became extremely involved in youth events, hosting them, organizing them, and basically becoming extremely involved in all of the grand plans and sly schemes of the youth in that area of Coruscant. This provided him the perfect cover to interact with his son and his son's friends. Despite being well over one hundred years of age by this time, Ryluk kept up well with the times, and was in amazing physical condition, so was generally accepted by the youth.

He thoroughly enjoyed life until 99 ABY, when Lymie died of old age. He mourned the loss of his loved one for two years before realizing that wasting the short time he had left mourning was not the wisest choice he had made. So he became involved with the youth again, as much as, if not more than, he had before.

Ryluk finally died in 102 ABY at the age of 149, living nearly 150% of the normal Human lifespan. He left an anonymous will in the care of a trusted priest, who saw that Akak was silently given the large inheritance left to him by his parents. With the will, Ryluk attached a letter to his son, explaining the Shouja legacy and telling both his and Lymie's life stories, so that Akak could finally know the truth.

Ryluk's amazingly long life was attributed to a low-level Force-sensitivity, which also explained his success as a bounty hunter.

Postmortem and legacy
Ryluk was buried outside the Shouja Mansion on Corellia, next to his wife. His will was read by a trusted priest, and the possessions were divided among those mentioned in the will. Most of Ryluk's wealth went to his son, Akak, although some items were distributed amongst close friends. Ryluk's weapons and armor all went to his son, however.

A large ceremony was held, courtesy of the Corellian Historical Society, which owned the mansion and grounds. It was a mostly formal funeral and very politically correct, but several of Ryluk's contacts in CorSec and various mercenary/smuggler groups attended, along with many of the youth Ryluk had befriended on Coruscant. Akak paid for these youth to attend the funeral, as he had inherited his father's wealth and had plenty to spare.

After receiving permission to do so from the Historical Society, Akak had a monument built over the graves of his parents as a reminder that there was such a thing as an Honorable Mercenary in the galaxy. The reminder of the monument was amplified when the Corellian Historical Society set up an exhibit in the Shouja Mansion, which had been converted into a museum, in tribute to Ryluk because of the generosity of his price when selling the mansion and its elaborate security system. There was no record of any artifacts ever being stolen from the mansion while it was a museum.

Akak Shouja went on to become a successful mercenary, although he made his own name and did not trade off his father's. Most of his combat training came from Ryluk, however, and he learned it well, although he favored the use of rifles and carbines over pistols as his father had.

Personality and traits
Ryluk was a personable Human, for the most part. He made friends where he could, and generally stayed away from those who would turn into enemies. His philosophy was that if they were nice to him, he would be nice to them. If he had no quarrel with a sentient, he would have no reason to hurt them, unless, of course, they had a bounty on their heads.

Despite his generally agreeable personality, Ryluk could be deadly when the need called for it. Need only called for it a few times during his life, which was fortunate for the others around him. The lethal personality of the bounty hunter was kicked in most often when a sentient threatened his fiancée, Lymie, which happened several times over the span of his career. None of the offenders survived the encounter, and most of them were killed within the day.

Ryluk worked hard to earn his reputation as the most notorious bounty hunter in the galaxy. Those who really knew him knew that he was kind and caring, but to the galaxy at large he was a solid rock, with no exploitable weaknesses and no patience for those who would try to cross him. Certain actions on his part solidified his reputation, killing certain sentients that purposely defied him, often messily and cruely. However, he kept his cold, hard demeanor to the workplace, and when he was at home or with his friends, he became a different person; many of his close friends described him as a normal person.

After returning from the Unknown Regions a father, Ryluk was completely changed. He became much more jovial and less prone to anger, controlling himself and becoming a much loved youth leader. Most of his attitude change was spurred by the fact that he did not have a reason to protect anyone from anything, as he had by now outlived most of his enemies and made no new ones in the seventeen years he had been missing. His wealth also bought him very good security, which allowed him to be more relaxed and enjoy "retirement."

His almost carefree attitude continued until the death of his wife. The death of Lymie threw him into a depression that lasted two years before his teenage friends were able to help him pull through. After he got over the death of his wife, Ryluk lived happily with his young friends until his death.

Talents
Ryluk was a man of many talents. He was adept at slicing computer systems, enough that he was able to slice his way into the Senate chambers of the Galactic Republic on Coruscant, which later got him into trouble. The Hunter was able to slice many different systems, military, civilian, and alien alike. He possessed the unique skill of being able to hack into Chiss military files, which he picked up during his two years serving under the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet.

Ryluk was also proficient in the use of many types of weapons but specialized in melee combat and pistol combat. He had adequate control of all types of heavy weapons, a feat learned courtesy of his time with the Chiss, and could handle most types of exotic weapons with relative ease, or at least learn how to use them quickly. His personalized blaster pistols were by far his most practical weapon, as they had been fine-tuned to fit his needs perfectly, and with the added bonus of having a natural knack for pistol combat, Ryluk managed to get a long fine with those weapons.

As far as melee combat went, Ryluk was an expert. He could handle one or two vibroblades at a time, and was proficient in the use of double-bladed and two-handed weapons, although he by far preferred a two-weapon fighting style. He was a force to be reckoned with unarmed as well, having learned street fighting when he was young, then had his skills honed by Chiss military training and later other martial arts instructors.

Ryluk had an unusual talent for being perceptive of people's thoughts and motives, which was attributed to his low-level Force sensitivity. This allowed him an advantage when dealing with his clients and his targets both, giving him even more of an edge than he already had from his extensive training.

Equipment/Accommodation
"You're well enough equipped to take on a Republic battle army from the Great Sith War."

- Lymie Chamna

Ryluk's equipment was his pride and joy. His ship, the Lymie, named after his lovely fiancé was equipped with many upgrades not available on the open market, including prototype weapons stolen from design manufacturers. His armor was the best money could buy, and the weapons were top-notch and modified to be even better.

Armor
Ryluk has a custom-made suit of fireworm-scale armor. The fireworm scales were made of a silicon crystal, and while on the worm were strong enough to block most of the power of a lightsaber. Off the fireworm, the scales were never tested against a lightsaber, as there were only a limited amount found on the dead fireworm that were still intact enough to use for armor.

The scales fit together perfectly, creating a nearly impenetrable suit of armor, even stronger than the legendary armor of the Mandalorian warriors. His helmet was plated with the same scales, giving it a squarish look. His jetpack was the only part of his armor that was not plated with the scales, as when he had the armor made, having a jetpack had not occurred to him. The jetpack itself was made of a red durasteel with a compressed hydrogen-fuel chamber that occupied the entire rocket, giving the bounty hunter enough fuel to boost himself two hundred feet vertically or one kilometer horizontally at a maximum speed of 120 km/hr. There were small maneuvering jets on the sides of the jetpack, but the only way to slow down was for him to run into something or to turn away from the direction he was going and fire the jets until he slowed.

Ryluk also had an alternate set of black battle armor that he used when performing incognito.



Weapons
Ryluk had a large selection of weapons, both ranged and melee.

Blaster weapons
Ryluk's main weapon of choice was his DXR-6 disruptor rifle, which was illegal on most worlds and got Ryluk into trouble more than once. It did, however, get him out of trouble more than it got him in trouble, so he kept it. He customized the disruptor to have a single-second recharge period instead of the average ten-second period, and was able to increase the power efficiency to get fifteen shots out of a clip instead of the normal ten.

His pistols were customized BlasTech Industries DP-12 heavy blaster pistols. The pistols had 100 shots per clip by modification and were capable of penetrating durasteel armor plating at high power. The recharge rate between shots was cut down to half of a second by major modifications by Ryluk, making them effective semi-automatic weapons, even if they cost 15,000 credits a piece, plus modification costs.

As a backup, Ryluk generally carried two 22T4 holdout blasters tucked away in his armor, in case his weapons were ever confiscated or if he was ever away from his weapons and needed a blaster. When in his alternate armor, Ryluk carried a Model Q4 holdout pistol.

Vibroweapons
Ryluk owned several vibroweapons of various sizes and functions. His main vibroblade that was almost always with him was an eight-inch vibroblade made by Ryluk himself while he was a boy growing up on J't'p'tan. Ryluk later modified it and made it much more efficient and powerful.

Ryluk also often used his wrist vibroblade, which was permanently attached to his armor. The blade was a mere three inches long, but it came in handy when Ryluk was unable to reach his other weapons in hand-to hand combat. The weapon extended when Ryluk closed his fist and sensors on his glove touched sensors on his hand. The blade retracted when the fist opened and the sensors lost contact.

One of Ryluk's more subtle vibroweapons was his three-inch vibrostiletto. When retracted, it was little more than a small handle tucked into a belt pocket in Ryluk's armor, worth little or no investigation. However, when activated, the blade would shoot out quickly, becoming a short but lethal weapon. The vibrostiletto was a perfectly-balanced throwing weapon, if Ryluk had misplaced or was unable to reach his blasters.

The last two vibroweapons Ryluk used regularly were gifts given to him by Hojs Ceray after Ryluk saved his life. The weapons were Krayt dragon pearlhandled and studded with Durindfire gems. Each blade was ten inches long, and the pair worked well together when used one in each hand.

A special modification to his armor was added in 24 BBY; a pair of vibroclaws that could be activated and used as extremely lethal close-combat weapons or deactivated and used as climbing aids. Ryluk saw little use out of these weapons, but their function made several contracts much easier to complete.

Explosives
The bounty hunter also carried either twelve custom-made A-grade thermal detonators or 6 custom-made A-grade thermal detonators, 3 EMP grenades, and 3 EC detonators. Ryluk was also equipped with 3 Baktoid AA-33Q armor-piercing charges.

The Shouja Mansion
Ryluk's property, the Shouja Mansion, as it was unofficially named on Corellia was an ancient house built in ages past. The architecture was so archaic that the manual doors had to be modified to allow for electronic entry and passcode confirmation locks.

The house itself was three stories high and filled with works of art, a testament to Ryluk's success as a businessman. The house had an extensive kitchen/cellar area as well as over a hundred bedrooms. There was a full droid staff, but only Ryluk, Lymie, and Vakanem lived there.

The house had a security system with cameras in nearly every room, all wireless. The system had a HoloNet transmitter that Ryluk could access from anywhere in the galaxy, and it also had a radionics transmitter that sent the information to a system in the house. Because radionics could not have a limited broadcast, like the HoloNet, the outside walls of the mansion had a lead core to prevent the transmissions from escaping.

Behind the Scenes

 * "Ryluk Shouja" is an anagram of "Kurly Joshua", User:Ryluk Shouja's nickname, followed by his given name.
 * Ryluk Shouja is the main character in the book series A Hunter's Tale, which is currently being written by the author of this article.
 * Ryluk expresses the author's interest in having a neutral/slightly bad (in some eyes) character as the main character, instead of having the main characters only good/bad guys.
 * Ryluk had two cameo appearances in Season 1 of The Fanon Menace.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: A Hunter's Tale: The Legend
 * Star Wars: A Hunter's Tale: Only Man Standing
 * Star Wars: A Hunter's Tale: Clone Bounty
 * Star Wars: A Hunter's Tale: Assassins
 * Star Wars: Key of Deceptions
 * Star Wars: Liberations
 * The Fanon Menace Season 1: Part II - Attack of the Franks (Non-fanonical appearance)
 * The Fanon Menace Season 1: Part III - Revenge of the Bith (Non-fanonical appearance)