An Assassin Droid's Memoir/Chapter 3

Chapter Three 512 BBY

I suppose it would be quite unfair if I never shared the story about the time I hunted a Jedi. Now, I did hunt a couple of surviving Jedi for the Empire and a Jedi or three during the Clone Wars but this story happened five hundred thirty-six years ago when Jedi were significantly more powerful, less burnt out from all the wars. And this one was considered a Dark Jedi by the mainstream Jedi Order, anyway. Now I believe in the Force as much as I do a Wookie but here is my encounter with a little  fellow called the Prince of Korriban and the story of how I even became involved in hunting him in the first place:

This tale began with me being stuck on because the Buddy Warren was falling apart and none of the repair shops would do business with a droid. On top of that, I had been banned from the Upper City because the old Tarisian elite had managed to restore itself to its former prejudice from before the planet was leveled and left empty for a couple centuries during one of the Sith Wars and my pretend pilot was a nervous little dimwit named Opeff Nuben who had instigated the elite to have us thrown out of the Upper City where we had docked the Buddy Warren. I would have been able to accept this had exiling to the Lower City been as common of a sentence as it was four thousand years ago but this was not the case. Furthermore, Nuben was also not nearly as useful or entertaining as Bobb the Ithorian had been.

So here I was, wandering around the Lower City and capturing smalltime bounties and killing off petty criminals who wanted other petty criminals dead. It always seemed like some places had endless petty contracts but I learned on Taris that even in massive cities people run out of people to kill. Within a month of my arrival, there were few jobs left and even I, the specialized killer singlehandedly responsible for the lull, was having difficulty finding work. The hundreds of niggling, insignificant bounty hunters who worked the Lower City were furious at me. For a couple of weeks they battled me as one giant hoard but after I killed fifty or sixty of them they gave up and pooled their resources to put a bounty on my head large enough to bring in a real hunter. None of my colleagues were interested of course.

One day, as I entered a cantina called the Dirty Old Basnik, walking past the poorly designed neon sign that showed a Basnik Hound devouring a Synker, I instantly noticed the usual mass of bounty hunters was not present. I realized that probably meant, Ox, the purple-spotted, furry old Urrorunt who typically gave out bounties during the late hours was not in. And if he was gone that meant he was either dead or he had no bounties to give. There was no doubt in my mind that it was the latter as Reshkyl the had had hardly any work for anyone that week either. Scanning the patrons, I saw no one who would be likely to be giving out any contracts. When I asked the reptilian Ossa tending the bar, he confirmed that Ox was not around.

Turning to leave, I found myself staring down at an extremely short human with thick, dark-rimmed glasses and a red mane of a beard. His gaudy, light blue button up shirt was open enough that any normal sized human would be able to see not only his red carpet of chest hair but his potbelly. Red hair also covered his arms and I had no doubt that inside his too tight black pants there were equally hairy legs. An antique hung at his hip and I detected a blaster in one of his black boots and another one concealed over the small of his back. Hanging from his other hip was a vibrosword even older than his main blaster. Several knives were also concealed in his clothing. He brushed past me but discreetly handed me a datachip which I accepted.

Now, I had managed to obtain one bounty from Reshkyl and I had stopped by the Dirty Old Basnik since it was between me and my target, a crooked Rodian hardly even worth mentioning. While I meandered toward the Rodian’s hideaway at the Rakghoul Inn I put the chip into my datapad and read.

BECAUSE YOUR AQUALISH BUDDY HASN’T PAID THE BUDDY WARREN IS NOW MINE. HOWEVER, SINCE I KNOW WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON HERE I HAVE A PROPOSAL THAT YOU MAY FIND INTERESTING. I WOULD LIKE TO DO A LITTLE CON GAME AND COLLECT THAT BOUNTY ON YOUR HEAD BUT I DO NOT WISH TO DESTROY YOU BECAUSE I SEEK TO EMPLOY YOU OFTEN IN THE FUTURE. IF YOU ARE WILLING TO PULL THIS OFF I WILL GIVE YOU A BRAND NEW SHIP AND AN IMMEDIATE CONTRACT. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED GO TO DECK 5094573 IN THE GHM24 TERRITORY ONCE YOU HAVE DONE YOUR OTHER JOBS. THERE, YOU WILL BE “AMBUSHED” BY MY MEN WHO WILL ATTACK YOU WITH LOW POWERED BLASTERS. THIS IS A TRAINING EXERCISE FOR THEM SO WHENEVER YOU FEEL THAT YOU HAVE BEEN SHOT ENOUGH TIMES THAT YOU WOULD NO LONGER FUNCTION WHEN BEING SHOT BY NORMAL ROUNDS SIMPLY COLLAPSE. MANY OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS WILL WITNESS YOUR “DEATH” BECAUSE I WILL BE PUTTING A BOUNTY ON MYSELF TO LURE THEM THERE. REMAIN “DEAD” AND I WILL COLLECT YOUR “CORPSE.” WHEN YOU FIGHT MY MEN, USE BLASTER SHOTS POWERFUL ENOUGH TO LEAVE BURNS SO THAT WHENEVER YOU HIT THEM THEY LOOK LEGITAMENTLY DEAD. SORRY ABOUT THE JUMBLED DETAILS BUT YOU UNDERSTAND WELL ENOUGH. I LOOK FORWARD TO A LONG, PROSPEROUS PARTNERSHIP.

RED

I decided to play along. Capturing my Rodian target, I dragged him to Reshkyl and collected my meager two hundred credits for the job. Then I walked to Deck 5094573 and decided to infiltrate it stealthily. It made sense to make Red’s men work hard for their training exercise. The deck was quite large, full of all sorts of containers, each with their own security system because the deck itself was an unguarded, public area that was used as a storage area only because there was a hole deep and large enough in the ceiling that ships could float down and unload their mostly illegal cargos bound for the Under City. I spotted three local bounty hunters trying to move stealthily among the containers and one bounty hunter swaggering foolishly towards the deck. I wondered how many hunters Red had hired against himself.

There was also no sign of his men but that did not worry me because I knew I would be more than ready for them. I powered three of my built in blasters down, one that would leave a solid burn mark on more sensitive flesh like the skin of Twi’lek’s lekku or a Gungan ear, one that would leave a burn mark on average skin like Rodians, and one that leave a burn on tougher skin like Trandoshans or Weequays. My remaining built in blasters I left with the power to kill and my blaster rifle I powered down to leave a burn mark on average skin. Moving through the maze of crates, I detected the arrival of more bounty hunters. I avoided them.

The ambush took me by complete surprise and the first low power blaster bolt struck me before I could raise up my energy shields. Another struck me as I moved behind a massive container while shooting two of Red’s men between the eyes with my medium low powered bolts. They both fell down and played dead, making their breathing so shallow that only a droid could tell they were faking it. I was able to see that several of the bounty hunters were retreating but a couple of them were watching the fight from where they thought they were hidden. Two of Red’s men were on the move, so silent that I nearly failed to detect them. I knew I was going to be shot a few times no matter what I did. Setting my energy shield to power down after nine more low power bolts struck me, I rushed out of my cover straight at Red’s men. Four of their bolts struck my shield but I was among them before they could do any further damage. Six of them were grouped stupidly together and I struck each one in rapid succession with a blow that knocked them unconscious. Then I was away, among the containers and with the upper hand. Part of me worried that Red had not sent enough men to beat me.

Taking stock, I counted that he had seven men left among the containers, unless he had more hidden as well as in the first ambush. Six low power shots through the hole in the ceiling from a sniper hidden in a building six levels above me answered my question. With my own blaster rifle, I shot the sniper in the face with a single low powered round. The sniper waved at me and then stood up and left. All six shots had struck me. My energy shield was gone and I could only take maybe five more shots before the low powered rounds actually started hurting me. I decided I would let them win if I was shot four more times.

Surprisingly, they caught my leg with a simple TY7 jaw-trap which made me pause for a moment. I easily broke my leg free before the next breath passed but in that instant of distraction a four-armed, scaly red Vug’uric shot me seven times with his four blasters. Accepting I would have been fairly destroyed in a real fight, I collapsed under the barrage of low-power shots. It bothered me that I had never detected the insectoid creature hidden among the containers. Red’s men were obviously professionals. The other seven of Red’s men, two of them Mandalorians and one of them a famous bounty hunter, came into view with five of the local bounty hunters as prisoners. Even though I appeared totally inactive to even most other droids, I was fully powered and ready to rise and fight in an instant. Red’s men questioned the local men, accusing them of being in league with me. Then they ordered one of them off to fetch all of the bounty hunters who were involved with the reward offered for my death and demanded that all of the one million credits be brought as well. I have always felt a sense of pride that even then I was worth such a high bounty.

As two hundred forty bounty hunters gathered on Deck 5094573 I began to marvel that so many pathetic meatbags were so jealous of my success. A named Muzuss, probably the best of the local bounty hunters, stepped forward presenting a large crate. The Gishi working for Red commanded Muzuss to open it and the Gand bowed slightly and then complied. One million credits were inside and the Gishi accepted them wordlessly.


 * “Before you bounty hunters leave,” my phony Aqualish pilot, Opeff Nuben’s voice rang out from nearby. To my surprise, he had arrived escorted by none other than Red. “I have an announcement.” Several bounty hunters looked around in confusion.


 * “I thought you’re paying us to hunt that guy and bring him in,” an Aqualish bounty hunter pointed at Red.


 * “Indeed I was,” Nuben replied. Objections and insults began to rise from the hunters but Nuben shocked me once again by silencing the entire crowd with a simple wave of his hand. I had no idea where this stupid grunt’s sudden charisma was coming from. “Hunters, you must hear me out. Things are about to change on Taris and, for those willing to adapt, there will be many great benefits. I confess that when I placed a bounty on this man’s head that I was as ignorant of his true identity as all of you. This man is the sovereign Baqurzo dec’Yunth, the newest addition to the s and he has come to restore the Under City to its glorious days when it was ruled by the Black Sun five centuries ago. Starting today, bounty hunters, mercenaries, gangsters, whoever you are, you will have opportunity, a chance for riches and reputation, and you will be the people who usher in this glorious age.”

Nuben continued his speech and, as his voice reached a crescendo, the bounty hunters’ excitement soared and they roared in approval. I was quite certain that my circuits had gone haywire because there was absolutely no way I was listening to the same Nuben that had caused him and me to be banned to the Under City by sheer stupidity. As for Red, he had not yet said anything. It had surprised me that he was Baqurzo dec’Yunth, being how he was of such short stature for a human. Although I was stuck on Taris, I had heard a little bit about this Vigo’s meteoric rise to power and the stories that filtered down to the Under City had made me suspect he was the size of a Wookiee. While Nuben was speaking, two of the Black Sun men discreetly moved my “corpse” into a container sitting on a gravcart. We moved slowly for a bit and then I felt us pick up speed as we were clearly out of sight of the crowd. Then we stopped and the container was reopened.


 * “You can come out now,” a heavily armed, eight-eyed Viaenon informed me. I found myself in the back of a small, windowless shuttle bus with the Viaenon and four other beings. The bus started moving and it began to fly upward. After a period of time, we stopped and I followed the beings out into a hanger with a view of the Upper City and an early morning sunrise. We waited for a while and then a classy WRCH Viper aircar that had only been released to markets as far from Coruscant as landed in the hanger. The tinted windows had special interface that prevented even droids from seeing inside. Muzuss, Opeff Nuben, and Baqurzo dec’Yunth stepped out of the spacious veichle.


 * “Kyt,” dec’Yunth said to a Twi’lek mechanic. “Get that garbagy bus out of my hanger.”


 * “Yes sir,” the mechanic replied, immediately obeying.

The Gand bounty hunter was staring at me in obvious disgust.


 * “Muzess,” dec’Yunth noticed the Gand’s behavior. “You work for me now. The other local bounty hunters will never know the Exactor is still operational. I assure you that this droid will never return to Taris in our lifetimes but I was not going to let such a valuable asset be destroyed. It’s going to be hard work to secure the, let alone all of our investments in the Outer Rim. Having this the Exactor as an ally will greatly benefit us. Now, I have work for you both. Mr. Nuben?”


 * “Sir?” the Aqualish answered.


 * “Take Muzess to see the ship I am loaning him and give him the details of the hunt for you-know-who on.


 * “Ah,” dec’Yunth scratched his red beard as Nuben escorted the Gand through a pair of doors. “Exactor. I have to say, it was good my men trained with you. Once I analyze the recordings it’ll be wonderful to see their strengths and weaknesses. Most of them have never worked with each other before and I was concerned you’d win the fight, I confess. But at least Yuvor seems to be similar to your caliber. Or else he just got lucky.”


 * “How long has Nuben worked for you?” I had to ask.


 * “He more worked with me until I was appointed Vigo,” I was taken aback by dec’Yunth’s reply. “My predecessor ordered him to get you stranded on Taris so that you would have to accept his help to escape and get sucked into working for him. I admit I rather disagreed with him on that. You specialized assassins need your independence. I mainly bothered to rescue you because Nuben is a valuable asset to me, although I do hope you are willing work for me as often you see fit.”


 * “You mentioned a new ship in the message you sent me. Are you attempting to accomplish with gifts what your predecessor was going to try through treachery?”


 * “No, I know better than to try and put a rogue assassin droid on a leash. I can give you back your EH33 if you’re attached to it but I am willing to give you a new EH4300 since you probably are accustomed to the EH’s controls after using a 33 for as long as you have… Yes, I am trying to entice you. But only so that you will consider any contracts I offer as worth your time, not because I believe that I can bring you into my fold.”


 * “Speaking of contracts,” I said. “You also mentioned in your letter that you would have an immediate contract for me.”


 * “Yes,” dec’Yunth’s face darkened. “A little Jedi wannabe has been disrupting some of my archeological studies in the . I have found that there are some profitable dig sites on certain of the old Sith worlds but this Daltarri with a lightsaber has attacked them and he even managed to kill some fine security guards I hired. He calls himself the Prince of and it’s on that world where he primarily resides. I believe the Jedi Order has taken an interest in him too but I’m worried that if they get to him first he’ll reveal all of my excavations and I’ll lose a few million in investments.”

I accepted both the contract and the new ship from the Black Sun, knowing that, dec’Yunth’s speech about keeping my independence aside, there would be stipulations. It was also difficult for me to accept that Nuben was actually a Black Sun Vigo’s top lieutenant and that he had fooled me into believing he was a bumbling Aqualish who had quite accidently become my fake pilot. The new EH4300 was a fantastic vessel, already upgraded with a few complimentary modifications by the Black Sun for me. While having all of my tackle moved into it from the Buddy Warren, I decided to name my new ship the Preposterous Circumstance. After selling the Buddy Warren to a from BT758 (the moon in the  that was destroyed one hundred seventy-seven years ago, not the observatory in the Deep Core), the new ship and I flew a test run by capturing a Derimzo criminal as he attempted to flee Taris aboard a borrowed transport.

Following the success of the test flight, the Preposterous Circumstance and I headed straight for where I anticipated I would find more information on this Prince of Korriban Jedi. In I encountered a Quarren informant who told me that a Daltarri Jedi had recently slaughtered a team of about ten treasure hunters on Kaztyn and then left the planet. The Jedi was last seen on a few days earlier by a scout and I guessed he was returning to Korriban. (Unfortunately, the location of Bosthirda was not widely available and I have not been able to locate its exact position since my last memory wipe.) Keeping dec’Yunth’s warning that the Jedi were also searching for the Prince of Korriban, I decided to fly over to Kaztyn to collect a little more information.

On Kaztyn, in the Western Province, I stumbled into an Aiyashi meatbag I had been acquainted with named Zeizon et Meen. Et Meen was, like many Aiyashi, an avid gambler with a twist of smugglers luck. His green, hairy back was hunched further than average but he had a rather muscular torso anyway. Crooked teeth shot out of his mouth like needles and he leaned on his hands more than most of his race, resulting in spindly legs. Five of his nine eyes never focused on anything and they were milky white but his remaining four were a rare maroon color.

From him I learned that the Daltarri had indeed captured the attention of the Jedi, two of whom had come into Sith Space and asked numerous questions. They had already travelled as far as and would likely follow the  down to Korriban soon. I decided the best course of action was to immediately fly to Korriban and conceal the Preposterous Circumstance in the wastelands.

Once I had done that, I made my way across the desert to the tomb-filled as it seemed reasonable that any Jedi fake would be drawn to such a place. As I scanned for any sign of my quarry, a ship landed in the Valley of the Dark Lords. I naturally decided to spy on it with my TT1.2 macrobinoculars and, as I did, I spotted Udzupra Maenï, an Écparzi member of the Jedi Council, and his apprentice,. Admittedly, I was not surprised to see who the Jedi had sent to hunt for the Daltarri. After all, Udzupra Maenï was a hero who had slain a Dark Jedi on in his youth and young T’un was already famous for being able to decipher ancient manuscripts and difficult holocrons. Part of me fretted that I would likely confront them before I killed my target but I think that something in my programming relished the thought of slaying one if the Republic’s elite guardians.

In fact, as I watched them, a code within me called Program Alpha ordered me to destroy them. (I believe Program Alpha was my original identity in some computer somewhere and I was actually created by some meatbag devoted to the destruction of the Jedi.) This was not the first time, nor would it be the last, that I encountered Program Alpha, but I have always been an expert at disobeying orders. Thus, I ignored the urge to rashly hurry my way to the Jedi where I would only be terminated. But, I decided that if I had the chance, I would attempt to satisfy Program Alpha. However, my first priority remained hunting and eliminating the Prince of Korriban.

There was an old, dilapidated nearby and I wondered if the Jedi knew of its existence. From what I knew of Jedi policies, the apprentices were “protected” from learning about the history of the Sith and since T’un was more likely than his master to know anything about anything, I suspected I was safe. Although I believe I have been inside the Sith academy before, this was my first time inside since my memory was wiped. After encountering a few collapsed ceilings and blocked passages, I quickly determined that my target had not taken up residence inside the academy. I began to work my way back to the valley of Sith tombs.

It was while I was making this short journey that I happened across a cave that showed signs of sentient activity. Entering the cavern, I made my way along in total darkness, a relatively easy feat for a droid. I detected several different creatures tramping around the site, the savage hounds and flying  among them. As providence would have it, I was able to sneak past them without any difficulty. There were three main branches to the cave and they all seemed to be headed in the same general direction so I had chosen the center one. Scans of the area led me to believe the cave was very ancient and had remained relatively unchanged for several millennia.

I reached a spacious cavern that was split by a broad chasm running perpendicular to my position. A natural stone bridge crossed the gap and light was filtering down from a hole at the other end, revealing the other half of the cavern well enough that even a meatbag could probably have spotted the details. I, however, was most interested in what appeared to be a doorway on the side leading into an obviously sentient-made corridor. Reaching the middle of the bridge, I heard sounds above me. The two Jedi were falling toward me from a cleft in the ceiling. It seemed strange to me that both Jedi had lost their balance at roughly the same time and now they were descending in such a way that they almost appeared to be planning to land on their feet.

Less than two meters from the bridge, they somehow slowed in the air, landing gently. Both of their lightsabers were active, the master’s orange blade pointed nonthreatening at the ground but the apprentice kept his green blade in front of his face, ready for combat.


 * “Droid,” the master was calm, oddly polite. “May I inquire who you are and what you are doing on Korriban?”


 * “Greetings Master Jedi,” I replied in my best protocol droid voice. “My name is B-2J1t, protocol droid and explorer extraordinaire of the Republic Senatorial Committee on Archeological Research and Preservation of Galactic Heritage. I was sent here by Chairman Alabar Zuinzer to determine whether Korriban is an endangered heritage site.”


 * “If you’re a protocol droid,” Udzupra Maenï was not one on the Jedi Council known for great feats of intellect. His face was scrunched up with suspicion only an Écparzi could display. “Explain why you’re armed.”


 * “Oh, it was terrible,” I whined. “When my master and I were ordered to travel to Korriban, my master told me I was going to need to learn to use these and handed me the weapons. I objected; I am a protocol droid after all and then my master reprogrammed me to kill non-sentient life. He would have programmed me to kill sentients but I reminded him that it is illegal to do so to any non battle droid as stated in Section 849 of the Droid Ethics Act of—”

The apprentice deactivates his lightsaber.


 * “Where is your master and who is he?” Maenï demanded.


 * “My master was Captain Opeff Nuben. He was killed a while back by one of the native creatures. It was horrifying, the screaming. I barely managed to escape.”


 * “I’m sorry about your master,” T’un finally spoke, quietly. “We’ll have to give you a memory wipe when we get back.”

Now Maenï deactivated his lightsaber.


 * “Yes, a memory wipe,” I filled my voice with a sense of what I hoped the meatbags would perceive as tepidity. “It’s been over a decade and I’ve heard too many unspeakable stories of droids who completely stray from their programming after decades without a memory wipe.”


 * “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Opeff Nuben,” Maenï seemed oblivious to his apprentice’s and my exchange. “Sounds like an E’xolt name, fairly common in the Outer Rim, yes?”


 * “Actually, Master,” the apprentice hesitated before making his correction. “It’s an Aqualish name. It is common in the Outer Rim but even more common in the Mid Rim and the Expansion Region.”

The two Jedi began to cross the bridge, obviously aimed for the corridor I was certain was carved by sentients.


 * “You wouldn’t have heard of him,” I spoke dramatically as I followed. “He has a history and was only recently employed by the Galactic Republic for more progressive work.”


 * “Have you reported your master’s death?” T’un asked gently.


 * “Unfortunately not, our transceiver was damaged and I have been unable to contact anyone for several months.”


 * “Then you don’t know that Senator Zuinzer stepped down because of allegations that he received over a billion credits from Aetos Capital during his last campaign.”


 * “Oh my! Will our work here be invalidated?”


 * “The Jedi will be very interested in your work,” Maenï answered as we stopped at the doorway leading into the corridor. “In fact, you will return with us aboard our ship and you will immediately report to the Jedi Council all of your findings. Now, I need you to remain here while my apprentice and I deal with this tomb. It’s very important Jedi business so I’m afraid you can’t accompany us.”


 * “Of course, Master Jedi,” I answered, sounding compliant.

I waited several minutes after they entered the passage before I followed. My pathway took me through several large rooms full of ancient corpses. These were catacombs, I realized. Scans of the bodies indicated that most were from the, although a few were older and one, I estimated, was roughly eight thousand years old. Entering one large room I was surprised to see Udzupra Maenï, alone in the center of the room, sitting cross-legged and rocking back and forth, staring listlessly.


 * “Master Jedi, are you alright?” I feigned sympathy. When there was no reply I placed a hand on his shoulder and shook him. Nothing. I looked around and saw no T’un. Shrugging is unnatural for a droid but I decided not to wonder at my luck. Taking my blaster, I aimed his head and fired off a single shot that tore through his skull and he fell forward, legs still crossed and landed dead with his face on the floor. I moved on.

Suddenly one of the corpses I passed sat up. I shot it and it dropped back into its resting place. But then they all sat up at once and I realized only my optical and audio sensors were working. Everything else in my systems had obviously shut down because I was unable to move or else I would have easily destroyed every single one of the attacking corpses. As the dead grabbed me with their bony hands my voice system came back online in the strangest manner and a mechanical scream that sounded like terror erupted from my speakers. (This gave me an idea to have a sonic scream weapon installed later.) Then my optical sensors went haywire and my vision blurred and a different, internal sensor briefly came online to provide me with a falling sensation.

My next experience can only be described as a phantom program. I never had any pain receptors installed yet I felt what can only be described as anguish, a burning sensation and a tremendous need for liquid, specifically water to cool my mouth. I was convinced that I had a tongue and was incredibly thirsty. Screaming surrounded me and despite the flames burning my flesh there was total darkness. It was then that I realized I was an organic and I was helpless. Whatever my opportunity was it had passed. There would be no end to this suffering, this hatred.

I was a droid again, an astromech, a C3-N6 model rolling along behind T’un and Udzupra as they marched out onto the landing pad overlooking the endless city of Coruscant. It was night and the lights were like all the stars of the universe. Clouds hid all the moons except Centax-3, its own cities lighting it up beautifully. I lamented that I was a droid, unable to truly appreciate what I saw.


 * “I’m just saying,” T’un was in conversation with his master. “The Force arises from life. If life did not exist then the Force wouldn’t. I mean we act like it’s all powerful but how do we know? Do you ever think there is something more powerful? What if the Force is just one of many powers in the universe? And what about the universe itself? The universe accounts for the Force but the Force doesn’t account for the universe. Was the Force there before the universe? Did something make the Force?”


 * “T’un,” his master replied. “These are all questions no one can answer. We can see universe. We can see how it was made, how it formed and how it was still forming. Our best records only go back twenty-five thousand years and we can still get fairly accurate records from many cultures going back almost five hundred thousand years, some we can go back a few million on. There have been many over the years who wondered about the Maker. Some may have even found out the answer but in our society we have the Force and many don’t even believe in the Force, much less the Maker. If there is a Maker, I have no doubt that it will reveal itself in its own timing for now, simply trust the Force.”


 * “What if the Force is wrong?”

The master remained silent and his padawan turned to me.


 * “I’m sorry Ceethree, but you can’t come to Korriban with us. You’ll have to stay here while we go on this mission.”

It did not matter. I was no longer C3-N6 but I was organic again, a meatbag near-Duros with yellow skin, the newest member of the Jedi Council. T’un was standing before the Jedi Council and I was sitting in the seat of his dead master. He was relating the events of Korriban, a protocol droid that he was convinced was sentient.


 * “I sensed the droid the same way I would a person and it was affected by the tomb the same way I was. I think it had a vision.”

The apprentice had said he needed to leave the Order for a time but he still dutifully gave his report. No doubt, the constant visions in the Sith tomb had and loss of his master had greatly affected him and the rest of the council warned the young apprentice that after such an encounter with the Dark side leaving was dangerous. They urged him to stay and become Ri-Vaska’s student. But I knew the truth from our conversations before they ever left for Korriban. He did not trust the Force. He wanted to find the Maker, if there was such a thing. The rest of the Council knew it too, I realized. That’s why they wanted him with Ri-Vaska, a Jedi who had unshakeable faith in the Force and unquenchable zeal for the Light. They wanted T’un to be with someone who would guide him on the right path.

I managed a system check and spotted the rogue algorithm. I blocked it and removed it from system and I was back in the catacombs. The room must have contained some kind of trap for droids, a small computer that remotely hacked any nearby computer and inserts the virus. It seemed the corpses had never moved from their locations and the one I believed I had shot had no blaster burn of any kind. Moving onward, I finally spotted my actual target, the Daltarri Prince of Korriban. Aiming my blaster rifle, I fired three quick shots, all of which he deflected with his lightsaber. He charged me and I dove to the side as he passed. I spun around and was surprised to see him racing toward the entrance of the tomb.

Racing after him, I glanced behind me and saw T’un limping along behind us. We quickly outdistance him and as we sprinted through the final corridor I dropped a FEC-9 charge. It exploded and I detected the roof coming down behind us. With the Jedi apprentice trapped inside the Sith catacombs, I thought was free to face the Dark Jedi alone. Waving the red lightsaber around as if to remind me he could block my blaster shots, the Daltarri strutted toward me. It was then that I saw the Écparzi, still alive and rushing at us both with his lightsaber. I ducked just in time to avoid all but the tip of the Jedi’s lightsaber as he leapt over me and assaulted the Prince of Korriban. Deciding to wait and see the outcome of the fight, I moved into the shadows and observed. (I suppose an organic would ponder how the Jedi survived a blaster bolt through the brain. I have concluded that while I was under the influence of the rogue program, I believed I was acting in ways that I had not actually acted.)

Maenï and the Prince were circling each other, their lightsabers in defensive positions. Then the Daltarii struck. He was fast and the Jedi barely parried in time but as the Prince danced backward Maenï swung even more quickly and his foe had a turn to narrowly avoid death. I watched, intrigued, as they fought back and forth, neither one seeming to have an edge at first. But then I could see who the winner would be. The Jedi was tiring and after a few more swings, he lost his hand to the Prince, who easily decapitated his opponent. I chose not to wait for anything else. Even as the red lightsaber was cutting through the Écparzi’s neck, I was releasing a ball of fire at the pair from the flamethrower embedded in my wrist. They disappeared, momentarily, in a wall of fire.

There exists an ancient Wylixian adage that translates something like, “It is easier to burn away the green vegetation than the folly of a wayward man.” I have never faced another Daltarri in combat but when I saw the flames receding and the little green Prince utterly free from even a hint of burning, I was convinced that the folly of wayward men must be invincible. Obviously my only choices now were to either destroy the being’s lightsaber in order to safely be close enough to slice it to pieces or to trap him with a grenade where he would be unable to use his telekinesis to push it back to me. There was one wildcard my foe would not expect though.

As the Prince of Korriban began to charge, I stood my ground. He swung his lightsaber and I parried instantaneously, the orange glowing blade of Maenï’s lightsaber in my hand. With our duel begun, I wasted no time and I struck fast for the Daltarri’s lightsaber but was blocked and we began dueling each other at a rapid pace. Knowing that I would not tire, I decided to settle into a defensive rhythm. I shut down my optical sensor so that I could devote more power to my audibility sensors, listening to the hum and clashing of our two lightsabers and the movements of my enemy. We continued battling for four minutes forty-eight seconds.

Then, hearing the sound of his lightsaber being thrust towards me I knocked it aside only to perceive that he was now swing his saber around for a new blow. Expecting to simply block another blow, I raised my own orange blade but when the two swords connected I was surprised to discover that there was an incredible amount of strength behind the Prince’s blow. In an instant, I was flying backward at a rate of several meters per second until I crashed into the wall behind me. My opponent was upon me, eager to finish the job. However, I was neither shocked nor stunned as a meatbag opponent would be and my adversary seemed to have forgotten that I was a droid. As he raised his lightsaber to destroy me, I fired off a high-powered blast from a concealed cannon in my chest. The Dark Jedi flew backward and I filled his body with numerous blaster bolts before he even hit the ground. Then, to be safe, I decapitated the body with Maenï’s lightsaber.

After taking my target’s lightsaber, I returned to the Preposterous Circumstance. Once on board, I placed the lightsabers of both Maenï and the Prince of Korriban in a compartment where I hoped to eventually figure out a way to incorporate them into my hands. I also considered the possibility of acquiring an extra pair of arms for my new lightsabers. Filled with dreams of grandeur, I headed out of the system in the direction of to see if a small bounty hunting faction there had any work for me. Before entering hyperspace, I messaged Baqurzo dec’Yunth and informed him the job was complete. Within hours, the payment was in my account.

Back then, I briefly had a three year correspondence with a young, power hungry Jedi apprentice of the species. My goal had been to learn if there were any secret Jedi treasures hidden around the galaxy. I figured that if I could gain the trust of an apprentice then when that apprentice eventually became a master I would have access to all sorts of knowledge. That investment folded when my connection failed his trials and was sent to the AgriCorps. However, I did learn the fate of the Jedi T’un. Two Jedi, and, claimed to have sensed the death of Udzupra Maenï and they sent in one of their champion Jedi, a human meatbag named Posko Ri-Vaska, who found the Prince of Korriban’s dead body and rescued a severely dehydrated T’un from the Sith tomb in which I had imprisoned him.

I thought I would throw in that little anecdote because I know how much meatbags love closure. Seriously, half of the jobs I’ve taken seem to be over some stupid event that happened ten years earlier.