Ryluk Shouja

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

- Ryluk Shouja to his fiance, Lymie Chamna

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 Corellians, 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 merc would beat Ryluk extensively whenever the boy was unfortunate enough to cross his path. When Ryluk was fourteen, the Trando merc 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 Chanma 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.

He 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. His sharp mind and lightning-quick reflexes served him well, and by twenty-one he was the most notorious bounty hunter in the galaxy. He bought a very expensive 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.

The Bounty Hunter
As a bounty hunter, Ryluk did very well. He scored several large bounties at the age of twenty-one, securing his spot as the leading bounty hunter in the galaxy of the time. His biggest collection was a hundred-thousand-credit bounty on a Bothan who had retreated to the bounty hunter's home planet. Ryluk returned to the planet with only one thing in mind: the bounty. He found and collected the Bothan after a short duel with the Trando merc that had harassed him in bygone years and the bounty hunter left the merc as he had been left eight years previous. He gave teh merc medical treatment (a mercy that had been neglected by the Trandoshan eight years ago) and left it in its cave. Ryluk had collected the Bothan when he recieved an urgent commlink message from his fiancé, Lymie. He blasted a hole in the roof of the armored bunker and jetted himself up onto the roof and fixed his scope onto his DXR-6 disruptor rifle. He saw the Trando merc about to slice Lymie with a vibrosword and shot it repeatedly with low-powered disruptor bolts, then proceeded to empty a new clip into the unlucky lizard's face with a single disruptor bolt. He then returned to the bunker and collected the Bothan from where he had stashed the alien.

When escaping the planet with the Lymie under the name the Honorable Mercenary Ryluk was stopped by a Republic Dreadnaught-class Heavy Cruiser, the Chancellor's Will. The dreadnaught hailed the Honorable Mercenary with the intention of blockading the planet. Ryluk refused to be boarded and inspected, choosing instead to activate his yet-to-be-perfected cloaking shield and blindly launched a concussion missile at the Chancellor's Will. The concussion missile, by pure dumb luck, hit the fuel intake line right behind the engines before the warship had a chance to raise its shields. The fuel line ignited, blowing the fuel in the lines as well as the reserve tanks and the engines, causing the entire dreadnaught to explode.

In Ryluk's words, "Oops. That wasn't supposed to happen."

In a later bounty, of much lesser monetary value but perhaps greater importance, Ryluk rescued one Hojs Ceray from Gibranna the Hutt and returned the Aar'aa to his family. Hojs begged Ryluk to "turn him in" to Gibranna and collect the bounty, then break the unlucky reptilian out and escape, killing the Hutt in the process. Ryluk flatly refused. He then returned to his ship after a brief attempt at detainment by the desperate Aar'aa and took off.

Assassination plot
''"So, you want me to assassinate Gibranna, eh? Why." "Just think of it as paying off your debt to us." "What debt?" "A debt the size of a Dreadnaught." -Ryluk and Captain _____

When the Republic heard of the destruction of their Dreadnaught and linked it to Ryluk, they were not happy. A task force was sent out under the command of a minor captain to intecept and detain the bounty hunter. They succeeded in their mission above the planet Aar after a brief scuffle and Ryluk was brought on board.

He was brought to the captain's quarters, fully armed and armored. He had given his word that he would not harm the captain in any way, and the fleet officers didn't want to press the subject because of the legendary armor that no one felt like facing.

The captain sat the bounty hunter down at a small dining table and informed him that he was to assassinate a Hutt for the Republic. Ryluk refused until Lymie was threatened, under which he folded. He agreed to assassinate the Hutt in exchange for the removal of all previous charges, which included the destruction of a Dreadnaught-class Heavy Cruiser and the murder of its crew, breaking and entering into the Senate Building, and possesion of illegal weapons.

Ryluk was returned to his ship and flew back down to collect Hojs, figuring that he might as well make a little cash on the side. After that he picked up Lymie, who he needed to successfully pull off his assassination plan.

Everything planned, Ryluk continued on to Nal Hutta and the palace of the infamous Gibranna the Hutt.

The Plan
Essentially, the plan was perfect. Ryluk had thought through every detail. He was going to turn Hojs in and return to Nar Shadda, commonly known as "The Smuggler's Moon," purchase a YT-1250 and a couple spare suits of body armor, go in under the disguise of a completely different person, free Hojs, knock off the Hutt, and escape in the YT back to Nar Shadda where he would go back to the Lymie and take off for Corellia.

His partners in crime (Lymie and Hojs) agreed to this, although Hojs was a little sceptical that it would work. Ryluk assured him that there would be no problem and Hojs tenatively agreed.

The plan went without a hitch...except for one small detail that no one could have predicted.

The Execution
When the Lymie landed on Nal Hutta, Gibranna was waiting for them. The Hutt took Hojs and attacked Ryluk, kidnapping Lymie while the bounyt hunter was occupied.

The Businessman
As well as a bounty hunter, Ryluk Shouja was a major businessman. He originally invested in the Corellian 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.

Ryluk owned quite a bit of stock in the Corellian Engineering Corps and several other large Corellian companies. This he bought early in his life and kept until he needed money, then sold. This contributed to his record as a shrewd businessman to go along with his record as a bounty hunter.

Ryluk was also the owner of several corporations in his later life. The first company he purchased was the Parable Corporation, once a major shipbuilding corporation. Once it was purchased, the bounty hunter started a new line of high-quality blaster weapons, although he preferred the BlasTech DP-12 himself. He also owned several smaller mining corporations and food industries, which supplemented his income considerably.

Equipment
"Lymie Chamna"

His equipment was Ryluk's 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.

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 DP-12 heavy blaster pistols. The pistols had 100 shots per clip by default and were capable of penetrating durasteel armor plating. The recharge rate between shots was cut down to a third 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.

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.