Let the Hunt...Begin

Rox Kasker readied his hunters for their tactical mission inside of the well stocked armory of their slave ship. Their party of seven was a diverse mixture of Gungan, Human, Zabrak and two assassin droids, TT-77 and IG-96. Xila had recruited them over the past five years while she hunted, smuggled and extracted hundreds of force-sensitive beings ranging from child to adult.

Most of them were exiled from their home planets for committing crimes or unforgivable atrocities. The humans were ex-military who became greedy thieves and were dishonorably discharged from their units for their crimes. The two assassin droids were once protocol droids from her home planet which she re-programmed to fit her sinister needs, and to follow her orders without question, regardless of how ruthless or immoral. The other two were as mysterious as they were loyal.

Xila never knew where exactly they came from, all she knew was their species. Zabrak. She admired these two the most because they never asked any questions, and never defied her orders. Loyalty was hard to come by beyond the rim, which is why she paid these two handsomely.

Rox, an exiled Gungan assassin, was their platoon leader. He was Xilas first, and most loyal recruit. He was orphaned as an infant by two parents who could not afford to raise him. He was left above ground, to die by the teeth of some hungry predator. Instead, he was found by a patrol of Naboo soldiers. He was then taken into the city, where he found himself placed into the foster system.

Over the years he had learned to fend for himself, by thieving and smuggling what goods he needed to survive on the streets, from local shops and trade freighters. He eventually discovered that the underground warlords and pirating gangs paid the most. He quickly found himself rising in the ranks of one of the planet's most ruthless gangs, where he began dipping his hands into the realm of assassinations for pay. He yearned to leave this planet behind and explore the galaxy, but in order to do that, he needed a ship, and a pilot — which were both very expensive commodities.

He was trained in hand-to-hand combat by the gang's commanding officers, and became a precise, and lethal killer who never left behind any traces of evidence. With almost enough credits to buy his ship and hire a pilot, he accepted one final assassination. Except, he was betrayed by his gang, because their code of brotherhood could not simply allow him to leave.

He was commissioned, and murdered two Gungan soldiers and a government official at the request, and hefty payment of his crime boss. He was captured soon after the murders took place by a platoon of soldiers who had been tipped off by that same crime boss, who received an even heftier payment from the government for helping them catch a killer. He was set up by his brothers, betrayed by his commander and sentenced to rot.

He was sent to the outer rim, where he worked away his years inside of a brutal labor camp on some uncharted planet. After two years of breaking stones and digging underground tunnels to haul out toxic minerals, Xila crash landed on that same planet while fleeing a group of Jedi for the crimes of smuggling force-sensitive children.

With the aid of a skilled asteroid droid, she was able to escape the hunting Jedi through hyperspace by dangerously navigating through the uncharted shipping lanes of the outer rim. When they breached hyper speed, their ship’s engines had blown and the atmosphere of the mysterious planet pulled them down in a fiery rage.

The landing took the life of her asteroid droid and her skeleton crew of two human smugglers. The crash soon attracted the attention of the slave camp operators, and they soon swarmed the shipwreck, salvaging any parts they could, including an unconscious Xila.

Two days later she awoke in chains on a cold steel bed inside of some macabre operating room. Strangers in black body suits held sharp instruments and were planning on dissecting her. In the room was Rox. He knew who Xila was and who she worked for.

Right before the scientists were about to begin their operation, Rox sprang into action, snapping the necks of all four of the technicians. He then proceeded to free Xila from her rusty chains, and the two of them fled the underground laboratory.

The next three hours involved more killing and liberating as they made their way through the camp. With wide smiles, they murdered every camp laborer and freed everyone who was enslaved. From that day on, the pair had become inseparable. Rox had saved her life and she had re-payed the favor by making him incredibly rich from the well-paying black market world of the force-sensitive slave trade.

He had never failed her since becoming her top general, because he had seen first hand what happened to those who failed her. She was not known for mercy, and if you crossed her, she would either take your head or remove your heart while you were still breathing. The price she demanded for loyalty was life, and the punishment for breaking that demand was death.

Over the years, his loyalty blossomed into love, but not the romantic kind of love. His love for her went deeper than the surface, and deeper than the soul. He was raised as an orphan, and struggled to find his place in the galaxy as he grew older. Xila became a mother figure to Rox, which is what his broken heart yearned for the most. Her wishes and demands became his actions and executions. He pledged his life, heart and soul to Xila, and he was prepared to give his life in service to her.

Rox instructed his hunters to pack lightly, yet also deadly. Each hunter carried either two pistols or a long barreled blaster. Daggers, axes and long, double edged blades were also strapped to a particular body part of each individual hunter. Rox carried a long-range, scoped blaster with a five foot ax strapped to his spine. He was an expert marksman and extremely deadly at hand-to-hand combat. His choice of weapon was his ax, because he favored feeling the life leave the body of his victim, rather than kill them from a distance.

Standing at attention, Rox went down the line and inspected each hunter. Satisfied with their tactical gear and lethal weaponry, he went over the rules of engagement, which were actually just the orders and wishes of their leader, Xila Kota.

“We are hunting a party of three. One is a giant Jedi, who will not be easy to take down or kill if necessary. One is a young force-sensitive boy, who is to be captured and used for extraction, or killed if he puts up too much of a struggle or simply deserves to have his life ended. The third, is a blue-eyed man, by the name of Drex Nile. He is to be captured alive and unscathed at all costs. If any one of you attempts to end his life or inflicts any kind of bodily injuries upon him, your life will be ended by my ax. Is that clear?”

All at once, the six hunters responded firmly.

“Yes, General!”

“Good. Our destination is one mile south. They are traveling across the lake as we speak atop of a large piece of driftwood. We should be able to get to their projected landing zone before they arrive. Once we are in position, we will wait, silently, as they exit the water. Once they are all off the raft, and their feet touch the sand, we will move in. I will approach them first, head on. The six of you will split up into groups of three and flank them from the east and the west. When we win the surround, TT-77 and IG-96 will confiscate the raft, then break it into as many pieces as possible. This way they will have no way to escape back into the water.”

Each man and droid responded with an excited nod of their head and the cocking or rattling of their weapons. Rox lead them out from the armory and into the night. Once they reached the tree line of the dense forest that surrounded the lake, Rox stopped and turned to face his crew.

“Let the hunt begin.”