I’m back on the run again… How in the whole wide galaxy does
this keep happening to me? It’s not a
strange sect of Force users, Mandalorians or the Empire this time, no, it’s the
Hutts and from what I know of them, I will never be able to stop running. They are some seriously persistent slimy
slugs. I took a shuttle over to Nal
Hutta after a really difficult Huttball match.
It was Wookiees against Trandoshans.
We all know there’s bad blood there, but the local Black Sun Vigo
thought it would be entertaining to pit them against each other, no weapons
allowed. It was an absolute festival of
destruction. I don’t think the ball ever
actually left the pedestal until the end of the game. Both teams just met up in the middle and let
the fur fly. I had to sit and watch the
debacle knowing full well I couldn’t do anything about it unless I was to be
drawn and quartered in that frenzy. The
Wookiees came out on top in the end.
Bleeding and battered the one surviving Wookiee took the ball and limped
his way across the goal line to score. There
was one lizard left alive as well, but with a leg ripped out of his socket and
bleeding to death, the last thing on his mind was scoring a goal. The images will forever haunt me.
I figured I could use a few drinks and wanted to try my hand
at the casinos on Nal Hutta. Seriously,
no funny business either. I swore to
myself I wouldn’t use the Force to influence my luck in order to win at the
casino games. I kept that promise
too. I was losing my shirt at the
machines, so I figured I would try my hand at some Sabacc. I am usually good at reading people even
without the Force and it had to beat the weighted odds of the machine. So I sat down at a table, nothing high stakes;
just a few friendly looking folks having some fun.
I ended up getting on a roll and cleaned all but a couple of
them out. It was at that time several
seriously nasty looking Weequay bought in and sat down. The friendly types left immediately. Oh had I only taken their cue. I swear my life is just a series of bad
decisions. Anyway, the game quickly went
from friendly to downright competitive and very high stakes. I was still doing well, but not as well as
before. These guys were much harder to
read.
Hours crawled by, winning a little, losing a little, but I
stayed ahead for the most part. I was
getting tired and the Weequay were getting twitchy. I could feel tension mounting so I tapped
into it using the Force just to see what I could expect from my
competitors. Flashes of violence, anger
at their losses in the Huttball match and recognition of me as a referee. “Lovely,” I thought to myself, “Better to
lose a few credits than my life, it’s time to go.” I went all in. My hand was terrible, a three a five, a two
and a one, and the way the guy across from me was betting, he was sitting on at
least a 21. He called and threw down a
pure Sabacc. I couldn’t tell you the
relief I felt when I saw it. What I didn’t
notice as I was throwing down my cards was that my five shuffled, hitting the
table with an Idiot’s Array, trumping the pure Sabacc. I wilted in my seat knowing things were about
to get ugly.
“You cheating nerf lover!” he screamed in broken Basic as he
flew up from his chair. I let myself
fall into the Force, if nothing but for survival. Everything was moving in slow motion as he
drew a pair of blaster pistols. Had I
been any other person I would be dead.
His draw was exceptionally fast.
I’m not sure even my smuggler buddy and his Wookiee friend could have
outdone this guy. My hands came up a
split second before his as I reached out with the Force and pulled his blasters
into my hands. His friends, no longer
stunned were drawing their weapons by this point. One shot, two, three, four and they were down
slumped over the gaming table with holes smoking in their chests. “Did I do that?” the though raced through my
mind.
My would-be assailant fell to his knees across the table
from me covering his face with his arms.
He was muttering in what I was guessing was his native language and
sobbing uncontrollably. Clearly he was
begging for mercy. I removed the power
packs from the blasters and put them in my pocket. Then I tossed the blasters to him saying, “I’m
not going to kill you, you fool. I was
trying to throw the game, and dumb luck beat you. Next time, if you can’t afford to lose it,
don’t bet it.” I walked away thinking
the business was done after all, this kind of thing happens in Hutt space all
the time. I was wrong.
I was nearly out the doors when two Gammorean guards stopped
me and a Rattataki woman came walking out.
She had an air of unwavering confidence about her, it was impossible to
miss. “Gorga wants to see you.” She said as she looked at her finely
manicured nails. She turned and walked
away leaving me with the two bloated bags of mucous called guards.
I could sense Gorga’s anger before I even got into his “offices.” The walls vibrated in the Force from his
tirade. I walked into the audience
chamber. The smell was putrid, and made
my stomach do somersaults. If the smell
of Toydarians was sickening in its sweetness, then the smell of this Hutt was
sickening in its bitterness. The room
was lavish, with things that sparkled everywhere. Servants milled around, and “guests” enjoyed
entertainment and other, less reputable pleasures. For a Hutt, it’s all about showmanship. He gave off a sense of composure now.
“Jedi are not allowed in my casinos.” He grumbled in Huttese.
I replied. “The Jedi
are extinct.” I took a swat to the back of the head. “Your eminence.” I concluded.
His anger was rising like a tide in the Force as he showed me
the holovid recording of my altercation.
“Then how do you explain this?”
“I have certain… talents and I used them to defend
myself. I have seen people shot dead in
cold blood at your casinos before with less fuss than this.” I answered.
His anger was at the boiling point now, I should probably
stop antagonizing him, but something is driving me to it. “I don’t care that you killed those
fools! It’s your ‘talents’ as you call
them, that I care about! If I let that
happen in my casinos, nobody will come to them!
I should kill you for it and for your insolence when you speak to me!”
I bowed, feigning respect.
“My apologies your exaltedness, it is not my place to offend you.” The sarcasm in my words was biting. “If you demand it, I will return the money,
at refrain from gambling at your casinos in the future. What else can I do to appease your greatness?”
Rage burst through. “You
mock me in my own chambers, in front of my guests?! I would have settled for a public beating, or
perhaps a run in a Huttball match, but your insults earn you no mercy!” He was bellowing now, pure anger pouring
out. It somehow made the room smell
worse. “Guards take him and feed him to
the Gundarks!”
Enough was enough. I
wasn’t about to appease the slug, I certainly wasn’t going to die at his
behest. I withdrew my lightsaber from
its hidden pouch and struck down the Gammorean guards as they squealed like a
pair of Roba Boars. Blaster bolts came in
at me from several angles. I managed to
deflect them as I backed into cover and unleashed the lightning from my
fingers. Bodies fell to the ground
writhing in pain. It fed the lightning
which spread from person to person like a chain. The wails of pain in so many languages filled
the room. I backed out the door seeing
the pure embodiment of wrath in Gorga’s eyes.
I let the lightning go and Force pushed the doors closed as
I ran from the building. Other than the
guards I didn’t feel anyone die which was good.
I really don’t like killing in anger.
I fled to my apartment. It
wouldn’t take long before Gorga had ever bounty hunter in the galaxy tracking
me down. Still, there were things that I
needed.
By the time I got to my shuttle, it was an hour later. I expected there to be a greeting party
waiting there for me. I was fortunate,
they hadn’t pieced together that this was my shuttle. While I didn’t change my name, my shuttle was
registered under a false one with an Imperial title. It’s an Imperial shuttle after all. I loaded up and blasted out of there without
so much as a by your leave and jumped into hyperspace almost as soon as I
cleared the atmosphere.
I’ve been in hyperspace for two days now. I have been meditating on what to do and where
to go. I miss home and want to go back,
but that won’t work, and any bounty hunter than tries to mess with my father
will be, how should I say, in trouble.
We come from Jango Fett and my father is battle hardened, drunk or
not. No, I need to go someplace nobody
would think to look. Of course I keep
trying that. I need to meditate on it
more and perhaps the answer will come to me.
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