#skadge

Author’s Notes: The following story takes place in my Halcyon Legacy and takes the form of an intelligence report summary sent by the lovely Lana Beniko. The chronology is about a year after the events of the Knights of the Eternal Throne expansion.

ALLIANCE REPORT SUMMARY – ACCESS RESTRICTED TO COUNCIL LEVEL

From: Lana Beniko, Chief-of-Staff, Eternal Alliance

To:      Corellan Halcyon, Alliance Commander, Eternal Alliance

CC:    Alliance Council [Theron Shan, Et Al.]

Re:     Subject Status Update – “Skadge”

Commander,

This report summary details the recent history of the Houk criminal known as “Skadge”, the recent reports concerning his assumed escape from the Galactic Republic security, the potential impact of these events on the Alliance and our interests and finally proposed avenues of resolution to the present situation.

[Note from Theron Shan: Lana, does your prose have to be so dry? You’re not writing for the Galactic Senate.]

[Response from Lana Beniko: Professionalism is what separates us from the beasts, Theron.]

The full report will be attached to this message.

As you are well aware, Skadge was originally taken into custody on Nar Shaddaa by then-Provost Marshal Fideltin Rusk and yourself. He was then turned over to Republic security, allowing Rusk and his “Dead Man’s Legion” auxiliary unit to join the Alliance and our efforts against the Eternal Empire.

Skadge – already wanted for numerous crimes against the Republic [Addendum: For the full list, which is several pages long, see Attached File #11b] and having previously been convicted of several of those criminal offenses years ago prior to his escape from the Republic prison on Belsavis – was then transported to Coruscant to provide information to the Strategic Information Service and the Coruscant Security Force in their efforts against the resurgent Black Sun criminal syndicate on the Republic capital.

After several months of non-cooperation from Skadge [Addendum: I blame Theron’s former associates.] [Note from Theron Shan: Keep your robe on, Beniko.], the Republic authorities eventually ordered him transported to their Omega Prison located on [NAME REDACTED: Eyes Only].

While en route to Omega, the Justice of the Republic, the freighter transporting Skadge and several other high-profile prisoners, was assaulted by parties unknown. All Republic officers and crew on the ship were killed in the fighting, along with all of the prisoners save for Skadge, who was reported missing. The ship itself was left adrift before eventually being discovered by a patrol three days later.

Republic SIS forensics teams have thoroughly examined the Justice of the Republic, but have been unable to conclusively determine the identity of the assailants. The ship’s computer banks were completely purged, along with all recording devices onboard. Most of the deceased were killed with blaster weapons commonly available on the underworld market. [Addendum: We theorize that the weapons were chosen based on the difficulty in tracing their origins.] Two of the guards show signs of having been savagely beaten to death, with analysis suggesting that they were killed by Skadge himself.

The only potential clue to the assailants identities was a security panel that had been blown out. The SIS analysis indicates the panel was destroyed via a lightsaber, suggesting the possibility of Sith involvement, or possibly a rogue Force-user from either the Jedi or the Knights of Zakuul. [Addendum: Our current analysis is that Empress Acina herself would not order such a provocative attack while the Sith Empire is still recovering from the war against Zakuul.] Even the Alliance has not been ruled out, given what the Republic sees as our “colorful” roster of operatives. [Addendum: For a government that so formally values diversity, the Galactic Republic can be surprisingly intolerant on such matters.]   

The Republic has classified the attack on the Justice of the Republic, at least until they identify the assailants. After the recent events on Iokath, the current Chancellor is eager to avoid provoking an incident with the Sith Empire without hard evidence. Certainly, it would feed the war-hawks in the Senate. The Alliance received most of this information from our informant [NAME REDACTED: Eyes Only].

Our preliminary determination, based on Skadge’s past encounters with yourself and his criminal dealings with Black Sun, is that he should be considered extremely dangerous, and a potential threat to Alliance personnel and operations. In addition, any faction with the resources and skill to extricate Skadge so discreetly without showing their hand is a cause for concern.

Potential suspects for the assault, which appears to have had the primary goal of rescuing Skadge, must begin with Black Sun, who Skadge worked extensively for off and on over the years. However, while Skadge might be a valuable operative for Black Sun, he also has a reputation as being dangerous and unpredictable. [Addendum: Quite frankly, they are probably better off without him.] Based on their recent setbacks and the resources necessary to conduct such an operation in the remote area of space the attack occurred in, Alliance Intelligence calculates less than a ten percent chance that they were the primary instigators of this incident.

Regardless, someone went to great lengths to rescue Skadge, and greater lengths still to conceal their identities. Given the Houk’s specific “skillset”, we must assume their intentions are unfriendly.

We have consulted with Xadya, Mako, Blizz and Gault concerning the potential whereabouts of Skadge. Their past association with the Houk make them some of the best-suited to aiding in his recapture. While none of them have thus far been able to offer any special insight on his plans, they certainly did not seem bothered by the prospect of working against him, ether. Xadya herself certainly seemed disappointed to learn that there were no active bounties on Skadge and asked me to inquire if you’d be willing to set a price.

For their own protection, we have informed all Alliance personnel who have a known ‘history’ with Skadge that he is free, beginning with Xadya and her crew and including Zale Barrows and Kayla Perlis from our Underworld Logistics section. We have also informed independent Alliance associates such as Linh and Juda.  

The only good news so far concerning Skadge’s whereabouts and activities seems to be that he is unlikely to find any sanctuary or assistance from the Hutt Cartel. If his recent Black Sun-related activities on Nar Shaddaa were not enough, Skadge is the same Houk who slew Nem’ro the Hutt and several dozen of his supporters in a massacre on Nal Hutta several years ago before the Zakuulan invasion.

As always, we will keep you informed of any further developments.

- Lana

Author’s Notes: More on Omega Prison another time. It is a concept of my own imagination.  

Zale Barrows later escaped from the Empire in my head-canon.

The slicer who wiped that ship’s computer was obviously very good. I wonder who that could be?  

Hmm I am trying to think of any that I would dislike

What may be unpopular opinion is that I even find Skadge interesting - not as a character but more as what he reveals from the fans - he is exactly the stereotypical bounty hunter and has the personality of how fanbase imagined Boba Fett to be back before Attack of the Clones came out (I'm old enough to remember the OUTRAGE Boba Fett / bounty hunter saga fans raised! They hated Temuera as Jango and thus, their dear Boba, almost as much they whined about Hayden as Anakin. Then they got fine with young Boba in the Clone Wars as he was portrayed as mean teenager but hold on what OUTRAGE AGAIN when Mandalorian/book of Boba Fett came)

So Skadge is what they wished Boba would be: cruel and uncaring brute - yet Skadge is universally hated.

You can even play your OC hunter as a cruel brute I have seen people play and choose options that make their OC hunter seem very alike Skadge, yet these same people will not like the companion. It's interesting, and revealing.

Oh bloody hell this is an OLD ask. I’m really sorry for how long this took @swtorpadawan but here it is.

I actually read one of your pieces involving the cutie that is Juda so I actually have a good idea on what happens to her.

Juda had thankfully survived the anger of the Bounty Hunter Leyr after selling the Great Hunts target list due to the prescence of his partner Mako and the “mom card”, so she got to live another day.

But that wasn’t the only incident on Hutta she survived. One day at Nem’ros Palace a certain bloodthirsty psychopathic Houk attacked, cleaving through anyone who stood in his way with his Vibroblade.

And from his loud ranting and vile language everyone knew he wouldn’t stop until Nem’ro was dead.

Panic erupted, people started to either kill each other or raid whatever treasure they could get. Juda, scared for her life, managed to escape the Palace and ran into two individuals in Jiguuna named Xeneteel and Zinny.

Word spread quickly about the Hutts death and bother people knew of the chaos that will come to the town so they’ve decided they needed get the hell off planet while the getting was good.

Juda, with her mother dying not long ago and no where else to go, told them she had the means to get off world on the condition the two to take her with them to which they reluctantly agree.

And so together the three leave Hutta behind them, I’d imagine Xeneteel and Zinny would restart their business in training and outfitting Bounty Hunters, only this time with Juda working as their financial advisor.