Star Wars
The Hunter’s Gambit
BK 1:
Revelations
Written by Jim Limber Davis
Art by Adriane Hughes
Special thanks for support to:
Mrs. Deborah Hughes
Ms. Jane Odiwie
Mr. Adam Cook
Their generous support is greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
Copyright 2015
This free ebook may be copied, distributed, reprinted and shared, provided it appears in its entirety without alteration, and the reader is not charged to access it while all credit for original story content is applied to the author.
Liberty Defined
Morality Defined
What Hope Will Come
Table of Contents
Chapter 01 Duma Strike
Chapter 02 Show Down
Chapter 03 God Hunters
Chapter 04 Bounty of the Hunter
Chapter 05Personal Demons
Chapter 06Hand of Revan
Chapter 07 Miranda
Chapter 08 Shattered
Chapter 09 The Culling
Chapter 10 Legacy
Chapter 01
Duma Strike
“Erik, there’s problem with the NAV computer,” Mako said with concern in her voice. Erikson, the captain and owner of the customized D-5 Mantis light patroller-gunship shifted his seat around and forward to the main flight controls. This was nothing new to him or the rest of his crew, but Mako never learned to be easy in these situations. She was his wife more or less, the love of his life. He was her savior and protector after nearly a standard year long struggle to win the title of Champion ofThe Great Hunt. A title thousands upon thousands compete for and only one wins every so many years.
She began expressing more concern, “Honey, we have to turn around.”
“You know we can’t do that in hyperspace,” Erikson retorted with a little concern in his voice too! Hyperspace scans indicated numerous large victory class vessels in their path emitting some kind of frequency that was disrupting the hyperspace lanes. “Mako, this might be the one,” Erikson told her. She never wanted to hear that from him. He saved her from a horrible fate on Nal Hutta and joined him only to fall for him hard upon the emotional heels of losing the only father figure to take responsibility for her as an abandoned child. Dying in the vacuum of space is not how she wanted to go.
Clicking the intercom, “Battle stations everyone. Torian fall in with Blizz. He’s gonna need your help,” Erikson relayed. Skadge, a nearly seven foot tall and extremely muscular Houk Erikson picked up during a contract that sent him to Belsavis a few years back, came stomping into the cockpit. He settled himself into a gunner’s seat and strapped in. “Oh, yeah! Dis gonna be fun!” He was a psychopath, but just as loyal as the most honorable Wookie!
Moments later Gault Rennow, a Devaronian who lost a gambit and horn to Erikson on Tatooine, came hustling into the cockpit and seated himself in the other gunner’s chair and strapped in. Gault was a gambler, smuggler, profiteer, and general weasel willing to do anything but work for a credit chip until Erikson taught him otherwise. It was a potentially expensive lesson for Gault. One he was reminded of everyday with the way his head is now balanced due to a missing horn. “Maybe this will prove my allegiance to you. After all, how long can you really hold a grudge?”
2V-R8, Erikson’s sliced droid, was trying to relay something on the intercom when the Mantis was ripped from hyperspace and brought to a near halt; well relatively, going still roughly 1,100 kilometers an hour which is slow in comparison to jumped light speed. All lights in the ship went to a dull red, shields boosted to maximum, and Erikson smashed a lit blue button towards the top of his console. The modified EMP started a brief charge before emitting a massive neon blue pulse that radiated all about the Mantis.
“That’s three frigates. Time started. You don’t get the drop on me that easy, so hit ‘em hard boys,” Erikson charged, half talking to the crews of the ambushing vessels and his own crew! Skadge and Gault went nearly berserk. The three republic frigates were meant to ambush the hunter and his crew but failed. Gault laid hard on the controls ripping through the exposed hull of one frigate he was working on which began combusting internally due to the modified EMP blast. Turbo laser fire ignited the liquid thorium coolant in it and caused the frigate to explode. Skadge sawed off an engine of his target with green laser fire causing the frigate to begin an out of control spiral before self correcting. No shields for these frigates meant the turbo laser cannons Blizz and Erikson modified would skewer and slice through these light durasteel hulls. Fire from his turbo laser cannon shredded the frigate’s fuel tanks and finished it off in a fiery eruption.
Despite their initial success they were still receiving heavy fire. Blizz was in an uproar in the engine room and could be heard all the way in the cockpit barking orders, in his spazzing chittery little voice, to Torian. Jawa’s were often among the most clever of engineers but were ruffled just as easily as anyone else under pressure. However, Blizz was not the average Jawa. Among a genius species with a knack for mechanical engineering, Blizz was a genius among the geniuses. Each successive blast that racked the Mantis’ hull was stronger than the last as the ship’s shields began failing. And now they were in for it.
Asteroids. “LOOK OUT,” screamed Mako! Erikson tilted the controls and thumbed a switch causing the Mantis to barrel roll to its starboard side placing an asteroid between them and the third frigate. Coming around Mako acquired three missile locks and fired. Skadge and Gault finished off the frigate with laser fire through the engine’s thrusters.
“That’s how it’s done,” Erikson complimented his crew!
Coming up on another asteroid, Erikson steered close to its surface. As expected, six groups of two Talon fighters came screaming around, blasters wailing on full power. It was lucky Talon pilots always came in pairs, unlike Imperial fighters which swarm everything! Gault, Skadge, and Erikson ripped through them with their laser fire. “Over there,” Mako shouted and pointed! A Jedi fighter!
“I hate these guys,” Muttered Erikson. He may not have had Mandalorian blood in his veins but Mandalorian spirits comprised his heart. With shields back to maximum Erikson flipped a switch on his consol which boosted engine power to weapons and another to override the cooling feature of the Mantis’ missile bays. Mako acquired a lock and let loose a rapid salvo of four missiles. The Mantis’ turbo laser cannons, under Skadge’s and Gault’s control, wailed sending overcharged green laser bursts against the Jedi’s fighter. The Jedi was fast and evasive, but it wasn’t enough to dodge all of the missiles or even half of the laser bursts; nor was his piloting skills a match for Erikson’s today. It didn’t have to be this way. Sadly in Erikson’s heart of hearts he knew the Jedi was just following orders like any other soldier, completely unaware of the truth about how he was the aggressor and Erikson the victim.
“We’ve got to stop that jammer! Mako, find where it’s coming from,” Erikson order! Coming around another asteroid spinning in place, a group of heavy Ace Talon fighters were charging them. The Mantis’ shields were cut in half. The team of three heavy fighters was reduced by a third; half of their wreckage slamming into the top of the Mantis’ hull with deafening blows.
The fighters came back around and Erikson yanked the controls down pulling the Mantis’ nose up and figure-eighting around two other asteroids in order to appear behind the two remaining synchronized Talon fighters. Three missile blasts followed their lock onto one fighter; a flurry of dozens of over charged
green blaster bolts shredded the other. Adrenaline controlled Erikson’s movements which perfectly dodge all of the larger fragments the Mantis’ shields couldn’t deflect as they bounced off two asteroids being flown between.
“There it is,” Mako blurted out! “The signal is coming from the bridge of that command ship!”
There was no way they would make it to that ship in a straight line. Through the asteroid field they went. Seconds they had to regroup before three squadrons of Talon regulars were on them again. “There’s only one way through and it’s straight ahead so let’s heat things up,” Erikson growled!
“Is dat all you got,” Skadge grumbled! Skadge leaned heavy on his guns as Erikson barrel rolled and generally owned the flight controls. Laser bursts glanced off the Mantis’ shields along with Talon fighter wreckage. To the left of one asteroid, above and down and around a another, beneath and steering portside past three more, ducking beneath a set of spinning and pothole marked iced mountains on the starboard side and smoothly along the surface of a small moon sized asteroid the Mantis was piloted; all the while dodging laser fire and using laser fire to chew up everything coming at it!
Then a burst of blue fire struck the asteroid before them throwing up rock and debris knocking the Mantis away from the surface. Inertial stabilizers aided in course correction. “This is gonna be tight,” Erikson blurted out. Maximum power was reallocated to the shields and missile overrides were reinstated allowing launch tubes to cool sufficiently. Mako began locking targets on every gun she could on the G.R.S.S. Duma. Captain Duma was no regular idiot. He was a high ranking idiot and not much wiser than the exploded Jedi floating around in space behind Erikson. One missile after another found its target allowing Erikson to hold the Mantis steady on approach to target lock the main bridge.
Six seconds and released from the prototype Czerka Industries Ray shielded proton tube exploded a neon blue light that burned brighter than the one that knocked the Mantis back from the surface of that asteroid moments before. The torpedo found the bridge and shattered the shields, jamming equipment, glass, and communications array alike.
Erikson, pulling the Mantis up, flew around to make a second pass when a squadron of six heavy Talon fighters and another Jedi fighter began blasting them. The Jedi aren’t stupid but they aren’t as courageous as they are confident. The Mantis’ shields were dead, armoring was being shredded, and hull integrity was becoming an issue!
Another flip of a switch on the flight controls in Erikson hands began jamming targeting computers and equipment. The overwhelming red laser blasts ceased and started spraying wildly around the Mantis. Blizz was howling at Torian but managed to build up the shield strength again. Mako pummeled one, two, three, and a fourth fighter with double tapped missile salvos. Skadge and Gault finished off the remaining before focusing on the Jedi fighter. “Now we’ve got their attention,” Erikson pointed out with a bit of sarcasm as the Jedi flew head on into what seemed to be several dozen Talon regulars. When in doubt all governments do what the Empire does and throw lives and money at the things they can’t control. Half of them were shredded to pieces and Mako impatiently acquired missile lock after missile lock on the Jedi fighter waiting for the missile tubes to cool and be readied again.
“WHOOO! That got ‘em,” cheered Mako, as turbo laser fire from the Mantis finished the Jedi in unison with Mako’s skilled targeting and Erikson’s legendary piloting. Erikson pulled hard on the controls whipping the Mantis around and down passed another asteroid to focus attention on two other frigates coming around in pursuit of Erikson. The Mantis opened fire.
The frigates were beginning to move again after the initial EMP blast Erikson set off. That EMP was recharged and ready for use again. Erikson pushed the throttle on the Mantis and charged the two frigates. They attempted to return fire but missed completely. Mako had locked on to each firing two salvos of four missiles again. Shields were wiped out, engines, stunned again, and lights darkened. As Erikson flew between both frigates he pressed that button again.
The second EMP caused minor explosions on board both frigates. He circled the Mantis around to finish them off. Skadge was humming with demonic delight as he commanded his turbo laser cannons to shred through the first frigate and into the second. Gault followed suit without a sound.
Smaller explosions could be seen throughout the rest of the vicinity of the asteroid belt around the two frigates just obliterated. The EMP destroyed the system controls of many other fighters leaving an opening for Erikson to make another pass at the G.R.S.S. Duma.
Mako finished off the remaining guns directed at the Mantis while Erikson squeezed off two more torpedoes. The bridge wasn’t just destroyed but complete abolished from the remainder of the vessel; and hopefully Captain Duma with it. That command ship was now on a collision course with the icy pothole marked asteroid they skimmed earlier. There is almost no reasoning with military minds set on the use of violence. It was something Erikson disliked, though he ended up being remarkable at doling it out. He’d figure out his conscious later. So with shields up and at maximum, Erikson pulled starboard and out of the asteroid field to ready a return to hyperspace.
If Republic forces were smart enough to know he was on his way through here then a secondary destination would be best. Mako set the proper cords in the NAV computer. In seconds the stars streaked to long blue-white lines and then into swirling messes as the Hunter and his crew survived yet another ambush by the warring governments of the galaxy; governments playing many lives against one another with few in these contests wise enough to understand that no government will relinquish the power to tax and control.
The lives he took that day didn’t lay heavy on his heart for long. They didn’t even cross his mind the day after. To him they were just ships commanded by order following goons without the slightest understanding of who they were hurting by not asking questions of the authorities they took pride in showing obedience to. He didn’t know any of them. All he knew is that they were dead and behind him; that he was among the greatest hunters and pilots in the galaxy. What he really knew was that he was coming dangerously close to forgetting why he was even wanted by the Republic in the first place and why he needed to be more than just cautious in dealing with the Empire.
And if he was going to keep title of the galaxy’s greatest hunter, he’d have to ensure he walked that fine line without any stuttering. But for now, the Empire was going to hear word of this so he needed to get his recordings of the encounter to Imperial intelligence for an unexpected payday to continue his mission against these warring factions.
Chapter 02
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