32 Chapter 27: Mortal vs Goddess Round 1.5
Hunt for the Map Arc, Part 4: Hunter's Quarrel and Ava's Dreams
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Sheev Palpatine, also known as Darth Sidious, that old wrinkly guy who goes "ZaP" "ZaP with his fingers and says "DO IT!" like he is gargling in something...
Sidious: "Greetings Bounty Hunters."
A digital projection of himself, cloaked in a black robe, appeared in the room with all 25 Bounty Hunters.
Anyone that is apart of their team were instructed to leave the large room they were in, since they were not the contacted individual, but just an associate.
Adrian: 'Kara, show me a Falcon Drone on Corrusaunt and its recordings. Show me anything about any Muuns meeting Palpatine or Sidious recently."
...
I waited and watched the recordings as I listened to Sidious and Cradossk speak.
Cradossk: "Greetings to you to, sir. I am honoured you have chosen the Bounty Hunter's Guild to carry out this Job of yours. We will complete the task you have requested. But first, introductions are in order."
"Jango Fett, who needs no introductions, I presume?"
"Cad Bane, known for his cruel, brutal and effixuent execution of any Job he is hired onto. Will take any job...for the right price."
"Zer0, the Phantom of Corrusaunt, Bane of the Jedi."
"Aura Sing, ruthless and she is deadly with a sniper."
Adrian: 'Bruh, have you seen my Whisper of the Worm??? Or are you blind???'
"Robonino, one of the best Tech and Explosive experts for the Job"
Adrian: 'Ha! I doubt that...while I'm here that is.'
"A group of various skilled individuals all 8n one, led by Sugi, the captain of the Halo. The other members is Rumi Paramita and Seripas."
"One that deserves to be set apart from the last group, while he is apart of it. The skilled master and vicious companion. I present to you, Embo, and his faithful Anooba, Marrok."
"Kal Neral, Pilot, Smuggler, Fighter, whatever you need. Currently holds the record for the Kessel Run at 16-Parsecs, and bypassed the Cerberus Blockade on the Hydian Way Hyperspace Lane."
Adrian: 'Huh? This is the first time I have heard of this? I had created a secret blockade a while back to disrupt the Trade Federation transportation of goods, so that Cerberus could take advantage of the various products that hadn't been delivered to various worlds. I had also used this to deal with some pirates too. I'll check the records with Kara later.
"The beautiful Theelin and dancing Death, Latts Razzi."
"Cato Parasitti, a skilled Changling to serve in many fields of infiltration and/or deception."
"To show I am giving you the best in the Galaxy. I have presented my very own blood and flesh, Bossk'wassak'Cradossk!"
Adrian: 'He really wanted to show off his son Bossk didn't he. Look at the pride he has on his face right now.'
"Twazzi, her acrobatics once earned her praise from chancellor Valorum himself."
"Dagger, an exceptional all rounder in anything needed of him. Leader of a gang of 15 talented individuals that has had frequent run ins with the Jedi."
"Sixtat, The Outlands Butucher"
"Derrown, The Exterminator"
"Twin brothers and legendary duo, Onca and Bulduga."
"Moralo Eval, he will be one of the Masterminds to design the plan fur whatever it is you desire, Sir."
"Jack Stone, the Terror of Nar Shaddaa, Beast of Kessel, or more commonly known by his alias, the Good Hunter."
Adrian: 'Oh! So that was him? I didn't really care about those two incidents, since I had thought they were no big deal. Turns out I was wrong. "Beast of Kessel"...definitely of him being in his Great One Form. But "Beast"? Is his Great One Form of the "Great One Beast" in Bloodborne's cut content? Or is it a misinterpretation of his Moon Presence Form? I'll find out when I talk to him. He really is cosplaying as the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst.'
"A good old droid to change things up. This here is KRONOS-327."
Adrian: 'So KRONOS hasn't been hired by Ziro yet?"
"Rako Hardeen, The Marksman of Concord Dawn."
Adrian: 'When he had walked in I too was a little surprised wasn't he (Obi-Wan) supposed to meet Cad Bane fur the first time in prison? Or did Cad Bane forget about him? Unlikely. This is strange though. Did i change things with my presence...or was it Jack Stone or Ava that changed things?'
"Next up has recently been pairing with Zer0. This here is Jinx, she may look scrawny but she can pack quite the punch...or a good explosion. Had once launched a raid on Florrum all be herself."
Adrian: 'I had actually been surprised by Jinx when he told me about that. Oh yeah, she's here cause she said that she can join 48 on the fun. She had been really bored as of late...not being able to wrek havoc everywhere she goes...in a good way though...no innocents get caught up in her chaotic escapades.'
"And our last Hunter is Aureole Omega. Not very talkative, but deadly and skilled in, I'd say, every field. A "Master of All-Trades" is what I'd call her and Zer0."
A female in hooded clothing stood on the opposite from me.
(A/n Image here)
The only weapon she had with her was a blade at her right waist at the back. It looked to be a Vibroblade, but it was slightly longer, almost as long as a standard sword or a Lightsaber. She had another on her left waist and along the thigh. This second Vibroblade was slightly smaller.
She seems to be a duel wielding close combat fighter. She didn't have anything other than those blades and some bombs in her waist pouches.
I looked at her, as i had noticed her staring at me, she instantly averted her eyes.
I felt...a strange...feeling, when our eyes had met. But I couldn't quite tell what it was about.
Cradossk had finished all the introductions for all 25 of us. Now it was time to know what Palps wanted.
Cradossk: "All of them will be able to carry out whatever it is you request of the Bounty Hunter's Guild."
Sidious: "Hm. Before we begin, you all will receive a contract stipulating the conditions you all must agree to, if you wish to proceed further. Once you have decided, contact me again. I expect an answer within the next 2 hours."
With that said, the projection of Sidious vanished.
Everyone in the room had then received a physical hard copy of the conditions.
This was done for security reasons, since there has been an Infamous hacker(s) fir the past few years on the Holo.net that goes by the name, Wendigo.aka, me and Kara.
Contact:
1. Must concentrate to a memory wipe of all events related to the Job.
2. Should term 1 be rejected, them they are to be terminated immediately should they refuse a memory wipe of Job related events, upon completion of said Job.
3. If term 1 is refused, then the Hunter must leave immediately abd is Forbidden to disclose any information that has been discussed thus far.
4. The Hunter may receive any individual reward of their choosing, priced at a value of less than 500,000 Credits each. (Team members that have not directly received this Contract are not included.)
5. An additional reward of 2,500,000 Credits will be awarded to a certain individual Hunter upon completion of the Job of the Client's wishes
6. 6....
There were many more conditions, but those 5 were what I cared about, the rest were just the same old stuff.
As for the memory wiping condition. That explains why Cad Bane doesn't know about Rako Hardeen in the future. And why when Obi-Wan goes undercover as Rako, it was their first meeting.
As for myself, I can do one of two things. One was have Kara restore my memory with the Animus. But number two will definitely happen. My mind is protected thanks to one of my wishes, so I will be able to resist whatever they use on my mind...to a certain level.
I walked over towards Jack Stone, as I was, an bold-headed-Sakyian-male stood in my way.
A few in the room looked on at the stupidity of the man that would stand in front of me.
As I was going to walk past him...
He...
Touched...
Me...
...
I looked down at the man since I was taller than him, in which he was 6ft (1.84 metres).
The guy in front of me was Sixtat.
I grunted to make it known he had my attention.
Adrian: "If you don't want to lose your left eye...get out of my way.
Jango, Cad Bane, Aureole, Aura Sing, Sugi, Rumi Paramita, Seripas, Latts Razzi, Twazzi, Dagger/Jason Smoke, Kal Neral, Jack Stone, Bossk and Moralo Eval all looked at the idiot who was about to be tortured by me.
All of them knew of me in one way or another, or they just wanted to see some fighting, and possibly even some bloodshed, I know Bossk and Moralo Eval would love that.
Sixtat: "You stole my Bounty a few days ago! I want the Credits you took!"
This guy must have a Death Wish trying to Intimidate me. Can't really blame him though. He's just an idiot trying to intimidate someone who is almost as tall as a Wookie and is geared in armour that is resistant to pretty much everything in the Galaxy, except for Corotosis. I'll need to find Cortosis soon.
I could have made it with my Creation Ability...but...its gone now.
As in, remember how I described how it worked?
I had a mana pool of sorts to use for creating stiff. My mana will never regenerate and once the mana pool drops to 0, then I I never use it again.
Yep.
That's what happened.
I expected that to happen, so I had used it all up after my fight with Ava to get a ton of other things I need fir Subject Zer0. Most of which materials.
I needed way more Credits, to help fund a lot more of my plans and to prepare for future expenses, since I no longer can use my Creation Ability to create Credits for funds now.
Thus, I had to go around doing more Bounty jobs then normal and had to take some Jobs from other Hunters, like Sixtat here.
I was able to bend some if the Guild's rules without being bothered by them, since I was so well known. That, and Cradossk was wary if what I'd do, since he had gotten some info on me from Cad Bane and Jango.
His reaction to when he found out I had beaten the two of them on Ord Mantell many months ago was priceless. That was one of the reasons for my promotion to rank 3, soon I'll be rank 1.
Adrian: "Too bad."
As I grabbed his wrist with my right hand and was about to snap it, my right hand wrist was also grabbed by someone else.
I turned to look at who it was, as I heard Sixtat on the verge if screaming in pain as my grip got stronger.
Adrian: "What do you want?"
Everyone was now watching as they could see something good was about to happen. Jinx was also watching, about to interfere if needed.
Jinx could sense that the person who gripped Adrian's wrist was very strong...but by how much, she can't say exactly.
Jason looked on with interest beneath his helmet.
Kal could feel the tension was rising and didn't know if he should interfere or not, since he himself saw how fast Adrian had fired his gun, back on Takodana and on his ship against Morai.
Jack Stone knew Adrian was approaching him, for some reason, but was stopped by Sixtat, which then led to all this.
He found it quite interesting that Adrian was approaching him and nit turning the other way. Especially since the aura his body is emitting causes many negative emotions and effects on any individual who is near to him. Only the Doll of the Hunter's Dream and Lord Artreus had been able to remain near him unaffected.
(A/n Artreus is the mc of my "Soulsborne System" fanfic which I will have him and Jack Stone travel through Bloodborne NG+50 when I get to the Bloodborne part of the fic. This will be a prequel of Jack Stone before he entered Star Wars. I'm currently 1/3 of "Dark Souls 1" volume done ATM. Order of volumes. 1- Dark Souls 1, 2 - Bloodborne, 3 - Witcher 3, 4 - Dark Souls 3, 5 - Elden Ring, 6 - Original World)
The person who had gripped Adrian's wrist was Aureole Omega. Someone who Adrian never knew of in the original Star Wars comics, movies, novels or TV show.
Aureole: "Let him go."
Her grip was quite strong. But it can't go through my armour. Not even Durge could crush his Armour with raw strength, only weaponry can bypass it.
Adrian: "Why do you care? And why should I?"
I saw her give a displeased expression under her hood.
She didn't answer me, but had sent a round house kick to the back of my head.
I didn't bother doing anything since it'd break upon contract...
I stumbled forwards as my grip on Sixtat was released, and I felt I was flung upside down.
I quickly recovered from my momentary state of disbelief as I processed what had happened.
Her kick had actually broke my poise and I unconsciously released my hold on Sixtat, Aureole had then flipped my over with her grip on me.
I quickly landed and sent a leg swipe down below in a 360 arc spin.
She had reacted and hopped upwards and onto my back and bounced of it like a rabbit.
I grabbed her leg as my vast amount of combat knowledge I had gone over in my mind, made it so I was prepared for such an situation.
She didn't expect me to know I was above her, and was slammed into the ground.
She groaned a little as she could feel her spine on the verge of breaking. One of the many disadvantages to not wearing any armour, something she is currently regretting.
I stood over her and locked her in place, as I began betting her blue with my armoured fists.
I made sure not to kill her, as I was still intrigued by her. Clearly she wasn't great in CQC, but she was definitely knowledge about it and had trained a lot in CQC.
It was just her lack of real CQC experience. Maybe she had more experience with her blades and blasters then her actual hand-to-hand CQC capabilities.
Something strange was going on with my HUD. It showed that her vitals were completely fine. I attributed this to just an malfunction with my HUD systems to check later.
What Adrian didn't know was that his HUD had shown him the truth.
Aureole's vitals were perfectly fine. She makes be bleeding all over her face, her nose broken, skin cut and a swollen eye.
But she was fine, she was not breathing heavily, nor did she feel any agonising pain from having been beaten to the point of near death.
Adrian continued over to Jack Stone when he had gotten of off Aureole and unrestrained her.
Adrian had asked Jack Stone of they can talk in private. Adrian would later meet with the others and wait until the two hours are up until Sidious contacted them again to inform them of the Job's details.
Meanwhile, Aureole had gotten up from the floor, with her still broken and bloodied face, as if nothing had happened.
She made her way to private room at the Guild where she can recover from her injuries.
Aureole: "Damn that hurt. This is going to be one annoying mission."
The mission she is referring to, was nit there Job from the Unknown client (Sidious).
But one which she was given by the Jedi Council a days ago, when news about the Mandalorian Merc, Zer0, was made public.
She was smiling that had been beaten by him.
She had been beaten before by her instructors and various teachers, but never to this extent.
She had now beaten him once, and he had now beaten her once.
The scores between the two were now as follows.
Mandalorian Merc, Zer0:
Wins - 1
Loses - 1
Aureole Omega/Jedi Padawan Ava Kendra:
Wins - 1
Loses - 1
**************
A few days ago, a few hours prior to Zer0's raid on the Jedi Temple being released on the Holo.net.
Location: Senate building, Senator Sheev Palpatine's office.
Ava's Pov:
I had just been talking with the Jedi Council about the Mandalorian Zer0.
If the Jedi Order in its entirely found out about what he had done, then the Jedi Order would fall apart just like that.
The Council is trying all that they can to keep what he had dome confidential, but...they had told me.
They said they wanted me to be briefed on what he had done, so I would now to not kill him, but capture him at all costs.
Before, the Jedi only wanted to talk to him about what had happened 7 months ago on Ord Mantell.
But now he has to be captured at all costs and interrogated to extract the location of all the various Holocrons, Sith and Jedi Artefacts he had stolen.
I wanted to meet with him before as I thought we could have a nice talk.
I was overjoyed and hyper when I first sae him in the Library.
I was going to meet him! The man from my dreams!
But I had fought him
I understand that those circumstances weren't great, but I really wanted to start over once I had captured him.
Ever since the fight we had, the dreams I would have of him had only gotten more severe and frequent.
I would always have a constant pain in my head whenever I thought of him.
I had thought this could be a sign or related to my dreams or a possible Force Vision that could answer my many questions.
But now, after learning what he did.
I'm not happy, not one bit.
I'll have to capture him at all costs. The danger those Artefacts pose for the Galaxy are too great. It could resurrect the Sith and plunge the Galaxy into another age of war after a millennium of peace.
Palpatine: "Is something bothering you my girl?"
I shook my head as I heard the concern of Senator Palpatine's words.
Ava: "No Senator. Thank you for asking. I was just deep in thought about something."
Senator Palpatine wasn't a such such bad guy as the Jedi make him out to be. He was a great guy. He would always help me in things that the Jedi can't due to the rules they follow.
But the Senator is there for me. He had always been curious about me from a young age. Maybe since I was a prodigy in everything, or because I showed a great deal of skull that is equal or greater than Master Yoda and Master Windu.
He is always curious about me, and would ask me a lot of personal questions, whole sharing his own.
He had even revealed that his family was murdered by pirates a long time ago.
And I too shared my longingness to have a family.
But I didn't know why that was.
I...felt as though something was missing inside me...
I had no parents, no siblings.
But some part of me longs to love and be loved...by someone?
It was strange.
I had only gotten the same feeling when I was near Zer0!
How can I love a person like him?
Mandalorians and Jedi have been enemies for thousands of years.
Not only that but the crimes he had committed and the danger he possesses to the Galaxy for as long as he still has those Artefacts with him.
I have to find h-
Palpatine: "*sigh* I can see you are zoning out again. Maybe if you talk about it, someone can help you with your metal dilemma, perhaps Master Yoda? He is very old and extremely wise, no?"
Ava: "Thank you Senator, but this problem can't is something they can't help me with. I am trying to look for someone, maybe I can get my answers from them."
Palpatine: "You mean the Mandalorian Mercenary that took me hostage and broke into the Jedi Temple recently?"
Ava: "How do you-"
Palpatine: "Haha, it is obvious is it not. Naturally you would want to find him, he is a very dangerous individual if he did all that. I too want to find him. Who knows when he could strike next...perhaps take a all the Senators, an village, or a city...or a mother and daughter hostage the next time?"
My blood went cold as my mind went blank as I heard his words...
If that happens then I won't hesitate to end him and save the lives of those innocents.
Ava: "Yes, I do want to find him Senator. Even the Jedi are looking for him, but haven't come up with anything yet other than the communicator he had left in your pocket."
Palpatine: "I see...well then my Ava, I believe I had recently found a lead on him-"
Ava: "REALLY?!"
I blushed and tried hiding my face as I realised I had just shouted at the Senator.
I true do apologise but he cut me off mid sentence.
Palpatine: "Haha, I can see your enthusiasm and doubt from your rather loud words just now. I don't have anything concrete, and and I don't give this information to the Jedi Council yet. But I believe he and many other notorious and dangerous Bounty Hunters will soon be heading to a rendezvous point."
Ava: "*sigh* Then it's hopeless. No offense Senator, but even if you tell me all that, there is no way to find out where they are heading to."
The Senator reached unto his desk and took out a Communication device I haven't seen, but I do know it by its descriptions I previously read about.
Palpatine: "This is a Communicator which the Bounty Hunter's Guild uses for all of their members to contact one another and the Guild. A few years ago, i had a Bounty Hunter come after my life, but that had failed. This is what I had found, when my guard took care of him. Maybe you can use your exquisite engineering and intellectual to rewire this device and find their meeting place."
Ava: "Thank you Senator! I will ensure I won't let you down!"
Palpatine: "Haha! Don't worry my girl. I trust you even with my life. When you need to, you should head over to this place. *hands small card*. Here you will be able to change your appearance and go under cover as an Bounty Hunter. I will see what she can do about getting your reputation up, so that you can infiltrate among their ranks.
Ava: "Thank you for all the help Senator! I will be accomplish this mission you have intrusted me with."
I bowed and left the Senator's room. I had first rewired hacked into the Communicator in no time. It seems there hasn't been any communications sent from the Guild in recent days enmass, only individually.
I made my way to the place the Senator had said and the process of changing my face and appearance was painful to say the least.
*sigh*
I'm going to have to do it to return to my old appearance.
I didn't need a voice modulator since I can just tone my voice slightly to change it. Must be a perk of whatever race I am. I know I cant be a normal Human, since my DNA is nowhere like them. But I do have an appearance that is identical to a Humans.
That...and my blood glows...yeah...that isn't normal...
...
I had contacted Master Yoda to inform them I needed to meditate on uninhabited World to clear my thoughts.
He wasn't opposed to it and encouraged it as he knew I would be fine.
After the Jedi publicly announced Zer0 and what he had done onto the Holo.net.
It wasn't long after that the device I had started bleeping.
I answered it and turns out the top 25 Bounty Hunters will be heading to Ord Mantell.
Zer0 will definitely be among them.
And the name I chose?
Aureole Omega.
*************
Shortly after Ava Kendra had left.
Palpatine/Darth Sidious pov:
The girl Ava Kendra was powerful in the Force. I can feel it, so too can Master.
I had tried to find out how powerful by trying to get a Midichlorian reading on her.
But I couldn't just ask her to give me her blood, nor could I "accidentally" cut her to find out, or else she will know that was my intention from the start.
The Jedi also denied me many times to get the number of how much Midichlorians she has.
But I had been able to get it.
17,000.
I don't believe it for a second!
Yoda knows it.
My master knows it too.
She has to be the "Chosen One".
My master and I had thought it was a child, my master had trued to conceive with the Dark Side of the Force.
But the Force did not like it and had created the child somewhere else, to an unintended woman.
We tried searching for the child and the mother but were unable too. One thing was for certain, it would one day appear on Tatooine. And so we waited and searched, but were never able to find it
Plagueis: "Have we been Undone, have you Undine us?"
My master would ramble those words over and over again ever since that day the Force had decided to revel against us and create a child that would one day cause the annihilation of the Sith and the Jedi.
But it turns out we were wrong.
It had too be this girl Ava Kendra.
She isn't as convinced by words as I had thought. But I am in no rush, I'll slowly destroy her confidence in the Jedi and make her mine.
My master thought he could replace me with her, but I will make her my apprentice instead.
...
I contacted Cradossk, the leader of the Bounty Hunter's Guild and gave him a list of names to contact for a Job.
This was something I wanted done fir a while now, but I needed cannon fodder to deal with it in my stead.
I made sure to give numerous names to ensure that Cradossk would overlook Ava and wouldn't investigate as to why I specifically called her our by name.
Cad Bane, Jango Fett, Jack Stone, Dagger, Aureole Omega, Zer0, Embo, Derrown, Rako Hardeen, Moralo Eval.
These were the names I gave to ensure that Ava can infiltrate their ranks without alerting much suspicion.
I had also had some highly encrypted false documents of Aureole Omega, the name Ava said she had chosen, created to help her reputation among the others be solidified.
When she returns, I will torture Zer0 alive for dare stealing from me!
All my Sith Artefacts had been stolen! All except for a few of the larger ones, such as the Giant Sith Holocron of Malachor.
Now all I had to do was wait until all the Bounty Hunters met at the rendezvous point on Ord Mantell.
...
...
...
...
...
To be continued...Hunt for the Map Arc, Part 5: A meeting of Hunters and Abeloth's Despair
