The Hunter Returns

2001 short story by Louis Turfrey

Thirty-seven years after Episode IV – A New Hope

Raven Base, Interrogation Cell,

Three hours after the theft of the VSD Deliverance.

“Where is my Star Destroyer?” The twin amber eyes bore into the skull of the warrior, and blood trickled from his nose where it had just been crushed.

“My name is Kran Venir, serial number 35621-54464. I request asylum as per the agreed articles of war set up in the Coruscant accord.” He just managed to croak out the last word as the massive clawed hand grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off of his feet.

“This is not the Galactic Alliance, this is the Setnin Sector. We do things according to our own rules here.” The demonic face came closer and smiled, showing two large fangs. “Do you want to put that to the test?”

“He doesn’t know. It was a long shot I suppose.” Lord Raven walked out of the interrogation room and nodded to the medic waiting outside. His wife waited patiently as he washed his hands of the blood that had stained them.

“If you dislike those methods so much, why do you use them?” Raven considered his wife’s comment for a moment as he dried his hands.

“Because your methods leave them like lifeless husks. This way he recovers and may be persuaded to join our cause.” He looked through the one-way observation glass, into the room beyond and surveyed his handiwork. The twisted limbs of the Ki-Ki warrior were being placed back into their sockets by the medic unit. Lord Raven shuddered to think what he may have done if he had lost his temper. His wife moved over next to him, her green tinged hand resting lightly on his arm.

“Ouch.”

Raven Base, Audience Hall,

Eleven hours after the theft of the VSD Deliverance.

The Courier entered the audience chamber and his escorts removed his blindfold. His eyes soon adjusted to the gloom of the room beyond. Although there were faint glow lamps round the edges of the room, they barely lit up the areas around the walls that they were attached to. The only other light was the thin spotlight that illuminated an area of the floor, barely a metre in width, at the edge of the dais where he knew his mistress sat. He moved forward into the light.

“Speak.” The voice was flat and unemotional.

“My Lady Raven. I have word from our spies aboard the VSD Constance. She has been badly damaged but is still in serviceable order. It appears the Ki-Ki fleet appeared nearly two hours early. They had a spy on board the Constance who informed them that the Deliverance had been abandoned.” He clicked his fingers and a Rodian was thrown forward into the pool of light. Its face was puffed up from the beating it had so obviously received.

“His name is Greet. I had considered eliminating him, but I assumed you would want to speak to him first.” The Courier stood out of the light whilst the Rodian pushed itself to its knees. Its hands were bound but the spy was still able to steady itself, despite the beating.

“Greet, my name is Raven, have you heard of me?”

The creature nodded its head, there was a look of defiance in its eyes but it did not speak.

“Good, then you will know of my reputation. A reputation I intend to see remains unmarked. A small Setnin Sector attack force should have intercepted the Ki-Ki forces that you worked with. They arrived on the scene too late to be of any assistance to what they perceived as a badly damaged Victory Class Star Destroyer. Without the aid of my repair station they were wiped out entirely, trapped like Mynocks in an energy cage. How do you think that made me look? I set a trap and the trap is sprung on me. So, as my reputation has suffered, now you will suffer.”

The Rodian looked more worried now, his eyes were darting from left to right, looking for a way out.

“Don’t even think about it.” The growling voice came from behind his left ear. He looked around quickly to see two amber eyes reflecting back at him, over two and a half metres above his head. The voice came again from the podium.

“I suggest you cooperate with my husband in every way possible. He is not a patient man.”

VSD Deliverance,

Twelve hours after its theft.

“Commander Brotus, incoming message from the Raven organisation. Do you want us to ignore it?” The young communications officer looked wary of his senior officer. Brotus reminded himself that fear was an excellent weapon.

“No, place it on my view screen.” He turned to wait for the image to appear. “Greetings Commander. I heard that the mission went successfully. I will therefore expect full payment to be placed in our holding accounts by this afternoon.” The screen was darkened but Brotus recognised the voice.

“There will be no payment. Thanks to your lack of information I lost one of my heavy cruisers and several of my fighters. You should have told me about the Jedi.” There was a second of silence whilst the hyperspace transmission routed to the originator.

“The Jedi were of no consequence and should not have interfered. However, you have your prize and my organisation is out of pocket for a considerable sum. I would suggest payment would be easier than the consequences.” Brotus boiled with rage, his arm throbbed angrily where the lightsabre had sliced through it.

“Jedi, of no consequence, of no consequence!” He thrust his arm towards the pickup on the transmitter. “He took my arm and you consider this of no consequence?” Brotus slammed his remaining fist down on the disconnect button.

Raven Headquarters

“It would seem that our Ki-Ki Commander is enraged my sweet.” Ravens sarcasm was not lost on his wife. She turned to face her husband as the light was raised in their chambers.

“He will no doubt be wondering why the head of an infamous underground spy network would want to throw veiled threats towards the commander of the great Ki-Ki Armada.” She stood up from her chair and looked her husband straight in the eye. “Shall we show him?”

Leogard, Ki-Ki Fighter Patrol

24 Hours after the theft of the VSD Deliverance.

“This is Prime Four to Prime Leader, I thought I saw something on my scope Sir, should I vector you the coordinates?” The answer came quickly.

“Affirmative Four, group into decahedral formation and push a combined scan.” The flight moved into the orb formation and overlapped their scanners. Within seconds they were focusing scans within a rotating ninety point radius.

“Negative on any scans Four. Wait, I have something, less than thirty clicks. It’s enormous. Split formation. Sixty hostiles on incoming vectors.”

Dark shapes leapt at them, firing crimson bolts of flame that ploughed into the Ki-Ki group, tearing the ships apart before they had a chance to react. Within seconds all that was left of the ten Ki-Ki fighters was space dust. The phantom shapes rotated around then split into four groups, heading for the Leogard dust cloud.

Raven Headquarters

26 Hours after the theft of the VSD Deliverance

“My sweet, it appears the test of our surprise was quite a success. Two fighter groups and fifty communications satellites have been eradicated.” Raven passed the pad to his wife who nodded gravely.

“So it would appear, however this shows that the main ship was picked up at thirty clicks, we need to get that down to three.” Raven looked surprised by his wife’s comments.

“Three? Even with the new stealth transmitters the maximum they might be able to achieve would be ten. Are you sure?” She nodded again.

“The element of surprise is everything. If we ask them to try for three then they might manage five. Trust me on this one my love, I know the minds of men.”

Stealth Super Carrier, Setnin Revenge

27 Hours after the theft of the VSD Deliverance

“Sir, message in from Raven Base.” Communications officer Jove Terrill handed the message to his commanding officer. Captain Jontheck Shain nodded and took the printed and coded message off of his junior officer. His eyes widened and a look of determination set itself upon his features. He dismissed the junior officer and turned to the crew on the command bridge.

“Now hear this. All officers are to work in unison with the stealth systems unit to reduce our current signature to ten percent of its current size. I repeat ten percent, there will be no excuses accepted, this is an order form Raven headquarters.” The bridge crew looked at him as if he had gone mad, but Shain merely smiled his answer to their looks.

“The man or team that solves this will earn himself double pay for the next two months.” A murmur went throughout the bridge and within minutes all members of the command staff were hard at work. Shain reflected on how money could be a great motivator.

Raven Headquarters

32 Hours after the theft of the VSD Deliverance

“My dear, it appears they have cracked it.” Lord Raven handed the printed and decoded message to his wife who looked at it in surprise.

“It seems you are right, detection radius has been reduced to two clicks? How did they do that?” She looked at her husband, who smiled secretively to her.

“Let’s just say that they got offered something better than loyalty if they succeeded.” His wife nodded and looked towards her terminal unit.

“Do you want to make the call? Or would you like me to stand in for you again?” Her taunting raised the hackles on Lord Ravens back.

“No, this time I’ll make the call.”

Jomobol Pocock’s Office,

32.25 Hours after the theft of the VSD Deliverance

“Lord Raven. What can we do for you today?” Pocock maintained his polite countenance, noting the blank screen. He would have considered it rude under normal circumstances, but these were not normal circumstances.

“Are the modified fighters ready for racking yet?”

Pocock was wary, he had found out through the usual channels about the missing VSD, and knew of Ravens apparent involvement.

“Yes. All have been racked on the two new ships. Both ships will be ready for dispatch as soon as you send me the crews and the payment. Assuming you can still afford them that is.”

The response was terse.

“Don’t try and goad me Pocock. You’ll find I have a fierce temper when tested. The payment is being transferred as we speak and should have registered in your account by the end of this conversation. My crews are in transit, but you are to wait for the arrival of the commander of the second ship before releasing it.”

Pocock was not amused by the threat, but a half billion credits were riding on this transaction. Anybody with that amount of money was worth holding his temper for.

“Very well Raven, but I will need to know the identity of the commander of the second ship, who is it?” There was silence at the other end of the screen and then it slowly cleared revealing a pair of amber eyes, almost glowing in their sockets.

“Well, well, you have come up in the galaxy. Am I to assume that you will personally be picking up the ship?” The face at the other end of the line nodded gravely.

“Your assumption would be correct. Might I also add that my identity will remain a secret until such time as I am ready to reveal it?”

Pocock nodded his assent.

“You may. I will be very interested to see how your little force progresses in this war of ours. As they say, peace is good for business, but war makes more money. I’ll keep your little secret just as long as this remains profitable for me.”

The face at the other end smiled.

“Oh, don’t worry Jomobol, you’ll make lots of money.”

Pocock grinned as he noticed the figures tumbling into his bank account on his second screen.

“I dare say I will. Well, must go, fighters to check out and all that. Take care of your self.”

Daemon Garr nodded.

“I always have and I always will Pocock. Count on it.”

The Hunter Returns

2001 short story by Louis Turfrey

Thirty-seven years after Episode IV – A New Hope

Histories – Concerning the theft of the VSD Deliverance and the effect it has on both Ki-Ki and Setnin concerns. Introducing the familiar character of Daemon Garr as Lord Raven, this Louis Turfrey story sets even more plotlines into motion.

Cast Of Characters

Daemon Garr

Kran Venir

Lady Raven

The Courier

Greet

Jove Terrill

Captain Jontheck Shain