Hosk

Chapter One
Hosk Brellnor was born on the distant planet of Nagai. He was raised only by his father, on an off world settlement, since his mother died in childbirth. He learned very little about his birthplanet or its customs because, when he was young, war tore his home apart. Most of his family was presumed dead after the battle with the Yuuzhan Vong and his father died right before his eyes. He had tried to protect Hosk from the fighting, and killed quite a few warriors with his Tehk'la blade, but then a Yuuzhan Vong commander appeared before him. This commander stood out from the rest of the warriors, because his armor was painted with black and red hand prints. He also had ten even scars, one after another, down his left arm.
He battled Hosk's father fiercely and it lasted for, what seemed to Hosk, an eternity, but eventually the commander won. Even as the final blow landed on Hosk's father, he was trying to shield his son. Hosk wiped away his tears and picked up his father's blade. He pointed it up at the Vong with trembling hands and screamed at him. The Yuuzhan Vong just stared into the wailing boy?s eyes. He walked closer until Hosk's blade was nearly touching him. Then he slowly grabbed the end of the blade and pulled it across his own arm, making an eleventh scar. Without a sound the warrior turned his back on Hosk and walked away. Hosk cursed himself for not being able to do it and just sat and cried over his father's body.
After a while, Hosk wandered the battlefield alone like a lost soul on the road to the afterlife, but in the midst of the fighting he was found by a Jensaarai warrior. Even though the warrior was risking his life, he took pity on the young boy. He scooped him up and ran for the nearest transport ship. As the battle raged on, Hosk was transported safely to a distant Jensaarai settlement. He ended up staying there and they taught him their ways of using the force, and balancing the light and dark within themselves. He learned how to wield two lightsabers at once, and eventually he became a very skilled Jensaarai force user in his own right, but it was not enough. The desire to avenge his family weighed heavily on his mind and threatened to consume him. Also, he began to feel that there was more to the force than even his teachers knew. So, he decided to leave the settlement, in order to find the answers to his own questions.
At first, he just wandered space. He built a small reputation for himself as a mercenary and assassin, while also searching for information about the Yuuzhan Vong commander with the scarred arms and red and black armor. In his travels he learned that they were a kind of void in the force. They did not use it, and were immune to it. This intrigued Hosk because his teachers claimed that the force was everywhere and in all things.
Eventually, after bribes and drinks and exhaustive searching through hearsay and rumor he found a reliable report of the commander's next location. Hosk managed to secure the use of some mercenaries to insure that no other soldiers would interfere with his personal vengeance. When Hosk and the Vong met to cross blades, they locked eyes on each other, but didn't say a word. The commander still had the same armor, but now he had 19 scars that covered both of his arms.
Hosk fought as fiercely as his father had, but this battle, however, only seemed like a brief moment in time. Hosk raged at his hated enemy and flayed open the commander's leg with the lightsaber in his right hand. As he fell to one knee, Hosk disarmed the warrior by chopping four of his fingers off. He brought his hand back for the death blow, but something stopped him. He stood there for a long moment looking into the Vong's eyes. He thought about the force, about how light and dark had their place in it. He thought about how his desire for vengeance had consumed him, and how revenge was just a justification for killing someone. He looked back at the defeated soldier kneeling before him, and did not think that his father would like what Hosk had become. Ultimately that is what stayed his hand.
Just then he spotted a patrol of Yuuzhan Vong. He didn't want to leave the commander there to alert them, so he knocked him out and loaded him onto his ship. When he was safely away, Hosk tied up the commander and revived him. He told the soldier that he was the son of a man he had killed, and then Hosk told him that he intended to let him go in spite of that fact.
Hosk had planned on keeping silent after that, but he was curious. The Yuuzhan Vong were essentially not a part of the force. Hosk had the wisdom to know that, in order to fully understand something, you have to give it definition. And to define something, you have to know what it is, but also know what it isn't. Light is only light as we know it because darkness is everywhere that it is not. Darkness defines it and gives it boundary.
Hosk wanted to know everything there is to know about the force, so he asked the Yuuzhan Vong warrior everything he could think of about what it was like not having it. He tried using his force powers on the commander. He tried sensing him with the force. He tried a host of other things. Surprisingly, the man cooperated with Hosk. Perhaps it was out of a sense of guilt, or perhaps because he was going to be let go, no one can say.
When Hosk had his fill of questions, he landed the ship on a nearby moon. He opened the hatch and as he cut the Yuuzhan Vong's bindings he said, "If I ever see you again in this life, I'll kill you." The commander turned around while cradling his hand. He stared Hosk in the eyes for a long moment, and then said, "Do you display trophies?" He held up his arm as an example. Hosk scowled but then shook his head. "I have defeated nineteen and you defeated me. Take this as your trophy." The man pulled out his living staff and handed it to Hosk, then turned and walked out of the ship.
It was only later that Hosk found out that the battle, in which his father died, was actually started by his people. They blamed the Yuuzhan Vong for a blight that was spreading on their planet. The Vong were not to blame. It was the Sith that sabotaged their terra-forming. When Hosk learned this he just howled in rage. He thought he had avenged his father, but now he turned his sights on the Sith.
Hosk left and continued to travel the galaxy. He wanted to get a chance to find the Sith that was responsible for his father's death, but he was curious about the force as well. He spent time with many force using traditions, watching their ways, learning from them, and finding out where everyone fit into the force. He wanted to get a good look at the force from every possible angle. He wanted to know it inside and out. He wanted to be the first person in the universe to see it for what it truly was, and he is still out there searching... for knowledge and for revenge.

Chapter Two
Throughout his travels, Hosk conducted "business" with many different people, on many different planets. He "acquired" a ship and traveled to various worlds for various jobs. And inevitably, he ended up doing business with the Hutts.
His name was Gotto. Hosk had been dealing with him for about a year, but never really trusted him. (As should be the case when dealing with any Hutt). That being said, Hosk still didn't see the double-cross coming.
As a side note to whom it may concern, it is a good rule to live by that you should not have dealings with the same Hutt for more than a year. Too many skeletons build up in their closet that you are a witness to. In Hosk's case, that is exactly what happened.
Gotto had sent Hosk on too many assassinations and the empire was breathing down his enormous neck because of it. In order to tie up any lose ends, he sent Hosk on a fake job. Gotto then hired five mercenaries to take Hosk down.
On the way to the nonexistent assignment, Hosk was attacked in space by a larger vessel. After an extended battle, he was forced to make an emergency landing on a desert planet. He injured his knee in the landing/crash and after doing a ship systems survey, Hosk realized that his ship was in far worse shape than himself.
There was only one working ship system and Hosk knew that those mercenaries would be on him in no time. Even though it looked bad, a plan started to form in his mind. He grabbed his belt of frag grenades and limped outside.
When the mercenaries landed, Hosk was nowhere to be seen. They split into one group of two and one group of three, in order to search the area. When the group of two walked by him, Hosk rose from the sand with both of his light sabers and cut them from nuts to nose. He made sure that the group of three saw him and then he limped around the ship. He made a show of turning back and struggling with his leg to reach for his bag of grenades, but then he left them and fled around the ship.
When the three got to where he had been, they paused to look at what he had left on the ground. Seeing that it was a belt of five fragmentation grenades, they grabbed it and continued after him. But when they rounded the back of the ship in pursuit, Hosk initialized the only functioning ship system; the afterburners.
The burst of flame caught two of them full in the chest and one of them was carrying Hosk's grenades. The entire back portion of the vessel exploded and killed all three. Hosk managed to dive out of the way just in time. He lay in the sand for a while and thanked his luck.
But when he finally managed to stand, he started cursing his luck. He was surrounded by twenty more mercenaries with blaster rifles. But after a second, he wiped the sweat and sand from his eyes and noticed that they weren't mercenaries, they were Jawa.

Chapter Three
Hosk was sure that he was dead now. He knew that he couldn't walk any significant distance with his leg injured and his ship was far, far beyond repair. He had heard stories about the Jawa and was certain that they would either shoot him where he stood, or take the mercenaries' ship and leave him in the desert to die.
But Hosk was pleasantly surprised when they did neither. Apparently they were intrigued by him. This injured man had just killed five assassins by himself. (Also, he had a ship that was ripe for scavenging). They beckoned for him to go with them, and because he didn't really have any other choice, he gathered his things and followed.
They led him back to one of their camps and tended his wounds. He didn't speak Jawa so he used his portable computer as a translator. The Jawa require an exchange for everything they do. So eventually, they reached the agreement that Hosk would trade what was left of his ship, for food and lodging and transport off the planet when he felt ready.
He stayed with them for months while his wounds healed. After all, that was the last place that Gotto would look for him. The Jawa had a small and portable campsite, but it was comfortable enough. They were not so mysterious after they let their hoods down. After a time, Hosk even became fond of the place, and he no longer had to use the translator. Even though his leg had healed, he felt compelled to stay. He had been travelling around his whole life and he had never been able to settle in one place before. He had too many enemies that would eventually catch up to him. And unfortunately that is exactly what happened.
Hosk later found out that the Jawa had sold the ship that the mercenaries used. Gotto managed to trace it back to the Jawa and he sent more men to make sure that Hosk was dead. When Hosk saw the ten men get off the transport, he immediately knew who they were. Men that kill for a living, usually carry themselves a certain way and they are almost always wary.
Hosk didn't want a fight because he knew that the Jawa would inevitably get hurt, so he crept out back of the camp and circled around. As the men were questioning the Jawa about Hosk's location, he jumped in their own ship. There was one man still inside so he kicked him into the sand and closed the hatch. As he engaged the ship's engines, he gave the mercenaries his signature smile and just waved as he flew off into space.
He knew that the camp would be OK because the mercenaries would never attack them directly. If they did, the entire area would be overrun with angry Jawa. But he also knew that he couldn't ever go back without risking their lives when someone came after him, so he stayed away. Besides, he had other things to occupy his time. Like trying to kill Gotto.

Chapter Four
Hosk flew the commandeered ship back toward the lanes of commerce. Along the way a plan developed in his mind about how he would get back at Gotto for his treachery. He would need equipment, but fortunately the ship that he was in already had a fully stocked armory. As always, Hosk innately chose the most flamboyant course of action. He flew the ship directly toward Gotto's base.
Hosk had worked for Gotto so he knew the landing protocols. When the mercenaries' ship touched down in the docking bay, the side hatch opened, but no one came out. There were four men waiting to greet the returning assassins and they stood there staring at the open hatch, two were Gotto's men and two were mechanics. One of the Hutt's men got impatient. "Hey hurry up the boss is waiting." He walked into the ship and then the bay fell silent. The other mercenary stood waiting for a few moments more and the mechanics started working on securing the ship. The merc impatiently started toward the hatch after seeing that no one was going to come out yet. "Hey what do you fellows have going on in here? Did you happen to pick up a Wookie slave girl?" He laughed and then entered the ship and the bay fell silent again.
A few minutes later, when the mechanics had secured the ship and refueled her, they realized that no one had come out yet. They had heard something about a slave girl so they both decided to take a look for themselves. As they approached, Hosk blew from the ship in a flash of blackness. He ran in between the two and caught each of them in the throat with a lightsaber, severing their vocal cords. After that he quietly dispatched them and made sure to grab the thermal detonators that were in the ship's armory.
Hosk concentrated and wrapped himself in the force, then he calmly walked down the hall to the main chamber. He stopped just before he got there to set the thermal detonators along the walls at the entrance. Then he quietly walked into Gotto's court. The huge, bulbous slug-like creature was sitting on a dais surrounded by business attendants and slaves. There were bodyguards all around the room, but Hosk paid them no mind. None of them noticed him, the force saw to that.
He calmly walked across the room and up the dais. He stood to one side of the smelly slug and raised his lightsabers to Gotto's throat (for lack of a better word). Then he released his force cloak and everyone in the room panicked. He spoke in a calm voice, but with an undertone of agitation. "No one move or Gotto here is going to lose some weight." An alarm sounded and everyone came rushing toward the court.
Still undaunted, Hosk spoke quite calmly with a smile on his face. "Tell them all to throw down their weapons." The Hutt started gurgling something at Hosk, and no one moved. "Gotto, you know that I don't speak slug. Now tell them to drop their weapons." For emphasis, Hosk seared the skin at Gotto's chest. Gotto gurgled again and slowly they all dropped their weapons. Hosk just shook his head as he looked around the room. "Do you know who you are dealing with? Drop them ALL." Then the mercenaries started pulling more weapons out of very unlikely places and dropped them on the floor.
Hosk used his force powers to pull all of the weapons to the center of the room. "That's better. Now." He looked at Gotto's attendants. "Tell the Hutts that I mean them no ill will, but this one tried to kill me, and we all know that is against the rules. Its just bad business. They are going to want to know what happened here." Then he turned his attention back to Gotto. "Well I don't have any salt handy. I can't tell you how many times I contemplated that." He let out a short laugh and then his signature smile crept onto his face, but with a terrifying, deadly twist to it. "You know what? I've heard that if you cut a worm in half, one end grows a head, and the other grows a tail. Let's see." And with a smile on his face, he used his two sabers like scissors and cut the Hutt in half. Momentary shock stunned the room and it was all Hosk needed to rush back into the hall. When he had passed the detonators, he set them off and the explosion sealed the hallway to the docking bay. Then he got back into the ship and headed into orbit. Back on the hunt for knowledge of the force, and vengeance against the Sith.