The visions swam in an ethereal mist. A wolf that stalked its prey. A warrior clad in a suit of beskar so dark that no light reflected from it. Fear, merciless death and the relish of the hunt. Finally the insignia on the mandalorian vessel hung in Hawk's mind's eye but now it burnt with a dark fire. The Jedi Master tried to pursue his visions deeper, but the mist would not part for him any further, and so he relented and opened his eyes.
These Mandalorians were a sect of some kind, a cult perhaps? Their insignia was that of an ancient wolf-like deity and they hunted and sacrificed in its honour. The image of the dark clad warrior loomed in Hawk's mind again...was he a real person, their leader perhaps? Or merely a symbol for the darkness they served? Hawk could not be sure but great power and evil eminated from the figure.
Hawk left his meditation chamber and slumped into his pilot's chair, a thoughtful look darkening his features. These hunters would not be eager to make the kill. Ritualistic hunts like this tended to be drawn out torturous affairs; the victims being toyed with over several days; being pushed to exhaustion and starvation until finally the excitement of the kill built to a crescendo and they were sacrificed to this god.
A single small world sparkled like an oasis of colour in the midnight sprawl of space. It was sparsely inhabited according to the scans that Hawk took of the surface, a small mining colony by the looks of it. Hawk took The Phoenix down, the atmosphere bursting into flames around the ship as he descended, the jets of fire forming the shape of large wings; the sight of which had given the vessel its name.
The boarding ramp of The Phoenix groaned open and Hawk stepped down towards a small number of individuals who had gathered at his landing site. The group all bore mining lasers and other such tools and they wielded them menacingly at him.
"I've not come for any trouble." Hawk assured them as he continued to stride confidently down the ramp, his hands raised into the air to show he did not hold a weapon.
"We though you were the raiders coming back to take more of our women."
"Raiders?" Hawk asked his interest piqued. "Did these raiders wear armour?"
"Yes, we tried to fight them but our weapons were pretty useless against their armour."
Hawk eyed the mining lasers and assortment of other "weapons". He could feel the anger and fear from the small crowd, but it was a testiment to their resolve and bravery that they had come to face what they thought might be the raiders again knowing that their tools were ineffective as weapons.
"These raiders have taken people from other worlds and I am tracking them, I have narrowed down their world of operation to several worlds in this sector. Is there anything you can tell me that might help? If I find them, and if your women are still alive I will return them to you."
Discussion broke out amongst the crowd and then one ageing man stepped forward. The man's head was bald apart from a silver halo of unshaven stubble that circled it. He stooped now, but Hawk could tell that he had once been tall and powerfully built, and yet the mining life was not an easy one and Hawk sensed that there was still strength in him. The older man handed Hawk a small device and the Jedi looked at it, it was clearly broken but it was also clearly of Mandalorian design.
"I knocked this off one of their helmets," the older man spat upon the floor. "If he didn't have his armour I'd have ripped his head off his shoulders...we've no droids but mining droids so were unable to retrieve any data from it."
Hawk did not doubt the older man's sincerity, or that he would indeed have torn the head off the Mandalorian in a fair fight, there was something intriguing about him, perhaps it was the force that Hawk sensed. Yes, this man was sensitive to the force. It was a shame that he had been born all the way out here in this small mining colony, he would have been identified as force sensitive as a child in more civilised sectors and perhaps have become a Jedi himself.
"Thank you," Hawk said. "I'll have my droid analyse the data on this device and see if I can get any leads."
With that, Hawk swept back up his boarding ramp in a swirl of brown robes before blasting back off into space a few moments later.
