|| Republic Commando: Hard Contact || 2004 || Book series || Military, Sci-Fi || 18+ for violence and harrowing themes || It only occured to me how actually a plottwist to make a Mandalorian mercenary the antagonist of the story and pit him against the commandos, who were also trained by a Mandalorian mercenary. Of couse, I was rooting for the commandos but at the same time I enjoyed following along Ghez Hokan and seeing the story from both sides how they try outsmart each other.
After the rather dramatic - and sexy :3 - entrance of the first chapter, he now officially appears as an antagonist, from whose point of view we can see the events and we get some idea of his character and values.
First of all, Ghez Hokan hates his employer, Lik Ankkit. More precisely, he hates the Neimodians in general: || The Neimoidians had a taste for elaborate and wholly inappropriate grandeur, and Ghez Hokan despised them for it. || No, the Neimoidian was a di’kut. A complete and utter di’kut. || Ankkit was a bean-counting coward like all of his kind || Hokan controlled an impulsive urge to cut this glorified shopkeeper, this grocer, down to size. For all his height, the Neimoidian was soft and weak, his only strength contained within his bank account. ||
Second, Ghez Hokan has negative opinions about biological warfare: || He didn’t care if Ankkit rented the whole planet out to Separatist scientists. They weren’t honorable enough to fight with real weapons, either: they got bugs to do their work for them. It was a disgrace. It was unnatural. ||
Third: At this point of the story, Master Kast Fulier is STILL ALIVE and Ghez Hokan tortures him somewhere in an unknown place.
Also so totally and very unrelated, but what do we call that fictional trope when you capture your enemy and torture them to death, but in the meantime you start to feel respect for them because they can handle it?
•───────•°•❀•°•───────•
“You haven’t killed him, have you? Do tell me you haven’t. I need to know if his activities will affect market prices.”
“I’m not an amateur.”
“But one has to do the best with the staff one has, yes?”
“I do my own dirty work, thanks. No, he isn’t talking. He’s rather … resistant for a Jedi.”
•───────•°•❀•°•───────•
Fulier couldn’t have been good at calculating odds or he’d never have started on Gar-Ul in the tavern. But at least he was prepared to stand up for himself, despite all that soft mystical nonsense he spouted. Hokan admired guts, even if he rarely tolerated them. They were always in short supply.
•───────•°•❀•°•───────•
The lightsaber wasn’t bad for a soft Jedi weapon.
Hokan suspected the lightsaber looked at odds with his traditional Mandalorian helmet and its distinctive T-shaped eye slit. But a warrior had to adapt.
And Fulier had questions to answer.
•───────•°•❀•°•───────•
Because I think it's very sexy. :3
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