2540 ATC, Jedi Temple, Coruscant.

  There was an electronic buzz, then the doors to Des’s workshop slid open. On the other side of the threshold stood Jane, the Chiefs assistant and likely replacement when the old man finally decided to retire.

  “Hey Jane, I was expecting Chief Booth”?

  “Hello Des, Something came up. He asked me to drop these off to you”. He held up two metallic cylinders for Des to see, but the junior engineer was looking past him, at the droid Des had been preparing.

  In a slightly unnerved tone he asked, “Is that an HK model assassin droid”?

  “No. Well, not truly”, he shrugged “It’s a fake”. Jane was giving him a curious look so he explained what he knew.

  “According to the story I was told, there was a creative Toydarian who tricked a rich collector into buying a batch of perfectly preserved, pre Mandalorian War era assassin droids. Which this is definitely not. When the con man was eventually caught for some unrelated crime, the truth came out and the collector ordered the fakes all scrapped. The Chiefs brother managed to step in and acquire them for me. He's been supplying me with them ever since”.

  “So they’re junk then”?

  “I Wouldn't say that, no. Whatever techs the crook found to build his imitations for him knew their business, They are perfectly serviceable machines. They’re just not the legendary assassin droids of old, even if they look like them”.

  Entering the room, the engineer handed the delivery to Des before moving to examine the latest in his line of bounty hunter droids. He accepted the two canisters and moved over to a machine he had built for his most recent idea. He placed each into its receptacle, then started the devices comparison mode.

  “I’ve got to say Des, it looks mostly standard to me. The way the Chief speaks about your work, I was expecting something more, advanced”.

  “My first few attempts were quite advanced, yeah. hidden internal blasters, energy resistant armour plating, a micro fusion power core and so on. I even put a small repulsorlift in one, it wasn’t enough to fly, but it did make it very agile”.

  Still engrossed in his examination of the droids interior, Jane asked “So what changed”?

  “Sooner or later they all encountered a group too big or too well prepared for them to handle. The cost to replace each was unsustainable, and according to the data none of the expensive upgrades made a significant statistical difference”.

  The engineer stopped examining the droids chest cavity long enough to give Des a questioning look.

  “Those early droids ran an average of eight missions each. In the successful ones they usually captured their target quickly, barely taking a single bolt. Then they would be overwhelmed and destroyed. The expensive cortosis alloy plating made no real difference, all the backup blasters and stun weaponry I built into them, either not needed or not enough fire power. So I downgraded and simplified”.

  “Okay, that makes sense, but I said it looks mostly standard. That solid state battery you’ve got powering the thing, it’s definitely not standard, and not cheap either”.

  “Yeah, well for a few years running the cheap droids was the way to go. Then something changed with the gangs in the lower levels. They started coordinating and taking down my hunters as soon as they entered deep enough, and they all started wielding emp grenades like they were growing on bushes”.

  Des sensed the wince at the mention of emp grenades, few forces could nullify tech like a droid as easily as an electromagnetic pulse.

  Pointing to the inside of the droids chest Jane asked, “That explains the battery but why don’t I see any insulation or energy shielding in here, and why not just send your droids elsewhere, Coruscant is a big planet, there’s countless places they could work”?

  “I do send them elsewhere now. The shielding though, I had an idea I've been wanting to try and I lost comms with the last droid I sent out, so now seemed like the time to try it. There’s no shielding, that's true, but I hardened the circuitry by overengineering the tolerances. The control relays and all the wiring are built to withstand crazy amounts of EM, it would take at least fifty grenades to cause any real physical damage now”.

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  “What about the brain? You can't have hardened the cognitive module, it would be too large for its head, and an emp would still scramble its programming even if it caused no physical damage”.

  “All true. That's why I removed it”, Des pointed to a box next to his workbench, “it's cognitive module is in there, running combat and training simulations”. Amused and a little excited to tell someone new his idea he spoke on. “The two canisters you delivered contain entangled particles from recycled hyperwave comms relays. Right now my machine is confirming the pairs match and that they’re in sequence. When it's done I’ll use them to finish a control link between the droids body and the cognitive module here in my workshop”.

  “That. That Might work”.

  Des smiled.

  “Do you want a hand installing the relay.”?

  “Thanks Jane, but no, it's going to take hours at a minimum to run the comparison, possibly even days if there are non matches or pairs out of sequence”.

  “In that case, I’ll get going, good luck with.” Jane paused, “Wait, what do you call these droids anyway”?

  “We’ve been calling these models Toydarian Hunter Killers, or THKs for short.”

  “Okay good luck with your THK, and while I remember, the Chief said there’s a new ship arriving today, In case you want to take a look. See you later Des”.

  “Thanks Jane” he responded to the engineers back as he left.

  ‘Yeah, I want to take a look’ Des thought as he was left alone in his workshop. He checked the particle scanner he had rigged up, thirty eight percent, all matches. That was much faster than he had anticipated, The Chiefs brother knew his stuff, at this rate he would be ready to go within the hour.

  That might have to wait he realised as he felt a familiar presence in the force reach out to him.

  ‘Des’

  ‘Krit, what’s up’

  ‘Master Jenk was looking for you, he was just here at the training grounds’

  ‘Okay, is M1 still with you’

  A sense of amusement crossed the connection, a deliberate slip on Krits part, his control was too good to mess up these days. ‘Yeah he’s here, helping train the little ones, they’re competing to see who can land a strike on him’.

  Des understood Krits' amusement, the younglings had no chance of landing a strike, even he struggled to hit the little droid anymore.

  ‘Okay, thanks Krit’.

  Des could try to track down Jenk, but he was a Jedi Master, he would find him. So he checked the scanner again, forty seven percent, then began triple checking his preparations.

  Sure enough it was around the ninety five percent mark that the doors to Des’s workshop slid open once more, this time admitting the Rodian Master.

  “Initiate Cain” said the master by way of greeting as he entered the space.

  “Master Jenk” Des returned.

  “I must apologise Initiate, normally there would be more ceremony to this, but interesting times are upon us and we Jedi are forced to adapt”.

  The Rodian Jedi Master seemed to stand taller as he continued in a ceremonial tone, “Jedi Initiate Desmond Cain”. “Through discussion, debate and action, you have demonstrated your understanding of the Jedi code”.

  ‘Ahh’ he thought as he realised what was happening.

  “Through meditation and lightsaber combat, you have demonstrated your connection to the Force. There is but one task left for you to complete as an Initiate. You will travel to Ilum, where you will recover a kyber crystal and construct your own lightsaber”.

  Despite the setting, his words did have the ring of ceremony so Des responded in kind, “Are you to be my Master, Master Jenk”?

  “Not I, no. Another has been granted that role, they will make themself known to you in their own time. For now, a ship has been arranged as well as an escort, Knight Kemp will be joining you on your journey”.

  Des nodded his acceptance but his thoughts quickly shifted as a microwave like ping signaled the completion of the particle scan. Changing the question he was about to ask, he inquired, “how long do I have Master Jenk”.

  “Three hours at most, but finish your work quickly and do not keep Knight Kemp waiting too long”

  “Yes Master”.

  A last thought seemed to occur to the Jedi, “I trust you already know which Hanger your ship will be in”?

  Smiling internally, Des answered “I believe so Master Jenk”.

  “Good. Then Good luck to you young Desmond, and may the Force be with you”.

  Wasting no time, Des checked the readout on the scanner, one hundred percent, all pairs matching. He detached the canisters then moved onto the next machine to implant the entangled particles. From here it was mostly automatic, he would still have to install the finished product into the droids body and brain, as well as install the last part of the network into his holopad.

  No longer would he be left questioning what overwhelmed his hunters. CorSec had returned some of his droids, even if they were mostly scrap by that point. Too many however, were just lost with no trace. In the deeper parts of Coruscant, communication was only possible through unreliable comms relays, leaving Des guessing as to their fates.

  While he waited he considered informing Krit about his promotion to Padawan. While there he could collect M1 for the trip, but he still had time yet. He wanted the new droid up and hunting bounties before he left. He would send it to the other side of Coruscant, there it could run easy missions until it had paid for itself. Then, he could test his new design against the gangs.

  The holopad connector finished first, followed by the body's connection and finally the most complex of the three, the cognitive module junction. Des had added expansion ports to this one, just in case he thought of something else he wanted to add to the network in the future.

  He embraced the Force, using it to easily pop the case of his holopad open, then installed the new network connection into the waiting port, before snapping the case shut once more. He moved on to the droids body, installing its connector into the nest of electromagnetic insulation he had filled the remainder of the head with. Just in case.

  Then lastly he attached the cognitive module to its connector, completing the network.

  A few taps on his holopad and the software kicked into life, the droids body powering up, its mechanical brain taking control for the first time.

  In a tin voice it said, “You got a mission for me chief”?

  “Check the holo” he said, pointing to the tablet in his hand. “There’s a file named THK_44, it has all the data you’ll need on your targets as well as all the details for our contact at the guild and our credit account information”. Des gave the droid a moment to check the file. “You understand your mission”?

  “Yup, get kills, get loot, get paid. Got it chief, and don’t worry about those lower level thugs. They’re nobody”.

  Surprised he thought to himself, ‘Maybe I left this one in the simulations a little too long’.