There were few things that Anja Jonew could enjoy these days, few things that made her happy, she certainly wouldn't have expected to find anything of the sort on the smugglers moon but on a moon full of smugglers, thieves and refugees - the very definition of a home of the desperate there were a lot of people who liked a good game of Dejarik and that was a game that Anja excelled at and it was one of the things that reminded her of happier times. She cupped her chin as she looked across the circular board towards her opponent, an Iridonian regular of the Cluster, and smiled as he contemplated his move. After a few moments the Iridonian moved his Kintan Strider and took Anja's K'lor'slug, it was a wooden set not one of the fancy holo imager ones. Anja raised an eyebrow and moved her Ng'ok piece right next to her opponents strider.
"Got me again." The Iridonian said smiling.
"You're getting better." Anja said "You just need to see the whole board."
"Well I'll learn." The Iridonian said "Next time I'll beat you."
"We'll see." Anja said
The Iridonian left and Anja grinned as she relaxed in the seat she was sat in. It brought back memories of a happier time, back when she'd been a Jedi Padawan her master a man by the name Ruves Aljand, a good man if slightly eccentric at times, had spent a lot of Anja's studies on games like Dejarik, she'd only just been starting out on her Force studies when it had all changed a day that none who'd survived would ever forget, for years the Jedi been fighting a war on behalf of the Republic leading the clone armies into battle but while they'd been like the pieces on the Dejarik board what they'd never conceived was that the two players of the game were in fact one and the same. She sighed again and sipped on her drink, her mind drifted back a few years.
Sixteen Years Earlier, the day of Order 66
It was just another day in space the fleet of Republic vessels was heading on its way to the Mid Rim, the war was reportedly almost over. Count Dooku was defeated and Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi had tracked General Grievous down, the war could be over in a matter of hours. Aboard the fleet's flagship Anja and her master were sparring with their lightsabre's her cyan blade clashed with her master's orange one. Like most Jedi Ruves wore the typical white under layer and the brown robe over the top, by comparison Anja wore the same underlayer but a red robe lined with black.
"You're rushing." Ruves said before sweeping Anja's feet from under her and landing her on her back. "Don't leave yourself open." he took a step back as Anja got back to her feet "Don't react." the man said as they began to spar again "Trust the Force, let it guide you, anticipate my next move." Anja could only try and gradually she started to feel something and was able to at least do some of what Ruves was saying but then both of them took a sudden step back.
"I felt it to." Anja said "A disturbance in the Force."
"That was no ordinary disturbance." Ruves said "It felt like the entire Galaxy cried out."
"But why?" Anja said as the doors to the room hissed open and in stepped some clone troopers, the two Jedi could feel the intentions coming their way and readied themselves, as the clones opened fire Ruves moved forwards deflecting the blaster fire and shielding his young apprentice, it was all Anja could do to watch her back and she wasn't that skilled yet, when the fight was over they looked at each other.
"What was that about?" Anja asked
"Questions later." Ruves said "For now we have to get out of here, we have to get off the ship and find out what's going on."
Anja sighed, the rest of that memory was of crawling her way through the vents of the ship to the hangar and escaping with an ARC-71 starfighter, astromech droid by the name of C-9 in tow, with her master in a separate fighter they'd made their way to Dantooine first and had seen the holo images of Palpatine's speech to the Senate brandishing the Jedi traitors, that had really sent the message home the Jedi, the most recognisible people in the galaxy now had to disappear, go into hiding to survive and not only that but to preserve their teachings. They'd moved around from planet to planet trying to hide but then the game had changed - the Inquisitorius, the Empire's hunters had entered the equation, pursuing Jedi who had survived the purge they'd chased Anja and her master from system to system eventually they'd managed to kill Ruves but Anja had escaped that encounter and that had been how she'd come to Nar Shadaa but even here in Hutt Space she couldn't walk around as a Jedi, she'd needed to reinvent herself and that was what she'd done turning herself into a bounty hunter, getting into the good graces of the local Hutt, making credits, living not in an apartment on Coruscant or her dorm room at the Jedi Temple, not even her childhood home of Onderon but here among people who would likely sell her out in a heartbeat if they knew who she was.
It wasn't all bad though, she'd made a few friends out here, a group of war orphans young kids from different races all fleeing the Empire as the grip tightened, she spent time each day with the kids when she was on the planet and not chasing someone around. She narrowed her eyes slightly, something suddenly felt different. The Inquisitorius? No they wouldn't have come this far, then if not them what was it?