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Joren Kel sat in the darkened corner in the back of Jaspeel’s Cantina, which at one point in the not so distant past had been one of the nicer establishments on Nar Shaddaa. However, things within the city had changed in recent years. The Kath Hounds, one of the most vicious gangs on the planet had claimed the cantina as part of their turf. Things within the city of New Vertica had continued to get worse. The Kath Hounds took what they wanted and no one, not even the Nar Shaddaa’s security forces were willing to stand up to them. 

As Joren sat in the corner booth sipping at his fizzade, voices began to rise and fall as a pair of Duros began a heated exchange with a Rodian over a game of Sabaac. Joren had begun to loath the card game, as that particular game of chance was the reason that he was in the predicament that he now found himself in. He had played a game of Sabaac with Amaral Kenso, one of the founders of The Kath Hounds and had won. However, Kenso was not one to take losing lightly, and immediately claimed that Joren had cheated, which wasn’t exactly untrue. Joren had used the abilities that he had inherited from his father to give himself an edge in the game. However, Kenso had no way of knowing that. Kenso was a sore loser, having been compared to an angry Wookie when things did not go his way. There was an altercation following the game, however, Joren was able to get away from Kenso and his thugs who had planned to make him pay for his victory over the gang leader. However, when Joren had arrived home, he found that the apartment that he shared with his mother had been broken into and thoroughly trashed, and to his horror he found that his mother was missing. The Kath Hounds were well known for using kidnappings and murder to spread fear to their enemies, as well as the population as a whole. 

However, Joren was not one to sit idly by as the gang of thugs tore his life apart. From the time that Joren was a small child, his father had prepared him to take up the mantle of the Jedi, to lead a new generation of Jedi and fight back against the Empire. However, Van Kel had died when Joren was still just a boy, and was never able to see his vision come to fruition. After his father’s death, Joren wanted nothing to with Jedi, his “destiny,” as his father had called it, or the growing rebellion against the Empire. He would use the gifts that the Force had given him to perform parlor tricks and cheat at cards, however, that was the extent of it. 

After his father had died, his mother, an accomplished bounty hunter in her own right taught him self defense, and had even taken him along on several bounties once he was old enough. It was after returning from one of these bounties that he met a young Mandalorian named Dono Ki’Lar. The two had hit it off immediately, and began spending most of their time together. Dono enjoyed “training” Joren in Mandalorian combat tactics, which mostly consisted of Dono beating on Joren until he lost interest. Between the training that his parents had put him through, and the regular beatings he took from Dono, Joren had developed impressive skills when it came to hand to hand as well as armed combat, and he was itching to use those skills against the Kath Hounds in order to set his mother free. 

Suddenly, the sounds of tables being knocked over and their contents spilling onto the floor echoed throughout the cantina as the Rodian and the pair of Duros began to scuffle. Joren takes another sip of his Fizzade as the bouncers converged on the fighting aliens and began to escort them to the door. Then everything went quiet, just for a moment. Joren looked up expecting to see a group of Kath Hounds standing in the front entrance, however he saw instead the familiar form of a man wearing dark blue Mandalorian armor with a blood red lining around the visor. After a brief pause, the inhabitants of the cantina went about their business as the Mandalorian made his way to the back of the cantina where Joren sat. The Mandalorian walked over to Joren’s booth and pulled out the chair beside him. As he sat down, he took off his helmet, and as usual he had a jovial lopsided grin on his face. 

“Any luck?” Joren asked as his friend got comfortable in the seat beside him.

"I have good news vod'ika, I found out where they are holding your mother." Dono said.

"I knew you'd come through, let's go get her." Joren said, rising from his seat.

"Not so fast Joren, they're holding her in the sublevels of their main base of operations. There are two ways in, and neither of them are going to be easy." Dono cautioned, placing a hand on his friend’s arm.

"I wouldn't expect anything less, let's go." Joren replied as he pulled away and began to make his way toward the front of the cantina. 

"Very good, Ib'tuur jatne tuur ash'ad kyr'amur" Dono said as he put his helmet back on and began to follow Joren toward the exit. 

Joren knew that they would need time to plan their course of action, however, that they needed to hurry as the Kath Hounds were not known for keeping hostages. Joren didn’t know how this was going to go, however, he did know one thing for certain. Today was a good day for somebody else to die.