Nekev Nisrok the bounty hunter

Context

The Old Republic is one of the Bioware Star Wars computer RPGs, this one with a not-so-successful MMO format. It is part of the Extended Universe, which is no longer considered canon since 2014.

Its strength is to offer eight distinctive story tracks (one per character class). Here is a version of the Bounty Hunter “track”, covering the first 15-ish levels before class specialization kicks in. As such there are S P O I L E R S for Hutta.

Since this is a RPG, Nekev is but one possible version of the Bounty Hunter, who is extensively customisable.

As often when we present “sample” video game Player Characters, the profile includes additional sections about the game universe.

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• This profile features a sample or customized Player Character. See our video games writeups FAQ for more.
• This profile assumes a specific video game playthrough. See our video games writeups FAQ for more.
• This profile features tabletop RPG mechanics about the video game’s gameplay. See our video games writeups FAQ for more.
• This profile features non-canon hypotheses about in-game events and mechanics. See our video games writeups FAQ for more.

Background

War. War never changes.

Rattatak is a dismal, dying world in the Unknown Regions . It is essentially post-apocalyptic.

There are too few resources to support the population. Therefore, life has long since degenerated in a global war of clans vs. clans to take away resources from others and survive. There is little left in the way of edible plants, animals, infrastructure, etc.. Only endless bloodshed and short, brutal lives.

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A place to leave

Thousands of years after the Old Republic era, the planet will be unified by a mighty Rattataki darksider, Asajj Ventress . However at this point it is practically unexplored except for a handful of smugglers who know of Rattatak. These do minor trading with local clans, selling them blasters.

It was known at some point in the distant past, though. Since it seems that the main sapient species on Rattatak — the Rattataki — is descended from Human settlers. These may have come to Rattatak during the early days of the Republic. Rattataki look largely like Humans, albeit with light grey skin and (usually) no hair.

There is a small population of Rattataki who have left their planet. Most were taken by slave traders working for the Empire, but others are free. One of the most notable Rattataki exiles during the late Old Republic era is the mercenary and anarchist Kaliyo Djannis.

Soundtrack

Something fitting, to set the mood. It’s a bit old, but Franka Potente’s voice is so cool.

Available for download on Amazon, possibly .

Powers & Abilities

Nekev is a phenomenal fighter, mastering a long list of weapons. Favourites range from akimbo heavy blasters  to the drunken headbutt right in the nose. She usually works at close range (0-20 metres), since much of her fighting is back alleys and cantinas stuff.

More surprisingly, she is also a very well-educated weapons engineer. Nekev is entirely capable of designing and building new models of blaster from the ground up (assuming proper software and tools). She studied with the master weaponsmiths of Ma’ar Shaddam – not something most people would know about, but a mark of quality and power among knowledgeable mercenaries.

Nekev Nisrok has an intense, intimidating presence. She is quickly developing a useful reputation as death on two legs.

Guns, guns, guns !

Many people are fond of referring to bounty hunters as “walking arsenal” as they carry something like three visible blasters. That makes Nekev laugh – a mere three guns is what she sleeps with. She builds her own arsenal herself, either from scratch or — more commonly — by extensively customising and rebuilding existing weapons.

At this stage, her arsenal is :

• A heavy blaster — essentially a sawed off blaster carbine — plus one or two spares. Nekev has been training for a while to dual-wield , but isn’t confident enough in her technique to go akimbo in most fights.
• A forearm-mounted mini-“rocket launcher”. The projectile is closer to a fat crossbow bolt packed with explosives, really. But the explosion that propels it does leave the back end burning as if there was an exhaust. This weapon is about as devastating as a grenade and used to achieve similar ends.
• A rocket pack. This is actually a high-end, triple-exhaust, high-efficiency model Nekev won during a competition. The faux-gold finish is on the tacky side, but she likes it. This is not solely used as a jet pack or jump pack. The thrust can also be vectored to perform a charging attack ending with a powerful kick or punch.
• A forearm-mounted railgun . This powerful weapon cycles slowly and isn’t as accurate as it could be, but it’s great at punching through armour plating. Or thick alien hides.
• A wrist-mounted flamethrower, with a short range but an undeniable impact.
• A wrist-mounted launcher of explosive barbed darts. Though the explosive charge is modest, its countdown is ominous enough to make people struck with the dart panic as they try to get it off.
• Mandalorian-style heavy body armour.

History – pre-game

(This History section is original rather than something covered in the game. It is only one of the possible, imaginary takes on the Bounty Hunter Player Character.)

Clan Nisrok of Rattatak was destroyed when Nekev and her twin sister were 4. Betrayal led to a fatal flaw in its defences, and Nisroki warriors were simultaneously overrun and stabbed in the back by Clan Vatmor. Most of the clan died fighting. The children under fighting age (less than 7) were taken to serve as short-lived slaves.

At this point the Lorza Brothers, a pair of Ithorian  smugglers, were on Rattataki to sell crates of grenades of questionable quality. Clan Vatmor wanted to buy some. But they couldn’t come up with enough money even after the Nisrok raid. During the negotiation, a Vatmori suggested selling the slaves. She told the smugglers that Rattataki were so ferocious they’d make great gladiators.

The Lorza Brothers eventually agreed to take a half-dozen children for resale. They took only girls under the notion that they’d probably sell for more. Nekev was separated from her sister and thrown in with this batch. These sprogs were kept locked up in a secret compartment in the Lorza Brothers’ freighter.

Kill and/or be killed

During the flight back to Balmorra, the Lorzas occasionally threw scraps of food and drinks into the slaves’ compartment. One such item was a thin sheet metal can of fizzy drink. Despite being in the dark with no tools, the little girls managed to turn the can into a crude shiv.

Once in Bin Prime , one of the Lorza Brothers opened the component. He was dogpiled by a pack of enraged 4-year olds who shanked him in one eye. The kids then ran out and dispersed so they wouldn’t be all caught. Half made it out of the starport.

Surviving on the streets of the factory world, Nekev was eventually caught by the cops – though it wasn’t easy. She was put in a shelter, then quickly transferred to a juve prison. That was because she was uncontrollable and an obvious risk to other children.

Things went better once she was taught enough Basic to be threatened with withholding her food. But she still spent roughly half her time in solitary after getting into fights.

By age 12, like other children in juve, she was put to work in an ammunition factory. That was so they could start reimbursing the years of food and shelter. That didn’t work out as she tried escaping multiple times. Nekev once managed to wreck a heavy surveillance droid by jamming a broken broomstick down its neck joints.

An early transferral to a real prison was agreed-upon with the judiciary once she’d hit 14. But two weeks before that date, she finally managed to escape for good.

Teen thug

On the street, Nekev of Clan Nisrok lucked out for once. She ran into a street gang of girls about her age. These were mostly orphans who had banded together for protection.

After some observation, Nekev approached them to offer her service as clan champion. As her resume, she produced the severed head of a rival teenage clan member. She had just murdered him using a stolen hacksaw.

Horrified, the girls told her that they didn’t do that – and didn’t know what a “clan champion” was. But their Mirialan leader quickly reached the conclusion that they’d be much safer with the Rattataki on their side.

The Keder Street Gang thus acquired their first and only gang enforcer. They carefully kept her supplied with the nicer foods and drugs.

Gang enforcer

This investment proved a wise move on multiple occasions. In particular, when a pair of armed and completely drunk thugs from a local syndicate crashed the Keder Street Gang hideout to grab some girls as “concubines”. The Rattataki ambushed and killed both of them with a sort of bladed chain she had built.

She then hacked the bodies apart to dispose of them, and kept their blasters.

Another wise guy came to investigate. Nekev pointed out that the syndicate probably wouldn’t want to admit that two of its heavies had been murdered by a teenage girl with a chain. Conceding the point, the amused made man stated that the two thugs were incompetent embarrassments anyway. He offered their position to Nekev.

Once the shrewd leader of the Keder Street Gang was done negotiating :

1. Several of the older girls had positions as part-time paid molls.
2. Nekev joined the Prime Numbers mob of Din Prime.
3. The Keder Street Gang was a loose affiliate of the Prime Numbers.

Sicaria

Nekev replaced the two heavies and would-be rapists she had slaughtered. She thus worked as an intimidator, gopher and legbreaker. The Prime Numbers mob taught her to shoot, to work the street, to navigate the underworld and to survive as a violent criminal. She gradually worked her way up to becoming a minor hitwoman.

During her two years as a Prime Numbers sicaria she became fascinated with weapons and the power they gave her. This was easy on Balmorra – famously the #1 weapons production planet in the galaxy. On Balmorra, they build everything from vibro-knives to super-heavy turbolaser batteries.

Nekev decided that she would become… a weapons engineer.

After a big hit resulted in a windfall, Nekev hired full-time a disgraced, severely addicted high school teacher. Within a remarkably short time she learned to read, write, count, communicate better, etc.. She also discovered that she liked maths.

However, even with her rapid educational advancements an engineering degree was unfeasible. There were such obstacles as being the prime suspect (so to speak) in quite a few murders.

Ma’ar Shaddam

One day, Nekev simply left. She sneaked aboard a freighter headed for Ma’ar Shaddam . This Galactic Rim world was known as a source of top quality armament for discerning professionals. She had no contacts there, but reasoned that she would find a way as she had always done before.

She was quickly discovered, but negotiated at gunpoint for free passage and a lockable room. Oddly enough, the Rattataki and the crew ended up on good terms. She had no intention to hurt them unless they tried something funny, and they thought that she had some serious balls. Most of the crew also respected that she was trying to build herself a better future.

Having successfully smuggled herself to Ma’ar Shaddam, Nekev of Clan Nisrok applied to become the apprentice of several reputed weaponsmiths. She asked for no pay and explained that she would support herself using her savings.

She caught the eye of one Human named Brice Hoddan. He hired her both as an apprentice and as a small arms demonstrator.

Dreams of rain and the history of the gun

The partnership was a complete success. Nekev quickly learned the maths, software and hardware of weapons design.

Her impressive speed and accuracy with all sorts of weapons, combined with her unusual and ferocious Rattataki appearance, also made her successful as a demonstrator. She could certainly make any of Hoddan’s weapon look particularly deadly in the commercial holos.

During her time with Hoddan Armament Works, Nekev ran into a younger Mirialan girl named Meeyelle. Meeyelle was also learning from the weaponsmiths of Ma’ar Shaddam. Having just been dumped by a boyfriend, Nekev intended to flirt with Meeyelle. But they became friends instead.

The two soon bonded despite the vast differences between them. That her BFF Meeyelle was training to become a Jedi Knight ignited Nekev’s imagination. The Rattataki dreamed of also becoming a respected galactic warrior errant, doing all sorts of cool stuff and a lot of fighting.

Braden

One of Hoddan’s Armament Works customers was the veteran Human bounty hunter Braden . While he was on Ma’ar Shaddam, he discussed one of the firm’s commercials over beers with Brice Hoddan.

The holovid showed a skimpily-clad Nekev operating a custom Hoddan assault carbine. In the sequence, she completed a standard shooting exercise in an amazingly short time. Braden was dubious but Hoddan insisted that the footage was real. As he got drunk Hoddan called Nekev in the middle of the night so she’d come and show Braden that she was that good a shooter.

Though pissed off about being summoned in this way, Nekev took a liking to Braden once she realised that the reputed bounty hunter was actually interested in her combat skills. They spent a few days sparring together and competing in combat simulation centres. Braden became convinced that he had found his gem.

He had a plan, you see.

History – in-game

It was now 3644 BY, and a Great Hunt would soon take place. A Great Hunt was a sort of giant blood sport competition periodically organized by the Mandalorians. Its outcome determined who’s the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy (more about Mandalorians in Nekev’s second profile).

It was a huge event among mercenaries and the underworld, as Mandalorians were a major unaligned power. Simply being allowed to compete in a Great Hunt was a great honour and the source of considerable bragging rights.

Braden’s plan

Though Braden’s career had been long and successful, he was under-appreciated and never became a major name. Now close to retirement after such a rough and brutal life, he wanted one last shot at greatness. But he knew that he was too old to enter the Great Hunt.

Thus, what he needed was a brilliant young fighter and manhunter. He could be their coach as they entered the Great Hunt in his stead.

Entering the Hunt required the sponsorship of a well-established patron. That usually meant a powerful crime lord. In Braden’s plan, he’d use his experience and contacts to arrange for a sponsorship for his protégé. He’d also serve as their pit crew along with his two associates, the young computers whiz Mako and the weapons expert Jory.

Enthusiastic at becoming a big name bounty huntress, Nekev took the offer. She then feverishly worked with Jory on customising the weapons she’d use. Meanwhile, Braden and Mako determined that their best shot at obtaining a sponsorship was on Hutta. There they might convince the crime lord Nem’ro the Hutt  to back them.

The sponsorship of a Hutt, part 1

Braden and Mako scared up high-profile bounties in this part of Hutta, and other jobs that would impress Nem’ro and advance his interests. Nekev curbstomped all opposition, confirming Braden’s assessment that she was one serious badass.

Nisrok was finally granted an audience with Nem’ro. She got in the Hutt’s face and demanded his sponsorship with her usual mix of anger and arrogance. Amused and wanting to get the most mileage out of the bounty hunters coveting his sponsorship for the Great Hunt, Nem’ro had Nekev conduct more dangerous jobs. Most involved striking against his rivals.

A rival bounty hunter attempted to intimidate Nekev into giving up, with predictably fatal results. Meanwhile, Nem’ro opted to sponsor a bounty hunter named Rarsk rather than Nekev. To get rid of the Rattataki he sent her on a bogus “mission”. It was actually an arena fight intended to kill her and entertain his guests.

The sponsorship of a Hutt, part 2

Nisrok killed everything in the arena. She then came to give a piece of her mind to Nem’ro. The Hutt simply pointed her toward Rarsk, telling her to get the sponsorship token by herself. Nisrok caught up with Rarsk, then pried the much-coveted token from his corpse.

Nem’ro, of course, was the actual winner. He had had multiple deadly bounty hunters working for him to gain his favour. And now the strongest one had naturally emerged to bring him prestige by representing him in the Great Hunt.

However, Braden and Jory would never know about that. One bit in the plan had gone seriously wrong.

Description

Nekev’s facial tattoo is a pattern called “the Devourer of Souls” on Rattatak. The various patterns have a fair bit of nuance, cultural meaning and backstory, but it really gets lost in translation. Mostly because they all are small variants over “it’s something really scary and bloodthirsty”.

About half her sentences include at least one guest appearance by the word “fuck”, or one of its close relatives.

Personality

Like many Rattataki, Nekev is a freight train of aggression and anger. She is an extremely dangerous person to be around of. She :

• Gets into everybody’s face.
• Crudely speaks her mind without a filter.
• Hates having her time wasted.
• Makes it really really clear that there ain’t nobody who’s impressing her one bit.

As far as she’s concerned, everybody can go screw themselves — the Empire, the Republic, the Sith, the Mandalorians, the Jedi, the Hutts, etc. — except when they give her a fat cheque. And the money only means that they get the violence they paid for, not that they are entitled to anything approaching respect or politeness.

Nekev is thus in a situation where she has to keep providing outstanding results at every turn, or die. And this is exactly how she likes it. Victory or death every single minute, zero fucks given about anything, and a life of freedom through strength and daring.

Nekev is in the dictionary under “brazen” and “confident”. As far as she’s concerned, she can handle anything with cold aplomb and her middle finger up.

Soft spot

Though she would scoff at the notion of traumatism, Nisrok was badly hurt by her past as a slave and a prisoner. She reacts with virulent anger… well, even more virulent anger than her baseline… when seeing defenceless, vulnerable people getting roughed up or exploited.

If seeing a bully in action it is entirely possible that she’ll walk up to them and shoot them in the head. She likes doing that so much that she might even accept not to be paid for it.

The occasional vulnerable persons who remind Nekev of herself as a girl will experience a completely unrecognizable version of the dreaded bounty hunter. She will act as a kind, caring and supportive big sister (who swears a lot).

This side of Nekev has even been known to indulge in small talk that includes sentences with fewer than three expletives or threats. The one beneficiary of this is her protégée Mako.

Other relationships

Though she has very few friends, Nekev is loyal to those to the death – and they also know the friendly, lively side of her. Nekev’s closest friends share her interest in technology. Much of her time with Mako, Meeyelle or Mytasha is spent talking about tech and working on shared engineering or maintenance projects.

Nisrok likes sleeping with whoever looks fun and attractive, without any filter for gender or species – though her definition of attractiveness is quite mainstream. She’s had a bunch of boyfriends and girlfriends over the years, but never for long or with genuine attachment.

She has a minor, silent crush on her best friend Meeyelle but has entirely accepted that it will never go anywhere. Plus, the highly mobile and reputation-conscious life of a bounty huntress isn’t exactly conducive to relationships.

Quotes

Older bounty hunter in a cantina, ogling Nekev: “Well well well, ain’t’cha the cutest lil’ thing to ever carry a blaster ?”
Nekev (draws a gun and jams it into his face before he can begin to blink, viciously grabs his throat): “Still going to think it’s cute when I put a fucking hole through that big fucking head of yours ?”

Vexx: “Vexx is the galaxy’s greatest quick-draw artist. Vexx can shoot your ears off so fast you won’t even hear yourself scream.”
Nekev (coldly): “Show me.” (beat) (outdraws him and kills him. Spits on the corpse.)

Evoc’ii warrior: “Do not come back. My warriors do not want you here.”
Nekev (death glare, puts her hands on her blasters): “A woman of my particular skills… goes anywhere she fucking wants.”

“Stick that attitude in a black hole and shut the fuck up.”

Nekev: “Yeah, I’ll handle that. Beat it, kid.”
Mako: “No no wait, I can help you, I can find leads. Information. You’ll need that right ?” (starts panicking as she realizes she’s going to end up alone and creditsless on Hutta) “C’mon girl, you… you can’t leave me *here*, right ? I’m your support crew right ? Nekev ?!”
Nekev (points an angry finger at Mako with a scowl, then stops and starts wearily massaging her brow) “I’ll fucking do whatever…” (long beat, Mako looks at her with desperate eyes and a quivering lip) “Shit.” (long beat) “Pack your shit up and follow me. And shut the fuck up.”

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG. Female Bounty Hunter voiced by Grey Delisle .

Helper(s): Darci.

Writeup completed on the 19^th of February, 2016.