Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter

Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter is a novel that takes place shortly before Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Narration for the audio version was performed by Michael Cumpsty. The story Darth Maul: Saboteur by James Luceno is published as a 54-page insert in the paperback version of Shadow Hunter. Before, Saboteur was only available in eBook form.

Editions

 * ISBN 0345435397; January 30, 2001, Del Rey, 320-page hardcover
 * ISBN 0712684174; January 30, 2001, Century, Paperback, UK
 * ISBN 0375416749; January 30, 2001, Random House Audio, Cassette
 * ISBN 037541679X; January 30, 2001, Random House Audio, CD
 * ISBN 0345435419; November 27, 2001, Del Rey, 332-page paperback
 * ISBN 3442355923; May 2002, Goldmann Verlag, German
 * ISBN 9029070056; September 2001, Uitgeverij M, Dutch

Publisher's summary
''After years of waiting in the shadows, Darth Sidious is taking the first step in his master plan to bring the Republic to its knees. Key to his scheme are the Neimoidians of the Trade Federation. Then one of his Neimoidian contacts disappears, and Sidious does not need his Force-honed instincts to suspect betrayal. He orders his apprentice, Darth Maul, to hunt the traitor down.''

''But he is too late. The secret has already passed into the hands of information broker Lorn Pavan, which places him right at the top of Darth Maul's hit list. Then, in the labyrinthine alleyways and sewers of Coruscant, capital city of the Republic, Lorn crosses paths with Darsha Assant, a Jedi Padawan on a mission to earn her Knighthood. Now the future of the Republic depends on Darsha and Lorn. But how can an untried Jedi and an ordinary man, stranger to the powerful ways of the Force, hope to triumph over one of the deadlist killers in the galaxy?''

Plot summary
Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter is told in two parts: "Mean Streets" and "Labyrinth".

Mean Streets
Aboard the Trade Federation freighter Saak'ak, Nute Gunray finds that his second-in-command Hath Monchar, the Deputy Viceroy of the Federation, has gone missing. Unfortunately, it was too late to do anything about it, because at that moment, Darth Sidious contacts Gunray. The Dark Lord of the Sith questions Gunray about the missing Neimoidian. Gunray panics and tells the Dark Lord that Monchar is sick. However, Darth Sidious sees through the lie, and when the conversation ends, he sends his apprentice Darth Maul after the missing Deputy Viceroy.

On Coruscant, Lorn Pavan and his protocol droid I-5YQ meet with Zippa, a merchant desiring to sell the two companions a Jedi holocron. When Zippa jokes that Pavan might be a Jedi, Pavan gets mad and threatens Zippa. Once the commotion is over and the deal about to be made, Zippa's guard Bilk pulls out his blaster and points it at I-5YQ. Zippa flies out of the cubicle they had been sitting in, saying that no one threatens him and gets away with it. After Zippa had left, I-5YQ uses one of his modified functions to fill the cubicle with a deafening scream. Surprised and in pain due to the sudden cacophony, Bilk drops his weapon; unfortunately for the bodyguard, I-5YQ catches the gun and kills him. Pavan rushes out of the cubicle to catch up with Zippa and get the holocron back—along with his money that Zippa had taken—but is too late and Zippa is long gone.

In the Jedi Temple, Padawan Darsha Assant, together with her master Anoon Bondara, stands before the twelve members of the Jedi Council to be instructed for her final mission before becoming a Jedi Knight. She will be sent to the Crimson Corridor in the Zi-Kree Sector of Coruscant. There, she must pick up a former Black Sun employee who is willing to trade information about the recent reorganization in the upper ranks of the criminal syndicate in exchange for protection by the Jedi Order. Before she leaves the temple, her master warns her that this mission could be very hard.

Meanwhile, Darth Maul arrives in his Sith Infiltrator, lands the camouflaged ship on top of an empty Coruscanti building, and continues on his speeder bike to the coordinates given him by his master. Darth Sidious had found that Hath Monchar was hiding in an apartment building south of the Manarai Mountains; unfortunately, the Sith do not know exactly where. On his way to the area, a police droid begins to follow Maul, but soon loses him in the traffic. He parks his speeder bike near one of the offices of the Coruscant customs authorities, where he uses one of the data terminals to track down Hath Monchar, finding a holocam image of a Neimoidian in a bar.

Back on the Saak'ak, Nute Gunray and Rune Haako discuss the situation of their missing comrade, upon which Haako proposes to hire a bounty hunter by the name of Mawhi Lhinn.

In a bar near Coruscant's Crimson Corridor, the Green Glowstone Tavern, Lorn Pavan drinks away his sorrow over the lost holocron and credits. After a small debate over I-5YQ's status—droid or business partner—with a Duros, I-5YQ takes Pavan back to their home, a small windowless apartment.

Darsha Assant has arrived in her skyhopper at the Crimson Corridor, where she decides to leave it floating twenty meters above the ground. However, before she can even exit the ship, she is swarmed by beggars. Managing to find the right house amidst the chaos, Assant's beggars are scared off with irritating gas. A security droid takes her inside and brings her to Oolth, the informant. He wants to go as quickly as possible before the Raptors, a local gang, arrive. However, it is already too late&hellip;. As they arrive at Assant's ship, a group of Raptors is waiting for them. Several members enter the ship using hooks and cables and throw all her stuff out. They also manage to shut of the autopilot, causing the ship to land. Oolth tells Assant to hide with him, but she chooses to confront the Raptors, because the skyhopper is their only way out. She asks them to leave her ship alone and go away, but the group only laughs at her. Fortunately, she can use the Force to convince them to leave, but just when they start to walk away Oolth is attacked by an armored rat, and the gang members regain their full consciousness. Assant knows it will turn into a fight, but before she can pull out her lightsaber, she is jumped by the Raptors.

While in a Coruscanti bar, Hath Monchar considers selling the information about the impending blockade of Naboo. Bounty hunter Mawhi Lhinn has arrived on Coruscant and started her hunt for the missing Neimoidian. She starts at Monchar's residence in the Kaldani Spires, but finds no trace of his current location. Realizing that Monchar has to be in the area—it is after all the place he knows best—and has to eat, Lhinn uses the HoloNet to find all the restaurants in the area serving Neimoidian food.

Darth Maul, in an air taxi, is on his way to the bar Monchar had just visited. According to the Baragwin barkeeper, the Neimoidian had been looking to sell sensitive information. He had given him a name, Lorn Pavan, who the barkeeper describes. Darth Maul goes on his way to find Pavan.

Back in the Crimson Corridor, Assant manages to draw her lightsaber and tells the Raptors to back off. They will not listen, but when she cuts of the hand of a Gotal who is attacking her from behind with a vibroknife, they flee. Oolth is still fighting with the armored rat, and Assant manages to scare off the beast with the tip of her lightsaber. They hurry toward the skyhopper but cannot take off—the vibroknife of the Gotal cut through the instruments. Assant suggests calling for help with her comlink, but it has been destroyed in the fight. Before she can tell Oolth, the Raptors return, this time with heavier firepower. She shoots her tow cable straight up, hoping it will hit something, and uses it to pull them both away from danger. While ascending, hawk-bats, whose territory they have entered, start attacking them. Oolth is bitten by one of the bats, but when he tries to get it away, he uses both arms, releasing Assant and falling to his death. Assant continues upwards, but the bats keep attacking her. She decides to cut open a of the transparisteel windows, and once inside, the animals stop following her.

Lorn Pavan wakes up with a big hangover from the night before, but luckily, I-5YQ cures it by producing a low vibrating tone. I-5YQ also has some messages for him. The first one is from Yanth the Hutt, who wants to know where the holocron is that Pavan wants him to buy. The second one was from Hath Monchar, who wants to sell him important information. He is to go to the Dewback Inn at 0900. Because of their credit shortage, they decided to meet with the Neimoidian. After having investigated four other restaurants, Mawhi Lhinn is also on her way to the Dewback Inn. Darth Maul arrives at Lorn Pavan's residence right as they leave and decides to follow them.

Droids are not allowed inside in the Dewback Inn, so I-5YQ has to wait outside while Pavan heads in to meet with Monchar. Darth Maul likewise enters the inn. When Pavan nears the Neimoidian’s table, he is grabbed by a Trandoshan named Gorth. Once Pavan's identity is confirmed, he is allowed to speak with Monchar.

Darth Maul, eager to take him out at that moment, knows that the commotion would be noticed in the inn, and that he would have to murder the rest of the group as well. In addition, he needs to interrogate Monchar to make sure that the Neimoidian has not already spread his information to others.

After climbing several stairs, Darsha Assant reaches the lower residence area, where she buys some synthflesh with the little money she can spend, as she had lost her credit card. After applying the synthflesh, she seeks out a silent corner to figure out what to do next, eventually deciding to make her way to the temple.

Back at the Dewback Inn, Hath Monchar tells Pavan about the information he wants to sell. He has stored the information in a holocron but left it in a safe place, and wants half a million credits for it. The deal is made and it is decided that they will meet one hour later at Monchar's living module. Now all Pavan has to do is get half a million credits in an hour; fortunately, I-5YQ has an idea&mdash;bank fraud. It would be hard to pull off, but with the right timing, he could convince the Neimoidian he has half a million credits on his account.

Mawhi Lhinn finally finds the Dewback Inn, but just as she arrives, Hath Monchar leaves. Not much later, a figure in a black robe follows him out and starts to follow them. Lhinn decides to follow as well, and then take their follower out along with the bodyguard, allowing her to capture Monchar. After a long detour, they arrive at his residence module. Darth Maul cuts his way in to the building with his lightsaber just as Lhinn arrives, who takes out her blaster and follows him in.

Lorn Pavan and I-5YQ near Hath Monchar’s residence and still have one hour and thirty minutes before the droid accountants will notice the missing half a million credits and report it to the police&mdash;time enough to make the deal and sell the holocron to Yanth the Hutt.

Inside the building, Darth Maul finds Hath Monchar's module, and using the Force, he blows open the door. Maul actives his lightsaber, taking out two guards by deflecting the blaster bolts shot at him, then cuts off the head of the third. Hath Monchar sits cowering in his chair, too scared to run. Lorn Pavan and I-5YQ arrive at the building and proceed to the third floor, where Monchar lives. Inside the room, Darth Maul is torturing Monchar with the Force to find out who knows about the information and where he can find them. Monchar admits that only Pavan knows and that he is on his way. Maul proceeds to kill the Neimoidian. Behind Monchar stands a durasteel safe. Maul opens it with his lightsaber, and just as he is about to take the holocron out, he senses another presence. Mawhi Lhinn stands in the door opening, pointing two blasters at him. With his lightsaber deactivated, he knows he cannot evade all of her shots, so he looks for a distraction. Using the Force, he picks up the dead Trandoshan’s blaster and hurls it towards her. She manages to evade it, but by that time, Maul is coming her way with his activated lightsaber. He deflects her shots, and she is forced to use other weapons, reaching for the rocket launcher on her wrist. Maul, realizing they both would be killed by the blast, cuts through one of the walls next to him and jumps in to the adjacent room, where he quickly cuts through the floor. Just as he clears the hole, the rocket explodes in the Neimoidian's room, killing Lhinn. Pavan, nearing the apartment, is knocked out by the explosion. He wakes up a few minutes later and enters the room. Realizing that everything was for nothing, he turns to leave. Then he notices the holocron, still in the safe and undamaged by the explosion. He takes it out and starts running out of the building.

Darsha Assant works her way up to the higher levels of Coruscant, and after going through a checkpoint that separates the lower from the higher levels, she finally stands outside again. She makes her way to an air taxi duty station, where she has just enough credits left for a trip to the Jedi Temple. Arriving there, she decides to go see her master first, then together they could go before the Council.

Darth Maul escapes the scene of the crime, avoiding the police and fire droids. He contacts his master in an empty alley, realizing during the conversation that he left the holocron in the safe. As Maul heads back to the apartment, Pavan comes storming out of the building, calling to I-5YQ to follow him. After they were a couple of blocks away from the building, Pavan suddenly realized that there was no blood on the body and head of Monchar&mdash;it could not have been done by any weapon but a lightsaber, most likely by a Sith. Pavan wants to destroy the holocron immediately, but I-5YQ manages to persuade him that if they sell the holocron, the Sith might stop looking for them.

Darsha Assant tells her master the entire story and waits for him to reply. When he does, he asks her if she is positive that Oolth had died. Since Assant had not seen him die, nor sensed his death in the Force, Assant and Bondara return to the Crimson Corridor.

By this time, Maul had reentered the building and made his way to the room of Monchar. Using the Force to read the minds of the forensic investigators inside, he finds nothing about the holocron. Additionally, when he enters the room cloaked by the Force, he sees that the holocron is missing and concludes that Monchar’s business partner, Lorn Pavan, must have taken it.

Pavan and I-5YQ arrive at Yanth the Hutt's place, and he agrees to buy it at their price of one million credits. They duo still has one hour left to reach their transport off-planet.

Darth Maul finds Lorn Pavan's residence and quickly discovers it is empty. He decides to check the messages and finds the one from Yanth asking about the holocron Pavan wants to sell him. Maul continues on his way, headed this time for Yanth.

Anoon Bondara and Darsha Assant arrive at the place of the accident. From their airspeeder, they see bloodstains on the street and a dead hawk-bat. The people living on the street below probably took the body. Master Bondara decides they will head back and report this to the council.

Lorn Pavan and I-5YQ are just about to receive their credits from Yanth when a guard falls through the door, followed by Darth Maul. Pavan, paralyzed with fear, is not able to move when Maul brings his saber down on him, but in a quick movement, I-5YQ throws the briefcase with money at him, saving Pavan’s life. I-5YQ draws him out of the room, while Yanth’s Gamorrean guards keep Darth Maul busy. They end up in the Tusken Oasis, Yanth’s bar. Maul quickly deals with the Gamorreans. In a desperate move, Yanth throws one of the weapons of his guards at Maul, who cuts it in half, and with a jump, Maul stabs him in the chest. He takes the holocron out of the dead Hutt’s hand and continues his hunt for Lorn Pavan and I-5YQ. Using the dark side of the Force, he senses and follows the path they took, but could not move fast through the large group of people. Using the Force as a battering ram, he pushes the people that were standing in his way aside, and then quintuples his speed and gains on his prey. Just when Maul is close enough to strike them down, the repulsors of an airspeeder push him down.

Sensing a disturbance in the Force, Bondara and Assant had turned their airspeeder toward it and arrive just in time to stop the dark Force-user from slaying Pavan and I-5YQ. Urging them to get in before Darth Maul gets up again, Master Bondara speedily flies the airspeeder away. Still, Maul manages to grab on and slashes at the motor with his lightsaber. When Assant notices him, she uses the Force to pull him off, but the ship is broken and can no longer fly up and down, only horizontal. Maul summons his own speeder bike and continues the chase, using the Force to track them down.

In the damaged airspeeder, I-5YQ explains why the Sith Lord is chasing them. Darth Maul appears in the distance, and Master Bondara orders Assant to take over the controls and fly to the Jedi Temple, while he climbs into the backseat. When Maul is near enough, he jumps at the speeder bike, using the Force land on the bike behind the Sith. Maul manages to deflect his blows, activates the autopilot, and turns around in the saddle. The speeder lands on the roof of a building, and the duel continues. Desperate to catch Pavan this time, Maul fights ferociously. Fortunately for Bondara, Assant, who could not leave her master alone, turns the airspeeder around. However, because the airspeeder could not fly up, she ended up ten meters below the rooftop fight. Bondara was slowly realizing that he could not defeat his opponent. Maul could see it in his eyes and knew it would be only a matter of time before he won. Then the Jedi Master does something unexpected. He uses his lightsaber to destroy Maul’s speeder bike, and the power cell explodes, taking the Jedi with it. The blast throws Assant out of the airspeeder, but Pavan catches her by the wrist and pulls her back in. I-5YQ takes over the controls to stop the airspeeder from moving around. The explosion collapses the platform the fight had occurred on, smashing it in to the airspeeder, which plummets down.

On the ground once more, I-5YQ pulls Assant and Pavan out of the wreck and takes them inside a building. The airspeeder soon explodes, the stairs they are on start to collapse, and they fall.

Labyrinth
Aboard the Saak'ak Rune Haako has news for Nute Gunray. Together with Daultay Dofine, they go to his quarters. According to their consul on Coruscant, one of their people had been killed; although his identity had not been confirmed, they knew it to be Hath Monchar. The body of Mawhi Lhinn had also been discovered. Dofine panics and wonders what they should tell Lord Sidious when he contacts them.

In the Jedi Temple, Yoda meets with Qui-Gon Jinn and Mace Windu to discuss the current situation. Darsha Assant has been away for forty-eight hours, while her mission should only have taken a few hours. Her master, Anoon Bondara, is also missing. They decide they must send someone to investigate, but none of the older members can be sent due to the current situation in the Galactic Senate. Qui-Gon Jinn proposes to send his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the others agree.

Assant, Pavan, and I-5YQ land in one of the service tunnels of Coruscant but cannot get up again, the stairs collapsed because of the explosion of the airspeeder. They cannot call for help since their comlinks are broken, and so they decide to seek another way out before the traffic going through the tunnel deafens them.

Not much later, they find another exit, I-5YQ uses his finger laser to open the locked door, and they enter a room of stairs&hellip;stairs only going down. Since they have no other choice, they descend into the lower levels. At the bottom, they have to choose from three tunnels, using I-5YQ’s locater they find that the right one goes in the general direction of the Jedi Temple, Pavan wants to take the left tunnel, but Assant manages to convince him asylum in the Jedi Temple might be his only chance of survival against the Sith.

The tunnel they follow is completely dark, only I-5YQ’s photoreceptors give light. They walk on for a while, when Assant suddenly urges them to stop because of a feeling that something is nearing them. Suddenly, something hits Pavan hard on the head and knocks him out. Assant pulls out her lightsaber, but neither I-5YQ nor she can find who hit Pavan with a throwing stick. They cautiously continue, but the attack comes again from the only place they had not checked. From above, an electric shock net is thrown from above, knocking Assant out as well.

Using the Force to evade obstacles and slow his fall, Darth Maul manages to survive his fall from the building after the speeder bike explosion, but still lies hurt and half-conscious atop a pile of rubble. There, he remembers the teachings of his master and his training. After waking up, he scares off a Devaronian trying to steal his lightsaber. After finding no bodies in the exploded airspeeder, he concludes that they still must be alive. The dark side of the Force reveals to Maul their track, but the entrance to the stairways they fled down had collapsed. Despite this, he manages to get through the ventilation shaft next to the stairs. Landing in the tunnel below, he is nearly killed by one of the transports going through, but manages to evade it with the help of the Force, and continues his search.

Lorn Pavan wakes up in a strange room, lying on a cold stone floor, and when he opens his eyes, he sees a very scary face staring at him. When he tries to get away, he gets terrible pains in his head and stops. When he looks around, he sees even more of the ugly creatures in the room. He also spots Darsha Assant lying two meters away from him and I-5YQ on his other side. Assant is unconscious and I-5YQ is shut down. Pavan realizes that they have been captured by Cthons, cannibalistic creatures living in the underground labyrinths of Coruscant.

Obi-Wan Kenobi makes his way to the safe house in the Crimson Corridor. He lands his airspeeder near Assant’s skyhopper, which he investigates and finds completely wrecked. He sees someone moving in the corner of his eye, and using the Force, commands him to come out of the shadows. He asks the human boy where Assant has gone, but he does not know. He does know, however, that the Fondorian man she had been traveling with died. He also tells about another Jedi that had followed an airspeeder on a speeder bike and about a fight between the two that had ended in an explosion. Obi-Wan figures that it must have been Assant and Master Bondara, so he decides to investigate the location of the accident.

After checking out the wreck of the airspeeder and the area near it, he finds nothing of use. The Force tells him Jedi had been here, but he also senses something else, something dark. He goes to find some witnesses, but only a few will talk to him. Their stories are confusing and contradictory, but he hears something about a fight at a nightclub of Yanth the Hutt. Obi-Wan decides to seek him out&mdash;as a Black Sun member, he might have better information.

Assant wakes up to the sound of fighting, recognizing the voice of Lorn Pavan, along with growling and barking sounds. After realizing what has happened, she gets up to her knees, but some of the creatures notice her and start coming toward her. Using the Force, she pushes them away, and in their confusion, she gets to her feet and reaches for her lightsaber. However, it is not on her belt, but she has no time to worry about it, as more Cthons are already coming her way. Using the Force, she manages to keep them at bay, but Pavan only has his fists to defend himself. He calls to her to active I-5YQ, but she cannot reach him. By using the Force, she tries to press the switch, and although she is attacked by a Cthon, manages to succeed. A loud scream fills the room, which drives the Cthons back. I-5YQ, still screaming, makes his way trough the dulled creatures to Pavan and grabs him, then makes his way to an exit, followed by Assant. However, the Cthons start to get up, and already, a big group waits on their escape route. Assant looks for a weapon, and she sees her lightsaber lying on a scrap hill. The combined threat of the lightsaber and I-5YQ’s scream is too much for the Cthons, and they flee. The group continues through the tunnel. After walking for a while, they reach the room where they had been captured, and I-5YQ shuts down the noise; instead, he starts to produce a low vibrating sound that causes Pavan’s and Assant’s headaches to go away. They decide to find a way back to the surface. I-5YQ, wondering why the Cthons had given up the hunt, has two explanations. The first is another trap; the second is that something even worse then the Cthons lies ahead.

Darth Maul quickly continues through the underlevels of Coruscant, following his prey with the Force. Suddenly, he realizes he is being watched and just manages to evade the electroshock net thrown down at him. He is immediately attacked by Cthons, but using the Force along with his lightsaber, he manages to fight them off and send them fleeing.

Pavan considers what they should do once they escape the underlevels. He plans to find a fast ship off-planet for I-5YQ and himself. Tuden Sal still owes him a favor, so he could help them get off Coruscant, even though Assant will probably want to take him to the Jedi Council. Suddenly, I-5YQ stops. He informs the others that they have entered a large cavern and that the floor ends in a very deep chasm. There is however a small bridge across, made of rope with all kinds of objects lying on it. Since the bridge seems stable, they continue across it.

During the crossing, they start to talk about how Pavan obtained I-5YQ. It turns out that he bought the droid from a scrap dealer. After fixing him up, they found that they had similar pasts and became partners. With some hints from I-5YQ, Assant figures out why Pavan dislikes the Jedi so much: they had taken his son away from him. She decides it is time to check if they are still being followed, so she reaches out with the Force and finds that the Sith is still after them. She warns the others, but they are too occupied with the reason why the Cthons are not following them.

Darth Maul enters the large cavern, and with the Force, he finds the group. Unexpectedly, there is something in front of them, something not sensible in the Force. From the light of I-5YQ’s photoreceptors, he catches a glimpse of a large creature that looks almost like smoke. Pavan and the others turn around and come his way. Darth Maul steps on the bridge and walks towards them.

The creature nears the trio, and they are forced to fight it. I-5YQ uses his finger lasers and hits the creature in several of its paws, causing the creature to fall back. Through the shock, they are forced to grab on to the bridge and lay down. The creature spits something at them, but it flies over their heads. Assant realizes that it is the same substance as the ropes; therefore, the creature must have built the bridge. They continue back to the tunnel, and the creature follows. Assant figures a lightsaber might have more chance of hurting the creature then the blaster bolts, so she attacks it. Pavan remembers the name of the creature, a taozin, and calls out to Assant not to attack it, but it is too late, as she already stabbed the taozin in the belly. This serves only to anger the creature more, and they are forced to retreat further. I-5YQ creates a plan and asks them to remove the planks lying on the ropes. Pavan looks back and sees the Sith waiting for them, but I-5YQ urges him to continue removing the planks. Assant still fends off the silk the taozin fires at them, and despite being in terrible danger, she feels calm, at one with the Force. Darth Maul now fully sees the taozin and reaches out to it with the Force, but still senses nothing. The creature however notices him and starts to shoot silk at him instead of Assant. I-5YQ, ready to put the final part of his plan into motion, tells Assant and Pavan to hold on to him. He then jumps of the bridge, grabs one of the ropes, and tells Assant to cut it trough. As they start falling, I-5YQ uses his finger lasers to cut trough other points of the bridge, freeing the cable they are holding as they continue falling toward the other end of the bridge. Assant uses the Force to slow them down, but still they hit the rock wall hard.

Darth Maul is left facing the taozin, but the damaged bridge is starting to give under the wait of the creature. He uses the Force to walk over the remaining cable, but the taozin blocks his way and fires another shot of silk at him, which he easily fends off with his lightsaber. The creature then uses another tactic, using his paws to make the cable bounce and causing Maul to fall. Maul however manages to grab on to the rope and cuts it trough. He and the creature fall in opposite ways, but now he is forced to find another way to reach his prey. He must get back to the surface and find them once more.

Obi-Wan Kenobi enters Yanth the Hutt’s nightclub, the Tusken Oasis. Using the Force, he notices something feels wrong, something had happened here. He walks towards the bar in the back of the room, but notices that he is being watched by several Rodians. When he draws near the bar, he sees the barkeeper put a couple of his six arms beneath the bar. Through the Force, he detects the barkeeper holding a blaster. The two Rodians watching him now stand beside him. Obi-Wan wonders what they are waiting for, and when he sees two little crystals changing from green to red, he quickly drops to the floor and activates his lightsaber. Just in time, a blaster bolt from the barkeeper’s weapon goes over his head and wood splinters from the bar fall down. With his lightsaber, he cuts trough the bar and the barkeeper’s blaster. He pulls a blaster away from one of the Rodians with the Force, and manages to deflect the bolt from the second Rodian and pull his blaster away as well. He turns to the barkeeper again, but the Rodians want to continue the fight. They are stopped by Dal Perhi, who takes Obi-Wan to Yanth the Hutt. Perhi asks Obi-Wan to investigate the wound and see if he can find out who has killed the Hutt. It has been too long for him to find anything, he only senses an aura of evil. Obi-Wan leaves the bar to think about what might have taken place, and makes his way to the residential unit of Hath Monchar.

Assant, Pavan, and I-5YQ reach an exit and are once again in the Crimson Corridor. Assant wants to find a comstation so they can contact the Jedi Temple, but I-5YQ informs her that most comstations on the lower levels are broken,&mdash;they will have to find a way up to find a working one. Suddenly, I-5YQ notices that they are being watched and informs the others. Assant reaches out with the Force and discovers a group of four Raptors. Before the leader can even threaten them, Pavan threatens them. He tells them to give him all their money. Instead, the Raptors attack, but are easily beaten. Pavan uses one of their blasters to stun two of them, I-5YQ manages to knock one unconscious, and the last one flees. They search the bodies for money. Unknown to Assant, I-5YQ finds a comlink with which he and Pavan can contact Tuden Sal to arrange passage off-planet. Pavan realizes he is starting to like Assant, although he still hates the Jedi. Once the leader of the group wakes up, Pavan forces him to show the trio a way out of the Crimson Corridor.

Darth Maul goes back the way he came, his anger strengthening his connection to the Force. Because of it, he recalls the last time he felt so strongly connected to the Force, when he was building his lightsaber and creating the crystal for it. Maul reaches the exit and jumps out with the Force. Back on the streets, he thinks about what to do next. Using the central computer of the Sith Infiltrator, he accesses the spaceport computer, and with passwords provided by his master, downloads a map of the Crimson Corridor. With it, he finds possible ways the group could have gone. He next accesses the holocam network and security network, but finds nothing of use in either system. As he finishes, he receives a message from his master asking about the status of the mission. Maul informs him that he has the holocron and tells his master that he will kill Lorn Pavan very soon. After the conversation, he once again accesses the security network and adds information about the discovery of a criminal. Not much later, two police speeder bikes arrive, followed by a PCBU. After the PCBU passes him, he jumps on top of it, and using his lightsaber, cuts of the top cannon and trough the cockpit, destroying the droid controlling it. The autopilot automatically takes over and the ship starts to land. The two police agents on the speeder bikes immediately turn around, Darth Maul takes out the first agent by throwing his lightsaber at him like a spear. He jumps on the back of the second speeder bike, pulling his lightsaber towards him and killing the second agent. Maul once more checks the security cam images and notices something strange. Playing it back frame by frame, he finds Lorn Pavan. Immediately, he sets course for Pavan’s location.

The Raptor member leads the group to an alley. Pavan asks Assant to check out the alley with the Force, but she notices there is no longer anger in his voice when he talks to her, and he even smiles to her. She realizes he likes her, and she likes him too. Sensing nothing in the alley, they move on. Suddenly, the Raptor jumps behind some of the garbage in the alley. Pavan jumps after him and manages to grab the arm of the Raptor before he can push an activation switch. He pulls the Raptor back and they tie him up with some of the rope in the garbage. Pavan asks what the switch is for but the Raptor will not answer. I-5YQ soon finds the answer however; its circuit leads to a mounted blaster behind a ventilation roster. Pavan thinks it might be safer to use a mind-trick on the Raptor and asks Assant to do so; he should now lead them further without trouble. Assant cannot believe she did not check for mechanical threats and checks again, finding a camera and shutting it down. The Raptor leads them to a hatch, with a ladder on the inside leading up. Assant asks the Raptor if there are any more traps, and he gives them the code for the door at the top before they let him go.

The ladder leads up ten levels and ends in a large room once used as a central relay center for energy, but now used as a warehouse. On the far side of the room was a door, but before they open it, Assant realizes that someone is on the other side. The door opens, and waiting there is the Sith.

For a moment, Assant is paralyzed with fear, but then she remembers her teachings. She completely submerges in the Force and lets it guide her. Suddenly, she realizes what she needs to do. She pushes Pavan and I-5YQ in one of the storage rooms behind them and closes the door. With her mind, she deforms the lock so that it cannot be opened. Next, she activates her lightsaber. Maul has already activated his and jumps toward her.

Pavan watches trough the little window of the door while Assant and Maul fight. He urges I-5YQ to do something, but the droid does not respond; instead, I-5YQ activates the carbon freezer.

Darth Maul and Assant continue their fight, both knowing that Darth Maul is the stronger of the two and that he will kill her. Using the Force, Maul launches some of the tools lying around at her. She manages to fend most of them off, but some hit her legs and she falls. She gets up and the fight goes one, but Assant feels herself getting tired. She reaches out with the Force and finds her only way to defeat the Sith.

Inside the storage room, I-5YQ explains why he has activated the carbon freezer: to honor Assant’s sacrifice and freeze them in so they might survive. However, Pavan does not want to hear it and points his blaster at the droid, telling him to open the door. Nevertheless, I-5YQ grabs the weapon before Pavan can even pull the trigger and convinces Pavan to give up. He takes him to the freezer, and together they wait for the freezing to begin.

Darth Maul easily evades the containers Assant pushes toward him and lands next to her. She barely manages to deflect his attack. Assant noticed the Sith did not see trough her plan and slowly started falling back toward the explosive containers she had pushed together. Finally, Maul sees trough her strategy, and with the Force, he jumps to one of the windows, just landing on the street outside when the containers explode.

After the explosion, he goes back inside to make sure everyone is dead and his mission is over. He finds no trace of the bodies of Assant and Pavan, concluding that the explosion must have vaporized them. Even through the Force, he can find no trace of life. Once more, he leaves the building to go report to his master.

Obi-Wan is near the crash site of Bondara’s airspeeder again when he notices smoke coming from the streets. He first ignores it, but then he senses the same dark presence he sensed before. He enters the crime scene and is informed by one of the agents there that someone has taken down a PCBU, even though they normally stay at a height of fifteen meters. Obi-Wan suspects this to be the work of Black Sun. He then goes back to the Jedi Temple.

Darth Maul contacts Darth Sidious and informs his master that he has succeeded in the mission. Darth Sidious is glad that his plan is safe again. He gives Maul instructions on where to deliver the holocron.

Obi-Wan is on his way back to the Jedi Temple when he sees a big explosion. He lands his vehicle and walks towards it. With the Force, he senses that a fight took place. He also senses Assant’s presence and the dark presence from before. In a piece of burning rubble, he finds a wrecked lightsaber handle&mdash;Assant’s lightsaber. He realizes that she is dead.

On a roof about fifty meters away from the explosion, Pavan wakes up from the carbon freezing. I-5YQ has already contacted Tuden Sal and is on his way. I-5YQ informs Pavan about what has happened: because of the carbon freezing, he is suffering from short-term memory loss. Tuden Sal arrives and takes them away. I-5YQ notices something outside and shows Pavan&mdash;on one of the walk bridges stands a dark figure&mdash;the Sith. Curious about what the Sith will do, he asks Sal to follow him. Maul calls for an air taxi and gives it the address of where he left his ship. Pavan, I-5YQ, and Sal wait from a distance while Maul gets out of the air taxi and enters a building. Not much later, he is on the roof of the building, then suddenly is gone. I-5YQ realizes that he had entered a camouflaged ship. Pavan wonders what they should do next. They could leave Coruscant and live a quiet life. Alternatively, they could warn the Jedi, but they would probably respond slowly and the Sith would soon escape. He asks Tuden Sal for a spaceship&mdash;he wants to follow the Sith.

Darth Maul activates his ship and takes off, it would take some time to get trough the Orbital Shields, and after that, he would have to shut down his clocking device because of the other ships, satellites, and space stations. Then, he could deliver the holocron to the coordinates given him by Darth Sidious.

Tuden Sal had arranged for an ARE Thixian 7 for Pavan and I-5YQ. Pavan asks I-5YQ for the blaster he had taken from him earlier and says it might be better if I-5YQ did not come with him. Nevertheless, the droid insists and hands Pavan a limb of the taozin, which could shield him from the Sith. However, when he tries to enter the ship, Pavan pushes I-5YQ’s master switch and shuts him down. He asks Sal to deliver the droid to the Jedi Temple. Pavan takes off, terrified of what is coming. He uses the computer of the ship to track down the Sith’s ship, then follows from a safe distance.

Tuden Sal takes I-5YQ into his airspeeder. He realizes that Pavan will probably die during his mission and decides to keep I-5YQ for himself and reprogram him.

The Infiltrator enters a space station dock, and Darth Maul shuts down the life support and artificial gravity before entering the station. He still has fifteen minutes before his meeting with Sidious in one of the residential units of the station. Pavan likewise docks his ship at the station and enters, walking trough the hallway and going up a shaft into a well-lit tunnel. At the end is the Sith, entering a code on a keypad next to a hatch. The Sith does not notice him, and he readies his weapon, deciding to stun him first and then kill him with his own lightsaber, then take the holocron.

The door opens and Pavan pulls the trigger. The shot hits the Sith right on the back, he falls forward against the wall, and Pavan fires again. Pavan makes his way to the Sith and takes the holocron. He next reaches for the lightsaber, but before he can grab it, he is pushed back against the wall with the Force. Maul grabs and activates his lightsaber and comes toward Pavan, who puts his arms up in defense. Before he knows it, he sees his hand floating away. Maul strikes again, but Pavan manages to get away trough the hatch. Maul starts cutting his way trough the door, and Pavan puts as much distance as he can between the hatch and himself. Maul burns trough the hatch and follows Pavan, who ends up in a solarium. Here, the gravity is back again, and several senators stroll between the plants. He recognizes one of the senators—Senator Palpatine—and approaches him. He could take the holocron to the Jedi Temple. Palpatine accepts the holocron and has Pavan taken to the sickbay.

Obi-Wan enters the Jedi Temple and senses something is wrong. He is approached by a messenger and told to report to his master. Qui-Gon Jinn informs him that he has to pack—they are going on a mission. The Trade Federation has blockaded the planet of Naboo.

Pavan wakes up from a nightmare inside a hotel room. His cut off hand has been treated and Palpatine had promised to get him fitted with a prosthetic hand in the next few days. He had also said that the holocron had been delivered to the Jedi Temple and that the killer had been captured. He now has time to build up a new life.

Lorn Pavan gets out of bed, puts on some clothes, and opens the door. On the other side, the Sith stands waiting. Darth Maul activates his lightsaber and cuts trough Pavan.

Excerpt

 * Del Rey - Excerpt from Chapter 1
 * StarWars.com - Dark Knights and Sith Lords - An Interview with Michael Reaves - Chapter 2

Characters

 * Darsha Assant; Jedi Padawan (female human)
 * Bilk; Bodyguard (male Gamorrean)
 * Anoon Bondara; Jedi Master (male Twi'lek)
 * Chain; Duelist Elite
 * Cudgel; Duelist Elite
 * Daultay Dofine; Trade Federation (male Neimoidian)
 * Adi Gallia; Jedi Master (female human)
 * Gorth; Bodyguard (male Trandoshan)
 * Nute Gunray; Trade Federation Viceroy (male Neimoidian)
 * Rune Haako; Settlement Officer, Trade Federation (male Neimoidian)
 * Hachete; Duelist Elite
 * I-5YQ; protocol droid
 * Qui-Gon Jinn; Jedi Master (male human)
 * Obi-Wan Kenobi; Jedi Padawan (male human)
 * Plo Koon; Jedi Master (male Kel Dor)
 * Eeth Koth; Jedi Master (male Zabrak)
 * Mawhi Lhinn; Bounty Hunter (female human)
 * Darth Maul; Dark Lord of the Sith (male Zabrak)
 * Hath Monchar; Deputy Viceroy, Trade Federation (male Neimoidian)
 * Oolth; secretary, Black Sun (male human)
 * Lorn Pavan; information broker (male human)
 * Dal Perhi; Black Sun (male human)
 * Rapier; Duelist Elite
 * Tuden Sal; restaurant owner (male Sakiyan)
 * Darth Sidious; Sith Master (male human)
 * Mace Windu; Jedi Master (male Korunnai)
 * Yanth; Black Sun Vigo (male Hutt)
 * Yoda; Jedi Master (male Unknown Tridactyl Species)
 * Zippa; merchant (male Toydarian)
 * "Green Hair"; Raptor gang member (male human)

Mentions

 * Depa Billaba; Jedi Master (female Chalactan)
 * Bant Eerin; Jedi Padawan (female Mon Calamari)
 * Exar Kun; Sith Lord (male human)
 * Jax Pavan; Jedi Padawan (male human)
 * Siena Pavan; Lorn Pavan's wife (female human)
 * Saesee Tiin; Jedi Master (male Iktotchi)

Creatures

 * armored rat
 * krayt dragon
 * rankweed sucker
 * taozin

Droid models

 * battle droid
 * Duelist Elite
 * protocol droid

Locations

 * Galactic Core
 * Wild Space
 * Black Hole of Nakat
 * Magataran Maelstrom
 * Coruscant
 * Zi-Kree Sector
 * Crimson Corridor
 * Barsoom Boulevard
 * Tusken Oasis
 * Eastport
 * Manarai Mountains
 * Neimoidia
 * fungus farm
 * Tatooine
 * Dune Sea
 * Jundland Wastes
 * Mos Eisley
 * Yavin

Organizations

 * Black Sun
 * Jedi
 * Sith
 * Trade Federation
 * Trang Robotics

Species

 * Baragwin
 * Bothan
 * Cthons
 * Devaronian
 * Duros
 * Gamorrean
 * Gotals
 * H'nemthe
 * Human
 * Hutt
 * Kubaz
 * Neimoidian
 * Quarren
 * Saurin
 * Sakiyan
 * Snivvians
 * Taozin
 * Toydarian
 * Trandoshans
 * Twi'lek
 * Zabrak

Technology

 * antistress capsule
 * blaster
 * BlasTech DH-17
 * double-bladed lightsaber
 * durasteel
 * gyrocraft
 * hologram
 * holograph
 * hyperdrive
 * lightsaber
 * Neimoidian headgear
 * photoreceptor
 * Stalker armor

Vehicles and vessels

 * ARE Thixian Seven
 * Saak'ak
 * Sith Infiltrator
 * Sith speeder
 * skyhopper

Miscellania

 * förräderi
 * teräs käsi
 * Death Weave
 * Rancor Rising
 * Riding Bantha
 * Striking Sarlacc

New characters

 * Darsha Assant
 * Bilk
 * Anoon Bondara
 * Gorth
 * I-5YQ
 * Mawhi Lhinn
 * Jax Pavan
 * Lorn Pavan
 * Siena Pavan
 * Dal Perhi
 * Tuden Sal
 * Yanth
 * Zippa

New vehicles and vessels

 * ARE Thixian Seven

Cover gallery
This is a gallery of the different cover variations of Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter.