"Gunray's Redemption", Star Wars fanfic
Dec. 6th, 2007 03:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
4thofelevenA few recent discussions about the Star Wars prequels reminded me how I always thought the Separatists got something of a raw deal in RotS, and really should have been tied into the Rebellion more clearly. Plus, I've always kinda liked the Trade Federation, and didn't like how casually the prequel's only non-Sidious recurring villains were killed. The image of one of the Seperatist leaders surviving and going into hiding stuck in my mind, and, well, this is the result.
Title: Gunray's Redemption
Fandom: Star Wars
Categories: Gen, PG, Semi-AU
Disclaimer: Star Wars and all characters, locations, ect. remain the property of George Lucas. No copyright infringment is intended.
Summary: Five years after Revenge of the Sith, Nute Gunray tries to make a difference for the better.
Title: Gunray's Redemption
Fandom: Star Wars
Categories: Gen, PG, Semi-AU
Disclaimer: Star Wars and all characters, locations, ect. remain the property of George Lucas. No copyright infringment is intended.
Summary: Five years after Revenge of the Sith, Nute Gunray tries to make a difference for the better.
"He's here to put pressure on the Hutt cartels." A Human mercenary said. "I doubt he'll even leave his ship - he's just here to let Jiliac and Jabba know the Empire takes them seriously."
A week ago, a Star Destroyer had left hyperspace and entered orbit of Nar Shaddaa, the crime-ridden smuggler's moon. The entire system was on edge - a world of criminals, now terrified by the arrival of the authorities. Tensions had only grown when it was revealed the Imperial warship was under the personal command of the Sith lord Darth Vader. But so far, the warship had done nothing - and everyone on the moon had a theory as to what its real mission was.
"Vader wouldn't come out this far just to show the flag." A Sullustan said. "And if he wanted to intimidate the Hutts, why isn't he at Nal Hutta? He's here for the same reason anyone comes to Nar Shaddaa - to hire someone. Bounty hunters, maybe, for a special job."
"Right, like a Sith Lord needs to hire people to do his killing for him." A Twi'lek pilot scoffed. "Only thing that would bring Vader here is the same thing that brought him to half a dozen outer rim worlds in the last year - he's after another Jedi. Some idiot with a light sabre's probably been hiding out in the undercity since the clone wars and now the Dark Lord's here to finish him off - and I wish him good luck! Damn Jedi cause nothing but trouble."
At that, the Sullustan drew a knife, demanding an apology, shouting something about one of his cousins having been a Jedi knight. The Twi'lek drew her own weapon, hissing that Jedi had killed her parents in the war, while the bartender droid moved forward to try and separate the two - or at least minimise the damage they caused.
A Neimoidian quietly rose from his seat. Not caring how the bar fight ended, he made his way out of the building. He knew he had only a little time left - a few more days to live, if he was lucky. The Twi'lek had been almost right with her theory - there were only a few things that would bring Vader to the smuggler's moon. One was a surviving Jedi. The other was a surviving Separatist leader.
Nute Gunray smiled slightly. Vader might have finally tracked him down - but he'd eluded the dark lord for five years. He'd learned some tricks from the Naboo - a decoy had gone in his place to Mustafar, to negotiate peace with the Republic alongside the other separatist leaders. None of them had ever returned. A year later the Trade Federation's assets were nationalised, and Cato Neimoidia placed under Imperial occupation. Most of Gunray's family had died in Imperial custody - or vanished. The newly crowned Emperor was asserting his authority most firmly on those worlds that had rebelled against the Republic.
Gunray still had nightmares about the Emperor - terrible dreams where the hooded figure of Darth Sidious gave him new orders, and he helplessly obeyed. Dreams where Darth Maul and Count Dooku cut down his friends and allies as they stared accusingly at him, their dead eyes demanding to know why he had been spared when they had perished. Nightmares of mazes and labyrinths where every pathway lead to destruction.
He had committed terrible crimes, he knew. The invasion of Naboo, that was his responsibility, caused entirely by his greed and ambition. But it was not Naboo that gave him nightmares; he had long since accepted his mistakes in that debacle. What haunted him was what had come afterward, when he tried to atone for his crimes, to free the Republic from the influence of the hidden Sith conspiracy, only to find he had been the puppet of Palpatine all along.
Sometimes he wondered if his survival and escape into hiding had somehow been planed by Palpatine, if he was somehow fulfilling some secret Imperial plot just by hiding in Hutt space. It was a paranoid thought, but one he couldn't shake...
"I heard you were asking about me." A gravely voice spoke, interrupting Gunray's reflections.
The Rodian was known only as 'The Courier'. If you wanted something delivered, anywhere in the galaxy, he could get it there - even to worlds under Imperial blockade. With an Imperial Star Destroyer in orbit, he was the only reliable way to get items off Nar Shaddaa.
"I have an item - a set of data-chips." Gunray said. "I need them delivered to an individual on Coruscant - without being detected by the authorities before they reach their destination."
"Going to be expensive." The Courier nodded. "Going to have to be extra if you want to avoid Imperial interception - getting past them here's going to be hard enough, but Coruscant's got more Imp patrols than the spice mines of Kessel."
"I was assured that you could achieve it, however." Gunray said, handing the Courier the data-chips. "The blue one is for you - it contains details of a bank account on Nal Hutta that contains your payment, as well as the identity and location of the individual you are to give the other chips to on Coruscant. The other chips are encrypted and will erase themselves if you try and access them."
"Alright, assuming your payment clears, looks like we've got a deal." The Rodian nodded, satisfied. "We shall not speak again."
Gunray watched the Courier disappear into the lower levels of the city, a weight lifting from his shoulders for the first time in five years.
He may have been a pawn of the Sith for almost his entire life, but there were things even they did not know. He and Rune Haako had spent almost a decade trying to hunt down and expose Darth Sidious after the invasion of Naboo, and he had spent much of that time secretly preparing for a confrontation with the Sith Lord. When the Clone Wars erupted, he placed most of his resources at the disposal of the Separatist Council, but there were a few things he held back as insurance against betrayal by his new allies - weapons caches hidden on outer rim worlds, warships stationed in the interstellar void where no-one would ever stumble across them unless they knew their exact location, automated droid factories in systems uncharted by the Republic.
When it had become clear that the charismatic human Count he had allied with was but another agent of Sidious, Gunray had hoped to use his secret resources to eliminate Dooku and his supporters, but the opportunity never came. After the Clone Wars, Gunray had considered using his resources to rebuild the Confederacy army and launch a new assault even Palpatine could not predict. But his secret army was too small, and he knew no one would rally to his banner; not after Palpatine had poisoned the minds of the galaxy against the Separatist cause. For five years he had kept the data chips containing the location of his secret caches, wondering if the time would ever come that he could make use of them to end the Sith nightmare that he had allowed to be unleashed on the galaxy.
It had been just before the Star Destroyer had arrived that Gunray had finally found a way his information could be used. Arms dealers were common on Nar Shaddaa; many of them had fallen on hard times after the end of the Clone Wars. He'd struck up a conversation with one in a bar on the lower levels who had said that she had a new client on Coruscant - an aide to the senator for Corella. After much arguing, and a great deal of money changing hands, she'd finally agreed to give him the aide's name and the encryption code she'd given the Corellian for use in discussing future deliveries.
What had caught Gunray's attention was what the Corellian had asked for. The arms dealer said she could only provide small arms, personal weapons - but the Corellian had wanted military grade equipment - heavy blasters, battle droids, even starfighters and corvettes. Gunray knew there was an underground resistance against the Emperor's New Order brewing, and he was sure the Corellian was an agent of theirs; the senator for Corellia was one of the loudest voices speaking out against Imperial rule, and one of his aides trying to purchase black market military equipment was too unusual to be a coincidence. It was a gamble, Gunray knew. The Corellian could just as easily be an Imperial agent, or the rebellion another puppet of the Emperor, as the Separatists had been.
In the end, Gunray had decided he had no choice. If there was even a chance his hidden forces could be used against the Empire, he had to take it. The hidden ships were few, but they were enough for a single system or two to challenge the Empire. Even a single victory against the Imperial navy could be enough to spark rebellion across a thousand worlds - he was sure that as long as the possibility of victory existed in people's minds, they would rally to the cause of freedom. He would atone for his crimes and mistakes by returning hope to the galaxy.
Nute Gunray, last Viceroy of the Trade Federation held his head high as he made his way back to the small apartment where he'd lived his last five years in exile. Soon, he knew, Darth Vader would come for him, and he would meet his death at the hands of the Dark Lord, as his friends and allies had five years before at Mustafar. He had no regrets. He had tried to save the galaxy, and perhaps he had been the cause of many of its ills, but he had always done what he thought was right. The Emperor might have manipulated him for years, but he had never made Gunray act against his conscience.
That night, Gunray slept soundly for the first time in years, untroubled by dreams of the Sith.
A week ago, a Star Destroyer had left hyperspace and entered orbit of Nar Shaddaa, the crime-ridden smuggler's moon. The entire system was on edge - a world of criminals, now terrified by the arrival of the authorities. Tensions had only grown when it was revealed the Imperial warship was under the personal command of the Sith lord Darth Vader. But so far, the warship had done nothing - and everyone on the moon had a theory as to what its real mission was.
"Vader wouldn't come out this far just to show the flag." A Sullustan said. "And if he wanted to intimidate the Hutts, why isn't he at Nal Hutta? He's here for the same reason anyone comes to Nar Shaddaa - to hire someone. Bounty hunters, maybe, for a special job."
"Right, like a Sith Lord needs to hire people to do his killing for him." A Twi'lek pilot scoffed. "Only thing that would bring Vader here is the same thing that brought him to half a dozen outer rim worlds in the last year - he's after another Jedi. Some idiot with a light sabre's probably been hiding out in the undercity since the clone wars and now the Dark Lord's here to finish him off - and I wish him good luck! Damn Jedi cause nothing but trouble."
At that, the Sullustan drew a knife, demanding an apology, shouting something about one of his cousins having been a Jedi knight. The Twi'lek drew her own weapon, hissing that Jedi had killed her parents in the war, while the bartender droid moved forward to try and separate the two - or at least minimise the damage they caused.
A Neimoidian quietly rose from his seat. Not caring how the bar fight ended, he made his way out of the building. He knew he had only a little time left - a few more days to live, if he was lucky. The Twi'lek had been almost right with her theory - there were only a few things that would bring Vader to the smuggler's moon. One was a surviving Jedi. The other was a surviving Separatist leader.
Nute Gunray smiled slightly. Vader might have finally tracked him down - but he'd eluded the dark lord for five years. He'd learned some tricks from the Naboo - a decoy had gone in his place to Mustafar, to negotiate peace with the Republic alongside the other separatist leaders. None of them had ever returned. A year later the Trade Federation's assets were nationalised, and Cato Neimoidia placed under Imperial occupation. Most of Gunray's family had died in Imperial custody - or vanished. The newly crowned Emperor was asserting his authority most firmly on those worlds that had rebelled against the Republic.
Gunray still had nightmares about the Emperor - terrible dreams where the hooded figure of Darth Sidious gave him new orders, and he helplessly obeyed. Dreams where Darth Maul and Count Dooku cut down his friends and allies as they stared accusingly at him, their dead eyes demanding to know why he had been spared when they had perished. Nightmares of mazes and labyrinths where every pathway lead to destruction.
He had committed terrible crimes, he knew. The invasion of Naboo, that was his responsibility, caused entirely by his greed and ambition. But it was not Naboo that gave him nightmares; he had long since accepted his mistakes in that debacle. What haunted him was what had come afterward, when he tried to atone for his crimes, to free the Republic from the influence of the hidden Sith conspiracy, only to find he had been the puppet of Palpatine all along.
Sometimes he wondered if his survival and escape into hiding had somehow been planed by Palpatine, if he was somehow fulfilling some secret Imperial plot just by hiding in Hutt space. It was a paranoid thought, but one he couldn't shake...
"I heard you were asking about me." A gravely voice spoke, interrupting Gunray's reflections.
The Rodian was known only as 'The Courier'. If you wanted something delivered, anywhere in the galaxy, he could get it there - even to worlds under Imperial blockade. With an Imperial Star Destroyer in orbit, he was the only reliable way to get items off Nar Shaddaa.
"I have an item - a set of data-chips." Gunray said. "I need them delivered to an individual on Coruscant - without being detected by the authorities before they reach their destination."
"Going to be expensive." The Courier nodded. "Going to have to be extra if you want to avoid Imperial interception - getting past them here's going to be hard enough, but Coruscant's got more Imp patrols than the spice mines of Kessel."
"I was assured that you could achieve it, however." Gunray said, handing the Courier the data-chips. "The blue one is for you - it contains details of a bank account on Nal Hutta that contains your payment, as well as the identity and location of the individual you are to give the other chips to on Coruscant. The other chips are encrypted and will erase themselves if you try and access them."
"Alright, assuming your payment clears, looks like we've got a deal." The Rodian nodded, satisfied. "We shall not speak again."
Gunray watched the Courier disappear into the lower levels of the city, a weight lifting from his shoulders for the first time in five years.
He may have been a pawn of the Sith for almost his entire life, but there were things even they did not know. He and Rune Haako had spent almost a decade trying to hunt down and expose Darth Sidious after the invasion of Naboo, and he had spent much of that time secretly preparing for a confrontation with the Sith Lord. When the Clone Wars erupted, he placed most of his resources at the disposal of the Separatist Council, but there were a few things he held back as insurance against betrayal by his new allies - weapons caches hidden on outer rim worlds, warships stationed in the interstellar void where no-one would ever stumble across them unless they knew their exact location, automated droid factories in systems uncharted by the Republic.
When it had become clear that the charismatic human Count he had allied with was but another agent of Sidious, Gunray had hoped to use his secret resources to eliminate Dooku and his supporters, but the opportunity never came. After the Clone Wars, Gunray had considered using his resources to rebuild the Confederacy army and launch a new assault even Palpatine could not predict. But his secret army was too small, and he knew no one would rally to his banner; not after Palpatine had poisoned the minds of the galaxy against the Separatist cause. For five years he had kept the data chips containing the location of his secret caches, wondering if the time would ever come that he could make use of them to end the Sith nightmare that he had allowed to be unleashed on the galaxy.
It had been just before the Star Destroyer had arrived that Gunray had finally found a way his information could be used. Arms dealers were common on Nar Shaddaa; many of them had fallen on hard times after the end of the Clone Wars. He'd struck up a conversation with one in a bar on the lower levels who had said that she had a new client on Coruscant - an aide to the senator for Corella. After much arguing, and a great deal of money changing hands, she'd finally agreed to give him the aide's name and the encryption code she'd given the Corellian for use in discussing future deliveries.
What had caught Gunray's attention was what the Corellian had asked for. The arms dealer said she could only provide small arms, personal weapons - but the Corellian had wanted military grade equipment - heavy blasters, battle droids, even starfighters and corvettes. Gunray knew there was an underground resistance against the Emperor's New Order brewing, and he was sure the Corellian was an agent of theirs; the senator for Corellia was one of the loudest voices speaking out against Imperial rule, and one of his aides trying to purchase black market military equipment was too unusual to be a coincidence. It was a gamble, Gunray knew. The Corellian could just as easily be an Imperial agent, or the rebellion another puppet of the Emperor, as the Separatists had been.
In the end, Gunray had decided he had no choice. If there was even a chance his hidden forces could be used against the Empire, he had to take it. The hidden ships were few, but they were enough for a single system or two to challenge the Empire. Even a single victory against the Imperial navy could be enough to spark rebellion across a thousand worlds - he was sure that as long as the possibility of victory existed in people's minds, they would rally to the cause of freedom. He would atone for his crimes and mistakes by returning hope to the galaxy.
Nute Gunray, last Viceroy of the Trade Federation held his head high as he made his way back to the small apartment where he'd lived his last five years in exile. Soon, he knew, Darth Vader would come for him, and he would meet his death at the hands of the Dark Lord, as his friends and allies had five years before at Mustafar. He had no regrets. He had tried to save the galaxy, and perhaps he had been the cause of many of its ills, but he had always done what he thought was right. The Emperor might have manipulated him for years, but he had never made Gunray act against his conscience.
That night, Gunray slept soundly for the first time in years, untroubled by dreams of the Sith.
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no subject
on 2007-12-08 08:45 am (UTC)I've long thought that Nute Gunray's character deserved more thought and a more sympathetic interpretations, but this is literally the first fic I have ever found which offers those things. I've been meaning to write one myself, but exams are preventing me at the moment.
Gunray still had nightmares about the Emperor - terrible dreams where the hooded figure of Darth Sidious gave him new orders, and he helplessly obeyed. Dreams where Darth Maul and Count Dooku cut down his friends and allies as they stared accusingly at him, their dead eyes demanding to know why he had been spared when they had perished. Nightmares of mazes and labyrinths where every pathway lead to destruction.
This paragraph was particularly well done - I can really visualize Nute's dreams as I read it.
Nice to see a nuanced portrait of the Viceroy. Thanks for sharing. :)
no subject
on 2007-12-08 09:13 am (UTC)Nute's nighmares of helplessness was pretty much my starting point for the story - I was thinking how horrified he must have felt when he realised he'd ended up working for Sidious once again in AotC, and how sad it was that he was the only one who actually knew about everything that Palpatine had been up to in the prequels and yet couldn't do anything about it. And then I decided that he deserved a better end than he got in RotS... :)
no subject
on 2007-12-09 10:46 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-12-10 03:16 am (UTC)I had the idea that maybe Bel Iblis found out about Palpatine's involvement in the Clone Wars, and that's why he split from the rebellion - because he thought Mon Mothma was another charismatic puppet like Dooku. I decided that recieving a large shipment of Seperatist weapons early in the rebellion would give him an incentive to research the era a little... ;)
Thanks for the comments!
no subject
on 2007-12-12 02:09 am (UTC)As for him being a coward... well, he doesn't seem to be physically brave, as it were, but IMO it's high time that other forms of courage got their chance to shine!
no subject
on 2007-12-13 08:35 pm (UTC)The characters hanging out in the bar are probably my favorite part. They provide a nice acknowledgment that there are lots of other people in this world with their own opinions but with no real impact on events. But also I really love bit part characters.
Back to the Separatists, one thing I think few people realize is that the Star Wars movies are heavily biased. People seem to take the movies version of events as what would be galactic history to the Star Wars characters. The problem is they make no attempt to reveal the motives of the villains.
I really want to know why the Trade Federation was in conflict with the Naboo. They had to have some reason for conflict, even if Sidious was manipulating them. My pet theory is that it is all about the fabric trade.
no subject
on 2007-12-14 02:22 am (UTC)I like the fabric trade idea - it's hard to think of anything worth shipping interstellar distances other than luxury goods, and the Naboo's most obvious vice is clothing.
Thanks for the comments!
no subject
on 2008-03-27 11:42 pm (UTC)Ooh. Compelling story, this! What an interesting spin of Nute Gunray's character. Quite an original idea and you pulled it off with aplomb.
And that last line was absolutely perfect.
Great job!