Mercurial Swift

Mercurial Swift, born Geb Teldar, was a bounty hunter that was active during the age of the Galactic Empire and in the early days of the New Republic. As a bounty hunter, Swift preferred working alone, even refusing a business proposal from veteran bounty hunter Dengar. Later, Swift found work with the Imperial Grand Admiral Rae Sloane. He evacuated the Imperial Commandant Brendol Hux and his son Armitage Hux during the Siege of Arkanis. At Sloane's request, Swift searched the Emperor's wrecked luxury yacht on Quantxi for information about the Imperial officer Gallius Rax.
Swift's collusion with Sloane made him a target of the New Republic operatives Norra Wexley, Jas Emari, and Sinjir Rath Velus. They trapped him on the planet Taris and forced him to disclose Sloane's whereabouts on the planet Jakku. Seeking revenge against Jas, Swift decided to collect a bounty on her head placed by the Black Sun crime boss Gyuti. Swift hired Dengar, Embo, and the Rodian Jeeta as his crew. They managed to capture Jas on Jakku. However, Jas managed to convince Swift's crew to turn on him by appealing to their dislike for the bounty hunter. Following a struggle, Jas threw Swift out of his ship and hired his crew.
==Biography==
===Early life===
The male human who would later call himself Mercurial Swift was originally named Geb Teldar. Teldar worked in various odd jobs including as a pipe fitter on Avast, a fathier stall-mucker, and a droid-scribbler extraordinaire. During the Age of the Empire, Swift performed as both a dancer and an actor, using his agility to his advantage. However, he quit his profession due to a lack of demand for performers in the Galactic Empire. Still in his youth, Swift decided to use his agility to pursue a new profession: bounty hunting. Teldar, or rather Mercurial Swift, also had a mother named Tabba Teldar, who lived in Coronet City on the Core Worlds planet Corellia.
===Uncertain times===
Shortly following the Battle of Endor, the bounty hunter Dengar found Mercurial Swift in Coronet City. Recognizing his talent, Dengar offered Swift a partnership as he planned to create a union of bounty hunters. Swift refused, as he preferred to work alone. The two fought each other in the rain, until Swift used dirty tactics—pretending to see the presumed dead Boba Fett, a famous bounty hunter with whom Dengar had prior dealings—to subdue the older bounty hunter. While Swift let Dengar go because there was not a bounty on the man's head, Dengar warned Swift that, since the Galactic Civil War was coming to an end, the New Republic wouldn't tolerate the existence of bounty hunters for much longer. Dengar believed that there would soon be bounties on bounty hunters, causing the perceived need for a union of bounty hunters.
Some time after, Dengar's prediction started to become a reality when the New Republic began denying services to bounty hunters following the paranoia caused by the terrorist attacks that took place on Liberation Day.Aftermath: Life Debt
===Working for Sloane===
Mercurial Swift would go on to be hired by the Imperial Grand Admiral Rae Sloane to kill the AWOL Vice Admiral Perwin Gedde, which he accomplished by poisoning Gedde's spice with kytrogorgia, Swift's poison of choice. Later, Swift rescued Sloane from being captured by a group of rebels on Coruscant. Out of gratitude, Sloane hired him to safely escort Brendol Hux, as well as his young illegitimate son, from the besieged Imperial-held world of Arkanis so that he could serve on Gallius Rax's Shadow Council.
Prior to the attack on Chandrila, Sloane hired Swift to dig up any information he could on Rax. Swift accepted Sloane's job and traveled to Ord Mantell's moon Quantxi where he searched through the wreckage of Emperor Palpatine's yacht the Imperialis. There, he found information that Rax was from a backwater planet known as Jakku and had met Palpatine as a boy by stowing aboard his yacht. Due to the fact that Imperial credits were no longer of any use to Mercurial Swift, Sloane offered to repay him in favors, a condition that he agreed to.
===Trap on Taris===
In the months following the Attack on Chandrila, the New Republic operative Norra Wexley, the former Imperial loyalty officer Sinjir Rath Velus, and the bounty hunter Jas Emari set a trap for Mercurial Swift on the planet Taris. Norra and her team were hunting the fugitive Rae Sloane, the purported perpetrator behind the Chandrila attack. Norra and her colleagues created a fake bounty hunting job to track down Vazeen Mordraw, a wilder girl who had purportedly stolen a caseload of ID cards from the Gindar Gang. With the help of Vazeen herself, Norra's team lured Swift to Taris.
While searching Taris' wasteland, Swift encountered a local slave boy, who was acquianted with Vazeen. Using a mixture of physical threats and financial reward, Swift managed to coerce the boy into revealing that Vazeen was hiding at the old Palmyra foundry. Hours later, Swift was cornered by Norra, Sinjir, and Jas near the wreck of an old freighter. Swift was familiar with Jas, who was well known within bounty hunting circles. Following a struggle, Jas stunned him with her blaster. Later that night, Swift awoke to find his arms bound to an old pipe. Norra and her companions proceeded to interrogate Swift, who held out despite the threat of physical force.
However, Sinjir used his knowledge of interrogation methods and knowledge about Swift's history to exert pressure on the bounty hunter. Threatening to send the B1-series battle droid Mister Bones to harm Swift's mother, Sinjir managed to force Teldar to reveal that Grand Admiral Sloane had hired him to search the Emperor's yacht on Quantxi for information about Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax, who had since proclaimed himself Counselor to the Empire and led most of the Empire to Jakku. Swift also revealed that Sloane had traveled with an unknown man, later revealed to be Norra's estranged husband Brentin Lore Wexley, to the planet Jakku.
===Settling scores with Jas Emari===
After Mercurial Swift had disclosed the information they wanted, Jas proposed killing him to cover their threats. Swift pleaded for mercy and claimed that he was not worth killing. Choosing to spare his life, Norra knocked Swift unconscious with one of his stun batons. The following morning, Swift awoke from his sleep and broke free of his restraints. Seeking retribution against Jas Emari, Swift contacted the Black Sun Underboss Rynscar and asked if there was a bounty on the Zabrak bounty hunter. Rynscar confirmed that the crime lord Gyuti had an existing bounty on Emari's head. Swift accepted the job in return for a payment of two dozen cases of nova crystals.
Recalling Dengar's advice, Swift decided to hire a crew before heading to Jakku on his Corellian shuttle. Swift hired Dengar, the Kyuzo hunter Embo, and the Rodian Jeeta. A week later, Jas was captured by Imperial forces on Jakku who handed her to Niima the Hutt, who lived in a temple on Jakku. After learning of her capture, Swift went to gloat over his foe in her cell. However, the Zabrak used three of her broken horns to overpower Swift and Niima's guards. During the fight, Swift sustained several facial scars from her broken spikes. Swift managed to escape on Swift's shuttle with the help of Embo, who was familiar with her aunt Sugi.
Later, Jas and Norra returned to Niima's temple. In return for ferrying her home, Niima provided them with uniforms, an old Imperial shuttle, and clearance codes to travel to the main Imperial base on Jakku where Sloane and Brentin were held. Swift and his bounty hunter crew cornered the two women before they could leave. Using his position as a bounty hunter on Black Sun's payroll, Mercurial tried to force Niima to surrender Jas. When the Hutt refused and grabbed him by the neck, Dengar managed to force Niima to release him by threatening to shoot her. Despite his dislike for Swift, he was still willing to work as a crew member.
===The tables turn===
Ultimately, Jas allowed herself to be captured in order to enable Norra and Mister Bones to complete their mission to capture Sloane. Swift commandeered Jas's Corellian shuttle to transport her and his crew. Swift wanted to travel offworld, but Jeeta convinced him to delay their departure due to the Battle of Jakku. During the journey, Jas took the opportunity to torment her captor about his plan. She pointed out that their clearance codes would not guarantee them safety in a war zone. When Swift announced that they would park their ship for a while before traveling to Boss Gyuti on Nar Shaddaa, Jas responded that he would screw him over.
When Dengar remarked that Swift was sulking that Jas had ruined his "pretty" looks, Swift told him to shut up and struck Jas with his stun baton. Still, Jas persisted and managed to convince Dengar and Embo to switch sides to the New Republic. She told them that the New Republic was offering a million credits to whoever collected the bounty on Grand Admiral Sloane. As a further incentive, Jas told them that the New Republic was offering to fully pardon bounty hunters who aided them. When Swift claimed that his crew were loyal, Dengar responded that they did not like him.
Dengar clubbed Swift in the side of the head with his blaster. Swift was hurt but managed to grab Jas around the neck. He edged towards the shuttle's ramp and taunted his former crew that they could have been rich. Jas however head butted him with her new set of horns, causing Swift to lose his grip. She then kicked him out of the cargo ramp. Swift was thrown out of the shuttle into the deserts of Jakku. Jas then hired Dengar, Embo, and Jeeta as her new crew.
==Personality and traits==
Mercurial Swift was an attractive human man who was considered by Jas Emari and Dengar to resemble a "pretty boy." Sinjir regarded Swift as having a smug look. Although Mercurial Swift lacked armor, he was known for his speed and agility, which he utilized in combat. Despite his speed, Swift was criticized by the more experienced bounty hunter Dengar for being "dumb" and in need of a "guiding hand," though Swift refused one. Mercurial Swift's weapon of choice was a pair of batons. As a bounty hunter, Mercurial Swift was primarily interested in profit. While dissatisfied with the worthless Imperial currency, Swift was ameliorated when Sloane offered to pay him back with many favors.
Swift cared for his mother Tabba Teldar and was her main source of income. He was protective of his mother and was willing to exact revenge on those who threatened her. Seeking revenge against Jas Emari for helping to trap him, Swift attempted to collect a bounty on her head. He hired several bounty hunters including Dengar, Embo, and Jeeta as his crew but secretly considered abandoning them. Jas ultimately was able to convince his crew to turn against him by appealing to their dislike for him and offering to secure them pardons if they helped her.
==Skills and abilities==
Mercurial Swift wielded a pair of stun batons. One end was concussive while the other end was electric, allowing him to set the baton to kill or stun. Swift's second baton could also be modified with a hypoinjector for poison. Swift used his skills at poisoning to assassinate Vice Admiral Perwin Gedde.
==Behind the scenes==
Mercurial Swift appears as a minor antagonist in Chuck Wendig's The Aftermath Trilogy novels Aftermath, Aftermath: Life Debt, and Aftermath: Empire's End.
==Appearances==
*Aftermath 
*Aftermath: Life Debt 
*Aftermath: Empire's End 
==Sources==
*Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition
*Star Wars: Timelines
*Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy
==Notes and references==
Category:Bounty hunters
Category:Corellians
Category:Humans
Category:Individuals with he/him pronouns
Category:Males