Mercurial Swift

The individual who would later be known as Mercurial Swift, a male human, began life as Geb Teldar. Teldar engaged in a variety of jobs, including working as a pipe fitter on Avast, cleaning fathier stalls, and excelling as a droid scribe. During the Age of the Empire, Swift showcased his agility as both a dancer and an actor. However, he abandoned this career path due to the limited demand for performers within the Galactic Empire. While still young, Swift resolved to leverage his agility in a new field: bounty hunting. Teldar, now Mercurial Swift, also had a mother, Tabba Teldar, residing in Coronet City on the Core Worlds planet Corellia.

Not long after the Battle of Endor, Dengar encountered Mercurial Swift in Coronet City. Recognizing Swift's potential, Dengar proposed a partnership, aiming to establish a bounty hunter alliance. Swift declined, valuing his independence. Their disagreement escalated into a fight in the rain, which Swift ended through deception—falsely claiming to see the supposedly deceased Boba Fett, a renowned bounty hunter with whom Dengar had a history—to overpower his opponent. Swift released Dengar, as there was no bounty on him, but Dengar cautioned Swift that the New Republic, with the Galactic Civil War nearing its end, would likely not tolerate bounty hunters for long. Dengar foresaw bounties being placed on bounty hunters, hence his desire for a united front.

Some time later, Dengar's prediction began to materialize when the New Republic started restricting services to bounty hunters, fueled by the paranoia stemming from the terrorist attacks on Liberation Day.

Subsequently, Mercurial Swift was enlisted by Imperial Grand Admiral Rae Sloane to kill the AWOL Vice Admiral Perwin Gedde, a task he accomplished by poisoning Gedde's spice with kytrogorgia, Swift's preferred poison. Later, Swift rescued Sloane from capture by rebels on Coruscant. In gratitude, Sloane tasked him with safely transporting Brendol Hux and his young, illegitimate son from the Imperial-controlled world of Arkanis, which was under siege, so that he could serve on Gallius Rax's Shadow Council.

Before the attack on Chandrila, Sloane commissioned Swift to gather any available information on Rax. Swift accepted and journeyed to Quantxi, a moon of Ord Mantell, where he investigated the wreckage of the Emperor Palpatine's yacht, the Imperialis. He discovered that Rax hailed from the remote planet Jakku and had encountered Palpatine as a boy after stowing away on the yacht. Since Imperial credits were now useless to Mercurial Swift, Sloane offered to compensate him with favors, which he accepted.

In the months following the Chandrila attack, New Republic operative Norra Wexley, former Imperial loyalty officer Sinjir Rath Velus, and bounty hunter Jas Emari orchestrated a trap for Mercurial Swift on Taris. Norra and her team were pursuing the fugitive Rae Sloane, suspected of orchestrating the Chandrila attack. They fabricated a bounty hunting mission to locate Vazeen Mordraw, a wild girl who had supposedly stolen a caseload of ID cards from the Gindar Gang. With Vazeen's cooperation, Norra's team lured Swift to Taris.

While searching the Taris wasteland, Swift encountered a local slave boy familiar with Vazeen. Through a combination of threats and promises of payment, Swift extracted information from the boy, revealing that Vazeen was hiding at the old Palmyra foundry. Several hours later, Swift was ambushed by Norra, Sinjir, and Jas near the wreckage of an old freighter. Swift recognized Jas, who was well-known in bounty hunting circles. After a brief struggle, Jas stunned him with her blaster. Swift awoke later that night, bound to an old pipe. Norra and her companions interrogated Swift, who initially resisted despite threats of physical harm.

However, Sinjir, using his interrogation skills and knowledge of Swift's past, applied pressure on the bounty hunter. Threatening to deploy the B1-series battle droid Mister Bones to harm Swift's mother, Sinjir forced 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 declared himself Counselor to the Empire and taken the majority of the Empire to Jakku. Swift also disclosed that Sloane had traveled to Jakku with an unidentified man, later revealed to be Norra's estranged husband, Brentin Lore Wexley.

After Mercurial Swift provided the desired information, Jas suggested killing him to eliminate any threats. Swift begged for mercy, claiming he was not worth killing. Norra, choosing to spare him, knocked Swift unconscious with one of his stun batons. The next morning, Swift awoke and broke free of his restraints. Seeking revenge on Jas Emari, Swift contacted Black Sun Underboss Rynscar to inquire about a bounty on the Zabrak bounty hunter. Rynscar confirmed that crime lord Gyuti had placed a bounty on Emari. Swift accepted the job for a payment of two dozen cases of nova crystals.

Remembering Dengar's advice, Swift decided to assemble a crew before heading to Jakku in his Corellian shuttle. He hired Dengar, the Kyuzo hunter Embo, and the Rodian Jeeta. A week later, Jas was captured by Imperial forces on Jakku, who handed her over to Niima the Hutt, residing in a temple on Jakku. Upon learning of her capture, Swift visited Jas in her cell to gloat. However, Jas used three of her broken horns to overpower Swift and Niima's guards. During the ensuing fight, Swift sustained several facial scars from her broken horns. 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 exchange for transportation home, Niima provided them with uniforms, an old Imperial shuttle, and clearance codes for travel to the main Imperial base on Jakku, where Sloane and Brentin were being held. Swift and his bounty hunter crew cornered the two women before they could depart. Using his status as a bounty hunter on Black Sun's payroll, Mercurial attempted to force Niima to surrender Jas. When the Hutt refused and grabbed him by the neck, Dengar threatened to shoot her, forcing Niima to release him. Despite his personal dislike for Swift, he was still willing to work as a crew member.

Ultimately, Jas allowed herself to be captured to allow Norra and Mister Bones to complete their mission of capturing Sloane. Swift commandeered Jas's Corellian shuttle to transport her and his crew. Swift intended to leave the planet, but Jeeta convinced him to delay their departure due to the Battle of Jakku. During the journey, Jas seized the opportunity to taunt her captor about his plan. She argued that their clearance codes would not guarantee safety in a war zone. When Swift announced that they would park their ship before traveling to Boss Gyuti on Nar Shaddaa, Jas predicted that his crew would betray him.

When Dengar commented that Swift was upset that Jas had ruined his "pretty" face, Swift told him to be quiet and struck Jas with his stun baton. Despite this, Jas persisted and successfully persuaded Dengar and Embo to join the New Republic. She informed them that the New Republic was offering a million credits for the capture of Grand Admiral Sloane. As a further incentive, Jas stated that the New Republic was offering full pardons to bounty hunters who assisted them. When Swift asserted his crew's loyalty, Dengar countered that they disliked him.

Dengar struck Swift on the head with his blaster. Swift, injured but still able to fight, grabbed Jas around the neck. He moved toward the shuttle's ramp, taunting his former crew about the wealth they were forfeiting. Jas, however, head-butted him with her new horns, causing Swift to lose his grip. She then kicked him off the cargo ramp. Swift was thrown from the shuttle into the Jakku desert. Jas then hired Dengar, Embo, and Jeeta as her new crew.

Mercurial Swift was a physically attractive human male, described by Jas Emari and Dengar as a "pretty boy." Sinjir perceived Swift as having a smug expression. While lacking [armor](/article/armor], Mercurial Swift was known for his speed and agility, which he used in combat. Despite his speed, Swift was criticized by the more experienced Dengar for being "dumb" and needing guidance, an offer Swift rejected. Mercurial Swift favored a pair of batons as his weapons. As a bounty hunter, Mercurial Swift was primarily motivated by profit. Although dissatisfied with the worthless Imperial currency, Swift was appeased when Sloane offered to repay him with favors.

Swift cared for his mother, Tabba Teldar, and was her primary source of support. He was protective of her and willing to seek revenge against those who threatened her. Seeking revenge against Jas Emari for her role in his capture, Swift attempted to collect the bounty on her head. He hired bounty hunters, including Dengar, Embo, and Jeeta, as his crew but secretly considered abandoning them. Jas ultimately convinced his crew to turn against him by appealing to their dislike of him and offering to secure pardons if they helped her.

Mercurial Swift wielded a pair of stun batons. One end delivered concussive force, while the other was electric, allowing him to set the baton for lethal or non-lethal stun attacks. One of Swift's batons could also be equipped with a hypoinjector for administering poison. Swift employed his poisoning skills to assassinate Vice Admiral Perwin Gedde.

Mercurial Swift appears as a supporting antagonist in Chuck Wendig's The Aftermath Trilogy novels Aftermath, Aftermath: Life Debt, and Aftermath: Empire's End.