He stood in the darkness of his cold damp cell waiting. Waiting for what he knew was about to come. For what he knew was going to be inevitable since he was first locked up in this force forsaken place.
He heard the other inmates outside, in the long row of cells. Hundreds of criminal men from a dozen races haggling the guards as they came to take Garan Nokk to meet destiny. It had been five years since he had been locked up here. Was this the day then? The day that it would all end? Garan hoped so. In his mind he ran through all the endless things he had done. The things he had seen and the things he had done since the order had fallen.
Cold water dripped from the ceiling onto his head. He couldn't even feel it on his head. Since his incarceration five years ago he hadn't been able to get a decent haircut or even a shave. It was hard to imagine he was only twenty-four standard years old. His hair was long and matted, his beard nigh unsightly. He leaned his head back to the cool water could drip his face. He found some solace in it. He heard the electronic lock on his cell unlatch, and two guards walked in.
The guards were a human and a rodian. The same two that took him to the yard every day. He had known them both for five years and still he didn't know there names. It just seemed wrong to him. He didn't know why, but it seemed that he had never learned who they were. Old habit probably.
He walked with both guards down that long corridor. The inmates made the usual threats. They yelled and snarled. They told him how he was never going to wake up this time. He heard each one individually. In his mind Garan didn't deserve to not hear and not listen. This was part of his punishment.
He came to the large blast doors that the warden had added to the prison a long time ago. The guards stopped him in front of the large heavy doors. Garan didn't look either way. His eyes remained focused on the doors. The rodian guard typed the code into the door's control panel. The two large doors slowly, with a loud mechanical whirring, began to open.
As light filled the corridor from the gap in the door, and temporarily blinded Garan. His eyes adjusted quickly and he stepped out of the corridor and into the outdoor arena filled with sand, and boulders. As he came out the arena erupted in applause.
"Crowd favorite Garan "The Rock" Nokk folks," The announcer said.
The arena was built several years ago by the current warden when he took over. He was as corrupt as they came. He built it to give his pals; crime lords, corrupt politicians, smugglers, and the sort, even good behaved convicts, the privilege of watching hardened criminals fight to the death.
Garan had fought sixty-three times now and always come out on top. He was put in here for life. When the warden told him about the arena and the fights, when he first came to the prison he hoped that the other fighters would be able to deliver justice and kill him. He deserved death, but then again so did the other men that were in here.
The warden didn't put any one who wasn't on death row or in the prison for life in the arena. If they died, that meant paper work. Paper work could lead to an investigation. Investigation could lead to him having his prison raided. Rapists and murders. Those were the only ones that went in.
Gabriel eyed his opponents who were all standing in equal intervals around the arena's perimeter. None of them had weapons yet. The weapons were situated in the arena in certain places. More then enough for every one. Blasters, vibro blades, vibro-axes, knives, force-pikes, even a lightsaber the warden had bought on the black market was rumored to be hidden in the arena somewhere. No one had ever seen it though. Most thought it was a myth.
There were seven other convicts in the arena. A nikto stood to the left of Garan, past him was another human. After the second human there was a porcine faced gamorerean. Then there was a weequay. Garan had seen him around the prison. His name was Ack-Klar, a serial killer from Ord Mantell. Next to Garan he had the most wins in the arena and had made several threats to end Garan's career. Another nikto was to the left of Ack-Klar. Then a rodian followed by an ithorian which made Garan nervous since the ithorians were generally a peaceful race. Of course there was always an accepting. Lastly, and to the immediate right of Garan was a one eyed trandoshan.
Garan sighed, knowing that he would probably kill all seven of these people/ They all more than likely deserved it but that didn't mean he liked it. Ack-Klar would be the hardest. He might even be able to kill Garan. But he was cocky, over confident, and that could lead to sloppiness.
"FIGHT!" The announcer yelled. Garan quickly jumped past the trandoshan, who had lunged at him, attempting to kill Garan with his claws and teeth. He hit the ground and rolled behind a boulder where the guards usually paced one of the weapons in a small whole in the ground. Garan was rewarded with a blaster. He reached into the hole and felt the handle. He wrapped his hands around it and pulled it out. All the blasters that were placed in the arena had only one to five shots in them. This made it harder for the person holding the blaster to take out all of the competition without a show, and squashed any chance of the prisoner using the weapon to escape.
Garan felt the tingle in the back of his neck. The sense of danger washed over him and told him exactly where the trandoshan was attacking from. Garan turned and without even aiming fired two shots. The first shot took the trandoshan in the foot as he kicked off the ground, the second hit him in the throat, throwing him backwards. The trandoshan was dead when he hit the ground.
Garan saw one of the nikto and the other human engaged in a vibro-blade duel nearby. He would let them fight it out. In the meantime, he caught site of the ithorian hiding behind a nearby boulder. Garan took aim and fired. The ithorian must have heard him, or been very luck. He ducked his head and the laser hit the rock. The ithorian made eye contact with Garan for barely a second before disappearing into the maze of boulders that made up the arena. The blaster was empty now so he tossed it aside.
He heard the Gamorrean's heavy breathing as he ran at him from the side. He rolled to the left as the Gamorrean swung it's large axe at him. The axe was heavy though and threw the Gamorrean off balance, which gave Garan enough time to use the small knife he had found buried in the sand to slash the Gamorrean's throat. The Gamorrean squealed and fell to the ground clutching at his neck. Garan wanted to give the creature a quick death, but he hadn't the time.
Garan took a minute to look around. The nikto had beaten the human and was now chasing after ithorian it seemed. The rodian was searching for a weapon, The other nikto was dead, pinned to the stone wall of the arena by a spear. Ack-Klar was nowhere to be seen, which made Garan slightly nervous.
Garan went after the rodian. He caught up with him, just as the insect-like alien found a club behind one of the boulders. The rodian swung at Garan, who ducked beneath it. The rodian swung again, but Garan punched the rodian hard in the wrist, breaking the bones. The rodian hissed and stumbled back as he dropped the club. Garan thrust the knife fast into the rodian's chest. The rodian cried out and fell to the ground. Garan picked up the club and brought a crushing blow down on the poor rodian's face, killing him.
The nikto caught up with the ithorian, and attacked with a vibro-blade. The ithorian blocked the blow by connecting his forearm with the nikto's wrist. The nikto twirled the blade and slashed at the ithorian who dodged the blow by ducking under the nikto's elbow. He came up behind the ithorian now and grabbed his head, lifted and twisted sharply, snapping the spine in the convicted nikto's neck. The nikto slumped down dead.
The ithorian started looking around for the other prisoner contestants when Ack-Klar stabbed him through the back with a vibroblade. Garan looked on as the Ithorian slumped to the ground dead. Ack-Klar smiled and licked blood from the blade as he pulled it out. He then spotted Garan and started walking across the arena towards him.
To give these people a show was to encourage this kind of gladiatorial fighting. Ack-Klar didn't care, Garan did. They wanted a drawn out fight between the two remaining contestants.
Garan looked down at his knife, barely longer then his forearm from the handle to tip. He looked back at Ack-Klar and decided to charge the weequay serial killer. He closed the distance quickly. Ack-Klar brought his sword up to strike at Garan. Garan leapt from a boulder and passed over Ack-Klar. As he passed over, he thrust his knife downward into the wee quay's shoulder. The blade traveled downward severing nerves and tendons before the tip exited the armpit.
Ack-Klar yelled in rage more then pain. His arm hung at his side, useless. He couldn't even use his hand. He pried the vibro-blade from his own grip and put it in his other hand. He swung again at Garan who ducked under the swing and caught the other criminal's wrist in his hands and snapped it. Ack-Klar screamed again and Garan took the vibro-blade and sliced cleanly through his opponents neck. Ack-Klar froze for a few seconds before his head fell off and his body fell to the ground.
There was applause from the crowd. Many would enjoy the sound. Garan did not. The guards were on him in seconds. They took the vibro-blade from him and cuffed him. He took one last look at the seven bodies in the arena before he was hit in the head and darkness took him.