Chapter Eleven

Dar ran down the corridor with a slight limp. He was still sore from the abusive greeting they had received in the pirate's base.

Bek, Ikeira, and Dar were making good progress as the woman led them from the prisoner holds. She'd made sure to avoid the heavier used access corridors and lounge rooms, taking the quieter back accesses.

Muttering, Bek tore the shirt he wore into strips, due to it being too small for him, even if it had been previously own by the over weight Weequay. "Don't people know how to work out?" He complained, mostly to himself.

They came to another hatchway. Dar opened it and checked through the portal in a cursory fashion. "All cl—" He paused, backed up and whispered, "Never mind."

The hatch opened up onto a catwalk, which spanned across a cargo bay. Inside the bay on the floor below the grated walk way were several pirates sitting around a rotting wood wire reel, playing a game of cards, while smoking and drinking.

Dar pressed his back against the wall as the hatch hissed shut once more. "I counted at least five," he said.

Bek nodded. "Easy enough."

While the two men decided over the next course of action, which of course meant a quick bout of blood shed, no doubt, Ikeira handed a blaster pistol to Bek. "Here, you might need this."

He paused in mid sentence with Dar and looked over at the woman. "Nuh uh." He shook his head.

She hesitated for a second. "Uh… Are you sure?"

"Totally."

"He doesn't like guns," Dar interjected.

"Are you serious? Never heard of a Mandalorian who doesn't like guns," she said in disbelief.

"Bad things happen. Don't like 'em," Bek said and turned back to Dar about their plan to attack the pirates as if they were never interupted.

"There's a flight of stairs on the far side of the hold," Dar brought the group back to focus. "We'll sprint across, make our way down and make a frontal assault on them. Ikeira, you cover us from up on the catwalk. If we're quick enough, shouldn't be too hard to catch them by surprise."

The other two nodded, then Dar moved back to the door. The hatch once again slid open, and the sound of the pirates playing their card game drifted up to them.

Dar mouthed the words and counted with his fingers, …Three. Two. One!

With a burst of speed, Dar bolted across the catwalk. He saw out of the corner of his eye that Bek would make it to the pirates before him.

Gripping the handrail, Bek launched himself feet first over the side of the walk, and dropped down to the pirates' card table below.

With a shout of surprise and curses, the five pirates fell back for cover, scrambling for their weapons.

Bek tackled the biggest one of the bunch, a large Trandoshan. The two rolled away in a flurry of punches and kicks.

"There's another one! Cobb, get 'im!" A pirate yelled.

Dar had bolted across the walkway, and was already coming down the stairs. They dropped down a flight to a small landing, with a second flight coming down the opposite way, ending under the catwalk.

As the pirate shouted, he saw the one question heft up a heavy repeating blaster. "I got 'em!"

Dar dove to the landing as the space he had been moving through exploded from the heavy gun's blaster fire. He then fired off a few shots at the man wearing the ridiculous knit hat and shooting at him, before making a leap off the landing in the same fashion Bek had done moments earlier.

"Holy…" The man's cigar fell out of his mouth when Dar landed on him, cushioning his fall, and tumbling away with the sound of clattering blasters and bodies.

Blaster fire rained from above, though, narrowly missing Dar as Ikeira aimed for the other three pirates, who took cover with the table and fired back up at her.

As Dar rolled away, and saw the man named Cobb crawling for his heavy repeater, Dar scrambled after, keeping his head low.

"Eat this!" Cobb shouted as he reached his gun and got to his knees to fire the big blaster. Dar was on him though, launching himself forward and throwing all his momentum into a punch. Cobb fell back once more, dropping his gun again and his bright orange knit hat falling off.

There was a roar from the Trandoshan, and Dar heard Bek challenge it with a yell of his own. But he was focused on the grimy man in front of him, as he crawled over to him and began punching. Cobb got a luck fist through Dar's barrage and caught him in the ribs, which made the air blow from his lungs.

Cobb took the opening to push Dar away. He fell onto his back as Cobb once more stood for his repeater blaster. Not letting Cobb get too far, Dar swept his foot out and tripped the man. Hopping to his feet, Dar kicked him, hard in the face with his boot. Cobb lay still as a few teeth clattered away.

"Dar, look out!"

He turned, and dove as one of the other three pirates Ikeira had been shooting at saw Dar's success over Cobb, and chose to target him while his two partners held Ikeira back with their firing.

He landed, right next to the heavy repeating blaster. Rolling with the dive, he scooped the blaster up and came up on a kneeling position, holding the heavy gun in his hands.

The pirate across from him froze and his eyes grew wide. "Oh, no…"

"Oh yeah," Dar said and squeezed the trigger.

The man was blasted away, falling into the table. The other two looked up to see Dar fire into them as well, while Ikeira fired from above. They were caught in a cross fire and too shocked to fire back before being mowed down with lasers.

There was a loud thud, and Dar looked over in time to see Bek bodily heft the Trandoshan and slam him into the floor. The two struggled for a moment until Bek got his arms around the Trandoshan's scaly neck. A series of pops sounded, and only Bek stood afterwards.

Bek eyeballed the heavy repeating blaster. "Nice toy you found there."

"Thanks," Dar said as he put the strap over his head and shoulder and let the big blaster hang at his side. "I think I'm going to hold onto it."

"Makes a big mess. I like it."

Dar gathered the blasters he initially had, and began stripping the fallen pirates of their weapons. Bek took a large blade off of the Trandoshan while Dar found a pair of vibroknives and another smaller hold out blaster. He confiscated another pair for Ikeira, who was waiting for them on the walk.

She took the blasters and a knife when the two men reached her on the walk, and they continued their way through the back corridors of the ship. They didn't run into any more trouble, and soon found themselves on the flight deck once more. In the distance, they heard Kijjar's booming voice.

"Okay, you sure you know where they're holding Kaleen?" Dar asked, glancing over at Ikeira.

"Of course. She was going to get sold, so Kijjar hasn't let anyone touch her yet. Twi'leks can go for a pretty credit if they're good looking enough."

Dar lifted his brows. "Well, I'm going to take that as a positive note, then. You shouldn't have any trouble. We're going to make a pretty big distraction here in a few minutes."

"I bet you boys are. Soon as she's free, I'll find one of these ships and take her home. But you owe me a little extra for delivery. So you better not get killed."

"Trust me, that's not going to be us. Not today," Dar said pointedly.

She cocked a hip out and put a fist on it. "I'm serious, Dar. If you don't get out of this and pay men, I'm going to come find your spirit, and haunt you into the afterlife."

Dar rolled his eyes. "Would you just get going? We don't have much time for this."

She smirked and moved between them, swishing her hips back and forth with a renewed sense of vigor now that she had a chance at revenge of her own. "Don't you two worry about me, just worry about paying me later," she said with a wink thrown over her shoulder at Dar. Then she was off at a jog to fulfill her end of the plan.

"Crazy woman's gonna get herself killed."

Bek arched an eyebrow down at Dar. "She's not the one facing the entire pirate army."

"Hey, I don't plan on getting killed," Dar said with a grumble, and moved on towards Kijjar's voice.

The two Mandalorians moved through the cover of the dark sections of the hanger, moving towards the stern once more. As they got closer, they saw Kijjar was issuing a death sentence on a pair of Nautolans, male and female. They had the look of spacers, possibly recently captured.

"…For killing two of my favored ship jackers, I pronounce that you shall be terminated by lethal prejudice!"

"Makes you wonder why he kept us alive," Bek murmured.

The crowd began to chant and cheer for blood as Dar and Bek made their way to the framework above the hanger deck. They needed to get as close to Kijjar as possible.

As they worked their way through the joists and frames, they saw the crowd circled around the pair like had been done with themselves. The hanger's roof was retracted and the cloudy thunderstorms rumbled above. Dar could smell the sweet scent of rain was coming soon.

"Do you have any last words before I have Kazzar Chukka end your puny lives, Nautolans?" Kijjar was saying as he worked his crowd into a barely containable frenzy. He had his circle of commanders behind him. A heavily built Yuuzhan Vong stood at his side, wearing the weapons and armor of the slain Vas on top of his own.

A knife wheeled its way from the framework above the scene and stuck into the neck of the large bald Zabrak to Kijjar's left.

"Kijjar Vicant!" Dar shouted over the suddenly speechless and stunned crowd.

All attention turned to him and Bek in the rafters, as they stood precariously above the gathered masses.

"I challenge you, Kijjar Vicant!"

Dar leapt from the support beam and landed in the middle of the circle with a tumbling roll, coming back up on his knees. He stood up before the two Nautolans who looked absolutely terrified as they did confused. They jumped when Bek landed down behind Dar. The big man was fiercely staring the Yuuzhan Vong down.

Kijjar was flustered with astonishment. "What is meaning of this!? How did you escape fro—"

Dar hefted his heavy blaster and fired up at an angle, some shots piercing the throne's high back and silencing the big man. "I challenge you to the title of Pirate Lord! Everything that is yours will be mine when you fall dead at my feet! By honor of the code of the Reapers!"

The crowd was suddenly outraged. Half were in protest that no prisoner could dare challenge the leader of the Reapers. But the other half were calling for blood, and seeing the small Mandalorian be pummeled by their leader would sate their lust for violence.

"You cannot dare expect honor from me when you could not even show it before!" Kijjar said, stepping forward. "Do you expect your large friend to fight for you again?"

"Bek chose to step in for me. He chose to kill that godless Vongese on his own." He took a few steps forward, but raised his voice for all to hear. "I came here seeking vengeance against you, Kijjar. I will get it regardless. I again announce my challenge to you, Kijjar Vicant! Unless you are too coward to fight me before your entire pirate army!"

That got the crowd into an uproar. Now they wanted to see this battle. They stomped their feet and clapped their hands, or equivalent of.

Kijjar stared down at Dar with unmasked discontent. "Fine. So be it, little Mandalorian. I shall beat you to your death with my bare hands."