Chapter 12

May Something 2553 Unknown Time Aboard Unknown Pirate Ship

Aubrie woke to find herself in a room that reminded her of a beauty salon on Coruscant. However unlike any beauty salon she had ever seen the patrons were all restrained. She was also startled to find that she was wearing a slave collar and it was blocking her ability to use the force. Aubrie looked to her left and right and found that general Leska and captain Darr were in the same predicament she was.

"Ah good your awake!" A blue skinned twi'lek said cheerfully as she entered the room. "My job is so much easier when the merchandise is awake."

"And what if we don't want to cooperate?" Leska asked angrily. She was immediately answered by a powerful shock from her slave collar.

"That is what will happen." The twi'lek said with a smile. "And if I need to I can turn up the intensity. Now let's get started, the captain wants you all looking your best for market."

Elsewhere On The Ship

Mak Lotor was not having a good day. First he was captured by pirates, then shortly after he came to he was dragged from his cell to another part of the ship and thrown into a makeshift fighting pit and handed a sword. At the other end of the pit was a rather pissed off looking Trandoshan also armed with a sword.

"Okay listen up, one of you is going to live and one of you is going to die. I really don't care witch I make money on it either way. So you will fight the winner will have the honor of being sold as a gladiator. Now get to it I don't have all day."

Lotor thought about what the pirate had said. As a Jedi he would bring a lot of credits on the slave market, but he would be useless if he refused to fight. On the other hand if the Trandoshan killed him the pirate captain could say he had a Jedi slayer and still make a lot of money.

Lotor's thoughts on the subject were brought to an end however when the Trandoshan charged him. Mak pared his attack and made an attack of his own to force the Trandoshan into the defense, but he didn't know if he should kill him or not. As they battled he tried to finger out if he was justified in ending this Trandoshan's life. Sure it was self-defense and the Trandoshan attacked him first, but he was forced to. Then again the Trandoshan had probably killed a lot of people, but that was just racial profiling and he had no proof of that.

Lotor used force push to slam the big lizard it the wall and then readied himself for the Trandoshans counter attack. All the while the question of should he or shouldn't he running through his head. The Trandoshan quickly closed with Lotor again and as they closed Lotor tried something.

"You don't want to fight me!"

The Trandoshan looked at him as if he was mad and Mak dared to hope for a moment that the trick had worked.

"Oh, but I do little Jedi." The Trandoshan hised. "I have been shamed and killing you will go a long way in restoring my standing with the Scorekeeper."

Well that settled it he would have to kill the lizard. Lotor pushed the large reptile off him and assumed his stance. The Trandoshan charged again, Mak sidestepped and slashed the Trandoshan's side and he could see blood begin seeping from the wound. The Trandoshan howled with rage and changed again this time Mak tried a different approach. Will the Trandostan was ready to counter Mak if he sidestepped again. Mak instead rolled forward and brought his sword up and impaled the lizard

May 26th 2553 03:00 Hours Captured Pirate Ship

Just before our ship was turned into galactic space dust we managed to escape using the stealth insertion pods ONI had given us. And after the pirates had left, we used their maneuvering thrusters to get us to the disabled pirate ship. We didn't find any real resistance, most of the crew had abandoned the ship. After we had secured the ship it took Parker another hour to fix all the damage she had done to the ship's computers. That just left us with trying to figure out where the other pirate ship had gone.

Pirate Ship Brig

"Tell me what I want to know or you will beg for death by the time I am done with you." Six said calmly as he held the commander of the disabled pirate ship by the neck.

"I would tell him what he wants to know." I said as I leaned against the far wall of our makeshift interrogation room. "My friend here is very good at what he does. The last guy he interrogated wanted to die after only fifteen minutes. Isn't that the one where you removed every one of his internal origins except for his heart and lungs, with just you combat knife?"

"Your all crazy! The pirate commander screamed. Six throw the pirate to the ground and removed his knife from its sheath.

"That's not what we want to know. I think I'm going to start with your intestines."

"Nal Hutta! They went to Nal Hutta!" The pirate screamed.

"Well thank you for telling us what we wanted to know." I said as I knelt down and looked him in the face. "However if you lied to us we will have to make you suffer. Why don't you think about that while you sit in the brig."

"Well that was easy." I remarked as Six and I sat down at one of the tables in the ships galley."

"Ten minutes, I think that has to be a new record. Nice touch with the origins thing." Six said as he

examined what he had selected for his lunch. "I know Parker said this stuff is okay to eat, but I feel like this was part of something that was shooting at me not all that long ago."

"Well it tastes okay." I replied as I sampled the alien food. "And we aren't really in a position to be picky."

Meanwhile the ODST and Commandos were eating and swapping stories. I was happy to see they were getting along, though I was surprised how much the one everyone called Rooky slept. While everyone else talked and laughed, he was curled up in a corner sleeping. Just then one of the ODST who was named Dutch called over.

"Spartan witch one of us has the better armor, us or these Commandos?" This was an interesting question. Myself and Six both new the ODST armor well, and I had taken the time to study the Commandos armor when I learned they would be joining us on the mission. The armors were very similar, but the Commando's had energy shielding.

"They have shields." I replied. "That kind of gives them the edge."

"But they need to lose that white paint job, a covenant sniper will see them long before they see you." Six added.

May 28th 2553 06:00 Hours Nal Hutta Orbit.

"There they are" Parker said as she pointed to the holographic display of one of the moons orbiting Nal Hutta. "Level three subsection four dock B1. Security's pretty tight so you'll have to use a more indirect method to get at them."

"Can you tell if our people have been moved to the station yet?" Jerome asked.

"Give me a moment... The answer to that would be yes it looks like our pirate friends lees a small cargo bay and a few adjacent apartments. Which according to station records they just occupied yesterday. And get this the pirate captain is advertising that he has three Jedi he is putting up for auction tomorrow on the slave market.

"That seems like a bold move." The commando known as Boss remarked. "If you were trying to sell a Jedi on the slave market you wouldn't really want to publicize it."

"Maybe before the Covenant arrived." Six replied. "But the Covenant have cut the Republic off from Hutt space, so it would be very difficult for the Jedi to send a rescue mission even if they found out about it."

"Be that as it may they hold too much information." Jerome said standing up from the command char. "We cannot allow this security breach to continue. If we cannot find a way to recover them soon. Then we will have to find a way to eliminate them."

"Commander we can't just kill our own people." Gunnery Sergeant Buck objected. The Commander just stared at him for a moment through his gold visor making the Gunny fidget a little, having a Spartan star you down through their helmet can be a very nerve racking experience.

"I have had to do it before Gunnery Sergeant." Jerome replied with no emotion in his voice.

"Well we ain't at that point yet." I replied. "Besides I think I have an idea how to get in.

Ships Armory.

"This is never going to work." Dutch complained as he tried to put on a piece of light armor.

"Seems like a pretty good plan to me." Buck said as he slipped on a long brown coat.

"Well I don't know about you, but I think this is going to be fun." Micky replied as he examined a pair of goggles that he had no clue how to work.

"You would think that." Romeo scoffed. "What do you think Rookie?" Romeo asked as he turned to the newest member of their team, who was currently examining a light helmet.

"Are you boys ready?" Parker inquired as she appeared on the holo pedestal that was in the room, interrupting the ODST's discussion.

"Weil be there shortly." Buck replied as he selected a blaster form a rack on the wall and slid it into the western stile leg holster on his right side.

Ten minutes later the five ODST and Delta team found themselves standing in the ships primary airlock ready to disembark. Delta were all dressed in different styles of Mandalorian armor, while the ODST looked like they were from the frontier colonies before the war started. Buck wore a pair of gray black boots, gray brown trousers with suspenders, a dark red shirt, a leather leg holster and belt with a blaster pistol, and to finish the outfit a long brown coat that went just past his knees. Dutch's outfit consisted of a pair of brown combat boots, gray cargo pants, a green T-shirt, a light vest of body armor, a bandolier and cartridge belt with a knife on the left side, and a blaster rifle slung over his shoulder. Micky wore a set of hiking boots, tan cargo pants, a white tank top and a blue shirt over that, which he neglected to button, he wore set of tech goggles pushed up on his forehead that he barely knew how to use, and a leg holster with a blaster pistol. Romeo had on a pair of black boots gray slacks, gray shirt, light body armor, a long black coat over that, and a blaster carbine hung by his side counseled by the black coat. The Rookie wore a pair of combat boots, black cargo pants, a brown leather jacket over a black t-shirt and light armored vest, as well as a light helmet that did more to conceal his face then protect it. For weapons he chose two heavy blaster pistols that he carried in leg holster.

"Okay you all know the plan, Gunnery Sergeant Edwards is posing as the ship's captain the rest of you are his crew." Jerome said as he stood in front of the airlock. "Once you leave here Edwards you will take two of your team and head for the slave markets. In order to get in you will need this. It's a fake ID, your name is Malcolm Reynolds, you were born on Tatooine, and at sixteen you got a job on a freighter, then when you were twenty you became second mate on a smuggling ship for the Hutt cartel. At age twenty-five you acquired this ship the Dragon's Pearl, and now your business is acquiring objects of value for high end clients." Jerome looked at the Gunnery Sergeant for a second. "Do you think you can remember all that?"

"I have this Commander." Edwards replied promptly.

"Good! The rest of you, you're on shore leave so try and make it look like it. Just make sure you are in the general vicinity of the slave market for when we might need you. Hopefully we won't need you, but plans always change." Jerome then looked at Six and myself." You two know what you need to do, is your gear ready?"

"Yes sir." I replied. "Parker and I tested the pregame last night. We can now shut off our shields and rout that power to the cloaking fields. This will keep them active indefinitely, but they were not designed for that so we will have to be careful we don't overload them."

"Understood. Just get in there and get our people out with as little fuss as possible. Parker and I will be back here with the ship monitoring you all. Now go have some fun."