Canderous:

"So some freeloader's been stowing away on our ship?" I loaded a charge into my blaster.

T3-M4 whistled gleefully.

"You got it," I replied. "Just remember, no concussive mines or grenades, we still need this ship intact."

The droid emitted a deep gurgle. I groaned and gave it a swift kick to get it rolling. T3-M4 continued with its loud proclamations as soon as it was out of reach. I shook my head; that thing had more personality than I could reprogram.

I suppose I was grateful for the distraction. Babysitting a ship was insulting to someone of my talents. I had already upgraded my blaster and programmed a couple interesting protocols into the astromech droid. All that was really left was sanding that hideous purple paint off of Davik Kang's old armor.

So when I initially caught sight of T3-M4, I was prepared to blast it full of holes. The droid had developed a taste for haikus, specifically haikus about Mandalorian genitalia, that had proven resistant to my reprogramming attempts. But when I noticed that its first phrase had more than three syllables, I started to pay attention.

The droid had noticed that someone had torn into a sack of grain in the cargo hold and several protein bars in another canister had bites missing. I would have brushed it off as Rian on some idiotic drunken rampage, but she had been locked in the starboard dormitories for the past few days. I couldn't help but smile at the thought of some unfortunate fool who was about to get their skull split open.

With my blaster cocked and ready, I waited in the shadows of the cargo hold. T3-M4 would search the Ebon Hawk and pretend to go about his usual maintenance of the ship. I could be patient, the freeloader would have to come back to the cargo hold eventually, that was where the food was.

So as I counted the clicks emitted by the hyperdrive, the day passed on. Sure enough, the thief eventually chose to resurface. Pressed close to the wall, the bastard was scrambling towards the nearest food canister. I calmly stepped from the shadows and pointed my blaster directly against the freeloader's skull.

"Got you," I said.

The child that stared wide eyed down the barrel of my blaster couldn't have been more than six standard years. Her large brown eyes blinked once before she began to wail.

Her face reddened with the intensity of her bloodcurdling shrieks. I swore and set my blaster down.

"Quiet, damn it!"

It only encouraged her to howl louder.

"T3-M4, get in here," I ordered. "It's a kriffing kid!"

I could hear the droid's toots as it hurried towards the cargo hold. The whelp was inconsolable, torrents pouring from her eyes and a growing wet spot in her crotch.

The astromech stopped cautiously in the doorway.

"Get in here," I growled.

T3-M4 burbled and began to slowly circle the child. If anything, that only heightened whatever terror she was feeling. The child plopped down on her soiled bottom, took a deep breath and resumed her hysterics.

"Do I have to do everything myself?" I snarled.

The droid gave a low whistle in reply.

"Keep talking like that," I said. "I'll let it rust off."

I ignored T3-M4's frazzled blips and turned my attention to the child. She foolishly had her hands over her head, like that would conceal her despite the noise she was creating.

"I'm going to ask you once to shut your mouth," I said.

More hiccupped gibberish. To hell with it.

I snatched the kid in my arms and crushed my palm over her mouth. An amazing thing happened. Tears leaked freely from the girl's eyes and snot flowed from her nose and onto my hand, but her shrill screams stopped. Not for the first time in my life I was relieved that my armor was waterproof.

The child's shock quickly faded and she began to whimper softly. I tightened my grip on her face.

T3-M4 bleeped at me. As the droid pulled its flamethrower out, I growled.

"You shut up too," I commanded.

The droid gurgled sadly, but I saw its flamethrower return to its hidden compartment.

That's when I heard first heard the footsteps. It wasn't my crew, Rian walked with a heavy left foot, the Jedi dame fancied heels and Onasi's military training was evidenced in his gait. No, this person's step was slow enough to show caution, yet haughty and confident enough to let himself be heard.

It was a mistake to have assumed that bastard to be dead. But I intended to remedy that.

"Teethree," I hissed. "You know the drill. Scout out numbers for me."

The droid burbled.

"Do it, damn it," I snarled. "There's no reason for them to hurt you. You're a kriffing utility droid. Utility droids aren't supposed to have flamethrowers."

Obscene comments aside, the droid obliged. I turned to the child in my arms.

"Quiet," I urged. "Or I'll let them have you."

I slowly removed my hand from the girl's mouth. Her tears exhausted, a mucus bubble popped in her nostril as she looked up with dull eyes. It would have to do. I placed the child in an empty food canister and tossed in a couple of protein bars for good measure.

From the main cabin, T3-M4 whistled loudly. Two searching the starboard, two searching the port. Their leader was content to wait in the main cabin. I slung my blaster over my back and returned to the shadows.

The kid started to whimper. I should have just snapped her neck when I had the chance. She'd create a distraction at least. I edged towards the doorway.

I saw the man's blaster first. Skittish and defensive. As soon as his head peeked through, I had my hands clamped on either side of it and gave a nice hard jerk.

Before the sound of his breaking neck had completely resonated, I had already tossed the corpse into a corner. There was one remaining that was headed in my direction, if I could take care of him first and pick the other two off it would be much easier to take the man waiting in the main cabin. Easier also meant less fun, but I had the ship to consider.

A hiss of dead air caught my attention. The merc was wearing a comlink. Figured. I swiped the man's headset and put the earpiece on.

"This is A. Med bay secure."

"This is B. Garage secure."

"This is D. I've lost contact with C."

I wondered how secure the med bay was. I slipped out of the cargo hold and crept down the corridor. D ran into the butt of my blaster along the way as I continued towards my destination.

My entire plan changed as I passed the main cabin. That patient smirk of his filled me with rage. He thought he could come into my ship and kill me?

His back facing me, he shook his head.

"I have to give you credit," Calo Nord said. "You've led me on quite a chase. But nobody gets away from Calo Nord in the end."

"I see you brought some backup, Calo," I replied. "Realized I was bit much to handle on your own, eh?"

"You got lucky on Taris; the Sith attack saved you from a quick and gruesome death," Calo growled. "But I promise you, the Sith won't be getting in my way this time."

"You traveled a long way just to die," I answered.

I threw a flash grenade and shielded myself on the other side of the doorframe.

"Those won't work on me, Ordo," Calo called out. "Don't disappoint me."

I didn't answer. If Calo felt like making a target of himself he could, but I was more interested in finding his lackeys.

I found A and put blaster hole in the base of his skull. Damn fool didn't realize he was dead and jerked and twitched around enough to make a disgusting mess on the cot in the med bay.

In the distance I could hear that kid in the cargo hold shrieking and hollering again. How the hell did that brat manage to stay alive for so long?

"A little help, Teethree," I ordered.

"So what are you doing on Kashyyyk, anyway?" Calo sounded relaxed and in his element. "You don't strike me as the type to take in the scenery, Canderous."

I heard blaster shots and then static on my comlink. That left only Calo.

"I'm getting impatient, Ordo," Calo warned. "I want the Jedi, not you, but I will blow this ship into slag if you insist on being difficult."

Difficult because I didn't trust a mercenary's peace overture? No, that was called common sense. I had once been privy to what the results of surrendering to Calo Nord were.

Another high pitched shriek sounded from the cargo hold. Where the hell was that droid?

"What do we have here?" Calo laughed. "Kid needs a bath."

Leave it to a two-bit coward to complicate things. I did not want to deal with the headache of having to explain why the butchered remains of some child were in the cargo hold to the rest of the Ebon Hawk's crew. Of course, if I made quick work of Calo, I could toss all the remains off the docking bay and into the Shadowlands.

The incoherent wailing grew louder as Calo hauled his bounty back to the main cabin.

"I'm going to cut her left pinky off first," Calo announced. "Then I'll move to her right pinky."

"You talk like I should be concerned," I said as I walked into the main cabin.

"Nice bluff." Calo smirked as he hoisted the girl's body in front of his own. "But I call."

"Then you lose." I slung my blaster forward and aimed.

"You magnificent bastard." Calo chuckled.

He threw the child at me and grabbed for his own weapon. I kicked the girl aside and fired, but the distraction cost me. The shot went wild and ricocheted off of Calo's shoulder. His own blaster bolt connected squarely with my diaphragm. My body armor softened the blow, but I was still sent into a wall and left with a burn across my chest.

I kept firing as I fell, but I only managed to destroy the shields that Calo had activated. I ignored Calo's smirk in favor of the flustered burbling behind him.

"Stop your gloating and just shoot!" I demanded.

"To the point," Calo said. "I always appreciated that about you."

I snorted as I pulled out my cigarra case.

"I wasn't talking to you," I muttered.

Calo didn't scream. I didn't know if he was too shocked or too prideful to allow himself that weakness, but I didn't care. I stood up and walked over to his body, writhing in flames, and lit my cigarra.

T3-M4 preened, pleased with its handiwork.

"You took your damn time," I said.

The droid chose to ignore me. Instead, T3-M4 wheeled over to the child. She blinked and brought a filthy hand up and batted at the astromech's optic sensor. T3-M4 gurgled and hastily rolled back away from the girl.

"What?" I asked. "What about the kid?"

The droid chose the longwinded explanation, so I cut him off.

"I need to take care of Calo's flaming carcass," I said. "And his lackeys. If you want the girl, keep her. I can't be bothered with it."

I turned from the child and droid and went about my work.