Alone in his cell again, Garan sat alone on the cold duracrete floor. He had his legs crossed and his eyes closed as he concentrated. He looked within himself and felt the force flow through him. He had been a Jedi once. Well maybe not a Jedi, but a padawan. His master had taught him many meditation techniques before the Great Jedi Purge ten years ago.
He had escaped death at the hands of the clone army, most Jedi were not so lucky. Many of his friends and masters had died. He knew only of his master who still lived, though he knew not where.
After escaping Couruscant, Master Voolvif Monn had taken Garan to an orphanage on the planet of Raaltir, told Garan that it would be easier for them to escape the Empire if they were split up. Garan left the orphanage less then one standard year after arriving, and took a job as a loader on a large bulk freighter.
Two years after leaving the orphanage, Garan jumped ship and took up with a band of smugglers, running illegal goods to the highest bidders. Garan remained with the smugglers for the next few years until he was nineteen and an Imperial patrol captured the smugglers' ship in the Corellia system. The boarding party soon discovered that the ship was carrying weapons for a rebel cell that was striking out against the Empire
When faced with treason charges, which held a penalty of death, the captain of the ship, a zabrak named Korton Dur, fired on the Imperial boarding party. The Imperials killed the crew, except for Garan who stood trial for the others and was soon sentenced to death. He was set to the maximum security prison on the asteroid Oovo IV in the Oovo system. And for five years now he has remained waiting for his death to come.
Through the force he could feel each life on the asteroid. He could reach out and touch the ships in the hangar. If he had wanted to escape, he could have done so years ago. But he refused to. In his travels with captain Dur, he had done a few things that he could never be forgiven for. Taken the lives of people who had done nothing wrong. As far as he was concerned he deserved to rot in this cell until he died of disease or in the arena.
"So you took out Ack-Klar?" the old sullustan asked as Garan sat next to him in the chow hall. "Can't say as I'm surprised. You've got luck on your side."
Garan nodded and started eating the near-liquid, dinner that the prison's food processors and prepared for the convicts. "You don't miss a thing do you Krin?"
The old sullustan, smiled and started feeling around for his spoon. Krin had gone blind long before Garan had come here. He had taken care of Garan and taught him how to survive in the prison as soon as the young human had arrived. In return Garan protected his only friend from the more violent inmates. He grabbed the spoon and handed it to Krin.
"So how does it feel?" Krin asked.
"How does what feel?"
"Being the warden's favorite fighter."
"I wasn't aware I was," Garan replied. He eyed a group of trandoshans that had glanced over at Krin and him for a few seconds.
"I heard he's bet on you for the last five matches. Even against Ack-Klar." Krin slurped a spoonful of the grey food paste. "Won sixty thousand from some imp senator."
"I'll have to congratulate him next time I see him," the trandoshans were definitely looking at them now. Garan slid his spoon up his sleeve.
"Trouble?" Krin asked.
"Possibly," Garan replied. "Keep talking. Don't let them know we're on to them."
"Trandoshans by the sound of it." Krin said. "Sounds like that tradesman in the arena yesterday was there boss."
"Great."
The trandoshans, four of them, got up from there table and walked over to the table Garan and Krin sat at. Several other inmates got up and left as the reptilian bipeds approached. Two of them sat down on either side of Garan and Krin. The other two sat across from them.
Garan pushed his tray forward to the largest of the four who was most likely there leader. "I'm not hungry anyways," he said.
"We didn't come here for food," the large one said.
"I don't get packages," Garan said.
"We don't want anything from you."
"Then what's the problem?" he asked.
"You kill Krioosk," The large trandoshan said. "This make Grakoom leader."
"And who is Grakoom?" Garan asked.
"Me Grakoom," the trandoshan hissed. "Me thank you for making me leader."
"Your welcome then," Garan asked. "Now please leave."
"No leave yet," Grakoom said. "With Krioosk gone, warden probably put me in arena. Me go in arena, maybe you kill me. No like the sound of this."
"Any way we can fix the problem before it is presented to us?"
"We fix now. Kill you and blindy. Sullustans delicious." The trandoshan next to Krin reach out to grab the short statured sullustan.
Garan grabbed the tradesman's wrist and twisted breaking bones. The trandoshan hissed and recoiled. Garan retrieved the spoon from his sleeve and with a mighty back handed swiped, jammed it into the eyes socket of the trandoshan sitting next to him who had attempted to grab his neck.
The two trandoshans lunged across the table and tackled Garan to the floor. Krin stepped away and gave the creature nursing the broken wrist a strong smack to the face with his food tray. The trandoshan was knocked unconscious.
Grakoom's claws dug into Garan's arm, drawing dark red blood. Garan gritted his teeth and threw his hands up to block Grakoom's jaws as he tried to bite the human's throat. As he held off Grakoom, the slightly smaller trandoshan bit hard into Garan's leg, drawing a painful yell from Garan.
Garan used his free leg to give the other trandoshan a swift kick to the face. That was when the lights went out.
A few seconds earlier….
Deriah Sin stood on the bridge of the jet black star destroyer as it maneuvered through the Oovo system. The HUD to his left, scrolled through the diagnostics of the prison on the large asteroid, Oovo IV.
"Your sure this is where the signal came from?" he asked. The filter in his helmet made his voice much deeper and more menacing.
"Yes sir," the captain said. "Just yesterday."
"Very good,' Sin replied. "And there communications have been jammed?"
"Affirmative sir. Shall I launch the fighters?"
"Yes," Deriah Sin said. "Wipe out there shields and defense turrets. After that we should have no problem landing the troops. I will lead the assault myself."
Arcs of blue light shot through the air, piercing the darkness. A few seconds later the lights came back on. Grakoom lay unconscious on the floor, and the other trandoshan was running to get away from the stun bolts flying through the air from the prison guards.
"Krin, what's going on?" Garan asked.
"Assault," Krin said. "probably someone trying to bust one of there friends out. Happens once every few years."
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
"Alright lets get out of here," Garan guided his blind friend over to a table in the far corner of the room and hid behind it. Beings lf a hundred different species ran around the room trying to avoid the blue bolts of energy.
Some were trying to get to the guards, using the power outage as motivation to over power the guards and escape. A large wookie got hit by several stun bolts at once and fell to the ground next to Garan and Krin's hiding place, his fur smoking.
Garan sensed no life in the poor creature. He had seen prison riots before but, never one aided by an assault. Suddenly the sound of full blaster fire filled the chamber.
Garan peeked over the table to see what was happening. He couldn't see who was firing, but they came from the main entrance to the chow hall. The guards had been caught off guard. Most falling victim to blaster bolts from behind. Several turned to fire at there assailants, only to be cut down as well. The prisoners were not spared.
As the blaster fire died down, the few surviving prisoners hid under tables, and the attacking soldiers moved into the room. They wore silver armor over black jump suits and silver helmets with oval shaped voice boxes and a wide black visor.
The silver warriors moved quickly through the chow hall, securing the surviving inmates and searching the dead.
"There looking for someone," Krin said. "We should leave."
The old sullustan felt around the wall next to the table they hid behind. He finally found the small grove he was looking for and slid a small access plate aside.
"Where the hell did this come from?" Garan asked.
"When you've been here as long as I have, you learn where all possible escape routes are, now hurry up boy."
Garan followed Krin through the hole. "Get the access plate behind you," Krin said.
Garan turned to slide the access panel shut behind him. As he closed it he caught a glimpse of a tall figure in blood red armor and a black cape walking into the chow hall behind the silver clad soldiers.