75 Chapter 65

Renn waved at the startled Anakin who seemed to be staring at all the blood that was caking his armour.

"What's up? Afraid of a bit of blood?" Renn asked while grinning behind his helmet.

Anakin rolled his eyes and was about to answer when an armoured figure collided with Renn at high speed.

Renn gasped as the air was knocked out of him and sank to one knee from the force of the impact.

"Renn! Are you okay? Seela said you fell off a bridge!" A slightly panicked Shae asked as she checked Renn for injuries.

Seconds later Alpha sprinted up to them followed by Scythe and Earl and the droids began hovering around them looking at Renn with concern.

"I'm fine guys. Just a couple of bruises, nothing to worry about." Renn said trying to comfort the group.

He could feel Shae glaring at him from behind her helmet like she didn't quite believe him but pretended not to notice.

"We'll let Sapphire and the medical computer be the judge of that once we are back on the ship" Alpha said dryly before he added much more warmly, "But I am glad you are okay little one."

Renn smiled before remembering where he was.

"Where are Spark and Crow?" He asked Alpha.

Alpha and Shae had clearly been told about him falling off the walkway by the others on the ship and so had come running to his aid. And Renn was also guessing that Sapphire had told Scythe and Earl to come and help as well as they had been in the bases command centre a few floors above the landing pad.

That left the only members of Renn's group who were unaccounted for as Spark and Crow, and judging by the distant sounds of blaster fire they were probably still in the middle of a fight and so Renn was worried about them.

"They are fine. Sapphire has taken control of the remote turrets that these pirates scattered about outside and has wiped most of them out.

Spark and Crow should just be finishing of the remaining pirates now." Alpha told him.

"Well, let's go help them. Once the pirates are delt with we can liberate the slaves and then get out of here." Renn said as he rose to his feet.

"Yeah," Shae said standing next to him and stretching, "These guys are pretty pathetic, killing them is starting to get a bit boring."

-

It didn't take long for Renn and the others to wipe out the rest of Krayn's remaining pirates.

A lot of them fled once they heard that Krayn had been killed and they were quickly mowed down by the turrets that Sapphire controlled.

Renn and the others were now stood before a massive, huddled group made up of hundreds of slaves. The slaves were looking at Renn with uncertainty, they knew he had taken control of Krayn's compound and the surrounding area, but they didn't know what his plans for them were.

The Speedy Vagabond was resting on its landing struts behind Renn and after an emotional, and loud, reunion, Opal and Seela had joined Renn, Shae and Alpha in standing before the slaves. While the rest of the droids were keeping watch in case there were any other pirates in the area.

Renn looked over the faces looking at him. Faces full of nervousness, and in some cases hope. He had removed his helmet before he had approached the crowd and now many of the slaves were staring at his face, confused as to why someone so young seemed to be in charge.

Renn cleared his throat loudly to try and get the slaves attention. Then he waved at the assembled crowd, with a big smile on his face, and loudly said, "Hi."

Silence followed as the slaves stared at Renn in confusion, they hadn't been expecting him to act this way.

The only sound was a soft smack as Opal face palmed next to Renn.

"Why is that your go to way to introduce yourself to new people?" Opal asked, while mumbling into her hand.

"What's wrong? It works, doesn't it?" Renn said, while still waving awkwardly to the silent crowd.

Opal let out a strange noise that sounded like some bizarre combination of a groan of embarrassment and someone trying to stifle a laugh.

Renn looked at her with a raised eyebrow for a moment before shrugging and turning back to the crowd.

"Sooo, I was kind of expecting you guys to say hi back, I think?" He said before shrugging again, "Well anyway my names Renn and as you might have noticed Krayn and his minions aren't really in charge anymore. And what that means is you are now all free!"

Cheers and excited conversations broke out among the slaves as they processed the news that they were now free.

Renn waited quietly for the noise to die down with a smile on his face before continuing what he was saying.

"You now all have some options before you. The first is over there," he said pointing to Anakin, Obi-Wan and Siri, who were stood close by.

"Those three are Jedi, and I'm sure they republic can get the republic to send some ships to come get you and give you Refugee status within the republic." Renn told them.

Whispered conversations broke out. some of the slaves had been captured because Siri had used the force to discover their hiding places and despite them discovering her true identity as a jedi they were still angry about this.

More still were apprehensive about the republic helping as they had essentially been abandoned by the republic after they had been captured by Krayn and had little faith in its bloated bureaucracy when it came to giving them aid if they became refugees.

"Your second option is staying here. But I don't recommend this, Nar Shaddaa isn't the safest planet in the galaxy and with Krayn dead the hutts will probably decide to take the planet full under their control instead of ruling it with a proxy." Renn told the crowd.

This elicited a chorus of grumbled agreements from the crowd. They pretty much all agreed that staying on Nar Shaddaa was a bad idea.

"Your Third option is coming with me. Though I am not really affiliated with the republic I am in charge of a trade guild called Dredd Industries.

I own my own shipping company and can offer you free transport off world. Once you have left Nar Shaddaa, we can drop you off on whatever world you want to go to with some credits to help you when you try to start a new life.

Or you can work for one of the companies in Dredd Industries. I would pay you a fair wage and would help you with resettlement costs. Most of the business within Dredd Industries were founded by former slaves that I have liberated as well."

A lot of the slaves seemed interested in this last option that Renn gave them and began talking amongst themselves.

"I accept your offer of employment," a booming voice split through the chattering slaves.

Renn looked for the voice's source and to his surprise saw a tall, red scaled, Kaleesh towering over the other slaves near him.

The Kaleesh wasn't wearing the mask like most of its species and Renn assumed that it had been taken from the man when he had been enslaved.

Renn smiled and nodded at the man and made a mental note to talk to him later to learn more about him.

Kaleesh were rarely seen off their home world, unless they were engaged in some sort of warfare, and were known to be fierce warriors. Their numbers had also been reduced a lot during the Huk war with a lot of them being killed by the technologically superior Yam'rii or sold into slavery.

The Kaleesh in front of Renn however didn't seem to have spent years as a slave and so must have been captured sometime after the Huk war ended and that and the fact, he was ready to quickly agree to join Renn made him interested about the man's oragins.

After the Kaleesh's announcement the other slaves then started making up their minds about what they wanted to do.

Most of the slaves had decided to take Renn's offer, and while some only wanted him to help them get off world most were interested in joining him and working for Dredd industries.

Renn wasn't worried about what it might cost him in relocating all these people as Dredd industries was making quite a large profit. And he had amassed quite a lot of credits form looting pirate bases, like Krayn's which was being taken care of by his droids right now.

Some of the slaves had decided to wait for the republic to come to help them and they were currently gathered around the three jedi asking them questions.

Obi-wan had said that it would take some time for the republic to send a ship to evacuate the refugees as they needed to organise things. But several ships belonging to Renn's Krayt shipping company were already entering orbit.

Sapphire had already anticipated the need for the ships and so, as the manager of all of Dredd industries, she had requested that some of the freighters and passenger ships from Krayt shipping come to Nar Shaddaa to help them.

This was good for Renn as he was uncomfortable with spending a long period of time on Nar Shaddaa. The moon was in Hutt space, in the same system as Nal Hutta the Hutt capital in fact, and Renn didn't want to risk ending up in an open conflict with the Hutts.

The Hutts had were a powerful crime syndicate and as Renn was now he didn't have the strength, or the numbers, to win a war against them. He would need more ships and more allies before attempting to fight the Hutt cartel, and so he wanted to retreat form Hutt space as fast as possible.

-

Renn sat next to his friend Anakin overlooking the chaotic embarkation of hundreds of freed slaves onto multiple ships belonging to Krayt shipping.

His friend was silent for a while before asking a question that seemed to have been bugging him for a while.

"Is my mum really upset that I haven't contacted her?" Anakin asked and Renn turned to look at him.

"Nah… well, a bit maybe." Renn said and Anakin seemed to look down guiltily, "But she understands why you haven't. Jedi aren't supposed to have any attachments, so they aren't exactly going to let you call home every day." Renn added trying to comfort his friend.

"Still though. You managed to make a protocol droid on your own out of spare parts. How hard is it to make a comm device on your own after that?" Renn said as he elbowed Anakin playfully in the ribs and his friend looked away embarrassed.

"Yeah…. I guess I could have figured something out. I just got…. side-tracked." Anakin muttered.

"No worries." Renn said and soon both friends were sat in a companiable silence as they watched the procession of freed slaves pile abord the Krayt shipping space craft.

-

The ships were soon loaded and taking off, their crews intending to get out of Hutt space as soon as possible.

The only once left outside Krayn's pirate headquarters were Renn and Anakin, the few slaves who wanted to stay behind and wait for the republic to help them, and Obi-wan and Siri.

The jedi would be staying behind on Nar Shaddaa to wait with the remaining slaves for the republic ships to turn up, while Renn and the others would soon be leaving the moon.

Renn now stood before Anakin and the other two jedi and was in the prosses of saying his goodbyes, while the rest of Renn's group where waiting on board the Speedy Vagabond.

"See you soon then I guess" Renn said smiling at Anakin.

"Yeah, see you soon" Anakin answered, and the two friends smiled at each other.

Renn then turned to look at Obi-wan and his smile turned into a sly grin.

"See you later, Meat-bag" he said grinning at Obi-wan.

Obi-wan sighed and rolled his eyes, deciding not to comment on the either what the young boy in front of him had said, or the ancient killing machine who had started the joke.

Renn's gaze then fell on Siri and all the mirth drained from his face as he glared at her.

Siri coughed and shuffled her feet awkwardly.

"I guess your friend told you about what happened during the fight." She said, sounding more awkward about having to deal with an emotional child than remorseful about attacking a different child.

"Yes." Renn said simply with all the warmth of the ice planet of Hoth in his voice.

"Ahhh," Siri said nodding her head sagely, "So what, are you going to try to take revenge now? Or something?"

"Nah," Renn exhaled slowly after staring at Siri for minute, "Shae is perfectly capable of fighting her own battles and doesn't need me to do it for her."

"Well isn't that mature of you." Siri said, completely missing the underlying warning in what Renn had just said.

"You should know t---"

Renn never found out what he should know, because Siri was cut off mid-sentence by an armoured blur smashing into her face.

Shae had been lying on top of the Speedy Vagabond, waiting for the perfect moment to enact her revenge born of pure pettiness.

She had seized the opportunity when Siri had begun to monologue and had launched herself from the top of the ship. With her jetpack providing some extra thrust, she had travelled at high speed straight towards the jedi before delivering a savage elbow to the woman's nose.

Shae's momentum and body weight added to the force of the blow and an audible crunch was heard as Siri's noise broke, moments before she was sent hurtling towards the ground.

Renn shrugged as he looked at the whimpering jedi, clutching her broken and bleeding nose as she rolled around on the floor.

"Like I said. Shae is perfectly capable of fighting her own battles."