Chapter 66

House Dredd space station 'Bastion 1', former trade federation Lucrehulk-class Battleship. Unnamed star system.

Renn drummed his fingers on the table in front of him, deep in thought.

It had been a few weeks since Renn and the others had liberated the slaves on Nar Shaddaa and destroyed Krayn's criminal empire.

After leaving Nar Shaddaa they had escorted the rescued slaves to the headquarters of Dredd industries on Sullust and once there they had helped to set the freed slaves up with new lives and jobs working for Dredd industries.

Some of the freed slaves had stayed in Sullust, deciding they wanted to work on the lava planet either at the company headquarters of Dread industries or in the sprawling dockyard owned by the trade guild.

Since his initial purchase of the small dock with it's few attached warehouses several years ago, Renn's properties on Sullust had vastly expanded.

He now owned a large office block in the commercial district of Sullust's capital city Byllurun, that had become the headquarters for Dredd industries, and had bought up a lot of the docks and warehouses around his initial one.

This helped with the trade that the Krayt shipping company was bringing in and was slowly making Dredd industries one of the more profitable trade guilds on Sullust.

The rest of the freed slaves then moved on to work for the other companies that made up Dredd industries either as part of the Krayt shipping company or traveling to the business that had been set up on other planets, such as on Naboo or Tatooine.

The most unique of the slaves that had followed Renn off Nar Shaddaa was the Kaleesh male that had been the first to speak up in support of joining Renn.

Now sat in an office onboard his repurposed Lucrehulk Renn thought back to the meeting he had had with that man.

-

Renn sat across from the tall Kaleesh ex-slave in small conference room in the headquarters of Dredd industries on sullust.

Alpha watched the red scaled man warily as he leaned back in a shadowy corner with his arms crossed.

To Renn's side was Xat Pill. A Twi'Lek man who had been liberated from Gardulla the Hutt's palace and now worked as the manager of Dredd industries.

While Renn was the owner of the trade guild and most of it was managed by Sapphire it had been decided that it would look strange to the rest of the galaxy for a child to be running a trade guild, and probably stranger for it to be run by a super advanced A.I. that most in the galaxy didn't know existed.

So, Sapphire had decided to hire Xat Pill to act as the face of Dredd industries as well as to do most of the day-to-day operations of running a trade guild that she couldn't be bothered with.

"Would it be okay if you told us a bit about yourself and do you have any idea about what kind of work you would like to do?" Xat asked the man.

The Kaleesh was silent for a few moments looking at Renn and Xat but also watching Alpha out of the corner of his eye, clearly wary of the assassin droid.

"My name is Gex Tessh. I was a warrior on Kalee and fought to defend my home from the Huk invaders during the Huk war. I even had the honour to serve alongside the great Qymaen jai Sheelal, the mighty khagan Grievous, during the war.

When the jedi and the republic forced us to end the war by siding with the soulless bugs and blockaded Kalee and imposed heavy fines and embargoes, my planet was plunged into poverty, and I was made to watch as hundred of thousands of my people starved to death.

Khagan Grievous was able to help our people for a time by working for the InterGalactic Banking Clan in exchange for them giving us discounts in trades.

But when the Huk desecrated our sacred burial grounds on our colony worlds, colony worlds taken from us and given to the soulless bugs by the jedi, khagan Grievous went to fight the Huk with his elite troops the Izvoshra.

Soon after news of their shuttle's destruction reached us so to did news that the Banking clan would no longer be honouring its deal with us, and Kalee once again became faced with poverty.

Myself and several other warriors left Kalee in search of a way to help our people by finding others willing to trade with us, or finding a more resource rich planet that my people would be able to settle on.

We each left in different directions, to search different sectors of the galaxy, and it was during this journey that, to my shame, I was defeated and enslaved by that slimeball Krayn.

His pirates ambushed my ship and pulled it aboard one of their own with a tractor beam.

My only consolation was that during my defeat I managed to slay over thirty of those pathetic pirates before they finally brought me down." The Kaleesh, Gex, said the hint of a smile on his face as he remembered slaughtering the pirates that had ambushed him.

Gex then turned to look at Renn and seemed to be appraising him.

"You destroyed Krayn's entire organisation though. An impressive feat for one so young, especially as you did the task with vastly inferior numbers." Gex said shooting a quick glance at Alpha, he knew that even including Renn, Shae and Alpha the people fighting for Renn on Nar Shaddaa couldn't have numbered more than ten.

"You are a mighty warrior young one and must also be a great leader given the competence of those who fight with you and the power of the trade guild that you say you own.

It is my wish that you should allow me to fight for you. I can recruit warriors from Kalee and we can become a fearsome force that you would have at your disposal.

In return I would ask that you aid my people in their plight." The Kaleesh warrior bowed towards Renn as he finished his speech, clearly desperate for some way to save his people.

-

Renn had agreed to Gex's offer, and even offered terms that were more generous than Gex was expecting.

Gex would work for Dredd industries and recruit a force of Kaleesh warriors to act as a mercenary group loyal to Renn and in return, even if the only warrior to join the mercenary group was Gex, Kalee would get heavily discounted prices on food stuffs and other necessary items sold by Dredd industries.

Renn had even told Gex that he was willing to help the man find a new home world for his people as long as they didn't endanger Renn or his clan.

Gex had seemed overjoyed by the news and had left as soon as he could to return to Kalee and inform his people.

After he had left and the Renn was sure that Xat was fine sorting out the rest of the freed slaves Renn and the others had travelled to the unnamed system where Neo and Sapphire were constructing the warships that would hopefully protect House Dredd in the future.

Renn was now looking out window built into the office he was seated in, on board the newly reconstructed Lucrehulk, now a space station named 'Bastion 1'.

He could see the droids under Neo's command working on constructing the first massive warship, scurrying across its huge form like an army of worker ants, as well as cutting up the remains of the ancient sith fleet floating in space around them.

The ships that had crashed on the moon had already been cut up and processed for their materials and now the moon had a sprawling mass of industrial buildings across its surface that had been built by the droids controlled by Neo and Sapphire.

The two A.I.s had decided to use some of the droids that they had converted into worker drones to help construct new materials for the fleet they were building and so had built factories, warehouses as well as numerous mines across the moon's surface, using the droids as workers.

As Renn watched all this he couldn't help but think about the state of the galaxy.

Piracy seemed to be one the rise along with criminal empires growing unchecked and the republic seemed content to sit back and let it happen as long as it wasn't happening on core worlds.

The galaxy was becoming more chaotic every year, with the Republic making bad decision after bad decision.

It all seemed like it was pointing to some sort of major galactic upheaval and Renn got the sense that a great darkness was approaching.

Something bad was going to happen and Renn wanted to make sure the people he cared about were safe from it.

He looked at the droids constructing the warships and decided it wasn't going to be enough. He wouldn't just need ships, he would need allies as well.

He would need to create an unstoppable force that would make it clear to the rest of the galaxy not to mess with him, or those he cared about.

He needed to be stronger.

-

Three years later. 25BBY. Naboo lake district.

"AHHHH. I'm sooo bored!" A Mirialan girl groaned in annoyance as she lounged on a sofa in a well decorated living room.

"Yes, yes. We know Opal." A Twi'lek girl said from another sofa across the room, not looking up from the data-pad she was reading as she responded.

"We also know your just pretending to be bored because you are worried." A human girl with long red hair said from nearby.

Opal turned her head towards the human girl but stayed in her position lying on the sofa, unwilling to stand up to face her.

She looked at the older girl and watched her fiddle with some of the wiring for her armours vambraces. The girl had cleared a coffee table before covering it in a white cloth and using it to do maintenance on her armour.

A T7 astromech was fussing over her shoulder, giving advice in binary as it watched the girl work.

Opal knew that the girl's armour was in perfect condition and didn't need any maintenance but that the other girl was just as worried as she was and was doing something to distract herself.

She watched the girl work and picked up on all the subtle changes in her facial expression and body language. Changes that let her know exactly what the girl was thinking.

Opal had known the girl for a long time and thought of her as a sister. She was family to Opal in almost every sense of the word.

"We're all worried Shae." The Twi'lek said, still not looking up from her data-pad.

Opal turned to look at her other sister. A part of a family she hadn't been born but had found and created herself.

She could see the girl wasn't fully reading what was on the data pad in front of her and was just staring at it, as though she was trying to hide her feelings behind it.

"AAAAAHHH!" Opal suddenly leapt to her feet and screamed startling the other two girls and sending the astromech speeding away in terror.

"THAT'S IT!" She yelled raising her arms in frustration before striking a pose and pointing at the other girls.

"Wha--?" Seela, the Twi'lek girl, started to say before opal interrupted her.

"I SAID THAT'S IT!!" Opal shouted again while stomping her foot, not allowing any interruptions.

"We are going to stop moping around and are going to go and do something fun!" Opal declared loudly as the others stared at her in confusion.

Opal then began listing different thinks that they could do. Going shopping, exploring the Naboo lake district or doing something violent, preferably involving explosives.

The others just nodded along with her. Shae was leaning towards doing something violent while Seela was more interested in exploring the area surrounding their mansion.

The mansion they were staying in was built on the land that had been gifted to Renn by Queen Amidala for his help in resolving the trade federations blockade over Naboo years ago.

Opal tried not to think about. She tried not to think about who wasn't there with them.

Thinking about it would just send her back spiralling into worry.

It had been two weeks since Renn had left on his quest to forge his armour. Two weeks since he had gone off alone into the vastness of the galaxy without any one to help him.

For two weeks Opal, Shae and Seela had worried about him. Worried about their friend. Someone vey special to them.

The person they loved.