86 Chapter 76

A hiss sounded as the ramp of Renn's freighter lowered to the polished floor of the cavernous hanger bay he had landed in.

A smile came to his face as he saw the six figures stood in a line waiting for him near the blast door at the far end of the hangar.

Even at this distance the blue and red forms of Sapphire and Neo were hard to mistake and a warm happy feeling filled him as the two holograms waved energetically towards him.

As Renn began descending his ships ramp and walking towards the group he glanced at the four figures stood next to the holographic avatars for the A.I.s.

Three of the figures seemed to have the same blank scowl on their faces, which was actually quite impressive for two of them as the third was a droid and so immune to the changing facial expressions that plagued biologic forms of life.

Renn was immediately able to recognise the droid as Alpha, the HK-51 assassin droid who had practically raised him along with the blue A.I. that was floating next to his metallic form.

The other two scowling people were large, heavily muscled, Kaleesh warriors. Gex Tessh and his second in command.

Gex Tessh had become fiercely loyal to Renn over the years, as had the Kaleesh that had left their home world to be resettled on a planet in a system close to the one Bastion 1 was based in.

After being rescued from slavery by Renn Gex had returned to Kalee to raise a force of warriors, that was now known and feared across the galaxy as the mercenary group 'the swords of Kalee', and to offer a chance for his impoverished people to start a new life elsewhere.

Many of the Kaleesh agreed to Gex's proposal and followed him to the new resource rich planet Renn had offered him. While others had disagreed and stayed on Kalee, preferring to follow the command of the warlord Bentilais san Sk'ar, the only surviving member of general Grievous's elite forces the Izvoshra.

Gex had proved himself reliably however and soon both his mercenary group and the Kaleesh settles on their new home, named 'New Kalee', were flourishing.

It didn't take long after that for Gex to become the warlord of not just the swords of Kalee but the entirety of New Kalee as well, but neither he nor the other Kaleesh forgot that it was Renn who had made all this possible for them.

Renn knew all this and despite the near permanent scowls present on the two Kaleesh warriors in front of him he knew they were pleased to see him.

The final person waiting for Renn was shuffling anxiously from foot to foot as he waved awkwardly towards Renn.

Renn waved back and smiled at the man, a Verpine Engineer named Zix.

Zix had been another slave rescued from Nar Shaddaa by Renn at the same time Gex was, and like Gex he had become a close friend and helper to Renn.

The socially inept Verpine had become the head of research and development for Renn and his trade guild Dredd industries as he was one of the best engineers and designers Renn had ever met.

He was also almost always working, seeming to find it relaxing, and would quite often get anxious if he went too long without spending time in his workshop.

Zix was always looking for ways to get better at both fixing things and designing new things and Renn had once discovered him sat in a circle with Bolt, Tinker and Drillbit discussing the fastest way to repair a malfunctioning power conduit.

That in itself wasn't that weird as the three droids were experts in fixing things and Renn had learnt a lot about repairs and equipment maintenance from them.

What was weird however was the fact that the insect man seeking their advice was talking to them in the beeps and clicks of the droid language.

Zix was the first person Renn had met who had not only learnt droidspeak well enough to be fluent in it, but also to be able to speak it.

The unpredictable beeps, clicks and chirps made the language almost impossible for organics to pronounce and seeing as how all droids understood basic not many even attempted to speak it making Zix a bit odd.

But Renn still liked the strange alien though and was glad that he was working for him as he had created numerous incredible inventions over the years.

"Hi guys" Renn said as he stopped in front of the group and smiled.

"Renny, I'm so glad your back! How was your journey? Did you eat properly? Did you sleep okay?" Sapphire said happily before beginning rapid firing questions.

Sapphire had been watching over Renn since he had been a baby, and this journey he had taken had been the first time she hadn't been able to keep a constant vigilance over him, and that was causing the A.I.s maternal instincts to go haywire.

"We're glad your safe little one," Alpha cut in to save Renn from the endless stream of questions that began pouring from Sapphire and Renn had to suppress a laugh as he watched the blue hologram begin pouting.

"YAYY!! The boss's back!" Neo cheered from nearby, her red avatar jumping up and down in excitement.

"It's good to see you again Lord Renn," Gex said reverently and bowed slightly, copied soon after by his second in command, a Kaleesh named Tysh Rreni.

"Welcome back boss." Zix said while fiddling with the welding goggles hanging form his neck, "I've got a few new gadgets that you might find interesting!" he added excitedly until Gex subtly elbowed him in the arm.

"But I'll wait to show them to you. You're probably going to be busy soon, Hehe." Zix laughed while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Thanks, it's good to be back. I've missed you all." Renn said happily. "And yeah, you're right, I'm pretty excited to start forging my armour.

"We figured you would be," Sapphire said pleased, "The forge is ready for you. Me and Neo will help you with your armour, while Alpha, Gex, and Tysh will stand guard to assure you aren't disturbed."

"Thanks guys," Renn said, and soon they were moving further into the space station towards the forge.

-

Renn walked through the blast doors to the forge hidden away near the heart of Bastion 1.

The forge was a round room with a large specially designed furnace in its centre. The furnace was surrounded by a ring of different workbenches with a variety of different tools and machines arrayed on them.

Storage lockers filled with the supplies needed to forge Renn's armour and empty tables waiting for partially completed pieces of armour covered the rooms walls.

The blast door sealed behind Renn, and he knew that Alpha, Gex, and Tysh would be standing guard on the other side, to prevent anyone that wasn't a member of house Dredd from entering the forge.

Eight droids cloaked in obsidian-coloured robes stepped out from the shadows on either side of the room. Half had their optical sensors glowing with a deep blue and the others glowed with a vivid red.

The colours of the optical sensors matched the two holographic A.I.s hovering behind the droids.

Sapphire and Neo both had direct control of four of the droids each and would be using them to assist Renn during the process of forging his armour.

Renn approached the furnace and ran a hand over its surface, mentally preparing himself for the task ahead.

He then examined the tools arrayed on the workbenches and began planning how to begin forging.

Renn was just about to start when he felt a presence behind him, and he turned to see the ghostly form of his grandmother.

He smiled at his grandmother's force ghost and raised an eyebrow, asking a silent question about why she was there.

"What, you didn't think I'd miss you officially becoming a warrior of our house, did you?" She said happily as she floated to the side of the room to observe the proceedings.

Renn smiled happily before walking over and igniting the furnace to begin forging.

"Pssst… Pssst…. H-hey b-big sis…" Neo began hissing in a staged whisper towards Sapphire.

"… What?" Sapphire said after letting out a long sigh.

"I think there's a g-ghost nearby," Neo said with mock nervousness.

"Neo," Sapphire said staring emotionlessly at her fellow A.I.

"Yeah," Neo said happily.

"Shut up," Sapphire deadpanned, and Neo started grinning.

"Sure thing," Neo said pleased with herself.

Renn smiled and suppressed a laugh at the interaction between the two A.I.s.

He felt the heat coming from the furnace and moved to a workbench and began preparing moulds and tools.

The forge was soon filled with the clanging of hammers on metal as Renn and the droids began shaping the molten metal from the smelter into the pieces that would become Renn's armour.

-

As Renn forged his armour his mind wandered to the future.

He thought about how he wanted his fighting style to evolve, and how he wanted his armour to assist with that.

Like all leaders of house Dredd as the new clan head Renn was expected to be knowledgeable in all forms of combat and about every type of force ability, but he only needed to be able to perform then at a basic level.

Renn was extremely proficient in combat with both long range and close-range weapons, as well as at hand-to-hand combat but he was less adept with his force abilities.

That wasn't to say he was bad at them, even at fifteen he was probably more skilled in manipulating the force than most jedi knights, he just didn't feel it fitted in with his preferred combat style.

He felt he was more proficient as well as more comfortable fighting with weapons rather than the force.

House Dredd's warriors typically followed one of four disciplines in combat. Although most chose one to follow as a main discipline and would choose a secondary as a backup.

The first, nicknamed Mages, primarily focused on fighting with their force abilities. They would cause havoc unleashing devastating force attacks on their enemies.

The second, called Gunslingers, used ranged weapons such as blasters or slugthrowers to defeat their enemies. They would usually have extremely fast reflexes and superb aim, as well as having great senses for finding and identifying threats.

The third, named Sword-Masters, relied on using close range weapons of all varieties, not just swords. They would carve bloody paths through waves of enemies with a variety of weapons, from vibro-knives to specially crafted lightsabres.

The fourth and final discipline was a bit more unique. They were known as Specialists, but that was really an umbrella term for warriors with unique skill sets. Such as Technomancers or healers.

Renn had already decided on what disciplines he wanted to follow. He had chosen to become a Gunslinger as his main combat style and a Sword-Master as his secondary style.

He would still use his force abilities but wanted to keep them as a backup strategy in any combat situation.

But he would also use the force to strengthen his physical abilities to beyond normal levels.

All force sensitives were strengthened beyond the limits of normal humanoids by the force, and that strengthening increased as the force sensitive's connection to the force increased.

However, house Dredd had a way of increasing the strengthening that the force gave to them beyond those levels.

House Dredd had found a way to use the force to augment themselves to near superhuman levels, giving them a passive boost in all of their physical and sensory abilities. But the trade off was that their force abilities weren't as powerful.

Renn didn't mind the decrease in his force abilities though as he preferred to use other methods of fighting.

His armour began to take form as he thought about his fighting style. He built the armour to support his chosen fighting style and soon it would be complete, and he would become a force to be reckoned with.