Chapter 62

"Anakin wait!" Renn yelled as he watched his friend sprint of after the fleeing pirate overlord.

"Damn it," he muttered as he stood, sent a flurry of blaster fire towards the pirates filling the corridor, then charged after his friend.

Anakin had already disappeared through a side door after Krayn, his single-minded focus on killing the pirate blinding him to the danger he was putting himself in.

"Renn stop!" Alpha yelled while firing his blaster non-stop, seemingly trying to create a solid wall of blaster bolts to protect Renn.

"Sorry, I'm going after Anakin. Someone has got to make sure the idiot doesn't get himself killed." Renn said as he sprinted towards the door to the side corridor after Anakin. "Look after Shae, I'll be back soon."

"RENN!" Alpha yelled in frustration, but Renn didn't stop running after Anakin.

Renn crashed through the door to the side corridor and immediately saw Krayn direct a group of pirates towards Anakin and himself.

Renn raised his blaster and fired into the group of pirates. Two pirates dropped to the floor. One, a Weequay, tried to clutch at a ragged hole that one of Renn's blaster bolts had torn through his neck. While the other a Rodian just collapsed, part of his head blown off.

Anakin paused to look back at Renn, indecision clear on his face. He was obviously fighting his desired to charge forward and personally bisect Krayn, with the logical choice to wait for his friend to back him up.

In the end Anakin's anger won and Renn cursed as his friend charged into the throng of pirates blocking them from the escaping Krayn.

Anakin carved his way through the pirates, slicing three of them cleanly in half as he passed by. Before sprinting after Krayn.

Renn grimaced, he was taking cover in the one of the many doorways that dotted the length of the corridor and that was offering him a bit of protection from the onslaught of blaster fire being sent his way by the pirates.

Unfortunately for him the pirates, who had now separated him from his friend, were similarly protected and hidden in the rooms adjoining the corridor. Most were keeping hidden and just pointing their blasters round the corners of the doorframes to fire blindly towards Renn.

A pirate screamed in pain as his hand, still clutching his blaster rifle, was severed in a flash of superheated plasma as a blaster bolt ripped through his wrist. The smell of seared flesh filled the corridor and the still screaming pirate fell out of the doorway and began writhing in pain.

Renn watched as two pirates leaned out from behind cover to try and pull the screaming man to safety and calmly shot both pirates through the head. Before sending a third blaster bolt into the injured pirate to silence his screams.

He had now killed five of the pirates blocking his way, while Anakin had killed three more as he charged past, and from the look he got at the group as he entered the corridor there only seemed to be about twelve of them.

Meaning there were probably only four more pirates lying in wait further up the corridor. Renn took a breath and, trusting in the integrity of his armour, stepped out into the corridor.

He charged forwards and noticed a blaster rifle poking around a doorframe, its owner obviously taking care to try and hid all of his body to avoid ending up like his now dead friend.

Renn flicked his wrist and a split-second later a surprised, and terrified, pirate was thrown out into the corridor by an invisible force wave. The pirate let out a silent scream as he smacked headfirst into the corridors opposite wall with a sickening thud.

Another pirate leaned out from inside the room he was hiding in to watch the display of space magic with a look of horrified wonder on his face before his face was permanently disappeared, not by any form of magic but by a blaster bolt fired by Renn at close range.

Renn fired a few bolts into the still body of the pirate that he had sent flying into the wall. The man had clearly broken his neck, and probably several other bones including his skull, but Renn wasn't a doctor so decided to make sure the man was dead.

The last two pirates from the group began panicking as the saw the terrifying sight of an armoured twelve-year-old sprinting towards them.

They stepped out into the corridor and began firing their blasters on full auto towards Renn, hoping that they could slay the boy, that they thought was probably a demon in disguise sent to punish them, before he reached them and live through the day.

Renn killed their dreams of survival, moments before he killed them, by launching himself forwards with the aid of the force. He flew towards them as though he had been shot from a cannon.

A blaster bolt deflected harmlessly of his Shoulder armour, the only damage it inflected being a small black scorch mark on his pauldron.

In what seemed like milliseconds after Renn launched himself forwards he reached the pirates, sending a vicious left hook into the jaw of one of them. The pirates head snapped back from the force of the punch, and he fell backwards, after realising a spray of blood, spit, and teeth across the corridor in a wide arc originating from his mouth.

The second pirate threw his blaster at Renn in fear, his panic leading him to make a poor life choice, and tried to run but Renn just dodged the flying weapon and shot the fleeing pirate in the back.

Renn's helmet obscured his raised eyebrow as he replayed what just happened. 'Well, that was odd' Renn mused inside his mind as he ran towards the doors at the end of the corridor that he had seen Anakin and Krayn disappear through.

He shot the pirate he had punched in the face… in the face… as he passed. Leaving a silent corridor filled with corpses behind him as he sprinted out through the doors.

On the other side of the doors Renn found himself overlooking a mess of walkways leading towards a landing pad.

A starship was hovering just above the ground on the landing pad, its repulsors sending dust and wind in all directions. The starship's landing ramp was still lowered and Renn saw Krayn sprinting towards it, Anakin close behind.

Renn took off towards his friend but when he was nearing the start of a walkway that would take him to the landing pad he felt the force try to warn him of incoming danger.

He sensed an intense malice from behind him and turned just in time to see a huge scared Trandoshan leaping towards him.

Renn didn't have enough time to raise his blaster before the Trandoshan collided with him. He gasped as the air was driven from his lungs by the impact and winced as he felt the hard steel guard-rail drive into his back.

He didn't dwell on those painful sensations for long though as he felt the Trandoshan's body weight, as well as the kenetic energy of the impact, drag both him and the huge lizard-man over the edge of the walkway.

Renn flailed madly trying to grab hold of something to stop himself from falling backwards into the unknown. His fingertips brushed the edge of the walkway's safety railing, tantalisingly close but too far away, before he fell over the edge with a yelp of Alarm.

Renn and the Trandoshan disappeared over the side of the walkway moments before the landing pad erupted in an explosion of epic proportions.

-

Anakin felt hate fill his mind as he chased the giant blue slaver.

He knew the thoughts filling his head were very 'Un-jedi-like' but he was finding it hard to care.

Krayn was a monster. He was responsible for killing tens, no hundreds… maybe thousands… of beings across the galaxy and forcing ten times that number into slavery.

Krayn was a monster. He had raided Tatooine when Anakin was a child. Anakin remembered running back home with his friend Amee and being relieved to find that his mother was okay, only to discover moments later that Amee's mother had been captured by Krayn.

Krayn was a Monster. He was evil. A plague on the galaxy spreading hate, terror, fear, and suffering.

Anakin was a Jedi and Jedi were supposed to stop monsters. They were supposed to stand up to evil. To stop injustice an protect people. They were supposed to be the good guys.

"Anakin wait!" Anakin heard his friend shout as he charged after Krayn.

He ran through the doors to the side corridor he saw Krayn disappear through.

A small voice inside his head, some unconscious part of his emotion jumbled mind, told him to stop. To wait for Renn. He knew his friend was strong, was probably a better fighter than him, and that it would be safer to wait for him so that they could team up to deal with the pirates… and Krayn.

He saw his friend burst through the doors behind him, just as he saw Krayn direct a group of pirates towards them to try and slow them down.

Krayn was going to get away.

He was going to escape.

He was going to live. To survive.

Anakin remembered his friend crying after her mum was taken away by Krayn.

He remembered a few days ago when he was captured by Siri, who was pretending to be one of Krayn's crew, and he saw a bell-shaped necklace hanging from Krayn's belt along with other trinkets.

He remembered the necklace belonging to his friend's mum. And he remembered Krayn pointing to it and the other trinkets and boasting to the newly captured slaves about them being trophies. Trophies taken from slaves he had killed after they were no longer of value.

Rage filled Anakin's mind as he saw red. Krayn was a Monster and Anakin would kill him.

Anakin charged forwards, blaster bolts flying in both directions through the corridor. He saw two pirates fall to the ground, dead or dying Anakin didn't care about the distinction, as Renn shot them from behind Anakin.

His lightsabre was already swinging as he reached the group of pirates. He swung it up, cutting clean through a pirate from hip to shoulder. Causing the pirate to fall to the ground, now in two halves.

Anakin didn't stop running forwards. He slashed furiously around himself as he ran, ignoring the screams and the smell of burning flesh.

He didn't know how many pirates he had killed as he ran through them. His focus was solely on Krayn as he sprinted after him. Locked onto his target as though he was some kind of biological heat seeking missile.

The pirates were momentarily stunned by the ferocity of his charge but before they could formulate a plan to deal with the angry thirteen-year-old jedi, he was already disappearing down the corridor and they were forced to try to deal with the armoured youth following him.

Anakin knew he probably shouldn't have left his friend to fight the pirates alone, but he was too blinded by rage to stop chasing Krayn. Plus, he trusted Renn's ability to take care of the pirates on his own.

He followed Krayn out of the corridor and saw the slaver heading towards a waiting starship. His desperation to catch the pirate forced him to run faster.

He was gaining on Krayn but he was still too far away. A sickening though filled Anakins mind. He wasn't going to catch him. Krayn was going to escape. He would get away and keep causing pain to beings across the galaxy.

Anakin sprinted harder, desperate to catch the pirate before he reached his ship and escaped.

He had to stop Krayn or stop the ship leaving. He kept running, hoping he could catch the pirate as he really didn't know how he was supposed to stop the ship leaving.

It turned out that Anakin didn't have to worry about stopping the ship because seconds before Krayn could reach the pirate ship's still open docking ramp a cacophonic explosion tore the ship's hull.

One second Anakin was chasing Krayn as they ran towards the ship. The next they were both thrown backwards as fire blossomed out of the ships, as it turned into a huge fireball.