Chapter 58

"Three…two…one…go go go!" Renn counted down before triggering the explosive charge placed on the door to the pirate ship's bridge.

Renn and Shae charged onto the bridge after the explosion, Alpha and Scythe hot on their heels, and raised their blasters to deal with the pirate crew.

Shae had a blaster pistol in each hand and began firing well aimed shots towards the pirates as she moved right so that she was away from the gaping hole in the bridge that used to be a door.

Renn moved left, his blaster pistol raised, and sent a blaster bolt into the head of a pirate before pivoting when he sensed someone lunging at him from behind. He turned his body, bringing his blaster back and close to his chest, and rapid fired multiple shots through the torso of the surprised pirate that had tried to get the drop on him.

The pirates had been disoriented by the explosion and the rapid entry of Renn and the others. They hadn't expected the door to suddenly fly across the bridge. And they hadn't expected the sudden storm of violence that had followed the flying door.

Renn and Shae were quickly tearing through the pirates on the bridge and the remaining pirates, now terrified, began diving for cover behind bridge consoles or crates of loot that had been stacked haphazardly throughout the bridge.

"Hey Shae! I'm going to make things easy for you!" Renn shouted across the bridge, then he raised his free hand and suddenly the pirates cowering behind cover were launched into the air.

"Space magic makes this so simple, it's almost unfair." Shae shouted back as she sent blaster bolts into the helpless pirates floating in the air.

"You could do it too, you are force sensitive." Renn said as he kicked a pirate in the chest before shooting the man as he sprawled on the floor.

"Nah, I prefer the Mando way of doing things. Besides Kal and Jango have been showing me some tricks that even the playing field against space wizards." Shae said while turning in place and scanning the room to try and find any other pirates to shoot.

"Eh, fair enough but it never hurts to have a few extra weapons in your arsenal." Renn said knowing that metaphor would be appreciated by the girl who's hole culture revolved around warriors and different weapons.

Renn sensed another pirate trying to get the jump on him but this time the threat seemed to be coming from above.

He jumped backwards avoiding a clawed swipe as a huge cat-man dropped from the ceiling but lost his blaster pistol in the process.

The cat-man roared and lunged at Renn. Relying on the thousands of years of evolution that made his species one of the apex predators on his home planet to kill Renn, rather than a normal weapon like a blaster.

While most beings in the galaxy would be intimidated by a nearly seven-foot tall Farghul charging straight towards them with the intent to rip their throats out with their claws, Renn stood firm and pushed out with the force to knock the cat-man's feet out from under him.

The Farghul's face transformed from a mask of snarling rage and hate to a look of surprised panic as he began falling face first towards the deck.

Renn sent a right hook into the falling cat-man's face and the punch was timed perfectly to catch the pirate on the side of his jaw.

Despite Renn being much smaller than the pirate the force had strengthened his body and so had the years of training. So instead of a punch that didn't carry much power behind it, like most would expect from a twelve year old boy, a load smack resounded across the bridge as the cat-man was sent careening off to thud slam into a row of bridge consoles.

The force behind the punch shattered the pirates cheek and sent a number of fanglike teeth flying out in an arc across the room. The Farghul lay motionless on the floor where he had landed and was silent apart from the low moans of pain coming from him.

Renn could sense the lifeforms on the bridge through the force and knew that all of the pirates, apart from the semi-unconscious Farghul, were now dead. But he stayed alert in case the pirates had any mechanical threats onboard that he wouldn't be able to sense through the force.

"Sooo, what you wanna do with the cat?" Shae said appearing silently beside Renn, who didn't flinch as he had grown used to Sapphire popping up next to him unannounced and trying to spook him.

"He looks like he's in charge, so I'm thinking we interrogate him to see if there is a pirate base nearby. They are clearly organised seeing as they were working with another ship, so there is a potential that there are more pirates nearby." Renn said, ignoring Shae's tsk of annoyance at his lack of reaction to her trying to surprise him by her sudden appearance.

Shae shrugged as she looked at the fancily dressed Farghul who was now riving around on the floor in pain.

"That's cool. I would have said we should just slot him but I guess this way could lead to us slotting a lot more pirates." Shae said grinning behind her helmet in anticipation of the potential fight.

"You're a bit of a psycho, you know that right?" Renn said turning his head to look at her.

"Aww, thanks. That's so sweet" Shae said with a mock cute tone to her voice as she tilted her head to one side and clasped her hands together in front of her.

Renn laughed and soon he was joined by Shae. The sound of their laughter was now the only sound on the bridge apart from the quiet whimpering of the pirate captain.

Renn turned as the sound of mechanical footsteps echoed behind him and looked up at Alpha.

"What did you think? We didn't do too bad, did we?" he asked the assassin droid, a smile on his face.

"You worked well as a team. However chatting about random nonsense while you are fighting might lead you to become distracted at a critical moment." Alpha said before thinking for a moment, "Yet weirdly the two of you didn't seemed phased by that… you might be spending too much time with Spark."

"Hehe weird…" Renn said scratching the side of his helmet as he avoided commenting on the conversation he was having with Shae during the fight.

"Hey, focus!" He said as he kicked the pirate captain in the head, trying to change the subject.

-

Zurd head swam with confusion and pain as he lay curled up on the floor.

He heard a shout then a heavy boot struck him in the head, the pain making him focus on his surroundings.

Zurd looked up and saw the armoured child that had injured him and let out a low animalistic growl. He glared at the boy and launched himself upwards, intending to rip the annoying brats throat out.

A heavy metal fist slammed into the side of Zurd's head and sent him slamming back to the ship's deck.

"Try that again and you'll start loosing body parts." A cold robotic voice sounded from above him and he looked up to see a HK-51 assassin droid leering menacingly at him with his arms crossed.

Zurd shivered in fear as he looked at the droid glaring at him, he was already in a lot of pain because of that damned kid but he could still feel the sting of the punch and was pretty sure his skull was fractured.

"Hey pirate" The kid said cheerily and waved at Zurd who transitioned from feeling intense fear to intense confusion.

"Seeing as you and your mates are all pretty dumb, we were wondering who your boss is and where your base is." The boy said, still talking with the same happy tone.

Zurd stared in confusion at the kid. He had been a pirate for over twenty years and no-one talked to him this way. He was used to people cowering in fear before him, but this child seemed to be mocking him.

"He isn't answering you." The Mandalorian girl stood next to the boy said.

"Maybe he's concussed?" The boy wondered and Zurd started to feel a rage building inside him.

"Or just stupid" The girl said, and the boy nodded.

"Well we knew that already" the boy said and the Zurd growled in anger and lunged at the boy.

The sound of a blaster sounded throughout the bridge followed closely by the sound of Zurd's screams of pain.

"I warned you" the assassin droid said with a shrug as Zurd clutched the burned remains of his foot.

Zurd rolled around on the floor crying in pain until he received a kick in the exact same spot he had been punched by the assassin droid.

"You know If you just answer the question you probably wont get hurt as much," the boy said smiling at Zurd.

"Ha," Zurd spat at the kid, and pretended not to be concerned by how much blood was mixed in with his spit. "My boss will skin you alive. You attacked his ships and threatened his profits he wont stop until he sees you dead."

"Riiight, sure. I bet he will" The boy said sarcastically.

"You fool! Krayn is the most feared pirate on all of Nar Shaddaa! All bow before him and despite your pathetic confidence he will rip you limb from limb!" Zurd roared at the two unimpressed children and silent droid.

"You did say he was stupid" The Mandalorian girl said nudging the boy with her elbow.

"Yeah, sounds like he just told us both who his boss is and where his boss hangs out." The boy said shrugging.

The anger Zurd was feeling flowed out of him, replaced by a cold dread, as he realised that in his rage he told the child everything he wanted to know.

"I didn't know you could annoy someone into giving you the information you want to know in an interrogation," The Mandalorian girl said.

"It seems to work for Opal," The boy said, smiling.

"That's true," The girl said laughing.

"Uhhh, you will leave me alone now, right? I-I told you what you wanted to know." Zurd said nervously. Now that he was thinking clearly he realised how much danger he was in and he began to be filled with fear.

The boy and girl stopped talking to each other to look at him, then looked back at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

"Yeeahh, about that." The boy said slowly, "Sorry mate but…"

The boy raised his blaster pistol so it was level with Zurd's eyes and before Zurd could protest or try to fight back the boy pulled the trigger.

The last thing Zurd saw was a bright flash leaving the pistols barrel. And then nothing.