"Ugh...my head!"
A horrendous pain was what greeted Calen upon reawakening in... wherever it was that he'd ended up. This definitely wasn't the cave back on the moon, or at least he was fairly certain it wasn't. The last thing he remembered had been that firefight and...
"Briemi!" Calen realized that she had been gunned down, as had presumably the others as well. His eyes glanced around to his cell, for it could only be called a cell. The walls were a drab, earthen brown and a series of bars blocked him off from a corridor outside. Across from him was another cell and, looking down the way, he saw several other cells that went out down the corridor as far as the eye could see. Across from him, he saw a Human woman with shoulder-length red hair wearing a black full-body suit, much like the one he realized he was wearing. There were no identifying marks designating who it was for or why, though Calen hardly thought they were a high fashion item.
"Hello?" The woman seemed to ignore him, sitting on the floor of her cell with legs crossed and eyes closed. "Hello?"
"She won't answer you. She doesn't answer anyone." The clipped accent wasn't one that Calen recognized, though it was clear Basic albeit with a strange speech pattern. He turned to see that he was not alone in his cell. The being had a face like a Duros, though the skin was greenish blue rather than the straight up bluish look of that species. The eyes were a yellowish-orange with horizontal pupils and there was no visible nose upon the face. He, unlike Calen and the woman in the cell across from them, wore a blue suit of the same make. "Never seen a Neimoidian before?"
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| Image credit to Mara Jade Cosplay |
"I... guess I haven't, no." Calen said. "What do you mean she won't answer?"
"She can, she just chooses not to." The Neimoidian said. "She is one of Zobek's more silent Champions." Zobek, so he was still on Rorak. "Looks like you're the latest one to be brought in for that."
"I... sorry, who are you?" Calen asked.
"I'm Ziv. Ziv Haako." The Neimoidian said. "Like you, I am a prisoner of Zobek the Hutt."
"Right. Ziv. Got it." Calen nodded. "I'm Calen."
"A pleasure to meet you, Calen, though I do wish it was under more agreeable circumstances." Ziv registered to the spot on the floor across from him, which Calen took as he sat down.
"As do I, believe me." Calen said. "Why are you here?"
"I was part of a caravan of traders who came through to sell the Hutt some of their technologies." Ziv said. "When they were found to be defective, I was given to him as compensation."
"Your co-workers sold you into slavery?" Calen asked, horrified at the thought.
"They're Neimoidians." Ziv's eyes blinked, looking at Calen as though he were confused that the human would ask such a question. "Profit is in our blood, or so they say. Not that it did them all that much good. Zobek ordered their ship atomized before they left orbit."
"That sounds like a Hutt." Calen grimaced.
"Indeed so." Ziv nodded. "The word between the rest of us is that you were a Rebel trying to con Zobek. Is it true?"
"Not..." Calen started, seeing the curious look on the Neimoidian's eyes. "Not exactly, no."
"Well, what are you then, exactly?" Ziv asked. Calen opened his mouth to answer, but then thought better of it. Best to play it close to the vest, at least for right now.
"Just a prisoner, like you." Calen said.
"I'm afraid that's not true at all." Ziv said, gesturing to Calen's suit. "You are a Champion. I'm just a Technician."
"Technician? Champion?" Calen asked, confused.
"Right, you are new." Ziv said. "A champion is one who fights in the arena for the pleasure of Zobek. A technician... we do other things. Be that repairing equipment or Champions."
"You're a doctor?"
"Engineer, but I do have medical training for a variety of species, including humans."
"Oh. Good to know."
"Granted, pretty much every fight is to the death, so..."
"Okay, that is less good to know." Calen sighed.
"As I am given to understand, it is... better than the alternative." Ziv pointed out.
"And so it is." Calen said. "So... how does this all work?" He asked, gesturing around in a circle with a single raised finger.
"The guards pull two fights from their cells, bring them to the arena. Zobek has it broadcast across the holonet." Ziv said. "The one who lives gets to go back."
"And that's it?"
"That's all we've ever had, yes." Ziv nodded. Calen sighed, slumping back against the wall he sat against.
"Lovely."
"Don't get too discouraged. If you win enough fights, you'll get moved to the better cells."
"And all I have to do is wantonly murder some people! Marvelous!" Calen's voice was thick with sarcasm, him rolling his eyes as he completed the sentence.
"You were fighting in the war. It's not like you're a stranger to killing." Ziv said.
"There's a difference between killing and murder." Calen said. "I have no interest in fighting for the pleasure of an overgrown slug."
"<Master Zobek will require the Champion.>" A Weequay had come up to the bars of their cell. "<The Neimoidian will not move.>"
"Alright." Ziv said, holding up his hands in a surrender gesture and scooting back away from the door.
"I'm not going anywhere." Calen refused, crossing his arms over his chest. There was a loud beep and pain suddenly shot through his entire body.
"<Master Zobek will require the Champion now.>" The guard's Huttese sounded almost amused to Calen as he recovered through the stun pulse that had been sent through his body.
"Oh, I probably should have mentioned that." Ziv was wincing. "There's a stun node implanted in your neck. It goes off if you disobey."
"Thanks! Really helpful information!" Calen hissed out.
"<Master Zobek will->"
"I'm coming!" Calen got back onto his booted feet, glaring daggers at the Weequay as he stepped out, keeping his hands close to his sides. He gave Ziv a brief nod just before the bars slid back up from out of the ground and locked back into place. Calen found himself quickly lead down the lengthy corridor, which actually did stretch down further than he had been able to see from the cell.
He also wasn't alone, too other Weequay were escorting the woman he'd seen in the cell across from them, opening her eyes to reveal hazel pupils around a pair of black irises. Her demeanor seemed empty, devoid of any sort of emotion. No fear, no rage. Simply nothing.
"So, hi, how are you? Terrible weather we're having, right?" Calen asked. He received still no answer from the woman and instead got smacked in his back by the butt of a blaster rifle.
"<Stop talking!>" Calen did indeed do just that as the pair were soon joined by others of various races, all wearing the same black body suit and being escorted by the guards. They were ushered through a large, metallic door that slammed shut once they were all through it. In the room they had entered, they found a familiar sight, at least to Calen's eyes.
The arena, only this time Calen was in the pit itself, surrounded by the rows upon rows of seats... and those seats were filled with fans of every stripe.
In his box, Zobek the Hutt languidly lazed upon a hover dais. At his side was his majordomo Dach Pirc, and Doctor S'alzarri was nowhere to be seen. After the last little demonstration, Calen was glad for that. He wasn't entirely sure he could stomach more of the serpentine scientist.
"<Hello, my public!>" Zobek's voice thundered through the arena, the Hutt's words followed by a joyous cacophony that echoed through the place. "<I present to you, my Champions!>"
"Great. We're famous." Calen muttered.
"Quiet, you gibbering oaf!" He heard a voice, and it took him a moment to register that it was coming from the woman from before, who had been positioned next to him.
"Oh, she speaks!" Calen snorted. Before that exchange could continue, though, Zobek did.
"<These are those who will compete for your entertainment and mine!>" Again, the Hutt's words were followed by cheers from a bloodthirsty crowd, many shouting from the stands in every language in the galaxy, all of them drowned out by the screaming and calls to violence from the others. "<But first! A taste of things to come!>" A shield wall was erected before the champions, cordoning off their section of the arena from the rest. Now, Calen knew what it was like to be a ration pack. As the cheering continued from the stands, a gate at the far end opened up and out came a four-legged beast, covered from its horns to the tip of its tail in scales. A tail that was almost as long as the rest of its body dangled behind it, and it gave a deep, guttural roar.
"What the hell is that thing?" Calen muttered, not recognizing the creature.
"Krayt dragon." The woman next to him said.
"A what?"
"<A great beast of Tatooine, the stock of a generous gift of my dear cousin Jabba!>" Zobek's voice boomed through the arena. "<Behold the mighty krayt dragon!>" The creature roared and smashed against the shielded walls, the crowd loving it. "<Facing this juvenile beast will be my Grand Champion! Karras Toph!>"
"WHAT?!" Calen exclaimed, drowned out by the noise around him. From a gateway opposite the one that the krayt dragon had come from, emerged a man. He was much older than the man he had seen in the holocron, the owner of that voice that had spoken to him across space and time to teach him of the Force and its ways. However, there could be no mistaking him. Even with the large, bushy white beard, Calen could easily identify the Jedi Master. Karras Toph was alive! And he was currently wielding a pair of vibro-axes as the krayt dragon charged at him with breakneck speed.
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