Chapter 34: Chapter 33
"P-P-lease d-don't hurt me." The Rodian tried gasping in fear, but the metal hand crushing his windpipe was making that difficult.
"Why were you watching us?" Alpha growled at the terrified man.
"Speak now. Before you lose that ability forever." Alpha threatened while increasing his grip on the man's throat after he didn't receive an immediate response to his question.
"I work for Gardulla the Hutt," the Rodian gasped, "She wants the twi'lek girl captured and the others with her dead." The Rodian quickly began flailing in panic after his response elicited Alpha to again start squeezing his neck tighter.
"What is your plan? When are you going to attack?" Alpha began urgently shooting questions at the Rodian, conscious that a criminal organisation was after the group of kids, and they were currently alone with only an astromech for protection.
"Its too late to stop, it's happening right now." The Rodian said in a panic as he looked at Alpha's emotionless metallic face.
The sounds of screams and blaster fire filled the market. Alpha didn't hesitate. With one shove he pushed the Rodian's head into the wall behind him, cracking it open like a rotten egg.
Alpha then charged back into the market, leaving the now headless corpse behind.
-
Renn and the others were stood around a market stall selling a variety of meats on sticks when he had noticed something was wrong. He had been enjoying spending time with the girls in the market and so hadn't been paying to much attention to his surroundings but now he could sense that something wasn't right.
Looking around he realised that Alpha was missing. That wasn't an immediate concern as the droid could have just left to take care of something, and Alpha was more than capable of taking care of himself. The fact Alpha didn't tell them he was leaving was raising some alarm bells with Renn though.
The market that had seemed filled with people just moments ago was now significantly quieter. There were still people milling around but no where near the amount just minutes earlier. It was as if everyone had gotten the same memo but neglected to share it with Renn and the others.
An atmosphere of impending trouble had descended on the market and Renn was becoming increasingly uneasy. His hand moved to the hilt of his vibro-knife, after the troubles they had encountered on Tatooine Renn had started travelling around armed. Coruscant had a more active police force though so the maximum amount of weaponry he could carry without drawing too much attention was a few vibro-knives hidden on his person.
A loud shout filled the market as six armed men charged towards Renn and the others. One of the men, holding a small blaster rifle that he had hidden under his jacket, jumped on top of a market stall and began firing wildly into the air. The stalls wares were sent scattering across the street and the few remaining customers and shop keepers screamed in terror and began running away.
The man on top of the stall laughed at the terrified pedestrians, but his laughter died in his throat as he slumped backwards to crash to the floor. The hilt of a vibro-knife sticking out of his now destroyed eye socket.
Renn drew a second vibro-knife and stepped protectively in front of the others. He had sent his first knife spinning into the gangster's head as soon as he had began firing into the air and was now eying up the other five still charging towards him.
"Stay here and stay in cover." Renn shouted to the others. Shae was crouched behind him also wielding a vibro-knife and mentally cursing the loss of her armour. Opal was crouching next to Seela and had one arm wrapped protectively round the younger girl's shoulders.
Renn sprinted from behind the market stall they had been sheltering behind before diving behind an adjacent stall, blaster bolts impacted around him sending destroyed produce in all directions.
Bolt rolled out from behind the stall and began firing on the gangsters with his inbuilt blaster. Although he was just an astromech he was still a droid of house Dredd and so a deadly treat in combat. And soon one of his blaster bolts hit a gangster in the chest, blowing a fist size hole threw his torso.
Renn meanwhile was weaving through the densely packed market stalls creeping closer to one of the four remaining gangsters. It didn't matter how skilled Renn was if he got shot by a blaster he would just sort of die and Renn wasn't ready to meet his end just yet. So, he was moving from cover to cover to try and get behind the gangsters so that he could kill them with his knife.
Renn hid behind an upturned table close to one of the gangsters. He had two metres of open ground between him and the gangster so he would need to be quick. The gangster was focused on shooting at Bolt, so Renn weighed his options before rushing towards him.
He sent a heavy kick into the side of the gangster's knee causing it to buckle. As the man collapsed down towards a kneeling position Renn rammed the blade of his vibro-knife deep into his throat and twisted it viciously.
The gangster fell to the floor clasping the ragged remains of his ruined throat in the vain attempt to stop the bleeding. Renn ignored the dying man and stepped past him, he used the force to pull the fallen mans blaster into his hand and quickly took aim at the closest remaining gangster.
A rapid double tap of the blasters trigger sent two blaster bolts tearing into the gangster's side causing the man to fall in a heap. A third shot from Renn's newly found blaster caught another gangster in the head, dropping the man to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.
Renn pointed his blaster at the final remaining gangster and pulled the trigger and cursed when nothing happened. The cheap, unmaintained blaster that he had scavenged from the now dead gangster had overheated and rather than try and fix it Renn tossed it to the side and dived towards the cover of a ruined market stall.
The remaining gangster stalked towards Renn angrily. This was supposed to be an easy job and now all his gang was dead, and most of them had been killed by a 'kid'.
"Your in for it now kid. I'm going to make you watch as I gut your friends before peeling the skin from your body." The gangster grinned viciously as he moved closer to Renn's hiding place.
Renn clutched his remaining vibro-knife to his chest and tried to think of a way out of his current situation. The only thing he could think of at the moment was rushing the gangster, hoping he panicked and stabbing him. It wasn't a great plan, and had a high likelihood of failing and Renn ending up dead, so Renn wanted to avoid it if at all possible.
"Get out here and face me kid. You'll regret crossing Gardulla the H---" the gangster was cut off when a grey blur impacted into him and sent his now broken body flying into the wall of an apartment building.
Alpha stood in the centre of the now empty market glaring at the gang leader who now resembled a giant red pancake that had been tossed against an apartment wall. Alpha was fast and powerful enough to run through a concrete wall without any problems, so the unarmoured gangster was nearly obliterated by the high-speed collision.
"Hey Alpha, nice timing." Renn waved as he popped up from behind the stall he was sheltering behind.
Alpha let out the droid equivalent of a sigh of relief. The tension that had been filling him evaporated as he saw that Renn was okay. Before a variety of other emotions filled the droid, starting with rage towards 'Gardulla the Hutt' for causing this mess.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone