Chapter 7.

Bruekal was let out of his cage, once he agreed to the Hutt’s terms. his wounds were treated and he was given clothes to cover his bare skin. The cloth felt alien and scratched against his sensitive exposed skin. He wondered how long it would take to grow back. they hadn’t trusted him with a weapon yet, smart of them. He vowed to destroy the Filthy Hutt and his entire disgusting house. He was led to a lower floor and told to clean up and wait. after a few hours, he slipped into a light sleep. the sound of someone entering the room woke him instantly. it was the Trandoshan from earlier that had warned the Nikto to leave him alone.

A possible ally, Bruekal thought to rise silently to tower over the alien.

“Uklak says he wants to see you at the top of the tower.” The Trandoshan said.

Bruekal followed him silently eyeing his weapons. they made their way to a lift in the center of the tower. the doors where electrum plated and slid silently open at their approach. the Trandoshan turned around, a blaster pistol held low in front of his body, a cold smile on his face. Bruekal snarled quietly, ceding the point to the bounty hunter. he didn’t pretend that he hadn’t been eyeing the weapons strapped to his back. the Trandoshan motioned him into the elevator with the end of the blaster.

“Good luck furball.” It said with a nasty grin on its face. Bruekal snarled loudly at it. He climbed into the elevator, he stooped to avoid hitting his head. the doors hissed closed and he started to rise. after a few levels, the lift snapped to a halt, and Uklak’s voice rasped out of some concealed speakers a protocol droid translated his words into wookie. and a hologram blinked into existence in front of Bruekal.

“we have a prooblem wooookie, there is an intruder in my toower. we will droop his lift and yoours to the same floooor loower in the toower. if you kill him, you will be given your weapoons back. and your first boounty... 100,000 credits....coonsider this an auditioon.” Uklak’s voice laughed harshly and the hologram disappeared. Bruekal didn’t bother to growl, he had expected nothing less from the slimebag at the top of this tower. his lift jerked, then started to plummet down.

The lift stopped and a young Hutt appeared as a hologram in front of D’Ryn.

“the coouncil has oordered yoou back to repoort, yooung Jedi.” the Hutt said in basic.

“You killed my master Hutt! and the sorrow you spread from your disgusting trade infects this whole planet!” D’Ryn hissed through clenched teeth. the Hutt simply laughed, and D’Ryn slashed the projector for the hologram and the speakers in one swift motion. he started to slash through the wall of the lift to make his own door, but the lift jerked nearly throwing him off his feet, before it plummeted down. after D’Ryn counted a thousand feet of descent, the lift slid smoothly to a stop and the doors chimed and opened. D’Ryn studied the dimly lit space before him, he sensed nothing living moving in the deserted floor of the tower. Cautiously he crept forward. the lights flickered off and on, rendering his eyes nearly blind. What he could see of the chamber it looked like deserted office space, old desks where shoved against one bank of filthy grime encrusted windows. the windows where nearly black from the smog swirling thick as soup outside the cracked Plasteel. across the deserted office space another elevator slid open spilling golden light out. D’Ryn slid silently into the shadows, blending with them, he cloaked himself with the force so not even cameras would pick up his presence. concentrating, he closed his eyes and studied the large being that stepped out of the lift. D’Ryn’s eyes popped open in surprise. the wookie was wearing pants and a loose shirt. He had never heard of a wookie that wore clothes. slowly the wookie crept out of the lift, he had no weapons evident on him. D’Ryn probed further with the force, cameras studied the Wookie’s every move.

mind made up, he crept silently over to the cameras and one by one broke the wires leading into them. the last one emitted a shrill whistle as it shorted out and the wookie turned towards D’Ryn snarling. they circled each other warily for a few minutes. D’Ryn checked for any kind of listening devices or other means of observation he could think off. But he spotted none, and tried to talk to the oddly dressed wookie.

“Easy. Easy there, they can’t see us anymore.” D’Ryn said easing out of the shadows. the Wookie stopped snarling and studied D’Ryn closely. The Wookie started speaking in his own language, D’Ryn listened hard trying to recall his language classes from the temple. he had loved learning at least a few phrases in as many different tongues as he could.

“....prisoner...........grandfather killed......Hutt, Uklak.” The Wookie said.

“Wait, slow down, are you saying that Hutt is named Uklak? and he killed your grandfather.?” D’Ryn said softly. the wookie snarled his lips showing his fangs in an exasperated, or enraged face. he couldn’t recall exactly which. it was only a matter of millimeters of fang exposed that made the difference.

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“My name is Bruekal,” Bruekal said slowly. “......Hutt captured me..... down here.....kill......... or die.” Bruekal finished slowly.

“Well, I think we can help each other in that case. I’m Jedi D’Ryn, I’m here to kill the Hutt.” D’Ryn said smiling showing his teeth just enough to let Bruekal know that he was serious. Bruekal returned his snarl and nodded, they went slowly to the lift shaft.

Bruekal slid his claws into the thin crack left by the doors and wrenched them open with one heave, the doors ground apart with a shriek. the shaft was empty, of course, D’Ryn thought with a mental shrug. Bruekal held the doors open, D’Ryn jumped out onto one of the support struts and activated his lightsaber. he slashed opened one of the access panels that led into the bowels of the tower. I doubt the Hutt has anything in these tunnels, D’Ryn thought smirking. he deactivated his lightsaber and motioned Bruekal into the access panel. the wookie glanced down and made a worried trill at the yawning chasm below them that fell away for thousands of meters.

“I thought Wookies lived in trees?” D’Ryn said questioningly. Bruekal just huffed dismissively and clambered into the access panel, it was a tight fit for his massive frame. D’Ryn followed behind him and they made their way slowly upward towards the top of the tower where the Hutt, Uklak was no doubt furiously searching for them. D’Ryn led the way as they squeezed through the thin access shafts winding their way slowly upward. after a few hundred meters the tunnel suddenly widened and deposited them in some kind of hub. Bruekal grunted and stretched to his full height and rolled his shoulders. D’Ryn searched the floors for some kind of clue for which way to go. Bruekal studied the chamber and scented the air, he shivered in the stale air. he would need to get warmer clothes without his fur. he thought despondently. a breeze from one of the tunnels alerted him to move in the still air. he growled and subvocalized a warning to D’Ryn. then he tapped the strange Jedi on the shoulder when he didn’t hear the warning.

D’Ryn shinned his small light down the tunnel that Bruekal pointed towards. He cursed when the wookie slapped the light out of his hand and shoved him out of the way as he dove to the side.

“Idiot.....perfect...target.” Bruekal rumbled. D’Ryn felt foolish, his light had made him a beacon for whatever was down the tunnel. a slithering noise like the sound of many claws rasping on metal drifted towards them Into the thin light D’ryn’s lit lightsaber caste scuttled the scene from the deepest darkest places of your worst nightmare. Thousands of

Several long dusty and dirt filled hours later D’Ryn and Bruekal had finally made it to just below the top floor of the tower.

“Come on. Let's finish this.” D’Ryn whispered. Bruekal refused to move. he just pointed out the vent they had been looking through at the same room he had been caged in earlier. Bounty hunters and slavers ran in and out of the room, still searching for the missing Jedi, and Wookie.

“What!?” D’Ryn hissed edging further up the air duct they where creeping through. Bruekal growled low and motioned at the rows of blasters along the walls below and whined wistfully.

“You need a blaster?” exasperated D’Ryn dug in his pockets and handed Bruekal a small blaster. Bruekal eyed it doubtfully and gave D’Ryn a bland look.

“What!? it's fully charged,” D’Ryn said.

“....break...........thing” Bruekal mumbled.

“Well don’t break it then. It’s got ten shots, COME on.” D’Ryn said angrily. Reluctantly Bruekal followed him looking disgustedly at the tiny holdout blaster in his giant hand. the ventilation shaft finally tilted up and they slowly climbed up the shaft. The next vent looked out on Uklak’s apartment. females from all across the galaxy were chained all around the room. Disgusted D’Ryn shoved the grate open. it clattered to the ground as he leaped out, activating his lightsaber. Bruekal followed him struggling to crawl out of the vent.

“Uklak! answer me, Hutt!” D’Ryn yelled the slave girls around the room huddled against the walls away from his anger. the Hutt slithered out of an alcove where a halo screen showed all of the security feeds from the building.

“What are yoou gooing too doo Jedi? my business interests here are tootally legal, and the coouncil dooesnt supoort yoour little crusade here.” Uklak sneered at Bruekal and D’Ryn

“Don’t call me that... I’m not a Jedi any longer.” D’Ryn said Bruekal glanced sharply over at him. With a scream of rage, D’Ryn ran towards the Hutt, too shocked to move Uklak didn’t stand a chance. With a flash, D’Ryn sliced off his head and cut his bulbous body into three steaming chunks. green blood splattered the walls and the room went instantly silent. A small red light on the council that Uklak had been sitting at blinked off and on as D’Ryn collapsed to his knees staring at the remains of his hated foe, all of the anger drained out of his body, all emotion slowly slid off of his face. his lightsaber fell limply from his hand.

Bruekal snatched the laser sword off the ground, the Jedi didn’t even twitch, and he disabled the door. quickly and went around slashing the chains of the slave girls. as soon as he finished that Bruekal went to the computer and started hacking into the system to find out what Uklak had been up to. Finding the files he needed, he smiled satisfied. the Hutt had taken accounting to an extreme, he gathered all the files and sent them to the senate detailing exactly the activities of one late Hutt. for good measure, he sent a copy to the major news agencies on the planet. the weeping group of former slaves had gathered together close by D’Ryn.

“What now?” one of the naked females asked D’Ryn, Bruekal rolled his eyes when the Jedi didn’t respond. He waved a hand at them, and cooed gently trying to be reassuring. Ukllak's system had said he stored his private Starship outside on the terrace. Bruekal led the shocked females outside he grabbed some of the curtains, ripping them into strips he handed them to the females to wear. He grabbed the stunned former Jedi and carried him gently out into the star ship.

“Well lets see if my luck holds.” Bruekal thought as he strapped into the pilots chair. “If there’s any justice in this universe, I’ll be home before next week.” Bruekal started the engines and prayed he didn’t crash before getting clear of the tower.