Pirates are a rowdy lot. It is a fact rarely questioned and merely accepted by those who deal with them regularly. While the Herald’s crew is no different, the band's leader has a different approach to facilitating their tendencies. To this end, one of the Matron's smaller hangars — designated Hangar Zerek — has been recommissioned as a combat arena... or execution chamber.

Once a dedicated repair bay, Hangar Zerek is still equipped with fabricator arms and an assortment of Trade Federation droid parts that have fallen into disrepair. A squared off section, including illumination banks at each corner, designates the intended 'arena'. The section is denoted by active shock fences, run by nearby generators. It is here that the crew lets off steam, with the hangar bay sealed.

The hangar itself still has a fully functioning force field that comes into play when matches are meant to become more interesting, or when it comes time to jettison troublesome captives. The hangar bay doors peel open, leaving only the active field to separate the arena from the vacuum of space. The control mechanisms for the hangar doors can be operated manually from the control booth or on a set timer, including the force field's toggle switch.

The control booth is the last segment of Hangar Zerek worth noting. Doubling as an observation deck, it is the only obvious entrance to the hangar. All maintenance hatches and access-ways have been sealed in advance, though the catwalks crisscrossing along the upper layers of the hangar remain. The booth itself is sealed, providing a safe haven for when the force field comes down.

Muffled shouting and chanting sounded to Commander Len Iode’s ears like a distant waterfall of sound. The sounds gradually returned to the normal deafening cacophony the Chiss had heard during the earlier part of his mission as the drugs wore off. He fought to open his eyes. Len’s blurry vision offered hazy shapes of the “streets” lined with various scum and villainy; all had come to see the SenNet commando hauled to his doom. The portly man started to regain sensation and now felt two men carrying him under the shoulders, his feet dragging on the dingy durasteel floors.

The heaviness left his eyes and the Chiss finally started to see his surroundings. Glancing around, it was apparent the men were members of the Silent Hand. Len had surmised that darts were the method of delivery for whatever had knocked him out, since he had not eaten or drank anything from the Matron. The Executor sighed. The Silent Hand was the faction of the Shroud Syndicate the Chiss had been assigned to infiltrate and disrupt. Intelligence from during the War indicated that the Collective had paid off a member of the Hand to pass false information to their de facto leader and Herald of the Brotherhood, Morgan Sorenn. The commando’s mission had been to destroy the Silent Hand headquarters and plant evidence that another faction had committed the act. Hopefully, the plan had been, this would leading to a chain of events rendering the faction useless. But Len had been caught, just after setting the last charge he felt a sting in his thigh.

Hell of a shot, too, the Chiss thought as he approached a familiar airlock. In stenciled Aurebesh above the hatch read “Hanger Zerek”.

Guess being friends with Turel won’t help this time.

As he was hauled through the command center, Len realized he was not the only prisoner this day. A woman was unconscious, held up by two more syndicate members both Leviathan Pirates. The woman’s black-streaked wavy red hair covered her face. Even though she had been knocked out as well and presumably drugged in a manner like the Executor had been.

A male Duros emerged from behind the trio in front of the Executor and from the dossiers that had crossed his desk Len identified him as Iden Sult, Majordomo of the Syndicate.

“Commander Len Iode. A pleasure to finally meet you.” A false pleasantness oozed through the Duros’ voice. “What brings you to the Matron? Business or pleasure?”

The Commander remained silent, making then breaking eye contact with the man.

“Silent type eh? Well no matter what you were here for before, you are here for our entertainment now. You and the other spy.” He turned to the woman, whose emerald eyes burned with fury at the Majordomo. “Have you two met before?”

Iode shook his head, “I know her from briefings with Arcona. It’s Vasano, right?”

Her facial features were expressionless as her eyes moved to the Chiss. “Commander Len Iode, expert level marksman with a flair of explosives thrown in. A pleasure to finally meet you, commander.”

Iden clapped his hands together, “Wonderful! You two will be perfect entertainment for tonight. Guards, leave us and stand by to seal the doors.”

The men nodded. Heading to the safety of the observation deck. One at a time, the two dazed opponents’ stun cuffs were released by their Duros host. Len fought to reach out and grab the Majordomo, but his full strength had not returned.

“You two will fight, ” The Majordomo paused in thought, “We shall decide if this fight will end before one of you dies.” Iden stepped out of the “arena,” as the crew called it, and threw a switch, energizing the cage around them. Bolts arced between the metal points of the fence.

Looking to his opponent, Iode tried to assess his opponent’s condition. Her weapons were gone and now the Commander noticed his holster felt lighter too. Lucine’s dose had appeared to wear off faster as she was now on the balls of her feet, ready to swiftly strike her opponent.

Or she deceived everyone as to how bad off she was, the Chiss mused as he raised his own hands to chest height, to block incoming blows.

Fluidly, the Human came towards the Chiss as the edge of her open dominate hand swung towards his neck. Len moved diagonally towards the strike, looping below the swing only to be met with her off hand striking the Executor’s nose. Holding himself together, Iode planted his feet in the Imperial Martial Arts System stance once more.

She felt cartilage crunch beneath her fist and knew that her blow had hit its mark. She danced back a few paces as Len fell into his stance, blood dripping from his nose. For a moment, the Human and the Chiss studied each other, each looking for an opening in the other's defense.

Lucine narrowed her eyes slightly. Len tensed, anticipating another attack. Instead, she spoke quietly in a tone that was barely audible over the shouts of the pirates.

“Commander Iode. I had hoped for a chance to speak with you. But I must confess, I did not think it would be under such hostile circumstances.” The redhead offered him a quick, charming smile that never quite touched her eyes. “Do you have any ideas regarding how we might get out of this mess?”

“We? I am fairly certain you just broke my nose,” Len replied quietly.

“I apologize for that, darling, but it had to be done. If we do not put on an entertaining 'show' for them, they will send us out the airlock. Of course, even if we did put on a good fight, they will likely throw the victor out the airlock anyway.”

The Chiss glanced at the crowd, listening to their jeers. While some of the pirates were busily exchanging credits as they placed bets on the victor, the majority of them were shouting for blood. The jeers were punctuated with the occasional call of “Open the airlock!”

When he turned his attention back to her, he saw that she had taken advantage of his distraction to circle closer. Her open hand flew toward him, though it seemed she was moving more slowly than she had before. When his hand lashed out to strike her at the elbow, his suspicion was confirmed. There had been no real power behind her attack.

His fingers closed around her arm. Taking advantage of her momentum, he twisted her around and bent her arm behind her back. Though he tried to use as little force as possible, it was still enough to cause Lucine to grimace as she felt the tendons in her shoulder creak in his grip. “What's your game, here?” he hissed into her ear.

“Just as I said, darling. I am simply putting on a good show for our pirate friends and trying to buy us time.” The redhead's voice was tight with pain. She reached behind her back, closing the fingers of her free hand around the wrist he had captured. “We must get free of this cage and get our weapons back from Iden if we are to have any hope of surviving this. Our odds would improve significantly if we were to work together.”

She pushed down upon the arm that was pinned, using her free hand to stabilize it and prevent him from breaking it. As she did so, she stomped downward. Her heel glanced off of the side of his foot, his boot absorbing most of the force of the blow. Still, the kick surprised him enough to release her arm. She stumbled forward a few steps, before turning to face him. “Do we have an agreement?”

Len studied her closely, considering the situation. He could not detect any guile in her words, and there was the fact that she was pulling her punches. Well, most of them, he thought wryly as he reached up to touch his shattered nose. “Fine,” he replied at last.

“Kill 'im, sweetheart! And look good doing it!” one of the pirates yelled. The Sith spared the greasy-looking Human an icy glare, taking in his reddened eyes and sallow skin. “Excellent. And as it happens, I was just struck by an idea. I need you to pretend to incapacitate me.”

“What?!”

“Pretend to knock me out,” the redhead explained.

“I know what it means. Why do you want me to do it?”

“There really is no time to explain, darling. But remember, I said pretend.” She spun toward him, aiming an elbow at his jaw.