Ellac Conrat vs. Lieutenant Eliwufe'en'omfo (Core Name: Eeno)

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.

“What is this, Vane?” Ellac stood just outside the illuminated fighting ring, glaring over at his occasional acquaintance and long-time pain in the rear Mao’han Vane, who was just coming up for air after polishing off his most recent mug of ale.

“This, my friend…,” Mao’han said, clapping Ellac’s shoulder and leaning in so as to be heard over the roar of the crowd that had gathered to watch the fight. “…is what we pirates live for!”

The Sith frowned down at the Clawdite’s hand on his shoulder. “And who am I fighting?”

Gingerly peeling his hand away with a sheepish chuckle, Mao’han pointed to the other side of the ring. “See the one in the old clone armor, just there?”

Ellac leveled another eyeless glare on the Clawdite.

“Right… Sorry,” Mao’han chuckled again, rubbing the back of his neck. “Point is, he’s a Jedi; And one of yours, at that.”

Ellac turned his senses to the other side of the ring, his mind landing on the man in question, a sore thumb in this crowd of ruffians. “One of mine?” Ellac asked, crossing his arms.

“Mmnm-!” Mao’han grunted, preoccupied with his refilled mug. “Yeah, he’s from one of your clans,” he said as he wiped the foam from his mouth. “I figured you’d know him, what with there not being as many Jedi around these days and all.”

Before Ellac could respond, a rugged Devaronian had taken the stage, stepping up to the center of the ring as the lights in the hangar dimmed. “Ladies and gentlemen, and especially the not so gentle of men!,” He hollered into the microphone as he turned in a wide, grandstanding circle. “Did you come for violence?”

The crowd roared in response.

“Did you come for blood?”

The roars grew louder.

“Then get ready for the fight you’ve all been waiting for… Two men will enter, and only one man will win! Shall we meet tonight’s contenders?”

The floor of the hangar rumbled as the crowd began to stomp and shout in anticipation.

“In this corner,” the Devaronian said, pointing at Eeno. “A brand new face and a relic from history all in one… Ladies and Gents, I give you your Jedi!”

Boos and taunts erupted from the audience.

“Aaand in this corner,” the Announcer’s finger pointed at Ellac. “It’s a face you’ll wish you’d soon forget! Is he a man? Is he a monster? No one cares as long as he can fight! I give you your Sith!”

The crowd fell quiet as their eyes landed on Ellac’s mangled face.

A hand on his shoulder silently pat the Sith in the shoulder in sympathy. “They’ll change their tune once the match starts,” Mao’han said, offering Ellac his helmet.

Slipping the stalker helmet over his head, Ellac ducked under the ropes as he entered the ring to face his opponent.

Eeno had taken to the ring as well, his helmet still under his arm as he stepped toward Ellac. “May the best man win,” he said, extending a hand out.

A clawed, metal hand took Eeno’s as the Announcer stepped between them, pushing them out to their corners. “Are you ready?” He asked, looking at Eeno.

“Ready,” Eeno said, donning his helmet.

“Are you ready?” The Devaronian asked Ellac.

Ellac nodded, pulling his lightsaber from his belt as he widened his stance.

“Fight!” The Announcer shouted, quickly stepping out of the ring to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

Eeno drew his sabers, igniting them in a flash of blue as Ellac sprang toward him. Their lightsabers clashed with hiss as Ellac brought one end of his double-blades down on the Jedi. Eeno had to use both blades to push his attacker off, ducking to the side as Ellac swung the other end of his lightsaber under the Chiss’s guard.

“Not bad,” Ellac said, standing to full height as the two began to circle around the ring.

“My master used a double blade,” he said as he rebound from the near miss under his guard. Arnid said there would be sparring here not a pit fight against a half machine bounty hunter, he thought. Even as he thought that he sensed the man’s connection to the force. He sensed a dark connection stronger than his to the light. “You build that lightsaber yourself?”

“Yes,” Ellac said tilting turning his head just noticeably towards Eeno.

“You talk much?”

Ellac grunted then leaped towards his opponent. Eeno blocked the blow and jumped back. As their blades crossed this second time Eeno noticed a small detail on the other’s garb, a blindfold. He must rely on his hearing and the force. He disengaged his left lightsaber and pulled out his blaster.

They engaged again, this time Eeno put as much concentration as he could spare into his danger sense. Their blades clashed, one throw left the other block right Eeno would dodge Ellac’s blows by centimeters and the crowd was loving it. After about thirty seconds of engagement Eeno got an opening and fired his pistol. He didn’t Ellac because he wasn’t trying to, he sent the bolt past the man’s right ear. Eeno knew from experience nothing could be heard from that ear for the next few hours. For his gambit he got a scrape across his left leg and while it only just scraped the skin it hurt immensely.

Eeno disengaged and jumped away, moving to the right of his opponent. He holstered his blaster and called his second lightsaber to his hand. With a snap-hiss the blade ignited and he awaited Ellac’s next move.

Ellac jerked back from the shot, clutching the side of his helmet over his ringing ear. Luckily, his armor had automatically dampened much of the noise, but the move had still been effective at rattling his concentration. “Not bad at all.”

On the other side of the ring, Eeno winced at the burn on his leg, but otherwise stood ready.

Steeling himself against the sharp tone in his ear, Ellac twirled his hilt in his hands, turning his blades in a dance of red light as he began to march toward the Jedi.

Eeno stood his ground as Ellac drew closer, digging deep into his concentration to anticipate the moment that Ellac broke his advance with a powerful horizontal slash. Eeno ducked under, twisting his wrists to bring his blades into an upward slash that Ellac just barely sidestepped, pivoting on his toe as he swung his leg out, catching Eeno in the stomach, knocking him into the fence that bordered the edge of the ring.

The Chiss bounced off the railing, dropping to one knee as he clutched his abdomen. “That’s gonna leave a mark,” he coughed out as he pushed himself back to his feet.

Outside the ring, the audience was in uproar as they cheered and raised their cups to the show unfolding before them.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I almost forgot!” The Devaronian announcer’s voice cut over the clamor of the crowd. “Wadda’ya say we turn up the heat a little bit on our friends here?”

With a signal from the announcer, a loud shunk indicated the flipping of a switch as the fence surrounding the ring came alive with electricity.

If the crowd had been in uproar before, then the only description for the noise they were making was that of hysteria.

Ellac rolled his shoulders has he widened his stance, flourishing his lightsaber as he brought it to bear in front of him, with one hand close to his side in the telltale stance of a seasoned Juyo practitioner. “Your move, Jedi.”

Eeno dropped into his stance as a user of Vapaad; right foot front pointing at his opponent, left sideways behind steadying him, the right lightsaber out the same direction as his foot while the left in a diagonal to defend his body. He began to move, staying on his Ellac’s right forcing him to concentrate more on sensing him. Using that Eeno moved to the middle of the arena.

Attacking towards Ellac’s right Eeno almost hit but the blow was blocked. Swinging his lightsabers to the left he blocked a blow from Ellac, it was very slightly slower than when the sith had attacked before. Ellac attacked again swinging one end of his lightsaber down towards Eeno who blocked it with both sabers. Swinging his sabers around Eeno tried to get under his opponent’s guard but failed as Ellac blocked the low strike. They continued this way, nigh equals with Ellac still having the edge. Once in a while one of them would dodge a strike or scrape the other’s armor but neither could land a hit.

Eeno in fact was not trying to hit him. Coming at his opponent’s left he used the superior speed of Vapaad to his advantage, slowly pushing Ellac back with each attempted strike. Just a little farther and Eeno disengaged his left lightsaber. Using the force he sent a strike towards Ellac that threw the sith off balance and pushed him back some. Taking advantage of this Eeno engaged again striking high to get his opponent’s lightsaber out of the way of a kick that sent him into the now electrified wall.

Blue sparks of electricity arched across Ellac’s body as he slammed into the fence, the sudden surge of power seizing up his cybernetic parts. “Hnnh-!” he groaned through gritted teeth, his lightsaber falling from his hand.

The hangar boomed with thunderous cheers as the Sith fell to his knees at Eeno’s feet. “Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!,” the crowd chanted in glee.

Eeno frowned under his helmet at the bloodthirsty crowd. He wasn’t here to kill anyone, much less an unarmed opponent. Justice was one thing; Murder was another. “Good fight,” he said, extending another hand toward Ellac who was still twitching from the electricity.

‘Kill! Kill! Kill!’ The words rang in Ellac’s head as the walls in his mind began to give way to the depths of his rising anger. The shock had been stronger than he realized, and he struggled to move his mechanical limbs. The Sith turned his mind to the pain: His body throbbing from the convulsions, his ear still ringing from Eeno’s trick shot… With a concentrated effort, Ellac lifted his arm with external control of the Force, puppeteering his own limbs into submission as he opened his mind to the full strength of the Dark Side.

Something in Eeno’s gut twisted as his opponent reached to take his hand. ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this,’ he thought, pulling his hand back before Ellac had grabbed it.

For a moment, Ellac’s hand hung extended as his foe took a few steps back. Slowly, deliberately, his hand returned to him as he pushed himself to his feet.

Eeno instinctively widened his stance, sensing the thick ebb of the Dark Side oozing off of Ellac. “Listen, we don't have to keep fighting. We can end this right now.” He knew it was a long shot, but he had to try to shut this down before it came to bloodshed.

Ellac took a step forward, his movements slower but steady. He took another step, summoning the lightsaber that lay at his feet to his hand.

“Don’t,” Eeno warned, reactivating his second saber.

Reaching out with his off hand, Ellac focused on Eeno’s second blade, calling the weapon from the Jedi’s hand.

Eeno fought to hold onto the weapon, but it slipped from his grasp almost instantly as it flew to his opponent.

Catching the weapon, Ellac dug his vibroclaws into it, crushing the hilt as he continued his advance.

Eeno steeled himself as he watched the pieces fall to the ground. “So be it,” he said, gripping his lone saber with two hands as he took stance against his enemy.

Activating only one side of his lightsaber, Ellac cocked his arm back, bringing his blade down at Eeno with frightening strength.

Eeno raised his blade to block, but aborted the defense at the last second as he hopped backwards.

Still advancing, Ellac transferred the momentum of his attack into the next, raising his blade over his other shoulder before swinging down on Eeno again.

Eeno hopped back again, giving up the ground he had gained before. Behind him, the sharp crackle of the shock fence warned him that dodging was not going to be an option again. Quickly turning his mind to the Force as it moved through his body, Eeno bolstered his strength as he prepared for the Sith’s incoming swing.

CRACK!

A bright flash of white sparked between the two combatants as their blades collided with a mighty force.

Ellac pushed his blade hard against Eeno’s, the two men locked in a battle of strength. Seeing that neither side was giving in, Ellac reached his free hand underneath Eeno’s guard, taking hold of the Chiss’ wrist before throwing him off to the side.

Eeno tumbled across the ground before recovering and quickly moving back to the center of the arena, He then disengaged his lightsaber and threw it to the side. It landed touching the electric fence. “I will not fight you,” Eeno said as he poured his full concentration into his danger sense and let the sith make the next move. No, this was not the sith, he thought, the man had lost control. This is some feral beast.

Clearing his mind he dodged a strike, then another. One, two, three more as a ferocious animal disguised as a man tried and failed to attack him. He jumped over the beast to land near the fence and the beast ran at him at full boar. Eeno dodged at the last second letting the ferocious creature ram into the fence.

Eeno again returned to the center of the arena. This time he became very still not moving, even holding his breath. The blind beast to have lost enough control that he could not sense where Eeno was. A few moments passed everything but the beast being completely silent. Even the crowd had quieted. Then the ferocious creature satisfied it had found its prey leaped forward with incredible force. Too bad that force was wasted as it barreled into the ground.

Eeno knowing a jedi still needs oxygen had to start breathing again. As he did he returned his concentration to his danger sense. The beast almost immediately located him and it was back to dodging chaotic blows from this beast pretending to be a man. Pretending and doing a bad job at it.

The beast attacked him again this time Eeno had a plan. Moving with the attack he grabbed the thing’s lightsaber and was able to take it from its hand. Jumping across the arena to give himself a moment as the lightsaber disengaged on its own. It must have some sort of cell scanner telling it who is holding it. Knowing that those in his time usually only harmed the holder if they activated the blade and not being shocked by holding it, Eeno started working. He quickly took off both emitters and dropped them before having to dodge another strike. Taking one more part off each end he got the kaiburr crystals out of the lightsaber and tossed them aside along with the rest of the saber. The beast caught up to him this time and slashed at his chest plate, not able to piece the armor with the strike.

Returning his full attention yet again to his danger sense Eeno awaited the beast’s next move.

Ellac’s head was pounding with the sound of his own heartbeat, his chest heaving with hot, heavy breaths. ‘Focus, Ellac!’ he called to himself, wrestling to take control of his mind again. His clawed hands scratched at the ribbed armor that was surgically grafted to his skin, his whole body itching from the pain of his second contact with the shock fence. ‘Focus.’

Eeno cocked his head slightly as he watched the beast before him regain himself, not fully understanding what he was seeing.

All around the ring, the crowd watched with bated breath for fear that their cheers would attract the attention of the rampaging Sith.

His mind returning, Ellac began to sense with clarity his surroundings: The hangar, the audience, the ring… And the Jedi that stood with him in it.

Turning on the balls of his feet, Ellac thrust out his hand toward Eeno with a flick of his wrist, activating the fibercord whip that had been installed into his cybernetics. The cord shot out, ensnaring Eeno’s ankle before he could dodge it. Ellac pulled the cord taught, yanking the Jedi off his feet as he began to drag him in.

In reflex, Eeno’s hand reached for his lightsaber before remembering that he had tossed it away. Cursing himself, he reached instead for his blaster. Ellac had nearly pulled him in when he lined up the shot on the fibercord, severing the line as he rolled to his feet.

Just as the Jedi was finding his footing, Ellac had sprung toward him, slapping him as his claws dug into the plastoid cheek of Eeno’s helmet. The impact knocked the Chiss back, staggering him as another swipe scratched into the plating on his stomach. As he stumbled again, Ellac’s hand was on the back of his neck, pulling him into a violent headbutt.

Dropping to one knee at Ellac’s feet, Eeno clutched his head as the world spun around him, dots speckling his vision and his head immediately beginning to throb.

The pirate crew of the Godless Matron erupted in their chorus of cheers once more, as riotous as ever there was a cry from such a blaggard bunch. They had seen this picture before, mere minutes ago, only the roles had been reversed. All the same to them, they began their chant again. “Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!”

Reaching down, Ellac seized Eeno up by the throat, lifting this man just taller than himself off the ground to where his toes could barely scrape the floor. And for a moment, the Sith paused, wrestling with himself about what his next move should be.

“Kill!” The crowd cheered, clapping and pumping their fists into the air.

Eeno gasped as he frantically tried to find footing, his vision clearing enough for him to meet the vacant eyes of the Sith Stalker helmet peering up at him. Squeezing his hands as he strained against the mechanical grip on his throat, Eeno realized that he still had his blaster in his hand from earlier. The world was beginning to fade into black, and he knew that time was up; It was either going to be him or Ellac. His arm moved to raise his blaster, but Ellac could sense his choice to kill him as he made it; A sudden stun pulse from Ellac’s glove surged through Eeno’s neck, ripping away his strength as he fell limp in the Sith’s grasp.

Loosing his grip, Ellac let Eeno’s unconscious body fall to the ground as the lights in the hanger switched back on.

“It’s over! It’s over! The fight is over!” The announcer’s voice boomed through the overhead speakers. “The Jedi is down! Ladies and gentlemen, the Jedi is down!”

Ellac’s shoved his helmet off as he gasped for air, the surging power of the Dark Side suddenly draining from his body. His cybernetic arms dropped lifeless at his sides as his knees buckled beneath him. The pounding in his head felt as if it might explode at any moment; The room grew strangely muffled as his chest heaved even heavier than before, and the last thing he remembered was his face hitting the floor.