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.

The Godless Matron was huge. Much bigger than the casual ship Sage was used to fly in. He did not enjoy being inside an enormous floating piece of metal without even knowing where the nearest exit was.

To put it simply, The Boss was lost.

He had been strolling for half an hour now. His datapad said he needed to find the cargo bay B-245, but all the Zeltron could see were small hangar bays that could barely fit a medium freighter.

As he kept walking, with his usual flamboyant fashion, the Zeltron’s ears picked an all too familiar sound. Cheering.

And not any cheering. This was the kind of cheering you’d hear in a pit fight. His eyes gleamed with excitement, and his ears followed the sound into a small hangar.

”Hangar Zerek.” Sage read on the entrance. ”I didn’t know they had pits here.”

He stepped inside, to a rowdy crowd that was mounting around a makeshift square arena, at the center of what used to be the hangar. The electrofences, the shouts of encouragement, the bets being made and… “a kid?”

The Boss had to squint his eyes and look harder to confirm his initial impression.

There really was a Togorian youngling at the center of the arena. The alien’s physique left much to be desired of a pit fighter, which intrigued the Zeltron even more.

Without a care for who he was bumping and pushing aside, Sage came closer to the arena’s fence.

“You!” he shouted to a Duros nearby, “What’s going on?”

“Oh mate, this karking child is about to learn not to mess with the ‘Three handed Pirates’, he is.” The Duros snorted. “He messed with the wrong captain, and got challenged to a duel. And he accepted!” then the alien burst out laughing.

Sage had heard the name before. ”Three handed Pirates…”

It was at the same time that the Boss realised two things. First, that he knew the Togorian. They had fought side by side before, and he was part of Clan Arcona, and house Qel-Droma. And second, that the Three handed Pirates was a group of bloodthirsty killers, whom he had dealt with before.

“Kiddo!” The Boss was serious, an unusual tone for him. “You gotta get out of there now! You don’t know who you’re dealing with.” His booming voice reached the Togorian with ease.

“Sage?” Sven Rawioni finally noticed the towering Zeltron. “What are you doing here?”

“I should ask you that!” He boomed. “But we don’t have time for that. At any moment the Three…” Sage was interrupted by a loud horn that announced the arrival of Sven’s opponent.

From the opposite side of the arena, a corridor formed between the crowd, and a large Wookie with dark fur, emerged. It was missing several patches of fur, having scars all over his body. But its key feature was a protruding metallic arm coming out of his back.

“Kiddo!” Sage yelled. “I know you can do those magic thingies. “So use them to fly over this fence.”

“No can do Sage. He challenged me and I accepted.” Sven proudly announced. “I’m eager to teach this Wookie some manners.”

As the Wookie came closer to the arena, the crowd started cheering his name in unison.

“Bir’Chevaa! Bir’Chevaa! Bir’Chevaa…”

The electric fences turned off for a moment, to allow the tall Wookie to get inside. At the last second, before turning back on, Sage lunged forward and rolled inside the arena.

“What are you doing?” Sven angrily asked.

“Saving your furry ass!” Sage was pissed.

He had dealt with these pirates before, and they weren’t exactly on good terms. He then quickly pondered why the hell was he stepping in to protect someone he didn’t even care about. But what would the others say…

“Ah karking hell. I’ll deal with you later!” The Zeltron said, immediately dashing towards the Wookie Pirate.

Sage punched as hard as he could with his right fist, which the Wookie parried with ease. Then he followed with a jab from his left arm. Much to the Zeltron’s surprise, his punch was stopped by the Wookie’s third arm. The cold and strong grip pressing hard on Sage’s fist caused him to grin.

“I didn’t ask for your help.” Sven announced from behind the Wookie.

The Togorian had taken the distraction to quickly sneak behind the Pirate and drew his lightsaber.

“Parry this you filth.”

Grabbing Sage with his other arm, Bir’Chevaa lifted the Zeltron from the ground and rotated him towards the slashin blade. Fortunately though, Sven reacted on time and turned his lightsaber off. The Wookie rotated two more times before releasing Sage and throwing him against the electric fence.

Zapping pain coursed through the Zeltron’s body as he fell, smoke rising from his jacket’s burnt feathers.

Sven put himself between Bir’Chevaa and Sage, protecting his companion.

“I don’t need him to help me,” he said. “In fact, he’d only slow me down. Now we can finally do this.”

Bir’Chevaa growled loudly in response as both prepared to re-engage.