Ak Rath Kamir hung from a vibrocuff tightly clasped round his hands. His feet were strung in a similar fashion to the floor. He had been like this for two days, he knew this by listening to the shouts coming from the other side of the wall.

Ak Rath Kamir was an Andoori, a race of telepathic beings, famous for their large, blue, bulbous heads which housed their telepathy organs. He was also a Jedi general.

The door of his cell slid open and General Ransom strode in. Ak Rath stayed silent.

“We have received word that your Jedi friends are going to stage a rescue attempt,” the General claimed. This was a lie, Ak Rath’s telepathic sense told him that, he had specifically told the council not to come to his aid unless he alerted them, but he decided to go along with the charade, he mimicked surprise.

“Our Separatist fleet is standing by, once the Jedi arrive, they will be obliterated, unless you tell us what we want to know,” Ransom sneered.

“Fine,” Ak Rath replied in his deep, gravelly voice, “I’ll talk.”

The General laughed, “You crack easily for a Jedi, I do hope this cooperation will continue, for your sake.”

He signalled to his guards to take Ak Rath down and once they’d done so he was escorted out of his cell, hands still cuffed and two blasters pointed at his head. General Ransom strode in front of him with the two guards holding him behind the huge brute of a man.

Ak Rath observed the man who had taken him hostage as he walked with an air of superiority around his ship. General Ransom had only come to be noticed by the Republic recently but had quickly become quite a threat, he was from Coruscant and was around thirty years old but had very little hair, he wore a blue patch over one eye. Ransom enjoyed killing Jedi, he called it a sport, so it was begrudgingly that he had taken Ak Rath hostage on orders from him superiors. He would’ve much rather slain Kamir as he so often reminded him.

The General’s trademark weapon was his cybernetic arm replacement. He’d lost his arm in a duel with a Jedi and had had it replaced. He regularly upgraded and enhanced the arm, he was currently sporting and ion beam which could disable weapons and tear through his enemies as if they were paper.

The ship they were on, the Maelstrom, was the Separatists’ prize possession. It was a huge thing armed with a plasma beam, an ion cannon and hundreds of laser turrets. The ship could, if need be, split into two creating one large, heavily armed defence ship and one smaller, more nimble ship with only a couple of turrets but also a plasma beam. Both ships were equipped with a hyper drive and impenetrable shields. To put it simply, the Maelstrom was unstoppable.

A pair of doors slid open in front of them and they entered onto the bridge, “is everything operational?” Ransom enquired of one of the droids at the console.

“Roger Roger,” the droid shot back in its’ eerie, monotonous voice.

“Excellent”.

Ak Rath observed the bridge. Twenty-five droids, he calculated, that was excluding the two magna-guards escorting him, twenty-seven. Once he had dealt with them he would confront Ransom.

“Welcome, Mr Kamir, to my ship,” Ransom mockingly addressed him, “what do you think?” He indicated the room with his cybernetic arm.

Ak Rath studied the ship, soaking in every part of the main deck, looking for what could be an advantage in battle, he carefully mapped out a plan in his head. He was ready.

The General was talking but he blocked it out, he blocked everything out, as he calmed himself to call upon the force. He opened his eyes, General Ransom looked furious, he had his ion beam pointed as his head, demanding him to speak.

Ak Rath ignored him and thrust of his tied hands backwards, sending the Magna-Guards flying backwards into the wall. The droids were already in position, blasters held aloft. Kamir reached for his lightsaber to fend of the assault- his lightsaber! How could he have been so foolish? It had been taken from him at his imprisonment!

“Looking for this?” Ransom dangled the lightsaber before him, “blast him!” The General screamed before rapidly tweaking his ion beam to prepare for battle.

Kamir launched himself into the air to avoid the first burst of fire and latched himself onto the ceiling then swung himself towards the droids, knocking down two of them. He swooped down to pick up a blaster and freed himself from his bonds then spat out a rally of fire, knocking down five more.

Suddenly a bright beam of purple flew in front of him, destroying the blaster in his hand. He looked up to see Ransom standing before him, a mad grin on his face. Once again Ak Rath called upon the Force to pick up a crate and hurl it at the General to buy him some time. He dashed towards the main control point, blaster fire flying all around him, he had to destroy the ship, it would be a huge blow to the Separatists. Hemashed the controls, he had no time to set specific commands, hoping some sort of damage would be inflicted on the ship, the control panel started fizzing, flames sprouted up around him. He turned to avoid a volley of fire but as he did so another shot hiit him in his right shoulder, the impace sent sim sprawling to the groung.

“Hold your fire!” He heard Ransom command, “I’ll deal with him.”

Part II of Maelstrom coming soon!