Move!!!

Grok had insisted on going first, knowing the burn would be initiated from behind them, so if there was any chance either of them could survive it he said it would be him, having been shielded by Niko's charred remains. Niko begrudgingly accepted to avoid delays. When the alarms went off, Grok went much faster, surprisingly so for a creature of his size. Being smaller and sleeker, Niko was able to keep up and soon they were at a vent of some kind.

The air had grown heavy the closer they got to the vent and they realized why. The other side of it was space - no oxygen. "Did we pass another shaft or vent?" Grok asked angrily.

"No," Niko replied.

"What now?!"

"I'm thinking..."

A foot came back and kicked Niko. "Think faster!"

"That helps a lot!"

"I told you I'd kill you if this didn't work...," Grok said and began nudging backwards towards Niko, kicking back at him the whole way.

"Stop it!" Grok continued and Niko could only avoid them by climbing on top of Grok, but was then smashed into the top of the shaft's narrow walls. "We have to think of a way out of this!"

"It's useless, but at least I'll have the comfort knowing I killed you and they didn't!"

Suddenly, there was a creaking, groaning, and Niko and Grok found themselves falling. Thankfully, it was only a few feet and Niko rolled off with the fall and both looked up to see the shaft they'd been crawling through and they'd just so happened to be over a service hatch, accessible only from the outside but made of a weaker metal than the wall proper.

They sat up and looked around. It appeared to be a galley of some kind and with all the alarms going off, no one was just relaxing in the galley. Into the attached kitchen, they saw a cooking droid who Grok smashed before it could even act. Through the back, into a backroom, they were able to get through to some sort of storage area and take a breather.

"See... I told you we'd get out of there," Niko said breathing heavy.

Grok chuckled but then the pair heard a pair of humanoid voices back in the kitchen. "What happened to this one? Someone get fed up with the bantha fodder it makes for us and decide to smash it?" There was a laugh and soon a pair of humans in flight suits were heard coming.

"While the guards deal with whatever faulty system alarms are distracting everyone, I know where the warden hides his stash of Seikosha Whiskey," one human said.

Grok stepped out in front of them. "The alarms aren't faulty..." and smashed one of them over the head hard with a fist. There was a sickening crunch about it that made his fate obvious. Grok was about to strike the other when Niko jumped in and caught the other human in a choke hold.

"We need him alive, he's a pilot..."

Grok grinned. "Where's the hangar?" The fist came up and was about to land when the pilot spilled his guts...

Within a new minutes they were onboard a shuttle and preparing to leave. The bay doors were on lockdown though. Grok shook a fit at Niko. "I can override it, but if you leave without me..." he said menacingly.

"Really?"

And Grok leapt from the shuttle and was over by the bay doors, working some control panel. The doors began opening and Niko saw Grok fiddle with something, there was a spark, and while the main door began to open a larger blast shield began to close.

A squad came running into the hangar, blasting away. Grok was onboard and shouting to go. Niko tossed the pilot out of the ship. "You'll thank me for this..." he shouted to him as he fell and went to the cockpit and had them out through the doors before they could be crushed by the blast shield.

Niko scanned the controls. "This is just a shuttle, no hyperdrive. Our only hope is to get down to that planet there and make our way from there."

"Good enough...," Grok groaned. Grok had managed to disable the blast door, so no fighters or other ships from the prison would be coming after them. No one was coming to meet them either from the surface. Grok began rummaging around the controls and ripped out a small box. "Transponder... no one can trail us now."

There was a settlement of some kind as they neared land, so they landed the shuttle a bit away and headed for it, not seeing anywhere else to go. They spied a few humans around a speeder chatting. Grok searched around for something heavy. "Alright, I think we can clear the gap before they can scream or get that speeder up to power and away. You ready?"

"Ready...," Niko replied.

"On three... 1...2...," Grok said.

"Three," Niko said and brought the large pipe down he'd found on Grok's head. Niko wasn't as strong as Grok, thankfully, so he figured he wasn't dead. He wasn't moving and when Niko got close enough that had Grok been conscious he surely would have killed Niko (and didn't) he was confident Grok was out.

"Sorry bud, but I can't have you killing everyone..."

And he strolled out to charm the guys around his new speeder.

To be continued