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AstralProjection

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re: Peer Review - Trooper Part 4

Lee takes revenge, and the Jedi get their hands dirty. Fun, fun, fun! Let me know your thoughts, as usual.

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I didn’t have a choice. I had to carry on. Lieutenant Ardhel’s last wishes were to see us complete the mission, and that wasn’t going to happen if I took time to mourn my most recent mentor’s passing. He had trained me better than that, taught me that “failure” wasn’t a word in the Republic Special Forces lexicon. The mission would succeed; on the sweat of our backs, and the strength of our wills alone, if we could not win fortune’s favor. Still, it took the mechanical, heavily filtered drone of Sergeant Koon’s voice to bring me back to reality.

“You heard the man, are you going to deny him his dying wish? MOVE OUT!” Sergeant Koon shouted into the remains of the shuttle, motioning to the surviving troopers to follow him out through the blasted out rear of the craft. Shafts of light poured in through deep gashes in the hull torn open by our less than ideal landing, and allowed the raucous sounds of battle to shatter the tranquility of Ardhel’s tomb. The sounds of battle! The fight’s already started, and I’m here frozen to the spot. Move it, Lee, you have a job to do! I reminded myself that much could’ve transpired while I was unconscious, and the concussion I had probably suffered left me still unsure of how much time had really passed. I stuffed my torso back into the cockpit long enough to extract my rifle, which had become my oldest remaining friend, it seemed. That rifle had been with me long before I had ever become acquainted with Wo Koon, Jasla, or any of the others. Its optics were precisely tuned to my personal specifications, and the weapon sported a few “aftermarket” modifications that allowed me to pack an extra heavy punch when necessary. I was the last one out of the hole, stopping only to give one last farewell glance toward the Lieutenant. I’ll be back to give you a decent burial, old friend. But first, you gave me a job to do.

Sergeant Koon stepped out into what appeared to be the main corridor of the West Wing of the WeatherNet facility first and immediately deployed an energy shield behind a fallen mass of ferrocrete that was once part of the ceiling. The roof had been torn open by our craft, which explained the light piercing our damaged shuttle. I was overjoyed to notice one of the troop transports teetering partway over the hole in the roof. It looked no worse for wear than our craft, and judging by the number of Republic troops engaged in the firefight, at least a few squads had survived their crash as well. The other surviving assault shuttle had actually managed to land inside the gaping hole we had torn in the roof of the building. The main corridor was wide and flat, unlike the oddly angular designs on the rooftop that would’ve made Jasla’s orders next to impossible to carry out even if we weren’t under attack. At least someone had a smooth landing, I thought.

It took me only a moment to assess the situation. Several squads of Sith soldiers were charging down the corridor to reinforce those already engaged by our troopers. The constant sound of rapid blaster fire was accentuated by a familiar hum, a deep bass tone that periodically crackled like a welder’s torch when it impacted upon something. It had been a long time since I heard that sound, and it was a welcome noise to my ears.

The three Jedi were alive, and they were locked in combat with a pair of Sith warriors. The younger Jedi fought alone against an older, red skinned Sith pureblood that wielded a pair of scarlet lightsabers with deadly skill, who moved so quickly his attacks became a red blur that were nearly impossible to follow. Somehow the young Jedi was holding his own, though sweat poured from his brow. I began to understand how one so young could lead such a group, and wondered if he could be some sort of prodigy among the Jedi Knights. There was a fearless look in his eye that said that he would suffer no more evil. In an instant, he caught both of his opponents blades across his burning blue blade and heaved with such force that the Sith was thrown backward into the wall. “You will pay for shooting down that transport, Sith. Surrender, in the name of the Galactic Republic!” the young Jedi cried out as he slashed downward through the air.

Laughter permeated the long corridor, a sickening, wicked sound that made me shudder in disgust. “I will do no such thing, child. The miserable wretches you fight with deserved their deaths. Feel the burning hatred of Darth Vicissitus,” he spoke, in a deep, crushing voice that seemed to weigh upon you. The twisted Sith deactivated one of his lightsabers and thrust his left hand forward. Lightning surged out from his hand, but Gaiutus caught it on his blue blade in a shower of sparks and began to force his way forward, one foot at a time.

Meanwhile, the Zabrak and the shaggy blonde Jedi fought a dark haired, lanky young Sith Apprentice, whose visage seemed to be constantly twisted with a triumphant sneer. His double-bladed lightsaber was somehow everywhere at once, part of a surprisingly graceful dance that parried every strike the pair of Jedi Knights could produce. To my eyes he appeared a whirling disc of purple energy that swatted his opponents lightsabers aside. I decided to make a move, knowing that the Sith acolytes were far more dangerous than any standard trooper, and that a Jedi was worth several good men in a large battle. Ending their fights could change the tide of battle in an instant. I quickly hailed Sergeant Koon on our shared comm channel. “Wo, can you give me a distraction? I’m going to give our Jedi friends a hand, but I need a clear shot. What can you do for me?” I ducked behind a large section of wing that had torn off one of the shuttles during the course of the landing in time to avoid a shower of fire from the nearest Sith squad.

“Alpha Squad, get to the shuttle and grab the heavy rockets,” he rasped from behind the cover of his energy shield. “I’m going to do what I can, Lee. We need to seal off this entrance we made as well. They can drop more troops right on top of us if we leave the front door open.” He was right. The professional Sergeant wasted no time getting to work. “Beta squad, I need a smokescreen and covering fire, take up positions behind the shuttles and grab any cover you can find.”

Sergeant Koon reached for his bandolier and grabbed a smoke grenade and a thermal detonator. “Keep your distance, troops, live grenades incoming!” he shouted into the shared comm channel. Enemy fire continued to batter the Kel Dor’s shield, causing it to flicker. He lobbed the smoke grenade into the front ranks of Sith, and then armed his thermal detonator and hurled it as far over their heads as he could toward their reinforcements that were pouring down the corridor. A few other troopers followed his lead, and a series of powerful detonations sounded off in the distance. At the same time a concussion grenade rolled up to the base of the Sergeant’s shield and went off, depleting its remaining energy. The leftover force of the blast knocked him back a few meters and sent the experienced soldier reeling.

I exploded into action, wasting no time in readying my rifle and activating the thermal scope. High magnification and the ability to see through the billowing, rapidly growing cloud of smoke transformed me from an everyday soldier into the hand of fate; judge, jury, and executioner melted down into one efficient unit. I could see the silhouettes of the Jedi clearly, though the magnification made it hard to keep my sight on the rapidly moving trio. To my left, Gaiutus was still fighting off the lightning that seemed to pour endlessly from the Sith marauder’s hand, inching closer one step at a time, neither champion willing to give quarter. That one is immobilized. The perfect target. This one’s for the troops that were on that transport, filth. No, this one’s for Ardhel, I told myself with a grin that was hidden beneath my helmet. I lined up his silhouette in my sight, and put the crosshairs right on his temple. The angle I was facing him from made it the most likely kill shot, since their kind typically wore heavily armored breastplates. Going for the heart could leave him still capable of doing damage. I took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger of my rifle halfway, causing the power cells to oversaturate with an extra burst of energy. It was just one of those special tweaks that I couldn’t live without, and my enemies couldn’t live with. 3…2.., I thought, but one never came. Instead of hearing my rifle sound off, bringing sweet justice to bear down upon the Sith that had shot destroyed our shuttles, the wing I had taken shelter behind was rocked by several powerful shots, one of which blasted through it and struck me in the shoulder. It was enough to knock me off target and I felt a burning sensation and noticed a tell-tale stench that told me the shot had melted away my armor as well. “Damn it! I’m hit!” I cried into the comlink out of reflex.

“It appears we have another sniper, Lee. Take the shot, I can’t buy you any more time, and either the Jedi or the Sith is going to break soon and you’ll lose it,” Wo Koon replied in his robotic-sounding voice. I didn’t have a choice. This is for you, Lieutenant. Throughout my entire career of service, I have never felt so sure of pulling the trigger as I did that day. I forgot about the other sniper, forgot about the battle around me, and pushed everything out of my consciousness but the Sith acolyte that had killed my friends. In one flowing motion I raised myself above the cover of the wing and began to charge my energy cells again. The rifle seemed to move of its own accord. The young Jedi was mere feet away from Darth Vicissitus by then, and even through the smoke screen his frame looked weary and ready to break. The laughter was still ringing all around me, and it may have simply been echoing in my battered skull, but this time it spurred me onward instead of giving me chills. 3…the crosshairs found his temple…2…I took a deep breath…1…I squeezed.

Through all my years as a soldier, it had always fascinated me that such a tiny motion could pass judgment on a life. In the frenzied waltz of battle, it was so imperceptible, such an insignificant motion, and yet in many ways it was the heart and soul of the dance. To omit it would be to forsake an entire step, or simply stop the music altogether. So I struck the chord; it was a chord for justice, a chord for vengeance that played righteously upon the ears of all who would listen. Darth Vicissitus fell still and dropped to the ground. No more lightning streaked across my optics, and the young Jedi Knight fell to his knees with exhaustion a split second behind his opponent. They almost appeared a mirror image of each other, but where one still breathed, another was a lifeless husk that had joined my comrades in whatever awaits us beyond death.

Another round of shots came at me from the far end of the corridor, and they struck with remarkable precision for my enemy being so far from its target. I took another hit in the arm that knocked me back, and possibly saved my life from a second round that struck where my heart had been not a moment before. A stabbing pain gouged my side, joining in with the wounds on my right shoulder and left arm to bring me to the ground. As I fell I could smell the caustic, burning odor of melted armor plating, and knew at least one more shot had gone right through my armor. I laid prone and remained perfectly still, knowing that remaining a small target was my only chance to outlast the sniper. “Target…down,” I grunted into the comlink built into my helmet. “The show…is all yours…Sergeant.”

“Already working on it. Just sit tight, you’ve done plenty already. Oh, and Lee…nice shooting.” I had almost forgotten that the Kel Dor could sound amused once in a while. That shot did feel good. It must have been a huge boost to morale to watch the deadliest enemy on the battlefield drop in a split second, because I was rewarded with scattered battle cries. “Alpha team, remember your targets. You’re cleared to fire,” came the Sergeant’s orders through the channel.

I crawled forward to get a glimpse of what was going to come next, knowing that our ex-mercenary commander could put on quite a show with heavy weapons when called upon. I took my macrobinocular from my belt and brought it up to my helmet in an attempt to locate my hidden enemy. Maybe I’ll be able to see the look on his face when he gets our message, I thought with a grin. A salvo of rockets sailed down the corridor, toward the far end where the enemy troopers were coming from, and more importantly toward the sniper that had it in for me. The enemy commander must have called for a retreat, because the Sith squads at last broke and retreated in the direction they had come from. They were easily outrun by the rockets, which detonated in neat succession, one after the other, near the set of blast doors at the end of the corridor. The entire corridor shook with the force of the heavy anti-vehicle rockets, even as far from the blast as I was, and large chunks of durasteel and ferrocrete sealed off the entrance to the wing. There was no sign of the sniper that had me pinned down just moments earlier.

“Seika, take Gamma Squad, Kryad, you take Delta Squad. Go mop up the resistance, they won’t be able to get out the way they came in. I’m going to see to blocking this hole in the roof,” Sergeant Koon’s orders came through loud and clear, and he was back to being the no-nonsense leader I remembered; the brief hint of amusement was already a thing of the past. The two squad commanders signaled for a charge, and sounded off a new, refreshing battle cry as they led their troops in pursuit of the fleeing Sith soldiers, who were coming to a startled stop at the sight of their escape route being cut off. “FOR THE LIEUTENANT!”

The second Sith Acolyte was still fending off the two Jedi, who were slowly wearing down his defenses. Even with a double-bladed weapon, the apprentice was expending twice the energy as his opponents to keep them at bay, and clearly did not have the strength to overcome them alone. He struck out with lightning at the pair harrying him, but his blasts were weak and erratic compared to the strikes of his master. The two Jedi sprinted around him and leapt into the air simultaneously in an identical spinning thrust. The fight was over a moment later, and I watched as the two Jedi landed on their feet on opposite sides of the Sith warrior, their blades protruding through his torso from either side, one violet and one silver. The two Jedi retracted their blades with a hiss in one smooth motion, and the Zabrak lowered his head as if he felt some sort of guilt for his action. They deserved what they got, don’t you dare pity them. How many lives did that pair of Sith end today? I thought, chastising the Jedi in my head. I had never understood their aversion to killing, at least when it came to bloodthirsty animals like the Sith.

I slowly stood, faltering with my first few steps as I fought off the burning pain in my upper body, and walked across the wreckage toward Wo Koon. “Nice work, Sergeant. You would’ve made Ardhel proud,” I told him.

“As would you have, no doubt. MEDIC!” he barked into his comlink. “One medic from each team report to the crash site, we need to take stock of our survivors and tend to the wounded,” he then turned to me, and added, “Don’t worry, we’ll have those wounds looked at and patch that armor up and you’ll be feeling ready to take on another army before you know it.”

“Thanks, I could use some painkillers, at least,” I said with a grimace. It hurt to keep myself upright, but our job wasn’t done yet. It was far from done. Shake it off. No time to feel sorry for yourself. “Don’t forget our orders, we need to find the mainframe and secure it. That’s where we should set up headquarters. If we’re going to make a last stand anywhere, that will be it. We must keep the Sith from controlling the facility at all costs,” I said, repeating Ardhel’s orders back when the mission started, a moment that already felt detached from my reality.

“Agreed,” he replied. “Once we’re sure we have all of our survivors inside I’m going to detonate the crash site and seal us in completely. After the medics have given you a look, I want you to go retrieve the Lieutenant’s body. I’m sure you wish to give him a proper burial.” I nodded. Sergeant Koon hadn’t known either of us long, but he had been around long enough to know how highly Ardhel thought of me, and vice versa. “I’m going to set some explosives. After that, we’ll locate the mainframe and set up a command post. Understood?”

“Yes, sir!” I said, saluting him. It felt strange to salute someone besides Ardhel, after so many months at the Academy, but if anyone had earned my respect, it was the Kel Dor before me.

The two Jedi had rushed over to their young friend, and were helping him to his feet. I limped over to the shuttle’s wreckage and located their unconscious Padawan, and brought him out to the line of troops awaiting medical attention. He was still breathing comfortably, but was probably knocked for a serious loop when his seat was torn loose from the hull. I sat down beside him, and awaited an available medic. They would have their hands full. There were many dead, and many wounded. Probably only a few score of healthy troopers remained. We would have to get by with whatever fate had given us. Failure wasn’t in the vocabulary, after all. I leaned back against a piece of turbine dislodged in the crash, and the pain from my wounds really hit me when I finally let myself relax. I looked over at the unconscious young man before me, still practically a boy, and wondered what he had done to get himself into such a mess. He seemed so out of place among the dead and dying, a young life with so much still ahead of him. A warzone’s no place for a kid. Rest up. Sometimes dreams are preferable to the reality of things…


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Lord Marvel

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re: Peer Review - Trooper Part 4



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