"What..." hi voice faltered, "what could have done this..." The young Jedi knight spoke quietly looking upon the atrocity before him through his macrobinoculors from the view port of a shuttle as it zoomed towards the surface of charred, blackened planet.
Hours before, during hyperspace transit they were pulled into some anomaly after a hyper drive malfunction. They were spat out of hyperspace into unfamiliar territory so in order to learn more of this new place, the ship he was on, a Venator, took orbit of a planet that was thankfully nearby. A shuttle was sent to the surface, as the heavy cloud coverage made it impossible to see the surface.
The shuttle containing the Jedi and a score of clone troopers, broke through the murky clouds, and a terrifying view was granted to the unsuspecting people within the small rickety ship.
In the distance, perhaps a few dozen kilometers away was a massive city, with towering Gothic spires of immense magnitude. To behold it would bring awe to any man. Not anymore as the city as it was now was in ruins. Great plumes of smoke rose from the devastated place, it was as if a giant child had a tantrum in a toy city, immense pieces of rubble were strewn across the city, as if a giant hand had ripped chunks from buildings and threw them. The battle there was done though, that was apparent, as he just noticed there was battle about to begin. Thousands, upon thousands of grey and black armored men were entrenched in a defensive line that spanned a three or four kilometers, a sea of camouflaged vehicles, they were uniform in design, tall and proud in a spectacularly barbaric way, and made for a single purpose; to wage a brutal war. These were not re-purposed farm vehicles taken and refitted for war, no these were war machines refitted in favor for a more painful, visceral death. He could see an ugly light-tank, that occasionally spat a small bit of flame from it's barrel, another vehicle of nearly identical design spat a toxic green gas, thinking of what misery it could cause made him feel uneasy. He could see the infantry waiting in their muddy trenches waiting for this brutal onslaught to begin. Behind them massive titans stood passively, giant weapons that could dish out an enormous amount of death were attached to each arm, four more great cannons sat on a platform above the titan's head with many more weapons all over it's body. The best way to describe such a mighty being would Titanic, in all meanings of the word. Many more smaller warlords of the the battlefield were strewn across the defensive line spaced out from each other for maximized effectiveness. As the ponderous death bringers began there opening salvo. The Jedi turned his macrobinoculors towards the opposing force.
He gasped audibly and quickly turned away from the view port. He began the disturbing process of recollecting the ghastly scene. It was veritable sea of steely, chitinous armor and razor sharp claws swarming forward in with a literal single minded purpose something of which only a Hive mind could accomplish. He could feel the said Hive mind faintly through the force, bending it's will upon these feral creatures. The pilot, of whom emitted quite tangible fear, which did not require the force to sense, alerted us that we were landing, the fear was audible in his shaky voice, however valiantly he tried to mask it.
As the shuttle doors slid open, the horrid atmosphere invaded the small seating compartment and he gagged, he quickly brought his rebreather to his face to stop himself from retching, and to escape the fetid smell of smoke and the metallic taste of blood and ash. The wretched taste and smell of the atmosphere was still tangible through his rebreather, as he took slow and heaving breaths. He stepped down from the shuttle's threshold, his boots hitting charred earth and soot. Ash lazily floated down from the heavens coating him and his men in its morose ashen grey. The atmosphere here intensely oppressive. The misery that was suffered here was overwhelming in the force and the hate, oh the hate, was so suffocatingly strong, as it permeated the force It felt as if thousand pounds was now loaded on his shoulders and he was expected carry such a burden for his stay. He could feel the fear and the hatred in the back of his head, threatening to take over, with all his will he kept at bay, suppressed. He would not last long out here for fear of being forever tainted was real, and forever consuming.
He was young and bold, just recently escaping the title of padawan. "A brash, headstrong young man he is" as Master Yoda described him, with a bright future, and career, he was an exceptional saber wielder and a competent tactician. He could've done great good for the Republic, but now the gravity of the situation came crashing done upon him and with woe he realized that he was never going to return home. He also realized that he was going to die here. Not specifically here on this planet, but maybe a few days or weeks, if he was lucky perhaps a few desperate months in this strange terrifying place.
He felt like collapsing, he wanted to break down and sob, for having such a terrifying realization, that seemed like a natural response to this. He didn't though, no, he mustered what little bravery, courage, or whatever insanity that dwelled within him and used that to get him through this ordeal, or at least the next few moments of it.
A hill blocked there view of the battle, of which a great cacophony of sound was emitted.
He turned towards the troopers awaiting his command.
"Come on men..." he sighed, "Let's see the view." he said sullenly, as he began the trek up the hill.
