Authors note- Hello! I'm not sure how exactly this story will turn out, but I'm here to give it a try! The songs are- "What Hurts The Most" By Rascal Flatts, and "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" by Drowning Pool. I recomend listening to them first, or while your reading to understand what's going on with the music. I'm going to use real songs, just so you guys will be able to hear the melody and understand how the lyrics go. I might change the lyrics up though, skip a line here or there, or things like that. Should be interesting though, but I wanna hear what you guys think. Go read! ^.^
I sighed, and looked around my desk while reclining in my chair. Another day on the Endar Spire. I was recruited on this mission to be an adviser to Jedi Bastila Shan. It was a pain of a job because she wouldn't listen to any one, let alone a low down Captain in the Republic. I don't know what her masters were thinking.
A timid knock came at the door, and I called for them to come in. A green private, probably on his first mission, took two steps in and saluted. I saluted him back and gestured for him to continue.
"Captain Onasi, your orders are too report to the bridge at oh'seven hundred hours tomorrow morning for a meeting with the onboard Jedi. They want to go over specifics of the resistance effort on Bespin."
"Will do." I said, and turned to go back to my work. I looked up again when I realized he hadn't left. He was at attention again, his hand stiff with a salute. I rolled my eyes and weakly saluted him back, breathing a sigh of relief when he left. The door clanged shut with a sort of finality.
Lately this had been my life, dealing with the usual harassment complaints of soldiers, and carrying out the will of the onboard Jedi. Not what I'd imagined I'd be doing in my life. To be honest, I never thought I would stay this long in the Republic, oh no, I had a family on Telos to worry about. But one man had taken care of that. I reached into a drawer and pulled out a hologram. It was old, and a bit decrepit at the edges, but it still glowed blue when I pressed the power button.
I smiled at the beautiful woman who waved at me. Her name was Morgana, and she was holding our newborn baby Dustil. The hologram reached the end of its recording, and they froze in the air. As always, I felt a surge of anger. It had been my fault, all of it had been my fault. If only I hadn't been so blind, if only I could have seen past all of his lies.
When I thought about all the men who betrayed us, who fled to the dark side, one man stands out. Saul Karath. He had been my mentor, practically my father. Now, his very name brought bile to my throat. He had come to me one night, telling me all about the Republics' failures, how it was on the decline. I could tell now that he had been trying to recruit me for the Sith. At the time, I couldn't conceive of it, he couldn't be serious! I had argued with him, he got angry and left. That night I woke up to sith interdictor ships firing upon our base. He had given them the codes to bypass our security. I knew right away what had happened. But that was only the beginning.
He stole a few of our ships with the men on board, including the Leviathan. Any one manning the ships were forced to convert, or was murdered mercilessly. It wasn't even that, though. I was on a routine run around the Outer Kwymar sector near my homeworld. I remember the chaos that ensued after the reports of Telos being under attack came in. Nobody wanted to believe it, a full out attack on a civilian planet? Unthinkable! But it was true, it was horribly true!
We arrived too late, most of the cities were in ruins, half of the planet was burning due to the bombs they were dropping. I took a shuttle against orders. I rode down to the surface, where my wife and son lived. I was too late. I found Morgana near the rubble that had been our home. She was just barely alive. I called for the medics but they…they didn't come in time. I never found Dustil, he disappeared that very day. I followed the reports for years, but eventually I stopped. I have been hunting Saul for years now, and if I ever catch up to him, he will regret what he has done, he will regret it!
I tossed the hologram back in the desk drawer. Hell of a chance I had stuck on this ship, playing baby-sitter for a bunch of wizened old Jedi. I stood up and walked to the window.
"I'm so sorry Morgana. I just wasn't there in time." I rested my head against the cool glass, and allowed a single tear to fall. I slowly straightened up, but kept one hand on the glass. I quietly hummed a few bars of a familiar song to myself. Morgana had loved to sing. I would watch from the doorway as she had sung lullabies to Dustil as a baby. Sometimes she had even convinced me to join in.
"I can take the rain on the roof of this empty house…" I sang softly, "That don't bother me." It had been one of her favorites, and I had teased her about her taste in music.
"I can take a few tears now and then and just let 'em out." My voice slowly gained strength, and I could almost hear her singing along with me. "I'm not afraid to cry every once in a while, even though going on with you gone still upsets me. There are days, every now and again I pretend I'm okay, but that's not what gets me."
"What hurts the most, is being so close. And having so much to say, and watching you walk away. And not seeing that loving you…is what I was trying to do." Morgana had begged me to give up life in the Navy, so we could return to her homeworld. I had convinced her to stay, at least for one more year. She stayed on Telos because I asked her too, and that was the reason she had died.
"It's hard to deal with the pain of losing' you everywhere I go…but I'm doing it. It's hard to force that smile when I see our old friends and I'm alone." I paused and tried to clear the lump in my throat. "Still harder getting up, getting dressed, living with this regret, but I know if I could do it over…" I had to stop, the lump in my throat grew too big to force any more words out. "If I could do it over…" I whispered, "If I could do it over I never would have hurt you Morgana. I wouldn't have been so blind." A flash of light appeared, the familiar rays of a ship dropping out of hyperspace. I felt the jolt of being caught in an interdictor ray.
"What the frack?" I said, all emotion forgot. I was a battle hardened soldier now. The ship rolled with a few shots, and just before they threw the shields up, I got a glimpse of the attacking vessel. The Leviathan.
XXX
Do your duty, and get the Frack out of here. I chanted to myself yet again. I had been onboard the Endar Spire for almost two and a half weeks. Even though I had been a soldier, and was used to the hustle and bustle of onboard life, I had hoped I was out of the Republic for good. I had earned my stripes during the Mandalorian wars, and quickly resigned after the last treaty had been declared. After which I had gone on a well deserved vacation. It was nice to be able to travel the galaxy and not have to kill or blow up everyone I met.
I had heard the rumors about a growing sith presence, and like any good civilian, I had promptly ignored it. I had done my time; let them get some other smart wit fool with a blaster. I thought I was in the clear right up until the sith had reached occupied Republic airspace. Then I had to deal with recruiters begging for me to join back up. Hard to say no when they'd quarantined my ship and put me on the no fly list for shuttles. It was either join back up for Credits! Glory! and Adventure! or sit on some backwash planet. Yeah, I found myself reporting for duty in no time.
"Hey Fiona!" called one of the few corporals that didn't make my skin crawl. "Wanna play some pazaak?"
I wrinkled my nose in distaste at the colorful cards. "No thanks. Any game where you cant call in an air-strike is crap." He laughed and nodded, and went off to find some other card shark. I for one was off for some shut-eye. Coming back from the gym, I ducked into the refresher first and grabbed a quick shower. I snuck down the short hallway to my room. Already feeling the effects of exhaustion, I crawled into my bunk in my underclothes. I snuggled down into my uncomfortable mattress, relieved with the knowledge my bunk mate wouldn't be off duty for a few hours.
The ship rolled violently and I rolled out of my bunk. I squirmed to get loose from my attacking blankets that had mysteriously gotten wrapped around my legs while I slept. I sat up and started pulling on the rough fabric, furiously ignoring the compromising situation I was in. Sitting on the floor with your legs incapacitated while wearing nothing more than undergarments wasn't a sight that would rally troops. On second thought, maybe it would.
I had just managed to stand up when my door slid open. I brought my hands up to protect myself when I saw the familiar head of white blond hair. "Trask." I breathed, "Thank goodness it's you."
He had come racing in, taken a double look at my attire, and adverted his eyes. Always the gentleman. "The Endar Spire's under attack. We have to get to the bridge and help Bastila!"
"Right." I muttered while tugging on a pullover workout shirt. No need to make the sith die laughing. He might had been worried about the Jedi, but I was more concerned about our immediate survival. "Have they managed to board yet?"
"Only the advancing party. If we hurry, we can get to the bridge before the main fleet arrives. Let's move out!" He poised his hand over the door controls while I grabbed my vibroblades and tucked a small pistol in my belt.
"Let's go." I said, and he nodded and pressed the button.
We opened the door to a hail of blaster fire.
"Get down!" Trask hissed in my ear, and pulled my arm down. We slid into the cover of a sparking repair droid. The sith refused to stop firing, and I could hear the durosteel of the droid beginning to melt.
"We cant sit here all day," Trask said, "What are we going to do?"
Battle lust gleamed in my eyes. "We're going to…let the bodies hit the floor."
He blinked, "We're going to what?"
"Let the bodies hit the floor." I whispered again.
"What's wrong with you?" Trask muttered.
"Let the bodies hit the…" two blaster shots hit the door behind us, resulting in a shower of sparks that blurred everyone's vision. "Floor!" I yelled, and charged after the sith. I ducked under a few extraneous shots while simultaneously pulling out my vibroswords.
"One, nothing wrong with me!" I yelled. The first sith I came to didn't even have a chance to pull out his swords. I sliced through the thick black material of his uniform, effectively slitting his neck.
"Two, nothing wrong with me!" I trust my other sword up though the second siths stomach and into his chest. The blood-soaked sword barely peaked out of his back. I let it fall with his body.
"Three, nothing wrong with me!" I parried the third sith's attack with my own sword. While he was distracted, I grabbed his blaster from his holster. Spinning around his body, I aimed and shot him in the back of his head.
"Four, nothing wrong with me!" I used the barrel of the blaster to block the last sith's vibrosword attack. Kicking him back, I knelt quickly and retrieved my other sword from the second sith's chest. While he stumbled, I crossed my blades and decapitated him.
I turned back to where Trask was slowly standing behind the droid. He nodded appreciatively at me. "Let the bodies hit the floor." he said.
"Let the bodies hit the floor!" I answered.
"Let the bodies hit the floor!" we both roared at each other through the battle high. We laughed, happy we were both still alive.
I wiped my blades on one of the bodies while he hacked open the next door. I stepped delicately around the bodies, now that the blood lust had faded I felt slightly queasy. I jammed the other doors in the hallway while Trask worked to get the door in our path open.
"Let's see what's behind door number three! I muttered as it slid open. Thankfully, it was a much more welcome sight than the last one had been. We sprinted down the vacant hallway until we reached the grub hall as we soldiers liked to call it. I looked at our choices from a tactical view. We could chance the cafeteria, which was wide open and could be suicide depending on who was in there, or we could take the roundabout way through the portside dormitories which would take longer but would be safer. As I looked into Trask's eyes, I knew which path we where taking. I pressed open the cafeteria's door and quickly ducked inside. I quickly sent up a thank you to whoever might had been listening. The place was deserted of any living, although the dead and dying lay everywhere. Apparently the sith had already been through here. I did a quick check to see if there was anyone without a mortal wound who we could save. My gut churned with guilt as we picked our way through the bodies. I wasn't a medic, and we were running short on time. The most I could do was hand my pistol to a dire looking young private with a extremely painful looking gut wound. We where almost to the other side when an explosion of colors caught my eye.
It was a pazaak deck, scattered in a sick rainbow. A puddle of blood stained the inner rim of cards. Unable to look away, I followed the scarlet trail to its maker. It was the same corporal who had offered me a game of pazaak. He had been shot multiple times in the chest and had the eeriness of the recently deceased. My tears prickled slightly until training kicked in and I started functioning on auto-pilot. There would be time to grieve later, as long as I got out of here soon enough. I backed up when I realized that if I had stayed for one harmless little game, I could have been laying on the floor next to him.
"Let's just go." I whispered to Trask. He nodded mutely and followed me the rest of the way to the bridge. We had to fight a few more sith soldiers, who I incapacitated quickly and emotionlessly.
When we reached the bridge door, Trask gave me a small nod. "This side or the other." he whispered as a quick moral booster or a farewell, whichever one would be more appropriate after the battle. The door slid open to a quick blast of fire and a sloppily thrown flash bang.
After some fancy sword work and some lucky shots we managed to empty the bridge of unfriendlies. I did a quick scan of the bodies, looking for the familiar brown of the Jedi's robes. I motioned us on when I didn't see any, although I didn't know yet if that was good are bad. I grabbed a communicator off one of the dead soldiers and radioed in for orders. We were told by a crackling voice to abandon ship.
"Man, that was Carth Onasi! If he said things are bad, you better believe it." Trask told me.
"Then let's not stand around here admiring the pilot, let's get out arse's out of here!" I told him.
We were almost to the escape pods when we heard a weak thumping against a door. It almost sounded like a person banging on it.
"There's someone behind here," Trask said, walking forward, "They could be hurt."
"Trask, don't! We don't have time to help them if they are-" before I finished speaking he had the door open. I barely had time to note the dying Jedi who had thumped on the door before the hum of a light saber made me look up. He looked evil, black billowing robes tinted red from the weapon. Trask gave me one last look before slamming the door shut in my face.
"You frackin' di'kut! You bloody idiot!" I yelled at him through the door. I heard a muffled yelp from the other side that sent me running. Trask had sacrificed himself for me, and I wasn't about to let that go to waste. I paused right before I opened the next door. Looking back to where Trask had disappeared, I whispered a final goodbye. "I'll see you on the other side, brother." I shook the tears out of my eyes and kept going. I couldn't count how many men and women I had seen die in battle, and it never got any easier.
I was almost to the escape pod chamber when I heard laughing behind a door. Of course it happened to be the one I needed to get through. I saw a nearby computer console and a plan started forming in my mind. I quickly typed in my pass code to log into the mainframe. Typing in a convenient code I managed to memorize, I just happened upon the security network. I opened up the camera files and quickly found the one for the next room. The laughter I had heard was a sith armada in the next room, torturing a Republic soldier. Anger boiled in my veins, and for a split second I contemplated rushing headfirst in there and slaughtering the mass of them. Reason decided to argue this point, saying that I would most likely be shot down before I managed to take them out. I needed a different plan.
I examined the war droid on the other side of the room. I was good with repairs, but it would take time I didn't have. The sith were finishing up with the soldier. I heard a blaster shot echo through the console and through the wall. They shot the soldier and by the looks of it were getting ready to pack out. I needed them dead, now. Glancing back at the screen I saw a power conductor in the other room Perfect. A quick override of the system and a couple dangerous power movements later, the power conductor overloaded and killed everyone in the room.
I had to manually open the door as the power surge had shorted it out. I glanced down in pity at the poor soldier, a sergeant by his uniform. I bent down and closed his eyes, feeling a pang of sorrow for the man I'd never met. I started for the escape pod chamber when a weak gurgling caught my attention. A sith soldier in the corner of the room had escaped complete electrocution.
"Please…" he cried out, "Please help…me." I looked him over once with cold eyes. I then bent and picked up the Republic soldiers blaster that was lying a few feet away from him. I carefully aimed it at the sith and fired twice. Bending down again, I placed the weapon in the Republic soldier's hand and curled his fingers around it. I straightened and walked out of the room without a second glance.
The door opened to another blaster pointed at me. I rolled my eyes yet again. I am so getting out of the navy as soon as we get out of here. All this violence and crappy food isn't good for the soul. The blaster wielder finally comprehended my republic stature and lowered his weapon. "Who are you?" he asked.
"Fiona Lea with the Republic navy. And you?"
He cocked an eyebrow with my lack of rank but didn't mention it. Always did like a guy who knew when to keep his mouth shut. "Captain Carth Onasi. And as much as I would love to stand around here chatting all day, this ships about to blow. We can hide out on the planet below. C'mon!" he squirmed into the last remaining escape pod, the small entrance not exactly made for his broad shoulders. I crawled in after him and shut the hatch. "Hold on!" he said mili-seconds before hitting the launch button. Inertia knocked my head backwards into the durosteel plating and everything went mercifully black.
So there you go. Liked it? Didn't like it? Let me know! Hit that beautiful review button right underneath this text. Anyone who reviews gets a preview of the next chapter!
As always, Thanks to my Beta-reader, Rockforthecross74, for putting up with my constant story jumping. Go check out her story, Who I Am Or Who I've Been. It's crazy good! Go now, while you still have KotOR on the brain!
So, get ready for a ton of randomness, maybe Mission doing the can-can with bounty hunters in the cantina, possibly having Malak beat-boxing when his technician presses the wrong button. Lots of things in store. So PLEASE review! (If you don't, I'm going to send a choir of singing Ja-wa's to keep you awake at night! Muhahaha!)