Greetings everyone! I went off on a tangent to write this story when I had an idea . . . actually I don't remember the original idea but who cares, this story is here now . . . also . . . Kalen . . . she wasn't meant to exist . . . but she is here now . . . i need to redraw my plans . . . all of them. in any case, enjoy and I will see you at the bottom.
Prologue
My planet was Neutral, as far as I know, it had been neutral since the sith wars over a thousand years before . . . the separatists had tried to take control of the military industry that we had built up for personal defence . . . we beat them back but the separatists were already on the way out by then. I was a boy when droids were clanking on Tanonia, my planet. I'd had some training with how to use a blaster and was in the trenches carrying ammo, med-kits and messages. I even had a few good shots at the droids themselves . . . nobody cared that I was murdering machines.
Now however . . . things were different. The Empire decided our time as a neutral state was over. The Imperial Fleet brushed aside our limited space force like so much space dust while our starfighters took to the planet's surface where they'd be better used as aero fighters instead. Even with the Imperials flooding our skies with tie fighters, we still had an edge, our fighters could boom in at high speeds, take out a tie or two and be gone before they could even manoeuvre. Tie fighters were not meant for combat in atmosphere but they did good enough as ground attack craft due to their slow speed.
"Damnit! They are launching another wave! They don't even bring their blasters to their shoulders!" Came the call of a soldier beside me. "Tanin, we got any more of them old republic gatling blasters?" the man asked, addressing me.
"Cole, shut up and fight, worry about the hardware later" I said to the man. He was a dark haired man that hadn't cut it in some time and held it out of his way with a red bandanna. I shouldered my blaster, it was an XL-22, a model that Tanonia had made themselves. And yes, I was named after the planet . . . anyway, the blaster was rectangular tube with a pistol grip, a box for a stock and a tube on bottom for a hand grip. Looking through the scope, I was presented with a nice picture of the approaching wave of Storm Troopers, we had heard that the Empire had started churning these soldiers out but the idea that they were the best of the best was foreign to us . . . until they started cutting through our soldiers even though they were entrenched. Getting them while they were on approach was simple enough, they moved straight for us, rarely stopping for cover and thus we were able to pick a few off before they got to us . . . but then they got in range of their guns and they didn't even slow down, firing from the hip with precision.
"Damn it!" Said the one female of the group of ten that I was leading, Kalen was her name and she had been something of a life saver for group morale . . . now however, Ducky, was laying in a heap in front of her with a glowing hole in his head. Kalen ducked, strands of dark hair spilling onto her shoulders whilst being held in check by a beanie.
"Blasted interconnected targeting systems! They have their scopes built into their bloody helmets" I said as I snarled at the flood of white armoured enemies. "Fall back, we can trip the bombs and move to the next defensive position" I said and my five remaining soldiers moved off
Standing a good distance back, we watched as the stormtroopers were standing on the defensive works we had just occupied. Kalen clicked a button on a device and the defencive works exploded, taking the couple dozen stormtroopers out in a bright yellow glow.
"We should have a few hours before the next wave . . . I'm sure the attack force is going just as well elsewhere . . . Let's settle in and wait for the next attack" I said as I watched the road.
We settled in and waited but no attack came that day, I guess they decided to focus resources elsewhere for the day. A smokeless fire was made as the sun went down and the four of us sat around it, boiling some stew while Kalen proved her use again by singing another popular song in that beautifully clear voice of hers . . . the girl was eighteen . . . barely a woman and here she was fighting for the right to exist.
The other two had fallen asleep and it was just me and Kalen, sitting in a position where we could watch the Emperials come and detonate the explosives in the ground if we needed too.
"Do you think we have a chance?" Asked the girl, she was sitting comfortably despite the frost that was settling in, not a shiver at all even as the crisp breeze wafted the hair from her shoulders.
"We fought off the separatists . . . If we can make the Imperials pay enough they might just decide we aren't worth it and call it a loss" I said to the girl looking at the glow of explosions detonating in the distance.
"What if they don't? What if they are offended that someone dares resist?" she asked me, desperation in her voice.
"We won't know that . . . not until it is far too late already . . . the fact that we are still dealing with Imperial ground forces means a lot, they won't bombard their own troops from orbit" I said and the girl looked relieved
"We have a chance" She said with a forlorn smile before sidling over to me "There's four of us left . . . no chance for reinforcement . . . we're dead aren't we?" She asked me and I looked down at her.
"Not yet we aren't . . . but when the time comes I want all of our kill counts in the triple figures" I said to the girl although I never disagreed with her, she smiled. Seemed like she was ready to die.
"Can I ask for one thing before the end?" The girl asked and I raised an eyebrow in response "I don't want to die a girl" the statement was simple enough and she was an adult and I had to admit she was cute . . . I was six years older than her so that wasn't much of a problem I guess. I agreed and honestly, If we weren't dead already, I might have wondered if we could have been an item but for the time we had left, we agreed that we'd do just that.
Things came to a head the next day. The Imperials had sent and AT-ST walker, brand spanking new walker that Kalen blew up with a thermal detonator tossed into the leg joint while the Imperials stormed our barricades . . . we had nowhere else to run to after that and I knew it was it but we made the Imperials pay. I shot stormtrooper after stormtrooper after stormtrooper with it coming down to just me and Kalen, my rifle and her twin pistols we shot them again and again until he came.
Darth Vader
The imposing man appeared out of nowhere, striding towards us as the stormtroopers that surrounded me and Kalen backed off. I turned to look at the man and felt the girl behind me press into me a little, we weren't scared, to be scared one had to fear death but we had already come to terms with it some time ago. A brush of Kalen's hair brought a thought to my mind . . . a thought I should never have had.
"Darth Vader" I said looking at the man, lightsaber deactivated. "I have a request" Kalen stiffened behind me and Vader stopped in front of us. "Would my death be sufficient for you to take Kalen as some form of retainer?" I asked and I could feel Kalen's shock at my request.
"No" was the reply I got and Kalen relaxed behind me. I of course grinned.
"Oh well" I said, shouldering my blaster and taking aim at the dark lord of the sith. Kalen raised her own blasters at him, her smile already engraved in my memory "I tried" And then we fought. For some reason Vader didn't use the force, instead using his lightsaber and sheer skill . . . we fought blaster to blade and with some competence. Even though the man could see the future, the moment he took his attention off one of us, the other would lay down a whittling rate of fire from outside his field of view, forcing him to focus attention on them or be shot in the back and the cycle would repeat until at last, Kalen took a slice across her chest and fell limp to the ground . . . I looked at Vader and Kalen and just kept firing, positioning myself closer and closer to the dying Kalen while Vader strode closer and closer, casually redirecting my blaster fire no matter how dense it was until finally he rammed his lightsaber right through my gut, deactivated his blade and turned around, not even bothering to watch as I slumped to the ground beside Kalen. I took her hand and she, with laboured breathing took mine. We smiled at each other and my eyes finally would be held open no further as blackness descended on me.
Naturally this wasn't the end or I wouldn't be writing this . . . wouldn't make sense now would it?
I opened my eyes to a soft white light, my blaster was gone but my hand was still intertwined with Kalen's . . . so we were together in death? At least that was my thought at the time. I looked over at the girl, brushed my thumb across her cheek and slowly she roused at my touch. Seeing me . . . and the soft white light around us, the first question of hers was hardly misplaced.
"Is this heaven?" she asked as she checked herself for injury, there was none, our clothes weren't even damaged.
"If you are here . . . then yes" I said and the girl smiled. Then her smile turned into a frown, she looked cute even when frowning.
"What was that business asking the dark lord of the sith to take me? I had already gotten used to my rapidly approaching death! Don't give a girl false hope like that! Especially if she wouldn't be able to bear life . . ." The girl looked down as she finished her rant. I kissed her cheek and drew her head into my chest. "So where are we?" She asked and I looked around, finally noticing a white figure standing there watching us with a smile.
"Erm . . . I'm sorry, Kalen and Tanin" I said to the figure pointing to Kalen and myself respectively the woman, I had at that moment identified her as one, stepped forward.
"I know who you are" She said in an ethereal voice "And I know you are like me in that you should be dead yet are cast here adrift the swirling tides of the Force" I furrowed my brows . . . the woman was doing the stereotypical thing of talking in riddles . . . the more "spirit" like the entity, the more cryptic they must communicate . . . or so the cliche went. "The world you are bound for is one carved in the blood and violence of war . . . but plots are a foot and perhaps you could aid the valiant defenders of peace in their quest for harmony?" Kalen snorted
"So basically you have only a touch more of an idea than we have of what's going on" Kalen said and the ethereal woman nodded
"That is correct . . . I have been wondering this" The woman gestured to the whitescape we were currently in "For centuries . . . I have encountered others of course but you two . . . are special, you two are being reborn in a new world . . . I know little on this world but I can teach you some marginal control over the Force . . . It might carry over" The woman said, no longer talking in cryptic riddles. I looked at Kalen and she looked at me before we turned our attention back to the woman and nodded.
Well here we are, end of the prologue, I actually have the next chapter ready to upload and will do so momentarily so don't worry about further content and hold your reviews until you read that as well please.
In any case please let me know what you liked, disliked, what you thought could use improvement and what you'd like to see more of. Take care
