Chapter 2: Crash Landing

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To be strong I must exploit myself on the weak. That is the natural order and the only order- Sanjan Rahman (near the end of the clone wars)

I don't know how long it had been since I had last destroyed those fighters. Hours, days I might have even believed that it had been weeks. But some rational part of me knew that it had only been a few seconds; A few seconds for my world to be shattered forever. A few seconds for me to go from practising my shooting to fighting for my life. I was sprint to the middle of the ship, hoping to find some.

Unfortunately, most of the crew I had found was dead, forcing me to fight my way toward the heart of the ship where the crew is most likely act. However it was slightly tiring for me. Jackals while faster than humans didn't have the natural genetics that let them run for long distances. Most Kig-Yar such as myself have to work nearly three times as long before we can reach the same level as a normal human to reach the same level of endurance, and my time may have just run out.

Quickly I sidestepped a laser blast coming forma squad of droids. How stupid were these things. I pulled out the Type-33 Guided Munitions Launcher I had scavenged from my fellow Kig-Yar. There were several, which I had learned as, blaster rifles pointed at me. Wasting no time I followed the Golden Infantry rule of the Allied Species.

Take cover or die.

Seeing as there was no pieces of cover around me I had to improvise. Quickly I pulled out by shield as the blaster rifles fired very inaccurately at me.

In fact only 1 out of the 10 shot had reached me from the distance between us. Using this to my advantage I sprayed the group of eight battle droids with my Needler, one each. It didn't seem to matter where I shot as long as I hit the robots. They all just exploded upon impact. Stupid things.

Then there was sickening crunch followed by tsunami of pain in my shoulder as I was forced around by a much larger droid. It stood an inch above its skinny brethren and was covered in thick blue armour. Great I had to run into one of these things. The droid slowly lifted me into the air before aiming directly at me with its right forearm. For a minute I was wondering why the hell it was taking so long to kill me. A sign of intelligence and sadism perhaps?

What am I thinking? I'm about to be killed by this hunk of metal and I'm wondering about how smart it is. I should be considering how it snuck up on me so easily. Then again I couldn't blame myself. I'm a sniper not a skirmisher. Guess this is how it ends.

Just before the robot fired at me, it's back exploded in a shower of sparks and liquid metal. Using this to my advantage I clawed the robot with my right foot, once again penetrating through its thin armour.

Whoever made these things didn't consider the armour going against sharp claws. My right foot caused an opening in the circuitry allowing me to see destroy it with my other foot as a spun around. The robot loosened its hold on me just enough to allow a good roundhouse kick in. My kick cut through the surprised droid and out the other end.

The force of the kick sent both of us toppling to the sanding ground below. The robot twitched a little bit before halting al together. I crab walked back to my Needler rifle a fired one more shot just in case. I had fought three of these things already and it takes at least one solid plasma blast to bring them down. I scanned the area for my mysterious savior when he appeared.

A large Unggoy gorilla walked to me.

"Matt!" I greeted happily waving at my friend.

"Typical, you can't go through one front line fight without me watching your back," taunted Matt. Both males knew however that Matt didn't mean it.

"Come one, we have to get out of here," I beckoned. However Zakai grabs one of the droids and pushes it towards Sanjan with his fuel rod.

"First take a look at these droids," he replied emphasizing it with the dark blue one which he rolls to me. I inspect it for a few seconds before finally understanding what he means.

"You want to hack the databases of these droids?" I questioned. Afterall we were friends but Matt should have known better than to suggest this to me.

"Matt, we have no idea what's in these droids. If I hack and check what's left of this database, we might trigger a failsafe that could ultimately destroy our programs or worse be traced back to Allied Species space," I responded.

Matt almost immediately stood up a little bit straighter. We had both seen what some human rebels had done to a base that they had hacked. Although together we only killed five attackers there was a much greater meaning to the attack. When a Dumb AI wen to check what was in the rebel armour systems the suits unleashed dozens of viruses which temporarily shut down power within the base for a few minutes. Then the main force of humans attacked the base. Although the AI was able to gain control of their systems once again and the anti-infantry weapons the cost was extremely high. A dozen of the hundred soldiers stationed there died; our friends, our comrades, our brothers. All from a few dead rebels.

"Your right," he grunted, "let the techie's get what's left, now our main priority is survival."

I nodded at Matt before slowly walking forward my Needler out and ready. We kept up the pace for a few minutes, avoiding any large groups of robots. No need to test our luck too much. A pair of fighters zoom over us before being shot down but gunfire. Large pieces of what remained of the ship was covered across the desert battlefield allowing us substantial amounts of cover. However it all stopped after a few hundred meters. There was some pieces of cover but not enough to protect us from those dam fighters.

"Got any ideas?" questioned Matt.

"No," I replied, "Its suicide to make a run for it. We either get killed by those fighters flying ahead, friendly fire"

As if to prove my point a motor shell hit another platoon of droids leaving only scrap metal.

"Or robots."

Almost as if it was whatever divine intervention one of those weird troop transports somehow survived the large amounts of fire before releasing a large amount of robots.

"Battle droids," corrected Matt.

"What?" I asked, looking at my shorter Unggoy friend.

"Their called battle droids. I heard them calling themselves that before I blew them to kingdom come," retorted Matt.

"Oh, well in that case these battle droids," I replied before turning to the carnage in front of me.

I instantly regrated my decision as two platoons started converging at our position. Their blaster rifles at the ready and two targets only; our heads.

"Are coming at us." I finish shocked. I thought we were well hidden. Guess no plan truly survives the fight with the enemy. Even if they are pretty dam stupid.

"Hell of an awesome way to start our day," answered Matt sarcastically. I nod glumly at him. Time to see if our training really played off. I give Matt the signal before sprinting to the nearest piece of cover getting into firing range of these metal bastards.

Profile: Sanjan Rahman

Rank: Staff Sergeant or Kig-Yar Major.

Sanjan has spent much of his life in two places. The aqua world of Zito and the cities of Eayn. Like most hybrids, Sanjan is known to have been attacked by pure humans and Kig-Yar during his childhood. He however has enjoyed his time fishing with his father and his crew during crab season in the violent Zito seas.

Sanjan is believed to have joined the military because of the numerous work place benefits it provides for soldiers who leave to pursue civilian lives. To this date he had been known for six counts of violence to his fellow troopers and one act of vandalism to his commanding officer in his six month stay in the Allied Species Army.

However he remains to this day an excellent soldier an as been tolerated and punished appropriately. Even if he's as good as is his he is not exceptional and will not be treated as such.

Profile: Matt Zakai.

Rank: Unggoy Heavy specialist and Sergeant

Similar Sanjan, Matt Zakai is a human raised alien. As an outreach program, several humans were asked to adopt several Alien orphans. Now most of these orphans were treated horribly and the project was considered a failure for obvious reasons. Zakai is one of the lucky ones. His father was a lodger who was responsible for cutting down several different trees for Unggoy products. Although they hated each other in the beginning the two later bonder and became friends.

Due to the life of a lodger and an extremely active and balanced life, which few Unggoy follow, Matt is 167.24 cm which is larger than the average 152.4 cm. He retains his Unggoy name though and only Sanjan can call him Matt.