Part 1.1 of the Rim Conquests

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I moved with instinct alone. too fast for the conscious mind to process. Move to the left to dodge a blaster bolt. Fire a bolt between a droid's photoreceptors. Another round into a SB II's leg joint. Vibro-knife through It's red glowing center photoreceptor and into it's motivator. Lift a B-1 And use it as a shield against the squad of Bandie slave soldiers. Crush one Bandies' skull with the E-11's stock while firing into it's squad-mates. Disembowel the Tervig slave master with vibro-knife. Take his fragmentation detonator and toss it at the ion cannon operator.

All of this happened within the first ten seconds in the trench. As I knowingly killed for the first time, I felt the spirits of the beings cry out. I felt their horror and pain. I drew it in and relished it. It made me stronger then ever. The feelings reminded me of the little Jedi youngling's spirits as they cried out. The fear had turned to rage. The pain to power. I sucked it in like sweet blue milk.

Three clones survived the last ten seconds. I glanced over my shoulder at them. "Keep moving. If we stop, the mortar team will get a fix on us. Don't fall behind, and keep low." I don't know how long it would take for the next wave of expendable comrades to reach this position. i can hear LAATs in the distance. I can feel that if I wait for them, I will be dead before they arrive.

The only way to go is forward. The force is with me. Steadying my hands and giving sharpness to my senses. My helmet's view-screens are scratched and blocked with Bandie bodily fluids. The audio receivers are clogged with slimy green blood. I break protocol and remove my helmet. My senses are sharper than ever before. I feel the Bandie slave soldiers a few dozen yards away. I hear their three chambered hearts and smell their stench through the scent of their former comrade's vaporized innards. The keening hiss of a few B-1's droid-brains and the soft grinding of their cheap hydrological limbs.

I am for the first time, at one with the force. It sings to me and vibrates with rage, pain, and fear. I draw it in.

"This way." I say to the far cleaner troopers behind me before following my feelings.

The trenches are zigzaged and interconnected. Once, this was a city. I feel the pain and pleasures of ages past in echos of force power. The joy and pleasure of the Bandies long dead. The suffering and sadness of an entire species as it was enslaved, raped, and, oppressed by their Tervig cousins. The sweet sadistic pleasure of domination the Tervigs express at every opportunity. The little echos of tens of thousands of years of pain and misery. I draw the suffering into myself.

I exploded around the corner of the trench. A shiny vibro-sword scavenged from the Tervig officer went through two battle-droids in one swing. The E-11, I held one handed like a pistol and unloaded into the the mass of flesh. The Bandies clicked their death wails through pained insectiod-like mandibles. Their deaths felt like sickly sweet bon cakes. Addictive and delicious.

I fed some of the energy to the clones behind me. I felt them become angry for the first time in their lives. The force strengthened them. They joined my revel in the carnage. i sensed their new sense of rage at their lot in life. Their two short years of life have done nothing to prepare them for these feelings. I ran through the zigzagging trenches like a Kowakian monkey-lizard on deathsticks. Blasting and cutting, I killed without abandon. I did not tire. The force fed me.

The blue sun in the sky had begun to set when the regular stormtrooper clones began to catch up to me. I felt tiredness begin to creep into my mind passed the force-induced fog of violence. My clones were dead.

"Sir, Were retreating. Evac in ten minutes." A clone Sgt. told me as I was about to charge another trench. I was without my helmet and as such did not hear the losses we had suffered.

As the LAAT carried me back to the ship, I noticed the time. An hour and a half had passed since C platoon had deployed. I heard the reports coming in on the pilot's com.

"We need evac! We've taken heavy los*ugh* *Blaster fire*!

We're surrounded, we need backup! *Explosion*

No, Don't shoot me there! I surrendered! *Blaster fire*"

Back on the Venator, I followed protocol. I went directly to the Company command terminal and entered my code cylinder.