"The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity." - Edmund Burke
Rescue Successful!
After captain Iron and his men liberated the village of the bandits who attempted to take it over. With the villagers now aware of the intentions of the Republic and their actions within this world of theirs, they have began evacuating them after telling the chief of the dragon.
Now the clone troopers have started to help with the exodus from the area, guarding them from any and all threats which may come to harm them.
While Jedi knights Raiden Dakkar and Obi-Wan Kenobi were watching over the situation happening back on Coruscant and the growing feeling within the force, something which has been a cause of concern for them...
The galaxy is becoming a much more dangerous place...
~o0o~
Coda Village, Empire's Territory
The Next Day
Within hours of the clones arriving, the people of Koda village were in full gear for leaving the area, informing the residence of a home deep within a forest.
One which contained two individuals, one being a young mage-in-training while the other was an experience mage on the twilight years of his life. Local mages who helped the village from time to time.
The sun began to rise over the horizon as the light began to penetrate through the thick forest canopy, lighting up the forest and everything that was inside. Within the small patch of forest was a small home, one which seemed to lay comfortably within the forest.
While the home was small, it looked rather beat-up as vines seem to crawl along the side of the home. The windows seemed to be in better condition as they let in the natural light of the sun into the home. It was a nice and quiet place for such a home, one which excluded comfort and warmth.
Meanwhile, a wagon was currently being loaded with things from books to clothes and everything else in between.
The wagon looked to be straining underneath the weight of all the things which were being packed. In front of the wagon was a donkey, a creature used for hauling heavy cargo, was grazing at the moment, not paying attention to anything else in the world.
Approaching the wagon was someone carrying a few too many books, the person carrying it was a young girl in her teenage years with light blue hair and was wearing robes for a mage in training such as herself.
"Master, we can't keep piling things onto the wagon." she said, concerned they were putting far too many for the donkey to pull.
At this rate, they couldn't cram anything else into the wagon, it was simply going to be problematic for them when they needed to leave alongside the other villagers. She calmly related this fact to her master, a man far older as well as wiser than her.
"Lelei! Can't you do something about it! I don't wanna leave these things behind!" cried out her master.
Poking his head around the corner was a man wearing far more decorative clothing, along with the white beard showing his age. While his expression told the girl - now named Lelei - about how tired he was at the moment, to all of sudden move decades worth of collecting was something he didn't want to do.
However...
He soon realized what she was going to do. And the master didn't like where she was going once she approached the wagon. Then she started looking through some of the supplies they had and spoke up.
"It would make more sense to leave the Coam fruits and the Lochte pears behind."
The girl called Lelei removed the sacks full of ripe fruits from the wagon one after the other. She placed the book bundle she was holding into the space that was freed up. Coam fruits and Lochte Pears were herbal medicines that were very effective against high fevers. However, these fevers were rare, and so they were not particularly necessary in the short term.
And while they were rare, they were not unobtainable by any stretch, so the precious books she had just loaded up took priority over them.
The old man's shoulder sagged, he honestly didn't feel like moving all of sudden. After living in this home for most of his life, and now to all of sudden leave it after the village was warned about a dragon attack. With the old man hearing about an elf village nearby was destroyed with only one of them surviving the attack, a girl from what he heard.
Making him think about the creature he's seen once in his life.
"The Fire Dragon was not supposed to awaken for possibly another fifty years at the least, why now?" the mage asked himself.
His eyes soon looked towards the road that lead out of their forest and onto one which was filling up with carts and wagons of the villagers of Koda village. Realizing how terrified these people were, the made didn't blame them.
Such a creature like the Fire Dragon was one which terrified most people of this world, and while many have attempted to kill the few, but powerful beast which roam this world, however with little success as they usually were found dead.
It was natural to run when people couldn't fight back...
That was how things worked in this world of theirs, and something they couldn't change.
The old man grumbled and carried the sacks which Lelei had taken off the wagon back into the small house. There was a secret door under his bed where he planned on hiding them. In the meantime, Lelei guided the donkey over and hitched it to the wagon.
"Master, you'd best mount up quickly."
"Ah? What are you saying? I'm not interested in mounting a little girl like big sister would be much better... Oh yes, your big and bouncy sister..."
Lelei glared at the old man with the coldest look she could muster. Then she proceeded to solidify the air into a lump and launched it at him. The solidified air was still only about as hard as a rubber ball, but it still hurt when it hit someone.
"Hey! Stop it! Magic is not a toy! Magic is not to be used for personal gain or enjoyment... Hey!"
"Although there's still some time, we can't play around like this. Let's move out soon."
"I got it, I got it, no need to rush... you really can't take a joke, can you?"
The old man gripped his staff in one hand and settled into the seat next to Lelei. Lelei, on the other hand, glared at the old man and spoke.
"Jokes are meant for entertainment between friends, parents, lovers and other closely related people. However, once they start taking on a sexual nature, one must start taking the other party into consideration as well. For instance, it would be completely unacceptable to start making lewd jokes around a teenage girl. This might well irreparably damage the relationship with them. I believe this should be common knowledge for mature individuals, no?"
The old man sighed deeply as his disciple lectured him.
"Huu... I'm so tired. I wish I didn't have to get old."
"Objectively speaking, that is incorrect. I feel that Master is as hardy as a cockroach."
"Now that's what I call rude. Is that how a disciple should be speaking?"
"This is how I was raised from childhood, and I was raised by my Master."
After her unreserved words, Lelei lightly struck the donkey with her riding crop. The donkey obediently tried to move forward, but it could not, because the wagon's bed was overloaded.
"...Like I said, we're carrying too much."
"That was expected. Also, you were the one who said we could keep piling things on, Master."
Lelei quietly jumped off the wagon. She felt that it would be better to keep walking than sit still on an immobilized vehicle.
"Oi, oi! Lelei, you need to be more patient! If you're like that, nobody will want to marry you, and that would be a shame!"
As the old man said that, he took up the goad and struck the donkey. The donkey tried its best, but as expected, the wagon refused to budge. Lelei noticed that one of the wheels was embedded into the ground, about a third of the way in. If it was stuck like that, it was only natural that the wagon could not move.
"Master, I think you need to get off the wagon."
"Don't, don't worry. After all, don't we have this?"
The old man raised his staff, and Lelei sighed. Mimicking the tone of her master, she replied:
"Magic is not a toy. Magic is not to be used for personal gain or enjoyment..."
Sweat poured like a waterfall from the old man's forehead, and he rushed to answer her.
"We are magicians, we do not walk like the rest of humanity."
However, he could not defy Lelei's glare, which was utterly devoid of warmth or compassion. The old man's mouth opened up as if he were going ah~", and he began chanting the words he had not spoken for a long time.
"..."
His solemnity as an educator clashed with the other feelings in his heart. It would seem the old man's next move would take some time. After a while, he looked at Lelei with an uncomfortable expression on his face.
"I-I'm sorry."
"That's fine. After all, I know that's how Master is."
Lelei was a child who did not sugarcoat her words. After using magic to lighten the weight of the luggage, the donkey could easily pull the wagon and its mountain of cargo. And so, Lelei and her Master sat on the wagon and left the home they had occupied for many years.
GATE: The Clone Wars
Chapter 9: Meeting the Reaper
As Lelei and her master rode into the center of the village, they were soon disturbed by the sight they witnessed. It didn't take them long to find out about the bandits who attacked the village, leaving behind a path of atrocities in their wake.
Hearing stories about women being found dead in alleyways, clearly showing signs of being raped, to men being found hung from nearby buildings, it was all to much to handle for many of the villagers to handle. Soon Lelei heard stories about the men who rescued those who lived here.
About how they wielded weapons which could burn through any armor a soldier wore to even their own armor being able to stop a sword to an steel tipped arrow from penetrating.
However, those were merely stories, and ones Lelei and her master were skeptical about.
Looking at the scene in front of them were an innumerable amount of wagons to carts, all of them carrying everything that they could carry as they began to flee from their homes, some even took haywains and plow harnesses, and some people had even loaded up their horses with saddlebags.
Lelei looked at the scene, forming thoughts about what she was witnessing.
Soon her master spoke up, "You're an intelligent child, these people must look foolish in your eyes, correct?"
The girl took a moment to find the words she was looking for, "These humans are naturally afraid of the Fire Dragon, something all of us feel. It's only natural that they try to escape while they value their own lives."
"You said it was natural for humans... does that mean they're foolish, then?"
Her master's question made her think long and hard about what was currently going on at the moment.
If they really valued their own lives, they would immediately drop everything and run as far as they could. Stopping to take on and secure luggage would only waste time that could be spent on fleeing, and the luggage itself would slow them down. It would be too late to abandon it when the Flame Dragon came.
To begin with, why did humans even struggle so hard to survive? Death was inevitable - it would happen sooner or later. What was the point in slightly prolonging one's life?
Lelei logically dissected the topic as she considered it, and the old man was agonizing over how to speak with her.
Just as they reached the center of the village, they saw there was a large column of wagons that weren't moving. Curious as to what was going on, the older mage spoke out what he and Lelei were thinking.
"What is going on up ahead?" he asked out loud.
The column of wagons did not move, but Lelei's master received a reply from someone in front.
"Ah, it's Kato. And Lelei too. Ah, we're in trouble now. Someone overloaded their wagon and the axle broke, and now it's stuck in the middle of the road and blocking everyone. We're all pitching in, but it'll be a while." the man said.
They would be bogged down by the wagons behind them even if they wanted to turn around and take another route.
With how limited they are on time, they needed to move that wagon out of the way quickly and get the column of wagons on the move again if they were to survive the Fire Dragon's attack if they were found by the creature.
As her master was talking to the villager, Lelei's attention was drawn by a group of mysterious men with white and gray armor, who her surprise, was able to speak their language with ease even if they didn't look like they were from around here.
She wondered how they learned how to speak their language quickly.
It also sparked a sense of curiosity in Lelei as these men were carrying rods of metal and their armor looked unlike anything that has ever been seen in their world before. This along with the tall metal creatures near the front of the column made her curious as to who these men were
'How strange, these men are unlike anything I've seen.'
The young mage's thoughts were solely about these soldiers.
She soon heard a voice full of authority, "Alright, we got a broken down vehicle blocking the road! Boomer, I need you to use the AT-TE to start moving the broken down vehicle out of the way so we can get the line moving again," the man said, while pressing something on his wrist, "Hotshot, Stonewall, and Fox, I need you guys to start telling people to get ready to start moving again."
At a glance, these men were all dressed in the gray and white armor with helmets to cover their face. Not only that but, the strange metal creatures only added more to the mystery about who they are.
With their helmets covering their face and built up frame made it look to be of male gender as their voices were masculine, helping confirm her theory about who they are. It would seem that they belonged to a unknown faction of people that Lelei did not know of.
Although she wasn't quite sure what they were saying, the mysterious soldiers leaped into action under the orders of a man that seemed to be the commander of them with the shoulder pad he was wearing on his right shoulder.
From the look of things, he seemed to be their commanding officer of this unit. They felt like some sort of military organization, the kind that contained their violence with rules and regulations over what the Empire had always done.
She told her master that she was going to 'check things out', and got off the wagon.
The wagon that was the cause of this incident was roughly fifteen wagons ahead.
One of its axles was snapped, and the wagon lay sprawled across the road. She could see scattered luggage, a fallen man, as well as a mother with her child. The horse was collapsed on the road, its mouth dripping with foam. It flailed its limbs as it struggled to get up, so the villagers who wanted to help it stand up were unable to approach.
"Hey you! It's dangerous over there, you need to get back."
It was one of the men in the gray and white armor.
His words were clear to her and knew that the situation happening up ahead was far too dangerous in their mind for someone her age to be near.
However, Lelei realized the fallen mother and child were injured. She brushed aside the man and continued on, ignoring the flailing horse beside her.
"Still alive."
The boy was a little younger than Lelei, about ten years old. After giving her a quick once-over, she found that he had struck his head, and his face and limbs were gradually turning pale. His sweat was flowing like a squeezed rag, and his body was rapidly cooling.
The mother was unconscious, but her condition was stable. The child was the one in danger.
"Lelei! What are you doing? What happened?"
She turned back and saw that the village chief was shouting at her. Beside him was another man in similarly painted armor. He must have gone to inform the chief about this.
"Chief, I think the cause was overloading of the wagon and rot in the axle. The child is in great danger but his parents should be fine. The horse is beyond help."
Soon the elder looked towards the young mage, "Is Kato nearby?" asked the chief.
"He's worrying his head off in the wagons behind. He let me come here to take a look." answered Lelei.
As she spoke, another soldier with the same armor, except for a small white cross on his shoulder, began performing his job of helping the child Lelei had looked at. His technique suggested that he had been medically trained. The man with only two small metal rods in his hand stood beside the chief, and began signalling to his team.
Suddenly a cry rang out.
"Danger!"
The sound of something flying through the air followed shortly, and when Lelei looked back, the thrashing horse lay motionless on the ground. It had missed her by a hair's breadth, but if it had come any closer, the full weight of the horse - ten times that of a man - would have fallen on top of Lelei.
All Lelei knew was that the men in the strange armor had done something to the frenzied horse, and that it had saved her.
~o0o~
Later that Night
Badlands, Empire's Territory
The allied armies, gathered under the Empire's banner, vanished in the span of one night.
If such a thing happened on the other side of the gate, the Republic would do everything in it's power to find them and many across Coruscant would see news reports talking about such a thing. But in this world, to the residents of the Special District, the movements of the army were unknown to them. Even if they lost the war, they would simply exchange one set of rulers for another, and it would not affect their daily lives much.
The reason why this was the case was because this country was contested territory. Sometimes one party would take it, and sometimes another party would conquer it. Since their rulers changed so often, it was impossible for the people to feel any loyalty towards them.
In this world, as long as one's home was not a battlefield, and one's families were not conscripted to fight on the battlefield, the common folk would care nothing about their country.
Even so, the people's lives had been affected in some way due to the events of recently.
The recent rampancy of bandits was the cause.
This world was ruled by soldiers and knights, but none of them acted to suppress banditry. This was because the obligations of nobles and their knights did not extended to maintaining order.
All they cared about was 'control'. In truth, the nobles were no different from the bandits. The former robbed the peasants and called it taxes, while the latter used no such pretense. Both sides refused to accept any form of remonstration and responded to any refusals to pay with brute force.
Even when the nobles or knights rode out to hunt down bandits, they were like shepherds driving off wolves, which meant that they would stop once the bandits vanished from their sight. Frankly speaking, any good they did was merely a side effect..
Since desperate bandits fought harder than normal and might even manage to kill them by luck, nobles and their troops were not too fired up about cornering and finishing off bandits. That opinion was hardly rare. Even on Coruscant, clone troopers weren't always ordered to deal with criminals and sometimes did whatever it was they were ordered to, regardless of the situation currently happening.
That being said, the bandits preferred it when there were fewer nobles and knights around.
Until recently, they had to skulk around in the shadows, but now they could move around freely.
An intelligent hunter would consider that killing all the prey would leave none for the future. Fortunately, or unfortunately, an intelligent person would not have become a bandit, and so most bandits were cruel and ruthless in the extreme.
For instance, there was a family who fled their village as they received news that a dragon had been spotted in the vicinity.
The father drove his wagon with his plowhorse, and on that wagon were all the family's possessions, his 32 year-old wife and his 15 year-old daughter.
The villagers all fled as if they were grazing animals. However, unlike the wild animals of their own world, this family did not move in a group as most do. There was no time for that, not when a dragon could attack at any moment.
So they ignored their villagers' cries for them to stop, and left the village on their own.
On their second night, they ran into a group of bandits.
The man desperately spurred his horse in order to flee, but there was no way for the overburdened wagon and horse to move quickly. With no way to resist, the family was captured by the mounted bandits.
The man was slain instantly, and his wife and daughter were taken away.
In the darkness, over a dozen bandits gathered around a campfire and gleefully rummaged through their spoils.
Their prey had not just been carrying coins and currency, but provisions as well. They filled their bellies with the food they had captured. They even took turns raping the mother and daughter, but the more important bandits had already satiated their bestial lusts and were relaxing with wine.
"Boss! Koda Village is about to make a move!"
Ever since the Flame Dragon appeared, scores of villagers had fled. Laden down with luggage, they could not move fast, nor could they fight back. Why not attack them? There was no reason not to do so. They would slaughter and pillage them.
After hearing his minion speak, the boss laughed in satisfaction. It was a good idea, so they should go ahead and do it. But as he thought about it...
"We don't have enough people."
It would be asking too much of his band of twenty-odd men to take on an entire village at once.
"About that, why don't we get guys from around the area? That way, we can work together to bring in the biggest haul ever."
This was also a good chance to recruit more hands. With enough people, they could successfully attack entire villages, and even towns. If he played his cards right, he cast out by his lord might even aspire to become a lord himself.
From a bandit to a lord. The sweet dream of going from a wretched little thief to the ruler of his own domain filled his mind.
This nameless bandit chief's final moments were spent imagining a time when he would be happiest. Was that a good thing, or a bad thing?
Either way, his head fell from his neck, with blood soon flying into the air.
It rolled across the ground and into the campfire.
The stench of burning hair and scorched flesh instantly filled the campsite.
Biologically speaking, a severed head could retain consciousness for several seconds. That being the case, the chief would have experienced his head falling to the ground. His field of view would have rolled with him, and before he realized what was going on, he would have seen what used to be his body spurting blood .
After that, in his rapidly blackening field of view, he would have seen the black-haired goddess of death bathing in his fresh blood.
The first thing anyone would think when they saw the girl was 'black'.
Her skin was so pale it was nearly transparent, her hair and clothes were black, and her eyes were bottomless pools of obsidian.
The bandit chief's severed head flew with a 'pyun'.
She held a heavy halberd in her hands.
It was a weapon that looked like someone had attached a heavy, slab-like axe blade to a long shaft. It wasn't something a fragile little girl could swing like a matchstick. Nor was it something a girl in black lace should be wielding. That she could use such a weapon with her delicate, slender arms and her thin little fingers, as pale as white jade, was far beyond anyone's ability to imagine.
She rested the halberd over her shoulders, and exhaled loudly. The girl was surrounded by the scattered corpses of the bandits.
"Well, that was fun. You bandits were just wonderful~, thank you for tonight."
She grasped the hem of her skirt and courtesy elegantly.
At a glance, she looked to be around fourteen to even fifteen, and judging by her beauty and refined movements, she seemed to be a very well-bred girl. She had a brilliant smile on her face, but that smile did not reach her eyes. Her black pupils were filled with a hungry darkness, like a fathomless abyss.
"Thank you for offering your lives to me. I thank you on behalf of my god. My god is very pleased with your gift, and he says that I should enjoy myself with you."
"...What! What the hell are you!"
Among the surviving bandits, one of them managed to shout with far more courage than he felt, although his bowels were frozen with fear. He deserved praise for still being able to speak despite the present circumstances.
"Me?"
She smiled adorably.
"I am Rory Mercury. Apostle of Emroy, God of Darkness."
Fear was the only thing the bandits felt when they heard that name. To be associated with Emroy meant that death and destruction followed in her wake. This only made the men want to get away from the demon standing before them.
"I-Is that the formal wear of the priestesses of the Temple of Emroy? One, one of the Twelve Apostles, Rory the Reaper?!"
"Ara~ you knew? Mhmh~ correct."
In the face of the laughing girl, the bandits scattered like leaves. They left everything behind and fled with all their might, driven by their fear of death.
"What, what the hell, how can we fight an Apostle!" one of them shouted.
"Oh, no. No no no no no. You can't run away."
Rory jumped, carrying the heavy slab of metal that seemed to weigh several times more than her. She pursued the fleeing bandits like a ferocious carnivore hunting down its prey. The halberd cleaved through the bandits' heads like she was splitting watermelons at the beach, and the surrounding area was strewn with chunks of flesh.
"Ueh, abbah... aiiiieeeee!"
Rory towered over of the fallen man. She swung her halberd lightly, sweeping it behind her legs before she raised it high above her head.
Her snow-white skin was dyed red by sprays of blood.
"Ufufu... God-sama said so, you know. The goal of all life is death. No Human can escape it."
A pitiful scream rang out just as the halberd swung down.
~o0o~
Same Area, Empire's Territory
5 minutes later
"Haa haa haa why, what is an Apostle of Emroy doing here?!"
The man cursed his misfortune as he ran with all his strength.
A pitiful scream rang out from the distance. Rory the Reaper had claimed another soul.
"Damn, damn it!"
There were no paths in the wilderness at night. The countryside was littered with swamps, rock formations, thorny thickets and trees. The man stumbled occasionally, his body was covered in mud and sweat, and his clothes were torn.
Once more, a howl rang out from in front of him.
He slipped on a patch of mud.
His body slid across the floor, and he bashed his head against the ground.
"Dammit, dammit, dammiiiiiiit, why is my luck so damn bad!"
"Ara~ weren't you having fun?"
There was the sound of footsteps. Upon hearing the clear, bell-like voice, he desperately looked up. The black-clad girl towered over him, backlit by the silver disc of the moon.
"Weren't you having fun just now? Didn't you kill people?"
She planted the pointed tip of her axe between the man's spread legs, a hair away from his groin.
"Aiiieeee! I, I, I've never killed anyone!"
"Ara, really now?"
"It's true! This was the first job I did since I joined! The women too, they said I had to wait till the end since I was the new guy! I didn't even lay a finger on them!"
"Hmmmmmm?"
Rory thought briefly about this before speaking to the man again.
"The other bandits with you have all been called to be with Emroy. Don't you feel lonely by yourself?"
The man shook his head desperately. He was not lonely, not lonely at all.
"However, won't it be sad if you're the only one left out?"
"No, please, I would really like to be left out!" the man begged.
Rory looked at him with a cold gaze that was as sharp as a knife.
"What should I do with you, then~"
As she said that, Rory clapped her hands together.
"I've got it, this should be a good idea. Since you haven't done anything yet, why not start now?"
With that, the black-clad girl grabbed one of the man's legs. He could feel an unimaginable strength that belied her delicate appearance.
"Ru run ra~" she hummed to herself, as she dragged the man like a mop.
"It hurts! Please stop! Gwaahhhh!"
The wilderness here was filled with rocks and sand. They tore the man's clothes to shreds as he was dragged across them, and then rubbed his sweaty skin raw. Soon his body was covered in his own blood.
"Who did you like more between the mother and the daughter?"
"Noooo! Please stop! Gueeehhh "
"Don't stand on ceremony, this is the end for you, anyway. I'll ask nicely so you can do them."
Rory grabbed the man's leg and tossed him. He landed in a ragged heap beside the mother and daughter.
"Well, go ahead then. It's your turn."
The man frantically shook his head. The legs of the naked women remained spread, a hollow testimony to their violation. Their arms were raised, as though hailing the Emperor. Neither of them were moving.
By the looks of things, they had stopped breathing.
"Ara~ what a bother. The two of them have passed on."
It would seem they had been raped to death.
"So sorry, we didn't make it in time."
Rory closed their unblinking eyes and lowered her head. Then she smiled to the man.
"Still, since they're like this, why not do them anyway?"
Dampness spread through the man's crotch, and a puddle of liquid formed below him.
~o0o~
Somewhere in Empire Territory
Few Hours Later
Captain Iron and his team were currently guarding the column of wagons, carts, and other such modes of transportation the people of Koda Village had available to them on such short notice.
While the AT-TE wasn't the quickest vehicle out there, it was certainly faster than anything the villagers had the moment as it was also carrying some of the children who didn't fit on the wagons. Making it the lead vehicle of the column of refugees trying to survive. The captain's thoughts were filled with what he was going to do since the commander was supposed to check in with the base a few hours ago.
Now they were escorting the villagers to a safe location until they felt the Fire Dragon was no longer after them.
Something the clones didn't know how long it would take to do so. As the heavy footsteps of walkers continued to ring out in the distance, the clones currently using the much faster WT-RT were traveling along the side of the column.
"Stonewall, do you read me?"
The clone commander raised his arm, he waited for a few moments until the radio sparked to life.
"Yes captain, I hear ya." responded the clone trooper.
"Make sure to keep an eye on the scanner, we still have no idea what could be out here."
Stonewall felt the same way too, "Yes sir."
As the clones continued to guard the villagers, they soon found that one of the wagons appeared to have broken down. Captain Iron along with another clone trooper started moving to see what was going on.
Once the commander disembarked off his vehicle, the clone looked to see a man with his wife and child, trying his best to fix the wagon and to keep up with the group. While Iron may never admit, he knew the man was trying to save what he and his family had in their possession, things which have importance to them. However, the clone was used to the feeling of loss as he understood he was a soldier in a war these people wouldn't understand.
About how they needed to realize in a chaotic world, sometimes learning to let go was going to let you survive.
This simple fact was accepted by the clone army.
The chief, who was wondering what was going on, headed to speak with the man.
Seeing the expression on the man's face let Iron and the other clones know that he needed to leave behind what was once theirs, for the sake of their own survival. Irons and the clone trooper realized they needed to move the wagon out of the way and burn it to the ground.
Leaving behind something like this was only going to leave behind a trail, one the clones didn't want.
Using the walkers, the clones moved the broken down wagon out the way and made a fire in order to burn it to the ground. Hearing the sound of sobbing, the clones looked to see the man holding his family while the clones certainly felt something, it wasn't enough to make them pity the family.
It was simply the world these people lived in.
One where danger is present everywhere and this family was one who refused to accept that fact.
Just as they started moving once again, they made some progress from Koda village. After maybe a few hours, the men inside the AT-TE were doing as they were instructed by captain Iron, to keep an eye for anything on their scanners, and such a thing did happen.
Boomer, who was currently in the cockpit, looked to see someone down the dirt road. Curious as to who it was, the clone pressed a button and started talking to his gunner, who was operating the massive barrel which was the tank's main line of defense.
"CT-3248, do you see someone down the road? Please confirm that I'm not crazy." he said.
The clone pilot soon heard a chuckle in response, "No, you're not. But... should we tell the captain about this?"
Seeing as how their superior would need to know about this, the clone soon contacted his commander, "Uh, captain, I think we need you to see something for us."
Meanwhile, captain Iron heard what the clone trooper said and responded, "What did you see?"
Boomer used the advanced optics of the AT-TE and saw something he was quite confused to see. In the distance, there was a girl who looked to be maybe in her early teenage years. Who was wearing a red and black dress, however that wasn't what caught the eye of the troopers manning the tank.
It was the enorumous battle-axe she wielded in her hand.
"Sir... I think you need to see this."
Hearing that response, the captain raised an eyebrow underneath helmet. Figuring his men weren't messing with him, the clone made his way to the AT-TE and was soon seeing an individual who looked strange to him.
The girl appeared to be speaking, almost like she was talking to the tank itself.
"Where do you come from? Where are you going?" she asked, looking directly at the pilot of the AT-TE.
As he got closer, the girl soon took notice of the clone commander and merely smiled at him. However, the commander felt a small shiver run down his spine. Strange to feel such a thing from someone who he's never met.
Just as she was about to speak, the clone's communicator went off.
"Captain... it appears the kids in here, know who that person is outside." Stonewall said, wondering as to how kids knew about this girl wielding a battle-axe.
"Let them off then." ordered Iron.
Soon the back ramp of the AT-TE started lowering itself to ground level, letting the kids off as they rushed towards the girl. Calling her an oracle, letting the clones know that this girl was a religious figure of some sort.
However...
With being in a world where something called the Force existed as well as other strange occurrences, made them believe the idea much more than average person. As the girl seemed to be talking with the villagers, explaining to her about them needing to leave their homes due to the recent attacks of the Fire Dragon.
Then the people explained the recent events concerning the bandit attack on their village.
The clones felt the temperature around the girl drop a few degrees as they realized the kind of anger she was suppressing for the sake of the children present. Afterwards, the people talked about how the clones save them and put the bandits down.
Facing the expressionless helmets of the soldiers who looked odd to her, Rory felt that there was something different about these men. The normal feelings a person would feel about killing another wasn't present in these men...
It was almost like they didn't feel any emotion towards killing...
Like it was second nature to them, but how could that be possible? The god for whom she represented was the god of war, someone who felt the killing nature within every single individual in this world.
So how were these men any different from others?
A question which Rory Mercury was intent on finding an answer...
NEXT ON GATE: THE CLONE WARS
CHAPTER 10: Introductions for All, Part 1
Welp, with the introduction to both Lelei and Rory to the world complete, now we're moving onto bigger and better things for this story and I hope you guys are ready!
So yeah, this story will move away from the canon material soon but there are a few more things I need to do in order to make that happen, but I know the wait will be worth it once I finish planning out the other important bits.
Let's hope things go well for the other side with what I'm planning guys!
I'll see ya guys next time!
