Chapter 11: A life to live
'Life truly is unfair' He thought.
"This is sector 8 please send reinfor-AHHH"
"SECTOR 9 SEND BACKUP NO-"
Commander Rylon listened as both commlinks cutout while two republic troopers closed the blast doors and fell back to their cover positions. "Blast doors secured sir!" The two chimed in unison to the commanding officer, watching the two fall back he could sense the fear behind their helmets'. There was distant explosion beyond the barricade causing the ground to shake. The platoon tightened their grips on their weapons still focused on the door despite the ground quake, the commanding officer turned to face the console he was monitoring. The displays flashed an unnerving "Lost signal" warning, section 10 was the remaining defense before the threat reached the squad. The commander panned the camera in that remaining section to get a bearing of the situation in the room, it was calm- the kind of calm that gave people troubled breathing and immense anxiety. He panned across the room again for the fourth time, still nothing.
Another explosion shook the ground, closer and more violent than the last causing Commander Rylon to lose his balance. He grabbed hold of the console to balance himself but when he glanced back at the display for section 10 it shot back with "Visual loss: Audio available" the commander quickly linked the headset in his ear to the console and tuned into the section's audio.
"WHERE IS SHE?!" someone screamed in a panic followed by a deafening silence. Section 10 along with the commander stood completely still, the tension building along with a bead of sweat forming on his brow. Then finally he heard the most bone-chilling and unmistakeable noise: the ignition of a lightsaber blade, he had heard that eerie sound only on a couple of occasions, when the blade wasn't cutting down his troops. Never would he have thought that sound would be directed towards him or his allies. "THERE!" someone screamed followed up with a hail of blaster fire. The audio to the room shortly cut out after that, the commander cut his link to the section and turned to face his platoon who stared back at him expectedly. "Steel yourselves men, we'll get through this." he lied proudly, knowing full well that Darth Baras had executed the hunt of all his spies in his network and without a shadow of a doubt knew he was going to be cut down.
A sudden chill overcame him, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he turned his attention the the blast doors. He could sense that his end was near, and standing right outside those doors in fact. A part of him wondered if he should just let them in and let it be quick, the other part knew that if he did his cover would be blown and all those years lying to the soldiers in front of him about to die was for nothing. Years serving under the empire-under Darth Baras only for a potential breach to occur and potentially compromise him and cause the Sith to sic an assassin on him. He stared at all the men under his "command", they all trusted him with their lives, they would give up everything for him, while he would shoot them without a second thought if the empire willed him to. These men and women were part of the republic, the opposing faction. But they were still people, with families: Mara, has two sons waiting for her back on coruscant; Miles fights for his little brother because that's all the family he has left; Niade braves a brutal war for her two younger sisters and her mother just for them to live. Not to mention the rest troopers under the great and wise Republic Commander Rylon. 'These people deserve better, they don't deserve to die like this, they don't deserve this even though i've brought this upon them. I'm sorry all of you.' Rylon thought to himself as his eyes jumped to each and every one of them.
The whole room flinched when they heard a loud metal screeching noise coming from the front. The screeching continued followed by a heavy metallic snap, "Th-They're tearing it down…." one of the men whimpered. "Shut up Kin." his squadmate next to him replied gripping his blaster tighter. Suddenly the metal screeching came to a stop and the room was filled with a deafening silence, the second in command ordered two men to check the integrity of the blast door while he acted as a body shield for the commander.
The two troopers made it to the door and reluctantly began to evaluate the door's integrity. Everything seemed to be going smoothly when the second in command screamed at the top of his lungs, "MOVE!" The blast doors swung open with such force it threw the entire squad off balance. A hail of blaster bolts flew at the metal debris and the smoke that blocked direct vision of their assailant, but all members of the battalion discharged their weapons anyway. A couple more seconds passed and the blaster fire began to die down to a halt and the smoke cleared.
"Someone confirm the kill!" Rylon ordered. It was a couple minutes before any of the troops mustered the courage to move from cover, one of the soldiers rose steadily and proceeded forward. Halfway to the door something was tossed from the other side, "Look out!" He yelled trying to warn his comrades. All eyes were turned towards the object in the air, from first glance the unit believed it to be rope, it landed behind the squad's cover. Upon further inspection the object was revealed to just be a belt, with metallic items attached to it.
"FLASH GRENADES!" Someone shouted in a panic, but it was too late. No one was prepared to shield their eyes from blinding supernova like light. The commander grunted and stumbled backwards, hands against his eyes. Instinctively he pulled out his blaster in case he would have to protect himself should the enemy get through. His eyes may be blind but his hearing was still functioning, he listened as a couple of troopers recovered first and tried to return fire thanks to their helmets and were trying to refocus themselves when he heard that noise once more. The eerie chill of a lightsaber being ignited, Baras's spy blinked hastily trying to regain his vision all the while he heard blaster fire, the sound of the lightsaber swinging, and the screams of his men. Eyes still not re-adjusted the republic commander aimed his pistol blindly in the direction of the conflict, not wanting to risk friendly fire he pulled the trigger cautiously. The blaster shot was the only noise to fill the room and after that, silence once more, not even the low hum of a lightsaber. The commander blinked a couple more times his vision coming back to him in the form of his blurred boots. He felt a slight pressure pushing down on the barrel of his blaster, eyes still blurry he looked forward to see three of the figure gently holding onto his weapon.
"Hello, commander." the voice said gently, 'a woman?' he thought.
"Who are you, what do you want?" The republic officer questioned standing up to face his adversary, his vision starting to come back to him. A woman clad in combat greaves and dark colored robes along with her bandaged hand holding onto the barrel of his blaster stood before him. Her eyes were flaming gold, her shoulder-length hair was as white as snow and she smiled an oddly warm smile for an assassin.
"Your attention, please." Rylon raised his brow and lowered his blaster.
"My name is Uri, the twi'lek is Vette." The white haired Sith gestured behind the commander. Turning his gaze to meet the end of a blaster pointed at him wielded by a rather young looking twi'lek sporting a smug grin Rylon then turned back to Uri, "What is this…"
"If I am being honest commander, i'm going to kill you." Uri said with a heavy sigh.
"Darth baras has ordered for your demise. I am truly sorry, I will make it quick." The warrioress reached for her saber.
"How does it feel?" Uri froze.
"The feeling of someone controlling you, the feeling of suffocation as they strangle your free will from you because of their own agenda, the feeling that you kill in someone else's name...The feeling that you can never live life freely your way, for in order for you to live life you must give up living life." Commander rylon spoke stoically though he stared at the ground in front of his would be assassin.
"Some people ask for this life, I serve the Empire because it has been my life...I can see it in your eyes this is not the life for you. I know because i've seen that look before, in my son, and considering who's ordered my death i'm sure you had to kill him too." Rylon felt the anger build up within him, the frustration because of the vulnerability he felt, and the sadness of it all. He turned his gaze upwards to meet his attacker's who merely stared blankly back at him. Uri tilted her head slightly to peer past the commander and at her companion, Rylon felt the presence of the blaster disappear from the back of his head. The Twi'lek strode past stopping to whisper something to him before continuing on, his eyes immediately widened and began to water darting to the bodies of his men scattered around him, their weapons were all cut in half, and after scanning all of them repeatedly, he couldn't find two crucial components: Lightsaber wounds or blaster wounds. He turned his gaze towards the monitoring console the display flashed: Time before camera/audio uplink retrieval. Rylon darted his gaze back to his attacker who flashed a warm smile-a genuine smile that reminded him of his son.
"Life truly is unfair isn't it, commander?" Uri said with a sad look in her eye to contrast her reassuring smile as she reached for her saber.
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A/N: Miss me? Feels good to be back as per usual, sorry about that everyone, I would've updated sooner (believe me! don't give me that look, just kidding I would be giving myself that look too) buut my computer had to go and break down on me for a good while, and I recently just got it fixed. I know this one is kinda short compared to the other chapters, but I really did like writing it. New chapter coming soon(-ish)... it's coming I promise. Thanks as always for following, favoriting, and taking time out of your days to stick around and checking serendipity out, it means so much to me. Any feed back is appreciated. Ya lookin pretty nice today, I really like your hair.