This is a trailer for a new story. This scene may or may not be in it, but it will give you a feel for what it will be like.
Elements from Star Wars belong to Disney and LucasFilms. Zootopia belongs to Disney.
Corporal Gerheght shot down one Irisite after another, but they kept coming. There seemed to be no end to them. The sounds all around him were deafening, the noise of plasma bolts flying both ways from dozens of rifles and searing into their targets, whether it be flesh or metal.
"Don't let them punch through!" his commander's voice screamed into his earpiece. "We get through this assault, and this planet's outpost is ours!" He was spurred on by his superior, as were his comrades. They had won the aerial battle, but apparently in a last-ditch effort to take out the Eikarisite's High Command, the Irisites had a single shuttle drive through their airspace and landed in the battleship's hangar. But strangely, they had made the unwise decision to land in the most populated hangar, which was overrun with soldiers. They had poured out of the large shuttle in droves, vastly outnumbering the Eikarisite soldiers. There could only be so many Irisites in that shuttle! the Corporal thought, hoping with all of his being that the whole battle would come to an end soon. Something occurred to him, however, which had begun to dawn on him halfway through the gunfight, but was drowned out by the fierce adrenaline pouring into his veins in order to keep him focused: it was too easy. The Irisites were armed to the teeth, yet they didn't advance, didn't even put up a decent fight.
He stopped firing as the Irisites began to reboard the shuttle and proceeded to take off, having only lost three of their entire platoon. He felt the cool breeze of the draft from the engine as it propelled the ship from the hangar with urgent speed.
"Men!" a voice from somewhere in the hangar shouted. "Split into two groups! Half of you stay here, the other half patrol the Port Hangar!" At that, the soldiers stood and gave an affirmative shout. But Gerheght was still on the floor. His blood had run cold. This really was too easy. The Irisites were not stupid. This was purposeful.
"Attention!" shouted the Commander over the ship's speakers. All of them quieted immediately and stood straight, but the soldier was still in the same position. "I said, Attention, Corporal!" Gerheght got up and stood at attention. "The bridge has not been answering for several minutes. A team has been dispatched to see what the problem is. Sergeant Golux, take your men to the bridge and provide extra security! Then have a small band of your crew search the remainder of the ship! The rest of you, you have your orders!"
"Sir, aye, sir!" they all said before beginning to split into two factions.
"Platoon four, to the bridge," the aging Sergeant said through his earpiece.
"Sir, aye, sir!" the privates said simultaneously, including Corporal Gerheght. Though the thought of what might await them at their destination was terrifying.
He'd heard stories, stories that many of his brothers in the navy believed to be rumors. Stories of an Irisite with unimaginable power, who could level armies by himself. He took a shaky breath, reminding himself that rumors were rumors.
The lights in the halls flickered as they jogged through them, which only served to add to the tension in the air and make the Eikarisite feel short of breath. This being only his second battle, he felt poorly equipped, even in the face of their victory just minutes past. His breaths became labored. Sweat ran through his fur, soaking his eyebrows. His mouth was dry. The Sergeant, who was directly in front of him, took notice of his anxiety.
"Corporal Gerheght, don't quit on me!" encouraged his superior, gripping his shoulder firmly.
"Sir, aye, sir!" he responded with all the confidence he could muster, even though he knew it sounded very forced.
"He's left the bridge! The armory! He's in the armory!" a panicked voice screamed through his earpiece, along with blasts of plasma in the background. There was also a strange sound ebbing in and out of the ambiance that sent a cold chill spreading from the Corporal's chest all the way to his feet. "Fall back!" The transmission suddenly cut off. Gerheght's eyes grew wide with fear as the Sergeant ordered them to pick up speed. He desperately wanted to yell at everyone that they didn't know what they were running into, as he didn't either. But they kept running. And he stayed silent. He followed his orders. Several minutes passed, and they reached the corridor that led to the bridge.
The sergeant held his fist up as soon as they reached the fork dividing the armory from the bridge. He looked around the corner for a moment. "Corporal Standh. Your team will go to the armory. The rest of you, with me!"
"Sir, aye, sir!" the soldiers responded as one. The sergeant gestured for the team under Gerheght to follow him. Their gear clicked and rustled as they jogged down the hallway, eerily echoing through the narrow space. The Corporal suddenly felt much more exposed - his group only comprised of twenty people. What if the rumors were true? What if that Irisite, the one could level armies were on the ship? What could twenty men do then?
Once they came to the bridge, the Sergeant gestured for his team to slow down and line the wall on both sides of the door. He held his fist up to keep everyone silent while they listened. But no one heard anything coming from inside. Pressing his thumb to the panel to open the door, it slid upward, allowing him to peek inside the bridge.
The Sergeant immediately cursed loudly and turned around, startling Gerheght and the others. "The crew is dead!" He cursed again.
A couple other soldiers looked inside, and both of them averted their eyes. The Corporal's curiosity got the better of him. He went around the small group and came face to face with a ghastly scene. The first body he was was in front of the doorway, sprawled on the floor. His hand had been severed, a cauterized stump where it should have been. The hand lay next to him, a sidearm still clutched in the phalanges. A perfect hole had been singed in the middle of his chest that appeared to travel through directly to his back. His eyes were rolled back into his skull and his mouth was open in an expression of fear and pain. Several other bodies were nearby, some in much worse condition. Though it appeared that all of them had died swiftly, if not painlessly.
Just as he felt like he was going to vomit, there was a bright flash and a loud crack, and the scene turned black instantly. A wall of blackness landed in front of his eyes so thick its weight pressed against his very flesh. Gerheght's ears were assaulted by the sound of a cacophony of shouts and was immediately jostled by several people around him. He grunted as he was knocked to the floor. He clicked his flashlight, and the white beam switched on. A few more flashlights turned on, swishing around in every direction. He stood up and was pushed forward by the mass of Eikarisite military corpsmen.
"I SAID SHUT UP!" screamed the Sergeant's voice over the chaos. "SHUT UP!" All the soldiers turned toward him and he demanded that they get the lights out of his eyes. Finally, the noise died down, and with further prodding it came to silence. "Now, we don't know what's going on, but we still have a job to do! So we need to find our way to get these lights back on. Everyone with a functioning flashlight, stay close. We'll need them to secure the bridge, and then we need to get- unh!"
His voice was cut off with a strained grunt... and there was something that could only be described as a low rumbling, just above the sound threshold. Almost like the sound of a waterfall from a dozen meters underwater. The sergeant's face tightened as if he were straining. His hand lifted toward his throat.
"Sarge?" asked a female voice. There was no answer. "Sarge?" she repeated, louder. All there was in response was a brief sound of gagging. Every soldier gripped their weapon more tightly. Then, the Eikarisite rose into the air. His legs kicked around aimlessly. Corporal Gerheght stumbled backward in overwhelming confusion, as did several others as they watched their commanding officer straining against an invisible force that held him aloft and strangled him. The Sergeant pawed at his neck desperately, but there was no hand to tear at. Nothing he could do. Nothing anyone could do. They couldn't even comprehend the sight in front of them enough to do more than let their jaws hang open.
Within moments, Gerheght heard terrified shouts, saw soldiers looking around, looking above the sergeant for a wire or a rope, or anything. The whole room was a confused jumble of voices overlapping each other. But it all seemed to be happening from a distance. This was it. His worst fears were true. He knew exactly what was going on.
Suddenly the Sergeant's head snapped to the side, and there was a cracking sound. The room was rendered silent by the echoing noise. The only sound was his body thumping onto the floor limply.
"Sarge!" a private cried, running to the Sergeant's body. "Sarge, can you hear me? SERGEANT GOLUX!" Corporal Gerheght watched with his mouth hanging open in disbelief. Terror overwhelmed him at the thought that whoever had done this was still in the room.
And that he wasn't finished.
"Guys!" the female soldier called out with a tremor. "Who is that?!"
"Who? Where" Corporal Gerheght called out blankly. He looked around through the room. At first he didn't see anyone, but then he saw it, illuminated by the combined light of the dull flashlights. He froze at the sight of the figure wearing a brown robe, whose hood covered its face.
"Who are you?!" Gerheght shouted in an attempt to convince himself he could still hold his own. "Down on the ground, now! Or we will shoot!"
Corporal Gerheght's rifle, the flashlight connected to it, was pushed upward by a strange force. By something he couldn't see. Several people gasped. A plasma bolt hit the ceiling from one of the soldier's guns, illuminating the room for the briefest moment. He realized the same thing had happened to everyone else. When the invisible force let go, all flashlights were trained back where the figure was. But it was no longer there. Gerheght couldn't help but shiver. The smell of sweat stung his nostrils, yet the room felt oddly... cold. The only sound was the fearful breaths of his teammates around him, shivering from both the cold and from fear.
There was a pop! accompanied by the tinkling of glass. A flashlight had suddenly burst. Then another, then another. "Who's doing that?!" someone shouted. Corporal Gerheght's flashlight burst, sending the room into further darkness. Panic set in until the last flashlight popped and went out, sending the room into blackness.
Corporal Gerheght realized that they had to get out. There was no way they could fight this thing in the dark. Just as he opened his mouth to give the order to leave, there was another strange sound, something like a hiss! The room was suddenly visible again, but dimly, and this time, the light was a deep red color. Stark shadows were cast on the wall. The light came from behind them, causing their shadows to shimmer eerily in the red light. Gerheght whirled to see what the cause was. The Corporal held his rifle firmly, preparing to fire at whatever this thing was.
Several soldiers backed away in confusion and shock from a singular soldier at the back, from whose chest protruded a bar of ethereal, blood-red light that emanated a deep hum. Gerheght's eyes widened and his face grew aflame at the image. The soldier groaned and rested his palms on his chest directly beneath the... the... He strained to breathe. Over the dying man's shoulder were eyes that made Gerheght feel as if the air had frozen solid. He had never seen such eyes in his life. Glowing yellow, red-rimmed eyes, eyes belonging to a feline face beset with a horrible snarl on its muzzle. Eyes that promised the same fate as this soldier. Eyes that were devoid of fear, but burning with murder. No one moved.
"What is that?!" a Soldier said loudly. Whether he was referring to the thing sticking out of the soldier's chest or the warrior holding it, Gerheght didn't know.
The warrior belted a grating snarl. And his hand shoved the man by the shoulder, causing the red bar to sear through his chest and then sever his arm as he was flung to the side. The now-deceased Private's mutilated body came to rest on his stomach. Then, the bar of light receded with a similar hiss, and the room was black again.
"Shoot it!"
Gerheght, along with the soldiers closest to the scene, opened fire. But again, the light from the bolts revealed the target was no longer there. They blasted nothing but wall.
There were more shouts, more jostling, more panic. One or two soldiers took shots in the dark. "Agh! Friendly fire!" screamed a soldier who took a bolt in the arm, who then groaned in agony.
"Commander! Commander, come in!" Gerheght called through his earpiece.
"I read you, Corporal Gerheght. Over."
"Sergeant Golux is dead! We need help! The attack was a setup! We need help now!"
"You're breaking up. Repeat. All after 'Sergeant Golux.' Over."
"Sergeant Golux is dead!" he enunciated. "We're heading back to the hangar but we need immediate assistance-"
"Corporal, do you read? Corporal? What's your position, over?"
"We need assistance immediately!" he shouted. "There's an Irisite on the ship and he's too strong for us to deal with!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, his sight returned. The same red light had appeared. Directly to his right. He turned slowly toward it, as did his team. There, standing before them in the hallway and blocking their way out, was the Irisite. His face was still covered by the hood of the robe. The humming, shimmering bar of light rested motionless in his hand but the threat of it loomed relentlessly. Humming intensely. Hungry for more victims. It was a sword. The warrior stood still, as if waiting for something.
A plasma bolt flew toward the creature suddenly.
"Don't fire!" Gerheght cried. But the bolt was already burning into the offending Soldier's chest, having been reflected by his sword of pure energy. He fell into the Soldiers behind him, who let him fall limp to the floor. "Move! Into the bridge!" commanded the Corporal. The Privates followed him inside. The last one in threw the door shut and locked it. But Gerheght had a very bad feeling that was not going to work. "Anything gets through that door, cut it down. And someone try to get a message to Commander Zhoust!"
Though the room was near pitch black, dark red light from the Irisite's weapon leaked through the bottom of the door, allowing the Privates minimal sight of the portion of the room closest to the door. It occurred to him that he had heard that the Irisite had been in the armory. How he had ended up here, he didn't know. He must have used a vent or something. But he dared not even try to find out until the warrior was dead.
Moments passed with nothing happening. Despite his order to contact the Commander, not a soldier moved. Corporal Gerheght hoped that the warrior would go away, maybe even be shot down. But here, they were... what was the idiom? Sitting ducks? This man certainly wasn't stupid. But it was his only reason to hope. That meager hope was smashed when the bar of light plunged through the door, turning the metal a molten orange. As if the sword were forged from the core of a star. It cut downward from the top left from where the soldiers were standing, only needing to sear through the hinges. Rifles were held with shaking hands, ready to make their stand against this seemingly unstoppable foe. Gerheght had always felt small even for his tall stature. And now, he couldn't feel smaller.
The door flew off its hinges of its own accord. The creature stepped into the doorway. Gerheght screamed for everyone to fire. Every rifle expelled plasma from their barrels. The plasma bolts flew toward the Irisite. At the last moment, he lifted the blade of his sword and intercepted the bolts with it. He dodged what his blade couldn't reach. He crouched slightly, making himself a smaller target as he made his way forward. His movements were blinding, almost wondrous to behold. Even with the imminent doom hanging over his head, he still couldn't resist the feeling of awe he felt as he witnessed such mastery.
The soldiers continued firing. After avoiding the first bout of rifle plasma, he leapt ten feet to Gerheght's left, blocking shots as he sailed through the air before landing softly. He lifted his hand and mimed shoving one of the soldiers, who flew backward and crashed hard into another soldier despite the lack of contact. The blade cut through a soldier in one swoop, killing them instantly. And he continued blocking the bolts and somehow thrashing the soldiers around without even touching them.
He never lifted his eyes even once. He could see the bolts even though his eyes were covered. The rebounded shots hit the soldiers on occasion.
Snapping out of his stupor, Gerheght moved toward the exit. "Fall back!" the Corporal screamed over the cacophony, but the pandemonium had grown out of control. No one listened. Order was gone.
The Eikarisites fired almost aimlessly at the hooded warrior, but every one failed to hit their target, and some of the bolts were sent back to their source. The blade twirled and buzzed through the air so quickly that the assailant appeared to become a ball of red energy that came in and out of existence, lethal and precise. The Irisite lifted his hand and a sidearm from the holster of a soldier flew into it. He alternated returning fire into the shrinking group and defending himself from the projectiles sent to him.
They truly couldn't stop him... the rumors were true.
Their numbers were dwindling fast. A couple were wise enough to run, but most of them kept right at it, even as the Corporal ripped his throat raw screaming for them to stop. A redirected pair of bolts blazed past his head and exploded into sparks against the wall behind him, causing his ears to ring. He dove past the doorway into the corridor just outside the bridge. He continued bellowing into his earpiece for the soldiers to stop it and run, but no one listened. Whether they could even hear him he didn't know. He screamed, beating his feet against the floor in horror. The noises and panicked shouts died down as the last of the soldiers present were massacred. Their victory had been ripped from them by one person in mere minutes. He didn't have to see it to know that all of them were dead. The thought made him gag. The sheer awful truth of the situation had consumed him.
The Corporal could still see the red light pouring into the antechamber where he was, that humming the only sound. Seconds later, the dark figure came around the corner. Shaking, Gerheght slowly looked up to see those terrifying yellow eyes boring down on him from under the hood, while the rest of his face was barely illuminated by the red light. He lifted the blade to his chest, causing Gerheght to put his hands high in the air against the wall behind him, the rifle still held in his right. Not taking his eyes off the warrior, he let the rifle fall to the floor and pushed it away from him with his foot. The yellow eyes faded into the dark, and all there was, was a barely visible silhouette. The sword slowly lowered to the warrior's side.
Gerheght's breath hitched in a small amount of relief. He kept his eyes on the warrior, who stood with the sword at his side.
After a minute, there was the sound of brief static, and a voice then said: "Tairn, come in. You all right?"
The warrior lifted his wrist to his mouth and spoke in a hushed voice that teetered between baritone and tenor: "I'm fine. Do me a favor and turn the lights back on."
The lights in the hallway came back on instantly, forcing Gerheght to squint through one eye. But he could see the warrior clearly. He looked up into the Irisite's face, which was now uncovered. Gerheght found himself deeply surprised by the warrior's appearance, which was nothing like he'd seen minutes ago. His eyes were not that fearsome yellow any longer, but a deep and rich blue. And there was a certain weariness in them that stood in stark contrast to the fierce snarl he'd seen in the dark. He was around his age, probably only a young adult. "Tell your commanding officer to instruct the remainder of your forces to cease their attack on this planet, and you have my word that no one else will die," said the warrior in a calm voice. Without waiting for a response, the blade of the sword receded into a silver hilt in his hand, and the warrior respectfully nodded once before turning and walking away, his robe swaying back and forth with his gait.
Gerheght sat there, his arms just beginning to slump. He let out a breath that he had been holding, and he collapsed fully onto the floor. He dared not look around the corner at the carnage within.
"Corporal? Status. Over," came the voice of his Commander. But the Corporal sat there in shock, barely registering the Eikarisite's voice in his ear.
He would definitely need a drink tonight.
"Corporal, answer. Over."
Slowly, he lifted his radio toward his mouth and opened his mouth to speak.
Hope you look forward to this. I know I do. By the way, who do you think this warrior is? Give me your thoughts.
Someone pointed out that this is strictly a Star Wars story, and that is true, but Zootopia is involved in this story. I just wanted to establish the fact that the story will involve space and other planets.
