Chapter II
The doors on the sides of the gunship hissed shut, enclosing us in dim red darkness. I could hear the engines warming up behind me— the heavy hangar doors hauling themselves open. Air rushed in and the sound of the engines suddenly tripled in the dense atmosphere, dampened from thick moisture. The eight of us in the gunship swayed slightly, loosely gripping the overhead handles, similar to passengers on a mag train. Though the sound continued to rise outside, an utter silence fell over all of us.
Blasts began shaking the hull of the Venator. Outside, somewhere, the rumble of ARC-170 pulse thrusters vibrated through the deck of the gunship, running up my legs and into my core. I knew my post. I knew who I was. I knew to most everyone in the Galactic Republic I was little more than a number. But still. There was some part of me that always enjoyed the moments before going into battle. The possibility to become more than just a number. The chance to make a difference, do something that mattered, even if most would never know it.
The explosions around the cruiser intensified, the unmistakable scream of metal slicing through air told of vulture droids rocketing in our direction. "All wings," A voice commanded from the onboard PA. The General, I realized. "Set s-foils in attack position, and follow my lead."
One by one, the ARC-170s raced out of the hangar, rising up over the nose of the ship, then diving down towards the capital city, turrets and cannons blazing as they plummeted. Another beat of eerie silence passed, then the engines swelled from the rear of the ship. The gunship rose off the deck.
"Here we go, boys!" Assaulting said through our helmets. I frowned at the indicator on my HUD. It identified the speaker just fine, but there was an unusual amount of static. I knew Kaminoan tech. It wasn't always the most user friendly, but it always worked. "Communications check, go."
"Ghoasty, standing by."
"Quark, standing by."
"Dioxis, standing by."
"Yubs, standing by."
And on it went. With each voice, I noticed the static in my ear more and more, and began fiddling with the controls on my wrist to clear it up. Their voices wavered as I finely adjusted the frequency. But as I tried, my faith in Kaminoan tech suddenly faded as I realized that the issue was in the hardware, not the software.
"*ksschhh*...nowpeak? Snow, you there?*kcshh*"
I paused. As it stood, I still had partial functionality. If I tampered with it more in an attempt to fix it, it might go out completely. "Sorry, Commander. My comms are acting up. I think it's a bad receiver."
"Understood," He replied. He was no longer lighthearted. As soon as those doors had closed he had gone into full combat mode. "Can you get it working well enough for the battle?"
"Negative. It already takes me a second longer to understand what's being said," I relayed.
"That's not good enough, kid."
"I know." I considered the problem for a moment, weighing my options. "You and Ghoast are the ones giving orders?"
"Affirmative."
"Then I'll follow your lead. I can get by without the comms system so long as I keep within earshot of you two."
A pause. Then, tentatively, the commander broke the silence. "Had we found this problem earlier we could have gone for a better option, but we have to make do with what we've got," He agreed. "I hope you know what you're doing, Snow."
Yeah, me too. I thought, turning off the comms system. The sound of the engines was my only comfort now.
Before we had boarded the ships, we had all been informed that Count Dooku had been defeated by General Skywalker over Coruscant. That made this battle all the more important. The war was nearly over. Each planet we took ensured that there was one less place for General Grevious to run and hide, and with General Kenobi going after him, he was in high retreat. And once he was captured or killed, the Separatist forces would no longer have their military command. We could win the war. The clone army would be decommissioned, and we would retire. What would I do if the war ended? Well…
But as I thought about it, nothing came to mind. I don't know what I'd do without the war, I realized. "This could be our last battle," I said aloud. No response came immediately, but their silence was enough. Even with the blasts, the sounds of warfare outside, we were all dead quiet. All thinking about it. This could be our last fight, and none of us knew what came next.
"Kan-do-sii, sa'karo-ta. Vo-de an." Someone sang slowly in Mando'a. I couldn't tell who, but that wasn't important.
"Co-ru-scan-ta, a'den… mhi vo-de an…" I continued. We had all learned this chant, battle after battle. We sang it in marches, sang it after a loss, after a victory; it was a part of who we were. A part of our heart, soul, and blood we poured into our fight. It seemed only fitting that we sing it, one last time, before what could be the final fight of our lives.
"Bal, kote… Da-ra-suum, kote…" The two of us chanted slowly. More of us aboard the ship began to join in.
"Jor-so'ran, kan-do, a tome…
"Sa kyr'am, nau tra-cyn… kad, Vo-de an…"
As we tapered off following the first verse, I couldn't help but smile. "Brothers' all," I said softly, "Let's make our last fight a good one."
"Brothers' all," Yubs agreed quietly.
"Brothers' all!" I cheered louder, raising my free fist.
"Brothers' all!" Everyone echoed.
I cast my eyes upon my comrades, smiling to myself as I took in the sight of us all together. It didn't matter what happened next. I was among my brothers. Among my family. I always would be. Just for a moment, it seemed like maybe the war had already ended, and we were all just unwinding back on Coruscant, reminiscing about our craziest adventures, all the fun and chaos we had been involved in, for better or worse.
Then harsh reality woke us all back up.
An explosion rockets the side of the ship, tearing off the port side blast doors. I clamped my grip down on the overhead handholds. "Get the other door open!" Yubs demanded. "We need to balance out the drag!"
Within seconds the sticky air from outside rushed in, and we all saw the true massiveness of the battle around us. Laser blasts were criss-crossing every possible direction. Explosions scattered across the gray sky as squadrons of starfighters dueled furiously back and forth. I could see the first gunships touching down in the capital city even from way up here, the soldiers pouring out from the double sided doors and opening fire. It was beautiful, and terrifying. I know I had already been marveling at this being our last fight, but now that I was seeing it in all its strength and brilliance, I was breathless. Every one of us had our voices stripped away by the vastness of the scene before us.
The others began letting out small indications of impress in hushed voices, so quiet I couldn't make out what they were saying if I tried. More explosions began to rattle us, these ones so close we could have reached out and touched them. "It's getting a little hot back here!" A trooper(Dioxis, as I recalled from the comms check) shouted. "How much further to the drop zone?"
"We're still around one klick out!" The pilot called back over the PA. Then came Assaulting's voice.
"Dropper 3, what's the situation?"
"We've lost the port blast door, and we've got the attention of some turrets. Other than that, the ship is still holding its integrity," Yubs quickly explained. I kept forgetting he was a Sergeant now.
"Copy. Can you still make the drop zone?"
"Affirmative, so long as these turrets let up soon…" The conversation once again became indiscernible as they continued their conversation through helmet comms. The ship rocked back and forth, the pilot presumably trying to make the ship less of a target to the increasing blaster fire.
Rapidly increasing, I noticed. Everyone else was too busy listening to Assaulting give orders over their comms to notice that the rate of explosions had just shot up significantly.
BANG!
The entire ship rocked from the final blast. The fire we had been under vanished.
I was confused. It sounded as though we had been hit, by something big, at that. But we weren't losing any altitude. So then what the hell…?
That's when I saw it. Or, rather, I heard it, which then prompted me to find the source. A whirring, chirping noise. Quiet enough that I shouldn't have been able to hear it. That no clone should be able to hear it. Not over the sound of commands and chatter in the ear. But then again, I'd never gone into the field with comms off before.
Carefully, I peered around the blast door frame and above me, searching for the source of this noise, and upon finding it, I instantly released my handhold and grabbed one of my blaster pistols.
"Buzz droids!" I shouted, loud enough for everyone to hear. I placed my first shot squarely in the center eye of the one closest to me, before climbing onto the outside of the hull and up toward the engines. Now, the sounds had become clear. What these droids had been named for. A buzzing, indicative of the cutting of metal. By this time, the others had realized what was happening, and opened fire at the hideous metal insects crawling around and into the ship.
I rolled over onto the top of the vessel, landing two more shots into another one that found itself in front of me. It reeled backward, curling its shell around itself. At first I thought I had got it, and this was going to be a lot easier than I expected. Then it let out a mechanical cackle and pulled itself upright, blades spinning in my direction. "Oh, come on! Just die when you're shot like every other clanker!" I cursed, switching my grip on the hull to avoid one of the saws. I placed three more shots, succeeding in ripping off one of the armor plates from the side of its head but somehow not dealing any real damage. It took another swing, this time forcing my grip to release and find purchase on the engine housing. I felt a sudden fire erupt in my right calf. A second droid, one that had been focusing on the engines, chose to focus on me instead.
"Agh!" I yelled in pain. My initial aggressor leapt onto my breastplate and started up its saws. Then a third one started buzzing into the arm I was holding on with. I tried to think of a way out. I couldn't shoot while still holding onto the ship. And if I couldn't shoot then I couldn't get the droids off. If I let go, I could shoot, but I'd fall into the maelstrom going on behind me, and get shredded by lasers in seconds.
Wait. I told myself as the pieces clicked. The droids couldn't let go of the ship either. For the same reasons I couldn't. Plus, the droid drilling into my leg was fairly stuck to me now. It wouldn't be letting go anytime soon.
So I let go.
The searing pain in my leg flared. Whining from tension, the little parasite tried to pull its nose out, but with no luck. I growled with anger. The droid on my arm found itself slamming into the one on my chest. They tumbled off into the sky below. Then I anchored myself back down and fired my jetpack, wrenching the bug in my leg off of the hull of the ship. Using all the force I could, I slammed it into the top of the gunship. It let out another wretched mechanical cackle, beginning to drill further. White hot agony coursed over my skin. "Damn you!" I shouted, spinning over and firing into its face until sheer force of momentum pushed it off the back of the ship. I groaned, the hole in my leg pounding with intense fire. But I had to ignore it. For now.
Slowly, I pulled myself up into a kneeling position, favoring my uninjured leg to support myself. My hand anchored itself around a crevice in the plating. I looked over the side of the ship. "Yubs! You guys alright?" I called loudly.
"For now!" He replied, barely audible over the roar of the wind and engines.
"Did they get inside the ship?!" I demanded. I quickly scanned the top for more droids as I spoke. There were always more than there appeared to be.
"I can't tell. I think tha—!" He was cut off by the entire ship shaking in an explosion, this one clearly from something on board. I swiveled my attention back to the thrusters, where I saw fire and black smoke belching out. "We're losing power!" Someone relayed for the pilot. The entire ship began to dive down.
I thought fast. "Yubs, you guys have to jump! The engines are gonna go!"
"Copy! I'll relay Assaulting!"
"There's no time! Jump! NOW!" I yelled as loud as possible. I looked just long enough to see a soldier leap out and fire his jetpack. I pushed myself up into a low lunge, watching the ground grow closer in front of me. "Get to the rendezvous point! I'm right behind you!"
I looked upward, firing my jetpack to get clear of the crash. What sounded like a gunshot nearly deafened my ears. My HUD glared back red, with bright bold flashing in front of me.
'THRUSTER MALFUNCTION'
The buzz droid! I thought, turning around and looking back at the rising cloud of clones. The fire on the engine housing leapt higher.
"That's probably not good," I said in spite of myself. The strong smell of gas flooded my nostrils. And for the first time in a long time, I felt not meaninglessness, not disappointment, but fear as the engines exploded.
In a desperate attempt to protect myself, I threw my arms in front of my face, using the bracers to protect my neck and visor from shrapnel. Heat and flames licked at my skin while the blast flung me backwards, tumbling through the sky at speeds I never thought possible. "SNOW!" I heard someone yell as they watched me spiral away. But they would follow orders. I stayed on the ship. It was my fault. I had to get myself back to them.
I leveled out of my tumble, now falling spread-eagle towards the ground below. My best guess told me I had about four thousand feet before impact. That was four thousand feet to avoid certain death. I stowed my pistol, instead finding the buttons on my gauntlet to reboot the system. There was no way I could fix whatever it was while in free-fall. So it was this, or just accept the eerie silence and ringing in my ears of free fall before I impacted.
The HUD turned off, and for a minute, all I saw was sparse gnarled trees and boulders rushing up to meet me. Then blue lights flickered back on, and the diagnostic bar appeared. "Come on, come on!" I desperately exclaimed. The little progress bar chugged along without a care in the world. The cynical part of me suddenly spoke up. This is it, isn't it?
This is how I die. I believed it for a moment. Maybe it would be better just to hit the ground. I would die, having bought enough time for my brothers to get their mission complete. Right?
But that's the funny thing about cynics. We always contradict ourselves.
You got blown up off of a gunship. What a sorry excuse for a reason to die!
I knew then and there, I wasn't letting myself off the hook that easy.
The diagnostic hadn't finished, and the trees were almost in my face. But as I thought fast and hard about my remaining options, I realized I still had one thruster left. Just… not from the jetpack, exactly. I reached behind my head, grabbing hold of the one-use missile in the top of the pack with both hands. Then, holding my breath, and tightening my grip so much that I could have blown the rocket by sheer force then and there, I launched it.
The small device shot out from behind me, yanking my right arm clean out of its socket as it tried to accelerate. "Come ON!" I screamed through the pain, clinging onto the explosive for all its worth. My weight felt like it tripled. The ground below me began to slow its upward rise, instead streaking by below me like a conveyor. The branches below grappled at my feet, and I heard the telltale beep coming from my gauntlet that signified the rocket was about to explode. I had to let go.
I curled myself up into a ball as I released the missile and the trees pulled me in. I crashed through the branches like a falling meteor while they battered me back even harder, scratching my armor, whipping at my bodysuit; doing everything in their power to tear away at my outer shell. My other shoulder slammed into the soft dirt on the forest floor, and I went tumbling head over heels over roots and across boulders as I lost my horizontal velocity.
I couldn't see anything anymore. The world around me was a blur whizzing past. Each impact was a repeat of the first, until I was just tumbling through the mud and undergrowth uncontrollably. Then the back of my helmet made a loud 'CRACK' on something behind me, and the world went dark.
Orders…
Follow your orders…
You have your orders…
Good soldiers follow orders…
I awoke with a gasp, my whole body shuddering as I struggled to breathe. Everything was screaming in protest and agony. Vaguely, I could make out the path that my landing had taken. Why did I land like that again? I tried to recall as I sat upright against the rock that had appeared behind me. Then things started coming back to me.
Right. Buzz droids. I grabbed one of the two disposable bacta injectors from my belt, sticking it firmly in my shoulder and injecting the healing serum into my system. Like an army of hands crawling over my skin, the aches began to fade in waves, with the notable exception of my shoulder. It took me a moment to remember I dislocated it, and ungratefully, I slowly rolled over to set it right.
Several moments of excruciating pain later, I did a quick inventory of what I had left on me. The two blasters had somehow stuck with me for the ride. I had my armor, which was mostly intact, though the shiny polish had been stripped from it very quickly. I was okay with that. My jetpack was still here, though damaged. I was going to need to get that working to get anywhere on this terrain…
But, for what must've been the third time since I had deployed, I paused. Something was off. My eyes searched all around me, but when they couldn't find the source, I looked skyward. Then I listened. I listened for blasts. For explosions. For anything. But all I heard was the groaning of the weak wood around me. The sky was quiet. I couldn't see, nor could I hear any sound of conflict. There were no fighters flying about. There were no cruisers in the low atmosphere, firing down upon the city. Everything was quiet.
"The battle… is it over?" I asked, but got no response from my surroundings. Then I shook my head, blinking a few times. "No, no. One problem at a time, Snow. Get yourself out of here, then you can figure out what happened."
It was about then that I noticed that the diagnostic had completed itself while I was out. I laughed once at the irony. I could have used that before I hit the ground. I thought, then detached the jetpack from my backplate and pulled out my field repair kit. I set the jet down on the rock that had knocked me out, letting the diagnostic hologram project itself onto the device. Red indicators popped up on the damaged systems, with instructions on how to repair them with what I had. My faith in Kaminoan tech was somewhat restored, and I set to work.
I wonder if they know I'm alive. I pondered several hours later, as I finished reconnecting the main power line. I stood back, admiring my own work and checking to see if there was anything I missed. After I thoroughly assured myself that the thing was fixed, I moved to pick it up. Then my comms system turned on, of its own volition.
"*kschh* Execute…*kschh* 66 *kschh* Execute…"
"The hell?" I said, knocking on the side of my helmet. How did my comms system turn on?
Then a splitting headache screamed through my brain. I ripped off my helmet as I fell to my knees. The words… the nightmare echoed through my head.
Good soldiers follow orders…
Good soldiers follow orders…
Good soldiers follow orders…
"*kschh* Order *kschh* Execute…" The words penetrated me, even from my helmet, which lay discarded before me.
Good soldiers follow orders…
"What Orders?!" I screamed, fighting against the aching pain in my head. I reached inside the helmet, wrapping my hand around the comms device and ripping it out of the socket. I threw it down on the ground before me, blasting it. The headache subsided to dull pain. I'll have to figure out what those Orders are when I get back to the others. I decided. I certainly wasn't dealing with a broken comm system that was repeating the same message again and again.
I started forward, following the path I had blazed with my body. If there was any good bet as to where I could find people, they'd probably be searching for me in my last known position. It made the most tactical sense, and then I could probably meet them halfway if they followed this path. Plus, it's kinda hard to miss. There is a Snowpeak-shaped crater where I hit the ground.
Within seconds of my movement, I heard ships overhead. They weren't gunships; The pitch was too high. But it was definitely a republic vessel. No, multiple vessels. I looked up to see three starfighters racing over the capital city, all republic. Two ARC-170's, flanking a small, triangular shaped ship. General Plo's ship. And they were firing on it.
"General Plo?" I asked, frozen in shock at what I was seeing. The General swerved furiously to try and get out of the line of fire, but it was to no avail. Two of the neon green blasts struck true. The rear of the ship burst into flames, spinning out of control onto an antenna that cleaved the nose of the ship off. What was left of the cockpit plummeted into the thick fog below me.
I suddenly realized what I was doing, and jumped into action. "General? General!" I called out, charging into the murky soup. By my estimate of where I had seen the ship go down, he was well under a klick from my position. I could reach him. And I still had one of my bacta syringes left. If I could get there first, then he might stand a chance against…
Commander Wolffe. I suddenly concluded. The revelation hit me so hard I almost ran straight into one of the trees. Wolffe was flying alongside the General when they stormed the capital. Wolffe shot him down.
Which meant that the entire 104th battalion was under Wolffe's command. Orders from Wolffe were taken, and obeyed, without question. Especially by those closest to him. Which meant that anyone who didn't fall in line would be arrested, imprisoned, or worse, executed. Knowing Wolffe's thorough reputation, he would make sure that the General was dead. I had to reach him first. To give him a fighting chance.
"General!" I called out again, switching my visor to infrared. I saw a massive column of heat rising from somewhere in the woods, off to my left. I ran as hard as I could to reach it. Without my comms system, I didn't have to listen to whatever those orders were, but it also meant that I couldn't listen in on troop movements. Some part of me connected two and two and realized that Wolffe must've given whatever orders were on comms, but I ignored that. I had reached the cockpit.
The entire thing was in flames, and black smoke was filling the entire cockpit. I tried pulling it off with brute force, but it wouldn't budge. "Hang on, General!" I called out, hoping he could hear me. That he was still alive. I looked around frantically, spying a spar that had come off the ship in the crash lying just behind the tail of the ship. Without a moment's hesitation I landed upon it, grabbed it, then swung it against the windscreen with all the strength I had. The already heat-weakened trans-durasteel shattered into safety pieces on contact, and I reached into the smoke. My hand felt something made of cloth covering light body armor, then a harness buckle resting over it. I quickly detached the harness, then grabbed the fabric I had felt and yanked the General's lifeless body out of the smoke.
I dragged him over to a nook in the roots of a nearby tree, laying him down on the most level surface I could. My fingers fumbled the second bacta stim into my hand, and I squarely jammed it into his neck, injecting the glowing green concentrate. I checked for a pulse. Breathing. For a moment, nothing, and I was ready to give up completely. Then he inhaled sharply, sitting up and calling his lightsaber to hand. He ignited it briskly, drawing it back to swing in my direction-
"General Plo, wait! Wait!" I said, panicked. I threw my helmet down on the ground before me, dropped my blasters and detached my jetpack all in the same motion. I threw my hands above my head, kneeling down in front of him. "I'm not trying to hurt you!"
I couldn't read his expression through his mask, but he hesitated. Then, he deactivated his sword, collapsing back onto the ground. I immediately went to his side, propping him up against the tree. "Easy, General. You're in pretty bad shape."
He coughed, clutching his side. "Thank you, Snowpeak."
A painful explosion of guilt erupted in my chest. "You… you know my name?" I stuttered.
"I know the names of all… my soldiers," He managed. "I read the casualty log after every battle… for every name… there was always… a… a story." He coughed harder.
"I…" I tried to begin speaking, but found that I couldn't. I could feel the regret welling up inside me. The tears that were forming on my eyes. "How… how long've you…?
"Since the day… you joined," He winced. "I feel it when any life is… lost. I don't always… see… but… I know. And… I know their story…"
"Through… the Force?" I asked him. He coughed again, nodding softly. His breathing was becoming more labored.
"No man… is just… numbers, to me, Snowpeak." He winced again, clutching his side harder. I had come out of my shock enough to realize this was a sign of internal bleeding. The bacta would only do him so much good without a doctor to get him properly patched up.
"General Plo, we need to get you to a medical facility. You're going to die if we stay here," I stated. But he just nodded sadly.
"Yes… such is the fate… of all of us," He said, shifting himself slightly. "There's no use in such an action, Snowpeak. I can sense it."
Right now, I just needed him to keep talking, to let me know he was alive while I figured out how to get him to the capital city. There had to be a medical facility there. "Sense what, sir?"
"The Jedi… the Republic… has fallen," He struggled, rasping for air. I stopped, now just listening. "The pain… the death… every spirit I know in the Force… they've been snuffed. And Wolffe…" He trailed off.
"What about Wolffe, sir?" I asked, trying to get him to stay awake.
"The soldiers… the clones… all of the clones… I can't… I can't feel them anymore," He tried to explain. His voice was just above a whisper now. "But I… I can still sense you."
He was looking directly at me, his stature suddenly pensive. "You… you haven't been changed…"
"Sir?" I prompted. I was losing him.
"Snowpeak… you may be the last one… still loyal to me," He replied, forcing power into his voice. "So… you need to listen to me… very… carefully."
"I'm listening, I'm listening," I assured him. "I'm here."
"You… you must… you must find out what happened. Save who… who you can," He instructed. "Use my personal credentials… code… 88601. Save… save Wolffe… he can help you…"
"Okay, I can try. But we need to help you first. You've got to get up, sir. We can't stay here!" I pleaded.
"It's too late… to try and save me…" He told me, pulling his hand away from his side. It came away stained red. "But there… there are others… that you can."
"Sir, please. You need to survive!" I begged him.
"No. You must survive… Snowpeak," He returned, with a force behind it that shouldn't have been possible in his current state. "You must… live on…"
He reached down beside him, grabbing the small, cylindrical object that lay discarded in the mud of the quagmire. "You are the last of us… Snowpeak. You must live. You must… you must fight. You must succeed… where I have failed," He chuckled once. "It's ironic… that it took something like this… to bring the Jedi's hubris… to an end." Then he focused on me once more. "Promise me…" He demanded. "Promise me… you'll keep fighting. For… for the Jedi. For the Republic."
"Sir, if the Republic has truly fallen, then I am no longer a soldier of the Republic. I'm just a man. And I'm getting you out of here," I said firmly. "Now-"
"Snowpeak…" He said weakly. His blood had pooled onto the ground around him. I was amazed he was still alive, let alone speaking. "I… don't want… the promise… of a soldier. I need… the… the word…"
My mental strength I had been just barely clinging to broke as I realized what he was about to say.
"... the word of… a friend."
A single tear rolled down my face, and I struggled to fight off the others that were struggling to push through. I nodded smally. "Of course, sir," I choked. "I promise."
He nodded, satisfied in this answer. Then he lifted the hilt in his hand, placing it in my own, and closing my fingers. "This weapon… is sacred… And I pass it… to you, my only… remaining…" He trailed off, but firmly clenched my hand shut in his. I felt a sudden rush of energy run up my arm and into my core. Images appeared in my head of the weapon, how to wield it, how to fight with it… then images, just memories flashing by. Grand Master Yoda. Commander Tano. Wolffe. More and more, faster they went by, until only one remained. I saw myself, kneeling beside the General as he gave me… his story. His life, to the only person that remained beside him.
Then I was back in the present. Tears were freely rolling down my face. "This… this has all happened… before…" He said, barely audible. I quickly nodded in acknowledgement, prompting him to keep speaking. But he only seemed to drift further.
"Trust… only… the Force…"
"I will…" I stuttered. "I will. I promise."
He nodded softly once more, barely noticeable it was so small. "Goodbye… my… friend…"
Then, as if he had simply fallen asleep there, he left, and only his body remained. I clutched his lightsaber close to my chest. "I promise" I repeated, crying. He had cared, all along. And now I was all that was left. The one who thought he had never cared at all.
The low rumble of gunships somewhere above the fog spurred me into action. I stood, retrieving my pistols and jetpack from the ground and re-attaching them to my armor. Then, I looked back one more time. "I promise, sir," I said again, pulling myself together. "And I will never forget."
Then I sealed on my helmet, turned, and ran deeper into the forest, looking back only once before I lost sight of the crash for good.
And there you have it, the first two chapters of this latest story. Don't worry, I already have the next two chapters written, and they'll release soon. I'm trying something new this time, where I finish the story well before the rest is released so I can create a more immersive tale. It might take some time, but I can't wait to show you what comes next.
If you have thoughts so far, I always appreciate reviews and comments on the story so far. I'll be back with more soon. Until then, May the Force be With You!
