The nights skies over the silent city were only made darker by the storm clouds looming overhead, occasionally being illuminated for a split second by the flash of lightning within the clouds. The downpour roared loudly, deafening anything quieter than a low yell, glazing the asphalt roads and cement sidewalks in water, the sound of the substance rushing into the drainage systems drowning out anything the storm didn't if close enough.
The Separatists controlled this city, and since droids didn't necessarily need light to be able to operate, they killed most lights after the civilians cleared out to avoid being caught in the crossfire of the incoming siege, but a few lights still illuminated specific locations meant for those that weren't as metal...
Of course, this worked just fine for him. He preferred the cover of night anyways, offered easier concealment, and the raging storm deafened his movements and washed away whatever subtle tracks he might've left.
He'd been assigned to assist the 212th on this world, cited that they needed his unique skill set to win the battle for this planet. His mission was assassination, the objectives simple: infiltrate the city, assassinate the Separatist military leadership, get out. He was alone for this mission, something he rather preferred, since others more often just got in his way and impeded his progress.
His tools for this job were the kind any sniper of his caliber and classification would use, being his phase 2 prototype armor, a rangefinder, a personal stealth field generator on the back of his belt, a camouflage net that he could throw over himself in the event that he had to retreat back into the woods in his backpack, an electronic lock picking kit, and a few computer spikes in his backpack in case he needed to hack a terminal. His weapons of choice, a DC-15X sniper rifle, a DC-17M modular blaster (though he only carried the normal blaster configuration and grenade launcher), a disruptor blaster on his left wrist, twin DC-17 blaster pistols, a vibro knife, thermal detonators, detonite charges, laser trip mines, anti-armor launched grenades, and droid poppers. He carried enough spare ammo for each of his weapons to last for several days with sporadic conflict, a few hours prolonged.
He prides himself in how he'd set up his kit, and customized his armor to match. The center of the face of his helmet was a white skull that extended onto the ventilation system, while the rest of the helmet was gray except for the tubes leading from the ventilation, placed just below the cheeks, and the rangefinder was a dark blue. The double pauldrons he wore on the right shoulder was the same blue, and it was black on the opposite shoulder. His shoulder pads, elbow pads, the equipment port on his left wrist, the comms link on his right, and the gauntlets over his backhand were all blue, while the rerebraces were white and the vambraces were grey. His armor below the grey up-armored plating on his breastplate was a simple white, while black crossed DC-15 rifles sat behind blue crosshairs in the center of his chest on that supplemental armor, and three black ammo pouches were set firmly in place over his right pec. His codpiece and cuisses were a simple white, while his knee pads and up-armored greaves regained the grey and blue. The entirety of the pads were blue, while just a vertical line ran down the front of the greaves. His white boots also had grey supplemental armor, and the ability to magnetically lock down to a metal surface. Finally, his Kama was black, a blue crux dominated the center, with crosshairs set in the center, and laurels flanking either side up from under the center.
Sneaking through the city was easy, all things considered. After all, he had a natural knack for this kind of thing, being all alone gave him a much broader range and freedom of movement, let him not be slowed down by another pair of boots trying to keep up, and the combination of storm and darkness have his both visual and noise concealment. Narrow alleyways, dark and desolate buildings, blind spots across the rooftops, he was like a ghost, his footsteps making nary a sound for the storm to mask save the splash of each footfall, easily bypassing each and every droid patrol that sparsely patrolled the streets and posted up in high places to provide overwatch.
He was careful not to actually terminate any droids yet, as if even one of them failed to respond to a hail from their command or didn't report back as instructed, it would immediately place the enemy on high alert, and place his mission in jeopardy. So, he was patient, didn't make a sound, and made sure to turn off his comms equipment so that nobody could hail him, give him a signature for the enemy to track. Building by building, block by block, his movements were carefully thought out, deliberate, and precise, slowly but surely closing in on his targets. He wasn't so inexperienced as to rush the process, as one wrong move so deep behind enemy lines was a death sentence. A razors edge, as the saying went.
Dropping down from the balcony of one building onto the rooftop of a lower one, he silently stalked in through the doorway of a taller connecting tower. It wasn't that he didn't have a timetable to manage, it's just that he knew that he could complete his goal on time while still doing everything right, though it wasn't to say he couldn't adapt if things went wrong.
Deftly making his way down the corridors, he weaved in and out of the buildings, from tower to tower, alley to alley, until finally, he found his position. A tower on the street at an end of the city park, roughly two and a half kilometers from his targets' command post. He was on the twelfth floor, low crawling up to his sniper's nest. From this far away, it would take about half a second for the bolt to travel the whole distance, and he had six targets.
The Super Tactical Droid took priority, but the Devaronian General Mirk and his human second in command Suura were also priority targets, alongside the other three command staff of this part of the CIS. The sixth was technically a civilian, an official of the Trade Federation of high notoriety, but he was also an arms dealer for the Seppies, so it was all good in his eyes.
He'd already cleared the perimeter, made sure he was in the clear, booby trapped the area behind himself and activated his stealth field generator before having crawled up. He had a clear line of sight on all present targets, and could start shooting whenever he wanted, but he stayed his trigger finger. Patience was key to killing all six targets. If he waited for the flash of lightning while one was momentarily separated from the rest, he could kill one of them without alerting the others.
So he waited, patiently keeping his eyes on the whole group with his scope's magnification adjusted to be enough that she could clearly target the group, but not so much that he lost visual on one or more of them. It didn't take long, as his patience was awarded about ten minutes in, as the official took his leave to utilize a latrine brought in for their use. Readjusting his sights and zooming in on the target, he swapped to thermals so he could properly identify where he was shooting the target, and waited.
The Trade Federation rep didn't have to wait long, as with the flash of lightning only thirty seconds into him sitting down in the latrine, a bolt sailed through the illuminated sky, masked by the light, and ended his life in an instant. His body slumped back in the latrine, with nobody else present any the wiser. Five minutes later, he dispatched another of his targets the same way, in a different latrine.
"Two down." He thought, before refocusing on the last four. A Lieutenant Colonel, a Colonel, the General, and the Super Tactical Droid. The four were starting to get visibly suspicious, and it was from there that he knew the time for taking it slow had passed him by. Loading up a fresh tibana gas canister, he focused down his first target...
"Sir, with all due respect, that arms dealer has been on the crapper far too long. I think something is wrong." The female Colonel mused, getting an affirmative nod from the General.
"I agree, which is why I sent Jensyn... but he too is taking too-" before he could finish, a blue bolt struck him straight through the eye, throwing him down and killing him instantly. Stumbling back in shock and horror, she ducked for cover to avoid the sniper, screaming as Lieutenant Colonel Varnis's lifeless body fell on top of her, his head disintegrated.
The corpse was thrown off as the Super Tactical Droid ducked down and laid down beside her, relaying commands to find and eliminate the sniper. She gulped audibly as she watched the whole operation descend into chaos, battle droids marching all about and trying to find, and kill, whoever had just killed her XO and CO.
She didn't have much time to think, as with a glance towards the super tactical, she watched as a plasma bolt was expertly deflected off a surface behind them, blowing up the Super Tactical's head effortlessly. Her eyes widened in disbelief, before snapping out of it and pulling the droid over herself for cover.
"Who the hell is that?!. They just killed... oh, by the force! The General is dead!" She panicked, desperately trying to calm her breathing. She didn't know where the shooter was, who they were, or what they had, so how was she supposed to salvage this situation? She just had no idea, and that feeling of helplessness terrified her.
However, she wouldn't have to wait in terror long, as a quick look across the street she was still exposed to showed a blue plasma bolt deflect off a metal panel, before a bright flash came to her eyes, and everything went black...
He smirked as the last target slumped down, all the life leaving her body in an instant. That was it, primary objective completed. Now he just had to extract... easier said than done now, though. Droids were starting to swarm on his position, and were firing up at the cluster of floors he was on.
There were far too many for him to feasibly take on from here, and the narrowing down of their cone of fire was starting to get a little worrying. So, priming a handful of thermal detonators, he rolled them ver the edge with enough force for them to travel and roll beside the droids trying to march inside the building from the front, before booking it out of there.
Stowing his DC-15X, he pulled his DC-17M, and readied himself for some close quarters shooting. The trail of explosions was only getting closer, the clanking of metal feet against the floor getting louder and louder. The droids has switched from trying to narrow down on him to a far blunter tactic, simply riddling the building with as much fire as possible while marching in to close the distance. Bolt holes tore through the walls, glass exploded all around and loose papers flew about as a storm of blaster fire hammered away at the building indiscriminately...
Kicking open the back door, he immediately threw himself beside the open door as a whole column of B2 Super Battle droids marched down the alleyway towards him, opening fire as soon as the door was open. Backing up and looking around the corner, he snapped his blaster up and shot the face of an incoming B1, dropping it before stepping up and sweeping the room around the corner on full auto without exposing himself. Stepping up again, he chanced a look around the corner again.
He'd destroyed a fair number of B1s, but all the many B2s marching up on him from the front of the building was definitely a cause for concern. He dropped a burst of about six or seven shots into one, dropping it and moving onto the next while keeping a lower, smaller profile. He managed to successfully kill three, before an explosion back at that doorway told him that he needed to move.
Rushing back, he unloaded the rest of that canister into the two supers barring his path to the stairs and reloaded, noting that a third had been destroyed by the explosive. He just barely ducked in time to keep a head as an explosive burst blasted apart the cement wall beside him, showering him in cement chunks as he scrambled to get up the stairs and out of their line of sight.
After he was up the first flight, he tossed a thermal down, racing up the next flight of stairs. The distant explosion below him and the sound of droids getting shredded filled his ears, but the marching continued on. Growling in annoyance, he turned back and kicked open the door, only to be rewarded with a punch to the face as he fell on his back.
Acting on reflex, he tightened his grip on his DC-17M and swung it up, spraying a quarter of the 60 round canister into the new assailant. The sound of a droid, or something armored, being riddled with plasma filled the air, before it was followed up with the sound of machinery hitting the floor. Looking up at his attacker, he groaned in annoyance.
"BX Series? Seriously?" He pushed himself upright, before rushing through. Snapping the blaster up and shooting the first new contact in the head, dropping it instantly, before scanning the rest of the room. He did so with haste, as the droids were already coming up the stairs behind him.
After taking out a third commando droid, he tossed another Thermal Detonator back at the stairwell. The shattering of glass behind him took his attention away from the stairs, bringing it back around to face off with his new opponent.
"Blast it- an IG-100?!" He growled, just barely throwing himself aside in time to avoid getting struck with its electrostaff. Landing on his right side, he raised his left arm towards the mangaguard, dropping his hand down, he reached up and tapped the button to activate his additional wrist mounted equipment, chuckling as the disruptor effortlessly disintegrated the Magnaguard, reducing it to little more than dust in no more than a second.
Looking right, he repeated the action, disintegrating the other one just as it front flipped through the shattered window, before recoiling in as a volume of blaster fire started riddling his position from the doorway to the stairwell. Casting his attention left, he drew his left DC-17 and started shooting whilst stowing the 17M and vaulting over the counter for some cover, just barely avoiding the barrage of bolts...
"Damn, I'm surrounded..." he mused, before popping up and gunning down two more B2s with the rest of his canister, ducking back down to reload. He was about to pop back up again, as he'd just loaded in a fresh canister, but the droids had different plans, as the telltale sound of droidekas rolling in and popping their shields invaded his ears. "No getting around that, and they got me backed into this little corner... it's a nice kitchen, but that isn't important."
A quick peek told him all he needed to know, and that was that this wasn't a fight he could feasibly win... not without getting a little creative. Chuckling, he tossed a detonite charge over the droidekas, triggering the detonation just as it was over them. Their shields easily tanked the explosion, but they didn't fare so well against the debris that flattened them.
Rolling around the corner, he tossed another detonator into the stairwell, blasting apart a few more droids before rushing back out and up the next flight. Bursting through the next door up, he rolled to an upright position, scanning the room with both pistols drawn.
The room was clear, but it only took a distant flash to learn it wasn't safe. It only took a slight lean back to dodge the shot, but the fact that there were snipers drawing beads on him grated on his nerves to no end. Not to mention, the constant little clicking noise all around him was a little unsettling-
"Wait, clicking..? Oh you gotta be!-" he shot his gaze towards the window to his right, noting a large amount of buzz droids rushing in towards him. Growling angrily, he lit up the little mechanical nightmare fuels, each bolt blowing another one away in a flurry of parts. Throwing himself left and breaking into a roll, he narrowly avoided having his head removed by the sniper, tossing a grenade back down the stairwell again and destroying a few more droids, if the sound was anything to go by.
"Damnit! This place is getting too hot!" He exclaimed internally, and not a moment too soon he lost his balance as the building began to tilt slightly. The heavy volume of blaster fire had weakened the superstructure, and it'd only be a few moments before the building began to topple. However, that only gave him a new idea.
Rushing over to the direction of the sniper, he tossed a detonite charge at each corner of the tower, before throwing himself back again to avoid being disintegrated by a wall of blaster fire. Detonating the charges, he braced himself as the building began to bend far more dramatically, before it became a rapid fall.
And with that, the tower collapsed, crushing a great many droids with it, and leaving him glad he wasn't very high up. Sure, it threw him down, but he was at least alive...
However, with the dust kicked up, he practically couldn't see a damn thing, and what he could feel didn't comfort him in the slightest. He still had all his weapons, but he was, being completely honest, completely stuck. His legs were pinned under some debris, preventing him from moving...
"Ugh... just bad enough that I can't get it off, just great..." he murmured, before listening in on the battle that had gone somewhat quiet. Sighing lightly, he set his blaster pistol down and reactivated his comms unit on his right vambrace. "Commander Cody, this is your ARC Trooper. Enemy command has been decapitated. Start your siege now..." he paused, hearing the clicking return to his ears, alongside the new whirling of their buzz saws. Checking himself over, he sighed as he realized he couldn't access enough equipment to deal with how many were on approach, and could to maneuver properly enough to fight right. "Ah, to hell with it, that ain't no way to go out. I'm relaying coordinates to you now, have the fleet overhead fire on my coordinates... yes, I know it'll kill me, but it's either explosions, or buzz saws and drills, and I'm partial to explosions."
And just like that, he terminated the line. He'd had a good run, killed a lot, and now was at the end of the road. Now must've been his time, and that was alright with him... but if he was gonna go out, might as well go out on a blaze of glory, right?
"Time to cash it all in, I guess. I'll see you clankers in hell!" He exclaimed, laughing loudly as he cast his gaze skyward, beholding a magnificent rain of light blue pierce through the clouds, before everything went white...
"Ugh..." he groaned, picking himself up into a sitting position after breaking the silence of the night. Taking his helmet off, he brought his hands up to rub his eyes, hissing lightly as he applied pressure to a cut across his cheekbone. If he was bleeding and still moving, it meant he was still alive, which sat just fine with him... what didn't, however, was the change in scenery.
"What the... where?" He quietly asked himself, moving his head all around to get a clear image of where he was. The world he was just in did have forests like this one, but the flora here didn't match up, the moon wasn't fragmented, and it never snowed back there... here, however, it was snowy, with even the stream to his right being at least partially frozen, and there was no signs of recent battle...
"Well... not recent at least." Picking himself up to stand upright, he checked all his equipment, nodding in satisfaction. He'd used all but two of his thermal detonators, and only had one detonite charge left, but he at least still had plenty of ammo to expend, and all his blasters were accounted for. That much he could work with, now he just needed a game plan, a good game plan.
"I don't know the first thing about this world, but from a high elevation I can at least see if there's anyone out there." His survival training kicked in, and he immediately went about trying to pick out the highest point. Eventually, he settled on a fairly decent looking hill with a decently tall tree in it that stood higher than any other.
With a slight pep in his step, he stowed his DC-17M on the small of his back, shouldered his DC-15X sniper rifle, and began his trek under the shattered moonlight...
The bitter cold of the snowy night nipped at him the whole way, but he'd arrived at his intended destination, climbing to the top of the tall tree and taking in his surroundings. Many kilometers away, there held the glow of what he assumed must be some distant town, city, or... something. The glow didn't look right, it was almost like something was ablaze over there.
"Let's have us a little looksie..." he mused, taking up his sniper rifle and zooming in on the source. For the most part it was obscured by trees that barred his vision. Grumbling in dissatisfaction, he marked the location with his rangefinder, before dropping down, and starting off towards his new destination at a light jog. He still had roughly twelve kilometers to cross before he was there, so best not to wear himself out trying to rush there...
He was about nine kilometers in, silently marching through a clearing towards whatever it was he now knew was burning. His sense of smell didn't deceive him, it just didn't and he knew it. From the wood line, a little girl, in simple black clothes with a tattered little red cloak, rushed out like a bat outta hell. She was covered in some blood, though didn't look as though she were injured, and was sprinting in his direction, desperation evident in how she ran, looking back every few seconds as if something were chasing her.
"There may well be something after her, given the blood..." he theorized, before stepping forward and raising a hand to tell her to stop. She only did so at the last second, stumbling over and falling to her knees just about a foot from him. He noted the girl was young, possibly not even five yet, and she was bawling her eyes out, incoherently babbling the whole way.
"Woah there, kid, calm down." He started trying to ease her worries, setting a hand on her shoulder to try to comfort her.
"Mommy! Daddy!" She cried, dropping her face into the snow.
"Hey, hey, it's alright, ok? C'mon, what's going on, I might be able to help." He pleaded, offering her a hand after setting his rifle down. It took a few minutes, but the girl finally composed herself enough to at least respond to him. "Can you tell me what happened?"
"M-my mommy, daddy and sister were all eating food... when these scary people burst through the door and tried to hurt us! Mommy and daddy started fighting them... told sis and I to run... there were more waiting outside that caught us... mommy and daddy ran out covered in blood, killed the man holding Yang... told her to run... then killed the man holding me, told me to run... I don't know where Yang is... but mommy and daddy are still back there!" She babbled out, receiving a nod from the clone before her.
But, barely five seconds later, he heard a snap ahead of them, and looked up from the girl he was comforting. Before him was a trio of individuals, all in sorts of combat kits, each of them having some form or another of an animal trait to them, and all armed with varying weaponry. The one leading them was a tanned female, who's teeth all seemed razor sharp and was wielding a sort of pair of swords.
"Well well well, nice of you to hold her up for us!" She cheered with a sort of psychotic glee, her maw on full display. "This really doesn't concern you, Super Soldier. Step aside and hand over the girl."
"Yeah? I'd bet her parents wouldn't be too happy if I just handed over their kid to some crazy looking lady." He quipped back, though he had a feeling he knew the fate of said parents.
"I'm not too worried about the opinions of those I just killed. Now, hand her over." The statement brought a look of shock and disbelief from the little girl at his feet, and a look of determination hidden under his mask. Quietly, he grabbed her by her forearm and pulled the little girl behind himself while stowing his DC-15X and pulling up his 17M. "Oh, I wouldn't fight us, buddy. We don't got orders to deal with you, don't even know who you are. But we do got orders to take the girl."
"So you said, but I'm not just gonna let some weirdo like you take an innocent little kid. You'll have to get through me first." Her smirk only intensified, as she flourished her swords and her pupils narrowed.
"I was hoping you'd say that... but don't you realize, we outnumber you three to one?" She said with a smirk, before some sort of green energy started enveloping her form...
"Force users? Not good, best use my disruptor." He thought, stowing the 17M on the small of his back before sliding his left foot back and pushing his left arm forward and low, bringing his right hand back to the disruptor a firing button and holding it at the low ready. "I like those odds."
And so it started, with the woman flinging herself at him at insane speeds. Without hesitation, he flicked his wrist up and fired the disruptor at her at point blank too close for her to try to block, reducing her and her weapons to little more than dust washing over his armor within an instant. The other looked on with looks of abject horror as the woman who was seemingly their leader was disintegrated, taking small, choppy steps back while assuming defensive stances as they quietly inched around to either side of him, keeping a fair distance.
"That was my last shot in that canister, but they don't seem to know that... nonetheless,I can't let them escape, or they'll become a problem later." He'd have to tie up the battle quickly, as the longer the battle lasted, the better odds they'd actually have of taking him down and taking the girl that was now tightly clutching his leg. "This little girl is certainly an unexpected complication... I can't move much with her here, and the moment there's any distance between her and I, one of them will probably try to grab her and run... what to do..."
Taking a deep breath, he pulls out the 17M once again, and snaps to the closest target, the one on his left flank. Firing one-handed without hesitation, the man leapt to the side to avoid the blue bolts of plasma. Perhaps they thought all his weapons had such devastating capabilities? They weren't so powerful, of course, but their ignorance only served to give him an advantage.
Knowing the other would be ready to pounce, he grabbed the girl with his free hand by the shoulder and yeeting her around as he spun, deftly dodging the incoming strike while throwing her over the attacker, sending her sailing into a mound of snow. Kicking the low and exposed assailant in the side as hard as he could, he knocked them down on their side, and let rip full auto into their face.
To his surprise, they managed to actually shrug off the first few bolts, but after the ninth shot to the head, they went limp. He put an extra six into their head for good measure, before turning to the first he'd fired on, only to have his weapon knocked from his hand by an airborne blade striking it, flinging it several meters away. Not letting the loss of a single weapon stop him, he drew the DC-17 pistol from the holster on his right hip and started firing on the last opponent.
He grumbled angrily as they were effectively deflecting each of his shots away and into the snow. It was like fighting a damn Jedi, just without the magical powers or whatever it was they used. Reaching down with his spare hand to draw the other blaster for a little more firepower, his eyes widened as he only grasped at air. Had he forgotten to holster it when he was sent here?!.
He continued to fire away at the encroaching warrior, growling angrily as they got closer and closer, until finally they swung just as he was out of reach, knocking the blaster out of his hand. Fast like lightning, he drew his vibroknife from its sheathe and moved to stab at the swordsman.
But it was already too late, his opponent was already swinging back down to cut him down as he drew the blade. He grit his teeth as he recognized he wouldn't have enough time to dodge or block, and instead affirmed that he'd at least take this man down with him...
At least, that's what would've happened, but it seemed fate was on his side, as a blue bolt sailed in from behind, striking his opponent in the back and making him stumble forward, losing all power and overshooting the blade, instead just dropping his forearms on his shoulder. The clone took full advantage of the situation, successfully burying the vibroknife in his gut after a third strike, and ripping the blade upwards, through his chest, throat, splitting his jaw in two and gouging away a straight line biting halfway through his head all the way up through the crown.
With a small grunt of exertion, he punched the body across the shoulder, throwing it aside and letting it fall to the ground unceremoniously. Looking over to the gunman, he saw none other than that little girl he'd saved, now in turn had saved his life as well. Standing there, partially covered in snow, the little girl stood, holding his blaster pistol he'd missed in shaky hands, slowly lowering it as he sheathed his knife and approached her...
"It's alright, kid... they won't be trying to hurt you again. Ever." He reassured, accepting the return of his pistols as she'd taken it upon herself to collect his missing weapons as she came to meet him halfway. Holstering the pistols first, he swapped out the tibana gas canister on his disruptor, before taking the DC-17M last, holding it lazily with a single hand.
"I..." she had shock written all over her face, her big silver eyes doe-like and blown wide open. "They said my parents were... please, take me back home, they can't be dead!" She begged, holding his unoccupied left hand in both of her own, hands that he could fit with his palm alone. A small sigh escaped his lips, before nodding and letting her lead the way...
The house was ablaze, already about halfway collapsed, with a single bloody figure standing among seven other bodies. Looking up at the two approaching him with decent speed, the little girl's eyes instantly teared up as she saw it wasn't her mom or dad, but one of the killers.
Without warning, a blue bolt raced through the night, striking the man in the shoulder and sending spiraling down into the bloody snow. Looking down, he saw the little girl had stolen his blaster again... he'd have to be attentive with this one.
"Why? WHY?!." She screamed as she ran up to the downed man, stopping just about two meters short of him, leveling the blaster pistol down on him. "Mommy... Daddy... you killed them! WHY, you... you... murderer!" There were tears pouring down her face as she kept the blaster trained on him.
"Hahah... because SHE told us to, that's why! You should've seen it, your mother's pained screams were just so beautiful as I stabbed away at her!" He taunted, pointing to his left with a sinister grin. Her eyes followed, and the soldier immediately began to draw on the man as he kicked her in the gut, knocking her down onto her back in the snow. "Rule number one of combat, stay focused! Hah, you ain't even got the nerve to shoot-!" He roared, leaping up with knife in hand and getting cut off as she recovered and whipped the blaster up, firing a shot straight through his face that lanced right out the back of his head. The bolt had enough force to halt his advance, making his body fall just short of her feet.
"Kid!" The soldier exclaimed while rushing to give her a hand up, with the girl gingerly accepting the offer while returning the blaster once again. She was clutching her gut painfully, and she still cried and sniffled, but she could at least stand. The little girl scanned over the bodies, eventually stopping over two that had been all but hacked to pieces, covered in blood, gore, splintered bone and chopped up intestines, the only thing recognizable being their faces... one of them seemingly sharing her own, if more matured.
She quietly sobbed as she fell to her knees over what was clearly her mother's severed head, and he could only stay silent and let her mourn. Best not try to dehumanize the girl, he thought, before marching back over to the very edge of the clearing, silently waiting for her to finish her business...
It was roughly thirty minutes before he felt a light tug on his Kama from behind, and turning to the source only confirmed who he thought it was. Lowering down to a knee, he looked the little girl in the eyes and set his free hand on her shoulder.
"You said you had a sister?" He asked, and the little girl just shook her head.
"No point... I know she's dead or long gone too... I can't take seeing her too like I saw my mom and dad..." she lamented, but no longer cried. It seemed all her tears had since dried up.
"Well then... you killed the man who killed your parents. Feeling any better?"
"No... I don't know... not yet." She answered honestly, her gaze cast to her feet.
"Good." He answered simply, before ruffling her hair a little.
"I'm... my name is Ruby... Rose..." she mumbled, eliciting a content sigh from the soldier, as he wrapped a hand around under her rear and lifted her up in an almost fatherly way as he stood, the girl wrapping both arms around his shoulders as he did so.
"ARC-47-1298. Call me Midnight." He reciprocated, before turning with her on the beaten dirt path, following it down wherever it might lead them in hopes that the next faces they'd see would be friendly...
A/N: wrote this from my phone, hopefully I'll have my computer to write with some time around next week or something like that.