Okay the big Viper fight scene. Hope you like it.
“Bauble bauble burning bright, spinning through the dead of night. What sweep and majesty her grace, drawing through hunger this immutable case. For those whom laid low the great walls of M’th now come to fight, scurrying behind the walls of sight. Dear friends and lovers too, turned away and made askew. The Cultium hunger knows no bounds, fear now before we’re scattered across the grounds.” Emergency Services call placed from one Edward Sutter’s residence, responding officers found the home abandoned with no trace of Edward or his family.
New Hope, Point-Of-Reckoning-
I.Bad moon Rising Creedence ClearWater Revival
Diving behind what had been cut to resemble a black pillar of rock Jek found himself thinking to the lazy days he’d spent watching the holovids, of long sticky summer days spent in the cool shade of a holo-palace, of the dashing heroes who routinely saved the day from the dastardly anti-imperial fiends who tied damsels to the tracks of mag-trans. Always confident, always cool under the worst pressure, wading into the lines of enemy fire.
Of course no matter their numbers the heroes’ foes never could seem to hit them which encouraged bold gestures the way the splintering of molded plastic and sparking of looped conductive wire pulled to make Kid curl up into a tight little ball. He didn’t however disregarding sense, reason and likely any hope of ever being eligible for a life insurance policy to lean out around the edge of the rock pillar see a scuttling blur of movement fir a spasm of bolts out into the arena and slink back behind his dwindling cover ahead of a fresh burst that dented the floor. Small caliber some part of his mind recorded while the rest went through its epileptic fights of terror, a rapid fire handgun like most of the den of Vipers were packing instead of their heavier hardware. The only reason his cover of plastic and mesh hadn’t been already punched through and his body riddled.
Small arms in these sense being measured in hot lead ninety-nine millimeters in length that would punch holes rivaling his fist in width through his body, a very small comfort all things considered he found repeating his exposure for unfathomable reasons. Nicking one of the Snakes as it wiggled closer from one crevice to behind a bank of electronic equipment, the machinery itself receiving far worse of Jek’s wrath than the Xeno whose arm twisted around the metallic corner spraying hell fire from its machine pistol as a return gift. Cracking out more the plastic rock Kid huddled behind waiting, waiting to hear the soft click of a firing pin striking air and while he gibbering mind was still processing its implications rolled back out peppering the thing’s withdrawing arm. Bone and tissue popping in hissing conflagrations, the gun falling away through the dissolving mists which chewed at the bottom edge of its palm, over the beast’s throaty roar and the creaking of metal as the stack of monitors and data processors buckled and toppled. Revealing the Viper, good fist clenched into a bone mallet sinking through the back of it all, pushing off over it drawing its wounded hand to its chest and craning its screaming head towards Jek. Looking him in the eye, burning with intensity of dying stars, before a pulse shot neither of them saw until it was illuminating the side of the beast’s skull magma red and expelling its broiling brains out the other in an ever widening funnel.
Looking away from the body, which draped over the toppled machinery, to the blasted open doorway Kid saw Lucky edging prone around the jagged edge of the door. The sharpshooter nodding to the Corporal as he shifted targets, another shot another Viper tumbling, through the chaos. Across the breath of the breached door frame the machine-man also appeared, Specs sprinting with his back held low to the floor racing beneath the squad leader’s fire to find cover. Before the thought had even been processed Jek found himself pointed away from the smoky doorway spreading a line of blaster shots along the back of the room ahead of the cyborg as well, dividing and herding the alien masses away from him. The itch building again watching them converge and splinter lost in confusion, some remaining rigid where they were tightly gripping their pistols in both hands to steady their aim, others squirmed forward with more erratic shooting in contrast to the rest which sought what protection they could behind plasma scorched computer terminals and plastic molds.
Then Jek was behind his pillar again listening to the hail sound of bullets ripping through, curling low to the ground feeling pebbles of dust rain over him. Glad the torrent was only momentary, their guns’ endurance barely a moment or two, and he was free once more to scurry out from behind the moth eaten rock cropping, legs carrying him closer to the monsters for some reason, worrying only about diving behind a computer bank before they reloaded. That and the persistent itch that refused to abate, not precisely the enemy’s diverse and for the most part lethargic response he realized with continued thought. Not exactly, merely a deeper truth which budded and seeped through the layers of his conscious mind like the toxin from a Nerva dart as he hit the uneven and littered floor rolling hard with his shoulder into the sharp corner of the terminal.
A feeling of too much ease, since departing from the Army squad leaving them as a distraction, as bait a word which still twisted hot blades in his stomach, finding no enemies as they snuck through the corridors, an unguarded door just begging for a thermal charge and a room full of computer operators now. It couldn’t last, his life never been that good. Not since her, not since waking up bound for that miserable frozen wasteland. Something was going to happen, something bad.
Pushing up on his elbows, lifting a hand up to his throbbing side, it happened just on cue a flicker of movement of movement on the corner of his eye transforming into a green spear lunging through the bundles of cables snaking their way between the electronic machinery and roosting rock cropping. Claws, blunter and less pronounced than most he’d witnessed up close, slashing deep grooves through the soft metal of the terminal missing the Corporal’s diving head, body rolling onto his good shoulder than his bad back out towards his destroyed pillar as a second scaled hand clenching a wicked edged dagger plunged past splitting through the deck panel. Its owner not even bothering to lift it out, pressing down into it as it swung widely off of it lunging with stretching jaws after Kid who moved in the slowest motion in comparison. Pushing up onto his knees then flinging himself backwards freeing both legs which stretched out below those jaws, those terrible jaws. His mind lodging the insanity of the action through its overtaxed network for all the good it did, muscles locked in place holding them in place, and with the sight of those fangs slamming shut fractions of millimeters from his nose killed any hope of rational thought regardless. Only recognizing the end of his gun swooping up belatedly, as a series of after images concurrent with the frames of his gun and nearly all of his hands vanished inside the reopening maw. The insides illuminated with burning embers and plasma bursts tunneling up through the back of the thing’s head atomizing the rear of its skull.
Then his legs gave out and the weight fell over him, the world alternating dark and lit rolling out from , pulling out arms cut, burned and dripping with alien mucus but functional. Same as his carbine, he checked sliding behind the alien’s body wary of exposing even the tiniest portion of his body to the fiends, a cursory check revealing no damage to it at least exteriorly. The delicate internal mechanisms were beyond his sight much less skill or time to repair, the training to do so bypassed by his training sergeant who felt that considering the crop of soldiers in question it would be simpler to replace faulty weapons off of their dead comrades. If not “you son of banthas will figure it out well enough” as he phrased it. No such spontaneous epiphany had yet occurred, finishing his inspection over the black metallic surface, but it still seemed in all likelihood that his weapon would out live him.
On such cheerful thoughts, merely glad to have time without events spinning out into indistinct haze of actions, he looked up from his weapon to the man melded with technology. Recognizing despite himself the smile emblazoned in the twisted remnants of his visage, the slight hue of his eyes or the wrinkle in a patch of desiccated skin, as he in turn looked over the little stormtrooper.
“Keep playing with the natives Kid and we’ll never be done here.” He wheezed, voice box crackling with static wearing down like everything else in him, turning away to shoot between the shattered monitors of a station following the warning chirps of his scanner.
Jek not answering his jest, couldn’t find the strength to spare, but rearing up around the corpse blistering with stray weapons fire and adding his own destructive chorus to the cyborg’s melody. Behind Lucky threw his own lot in, advancing with a slow creeping pace standing straight and proud with his rifle tucked beneath his shoulder daring any of the foul aliens to strike him down. None of whom did, nearly all of those who resisted already slaughtered leaving only those who squirmed and sought shelter and by the passing of moments even they too fell away. Leaving smoldering terminals, sparking pillars melting into bubbling puddles and floor panels scorched black among the innumerable corpses, dozens at least through from the way some bodies splayed and burst made this difficult, adding to the charnel stench which hung over the command bridge like a dark plague.
But through it live would be saved; the bitter fruit now planted reaping a beautiful bounty. The Xeno forces without their head easier to chisel apart and route, the chain of fortifications and trenches dug along the earth breaking like fine crystalline. That had to be worth something Jek thought to himself, rising up, fighting a sudden twist in his stomach at a Viper with smoke curling from the crater burned into its scaly back and it’s still hooked pistol on its forearm sprawled in reach of the battle torn far wall. The feeling lasting only for a second before Kid stepped onto and over the creature, moving with Specs as they checked for survivors. To ensure their job was finished completely. Lucky taking it to himself to smash anything technological which had managed to survive the onslaught apparently unscathed, the butt of his rifle or a well placed burst of plasma fixing that adding to the polluted atmosphere.
Pausing from his work only at the sudden squawking coming from the machine-man’s wrist, he and the Corporal ceasing their activities in unison his electronic eyes seeking the complicated readout of his sensitive device.
“What is it?” The squad leader asked voice betraying nothing but the tightening of his fingers on his rifle did.
“Big reading…” Specs answered turning in a half circle after the doorway, the first loud snarl of gun fire which split it.” Very big…”
II. Swords into the wind-Manowar
Hailing to his namesake ’48 dropped beneath the swatch which cut for him, knee cracking against the panel beneath him leaving a cracked dent when he rolled away onto his back. Escaping a second, more hurried burst before its originator switched targets to a new motion, a new sound. The last thing the green skinned Viper did before a burst exploded into its shoulder, magma gushing out pooling over its beating chest, rocking it backwards towards something larger, something darker which the Snake twisted its body in front of shielding it. Protecting it from Specs’s fire, weaving between the Viper’s own scattered shots, as well as Jek who with a warrior cry ’19 would have smiled at found himself racing past the still lying Lucky after the Xeno beast. Moving fast, but not nearly as fast as the machine-man who with but a glance from his squad leader spurned ahead taking the lead to kick out the burning corpse of the alien from its wedge between the doorway.
Governed by the squeals and beeps of his scanner even more than his enhanced eyes so that his weapon fell on the dark shadow and not its remaining protector even before the smoldering remains had fully cleared. Three pulses leaping forth from him as the body struck the ground with a thud, another three as his heel dug into the hard throat of it turning it to mash. Six capsules of plasma which his glowing eyes recorded in vivid clarity the black skinned warrior evade as it approached. Its body twirling like a tendril of seaweed caught between currents, head dipping beneath one glowing globule while its body curved into a question mark or listed to the side letting the deadly bolts sail past. Their radiance falling harmlessly off of the thick onyx scales harder than the armored vest it wore and adding a wicked aura to the gleaming sword its rightening body reared up reared up past its scarred head.
But only for the barest fraction, never ceasing to all but the most sensitive of apparatuses of which Specs’s orbs belonged, descending down like a lightening at the machine-man’s neck and shoulder where it would drink deep in his life blood. Muscles honed in combat to rival of the quality of his optic sensors denying the blade its thirst, the very edge of the blade skimming over his backwards bending face slicing off a twisted lump of metal. The mildest grunt coming from the Xeno as its nostrils failed to be clogged with the heavy perfume of blood, eyes tracking both Jek emerging in the doorway as well as the man of metal as well as flesh scoot past.
Turning its body out of the way of the hail of lethal pulses Kid threw up it followed with its head Specs running past, the cyborg pulling his head back up missing the Viper’s claw-hand jumping to its sword arm yanking a heavy pistol off. Which followed in line with its snout, thumb-claw assuring by feel single shot was still in place before it fired and the machine-man’s midsection vomited the coppery substance. Tumbling to the ground the next, skidding past the remaining guard lingering back at its master’s orders, while the onyx beast swung with its tail at the scream of Jek’s silencing when its side hit him in the chest and catapulted him off of his feet. Shreds of armor flying off into the air, landing on the great serpent as it slithered forward into the room hooking its assault pistol back onto its resting place. The sword held up near its face ready for the hairless ape clad in broken white armor rising up off of the floor, Lucky quiet where Kid had thundered. Skin boiling with a caldron that had first been poured in the dead forest, lit out in the muddy trenches and now came pouring forth out of his pores like a dank fog.
Through its sweltering presence he felt his fingers tighten over the stock and grip of his rifle, holding it against his chest pointed away from the dark as night Viper which slinked in. Not pointing it, not yet letting his muscles build for that moment. Waiting for it, eyes locked into the soulless pools of his foe approaching without fear. He’d seen how fast it moved, seen Specs’s and Kid’s fall and knew he’d never have a second shot. Knew he didn’t need one, been the best marksmen of his troop during training. From nearly the first day he’d been selected aside from his peers given a scoped rifle, made to practice with it until he and it were nearly one. Sharpening a knack he first developed taking quarry down with his father, carrying a light blaster since he was ten, like obsidian glass. Where it was used, among other places, on some nigh worthless world with some Planetary Lord who refused to accept the “guidance” of the Empire, Lucky part of the team which had been dispatched to destroy the power generators holding up the protective screens over the capitol. Catching the notice of Gunny there, the Sergeant inquiring to the cause of a series of enemy soldiers fallen at their posts together. Their heads split open.
So he could hit the scaly devil before him now, his concern shaving down the fractions of a second that stood between them to the utmost bare. So he stood like a soldier, like a guardian, rock still and steady drawing the Viper in. Watching it seem to grow and rise above him, its head curving up above towards the ceiling, like the ghostly specter of death itself. Its body a shadow even in the like, blacken by the roll of ages, the only reflection that of its gleaming sword which rested unmoved from out in front held like Lucky’s rifle it was positioned not threateningly and like his weapon its appearance was a deceptive lie. A lie the stormtrooper ended with the herald of a solitary word of basic but hurled like a spear from his throat to the Lizard’s massive chest for it but to pierce and kill should venom and hate give words weight.
“Enough.” He cursed springing his rifle out, from its corner the heavy wrought blade of iron descended.
Intersecting the gun’s muzzle slicing it apart in a burst of light but not before a scarlet beam lanced out, Lucky’s face bathed in the hot scalding glow of the incinerating armor of the protective vest and his sinuses drank deeply the odor of burning flesh watching the fiery blossom puncture through the skin beneath. Then watched the shimmering light fade, the stinging soot clear and as the barrel of his rifle came to a rest on the floor gazed at the crimson wound no more than a millimeter or so punctured. Looking up to the Viper’s face to see its eyes before they were blotted out by its raising sword, saw amusement there saw the thrill one always felt holding life and death in one hand but also so saw something else in those horrible pools. Something that was far more sickening, far more repulsive. Respect, perhaps even pride which fed into Lucky fueling him by his rage in time for the killing stroke.
The blade came down, swerving his ruined rifle around sliding his hand across to its still glowing end he pushed it up towards the Viper. The two meeting between but for the barest moment, the metal turned from an Imperial forge parting for the alien weapon taking all but a breath for it to clear. Much can happen in the breadth of a heartbeat through, for ’48 it was enough for him to shove the rifle gripped by his right hand against it, pushing off of it.
Pushing himself clear, to the side of the Serpent hearing its hiss of surprise as the sword passed, the warping of metal as it passed through the deck plate like it was air. Didn’t realize the cost until, leaping onto the thing’s barreled chest, felt something wet and sticky strike his face. Something coppery. Its source beneath his left shoulder which abruptly ended, his hand still clutching its end of his rifle beneath in a growing glade of red, the same the Xeno’s sword tasted across its surface rising back up from the gouged floor. No time to mourn, no time to think.
Undoing his pistol from its holster the best shooter of Valor squad made off the three worst discharges of his career. One going off into the bulkhead beneath barely after it cleared its satchel, another sailed past the Viper’s lithe head scattering its destructive energy over the ceiling and the third at last struck the great foe but not in its cranium even then twisting away from a possible fourth shot but the craggy block of bone and muscle it called a shoulder which bent intercepting then continued as the energies wracked it slamming into Lucky knocking him off. Its tail snapping out of the peripheral as he took flight, not seeing it but feeling his leg shatter as the two collided. Then he was on his back, the world spinning and dark nebulas eating their way across his vision.
Through it he saw the Viper tower over him, its head down turned with its sword resting just beneath his chin ready to sever his head away. From its lipless mouth came growling words beyond Lucky’s limit of understanding, knowing only that their washing over him made him feel dirty. Filled with further rage causing him to spit up at the beast, incensed that his final moments would be listening to its Emperor forsaken black speech.
“Kill me you bantha fether!” He screamed not wishing his failure to be prolonged but to meet its inevitable end quickly and clean.
Its features rippling into a scowl the Viper looked like it was too deliver when its guard behind it shouted in its infernal tongue and a second shape appeared above ’48 leaping onto the back of the great serpent. Recognizing the pain thick cry in an instant, the form of Kid saddling the Xeno in another. From his place on the floor Lucky watched the young stormtrooper, screaming wild and crazy, pull his revolver free and shove it against the back of the Viper’s head. The squad leader hearing the heavy thud of the crude propellant ignited, of the slug belching forth from the chamber. He saw the red splatter back into Kid’s face as the bullet bite down, saw it before the sweeping claw-hand brushed across Jek’s cracked ribs adding their own ruby rivers knocking him from his perch. The Onyx lizard diving forward as its passenger fell, dipping nearly to Lucky’s body, but caught itself and reared back up. Sword hand held at the ready to strike at anything while one claw-finger assuaged its splintered but intact skull and the bleeding wound.
Undeterred it withdrew the digit away barking orders to its green skinned guard which had moved to finish off Kid now struggling to rise doing his best to hold his own bleeding at bay and reach for his fallen handgun. Hissing the guard tried to argue gesturing with its rifle towards the stormtrooper but at last relented retreating back towards the door as the black Viper turned its shoulder to Jek preparing to finish off Lucky through he hadn’t moved. Couldn’t despite wanting too, his body feeling too light, too weak but his insult had not been forgotten. Something which gave ’48 some form of odd closure as the Serpent grew in his vision once again to strike him only to be interrupted yet again. This time not with the cry of its guard, whose throat along with his head burst open in a flash of vapor, but by a human voice nearly as much as a growl as any Snake’s.
“It’s time you quite playing with these kids.” Aphorious snarled limping in leaving a thick trail to follow with his cigarra.” It’s time for the men to settle this, one against the other.”
And through his words meant nothing to the beast, as it own speech did to him, something bled through. Some flicker of understanding dawning in the old eyes of the Viper as it turned around raising its sword high only to halt as the Master Sergeant held up his hand.
“Not quite yet…this is between the two of us.” He said slowly, exhaling oily plumes of soot.”Corporal? Can you get to your feet?”
Jek nodded, gritting his teeth as he shambled up a hand pressed against his sopping side the entire time. The other shakily holding his revolver which he brought to bear against the Viper until a swift shake of the Sergeant’s head dispelled him of that notion. Aphorious, taking his cigarra from his lips, gesturing over his shoulder through the doorway to Huds who held draped over his shoulder the body of Specs then to Lucky’s body.
“Get’em up out of here Corporal. That’s an older. Get them to the surface.” He commanded returning the smoke to his lips.
Again the Serpent understood, the gesture if not the words, doing nothing or reacting to Kid as he holstered his weapon and hobbled to the squad leader’s body. There, remembering all he could how Specs had treated the wounded, patched Lucky’s arm as best he could, gave him a boost of adrenalin to keep him conscious and tuck the severed limb into his armpit half scooped up the larger warrior off the ground. The two of them with three legs lurching as best they could past the Onyx warrior which still ignored them, letting them pass out into the hall and vanish along with Huds. Only then did it move, smashing a clenched claw-hand against its chest like a gong, letting the noise die away before speaking.
“Sar’Ur’Ion.” It howled then struck its fist against itself once more to press home the point.
“Master Sergeant Aphorious.” The army NCO replied taking one last puff on his cigarra before removing it, tossing it to the floor and grinding it away.” Let’s do this.”
III. You got the touch-Stan Bush
The Viper threw back its head in a roar of approval before diving to the ground avoiding the burst of plasma pulses the Sergeant had thrown at it, body a blur zigzagging across the ground to spring after him. Silver of its sword heralding its rising body, shooting through he after image of the Sergeant cutting through the remains of the door frame like it was tin then bent its body into an “U” shape avoiding the three round burst from the squatting Aphorious. Accepting his miss the human rolled away avoiding the heavy hilt which plunged through the floor panel, slivers of bulkhead spraying onto the Sergeant as he came to a rest back on his knees and rose in a run rushing past the beast. Its tail cracking up off the ground with the audible pop of cannon fire and hurtling towards him like a scythe blade, he and it colliding midstep neither slowing only to part in a visceral spray. Hot droplets shooting off the tail’s tip as it shot past, a hand width sliced from the end, curving about the Viper’s neck and head which tracked after the running human.
A claw-hand grabbing from his sword hand, still impaled through the flimsy floor, tearing his assault gun free which whirled around and fired in the same motion. A scarlet geyser the same shade as what dribbled from its tail erupting from Aphorious’s shoulder sending the Sergeant off trajectory tumbling over the dead hard against a bank of ruined consoles. Blood running down his arms the human struggled to rise, found his legs slacken and collapsed once more against the terminals. Hanging propped there while Sar’Ur’Ion wrestled his sword free and lowered his belly to the ground, a shadow of death which scurried along the ruby trail he’d left thrusting upwards to skewer the human. Seeing his face looking beneath the crook of his arm, seeing his smile, too late only able to watch with eyes long taught by the hard and cruel master that was war the Sergeant shove himself away from a stroke which should have split his spine asunder. Receiving the barest scratch to his abdomen instead which didn’t slow him up ending his rifle from beneath the curve of his arm and filling the space between them with plasma and ejecta. Fragments from the assault pistol, which took the brunt of the blast, impaling both warriors neither of which noticed in their bid to kill the other. Aphorious firing another bolt towards the beast’s midsection which it curved out of the way, along with the smoking ruins of its palm, and returned swinging the iron sword from the consol it had bisected.
No faltering, no hesitation from the pain. Inwardly the Sergeant saluted bringing in turn his cleaving blade blocking the blade, muscles in both his arms bulging on the impact. The Xeno blade biting deep into the metal, hammered into place over many long weeks and months by a skilled craftsman in a foundry on his birthworld it did not however yield. Stubbornly blunting the assault and derailing it forcing the Viper to rely on its raw bone strength to finish it across, strength which the Sergeant returned with all his might. Grunting with pain as he twisted his blade against the sword, feeling the slasher grin cut from him belly up into his side widen and his uniform grow heavier from the torrent which spilled from it. Heard his back crack, felt his arms burns in agony but with a particular venomous oath spun the blade away from him. His own weapon wrenched from his grasp, tearing blood and finger nails loose, and sent sailing past the Lizard which sunk after its sword stroke.
Bringing it in easy reach of Aphorious who rushed forward grabbing above and below the forearm clenching the great sword, digging his bloody stumped fingers into the rock hard flesh of the beast and with another Emperor forsaken curse and what felt like the splitting of his back inverted the alien’s limb joint with a wet snap. The sword falling from its grasp to the ground with a thud with belied its slight weight, the Sergeant leaning out to scoop it up when the back of the smoking claw-hand connected with him knocking him away and turning the bone in his arm to powder. Aphorious skidding over the slick ground, feeling more of himself slush out, recovering and rolling onto his belly avoiding a second brush with the bludgeon. The floor screaming out in protest as he pushed up on one arm, the other hanging useless, and fighting the shaking of the world around him plunged back towards the creature. Seeing the flicker of movement behind it too late, far too late to prevent it from lashing out, it’s bloody end through blunted breaking through his armor and ribcage. Feeling his body become inflamed in pain as it passed through, pushing up against his chest lifting him off the ground where they bicycled needlessly for a moment before he let them go limp. The energy needed elsewhere, needed to keep his visage steady as he looked the Viper in the eye, needed to keep his grip firm as he reached out with his hand grabbing the base of the tail and dragging himself forward. The rough skin of the beast scraping like sandpaper, emerging out his back caked in blood and flecks of other things, with every pull but each got him closer. Nearer to his target.
From behind he sensed it come, felt it crash like a wrecking ball into his back and felt it break like a twig but he did not cry out. Blood bubbling from his lips from his wounds and from his tongue cleaved apart by his clenched teeth he remained silent, focused on his task as with one final tug he released the tail and drove his bleeding fist like a missile down through the blaster wound scarred through the Viper’s chest. Plunging through that, through the pain, through death calling out for him to the beating organ within, finding its prunish flesh and encircling it and putting all that remained within him in crushing it.
Then…nothing. The two stared upon each other for those final, bitter moments where one sat bewitched between that of flesh and spirit. Longing for one but knowing deep in the reaches of one’s soul to being drawn inexorably towards the other. A time for bitterness, hatred or even forgiveness through which exactly either proffered reaching the cusp of their mortality neither combatant could guess. Perhaps merely a mark of respect, seeing in the others eyes the lifetime of slings and travesties of war, a kindred spirit soon departing.
“Sar’Ur’Ion.” Aphorious slurred starting it feeling himself slipping away, becoming more and more “there” rather than hanging “here”.
“Aphorious.” The Viper growled in return dipping its head through the cause could have been weakening muscles.
The two of them sharing in the exchange, whatever it might be, for those final fatal moments before they faded away leaving behind a pair of husks which would be uncovered by an army sweep team some time later. Through then separated both he and it would be cremated by the Imperial forces, one in mass the other singularly, destroyed by the flame by which they’d lived.
*
Happy anniversary sonofccn
Thank you and happy year 1 plus to your story
