Sharpshooter - Only The Strongest Will Survive
Sharpshooter - Only the Strongest will Survive
Chapter 6
Word count: 1.6k
Warnings: Blood, violence, injuries (cleaning wounds)
I can't move.
The creature's advancing fast, claw raised to strike the other side of my face. My legs aren't listening to my brain. They're rooted to the ground. My hand reaches for the hilt of my knife but it's nowhere to be found. Blood's still dripping from my eye.
I see the glint of its claws under the moonlight, poised to strike. Sharp knives digging into the other side of my face. And then my chest, blood spilling out from the wounds and dripping to the ground as my legs give out under me. I can barely breathe, the blood from my face flowing into my mouth and down my throat as I try to cough it up, but only more blood comes out.
Everything's blurry now, my vision a red haze of pain. I blink the blood out of my eyes, only to be met with the creature standing above me, claws to my throat. I can't even squirm under the weight of the animal.
My vision slowly starts to fade as the pain at the side of my face intensifies.
I'm gonna die. That's totally fine.
Humor isn't exactly working out right now. I feel the sharp claws press against my throat, and the intensity of my coughs increase as I try desperately to breathe and calm my nerves.
The creature raises its claws to strike, and all I can do is watch as its claws descend to my throat and slice through it like a knife through butter. I want to scream, but it's muffled by the blood in my mouth.
That's when I wake up on the bed of my empty apartment, coughing violently, my hand instinctively shooting up to the left side of my face where I still feel the claw marks indented into my skin. My heart pounds wildly in my chest as I frantically scan the area for signs of any movement in the darkness of my apartment. My chest rises and falls rapidly as I try to regain control of my breathing. My hands now grip the bed tightly, almost as if it could protect me from any danger.
Bed is safe.
My breathing steadies slightly so that I'm not gasping for air anymore, but my hands are trembling, clutching onto the sheets of the bed for dear life.
I press a hand to my forehead. It's sticky and warm. My breath hitches in my throat as I remove my hand from my forehead and put it to eye level. My eye scans for any signs of the sticky red liquid that makes my stomach sick, but there's no trace of it. I lay my head back against the pillow again, and stare up at the ceiling, its white paint coat slowly peeling off of it.
It reminds me of how the skin on Mayday's back was peeling off after he got whipped. I feel a lump start to rise in my throat when I think about it.
It's unfair. He got punished and I didn't. When he told me about it, I could tell that he did something to get me out of punishment. I've known him long enough to know.
I can almost see the blood oozing out of Mayday's wounds, the angry red skin surrounding the deep gashes in his back, the way he winced when I put the bandages there. It must've hurt.
I am grateful to Mayday for getting me out of punishment, who wouldn't? No one wants to get whipped on the back like that. But maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if I was right beside him, taking the same punishment. Maybe he wouldn't have that dead look in his eyes that I saw yesterday.
I just want to hug him, to comfort him, to tell him that everything is going to be okay. He doesn't deserve what he got.
After a few minutes of overthinking, I snap back to reality and get out of bed. There's some noise coming from the streets below, but not a lot. I assume it's about 6 or 7 in the morning from the amount of people downstairs.
I head over to Mayday's apartment with a roll of fresh bandages. I knock on the door.
"The door's unlocked." I hear a muffled voice from inside. I open the door to see Mayday lying on the couch on his stomach. When he hears my footsteps, he looks up at me with those eyes that have been haunting me all night.
I sit down next to him.
"Sit up," I pat his shoulder gently.
Mayday shakes his head, his face pressed against the sofa.
"I said sit up." I pull him by the shoulders and force him to sit up. "Now take off your goddamn shirt so I can rebandage those fucking wounds."
Mayday groans. "Fine." He takes off his shirt, his back facing me so that the bandages that I put on him yesterday are visible. They're soaked through with blood, staining them a dark crimson.
I inhale sharply through my teeth.
"What?" Mayday asks, annoyed.
"It doesn't look good," I reply as I start unravelling the bandages around his torso, revealing the cuts on his back.
I cringe at the sight of it. There's some patches of dried blood clumped together, but there's blood all over his back. There's some bruising at the areas where his skin isn't cut open, and his back is swelling slightly. I always hated the sight of wounds. I can deal with death, sure, but not injuries. Those make me sick.
I hear Mayday wince as the wounds hit fresh air. Not really fresh, considering the air in the apartment isn't that well-ventilated.
"I...might have to wash that..." I tell him.
"WHAT?!" Mayday shouts, turning around to face me, but winces again at the pain in his back. It's the reaction I expected.
"If you want it to get infected, swell up even more, have pus in it, have to be taken to the hospital and pay more for treatment and maybe even surgery, go ahead," I say with a hint of sarcasm in my voice.
I head to the toilet where there's an old cloth on the sink, I assume it's one of Mayday's brothers'. I quickly wash it with water, trying to clean it as well as I can, getting most of the dirt off of it.
With the cloth still dripping wet, I head over to Mayday.
"Lie on your stomach and stay still, or I'm going to press this cloth onto your back even harder," I order. Mayday rolls his eyes but reluctantly complies with the order. I then place the wet cloth onto his back, the blood almost soaking through it immediately.
Mayday inhales sharply as a shudder runs through his back. He presses his face into the sofa to muffle his shouts of pain, but I can still hear them. I gently press the cloth down onto his back, and he starts shaking. I can hear him breathing heavily, and almost what sounds like crying, muffled by the sofa.
"Sit up," I tell him after I finish cleaning his wounds, and wrap fresh bandages around his torso to cover the cuts, which are still bleeding, but slower. I catch a glimpse of Mayday wiping a few tears from his eyes but I don't mention it to make sure he doesn't die of embarrassment.
"There. Done." I look up at him. Mayday grits his teeth. "Thanks," he says. I can hear the sarcasm in his voice. I roll my eyes and bring the cloth back to the toilet, soaking it with water and trying to squeeze the blood out from it. By the time I'm done, most of the blood from the cloth is gone and I return it to its original position on the sink.
For the next few days, I help Mayday with his wounds. They've become scabs by now and he's no longer staining the chair in his apartment with his blood. This is the fourth day I've cleaned the area around Mayday's back. It's still bruised but slightly less now, and I make sure to be careful and avoid accidentally peeling the scabs off and reopening the wounds.
As usual, Mayday takes off his shirt and lays down on the couch, his bruised back facing up. That's when I hear a knock on the door. Mayday and I both stand up and open the door ever so slightly to see who's outside. Then five bodies come crashing down on us, and we all fall to the floor in one massive pile.
It's Mayday's brothers. Great. Mayday sighs and lets himself get tackled to the floor by his brothers while I squirm my way out of the pile and head to my apartment to find my own family.
When I open the door, I see my parents and grandparents waiting at the door for me. I immediately run into their arms and hug them as tightly as I can.
"I missed you," I mumble, my arms tightening around them.
My grandfather pats my head, and my father replies, "Missed you too Potato." It's the nickname he gave me when I was younger.
After a moment, I let go of them, but they don't let go of me.
They're not usually this clingy. Something's wrong.
"What happened?" I ask.
They have a solemn look on their faces, my mother and grandparents seem to be holding back tears. While their faces may not show it, I know them too well. My father's got no tears to cry. His tear ducts were damaged from the heat on a trip outside the ray shield in the early days back in North America.
They remain silent.
I hear sobbing and crying from the apartment next to us. Mayday's apartment. It's either tears of joy, or the same tears that my family's holding back.
I've got a feeling it's not tears of joy.
More Posts from Tbnrpotato and Others
Our Own Choices
Chapter 13
When we reach back to the Anaxes base, I go to the medbay and get my hand fixed up. Medical droid replaces the shattered bone inside with metal and my hand's good as new. Echo's doing good as well. He's recovering from what damage he took on Skako Minor.
So Echo has a plan about getting onto a Separatist Dreadnought and into Trench's comm vault so that he can feed Trench strategies that we already know and let the Republic retake Anaxes. I've been hanging out with the batch for a while, and I actually feel like I fit in with them. I don't get weird looks for being different.
Tech's fixing the ship while I show Hunter and Wrecker how I manage to fit 20 knives into my wrist compartment. Wrecker looks shocked, Hunter raises an eyebrow, looking slightly impressed. Then I see Tech trying to get a piece of metal loose from the engine, and I throw a knife at it, hitting the piece of metal with the hilt of the knife, and the metal piece falls to the ground, along with my knife. I head over to pick up my knife and receive a "That was unnecessary" from Tech. I smirk as I throw my knife up in the air and catch it.
Echo, Rex and General Skywalker come over just as Tech finishes the repairs.
"Tech, is everything ready?" Hunter asks.
"Yep Sarge, we are ready," Tech replies. "Still not sure how we are gonna land on that ship."
"Don't worry, Echo says he's got a plan," Rex says, putting a hand on Tech's shoulder.
"That makes me feel so much better," Tech replies, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"What do you mean by that?" Rex and I ask at the same time, slightly annoyed.
"To be blunt, his mind belonged to the Separatists until we unplugged him. We don't really know where his loyalties lie."
Good point.
"Yea. Well I know. Now get moving," Rex orders.
We walk up the ship, and I'm standing next to Crosshair and Hunter, Tech's piloting, and Wrecker's slightly restless.
"Please tell me we are blowing something up," he says, turning to face us.
"Sorry Wrecker, this is strictly stealth," General Skywalker replies.
I like that word.
Wrecker groans. "I hate that word."
Oh cmon Wrecker I thought we were getting along here
"Echo, you're up," General Skywalker says and Echo plugs his mechanical arm into the scomp link. "As soon as I plug in, I'll send a signal to the command ship."
"What type of signal are you gonna send?" Hunter asks. "Nothing that'll give us away, right?"
"As far as the droids are concerned, we're just gonna be another one of their shuttles coming in for a landing," Echo replies.
"And the regs think we take risks," Hunter says as he and Crosshair give a sideways glance at each other.
We fly for a short while, past some of the Separatist ships stationed above Anaxes.
"Sending the signal...now."
Echo I swear if you give us away I will fucking waterboard you and then carve your eyes out.
"Roger roger, Shuttle TC-159. You may approach and land." A battle droid's voice is heard over throughout the ship.
Wow looks like I don't get to torture Echo today. How sad.
Wait tf is my brain thinking rn stfu brain
Wrecker groans. "I'd still rather blow it up."
"I have a feeling you'll get your chance," Tech says.
Really hope he doesn't.
We fly past the fleet of Separatist ships and up to the Dreadnought, flying under it. The ship turns upside-down, much to my discomfort as I land head-first onto Rex's chest, and we're now on the underside of the Dreadnought.
As I stand up on the ceiling of the ship, rubbing my head, I ask, "Okay so how the fuck are we getting from the damn underside of this thing INTO it?"
The door at the bottom of the ship opens and so does the one in the Dreadnought. The ladder in the floor extends and we climb in.
I ready my pistol and knife, in case there are any clanker patrols nearby. Luckily for us, there aren't any.
I help Echo up and we walk through the corridors cautiously, with General Skywalker leading the front and Crosshair and I guarding our flank, walking backwards, on alert in case any clankers show up.
Echo, Tech , Rex and General Skywalker enter the comm vault, while Hunter, Wrecker, Crosshair and I guard the door.
"So uh how's it usually like on missions without us regs?" I ask, not expecting much of a response from Crosshair.
"Wild," Crosshair says as Hunter walks into the comm vault to check on Echo and the others. I raise an eyebrow at him, although he can't see it from under my helmet.
"Yeah, our last mission was with those Yalbec males, and they tried to eat us after I cut off the queen's stinger," Wrecker says.
"Why? They jealous that you get that Yalbec pussy and they don't?" I ask, smirking slightly.
Wrecker side-eyes Crosshair, and Crosshair replies, "Yea, I guess so."
I grin under my helmet, holding back a laugh, trying to stay focused.
Echo's taking a while, and some clankers have started to come through the corridor. Crosshair goes to take care of some of them and I follow him.
I take cover at the side of the entrance to the corridor, shooting at the B2 super battle droids with my pistol, throwing my knife at one of them and hitting it in the head. There's about 16 of them, and Crosshair gets more kills than me, which sucks.
Wrecker joins us slightly late, and by then we've almost taken out all of them. As I throw another knife at the last one, I wait to see if there are any more droids before running to go pick up my knives.
Crosshair, Wrecker and I lead the way through the corridors, shooting droids the moment we see them, littering the corridors with bodies of broken battle droids.
Wrecker runs ahead, and when he turns the corner, some battle droids start firing at him, and he takes cover around the corner. Crosshair and I start shooting at the droids in front of us, Rex behind us doing the same, and Hunter and Tech are taking care of the remaining droids at the back.
Then, Wrecker goes to absolutely destroy the battle droids with his bare hands, and I kinda feel bad for them as I look left and right, scanning the area for more droids as I hear the terrified screams of the battle droids and the crashing of metal against the walls.
"It's all clear!" I hear him shout, and we move out from the corner, Rex half-carrying Echo.
No time to ask what happened to Echo, if Rex is carrying him, he shouldn't be dead.
Some more battle droids come from the back, and Tech alerts us to them. "More droids."
"Go. I'll buy you some time," Crosshair says, throwing up a deflector puck in his hands just to look badass, and proceeds to do an epic shot where he just throws it at the battle droid's chest before shooting it in the head, then waiting for the precise moment to fire another shot at the deflector puck which bounces off the ceiling and at all 3 battle droids' heads.
I just stand there, frozen for a moment before walking off with the others.
"We'll meet you at the infiltration point," Rex tells Crosshair.
Wrecker groans. "He's gonna try and top me. You watch."
"And me," I say in an annoyed tone.
We start half-walking half-running through the corridors, and we reach the infiltration point.
Tech looks through his visor. "I'm picking up dozens of droids on my sensors, all heading this way."
"Hope you're not waiting on me," General Skywalker says as he runs to our position.
Wow I didn't even notice he was gone I think I literally forgot he existed.
"Now all we're missing is Crosshair," Hunter says.
Right on cue, Crosshair comes running through the corridors to our position, throwing deflector pucks literally everywhere, and stops in front of us, turning backwards and aiming his rifle, using his right shoulder to support it.
"You miss me?"
No.
"How touching."
Then he aims at the deflector puck as the droids come marching through the hallway and he fires.
The blaster bolt deflects off the first puck and then to the second and then to like the next 30, hitting all the droids in the side, and Wrecker and I just stand there gaping at what just became the most badass shot I've ever seen.
"THAT STILL ONLY COUNTS AS ONE!" I protest.
"Relax Wrecker," Hunter says as he nudges Wrecker in the shoulder. "You'll top him next time."
No he won't.
And then Crosshair just comes up to us just to say "No he won't" to Wrecker's face and now I'm trying my best not to laugh again. I'm quite sure Crosshair has the biggest smirk ever under that helmet right now.
Wrecker groans.
We climb down the ladder to get back into the ship and fly off.
"I've got a present for you, Wrecker," General Skywalker hands Wrecker what looks like a detonator with a green button.
"Oh, seriously? I get to blow it up? The whole kriffing thing?" Wrecker sounds excited as he takes the detonator from General Skywalker's hand, and Crosshair and I watch.
"This..." Wrecker wipes a probably happy tear from his eye. "Is the happiest day of my life."
He presses the button and I can hear all the ships behind us going kaboom as we fly back down to Anaxes.
When we land on Anaxes, we get praised by General Windu, and General Kenobi says we've got some medals coming our way.
I take off my helmet.
"Thank you, General," Rex says as he starts to walk off.
As Echo starts to walk away, and batch and I stay behind.
"You coming?" Echo asks.
"Not really our thing," Tech replies.
"Accolades," Crosshair clarifies.
"Yea, we're just in it for the thrill," Wrecker says.
"You sure it's your thing?" Hunter asks, the question directed at both of us.
Echo looks confused. "What do you mean?"
"Your paths are different," Hunter says. "Just like ours." He motions towards the batch. Echo looks down. "If you ever feel like you don't fit in with them, well, find us."
I...don't fit in with the 501st. Or any of the other regs. And I think Rex knows that. Echo knows that. 99 did. And so did...
Don't say his name. Don't say his name.
As the batch turn around and walk up to their ship, I'm standing beside Echo as Rex walks up to us. "Those are some of the finest troopers I've ever fought alongside." He pats Echo on the shoulder. "Echo. You and I go way back. If that's where you feel your place is, then that's where you belong."
I glance at Rex. "Does that apply to me?"
Rex sighs. "Yes, ad'ika. It does." He turns around and walks away.
He's...he's letting me...what-
I thought he would-
Nevermind. Don't worry about that right now.
Echo and I look at each other before walking slowly up to the batch, and I see Rex turning back to look at us. Echo salutes him, and then I do the same, with the batch following.
"Goodbye, ad'ika," he mouths to me.
"Goodbye, buir," I mouth back. He smiles, and so do I.
And then Echo, the batch and I turn around and walk into their-well now it's our ship, and we fly off.
On the ship, I sit on the floor, making myself comfortable, spinning my knife, scanning the surroundings of our ship. When I finally see the toilet sign, I sigh in relief.
Thank god.
I go into the toilet to take a piss, until I realize that there's something very wrong.
"GUYS WHY IS THERE ONLY A DAMN URINAL IN HERE WHERE'S THE MOTHERFUCKING TOILET BOWL?!"
THE WAY HE SAYS HER NAME HES SO WORRIED FOR HER
"this is our chance."
Our Own Choices
Chapter 9
"So how'd you know I was on that gunship? I was specifically extra stealthy that time," I ask Rex as we jump off the vehicle that Crosshair was driving as we arrive back at the base. I put on my helmet.
"You've done it 19 times, kid. I know when you've clipped yourself to the outside of the gunship just by the sound of it," Rex replies, not bothering to look at me. He's not even bothering to scold me for coming here without his permission. I think he's just tired of me, he does have a job to do as a captain as well.
But why should I listen to him anymore? Even though he's technically my superior in the GAR, I don't need him anymore. I'm biologically 20, I can handle myself. But clearly he doesn't think so, considering how he usually doesn't let me on missions anyways. He says the reason that he grounded me was because he didn't want me getting myself killed out in the battlefield because of my impulsiveness.
"But there was no sound-" I protest as the bad batch walk past me, and I stare at them as they walk to their ship.
They're really cool. They don't fit in here, just like me.
Rex nudges me in the side, I take it as a sign to go to the ship as well. Rex says he talked to General Skywalker and he says that he'll have to wait for the council to approve of the mission to Skako Minor to get Echo. I'm surprised that he lets me come along on this mission. I guess he knows that there's no stopping me when it comes to saving my brothers.
As I head into the ship, I receive looks from the batch.
"What?" I ask.
Tech looks back to his datapad, Wrecker goes to lift the gonk droid in the back of the ship, Hunter just sits there staring at me, and Crosshair is checking his rifle. I take off my helmet and lean against a wall, staring at Wrecker and the poor gonk droid, and then to toothpick boi.
Gotta admit, their armor is really cool. Crosshair's got that belt thingy with a bunch of places to store ammo, almost like my own. And then he's got that bar thingy on his left shoulder armor, probably for his rifle or something. Hunter has a random bandana for the dog shit on his head, with a small skull on it. Wrecker's helmet would scare the absolute shit outta me if I saw that first thing in the morning. Tech's helmet is cool, at least it hides his receding hairline. Whatever. At least now I'm not the only one with dark-colored armor.
Anyways, Rex and General Skywalker board the ship soon enough and we set off for Skako Minor. Tech's flying the ship, while General Skywalker checks out Crosshair's rifle and Wrecker's still lifting poor Gonky.
"So, how many missions has your team been on, Sergeant?" General Skywalker asks Shithair as he passes Crosshair's rifle back to him.
"Honestly sir, I've lost count. All the action sorta blurs together," Hunter replies, and that felt like a big "skill issue lmao" smack in the face.
"I know you work with Cody sometimes, but who do you guys report to?" Rex asks.
"Hm, good question," Hunter says, crossing his arms. "Can't say I've got an answer."
And then I'm reminded of that "good question" Shrek meme that I saw on the holonet a few days before I came to Anaxes, and I try to keep a straight face.
Wrecker, who's still lifting Gonky, chews on a big ass chicken drumstick which I think was kept in the ship's storage area for days. Then, the ship suddenly shakes.
"We are approaching Skako Minor," Tech reports. "It looks to be a difficult landing."
So we strap in and Wrecker gently sets Gonky down, before going to the co-pilot's seat with Tech. The ship shakes a bit until we land on the ground, and we stand up and head towards Tech and Wrecker.
"Rex, what do we know about this place?" General Skywalker asks, Rex standing next to him. Toothpick boi and I stand behind them as I play with my knife, because I'm just kinda bored and need something to do with my hands.
"On this part of Skako, there's a race of locals, the Poletecs. All we know is they're very primitive," Rex replies.
"Primitive is being kind," Tech says. "My intel says the Poletecs worship flying reptiles."
Suddenly, one of those flying reptile thingies land on the front window of the ship, cracking it slightly. I look out, sheathing my knife into my wrist compartment.
"Oh! What the heck was that?" Wrecker looks out the same time as I do. "It's one of those reptiles," Tech says.
"I want that thing off my ship," Hunter says, sounding really annoyed, before moving to get off the ship.
"Hold on! Hold on! Don't just run out there," Rex tries to warn them but we all run out anyways because which one of us even follows orders?
We see the Poletec and a flying reptile thing jumping on the ship. General Skywalker ignites his lightsaber and Wrecker points his blaster at it, and I'm tempted to do the same.
"Hey! Get off of there!" Wrecker shouts.
"Hey, calm down. We needa talk to them," General Skywalker says.
"Why?" Hunter asks.
"The General's right," Rex says, and then I hear some more flying reptiles in the distance, and I spin around to look at them, blaster and sword drawn. General Skywalker pushes Rex out of the way so that Rex doesn't get clawed to death by the reptiles. We all point our blasters towards them, unsure of whether to shoot or not.
Suddenly, the flying reptile and the Poletec on the ship swoop down and grab General Skywalker. He's caught off guard, dropping his lightsaber, and I throw my knife at the reptile before it can get too far away. It hits the reptile in the chest, but not deep enough to be a lethal shot, although I can hear it screeching as it flies away. Rex fires his pistol at the reptile but none of the shots hit.
"I have a thermal reading," Tech says. "Point two five east, elevation 175." His visor is lowered.
"Relax. I'll handle this," Crosshair says, before attaching a grappling hook to his rifle and using Tech's shoulder as support (we'll never get to see this again this is so sad), shooting it at the reptile. It hits and Hunter attaches the cable to himself.
"What are you doing?" Rex asks.
"Going for a ride." And then Hunter's lifted off his feet, flying into the air.
I just stare at Crosshair, eyes widened. Holy shit that was fucking cool. Bro really has to be so pro at sniping.
And then I think of my own sniping skills which are slightly decent at best and suddenly I'm filled with a slight jealousy of his skills. Like bro he gets to be badass and do all those fucking trick shots and I'm stuck here throwing knives.
Shut up.
"Tech, I'm with the General. Hone in on my signal," I hear Hunter say through the comms. Tech and the rest of us head back to the ship and do so, before heading to Hunter's location. We land on a ridge near what looks like the Poletec village and run down to Hunter, who's near the edge, looking across at the village.
"That creature still has a hold of the General," Hunter says.
Rex zooms in on the village, and I do the same, seeing the General getting pinned under one of those reptiles' claws. "We're going in, but remember what the General said. No casualties, disarm only," Rex says.
"We're on it, Captain," Hunter says. "Wrecker, Crosshair, rockslide."
The rest of us slide down the ridge to the village as Wrecker and Crosshair push a really big rock down the ridge, and we run behind it as it knocks down some tall but not-so-advanced structures, using the dust as cover.
We shoot at the weapons that the Poletecs are holding, disarming them. I throw a few knives at their weapons, they all hit their target and disarm them.
We run to the place where General Skywalker is, and I see some electrified thing hit the claw that's holding General Skywalker, probably shot by Crosshair, and the reptile jumps back, letting General Skywalker dodge the rock that's rolling towards him. We all point our blasters at the Poletecs in case they try to do anything.
The Poletec that Hunter's pointing his blaster at speaks some alien language, and Hunter asks Tech to translate what he's saying.
Tech steps forward, presses a few buttons on that control panel on his wrist, and moves his visor down above his eyes. "He says he does not want our war on his planet. That is why he took our leader."
The rest of us still point our blasters at the Poletecs.
Can we just hold them at gun/knifepoint and just get them to give us whatever info we want?
"We didn't bring the war here. It was Wat Tambor and the Separatists," General Skywalker says.
Tech translates what General Skywalker said into the alien language, something that both Crosshair and I find kinda funny as I'm tryna hold in my laughter as we all lower our blasters. Definitely gotta roast Tech for that.
"Tell him we apologize for what's happened," Rex says. "But tell him the enemy is holding one of our men prisoner in Purkoll. As soon as we rescue him, we'll leave his planet for good."
Tech translates what Rex said into the alien language again, and I try my best to keep a straight face. This is just too funny.
As Tech and the Poletecs talk some more and agree about sending scouts and stuff to help find the city, I run to the reptile that I threw my knife into and rip it out. It's wedged kinda deep in there, and when I pull it out, it's covered in red blood, dripping onto the floor. The reptile screeches and tries to attack me, but I shoot it with a stun blaster a few times and it's knocked out. The other Poletecs move to attack me, but then Rex and Tech help to calm them all down.
"Woah woah woah, calm down, she's just tryna get her weapons, no need to panic," Rex says, and Tech helps translate it. The other Poletecs calm down when what I think is their leader nods at them.
I pull my other knives out from the weapons that I threw them at and head back to the others.
"Nice going," Crosshair knocks his shoulder into mine as we set off with the other scouts, the sarcasm in his voice is obvious. I cross my arms as I follow behind him. "Thanks."
We follow the scouts quite a bit of distance and find ourselves on a really high cliff. The Poletec scouts point at what looks like Purkoll in the distance before walking down the direction we just came up in.
"Hope nobody's scared of heights," General Skywalker says. I try not to let it show, although sometimes heights get on my nerves.
Hunter and Crosshair look at Wrecker.
"Well I'm not scared of nothing. I just...When I'm up real high, I got a problem with gravity," Wrecker says.
"That's being scared of heights, Wrecker. You're real smart," I roll my eyes under my helmet, standing next to Rex.
"Speaking of problems," Tech, who's standing behind Wrecker, speaks up. "I am no longer picking up Echo's signal."
"I...I don't understand," Rex says. "You said it was coming from this city." He points towards Purkoll.
"I can only speculate, but it is possible there's a latency issue with the frequency caused by all these atmospheric disturbances."
"Or, maybe they sent the signal to lure us into a trap," Hunter suggests. "And maybe your friend's actually dead." He folds his arms. "Well, I can't be the only one thinking of that."
"Every mission could be a trap," Rex and I say at the same time, and I glare at him, falling silent. "This one is no different," Rex continues. "I'm telling you that signal is being sent by Echo himself! He's alive!" I nudge Rex in the side. "Be realistic, Captain. There's not really a high chance that that's gonna happen."
"I think you're letting your personal feelings get in the way because you left him for dead at the Citadel," Crosshair says, and I clench my fist around one of my knives, which is sheathed in my belt right now. That eagerness to punch him in the face out of pure anger, it's strong, but I resist it. Not really the logical thing to do right now.
"I had no choice, you hear me?!" Rex, unlike me, isn't doing much of a good job hiding his anger.
"Oh, I don't blame you. I would've left him for dead too. Besides, he's just another reg."
I'm breathing heavily under my helmet, one hand gripped on the hilt of my knife, the other with my nails digging so hard into my skin, even though my glove, it leaves marks. Even though Crosshair is directing his words towards Rex, it's having an effect on me as well.
And then Rex punches Crosshair in the face/helmet, knocking him to the ground.
"Yoooo Rex, just chill!" I try to get him to calm down, but he's not stopping. I pull out my pistol and point it to Crosshair's head as Wrecker picks Rex up by the back of his armor. "I called first dibs."
"Hey! Why don't you pick on someone not your size?" Wrecker throws Rex to the ground, who almost instantly gets up, walking up real close to Wrecker. "You'll be a whole lot smaller when I'm through with you."
My pistol is still pointed to Crosshair's head, my finger resting on the trigger, my other hand drawing my knife and pressing it under his helmet and to his neck, I'm breathing heavily, all sense of logic gone, it's the same feeling when Fox killed Fives. And it's strong.
"That's enough!" General Skywalker puts a hand on Rex and Wrecker's shoulders, pushing them away from each other before Wrecker beats Rex to clone mush, and then he pushes me and Crosshair apart before I can get any more blood on my knife.
"Sergeant, take your men and scout the area for a tower entrance. I want to talk to my troopers alone," General Skywalker orders, sounding slightly fierce.
Rex and I stay behind as the batch walk away. Toothpick bitch glances back at us for a moment, before looking away.
"Rex, Aris, I hate to say it, but...you have to prepare yourself for the possibility that Echo is dead, and this is all a Separatist trick," General Skywalker puts a hand on our shoulders.
"Sir, I have watched so many of my brothers fall during this war, and I try not to hang on to any one of them," Rex says, taking off his helmet. "But that changed when I heard that Separatist transmission. It was no algorithm. That was Echo's voice. I know it."
"And if there's any chance that Echo, my brother, is still out there, alive, we have to take it," I add on, taking off my helmet as well.
"I hope you're right," General Skywalker says. "But if, for some reason, you're wrong..."
"Then I'll deal with it," Rex and I say at the same time.
And I've learned to deal with it on my own. No "Dad" to comfort me or help me. That's what I did with Fives. And if I have to do it again with Echo, I will.
All I'll need to do is constantly wipe the blood off my knives, and make sure no one sees the wounds on my arms.
THEY DIDNT
THEY CANT JUST
THEY CANT JUST CASUALLY BLOW UP THE MARAUDER
U CANT JUST DO THAT
AND CROSSHAIR CONCERNED DAD AND SAYING OMEGA’S NAME
AND OMEGA TRUSTING CROSSHAIR TO TRACK THE SHIP BUT HE COULDNT 😭😭😭
AND THE ASSASSIN SAYING “DOMICILE” CONFIRMS ITS TECH
TODAYS EPISODES HAVE DESTROYED MY SANITY
help is it weird that i hate my life and wanna kill myself cause suselle is a better ship than me x susie-
Our Own Choices
Chapter 12
Anyways, the droids arrive soon enough, and Crosshair is camping with Echo and General Skywalker on a cliff, using the high ground, something which I never thought General Skywalker would use. (if you know you know)
I blend in with the shadows of the rocks, waiting for the droids to arrive. My sword is in my left hand, because my right hand is basically useless, and my other pistol is in the holster on my belt, I'm ready to drop my sword and use my pistol anytime I need to. Just gotta wait for the droids to come and for Wrecker to take them out.
I can feel the tension in the air. No one likes the calm before a battle. Especially not me. I prefer to watch the carnage as I slice up clankers.
I hear the droids flying in, and I don't move. I hear the rock rolling down the hill, crushing a few droids as it passes me, and the locals move in.
They're definitely cannon fodder.
I watch some of them get shot in the head, and some of the others being the MVPs by taking out a bunch of droids. So I start to get some kills, slicing some of the droids and Crosshair's stealing some of my kills. I'm just about to slice up a clanker when it gets shot in the head, and I look up for a moment, still holding my sword, and hold up a middle finger at him, and I receive a warning shot that whizzes past my head and shoots a droid that's behind me.
I stay close to Hunter, Tech and Wrecker and they're getting more kills than me, and Hunter's taking out droids with style. Tech rolls a stun grenade at the droids and it stuns them, and the Poletec leader runs up to us. I sling my sword back onto my back.
I see a droid standing up and is aiming for the Poletec leader, and I quickly draw my knife and throw it at the droid's head, just as it gets headshotted by Crosshair. I see him pointing his middle finger at me and I do the same in response.
I look up at where Echo and Crosshair are at, and Echo's shooting some flying droids. I draw my pistol and start shooting at some of them, managing to hit one and Echo hitting another.
I see a walker droid landing near us, and I immediately run to take cover, splitting from the others and blending into the shadows, and I consider running up to where Echo and Crosshair are, but that would draw attention to them and also leave me exposed. Actually, maybe I should do that. Could kill Crosshair in the process. Something I would very much like to do.
The walker droid shoots a beam of explosive light at Rex, Hunter and the others and at the other Poletecs, and they all run to try and take cover, out of my line of sight. I can hear other spider droids coming, and a bunch more of those flying ones.
I run in the shadows silently, taking out a few droids here and there as I make my way to where the others are. I see Rex, Hunter and Wrecker shooting at a walker droid, so I follow them and start covering them, taking out some of the droids that are shooting at them and dodging the walker's legs that are currently trying to crush us.
I hide behind a rock and watch as General Skywalker slices up the walker.
"That seemed to work, but how do we get up there?" Rex asks, and in response, Wrecker grabs him and throws him up to the walker's guns.
"NO NO NO NOT AGAIN-"
I'm laughing as I watch Rex get yeeted up to the gun of the walker and just hanging there.
As Wrecker goes over to Hunter and gets ready to throw him, I step forward.
"Ladies first," I say, before Wrecker yeets me up to the top of the walker. I land on my shattered hand, which sends a wave of pain through my head and my right arm, and I hold back a scream. As I roll off the round top of the walker I stab my knife into its head and land in front of the eye of the walker, right above the gun.
Ow. My fucking pelvis. Ow.
Hunter gets thrown up as well, and the walker's head spins, and I'm clinging on for dear life with one hand. I stab my knife into the walker's eye, Hunter does the same on his side, and Rex shoots the one on his.
I see General Skywalker force-pushing the walker to crash into ours, and we go crashing to the ground in a cloud of dust.
REALLY GENERAL? YOU SERIOUSLY HAD TO FLEX LIKE THAT AND LITERALLY ALMOST CRUSH ME?
Everything's blurry for a moment and my head hurts as I regain my sense of surroundings. The droids are retreating. Wrecker helps me up, followed by Hunter and Rex. As we all stand up, I hear the Poletecs cheering. Hunter, Wrecker and Rex take off their helmets and I try to do the same with one hand, doing so with some difficulty.
"It's hard to compete with a Jedi," Hunter says.
Soon, we head back to the ship, followed by the Poletecs, who I assume want to send us off. As we walk, Echo notices my hand swelling, a side effect of basically shattering it.
"You okay, ad'ika?" he asks.
"Just shattered my hand a bit, some surgeries will get it fixed up before the next mission," I reply.
The Poletec leader walks up to us as we stand in front of the ship.
"Thank you for helping us in our fight," General Skywalker says, and Tech translates it. The Poletec leader says some stuff in response.
"He said the Jedi will always have an ally here on Skako Minor," Tech says as the Poletecs walk away.
We start walking up the steps and enter the ship.
"You stole my kill," Crosshair says as he elbows me in the back, causing me to trip slightly and almost fall down the stairs.
I chuckle. "Too slow."
Then Crosshair goes over to Hunter and says some stuff as Rex and Echo walk into the ship. Rex sits next to me.
"Hey ad'ika, how's your hand?" he asks, and I ignore him.
"Aris..." he puts a hand on my shoulder, and I stand up and walk away from him.
Not like you give a shit anyways.
I head over to where the batch are chilling and spin my knife with my good hand. Wrecker looks impressed, and Hunter takes out his own knife and does the same. I glance at Rex for a quick moment. He's looking down, and that's when I know something's wrong. I look away.
Doesn't matter. Wrecker's impressed, and Hunter's trying to one-up me. That's the only thing that matters.
Into The Dark is an original story that I came up with and is currently ongoing
its a some dystopian stuff that I abandoned lol
“yknow what makes us different from battle droids? we make our own decisions. our own choices. and we have to live with them too.”
Our Own Choices is an ongoing bad batch fanfiction about a female clone written by me (TBNR_Dream_BMGO) and if yall are interested yall can go read it on wattpad
gonna include a bit of war crimes, OBVIOUSLY ROASTING OF CROSSHAIR, REX BEING LIKE THE FEMALE CLONES DAD-
ok anywaya yea :)
i need more crosshair drowning scenes im just addicted to crosshair suffering atp
Layers
(Art is by my friend soap)
Chapter 1: The Waterfall
Warnings: None
Genre: Fantasy/Short Story
The limestone rocks dig into my already peeling fingers as I grasp another hold, hauling myself up to the edge of the cliff. I’m greeted by the sight of lush green trees looming over me, shielding me from the sun’s rays. I look behind me, reveling in the view of the sparkling blue ocean.
“I’ll explore up here and abseil down in a bit!” I shout down at the person belaying me, taking a few steps into the cluster of trees before untying the rope from my harness.
I set my bag down next to a tree, collapsing down onto a soft bed of leaves, inhaling that sweet familiar forest smell I recognise from home. I sigh as I lean back against the tree, staring out at the islands clustered together around the one I’m at. It’s so much better than being in the city. There, the constant need for caution strangles me, but here, the freedom comforts me.
It’s been 10 years since my parents divorced. I think I’m coping well. At least, I hope so. Climbing’s the only thing that makes me feel alive.
I wish I could stay here forever.
I stuff my water bottle back into my bag, zipping it up and throwing it over my shoulders, before standing up and walking into the maze of trees that stands in front of me.
For a cliff, there’s a hefty number of trees up here. I keep walking for a few minutes, the thick canopy blocking most sunlight. Tree roots litter the ground, threatening to trip me every few steps.
I hear birds singing. Perhaps there’s a nest nearby, with eggs inside. I wonder if they’d taste good.
As I continue walking on, the singing of the birds starts to get drowned out by what sounds like a…waterfall? I don’t recall ever seeing a waterfall on the map. The leaves crunch under my footsteps. Until I realise they aren’t leaves anymore. They’re bones. Not human bones, but eerily similar.
I should probably head back.
I turn around to walk back to the cliff, but a little voice in my head tells me to keep going.
What do you have to lose anyways?
Besides my life and my money?
Could be fun. Don’t be a wimp.
Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I continue walking ahead. The bones staring from the ground sending shivers down my spine. The sound of the waterfall keeps getting louder. A few moments later, I stop in my tracks.
I’m greeted with a black frame with its interior glowing a dull blue. The waterfall sounds seem to be coming from inside. The frame is covered with vines which hang over the blue light of the portal. The pulsing portal seemed to emit a mysterious yet inviting aura, and I can’t help but unconsciously drift towards it.
Excuse me, what?! Um…I should probably go now before I get sucked in and die.
As I turn around and take my first step away from the portal, I feel a sharp tug at my core and I find myself plummeting down a waterfall, water splashing into my eyes and mouth and nose, barely any time to scream as I hit a pool of water feet-first, plunging into the dark depths. Yet it’s surprisingly warm.
I quickly swim up, hanging onto my bag as I break the surface, taking a gasp of air.
It smells sweet. Like rainwater. Glowing blue flowers float on the surface of the pool, seemingly undisturbed by the cascade of water just a few meters away. In fact, the whole pool seems undisturbed. Bag in hand, I swim over to land and haul myself up, scanning my surroundings, still shaken from the fall.
What…was that…?
The terrain is vibrant. Too vibrant. Layers of red and white and teal and blue form the cliffside that the waterfall flows down from.
Am I dreaming?
I pinch myself to check, my heart rate skyrocketing as I feel the pain.
No no no... This isn’t good. I need to get back.
I run a few steps backwards, hoping to get a good view of whatever I just feel through, but all I see is an empty black frame. It would be too risky to free climb back up, especially since this is unknown territory.
The ground looks a somewhat like a staircase. Layer after layer of vibrant-coloured rocks lead down to a little village in the distance. Trying to calm my nerves and failing miserably, I sling my bag over my shoulders and head down the “stairs”, towards the village.
The sky is painted yellow and orange and red, as if the sun is setting. But I see no sun. It will probably get dark soon. I start to pick up the pace as I worry about what may come out in the night, despite the seemingly peaceful surroundings.
The colourful gravel crunches beneath my feet. But soon, the ground starts to even out. The layers start to disappear, leaving flat ground for me to walk smoothly on. Night has fallen, the sky now a dark blue spreading as far as I can see.
The gravel slowly starts to turn into a tiled path. There are houses on both sides of the path, their lights giving off a warm yellow glow. I smell sugar donuts coming from a short building that has the words “Baked Stuff” on it.
My stomach growls.
I want donuts.
I head into the building, a little golden bell that’s connected to the door ringing as I walk in.
“Welcome!” a…human-shaped mass of stone says. Its arms and legs look exactly like the cliff with the waterfall. I blink, pinching myself again to make sure I’m not dreaming.
“Um…hi,” I wave awkwardly at the stone person.
“Prices are stated here,” the stone person says, pointing to the little pieces of paper with a number written on them.
“I’m sorry…but what is the currency here, and how do I get some?” I ask.
The stone person narrows its eyes. “You’re new here, aren’t you?”
It knows?!
I stand still, my eyes scanning the stone person up and down, looking out for any threats, body tensing up.
“...Yes…” I say with a strained voice.
The stone person bursts out laughing. “Look at your face!” It doubles over, clutching its abdomen, before regaining its composure and standing up straight. It’s slightly shorter than me with its short, stubby legs. It passes me a donut with some blue glowing cookie crumbs on it.
“Here. It’s on the house. Made from Waterfall Flowers,” it says, and I take the donut, hesitantly taking a bite.
The sweet yet sour flavour explodes on my tongue, and it reminds me of lemon sorbet.
“Good, isn’t it?” the stone person asks, the rocks on its face moving to form something resembling a smile. I nod, my mouth full.
“If you’re looking for a place to stay for the night, there’s an inn a few houses down. Tell the receptionist that you’re my friend and you should get a free room. Have a good night!” the stone person calls as I walk out of the shop, waving goodbye. “Thank you!”
I walk down the path, devouring the donut in a few bites, before reaching the inn. Another stone person stands at the reception, little blue glowing rocks embedded in its body.
“Hi…uh…I'm friends with the person at the bakery…she said I could get a free room here?” I walk up to the counter, avoiding eye contact.
“Oh? Sure! Yours is room 130,” the receptionist says, passing me a glowing blue flower.
I take the flower, unsure of what to do with it, but not daring to question the receptionist. Something feels off about these people. It probably doesn’t help that they’re made out of literal stone.
Soon, I reach room 130, finding a flower-shaped lock on the door. I press the flower into the lock, causing it to glow before the door swings open in front of me.
The room is carpeted, a single bed in the middle and a toilet near the entrance. Without hesitation, I throw my bag to the floor and fall onto the bed, letting the softness hug me to sleep.
When I wake up, I’m no longer in the room. Layers of rock press against my back. Glowing blue vines immobilise me. I hear the waterfall.
What’s going on?!
I struggle futilely against the vines. It smells sweet. Almost too sweet. Panic starts to set deep in my gut, rendering me frozen.
Some of the rocks on the walls slide down next to me, clinging to the vines almost as if trying not to fall. A few move to box me in against the cliff, forming a large humanoid shape. Little blue lights decorate its surface.
A collection of voices ring out simultaneously. I hear the shop owner and receptionist’s voice, along with a few others I don’t recognise.
“Hehe. You really are like the others.”
