Location: The Dunes
Walk on you soldier of fortune.
Step by reluctant step Seris continued on towards oblivion. How many hours had it been since she first woke up here? The count had been lost and her stupid HUD wouldn't display correctly, stuck on 12:00 o'clock. In a land without record of time, without a sun, and no end in sight. The thoughts of creatures capable of a higher understanding turned inward on themselves. It had begun for her. The slow decent into madness and despair. It would be ever so gradual at first. By the end so fast that when the impact of whatever ends things won't even be felt.
Hand after hand dig into the sand to pull her body up another foot or so. A wall of red that stretched to far in either direction to go around and so forcing her to climb up and over. 'Gotta keep going. You can rest on the other side. Keep climbing'. Seris looked up to the crest. It wasn't to far off. Exhausted muscles screamed otherwise. All were wanting to deny such hope of going on and just rest. A battle of mind and body over a dozen feet of sand was pathetic to think about. An older memory came to mind, a much needed distraction from the physical exhaustion. It was dark one though. Just over two years ago on Balmorra, a horrible chapter of the war ended. Lords was it bloody, rivers turned red. Red like this dammed sand. They estimated a good ten million soldiers died in the mud there between all sides, not even including monsters and civilians. That world held, though shattered in the end. All the sacrifice in vain as it was abandoned in the general retreat. There was some boy she killed near the end. Some Sith soldier that should have been just another faceless soul to the grinder but she remembered him. Big and strong, couldn't have been older than 18 the poor sod. Probably scared just as much of fighting them as those he served. Wishing to be back on his parents farm, safe from the war and in a warm bed knowing the next day would be like the last instead of being woken by an artillery bombardment. Yes she remembered everything about that kill. The grime on his black armor, the color of his eyes and the last words he spoke. That day as most since she landed on that hell hole Seris stalked the ruins and trenches with rifle in hand and a silent step. Snipers were some of the most despised people in war. Commanders of the enemy hated them for killing officers and hurting moral. The soldiers held that same feeling but considered them cowards too. Killing from afar and in hiding with no chance of reprisal for killing your friend. Well it was lucky or unlucky how you want to think about it, he got the drop on her. It was from around a blind corner. Couldn't hear anything over another bombardment anyways. A tackle came after a split second of surprise by both. Seris was on her back and this fellow were both struggling over her rifle. Only by some manner of luck she had a leg free to push off the wall with. A butt to the brainbucket of her rifle got him off. A quick second hit knocked his helmet off completely. The two fought on for over a minute, the rifle was tossed aside for a knife after he got his hands on it again. Now was the true fight for survival. Slowly the knife came closer to his neck. She weighted more than him, using that to her advantage to overpower his strength. Nearer and nearer the blade got he pleaded with her. 'Don't kill me, don't kill me. I won't fight any more. I surrender. Please don't kill me'. The desperation on him. The sunken eyes looking up at a mask of metal. No emotions to be given back but if only he could have seen her face at that moment. She too had terror of her own as he felt. When that knife drove in to his neck, the blood started spitting out his mouth. The resistance ended and the blade buried to the guard. The guilt over killing this boy, who pleaded for his life and she took it away with what right? On Balmorra, eight months of siege had turned them all to monsters. Killing, and surviving, only the basic needs to do so made them beasts. In that moment as humanity rushed back, she questioned the point of it. This whole war had lost reason to her, and she wept. For this boy she could have let live, for the rest killed by her, and the futility.
Seris was no longer just a few grasps from the dunes crest. Long had she surpassed it, yet the distance she could have covered was not had. What mad spell let lose its binding over her near the lower end of the hill. The red sand piled up on her body was partially shaken free as her muscles moved the body to a sitting position. Tears stained the inside of her mask, and her nose was stuffed up. No doubt she had been crying. Clouded still by the sleepless dream Seris wished only to be home, and safe. Away from this red waste that would want nothing more to see her another casualty as the boy she killed. Her heart ached with remorse she had not felt since that day on Balmorra. Why now did this become her bane, existence was a cruel enough fate here without the burden of her past weighing down upon mind and soul. Seris reached under her hood, removing the helmet from her head. Its safe stowage inside her cloak to protect it from any sand. Slowly she wiped away the residue away. A waste of fluids. Fluids she'd need to escape this desert. Continuing on was necessary, a moments rest and some of the remaining water she had would do no harm. Seris swigged back from her canteen. Only a trickle of water rationed for her to quench what she needed a river to do. Stowed away she waited a while longer. Staring out ahead of herself to the red wasteland of nothingness.
"Not today".
