Location: Mustafar,
Arabesh Flats Military-Industrial Complex
Tags:
Keilara Kala'myr
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Thomas Barran
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Dylan Marsek
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Jas Katis
"I want this city to become Ambush-Central, the city of screams!"
"Now there's a man after my own heart," Kralmus Orr murmured. Behind the visor of his distinctive horned helmet, he grinned widely, thin lips pulling back from teeth filed down to sharp points. He had deployed down here alongside the Scar Hounds, one of the larger marauder tribes that made up the Brotherhood of the Maw's original faithful, simply because he was spoiling for a fight. He was
always spoiling for a fight. Finally healed up after that nasty clash in Tython's orbit, when he'd broken an arm and three ribs fighting off the Enclave's so-called Mandalorians, he had been seizing every available chance to get back into the fight. War was where he belonged.
And killing... killing was what he
enjoyed, more than anything else in the galaxy.
He loved the feeling of
power that came with taking another being's life.
The rush that came from that was as addictive as any drug.
Today, Kralmus would do his killing on an urban battlefield... sort of. The Arabesh Flats complex wasn't
exactly a city, nor
exactly a factory, but a strange blend of the two. Established by the First Order when they'd dominated this region of space, the Forge had survived their collapse, remaining a capitalist paradise of worker repression and relentless corporate profit. While the Maw had lurked on the planet, the local businesses had been glad to cater to them, selling them weapons in secret. But now the Forge was about to fall under the influence of the Eternal Empire... and the Brotherhood wasn't the kind of group to quietly hand over such an asset to a rival.
So they were going to fight for the Forge, kill as many foes there as they could, and then scuttle the place.
This was Kralmus's kind of fight - the only true goals were murder, mayhem, and widespread destruction. There was no way they could hold Mustafar, so far from their supply lines thus so infeasible to reinforce, so they might as well burn everything they'd benefitted from to the ground - and catch as many of their foes as possible in the ensuing inferno. Kicking his jetpack into action, the cannibal soared up to the roof of one of the Forge's many manufacturing complexes - the Hammund & Klammer Workshop Factory, a gunmaker that had once supplied the First Order. From up there he could see out over the entire "city", lit by the glow of magma and choked with smog and ash.
Some mercenary company or another had been sent in against them, deployed from gunships and accompanied by armored support. It was time to make these streets into
extremely hostile ground for these intruders. Kralmus had brought a whole satchel of goodies with him to help with that. He had anti-armor and anti-personnel mines, grenades, detonite, tripwires, and the very same
Nightstinger sniper rifle he'd used when he'd come within a hair's breadth of assassinating the Galactic Alliance's chancellor. Between that and the mobility his jetpack afforded him, he would be able to strike from anywhere, without warning and with devastating effect.
Let the enemy confidently roll into the Forge. He and his traps would be waiting.
---------------------------------
Inside Mercy's mind, Kallan - that piece of The Mongrel's mind that had been left behind when Mawite conditioning had wiped away everything else, the last vestiges of memory and personality from a man transformed into a slave-soldier - slid his arms around his wife. It was still strange to be a guest inside the head of Asher's lover; it felt different from the mindspace that she and Asher had shared while he was alive. But he was getting used to it, making the most of it. Very few people in the galaxy got second chances, opportunities to reclaim their lives after the kind of change and suffering he'd had to go through. So he tried to remember to be grateful for
his second chance, every day.
So he and Keilara had built a new house in the meadow where they'd spent so much time together.
He tried to focus on
those memories of this place, and not on watching her
die here.
But then again, that death was a reminder: she'd gotten a second chance too.
~ You don't have to apologize for that, ~ he told her, planting a gentle kiss on her cheek.
~ It was out of your control. And it all worked out in the end, didn't it? We're here now, together. That's what matters. ~ There was still
so much uncertainty ahead of them. Mercy was headed into battle among the Scar Hounds again, even as two new lives grew inside her. Tu'teggacha was plotting against them, eager to steal those special children and consign Mercy to eternal torment, if he got the chance. A billion things could go wrong, could bring all the things they'd built together crashing down. But Kallan chose not to focus on any of that. He snuggled closer to his wife and smiled.
~ Let's focus on the good things, ~ he told her,
~ and not worry about the things we can't change. ~
He'd learned the hard way that life was too short and too fragile to waste with worrying.
Life was something to
treasure, and every good moment was a miracle.