"It has been far too long, Boy."
Beltran stood in front of
Lirka Ka
, his hands twirling his lightsaber pike easily as the beast-woman monologued. She was different than she had been, smaller, and likely faster too. Where there had been brute force, now Beltran suspected something far more dangerous: grace. He spared the young
Inara Basai
a glance as Lirka derided the medic's attempt to save a life.
"She is better than either of us," Beltran replied, his voice coming out with a metallic ring through his helmet's vox modulator.
"She cares for others before she cares for herself. It is because of people like her that the rest survive. It is because of people like her that we will defeat you, yet again."
As Beltran spoke, he came to a realization. He now knew why he had brought the young woman with him onto the battlefield. He needed someone to show compassion to the fallen and mercy to the enemy. He needed someone to hold him back when he, inevitably, went too far down the well of bloodlust. That was the thing that Beltran had lacked before.
That was what had gotten his people killed on Yurb and why Reece had left him.
He hadn't known when to stop fighting, he hadn't known when to let the guns go silent. But he had seen Inara's reaction to his gruesome manner of war on Chroma-Zed. He had seen the shock and yes, even the fear in her eyes and for the first time in his life, he
didn't like it.
You can do better, my son. You can be better.
The words of his father, spoken to him while he lay dying on Yurb now came, unbidden to his mind. Perhaps he could be a better version of himself and perhaps people like Inara could give him an example to strive toward.
Inside his helmet, Beltran heard the voices of
Torrack Torrackstur
and
Hix Tribbul sound off. The Gamorrean Rally Master promising to bombard the enemy into the next world and the Rancor...man..person? Informing them both that he planned on landing forces right in the midst of the raging battle. It reminded Beltran that Lirka could not be his sole focus today. He had men to look after and he couldn't get distracted like he had on Yurb.
"Lieutenant Mrawr," Beltran commed the Togorian who led second platoon.
"Please inform Rally Master Torrack that we've acknowledged his reply and are planning to advance into the area as soon as his bombardment is over in order to secure the landing area for Mr. Tribbul's arrival. Then begin moving our forces forward. I want to be on top of those feth-heads the moment the shelling stops. We'll clean up any survivors and hold the line while Rancor One lands."
"On it, Captain." Came the growling voice of Mrawr and Beltran could sense from the predatory calm with which the feline warrior spoke that he could trust it to be accomplished. He then returned his attention to the threat in front of him, who by this point was just about finishing her monologue.
I savored every cry they made, every cry as their dear leader failed to protect them, and I will savor every cry to come. Come on then Worm, let us dance!"
With the end of that sentence, Lirka sprang toward Beltran and Inara with a speed that even Beltran had a hard time fathoming. He was used to the slow, clunky but devastating Lirka Ka. The one who had literally ran
through a building and burst out the other side to face him on Den Velmor. This was a completely different animal.
In the split second before she was upon him, Beltran gave himself to the Force. There really wasn't any time to do anything else, except open his mind and trust his instincts. Moving far faster than he could think, Beltran took half a step to the side. It wasn't enough to get completely out of the way of the Sith woman's charge, but enough that most of the force behind it was being directed where he wasn't.
As she came close, Beltran lashed out with his pike, swinging one of it's yellow blades down at the wrist that carried her emerald blade. It was a simple maneuver, intended to disarm his opponent and perhaps remove the hand. And it would flow, almost like water, as he twirled his pike around into a second attack designed to pierce the space between the end of her helmet and the top of her breastplate.
A disarming attack followed by a potentially fatal one.
He would then turn toward the Sith woman as she moved passed him, keeping himself firmly between her and Inara. He would
not lose the young medic to this beast.
***
Under Lieutenant Mrawr's direction, the heavily power-armored third and forth platoons separated in to five man squads and ran forward through the trees, acting the part of skirmishers and sowing havoc amongst the harried forces of the enemy. As promised,
Torrack Torrackstur
' mortar shells served to break this section of the enemy's line.
The Togorian could never imagine an army of Mandalorians in full retreat, he knew that was probably the closest he would ever see to it. A few of the armor clad enemy held their ground, fighting to the last as the others seemed to withdraw into the city. It was a smart play, Mrawr knew. Out here, they were sitting monkey-lizards, or montu-fish in a barrel. Inside the city they would have any number of places to ambush them from or to fortify and set up a new line. The Silver Jedi would never bombard civilians, and he doubted that the Australis would antagonize the Jedi by doing so either, so inside the city they were more or less safe.
As the bombardment eased off and eventually stopped, the Rangers of Paladin Company moved into the clearing and secured the area so that
Hix Tribbul's dropships could land. Upon seeing the advance force of...Rancors, they gave their Mandalorian ally a wide berth as he herded the creatures at the remaining enemy, following them into the city.
The next phase of this battle would be to retake the city, and Mrawr knew that would make what they'd just been through look like a cake-walk. He was just hoping that the Captain would be done with whatever he was doing at the rear by then, when the com's crackled and the squeaking voice of the Rally Master spoke once more:
"This is Rally Master Torrack Australis, squeak squeak be advised the stinky undead have risen!hoink hoink They are in large and dangerous numbers, squeak squeak likely being controlled by a creepy little skank! squeak squeak".
"Oh feth me sideways," The Togorian muttered as he called out.
"Uhh Captain? Sounds like we got zombies!"
Amani Serys
