“Star…weirds…incoming…”
His voice startled him, and he looked up, scanning the darkness around him.
“Check, I didn’t say that, acknowledge?” His HUD was blank, and he looked to check on his men,
“Hey, check? D, confir–” the words died in his throat as his vision blurred, then brightened, dirt and rock replaced steel, dust replaced nothingness…
He’d been here before.
The sights of Serenno were still fresh in his mind, the red walls of Mystral Canyon an image he saw in his mind, along with Woostri, along with Malgus. Always associated with the same accompanying thought in his mind.
What could I have done different?
The hulking man Jacen had ‘fought’, some Commander of the Lilaste Order, stood out in his hallucination, appearing as if formed from dust and ash.
You think survival makes you worthy? You walked away. They didn’t. They died buying you time…and this is what you do with it?
Jacen scowled underneath his helmet, rising behind the red-clay rubble he was taking cover behind and jabbing a finger at Tarain,
“What did your men die for? Huh? Honor?”
Off in the distance, somewhere behind him, a voice no higher than a whisper.
“JACEN!”
The ghosts of his dead men, one of an ever growing number of dead men thanks to Jacen’s orders, appeared surrounding him. Born from the very dust, sand, clay that marked their graves.
We’re all disposable. Even you.
You could have saved me. Was I not worth the effort?
Jacen shook his head.
“Fire and Forget soldiers. We die, that’s what we do. Lives spent! Not wasted! LIVES SPENT!” He yelled, turning to face the broken body of D3.
“No you weren’t! The fight was on, there was a job to do. You died because of my order, you both did. But saving you?” He shook his head.
“There was a job to do,” he repeated.
Can you save these troopers? Or will you lead them to their deaths too?
His vision was filled with All the people he’s served with, Huck from Woostri, Marc from Serenno, and now Niner the new blood stepped out from the rest as they faded away in sand.
His HUD flashed, a new message crossed the top of his vision.
[ARE YOU A LEADER OR JUST WHAT’S LEFT BEHIND?]
He breathed heavily, sweat dripped from his brow into his eye, burning his vision.
“Who do you think dies this time?” he heard himself ask, younger but not that much than what he was now.
“JACEN!”
“JACEN!”
The vision faded, the darkness of space surrounded him again, and Marc was staring into his faceplate inches away, shaking him.
“It’s not real, Jace. Come back.”
“What?” Jacen asked, shaking his head.
“We all got hit. You got hit hardest, by the looks of you. You were out of it for a few minutes there,” Marc explained. Jacen looked around, Niner was holding position, shaking his head every so often but remaining quiet, and Huck was just finishing cutting the door. With a kick, the metal broke free and floated down into the ship.
“Door’s open, Campers, let’s get it,” he said, drawing his dual pistols and jumping in.
“Roger,” Marc responded, turning back to look at Jacen,
“You good Dropper?” he asked, slapping Jacen’s shoulder.
“Y-yeah. Yeah. I’m good,” Jacen returned a nod and exhaled slowly. The hallucination had rattled him, and he repeated the question in his mind.
Are you a leader? Or just what's left behind?
He shook his head again, willing the thought to disperse and allow himself to focus on the mission, and nodded again as he met Marc's faceplate.
Marc nodded back and turned, entering the new door into the hull. Niner held fast, not moving.
“You good Dropper?” Jacen asked, repeating what Marc had asked him,
“Yeah I’m good, boss. Ain’t goin’ in there though, kark that.” Jacen looked towards the open door, then around at the floating graveyard around them.
“I getcha. Tell ya what, you get a choice.” Niner looked at him and tilted his head, and Jacen continued,
“You can go in there, and you can ‘maybe’ die. Or you can stay out here, and you will definitely die.” he tapped his blaster rifle with a finger,
“Your call. And I won't feel bad about it.” He shrugged his shoulders and turned around dropping inside the ship.
“He comin’?” Marc asked,
“Give it a second.”
They waited a moment, and finally Niner came silently floating down.
“Hey there’s our big lad.”
“Screw you guys. This job sucks.”
Marc, Jacen, and Huck looked at eachother and nodded,
“He’s learning.”
“I’m so proud of you, son.”
“Shut up.”
The three shared a quick chuckle, but just as quickly Jacen's face hardened and he shook his head,
“Alright, we had our laughs and our nightmarish hallucinations, We gotta keep it down, back to silent, copy?” Three nods, three red lights on his HUD signaling acknowledgement.
He looked at his team.
Can you save these troopers? Or will you lead them to their deaths too?
"...Nothing fancy, watch each other. Do the job, we get out. Copy?" Three more red lights, Jacen nodded, exhaling and then signaled the advance and the team naturally fell into formation.
The squad of four troopers proceeded down the hallway, passing corpses frozen in terror either strapped to their seats as they passed crew areas or floating aimlessly in the hall, each trooper maintaining their positioning, clearing corridors and watching over each other as they approached their objective. As they approached one of the final bulkheads, they took up a defensive position and waited for the rest of their party to arrive. It wasn’t much longer, a few moments, before they met up.
“My Lady,” Jacen bowed as
Kaila Irons
approached. But before any pleasantries, if ever they would be, could be exchanged her group immediately assumed a combat ready position.
“Star…weirds…incoming.” His voice repeated, a sense of chill crept up his spine.
"Direction?!" she hissed, drawing a matching saber in her free hand.
“I didn’t say that,” he said, bringing his gun up, scanning down the corridors before he spoke again in a frustrated growl,
"They can karking materialize out of nightmares for all I know." Jacen shook his head and exhaled out, steadying himself,
“‘D’ squad, eyes up. We may have Starweirds incoming. Watch for freaks.”
He'd say it used to be simple. It used to be straightforward. He'd be lying. No mission was straightforward, every one had it's quirks, but missions like this? It upset him how accustomed to terrifying horror he was getting.
Tamsin Graves
Darth Strosius
Jacen Breska 'TK-710'
Zanami
Merion Oreno
GM Account
