High On Fire

[Emic Lai]

DESIGNATION: PRIVATE KIVYLA QEK
ID CODE: 9914-BV-07 //Updating...// 9914-BV-Actual
LOCATION: BUSINESS QUARTER, IZIZ, ONDERON
TIME: 1833 HOURS
STATUS: DEPLOYED

“Firing ineffective!” the squad sergeant shouted, then turned halfway to face me. What was that whistling? “Target at 400 meters, readju--”

I didn’t hear much, for the ringing in my cones, but after I recovered from that bit of whiplash I discovered that the sergeant’s top half was scattered across the rubble in which they were pinned down. Suppose it was a rocket. What’s worse, our mortar was destroyed.

I checked for injuries on me. The plasteel covering my lekku was scorched, but still structurally sound. There was a piece of shrapnel stuck in my chestplate, which I pulled out in short order. No blood or holes, just a few bruises. I needed to radio in to command and let them know my squad was all dead.

This was my first operation on my tour of duty, and I had only been here for four days. Seemed like the rest of my squad knew each other pretty well. I had just been a replacement for a lost trooper. Well, they’re all dead now, anyway. No use pondering their feelings on the matter.

I was lucky. I found, about twelve meters away, the bleeding hand of my sergeant, with his comm still seemingly functioning. The chain of command was totally dissolved now. Guess that technically made me squad commander. I held the severed arm in one hand and pressed the comm button with the other. “Command, this is Trooper 9914-BV-0-- Actual. Squad 9914-BV is at 90% casualties. Combat ineffective. Please advise.”

There was no response. I waited for fifteen seconds, then repeated my message. “Command this is Trooper 9914-BV-Actual. Squad 9914-BV is at 90% casualties. Combat ineffective. Please advise.”

Another fifteen. “Command this is--”

The static that came through when the comm was transmitting went silent. Strange, the comm still had power. Maybe it really was broken.

I tossed my sergeant’s arm aside, and held my rifle at the ready. I made my way toward a nearby pile of rubble as my hearing returned well enough for me to hear that blaster fire was still sailing over my head. I heard talking around the corner, so I ducked down and inspected.

Shiny golden helmets.

I had seen them once before, in boot camp. They didn’t speak to anyone that I saw, but one of the other recruits in my training platoon knew who they were. They were like spec-ops hyped up on adrenals, he said. Like gods of death. The Kings In Yellow.

With nobody to give me orders, they were the closest thing I had to command. So I went around the corner, and ran up to them, standing straight up at salute. They gave me a strange look. One of them grabbed me roughly and yanked me down under cover as a turbolaser blast shot right through where my head was, and destroyed a speeder behind us.

“You frakkin’ stupid, grunt?!” the one who grabbed me shouted at me. A masculine voice. He knocked a palm sternly against my helmet as I adjusted to a stable crouch. “Who the hell are you?!”

“Private Kivyla Qek, identification: 9914-BV-Actual. My squad is dead, and comms with command are out. Seeking new orders, sirs!”

The one who had spoken to me looked first to his comrade and then to his commander. Fortunately, they had mostly standard Sith rank insignia so I could tell who was in charge.

The commander paused for a moment, looking my way through her helmet. Then she turned back to her two subordinates. “As I was saying,” she said. “We need to get back to the Lieutenant at field-base Cresh. It’s just nine kilometers to the west, but a lot of streets are blocked by rubble. It’s likely we’ll need to detour through some of the office buildings to get where we’re going.”

Another turbolaser blast slammed into the rubble we were covering behind, spraying us with duracrete dust, finally tarnishing those perfect yellow helmets. “Unfortunately, it seems that turbolaser has us sighted. We’ll need to split up. We’ll go up and over. You two will go to the east buildings, I’ll go west. Check in every hour on comms until further notice, but we probably won’t be meeting up for a while. On my go.”

They got in position just under cover on the rubble pile, seemingly leaving me behind. “Hurry up, bucket! On me!” called the commander. I ran immediately up next to her and joined her in cover. “If you want to live, don’t stop to return fire,” she said to me, remaining silent afterward. She waited, and waited. A turbolaser round cooked through the rubble between us. “Go!”

I found my target door immediately after ascending over the wall, and everything else faded away. Blaster fire erupted on us, but I didn’t hear it. It might have been just luck that I wasn’t domed by a bolt. I guess I’d never know. It was only when I nearly got to my target door that I heard that whistling again. I leaped for my life, only barely making it inside and around a corner before the rocket exploded on the other side.

I was alone here. The commander wasn’t anywhere to be found. I couldn’t hear anything besides blaster fire outside.
I sat down with my rifle across my lap to catch my breath. I figured the commander wouldn’t come back for me. She didn’t seem like the type. I’d be on my own, most likely. I just let the dust shower my armor with every impacted round.

“Oh, you made it,” I heard from above. It was the commander, standing at the edge of the destroyed barrier between the first and second floors. I looked up at her and saw that uniform again. The shiny helmet covering her face. The black jacket over the combat armor, touched with yellow epaulettes. The A300 blaster rifle slung from her shoulder. Like a god of death. “Hustle up, Private.”

She extended a hand from the floor above and pulled me up and over the shattered structure. “Private Qex, reporting, sir.”

“It’s ‘Chief’,” she hissed, turning around and heading through a door to the stairs. “Listen up, Private. I don’t know how they do things in the army, but you’re under my command now. First thing, always check your corners. Second, more important thing, accept no surrender.”

“Yes, Chief,” I responded.

“Good. There’s a repeating blaster nest up at the top of this building where we can scan the route ahead. Follow me.” She brought that pristine A300 to her hands and held it at the ready before charging up the stairway.

We made our way up the stairs, while I struggled to keep up. I really hated the Twi’lek combat armor we were assigned. Surely wasn’t designed by anyone with lekku; the plating that covered them was connected to the chestplate, so they couldn’t move. It was incredibly uncomfortable. I still hadn’t decided whether I’d like to risk getting clipped by a blaster bolt in one of them and dying slowly, or saving myself the torturous restriction.

I followed the commander of the Aurek-112 until we made it to an intact door. The Chief stopped me, and ordered me to get in position on the other side. “Have your stuns, bucket?” I checked my belt to see if I had the two stun grenades I had been issued back at the field-base. I did; I guess I had been trapped behind that rubble for over two days. No use for them.

“Door’s not locked, I’ll hit the pad, you toss that stun in. Breach and clear. Easy, right?”

“Yes, Chief.”

“That all you say, bucket?” the Chief said, shaking her head. “Ready…”

“Go.”

I became suddenly and very acutely aware of just how nervous I was. There was no sound at all inside this corridor, besides the repeater fire from the other side of that heavy door. It’s easy to focus when there’s blaster bolts searing past your head; adrenaline and all. But here, I was aware. In front of me was this woman, with a heat behind her helmet that I hadn’t noticed before. She was focused, restrained, but there was the inexplicable instinct in my head that told me that behind those mental bars, there was a slaughter waiting to happen. She had probably killed more people than I had ever seen. My hands were shaking.

It felt like hours had passed, but the door had only just cracked open with a hiss. I grabbed a stun grenade from my belt, armed it, and, praying to something I could not think of, threw it as quickly as I could.

My heart sank as soon as I saw it leave my hand. Clank. It bounced off the corner of the door.

[Slade Xandir]

Deleted was never here lol