Ask A Helping Hand

[Merian Sere]

When Merian walked in the room, voices fell to a hush.

There was a kind of electricity in the air that was only found in times of crisis. People talked in low, frantic tones, forming a semicircle around a middle aged woman who nodded gravely at whatever she’d just been told. They all had the thrown-together look of those who’d been forced to flee on short or no notice. Children were herded in a corner, away from the adults and their grim news, watched over by an old Cathar who still had it in her to fake a smile. Little hands clutched here a blanket, here a favourite toy. Lost eyes wondered if they’d ever see home again.

“The Imperials are here,” Merian heard whispered. Then everyone was silent.

The Knight made her entrance and walked towards the huddle with every eye on her. She held her helmet by her side and her armorweave cape flowed with her steps. For this one, Merian knew appearances counted as much as results. Maybe more.

“The Empire has answered your call,” she announced, looking at the woman everyone else had grouped around. “I’m Merian Sere, Imperial Knight. Are you in charge?”

“Me? No.” The woman looked around, like searching for someone to rescue her.

“Could you direct me to who is?”

“Our Planetary Council were all Joiners!” she yelled. “You want to ask their ashes? Then go by the government chambers. Otherwise, there’s no one!”

“Then let me reformulate,” Merian said, unfazed. “I’m seeking the most up to date information for our army. These people seem to report to you.”

“Oh. Then… Yes, I guess that would be me.”

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Elsebeth. I’m just a librarian. I’m sorry, it’s just… I’d rather be anywhere else. Literally.”

Merian looked at her. Greying blonde hair, tired eyes. But in times like these, people looked to composure for guidance, and Elsebeth had kept it together better than anyone else around.

“I’d rather be anywhere else, too,” replied Merian. She knew herself. She wouldn’t play the comforting stranger, smile at this woman who’d just lost her home and tell her everything would be fine. She wouldn’t deal in half-truths and gentle lies. Her voice was kind but firm, and the hope she spoke would be prudent but real.

“I’d rather be anywhere else, because I’d rather your world not be under attack,” she continued. “But sometimes disaster strikes without asking first, and it’s up to ordinary people to step up as you’ve done. Now the Imperial army is ready to assist, a full battalion with the Detente for support. The Killiks won’t know what hit them. Just tell us where to point the guns.” The fewer recon work, the sooner they could stop the Killik advance.

Elsebeth nodded acknowledgement. “More refugees just came from the capital. As far as we know they’re burning it to the ground.”

“And moving here next?”

“Logically, we’d be the nearest town… But nobody saw them marching. Damn it all, I don’t think we’d be ready to evacuate everyone again so soon.” Elsebeth spared a look to the corner where the old Cathar was attempting to put the children to sleep, with mixed success.

“Making another nest, perhaps,” Merian suggested. “Do you know where the others are located?”

“So far away,” she sighed. “I don’t understand. We had a Killik problem years ago, but they were dealt with.”

“Exterminated?”

Elsebeth gave a silent yes.

“Mark them on this map, in case.” Merian handed her a datapad. New nests, or sloppy work? Seraph fleet would know soon enough.

“Here.”

“Thank you. Stay in touch, Elsebeth.” The Knight donned her helmet and looked at the overwhelmed librarian, proud. She handed her a comlink. “Now the Imperial Army will update you, too.”

 

[Kellan Solari]

"Delta One to Flight Group Delta," Solari's own voice resonated thin and tinny in his own comm unit. "assume escort formation, Gamma pattern."

"Copy that Delta One. Assuming escort formation, Gamma pattern."

There was an audible shift in the shrill howl of the TIE Interceptors as they moved to form a perimeter around the outer edges of the bomber group. Below, the grasslands of Ord Trasi wheeled by, flaxen plains fanning out in all directions with deceptive serenity. He ran a cursory check of his readings and found the target still several clicks away. Overhead, The Detente sat at the atmosphere's outer edge, the Star Destroyer's form vague and faint. A spectral spearpoint haunting a thin haze of blue.

In his rear display, the urban sprawl of Ord Trasi's capital was all but imperceptible in the growing distance. Only the coiling plumes of smoke from the fires remained visible. Beyond the city and its dead lay the planet's vast shipyards, the real reason Imperial Command had rerouted the The Detente and company upon receiving the planetary distress call.

The Imperial Council no doubt viewed it as an opportune moment to increase the profile of the Imperial Knights by dispatching them to deal with the Killik creating such havoc on the Outer Rim world. Naval Command meanwhile, was taking no chances in letting an asset as valuable as the Ord Trasi shipyards slip through their grasp, deploying the fabled Seraph Fleet to provide air support to Imperial Knights.

As he ran a final systems check, he wondered if the bedraggled inhabitants of this system were aware that beyond that distant Star Destroyer overhead, an entire contingent of battle and support ships waited in orbit.

A blip on his Sensor Console.

Lieutenant Solari scanned the horizon. Rising over the pastoral plains, the Killik's vast network of hives were rapidly approaching. Great, chitinous structures that housed the majority of the instectoid race sprouted from the distant landscape like living mountains.

He queued his comlink.

"Flight Group Delta, approaching target. Maintain formation." he ordered.

"Roger that Delta One."

He flipped the comm channel to the designated setting and hoped whoever the Imperial Knights had sent were listening.

"Saber One this is Flight Group Delta of The Detente." he announced. "We are enroute and awaiting your orders."

@Volene

 

[Merian Sere]

The smoke and fires were even more impressive up close.

Merian marched alongside a full squad of Knights, and with them came a battalion of almost a thousand. The Killiks would outnumber them ten to one, but their imminent liberation of the capital was not in question. Only what would be left of it.

Every so often, Merian found herself flexing her arm like to make sure it still worked. The biceps hadn’t recovered its full strength, it would be months before it did, but that would not keep her from her duty. But it did worry her. Her field had always been covert operations, not military ones. Now, heading into the burning city without her unsanctioned blaster at her side and with her left arm at half-strength, Merian couldn’t help but feel like she was marching to her death. Perhaps she’d turn the rage she felt for Maros against the Killiks.

The signature roar of the TIEs overhead brought her back to the present. The city was almost within reach.

“Flight group Delta, Saber One,” she responded per protocol. “We are fast approaching the capital. Aerial support will be inadvisable indefinitely as our troops engage the Killiks in close quarters. Please cross-verify nest location with the coordinates I sent you and take appropriate action against all surrounding nests. Cleanup will come later, but for now, it is imperative that you cut off the Killik supply to the capital. Over.”

 

[Kellan Solari]

“Copy that Saber One.” Solari replied. He flipped the comlink channel. “Flight Group Delta, commence bombing run on those hives. All escorts maintain present altitude and watch for enemy activity.”

As the squadron acknowledged receipt of his orders, he watched the battalion of Imperial soldiers pass beneath them, the Imperial Knights at their fore. Like many in the Imperial Armed Services, Kellan harbored his own doubts about the so-called New Order and their ranks of force-attuned soldiers. Command had gone through great lengths to assure the enlisted men and women of the Imperial Forces that these lightsaber-wielding troopers were not Sith remnants, but Empire loyalists who fought only to serve the Emperor and the greater good.

Kellan put little faith in such promises. After all, it was Sith who had squandered the fate of the Empire and left it a gutted, largely hollow edifice. Were it not for their zealotry to ancient religious mysticism, half the galaxy would have resided under Imperial rule today. History was full of similar lessons that for some reason or other, High Command appeared intent on ignoring. Even at the height of the Galactic Empire, the brilliance of masterminds such as Grand Admiral Tarkin had been undone by the fanaticism and incompetent leadership of the Sith.

As he dialed in his sensors and watched the TIE Bombers descend into formation, he was keenly aware the only hope remaining was to ensure the strength of arms and render such notions as the ‘Force’ irrelevant. To that end, Ord Trasi’s shipyards would need to survive and fall under Imperial sway.

The Killik nests were much closer now and Kellan could see how impressive the structures truly were. Great, interconnecting oblong domes that stretched out over the landscape in a mile-long crescent. Near the curving chain’s center, he estimated some of the individual hives at nearly fifty meters in height. The Killik were beginning to leak from the nests at the TIEs approach. They wouldn’t have long.

“Delta One, this is Echo Two. Commencing bombing run.”

“Copy that Echo Two. We’ve got your back.” Solari replied.

The bombers banked abruptly and he watched as they let loose a salvo of proton bombs towards the resinous hives, blossoming in daisychains of fire and destruction as they passed. Thick belches of smoke and flame shot from the top of the Killik hive. Overhead, the Interceptors tore through the haze leaving tendrils of smoke in their wakes.

“That’s a hit.” Echo Two confirmed. “Turning around for our second ru-”

A violent squelch of static followed by a dull thoom. Kellan sought out Echo Two’s bomber from his viewing panel and grit his teeth as he located the craft and saw it trailing smoke. Atop the bomber, clinging to the shuttering craft’s exterior, a Killik was ferociously peeling off strips of durasteel, plunging its serrated claw deeper and deeper into TIE’s interior. Even as the first Killik did its ghastly work, Solari watched a second leap from ground level and land deftly atop Echo Two, where it wasted no time in aiding its hibernate in its grisly task.

Even as Solari’s Interceptor banked towards Echo Two, the pair of Killik punched through the fuselage. Kellan watched in horror as the figure of a frantically flailing pilot was dragged from the ragged hole. The two insectoid creatures took hold of the struggling Imperial and a moment later he was torn in half and cast aside. The Killik leapt from the bomber as the abandoned craft began to low trajectory towards the ground.

“Flight Group Delta! This is Delta One!” Solari barked into his com. “Those bugs are jumping! They can reach the bombers!”

Even as he relayed the news, he could make out other figures of Killik bounding from the dusty surface.

“Move in and draw their attention! And don’t let them latch on to you!”

@Volene

 

[Merian Sere]

The city was completely undefended.

When the Knights and the IAF reached its outskirts, they found no sentries, no fortifications, no weapons pointing outside and making sure the out stayed out. The first and most important line of defense was abandoned. Their company wasted no time digging in within city limits, eerily uncontested.

Perhaps that was the first sign they weren’t dealing with a conventional military. The Killik hive mind had no notion of borders save between nests.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” a trooper drawled.

“Yeah, this isn’t right,” added another. “There’s fires everywhere. Where are the bugs?”

“Don’t be in such a hurry to find them, Boggs,” teased a third. “I heard that scream you made last time you saw a slug-beetle.”

“It was flying,” replied Boggs.

“Quiet, all of you. New orders from the captain.”

That was their lieutenant speaking, and it had the desired effect. The soldiers fell quiet, much to the relief of the one named Boggs.

“We’re inside the city alright. No unit encountered any resistance yet. Captain wants us to wait until companies 2 and 3 have the city encircled before we push any deeper.”

“Except it won’t be a full encirclement before our air support stops the Killiks pouring in from the east. Our guys will get surrounded and torn apart.”

“Quiet, soldier. We wait for full encirclement. Those are our orders. Then we’ll progress towards city center with the rest of the battalion and play flyswatter as we go. Any questions?”

There was grumbling within the ranks, but no one else spoke up. Besides, there could be worse than waiting.

“Imperial Knights,” the lieutenant continued.

Merian raised her eyes to the man. She was quiet, but she was listening.

“You move now. You’ll be our eyes.”

 

[Kellan Solari]

Flight Group Delta darted towards the harried bombers, loosing a salvo of cannon fire upon the bounding figures of the Killik as they went. Solari watched as several of the leaping Killik were struck midair, erupting into so much burnt confetti that went floating earthward. A trio of the creatures made contact with one of the bombers, which they rapidly went to work dismantling. Kellan’s targeting reticle danced and swayed as his fighter vainly attempted to lock onto any one individual Killik.

“They’re too small for sensors to pick up.” he relayed. “We’ll have to go guns hot!”

“Copy Delta One!” came the response.

As thought to illustrate this fact, Solari took aim and fired, adroitly reducing two of the three bomber’s assailants to carbonized gristle. The third shot went wide and as his Intersceptor screamed past the bomber, he spun in his seat to look over one shoulder, just in time to watch Delta Four blast the remaining Killik off the craft’s hull.

“Nice shot Four!” he said.

The Interceptors looped and weaved, rolled and dove, picking off the insectoid attackers as though they were oversized krill fleas. Mu Squadron continued its ascent, gradually raising the bombers out of range of the hive. Solari’s flight group circled the perimeter as they caught their breath. Below, the hive was a smoldering mass of smoke and flame. He suspected a second well-aimed run would reduce it to cinders, but the bombers would never get close enough on their own to release their payload.

“We’re going to have to create a diversion for Mu Squadron to finish their run.” he realized aloud.

“We’re gonna end up being the diversion.” Delta Four replied. Kellan ignored the remark.

“Mu Squadron, commence your second run. Delta Flight will provide coverage and draw their attention. Delta Flight, we need to draw their attention away from Mu Squadron.” he said, “Switching to concussion missiles and beginning strafing run. All fighters on me.”

The line of TIEs sequentially inverted themselves and dropped away, plummeting towards the smoking hive and its swelling Killik swarm. Solari felt the familiar adrenal pulse suck the moisture from his mouth as his TIE evened out of the roll and shot towards the ground. Altitude warnings flared on his HUD display. He set about tuning his sensors and priming his weapons systems, targeting the largest of the remaining Killik domes.

“Stay close and be prepared to take evasive maneuvers.” he ordered. The welcome chime of targeting lock filled the cockpit interior. His thumbs found the triggers and furious incandescent light fled the front of the ship, streaking downward. “Missiles away! Switching to cannons.”

Immediately a barrage of concussion missiles shot past him and toward the enemy hive. He sucked in a lungful of his flight suit’s stale, filtered air and held it as he watched. The sides of the hive exploded outward, licks of flame and soot showering the atmosphere. Solari aimed his Interceptor towards the growing smoke plume as the rest of Delta followed.

The ships howled through the smoke, volleys of cannon fire peppering the exterior of the nests. The flight evened out and raced along the length of the Killik mounds, sewing chaos and destruction as they went. The Killik poured from their ruined nests, their collectively shared rage launching them into the open air toward the Interceptors. The radio chatter filled his comms as they swept and jerked to avoid being clung to.

“I’ve got one on the outside!” Delta Five shouted.

“Level out!” Delta Three commanded. Another burst of laser fire resounded somewhere behind Solari. “Got him!”

“Thanks Delta Three. That was too cl–”

“One on my wing!” Delta Three cried out. But even as he did so, his transmitter caught the sound of rending metal and the crackle of frying circuitry. A moment later the rest of Delta flight could do little but listen to the man’s scream and his wing was shorn from his craft and he plummeted towards the ground.

@Volene

 

[Merian Sere]

“Emperor’s sake, the place is crawling with them,” groaned the other Knight.

Some understatement. The city center was swarmed with not dozens but hundreds of Killiks, a writhing, clicking, horrifying sea. There was no square inch of pavement that wasn’t covered by twisting, chitinous limbs, yet the scene couldn’t even be described as chaos, so coordinated and harmonious were the insects’ movements. But that wasn’t the worst of it. For a radius that spanned a few hundred meters, the ground and what remained of charred buildings were covered in a wax-like substance, and Merian could make out the forms of people, citizens, sitting in the middle of it like in a catatonic state.

“They’re building a nest,” she realized. “Turning the city into one.”

“And the people?”

“Absorbing pheromones.” Becoming joiners. Such was the fate of those who couldn’t flee.

The two Knights had taken post in the burned carcass of what had once been a multiple-story building, one of the many around. There was no roof over their head and the blackened walls stood half as high as they once had, but if offered some cover and a great vantage point to the Killiks’ activity. The other pair of Knights was supposed to be across the square from them. They’d decided to split the squad in two to cover more ground and Merian had volunteered to take the far side.

“Are you sure they won’t find us here?”

“Yes, again,” Merian answered, less patiently than the first time. “Killiks aren’t smart, they won’t analyze hiding spots to deduce where they’re likely to be spied on from. They aren’t even looking.”

“Sere, we’ve found the bugs. Job is done. Time to go back.”

“Wait. I’m looking for egg clusters. And maybe I can get an identification on some of the civilians for Elsebeth. Always useful to know if someone who didn’t make it was the person you’d tasked with contacting aid from another planet.”

“That was not the assignment.”

“The assignment was reconnaissance and this is part of it.”

Screams cut their dispute short, human screams. Throughout the square, the Killiks seemed to grow more agitated at the sound. They stepped over each other and made a horrible grinding noise with their mandibles. Some of them picked up weapons, something like primitive bladed clubs.

“Sere, did that sound like Siafian to you?” The Knight’s voice hid it well, but there was stress behind it. Merian had no words. She could only nod assent.

“We have to go.”

Once again acting in unison, the Knights left their hideout and made it back to the streets. They were far enough on the outskirts that there was no Killik wax over everything. They watched every corner nonetheless. The sounds made by the bugs unnerved them, but the distance afforded them some comfort.

“What in the Force’s name did they do?” Merian fumed as they progressed. The other squad might have been in mortal danger, but if they’d done something boneheaded to get themselves in trouble, she’d resent them for ruining her recon.

“Merian.”

They stopped. The other Knight pointed up. In one of the buildings before them, someone stood guard. Much like they’d done minutes before, a window a few stories up. Their montrals identified the lone figure as a Togruta. In the distance, Merian couldn’t see their black eyes. Only imagine them.

“RUN!”

They almost made it a block before the first Killiks were on them.

Their blades went up, one orange, one yellow. A handful of flurries and the bugs lay dead at their feet, detached limbs scattered here and there. They kept running. Merian’s leg threatened to give out under her, the parting gift from Maros making itself felt. Both Knights knew full well the direness of their situation. They’d been on the far side, cut off from the Imperial battalion’s camp in the west, and several thousand Killiks had just felt their exact location at once. One jumped over a building to land near them, then five, then ten. The Knights fought them off, but this couldn’t last. More would come.

“Call the battalion,” her partner said as he struggled to breathe. The Killik he’d just slain had landed a crushing blow into his breastplate. Merian parried a strike from one that wielded a bladed stick and sliced it in two. Three more stood. “They were encircling the city. They may be nearby, just behind us.”

Merian didn’t answer. When she took out her comlink, it was not for the battalion.

“Flight group Delta, Saber One from the city center,” she said, her breath leaving her. “There’s nothing of the city left to save. Our position is compromised. Requesting air support, danger close.”

“What do you think you’re doing!?” Another Killik hit the ground without its head. Twenty more leapt over the building to the two lone Knights.

“A play for our lives. Now dig in and hold on!”

He didn’t need to be told twice.

 

[Kellan Solari]

The remainder of Delta Flight clawed free of the Killik and joined Mu Squadron safely above range of the leaping horde. Solari could feel the perspiration creeping down his features as he surveyed the wreckage below. The TIEs were already vanishing beneath a swell of spurred claws and pincers. If Delta Three was fortunate, he had died on impact.

“We can’t risk another run.” Delta Five said.

“Getting that close to those things is suicide!” Delta Six agreed.

“Cut the chatter!” Solari barked, bringing his Interceptor around. A tinny squeal was resounding in his ears. “There’s no choice. This target is mission critical. Mu Squadron, prepare for your second run. Delta Flight, on m–”

“Delta One, this is Tactical Officer Reyne aboard the Detente.” the comlink roared. “We have pulled the necessary targeting data from your sensors and have received authorization to proceed with orbital bombardment of Target Tango. Delta Flight and Mu Squadron are to adopt headings of one-three-five and evacuate the area. Detente will commence orbital bombardment in t-minus three minutes. Confirm receipt of orders and acknowledge.”

For a moment, Solari’s mind could not or simply would not process what he was hearing. He cleared his throat.

“Detente, this is Delta One.” he said. “Requesting hold on orbital bombardment. Mu Squadron is prepping for their second run and-”

“Negative Lieutenant. You will proceed to advised route and await orders to return to the Detente.”

Kellan swallowed hard against the bilious anger rising in his throat.

“Copy that Detente. All TIEs on me.” he said, banking away from the hive. Above, the Detente was completing its arduous turn towards the hives, its vast underside slowly lining up to bring its turbocannon batteries to bear.

Once more over the plains of Ord Trasi, Kellan could hardly contain his outrage. To be asked to sacrifice the lives of his men yet not see the mission through! He watched bitterly from his rear view panel as the atmosphere around the Star Destroyer slowly began to diffuse with an eerie green. From such a distance, the Detente’s ventral side turbocannons were little more than pinheads sporadically blinking. Had he any pity to spare, he’d have offered to the remaining Killik for what was to come next.

Tactical had utilized their ground data to full effect, and when the bombardment finally came tearing through the lower atmosphere, it fell on the remaining Killik hives in a violent fury that blanketed the landscape behind the fleeing squadron in a nightmare of smoke, dust and fire. The hives were immediately vaporized and the landscape upon which they were built reduced to a primordial waste.

Fierce shockwaves rattled his Interceptor as his instrument panel angrily crackled and hissed at the tremendous pulse of released energy. Solari wrestled his TIE under control, checked his bearings and sighed. Mission accomplished he supposed.

“Flight Group Delta, Saber One from the city center. There’s nothing left of the city to save. Our position is compromised. Requesting air support. Danger close.”

“Detente, this i-” he began.

“We copied that transmission Delta One. Permission granted.” Tactical Officer Reyne cut in. “Sensor data indicates Saber One is two clicks east from city center and surrounded. Rendezvous and offer what support you can.”

“Copy that!” he replied. Maybe there was still some time to do some good! He switched channels on his comlink. “Saber One this is Delta One. We are en route to provide support. Please advise on your current situation and what type of assistance you require. Over!”

@Volene

 

[Merian Sere]

There was no end to the Killiks. Chitinous bodies piled up to the point where Merian couldn’t safely maneuver without stepping on a hard lump and losing her balance, and still they kept coming. Five more surrounded her, ready to attack. Her lightsaber was the only thing keeping them at bay. It sliced through them without any kind of resistance whenever they took a step too close. Let them be five, ten, twenty, one at a time, all at once, they’d all die to the same swirls. But Merian was tiring. Her movements were slowing. She refused to think about it. Any slower and the Killiks would get an opening, then the first hit would spiral into more hits until she collapsed. Not far from her, she imagined her partner struggling in the same way, but she couldn’t be sure. They’d been separated. Maybe he was already dead.

All five Killiks rushed at once. Merian rested her weight on her back leg and braced for them. Then the ground shook all around her. She stumbled. The air filled with a thunderous rumble, everything quaked. Maybe the world was ending.

“Saber One this is Delta One. We are en route to provide support. Please advise on your current situation and what type of assistance you require. Over!”

Merian felt a hard pincer close around her saber arm. She lashed out with the Force, pushing the Killik back into the others to slow their advance. It left bloody streaks where she’d ripped the bug off her arm.

“Delta One, Saber One. The main Killik swarm is right by the city square. We’ve engaged scouts and soldiers, too close for assistance. Requesting bombing run on the swarm. It may be too late for us, but don’t let them hit the battalion—”

That was all she had time for. The Killiks were on her again and more were coming. Two swipes of her saber, an arm came loose, a spine severed. A blow struck behind her helmeted head. Merian dashed forward to distance her attacker, took care of the two left in front, turned around.

“Hanes!” she called out. Her breaths were so heavy. “Status.”

“Still standing,” he answered somewhere on her right. “Don’t know how long.”

“Bombers inbound for the swarm. It’s been an honor.”

“Regroup! We can still—”

His words cut short. More Killiks came down on them.

@Tic

 

[Kellan Solari]

“It may be too late for us, but don’t let them hit the battalion–”

The transmission cut out abruptly. Solari felt the nerves seem to clot in his throat. He switched his comlink over.

“Delta and Echo Squadrons, this is Delta One.” he said. “We will proceed to city center and drop remaining payload over the Killik nest there. We have to draw the swarms attention off those Imperial Knights.”

They tore past the city’s boiling remains toward its center, the burnt out husks of buildings smoldering around them. A late-afternoon breeze carried embers on its back that danced across his vision like glowflies. Below, amidst the spackled lights of fires and ash, he could see ragged figures shuffling through the street. Survivors navigating their way dumbly through the dead husk of their home.

It was astounding how such a primitive species could inflict such horror upon the civilized world. Of course Ord Trasi had stubbornly resisted the Empire’s overtures, insisting instead upon some naive notion of ‘independence’. Hubris such as that landed them all here. Failure to see the collective strength in numbers, in conformity, in numbers, in order; that is what sent the 81st TIE Wing screaming through the ruined atmosphere of a once proud city and that is what had landed the Imperial Knights in the murderous boulevards they now fought for survival in. But there was still time to set things right.

Altitude low, the TIEs crested the peaks of a line of blazing residential megabuildings and came screaming into the city center.

“By the Emperor…” Kellan gasped.

The broad plaza had perhaps at one time been a grand testament to the planet’s prosperity. Now it was a nightmare covered in a lustrous sheen of viscous, waxen liquid as the Killik set about converting it into a new central hive.

“Echo Squadron! Commence bombing runs on the plaza. Delta Flight will escort. Delta Four, you take the lead.” he ordered. He swung his Interceptor eastward, engaging the throttle. “Delta Two, on me.”

The pair of TIEs streaked out towards the last known location of Knight Sere and her companion, Solari flying low enough to send spirals of ash coiling from the rooftops he passed. The city was a wasteland and if the Imperial Knights had survived and not been joined, it would be a miracle. Below, a writhing mass of Killik converged on a lonely block of fiery structures.

“I see ‘em Delta One!” Two cried.

Kellan banked left and glanced out past his wing. Below, a lonesome pair of lightsabers flashed fiercely amongst the encircling surge. They were still alive!

“Copy that Delta Two! Fire at will on those bugs! Careful not to unload too close to those Knights. The Killik share a collective consciousness so no matter where you hit, they’ll all feel it!”

The Interceptors swung in like birds of prey over the Killik horde and opened fire. Each shot sent scores of chitinous, fiery body parts raining through the air as they assaulted the tightly packed swarm. They tore through the airspace above the avenue time and again, each pass incinerating dozens of the insectoid attackers in a display of fiery, molten ruthlessness.

Finally, the Killik began to react en masse. Even as he unleashed more laserfire upon them, the Killik shuttered, then began to draw back from the surrounded Knights. As he completed the run, he could see them pouring into the surrounding buildings in search of cover. He and Delta Two arced into a steep climb before sweeping round for another run.

Racing only meters above street level, the Killik were virtually nowhere to be seen. As the pair of TIEs roared down the cramped avenue, ion engines spinning detritus away, Kellan’s Interceptor gave an abrupt shudder. A weighty thump as some unseen object landed atop the TIE’s cockpit. Another impact followed. Then another. He leaned forward and craned his neck upward.

“Kriff!” he gasped.

From overhead, dozens of Killik were launching themselves from the abandoned buildings upper floors. Even as he struggled to gain altitude, he could hear their clawed appendages tearing at the ship’s exterior. The sound of rending metal and snapping circuitry. Alarms trilled and cried and the cockpit was a carnival of alert lights.

The control yoke went limp and indifferent in his hands and the TIE dipped back down towards the street.

“Mayday! Mayday!” he shouted into his comlink. The collision with the street sent the TIE spinning and rebounding off asphalt and duracrete alike. Kellan was ragdolled in the cockpit until everything went black.

@Volene

 

[Merian Sere]

THEME​

Merian was going to die.

Unlike Maros, the Killiks wouldn’t surprise her with mercy. She struggled to keep them at bay now, her movements too sloppy, sluggish. There were always more. A crunchy hand closed around her wrist; by the time she cut it off, two more grabbed her injured arm, mandibles gnawed at her helmeted head. Merian’s body stopped obeying her. She issued the commands, found each of her limbs heavier than a mountain. She couldn’t speak. Her chest rising to breathe felt like the most effort she still had the strength for. Explosions and quaking resumed, closer this time. TIEs roared louder and louder. This was it.

Merian’s helmet was ripped from her head. She closed her eyes. Then an impact tore through the mass of Killiks around her. Another. Six a second.

TIE cannons.

Each shot bisected bugs by the handful—but more importantly, none stepped forward to replace those who fell. Bombs shook the city center just a block away and Merian felt them. Even the main swarm was scrambling. The hive mind all but forgot the two lone Knights. Merian felt hope, or a numb, exhausted version of it that didn’t feel like anything at all.

BOOM!

The Knight was blown away by an explosion too close to her. Her breath was knocked from her lungs as she landed hard against the ground and dead Killiks. Debris peppered her armorweave cape like raindrops.

“Echo Five, wrong target!” barked someone over comms. “Leave those to Delta. Hit the main nest!”

In the middle of the street, Merian lost consciousness.

---

“Look out, look out, here comes another one!”

The bird traced a wide arc in the Iloh sky, announcing its descent towards the island below. The Sere children fell silent: the show was about to begin. Comfortably seated on a large rock their mother had set up with blankets, they watched the bird attempt to negotiate the winds as it dropped altitude more and more. A few of its kind already sat on the stony island; a few more circled above like they were waiting for their turn.

The flyer started its final approach on the island, bright red and green feathers with a crest that evoked a spoiler, like the bird thought itself a raceship. Its speed was too high. It made contact with the ground, but it wasn’t enough to stop its momentum. The bird tumbled forward and eventually ended its course on its behind before it stood, shook out its feathers and rejoined its fellows in a cacophony of avian shrieks.

The Sere children erupted in laughter, as did Amaï Mahoe, their mother. The birds were called isle gulls, but the locals dubbed them ‘red fools’ for obvious reasons. Tourists loved them. They nested near, but Amaï Mahoe kept this island to themselves nonetheless. The extra income would never be worth these moments with her children.

“Why do they fly if they can’t even land?” asked four-year-old Merian.

“Because they’re stupid,” replied Lina, just one year Merian’s elder.

“They’re not stupid!” Jamila Sere, oldest of the three, was almost offended in the birds’ stead. “It’s the wind, all the islands make it impossible to deal with.”

“Now, don’t fight,” laughed Amaï. “What was that, Merian?”

“The birds, why do they fly if they can’t even land?”

“Well, the wind is part of it. And they’re more used to diving for fish than to landing on solid ground.”

“I knew it!”

“But it’s not only that.” Amaï knelt next to her youngest, ignoring the exclamation by Jamila. “Sometimes, Merian, you’ll realize there are things you have to do even if you don’t know how. Even if you don’t know all the consequences. Just because you have to. For the gulls, that’s flying.”

“And for me?”

Amaï smiled. “One day, you’ll be grown, and you’ll know.”

---

Merian opened her eyes. Nothing seemed to have moved; it could have been seconds or hours, no telling.

She looked around. The Killiks were still there. The battalion was not. Some distance down the street, Hanes was lying down as well, but it looked like he was breathing. It was what she saw on the other side that whipped Merian to action.

A smoking TIE fighter had crashed onto the street and skidded all the way to rest against a building. The thing was larger than life—Merian wasn’t used to seeing them up close. Three Killiks had climbed the hull and were trying to break it open, like ants on a nut that would have fallen from its tree. Not the toughest nut. The fragile craft wouldn’t hold out long.

Merian stood. It was shaky, but she stood. Then she marched. All her attention was focused on the pilot who’d saved her life. He’d already died in the crash, for all she knew. But Merian trusted the Killiks wouldn’t be all over him if that was the case.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a dark glint in the hand of a corpse. The Knight extended her arm and called it to her. The blaster connected with her palm as Merian snatched it out of the air. DC-17, civilian model. Just her luck.

Immediately she directed it to the Killiks and fired a burst of shots that pierced a carapaced head from behind. The two remaining Killiks turned around and leapt from the TIE, fast as only a collective mind could be.

A collective mind or a Force sensitive.

Another series of shots smacked a second Killik right out of the air. The third landed only to find the tip of Merian’s lightsaber. She hadn’t slowed down. Then there was nothing between her and the TIE. She was close enough now to sense the life without a doubt. But their time was short, and the pod was mangled beyond use.

Kellan awoke to a lightsaber blade bursting through the canopy. Bright orange flooded the cockpit, reflected a thousand times against the transparisteel as the blade worked to split the pod open. Then it retracted, and with a rumble half the canopy was tossed aside, revealing an Imperial Knight with her helmet missing, her face bloody, her hair loose, her armor scratched and dented, her cape tattered. Reluctantly, she tossed the DC-17 in his lap when she saw him conscious. She couldn’t be too greedy; she still had her lightsaber.

“We’re safe for now, but whatever’s left of the main swarm will start scattering soon,” Merian opened. She was not one for greetings. “That’s even more Killiks than we’ve dealt with until now. I’ll take that back if you’re in no state to shoot,” she added, nodding to the blaster. “Can you move?”

 

[Kellan Solari]

The abyss was deep as it was total, the only sensation one of utter freefall. He existed in that cold ocean of shadow for an indeterminate period of time; weightless, fluttering and silent. His fingertips hummed with the phantom of physical touch that blossomed into a tingle.

And then the sounds weaved their way through the void.

Furious scratching and tearing. The terrible polysaccharide pop of segmented body parts in motion. Blaster fire followed by a butanic hiss as heat joined sound.

His body became his own and he stirred in the ruins of the TIE’s cockpit. Someone was speaking but it arrived to Kellan only a garbled murmur, as though he were submerged beneath the surface of some great body of water, the speaker addressing him from its banks. Blearily, he forced open his eyes.

The HUD display in his flight helmet fizzled and popped and for several long seconds he fumbled removing it from his head. His normally staunch features were sallow and pale, raven black hair matted with sweat and blood across his brow. Glazed eyes blinked dumbly for a moment. Above him, several fractal images of women in matching sets of scorched and battered armor straddled the ragged hole they had apparently carved in the ship’s egress hatch. The forms warped and stretched, coalesced and parted before finally settling into a singular, steady image.

“Saber One I presume? Delta One at your service.” he managed, being one for introductions. He looked around at the mangled flight controls and smashed in sensor panels. Circuitry snapped and hissed. “Helluva rescue isn’t it?”

He shakily unfastened his harness and pulled himself from the cockpit, joining his rescuer on its exterior. He surveyed the damage. The ship was little more than fiery slag. Amazing he had survived at all. The streets were empty, the Killiks savagery even more apparent from the ground than it had been from the air. There was an ionic howl from above and Solari glanced up to see Delta Two wheeling overhead. He bent down and fished his helmet from the cockpit’s interior.

“Delta Two, do you read?” he asked, speaking into the helmets comm. “This is Delta One, do you copy Delta Two?”

Dead static buzzed from the helmets earpiece and he tossed it aside. Safe to presume Two was monitoring the wreckage and knew they were alive, but verbal confirmation would have offered some small comfort. As it was, he’d have bet more than a few credits that the TIE Interceptor’s presence was the primary motivation for their foes remaining in hiding. But if what Saber One had said about the swarm scatter was true, that hesitation wouldn’t hold long.

He handed the blaster back to the Imperial Knight.

“Thanks,” he said, plucking his D-34 from its holster. It wouldn’t do much against a horde of single-minded monstrosities, but as a sidearm it was proven. “but I’ve got my standard issue.”

His Interceptor had come to a stop in a diagonal slant, one set of solar arrays arcing upward while the other reduced to a mound of wreckage half buried in the duracrete. The still unsteady pilot half-tread, half-scoot his way down the length of the wing pylon to the street below. A flutter of wingbeats in a vacant window elicited a wild shot from Kellan’s blaster. The bolt struck the side of the building, several feet from its intended target. The darkened window, its glass long since blown out, remained ominously quiet.

He shook his head clear, steadying it with one hand. The world felt as though it were still undulating beneath his feet. Swaying. A dim ringing suffused everything. He glanced towards Saber One.

“Wasn't there another Knight with you?” he said. “Is your comlink still working?”

From the derelict buildings on either side of them, a ravenous clicking and scratching drifted from the blown out windows and doorways. Solari's grip on the blaster tightened. He glanced up at Delta Two, hoping the pilot had the good sense to stick close overhead.

“We'd better move.”

 

[Merian Sere]

Merian’s face hardened. “It isn’t a rescue until you’re out of danger,” she rectified. The woman didn’t mind optimism, occasionally and in small doses; she couldn’t stand unrealistic expectations. And the pilot’s shaky aim, though understandable, was anything but reassuring. “That was reckless flying.” And I can’t thank you enough for it.

At least she had her own blaster.

“Follow me.”

Merian held out her arm in case he needed to steady himself. Their progress was too slow for comfort. On either side of them, Killiks taking refuge in buildings reminded the pair of their presence, here a clicking sound, here a probing antenna. Delta Two remained far above. If he came too low, he risked the same fate Kellan had suffered. Probably wouldn’t be so lucky, either.

“Yes and yes,” she answered both quick questions though she had no idea where Hanes went. To safety, hopefully. The bombings continued not far from them, and reassuring as they were they didn’t ease up the tension in the air. The swarm would not be cleared with bombs alone. Merian picked up her comlink.

“Commander Mierts,” she spoke, trying to conceal just how in bad shape she was. “Saber One. I have retrieved Delta One. Expecting fighting to resume imminently. Where are the nearest friendlies?”

For a few anxious seconds, no answer came but static, leaving the survivors to wonder if Merian’s comlink was out of order as well. Then a voice broke through.

“Saber One, command here. Nearest units four clicks west of your position. Good luck.”

“They haven’t moved at all?” the Knight protested. “We made contact ages ago!”

“These are the positions, Saber One. Troops are deploying now.” Cold, unbothered.

“What about Saber Four and Saber Five?”

“Back at camp Aurek. Unharmed.”

Merian could scream. They’d started all of this.

“Thank you, Command.” She cut the transmission, closed her eyes, refused to sigh, then looked to Kellan.

“I’m sorry to break the news, but you crashed on the far side of the city,” she said. “The main camp is four clicks west, with the whole swarm in-between. East...” the Knight thought a moment. “East is where the Killiks are pouring into the city from. Thousands and thousands of them from neighboring nests. But... your flight group took care of those, didn’t they? It’s that or we hunker down in a building until the battalion finds us or what’s left of us.”

A hint of a plan. More explosions rocked the street. All over the buildings on either side, insect wings buzzed louder and louder. The Killiks were growing restless.

@Tic

 

[Kellan Solari]

“And here I thought I was here to rescue you.” he offered a thin smile that quickly faded before the agony of the sibilant whine emanating from inside his battered skull. Kellan winced and waited for the accompanying wave of nausea to subside. “Besides, I’m a TIE pilot. Recklessness is a job requirement.”

He slumped wearily against the ship’s wreckage and listened to the knight’s back and forth with a characteristically disinterested command. The Imperial Armed Forces was a monolith built atop the abused notion of individual value. Tradition, loyalty and cause were at the end of the day all that mattered in such an organization.

The fates of lone soldiers were of little interest to anyone beyond the bean-counters and their datapads. Kellan found himself equal parts dismayed and relieved to find such heartless facts a reality in branches other than the Imperial Navy. He glanced eastward, where even now a baleful red glow seeped across the sky.

“The Detente fragged those hives from orbit.” he stated flatly. “And I’m guessing logistics and our inconvenient survival is all that’s keeping them from doing the same to this city.”

He considered their options as his companion had laid them out. The inside of his skull thudded with dull pressure.

“But its nothing but scorched grasslands now. Nowhere to hide.” He took a steadying breath and peered back towards the city center. “But we’ll never make it four clicks that way. Not with a pissed off hive sitting between us and them.”

The crackling of flames were queerly audible and for the first time he realized the concussive drumming of bombardment had ceased. Somewhere in the discordant thrum of his mind, a murky realization crystallized.

“Mu Squadron!” he blurted out, awakening fresh agony in his head. “Once they’ve emptied their payload, those bombers could carry us out of here! Can I use your comlink?”

Taking the communicator from the knight, he staggered away from the smoldering Interceptor’s remains, circling the street, neck craned in thoughtful inspection of the ruined buildings. He thumbed the comlink, switching it to the frequency his flight had operated on.

“Delta Two, this is Delta One. Come in Delta Two.”

“I read you Delta One.”

“Two, Mu Squadron’s going to have to extract us. I need you to relay our location.” he said. The surrounding buildings didn’t offer a lot in the way of viable landing pads. Many of the rooftops were ablaze, or fallen in on themselves, or positively teeming with Killik. Nearby the corpse of an office compound slumped half collapsed. Before subjected to such violence, Kellan presumed the building to have been moderately handsome. A pyre of ferrosteel and glass that rose at least twenty-five stories into the skyline, it had clearly housed a lucrative trade in one point in time. Most importantly, the roof appeared largely intact and broad enough to fit their needs. He read the darkened signage blazened across the buildings exterior. “Can you make out that 'TaggeCo' building at the end of the street? Have Mu Squadron meet us on the roof!"

“Copy that Delta One.” Two replied dutifully. “Relaying your orders now.”

“And Two…” Solari eyed the long black ribbon of boulevard that stretched between the building and where they currently stood. “...for the Emperor’s sake keep us covered!”

“I've got you Delta One.”

Solari handed the comlink back to his companion. If the bombing runs on the hive had indeed completed, whatever survivors remained among the Killik would be mobilizing. And angry.

“Lead the way!” he said, gripping his blaster in both hands.

@Volene

 

[Merian Sere]

“I will. Stay close,” the Knight shot right back. Without another word, she dashed down the street, just slow enough so the injured pilot could keep up, orange blade already deployed in anticipation. The former agent still wasn’t completely used to playing armored vanguard, but she was slowly getting there. Together, they inched towards their target building. If Merian wasn’t sold on Kellan’s plan, she had to admit it was the best of their terrible options. If only they had insurance the roof wouldn’t collapse entirely.

The Killiks manifested themselves before long.

Slowly, at first, peering from rooftops and windows one by one like in hesitation, hardly befitting a hive mind. The imperials let out loose shots in response and Merian was relieved to see the pilot’s shaky aim seemed to have been a temporary thing. Then the Killiks returned to acting in unison. Like they’d decided the aerial threat had passed, they jumped from the buildings back onto the street—a dozen of them, two dozens, surrounding the duo. Some instead threw themselves directly at them from their perches. Merian barely had time to deflect their trajectory with the Force after she missed the shot.

“Delta One, stand by for another pass.”

Delta Two’s TIE zoomed over the street, cannons blazing. It focused on the bugs on a single flank, not risking targeting both and hitting the soldiers in the middle. Like on the first run that had saved Merian’s life, the Killiks were plainly ripped apart by the heavy cannons. One jumped for the aircraft, but this time the Knight was ready. She yanked it from midair and violently back into its kin with an iron grasp despite the distance.

“Appreciated, Delta Two,” she panted in comms. “Time to go,” she added for Kellan, tapping him on the shoulder like to instruct him to run. The way to TaggeCo was clear for now. This time, Merian let Kellan go first, lagging behind like a rampart between him and the remaining Killiks.

@Tic

 

[Kellan Solari]

The pair raced down the street, each step restoring a bit of Kellan’s erstwhile confidence. He was no marksman but a capable enough shot. And as his head began to clear, the forms and boundaries solidifying around him, losing that bleeding quality, he began to feel himself. Their situation was unquestionably dire. But as he adroitly picked off another nearing Killik he felt assured he’d at least be granted the opportunity to die fighting.

Slipping into the sprawling shadow of the office building the extent of the damage became all the clearer. A mulch of glass and wreckage crunched beneath their boots as they approached, and Kellan looked up to see nearly every window had been blown out, the building bleeding smoke into an already deadened sky. The prospect of entering the ravaged structure gave Kellan the distinct impression of stepping into a crypt, but the sound of fluttering wingbeats behind them sent him stepping through the entryway.

What had once served as TaggeCo’s lobby was now a ruinous atrium of scarred transparisteel presiding over the abandoned curvature of a welcome desk. Behind it, a bank of turbolift bays sat in darkness. Solari stepped over the body of a civilian, shredded so completely he couldn’t even determine what its gender had been. As they stepped past the desk a nearby holoplate on the floor fizzled and popped. A fuzzy and sputtering hologram appeared above the device, crackling in and out of existance.

"Welcome visitor, to Tagge Company's Ord Trasi Complex." the translucent Twi'lek recording said cheerfully. "From food and beverage offerings to mineral processing, from the entertainment you enjoy to the furnishing your family enjoys, here at TaggeCo, we do it all! We hope you'll find youuuuurrr..."

The Twi'lek's voice seemed to thicken to a garbled crawl before the projection flickered and vanished, seemingly having spent its remains of cached power. Kellan gave Merien a look of bemusement before continuing on towards the bank of turbolifts.

He pressed the nearest call button.

“Nothing.” he muttered. “We’ll have to find the stairs.”

With the power knocked out and the sun obfuscated behind a veil of smoke, finding any such entrance was easier said than done but after several prolonged moments they located the door leading to the cramped stairwell. With its sterile white walls and stairway's painted in perfunctory red, the corridor was clearly a utility way used by the building's staff. The absence of windows or interior lighting left the job of illumination of Merien's saber, which painted the entirety of the scene in an acrid and unsettling orange.

“Hopefully this goes all the way to the roof.” Kellan said, starting up the stairs.

“A-are you soldiers?” a small voice creaked from above them. “Are you here to save me?”

The flight of stairs before them ascended into a featureless gloom. Solari craned his neck and squinted against the blackness there. There was a shuffle of meager footsteps in the dark.

“Don’t move!” he commanded, raising his blaster. “Identify yourself!”

Whoever it was shrieked in terror and scrambled up the adjoining stairs towards the next floor. Solari bound halfway up his own flight in response, peering upwards through the open air space that occupied the stairwell’s center. Somewhere above, unseen, a door opened and slowly swung shut.

“Kark!” he swore, glancing back towards Knight Sere. “It could be a trap. They could be a bughugger. Either way we don’t have long before this place is crawling with Killik.”

@Volene

 

[Merian Sere]

“I can handle a trap,” Merian said, more confidently than she should. Her battered body wouldn’t take much more. “Bringing back a child alive will earn us crucial goodwill with the locals in a way little else could.”

It wasn’t clear from her voice if that was her only reason for rescuing a child in need and Merian didn’t elaborate. After all, this mission was half diplomacy. She hurried up the stairs.

“Keep climbing if you have to. I refuse to put you in harm’s way.” More than I already have, she left unsaid.

Neither imperial could tell with certainty which door or even which floor the small voice had found refuge on, but the building being empty save for them and one other source of life made it easy for Merian to sense its approximate location. She half-opened the door, peeking into the room in a way she wanted unthreatening.

“Come out,” she called. “We’re here to save you.” Damn it all, she was terrible at sounding comforting. The room was black as night and Merian sorely missed the night vision from her lost helmet. But the small voice answered back.

“Are you a Jedi?”

“An Imperial Knight. Come now. We don’t have much time to get you to safety.”

Her words hung in the air until a silhouette came out of the darkness. It was indeed a child, seven or eight years old—or five, or ten? Merian could hardly tell the difference. His face was racked with freckles, and his hair brighter and more orange than her lightsaber. But what mattered was his eyes. Merian grabbed him by the arm and pulled him close to inspect them. Not blackened.

“Come on. Come with me. What’s your name?”

But the child froze. He’d been scared by her abrupt handling of him, and now it looked like he was having second thoughts. He even backed off, which forced Merian to grab his arm again, which made it worse.

“NO! NO!” he screeched and cried. “LET ME GO!”

“We don’t have time for this,” she hissed. “The Killiks—”

As if on cue, Merian was interrupted by the familiar clicking sounds from below. Her heart sunk in her chest. Even peering down the staircase wouldn’t let them see the insects’ progression, so dark it was. But they were climbing fast, and they weren’t dozens anymore. They were hundreds, piling all over each other. The remnants of the swarm.

“MOVE! COME ON, COME ON, UP, UP, UP!” she yelled, but authority couldn’t fully conceal the horror in her voice. She picked up the thrashing child under her arm and made for the stairs with Kellan beside her. Her injured limb protested at the weight. There was no other way. Merian sprinted upwards. The Killiks were gaining ground.

@Tic

 

[Kellan Solari]

The nightmarish tangle of gnashing mandibles and clawed limbs tumbling, scrambling and swelling in the lower floors of the cramped stairwell amplified the Killik’s signature clicking to a deafening racket. The darkness pooled below, sparing them the view of the broiling horde. Kellan turned his sights upward. How many floors had they climbed? How much further to the roof?

They went bounding up the stairs two at a time, the saber spilling jerking spasms of ochre light across their path as they went. He had begun counting the remaining floors as they passed, but panic quickly swept away all cognition beyond survival. His throat was acidic and his temples throbbed as every cell in his being became convinced of its own inevitable demise. In the dim halo of light, his vision further receded into a constricting tunnel, leaving Solari half blind and nearly mad.

From the shadows a sign materialized on the wall. A broad arrow indicating upward, above that stenciled lettering, urgent and copper in the saberlight, reading:

Rooftop Access.

Kellan’s heart jumped into his throat as he pressed his screaming legs upward. His lungs burned and his chest thundered. Regardless of whether or not the swarm overcame them, he felt as though he might never breathe again.

“The roof!” he managed.

Ahead of them, reflecting the light of their approach like some dim beacon of hope, a pair of durasteel hydraulic doors sat atop the final flight of stairs. Unencumbered, Solari sprinted past the Knight, hoping to clear the way for her and the child. He reached the doors and slammed his fist against the control panel. The panel’s display remained a dull, lifeless violet.

“Dead!” Kellan moaned, instantly regretting his choice of adjectives. He began to run his fingers frantically over the doors framework, searching every rivet or flange. Below them, the pulse of Killiks grew louder. “Maybe there’s an emergency release or manual override! C’mon…C’MON!”

The Knight scaled the flight’s final few steps and arrived at Kellan’s side. Breathing hard enough to be seen through her scarred armour, she set the shaking child down, herding him into the corner behind the searching pilot. She lifted her lightsaber and motioned Kellan away, pressing the grip of her blaster into the startled pilot's abdomen.

“No time! Keep us covered!” she commanded gruffly, and thrust the incandescent blade into the center of the door. A halo of molten durasteel hissed and popped around the saber’s point of entry. The Imperial pilot watched as the Knight began the agonizingly slow process of dragging her blade through the door, carving an exitway inch-by-inch.

The Killik, as though sensing this development, seemed to grow louder and surged upward from below. He could hear them less than two stories below them, scrambling toward their cornered prey. He pressed himself in front of the child and aimed his blaster at the featureless void below, waiting for their killers to appear.

He steadied his breathing. How many could he hope to kill before they washed over them like a ravenous tide? A final adrenal surge pulsed through him and sensory input swept over him in crystal clarity. The heft of the blasters. The sizzle of Merian’s saber through durasteel. The child’s shuddering whimpers. The clatter of chitinous claws on the stairs. The howling of the Interceptor’s ion engi..

“DELTA TWO!” he shouted and spun towards Merian.

The Imperial Knight was bent at her work, painstakingly dragging the lightsaber’s blade through the door. But in the remaining light cast by the saber and its accompanying shower of sparks, Kellan caught sight of his target. The Knight’s comlink dangled from its perch on her equipment. The gasping pilot took hold of the device and pulled hard enough to snap its attachment ring off.

“Delta Two! Come in!” he shouted into the communicator, praying that the band was still set to the open channel.

“I read you Delta One.” came the blessed response.

“Brinks!” he shouted, resorting to Delta Two’s surname. “We’re trapped in the stairwell of the TaggeCo building! Southwestern corner! Top floor! I need you to light up everything beneath us…NOW!”

“Affirmative!” Brinks replied.

The next few seconds were the longest of Kellan’s life. Outside the stairwell, he could hear the Delta Two’s engines warble and shift as the pilot moved the craft into position. Inside, the first Killik rounded the final flights corner and clambered into view. Solari held his breath and sent a blaster bolt right between the insectoid’s compound eyes. It buckled at the thorax and fell lifeless, only to have a pair of identical Killik climb over its corpse toward the trapped Imperials. He unleashed a barrage of wild shots from the pair of blasters, striking one in what he supposed was its neck and the other in ones of its limbs which was sheared cleanly away. The clattering of the scrambling bugs was deafening now and he readied himself from their fury…

…the familiar high pitched trill of L-s1 laser cannons resounded from outside as Delta Two opened fire on the TaggeCo buildings southwestern corner, mere meters below where Merian, Kellan and the child huddled. The stairwell below them imploded into a maelstrom of shattered masonry, twisted rebar and fire as the TIE Interceptor’s four laser cannon spat incandescent, plasmatic death at the structure and the tightly packed Killik within.

Kellan clapped his hands over his ears. He had been unaware that Killik were even capable of screaming. A suffocating flood of smoke swept over them and he found himself momentarily disoriented, senses rattled by the calamitous destruction. Outside, Delta Two slowly descended the length of the building, reducing the entirety of the stairwell to fiery rubble. The building seemed to momentarily tremble beneath them.

Solari cupped his mouth and nose in the crook of his arm. To his left, Merian extinguished her lightsaber, drew back and gave the door a mighty kick. There was a metallic groan, followed by a weighty thud and then daylight streamed into the stairwell.

“Lets go!” she commanded.

@Volene

 

[Merian Sere]

They ran. The pilot first, the child ushered between them, then Merian last. The Killiks wouldn’t be far behind. They’d jumped over buildings to reach her from the city center, they’d jumped all the way to bring down TIEs. A broken stairwell would barely even slow them down.

The trio came on the rooftop before an imposing TIE bomber that looked like salvation with its signature twin pod design. Its ordnance pod was open and waiting for them; its engines were running and ready for an immediate takeoff. Already Killiks emerged on the roof behind them.

“Lieutenant!”

Kellan shot a look over his shoulder and knew her meaning. A second later, one of his blasters was lobbed over the child and into Merian’s hand, who turned around and opened fire on the Killiks funneling through the hole she’d made. Time. Just a bit more time.

But when she reached the pod, the pilot and the child hadn’t even taken place yet. Pressure mounted. Stress had her heart beating in her throat. When in transport configuration, TIE bombers used a passenger pod that carried six; the ordnance pod was far from ideal, Merian understood that, but it would have room enough. So what were they doing?

“What are you—” Despite her best efforts, her voice was an angry hiss. It stuck in her throat when she peered through the trap into the pod.

A lone sphere sat inside like it had beaten them to it. Lazy, mocking. Its release mechanism looked like it malfunctioned and it was glad to become everyone’s problem.

Look at me, it said. What will you do now?

Merian turned around and resumed her shooting. “Echo Five!” she heard Kellan shout in her comlink over the sound of the engines. He joined her with an occasional shot between words. The lightsaber-made opening funneling the Killiks made for a surprisingly effective defense—but what good would it be when they rushed through by the hundreds?

“Echo Five, you have undeployed ordnance in your pod! Please advise!”

A first Killik came through the door unharmed. Both Imperials adjusted their aim to fire at it, but by then three more bugs had breached through to the roof. They’d never bring it back under control. Merian turned around and all but tackled Kellan towards the TIE.

“It’s better than death!” she yelled, practically shoving him and the child inside the pod. She snatched her comlink back from him.

“Echo Five, disregard! Ready for takeoff, over!”

Immediately the TIE shook and moved. The trio huddled in a corner with a loose bomb mere feet from them. Worse than reckless. Suicidal.

“Saber One...”

Even as the craft lifted off the ground, Merian stumbled to the pod’s opening they’d come in through to look over the TaggeCo building. The ship was far too unstable now to shoot accurately, but Merian remembered how high the TIEs had been when the Killiks jumped on them. They were far from out of danger.

Just like she thought, some of the bugs went for it. They would have made it, too, if she didn’t shove them back down with a mighty push through the Force. Even then, Echo Five banked the TIE left in avoidance. He hadn’t counted on her talents. Inside the pod, the bomb rattled dangerously.

“Saber One!”

At once, the bomb went aloft. Merian guided it through the pod’s opening. They’d gained enough altitude now. Unceremoniously she tossed it down at the infested building and sent it up in flames.

The explosion was the last straw. Already weakened by the too-heavy bomber landing upon its roof, by Delta Two’s rampage of its stairwells and by whatever the Killiks had done to it prior, the building groaned and started to collapse. The rumble was audible all the way to them. Dust and smoke rose through the air. Disoriented, surviving Killiks swarmed away from the building and back to whatever was left of their nest.

But there was movement elsewhere, too, from the outskirts of the city to just outside the central ruins. At last, at long last, the battalion was moving to clean up.

“Glory to the IAF,” Merian said, just sarcastic enough that she kept plausible deniability. From high above, the soldiers looked just like a swarm of their own.

---

 

[The Storyteller]

It took the Empire three days to blast their way through the capital and then even more of its ships appeared in orbit. The Killik infestation had to be burned out completely and apparently those that decided things in the Empire didn't think bombardments alone would do the trick. Flamethrowers would follow. Anything to ensure Killik eradication.

The exploits of Delta One and Saber One, respectively, had been written up in a short report that barely warranted their actual identification codes. Unnecessary loss of expensive interceptors, improper language towards superior officers and misappropriating a bomber for the pick-up of a civilian. The official report was anything but flattering. Still, someone of note in the Imperial-backed new interim government of Ord Trasi seemed to have been rather impressed with the duo that, to Imperial standards, had been responsible for million credit budget excess.

As such, when the Imperial Command Shuttle transporting none other than Grand Moff Pollux to the planet's surface extended its landing gear and touched down on the rooftop landing dock, both Lieutenant Solari as Knight Sere had been ordered to be present. It was a public secret that Castor Pollux was an aficionado of Bomber- and Quickdraw Diplomacy, preferring to drop a bomb first and open diplomatic channels after.

So when the ramp lowered, the man that stepped down almost looked like a general in the Imperial Armed Forces. Castor Pollux had once been a mediocre Cadet in the Raxus Army Cadet Corps, but looking at him now, his crew-cut hair, neatly trimmed beard and the uniform of the Imperial Diplomatic Corps looking eerily similar to an accolade-stacked general's attire, one would almost think that he was the the chief-architect of every military success in the last decade.

"So you're the ones this Allybeth was so keen to praise?" his voice drenched in disdain, the Grand Moff didn't even bother feigning a military salute. In his mind he had just as much right to have become the Emperor as the former Grand Moff, Emer-Drast, had, so his status compared to that of a mere pilot and an Imperial Knight was such he shouldn't even have been exposed to their lowly filth. "Stand by my side, then, and smile. Pretend like your lives depend on it."

---

Camera droids buzzed around in the rather large meeting room in the second largest city of Ord Trasi. The Imperial banner was on display on both sides of the dais. Lieutenant Solari and Imperial Knight Sere were clothed in newly pressed uniforms they definitely didn't bring along themselves and in the center of attention stood the Imperial Grand Moff, showing a set of perfect teeth as he smiled brightly at the camera's.

"It is with humbled pride that I met Elsebeth today," he gestured to his side, where the librarian Elsebeth stood. "she told me of the adversity and horrors you, the people of Ord Trasi, had to endure to the Killik threat." Castor Pollux' voice was remarkably warm and sincere as he spoke now, providing a stark contrast with his earlier untelevised words. "How fear and uncertainty, a feeling of helplesness while facing a threat you're simply not equipped to fight alone. To fight, and lose. When all seems lost. No hope but to join in the worst fate imagineable. That is," the Grand Moff paused, he was by no means as skilled a public speaker as his predecessor, but putting an emphasis on symbolism wasn't impossible to learn, "until Hope appeared in the form of the Detente arriving in Orbit. When pilots, like Lieutenant Solari here-" Kellan would have been intructed beforehand to shortly step forward and then return to his assigned spot on the floor. "-took out the hives and knight Sere lead by example, risking her own life in a valiant and selfless push into the Killik hive."

An assistent to the Grand Moff walked onto the stage holding a datapad, which they handed to Elsebeth. "When all seemed lost and your call for help went out to the galaxy, we acted immediately. We value our relationship with Ord Trasi as I hope you value the Imperials that have lost their lives for you to be able to continue yours."

He paused again as his eyes went to Elsebeth as if what came next was rehearsed. "And we do," Elsebeth smiled as she seemed to sign something on the datapad, stepped forward to the dais and turned the datapad's screen to the camera droids. "We thank our lives to the Empire, so my first act as your elected leader," how keeping a cool head during a panic could turn a simple librarian into a head-of-state was something scholar could debate and study for generations to come. "after careful deliberation and the advise of the esteemed Grand Moff, is for Ord Trasi to officially join the Empire."


@Volene @Tic
/ END THREAD