Slasher was looking out toward the Gugol when suddenly a large explosion came from behind him, whirling back to face the Governor's Hall, Slasher's hand drops to the holster at his side, and he draws his S-5 Blaster and quickly activates the grapple launcher, he points to Goth and JMac who had looked to him for instructions, and tells them to go inside and help the others, he's going looking for snipers.

As he arrives on the roof, Slasher crouches and looks around, checking to see if there are any enemies in his immediate vicinity. Seeing nothing immediately, Slasher moves slowly along the roof, scanning left and right with his blaster, he slowly begins to move in the direction the blast had come from, thinking that if there are enemies waiting to snipe at his wingmates, as he moves Slasher begins to think through the events of the past few weeks.

I can't believe all this stuff that has happened over the past few weeks. Just a few weeks ago, I was a mere Flight Member in this squadron, then all of a sudden things changed...

I was promoted from Petty Officer 2nd Class to Chief Petty Officer, and following quickly after that was promoted to the position of Flight Leader when Bacredi was promoted to command the academy. Then in recent times things have been going so badly that I have been prepared to resign my commission, but have been convinced not do so, because with Kane prepared to step down as XO, and with an influx of new pilots into the squadron, I may be asked to step up in the next few weeks...

Slasher hears some sort of movement up ahead, and he crouches, leveling his blaster toward the source of the sound. As he prepares to investigate, he can't help but give one last thought on what is expected of him.

Am I up to it? Am I prepared and qualified to step up within this squadron if asked...

Ending his musing for the present with that thought, Slasher concentrates once again on something he can deal with, the present.

===20 meters away===

Kranto watches the pilot approaching him up ahead, and moving slowly so as not to draw any more attention to himself, he places his LJ-90 Sniper Rifle down on the ground, and prepares to jump the pilot.

Looks like an enlisted man... probably doesn't have that much hand to hand combat experience.

reaching down, he pulls his XV-7 Vibrobayonet from its sheath, and prepares to jump the young soldier.

===Slasher===

Scanning side to side with his blaster, Slasher has yet to see the source of the noise that he had heard, but he did not drop his guard, he continued to advance slowly, step by step, scanning for anything that looked out of the ordinary, a coiled weapon, just waiting for the chance to strike.

I know you are around here somewhere... where'd you go...

Without warning, there's a clatter to his left and Slasher whirls to the side, thus avoiding the bayonet that was thrusting toward his neck, while he manages to avoid the thrust to his neck, Slasher still receives a nasty gash to his left shoulder. Dodging quickly to avoid further injury, Slasher strikes his opponent's wrist, causing him to drop the bayonet. Immediately the two men begin circling each other each waiting for the other to make the first move.

===Kranto===

As Kranto circles his opponent he slowly rotates his injured wrist. He had expected this to be easy, he'd wait for the pilot to appear, and kill him quickly and quietly. However things were not going as he had planned. Instead of him standing over this pilots dead body right now, he was preparing to engage him in hand to hand combat.

What happened... this was supposed to be an easy mission, and this guy is just a pilot, not even a very experienced one

As he prepares to fight, Kranto recognizes the emblem on his enemy's uniform designating him as a Flight Leader, immediately he begins to reassess the man he was fighting. He looks to the ribbons on the man's chest, and he doesn't see any long service ribbons, which immediately gives him another boost of confidence, and continuing to circle his opponent he begins to taunt him.

“You're a fraud, you do not have the experience required to be a flight leader. I can see from your uniform that you do not even have six months service with the Navy, you don't have the experience to be leading other men into battle, and you don't have the combat experience to be able to defeat me...”

He watched the eyes of the pilot across from him, a Senior Chief Petty Officer if he remembers the rank insignia correctly, hoping to see some indication that the pilot's will is weakening. Seeing no indications immediately he decides to test his opponent's defenses...

===Slasher===

Slasher watches the man across from him, listening to his taunts, he sees the man's eyes searching, trying to find some sort of weakness in his defenses.

He's trying to get into my head, trying to break me before we even exchange blows... we'll see who breaks first...

As the continue to circle, Slasher sees his opponent suddenly tense, and he dodges slightly to the side as the first couple of probing punches from his opponent are launched. He allows a few of them to land glancing blows, giving the indication that he is slightly weakened on his left side by the gash across his shoulder, and waits for his opponent to try and take advantage of this.

Suddenly his opponent does, launching a flurry of punches toward Slasher's stomach and ribs, trying to get him to leave his shoulder open to a strike. Seeing what his opponent is doing, Slasher makes a move as if to block one of the punches to his ribs, and immediately his opponent seizes the opportunity, pulling back his punch before Slasher can block it he delivers a quick punch to the injured part of Slasher's shoulder. He is rewarded by a hiss of pain from the pilot, and he brings his other hand around in a chopping motion, hoping to completely disable his opponent's left arm.

===Kranto===
Kranto can taste victory as he delivers a hard punch to the shoulder of the pilot before him, and hears the pilot's hiss of pain, he let's out a roar of victory as his hand prepares to chop down on the shoulder, but that roar of victory suddenly turns into a scream of shock and pain when his opponent's left arm shoots up grabbing a fistful of his tunic and he receives a knee to his stomach, which dazes him momentarily. In that second of shock, his opponent suddenly reverses his hold, letting go with his left, and grabbing the other side with his right. And with a sweep of his leg and a yanking motion he throws Kranto.

Kranto feels his shirt rip as he goes flying, a swift kick to his chest adding to the distance he goes. As he lands with a grunt he feels his tunic loosen and begin to fall away. Not wanting the tunic to restrict his movement, he tosses it away as he struggles back to his feet and charges his opponent again with a scream of fury.

===Slasher===

Slasher is surprised when the tunic of his opponent falls away and reveals a tattoo, while this in and of itself would not have been disturbing, the fact that it was identical to the emblem which had graced the hulls of the fighters which had attacked them earlier certainly was.

Someone is trying to kill Gshlecc, and they've hired this group of mercenaries to do their dirty work apparently.

Slasher falls back under the fury of his opponent's attack, caught off guard momentarily because of the shock of seeing the tattoo, he is hard pressed to block his opponent's attacks, and as the man across from him drives him to his knees, he realizes why. With that realization he begins to smile and again to taunt the Senior Chief.

“So Senior Chief, having second thoughts about your ability to defeat me?”

he slowly begins to circle Slasher again, continuing his taunts,

“I heard that your fighter was lost getting here, you couldn't even save your fighter. Well you know what, your Wingmen killed my friend after he got you. And now I'm going to avenge his death by taking out you, the miserable failure responsible for his death. And then I'm going to eliminate the rest of your squadron, one by one.”

Slasher, despite being driven to his knees by the injuries he had sustained in the fury of his opponent's latest attack, looked up at his attacker when he threatened the members of his squadron. He watches as the mercenary moves in for the final strike, moving in to break his neck. Slasher was resigned to his fate when all of a sudden a series of images begins to flash by his face. Driver, on the day he was promoted to Ensign, Hunter-Morrell, a long time friend, and now the 4 Flight leader in Nazgul after the closing of Kaph, these images, accompanied by many others of joyous times with his squadron mates flash through his mind. Instantly he is furious at himself for giving up, but even more furious at the man before him for daring to threaten his friends.

Looking up, Slasher says just a single word as the mercenary comes in for the final strike, “Never”

As the strike descends Slasher suddenly feels a burst of energy, and as he dives out of the way, he pulls together what strength he still has and prepares to finish this fight. As the mercenary looks up in surprise at the pilot who again has refused to go quietly he screams in fury and grabbing a piece of permacrete from the roof he hurls it at the pilot's face, and charges in to finish him.

Slasher responds immediately, setting himself he draws within himself and as the piece of permacrete is just 2 feet away he suddenly strikes out with his bare fist, breaking the permacrete and meeting the charge of the mercenary head on, he prepares to finish this fight, seeing the bayonet lying on the ground nearby, Slasher lunges toward it, grabbing it and turning over to shove it into the chest of the mercenary as he lunges after him.

Kranto staggers back in shock, looking at the hilt of the vibroblade protruding from his chest, he looks up at his opponent and says, “I guess I was wrong...” before he falls to the ground. Moving quickly over to where the Sniper Rifle sits, Slasher picks it up and retrieving his blaster and holstering it, he moves off toward the site of the blast, ready to provide support to his fellow pilots as they investigate.

OOC:

A prior post, 1900 words, but reposted here for this