JMac
ComNet Veteran
[VE-DJO] Dark Jedi Knight (DJK)
[VE-NAVY] Lt. Commander (LCM)
Post Number: 1029
Total Posts: 1216
Joined: Nov 2001
Status: Offline
|
RE: Through the Fire
|
|
May 30, 2002
8:22:32 PM
|
|
Hey. I am planning on writing a very long fiction peice chronicalling JMac's path to the Vat Empire. I am working very hard on it, and may even try to get it published in a fan fiction mag or something. Anyway, please read it as you have the time and give me a bit of feedback. I am posting the first part of it now, with many more to come later as I write them. thanx a lot. -----------------------
EFM/PO1 JMac/Aegis 3-4/Aegis 12/(=A=)(=SA=)(MC1)
"In order to find his equal an Irishman is forced to talk to God."
- Braveheart
Aegis 4ever!!! |
JMac
ComNet Veteran
[VE-DJO] Dark Jedi Knight (DJK)
[VE-NAVY] Lt. Commander (LCM)
Post Number: 1029
Total Posts: 1216
Joined: Nov 2001
Status: Offline
|
RE: Through the Fire
|
|
May 30, 2002
8:23:04 PM
|
|
Joshua “JMac” Macloid’s eyes widened in shock as he looked at the landspeeder that had just stopped in front of him. There was Tiana Fafdra, the only woman that he had only loved, standing there. Another man’s arms were wrapped around her, and he kissed her with a passion and intimacy that clearly showed their long relationship. It was like something out of a bad dream. He and Tiana were meant to be together. That’s what they had talked about. Always, they would love each other. There was no room for any other.
Josh felt his heart breaking into a thousand pieces. The wedding ring that he had been nervously fingering as he waited for Tiana to get home dropped unnoticed onto the ground. He felt like he was on fire. Alternating between hot and cold, he just stood there staring. His deep blue eyes staring madly at the horrifying scene in front of him. They couldn’t look away. Almost on its own accord, the youth’s arm snapped down in its practiced gesture, and one of his ever-present throwing knives flew from its hidden sheath and into his hand. He threw it, using the skill that had won him so many tournaments and competitions on his home planet of Corellia. The knife spun lazily in the air, seeming to fly in slow motion. Every second was etched into Josh’s mind. He saw the way that the moonlight glittered off the deadly blade. How a light breeze was moving through the night, ruffling his beloved’s hair. Then the knife slammed home. The point embedded itself in the side of the man’s throat as his mouth worked on Tiana. He stiffened momentarily in shock as blood began to spurt out around the knife as nothing ever had out of the targets that he had practiced his art upon. He crumpled to the ground, leaving Tiana drenched with blood. Her scream broke the false illness of the night, shattering the silence into pieces much like the glittering shards of Josh’s heart.
“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!” Josh screamed as he snapped to wakefulness. His body was drenched with sweat. It soaked through his shorts and light blanket, giving a foul odor to the cabin that matched perfectly the stench that pervaded his life now. Try as he might, he could not forget the events of that night. Only a week ago he had been happy and carefree, eight-teen and in love. He had had a well paying job on Corellia, an apartment, and a life. No more. Now he was on the run from the law. Nightmares of that night haunted his sleep, draining his energy and leaving him feeling empty, with the dull pain of his heart his only companion.
Slowly Josh’s breathing slowed as the dream faded into the night. It would be back, but for now it was gone. Josh lay back down onto his bunk that he slept on and let the gentle thrum of the Groa’ Triblen lull him back into sleep. He went gratefully, and slept like the dead, completely dreamless, for the rest of the sleep cycle.
A buzzing noise snapped him out of sleep, signaling a new day. Josh sat up groggily and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Yawning, he stood and shuffled over to the small storage cubical that contained everything that he now owned. He had needed to move quickly to escape CorSec, and hadn’t had time to bring more then the bare essentials. His knives went first, strapped to each arm in cleverly designed sheaths capable of releasing them when needed. A beat up pair of tan pants went on next, followed by a shirt that had started out white but now had been stained and washed so many times that it’s color was more of a faded gray. A vibro-blade in his right boot and a blaster slung low on his completed the ensemble, making JMac ready for whatever the day would bring.
JMac paused in his stride as he moved past the polished chuck of metal that served him and looked at the sorry figure that he had become. His hair was disheveled, and the stubble on his chin indicated that he definitely needed a shave. His eyes were the worst though. They seemed cold at first, startlingly so. They were merciless eyes, the kind of eyes that you could easily picture behind a sniper rifle aimed at an unsuspecting man’s head. Only on looking deeply into them was his hidden pain shown, raw and completely desolate. It gnawed at him like a predatory animal, lashing him without mercy with the life he had thought he’d had.
His accommodations were no better. His well-kept apartment had been replaced with a tiny room with a rusty bunk and a small cubicle. The walls were deeply scarred durasteel, completely cheerless and ugly. The whole room stank of sweat, as well as darker, far worse things. In fact, that went for the whole ship. Josh had definitely gotten far more then he had bargained for when he stowed away on this ship, that was for sure.
Oh well, no point in avoiding it. The Corellian strode through the door, a beaten and saddened figure trying to find his way out of the darkness that his life had so quickly become.
-----------------------
EFM/PO1 JMac/Aegis 3-4/Aegis 12/(=A=)(=SA=)(MC1)
"In order to find his equal an Irishman is forced to talk to God."
- Braveheart
Aegis 4ever!!! |
JMac
ComNet Veteran
[VE-DJO] Dark Jedi Knight (DJK)
[VE-NAVY] Lt. Commander (LCM)
Post Number: 1029
Total Posts: 1216
Joined: Nov 2001
Status: Offline
|
RE: Through the Fire
|
|
June 5, 2002
4:06:35 PM
|
|
His footsteps rang on the metal flooring as he made his way from his quarters. Aliens of various species brushed shoulders with him, all of them foul smelling and bad tempered. A Rodian shouldered him aside, only to be thrown against a wall by the irate Corellian. The Rodian snarled and went for his gun, but Josh was much faster. By the time the Rodian’s hand closed about his blaster, he was looking down the maw of Josh’s heavy Blaster. The offending Rodian gulped as he stared down the open maw of the weapon. His eyes shot Josh a look of pure hate before he slunk off cursing. Josh holstered his pistol once the Rodian was safely away and went back to his business.
His pain was slowly draining away as the days went by, leaving only the dreams. The taking of a human life had scarred him, and that would never go away. Still, Josh was slowly toughening up, turning into someone that was below his previous standards as he had known them back in his old life, but someone that would be able to deal with whatever blows came his way.
The affair with the Rodian was just one more example. A few weeks ago he would have been to slow to clear his blaster and would have wound up dead with a smoking crater where his head used to be. A few days ago he would not have cared enough to draw, and would have let the ugly creature kill him where he stood. There was a toughness within him that would not stop fighting, no matter what the cost or how much it hurt to go on living.
Josh shouldered his through the small crowd that had gathered at the confrontation and continued on his way to the lounge, if you could call it that. A few tables were scattered through the poorly lit area. Every square centimeter was coated with dust, grime, and grease. The place stank, as did most of the occupants sitting in the dark. Unfortunately, it was the only place on the ship where a sentient could eat, so the Corellian came and went while trying not to think about what the food was made out of.
The Corellian walked up to the bar and ordered a cup of caf and some bread. The caf burned down his throat, but it did its job and woke him up completely. The bread was moldy and seemed to be full of some kind of insect larvae, but Josh ate it anyway. It probably wouldn’t poison him, and he needed the energy. The bar tender took his payment without a word, then went off to serve another customer.
Josh took another gulp of the caf, grimacing as he went down. Suddenly he knew something was wrong. There was no reason for that feeling, but it was so strong it was almost a compulsion. Unable to fight it, Josh looked surreptuosly behind him and was immediately glad that he had. Behind him, entering the pit that this ship presumptuously called its lounge, was the Rodian that he had threatened earlier. There was no time to wonder how he had known that there was danger, only time to act. Josh pulled his blaster out of his holster as slowly as possible. He held it flat against the counter and hoped that the Rodian wouldn’t see it. The thug already had his blaster out, and aimed at Josh, so there was no way the Corellian would be able to get off a shot unless he took him by surprise.
“Well, well, well, what have we here,” the Rodian said sardonically. “Looks like a large pile of bantha dung to me.”
Joshua relaxed mentally, though outwardly he tensed. The thug wanted to boast a bit before he got his revenge. Good.
“Well, this bar definitely stinks,” Josh shot back with exaggerated innocence. “Something pretty foul must have just been brought in. Maybe the ship’s sewage tanks have backed up.”
His head rocked forward as a blaster slammed into the back of his head. His teeth slammed together, and he tasted blood in his mouth.
“What was that, some kind of weird Rodian mating ritual? I’m sorry, but I don’t swing that way.”
Mentally, Josh saw his salvation. The Rodian was quick to anger, and the old sayings were true. To anger someone is to own them. As he felt the blaster slam into his head a second time, he let the blow lift him off of his seat. Using the force of the impact to his advantage, Josh spun in the air with his blaster firing. His first shot flew past the surprised Rodian’s head and slammed into the wall in the back of the lounge. His second shot hit the green skinned alien between the eyes, and again Josh was struck by the vast differences between shooting on a target range and the real thing. He wasn’t the least bit nauseated this time by the gore of the aftermath, though. After all, it was just an alien.
The Corellian reached up, touched his head, and came back with a sticky wetness. Sudden rage filled him as he regarded the crimson liquid on his fingers. He rose and kicked the slain attacker, the leveled his blaster at it’s head and fired, reducing the dead creature’s countenance to a blackened ash. His rage subsided, and he noticed that no one seemed particularly disturbed by the happenings. The various denizens of the lounge simply went about their business. A man slipped out of the shadows and slapped a cred-coin on the table.
|
|
|
