Pherik ‘Serpent’ Zail rolled over, groaning as his head throbbed with pain. His eyes blinked open, and he surveyed the cramped cell that he found himself in. Small, barely three meters by three, and devoid of windows. The chill in the air told him that he was still on Abrae, the same planet as where the VENI Tower was located. It was there that he had volunteered for a training mission, and was promptly hit over the head with something. That he had woken up here and in pain told him just how seriously Intelligence was taking his ‘training’.
He had actually hoped for more time to prepare. Serpent had spent the last few weeks working on unarmed fighting skills, but they were far from polished. Zail’s recently discovered love of vibrorapier duelling had helped a lot, especially where stamina, strength and balance were concerned, but he still felt a bit awkward striking with foot and fist instead of a blade.
There was no time to dwell on it, though. Sitting up on the small wooden bunk, Serpent reached up and touched the bruise at the back of his head. It hurt to touch it, but at least there was no blood. Groggily getting to his feet, he sized up the energy field that comprised the only way into the cell, and the long corridor beyond it. If Zail recalled the mission parameters correctly, he needed only to escape. But how?
Just then, he heard some noise from down the hallway. The door at the far end was not an automatic one, like on a Star Destroyer, but a manual hatch operated by a circular handle. From the sound, it seemed like someone was turning that handle and about to come though.
Serpent quickly fell back onto his bunk, closing his eyes and pretending to still be out of it. He listened carefully as the noise of two sets of heavy footsteps approached, clanging on the metallic floor of the corridor. That there were only two people was confirmed when they drew to a stop outside his cell and began speaking.
“Is ‘e still out o’ it?” Asked one in a thick Outer Rim accent.
“Seems so,” Said a second voice, a little more refined in speech. “Perhaps we hit him too hard?”
“Ah great,” Said the first. “Fine, I’ll be a checkin’ on ‘im then,” And so saying, Zail heard the buzz of the cell’s force field cease, and then a couple of footsteps as the man came into the cell. Serpent reckoned that he was now standing right beside his bunk. “Le’ me see what’s a matter...” The approaching guard said, and Serpent suddenly felt a hand upon his head, rolling it to one side to investigate the bruise at its back.
Zail seized the chance and sprung into action.
Fast as he could, he reached up and grabbed the guard (dressed in a naval marine uniform and lacking a helmet), seizing his arm in two places, wrist and elbow. Calling upon his recent close-combat training, Serpent twisted the wrist and pushed into the elbow, locking the arm and leveraging it to throw the man to one side. The guard fell, surprised by the action and unable to break Zail’s grip, and went right into Serpent’s rising leg, the knee of which he brought up and slammed neatly into the guard’s chin.
As the first of his two captors slumped unconscious to the floor, Zail leapt from the bed and rushed the second, but his element of surprise was now lost. The second guard, dressed as the first but slimmer and taller, fell into a fighting stance and prepared for Serpent’s assault.
Zail came in, arms up as if to box, and threw a few punches at his foe. The naval marine dodged the first and second strikes, then brought his right forearm up to block the third. He followed the block up with a step forward, trying to come inside Serpent’s guard and firing off a vicious left punch to the stomach.
At the last second Zail stepped back, and the punch lost some of its strength, but it still connected and winded the Alderaanian slightly. Falling back, Serpent knew he was out of punching distance, so he fired off a kick instead. The snap was simple and fast, but the marine was faster still. The man dropped, the kick passing harmlessly above him, and once low he executed a smooth roundhouse sweep. It caught Zail’s back leg, and down he went.
Serpent hit the ground awkwardly, but the groan that escaped his lips as he did so was more to do with frustration than with pain. He moved to rise, but the marine was coming in, bringing a knee down on Zail’s chest to pin him to the cell floor. Acting on impulse, Serpent jumped up to meet the attack. There was no finesse, no real plan, he simply moved to grab his opponent.
They collided in a tangle of limbs. Zail felt his foe’s knee hit, but shrugged it off as he grabbed the man firmly around the waist. With a surge of adrenaline, he lifted and rushed forward. In the cramped cell there was little distance between the combatants and the wall, and Serpent rammed his foe into the cold hard stone. At the moment of impact, the marine’s head whipped back, smacking loudly against the unyielding wall and knocking him out.
Zail, tried and breathing heavily, dropped the man quickly and took a moment collect himself. He hurt in a few places, but otherwise was feeling okay. He felt drained though, surprised by how much that small scuffle took out of him. Serpent hoped he had enough left to complete his mission and escape.
-----
Once he had got his breath back, Zail left the cell and hurried down the corridor. The other five cells in this area were empty, and he hoped that meant that, wherever he was, it was lightly staffed. He paused at the door to the end. As he had noted earlier, it was a turn handle door, and just the act of opening it would make a lot of noise. He prayed that there was no one on the other side to be alerted.
His prayers were not answered. The door swung open to reveal a small guard post with computer consoles, and rising from that table was another marine. The guard was fast on the offensive, and Serpent had little time to consider anything else in the room before he was fighting once again.
That this new opponent favoured feet over fists was quite evident, as he came at Zail with jumping kicks, roundhouse kicks, snaps, sides, and reverse thrust kicks. The moves, executed with well-trained speed and precision, flowed into each other in neat combinations that threw Serpent on the defensive. He fell back, through the door and into the corridor from whence he came. Blocks and dodges were all Serpent could manage for now, as he sought a flaw or opening in his foe’s technique.
There was none, and Zail just kept falling back. Eventually he found himself back at the entrance to his cell, and realised that the marine’s goal was simply to drive him back into it and flip the security field’s ‘on’ switch and be done! Serpent resolved to fight back at once. He may fail this training mission, but he would not fail like that!
One of the first things Zail had learned about fighting was that it was
not about avoiding injury. Fighting was about learning when to
take damage in order to seek advantage. Such as now. When his foe went to kick him yet again, Serpent did not even try to dodge. Instead, he moved forward into the kick, taking it full in the chest.
He grunted in pain, but tried to ignore it as he saw the momentary confusion flick across the marine’s face. Seizing the moment, Zail grabbed the extended leg before his opponent withdrew it. The man was surprised, but not surprised enough to allow his foot to be so easily trapped. He stepped back, but Serpent eagerly followed up, going for it all by throwing a fierce roundhouse punch at his opponent’s head.
Increasingly confused by Zail’s sudden and brave offensive, the marine tried to evade, withdrawing his head from striking range. Of course, such a strike was never Serpent’s goal. As the guard evaded the punch, the Alderaanian’s first opened up and he grabbed the man by one shoulder. His other hand followed quickly to take the other shoulder, and Zail took firm hold. He had time to throw the man a smug smile, and then he
fell backwards.
Serpent rolled on his back, raising a leg into the marine’s stomach and he dragged him down with him. The throw was executed to perfection, and he hurled the guard over and into the cell behind him. The man landed gracefully, rising quickly from where he hit the floor, but Zail was a split-second faster. He hit the shield activation, and locked the man inside.
“Bye!” Said the Alderaanian, leaving the guard behind and walking off.
-----
Again he headed down the corridor, and into the guard’s room at the end. This room, from which the cells were administered, had just one door. Zail turned the handle on this one, wary of any other attacks, but no, the other side was safe. There was another passage ahead of him, this one sloping upwards sharply. This, combined with a noticeable temperature drop (from chilly to fully cold, just like the surface of Abrae) gave Serpent hope that he had nearly escaped.
He marched up the corridor, moving carefully so as not to make any heavy footfalls that would echo on the metal floor. Eventually he reached the end, and yet another turn handle door.
Serpent opened this one boldly, and saw at once that he was at the end. The door opened onto a small cave, the far end of which was open and allowing snow and wind to spill inside. Looming large between him and the frozen tundra of Abrae was one last marine, though. This one, a massive brute of man with a shaven head, looked at Zail with a big confident smirk on his lips.
“You made it far,” He said, cracking the knuckles of his hands, “But now we reach the end of this little test.”
“We do indeed,” Said Zail, moving forward and dropping into a loose fighting stance.
And so they began.
-----
The larger man came in swinging, moving quickly for such a hulking figure. He thundered forward on legs thick as tree trunks, his massive arms giving him reach and power. Serpent dodged away, and once he kept moving he kept on moving. Zail saw the size of the other’s fists, and knew that it would take just one to connect and it would be over.
Dodge and weave, evade and retreat, Serpent seemed to have no choice in the matter. He searched desperately for an opening, a chance to get inside the other and land a punch or kick of his own, but none presented themselves. Indeed, given the sheer physicality of his foe, Pherik found himself wondering if his own attacks would be strong enough to actually hurt his foe.
Zail shook the idea away. No, he could not think that way. This marine, as huge as he was,
must have a weakness. He just had to be logical in finding it.
Serpent analysed his foe, and noticed that his attacks were entirely about punching, no kicks. He was a boxer, plain and simple. If Zail could somehow knock the big guy down...
Seizing on a plan, Pherik went to work. As the big man came in for another strike, Serpent leaned back, dodging again. However, this time he fired off a kick, low and aimed for the other’s right knee. It connected, though with Zail retreating at the same time it was with little force, a snap kick more about speed than power.
However, the kick was well-placed, and got the other right in the knee-cap. Pherik was rewarded by seeing a flicker of annoyance on the marine’s face.
So you can be hurt! The VENI agent realised. So he tried again, another kick for the knee. And another. And again. And yet again. Time ticked by, and Serpent drew heavily on his stamina as he kept up his simultaneous kicks and retreats. Hit after hit landed on his foe, and slowly he began to notice that the marine was less steady on his feet.
Your knees are hurting, and when they fail you will go down!However, Zail was tiring slowly but surely, and with every heavy breath and strain to kick, he was afraid that he was going to make a mistake before his foe went down.
And he did.
Serpent struck, but it was sloppy, and the marine was quick to take advantage. With agility uncommon in such a large man, he shrugged off the clumsy strike and darted forward before Zail could react. Pherik braced himself for a thunderous fist to the face, but he got something very different. Seized by the wrists and pulled in close, the VENI agent suddenly found himself crushed against the marine’s massive chest in a fierce bear-hug.
The Alderaanian cried out in pain as his body was squeezed, struggling in vain but his arms were pinned to his sides. Serpent looked down at the marine’s face, mere inches from his own, and saw his foe grinning in triumph. Zail had to act or it was over.
In sheer desperation, he head butted his foe. The attack hurt Pherik as much as his opponent, but he forced aside the pain and struck again and again, hammering his forehead onto the other’s nose, smashing it and sending blood everywhere.
The marines snarled a few times, and though he tried to hold on and keep squeezing, the agony of his nose caving in was too much. Howling in pain, he dropped Serpent and brought his hands to his face to try and staunch the blood flow.
Zail landed on the cave floor, gasping for breath but knowing that he had to act quickly before his foe recovered. Again he zeroed in on the man’s knees. Taking hold of the marine’s leg, Pherik threw his whole body weight into the
side of the knee, a shoulder barge from a crouching position.
CRACK!
The sound of a knee moving in a direction it was never intended to echoed through the cavern. Now the marine’s cries of anguish reached a new level, and his entire right leg gave out under him, sending the massive guard crashing to the ground.
As he landed, Serpent was quick to deliver a coup-de-grace kick to the face, knocking the man out. Only then was it over.
Tired, in pain, and covered with another man’s blood, Zail turned to the cave mouth and strode out into the snow. He could see the VENI Tower in the distance, and he could not wait to report his success.
- OOC:
- 2531 words. I used to do Kung Fu, so used some kickboxing terms in this one to make it sound better. Hope it’s okay!
After Action Report: Serpent volunteers for a VENI training mission and wakes up in a cell. He has to fight his way out, using unarmed combat skills against four well-trained marines. The final fight is the hardest, but Zail prevails and escapes, completing the mission.
