Darius forced himself to slip into the tunnel, darkness consuming the remaing survivors of the assault. His only comfort what the compensating night vision of his battle helmet and his only remaining sidearm with power.
"Darius, MOVE!" shouted a familiar, comforting voice from down the tunnel. Darius looked down the tunnel and saw his father draw his sword. The young son hugged the wall and watched the sword fly down the tunnel, the deadly projectile making its mark with honed skill. Unfortunately for the Imperial commando, it meant a probable slow death if he did not treat the abdominal piercing. The dying commando staggered and collapsed, leaning on the wall. With his last remaining strength, a virtue of a truely skilled soldier, he drew his firearm and aimed down the hall, hoping he can elimate the remaining enemy with a rapid fire burst.
The young son of Cyrus Pursius, sprinted back to the tunnel entrance. As good as the Imperial commando was, he could not match Darius' ability in the state he was in. Darius leapt, kicked off the opposite wall of the commando and smashed the commando's wrist with his other foot. The sickening sounds of the breaking bones and the fall of the E-11 could be dimly heard above the carnage of the assault.
Unfortunately for Darius, the commando mustered one last act of heroism and pulled Darius out into the generator room, where the advancing stormtroopers descend down the maze of catwalks and stairs to pursue the last of the surviving mercenaries who opposed injustice of any high power. The young boy of eighteen standard years, pulled his father's abandoned sword and with a powerful swipe, decapitated the enemy. Darius looked up at the sniper that had taken position at the far end of the room and awaited his inevitable death.
However, that was not the end of the aspiring young teen. Char'den, his father's trusted third in command emerged from the darkness of the tunnel roaring, grabbed Darius arm. And with his natural strength that came with being a Whiphid, he grabbed Darius' and whipped the boy into the tunnel, not only saving Darius and placing his own back in front of the boy, but also dislocating Darius' right arm. He watched as the stormtrooper marksman shot the large beast of a biped in the spine.
The familiar rough hand of the boy's father grabbed onto the chest plate of his armor and drug the young soldier passed the set explosives, around the corner and to the panel that would trigger the mines and collapse the tunnel. They did not have time to set a timer and reach a safe distance. Cyrus slapped the detonator and the concussion force threw the sixteen survivors down the tunnel. The leader of the mercenaries immediately rose back up and hovered over his shaken Darius.
"Darius," said a voice that wasn't his fathers. It was strangely feminine and soothing. Darius was immediately puzzled by the conundrum and listened closely, thinking the explosion had corrupted his ears. "Darius..."
The older soldier jolted awake, his clothes drenched in sweat and panting heavily. He came to his senses and found himself staring behind the barrel of his DL-44, aiming into the infinite void and bluish glow of hyperspace. His finger tightly clenched the trigger, and the only force that stopped the laser and terrifying death was the activated safety.
Darius looked around the cockpit of his modified YT-2400 Corellian freighter,
Forgotten Patience, and found the printed message from his wife about his missing father-in-law and her
command to meet her at Nar Shaddaa to look for him.
He looked at the chrono and watched the timer count down to the last minute before he'd enter the planet's system and rendevouz point his wife designated cleverly in the message. Next, his eyes wandered curiously to the corner and found his father's sword, his own sword, and the armor he had recovered years after his memory wipe and the undoing of the wipe as a result of poor procedures and a strong will.
The young husband of a beautiful wife and doctor comtemplated his reunion with his troubled wife and left the cockpit without his armor and weapons...
-----------------------
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men to do nothing. --Edmund Burke
-----------------------
FL/CWO Darius Pursius/Nazgul 2-1/mSSD Atrus/Defensive Fleet/VEN/VE (=A=) [VC:B] [*CB*] [GWC]
