- OOC:
- Not so fast young grasshopper
Not far from the Camp, things weren’t going as swell as they were for Jester. Maze had been hunkered down in a ditch for a felt eternity, while E-Webs from the Mercs were slowly churning through dirt and men alike. From his position he could make out at least 2 casualties, brave troopers led to death by an incompetent NCO.
Even now, when they were clearly pinned down and could only hope for the mercs to lose interest, Quelen was still yelling at them to push forward.
Another burst of fire went over their heads, from the rate of fire Maze assumed that by now they were being flanked. And still Quelen was yelling.
“CHARGE YOU MAGGOTS”, he yelled, but none of his remaining troopers moved. Even though they might have had faith in him as well, their lack of action made clear that by now he wouldn’t get them to follow his orders.
And as if this wasn’t bad enough, Quelen realized this the exact same second. Once again they heard him over com. And even though the raging anger was gone, the coldness in his voice was more frightening than facing a rancor..
“Move Soldiers, because if you won’t I will shoot you for mutiny. Now man up and charge.”, he did almost whisper.
This was too much. Daring acts were often expected from a Stormtrooper, and Maze had no problem with that, but this was suicide, and everyone knew it. Gripping his DL-22 and bracing for impact he opened up a Comchannel.
Speaking slowly and as steadily as he could he said: “Senior Sergeant, I hereby relieve you off your duty. Stand down and follow my...”
He didn’t get to finish the sentence, as Quelen crashed into him, sending both of them in the mud again. It wasn’t pretty. Maze had lost the blaster pistol the second Quelen had hit him, and it looked like it was going to be a simple but brutal brawl.
No member of 82nd Squad interfered, but the fists hitting his helmet kept Maze from figuring out why not.
While Quelen was unleashing a flurry of blows Maze desperately tried to get ahold of the Knife in the small of his back and block the attacks at the same time. That there was no space to maneuver worked to Quelens advantage. Even if he tried, Maze couldn’t get them to roll around so he could gain the upper hand. Still his opponent was punishing him for his rebellious demeanor. Every hit made the Falleen a little dizzier.
Then, when Maze was not far from fainting, the Senior Sergeant passed for the fraction of a second. Getting the knife out of the sheath all it took was a quick hook to ram it into Quelens artery. Grabbing his neck the now dying Squadleader of 82nd made the fatal mistake of pulling the knife out in panic. Blood sprayed out in pulsing fountains, soiling Quelen, the mud, and mostly Maze.
After five seconds that seemed like an eternity Maze had gotten to grips with what he had just done, and what it could lead to. But the court martial he had to expect was only hypothetical as long as they were still pinned down.
“Ok folks, I’ll take it from here.”, he said through the comm, trying to act as confident as he could. Because if the soldiers found out that he didn’t really have a clue what to do as well, all of them were as good as dead.
Maze sat up and allowed himself to think for almost twenty seconds. Finally he knew what to do. He opened up a com channel and hoped that luck was on his side.
“Sharpe, do you read me? You know who I am, and I am in quite some trouble as of now. We are pinned down one click to the northwest of you, and we got at least 2 E-Webs at 12 o’ clock I need a marksman, ASAP!”, he yelled into the mic, switching of the voice distortion halfway through.
Kami didn’t say a word, but the affirmative double click was the best sound Maze had heard in ages.
Gripping his E-11 tightly he nodded to the troopers who he supposed to be looking at him with mixed feeling. As cheery as he could Maze said:”Cavalry is on its way. We’re almost out of here.”
Waiting down in the ditch for almost five minutes, Maziel was on the brink of cracking. But all of a sudden the E-Webs fell silent, and Brightstars voice was heard over the open com channel: “82nd, this is Brightstar. Enemy E-Webs are down, I repeat, the E-Webs are down. You can come out of the ditch. We’re going home.”
Picking up its dead, Maze carrying Quelen, the 82nd emerged from the ditch and followed Brightstar on the double. When they arrived at the transport, Maze felt the Eyes of Kami upon him. He knew that she had already figured what had happened one click away. As there was no use in fighting the inevitable the Falleen took off his helmet, laid his weapons onto the ground and held his hands out so he could be cuffed.
It took her a while to react, but then Kami finally pulled out the Handcuffs and bound the Falleen, nodding after she was done. The total silence in which this happened made the whole scene seem even more unreal. Nodding himself Maze walked up towards the shuttle and sat down on one of the benches. This wasn’t the return he had expected.
