Anival glared at the guard who had come to take him away, his face was red; a nasty gash on his lower jaw, and a nasty purple bruise disfigured half his face. The second guard was on the ground, probably dead, or dying.  Anival had been stunned, it was only natural for him to try to protect himself at least the way he saw it. The guards should have knocked. He would have gone peacefully.

2nd Lieutenant Celine Nash was flanked with four storm troopers armed with non-lethal weapons; in her hands she held a flimsi-plast with Anival’s arrest warrant. She motioned for the men to walk in front of her, after what she had read, the Sargent might try anything to escape. She was shocked to see a man lying on the floor, blood pooled around his body, no weapons in sight.

“Senior Sergeant Anival Velasquez, you are hereby ordered to surrender your post, your rank, and come with us for your court-martial. Please come peacefully, or forcefully.”

“Well, since you asked nicely. I’ll go; these guys should have just said that.”

Anival held his hands out, and stun-cuffs were placed on his wrists, they were set on standby, Anival was sure they were illegal. Lieutenant Nash turned around and started walking, Anival barely kept up with them, he would go easily, but he would make his silent protest. After-all, it would probably be the last time he was allowed to walk without a prison uniform, or alive.

“So what are the charges?” Anival asked casually.

“Aiding the enemy, disobeying a direct order, failing to report for duty, and the murder of a senior officer.” She didn’t even look the warrant.

“Oh is that it.” Anival stayed quite, he walked the rest of the distance in silence, his face impassive, no tale as to what was going on in his mind, they boarded a small shuttle, nothing big, just a jet-black vessel, it was not big, two cabins, a holding cell, refresher, and cockpit, Anival guessed they would go somewhere close.

“Well, Velasquez, you have shown you are a danger, you will be locked up in the holding cell”
Anival said nothing and nodded. He was escorted into the cell, and The Lieutenant took of the cuffs, she looked at him before leaving, Anival couldn’t tell if it was contempt, or pity, either way it didn’t matter, he was on his way to die.

Anival lay on a cot, and stared at the ceiling, the ship hadn’t taken off. He waited, finally the ship started to hum, and Anival felt it lift off, he decided to take a nap.


Anival awoke from his nap, he thought about the situation. He had to use the restroom. Anival knocked and pounded on the door, but no one came to open it, he paced, and sat down, paced and sat down, just repeating the same steps over and over. Finally out of desperation he tried to open the door, and it slid open, no one was standing in the door way.

Anival guessed they had unlocked, either that or some sort of electrical malfunction in either case he didn’t care, he ran to the bathroom. On his way back, Anival noticed the door to the engines open; he went in and peeked, not seeing anybody he walked out of the room, only to be confronted by the lieutenant.

“What are you doing?” she raised her voice, more alarm than anger.

“Using the fresher mam.”

“Who let you out?”


“It was already open.”

She glanced at the open engine room door, and back at Anival, she grabbed him by the arm with more strength than he thought she had, and shoved him on the floor, jamming the cuffs back on his wrists.

“Next time I see you out here, I will shoot you for resisting arrest.” She spat, and locked him back in the room, this time the cuffs were not removed. Anival sighed and sat back, to accept his fate.

OOC:

NOTE: This story takes place before thyveck.

A strong urge to strike the officer hit Anival, it would be a simple manner in her angered state for him to knock her out and flee, something stopped him, instead, he tried to quickly analyze the situation, they had crashed, that much was clear, by the looks of it, no casualties, maybe a disabled vehicle, probably some minor injuries, but that was all a guess from the Lieutenants reaction.

Anival let his legs go limp, and he collapsed, the Lieutenant falling on top of him, she quickly got up, and drew a pistol. Anival stared at her, it was the only way he could have gotten her to let go of him without assailing her.

“Get up.” She snapped.

Anival did so, struggling to keep his face impassive, on the inside he wanted to see what had happened, and what had caused the crash. Once in the cabin, the damage was clearly visible, on side of the hull had been shredded open by a tree, shards of metal, and wood littered the floor. A splintered tree branch protruded from a man' torso, it was a grisly sight, the man looked as if he had been smiling on his death, a cracked holopad told a story to an extent.

Funny, thought Anival, A holo-pad survives with a crack…


Then Anival spotted the other corpse, a man, whose neck seemed to be at an impossible angle, he looked familiar, it was one of the men Anival had attacked in his dormitory. Two only two others laid sprawled on seats.

“Explain.” Her emotions were barely kept in check. Anival then remembered the officer’s name. Why he hadn’t recognized her before was beyond him.

“Lucky.”

Lucky didn’t say anything, but Anival caught a flicker of emotion in her eyes, Anival quickly guessed what was going on inside her mind.

“It wasn’t me. It’s incredibly bad luck.” Anival smiled, then regretted it, a fist flew from the left, Damn, she can hit hard and he slipped away.


Anival woke up later the sky turned purple by the setting sun, and the coming night. A fire was lit by a groggy looking pilot, and another man. Lucky was nowhere to be seen, he tried to get up and remembered he was handcuffed. Anival lay back, and slept some more. When he next awoke, the other two surviving men were asleep, and the Lieutenant was standing watch.

Anival tried to go asleep but couldn’t, he had already slept too much, he was full of pent-up energy. He sat up, looked at lucky, and noticed she was sitting with her back to the fire. He shrugged, and started his breathing exercises, trying to calm himself down, trying to keep his energy and temper in check. He stared at the fire, watching the flames lick at the edges of the wet grass, and consume the fire. In, and out, in and out, he breathed in sync with the flames consumption of the wood.