Our Own Choices

Our Own Choices

Chapter 3

After Rex said that he would let me go on some less dangerous missions with him, I've been training harder than ever. I'm still better at melee than shooting pistols or blasters and Rex has taught me how to disarm explosives and use some of those droid poppers on droidekas.

I haven't joined him on any battles yet, but when he told me that I could help him hunt down General Grievous on Saleucami a few days ago, how could I say no to that?

I've gotten a set of clone trooper armour for myself, I've made a few modifications to them considering I'm still quite short, about 163cm for now. Rex even gave me the permission to paint my armour black to blend in with the night sky if I ever needed to, and I added some orange highlights. I've got some grenades clipped to my belt, and a knife compartment up my sleeve. My helmet has a voice modulator so that the others don't recognize that I'm a girl by my slightly higher pitched voice.

I fly a ship to Saleucami and I see a bunch of jedi cruisers making their way down to the planet's surface, and I follow them. When we land, I see a bunch of speeders heading down from the cruiser and Rex and General Kenobi walking out. I run towards them.

"Who's this?" General Kenobi asks.

I awkwardly stand behind Rex, not sure what to say.

"His name's Aris. He's on the younger side, but he's a good soldier. He's just a little shy," Rex says. I look up at him. "I'm not shy."

I can see General Kenobi's eyes widen slightly when he hears my name, but it's not that obvious to Rex or any of the others. 

The general turns to Rex and says that we're gonna go towards the wreckage of the landing transport first.

"Go get a speeder," Rex nudges me in the side and we both go to get a speeder each before we head off with some walkers.

The greenery of Saleucami feels so different than the barracks and machinery that I'm used to, it makes me feel a lot more calm. I mostly move behind the walkers and other speeders, so that they hopefully won't pay much attention to me.

We reach Grievous's ship in a while, and some of the other troopers are checking out the wreckage, while I'm staying close to Rex and Jesse.

We go report in to General Kenobi.

"The crew compartment's almost entirely destroyed," Rex reports.

"We'll split into teams. Rex, take Jesse, Hardcase and Kix and search those wetlands," General Kenobi says.

"Yes sir," Rex says, before motioning me to follow him and Jesse as we walk away.

"And, Rex, if you get a visual on Grievous, contact us before you engage."

Rex nods before putting his helmet back on and we get on our speeders and drive off into the wetlands. 

I never get to see so much green on Coruscant, this would be a nice place to train. Maybe I should suggest that to Rex. 

Rex and the others are driving so fast, I try to keep up but I'm still lagging behind, I don't wanna drive too fast because I have no intention of dying today.

And then I see Rex get shot down in front of me, he flies off his speeder. I freeze, my breath hitches, and I hear gunshots not too far away.

I stop my speeder and jump off, running towards Rex's lifeless body, kneeling down beside him.

"Rex?" I shake him by the shoulders gently. "REX?" I shake him harder. He still doesn't move. My voice cracks. "I swear if you are dead...I'm gonna kill you. Rex? Rex, wake up, please..."

Dad...

My vision starts to blur inside my helmet, I know tears are starting to form but I cant clear them right now because I can't take off my helmet, so I just try to blink them out of my eyes. 

I barely notice Kix coming over to check on Rex, they take off his helmet and then tell Jesse to come over here, I'm still shaking Rex by the shoulders, trying to get him to wake up.

Jesse and Hardcase come over. 

"How bad?"  Jesse asks.

"Pretty bad. I need to remove his armor to see the full extent of the damage," Kix replies.

I check Rex's pulse, it's weak, but it's there.

"Those snipers might have called for backup," Hardcase says. "Unless we wanna start getting picked off one by one, we should find better cover first."

Some animals start walking over to us, they kinda look like the walkers, and they're noses are probably longer than most of the clones' dicks. How do I know? Rex may or may not have told me the sizes of all the clones' dicks.

"Wait a minute. Those critters are domesticated," Jesse says.

"Sir?"

"I think we're on farmland. And where there's a farm, there's usually a farmer," Jesse says.

I roll my eyes from under my helmet. "No shit smartass."

Jesse ignores me. "Let's find his homestead."

Jesse and Kix sling Rex onto their shoulders and puts him on a stretcher which Kix attaches to his speeder and I just follow them from behind.

It's sunset now. The sun casts an orange glow over the land as we reach a small house. Kix arrives up next to the door and this female Twi'Lek holds up a rifle and points it at him.

"We want no trouble here," she says.

"Easy with that weapon, ma'am," Jesse says as he takes off his helmet. "We're here as friends."

"State your business," the Twi'Lek says pointing the rifle at him.

I arrive back up behind Jesse, remaining silent.

"Our friend's been hurt. We need-" Kix gets cut off by her. "I'm no doctor. So just-"

"We have a medic ma'am. We just need a place to tend to him overnight," Jesse says.

 2 kids run out behind the Twi'Lek. My eyes light up. I haven't seen kids for a long time. Not since Kamino.

"Get inside, both of you," the Twi'Lek says and the kids reluctantly head into the house. "Look, there are some benches out back in the barn. It's the best I can do."

"That'll be fine ma'am. Thank you."

So we head to the barn and set Rex down on one of the benches, I lean against the wall at the far end of the barn, spinning my knife and keeping myself distracted while the others take care of Rex.

I hear Rex waking up and I run over, pushing my way past Jesse. He's shirtless, and has a medpatch on his chest.

"What? What happened?" Rex asks as he opens his eyes. 

"Commando droids took a potshot that would've gone straight through your heart had it been two inches to the left," Hardcase says.

"I can't move my arm," Rex says.

"You have some nerve damage," Kix tells him.

"Understood. Now patch me up and let's get on with it," Rex turns to the side.

"Sir, you're in no condition. It will heal, but it'll take time."

"We're getting under way, Kix. That's an order."

"Sir, as the team medic, when it comes to the health of the men, including you...I outrank everyone. So I respectfully order you, sir, to get some-"

I hear someone clearing their throat. "Excuse me." I turn around, it's that Twi'Lek again, she's carrying a plate of fruit. "If that's not enough-"

"That's plenty. Thank you, uh..."

"Suu."

Some droid ball-like thingy comes into the room and one of those kids I saw just now runs in, picking it up.

"I told you to stay in the house," Suu says.

"I couldn't help it, mom. It got away."

Then the kid looks at Rex and stares at him. "You look like my daddy."

"Shaeeah. Don't both the soldier. Now get inside with your brother."

"Yes, mom."

"My husband is away, delivering our first harvest," Suu says as she passes the plate of fruit to Jesse. "Do you require anything else?"

"No. Thank you, Suu."

Kix takes a pistol and puts it beside Rex's good hand.

"Resume the search without me," Rex says. "Jesse, you're in command." Jesse nods. "I'll be fine." He sighs.

"I'm staying with the captain," I speak up.

"Kid, you're going with them. That's an order," Rex says.

"I'm staying with you here, captain, whether you like it or not."

Rex sighs. "Fine."

As Jesse, Kix and Hardcase leave the room, I finally take off my helmet and set on the floor beside him. I throw my arms around his neck and hug him tightly. Rex chuckles a bit and hugs me back with his good arm.

"I was so worried," my voice cracks.

"I'm alright kid, I won't die from a simple shot like that."

I let go of him and sit down on the floor beside him, playing with my knife again.

"You want some water?" I ask, looking up at him.

"Nah ad'ika, I'm fine."

"I'll get some anyways." I put my helmet back on, standing up and heading out of the room. 

I head to the house where Suu came out of just now, and I knock on the door. Suu opens it, and lets me in.

The place is well-lit, and it seems quite cozy. Better than the barracks, at least. 

"I need some water," I tell Suu, and she goes to get some, returning in a short while. I see the kids looking at me from a corner, and I awkwardly wave at them.

"You're a little short to be one of them," Suu says as she hands me the water. "And you don't take off your helmet like the others."

"That's none of your business. Thanks for the water." I walk out of the house and back into the barn where I give some water to Rex.

"Thanks ad'ika ," he says as he drinks it.

I take my helmet off and set it down on the floor, sitting next to it.

"Yknow you can trust some of them to not reveal your secret. They're good men," Rex says.

"I don't trust any of them."

"Well, you should. It's good to make some friends."

"I don't need friends.  I already have you, Fives, Echo and Hevy-"

"Kid."

I look down, sighing. "Hevy's gone, I know."

Rex pats my head with his good arm and messes my hair up a bit. I smile slightly and lean against the wall.

"Don't move too much. We don't want the injury to get worse."

I forgot there was animals in the barn, so in the middle of the night, some random animals go drool on both me and Rex, and on my armour.

When I feel the liquid dripping on me, I instantly wake up and wipe it away. Some of it dripped on my helmet.

"Hey! I just got the new paint job!" I push the animal away.

And then I hear the faint sound of metal and footsteps. Rex's hand reaches for his pistol, and I draw my knife and sword and inch along the walls to where the sound is coming from.

I see the person making his way closer towards Rex in the room, he doesn't see me because of the colour of my armour. 

I see Rex try to shoot him but his pistol gets knocked out of his hand and the person points his weapon at him.

I quietly run behind the person, and grab his shoulder, pulling him backwards and putting my knife over his throat. "I wouldn't try anything if I were you."

I see the person's eyes widen. "Who are you?" he asks. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm the one asking the questions, not you." I press the knife to his throat. "Drop your weapon."

"Let go of him. He's a clone," Rex orders, and I kick his weapon to the side, slowly drawing my knife away from him and putting it back in my wrist compartment, and slinging my sword onto my back.

"So...I see the war has finally made its way out here, and I guess I can expect a visit from some droids soon," the clone says.

"What's your number and rank?" Rex asks, sitting up. 

"Heh. My name is Lawquane. Cut Lawquane, and I'm just a simple farmer."

"You're a deserter."

Cut chuckles. "Well, I like to think I'm merely exercising my freedom to choose, to choose not to kill for a living."

"That is not your choice to make," Rex says, as the lights in the barn turn on. "You swore an oath to the Republic. You have a duty."

"I have a duty, you're right. But it's to my family. Does that count or do you still plan to turn me in?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Yea you do, he seems like a nice guy," I speak up again.

Cut looks at me. "Well thanks, kid. And I suppose you won't try to kill me again, will you?"

I look at him. "Only if you give me a reason to."

"Daddy! You're home!" the kids come running over and hug Cut. I instantly reach for my helmet, but Rex puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Fine," I groan, before sitting down on the floor next to him.

"Look what I drew you, Dad!" the other kid holds up a drawing. Cut chuckles and pats the kid on the head. "That's great Jekk."

"I see you two have met," Suu says.

"He looks just like you, daddy. I told him," one of kids says.

"Ah, you did, huh? I was just making our guest, Captain, um...what's your number?"

"Rex. I also have a name, believe it or not."

"He was injured. His men brought him here," Suu says. "I told him he could stay, just for the night."

"Of course he can. We never turn away those in need, do we?"

"No, we always help anyone we can," one of the kids sasys.

"You look hungry, Rex," Cut says.

"No, I'm fine, I'll stay here," Rex replies quickly.

"No, you have to eat with us, pleaseeee?"

"Please????"

Cut chuckles. "They're never gonna stop until you say yes."

"Alright, I'll join you."

Cut helps Rex stand up and as I watch them as they walk out of the barn, still sitting on the floor.

Cut turns back and looks at me. "You coming?"

I nod and put on my helmet. "Yea sure."

I keep quiet at the table as I eat. I don't take my helmet off, I just eat from under my helmet, Rex nudges me in the side to tell me that I can take my helmet off, but I shake my head.

"Yes, well you and I may be clones, but we're still individuals. You have a name rather than a number, Captain. Why is that?" Cut asks.

"Perhaps our leaders feel it's a more efficient way or distinguishing us," Rex replies.

"More efficient than a number? Hmm. I doubt the Kaminoans think that way. Still, a name has to make you feel unique, especially in an army where everyone looks like you and talks like you."

"Not everyone," I speak up.

"Actually, I've never really thought about it," Rex says.

"Yes, you have."

"Well, how would you know?"

"Because I'm as close to you as any life-form can be." Cut passes Rex his food and leans in. "I've seen how you look at my family, our home. Come on, Rex, admit it. You've thought about what your life could look like if you were to also leave the army, choose the life you want."

Rex looks at me. "What if I am choosing the life I want? What if I'm staying in the army because it's meaningful to me?"

"And how is it meaningful?"

"Because I'm part of the most pivotal moment in the history of the Republic. If we fail, then our children and their children could be forced to live under an evil I can't well imagine."

"If you were to have children, of course, but that would be against the rules, wouldn't it? Isn't that what somebody programmed you to believe, Captain?"

"No, Cut. It's simply what I believe. It doesn't matter if it's my children or other people's children. Does that meet with your approval?"

"Perfectly. To each his own. That's what I always say."

"What does that mean, daddy?" one of the kids asks.

"It means you can do anything with your life that you want to."

"Why don't you take your helmet off?" Suu asks.

"I'd...prefer not to," I reply.

"Aw cmon, please? We wanna see your face," the kids say, and they starts begging me to take off my helmet. I look at Rex, and then Cut, and then they both nod at me, and I hesitantly take off my helmet.

"You're a girl version of Daddy?" one of the kids asks.

I chuckle. "I guess you could say that."

"Why are you out in the field so early? Don't you have training to do back on Kamino?" Cut asks.

"I ran away from Kamino when the war started, got caught in a skirmish, Rex found me and took me in."

"And I'm guessing you had no choice?"

"No. I chose this life. I want to fight for the Republic. No matter how much of a mistake I am to the Kaminoans, I'm still a soldier, and I wanna do my duty."

"Isn't that what you were programmed to think?"

I fall silent. 

"How old are you?" Suu asks.

"14," I reply. 

"You're fighting in a war when you're so young?" one of the kids asks. 

"I wouldn't consider it young but-"

"Yea, she is, I trained her myself," Rex says, and I can hear a hint of proudness in his voice.

"Do you have a name?" Cut asks.

"Yea. It's Aris."

"That's a cool name," one of the kids says.

I nod at them.

After dinner, Cut and Rex go play some Dejarik and Cut tells Rex his story, and Cut lets the kids go outside and play for a few minutes, and he tells me to keep an eye on them. I nod and follow them outside. 

They're playing hide-and-seek in the fields, and I put my helmet on, following them. I see the older kid called Shaeeah scare the living hell out of Jekk, and I smile to myself under my helmet. 

I wish my childhood was like this.

"Look. In the field," Jekk says. 

I look out in the field and see a metal structure that looks like it crashed into the field.

"Stay back kids, I'll go check it out," I say, before running inside the structure.

Clearly they have a hearing problem, because they follow me inside. 

I walk through a dark hallway, pistol and sword drawn, and find myself in a dark room full of lifeless commando droids. I get ready to shoot them before they can do anything, and then they suddenly power up. I look behind and I see Shaeeah who accidentally pressed the button to power them up.

"Run!" I shout to the kids. "Go tell dad!"

I shoot as many of the droids as I can before they start moving, and I run out of the structure, hiding in the field, hoping that they won't hear or see me. I hold my breath. I can hear my heartbeat in my ears, it's so loud.

I make my way through the fields and back to the house. I see 3 commando droids circling around it. 

I take a deep breath and steel myself before drawing my knife and stabbing one in the head, drawing my pistol and shooting the other, and Cut shoots the last one with his rifle.

I nod at him. "Thanks."

I hide with him behind the wall, it's all quiet, but I can hear footsteps around the house, my breathing quickens, the inside of my helmet is warm.

Suddenly, a commando droid holds Cut by the neck, and I shoot it in the head with my pistol, almost hitting Cut. 

Another commando droid comes from the door and Cut shoots it before I can. I don't like this. 

"Why isn't Rex here?" I whisper to Cut.

"He's backup in case we die," he replies.

"So you think we're gonna die?!??!?"

"That is a possibility."

"Okay, point taken," I gulp as I hear a creaking sound coming from the floorboards.

I cautiously walk over and open the trapdoor, and then a bunch more commando droids come out. I stab one in the head before backing up and shooting at them. They're also shooting at me and Cut, and a blaster bolt grazes my hand, it cuts through my glove and I can feel the burning on my hand.

I take cover behind a wall, and shoot the droids from there. I see Cut get trapped under some debris that fell from the ceiling, and I draw my sword, slicing through 2 of the commando droids and shooting another in the head, and then suddenly I feel a strong grip around my neck, I look back and see another commando droid, the grip is getting tighter and I can't breathe...

Cut forces the debris that he's stuck under off of him, hitting the droid that's strangling me, and it falls to the ground, the lights from it's eyes turning off. I'm breathing heavily, my throat feels like it's pressed in, I cough a bit as Cut takes out the rest of the droids.

I hear blaster fire from upstairs, Rex must be taking care of the last ones. I see Cut wrestling with one of the commando droids and I go over to help him, stabbing it in the head.

And then Rex falls from the ceiling and the last commando droid grips his neck, trying to strangle him like its counterpart tried to strangle me, and Cut shoots it in the head, causing it to let Rex go. Rex staggers back, coughing a bit.

I hear the kids calling out for Cut, and he reassures them, telling them that it's over.

Rex puts a hand on my shoulder. "Good job, kid."

"Thanks Rex," my voice is hoarse and I cough a bit, receiving a bit of a concerned look from Rex. "I'm-" I cough a bit. "I'm fine."

"You sure?"

I cough again. "Y-yea."

The kids and Suu come down the stairs and hug Cut, and Rex and I lean against the wall. I sigh. "Rex, have you actually thought about leaving the army before? Yknow, you could have a family, be away from all the war for once."

Rex looks at me, and I take off my helmet. 

"I already have a family. I wouldn't have it any other way." 

And then he pulls me into a hug and I hug him back tightly. 

In the morning, Rex and I have to leave, we put our stuff onto one of these animals and then we get ready to leave. 

"Captain Rex, are you going to turn in my husband?" Suu asks.

"I'm sorry Suu. It's my duty." I glare at Rex. "But in my condition, I probably won't remember any of this."

Suu looks happy.

"You're still a deserter, Cut, but you're certainly not a coward."

The kids come and hug my waist. "Promise you'll come back sometime?" they ask, and I nod, smiling at them before putting my helmet back on.

Rex receives a transmission from General Kenobi.

"Captain Rex, are you still with us?"

"Yes, General Kenobi. I'm still with you and thankfully on the mend sir."

"That's great news. We certainly missed you at the party."

"Does that mean I missed out on some action?" I speak into the comlink.

"Quite a lot of it, actually."

"Sorry sir, I...had to attend one of my own."

"Can't wait to hear about it. We're standing by."

"You're welcome to stay, Rex," Cut says.

"This is your home, Cut. My family is elsewhere." Rex looks at me, before we get on the animal thing and wave to Cut and his family, before riding off into the sunset.

We meet up with General Kenobi, and then we get back onto the Jedi cruiser, and before I head to my barracks, Rex stops me.

"You did good, ad'ika," he says. 

"Thanks, captain," I smirk under my helmet.

"Yknow I could get used to you calling me that, right?" Rex laughs a bit.

I chuckle.

"I know you'll never get used to it."

Our Own Choices

Chapter 11

General Skywalker comes in to check on us. I don't say anything to Echo, because I know that anything that will come out will be a pile of emotional shit. And I don't wanna do that in front of General Skywalker, Tech, or even Rex. Too embarrassing. Besides, Echo probably won't give a shit.

I can still hear some blaster fire from outside. "Situations almost under control out there," General Skywalker says. "How's it going in here?"

"I'm still trying to decrypt Echo's cerebral interface," Tech reports. "Until I do, we cannot disconnect him from this computer system."

"How's he doing, Rex?" General Skywalker's tone softens. Rex stands up. "He's too weak to walk. Very disoriented. Doesn't even remember how he got here. He remembers being at the Citadel, but that's about it."

Who wouldn't remember that?

"Any word on the extraction squad?"

"We called it in, but no word back," Rex replies.

A droid comes flying into the room, and I assume it's thrown by Wrecker. "Well, that's no surprise." Maybe General Skywalker's referring to the extraction squad and the droid that just crashed in here. "We knew when we got into this we'd be on our own."

Hunter, Wrecker and Crosshair back into the room, closing the doors. "It's gonna get more difficult to get outta here," Hunter says, loud enough so that all of us can hear it. "There are several squads of droids closing in." I hear Hunter and Crosshair sealing the door.

Shit.

"Enemy approaching. Droids. Lots of em," Crosshair says.

"How long can you hold them off?" General Skywalker asks.

"How long do you need?" Hunter replies.

"Tech, how much longer?" 

"Not yet. I need more time."

I can feel the atmosphere get more tense. 

Everything's gonna be okay. Everything's gonna be okay.

Yea right it is.

Shut the kriff/fuck up.

No you.

I look at Hunter and Crosshair, who are sealing another pair of blast doors. I look over at Tech, who's pressing a few buttons before saying, "I've got it. We can unplug him now." And then he takes off his helmet, showing his receding hairline.

Echo turns around, and Rex and I start unplugging him, ripping off a wire from one side of his neck, and then the other. Echo clutches onto the control panel, I can tell it hurts a lot.

Sorry.

And then Rex rips out the last cable from his head, and Echo falls to the ground, groaning slightly. "Rex?"

"What is it?" Rex looks concerned. Echo coughs a bit, before smiling slightly. "I got a big headache."

"Better to feel something than nothing, old buddy," Rex says, smiling.

"At least your sense of humor's still intact. Now what our fucking plan on getting outta here?" I ask.

Echo coughs slightly. "There's an exhaust vent that leads to the cooling systems right there," he says, pointing upwards at a circular vent on the ceiling.

"They've breached the front door," Hunter reports. "It won't be long before they're through the second."

I look up at the exhaust vent. How the kriff are we supposed to get up there? 

Echo uses his cybernetic arm and plugs it into the control panel, turning some stuff. "That should get it open."

I look up. The exhaust vent opens, revealing an upwards tunnel that's glowing blue.

"Great. Now how do we get up there?" Crosshair asks. Bro literally spoke my mind. 

"I can help with that," Wrecker replies, and I see him grabbing a slightly confused Hunter and throwing him up the vent.

"WRECKER WHAT R U DOING-" 

I hold back a laugh as Hunter shouts, "A heads-up would've been nice!"

One by one, Wrecker throws each of us up the vent, and after he throws Tech up, it's my turn. 

"Just don't grab me by the ass," I warn him, for obvious reasons. 

So he grabs me by the sides and throws me up, and I grab the side of the vent, climbing up behind Tech. Rex follows behind me. Fives and Echo usually do that, but I guess since Echo's not really functioning right now and Fives is DEAD COS FUCKING FOX KILLED HIM-

Rex just likes to make sure I don't fall to my death. I'm really tempted to kick him. 

We climb up to reach the cooling systems and Crosshair helps me up. I hear an explosion down below and assume that's Wrecker's work.

We walk through the cooling vents and Rex and I help Echo walk. Echo says that he can find us a safe way outta here. My fingers are slightly cold, because it's a cooling system, obviously. My gloves don't help much, considering they leave my fingers exposed. It's a design choice. It looks cool.

"Well, there is a way," Echo says, and he's referring to how we're gonna escape this place. "But you're not gonna like it."

We walk through the cooling systems for a while, General Skywalker and Echo leading the way, until we reach a door that opens up to the above of a large metal pipe connecting to another of those floating city buildings. It's windy as we step out. I don't particularly like heights either. Echo was right. I don't like this at all.

"I don't know about this," Rex says as he looks out. 

"I'm telling you, there's a landing pad on that other building," Echo says, pointing to the building across the pipe.

"So you think there's a ship there we can steal?" Hunter steps out as well.

"Well, I hope there's a ship we can steal," Echo replies.

R u serious right now bro

"Let's hope this trip isn't for nothing," Hunter says as General Skywalker, Echo and Rex start walking across the pipe.

If it is, I'm definitely hacking your Call of Duty account and using up all your COD points.

I follow behind Rex, and Hunter and the batch are behind me.

"Oh boy, I can't even look," I hear Wrecker say from the back.

"Then don't," I reply from the front. 

"Just keep walking, Tech," Wrecker says.

"That's fine, but if you fall don't take me with you."

"Uh oh, I looked," Wrecker sounds scared. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

"If you vomit don't vomit on Tech," I tell him.

"Hang on Wrecker, we're almost there," Hunter tries to calm down a currently very freaked out  Wrecker.

I hear that familiar sound of droids coming from the front, and draw my knife and pistol, trying to keep my balance on the pipe. To be honest, drawing my weapons makes it easier.

"Turn around! Go back!" General Skywalker shouts from the front, and I see him igniting his lightsaber. When we turn around, we see some more droids coming from the back.

Shit. We're either fucked or very fucked.

I hear General Skywalker deflecting a blast bolt at a droid and Tech shoots another, I throw one of my knives at one of the droids' heads, and the droid falls from the pipe. 

I never liked that knife anyway.

I see Crosshair falling from the pipe and Wrecker, despite his intense af fear of heights, literally jumps down and catches Crosshair, hanging by the legs from a support just below the pipe.

Stupid ass. Bro could've died.

"Anyone got a brilliant idea?" General Skywalker shouts.

"I do have a brilliant idea," Tech responds.

"I'm hanging here!" Wrecker shouts from below.

"When the locals attacked us, I recorded the creature's distress call," Tech says, tapping a few buttons on his datapad.

"He records everything. It's a hobby," Hunter says, as I shoot a few more of the droids, not wanting to use my knives because those things are expensive.

"Which allows us to call those flying creatures to us," Tech continues, and presses a button which produces a really high-pitched screeching noise, and we cover our ears to try and block out the sound.

"Ow! Enough with the sound!" Wrecker shouts, and he and Crosshair shoot from below. Crosshair's literally hanging from Wrecker, and he literally puts all his trust into Wrecker not to let him fall while he shoots the droids.

Really wish I had friends like that. Oh wait, I did. Yea, that was Fives. And Echo. But I was closer to Fives. 

"There is our ride out of here!" Tech says, pointing at some shadows in the clouds which I could only assume to be the flying creatures that he called, and we all look up at them as they fly up and past us.

"Now how do we get on them?" General Skywalker asks, and I shoot another droid.

We jump you fucking dumbass.

"How else? We jump," Tech replies as the flying creatures fly below us, and General Skywalker jumps and lands on one of them.

You can do this. 

I can hear my heart pounding in my chest, and I see Hunter looking at me expectantly, and because I have to impress the batch, I use what little strength is left in my legs and jump off, trying not to close my eyes.

I land on one of them, on its back. I'm breathing heavily. That choking feeling when I'm in a life-threatening situation starts surfacing, and I'm trying to calm down, gulping down dust-filled air like I'm resurfacing from a deep dive.

And now I'm starting to get angry. Getting scared like this makes me feel weak in front of the others. I don't like it. I hate this. 

Suddenly, a blaster bolt whizzes past my head, and I look back seeing a bunch of droids shooting at us. 

Gotta steer this thing. But I don't know how. My legs grip the flying creature tighter, because I have no interest in dying today.

I turn back and aim with my pistol, lining the back sight up with the front sight and aiming slightly below the droid's head, and I shoot. It hits the droid in the head and I shoot at the others.

We fly sideways, and I was just aiming at another droid when I feel a sharp pain shoot through my right hand. It slams against a rock, hard, and my pistol flies out of my hand, and my hand doesn't feel so good. I grit my teeth as I'm almost thrown off the flying creature, and I'm hanging on for dear life on the creature's tail with my left hand. 

I can barely move my right hand, it hurts so much. But with one last clench of my fist, which sends jolts of pain shooting down my arm, I shoot my grappling hook at the back of the creature, pulling myself up as I retract my grappling hook.

"Hey ad'ika! How you holding up?" I hear Echo shout from the flying creature next to me.

 I take a few moments to regain my sense of surroundings and find out that we outmaneuvered all the droids. 

Should I shout back? That could come off as cringe to the batch. 

I nod at him as we land back in the Poletec village. Before the flying creature lands, I jump off and land on my feet, dusting myself off, at least hoping to look slightly cool to the batch. My injured hand throbs as I land, but I try to act as if it doesn't hurt at all.

The Poletec leader comes up to us and starts shouting shit at us.

"Their leader is impressed that we tamed the Keeradaks," Tech translates. "But he wants to know why we returned here."

"Tell him we had no choice. Tell him...that we wore out our welcome in Purkoll," General Skywalker tells Tech, who translates and speaks back to the Poletec leader in that weird ass language again.

I nudge Crosshair in the side. "Keep reminding Tech about how goofy he sounds rn." Crosshair nods back, and I think he has the biggest smirk ever under that helmet.

Suddenly, blaster fire rains down from above, and I draw my other pistol with my good hand, General Skywalker ignites his lightsaber. The flying creatures take flight and fly away, and Crosshair shoots at the incoming droids, hitting one and sending it spiraling to the ground, leaving behind a trail of smoke. I manage to hit one as well with my pistol, and as the droids fly away, I keep my pistol in my hand, my other arm hanging by my side as I try not to move it.

"Not good," General Skywalker says. "If I know Tambor, he'll come after us. Us and the Poletecs, with everything he's got."

The Poletec leader starts talking shit to us again.

"What's he saying, Tech?" General Skywalker asks.

"He says that we have broken our word. We have brought the war to his village."

"You're right," Rex speaks up, stepping forward and taking off his helmet. "Tell him he's right, Tech. Tell him we didn't plan to drag his people into war. But look what the Separatists did to one of our people." He points at Echo, and all the Poletecs look at him, all gasping, looking slightly horrified.

"They took away his freedom, his humanity. They tried to turn him into a machine. The Techno Union claim they're neutral, but they have chosen sides. Now your people have to choose."

"Couldn't have said it better, Rex," General Skywalker says.

That was a good speech, Da-Rex.

Crosshair scoffs. "Let's hope it works. Because I see forces coming. More than we can handle alone."

Into the Dark

Chapter 4

(this is the last one I wrote should I continue this story)

Word count: 1.6k

Warnings: Violence, profanity

I'm so used to thinking in my head now, having conversations with the darkness on the walls and the bars. The darkness on the bars are slightly more aggressive than the walls, but they'll do. 

Yes, these things can talk to me in my head. I'm not going crazy, hopefully, at least. It's been a few months now, and I'm planning my escape attempt. I really thought it would be faster than this, but I gotta make sure that I don't mess up. Hopefully I'll get to see the outside world, or at least what's left of it. The other voices in my head sometimes flash images of the outside world into my head, pictures of ruins of my city, pictures of both realms covered in clouds of darkness. I really hope that they're lying.

I've managed to teach some stuff to the black lines on my skin, they can extend out from my body and possibly out of the cell to unlock it and free me. From there I could take out the guards and find Eclipse, my informants (black lines) on the walls have told me that Eclipse is in a hangar in the prison. If I could get to it, I could bust my way out of this prison. 

Back in the day, they taught me how to pick the locks of these things, and I pass on that information to the black lines on my skin, and somehow, they understand. I've tried it a few times on the prison bars. Usually the bars envelop my own black lines, and they immediately pull back after feeling a stinging sensation. 

Cope with it you fucking weak asses.

It's painful! 

They always reply this, and then flash an image of someone getting an electric shock into my head. I'm guessing that's what it feels like to them. 

Cope with it.

But-

I said cope!

I've been studying the guard shifts. There's 2 guards that are always sleeping while on duty. And luckily for me, today's that day. I command my black lines to extend through the bars. As they pass through, the darkness on the walls merges with the black lines, but they transmit what's going on outside the bars to me. I command the lines to pick the lock and free me, and I receive a few confused looks from them.

How?

I sigh, and give them instructions on how to pick the lock. They follow, and soon enough, the cell's unlocked. The black lines instantly retract back to my body, screaming out in pain.

OW! IT HURTS!

Deal with it. And don't make any noise.

I silently run out of the cell and through the hallways. My time in prison has heightened my senses, I can tell when other Dark Ones are nearby. That's what I call the people made out of the darkness. 

I can hear a few of them talking about going to the hangar, and I hide behind walls, careful not to touch them, and follow the Dark Ones, and eventually reaching the hangar. I can just about make out the outline of Eclipse, but Dark Ones are swarming the hangar.

Shit, I think.

What's wrong?

Shut up.

I scan the surroundings, looking for possible cover. There are crates that I could hide behind if I was kneeling down. But there's not many of them, and some of them are getting moved by Dark Ones. Not very reliable cover. There's a few other mechs, which I recognize as enemy ones from my time in the war. Could take cover there. Not gonna try passing off as a Dark One.

I see the next group of Dark Ones pass by, and I have around the span of a few seconds to run towards one of the enemy mechs. So I sprint behind the closest one and hide there, breathing heavily but softly. My nerves are acting up, they usually don't do that. Maybe it's the fact that I'm in enemy territory, not that I haven't been there before in battles.

I run behind another enemy mech, and I can see the black lines on it extending out, looking at me almost curiously. I make my way towards the other one, only stopping a few moments to catch my breath and keep my cool.

Slowly, Eclipse comes into full view. At the sight of it, I smile slightly. It hasn't changed since I left it there. Sure, there are a few broken parts, but besides that, it looks good.

And it's the only piece of familiarity in this wretched place. 

I glance over at the Dark Ones just passing by, holding my breath as they walk in front of the mech that I'm behind. I can hear my heartbeat in my throat. I clench the fist of my metal arm, making the slightest sound. I bite my lip, trying not to panic. From what I've seen from the alert guard rotations, Dark Ones have good hearing. Good thing that these ones are engaging in their own conversation, I can hear them from here.

When they pass by, I run up to Eclipse and climb up it's legs to reach the torso, where the cockpit is. I cling to Eclipse's torso, trying to force the cockpit open with my black lines. I see some Dark Ones coming, and I climb to the back of Eclipse, hoping that they won't see me. 

Suddenly, I feel a tugging force on my leg, and it's strong. I can't resist it, and I'm forced to the ground. Black lines on Eclipse. 

Around my neck now, pushing down on it.

I can't breathe. 

I try to force them off of me, but they merge with the ones on my skin, and I can hear them crying out, trying to help force them off of me. I can almost see them fighting with each other for control over the lines on my neck. 

I'm pinned to the ground. I can't move. Black lines from Eclipse starting to make their way towards my legs, and now towards my torso. 

"Eclipse..." I really hope voice activation is working, my voice is hoarse from weeks, no wait, months of not speaking. 

Screaming. Burning. Fire and smoke in the darkness when it came. 

"...flamethrower."

Nothing happens for a moment.

And then Eclipse turns around, flamethrower at the ready, pointing it at my neck and then igniting it. The black lines on my skin rush from body to protect my face and the areas where the black lines aren't covering my neck, and I can feel the heat from here, I'm sweating, but I can also hear screaming and voices crying out for help.

It hurts!

Burning...

Haha, die trash

Screams from not my own black lines, but the ones around my neck, and they slink back onto Eclipse, and I'm gasping for air, sitting up and climbing back onto Eclipse. "Open."

The cockpit opens and I climb inside. Dark Ones are already coming, one runs to close the hangar doors. I start up Eclipse as best as I can, some of the lights in the cockpit and flickering, and the hangar doors are starting to close.

I use my flamethrower to burn the black lines anchoring Eclipse to the ground, and then I fly through the doors just before they close, and into fresh air.

It's not fresh at all. It's dark. Not the clear night sky kind, but the foggy type. I can barely see in front of me. I look back, and enemy mechs with Dark Ones piloting them are flying out of the now reopened hangar doors.

I speed off, occasionally looking behind me and firing a few shots at the enemy mechs, but my priority is to get to the Rip. 

Suddenly, Eclipse's thrusters shut off, and I'm now plummeting to the ground. The systems are beeping, flashing red, and I'm trying to turn them back on, but the screens say that the thrusters are jammed. 

Fuck those black lines. Must've jammed the engines.

I look back, enemy mechs speeding towards me. I fire a few shots at their cockpits, but the bullets pass right through the pilots. 

Black lines make their way to the cockpit and threaten to come inside. Enemy mechs getting closer, almost at arm's length. I use my flamethrower on them, but the cockpit's preventing the pilots from any damage. The black lines on the mechs move away, but does little damage to the mech itself.

My altitude's decreasing rapidly. Screen says 400 feet to the ground. I know the game's up. They're gonna get me. I try in a last-ditch effort to reroute all power to the engines, but they just won't start, and then one of the enemy mechs grabs me, and I'm engulfed in darkness.

When I wake up, I'm in a different cell. The bars are above me now. High above me. 

Where are we? I ask my black lines. Hopefully they've been conscious while I haven't.

I don't know, I woke up the same time as you did.

Useless shit.

I receive a small jab in my skin for that.

A door opens in front of me. One that I didn't know existed until now. A Dark One, clad in what looks like armor from the ground fighters of this realm, but of course covered in Darkness, grabs me by the arm and leads me out into what looks like an arena.

My eyes widen. I look across the place, and see another Dark One standing there, with a black laser sword. I look up above him, and see yet another Dark One sitting on a chair, looking down at us, smirking. Or at least I think that's what it is on his face.

The Dark Lord. The Dark One that's holding me by the arm says into my head. I glare up at the "Dark Lord" dude and he stares back.

The door closes behind me. I'm not handed any weapon. The Dark One that was leading me out just now walks to the center of the arena, and then shouts into our heads.

"Fight."

What I take as my opponent runs towards me, laser sword raised, ready to strike.

You're free to have whatever views you want regarding ships and fictional characters, but can you at least tag your anti-noelle posts as "#anti-noelle"? or "noelle hate" or whatever?

People who are following the Noelle Holiday and Suselle tags are doing so because they like Suselle and Noelle? So these posts are kind of the last thing we want to see on these tags?

Despite my profile pic I'm not here to debate why Suselle and Noelle. I respect your opinion because debating trivial things like "ships" or "if you should hate a fictional character or not," is dumb.

Discourse is dumb. You can hate Noelle as much as you want, but can please at least tag your posts correctly, so people who don't want to see these posts can filter them out?

oh ok sorry i didnt know those tags existed thanks for the telling me :)

Sharpshooter - Only the Strongest will Survive

Chapter 2

Warnings: Slight mention of blood, profanity, weapons

One thing I notice about Antarctica: There's not much of a day. It's night all the time.

Me and Mayday's families choose to stay in the same block of houses, our apartments right next to each other. We choose the top floor to get a good view.

We're within walking distance of the ray shield. When we look out from the windows of our apartments, we can see it, the light from the moon shining on it, otherwise unnoticeable to the naked eye. Soldiers guard it. That'll make it hard to explore the terrain outside.

I notice that the apartments that we stay in are less well-furnished than the ones in the central area. And a lot less well taken care of. But, considering that I lived in a bunch of tents stitched together in one tangled mess, I can't really complain. Better to have a stable roof over my head than one that threatens to fall with every movement I make.

At least it's convenient to hangout with Mayday. His family's apartment is just a few steps away from my family's. 

After my family and I finish setting down our things, I immediately head over to Mayday's apartment. I only see his brothers and his parents there. I don't get to see Mayday's brothers very often, but I know there's five of them and they're all older than him. It must be hard to have 6 mouths to feed at home. It's already hard enough to feed one kid in my family. That one kid's me.

When Mayday's parents see me walking in, they tell me that Mayday's out, and I immediately go to look for him without saying anything, leaving the door open behind me.

The city is bright. Corners of buildings are illuminated by lights. The markings on the road are lighted up. A stark contrast to outside the ray shield. Outside's dark. 

Downstairs is crowded. Adults push past each other as they try to make their way towards the central area. Probably to get jobs. I catch sight of my parents amidst the crowd, but I make no move to alert them of my presence. 

One adult runs into me and the force knocks me to the ground. I can feel the rough black dirt-like substance that covers the ground scraping my knees.

"Watch it!" the adult shouts before running off, and I glare at him.  I get up and dust myself off, blood oozing out of the scrapes, and I wipe it away with my saliva because that's what I always do.

Why would they make the ground out of this substance? It's so easy for someone to injure themselves like this.

I keep a lookout for Mayday. And if I know him, he's probably in a place where no one would bother him. He likes the quiet. Back in the Dome, we used to hangout at the places close to the ray shield. No one goes there unless they want to experience the full-blown heat of outside.

I head into alleyways that are close to the ray shield, hoping to find Mayday there. I gave him my knife after our last scavenging trip, he usually cleans it for me. Maybe I'll hear the sounds of him scraping the blood off my knife. I don't know. My hearing's fairly decent.

Maybe Mayday's gone home. That's unlikely though. He doesn't usually do that until it's really late out.

And as expected, I soon hear the sound of rock scraping against metal. I follow the direction of the sound, and soon enough, I find Mayday leaning against a wall in a dark alleyway scraping blood off my knife and sharpening it. He doesn't need to look up before he knows I'm here. He can tell by the sound of my footsteps.

I lean against the wall next to him as I watch him scrape the blood off my knife.

"How long?" I ask. He knows I'm referring to how long he's been cleaning my knife.

"An hour," he replies, not looking up at me. 

"You know you don't have to do it for that long, 10 minutes is enough to get the blood off," I say, looking up at him. 

"And 1 hour's enough to get it completely off and sharpened," he says, handing me back the knife. It's even sharper than the day I found it. I turn it around in my hands, and then spin it, throwing it up in the air and catching it by the hilt. Then I sheath it into one of those metal sheaths for knives that I found on a scavenging trip not too long ago. 

Mayday smiles slightly when he sees me throwing my knife up in the air and catching it. He's seen me improve over the years. How I've accidentally cut myself a bunch of times trying to do that. Now I can do it almost flawlessly. 

I kind of want to hug Mayday for spending a whole hour sharpening my knife, but I know he doesn't really like physical contact, so instead I just give him a downwards nod of respect.

"You wanna go to the ray shield and scout ways to get out?" I ask. Mayday nods in response, and we run silently through the alley and emerge on the other side. 

We're still some distance from the ray shield, but the rest is open ground. We back up against the walls of the alleyway, taking care not to make a sound so that the soldiers guarding the ray shield won't notice us.

3 soldiers stationed from where I can see. One's sleeping. The other two look tired. Probably from being on duty the whole day. Mayday and I stand there for a while, looking for any disturbances or glitches in the ray shield. 

Nothing. It's stable. Not like the one back in North America. There were holes in the shield. So much easier to sneak out. 

After an hour or so of observing, waiting, for any possible way of getting out, we head back to our apartments for the night. I'm depending on Mayday to know the way back, because I forgot the way when I was looking for him.

Luckily for both of us, he knows the way back. He's got a good memory. 

Pure, unclouded moonlight fills the empty streets as Mayday and I walk through them. I look up. It's a full moon tonight. And somehow, tonight's moon isn't red, it's white instead. It looks so much cleaner. I stop for a moment to look at the moon, and Mayday keeps walking, knowing that I'll definitely catch up.

He's right of course, and after a few moments of analyzing the darker patches on the moon, I run to catch up with him.

"Took you longer than usual," he says, eyes fixated on the road ahead of us.

"Oh y'know, just distracting myself from that thing in the morning," I reply, not wanting to specify what "that thing" in case anyone's watching us, no matter how unlikely it may be.

Mayday nods, taking the hint. We'll discuss it tomorrow when we're amongst the crowd. We could try to look for some jobs tomorrow, just to earn some extra income, although we probably won't be able to get any, considering we're home-schooled, our parents passing them whatever limited information they managed to learn from our grandparents. 

When we reach back to our apartments, I give him a downwards nod before heading through the door. I don't get questioned by my parents where I was, they already know I was at the ray shield looking for ways to get through. That's what I did back in North America. That's how I met Mayday, actually. He mistook my footsteps for a guard's, and literally threw a knife at my head. Good thing my reflexes were fast and I managed to dodge though. The knife only sliced my shoulder.

When he found out he threw a knife at a 13 year old girl, he wordlessly went out to the flooded ruins and tried find something to wrap up my bleeding shoulder. Obviously, I came along with him, and we managed to find a mostly intact Hunger Games hoodie, he cut off the hood to wrap my shoulder. 

"Do you come out here very often?" I asked him, and he was a bit hesitant to reply. "Yeah. Every day."

Then we didn't speak for the rest of the day, just scavenging for things that we could use or sell for money. 

From then, we went out every day to the flooded ruins, and he slowly warmed up to me, speaking a bit more and cracking a few jokes here and there. We're a good team. Mayday's good with directions, and he taught me how to throw knives and use one in close combat. I'm the one who could had slightly heightened senses, slightly better than his. My hearing, eyesight, and sometimes smell. I could smell explosives in some of the flooded houses. That's when I knew not to go in them. 

Then when I found a blaster pistol and trained myself with it, I taught Mayday how to shoot it. The one piece of information that my parents passed down onto me was how to shoot a rifle and pistol. Line up the front sight with the back sight, and then aim at the target and shoot. I've gotten quite decent at it, although Mayday's still better at knives. He beat a fish to death with the blaster once.

I lay on the floor, the bed reserved for my sleeping parents. I stare up at the ceiling for a bit, before opening the window to get some fresh air and staring up at the moon again. It's gotten a bit red, like things are getting back to normal. 

I look across at the ray shield and down at the soldiers guarding it. A few of them are sleeping, but still standing up. I don't notice much, until the moonlight hits just the right spot, I see a small hole in the ray shield. Not big enough for adults to fit through, but definitely big enough for me. I don't know about Mayday. Maybe he can get through with a few burns.

I'll tell him that in the morning.

For now, I close the window and lay back down on the floor, closing my eyes and trying to get some sleep.

The uneasy feeling in my gut still hasn't gone away.

I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED BOYS

TBB fandom is dying

TBB fans rise up we can't let this fandom die its the last best thing that came in Star Wars

just met north star in undertale yellow and BRO HES MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER ALREADY THIS GUY IS GOATED THE WILD EAST IS SO FUN

happy bad batch day

Short story: 13

Good soldiers follow orders.

I see war. Death. Flames everywhere as explosions go off around me, but I'm surprisingly unscathed. Flying jets whizz past me through the air to attack enemy bombers. I'm standing there hesitantly, the hands holding my semi-automatic blaster shaking from the adrenaline rush. I've been here many times before. The outcome is the same every time.

Good soldiers follow orders.

Order 13. Fight to the death. No surrender.

It's like my body is on autopilot and I'm watching from behind a screen. I charge into the raging battle, shooting at enemies, my aim surprisingly good compared to during basic training. Grenades rain down upon the battlefield, dying screams of humans and aliens alike filling my ears. My body shows no signs of discomfort but in my mind, I'm trying to cover my ears to block out the sound.

An enemy bomber travels over my head, dropping its bombs in the process. I've been here too many times. I know what's going to happen. I close my eyes.

The sounds of explosions are almost deafening. The bombs drop down right next to me, exploding upon contact. The force pushes me backwards as the heat of flames engulf me. The sounds fade, my eyes still closed.

It's ending.

My eyes flutter open as I find myself in the comfort of my bed. I let out a soft groan as I get up. Apps appear in front of my eyes as I scroll through them, looking for the app that tracks my sleep. I open it and the screen projects in front of me, showing my sleep quality, restlessness and periods of REM and deep sleep. The statistics displayed are the usual. Restless throughout the whole night and sleep quality was absolutely terrible. I've been having these nightmares lately. It's not something I can control. The control chips in our heads are supposed to prevent that. We get to select our dreams before we sleep. Yet mine are different. I select dreams of Star Wars. All I get are nightmares of a battle which I've never seen before. It's not Star Wars. The technology is similar, but there's no Earth in that universe. My nightmares are of war on Earth.

My chip must be malfunctioning. That's not good. It's implanted into every human's brain so if it malfunctions, it would probably interfere with our primary brain functions, hence killing us. But I'm not dead yet.

I head into the kitchen to make myself some breakfast. The image of my parents peacefully sleeping in their bedroom projects in front of me. I managed to gain access to the security camera in their bedroom, so I can see when they wake up.

I prepare my breakfast and eat it in silence, monitoring my parents in their bedroom through the projection. After finishing my breakfast and making sure my parents are still asleep, I head out of the door and run next door to find my neighbour, Mayday. Just when I reach his house, Mayday's already outside, waiting for me. I give him a nod and he nods back.

We head out into the forest near our house. I switch off the projecting function on my chip so that I won't be distracted by any notifications I receive on the walk.

As we walk into the forest, light shines through the canopy of leaves, creating patches of light here and there. I jump from one patch to another, laughing as Mayday follows behind me.

Suddenly, I hear a whistling sound cutting through the air and then a loud boom. My head jerks in the direction of the sound. I turn the projecting function on my chip back on and in my head, I order the chip to show me where the sound came from.

Similar sounds follow the first one as the image of an unfamiliar aircraft dropping bombs down on another nearby housing area projects in front of me. Mayday catches up with me. "What is it?"

"Bombs," I reply simply.

Another boom echoes through the forest, but much louder this time. The bombs must be getting closer. There's a sickening feeling in my stomach as the volume of the sounds just keeps increasing.

I take off running into the forest, away from the direction of the bombing sounds. Mayday quickly follows. My legs feel like they're flying under me as my adrenaline pushes me to keep running. My heart feels like it's going to explode as I dash back to me and Mayday's housing area.

When we reach back, I'm panting heavily as I sprint to my house, where my parents are already waiting for me to come back, looking very worried. The moment they see me they quickly force me inside the house without a word.

The bombing sounds continue for a few more minutes until silence. That's when the order comes in.

Execute order 13.

Every human is to immediately head to the weapons point in each of their housing estates and gather at a military base. An unidentified species has attacked multiple housing areas and are currently sending ground soldiers to kill any survivors. Fight to the death. No surrender.

My parents seem to have gotten the order too as their heads perk up, just like mine.

Good soldiers follow orders.

I feel like I'm going to vomit. I can almost imagine the battlefield. I've seen it many times before in my nightmares.

I feel like I'm watching through a screen now as my body picks itself up from the floor and walks out of the door, my parents following alongside me, and every other human in my housing area, except Mayday and his parents. I try to force myself to stop walking, stop walking towards certain death.

As my body walks itself to the weapons point at our housing estates, I can see Mayday running up to me and asking me what's going on. I try to shout, "Help me!" but nothing comes out of my mouth as my body stares blankly ahead, still walking.

Mayday shakes my shoulders. I can feel it. As much as I want to respond to him, to run away with him, my body simply won't allow it.

Mayday's parents come up to me as well, and drag me away. My body struggles desperately with considerable strength that I didn't even know I had, but was probably activated by the chip. My limbs thrash around wildly as I try to escape Mayday's parents' grip. They drag me to their house, and lead me into a basement, where a few people are already there, I assume they're friends of Mayday and his parents.

Then, I feel Mayday's parents strapping me to a table connected to a machine. My body is still struggling against the restraints as I feel the prick of a needle against my neck, and everything goes black.

When I wake up, I'm not watching myself through a screen anymore. My vision is blurry as I move my hand to see if I'm in control of my own body now. My hand moves ever so slightly as my vision starts to clear up.

I let out a soft groan as I sit up on the table, my restraints were taken off at some point, apparently. I try to project the screen of what's going on outside in front of me, but I can't. They've taken my chip out.

Mayday runs over and throws his arms around me, and I hug back ever so slightly. "You're back!" he laughs as he lets go of me. "We thought you weren't going to make it, you weren't waking up..."

I silently nod, scanning the room. It's dimly lit by a singular lamp, and there are around seven people in there. My parents included. Mayday and his parents must've saved them too.

Suddenly, I hear the sounds of bombings above me. The lamp in the room flickers and shakes.

"Let's go. We can't save any more. They're all at the military base, they'll be armed," Mayday's mother says. All of us quickly run up from the basement. Mayday's house is in ruins. But that's the least of our worries right now. Bombs are being dropped a few kilometers from us, I can feel the force of the explosion hitting me.

We quickly run into the forest to take shelter. They won't attack the forest. There's no humans here to kill, at least up till now. We keep running, deep into the forest until the sounds of bombings are faint and barely audible.

When we stop, I slump against a tree, breathing heavily.

"What now?" I manage to ask in between gasps for air.

Everyone looks at each other, as if they want to ask the same question.

Mayday's father speaks up.

"We hide, I guess. At least until the war is over. We won't be attacked here. We're safe."

I hear the faint sound of bombings again.

Safe? I hope so.

THE WAY HE SAYS HER NAME HES SO WORRIED FOR HER

"this is our chance."