In the Absence of Man/ Chapter 6: A Deep Secret

Captain Carg raced over to Clyde and knocked him down. Keeli tried to get a clear shot at Clyde, but Carg was in the way. Clyde then kicked Carg off of him and Keeli had a clear shot. “Freeze,” Keeli commanded. However, he opened fire upon Clyde but Clyde sensed that he would so he dodged right behind Carg, who was still on the floor.

“Oh, you didn’t give me time to freeze, idiot,” Clyde then got his darksaber to block the other blasts that Keeli was bestowing upon him. Clyde approached Keeli and proceeded to bonk Keeli on his helmet, using his darksaber. Carg commenced to get back up and retrieved his blaster. He shot twice at Clyde, yet he blocked the blasts again. Dashing towards the advanced recon captain, Burrell swung his darksaber which hit Carg’s hand. Letting go of his grip to his gun, Carg tried to fend for himself but Clyde picked him up, dropped him down, and aimed the sharpest part of his sword-like weapon at Carg’s throat. Keeli rubbed his head. He noticed what was going on, and Clyde wanted him to notice. “Oh look at this. Me, a person with barely any experience at all in the front lines takes down an advanced recon captain? Pathetic!” Clyde pushed his darksaber a little closer to Carg’s neck.

“Why are you doing this? You have no allegiance whatsoever. Why not join the Republic against the tyranny of the Separatists?” Keeli asked, making a stop sign motion out of his hand.

“I already told you criminals that I hate both of these factions of the war. I’ve foreseen a grave error deep in the Republic’s government. They will lose this war and the Separatists will win,” Clyde started. “Plus, I don’t think you understand the full gravity of this situation at hand, clone. I think that Cargy-boy would just really love being reunited with his dead friend in Hell.”

That triggered some sort of spark in Carg’s system. For a short while that felt like decades, the captain thought of the days on the jungly planet of Felucia, battling native radicals alongside Sergeant Geo. These thoughts of Carg’s foreshadowed what Carg was about to do next; Clyde sensed that as well.

Before long, Carg elbowed Clyde in his gut which forced him to lose his grasp of his darksaber. Carg kicked that saber to Keeli and punched Clyde in the face. Keeli picked it up. Clyde’s attention span went directly to Keeli holding his beloved weapon. “You don’t touch her!” Clyde pulled out a pistol and shot Keeli right on his chest, just missing his heart.

“Keeli!” Carg rushed over. So did Burrell but just to get his weapon back.

“You should be thankful, Carg,” Clyde began.

“What??”

“Thankful that I didn’t kill you. I mean, you still have to wallow in your own misery… again. But I don’t give a damn and neither should anyone else. Consider me shooting your friend a favor and you’ll have to owe me,” Clyde calmly said and then walked away. Keeli saw frustration boil up inside of Carg’s eyes. He was practically getting ready to pounce like a cheetah would to its prey. Keeli grabbed Carg’s arm.

“It’s not worth it, Captain,” Keeli carefully said through agony.

Meanwhile, Captain Crane made his way to a secret hatch that led to Burrell’s main control room. He had been searching for hours to find some type of hope that would get them out of there. He was directly above the main control room so he had to cautiously jump from the hatch and onto the floor. He reconnoitered. He rummaged through old files and documents of every single Republic official that was still active in the army. That was when Crane muttered out a curse word. Files and documents of where they were born, what flaws they had, and much more regarding their personal lives. A question was still stuck in Crane’s head- how did he get all of this data? The control center was quite a big room, filled with computers, security monitors and cameras, and cabinets; but no Clyde which also caught Crane by surprise. But he did see a top of a head sitting in a chair. Crane couldn’t take any chances so he used that lead pipe that he grabbed earlier to smack whoever was sitting in that chair. A body fell on the floor that seemed like it was dead for years. It was just hair and a skeleton.