Star Wars: Ryloth Under Siege/ Chapter 9: What War Does Best

Scrape used his gun to whack Wesson in the mouth until he bled immensely. He could hear the sound of Wesson’s heavy breathing but sensed that Wesson did not think that he made a mistake by betraying him. “You terminated my ideas on restoring order in the galaxy, just like I’m gonna terminate you!” Scrape strangled Wesson until he heard a loud shriek coming from behind. “No, not you,” He said with big eyes. Rahr crashed into him, allowing Wesson to dash toward his DC-15 blaster. Rahr socked Scrape in the face multiple times. The stormtrooper major finally got an escape route right when wave two of his elite stormtroopers entered the battleground, distracting everyone. Everyone except Commander Stone. He spotted Scrape rush into his capitol tower so he went after him. Ranger, who had already killed over a dozen of his former brethren saw Stone following Scrape and he too went after Scrape.

Ponds tried to stop Ranger but Ranger already had ran inside. A stormtrooper came up from behind Yynorr and shot him thrice in the back, which caused an uproar from Tarfull and Chewbacca. They forced that stormtrooper to go flying back by killing him with their hands. They surrounded Yynorr and gave him their care. Chewbacca held Yynorr’s hand until Yynorr’s hand had no more strength left in it. Luke Skywalker witnessed this from the medical bay. “I need to help,” he said, struggling to get up.

“Absolutely not. Sit down,” Leia commanded.

“Then why am I here?” Luke questioned. Leia did not respond. She just deeply looked at her brother. “Your job is to tend to Han. That is what you should do.” Luke then commenced to get up and activate his lightsaber.

Scrape turned around to blast at Commander Stone, who was hot on his heels. Stone got behind an end of a corridor and used it as cover to shoot at Scrape. The major kept on running. Ranger was far behind. Bleeding at every step of the way, he managed to finally get on the same floor as the other two he was trying to chase down. Lacking awareness due to his physical injuries, he did not notice a stormtrooper come up from behind and shot him in the back. That blast forced Ranger to fall hard and flat on his face. He did not even attempt to get back up as he saw that stormtrooper aim for his head and pulled the trigger. Commandant Fil rushed to Commander Ponds who was still shocked that Ranger went after Stone who went after Scrape. They all noticed that yet another wave was coming in. Fil had his jaw dropped down to the floor, same did Ponds; however the two were not thinking of the same exact plan- Fil turned to face Ponds. “Brother, make sure my heroism will be recognized for centuries of the Republic. We might fall today, but the future Republic won’t.”

“Fil, what are you thinking?” Ponds worried. Fil practically ignored what his comrade just said and turned on his wrist-communicator.

“Sergeant Leland, this is Fil. Drop down your missiles at my coordinates on my signal. Understood?”

Sergeant Leland, who was flying around, taking care of enemy fighters, replied with a “yes, sir” and spun back around. “Fil!? What are you doing?” Ponds yelled.

“Remember what I did for my family, friends, and peace. {Fil runs to the next wave of stormtroopers} Hey you rotten pieces of crap! I’m wide open over here!” Fil yelled. He shot a couple of blasts at them, minorly injuring two. Those that were in the new wave hurried on over to Fil’s location, unbeknownst that they were about to get shot by Leland’s missiles. “Now, Leland!”

“Leland, this is Ponds, what the Hell are you doing? Fil is right in the midst of your line of fire!” Ponds’ frequency mysteriously came up staticky and with no response from Leland. Without any further hesitation, Leland dropped his missiles from his fighter where Fil’s coordinates were. Rex noticed that Ponds was about to go in the blast range to rescue Fil but quickly jumped on him, stopping him.

There, they both could see Fil standing straight and saluting them… until the blistering ripple of flames continued on its way to Fil’s exact spot, making him a victim of war. But to the Rebellion, a hero of war. In a dizzy state, Ponds let out a huge shout and released himself from Rex’s grip.