A Soldier's Sorrow/Chapter One

Chapter One

Kuat

Jan Ocenia had been incapitated thanks to the hind breaking down the bridge. Everyone else, except for Staff Sergeant Harken were now unable to move. The Republic soldier tried to move away from the crossfire, but his damaged body had prevented him from doing so. To make matters worse, the vehicle was on fire, and would explode any minute.

Harken, noticing this, pulled Jan away to safety, and shot back at the enemy with his side arm. After they were at a safe distance from the burning vehicle, he pulled out his blaster rifle and fired back as many rounds as he could. Unfortunately, however, before he could go trigger happy on his gun, he was shot in the throat by one of the Sith soldiers.

Jan turned his head towards Captain Rec, who was unable to move. However, his face expression showed hints of shock and fear of what he saw.

When Jan turned to where Rec was staring, he thought the bottom had dropped out of his stomach. The figure of Sith general Varm Hest was aproaching Jan through the billowing smoke of the battlefield. Jan knew that he had come to dispose of any survivors from the attack.

He first noticed Zig, trying to stand back up to his feet. Before he could lift his head up any further, the Sith commander had shot him in the head with his gun, while his bodyguards shot another two Republic soldiers.

He saw Hest coming towards him. Jan just wanted to move away from this man, because he was about to do just the same thing he had done to Zig. Jan was certain that his life was at an end... he wondered if this is the way the galaxy would end...

Then an explosion rent the air. Jan looked up to see a Sith gunship spin towards the ground, leaving a blazing trail behind it. The three Sith were now focused entirely on something that Jan could not see.

Jan suddenly heard a pounding of footsteps and saw men and women of many species clad in the orange, black and yellow armour of the Republic from his left side. At their head was Carth Onasi, wearing his usual orange and wielding two blasters. Jan turned, and saw Captain Rec sliding his side arm to him. The sergeant finally knew what Rec wanted to do, and what he wanted Jan to do.

Jan aimed high, and shot Hest's two guards with incredible speed. The bullets pierced through their brains, leaving only Varm Hest himself. He turned around and tried to return fire towards the Republic troops, under the impression that they had fired. But before he could pull the trigger, Jan had fired and Hest had collapsed on the ground, a dark red pool forming around him.

Jan could not believe it. He had killed one of the four men that had behind it all. This man had killed hundreds upon hundreds of innocents people and brave soldiers that fought in the battlefield. Jan had just done something that Rec had failed to do at the beginning of the war. He had killed Varm Hest.

More Republic forces arrived, and Carth Onasi and his men searched around the bridge for survivors.