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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1910905" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 97: LossesAkan didn’t completely remember how he got back into the garrison. All he could be sure of was that there had been movement, his legs hurt(well, everything hurt, but legs more so), and he had been placed in an uncomfortable chair before being handed a cup of hot liquid. It took him a few moments to drink some of it, but was glad for the caffeine heavy drink. After a couple more minutes, he saw Landau enter the room, doing his best to carry Shadow. He was half dragging her in the process, and the way her legs scrapped across the ground gave Akan an idea of why his legs hurt. Landau placed her in a chair next to Akan, and the two of them just sat in dazed exhaustion. When Shadow was handed a similar cup of liquid, she didn’t seem to have the energy to pick it up. Her arm reached to the small table in front of them, but never made it. Instead, her head fell to the side, resting on Akan’s shoulder before closing her eyes and going quiet.    Landau couldn’t help a slight smile. He got himself another drink of his own from the food processor before stepping over to Akan, “You alive in there?”    Still not all aware, Akan turned his head to look up at Landau in an awkward motion, but managed a slow nod before taking another sip of his drink. His movements were taking into account the weight on his shoulder, which made them even more awkward as he barely looked like he had the strength to hold himself up. He didn’t even look capable of opening his mouth to speak. Lifting the cup and drinking was the extent of it at this point. Landau had a seat across from the Alraxians, deciding that it was a good idea to at least keep an eye on them.     After a half hour, Akan seemed more awake and had managed a short worded conversation with Landau. Shadow was still asleep. Well, Landau assumed she was asleep, as it looked like she was just unconscious. If not for the soft movement caused by the slow breathing, he’d have figured her to be dead. The conversation was more questions from Landau, all along the lines of ‘why’ and ‘what were you doing?’ and ‘what were you thinking?’ and even a ‘you call that practice?!’. All of Akan’s answers were simple one or two words, usually yeses and nos, but sometimes more detailed. It seemed like the poor kid’s mind had just left without him. Or maybe he was talking in his sleep.    When the door behind him opened suddenly, Landau nearly jumped out of his skin. Akan just tilted his head to look around the man, and said in that dazed, half-awake voice, “Hi, Jen.”    Jen walked into the room with a smile on her face and a generally happy demeanor all over. Her hair was tied back again, and she wore a lose-fitting tunic that looked to have been scrounged from one of the old lockers. She nodded to Akan, but noticed the completely exhausted features of the two Alraxians. Idly stepping over next to Landau, she raised an eyebrow, “What’s with them?”    “The children were playing,” Landau responded with a grin, “Though Akan swears it was practice, looked to me like they were trying to kill each other.”    Jen laughed, “It wouldn’t be the first time.”    Akan seemed to be ‘waking up’ more, though he didn’t say anything. Jen stepped around the table and passed by the two Alraxians to the food processor. She waited a few moments for some kind of dish that Landau didn’t recognize, then walked back towards the door. On her way, she reached over to Akan and ruffled his hair playfully. His feeble attempt at defense got a laugh out of the two humans, and then Jen was gone. As Akan was grumbling to himself and attempting to ‘fix’ his hair without letting Shadow fall and hit the floor like a brick, Landau grinned.    “That was interesting,” was all he said, and he hadn’t even realized it had been out loud.    Landau realized that, though, when Akan raised an eyebrow, “What...?”    That got a short laugh out of Landau, and he leaned back in the chair. For a moment, he seemed to be making sure that Jen was gone, then just said, “I’d say they did it.”    “Huh...?” Akan’s mind didn’t exactly have the capability to catch the subtleties in any speech just yet. When Landau didn’t respond, it left the poor Alraxian to think for himself. That only took a few moments before realization washed over his tired face, and his eyes widened, “Oh...um...oh!”    * * * *The next week passed without any surprises. Scouts left and returned, Topsiders slowly filtered in to show that Trker-Hon was having success, and the two Alraxians continued their ‘practice’ on a near daily basis. When Trker-Hon finally returned, though, things changed. Near five hundred Topsiders had already arrived, and Trker-Hon promised that five times that many were still on their was. Twenty five hundred Topsider warriors. This would have been comforting news if not for the more recent scout reports.    As the days went by, more and more reports came in of defenses being gathered at that desert facility. The amount of creatures that had been seen was impossibly large, and worried the five of them that had gone in there before. Especially considering they’d seen so little within those corridors. Where were all these creatures coming from? But that wasn’t the only question. Another was more basic. What were they? Each scout reported that they were humanoid in general shape, but with four arms and a disfigured body. Heads were more oval shaped with larger eyes than that of a normal human. The curious part was that no Narani were seen at all. It was as if they had simply disappeared into the desert. No one thought that likely, and rumors were spreading about the ‘true’ origin of the creatures. These rumors only flourished when reports of the number of these creatures filtered in. Upwards of ten thousand, possibly even twice that many. It seemed like someone had told Sadrak that there was a ground battle coming, and he wasn’t about to take any chances.    It was the third day before the planned briefing to decide on a planned attack when Landau, Voort, and Jen decided to do their own scouting. They took one of the working airspeeders out, but were forced to set it down farther than they’d originally planned. Patrols were out a good distance, and the three of them couldn’t even get in close enough to see the actual facility. Looking over a dune, though, it wasn’t too much trouble to see the extent of the defenses.    “They’ve built up five or six large walls...” Jen said quietly, noting the large, metal things that stuck out of the sand like unfinished buildings.    Voort nodded, “Break up troop formations and bottle them up to get around. They’re obviously getting ready for a head on attack. I don’t recognize the weapons though.”    “Narani slugthrowers,” Landau responded quietly, pointed to a larger tower that looked like a turret, “Though some of them seem to be on a much larger scale.”    “Horrible weapons,” mumbled Jen, more to herself than anyone else. The other two heard it, and couldn’t help agreeing. It was hard to call a weapon more civilized than another, but most of the galaxy agreed on the brutal nature of slugthrowers. One didn’t have to have an Alraxian aversion to metal to be disgusted and worried by such weapons.    “We should get out of here before we’re spotted,” Landau said, breaking the momentary silence. Voort and Jen nodded in agreement, and they started to sneak back to the airspeeder. When they finally got far enough away to walk upright, Jen caught something odd in Landau’s eye. She wasn’t sure that it was a sight as much as a feeling. One day she’d figure out how to explain these Force things to herself...but it was something. It was odd...wrong...and then...she didn’t know. Voort didn’t seem to notice anything, so Jen decided to ignore it for the moment.    Once they arrived back at the speeder, Voort climbed straight in and started to power up the speeder. As Jen was getting in, she heard Landau’s voice behind her. It was forced, stilted, and not right, “Do not move.”    Jen moved only to turn around and see Landau standing in a strangely forced position with his blaster aimed at her. Though his body was still, she noticed his eyes were darting around, and got this feeling of someone trapped. Trapped?! What was that?    “Arik, what are you–“ Voort went silent when he saw the situation. He was looking around Jen, and obviously did not like this. Knowing Landau for as long as he had though, it was easy for Voort to tell something was wrong. The details were the key...Landau wasn’t left handed, and he knew how to aim a blaster at someone. Why was he holding the weapon in his left hand and looking like he was going to fire from the hip?    “Do. Not. Move.” the voice was even more forced this time, and suddenly something clicked in Jen’s mind. She’d heard that sound before. It was more in an echo in her mind, but that sounded like Sadrak. Similar at least...hidden within Landau’s normal voice. Voort’s mind was also racing, though he was smart enough not to move. This was just like the descriptions he’d heard from Hansen a few days earlier. Men not acting themselves and attempting to kill her.    “Landau...what’s wrong?” Jen was the one to ask that, though it was obvious in the way she said it that Jen already had an idea of her own.    At her words, Landau just stepped closer, an almost droid-like motion without any bending of the knee. This put the blaster barely a half meter from Jen’s stomach. His eyes showed fear and even looked to be pleading, but his voice continued in that wrong way, “You will. You will return to me.”    Me? That wasn’t Landau. If anything confirmed it was Sadrak, those words did. If Jen and Voort could have exchanged knowing looks, they would have. Both of them, though, knew the danger in attempting anything. Neither of them knew enough yet, and even though Landau’s movements were so forced, it was likely he wouldn’t have trouble squeezing the trigger on that blaster pistol.     When neither of them responded to Landau’s words, he turned slightly. It was just enough to move the blaster from aiming at Jen’s stomach to Voort’s face, “You are not necessary.”    Somehow, Jen saw Landau’s finger making that small motion to pull the trigger on the blaster pistol. Voort was about to dive out of the way, but before he could Jen was reacting. With a strength that amazed all of them, she batted Landau’s wrist to the side, slamming his hand against the speeder. The blaster shot went high, flying off into the sky before Landau could drop the weapon. Landau’s eyes showed panic and fear, but Jen was still reacting. With her free hand, she’d drawn her own blaster and placed it against Landau’s chest.    Voort had just enough time to yell ‘NO!’ before she pulled the trigger. The proximity of the blaster pistol to Landau’s body caused more than just the usual burning scorch mark. Instead, the blaster bolt went straight through him before darting skyward. A horrible smell of ozone and burned flesh covered the area suddenly, and Landau’s body hit the ground face first. Jen’s hand was shaking now, as her mind caught up with her actions. Even Voort was frozen in surprise. That is, until yelling and other voices could be heard in the distance.    They creatures had seen and heard the blaster fire! Damn! Grabbing Jen’s arm, Voort yanked her into the speeder and got them into the sky. Neither of them spoke. Jen sat next to Voort, shaking slightly and staring off into no where. She’d murdered him...no...no it was self defense! Protecting Voort! Landau would have killed him! But...but why had she killed him? Why had she shot?! He had dropped the weapon! He couldn’t have done anything else! Slowly, Jen leaned into Voort’s shoulder, buried her face and wept.    Voort carefully wrapped an arm around her as he piloted the speeder away. He’d lost friends before. He’d lost family. But never like that. Jen had done the right thing...yet, Voort couldn’t help worrying about her. It was possible that he was having more of a dangerous influence on her than he’d have liked. Perhaps she would have been better of with Akan...but no...no it was too late for those thoughts. Just get back. Think then. Talk then. He wouldn’t grieve yet, but Voort wasn’t one to stop Jen. It was her first time really killing someone and seeing their face. That was always a horrible moment, and even worse when that face was a trusted friend.</blockquote>

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