Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3535037" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 459: InjuredFour Yuuzhan Vong warriors dropped to the relentless blaster fire...and then the remaining Vong warriors charged straight into the troopers. The small group of soldiers that had taken up the center of the street as a huge number of civilians hid in the alleys was suddenly overwhelmed by huge warriors, amphistaves swinging in first. The two troopers at Rulae’s shoulders dropped first, as they were the ones up front. Somehow, Rulae managed to raise his rifle enough to put a blaster bolt through the face of the warrior attempting to cleave him in two.    The body fell on him, the amphistaff’s snake-like head hissing loudly before it hit the ground. The weight of the body threw Rulae to the ground, giving him a perfect view of the flashes of red blaster bolts going straight over him. The air filled with screams more than anything else, and Rulae’s vision was blurred by Vong moving over him...through the troopers. Through them.    And he couldn’t move. Partly because of the corpse that had fallen on him, and partly because...he couldn’t make himself move. They were being slaughtered. Torn through like they were nothing. It was then that Rulae realized the world was a blur to him. Maybe that was why he couldn’t move...he couldn’t really see or...or...his brain alerted him to a sharp pain that had been in his leg since he’d fallen. Slow to react...    Somehow, Rulae managed to look down and next to the corpse that was crushing him, was the dead warrior’s amphistaff. From its vicious fangs, a dangerous looking good dripped...and then Rulae realized it had bit him before going dormant once released from its wielder. It was poison. Of course it was poison. That was why the other warriors simply stepped over him to the rest of the troopers. He was dead already. Dead already...    ...but he wasn’t. No. No, he could feel the numbness in his leg but it wasn’t killing him and...and it wasn’t spreading up his leg either. It was just in that one spot. Just below his right knee. He still felt a bit off but was able to think clearly...more or less. Realizing that the poison wasn’t spreading, he turned to look what was, to him, up.    He saw the feet of Vong warriors, now a good five meters away and moving fast. They were charging after a distant group of New Republic troopers. They were charging...away. He looked to the nearby alleys where many of the civilians had gone and saw no Vong there. The troopers that had survived had run, and they were drawing the Vong away, whether they meant to or not...but the civilians weren’t moving and...    Rulae called all the strength he could to force the Vong’s body off of him, then got up quickly, fell over thanks to putting too much weight on a leg that currently couldn’t support it, then tried again. When he was up, he could recognize the bodies of the troopers around him. All but two were there. The rest, the ones that lay around him, were in pieces.    Pushing this out of his mind, Rulae turned to the nearest of the alleys and saw a human looking straight at him. In a strained voice, Rulae called out, “We need to move now!”    It took encouraging and repeating of this over and over before anyone did. But soon, the large group of civilians were returning to the street and trying not to look at the bloody scene in the middle of it all. Not liking this situation and realizing he couldn’t move fast enough, he said to the now-gathered group, “Anyone that can pick up a blaster right now. There’s transports on the ground east of here. Just follow this road straight out of the city until you reach them.”“I’m not a solider,” though one of the civilians said that, most were probably thinking of it. Thankfully, Rulae saw many of them reaching to the bodies on the ground and retrieving weapons.    He didn’t like say any of it, but he had to, “I’m injured. I can’t keep with the pace that you all need. You all need to move as fast as you can. Anyone with weapons needs to stay around the others just in case. Do you all understand?”    There were, of course, many still protesting this. But those with weapons seemed to be understanding well enough. In a short amount of time, they were running...all of them. Rulae watched them go, then turned back to where the Vong had gone. He couldn’t abandon this fight. He was a pilot...but not right now. This city was burning. This city was dying. Gydine was dying.    And good soldiers were still on it. He wasn’t about to just run off with them still fighting...injured or not.    So, hefting his own rifle up, he limped down the street and back into the fight.</blockquote>

Verification