My skin baked as the first of the fire bombs erupted a thousand feet from me. The screaming of a village of people was overwhelmed by the whooshing of the flames that now burned their village to the ground. Very few villagers had made it to safety before the flames erupted. Those that managed to make it out, I knew, wouldn't survive the next five minutes.
I glanced to the sky, sensing the ship flying overhead. My eyes followed the path of another of the fire bombs. It fell quickly. Too quickly. It was as if, instead of just dropping it from their bomb bay, the Mandalorians had propelled it into the ground. It wouldn't have surprised me really.
A sense of peace overtook me as I watched the bomb grow closer and closer, the Mandalorian cruiser speeding off into the distance, presumably to raze another village. My vision blurred and I saw a flash of burning flames, melting sand, shining glass, a desolate wasteland. Duros would be no more after this battle. I shook my head as the bomb hit the ground before me and flames enveloped my body.
----
The scream died in my throat as I opened my eyes and saw my surroundings. It had been just another nightmare, just another phantom gripping hold of my mind. Sweat drenched the underclothes I wore and dampened the sheets and pillows of the bed I was laying in.
I shook my head slightly, trying to rid myself of the visions of a burning Duros, rid myself of the feeling that my skin burned along with it. My hands trembled slightly as I got out of bed and walked across the empty room to the small refresher.
You would think a full sized Republic Cruiser would at least sport full sized refreshers for the rooms. I shrugged my shoulder as I splashed some cold water on my feverish skin. Guess they don't care much for their soldier's comfort.
The ground lurched beneath me, causing me to grab hold of the refresher so as not to fall. Immediately following the lurch sirens began wailing all around. What the hell was going on?
In between the wailing of the sirens I heard heavy footfalls and the sound of the room's door opening. Instinctively I reached down to my waist to grab hold of my blaster. That was when I remembered I had stored all my clothing and weapons in the durasteel container near my bed.
Luckily, I didn't need the weapons. The form of my bunk mate, Trask, rushed into the room. I heaved a sigh of relief at that. Something was obviously going on which meant I needed my weapons and armor, and quickly.
I rushed over to the durasteel container and reached in, grabbing hold of my armour and my belt, containing my two heavy blasters and a small medpac. The armour had been heavily used when I purchased it from a merchant on my travels along the Outer Rim long ago. It had deep gashes in some sections as if someone had hacked away at it with a vibrosword. Since I made my repairs though, the armour was strong enough to withstand a few blows from a lightsaber, should the need arise. I started putting it all on as I turned toward Trask. "What the hell is going on, Ulgo?"
His face was stark white with fear. The ship lurched again, causing me to collapse onto the bed and him to fall over into a desk. When the tremors subsided I rose again and finished securing my armour and weapons. He too rose and headed over to me. "The Sith are attacking the ship. They're here for Bastilla."
I cursed. It figures that the first mission I get working under The Republic would throw me into a fight with the Sith. All we were supposed to do was sit in orbit around Taris, keep an eye on the planet for a few weeks. Occasionally we were to send patrols down to assist the Tarisian government in quelling the race riots slowly taking over the planet.
"We need to get moving to the escape pods," he said. I looked at him in surprise. He nodded gravely. If we were heading to the escape pods, that meant that the Sith had overrun the ship and that there was no chance of the ship surviving. I cursed again. "Lets go."
