//------------------------------// // 18. Retreat // Story: Force of the Falcon // by Omega6047 //------------------------------// --Chapter 18-- Retreat Tracker groaned as he touched a wound on his stomach. The damn droid’s rifle was a strong one. Strong enough to obliterate his armor’s energy shield and injure him badly in just one shot. “Sir, is that thing finally dead?” He forced himself to get up despite the pain, leaning against the wall. He looked down at the ground where a black feather lied. Strange, I could have sworn that this bird lied here. “Seems that way. Are you alright? It looked like you got hit badly.” “I’m alright sir. I’ll have to fix my armor though.” He fired grappling hook at the ground. “I’ll join you shortly sir.” “I’m coming into the ship to find Rainbow. Get Shaw and others here.” The commando jumped down from the cave, slowly lowering himself with the line attached to his weapon. However, just as he came half way down, a terrible pain shot through his body, causing him to groan in pain loudly and let go of the rifle he held onto. “Ugh!!!” He hit the ground below hard. Blast it. I guess I’m not quite as fine as I thought... As Tracker lied there, his weapon lowered itself on the ground. He forced himself up, groaning in pain again as he felt a broken rib in his chest. Still, that’s hardly enough to take out a commando like him. Or at least that’s what he thought at the time. After making only few steps, he felt the pain from his stomach returning in full force, making him fall on his knees as held onto the wound. “Gkh...” He quickly took off his helmet only to start coughing out blood. Blast it... He wasn’t about to give up though. Again, he forced himself to get up after picking up his rifle and started to move towards the wreckage leaning against trees every time he could. “Tracker?” He heard a voice calling from behind. A voice that he recognized immediately. Soon enough, a yellow Pegasus absolutely he did not want to see right now came into view. “Tracker!” She screamed as she saw a wound on his stomach and blood that he coughed out on his armor. ”Are you alright? What happened. No, wait. First you lie down and let me take care of this-!” He pushed her away the moment she approached him. This was a mistake though, as the moment he did that, he also lost his balance and fell on the ground. He now saw Shaw approaching with the rest of the group. “Will you ever let someone help you?” The engineer said. “Why are you here? You weren’t supposed to move until we called.” Commando said. “We heard explosions and decided to come and help.” He placed Tracker's arm around his neck and helped him get up. Shaw then turned to Fluttershy. "You'll take care of him once we get to the ship." Now he turned towards Tracker. "How is Twilight?" "Last time I saw her she was alive." He answered coldly, turning his head away. Shaw sighed in annoyance but kept holding the clone up. Falcon pointed his rifle down at the entrance to the ship. He wasn't able to move the elevator down, so his only option was to break it down. He fired several shots at the elevator's connection with the wall, and then kicking it down with his leg. The elevator broke off the wall and fell on the floor. "I go first." He said to Twilight who stood beside him. Then, he jumped down into the ship, holding his blaster ready in case some surprise was waiting there to meet him. Nothing like that happened though, the ship was as empty and broken as one might expect. He activated his flashlights and looked around into parts hidden by darkness. he saw what used to be a medical room in front of him. Now it was however serving as a small armory, filled with weapons ranging from small one-shot pistols, to Aratech sniper rifles and even a minigun. On his left, he saw a broken hyperdrive, and on right, what looked like ship's main room, with big holo communicator in the middle. "Clear." He said and Twilight immediately teleported inside. He was about to ask her to lead them to Rainbow, but he didn't have to. The moment she appeared on board of the ship, she immediately moved towards the room on the right. He followed her as she increased her pace and turned left, walking through darkness as if she could see everything perfectly. He turned left and went after her, before he managed to catch up to her, he heard her scream. “Rainbow!” Following the sound, Falcon reached the crew quarters on the left side of the ship, where he found Rainbow. Twilight was already using healing magic on her friend, who had multiple bruises all over her body, mostly on chest and stomach. Her left wing was unnaturally twisted and a bone in her back leg was openly broken, piercing through the skin. Outside of that there was nothing that stood out, but Falcon was sure she also had some internal damage. “Can you handle this until Fluttershy comes?” He asked the unicorn who was lying next to her friend. She nodded lightly, putting more focus in healing Rainbow as much as her limited healing abilities allow. Rainbow though, managed to turn her head towards him. “Thanks...” She muttered. Falcon nodded in response and turned around. He rose his weapon again, beginning to search the ship for any other hostile droids. If there was one, who’s to say that there’s no more. He returned to the main part of the ship, from where he approached another small room that used to be sealed with blast doors but as it seems they were ripped out, likely during the crush. There was nothing inside, so he quickly moved away from the room and moved to the front of the ship. He walked into a communications canter. It looked like HK have turned it into his personal loading station. Shaw should have a look at this. Leaving the communications room behind, Falcon moved into the cockpit. There was absolutely nothing that could work here. Half of the cockpit was smashed against the stone wall of the cliff the ship has crushed into, making anything on that side look like it went through a hydraulic press. Everything else was equally unusable. Falcon continued to search the ship, but found no more droids. There were some training droids that he’s seen Sakri using several times, but they were all either broken or deactivated. The smashed them all apart to make sure though. You can never know what an assassin droid may plan for during four thousand years. He also found some tools lying around the garage, but obviously none of them worked anymore. He activated his com link. “Shaw, where are you?” “I just dragged half-dead Tracker to the ship. Fluttershy’s taking care of him now.” The engineer replied. “Tell her to come here when she’s done.” He said as he started to walk back towards the crew quarters where Twilight was taking care of Rainbow. “I’ll let her know.” With that said, Shaw ended the transmission. He turned towards Fluttershy, who was wrapping bandage around Tracker’s wounded stomach, ignoring commando who looked almost offended by the idea of the Pegasus handling his wounds. “Fluttershy, when you’re done I’m taking you into the ship. Seems like Rainbow could use some help.” He said. “No need to wait, I’m already done here.” She replied. “Finally...” Tracker muttered, earning himself a annoyed look from Fluttershy who was picking up a saddle bag with medical supplies they took. The mare turned around and flew up onto the ship, as Shaw climbed up. “I swear, I’m going to punch him at some point if that keeps up.” She said in annoyance when they were away from Tracker’s range of hearing. “Yeah, I can tell why, but you have to understand that for him that’s a defence mechanism.” He started. “He’s already lost his squad twice. Tell me, do you have any siblings.” She looked at him with questioning look. “Yes, I have a younger brother and older sister.” “You love them?” She nodded, still not understanding where he’s going with it. “So imagine how would it feel if you had to watch them die?” She stopped in place. “Imagine that you have to watch your whole family die. Twice.” Her head slowly turned back. “He had to watch it, and right now, I think he just wants to keep others away as much as possible to make sure he won’t have to watch people he cares for die." Her ears dropped. Shaw was about to continue, but suddenly another voice cut in. "Suggestion: If that's the case, then why won't he simply kill himself to be sure?" Quickly recognizing the voice as the one that came from the comlink when Rainbow was shot down, Shaw turned around and pointed his weapon at the droid that lied on the ship. It was not moving though. Only it's eyes were lit up. "Statement: Ah, yes. You must be surprised by the fact that I am still functioning despite your friends seemingly destroying me. Explanation: While I was in service of Darth Malgus on board of his space station, I was granted several upgrades that expanded my killing efficiency. Among those upgrades, are systems that allow me to repair myself from most of the damages inflicted upon me. This is why I was not destroyed when the ponies decided to send their best to destroy me.” “Self repair module you say...” He eyed the droid again. It didn’t look like it was planning anything, but then again, it’s still a droid. Let’s see how good it is. He fired several shots at the droid, making the light in its eyes disappear again. He turned to Fluttershy who despite the droid’s sudden revival was still closed in her own world, thinking about something really hard. Shaw heard his com link activation, and answered the call. “I’ll explain later.” He answered, already knowing what they were going to ask about. He focused his attention on the pegasus again. “Come on. We should go.” He gave her a little push forward. This snapped her out of her trance and after a moment of confusion she jumped down into the ship. Shaw was about to follow, but not before grabbing the droid by the leg and pulling it into the ship with him. “Watch out.” He called out to the pegasus before dropping the droid into the ship and coming down himself. The mare looked at the red droid that fell next to her. “Are you sure it’s not going to get up?” “It probably will, that’s why I’m going to take it apart and see what it’s made of. Who knows, maybe we’ll find some use for it. Perhaps I’ll even be able to reprogram it to make it work for us.” “Statement: That won’t be necessary, meatbags.” Yet again the droid spoke up. Fluttershy yelped in surprise and hid behind Shaw. “Explanation: I’ve already expressed willingness to serve under the human that defeated me before. After said event, I find myself even more willing to do so. That is also why I didn’t wait until more of my systems are repaired and then attacking you with the element of surprise on my side.” Fluttershy slowly walked out from behind Shaw’s legs, staring at the droid. “What have you done to Rainbow Dash?” She asked in unusually cold tone. “Answer: Why, I merely forced her to answer my questions through several minutes of constantly inflicting pain on her. I didn’t have time to do any lasting damage though. The fall from the shy did more damage than my conversation with her. Disappointment: I didn’t even have the time to warm up.” Like previously with Twilight, the droid’s casual statement about torturing her friend proved to be too much for the timid pegasus. She grabbed the pistol from the holster and pointed it at the droid, shooting it in the head. She then slowly looked at the pistol in her hoof. She was shaking a bit, which was understandable. This may have been a droid, but in her mind, she just shot something with an intend to kill. “Why did I...” “Don’t worry. It’s just a droid.” Shaw said and activated his com link. „Commander, where is Rainbow?” „Crew quarters on the left. Go to the central room and go after the light, Twilight’s using magic on her but she can only stop the bleeding and ease pain. Rainbow has both wings, leg and at least two ribs broken.” The commander replied. “Alright, I’m sending Fluttershy.” He said and turned to the pegasus. “Come with me.” Grabbing the droid’s leg again, the clone went into the ship’s main room where he immediately noticed a purple light coming from the left. “Go there.” He said to the pegasus. “I’ll stay here and take that thing apart. I’ll also see if I can get the lights to work.” Fluttershy nodded, and despite still being in shock after shooting the droid, walked into crew quarters to help her friend. Shaw sat on what used to be a holo projector in the center of the room and grabbed some tools from his belt, placing them at his side. “Well, let’s get to work.” Few hours later, most of the ship was lit up after Shaw have fixed the lights. Before he did that though, he took the HK apart to make sure it won’t be able to get up. Right now everyone was in the center of the ship, where Falcon have called them. Rainbow was sleeping on some old blankets they’ve taken from the crew quarters, with Fluttershy allowing her to rest her head on her body like on a pillow. The droid was completely deactivated, with its power core gone it wouldn’t do anything, but Shaw have also removed it’s head, legs and arms, just to be sure. Falcon looked around the room, eying Tracker who was sitting on the side of the room opposite to Fluttershy, occasionally looking in the direction of the pegasus only to quickly look away after a moment. He had his whole stomach in bandages. Falcon guessed that HK have overloaded his rifle’s battery before shooting. That’s the only explanation why this one shot managed to penetrate both Tracker’s armor, and also the energy shield that protected him. “Alright, listen up everyone.” He spoke up, focusing everyone’s attention on himself. “To say that this escapade turned out different from what we expected is an understatement. It’s going to get dark soon, and we have to get to the town before that happens. I’ll go back there myself and take the gunship here.” “Alone?” Twilight said. “Shouldn’t you at least take Shaw with you? It’s dangerous out there at night.” “That’s why I have to go alone.” He replied. “I’m not going to make it before it gets dark and predators start crawling out, and with all of you on the ship, it’s almost certain that something will come here. You’ll need someone to hold the position until I return, and Tracker is hardly in condition to do this alone.” Commando was about to protest, but somehow Fluttershy managed to stare him down into obedience. “I’ll leave immediately. You’re in charge for now Shaw. Make sure they’re safe.” Shaw nodded. “And remember to set up that beacon you took, It’ll make getting back here much easier.” Falcon grabbed his rifle and walked over to the hole in the ship. He jumped, grabbing the edges of the hole and pulling himself up. He looked back one more time, before jumping off the ship. He looked at the sun as it was slowly moving towards the horizon. It would still be at least two hours before it got dark enough for most predators to wake up, so he decided to use those two hours to get as far as he could. He started to slowly increase his speed until he was running through the forest. There was no need for him to stop in order to check the direction. The whole time they were walking towards the ship, he’s been marking that way through his helmet. Now all he needed to do was follow the line his helmet was displaying. Falcon was running fast, but in the end he wasn’t able to make it to the edge of the forest before the night came. He was about half an hour of running away from the entrance of the forest, but he decided to slow down. He knew enough about the predators living in the Everfree to not tempt them by running around. He rose his weapon up, preparing it to fire. He was walking slowly, watching out for any noise. He might have been a bit too cautious, but if even half of what he knows about those creatures is true, then he sure as hell wanted to avoid meeting them. The forest was completely silent though. Save for the wind messing with leaves, there was no sound that would suggest something other than him was around. He increased his pace a bit, but occasionally slowed down to listen again. He was lucky, nothing came after him until he was at the entrance. And even though the creatures of this forest are deadly, none would dare to leave its borders by more than few meters. As if the forest itself wanted to keep them inside. Commander looked back into the darkness of the forest again, hoping that the rest were as lucky as he was. Shaw and Twilight were sitting on top of the ship, leaning against the stone wall of the cliff. Shaw had his rifle lying at his side, as he looked over the edges of the forest, looking out for anything that might come to attack them. “Hey, Twilight.” He said. “I hope you’re not angry with us wanting to reactivate that droid.” “Of course I am.” She said, but with no real anger in her voice. “But I also get it that you all look at those droids differently than we would, so I guess that as long as nothing like that happens again I’ll be ok with it.” “Well, you might be interested in the thing I’ve found in the communications center.” She looked at him. Shaw couldn’t see that in the dark, but Twilight was blushing a bit. On the other hand, Twilight couldn’t see that he was also blushing a bit under the helmet. “This droid figured out a way to transfer magical energy into a power source for itself.” Her face was immediately filled with curiosity. “I’ve been thinking about-“ “Do you know what that means!?” She screamed in excitement. “This can be exactly what we needed to finish working on Ectoplast! If we-“ Shaw grabbed her by the muzzle and forced her to be quiet. “I know, I know. You don’t have to spell this out for me.” He said. “Especially not now, and not this loud.” He released her muzzle. She rubbed her muzzle with hoof. “I hate it when you do that.” She said as she sat back on her spot at clone’s side. “Changing the subject, did you notice that Fluttershy is starting to… well, I guess you could say she’s trying to force Tracker into being friends with her.” “Yeah, I know what you mean. When I told her about him losing his squad twice she was really deep in though. I think she-“ He fell silent in the middle of sentence. Before Twilight had a chance to question him about it, Shaw grabbed his weapon and rushed towards the edge of the ship, quietly telling Twilight to go back to the ship. His black armor allowed him to perfectly bled into the darkness of the night as he lied flat on the edge of the ship, pointing his rifle towards something that was moving in the distance. He put on his macrobinoculars with night vision on, and looked at the moving spot, immediately tightening his grasp on the weapon. A pack of timberwolves was approaching the ship. Falcon had him study the creatures that live here at least superficially. He knew that those wolves fall apart easily when you hit them in the right spot, but despite that they are incredibly hard to kill unless you burn their bodies, otherwise they just reassemble themselves. He also read that in big enough groups, they can transform their bodies into one bigger wolf. However, the problem with that tactic is that they can’t reform themselves again if they get destroyed. Which is easy to do if you have a range weapon and can aim. Shaw had his blaster pointed at the wolf in front, but didn’t shoot. There was still a chance that they will leave, and the moment he starts shooting, he will give his position away not only to the wolves but to every creature that is nearby. He looked over his shoulder, checking if Twilight hid as he asked. She was looking at him from the hole that was their entrance. Now a bit less concerned about her safety, Shaw focused back on the wolves. Unfortunately, they didn’t walk away. The opposite in fact. They were now spreading into smaller groups that were surrounding them. Shaw counted at least 20 of them in there, but he could be wrong. Getting surrounded was the last thing he wanted right now, and since it was obvious to him that there’s no way to avoid this fight, he opened fire. First wolves fell down within seconds. Shaw’s blaster rifle was a perfect weapon against them, as all it takes for them to start burning, is a little more than spark. That is why they usually don’t go around during the day. They can catch fire just from the sun if it’s hot enough. The moment Shaw shot each of them, they would burst into green flames that covered their bodies. It didn’t look like this fire was doing anything to the forest around it, so Shaw quickly deduced it is magical in nature. Now knowing that they got spotted, the wolves started to run towards Shaw’s position as fast as they could. Shaw got most of them, but he didn’t have enough time to take care of all of them. Five wolves have managed to reach the ship and started to climb on top of it. Shaw took out two more before the others climbed all the way up. He was forced to jump away from his position to avoid the first one’s jaw, but the two remaining ones have stormed him and pushed down. Their jaws closed around his arms, and their teeth bit into the spots that were not protected by the plastoid plates. He groaned in pain as the two wolves started to shake his arms right and left. The third wolf charged at him as well, aiming to bite into his throat, but was stopped when Shaw kicked it in the head with his boot, making it fall apart. Luckily for him, the two wolves that were trying to rip his arms out, soon burst into flames as Twilight have lit them up with magic. Once he was free, Shaw forced himself to get up and despite the pain ripping through his arms, picked up his rifle and shot the wolf he kicked just as it was about to reassemble. “Shaw!” He heard Twilight say. Soon after that, he was forced to lie down by an invisible force and the purple mare run up to his side. “Are you okay? No, wait. Don’t answer. I can see you’re not. Wait here, I’ll call Fluttershy.” She was just about to turn around and run, before she felt Shaw’s arm pushing her away with enough force to make her stumble few meters away. “What the-!?” She was about to question it, before she heard it. And when she heard it, fear filled her mind. She looked up, following the sound of screeching she heard. And she saw it. She saw what for most unicorns meant death. A harpy was flying down, right on the spot where she was standing just a moment ago. Harpies were giant birds living in the Everfree, known for complete invulnerability to magic, combined with possessing magic abilities of an advanced magus, strength of an earth pony and ability to fly, which made them into the absolutely most dangerous predators of Everfree. They are strong enough to crush manticore’s scull with their giant claws, and then grab the corpse and fly away with it. They’re almost are big as humans, but about twice as heavy. They are among few creatures that have no problems leaving Everfree forest even if they rarely do so. The last time one was seen outside of the forest was about 50 years ago, it killed five ponies and ate them in the middle of street. They’re known to be intelligent, and extremely cruel. They seem to enjoy their victim’s suffering, which is understandable, as harpies are creations of black magic. Ponies that the harpy that left the Everfree killed 50 years ago were alive for most of the process, forced to endure the pain of being slowly eaten alive as the others were forced to watch and wait for their turn. Harpies seemed to enjoy killing unicorns, but the reason is unknown. There are ancient rumors that harpies are actually alicorns corrupted by black magic, but everyone who ever tried to find evidence ended up eaten by a harpy. Twilight could only watch as the harpy dives down onto one creature that was still there - Shaw. She wanted to do something, but she couldn’t. She was paralyzed with fear. Her vision was failing. Her heart was beating slower with each beat. That was all the effect harpies have on ponies. Especially those sensitive to the Force. She could do nothing as she was forced to watch the harpy’s claws grabbing Shaw’s shoulders with enough force for the armor to crack. The giant bird lifted the clone into the air, and quickly dropped him down. Shaw screamed in pain as he felt more bones being broken after the impact. He forced himself to grab blaster pistol and shoot at the bird. The harpy got hit once before it reached him again, but didn’t even seem to feel that. Twilight was still paralyzed, but managed to focus her magic enough to levitate the knife Falcon allowed her to keep towards Shaw just as the harpy got to him again. It landed on clone’s chest, and attacked him with its beak. Shaw lifted his arm to protect himself. His armor withstood the attack, but his bone didn’t. He had no time to let that bother him though. He was already reaching for the knife Twilight have thrown towards him, and before the harpy attacked the second time, Shaw’s hand was already aiming the knife for the bird’s throat. The sharp blade easily pierced the harpy’s thick skin and forced it to back down. That quickly turned out to not be enough though. The harpy simply pulled the knife out of its throat, and held it in its claw as it flew towards the clone again, more pissed off than hurt. Shaw tried to grab his pistol, but he would not make it before the Harpy got to him. However, before that happened, someone else shot the harpy. The bird was forced to back off as it was hit with several shots from Tracker’s rifle. Fluttershy was next to him, but she appeared to be in the same stated Twilight was, though Twilight seemed to have it worse. Still firing at the harpy, Tracker approached Shaw, he was back in his armor despite the damage it took. The harpy was not going to let that bother it. Despite being hit by no less than ten blaster bolts and having it’s throat pierced, it was still more going at it barely slowed down at all. A bloody aura appeared around it and its iris turned red as it landed heavily on the ship, making the whole thing shake. Both Shaw and Tracker, who so far were immune to harpy’s paralyzing aura, stopped in one place just like Twilight and Fluttershy. The harpy spread its giant wings wide and prepared to attack. But something stopped it. Something small and black, barely visible in the darkness of the night. The bloody aura around the harpy disappeared as the small object flew into its eyehole, and soon came out on the other side of the skull, scattering the brain of the harpy on the ship’s plating. Now that the mysterious object was covered in blood, the group that was now free of the harpy's influence, could tell that it was another bird. At least they thought it was a bird. It disappeared into smoke a moment after that. Twilight fell on the ground, taking a sharp breath and grabbing onto her heart in pain. She felt Shaw grabbing her hoof, but before they said anything, Tracker yelled towards them. "Get the others here! We have a lot of incoming hostiles coming from the forest!" He started to fire his rifle. "Everyone take weapons and join me here. I can't hold that many of them for long!" Shaw forced himself up as Fluttershy run down into the ship to call for help. He looked at the forest and froze. The timberwolves had some friends. Hundreds of them. All charging towards the ship. He helped Twilight to get up and grab her pistol before the two of them joined Tracker. The three of them were not enough though. The hoard of wolves quickly got to the ship and climbed up. Twilight focused the little energy she had after the harpy's paralysis spell into a shockwave that repealed the wolves that got to close, but that was only a temporary solution. She had no energy left to do something like that again, and a lack of magic energy was not something that most unicorns take well. And Twilight was no exception. She felt dizzy, and weak immediately after casting the spell. She ignored that though. The danger in front of her was much more serious than felling dizzy. The others joined them soon, but that was still not enough. the seven of them were simply not enough to repeal that many targets for long. They were surrounded, and only two of them were actual soldiers. Soon, it was not only wolves that were charging towards them. Many more monstrous creatures attacked them, cockatrices among them. It was like the entire forest was trying to kill them. It looked grim and hopeless for them, but, yet again, just as everything was about to end, a rescue came. The whole line of wolves was wiped out when a series of explosions ripped through the area between the ship and the forest, annihilating every wolf in area. The group looked up, as the gunship piloted by Falcon flew down, stopping in front of them. The hatches on the gunship’s sides opened. “Get inside and someone grab that minigun!” Falcon yelled through the commlink. They didn’t need an encouragement to get to safety. Only Tracker came back into the ship to get Rainbow out of there. When he was at it, the others defended the gunship. The minigun Falcon spoke of was too much for Shaw to use, so Rarity and Applejack used it. Neither could use it on their own as despite her strength Applejack couldn’t lift it and shoot at the same time, and Rarity was unable to lift it even with magic. Therefore, Rarity used her magic to point and fire the weapon, while Applejack lifted it on her back. With the help of the heavy weapon, they were able to repel the forest creatures for long enough for Tracker to bring now awake Rainbow Dash to the ship. Falcon flew away as soon as they were on board, closing the hatches as he got high enough. “Sorry for the wait. Is everyone alright?” Commander said from the pilot seat, looking back at them. Fluttershy was surprisingly already working on Shaw’s injured arm, almost unfazed the situation they just got out of. Tracker obviously didn’t care much. This kind of things happen to him way too often to give it much thought. The rest was hardly all right though. They were either lying on the ground panting hard, or leaning against the walls of the ship. “Ya know…” Applejack spoke up, holding her hoof against her chest as she calmed down with deep breaths. “Out of all the times we saved Equestria… from Nightmare Moon, from Discord… hell, even that changeling invasion… Ah don’t think we ever looked so close into death’s eyes…” Falcon didn’t respond. There was nothing for him to say. As only so much you can teach all, he knew that there’s only so much a soldier can learn from training and simulations. He knew that to be ready a soldier must face the death itself. It’s been an hour since Falcon got everyone back to Ponyville. He landed the gunship next to the hospital, causing a bit of a panic within the staff and patients that were awake. After giving them a false story about what happened, Rainbow, Tracker and Shaw were left in the hospital to recover while the others were free to go after getting examined by Abuyin. Twilight and Fluttershy stayed in the hospital along with Falcon, but they quickly fell asleep next to Shaw’s and Tracker’s beds respectively. Falcon wasn’t really sleepy. He kept staring at the moon through the window, thinking about how they got into this new world. One question kept floating in his mind: ‘Do I even want to come back?’ If he was anyone else, the answer would probably be ‘no’. After all, who would want to come back to war torn galaxy, knowing he’ll end up on the front line? Knowing that he’ll just keep fighting and watching his brothers die until he himself will succumb to the war’s death toll? No one who wasn’t created for this. He sighed deeply and got up, looking over at the sleeping bodies of his fellow soldiers and friends. He’s already made sure to put Twilight into Shaw’s bed, this time with no rope. He didn’t do the same with Fluttershy though. Knowing Tracker, he’ll be more pissed than embarrassed. Falcon left the room, only to walk into another one. In this one, the rest of survivors from the crush rested, save for Sakri, who was in a separate room. He knew that they were going to be waking up soon. Hopefully Rook will be able to make it. Even now his survival is not certain. The others don’t have quite as severe damage, so for the most part he was calm about them. He walked out of this room as well, now moving towards the room where Sakri lied alone. He smiled slightly and have out a short laugh as he thought about her. He still remembered how the two of them met and what he thought of her. At first he though she was nothing more than another annoying newbie to deal with and lecture every time she screws up. But in the end she proved to be the opposite. And he didn’t expect how close they would get after a while of saving each other’s lives and fighting alongside each other. He opened the door to her room and walked inside. But something was wrong. Wrong enough to make him freeze the moment he walked in. Sakri wasn’t lying in her bed. She was sitting up, covering herself with blanket as she looked at her arm. More precisely, at the lacking hand at the end of that arm. Her expression was that of someone in deep thought, an unusual sight as she usually doesn’t act serious unless she has to. She looked up at him and immediately her expression turned into a cocky grin, something more typical for her. “Hi there. Came to see me naked?” Falcon snapped out of this and quickly made a step forward. “You’re awake?” He asked. “Sure I am. What, did you expect? That I’ll be lying here forever while you drool all over me naked body? Sorry, but that nap went on for long enough. Now sit down and-” She didn’t finish. Falcon quickly rushed towards her and before she got to react, he embraced her tightly. She smiled and hugged him as well. “Missed me that much, didn’t you?” She said in much softer tone. “You could say that.” Falcon replied. “How long have you been awake?” He pulled away and sat on the nearby chair. “Few minutes. But I was aware for about an hour or so.” With a deep breath, she fell onto the bed. “Last thing I remember is you saving me from Grievous. How did we end up… well, not dead? No offence to your expert fighting skills, but I think that guy is slightly out of your league.” “I activated the hyperspace jump and it took us here.” He answered simply. “And where is ‘here’?” “We’re somewhere in the Unknown Regions, likely at the edge of the galaxy. It’s been about a month since I woke up and three since ‘Intrepid’ crushed on this planet’s moon. Surface to say, a lot has happened since then.” “I’m sure it’s all very interesting, but there’s one thing that I just remembered.” She said, a playful grin started to spread on her face again. ”Remember what I said after you saved me from that rocket?” After hiding behind a cover, Sakri levitated a grenade from a dead clone’s belt to her hand and threw it towards the group of droids. At the same time, another Super Battle Droid picked her as a target and fired a rocket towards her. She didn’t manage to react in time, but before the missile hit her, she felt something pulling her back to cover. Shortly after that two explosions shook the corridor. Sakri looked behind to see her savior. Obviously, it was Falcon saving her life again. “Damn it, keep this up and I might kiss you.” She said playfully. “I’ll take your word for it.” “Oh right. I remember you saying something like that. What about it?” He grinned as well. “Well…” She looked at him with half lifted eyes. “You did save me from Grievous, so…” Her hand shot out towards Falcon, grabbing him by the back of his head. She immediately pulled him towards her and pressed their lips together as both of her arms wrapped themselves tightly around him. Falcon didn’t remain passive. His own arms pulled her close as he pushed her down onto the bed. She didn’t protest, instead pushing her tongue into his mouth. She separated not long after that though. “How much time do we have?” She asked quietly. “Enough.”