Enemies: The Sith Empire
Ravelin, Residential Sector
Lower Levels
Mission: Revenge
Glass shards and rubble dug into Khagan's arms as he crawled. Torn bandages snagged on the remnants of Ravelin's skycutters as he pulled himself along. From the other side of the street, red bolts of superheated plasma continued to fly, cutting down the greenery that sheltered him from view just overhead. Stray bits of permacrete pattered onto his back whenever the bolts blasted the skycutter's wall near him. The stormtrooper's barrage had been so relentless that a cloud of dust now settled over the debris around Khagan.
Dust and smoke mixed and burned his lungs with each breath. He had to force himself not to burst into a coughing fit, even as his thoughts began to muddle and exhaustion overtook his muscles, atrophied after months without use. He pressed on, the pain in his arms a constant reminder to keep pushing toward the street's end.
The blaster fire grew louder. The stormtrooper was drawing closer to the line of plants that covered Khagan's advance.
He managed crawled a good distance since the first shots sounded in the street, but there was little doubt in his mind about the chances to remain unseen once the trooper cleared the way to the sidewalk Khagan was on.
It was a meeting more imminent than he would have liked. It was unlikely that he'd make it anywhere safe if he tried to run. The doors in the residential area required specialized codes that he didn't possess, and the streetcorner was still too far away for a quick dash to be enough. A confrontation was inevitable. The stormtrooper had the advantage in armour and weaponry, but Khagan held the element of surprise. The trooper would need to clear the greenery and look for Khagan before opening fire, which would cost him a precious second, maybe two, during which he'd be vulnerable.
Khagan rolled over and raised his blaster, holding it with both hands to steady his aim. Its barrel tracked the bright explosions of light beyond the row of bushes which kept him hidden from the trooper.
The bursts of red light grew closer and closer. Between the bolts, the silhouette of the stormtrooper's familiar bucket-shaped helmet and torso became visible though heavily obscured by leaves.
The pistol trembled in Khagan's hands. It wasn't a legionnaire coming toward him. This man was a New Imperial, and Khagan had known this. He'd snuck a glance of the trooper's white armour before the man disappeared into the diner. Nonetheless, the sudden reminder gave him pause. Shooting another Imperial, a man he'd called a brother only a few months ago, felt wrong. He wanted to call out the trooper and ask him to stand down, desperately so, but that brought the risk of recognition. If the stormtrooper knew who Khagan was, or relayed any identifying information to someone who did, then the last months would have been for nothing.
The blaster fire stopped abruptly, and the quiet click and continuous hum of a vibroblade filled in the silence. Moments later, a row of plants flew wide as a blade slashed through the green that left a broad opening to the street beyond. Another click and the hum died down. For several heartbeats the street was quiet. Khagan only heard his own laboured breaths. The stormtrooper's silhouette beyond the gap stood frozen in its place.
Khagan felt the bandages around his hands began to dampen as his hands continued to shake, though with less intensity. He took a deep breath, steeling himself for the moment to come, and steadied his arms as best he could.
The black barrel of a blaster rifle revealed itself first, shoving aside the remaining plants as it snapped from one side of the opening to the other. The quiet clacking of armour plates punctuated the silence that had settled over the street with each of the trooper's movements. His silhouette moved closer to the wall of green. More of the barrel pushed through the gap, part of a white-plated hand wrapped around its underside revealed itself through the leaves. The blaster's barrel wasn't far from having Khagan in its sights. Another clatter of plates announced the trooper's appearance. The pristinely white bucket helm poked through the opening, black visor already scanning for its target's exact position.
Khagan squeezed the trigger twice.
His blaster flared in two brief bursts of green light. Both bolts flew true, one striking the stormtrooper below the visor, the other square on its right side. The stormtrooper's head was flung back by the force of impact. The grip on his rifle weakened and it dropped to the ground, clattering into a mess of shattered glass. The trooper fell backwards, disturbing the greenery behind him as he crashed onto the permacrete street.
Forty heartbeats passed before Khagan dared to move again.
