Private The Lion’s Roar

[Grand Shepherd Burtch]

Floating.

Burtch found himself floating in the stars. He could breathe, but there was no floor under his feet. Just the endless void of space. He could breathe. He had no breathing equipment or EVA helmet to give him breathable oxygen. But he could tell that he was in space. And from the constellations around him, he figured he must be somewhere near dagobah.

But directly in front of him, there was another person. If one could call it that. A nude, bald woman. Her skin seemed to have no color, which baffled Burtch's mind. It could be green, blue, pink, or that one of those weird shades of brown that humans always had. But for some reason, the color of the woman's skin couldn't register in his mind. But she had glowing purple eyes that offset his own dull red Chiss eyes. In her left arm, she held a crude iron shield of ancient vintage. And in her right hand, she held a short iron sword.

And she was half a kilometer tall.

Burtch floated a couple hundred meters in front of her face. He looked into her eyes and she stared back into his. Those massive purple eyes were filled with fury, duty, and longing. They were the eyes of a warrior, eager for glory. And they called to him on a level that he could not understand. He belonged to her, and she belonged to him. That much was certainly clear.

After a long time of staring, she finally opened her mouth - unnaturally wide, in a frightening manner. From deep inside her throat, what looked like the plume of an ION thruster began to glow. She began to roar, it sounded like the engines on a light cruiser, burning through the atmosphere of a habitable world. The roar threatened to deafen him! The heat from the ION plume began to seer his flesh, and he raised his hand just in time to watch it disintegrate from the heat and pressure…

… Burtch startled awake, jerking his head off his desk. It took him a moment to sort out where he was and he realized that he must've fallen asleep while grading papers. His ears still seemed to ring with the sound of the giant woman's roar.

He decided he shouldn't let himself fall behind any further on his papers, so he began visually scanning the files on his computer - but then stopped himself. His dream had rocked him in a way that dreams rarely ever did. He knew what it meant too right away, but this had been far more intense than he was comfortable admitting. It reflected a feeling he had been experiencing for the past few months now, and he knew that the feeling was beginning to grow into something more dangerous. And the way it had rocked him told him it was time for a change. He had been away from his duty for far too long. It was time to come home.

In that moment, a decision was made. He keyed his desk comm to his secretary, "Patch me through to Admiral Keatoch . I need to talk to him."

 

[Keatoch]

Above Mandalore
​

Keatoch was in bed. Though he was wide awake. Even for the admiral, the standard beds were perhaps the most uncomfortable sleep a man could get. Cold Durasteel frames threatened to chill one to the bone if they were to shift too far in any direction, a metal bar ran horizontally under the mattress, but stuck up enough to cause general discomfort if any rib were to be against it with any pressure applied. The mattress itself was far from comfortable...it was amazing that gravity alone didn't push it down to the minimum. The sheets were light and made noise every time they were moved. At least the temperature control in the room was perfect, and the humming of the ship's systems created a white noise that could put any infant asleep within seconds.

Perhaps it was good that he was unable to sleep, as this time he was being paged.

"Admiral Keatoch, sir, Commodore Burtch is calling from The Home Fleet."

"Patch him through."

"Yes sir."

The admiral quickly got to his feet, regretting his decision to sleep without boots on as the ice-cold floor sent chills from his feet straight through his spine. But he wouldn't have time to put on his boots...he needed to activate his comms device, which was left on the shelves directly across from the bed. A few brisk, cold steps later, he had the comms device in his hand. He activated it, took a few steps back, and climbed up to the bed. Sitting on it with his legs hanging off, he spoke, "Burtch, is everything alright?" ​

 

[Grand Shepherd Burtch]

Woah, that was fast.

Burtch was surprised to see that his older brother had responded immediately. Being Vice Admiral of the Mandalorian aide contingent, it was reasonable to assume that it would take a while for Keatoch to respond. The fact that Burtch had gotten through so quickly told him that this was a very good time to talk.

The problem was that Burtch had expected that he would've had more time to put his thoughts together, so he was lost for words. He hesitated, "y-yeah. I'm mostly ok. Thanks for getting back to me so quickly." He paused, getting his bearings. The dream still had him a bit shaken, "look, brother, I'm not really sure how to say this since we never really talked about it growing up. But…" It was hard to just say it. Chiss culture didn't really forgive whimsical notions, or any deviations from 'normal' for that matter, "did you ever get weird feelings, or instincts when we were younglings? Like things beyond the realm of what we understand?" He resisted the urge to breath a sigh. It took a lot for him to speak about this.

 

[Keatoch]

Keatoch listened to Burtch, immediately picking up on the uneasy tone his brother took. He was fine but clearly he was bothered by something. Sure enough the younger Chiss spoke again, asking if Keatoch had ever had supernatural feelings or instincts as a kid. The Admiral was confused...why was Burtch asking such a random question? And what did he mean? Keatoch had always been the best at everything...he had the best looks, the best reflexes, the best grades...so in a way, he did have unnatural talents, a gift, but was that what Burtch meant?

"I...suppose so, yes. Why?"

Keatoch put on his boots, then dropped down from the wall-mounted, retractable bed. Once down he sat the comms device down and began putting on his uniform. He would be heading to the bridge momentarily, since he was awake. May as well enjoy the view. ​

 

[Grand Shepherd Burtch]

Burtch could tell that his brother was confused by what he said, and it occurred to Burtch that his own brother was always naturally gifted. It wasn't news to him of course, but it affected how Keatoch probably perceived his own luck. While Keatoch was genuinely impressive as a prime Chiss specimen, Burtch had always observed that there were rare times when Keatoch would be right about something, or lucky in a way that simply had no realistic explanation for why or how it could be possible. But those occurrences were always paled in comparison to @Keatoch’s own masterful accomplishments that were achieved by genuine excellence. Most people always seemed to take the strange accomplishments in the same stride as they did with Keatoch's earned accomplishments, which kept the strange luck from getting any notice. Burtch was realizing that Keatoch carried the same assumptions as everyone else.

Burtch, on the other hand, struggled often to make any accomplishments on his own. He had only really managed to shine when he was a channel pilot for the First Order. In that line of work, he had begun to explore a special instinct he had for maneuvering large ships through dangerous environments. After beginning to hone that instinct for quite some time, he had begun to dismiss the instinct as skill and experience. But his dream and the way it felt reminded him that something was different about it.

Which is why he had hoped that Keatoch might be more aware of it himself, and could offer insight. But that was clearly an empty hope. Burtch decided to shove it aside and move on, "oh, never mind. It was nothing." He cleared his throat, "the training programs are moving along quite well here, and I think I've got our doctrines all sorted out now. But… if I'm being honest, I'm not really needed here anymore. I need to be on a ship - my ship, and I need to be using what I know. I would like to request a transfer back to the Shii-Cho.”