Scruffy Lookin’ Nerfherder
OOC: Was going to make this a private thread, but I figured if any Remnant members wanted to hop in they are more than welcome.
@[member="Viera Kisep"]
A soft chirping woke Seth from his haunting dreams. Brown eyes glanced around the room. The chirping. It was his comm. Palms sweaty, he tore the covers off and leapt from the bed. Nervous fingers found the comm hidden underneath his bedside table and activated it.
He took a deep breath, "This is Royal Guard Shorn. Authorization code alpha-beta-zulu-bravo-niner. Go."
"Shorn, the timetable has been accelerated. It must take place tomorrow." A woman's voice.
"Understood," he said. The comm clicked off. The Voice in his head had been right. He would have to kill them. Dent, Irys, Savio. All of them.
Seth began to get dressed. The plan was already in place, though he had not expected it to be put into action so soon. It was time to undo the spider's web. He finished zipping up his flight suit and glanced back at his quarters. Then, he left. Leaving everything behind but his clothes, his comlink, and his blasterpistol.
~ ~ ~
The next day
Irys' scheduled meeting gathered all the senior officers of Galactic Republic Intelligence together. GRI agents sat all around the room. One spot was empty. Shorn's. The Bothan scratched his furry head. Not like the man to be late. He was peticular to a fault. Strange. Quite strange. No matter, Seth could be filled in wih what he'd missed later. Along with a reprimand. Irys opened his mouth-
Alarms shrieked. Red lights came on in the room, flooding it with color. Fear flooded the Bothan. His mouth clacked shut. Those alarms would only come on for one reason. If the GRI tower was under attack.
"What the hell is going on?" Dent roared. "Someone give me a sitrep!"
The sitrep came in the form of the window wall overlooking Coruscant shattering as two missiles shrieked through. Irys closed his eyes. He felt the sudden heat of the explosion, intense and burning. Immense light seared through his eyelids. The shockwave rippled through the air, picking him up and throwing him like a ragdoll. He hit something hard. Excruciating pain rolled through him as something snapped with a sound like dry wood breaking over a knee.
His eyes blinked open, stars flashing before his eyes. He lay on his side. He tried to stand, but his legs wouldn't move. He looked down. Mutilated stumps stared back. Nausea. He threw up.
Watering eyes turned to the rest of the briefing room. Small fires burned amidst the shattered table, overturned chairs, and scattered bodies. Irys didn't see any of them moving. The full horror of the situation sinking in, Irys' eyes turned to a single chair, standing. Empty. Seth Shorn. Somehow, someway, they had been betrayed.
~ ~ ~ Coruscant Skies ~ ~ ~
"Imperial Command, this is Royal Guard Shorn. The mission is complete. I repeat, the mission is complete."
Seth Shorn piloted his U-wing away from the burning GRI building, pushing sublight engines to their full power as he raced to break orbit. He did not spare a backward glance for the men and women he had just killed. Two concussion missiles. Right through the window. The jammers did their work. They hadn't picked up on his starfighter until he was within line of sight and by then....
Brown eyes grew hard. The Voice hadn't spoken to him in the last five hours. He knew it wouldn't return. The Voice had always been him. Reminding himself of the mission. Why did he do it? Where was the man of compassion who had died defending freedom only a year ago? Was he just a clone with no soul? All questions the Voice didn't answer. He was whole again, in his mind. But he found himself feeling more hollow than ever.
The Shrike-class Interceptor broke orbit in less than twenty seconds. Stars stretched around the cockpit and the starfighter leaped into hyperspace.
~ ~ ~ Bastion, Imperial Remnant ~ ~ ~
The debriefing room was occupied by a single being. For the moment. Seth Shorn wore the red armor and cloak of a Royal Guard, clad at last in the garb of his true identity. He waited in the chair, staring at the door. The soft-brown eyes were unwavering. His helmet rested on the table in front of him. He longed to put it on. To hide.
Once, Royal Guards were shrouded in secrecy, their numbers and names kept entirely secret by the paranoid Emperor Palpatine. The reincarnation of the Empire in the form of the Remnant was not quite so paranoid. These days, Royal Guards were utilized more as commandos, although they could be relegated to guard duty as well. Strange, how litte things had changed in almost a millenia. The Gulag Plague's wreckage of the galaxy had caused a slow technological advance forward. Though new governments ruled, they still used many of the same weapons and armor as their ancestors. Just like the Royal Guards did.
It was strange, how Seth had been put into the Royal Guard. He had been flash trained at an accelerated rate. A prototype developed by Imperial Army Science. Did it bother Seth that he was a clone? Yes, sometimes. Did it make his loyalty waver? No. How could it, when loyalty was programmed into his genes.
The door opened.
@[member="Viera Kisep"]
A soft chirping woke Seth from his haunting dreams. Brown eyes glanced around the room. The chirping. It was his comm. Palms sweaty, he tore the covers off and leapt from the bed. Nervous fingers found the comm hidden underneath his bedside table and activated it.
He took a deep breath, "This is Royal Guard Shorn. Authorization code alpha-beta-zulu-bravo-niner. Go."
"Shorn, the timetable has been accelerated. It must take place tomorrow." A woman's voice.
"Understood," he said. The comm clicked off. The Voice in his head had been right. He would have to kill them. Dent, Irys, Savio. All of them.
Seth began to get dressed. The plan was already in place, though he had not expected it to be put into action so soon. It was time to undo the spider's web. He finished zipping up his flight suit and glanced back at his quarters. Then, he left. Leaving everything behind but his clothes, his comlink, and his blasterpistol.
~ ~ ~
The next day
Irys' scheduled meeting gathered all the senior officers of Galactic Republic Intelligence together. GRI agents sat all around the room. One spot was empty. Shorn's. The Bothan scratched his furry head. Not like the man to be late. He was peticular to a fault. Strange. Quite strange. No matter, Seth could be filled in wih what he'd missed later. Along with a reprimand. Irys opened his mouth-
Alarms shrieked. Red lights came on in the room, flooding it with color. Fear flooded the Bothan. His mouth clacked shut. Those alarms would only come on for one reason. If the GRI tower was under attack.
"What the hell is going on?" Dent roared. "Someone give me a sitrep!"
The sitrep came in the form of the window wall overlooking Coruscant shattering as two missiles shrieked through. Irys closed his eyes. He felt the sudden heat of the explosion, intense and burning. Immense light seared through his eyelids. The shockwave rippled through the air, picking him up and throwing him like a ragdoll. He hit something hard. Excruciating pain rolled through him as something snapped with a sound like dry wood breaking over a knee.
His eyes blinked open, stars flashing before his eyes. He lay on his side. He tried to stand, but his legs wouldn't move. He looked down. Mutilated stumps stared back. Nausea. He threw up.
Watering eyes turned to the rest of the briefing room. Small fires burned amidst the shattered table, overturned chairs, and scattered bodies. Irys didn't see any of them moving. The full horror of the situation sinking in, Irys' eyes turned to a single chair, standing. Empty. Seth Shorn. Somehow, someway, they had been betrayed.
~ ~ ~ Coruscant Skies ~ ~ ~
"Imperial Command, this is Royal Guard Shorn. The mission is complete. I repeat, the mission is complete."
Seth Shorn piloted his U-wing away from the burning GRI building, pushing sublight engines to their full power as he raced to break orbit. He did not spare a backward glance for the men and women he had just killed. Two concussion missiles. Right through the window. The jammers did their work. They hadn't picked up on his starfighter until he was within line of sight and by then....
Brown eyes grew hard. The Voice hadn't spoken to him in the last five hours. He knew it wouldn't return. The Voice had always been him. Reminding himself of the mission. Why did he do it? Where was the man of compassion who had died defending freedom only a year ago? Was he just a clone with no soul? All questions the Voice didn't answer. He was whole again, in his mind. But he found himself feeling more hollow than ever.
The Shrike-class Interceptor broke orbit in less than twenty seconds. Stars stretched around the cockpit and the starfighter leaped into hyperspace.
~ ~ ~ Bastion, Imperial Remnant ~ ~ ~
The debriefing room was occupied by a single being. For the moment. Seth Shorn wore the red armor and cloak of a Royal Guard, clad at last in the garb of his true identity. He waited in the chair, staring at the door. The soft-brown eyes were unwavering. His helmet rested on the table in front of him. He longed to put it on. To hide.
Once, Royal Guards were shrouded in secrecy, their numbers and names kept entirely secret by the paranoid Emperor Palpatine. The reincarnation of the Empire in the form of the Remnant was not quite so paranoid. These days, Royal Guards were utilized more as commandos, although they could be relegated to guard duty as well. Strange, how litte things had changed in almost a millenia. The Gulag Plague's wreckage of the galaxy had caused a slow technological advance forward. Though new governments ruled, they still used many of the same weapons and armor as their ancestors. Just like the Royal Guards did.
It was strange, how Seth had been put into the Royal Guard. He had been flash trained at an accelerated rate. A prototype developed by Imperial Army Science. Did it bother Seth that he was a clone? Yes, sometimes. Did it make his loyalty waver? No. How could it, when loyalty was programmed into his genes.
The door opened.
