Star Wars: Echo Squad

Chapter 7: A Much Needed Talk

Me and my team entered the barn to an amazing sight to behold.

An AT-TE modified with extra armour plating stood in the center of the barn, with people standing under it, in it, on top of it, and above it on catwalks, each doing their own mods to it.

Colter: Holy shit... Thats one hell of a tank!

Hanna: That will most definatly get us through enemy lines!

Jaycen: It seems I may have under estimated your idea, Fenrir.

I walked up to the leg of the tank, not paying any mind to them.

Jaycen: Fenrir?

I put my hand in the leg.

Colter: I think he's having a moment.

All of a sudden, a loud voice called out to us from a Trooper.

Trooper: Echo Squad! Fenrir Lanus! I believe you ordered this things creation?

Me: Yeah...

Trooper: My name Sergeant Maxim Torres. Head engineer here. Also, your soon to by driver.

Me: I see...

Trooped: We've modified the hull to take an extra hit, and made the guns pack more of a punch. There's a lot more specifics I can go over, but I doubt you want to right now. If you'll follow me, sir.

He let me to an outcrop section of the barn, which had the rest of the stuff.

Soldiers were welding metal to hover carts and placing E-Web cannons on them.

The AT-RTs were off in the corner with their legs folded so they take less space.

On the wall, were leaned about thirty of the combat shields I wanted.

Me: Great job. Continue... As you were...

I walked away solemnly.

I made my way past my team, but Colter grabbed my shoulder.

Colter: Hey man, you alright?

I shrugged his hand off and walked out the barn.

I went around back, under an overhang, sat down on the wood floor with my back against the wall and ripped my helmet off, letting it drop to the floor.

The pain hit all at once as I was crushed under the weight of what I had done.

How many people have I killed...?

How many siblings won't see eachother again because of me...?

How many familes have I ripped apart...?

I put my hands to my face and started to cry harder.

Then I heard a creak in the floor.

I looked up and saw Rain standing over me.

I looked back down.

Me: I look pathetic, don't I?

Rain: Yeah...

I tried to get up, but Rain surprised e by sitting down next to me.

Rain: So... Your hurt by what you've done?

I nodded.

Rain: Look... I'm gonna say something that's not gonna help entirely, but it's the truth.

She sighed.

Rain: In out line of work, it's kill or be killed, and sometimes we don't have a choice. In the end, the purpose of our lives is to take other people's lives. Now, we must do what we can to survive, at any cost. I learned that the hard way...

Me: Yeah... I was in Crimson Dawn... We didn't care for the lives we took or ruined. We barely cared about eachother! Now... I just wish I could go back to that ignorance. I wish I could kill without feeling it...

Rain: Well... After a while, you stop feeling anything.

I looked at her in confusion.

Rain: When you've killed as many as I have, you start to become numb. All the terrified looks on your enemy's faces as you kill them, start to mean nothing. The Empire taught me that no live was greater than your own, in the end.

Me: The Empire...?

Rain: Yes, Fenrir. Once upon a time, I was an ISB Agent. However, I made a bad choice... One day, I was sent to assassinate and kill the members of a royal family who stood in the way of the Empire. I did just that... Except for one... The kid... The kid had that thing that all the Jedi do. The Force... And I knew, and still know why they wanted him dead because of that. They wanted to prevent him from becoming one of those Jedi monsters. Yet... I couldn't bring myself to kill him... It was the first real emotion I had felt in a long time. They never found the kid. And now we're here. I was imprisoned for treason, and invited to Division 0, and put on your team. My loyalties still lie with the Empire, just from a different view. I just...

I saw she was getting upset.

Rain: I had hoped my life would be better than this... I knew I should've just stayed on Coruscant as a kid!

I had never heard her speak above a quiet tone.

Rain: I hate this! I hate this so much!

Out of reflex, I put hand on hers.

I ment to do it in a way to get her to snap out of her rage, but I had been too soft.

She was shocked.

Me: I didn't mean it like that...

I took my hand away.

Me: Rain, I feel the pain you do, trust me. And who knows, maybe one day, we'll get out of here. The Empire has way too many more important things to take care of rather than look for a missing team. In the end it won't affect them.

Rain: Even if given the opportunity, I wouldn't take it. As I said, my loyalties are with the Empire, as they always were. I plan to die serving.

Me: Some day you'll regret that.

She didn't answer that.

All of a sudden the door opened beside us.

I expected it to be Colter to tease us, or Hanna to beckon us back inside, but no.

Instead, Inquisitor Raze stood there.

Raze: Are you two ready? The mission happens soon.

Me: Right.

We stood up.

Me: Remember Raze. Your at the front.

Raze: Like I would forget so easily.

We went inside the barn, and everybody was getting ready to go.

Maxim: Alright everyone! Fenrir's plan is in action! Let's move!

The battle had begun.