Faction Quest: Hand of the Empire [Complete]

[Rave]

It took all if five minutes for everything Rave thought she knew to be thrown out of the window.

Biggs and Wedge were caught off guard, which made Rave feel slightly better, though it was the half a second of seeing them fall to the side from blasts from seemingly out of nowhere that gave Rave the time she needed to duck and dive out of the way of whatever might be coming her way. Instincts saved the day again, and the weapon that Dynamite was holding swung right where her head had been a moment ago. Rave took a moment to look back after her tumble roll, sliding a few inches as she did so. The cuffs that her compatriots had told her would hold a captive Prime so well was nowhere to be seen, and the huge axe that Dynamite was holding, complete with orange and blue neon coloring, was almost too huge to be real. Where the fuck did that come from?

“Yer too flashy girl, but I like that abouts ya!!” Dynamite laughed, his face suddenly a lot angrier and more maniacal than it was when she was taking him in. “Did’ya really think it was gonna be that easy?!”

“Yeah…” Reina said as she backstepped as quickly as she could and got behind cover as fast as she could. “I kinda did.”

She waited a moment as blaster fire continued and gritted her teeth in frustration. What was that? It was as if a sudden switch had been turned on and Dynamite…well, blew a fuse. Rave could say, without ego or pride, that she was a fairly good judge of character. You had to be, coming from her world. You couldn’t trust just anyone you saw. It’s why Biggs and Wedge were still around. They genuinely thought Rave was their friend, and she’d make them believe that. But to be so off about Dynamite…it was kinda embarrassing. Still, he’d gone from subdued to over the top angry in less time that it took her to liquefy a human, and that was worrisome.

“Biggs? Wedge?” Rave pressed a finger to her ear and spoke. “You alive?”

“And kicking ma’am.” The response came a moment after Rave let go of the com button. “Blaster Cannon Fire. Inaccurate as shit. Concussive force from the blasts packs a hell of a punch though.” A pause. “This is Biggs, by the way.”

“I know,” Rave knitted her eyebrows irritably. “You got eyes?”

A moment passed, then two before she got her response. “Affirmative. Dynamite is back with his people. They’re heading back this way. Ma’am…” There was a pause as the com went dead for a moment before it clicked back on. “They look…mad. Like, almost out of control. No organization at all. They’re coming at us like a pack of wolves.”

“And there’s nothing normal about red, glowing eyes…” Wedge piped in, a beat before he rephrased. “Okay, well, I’m about eighty percent sure there’s nothing normal about red, glowing eyes.”

And now the look on her face was one of deep, deep confusion. Something was terribly wrong here, but there were puzzle pieces that were hidden and needed to be found. She could hear Dynamite’s people getting closer, the sound more likened to a stampede than people running. These people had seen what they were capable of. They knew of Rave’s power. Could they have called her bluff? Could Dynamite have known that maybe she wasn’t as powerful as he thought. She snarled and shook her head. No, now wasn’t the time. She put a finger to her com and pushed the button.

“Wedge, on my mark blow the supports. Biggs, I’m gonna hold them. How long would it take you to headshot…” Rave looked at the mass of people that were coming. Dynamite was shouting at some, who backed up to his location. Five were coming their way. “Five?”

“Four seconds.”

“Atta boy. On my mark…mark.”

Just as Biggs pressed in the code that blew the support beams they’d planted charges on Rave whipped out from the cover where she’d been hiding and stood there, exerting her will forward and around the charging people. The pressure of holding so many was like a physical blow but Wedge was on point, his blaster rifle making smooth motions to get the headshots in. Rave blew out a breath she didn’t know she was holding and turned back to fall behind her cover. The weakness passed and after a moment her vision stopped blurring. She peeked back around and looked at the scene. Five dead, no one charging to their location.

“Ma’am, no incoming. Backs turned. How should we proceed?”

“What the fuck do you think?” Rave hissed, pursing her lips. “Shoot them while they’re focused on the support beams being blown. I’m going after Neon. If I get hit…”

“You won’t.”

Rave nodded, having to trust Biggs and Wedge for the moment. Whatever craze had overtaken the mob seemed to have slipped, though Rave didn’t know for just how long. The crowd of people that had been going after them had thinned considerably as most had heard the explosion and damage that the blowing of some of the support beams had caused. They began firing their blaster rifles as Rave was about halfway to Dynamite, who stood there, looking almost stupidly at the devastation of his former home. He never noticed the bodies around him dropping, nor the Prime that was charging his way.

“What…what happened?”

Rave knew that sound. It was the tone of someone who had lost close to everything in a short amount of time. Too much information to process, which gave her the in she needed. She reached out her hand, a needless gesture but one she did anyways, and caught Dynamite in her Gravity Field. A moment later blaster fire one of his knees and he cried out in pain but was unable to move. His gaze was still fixated on his lost home, however, and Rave could see the fight leave him. Whatever had possessed him before was gone. Every fiber of Rave’s being was telling her to signal one of her followers and watch as Dynamite’s head exploded into mush and gore. But she held back, knowing that any reward she might collect would be greatly diminished should she bring back his dead carcass.

“I thought you gave up.” Rave signaled Biggs and Wedge to come from cover. Dynamite didn’t say anything until they’d come to his sides, cuffing him adding the leg portions that connected with a steel tight cord that hardened on command. When they stepped back, Reina pushed her questioning. “You gave in. You wanted them to live. What happened?”

“You wouldn’t understand.” Brilliance Dynamite Neon looked at Rave and shook his head. “We were weak. Even with my guidance, we could never make a difference, never rise above to be a part of the real world. We were doomed from the start. But when he came and offered us power…”

“Who did?” Biggs stepped forward, only stopping when Rave gave him a sharp look. “Ma’am, a third party came to them, but we have no record…”

“No, we don’t.” Rave agreed. “So, why don’t you tell us Neon?”

“What’s the point? We were weak.” Dynamite hung his head. “When we took the blood and drank it, we had to want it. We had to give everything. He said we would be tested. But we were too weak. Attached. Our home…the people…” He frowned. “You took them, and we ran back…”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Rave was beyond confused now, and a shrug from both Biggs and Wedge didn’t give her much confidence. The place where those ragtag bunch was now covered in rubble and they swarmed like ants to retrieve loved ones and possessions. “Seems logical to me, going to save your stuff and friends…”

“Yeah,” Dynamite said, his voice low. “There were some there. But the other half he took. And now they are his, because of our weakness. And soon, we will join him.”

Rave stopped herself from snarling and instead kept her voice steady. No use in snapping now. “Who? Who will you join?”

Brilliance Dynamite Neon looked to Rave, looking almost sorry for her.

“He called himself…Gul’dan.”