"Space Rebels" - 11/30/2021

"Space Rebels"

11/30/2021

I was in a small squad of about three or four rebels from the Star Wars universe, and we were scouring a desert planet, looking for items and supplies. We'd come across a truck-like vehicle, with a large, locked box sitting in the bed area. Upon prying the box open, we found that it was full of some high-value weaponry, which we knew came from the, now, nearly-ancient order of the Jedi. One of the weapons was an actual, bladed sword, but the blade ignited like a lightsaber, once activated, and it stayed red-hot for a few, lingering seconds, after being powered down. It was quite beautiful to look at, and was a pretty bad ass weapon, overall.

Eventually, we wound up getting ambushed by an Imperial officer and his goons. The officer, himself, looked a lot like Hitler - mustache and all - and I made a comment that he looked "familiar," which got a chuckle out of my squad. The officer didn't seem to take too kindly to my remarks (though, I'm not really sure if the Hitler thing was ever actually recognized by him, or if he just disapproved of my tone, in general), as a firefight immediately broke out, and we all had to scramble. During the fray, we were able to pick up some of the heavy weapons from the cache, and took to some intense fighting around this small, clay building close to where the "truck" was sitting. At some point, I remember some of my squad members and I would cross the lasers from our blasters (much like "crossing the streams" in Ghostbusters), and it would produce more powerful beams that would dramatically increase damage. 

In the chaos, I'd wound up getting separated from my team, and had to move cautiously around the building, to try and find them. I began to notice that random women and children were being positioned around individual, Imperial soldiers, to use a shields, and I had to fight around them, careful not to hit any bystanders while taking down the enemy. Rounding back to the front of the building, there was now a massive crowd of women and children, all looking absolutely terrified, yet seemingly unable to bring themselves to leave the area. I knew that they had been rounded up, here, as a distraction and as cover by the Imperials - who knew that our ability to fight them would be diminished by the potential of so much collateral damage. Their level of cowardice infuriated me, and I slowly made my way through the crowd, keeping a careful eye on my surroundings while searching for my team, so as to avoid another ambush by an Imperial hiding amongst the innocent. The closest "hostages," for lack of a better term, would always reach out to me, as I passed them, trying - as if they had been coached to do so - to make it seem like everything was fine with them, and they were simply there to welcome me, as if this had been a friendly gathering. I knew that this wasn't the case.

Eventually, I noticed a figure hiding beneath a shroud or cover. I could tell that the body was tensing up, as I approached, and I prepared to have to fire upon an Imperial waiting for the right time to strike. When I crept silently upon the shroud and yanked it away, raising my blaster, I saw that it was just another small child. He looked up at me in a panic, and when I assured him that I wasn't going to hurt him, he mad the smallest of gestures - almost unperceivable - over to one side. I knew, instantly, that he was showing me where I could find my teammates, and I continued my search in that direction.

That's all I remember.