Star Wars: From the Clone Wars to Starfaring Heroes

Chapter 155, Section 157 - The Tenacity of the Weng Delun People!

“We are…the rebels!” the man uttered with difficulty. “My name is Hatch. We want to surrender. Someone…someone has promised to spare our lives.”

Hatch's gaze swept past Ryan's shoulder in terror, his Adam's apple bobbing violently.

His movements became extremely slow and cautious.

He carefully reached behind him, groped around, and finally grasped the cold barrel of a hidden blaster. He slowly pulled it out and then threw it to the ground with a clatter.

Ryan was initially confused, but he soon understood the source of Hatch's fear.

A huge shadow fell, and the massive head of "Red Gallia," covered in hard scales, peered in from the edge of the balcony, taking over the entire space of the broken archway.

Its enormous amber eyes scanned the room in the dim light, and hot, bloody breath billowed from its nostrils.

"Someone agreed to your request?" Vander's voice was low and dangerous as he steadily moved the muzzle of his blaster, pointing it at each tense figure in the room. "Who agreed?"

“Alvira!” another rebel shouted hoarsely, calling out an unfamiliar name, but the name clearly resonated with Red Gallia.

The enormous Scryer let out a piercing scream that tore through the air, the sound waves causing rubble to fall from the room.

Everyone was startled by the sudden, terrifying sound and instinctively stepped back.

Red Gallia squeezed its massive body into the already crumbling room, its heavy claws scratching at the door frame, easily chipping away large chunks of stone.

The initial confusion on Vander and Renn's faces was instantly replaced by shock, and they both thought of that name at the same time!
"Alvira...you mean Verara!?" Renn demanded sharply, his heart clenching as if gripped by an icy hand. "Where is she!?"

The rebels exchanged increasingly fearful glances, their bodies trembling slightly with tension.

Compared to the ferocious Dekunun raptor before them, they seemed more afraid to answer this question.

The heavy unease in Raine's stomach instantly swelled into a chilling fear that made it almost impossible for him to breathe.

"Where is she?!" Vander's voice boomed like thunder.

The rebels seemed to be parted by an invisible hand. Two women, heads bowed, struggled to lift a lifeless body from the middle and gently placed it on the cold, rough stone ground in front of Renn and Van der.

That body—

Verara Mishar.

She wore that familiar, dusty and oily jumpsuit, her signature red hair like burning flames, echoing the scales of her raptor companion.

She lay there motionless.

Then, Ryan's gaze fell on the charred hole in her work clothes and her tightly closed eyes, which she could never open again.

The once vibrant red hair, which had danced like flames, now lost all its luster in his eyes, turning into a thick, dull pool of blood that silently spread beneath her head, staining the cold ground.

The heartbreaking screams of Red Gallia mingled with the sporadic bursts of energy gunfire and the groans of the wounded still echoing in the hall of Kira Fortress, assaulting his eardrums.

Verara lay there quietly.

She is dead.

Ryan abruptly averted his gaze from the blinding red, but the dizzying afterimage of blood remained imprinted on his retina.

The explosive carbine he was gripping suddenly felt unusually light, as if it had lost its weight.

"That's what she told you?" Ryan's voice was dry and hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing against the ground. "She promised to spare your lives... and then you killed her?"

“It wasn’t us,” Hatch said with difficulty, his voice trembling, “It was…it was him.”

A man was roughly shoved out of the crowd.

He was tall, with a crew cut, fierce eyes, and a scraggly goatee.

Half of his face was swollen and covered with grotesque purplish-black bruises, interspersed with small wounds and blisters, clearly the result of lynching by his angry rebel comrades.

"Why did you do this?" Renn maintained a calm demeanor, but his voice was icy cold.

“Raine…” Vander stared intently at him, his eyes filled with warning, and his grip on the gun tightened.

“I…my sister…” So began, his words muffled, “Stella…Stella, she’s in the city…the Jedi…”

Ryan's finger slammed onto the trigger, but Van der pressed down hard on the barrel with astonishing force, forcing the muzzle to the ground.

“Vellara has agreed to spare their lives,” Vander’s voice was firm and unwavering.

"But in the end, she lost everything—!"

Van der's eyes were filled with pain. "She didn't have to do this, but she chose to. We can never fully understand her reasons, but her death... cannot be meaningless. Her promises must be kept."

“They might be lying!” Ryan hissed.

“We didn’t!” Hatch practically roared, his voice trembling with fear. “We were going to surrender, but So killed her… If I’m lying, may the Demon Moon devour my soul!”

Rentaintin said she should be trusted… Verara clearly guessed what he wanted; that was probably why she was trying to persuade the rebels to surrender. But what was the point if the price was her life?
“You will die,” Renn’s gaze was like a cold blade, piercing the man named So, every word filled with deep-seated hatred, “even though I want to riddle you with bullets right now—” “Renn!” Vander’s warning rang out again, with unprecedented severity.

Ryan spat angrily on the ground. "I don't understand why you're going against me on this. You're her friend too! You've known her longer than I have!"

"After you abandoned us to pursue your dreams, I was always by her side!" Vander's voice suddenly rose, filled with long-suppressed anger and sorrow. "Yet, the moment you returned, she immediately went to help you! Do you think she had an obligation to do that? Did she?!"

“She…no!” Renn said in a deep voice. “If I had known what she was planning to do, I wouldn’t have let her step out of the city gates!”

“And guess what?” Vander’s voice was tinged with bitterness. “If we had known what you were going to do, we wouldn’t have let you leave Ondron a year ago! But we can’t know everything! You can’t know everything either! You’re stupid! She’s stupid too! People are all stupid! We make decisions that others can’t understand! We couldn’t understand your decision back then, but we trusted you, so we let you go!”

Van der suddenly jabbed his finger hard into Renn's chest. The force was so great that Renn felt as if he had been hit by a blunt object, and the pain made him almost unable to breathe.

“She was waiting for you when you came back!” Vander’s voice trembled with emotion, his eyes reddening. “If you had died out there… we wouldn’t even have been able to find a single skeleton to be buried in Valhalla!”

His trembling finger pointed to Verara Mishar's cold body on the ground. "You think I don't understand how you feel right now? Stop being so self-righteous, Ren! You did the same thing to us! At least... at least give her the same trust we gave you! We may never fully understand why she did it, but at least... when she died, she was a true Ondron!"

If Raine dies in the vast sea of ​​stars, he will become a floating, unclaimed, cold corpse in the universe.

For an Ondren man, this was a more tragic end than death itself.

But... is Ryan Bontley really a pure Ondron?

At that moment, the clamor of Kira Fortress seemed to be extinguished by an invisible hand.

A deathly silence descended, like a heavy shroud.

There was no roar of cannons, no howl of war beasts, no shouts of soldiers.

Time seemed to stand still, and the whole world seemed to freeze at this moment.

Van der's guards still held their guns, the dark muzzles pointed at the rebels, their faces hidden in shadow beneath their helmets, motionless.

The soldiers in front of Ryan were all people he knew. Over the past ten years, he had sweated on the training field, eaten in the mess hall, and patrolled the city walls with them.

When he resolutely left Ondron to wage that seemingly futile personal war against fate, they probably both felt a sense of 'betrayal'.

Ryan bit his lower lip hard until he tasted a hint of blood.

The immense pain and the weight of Vander’s words battled fiercely within him.

“Although I want to shoot you dead,” Ryan’s voice was unusually slow, each word carrying a chilling coldness, “I won’t do it, because if Verara knew, she would definitely strangle me with her own hands in her next life.”

He took a deep breath and continued, “So, I’m here to tell you what’s going to happen next. You, So Grella, will be publicly executed in front of all the citizens of Izzi in Yolaen Square… This will appease the lords’ council, and everyone else in this room… will be expelled from Ondron!”

“…My sister…” So managed to utter a few words.

“Stella Grella is still alive,” Ryan confirmed coldly.

Suo's body instantly lost all strength, and he collapsed to the ground in relief.

"We'll die out there..."

Hatch was filled with despair.

Renn almost sneered out loud.

Did the Ondrons leave this planet?

This is simply a fantasy.

But he didn't intend for them all to die.

You won't die!

Raine's voice was still cold, but no longer filled with murderous intent. He bent down and gently picked up Mishar's cold body.

He carefully handed her to Red Gallia.

The loyal Scryer let out a low, mournful wail, its massive head gently nuzzling its deceased rider's cheek and hair, gurgling in its throat as if trying to rouse her.

But Mishar did not react.

Red Gallia gently took her body into its broad beak, and with endless sorrow, turned and leaped off the balcony.

With a flap of its enormous wings, it stirred up a gust of wind and carried its most cherished companion into the dust-filled sky.

“That Scryer will… will eat her.” Vander’s voice was low, tinged with reluctance, but he did not stop her or argue.

This is Ondron's way, the final bond between Red Gallia and Verara Misac.

“Then she died as an Ondron,” Raine said calmly, his gaze sweeping over the messy room and the terrified rebels. “Now, everyone, leave this room and leave this damned place behind forever.”

(End of this chapter)