The fall of House Dredd 5

Qivlas Dal was furious.

These republic troops were useless. How could they be losing so many men? They outnumbered the enemy by a huge amount, why were they losing so badly?

It couldn't be Dal's fault. He was going to be the greatest jedi of all time, it couldn't be his fault.

It had to be the others. Even the other jedi he had brought were worthless, most of them were already dead and they hadn't even managed to kill any of the enemy leaders yet.

Dal would just have to solve this himself. He saw an armoured man giving orders to the enemy warriors and recognised him from his previous visit to the planet.

The man was the leader of this planet. Dal remembered him from the negotiations he had been apart of during his diplomatic visit.

A plan started forming in Dal's head. A plan that would win this battle and launch Dal into the historical records of famous jedi.

He would kill the enemy leader in single combat.

-

Diz Dredd watched the jedi charging towards him with anger building inside him.

He remembered his face and self-righteous expression from the jedi's previous visit to Aruum. He had acted superior to everyone while he had been there and it didn't take Diz long to figure out this whole invasion had been organised by the jedi running towards him.

"Face me you Sith coward!" the jedi yelled and Diz couldn't help but feel a flicker of amusement crossing his mind.

So, the jedi had claimed House Dredd were Sith so that he could instigate this invasion. And now he wanted to look like a big hero by fighting Diz one-on-one. Well, he was happy to oblige.

Diz moved towards the jedi his lightsabre held ignited by his side, the tip gently brushing against the ground.

A space seemed to open up in the battlefield as Diz and the jedi leader began facing off against each other.

"You will have the honour of being slain by Qivlas Dal you Sith scum." The jedi spat at Diz, who just looked blankly at the self-important fool.

"Cool" Diz said in a monotone, the external speakers from his helmet making his voice seem cold and robotic, "Come and have a go if you think your hard enough."

The jedi charged and leaped into the air with the aid of the force. He cannoned towards Diz at high speed and brought his lightsabre down in a powerful overhand strike.

Diz parried the blow effortlessly and sent an armoured boot into the jedi's solar plexus, sending the man hurtling into the ground and across the floor.

The jedi coughed and clutched his chest in pain before staggering to his feet and once again charging at Diz, letting out a shout of rage as he ran.

Diz side stepped the jedi and sent a punch with his free hand into the enraged jedi's face, shattering the man's nose. The jedi cried out in pain and clasped his hand to his broken nose to try and stem the flow of blood now pouring from it.

Diz didn't wait for the jedi to regain his senses and kicked the mans legs out from under him. The jedi hit the ground hard and began seeing stars after the back of his head collided with the hard stone street.

-

Qivlas Dal was scared.

He didn't think things would end up this way.

Things weren't supposed to end this way.

He was supposed to be the best, he was supposed to be the greatest jedi of all time.

It wasn't right, it wasn't fair.

The armoured man had cheated, he had to have.

Dal coughed and the pain lanced through his broken face. As he cried out in pain a thick stream of blood from his broken nose filled his mouth and he began chocking.

His vision swam from the impact between his head and the floor but he was able to make out the image of an armoured figure standing above him pointing a lightsabre at him.

"N-o-o, p-plwease no" he spluttered through his blood-filled mouth, he held an arm out in an attempt to ward of his impending doom. Dal screamed in pain and shock as the armoured man casually swung his lightsabre and separated Dal's flailing arm from his body.

The armoured man didn't say a word and just stared blankly at Dal, his featureless helmet conveying no emotion as the man prepared to end Dal's life.

Dal cried.

How could he die like this? It wasn't fair.

-

"Admiral, the Sand Eater is reporting hostile boarders have taken most of the ship. The bridge is secure for now but the Sand Eater doesn't know how much longer they can hold on for.

They are requesting that we send help." A comms officer on the Titans bridge reported to admiral Pryll urgently.

Pryll ground his teeth in frustration as he gazed at the battle raging in the void outside the Titan's view ports.

Apart from a couple of enemy ships trying to guard the planet bellow most of the enemy were clustered around the now isolated Sand Eater, preventing the republic fleet from firing on them for fear of hitting their own battleship.

It wasn't right. The enemy ships were too advanced, that could be the only reason that Pryll hadn't already won the battle. He was too good an admiral for it to be anything else.

The enemy ships were proving dangerous and despite being smaller, in both size and numbers, they were inflicting heavy losses on the republic task force and now almost a third of Pryll's fleet had been destroyed.

More still had been seriously damaged including the third battle ship, the Remembrance, that had received a devastating missile strike to its bridge, killing its command crew.

"Get me the Captain of the Sand Eater!" Pryll growled at the comms officer as he glared at the holo-table in front of him.

After a brief moment the image of a nervous looking republic navy captain popped into existence above the table.

"Report captain." Pryll said glaring at the captain.

"Admiral, we are losing ground rapidly. My marines and crew members just can't hold the enemy back, they're unstoppable. We are in desperate need of assistance." The captain said slightly panicked.

"That is impossible I'm afraid," Pryll said gravely while looking at the captains hologram, "we are unable to send you reinforcements with the enemy fleet so close to you."

"B-but sir, without help I don't think we will be able to hold the ship." The captain stammered in fear.

"…. Captain, can you maintain control of the Sand Eater?" Pryll said slowly staring at the Sand Eater's captain.

"…. No sir. Not without assistance." The captain said after a moment's hesitation.

"Understood captain. Initiate your ship's self-destruct immediately." Pryll said simply as though he was just ordering the man to file a report, rather than condemning thousands of men to death.

"Sir?!" The captain gasped in shock, "You can't be serious."

"You heard me captain. Initiate the self-destruct now. That is an order." Pryll said menacingly, the bridge crews of both the Titan and the Sand Eater listening to the conversation in horror.

"Admiral, I can't just sacrifice my entire crew. You can't make me do this." The Sand Eater's captain said.

Pryll stared at the man in silence for a moment.

The enemy fleet was too powerful and the enemy warriors that had boarded the Sand Eater were almost unstoppable. If the enemy added the battleship's firepower to their fleet or if the enemy warriors boarded the Titan, the results would be disastrous.

Sacrificing the Sand Eater and its crew would be a tragedy, but to safeguard Pryll and the rest of his fleet it would be worth it. And besides Pryll would be able to spin the tragedy to his advantage later on, after he had won the battle.

"Follow the order captain, or this will be considered mutiny." Pryll told the captain.

"Admiral---" the captain tried to argue but was cut off by Pryll.

"If you do not follow my order in the next thirty seconds, you and your crew will be designated as mutineers you will be shot out of space by the rest of the fleet. And once the we return to republic space your family and the families of your entire bridge crew will be arrested for treason against the republic and I will personally use my connections to see to it that they all receive the maximum punishment for that crime." Pryll threatened.

The captain of the Sand Eater stared in shock and horror at Pryll. He was terrified. Terrified for himself, for his crew and for his family.

He didn't know what to do. The seconds ticked away and he began typing in the code for the self-destruct, but after the code was entered his hand hovered uncertainty over the activation button. Could he, do it? Kill himself and everyone onboard his ship?

The captain looked around his bridge. Looked at the terrified faces of his crew and made a decision.

"I'm sorry, I can't do i---"

A loud bang silenced the captain as a blaster blot ripped through the back of his head, sending his corpse to the cold metallic deck.

The Sand Eater's first officer strode forward. His sidearm held by his side, its barrel smoking from it's recent use. He didn't even glace at the corpse of the man he had worked with, and been close friends with, for nearly seven years as he marched towards the command console.

"I won't risk my family's safety." The first officer said quietly as the rest of the bridge crew watched him approach the console, fear plastered across their faces.

The first officer didn't hesitate. He punched the activation button for the self-destruct and less than a second later the Sand Eater erupted in a massive explosion.

Killing everyone on board instantly.

-

The Sand Eater exploded in a catastrophic wave of destruction.

The battleships main drives went supercritical adding to the blast and causing the blast wave to expand outwards rapidly.

Lan Dredd, the commander of the Aruum defence fleet and the younger brother of the patriarch of house Dredd, had been five steps from the sealed blast doors guarding the bridge when the self-destruct had activated, his warriors following close behind him.

Lan's A.I. Wally had realised what was about to happen, but his warning came too late for Lan and the others to do anything about it.

As seven seconds after they received the waning form Wally they, along with everyone else on board the Sand Eater Warriors of house Dredd and Republic navy personnel alike, were consumed by a raging fire ball.

The fireball killed everyone aboard the battleship, flash cooking them as it ripped the ship to pieces. Nearly all of the Warriors of house Dredd who had been part of the fleet had boarded the Sand Eater in the attempt to seize control of the battleship and now the Aruum defence fleet was helplessly undermanned.

A cloud of debris blossomed from the exploding battleship and was launched into the surrounding area of space.

The ships of the Aruum defence fleet that had attacked the Sand Eater were still positioned close to the battleship, in the attempt to use it as a shield from the rest of the republic fleet. So, when the battleship exploded like the galaxy's largest mine the explosion ripped through the unsuspecting House Dredd ships.

Nearly half of the Aruum defence fleet was destroyed by the explosion, including the command cruiser that had previously belonged to Lan Dredd. The main core of Wally was held on that ship and although he had backups down on the planet below, its loss caused permanent damage to the A.I. that he would never be able to recover from.

The surviving ships of the Aruum defence fleet were nearly all damaged, some critically, and had lost most of their warriors and their leader.

Directionless and full of anger the surviving crews set a course to try and engage the republic task force at close quarters and the republic task force closed to meet them.

-

Diz brought his lightsabre down to put the snivelling jedi out of his misery.

The jedi, Dal, had been responsible for all of this and now he was dead. But things weren't over yet.

Diz didn't spare the corpse of the jedi leader a second glance as he strode back into the battle in the city centre. He was about to call out to Rus over the comm when he staggered.

He felt a loss through the force and looked up in horror to see a giant fireball erupt high in Aruum's orbit, though from his position on the ground it looked like a small ball of light.

Diz felt his brother's life force leave the galaxy, along with the life force of most of the warriors manning the ships in the Aruum defence fleet.

A deep sense of sadness and dread filled him.

His brother was dead, and the fleet in orbit had taken heavy losses.

They were close to winning the battle on the ground, but things were about to get a lot worse now.