Darkness, that was all Zero could see around him.

“Hello? Can anyone hear me?” His voice echoed through the total emptiness.

He tried reaching out with his senses. He could see nothing, feel nothing, and the only thing he could hear was… birds?

Zero awoke with a jolt, his head fuzzy and his vision blurred. “Ugh…. What happened?” he groaned as he put his hand on his throbbing head.

After bringing himself to his feet, he dusted off his white full-body armor, decorated in a few blue-grey markings including a zero painted in aurebesh on the top left side of his helmet.

Slowly, he took in his newfound surroundings, he was in a grassy field filled to the brim with flowers, in the east of the sky was a large, shining star which must have acted as this planets sun. On the horizon was a dense looking forest, and below his feet was a grayish-white parachute of which the strings were still attached to the backpack he was apparently wearing.

“I definitely don’t remember performing a jump.” he thought.

As he disconnected the chute from himself, he noticed his blaster was not attached to the magnet that held it to his back. He looked to his left, it wasn’t there. He looked to the right and, sure enough, laying in the grass was his carbine, a DC-15s. It wasn’t as popular as the much larger standard issue DC-15a, but Zero preferred it for its more compact size and versatile utility. As he bent over to retrieve his weapon, he tried to piece together what it was he COULD remember. The last thing he could see clearly was being told his battalion, the 624th Enforcement, was about to be deployed and should prepare for a briefing. Everything after that was just fog.

“Does anyone know what happed?” he asked his squad mates.

No one answered. It suddenly occurred to him that he was alone. He turned around to see if anyone was behind him. Nothing. Just the rolling plains reaching as far as the eye can see, all the way to what appeared to be mountains in the distance. His thoughts began drifting away from the ache in his head and toward his rising predicament. He checked the radar in his helmet, there were no pings.

“Where am I? How did I end up here? And where is everyone?” He thought to himself. Lifting his right forearm to his mouth, he activated his communication link that was built into his armor. “This is CT-30-0700 does anyone read me? I repeat, this is CT-30-0700, I’ve been separated from my squad and am unaware of my location, over.”

A familiar voice came from the device. “Is that you Zero?”

The trooper cracked a smile at the words. Though it sounded just like the voice he has heard from thousands of lips, he was able to determine who it came from. “Affirmative, it’s good to hear your voice Trinket.”

“I told you to stop calling me that.” Trinket said, he sounded annoyed.

“Oh yeah, you did didn’t you?” Zero sarcastically remarked, “though I don’t know why, after all you were so kindly bestowed that name.”

“That THING did NOT name me.” An agitated Trinket stated.

Zero couldn’t help but joke a bit more, “Well Serg. and the boys disagree, and he IS your boss so what he says goes.”

“You’re all the worst.” Trinket retorted in a tone giving away that he didn’t mean it.

Zero was relieved to hear the voice of one of his brothers, who sounded like he was just fine. At the same time, he wondered why were they separated in the first place? Switching back to the matter at hand, Zero asked Trinket where exactly WAS everyone?

“What do you mean?” Trinket questioned, “all the escaped pods were damaged before they were launched, everyone had to evacuate them mid-decent one-at-a-time which split us up, you know that.”

Well, at least that answer explained the parachute. “Actually I don’t,” Zero informed, “I can’t seem to remember anything about the mission we were on, are we still on it?”

There was concern in Trinket’s voice when he spoke, “No, we’re not, are you ok? Did you hit you head?”

Zero removed his helmet to feel his head, his hand running through his hair. The haircut he chose to have was a slightly shorter version of the standard cut he and his fellow troopers were given during training. A jolt of pain as his hand felt something gave Zero a sinking feeling that was made worse when he brought his gloved hand back into his view to reveal it was stained with some blood.

“Yeah, I’ve definitely got some sort of injury, not sure how bad though.” Zero plainly stated.

“Can you travel?” Trinket asked.

“Yeah”

“Well then can you make your way to my position? I landed in a thick forest, my parachute got stuck in a tree. I can’t disconnect it and I’m unable to reach my vibro-knife.”

“Sure thing.” Zero said, “If I can find you, your signal isn’t showing up on my radar.”

Trinket sighed on the other end of the radio, “Well THAT figures.” Zero looked behind him at the forest he originally faced. He didn’t notice how dark and overgrown it had looked before. Weirdly it almost reminded him of some of the abandoned buildings and strongholds he and his platoon would sometimes station themselves in when they needed to lie low, what with all the vines and foliage creeping down from anywhere that had any space to grown in.

“The forest you landed in, did it- well, did it look like, for a lack of better terms, like it was reclaimed by nature? If you know what I mean?” Zero felt a bit awkward with the dumb description he had given the place.

“I know what you mean, and yeah, it definitely looked like that.” His brother responded.

“Well I think I can see the forest, is there any way you can signal me where you are?” asked Zero as he put his helmet back on.

“The only thing I can reach is a thermal detonator,” -There was a pause in Trinket’s words, like he was thinking- “I can prime it and chuck it as high as I can, if you see the explosion you can find me, at the very least you can follow the sound until my signal pings on you radar.”

Zero admitted to himself that under another circumstance, it would be a solid plan. However, he had no idea of what was in that forest. What if it was crawling with Seppies? Or some gang of outlaws or pirates had a hideout in there. They would get to Trinket before him. “No, we need to think of something else.” Zero replied.

“Well I’m all ears.” Trinket huffed.

Zero stopped to think for a moment. “Well if his signal is being blocked by the thick foliage that’s one thing, but if it’s being jammed that’s another. But if his signal was being jammed, then wouldn’t his communications be jammed as well? Well maybe he could-“ his thoughts were interrupted by a loud boom echoing across the fields. Zero wiped around to his left to only just see a cloud of smoke dispersed across the tree line.

“Whoops.” Trinket’s barely contained sarcasm rang through the comm link.

“Are you crazy!” Zero growled.

“Well I didn’t hear you coming up with any ideas.” Trinket remarked.

Zero let out a long deep sigh, “Alright, I’ll be at your position shortly.”

He then saw a stupid opportunity, “just hang in there.”

“…” “I’m going to get you for that.” Trinket said in a jokingly foreboding tone.

Zero turned off his comm link and started to jog his way towards the explosion in good time. “Trinket always seems to be rather impatient,” Zero thought to himself. He was practically a shiny, the mission that Zero last remembered going on was only Trinket’s second. “and he didn’t really didn’t get to do that much on his FIRST mission.” Zero thought to himself, letting out a little snicker at a memory of said mission that Trinket would like for everyone to forget. “He seems to be a good man, competent too. Maybe, no, definitely a bit reckless, then again, plenty of shinies were. I know I was on my first deployment.”

His smile faltered at the thought.

He didn’t like to think about Geonosis, no one who landed there did.

The sound of an incoming transmission interrupted his thoughts. “Zero, you there?”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“I think I heard something.” Trinket’s tone was calm, but Zero could detect the slightest hint of worry in his voice. “I- I can’t reach my blaster. I can’t defend myself.”

“It’s probably just some little critter running along the ground.” Zero reasoned.

“No, it sounded… bigger.”

Zero started to get concerned, he hadn’t known him for long, but Trinket didn’t seem to be the kind of man to get rilled up over nothing. He quickened his pace.

“Perhaps it’s just some grumpy creature passing through?” Zero said, attempting to calm Trinket’s nerves.

“It’s getting closer, it sounds hungry Zero.” Trinkets voice was slowly getting quieter.

Zero was now running, almost tripping over some roots as his surroundings grew darker. A quick glance at the now barely visible sky told him the sun was falling. “Blast!” He hissed.

“I can hear it. It’s almost on top of me.”

Zero pushed himself to sprint through the dense forest.

“Zero…” a soft whisper emitted from the comm link. “I want to get down now.”

“Just hold tight I’m almost there!” Zero said as quietly as he could, trying not to alert whatever was on the other end.

“I- hold on- I can see it…”

Trinkets’s words, though barely audible, rang through Zeroes head. He cursed himself for not being there already.

“It- it’s disgusting”

How much further could he be?!

“It’s wrapped it’s self on branch right next to me…” Trinket sounded squeamish, he had NEVER sounded squeamish.

A ping popped up on Zero’s radar. “Gott’em! He’s- what!” Trinket was far further away than Zero imagined.

“It saw me.”

Zero’s heart stopped.

“It’s looking right at me!”

“no no no no… please no…” Zero silently pleaded.

“What th- It’s eyes are turning red, ITS EYES ARE TURNI-“

Trinket was cut off by the sound of a blood curling growl, then nothing but static.

“Trinket? TRINKET!” Zero yelled to his comm link.

The other end was dead.

Zero’s heart was practically beating out of his chest as he charged with all his might towards where the now absent ping used to be on his radar. He stumbled into a clearing. Almost losing his balance in the growing dark. He was about to keep moving when he saw something in the corner of his eye.

Zero reached into his utility belt and pulled out some helmet flashlight attachments. After fixing them in place, he turned them on, revealing that what he saw was Trinket’s parachute, entangled up high in the branches of a large tree. Zero looked down at where the strings would have connected to its deployment pack. The ends were ripped and mangled as if something had torn off the pack itself, and who was wearing it.

“Oh, no.” Zero rasped. Clenching his fist, he could feel a mix of sorrow and rage building in his chest.

Zero took a deep breath, slightly pulling his thoughts and emotions back together. “Maybe that THING didn’t kill him, maybe it only grabbed him to save him for later.” Zero didn’t believe his own thoughts, but he wasn’t going to give up on Trinket just yet.

Priming his weapon in case there was something lurking in the surrounding umbrage, he studied the parachute as well as the nearby growth, making sure to keep alert. What immediately stuck out was the lack of blood. In fact, apart from the fact he was missing, there was nothing to suggest that Trinket was indeed killed.

“Maybe he’s still alive after al-“

Zero was cut off by the sound of the faintest footsteps behind him. He whipped around to the find the origin of the noise. Just a few meters away from him, hiding in some tall bushes, was a pair of big lime green eyes, about as high up as Zero’s chest. As it moved closer it let out an unnatural snarl, sounding as if it didn’t come from anything organic.

“Aye! Don’t get any closer!” Zero commanded as he raised his weapon, slowly backing away.

The animal let out a low, almost gurgling howl before stepping out of its hiding place. It started to circle its newfound prey. Coming into the light of his head lamps, Zero could see it was a more top heavy creature, Having lean hind legs, a slim torso that gradually grew up to its broad chest and strong forelegs. Its head resembled many different wolves he had encountered before, with the exception of its horns and that it appeared to be made out of… wood?

“I’m warning you…” Zero aimed the weapons between the eyes of the brute.

A rustle of leaves drew Zero’s attention to his right, spotting two more similar sets of eyes. It was an ambush.

“Blast it!” Zero muttered.

The first wolf moved an inch, Zero made sure it was the last thing it did as a heated gas projectile appearing as a blue bolt of light fired from his weapon into the head of the beast. Immediately he turned to the pair of wolves on his flank, now launching at him. Zero fired a quick volley of shots from his carbine, shattering the fauna to pieces. He had to side step to avoid their bodies, now no more than debris, from flying into him.

Zero was about to resume his search when the sound of almost half a dozen howls echoed from the forest. They didn’t sound too close, but he knew they wouldn’t stay that way.

Zero debated in his head, “Can I take all of them on? I can’t run, what about Trinket? I’d be no good to him dead though…”

His internal argument was settled at the sight of the first wolves remains shaking.

“What the-“ Zero began before he lost his words at the display in front of him. A green glow, the same color of its eyes, engulfed the timber, levitating bits and pieces back together until you could never tell anything had happened to it.

“Well that’s new!” Zero blasted the monster again sending its parts tumbling pack to the ground before retreating to the thick brush behind him. Before he escaped the clearing he noticed the other wolves were already repaired and in pursuit. His heart thumped in his chest as he ran as fast as he could to evade the nightmareish creatures chasing him. The rhythmic sound of their paws slamming the ground grew quieter as he gained some distance from them. He was never more grateful for all his years of conditioning than he was right now. His gratitude was short lived, however, as he tripped on a tree root, dropping his blaster and falling to the ground.

His body crashed onto the dirt. Zero tried to roll with the momentum and get back on his feet, but mid-maneuver he was tackled by one of the wolves. Slamming into the ground again, this time pinned face down. Instinct told Zero the wolf was going for the back of his neck. He raised his head up, causing his helmet to make contact with his back plate just in time for the wolf to latch is jaws around where his neck used to be unprotected. As quick as a flash, Zero unsheathed the vibro-knife in his belt with his right hand, and stabbed at the wolf over his left shoulder, aiming for its eye.

The blade connected just under his initial target, but still caused the wolf to recoil in pain. Now able to look around for a split second, Zero noticed the second wolf was about to lunge at his left flank. Immediately Zero used his left elbow to strike the wolf the had him pinned in the face, knocking it just a bit off balance. As the wolf to his left jumped at him, letting out a vicious snarl, Zero rolled towards the wolf he had just unbalanced causing it to tumble with him, flipping their positions Now he was haphazardly laying on top of the beast, which gave out a low growl before its pack member collided into it. Both of them exploding into sticks.

Scrambling to his feet, Zero quickly scanned the area for his blaster. He found it laying on the ground just a couple of meters in front him. As he raced to pick it up, he heard a malicious bellow from behind him. Zero rolled to his left just in time for the third wolf to soar over his head, landing heavily in front of him.

As quick as lightning, the wolf twisted around and chomped down on the soldiers right forearm, eliciting a yell of shock from the warrior. When the animal realized it couldn’t bite through Zero’s tough armor, it tried rolling to its left, attempting to rip off the troopers arm. Zero’s reflexes saved him as he rolled with the wolf, coming to his feet before it did. Wincing in pain, Zero pulled on his right arm to get to wolf to move a bit closer to him before throwing all his body weight into a left jab his foe’s nose. Needles of pain shot through his hand, he had probably fractured it, though he couldn’t tell with all the adrenaline surging through him.

The wolf yelped at the surprising force of the attack and released Zero’s forearm, his hand still holding his knife. Which he instantly brought down on the top of his opponent’s head. As it turned to a pile of lumber, Zero heard the other wolves getting up again.

“Seriously!?” Zero rasped. Growing tired.

The first wolf charged him. Zero waited for it to get closer, his years of training keeping his nerves under control as it grew close enough to throw itsself at him again. Just as it tensed its muscles, Zero executed a near perfectly timed spinning kick, nailing the creature in its muzzle. The wolf fumbled to its right revealing that behind it, its wooden companion preparing its own attack. Zero had just enough time to turn a 180 and go for his blaster. However, he didn’t have time to turn around and properly aim at his target so he improvised. Gripping his carbine in his right hand, he positioned the barrel of his weapon between his left arm and his torso. The animal was within a few centimeters of him as a shot echoed through the forest, the remains of the creature spraying against Zero, almost knocking him over.

As the soldier climbed to his feet. He turned to see the last standing wolf was now snarling at him in a defensive stance. A tired Zero nonchalantly raised his weapon with one hand and blasted the fearsome predator to smithereens.

Zero tried to catch his breath before he heard more wolves in the distance advancing quickly to his position. Just when he thought things couldn’t get worse, the savage brutes he had just defeated were putting themselves back together yet again.

“You have got to be kidding me!” Zero shouted. Turning to run once more.

There was no way he could keep fighting them off, and he was growing too tired to outpace them. He needed a plan.

Zero began thinking about what he had on him, his DC-15s, a grapnel attachment for said DC-15s, some thermal detonators, ration bars… “THE DETONATORS!” If he threw them behind him now he would take a few out for who knows how long, but the rest would continue their relentless pursuit.

“But if I can just find some sort of funnel…”

“There!” A thin crevice between a long sort-of cliff face and a few very large trees. Zero bolted for the life saving strip, his hunters gaining on him.

“Made it!” Zero side stepped his way through the miniature valley dropping a single detonator as he exited. The sound of its high-pitched ticking being drowned out by the over half-dozen wolves scrambling their way through the hole.

Zero managed to put some decent space between he and his attackers from the crevice alone, much less from what was about to happen next.

A thunderous boom echoed throughout the forest, causing birds to flee from their perches and any critter that was in view scurried away to hide from the loud sound.

“Yes!” Zero thought to himself. He slowed down to a walk to catch his breath, relief washing over him. He was now left with nothing but a question. “Now what?”

For the first time since he had left the clearing Zero seemed to have time to plan his next move. “What about Trinket?” Now with a more calm mind all he could think about was his brother. Zero looked down at his right forearm, his armor tattered but not broken or torn, and no bleeding or any wound on his body.

“If those things couldn’t make me bleed maybe they couldn’t maker Trinket bleed either? Perhaps they only incapacitated him then dragged him somewhere to save for later.” Zero knew the chances were beyond slim but he couldn’t abandon his brother unless he was absolutely sur-

Thunder clapped overhead

Zero looked up, slightly shocked by the noise, but was more worried of what could follow.

“No no no no…”

First it was a slight drizzle, then a light rain, then a downpour. Zero clenched his hands. Though he couldn’t see much in the dark, his head lights showed that the rain drops falling through the tree line were as big a hailstones. Making it drastically harder to see even what he could. And worse, any track he could have found as to Trinket’s whereabouts were all washed away now.

Rage and grief building up, Zero let out a loud yell.

“SKRAIG!”

He stood there, alone in the rain for a few moments; it felt like a few months.

“I’m sorry brother…” Zero muttered.

He hated losing his brethren , especially if he had a part to play in their demise which, in this case, Zero convinced himself he did. “He only partook in two missions… I don’t even know if he ever fired his blaster…”

Zero didn’t think this moment could get worse, a snarl behind proved otherwise.

He wipped around to see those dreaded monster wolves emerge from the dense growth about 9 meters away from him.

“That’s impossible! How did you track me in this rain?!”

The wolves only response was baring their fangs, and racing toward him.

Raising his blaster, Zero fired a large volley of shots toward his familiar foes in attempt to slow them down before turning tail and making a bee line for the shrubbery behind him. He didn’t know how much longer he could run for. He had to get out of this forest, or find a permanent way to loose them.

He could barely see in front of him now, the forest was pitch black and the rain was making it hard to see two feet in front of him. He tried to turn up the brightness on his head-lamps but grinded to a halt at the sight in front of him. It was a sudden steep drop, small rivers caused by the enormous rain cascaded into the darkness below. Zero couldn’t even see the bottom. On the other side just a few meters away was a cliff face just a few meters tall.

“If I can just get over there…”

The sound of a dreaded howl made his blood run white. If he was going to do something, now was the time.

He fired his ascension cable at the wall. The rain prevented it from getting a grip causing to fall to the ravine bellow.

Zero reeled the cable back in.

He could hear their growling now.

Where could he fire now? The tree line!

He fired his cable at the leaves above the trench. A hard tug told him it had caught on something that could support him.

“Yes!”

Zero jumped over the ravine just as the wolves made it to the drop

“Yes yes yes!”

Zero had jumped off fast to avoid the wolves, too fast. He crashed into the wall his already injured head slamming into the hard rock.

He attempted to grab at the cliff face.

His hand slipped off in the rain

“no No NO!” He yelled as he swung back toward his apparent doom.

With his head still fuzzy he readied himself, waiting till he swung close to the wolves. He faked like he was going to kick at the one in the front with his left leg, causing it to bite at that direction. He then switched to his right and drilled it as hard as he could in the neck, sending him back to the cliff.

This time he caught a firm grip on the steep wall. He let out a slight sigh of relief as he began his accent upward. When he finally reached the top. He rolled onto the solid ground letting out a long exhale. He proceeded to pick him self up and teeter to the edge.

The wolves were furious that they had no way of further pursuing their prey.

“Not so tough now are you? Are you!?”

The wolves snarled in return.

Zero reached for his blaster and sprayed as much plasma punishment as he could on the enraging wildlife. After splitting into sticks, some of their remains fell into the ravine bellow, engulfed by the darkness.

“That was for Trinket!” Zero bellowed.

The remainder of the pack retreated into the darkness. Zero settled down, and turned to see what was behind him.

Nothing but forest. With a sigh Zero started his trek forward. Surely he would find an exit eventually? He walked for what felt like hours, dimming down his head lamps as to not attract attention. His head was pulsating the whole time, growing worse with each moment. His massive headache, when combined with the still heavy rain that even through his armor felt like he was being aggressively tapped by a million little hands, made him feel woozy. He was so soaked he felt as if the water had seeped through his skin and was now softening his bones.

“So this is what it must be like to be stationed on Mimban.” He thought to himself.

Eventually, just when he thought his legs would stop carrying him. He saw the forest start to give way to what looked like a field.

“Finally…”

Even the rain looked like it cleared up, if only a bit. As Zero stumbled onto the grassy hills. He scanned the area hoping to find someplace he could rest. “Just for a bit….” He told himself.

He had barely finished his thought when he noticed something, hardly visible through the rain, on one of the nearby hills.

It looked like… could it be?

As he inched closer his suspicions were confirmed.

“Shelter!” It was what looked like a two story building with a grass roof and was surrounded by dozens of little houses, some of which appeared to be built into the main structure.

“Weird,” he though to himself as he looked at the unusual display, “how hard did I hit my head?”

Zero trudged his way toward the house, his legs falling from under him just as he reached the outer fence.

“Oof!” He gasped, as he landed hard on the ground, bracing his fall with his hands to make sure to not hit his head again.

He had forgotten about his left hand which, he was now sure was fractured.

“AAArrgh!”

He crawled his way to the house. Making it to the front door. As he reached up to knock on it, his body finally gave way to exhaustion. Collapsing on the floor in a puddle of rain.

Author's Note

Hello there everyone!

I hope you enjoyed the start! Sorry if the chapter is rough. This is my first time writing any sort of story or anything really.

Any and all feedback you could give is greatly appreciated, negative or positive.

Anyway I hope you liked it, and I hope you enjoy the next chapter as well! I’m looking forward to sharing more of this story with you for some time to come!