Honored Warrior

Prologue

He sat among his men, in cover of a drenched dirt trench they ducked into as a break line before attacking their planetary enemy as the sky held the cold darkness of the stormy clouds, providing some cover of them. Rain still fell, dropping the humidity down as well as making a mess of partially bandaged blaster rifles and the ones who bared them. Some rested as others sat wide awake, watching for any unknown movement outside of the trench.

Their general sat, rifle horizontal upon his lap, with his head bent down as he rested undisturbed as they all tried to do when they had the chance too. One of the most honored among the Kaleesh ranks, General Grievous Shakar was the one leading this campaign and held many years of experience and most kills against the Huk. A flash of lightning lit up the shallow pockets in his mumuu bone mask and revealed the cold golden-yellow eyes of the general, himself.

The only thing that stood between them and the Huk was the muddy walls of the trench and it was not much of a cover, if it wasn’t for the dark overcast clouds. Low conversations started between comrades, telling each other stories of who was waiting for them back of Kalee and some were tales of close calls on the battlefield. Grievous wasn’t much of the talkative type in the regiment, but that was common for ones who seen first-hand death on the battlefield and held deep within his soul the desire to return to Kalee, to be with his wife and son, to see them again, after being so far away on another world.   
    
As they rested and talked amongst themselves, Grievous shifted to his knees and just peered over the edge of the trench for any activity on the far side of the rain drenched grounds. Nothing. He rested his right shoulder on the moist dirt wall and slide back into his place he was resting in. It has been rain for three days now and neither his army nor the Huk budged from where they were.

The long dark Karabbac feathers hung soaked and matted from the rain on either side of his face as the rain dripped off of his mumuu mask’s teeth. This war seemed pointless, but for the safety of his people as well as his own family, he was determined to put this to an end, despite the numbers of Huk that would to die to accomplish that goal. He earned his reputation through that and his name was feared among the Huk ranks, but not enough to keep them from attack Kalee, his homeworld.

One of his men fired at something in the darkness and a weak, yet close groan of something dying followed. Grievous looked over the top of the trench again and saw corpse of a Huk lying about a good couple feet away. He looked at Rinaki, the one who shot the Huk and nodded for being such an excellent marksman. The rain started to stop and the sky cleared up a bit for a better look at what they were dealing with.   

Nothing moved as far as Grievous’s eyes could tell him as he looked over the trench and he motioned his men up and out of the muck of the trench and put to an end to this wait. They clambered of the trench and started to advance on where the Huk were at the beginning of this pause in combat. Grievous saw the one, Rinaki shot, and there in the distance was the Huk camp. The clouds weren’t completely cleared so Grievous’s men had the advance so far.

Within a quarter mile, everything started up again like every futile Huk battle and that one natural instinct ran through his mind as his men opened fire as well as firing his own rifle, as the reasons for fighting as well as the instinct to survive as see another day. Grievous wasn’t about to lost to a enemy, who betrayed their peace treaty and started this planetary war between them as well as loss the one thing other than the pleasure of a bloody war that he cherished. Embracing his wife, who was waiting for him when he returned home and to see his only son, who rarely saw him after his birth, three and a half years ago, back on Kalee.