[Flashback LTC] Corellian Venom II: The Bitter Endor

ENDOR, somewhere forgotten...

Tonzin Teller lay alone, unarmed, among nature. He lay there, restful. He lay there, dying. Of course, the point at which he cried for help, an all too familiar voice began to call out in response, a latent edgy hostility in the tone. 

No. Not him. Not now.

With the hapless despondent swagger of a man who had little left in his life, Brekkan Talmo sauntered in like a vision of death to see his old friend, now enemy off. Gun raised, the man's initial response to the bleeding Scout Trooper was disgust and violent apprehension. For whatever reason, he was alone, for once without that demonic droid companion of his, without the Mirialan, without his fellow terrorist Rom Carver, without that stupid Gand cripple... 

The malicious intent faded, though, as Tonzin hissed venom at his old coworker. Shock laced the traitor's voice. "Tonzin?" 

"Leave me be, Brekkan. At least let me die in peace."

Brekkan stood alert, confused anger on his face. "How did this happen? Who got you?"

"One of the natives. Some little bastard with a red hood. Not my highest point." Tonzin thought back on things, on Alderaan, on Zakuul, on Corellia; his thoughts were laced with a heavy dose of regret. That dose was steadily creeping into the fatal territory as his head began to spin and the pool trickling around him from within grew darker. "I'm sorry things went like this..."

Brekkan scowled. "Don't talk like that, man. You could be fine." But even this idiot must have known, it was a lost cause.

A beat passed. Tonzin coughed, his helmet rattling. "I've been thinkin' about Sarge a lot lately..."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah... the way the old hardass would go on about things that didn't even exist in the end."

"Oh, yeah? So he was totally making up Rathtar cleanup duty."

Another cough, more dire now, splattering mucus and blood inside his helmet. It smoothed into a laugh. "He was such a bastard." A pause grew between them. "What are you doing now?" Tonzin felt himself wonder, aloud.

"We're all done..." The sun was shrinking from view, casting the whole forest moon in an intense reddish-orange light. "A lot of them are up partying already, Wedge, Skywalker, all of them. Technically, I'm hunting..." A lull emerged, with Tonzin feeling himself fade. "Hey, buddy?"

"Yeah?" It was just like falling asleep. "You need something?" 

"Anywhere you wanna go?"

"I like it here. But maybe, when I'm gone, go give them Ewoks another drum to play with. They earned it. We lost, Brekkan." 

As Tonzin slumped back one final time, Brekkan furrowed his brow and steadied his friend to the grave. "Good night, Golden Boy of Alderaan."

Spoiler

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