[Saahs]

[ Topic Reviewed - Post-War ]

Lazarus Thelvario, aka "LLarke"
Garleans? In MY Imperial Army? It's more likely than you think. Takes place in the vague past, warning for heavy themes involving drugs and suicide in later/upcoming posts.

He didn’t know what was going on. One moment, the airships were on their way from Foundry City as commanded. And the next? A third of the smaller ships were reeling to face the others in the air and were opening fire on their own comrades. The bursts of magitek explosions did little to deter the larger vessels at first, but as the men on the larger ships rushed to respond with their own arsenal, Lazarus could tell that the gradual damage was bringing a good number of the other airships down.

He didn’t know what was going on. But despite this, he turned his ship around and aimed its guns at the closest Aurora vessel. He didn’t know what was going on… but Lazarus opened fire any way.

[ 3BPs awarded ]

[Saahs]

It wasn’t long before the small squad of soldiers aboard his craft raced to the command area in a rage. Five or six of them were shouting at him to cease fire or they’d shoot him-- but in the back of the room, he spotted a handful of the men had stayed back, their weapons hanging at their sides. They looked confused, and yet at the same time, they watched on as if they wanted all of this chaos to happen.

But it was a mere glance, before Lazarus was forced to rip from the controls and kick away the first of the furious soldiers. The next two came up at once, both reaching to grab at his arms, but he ducked down and knocked the one on the right off his feet by the shins straight into the one on the left. Before he could pop back up to his feet, a fourth was already coming upon him, so as he rose to his feet, so did his fist into the fellow soldier’s jaw.

[ 3BPs awarded ]

[Saahs]

During all this madness, the fifth and sixth men had taken ahold of the controls, steering away from the larger vessels to get back on track in the hopes that they would not be shot down in retaliation for their subordinance.

Lazarus would not have that.

Drawing his pistol, he cracked it across the back of the left soldier’s head, then aimed it to the one on the right. “...Alright,” he breathed, “This is my ship. I don’t care who here is truly in command, you are all under my command, now.”

The man did nothing until the tip of his pistol glowed. “Do you hear me, friend?”

[ 3BPs awarded ]

[Saahs]

Narrowing his eyes, Lazarus waited for the soldier to nod his head before continuing, “Good. Now, turn this ship back around, and open fire on those… those…”

Why was he even doing this? Did he truly hate his own people this much? Had so much rage built up, from every time he’d watched a conscript be shot down for the wrong question, every time he saw what his own friends would do to them?

Yes. Apparently it had. “...Just open fire on the bastards.”

One of the men he’d knocked down shifted, so he turned his gun to them instead. “Did you catch all of that, friend?”

[ 3BPs awarded ]

[Saahs]

The friend in question, once their head was bobbing upwards, caught sight of the gun with crossed eyes and quickly nodded their head, whether they had heard or not.

Inclining his head to one side, Lazarus’s lips pulled up on one corner. “Fantastic. Now then, help him aim those blasted guns at that Aurora vessel, would you--”

The other soldier who’d been knocked over when Lazarus half suplexed someone lunged at him, knocking the gun out of his hand, and himself to the floor. “Traitorous scum!” the man spat, pinning Lazarus down by the wrists. “Someone get that gun on this worm-- and you two!”

[ 3BPs awarded ]

[Saahs]

The man glowered at the two at the control panel. “Keep firing at our own and you’ll be executed just like this son of a mongrel.”

As the two complied, there was a series of cries and roars, and Lazarus quickly lost track of what the hell was going on as the soldiers who’d stayed in the back leapt on the others. The man pinning him down was torn away, but this was no safe place to stand up. So he rolled onto his front and wriggled his way to the control panels, but alas, the two loyalists and one of the rebels were quite literally fighting on them.

[ 3BPs awarded ]

[Saahs]

“Out of the way out of the way out of the way,” he mumbled in a borderline singsong voice as he reached around the fighting to steer the craft back to the task at hand, only half successfully.

It took minute after minute to direct the ship back to the one he’d initially shot at. More likely than not, they hadn’t been noticed by the time the firing had stopped, as the vessel was firing at a different assault craft. Good. That meant Lazarus could take them by surprise. Maybe.

As the smaller ship drew closer to the vessel, Lazarus fired off the front guns into the vessel’s side, aiming for any weaker spots in its armour. He was no highly esteemed engineer, but he knew where to look on a ship for weak points; how hard could it be with an Aurora?

[ 3BPs awarded ]

[Saahs]

The blasts of magic and fire crashed into the vessel, leaving only dents and black marks before Lazarus found the weakness he was seeking. One of the shots he fired off not only cracked through the armour’s edge, but it bored through what lay beneath. He wasn’t sure how far it got through, but it was enough to incite him into shooting at the same place a second time.

Now, he was sure the second shot had reached the interior of the ship, as alarmed shouting and screams were heard from within, muffled and distant as it was. So Lazarus steered the guns a bit to the right, and shot a wider hole into the ship.

[ 3BPs awarded ]

[Saahs]

The ship was beginning to veer to the opposite side now, which only encouraged him to keep shooting. And to think, earlier that day he was tittering to himself in anticipation of piloting in a proper Imperial vessel. And now look at what he was doing to those Imperial vessels.

He turned the guns to the next spot on the ship to be blasted open-- but someone’s elbow slammed into the side of his head amongst all the fighting going on around him, and he collapsed to the floor. Then the floor beneath him lurched with a deafening thunder and the screech of metal. As the impact shuddered his surroundings to their sorry core, the world went black.

[ 3BPs awarded ]

[Saahs]

It couldn’t have been long after that he came back around, for when he did, a couple of people were still fighting, and now one of the other rebels was at the controls. Lazarus craned his neck to look at the soldier, squinting a little to try and tell if they actually were a person and not a very convincing balloon. His head was doing a few more flips in whatever body of water it was floating in, which made it difficult to keep said head upright and he didn’t quite appreciate that...

Indeed they-- ah, she turned her head-- she was a person, and she nodded to him once he was noticed. “The ship is almost ours, sir-- our ship, I mean. We shot down the Aurora not a moment ago, but we took some damage.” On the last note she looked over her shoulder towards... he was assuming the aforementioned damage.

[ 3BPs awarded ]

[Saahs]

“How have we not been shot down yet?” he croaked, pushing himself upright too fast at first, then rose to his feet with utmost care while rubbing at the side of his brow.

The woman shrugged her shoulder. “I’m not sure, I’m just glad we haven’t been much noticed since taking down that--”

Spoke too soon.

The craft shook a tremendous amount and gave a gut wrenching sound betwixt a groan and a shriek, and even from here Lazarus could feel the heat of the flames, though see them he could not. His gaze stayed on the woman only briefly before he was sprinting to inspect the damage. “All of you still conscious, help keep her afloat! We will not be martyrs today!”

[ 3BPs awarded ]

[Saahs]

He reached the main floor of the ship, only to find that half of it was gone. The outside world could be seen clearly, as half of the entire ship was gone. She heaved and tipped downwards at the bow. Lazarus barked out in dismay, and rushed back to the control room to help steer the ship as far upwards as possible. “EVERYONE GET YOUR DAMNED ESCAPE CHUTES!”

The rebels scrambled to run and grab what parachutes hadn’t been destroyed in the blast. But what would the point be? If they weren’t found by the rest of their Legion, someone down below would-- or something. They were dead either way…

[ 3BPs awarded ]

[Saahs]

Lazarus shook his head. There had to be a chance that they would survive. As the last person leapt from the ship, all left behind were him, the woman, and several unconscious soldiers loyal to the Imperials.

It was so strange to know he was not loyal any more. Then again, had he ever been?

His thoughts, as he steered what was left of his ship as far from the ground as possible, were completely interrupted as he was hefted up onto someone’s shoulder and taken up towards the doorway. “Wha-- hey wait a minute, what are you doing!? This is my ship, MY SHIP!”

[ 3BPs awarded ]

[Saahs]

“We will not be martyrs today!” exclaimed the woman from before as she carried him to the remaining escape chutes with infuriating ease. She skidded to a halt and the both of them laid their eyes on the--

The only one left.

Not a second passed before something was done about this conundrum, but to him, as he wriggled in her grasp to no avail, it felt much longer. Nodding in acceptance, Lazarus’ new partner snatched it up and worked to strap it to herself, plopping Lazarus on the ground, whom beamed up at her. “Yes, save yourself, go! I’ll be fine, don’t you worry a-BOUT ME PUT ME DOWN!” Back in her arms he was! Just what he didn’t fucking want!

[ 3BPs awarded ]

[Saahs]

It... seemed that the captain would not be going down with his ship that day. Even if he was only truly captain for about ten minutes.

And before he could so much as wiggle, his taller companion was racing for the newly made ledge, and jumped. It surprised him just how much the feeling of the entire universe shifting its position around him-- with nothing between himself and it-- made him terrified. The two fell, and he watched over her shoulder as the only source of comfort available, his pride and joy-- well, half of it-- glided through the air towards its demise. From here, it looked like it was still flying. It surprised him again, how much watching this broke his heart. The air was becoming too sharp with embers and smoke for him to watch for long, though, and he shut his eyes.

[ 3BPs awarded ]