Time slows.

Kat pitches forward. Blood splatters my face. I think I scream his name, cry out in horror and in panic. Shells explode all around me, their fragments tearing up the ground behind me, before me and to either side, yet nothing touches me here, in this haven of duracrete. Only Kat.

I rush to him, scrambling on hands and knees. There is so much blood and so it was a shell and not a sniper. Shrapnel has torn into Kat’s neck just below the hairline and above his shoulder blades. I ease him onto his side while I apply a kolto patch. He groans.

“Kat,” I say, desperate to believe him well, that this is nothing but a scratch that looks so much worse than it is. I want him to sit up and laugh and tell me its fine, not to worry. He does none of this.

Tags: Bioware, EA, Electronic Arts, Galactic Republic, Kat, LucasArts, Mike Kern, Shiod, Sith Empire, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, Thirty Six Hours, TOR, Vanmere

Republic Trooper hosts Fan Fiction Mondays every week and recently we had the opportunity to sit down with a few other prominent Fan Fiction writers in the SWTOR community. We asked them to share their thoughts on writing and what brought them to a Time Long Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away.

This week we were priveleged to talk to Dimbo from Dimbo the Trooper. If you don’t already read about his exploits, you can do so here.

Republic Trooper: How did you get into writing? What was the earliest thing you can remember writing?

Dimbo the Trooper: I entered a writing contest from Mos Eisley Radio that involved writing a back story for your main character in SWTOR. After I posted mine I got several emails and comments asking when the next episode was. My initial response was ‘um never?’ It really kind of took off from there. I started to think about Dimbo adventuring through the Star Wars galaxy and it came so easily [that] I had to write it down.

Tags: Bioware, Bootleg media, community, Corellian Run Radio, Dimbo the Trooper, EA, Electronic Arts, fan fiction, Galactic Republic, Keyboard Heroes, LucasArts, Mandalorian Girl, Mike Kern, Mos Eisley Radio, Nothing Gaming, Republic Trooper, Star Wars, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWATH radio, SWTOR, The Cantina Cast, TOR, TOR Syndicate, Trooper, Wookiepedia, Zotta

We lay low in the shell holes for there are no longer any proper trenches. The continuous bombardment reduces their depth in some areas to less than a meter. It is enough to lay down and close one’s eyes and wait for the next shell to claim him.

Kat and I never stay in one place too long. We move from hole to hole, crawling beneath wire and leaping over pools of gas and blood. The gas came regularly for a time but it is only dangerous in the low places now and we have removed our masks.

The sun is well up and we are clearly seen by the enemy. Snipers shoot at any hints of uniform or helmet and often their bolts find flesh and bone. A sergeant lost his hand when he tossed out his smoke stick.

Tags: Bioware, EA, Electronic Arts, Galactic Republic, Kat, LucasArts, Mike Kern, Shiod, Sith Empire, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, Thirty Six Hours, TOR, Vanmere

The earth heaves under the barrage and throws up gouts of rock and dirt in every possible direction. We run, hunched over like animals. In places we are reduced to rodents, scurrying on hands and knees as the trench is eroded above us. I hear nothing but the booms and cracks of shells. I see nothing but flashes of intense daylight when the star shells explode overhead. In those moments the world is reduced to what is before me. The trench is my world, the mud my home and Shiod and Kat my brothers.

A shell lands behind us. I hear its whistle and scream a moment before impact and fall flat, covering my head. I feel the explosion before I hear it, a deep, angry rumble that turns into a terrible vibration. It tears at me, rips the trench apart on all sides. Mud and dirt and human viscera fall upon me.

I scream, not from fear but from anger and resentment. This is the reality, this shell that lands so randomly, kills so effortlessly. It is the only important thing. Lenmerer will die a traitor because he felt compassion for one girl, one! Yet this shell is sent to us blindly and will kill us for no other reason than the degree of the barrel was good.

Tags: Bioware, EA, Electronic Arts, Galactic Republic, Kat, LucasArts, Mike Kern, Shiod, Sith Empire, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, Thirty Six Hours, TOR, Vanmere

Shiod is alive. I stand, bewildered, overwhelmed and angry at the same time. He is alive and not once did he tell us! He didn’t come and let neither Kat nor I know about it. He let us linger on in a world without him. I went over the top without him, carried out a mission in the dark without him. Would I have done it if I’d known he was alive? For a mad moment, I imagine the Lieutenant keeping this information from me so I would volunteer.

It is sheer madness and like my anger, evaporates beneath the grinning face before me. We say nothing but simply embrace. His strength is nearly back, I can feel it in his arms. There is the smell of earth and sickness about him, but otherwise he seems hale and healthy. It is only when Kat takes his turn, lifting Shiod bodily off the ground in a bear hug so massive that Shiod protests, that I find my voice.

“How?” I ask. It is enough of a question. Kat puts him down gently and steps back, crossing his arms. We both pin Shiod with our eyes, forcing him to pay attention, to answer us.

Tags: Bioware, EA, Electronic Arts, Galactic Republic, Kat, LucasArts, Mike Kern, Shiod, Sith Empire, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, Thirty Six Hours, TOR, Vanmere