What a grand city Karzh was, a trading capital of the entire Commonwealth, located on the planet Lejik within the Terna kingdom. A perfect placement at the complete centre of the entire collection of Shaki nations. It had survived the old war and recovered faster than the Terna capital itself; money is such a powerful concept after all.
The skies ignited into a bright orange, giant metallic rods fell from orbit, propelled by both gravity and crude thrusters. Piercing through the atmosphere like paper as they reached terminal velocity, ready to collide with the jungle of concrete, metal, and glass below. Already, the city was caught ablaze through the acts of an ongoing battle, bullet tracers painted intricate patterns across the streets, explosions of both screams and flames forced themselves into the eardrums of the poor souls forced into this mess. They were fighting, but also retreating. Caught between the decision of continuing their oppressive fire or to give up and retreat into a safer area before the bombardment hit. Time was of the essence.
Among the madness, a single, heavily bandaged man stood atop a corpse. Studying the continuous stream of a viscous red liquid leaking through a bullet wound found exactly in the middle of its forehead. The bandages were soaked a crimson colour, almost over saturated as blood began to pool below his scarred fingertips. He wore a simple light grey sleeveless shaolin-like uniform including an orange waistbelt, the legs wrapped and bound with black rope into black boots. A white and orange turban covered the majority of his unkempt, curly black hair; accentuating the light brown skin of his face. Nothing much else stood out from this being besides the presence of large patterned scarring spreading from the left shoulder up to the left eye, swirling and branching as it claims the sight of the eye it had consumed. Leaving behind red-stained sclera which contrasted greatly with the bright green iris.
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Tears formed within both eyes as they reached a realisation that the body before him would not awaken. The rubble below had become the final resting place for this being, its final expression being that of disbelief, a gaping jaw and furrowed eyebrows. It was not happy to face whatever it had in battle. “Why would you take this path?” The man questioned the corpse, almost expecting it to answer, “We, we were a team. A duo everyone envied. We had so many plans…” Tears finally trailed down his face, but only once. His voice shook as he took deep, painful breaths between each sentence. He paused. As if listening to a voiceless reply, the man scoffed. A hand struggled to raise as it scratched the back of the neck, eyes darted side to side, assessing the situation at hand. Finally, as the bombardment finally collided with the surface, he spoke out once more.
“You were my brother”.