Liquidated Remains

1

Lieutenant Lidware took a cigara, like clockwork, every cycle at 0900 hours. Where he took this break was a little more random, depending on where he was scheduled that day.

Lucky for Armitage and his group, Brendol had informed Armitage that Lidware had been assigned to the Astronomy deck's back-engineering room. This was a part of the destroyer that Armitage didn't know well, as the deck required ID codes that Armitage sadly lacked. The deck, like so many other privileges, remained just out of reach. Such a minor obstacle could not keep Lidware from being disposed of, it was only a matter of time.

The engineering room contained smoke detectors in case of fire, but a spare conference room less than 150 yards away did not. Armitage predicted this is where the Lieutenant would take his leave, but sent CD-059 to trail the man as a backup plan. As children on an Imperial star destroyer, the group members weren't often noticed by officers, but more and more often Armitage was recognized as Brendol Hux's illegitimate son.

Though Lidware didn't make it to the conference room by 0930, Armitage was hesitant to leave the room and likely draw attention to himself. He received a text communication from CD-059, stating that Lidware had locked himself in the refresher, over a thousand yards away from the engineering room.

Armitage exited the conference room, swiftly making his way to the refresher CD-059 had identified as Lidware's hiding place.

Along the way, he almost ran directly into Admiral Pryde's path, who had been most suspicious about Brendol Hux's activities as of late. He slipped around the nearest corner, carefully watching Pryde make his way past. Luckily, the Admiral never looked back to notice the small ginger child glaring daggers his way.

With no time to waste, Armitage swept into the refresher before anyone else came by. Lieutenant Lidware stood perpendicular to the door, clearly enjoying his cigara. Seeing Armitage, his mouth fell open, perhaps to question what the boy was doing there, perhaps to explain himself.

Armitage never gave him the chance to do either. He tackled Lidware, gutting him from his lower ribcage to pelvis. His blade cuts easily through tender flesh, spurred along by the weight of Armitage's small frame pressing the older man into the fresher floor. Lidware made a sound like a bloodthirsty rancor as he toppled over, and Armitage reached up his blade to cut out his vocal cords. He belatedly realized his mistake as the arterial spray from Lidware's throat soaks him in blood.

The original plan had been to stab Lidware and dispose of him in the airlock attached to the conference room, frequent in use back in the Imperial days when force users efficiently executed incompetent imperials and needed an efficient disposal system.

Unlike the Emperor or his apprentice Darth Vader, Armitage could hardly go dragging Lidware's corpse back through the crowded halls of the star destroyer to the nearest airlock. Brendol had told him to dispose of the body discreetly, so he couldn't leave Lidware a bloody mess on the refresher floor either.

He was running out of options. Anyone could barge into the refresher and see Armitage in a very incriminating position. Coming to a decision, the boy gathered all his strength to drag Lidware's corpse into the closest stall, leaving it unlocked but propping up Lidware's lifeless limbs to hold the door closed.

He took off his uniform jacket and mopped up blood from the floor and walls. His shirt was not nearly absorbent enough to mop up all the blood that came from Lidware, but the black interior of the star destroyer worked greatly to his advantage to hide the remaining stains. He forced his way into Lidware's stall, stomach queasy at the thought of the grisly task before him.

The monomolecular blade he carried could carve apart human flesh and bone quite easily, but cutting Lidware into chunks small enough to fit down the vac tube would take hours. The skull would be the most cumbersome to cut apart, reasoned Armitage, so this is where he would begin. Using his limited knowledge of human anatomy, he located the weakest part of Lidware's skull, somewhere above the brow ridge, and clumsily began to hack him open.

Every time an officer walked into the refresher to relieve themselves was a brush with death. Armitage sat in tense silence, leaving the air purifier on and praying none of the officers recognized the thick clotty scent of blood. At one point, all the stalls were occupied and an older officer took to banging on Armitage's door, demanding that he hurry up with his business. Armitage sat frozen, crouched over Lidware's messy remains, and frozen in fear until the nosy officer finally left him alone. By the time he had flushed the last of Lidware's remains and his outer uniform, which hardly looked like a uniform anymore all draggled and soaked in blood. Armitage himself was covered in intestines, blood, and sweat. He ordered CD-051 to find him a fresh uniform and bring it to the refresher stall. The process of dismemberment had taken at least seven hours, and by now it was nearing the sleep cycle. He couldn't wait to find a warm corner of the ship to curl up and fall asleep.

He exited the stall when he was sure the refresher was empty, using a sonic shower to clean himself of Lidware's remains. The door hissed open and Armitage turned, hackles raised, but it was only CD-051 with his clothes. The boy tossed the bundle at Armitage, who had to move out of the sonic stall to catch it.

"Lieutenant Lidware was reported missing." CD-051 relayed to him. "He was reported leaving the engine room at 0925, nobody knows where he went after that. As far as we've heard." He looked closer at Armitage, who was thankfully now a lot cleaner and pulling on the clean uniform. "Where's the body?"

Armitage nodded towards the stall he had just exited, though he wondered why CD-051 would even bother asking. It wasn't his duty to know, Armitage had dealt with this one himself. All by himself, as he so often was.

"...Where?" CD-051 asked again, unable to locate any trace of Lidware in the stall. Then he glanced at the vac tube, realization lighting up his features. "That's disgusting."

"What do you think took so long?" Armitage snapped, uniform finally fastened to his liking. He folded his hands behind his back, imitating the posture of the imperials he so dearly looked up to. His hands were clean, his uniform was perfect and he would maintain the facade of an unflinching imperial officer even if he was sentenced to death for this. Even if Brendol himself put Armitage out an airlock for failing him one time too many.

"I didn't ask for your input, soldier."