"Sir! The enemy is closing in faster! We're surrounded!" The elite soldier screamed at his superior, claws clutching his lazer gun like it was the difference between falling off a cliff into the terrifying abyss or living to fight another day. In reality it probably was.

The superior whom the elite was speaking to, held his own gun firmly as he stared into his own reflection not seeing the bright crimson eyes that could strike fear into any soldier or, the lovely jade green skin that made him popular with females and males all across the universe. Not that he took any notice. The young leader was usually busy fighting battles or thinking up the next war tactic.

He was doing both of those just now. His mind raced with the possibilities, automatically throwing out the idea of defeat or retreat as they left a bitter taste in his mouth. But, right now as injured and broken as most of his men were…as hopeless as the situation seemed he could only think of one solution.

He spun on his heel, startling the smaller elite solider who immediately stood at attention. The red eyed leader looked down his nose at the solider. "Jak…that's you name right?" The solider nodded. "Well Jak, I need you to tell whoever is still alive to gather any irken on this ship to fight. I don't care who it is. Janitor drone, medical, tabletop, cooks, scientists anyone who can hold a gun or throw a fist will be used." His voice was allowed for no doubts or questions. Jak nodded, saluting his captain before lunging out of the room to do what he was told as irken were born to do.

Unless of course you were born to be a leader. Red was born to lead. He knew this and had accepted long ago that he would always be that way; demanding, stubourn, charismatic and strong. He was tall and people listened to him. It was fitting that he be in charge of all these elites, the empire's finest soldiers. He cocked his gun, a small smirk on his face. Perhaps one day he'd even become Tallest. With a snort he walked out the door to see what could be salvaged from this broken war.

A kick here, spin. Land a blow. Keep fighting, keep adapting. Breathe. Punch. Breathe. Stab. Don't get cocky. Purple silently chanted to himself, as he socked a Screw head in the face before the bastard could taze him. Easy. A quicker one ran up, charging Purple with the razor sharp screw on top of its cranium. The violent eyed irken laughed a little, mockingly before he ducked out of the way; snatching the creature by the neck as it ran past, giving a few seconds to realize its mistake before snapping the spine with a clean chop to its back.

"Heh." He chuckled, dropping the body to turn and take on a new enemy. He didn't know how he'd gotten mixed up in this unruly mess but, he was enjoying it. A far cry from working in the fucking engine of this stupid ship.

After finishing of his new opponent with a slice of the throat with his nifty pocket knife, he spun. His eyes of lilac searched for someone else to maul until they landed on another Screw head lifting a blunt bludgeon above his head to bring down upon another irken who was distracted with his most recent fight. Purple growled, letting out a war cry, he ran and jumped to tackle the ass to the dusty, dirty ground now slowly being saturated with a mix of blue and orange blood.

The Screw head yelped in shock and dropped with the irken on top of him, landing punches to the yellow creature. It screeched and tried to fight back but it didn't get far. Purple pulled back an arm and sliced the throat, letting the thing bleed out its life force into the dirt. With a malicious laugh, Purple stood up and was about to run away to fight some more. A strong hand curled around his arm snatching him back.

Purple gasped, hissing. His instinct told him to scratch, bite…kill until he was free. But, whoever had dared grab him wasn't hurting him. Yet. So he held back, lifting his eyes to find the person whose ass he'd saved moments ago, staring down at him maroon eyes blank.

Purple ripped his arm away, and stared back defiantly. This was war not a formal party so he had the right to glare at a superior all he wanted. Expecting to get reprimanded, Purple's eyes narrowed then widened in shock when the uniformed irken asked him a question. "What is your name and rank solider?"

Standing nearly immobile, Purple had no idea how to respond. The truth wasn't pretty. But, he'd never stooped to lying before and didn't plan to now.

"Purple, sir. I have no ra—"There was a loud boom, which shook the entire dusty ground, sending dirt flying into the air. Screams broke out as well as maniacal laughter from the Screw heads.

Red stayed steady on his feet, used to these moron's way of attacking. Without even noticing his burgundy eyes searched for the solider that'd saved his life, only to find nothing where he'd once been. It was like he'd vanished into thin air.

Wait a minute, his mind cautioned him. There is a reason that we have yet to defeat these ornery little bastards. Their ability to tunnel under ground and their technology to hover in the—

"air." He growled, looking upwards and finding his suspicions proved. The little solider who'd saved him was yelling curses, flailing against the screw head who had a hold of him, fists flying in that impressive way of his but because of his compromising position few actually made contact.

Red considered, leaving the solider…Purple was it? to his own devices. He was after all obviously skilled in combat. The only thing that stopped him was that he felt some small amount of loyalty to the foul mouthed moron with violet eyes. It was in his blood to return the favor of a life spared.

So, reaching into his pocket Red pulled out a laser gun, lifted it straight up, aimed and fired. The burst of bright violent pink seared straight into the screw head's stomach.

Purple's eyes closed in an effort to not be blinded by the blast. Once the tale tell smell of burning flesh, reached his lekku, he was suddenly freed. Falling through the air, Purple calculated he was at least 200 feet high. This fall wouldn't kill him. But it was sure going to hurt like a Galsporch thorn.

Instead of solid ground as he expected however, there was suddenly a loud grunt and warm, hard arms around him. Purple's eyes shot open and his stare met with the taller red solider for only a few seconds. There was something there that made his spooch tighten, his skin feel tinglely. There was also outrage and a bit of reluctant gratitude. Then Red opened his arms and let the solider drop unceremoniously to the ground.

Purple bit out a curse, and glared at the irken elite, rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh shut up, solider. I could've let you fall. Now come on." He looked around wearily, red eyes narrowed. "After that little stunt they usually pull their predictable grand finale." Purple idly wondered what this 'grand finale' was, but decided that it mustn't be good, if said in such a grave tone.

Purple jumped to his feet and ran after the irken whose name he didn't even know but, trusted anyway. They reached a disguised Spittle runner, after having run across the dusty wasteland dodging their enemy. Red pressed the code to open the hatch, grabbed Purple by his upper arm and shoved him inside.

Growling from the rough treatment, Purple was half tempted to punch the upper irken. He held back knowing it could get him left here and though he had no doubt in his own ability to find another way off he wasn't sure if he would do it in time.

Red flipped several switches on the controls and in seconds they were rising up, up, up. Immediately, several voices squawked through the communicator demanding orders. Red ignored it, instead focusing on getting them the hell out of there. Once he was certain they were at least semi out of immediate danger, he snatched up the communicator and barked several commands into it, while Purple watched warily from the passenger seat.

It was nearly silent in the cockpit, Red focusing on getting the rest of his soldiers out alive and Purple glaring out the window at the horrible filthy planet, and at any screw head he could find, before turning back the deadly stare to Red.

"So why exactly are we just floating here if there is going to be, and I quote 'a grand finale'?" Red's lekku curled themselves against his scalp. He hadn't noticed how annoying Purple's voice was until just now.

"I have a duty to get the rest of my soldiers out of harm's way. So, sit silent and listen to your superior." Confident in his victory, Red turned back to the control and proceeded to ignore Purple' who's left eye was twitching at the direct order. He'd never had been able to stomach being pushed around and this was no exception.

"Akoh." Purple said the extremely demeaning word as if it was a normal conversation. The word floated to Red's lekku and he turned his head slowly expression frozen.

"What did you just call me?" No one dared stand up to him. NO one disobeyed a direct order from Red.

Except for Purple that is. He leaned forward and formed the word perfectly, letting every syllable roll of his tongue. "A-h-k-o-h."

Some might say that two grown male Irkens would have the self control it took to not fight under pressure. To sort out their differences later and mainly focus on what was important at the time; escaping and living. Some might say that Irkens are too civilized to get upset over one little word. Some might even say that Irkens do not squabble and get upset over small things.

If you said that you would be proven wrong in that instant as Red lunged across the cockpit and began punching the living daylights out of the purple eyed irken, who after only two seconds of shock, began giving as good as he got.

"You little good for nothing son of a-"

"Moronic brute, you are gonna pay for-"

"Ouch! Don't even dar-"

"You were saying?"

"Shut up! Take tha-"

"Bite me, Akoh!"

"Stop saying that, immature little cret-"

-Whhhhhhiiiiirrrrllll- The ship let out a warning that some object of unknown origin was hurtling towards them. Red shot up and away from the fight, ignoring his black eye and numerous soon-to-be bruises in order to figure out what the hell was happening.

Purple panted heavily, fists clenching and unclenching feeling the adrenaline from their fight still coursing through him.

"I am not a cretin." He said, rubbing a sore spot on his cheek where Red had punched him. "You know my real name and I don't even know yours." He realized.

"Red. Now shut up and sit still while I work." Pause. "Cretin." Purple growled, ready to start this up again. Only the ship was suddenly yanked forward violently, causing them both to fly and hit the windshield with loud bangs.

Purple groaned and rolled over from the place he'd fallen on the ground. The gravity was pushing him into the floor. Fighting to sit up he realized they were hurtling towards the surface of the planet. Gasping, he tried to pull up the controls, as he looked around for the red eyed asshole.

His heart sunk when he saw him on the floor, head leaking blood from the violent burst forward. Purple tried not to panic but unfortunately it was impossible to do so. He knew how to fly every model of Voot cruiser out there, many Meekrobian ships were easy, he was even familiar with the basics of the Immense, but this was a new version of a Spittle runner he had yet to master.

"No…no. no. You! Red! Wake up, Akoh!" The ground was getting closer and closer, Purple winced as the ship shook as it broke the atmosphere.

"Red!" Purple yelled, claws digging into the controls. There was no sign of Red awakening and he could make out the carcasses of dead screw heads on the surface.

"Fuck…" Purple yanked down on the controls once more and closed his eyes.