Hey fan fiction fans! One of our authors, Mike Kern, has completed what we believe is his SWTOR masterpiece! A 12 Chapter, 30,000 word fan fiction novel entitled "Thirty Six Hours". We thought we would share it with you all and hope you enjoy it! It takes place on Balmorra 36 hours before the planet is handed over to the Empire. This topic is the link to the final chapter. If you wish to read from the beginning I've linked them all for you below. Thanks to everyone one who has supported Mike thoughtout the course of this project! Enjoy! Thirty Six Hours – Chapter 12: On Sleepless Roads, The Sleepless Go Written By: Mike Kern 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. “Can you hear me? Kat, Kat!” I am shouting, even as the shells scream by, their explosions stealing my words. My face is suddenly warm, wet. I reach up, terrified that I am hit but they are only tears. Full story here: http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/05/07/thirty-six-hours-on-sleepless-roads-the-sleepless-go/ Thirty Six Hours - By Chapter Chapter 1 - 2300 http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/02/06/thirty-six-hours-2300/ Chapter 2 - Bombardment http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/02/13/thirty-six-hours-bombardment/ Chapter 3 - Over The Top http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/03/05/thirty-six-hours-over-the-top/ Chapter 4 - No Man's Land http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/03/12/thirty-six-hours-no-mans-land/ Chapter 5 - Mercy http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/03/19/thirty-six-hours-mercy/ Chapter 6 - The Promises We Keep http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/03/26/thirty-six-hours-the-promises-we-keep/ Chapter 7 - New Recruits http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/04/02/thirty-six-hours-new-recruits/ Chapter 8 - In Memoriam http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/04/09/thirty-six-hours-in-memoriam/ Chapter 9 - For Love http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/04/16/thirty-six-hours-for-love/ Chapter 10 - If They Lay Us Down To Rest http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/04/23/thirty-six-hours-if-they-lay-us-down-to-rest/ Chapter 11 - At The Last http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/04/30/thirty-six-hours-at-the-last/ Chapter 12 - On Sleepless Roads, The Sleepless Go http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/05/07/thirty-six-hours-on-sleepless-roads-the-sleepless-go/

Written By: Mike Kern 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. The bombardment rolls on and on ceaselessly. There is an attack during a lull but even then the shells rain down, killing imperials as well. They are mad and we are mad. The whole world has gone to splinters of sense and reality. A shell, an explosion, a scream and a hole. These are the only things. They are almost holy. Full story here: http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/04/30/thirty-six-hours-at-the-last/

Written By: Mike Kern 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. I climb through, pushing aside the mud and come across an arm. It is not Shiod’s or Kat’s and so I continue, shouting for them to follow me. There is a dugout nearby, I remember it. It is deep and reinforced and we will be safe there. Another flash lights up the sky and I see two men ahead of us. They are running toward us! I shout for them to go back, to turn away, to run for a dugout. Full story here: http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/04/23/thirty-six-hours-if-they-lay-us-down-to-rest/

Written By: Mike Kern 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. “Len,” Shiod says, though his voice is quiet. He takes a step closer to us and shakes his head. “Not here, there are-” Full story here: http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/04/16/thirty-six-hours-for-love/

Written By: Mike Kern The wind blows cold from the east, carrying with it the scent of freshly turned earth and blood. It unsettles my hair but its caress is soft enough to make me close my eyes. I can not reconcile the things I see with reality and I shut them out. Darkness is much easier to understand than this. I stand there for an eternity. The whole of Balmorra moves on without me. The war ends, life begins again, the Republic and Empire collapses. These images are more real to me than the present and I surrender to it. Exhaustion creeps in at the corners of my mind, reaching out with greedy fingers and tempting whispers. To sleep, to dream, these things will erase this reality. In my dreams Vanmere is alive, Shiod is still laughing and Lenmerer still pines for his latest lost love. Full story here: http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/04/09/thirty-six-hours-in-memoriam/

Written By: Mike Kern New recruits have come to us. It is both a relieving sight and a somber one for we have suffered heavily and taken many losses, but these new troops are mostly boys and old men. The boys are a just versions of me from less than a day ago. Each one could be a Jophrey Vanmere as well, scared and ignorant of what will come. I feel instantly for them because they are such a sorry sight. Their uniforms don’t fit and most of the armor is shoddy. Not a single one has a helmet and I only count a score of gasmasks among them. It is worse with the old men. The boys that come up to the front now are full of fear, but it’s because they hope to live. The old men that come have no hope. They have volunteered so that others did not have to. I’d seen it many times before I volunteered, these fathers and grandfathers shouldering their packs and heading to the front. They shuffle by me and their looks are neither grim nor fearful, but resigned. They sit on muddy shelves and wait. Not all is grim, Kat points out that with new recruits comes fresh food. In short order it arrives in the form of cold bread and colder soup. Still I wolf it down without thought or ceremony, careful not to spill a drop. Full story here: http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/04/02/thirty-six-hours-new-recruits/

Written By: Mike Kern The letter to Vanmere’s family goes poorly. I crouch in the mud outside a medical tent with Kat while we wait for word on Shiod. My hands touch the datapad but the words that come are stiff and meaningless. They form no sentences, create no explanations for the woman who made me promise to look after her son out there. At first I wanted to tell her the truth, that I’d failed to do what she asked. I would write that we’d gotten separated and I hadn’t looked for him. I left him to die in No Man’s Land without a second thought. Me, I killed him as sure as the sniper’s bolt. Kat reminded me that it wasn’t that simple. He made me remember that insane charge across open ground with explosions all around us. It was dark, so very dark that you could hardly see a meter in front of you. Our only guidance came from the muzzle flashes of our enemy’s guns and the star shells that exploded overhead. We rushed towards death just like a ship would rush to ruin by following a lighthouse. “Why did we do it?” I asked him, but Kat only shrugged and told me that was how it was. That was how it was, that’s what I should tell her. I should write to her what war really is, that her son rushed to death because that’s all there was to it. There is no glory in taking a Grav shell to the abdomen, no heroics in tripping a proxy mine. It is just what it is. Senseless. Full story here: http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/03/26/thirty-six-hours-the-promises-we-keep/

Written By: Mike Kern It is mid-day by the time I’m allowed to sit up. Len doesn’t say it but Kat does. Even this is too soon, but they need every man who can hold a rifle. It’s been a little over half a day since the Republic forces pulled out and a full day left before their reinforcements arrive. “It’s less than a day,” Kat says as I hobble through the medical station with Shiod. Shiod is proposing a game of pazaak and we’re in search of Len again, full of purpose that we’ll steal him away from the center long enough for a game. Ever since Shiod spilled the news about Vanmere, Len hasn’t been around. “A day is a long time,” Shiod says and spits, as if the number is grit in his mouth. We’ve already gotten used to eating with dirt in our rations. Refreshers are a long forgotten dream here and it’s felt like an age since I was clean. “It’s not so long as that,” Kat says and grabs the pazaak cards from Shiod’s hands. “Just long enough for you to lose your whole family fortune.” “Good luck with that,” Shiod says, shrugging bony shoulders. “Empire took that a year ago.” Full story here: http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/03/19/thirty-six-hours-mercy/

Written By: Mike Kern When I was a child, I often stood in a field of poppies behind my house. My mother would pretend to not see me there and call out to me, over and over. Standing there, I felt invisible, with the grass to my knees and the Balmorran sun reflecting off the lakes. In that field of red and green nothing could hurt me. Nothing could take me away. Even my mother was not immune to it. I stare now at the dull red petals of a poppy plant. Even in the darkness I make out the color when star shells explode. They are the color of blood and cover this wasteland from which there is no return. I lay in the land of the dead where the living should not go. No Man’s Land they call it. We were not men when we crossed into it. We were beasts, driven mad by fear and blood rage. Now humanity returns and we are no longer welcome here. The gas creeps along the ground toward us like an ocean’s wave, cresting shell holes and billowing over bodies and debris. In the darkness it is a gray mist. In the light of the star shells it is a pale yellow, like the color of dying flesh. It reaches for us with foul smelling tendrils, curling under and around our limbs, seeking purchase on exposed skin. It leaps for our noses and throats, wanting to be let in. Once inside it will destroy us, bloat our faces and bring blood from our lungs to our lips. It is a silent death. This reaper culls in silence and so we must be silent as well. We hush our own voices in hope that it does not seek us out. The dying are the only ones who break that silence. To hear nothing means life and I hastily pull my gas mask into place with the hope that none of my friends shall call out. Full story here: http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/03/12/thirty-six-hours-no-mans-land/

Written By: Mike Kern The man next to Shiod dies. He is hit by a shell that explodes not a meter from us. In an instant we are covered in dirt. It comes over us like an ocean’s wave. My ears and mouth are especially vulnerable and are filled. Kat digs me out and I, gasping and spitting, help Shiod. Vanmere is spared from the whole of it by a stroke of luck. The dead man lay where he’d previously stood, but only his lower torso and legs remain. The rest is gone, blown away in a blast that leaves the rest of us shaken but otherwise unhurt. I stare until Kat shakes me back to myself. “Sith!” He says this twice more before I regain my senses. In the desert of No Man’s Land, the enemy is coming to kill us. Leading them is a man in dark armor and armed with a lightsaber. It is an impossible weapon, shedding light when any sane person would pray for darkness to hide in. The light bathes him in light that turns him the color of blood. The sight alone unnerves me. Full story here: http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/03/05/thirty-six-hours-over-the-top/

Written By: Mike Kern Darkness. We are swallowed by it, enveloped and embraced by it. In the flashes of light we are seen as if through still images. We look at one another with white faces and thin lips pressed tight. There is no sound in the darkness and with the light we are made deaf by explosions. Are we in one of the Hells preached to us by our Spiritual Leaders? No, it is too cold. Are we dead? No, we yet move and take breath. But in these flashes of light, there is a complete absence of life. No movement, no warmth and no sound but the crashing of ordnance. The barrage is the only life we know. It has gone on now for an hour. I am convinced that there was no life before it and any moment, there will be no life after. The wet and mud and cold are the whole of my existence. I extend no further than the falling of the next shell. Suddenly I am blinded, an explosion has gone off just behind us. Vanmere is gone, ripped from my hands. I cry out but I hear nothing. Do I have a voice? Will I ever speak again? Shiod rises to his feet and points but I see only spots of black and white, now fading to amber and gold and silver. Full story here: http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/02/13/thirty-six-hours-bombardment/

Combat Chatter is the official podcast of RepublicTrooper.com Combat Chatter is back for another episode! This week Dave, Andy and Mike were graced with the presence of our Jedi brothers-in-arms, as special guests Momus and Lady Republic from Ask A Jedi joined us for the show. The team discusses a variety of subjects including PvP, Vanguard Shield Specialists, The Mess Hall, BioChem, leaks about upcoming patches and more! You can listen to the show, download the file, check out the guests and view the topics of discussion below. http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/02/09/combat-chatter-episode-9-we-ask-a-jedi Enjoy!

Written By: Mike Kern The Republic is leaving Balmorra. I watch the transport clear Verdin Palace just as we settle to a stop. The walker is an old one and it had limped more than walked us from the training camp. Vanmere is pointing but its Shiod who says it. “They’re abandoning us!” It seems that way. For months the Republic has been pulling troops off Balmorra. Verdin Palace and the principality surrounding it seems to be all that’s left of my home planet. The Sith have been here for years, fighting and burning. If I had been eighteen just a few months earlier, I might have had my first deployment in the trenches around Sentir, my home. Instead, we’re here. “Maybe it’s just a supply run,” I say and step off the deck onto the hard earth. My boots are old and my uniform hangs baggy on my small frame. The uniform of the Balmorran army hangs limply on us all, even portly Vanmere. If not for the draft, he’d have never made a soldier. He fell behind on every march, but it didn’t matter to our drill instructor. “You won’t need marching in the trenches,” he said and made us all do it again anyway. Full story here: http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/02/06/thirty-six-hours-2300

Lost Tales of the Old Republic is a weekly fan fiction story, written by RepublicTrooper.com’s very own Tim Bertram. Tim is an aspiring author, with one completed novel already under his belt. Each and every Monday, Tim will give you a fresh installment in the Lost Tales of the Old Republic series. Enjoy! Chapter Five: “Peace Is A Lie”, Part IV Written by: Timothy E. Bertram The team moved cautiously down the corridors deeper into the detention center. They passed several security droids that, had they not been deactivated at the command center, would have been attacking. “Hold up.” Gage ordered as they approached the last security lock. “Blaster, take a look.” Blaster moved up to the door slowly in a crouched position. He took a look through the window and responded ‘Clear’ into the comms channel. “Zeikk.” Gage nodded towards the door. Zeikk stepped up and used the coded key they had acquired in the control room. As the door opened he was suddenly knocked into the door frame as Greasy pushed past dashing into the cellblock, Jenz following close behind. The block itself was easily a hundred meters deep lined on both sides with cells. With the security lockdown in place, they would have to open each cell individually. As Zeikk started with the closest cell, Greasy and Jenz ran down from cell to cell looking through the barred window in each door, sometimes calling into a cell to wake a sleeping individual. About half of the cells were occupied, most of them with Balmorrans. As the first bewildered citizens were set free from their cells, Gage and Rein briefly informed them of their impending escape and readied them for the exit. Blaster followed the two women as they searched for Thalin. Full story here: http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/01/30/lost-tales-of-the-old-republic-chapter-five-peace-is-a-lie-part-iv

Combat Chatter is the official podcast of RepublicTrooper.com Combat Chatter is back for another episode! This week Dave, Andy and Mike are joined by a new RT team member, Timothy De Block, as well as special guests Ivan and Azalus from Old Republic Radio. The team discusses all things Star Wars: The Old Republic including Patch 1.1, Trooper PvP, account security, an interview with TOR’s Art Director Jeff Dobson and more! You can listen to the show, download the file, check out the guests and view the topics of discussion below. Listen to the podcast here: http://www.republictrooper.com/2012/01/19/combat-chatter-episode-8-ivan-in-2012/ Enjoy Troopers! /salute