war

[Performance notes: • Repeat the drum cues as written; let them drive the momentum. • Any character speech is isolated exactly as requested.] ________________________________________ [MILITARY DRUM LINE: RAT-A-TAT / RAT-A-TAT / ROLL—ROLL—CRACK!] [WAR DRUM: BOOM… BOOM… BOOM-BOOM…] The Gallant Venture, sleek and proud, With Draymore flags to fly, A shark that smiled through void a danger loyalist must avoid. The fighter’s cockpit hissed like a serpent’s grin, A seam of light in the hanger dim, And out he dropped—black iron hymn— A lone hard man in a traitor ship. In open bay where shuttles flee Rang sharp beneath the boot, A figure strode through fleeing crew Like thunder given suit— Wyatt Staples, common-bred, With stormlight in his stare, A lone boarding shadow against traitor’s pride. Felicity saw him and courage fled, Her blood ran cold in her noble head, ________________________________________ [SPOKEN WORD FEMALE: FELICITY] “No… that’s impossible! Maximillian killed him—he can’t be here!” [SPOKEN WORD MALE: CASMIR] “Your eyes do not deceive you, Felicity. That’s Wyatt Staples. His heraldry gives him away.” ________________________________________ [MILITARY DRUM LINE: ROLL—ROLL—RAT-A-TAT! (x2)] [BREAKDOWN] Heraldry doesn’t lie, stamped clean and stark: A white Peryton shining in the bloodlit dark. Wyatt Staples rose like a verdict made flesh— He didn’t rage. He didn’t boast. He moved like gravity; he moved like ghost. ________________________________________ CHORUS – FULL DRUM LINE [MILITARY DRUM LINE: RAT-A-TAT / RAT-A-TAT / ROLL—ROLL—CRACK!] [WAR DRUM: BOOM—BOOM / BOOM—BOOM] Perytin rising — break the sky. Board the hull and let it die. No retreat and no remorse — Iron blood and forward force. Bridge or grave — we take it all. As long as I’m standing. Traitors fall. [WAR DRUM: BOOM… BOOM… (let it breathe)] ________________________________________ Casmir watched with a tightening jaw, A boy with theories, a man with law, But laws don’t bite in a boarding run— Only the trigger, only the gun. And Wyatt rose like a bell struck clean, With the hum of shields and the visor sheen, Two Soul Snatchers, blue-trail flare— A butcher’s mercy, a hunter’s care. [WAR DRUMS BOOM—bo-bo-BOOM— BOOM—bo-bo-BOOM—] Hear that hull? It’s a war-heart thumping— Hear that name? It’s a doom-step coming— ________________________________________ VERSE: “NO, THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!” He didn’t kneel to their regent claim, He didn’t bargain, he didn’t name A list of titles, a line of creed— He came with hunger. He came with need. He came for Clara and a bitter score, For threats they’d hurled and the blood they swore, For Clara’s life and the insult tossed— A commoner forged where a House was lost. [MILITARY DRUM LINE Rat-a-tat / RAT-a-tat / rat-a-tat-tat— Step in time with the boarding beat— Rat-a-tat / RAT-a-tat / rat-a-tat-tat— Steel is floor and fate is feet—] CHORUS: THE WHITE PERYTIN MARCH [WAR DRUMS BOOM—BOOM— BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—] A white PERYTIN in the smoke and gloom, A lone black star in a corridor’s womb, He walks like thunder, he talks like doom. [MILITARY DRUM LINE Rat-a-tat / RAT-a-tat / rat-a-tat-tat—] Soul Snatchers sing and the shields fall flat, If you hear that rhythm, you don’t look back— If you see that PERYTIN, your courage cracks. Hey!—Hands up high and weapons low, Ho!—Surrender quick if you want to go, Hey!—He offers life, but don’t you lie— Ho!—He counts the liars, and they will die. ________________________________________ VERSE: FIRST TRAITORS, FIRST CHITS A cockpit popped—four armored shapes, Thinking themselves the hunters, the apes. Wyatt turned like a guillotine, Two shots—clean—then the rest unseen. One fell forward, one fell wide, Two froze stiff with shock inside, Two more flashes, two more graves— A tidy end for coward slaves. One still writhed, still begged for breath, Trying to trade a word for death. Wyatt stripped a helmet, found the prize— A data chit like a thief’s small eyes. He swapped it quick with his own neat bite, And the ship’s layout bloomed in light. The path to bridge, the routes like veins, The Gallant Venture’s metal brains. He chose the direct path, grim and fast, Where nobles hid to their last. [MILITARY DRUM LINE Rat-a-tat / RAT-a-tat / rat-a-tat-tat— Map on visor, blood on boot— Rat-a-tat / RAT-a-tat / rat-a-tat-tat—] ________________________________________ VERSE: REDFORD’S HUM, CLARA’S GAMBLE Far off, in shadow, a commander sighed, Redford in Noir Navio’s hide. He tasted doubt like burnt black tea, “Why send him alone?” said he. Clara laughed like a blade in silk, A princess brewing plans like milk Turned sour-sweet in a tactician’s cup, “I need him to land,” she said, “stand up.” “He’ll strike fear with his presence alone, Hold his ground till my Marines are shown.” Redford grumbled, “He’ll surprise again.” Clara purred, “That’s where we begin.” Shuttles fled, escape pods spat, Traitors running like sewer rats, But inside the ship, the scrambler sang, A cage of quiet, a muffled clan