sigh

[Performance notes: • Repeat the drums; let them drive the momentum. • Any character speech is isolated exactly as requested. • Male speech will not be sung by a female voice.] [WAR DRUMS] [VERSE 1] The Gallant Venture bay, where shuttles flee Deck Rang sharp beneath the boot, A figure strode through fleeing crew Like vengeance given suit— Wyatt Staples, common-bred, With stormlight in his stare, Felicity saw him and courage fled, Her blood ran cold in her noble breast, [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.” [CHORUS IN MALE VOICE ONLY] 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 wrath; he moved like ghost. Wyatt stalked 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. 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 into a Knight Bannerette. [VERSE 2 MALE VOICES ONLY] A cockpit popped—four armored shapes, Thinking themselves the hunters, the napes. Wyatt turned like a guillotine, Two shots—clean—then the rest unseen. One still writhed, still begged for breath, Trying for a merciful death. Wyatt stripped a helmet, found the prize— A data chit once found and pulled. He swapped it quick into his helm, 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 the traitors hid to their last. Shuttles fled, escape pods spat, Traitor crew running like scared sewer rats, And Wyatt moved where the signal ran— Hardline bridge, as cold as a plan. [VERSE 3 MALE VOICES ONLY] Casmir stared with mouth agape, Hands on sword like prayer to escape. Felicity watched with hollow face— She knew of death, but not at this pace. Not mindless murder—no, worse, a mind That measures lives like thread and twine. He spared the quiet, shot the sly, And every trick earned a quicker die. Then Felicity snapped like wire in heat, Shoved aside an officer’s seat, And spoke to shipwide ears, loud, raw— A bounty wrapped in noble law. Wyatt’s blood turned acid, hot and thin. “The bridge,” he thought. “That’s where she’s pinned.” [SPOKEN WORD FEMALE: FELICITY – FEMALE VOICE ONLY] “Attention loyal subjects! There’s an intruder near storage A2—black armor, white PERYTIN. Two million credits to whoever kills him! If a commoner does it, they’ll be raised to nobility under House Cintor!” [SPOKEN WORD MALE: CASMIR–MALE VOICE ONLY] “Belay that—Felicity—!” [SPOKEN WORD FEMALE: FELICITY – FEMALE VOICE ONLY] “It is already done. I am in command, Casmir. We cannot allow that man to live.” [VERSE 4 MALE VOICES ONLY] A side intersection, a tragic harp. Five commoners, a wounded lord, “Biofoam?” We used it all.” The marine coughed proud, and said he’d fall. Wyatt stepped out, holstered one gun, Pulled his biofoam—rare, strong. He knelt, assessed, then yanked the blade, Foam into wound and death stayed. “It won’t save him,” Wyatt said low, “But it might buy time. Go.” The noble tried to name himself. Wyatt cut him off: “I don’t care. Now Move.” [VERSE 5 MALE VOICES ONLY] Then came a voice, older, firm: [SPOKEN WORD MALE] “You will not pass, sir Wyatt.” Wyatt’s answer was a rebuff [SPOKEN WORD MALE: WYATT] “Captain Siro—out of respect, I won’t call you witless cowards. But I didn’t know you were a comedian.” [CHORUS MALE VOICES ONLY] Siro fell, breath a broken thing, Darkness closing like a curtain ring. Wyatt stood above him, ragged, burned, But victory in his hands was earned. Behind him, troops went slack with shock. He put his helmet back with lock. Then he faced the bridge doors, breath like steam, And stepped into the last cruel dream. [VERSE 6 MALE VOICES ONLY] The doors sighed open like a grave. Inside stood officers trying to be brave, Weapons shaking, eyes too wide, A noble with a sword and pride. [SPOKEN WORD MALE: WYATT- MALE VOICE ONLY] “I seek Cazmir Caston and Felicity Cintor.” [BREAKDOWN MALE VOICES ONLY] Casmir waiting. Sword held high. Shouted Honor’s question, a Dual to die. Wyatt answered with Single shot. An Arm gone, Speech is not. Casmir screams in fear and tries to flee Now the consequences, another shot His Leg gone. Cayston Heir withdrawn. [SPOKEN WORD FEMALE– FEMALE VOICE ONLY] “Sir Knight—hear my plea! We surrender utterly. The Gallant Venture is yours!” [VERSE MALE VOICES ONLY] Felicity stepped with trembling breath— Hidden blade. A final death. He caught her arm before it bit. Bone cracked sharp beneath his fist. Arm bent wrong. Blood and spit. [SPOKEN WORD MALE: WYATT–MALE VOICE ONLY] “Your surrender has been noted.”