Balada: When death did not exist, nor yet Eternity Part I 005

The Occupied Territories, planet Maramanakama, the Capital city Tolina, the Dukhym district.

9:53 Local Planetary Time.

Explosions raged as fire, wind, water and earth attacks of the city’s resistance cell ambushed the local    Imperial patrol or rather they had done a  reasonable first volley against them, for after the element of surprise wore off, the Imperial units quickly got over their initial confusion and  counterattacked.

First by raising they’re s.h.i.+elds and immediately activating the earth spells within them, drawing the ground around them to form a protective wall to block any more attacks and then launching a volley of their own against the interlopers, in that instance the battle changed from a seemingly successful ambush to a slaughter of the members of this group of Maran resistance fighters as they slowly but surely started falling to the might of the Empire.

A great explosion shook and reshaped the rooftop where Ahmaianos along with his fellow rebel fighters where, making him loose consciousness from the explosion, but after a moment of pitch darkness he opened his eyes to his new surroundings.

Ahmaianos the leader of the local resistance cell gave the order to pull back, and retreated behind the edge of the building’s rooftop to avoid enemy fire, he looked to his left and right and realized that he was the last survivor of his squad. The others had all fallen or rather had been burned, crushed or sliced apart by the enemy’s attacks, leaving nothing but body parts rather than bodies behind.

Upon this realization, anger filled him at seeing his friends’ death, so he retreated even farther from the edge of the rooftop and jumped across to the neighboring buildings and continued his journey across rooftops until he managed to flank the enemy from behind.

 From there he peered over the edge to look at the Imperials who were still firing at where his squad had fallen.

 He aimed an arrow with his crossbow at one of the attackers and fired the weapon at the soldier that seemed to be the commander, the small arrow gathered the water vapors from the atmosphere and turned it into a small vortex of ice around its body, the arrow did not penetrate his armor, but the force of the impact and the cold air from the arrow got into his lungs freezing them, making him collapse to the ground.

 The squad seeing their commander go down immediately looked to were the shot was fired and quickly retaliated in kind with their own arrows.

Ahmaianos ducked and ran from the rooftop he was on and down a fire escape, as he looked back he saw how the fire arrows burned the roof, how the wind arrows blew around it and intensified the fire, and how the earth arrows absorbed matter from the surrounding buildings and grew many times their size, smas.h.i.+ng anything that was in their way.

“They’re so many…….and so powerful……..” he said to himself between gasps for air as he continued his desperate jog for life and limb; when he found himself on ground level and in one of the back alleys, he finally felt that he had lost them………. at least for now.

 He stopped for a moment to catch his breath and after wiping the sweat of his brown, he took out a flask from inside his coat pocket and took a big gulp of its content to calm his nerves and as he was about to repeat the process  movement from his right caught his eye and he quickly bolted and aimed his crossbow in that direction.

But after getting a good look at the ‘enemy’ he realized that what he saw was in fact a large window and it was his own reflection in it that had caught his eye a moment earlier.

He took several tentative steps towards it and as he looked at the gla.s.s he started to wonder.

“Who is that man with the long unkempt hair, with his unshaven face, and dirty skin?”

“Who are you? You who drinks hard spirits like its water, you with the weapon in your hand, with blood on your conscience? “

“Are you really me?” he asked himself as he moved the fingers of his right palm towards the gla.s.s, to touch it, to confirm if the image was real and not just something in his mind.

 His hand was a hairs length away when a loud explosion jolted him out of his reverie and he quickly glued his back against the wall and raised his crossbow to once more look for the enemy.

“The Empire’s on my tail, fire and brimstone everywhere and instead of running I take the time to touch a window………I really am not suited for this….” he bitterly lamented to himself, as he carefully peered out of the exit from the alley and after a.s.suring himself that it was clear he continued towards a safer location, well as safe as it can be since a galactic superpower’s army was here and searching for him.

Back on the rooftop a squad had been sent to take the now vacant roof, after a short but tense sweep, they quickly reported back to their command, a few minutes pa.s.sed and they received the order to hold their position.

 While others advanced they all sat down to take a breather and have a meal, not the most hygienic thing to do with corpses all around, you but that was war for you and if things got rough they did have some fresh supplies.

This particular group of soldiers where a unit composed of different species, from different planets and they all had different forms, but they were all humanoid in shape and where in their first form.

 “Looks like one of them got away ma’am.” the corporal said to his sergeant.

“Bully for him then! This isn’t battle, it’s a slaughter!” the sergeant said to her squad.

“Well, the enemy’s just irregulars and we’re professional soldiers.” one of the privates said as he was using a piece of destroyed rooftop as an impromptu table to prepare the squad’s lunch.

“It’s slaughter all right, but for us not them.” the sergeant said and upon seeing the confused looks on her troopers face she added the following:

“The enemy is using this whole neighborhood as a fortress, why haven’t we been given any siege equipment, like chariots, or artillery to level this place?”

“Well HQ probably doesn’t want to admit that the enemy has such a strong position within this city.” the other private of the squad who was using a different fragment of the destroyed rooftop as an improvised chair replied.

“Then don’t admit it and give us the kriffing heavy equipment!” the sergeant added and got a good natured chuckle from her squad.

“But ma’am that would make us hypocrites!” the trooper at the table said in mock outrage at the idea.

“Imperials being hypocrites, what a shocker!” the corporal added and another round of laughter came from the squad.

The sergeant joined them as well, her mouth moved to give way to some laughter, when a spear came out trough it. While she fell to the ground, she managed to catch a glimpse of the enemy that had slayed her and as life was leaving the sergeant’s body she managed to witness the fate of her squad before her time was up.

The attacker moved fast, slas.h.i.+ng away at the group of soldiers who did not have time to properly react to the situation.

It took only a few seconds and the squad was all dead.

Who where they, what was their life’s story?

Would anyone remember them, cherish their memory? That was something that war didn’t know, nor did it cared, thus there they rested as the battle continued all around the district, in the name of war, of this insatiable force that looked on with indifference to the lives that were given to it as tribute for each moment of its existence, and only continuing to rage on as more meat was put in the grinder.