BALADA: When My Eyes Are Weighed With Sleep I Quench The Evening Candle's Glow

by Solea Razvan

  At that moment I felt like I was on cloud nine, but unfortunately for me, news of that incident spread far and wide, word of Captain Metternich who single handedly killed 50 pirates with his bare hands became the talk of the local subsector.

  After that a bunch of reporters came to cover the story and Akanthos being the sly business man that he was, charged them heavily for each interview, thus things where looking bright for us!

  We had gotten out of a tight spot alive, we now had a very healthy sum of money to help our business expand and we were small town heroes in our neck of the woods (something the ladies appreciated) it was a small piece of heaven, but regretfully it did not last.

  For a certain Commodore James Crackerjack had heard of our little adventure and the brainless glory hound immediately showed up a few days later and demanded I transfer to his command, the fact that I was a civilian and my trade was ‘potions making’ which by law protected me from drafting since I worked in healthcare was completely ignored by the tosser and despite my best efforts to get into his thick skull, the idiot ignored logic and reasoning and continued to press the issue.

  Under normal circumstances I would have walked away, but remember that he was not some regular loony but a loony with a license to kill from the state, that and old James was not only a fool, he was a fool with a fleet of a hundred warships behind him and so much to my horror, they gave me my uniform, slapped a couple of golden buttons on my collar to show that I was now officially a Captain and thus I was dragged into the fleet.

  Akanthos was ignored in all of this, that much was owned to the fact that sentients tend to only acknowledge the apparent leader of a group when that group allegedly does something impressive, so I somehow managed to convince Old Mad Jack to let him go on the grounds that he was my underling and he had to make sure my businesses’ where looked after, him being an aristocrat and having some semblance of a brain nodded and let it be so and I was glad for that, I mean no sense in both of us going to hell I suppose.

  So that’s how I found myself being torn from a safe place, a newly minted Captain, given a ship which I christened ‘The Vampire’s Vengeance’, with a crew that consisted at the top of the following: first officer Lieutenant James ‘Butcher’ Centengu, Logistics officer Sergeant Alega ‘Baker’ Sovorovda, and finally science and engineering officer Lieutenant Lloyd Colomas ‘Candlestickmaker’ Firebark and with this we were sent to fight in various mini wars and full blown wars over the years leading up to the Great War.

  And that my readers, is how my inglorious career began, with poisoned drinks, crazy luck, a lot of pain, and my personal favorite stupidity and the eternal question of why such a combination exists and what it has against good and honest folk and me of course.

  Metternich per Pelasgiamus, Freelance Potions Maker

  “Nuts!” Metternich muttered under his breath as his mind stopped its wondering and returned to the present.

  And with the memories of how he had arrived at his current predicament still fresh in his mind, he for a few minutes entered into a slight depression, which was comparable to that of a canary who upon being captured in the jaws of a cat became impatient and said to the aforementioned feline: ‘just do it already!’ with indifference to its fate.

  He thought of his current situation.

  On the one hand having a few hundred ships and several thousands of warriors to stand behind when the warp cannons, missiles and energy beams started flying was a good thing, on the other he also had to worry about even more enemy soldiers targeting him, so a mixed blessing at best!

  After his first battle and the first sight of his dead soldiers he had tried to think of his subordinates as nothing but tools, tried to distance himself from them, hoping to ease his guilt when they would eventually die in future battles, but it did not work and no matter how many victories he achieved and despite knowing that he couldn’t have done anything better in the past to avoid his subordinates dying, he still wondered if he could have saved them.

  Maybe if he had been faster, stronger or smarter he could have prevented more of his soldiers from dying, but that was not possible and even now, years after he was drafted he could still remember just how many had died, what their last moments where, but what really weight heavily on his mind was the fact that he was starting to forget their names and they’re faces where starting to slip from his mind.

  He knows that before he manages to leave the fleet, he will have forgotten even more names and faces and that would haunt him forever, making him contemplate the ‘easy’ way out.

  After a few minutes Metternich banished those vile thoughts, since in his opinion life was always worth living and you had to do your best to get over you’re more difficult moments and move on.

  That and the prospect of being turned into a corpse if he didn’t snap out of it and get his act together or the prospect of eternal hellfire for choosing the ‘easy way’ made him come to his senses.

  Releasing out a breath of mental exhaustion, he placed the farview he was using to research the culture of the Volunians on the table and laid back and relaxed for a few minutes.

  “A sad state of affairs this is Lord Metternich, this corps has a lot of good warriors and officers, properly deployed it is deadly, yet it is being misused in a tertiary role in the war against Volunia!” Adrian lamented to his master as he took out a small box from his pocket, extracted a pill from it and swallowed the pill, breaking Metternich’s state of mind with a not unwelcomed distraction from his less than cheerful thoughts.

  “Don’t linger too much on feelings of regret, think positive thoughts or you run the risk or seeing even the good side of life as meaningless.” he replied.

  “Yes sir, but I’m still a little depressed at this state of affairs.” Adrian replied.

  “Don’t be, I’m rather pleased myself!” Metternich said to his knight.

  “My lord?” Adrian replied as he turned his head towards his liege, his head filled with confusion.

  “Why do you think I accepted this commission?”

  “For the challenge?” Adrian said to his commander with a smile on his face, one that grew bigger once Metternich gave a nod of the head as his reply.

  “But what I really meant to say is that here there is little chance of us being slaughtered by elite units from the enemy, thus we may be able to spent the whole war without the danger of us getting killed, but that’s just my opinion, it only applies to me and I doubt it matters much to others.” Metternich thought to himself. He then looked at Adrian and started to wonder if his knight did not have certain problems, since Adrian always showed great doubt one moment and great resolve the next and despite not being an expert on the behavior of Adrian’s species, he wondered if not perhaps he was also wearing a mask and knowing a thing or two about living a lie, he could understand if sometimes you let the mask slip, but that was a train of thought for another time, especially since the warp train was reaching its destination.

  Just then his communication crystal started vibrating, indicating that someone wanted to talk to him.

  He touched the crystal with his finger and it morphed into the small shape of a serpentine creature with grey scales, who was dressed in the same manor of uniform as the two had, but instead of the tricorn caps which he and Adrian wore, this serpentine creature wore a side cap that made it clear he was a staff officer and not a command one. His uniform stretched from his neck down to the end of his body, engulfing him entirely in the dark material, the sailor belonged to the Balfarmaini, sentients who where a serpent like race that had no arms or legs , but they made due with a very powerful telekinetic ability which allowed them to levitate and use objects close to their bodies, this ability was very handy to the aforementioned Metty, since this was Lieutenant Butz his personal aide who had been with him for almost as long as Adrian had been, and served as his assistant, driver, bodyguard, and whatever other role was needed, that was pointed out by the fact that Butz’s body was covered
in all kinds of pouches filled with everything from food, to drink, to medicine and all kinds of objects and tools, anything that Metternich might need.

  “My lord, the train has reached the base.” Butz said to his commander.

  “Thank you Butz.” Metternich said as he touched the farview at a certain point which started it’s deactivation process, but not before putting a bookmark on where he had left off, namely on the painting named “Fate”.

  “Time to go Adrian! You said that this unit contains a lot of gifted officers?” he said to Adrian as he hesitated for a few moments, the option of delaying for a while was still open to him, especially since technically his new command wouldn’t be official until he arrived, but after a moment of deliberation, he closed his farview, sealed it with string and they walked towards the train’s exit. After all, the inevitable could only be put off for so long.

  “Yes my lord, the corps’s commanders where all upper and lower classmates of mine at the academy and I can vouch for their skills. They are the finest soldiers in the Empire!” Adrian proudly said to his liege.

  “Then why have they been sent here to a dumping ground unit? Metternich asked him.

  “I have already told you the reason for that sire.” Adrian replied with regret and disappointment in his voice.

  “Smart officers being sent away so those who are higher in rank but less in skill will not be outshined.”

  Metternich thought to himself and despite feeling a small sensation of joy, since it meant that it was even less likely that this would become the main theater of operations, but still he did lament the sad state of affairs the Empire seemed to be in since the beginning of its existence or at least since he arrived.

  “ No matter how many or how bright the stars are, they pale when compared to the Sun, so the stars make sure no one sees the glory of the Sun.’” he quoted an ancient war poem to his knight.

  “Yes Excellency, but ‘no matter how long or endless the starry night is, it always surrenders to the sun’s morning light’.” Adrian replied to his liege and looked at him with a proud smile and near hero worship in his eyes.

  “You know you don’t have to call me that, technically you’ve got better blood, pedigree, fortune and social rank than me; Hell! Up until three standard years ago I would be the one calling you my lord or something like that.” Metternich said to him.

  “That is one of the few positives of war my lord, injustices like what you said earlier are rectified as great leaders rise to take their rightful place in society!” he replied.

  “I consider myself a lucky man and an intelligent one rather than someone who has been blessed by heaven to be a leader Adrian.”

  “That may be sir, but even then there are few people with those attributes and even fewer that occupy positions of authority and now the Empire needs them more than ever, which is why I believe you’re one who is destined for great things!” Adrian said and before Metternich could reply he added the following:

  “The Great Founder of our Empire also said that she was lucky.”

  At this Metternich half opened his mouth to counter but decided against it, Adrian was the type who was not only stubborn to a degree , but also very smart as well and by doing a quick onceover of the conversation he realized that he had just inadvertently quoted the Great Founder and his attempt to deflate his image had been interpreted by Adrian as humility, something that people like Adrian took it as something that reinforced the image of the great heroes handpicked by the Force of Creation to lead the Empire to greatness.

  So the Commodore only inhaled a deep breath of air and tried to enjoy what few peaceful moments he had left before arriving at the boarding ramp.

  “I may as well quit while I’m ahead, I’ll be needing every ounce of wit I posses in order to find a way to somehow survive here at the very edge of the civilized galaxy.” Metternich thought to himself as the ramp’s door opened and he crossed the point of no return.

  Excerpt from the diary of Private Raz V’a van;

  from the book

  “We were the legionaries of Malus ‘The World Breaker’”

  “It was my second month of dessert warfare on Volun 4 and up until now our only enemy was boredom since for the past 5 weeks there had been no activity along the front and I was enjoining a pleasant breakfast while listening to the morning music and the local weather news broadcast.

  Are you cold tonight?

  Do you worry tonight?

  Are you sad tonight?

  Well tomorrow will come,

  With the first rays of sun,

  And tonight will be here no more.

  “A lovely song, and now for the latest development for the upcoming storms. An unpredicted change is about to occur within four locations, those situated in mountainous regions may expect a strong blow, to come from the southern direction, the city folk can this time rest at ease, with the exception of the local capitals, which are expected have its first share of heavy fall in what appears to be an unpredictable pattern. Those of you who have decided to take a long walk into virgin territory I hope you are prepared for the coming storm and finally chaotic fog is expected to befall on the western parts, mainly beaches and vacation areas and for the coming seasons the storm is believed to produce great change in the environment and medium.......but we would like to assure our listeners, that no matter how hard the storm hits….. it may seem dreadful and without end, but like all things good and bad it will eventually come to pass……”

  We will be warm,

  And safe from the storm,

  And tonight will be here no more!

  The sparrows will soar,

  With the light from the shore.

  And tonight will be here no more!

  The windwaker, which some clever bastard had hooked up to a coin machine to charge us a penny a minute told us the latest news or at least it did after I placed a coin in its mouth.

  But the peace was not to last, for we had received word that we would have a new commander, namely Commodore Metternich per Pelasgiamus. The news was greeted with mixed results among our ranks the majority received it well since the young Commodore was a Hero of the Empire and had made quite the name for himself, for he and his ship ‘The Vampire’s Vengeance’ were renowned for their struggle against our Empire’s enemies.

  ‘Headmaster Metty is here!’, ‘The Fox of Marengo has arrived!’, where the joyous cries of many sailors and soldiers.

  Others were indifferent and some reacted with distain since a new commander meant things would change and if it was one thing being the army taught us it was that you can be sure that a soldier’s world would be bad, go to hell and then things would start to get nasty.

  Those were the thoughts going through my mind as I was walking to where our company’s doctor was staying in order to get some Drava pills, which was medicine that gave you extra energy to stay awake and some extra stamina for fighting, the side effect was that it blocked any kind of dreams you could have while you were asleep.

  That may have been a good thing since from that day on things would go from bad to worse and beyond, for what we would see in the upcoming battles would have only given us nightmares.

  Private Raz V’a van, Imperial Logistic and Engineer Corps.

  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 shields 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, smashing anything that was in their way.