There was quiet, and Tianna scanned the area to see that Keta had stopped moving, and his eyes were closed, a hand to his forehead. He seemed to be thinking, and Tianna was hoping that the young warrior would realize the gravity of the situation.
But she was a Xegin, and she dealt in probability and numbers. Keta did not. And the numbers running through her interface were telling her that the chances that Keta would comply with such a request were abysmally low, and with each passing second, the algorithm was adapting and lowering that percent more.
And sure enough, she heard the sound of steel being drawn. “I am sorry, Tianna. But I made a vow to my Master to not stand idly by while an unjust war goes on. I am a member of Sanction, and I will fight for the peace of this world. I will not allow the Xegin or the Humans to continue this senseless war. If any of you want to continue this bloodshed, you must go through me.”
Ah, so there it was. The fabled selfless heroism of Keta, the warrior who tried to save lives. It was a noble thought. It was ultimately futile, however. There was a time when Sanction was feared amongst all the warring powers. But that was before the team had been decimated and ultimately disbanded, save for one person clinging to the ideals.
Tianna felt pity for the young man. His goals were not unlike those of the Xegin. However, after everything she had been told that had led up to the start of the war, Tianna could not excuse the Humans. They needed to be brought to justice.
Keta might understand if she told him this. However, it was military secrets she could not share with an outsider. And even then, the probability was low. No, there was only one course of action. She would have to take him down.
“Forgive me, Keta. You have forced my hand.” With a thought, her armor systems were brought up to combat mode, and she drew her pistol, firing at the Kitaan. Keta deflected the energy shots with the flat of his blade, sending them into the dirt behind him. Just as the simulation predicted he would.
“Then I must ask that you forgive me too,” Keta exclaimed. He started towards her, but was forced to retreat when he was pelted by a barrage of energy weapons from the soldiers behind Tianna. With a shock, she realized that the soldiers behind her were still under command to protect her.
“Cease fire! I will handle this!” Tianna cried out, holding a hand up to stop the others. They complied immediately, but it was too late. Keta had been hit, once in the shoulder, and again in the left arm. He had stopped and ducked behind a rock, but she had already seen him clutching at his wounds in pain.
Tianna cursed inwardly. If Keta had not been quicker, her soldiers would have killed him. All she wanted to do was disable him. He was an obstacle, that much was certain, but he was a decent person. She did not want to see him dead.
Perhaps the injuries would make him easier to reason with. “Keta! I already told you this. You cannot defeat an army. Come, end this nonsense and let me get those wounds looked at for you.”
She felt the wind, and heard the movement, but it was so fast, she barely had time to register it. She pulled her own sword at her waist and managed to block the sword strike from Keta. He was close enough that she could acknowledge his surprise. He swung again, and Tianna reacted in time, managing to meet each attack before it hit the mark.
“You shouldn’t underestimate me, Keta Night. I am a Xegin soldier after all,” Tianna boasted. She had just defended an attack from the famed swordmaster of Sanction.
“A soldier maybe, not a swordsman,” came the reply. Two more moves came, in quick fashion, and she was disarmed with a sword was at her neck. She was arrogant to think that she could defeat Keta Night in a swordfight. “You are defeated. Surrender and retreat.”
A simple movement of the hand and a thought, her sword lifted off the ground and flew at Keta. The young man saw it coming out of the corner of his eye and leapt backwards to avoid being hit. The sword stopped and flew back to Tianna, who was concentrating on the best course of action.
“I think that perhaps it is I who should not be underestimating you. It’s time to show you exactly what I can do.” And with that, she raised her other hand to the soldiers around her. How many could she control? It was Keta Night she was up against, after all. She decided it would be best to simply attempt four. And with her mind, she reached out and used her power to pull three swords. The mechanical soldiers stared blankly and watched as they flew over to her, still under her command to stand down.
Psychokinesis. That was the term Delta and the other researchers had taken to calling her ability to control objects with her mind. It was limited to her own strength, but she had been training with the powers for years.
The scientists of the Empire (monsters, all of them) had described it as a power left over from the time of the gods, who possessed otherworldly abilities. They had done everything to try and replicate what was in her body. Only Commander Tyrannes had tried to help her.
Commander Tyrannes...Tianna thought sadly. And just like that, her resolve was strengthened. Somebody had been responsible for his death. He would avenge him.
Controlling all these and using her mind to see was quite taxing, but she could see that Keta had begun to slowly step backwards, his sword in front to protect himself.
“What the...? What manner of sorcery is this?”
Tianna didn’t answer. She was through telling Keta exactly how her powers worked. Mostly because the more time she wasted, the more exertion this put on her body. Psychokinesis was not an easy thing to maintain.
At best, she had a minute to keep this up. A minute to defeat Keta Night. She decided to attack and end it all quickly.
Controlling the four swords with her mind, she used them to swipe and stab at Keta. He did his best to block the attacks, and dodge the ones that he couldn’t. The young man was quite impressive to be able to do so, Tianna thought as sweat dripped down her face inside her helmet.
Tianna mounted a focused assault, and Keta was forced to block an incoming sword abruptly. Seizing the opportunity, she brought the remaining swords around him and caught him across the chest, along his left hamstring and a cut along his wrist. The silver haired youth cried out in pain.
Keta whipped his head around and tried to attack her head on, but Tianna managed to bait him with an opening. She brought two more swords to bear, but the young swordsman was too quick and managed to evade.
Even so, her first attack had secured a sizeable advantage. She had spent time studying the known details on the Silver Flash, Keta Night. They called him that because of his speed and dexterity. By inflicting those wounds on him, she had slowed him down.
Maybe enough so that someone like myself could keep up with him, Tianna thought to herself.
Tianna grinned, and realized that she could win as long as she could keep this up. But, she realized with panic that she was very quickly reaching her limit. She had to end this now.
An alarm went off in her helmet, informing Tianna that she was getting dangerously low on aether. She had been using the substance to augment her abilities to try and match Keta, and had unknowingly depleted her supply.
This moment of distraction cost her. Keta let out a snarl, one that sounded nothing like him and hit one of the swords so hard that Tianna’s head snapped backwards from her mental connection to it, and she lost control of the swords, which fell to the ground. Free from assault, the Kitaan ran at her, raising the terrible glowing sword.
Tianna quickly picked up one of the fallen swords and raised her guard to defend herself, but there was no way she could defeat the young man in a straight fight. Sword fighting had always been her weakest area, according to her instructors at the academy.
And so she fell for a feint, and her sword was put at an awkward angle. She had to quickly react to block the next attack, but it was a clumsy one and Keta was able to easily reach out and disarm her from the contact. She fell backwards onto the ground, panicking as Keta raised his glowing sword, ready to strike.
“No!”
It w
asn’t Tianna who said this, but Keta. For some reason, he had stopped. His eyes, they looked like he had just snapped out of some sort of delirium. Either way, it was an opportunity.
Tianna quickly reached down to her hip where she kept her weapon holstered, and raised it to fire at Keta in the chest, close to his previous wounds. She had lowered her weapon’s aether setting before her battle against him. She did not wish to kill the young man, only subdue him. Tianna never kept her weapon on lethal output.
But due to the proximity, Keta was blasted backwards and landed on his back. He did not get back up. It was a cowardly tactic she had used. However, she was both Xegin and a soldier. There was no honor or practicality in death.
Tianna let herself get her breathing back in rhythm. She didn’t want to admit it, but she had been frightened. Keta could have ended the fight with that attack. He could have killed her. That look in his eye...in the heat of the moment, she hadn’t noticed that Keta had Demon eyes, flashing red. He may have underestimated her, but she had underestimated him as well.
“General, are you okay?” one of the soldiers said from where they had been watching the fight.
“I’m fine. Everyone stand back,” Tianna said. She was unharmed by the fight, miraculously. She got to her feet, leaving her weapon on the ground. All she had to do was restrain Keta. She had to...he would continue to be a thorn in her side otherwise. “I’m sorry, Keta. But you will spend the rest of this war in chains. I cannot afford any miscalculations.”
Before she could do anything else, she sensed a figure moving from a hiding spot. “You’ve already made one,” the newcomer said, stopping in front of Keta’s unmoving body. Had this person been watching the entire time?
Another mental scan revealed her intruder. “You were from the Frostclaw Village. Peter Telim’s son. Right, of course. I saw you in Keta’s memories. You are working with him, aren’t you?” Tianna muttered, half to herself.
“Indeed. Night and I share a common enemy in the Brotherhood of Shadows.”
“That makes sense. Are you here to fight as well?” Tianna asked. She was getting tired of fighting people who weren’t of the Human army.
To her surprise, the Demon laughed. “Hardly. I’ve no alignment with the Humans, nor do I have any interest in your war. But you see, I can’t let you take him,” he said, pointing at Keta. “As foolish as he is, I still require his assistance.”
Patience was wearing thin for Tianna. “I can’t allow you to take him. He’s interfered with my mission. I cannot allow him to jeopardize that.”
“Then I will take him from this battle. You can do what you must.”
The harshness in his tone surprised Tianna. “You are different from him,” she observed.
The boy smiled, a grim smile. “Aye. He is a fool, and I am pragmatic. He can prove useful in my fight against the Brotherhood with his knowledge of them.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then you’ll fight me.”
Tianna did her best not to let her emotions show. The boy (his name was Pent, if she recalled correctly) was quite skilled as a swordsman. She didn’t want to acknowledge it, but after hearing the story of how he defeated one of the Brotherhood warriors on his own, she believed that he was a greater swordsman than even Keta.
She decided it would be best to make a bold statement. “How intriguing. But you do realize that I have an army, correct?”
The Demon crossed his arms. “Indeed. However, look at your options. If you fight me, there would be casualties, perhaps even you. If you indulge me, Keta is already unconscious. The conflict is done, no strings attached.”
Tianna was already calculating the numbers and the possible outcomes. It was obvious that the most logical answer was to end hostilities here. She didn’t even need to finish her diagnostics.
“If I see either of you here again before this war has ended, neither of you will walk away free men,” Tianna warned.
“Duly noted,” the boy said, and he picked up Keta. Without any further delay, he ran off towards the gate. It was over. The young Demon was a risk to her in terms of fighting capability, but he seemed to have no interest in their war. She realized that her mission was back on schedule.
But she unexpectedly flopped to the ground. Tianna realized that she had not only exhausted the last of her aether, but her stamina. Her guard rushed to aid her, but she waved them away. She was tired and just needed a moment.
“Well done, General Tianna!” A voice from behind startled her. General Delta had strode up behind her. She had not realized that in all the commotion, the remainder of the army had arrived.
“That was Keta Night, was it not? I’d heard the rumors of his ability. But to think you defeated him. That was not a matchup in your favor at all.” The soldier let out a chuckle.
Tianna was weary from her confrontation, so she was very happy to see the older soldier. She quickly jumped to her feet. “General Delta! It’s good to see you,” Tianna said, saluting the older Xegin.
“General, do not forget that you now possess the same rank as I. You do not need to salute me any longer if you do not wish. We are equals,” Delta pointed out.
Equals. The word crept up on her. Was she really equal to those legendary Imperial Generals? Especially after her dismal display. “Forgive me, Delta. I was forced to reveal my abilities.”
But the Xegin waved her off. “Nonsense. You are an Imperial General now. I believe it’s time we reveal your power to the world. Show them that the Xegin army is not to be trifled with.”
An awfully militant attitude for someone living in the land of peace, she noted. “I see...regardless, now that your forces have joined us we should take up positions to begin the siege,” Tianna said to her comrade, who had gone past her.
“Unnecessary. Tell the troops to clear out of the way.”
As he said this, four Xegin soldiers, each suited with exquisite armor, moved toward Tianna to join him, pulling a giant metal case behind them. She made room for them to pass. There was something off about these soldiers. “What is going on?” She asked.
Delta turned to her, his face hidden behind his helmet. “A new technological advancement I’ve been working on. Behold...the next line of Xegin warfare. The Xegin Command Model Destroy.” He pressed a button on the case. It opened, revealing a sort of mechanical...she wasn’t sure what exactly.
“What is that?” Tianna asked.
“It is a new weapon. It is the key to our victory. Come with me.” With a gesture, his soldiers removed the metal object from the casing. It looked like a giant cannon, upon closer inspection. Tiana fell in line behind Delta. She glanced over at the machine that had begun to hum loudly. It was powering itself up.
“Beautiful, isn’t it? My engineers have been working on this for quite some time. It is the ultimate weapon, a long range energy cannon. It has the power to take out even the strongest fortifications,” Delta said, pointed at it.
Tianna frowned. None of this was in the briefings. None of this was even listed in the archives. “General...what have you done?” Tianna asked carefully.
“Commander Tyrannes has always had a blind side when it came to Humans. It is my job as his military advisor to be ready for threats from all sources. But I ended up failing him. I did not fulfill my duty, and the Humans killed him. I will always carry that guilt with me,” Delta said, not turning around. He was watching the machine intently.
Tianna watched the man with interest. She had been taken from her family for testing from an early age, and had been training as a Xegin soldier since she was ten years old. Delta had taught her much at the academy. She admired the man. But hearing him talk like this was unnerving.
“It’s not your fault, general. No one could have known that the Humans would attack us like this,” Tianna said.
Delta turned to her and though she could not see his face, she could feel the sadness from the man. “That’s just the thing. I did know. I knew that one day this would happen.
I ran all the scenarios through my programming, and they all came out the same. One day the Humans would destroy us.”
“Tyrannes passed it off as an error in my software, a virus. He believed in the Humans. And I wanted to believe that people could change. So you see, it was my own humanity that failed Tyrannes. It was that day that I acquired the will to act. I will lead the Xegin into the future.”
Those words bore great importance to her. She knew all too well the burden of command and the weight of failure. She had run from it for far too long.
She could hear the rhythmic humming in the background. Delta turned to her. “Tell me something, general. If you came across a pack of pests, would you not exterminate them before they ruined your crops?” he asked.
Tianna fixed the man with a stare. What kind of question was that? She was no farmer. “Well, obviously. You can’t afford to let your property go to ruin,” she said simply.
Delta folded his hands behind him. “Indeed. But let’s say that these pests had been run from their home by another invading species. Their only chance for survival was to co-exist on your land.”
“Well, I mean, if they had been waylaid, then perhaps I would try and work something out.” Tianna did not like where this was going.
Delta raised a pointed finger. “However, what if in doing so, doomed both of you? There is simply no way to co-exist together. There are not enough resources to go around. If one thrives, the other will wane. To put it simply, one must live and one must die.”
The finality in his voice was overpowering. And it scared Tianna. “Why are you asking me this?”
A loud sound, like a blaring siren, erupted from the machine, interrupting the two of them. “Because that is what it means to be in command. One must be willing to make the hard choices. Even if they are horrible to think about. And just like that, it is ready. Come, and witness the dawn of a new era, general.”
Tianna followed the old soldier to the cannon, where his staff had been setting up. They moved aside at a wave of his hand. Tianna noticed that they were not normal Xegin military, but the Xegin autonomous unit. She realized now that most of the soldiers the man had arrived with were mechanical soldiers.
Chrysalis Page 10
