Doubt: “Look what you led them into. Their deaths are on your head. You’ll only get more killed.”

  I clenched my jaw and my doubt slowly started to cloud my thinking. Then another thought appeared in my head. The Warden who would suffer if I fell. Alicia who would die or be jailed if I fell. All my Marines. All those who died. Damned doubt, there had to be a way.

  “We have to turn this around,” I said.

  “I have an idea,” Kuurus told me.

  029

  “I don’t think this will work,” I told the Battlelord.

  “It’s going to work. It may even let us reclaim the first defensive line.”

  “We haven’t lost it yet,” I said.

  “That’s only because of that slope and the water, if it was a straight gun for our fortification it would have been over in half an hour. We need that line back,” Kuurus said.

  I deferred to his expertise on the matter. We were standing in front of the second defense line. We used the entire Guardian force flying cars as a makeshift barricade. Around two hundred thousand cars stretched for a mile, stacked on one another or used as an extra wall.

  “You realized if we do this we will be destroying our second line of defense.”

  “We also may dent the Imperator forces pretty good though. Sacrifices must be made, Paladin. Nothing in life is achieved without it,” Battlelord Kuurus said.

  That hit me like a ton of bricks. Immediately I thought of what must be sacrificed to achieve my goals. My relationship with Jerry and Alicia wouldn’t be here anymore. They were the one true family I had and how would the King react to Kyra? How many more would I have to send to their deaths?

  “Paladin!” The yell of panic snapped me out of my thoughts. It was a Guardian who was beaten and worrying. I witnessed the Hammer of Serenity leading the attack. They were just as deadly as their Battle Maiden. Their forces had amazing breakthrough capabilities. They shrugged off bullets and smashed away entire barricades with their mighty hammers and superhuman strength. Bashing in heads and rib-cages of guardians with a single blow.

  “Well, shoot, let’s give this crazy plan a try,” I said. I tapped into an open channel shared among my troops. “Retreat, fall back to the third line.”

  I crawled through the small openings in the cars and to the other end. I took one last glance at the Hammer of Serenity and troopers. They came in waves, large numbers of them scaling over the first defensive line. As I saw their seemingly endless numbers I allowed myself to think that this might actually work.

  I hurried towards Battlelord Kuurus who was with the bulk of his Blades and the Guardians who had not fought yet. There were a hundred thousand Guardians for each battle line, but even those numbers meant nothing to the Sisters of Hammer of Serenity and the troopers who were built for prolonged combat.

  “Here they come,” I said.

  “Yes, let them get comfy behind our cover,” Battlelord Kuurus said.

  “What if they figure it out?”

  “They won’t.”

  “How are you sure?”

  “The illusion of victory is a powerful and blinding force,” he said. Their numbers washed over the second defensive line, they cluttered it like bugs to a light. So many lives. So many who would die.

  With a press of the button, Kuurus detonated all the cars that the Imperator’s forces were behind. The car explosions killed all those crawling through it, over top of it or who were using it for cover. Probably a good quarter of the Imperator forces had just been decimated.

  “Now second defense line, charge while they are in disarray. Let’s take back the first line and show them your city is not going down without one hell of a fight!” I yelled through the intercom. I almost felt good about it too, but those troopers who were killed were just following orders and I took part in their deaths.

  I ran with the Guardians and we lunged over the fiery cars to find the soldiers still trying to regain themselves. We slaughtered them in our charge. Some attempted to put up a fight but they could not hope to match our numbers. We washed over them like a swarm.

  I personally took my cleaver blade and sliced through each soldier who was trying to regain themselves. The Battlelord and his Blade Warrior were the same way. Even the Hammer of Serenity fell to our assault. They were too disoriented to mount a proper defense.

  We pushed with a refreshed army back into the first defensive line. The soldiers that were establishing themselves in the first line were so unprepared many just retreated.

  The Blade Warriors took their large blades, and cleaved every soldier there while deflecting their bullets with their powerful armors. The Guardians filled up the first line and went to work quickly. These soldiers were fresh while the others had taken a large trudge through the hot arid terrain and climbed up what was now a muddy hill. I took a weapon and unloaded it across soldiers who were climbing.

  “Hurry, saddle up defenses. We fight or die!”

  Some fool on an open channel screamed, “They are everywhere and killing us. We should retreat.”

  Doubt: “Look at them following under your command.”

  No. No! I will not have it.

  I radioed back on the open channel. “Listen here to anybody worrying about being killed. If they are killing you, then. Kill. Them. Back. You got a knife in your neck, you rip it out and stab them back. You got a bullet hole in your gut you make sure to repay the lucky bastard in who shot you. Kill them back!”

  After saying that on open channel, an entire battle-cry thundered through the soldiers. The soldier who was just whining drew a knife and stabbed a trooper as he climbed up the hill.

  “Wise words! Sound like a Vindicator,” Battlelord Kuurus said.

  “You ever fought beside one?”

  “Yeah, plenty.,” he said, nonchalantly while firing.

  “Any named Raven?”

  “Oh yes, I remember fighting beside that woman.” My eyes widened and I nearly forgot there was a battle. “No, calling her a woman would be an insult. She was a Goddess of War. Fighting beside her made me feel like I could fight forever against endless hordes of enemies.”

  “Wow, she sounds like some kind of woman.”

  “I’ll admit she had no sense for strategy, but she had heart and a good mind for in-battle tactics.” Battlelord Kuurus had no idea, but he had inspired me right there. If I wanted to be like my predecessors I needed to be just as inspiring and just as charismatic.

  The battle continued for a few more hours and I could feel my body drenched in sweat, begging for rest. The adrenaline shot that I pumped into me would not let me stop. Luckily the day and night time of this world lasted thirty-five hours each. I did not have to worry about holding the line in the night, as all troopers had tools to see in the night while the Guardians could not.

  I watched Battlelord Kuurus fight. It was like exhaustion and pain were foreign concepts to him. He and the rest of his fellow blades’ endurance were as endless as the stars in the night sky.

  “My Paladin,” Alicia stated through a private channel. I fell behind cover to avoid being picked off.

  “Alicia, what is it now?”

  “We defeated the Plague Bearer Clan here. I’m leading half of my force your way,” she said. She sounded off as she said that.

  “What about the other half?”

  “Jerry won’t admit it but he needs help. I sent Knight Generals Arnolds and his division that way but I’m coming to help you,” she said.

  I was puzzled on how I should feel. I was relieved that I was actually receiving some much needed reinforcement. I was losing Guardians left and right, more than hundred thousand had already been killed or wounded. However, Jerry made me concerned. If he lost his nerve again, this battle would be wasteful as the feral humans would devoured everyone in the city.

  “No, Jerry needs you.”

  “You think I don’t know that? You need me as well. I either save the man I love or the guy who calls me Blender for the last five years. I choose you, don’t try to sway me. The quicker we beat that spoil brat lord, the quicker we can go save Jerry,” Alicia said, turning off the intercom. I attempted to call back but she had completely shut her com off. I punched the concrete wall in front of me.

  “You okay?” Battlelord Kuurus asked. I was surprised he was even able to pay attention. Seemed like he was making sport out of his kills. Then I noticed he had just ran out bullet.

  “My girl—” I stopped myself. Kuurus may be a good person. However, casual or romantic relationships were heavily frowned upon between military officers and troops. I could lose my standing or Alicia be transfer to another legion. “One of my Knight Generals is on her way here with another quarter of our forces, but I need her to aid with the defense against the infected.”

  “So she’s disobeying your orders?”

  “More like purposely pretending like she didn’t hear them. She values our battle here more than the battle against the Plague Bearer Clan.”

  “Your soldiers care about you. That’s good. That means they’ll put their life on the line for you, passionately fight for you. These guys barely know you and look how they fight. They fight like titans.”

  “They are fighting like that because they want to protect the city, not because of me”

  “Yes and no. Soldiers who are trained to protect don’t look like this when they fight impossible odds,” he said.

  I observed our surroundings. They howled and fought as if they were actual warriors from a different time. Some even dropped their weapons when it ran empty and transited to bare-handed combat. Sadly they were overzealous and didn’t see life for long. The bloodlust was thick in the air.

  “But…”

  “You inspired them, you made them think they are something they are not. Like making a toddler believe they can push a boulder when in reality you are pulling it from an angle they can’t see.”

  “That’s false strength.”

  “In the middle of a battle, false strength can turn into real strength. Paladin Blu, you showed these soldiers that they can do it, don’t waver now. Let them fight for you.”

  I might would have taken what he said even more but the real reason Alicia was coming for me was because of our relationship. It was so hard to imagine that I, just a boy from the worst part of the Cradle could be an inspiration to so many. As my mind spun, the battle seemed to grow further and further away.

  Doubt: “How can you be a Vindicator if you let these Guardians die here? The Imperator will win here, sooner or later. Then all opposition that could ever rise here will be crushed for the next century. You are leading them all to their deaths.”

  “All forces retreat,” I said through my intercom. The Battlelord glanced at me, I bet under his helmet even the great warrior was shocked.

  “Don’t retreat, we can hold them longer.”

  “I can’t let them die for me, nor fight for me. They must fight for their city, their home,” I said. “We’re pulling back to the third defensive line, that is right in front of the city.”

  “Paladin, I fiercely disagree! We can hold here.”

  “They are holding but at great cost. We can hold better at the third line.”

  “Then if we fall there, that’s it,” Kuurus said.

  “We will just be throwing away all these men and women’s lives. I know you Blade Warriors don’t have a problem with fighting till you die but these people have families and loved ones to return to. I can’t throw their lives away. We pull back and get reinforced by my Marines.” With that the Blade soldier dropped his shoulders. It was as if I just hit a soft spot in the giant man. He glanced up at me and bang his armored chest with his armored hand.

  “Understood!”

  I needed to end this war, as soon as possible. These deaths, these people who wouldn’t return to their family. I glared over the battlefield to the Goliath mech that the Imperator stood in. My rage built.

  030

  “We still haven’t even fought the Imperator yet and the bulk of the Hammer of Serenity,” Kuurus said.

  “Yep, and more than half of the Guardian force is dead or wounded. We can’t keep this up,” I added. The flames from the second defensive line that we gave up was being put out by the Imperator forces. It would be ideal to use those for cover but we did not have the luxury of putting them out while retreating.

  Them putting out the flames give both sides an hour to take a break but if I knew anything about the Kingdom of Man military it was that every single soldier was designed and trained to fight weeks on end. Once the last of those flames were down it was back to business.

  I was ready to radio in to see where my reinforcement was until I spotted them arriving to the line. A huge sigh of relief swept over me. These troopers wouldn’t stand a chance against my Marines.

  “Chief, your forces are relieved,” I said. He paused for a moment and glared at me.

  “I can’t do that, Paladin,” he said. I ground my teeth.

  “My Marines can handle this. You’ve all lost too much. You—” I paused and noticed the hurt expression. They gave their all to fight with me, and here I was pushing them off as if they were dead weight. I revised my statement.

  “I need the ones who are too wounded for prolonged combat to reinforce our forces in the city and fight off any rampant infected. Fight over there just as well as you fought here and we’ll win this war.” It lightened their faces and that was enough for me. The Chief agreed and rallied the wounded to the other side of the city.

  Battlelord Kuurus approached me. “We better hurry, that smoke is clearing. This is the last line.”

  “You don’t need to tell me, Battlelord. We won’t keep going like this, so I need a few hundred of your men to follow me.”

  “What you have in mind?”

  “We need to get behind the enemy line.”

  Within a few hours we had snuck to the far left of the battlefield. I could hear the fighting from all the way here. We were crouching down a muddy slope. I was more at ease with taking some of the Blade Warriors from the battle line now that I knew my Marines were there. However, I could not dilly dally.

  “How strong are your warriors?” I asked Kuurus.

  “We can lift ten times our weight with our strength and exoskeleton armor,” he said.

  “Good,” I said, before actually paying attention to him. “Wait, you can lift ten times your own weight?!”

  “Our body weight. Not our suits, our suits weigh a ton.” The more he spoke the more I found it unbelievable. No wonder they were so large. These men were probably all muscle too under their armor. Their muscle tissue had to be denser to weigh that much with their shape. I paused.

  “If you all are that strong, how did Priscilla survive you smashing her head to the ground?”

  “The Hammer of Serenity is cut from the same cloth as us, but since they have a female body, there are certain procedures that just would not go hand and hand with us. Plus our organization believes females hinder cohesion between men in a squad.”

  I couldn’t disagree with him there. Lots of times when one female is added to an all-male squad, the guys begin to act stupid and compete with one another just to impress her. However, it usually fixes itself with some good training and proper distribution of genders and sexual orientation per squad which the Fortress Worlds handle while training squads.

  “Anyways, let me explain the objective. We are going to flank them. We move in squads of six. Three of your guys will grab a car each. Two will keep their cars in front, while the other keeps his car to guard our six. The rest of the three will be behind them and pop anything that moves.”

  “We’ll be like a moving bunker,” Kuurus said, catching on.

  “Precisely, let’s go!” I said, jumping over the cliff and surprising the troopers firing on my people. I popped bullets in each of them as they thought themselves safe. The three Blades moved without me needing to command them. They grabbed the cars by their doors and heaved them up like they were nothing.

  They slammed the cars right down like I asked them. Those behind me began grabbing wrecked cars as they moved. We charged them like a giant rhino, the cars smashing into many troopers. We kept pushing, killing all those from the sides.

  “Crap!” Kuurus said, tackling me to the ground. I glanced up and an explosion threw one of the Blade Warriors through the air. It was a tank. I banged my helmet. I should have expected they had enough time to get tanks up that hill from the first defensive line.

  “Shit, how are we going to fight a damn tank?”

  “Easy,” Kuurus said, pulling a grenade from out his suit and his long blade. The Blade retracted into itself down to the size of a short sword. The madmen charged the tank.

  He sidestepped three tank shells, but the last shell he cut in half with his sword. He lunged on top of the tank then cut off the cannon. Then he tossed the grenade inside and leapt off. He strolled away as the soldiers scrambled out the tank but it was too late. The tank blew from the inside. More tanks drove over the hill.

  “Uh, Lord Paladin, look like you’re in a jam. Need some air support?” intercoms came in from my air fighters. They had been dog fighting with the Imperator air force in waves the entire time but it looked like we won. Not only did I have more fighters, but I also had better pilots.

  “Show them Steel Marine pride.”

  “Yes, Lord Paladin!” I watched as they lit the ground ablaze, tearing the battlefield to pieces. As I observed, I noticed out the corner of my eyes, flashes of red and white. I spun just in time to dodge Priscilla’s hammer down on me.

  “Enough games, Paladin! We end this now,” she said. I noticed one of my fighter jets being shot out the air. It spiraled to the ground in a ball of brilliant blaze. My eyes shifted focus to the end of the battlefield. The Goliath was on the move as well as the rest of the army.

 

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