Ravens of Eternity

149 The Flow of Blood, Pt As the dust cleared and the noise settled, Colviss pulled herself up off the ground. She grit her teeth as she looked all around her and saw many Drogar dead or dying. Or worse. Some were twisted, mangled heaps that were somehow still alive and breathing.

She took a peek from what remained of her cover and looked at all of the shields. Though they looked comical, they were nothing short of devastating.

Unfazed by their losses, the Chosen ran up to fill their ranks. At least to whatever fortifications and standing trees were left. And they foolishly shot at the shields.

Colviss watched as the shields captured all their ammunition, and fired them back with overwhelming results. More Drogar were lost.

She quickly realized there was no way to beat them. If they got lucky with their rockets, maybe. But any that weren’t lucky would get blown back, and that would’ve been the end of it. Not that they even had a choice – all their rockets were back on the gondolas performing medical evacuation en masse.

Just as another wave stepped up and aimed their rifles, she yelled at the terrorists.

“Stop firing!” she commanded. “All you’re doing is killing yourselves! Stop firing, gods-dammit!”

The Chosen quickly chose to heed her words, and fell back under cover.

And as the field of battle quieted down, Shieldmaster Toreth stood up from his command post and sighed deeply. Then he yelled out to the terrorists all around.

.....

“That’s right,” he yelled. “And if you all surrender now, I guarantee your executions to be swift and painless.”

Colviss understood that it didn’t matter what they chose, not really. It was always going to end in death, theirs most of all. One massive bloodbath that resulted in thousands of corpses. All for one man’s greed.

She also understood the Chosen. It was against their blood to surrender in the first place. They were made of hardy Drogar, built up from the bottom. They were tough and hard, or at least they had to in order to survive their own poverty. All she wanted for them now were dignified deaths.

It was all they had left.

As the last of the gondolas lifted off and away, she stood up straight, right out of cover and in plain view of everyone. She drew her baton and pointed at the line of Guards all around. And with as much strength as she could muster, she commanded the Chosen.

“Charge!” she yelled. “Draw your blades and charge!”

Emboldened by the Reborn, the Chosen all roared in the air, drew their blades into their hands, and surged forward with reckless abandon.

Panicked, the Guards and turrets all fired many bursts into the oncoming swarm and mowed many of them down. But for every one that they gunned down, two more took their place. It seemed as though the terrorists came from a bottomless well, and that there was absolutely no end to them.

Though the antigrav shields pushed back the first few, they were practically useless in melee. The Federation combatants had no choice but to toss them aside and instead rely on their hand to hand training.

But this time, they had the Guards on their side, and many drew their own blades out in anticipation.

And all of the teams were excited to finally use their hard-earned skills. Many were confident that they could take down their opponents, despite the blades in their hands.

One of the terrorists crashed into a group of three – two humans and one drogar. He slashed wildly at the three of them, and even targeted one of the humans specifically. His eyes were wild as he pounced at the Federation combatant.

But the Guard immediately drew his own beltknife, lunged at the terrorist in response, and tackled him to the ground. The two quickly got up and squared off against each other, and eyed the others’ beltknife.

The Guard launched himself at the terrorist and swung at him with a practiced step. The terrorist wasn’t too bad either, but his stance was clearly sloppier and less precise. Not that it diminished his lethality that much – he was still a strong Drogar with the will to do harm.

Sometimes, that was enough.

The both of them threw various punches and kicks in between knife slashes and thrusts. And while the terrorist’s attention was filled by his opponent, the two Fed combatants came at him from both his flanks.

They both kicked his legs out from under him, and brought him down to his knees, painfully. He cursed as pain coursed up his upper legs, which jammed into his hips.

Without leaving him and time to react, the Guard lunged forward, sunk his knife right into the terrorist’s neck, and up into his brain. A gush of blood spurted out wildly after he pulled his knife out.

Though they were able to take care of their opponent, not every group was so lucky.

Some teams were overwhelmed by two or more Chosen and were picked apart by their brute force and their knives. The terrorists often singled out particular humans and attacked them first. Because they were basically unarmed and unarmored, they had little defense against the beltknives.

Many tried to outmaneuver or parry, but their opponent’s overwhelming strength was too much. Even when they were grouped together, the Chosen’s ferocity proved to be far more than they could handle.

Multiple squadrons of Scythe Drones had also re-entered the fight, and eviscerated their share of opponents. They ran across the courtyard and cut into as many terrorists as they could see. Not that the Chosen were completely defenseless against them.

They simply shot at the drones at point-blank range, or more often than not, clubbed them with their rifles. Every violent strike would tear pieces off the emotionless drones.

It didn’t take long for the ground to be littered with the dead, from the chaotic, undisciplined Chosen terrorists to the staunch, practiced compound defenders. Their bodies were cut to pieces and left to bleed out on the ground.

And though the Chosen lost more than their opponents, every death was the same. It didn’t matter who they were or what they believed in or even what species they belonged to. All of that simply vanished the moment their veins spilled red blood.

Seeing all of the dead in front of her completely enraged Doleth. Her eyes saw nothing but red at the sheer devastation. Innocent lives killed by those filled with empty hate. Cycle after cycle. Over and over and over again.

Now here they all were, gathered to commit the largest hatecrime of their lives. No, driven to commit it.

And for what? Someone else’s greed.

Anger coursed through her, to the point where she lost all reason. She didn’t bother to issue the standard Justicar’s warnings.

There were no more clauses and sections. No more red tape and codices. Just her blade and her dance and lawbreakers galore.

Doleth leapt right into the thick of the fighting, every step of her dance filled with rage. Her long blade swept through Chosen after Chosen and reaped their lives like stalks of wheat. Justice was finally coming to all of them, and she was the arbiter of the law.

Her blade spun around as she herself did, and lopped off heads and arms and legs one after the other. Anything that wore red armor was hers to dismantle and dismember.

Any who ran at her were cut apart, and any who ran away from her were utterly destroyed. Over two dozen had fallen to her feet before her blade was stopped abruptly with a CLANG.

Blocking her was Colviss and her sturdy metal baton. Their arms shook as their weapons locked together.

“Justicar,” she said, “Why not fight against someone with a more comparable skillset, hm?”

They pushed each other away, and leapt backwards for some space. The two of them circled and appraised each other with deft steps. Doleth could tell just from her opponent’s steps alone that she was highly trained and highly skilled.

She gripped her blade tightly with both hands as she realized she was facing off against a Reborn.

Colviss activated the baton in her hand, which quickly split open down the middle, unfolded, then extended out over five meters in various segments. Its segments snapped together tightly until it became a long, straight blade.

Doleth’s eyes went wide in realization.

“Justicar?” she cried. “You’re a Justicar?! Why in heavens are you with these lawless scum?! Why in heavens are you leading them?!”

Colviss harrumphed at her in response and gripped her sword with both hands.

“Justicar. I used to be one of those, I guess,” she said. “At least, until I was reborn.”

Then she raised her blade at Doleth, and launched into a furious dance towards her. Their blades met, and Doleth was thrown back by the force alone.

~

Eva and Severas rushed towards the compound as fast as their gondola could go.

Both of their armors glowed with power, fresh out of Szereth’s lab, and far improved. Their armor plates had been hardened, their mesh weave made more flexible, and their responsiveness and amplification optimized to the maximum.

But their armor was the last thing on their minds.

Eva couldn’t stop thinking about her friends, and if they were in danger or not. About Miko, the Admiral, some of the pilots and guards and whoever else she had spent time with. She wanted to make sure they were all still alive and safe.

Severas’ thoughts were fixed on the terrorists. The Chosen had spent so much time destroying much of the city, killing its people. Not just this one, but in cities all over the planet. All over the Imperium. But they were most numerous here on Taloren, and it seemed as though they had all finally come out of their holes.

She wondered how many of them she could put down. Because the more they let live, the more everyone’s futures were endangered.

As they approached the compound, they saw that the street entrance that led to the gates was blocked. There were hundreds of red-armored Drogar behind thick makeshift barricades down below. They were supported by a half dozen gondola floating in the air above them.

Their DIs reported their numbers at 512. Some of them even wore power armor.

Every single one of them was firing on a number of City Security Forces a dozen or so meters away. There were about 200 of them down there, led by 20 Justicar. They were also supplemented by a few dozen drones at the least.

All were behind their own cover, from reinforced fortifications to armored gondolas.

They did their best to fire back at the terrorists, but were overwhelmed by numbers. Although they didn’t have a full picture of the numbers behind the barricades, they were fairly certain that they were outnumbered two to one.

And since they didn’t have any weapons large enough to break through their barricade, all they could do was hunker down and wait for reinforcements.

In the meantime, they were constantly being shot up and wounded by the violent terrorists.

Eva tightened her grip on her beltknife as she gathered her resolve for the upcoming fight.

“I know I’ll become a criminal the moment I cut even one of them,” she said. “But I’m not just gonna stand around and watch them kill my friends. I know what the law means to you, that you’ll do everything for it. But I’m not gonna let you stop me from what I’m about to do.”

Severas drew her own blade as she set the gondola’s course towards the fighting and opened up its dome.

“There’s this thing you humans like to say, and I think it’s appropriate now,” she said. “To hell with it.”

The two of them crouched down with their hearts racing as their gondola dipped down and sped up. They leapt up into the air moments before it crashed right into the barricade itself and tore into the crowd of Chosen.

Pieces of scrap and body parts flew into the air as their defenses were ripped wide open.

Eva and Severas each landed on separate enemy gondolas, their operators and gunners caught utterly surprised. They both stepped into their respective dances and cut apart every terrorist within their reach.

With terrifying, brutal, and beautiful efficiency, the two bladedancers wove through their enemies and brought death in their wake.

Their enemies stood no chance at all.

Once all around her were dead, Eva tapped on the central console and powered the gondola down with a few deft swipes. As it fell towards the crowd of terrorists below, she leapt up to the next gondola and continued her dance.