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

by Solea Razvan

  “I want that transmission to be broadcasted to every soldier and sailor we have with us, let them know we have the advantage and tell them to press it home!” he ordered.

  “YES SIR!!!!”

  After that Metternich returned his gaze to the battlefield, and what he saw dampened his spirit a little bit.

  “Looks like the enemy is starting to push us back.” The young commodore thought to himself as he observed the battle.

  “Butz, tell Werner that it’s his turn, he is to take his Brigade and stop the enemy counterattack.” Metternich told his aide.

  “Yes sir!” Butz replied and relayed the orders trough the communications crystal attached to their jeep’s windwaker.

  “Things are going ok for now, if we can break through here, smash the last of the supply guards and capture enough fresh crystals we can withdraw from this rock!” Metternich thought to himself as he gaze a glance to his rear where the 88th was kept in reserve.

  Its commanders had protested against this, with Werner being the exception, a fact that surprised the others, but Metternich assured them that when the enemy would send in their reinforcements they would be the decisive factor, now he hoped that they lived to up to their reputation, for in their current state he doubted that they could carry the day in a battle of attrition, they had to finish this soon!

  So he hoped that the 88th would be enough to hold the lines long enough for him to play his final card.

  Extract from the diary of Corporal D’hrain Jeran.

  In a battle, the strength and weaknesses of the each element went like this:

  Fire beats air, air beats earth, earth beats water and water beats fire; situations outside of that like water fighting earth and wind fighting water or fire against earth depend more on the warriors wielding them, but the aforementioned strengths and weaknesses is generally how you want to use your troops in an orderly manner.

  But during that black morning on Volunia 4 there was no order of battle, only one big schoolyard brawl.

  The day had started with a rather lovely early morning darkness, but as the minutes went by, clouds gathered over the hot plain we were all stationed.

  When the first bolt of lightning was heard in the distance our officers told us to relax and stand down, since it was unlikely that the enemy to attack during a thunderstorm, after all your fist instinct when a storm starts is to get inside as quick as you can and wait for it to pass, which was good and sound advice and we where fools for listening to it that day!

  The thunderstorm booming in the distance was raging out so loud that it helped mask the enemies movements and eventual attack, what made matters even worse was the fact that by the time the attack had commenced the storm not only had intensified, but had also reached our position as well.

  For the first few minutes of the attack you could not have guessed we had been ambushed do to the weather, but when you saw a squad of infantrymen, followed by a company and then a battalion all running as fast as they could away from the rear position it was clear what was happening.

  So my battalion quickly formed up for battle and took up a position to face the enemy, our regimental Colonel was yelling, shouting and sometimes even shooting at our comrades to get them to rally behind us to meet the enemy.

  And it was starting to work, as more and more soldiers began to join our ranks and started to form up, but by then it was too late; I somehow managed to survive that day and also stay alive long enough to get a discharge from the army and get back home and spend the rest of the war safe, and although I fought 20 more battle after that, each of them more fiercer than Volun 4, but I will never forget what I saw during the first few hours of the battle.

  The enemy had attacked with such speed and ferocity that any manner of formation or discipline was lost, only raw power and momentum was used for their attacks.

  Normally that’s not what you do in a battle, but at that point it didn’t matter, they had ambushed us so fast and in so great numbers that it was impossible to get any formation up, and those that did where quickly swallowed whole by the Imperial tidal wave.

  I saw ranks of air soldiers shot at by so many earth warriors that the formation was reduced to nothing but a pile or ruble and mangled flesh, I saw whole companies of fire troopers hit so hard and in so great numbers by water soldiers that they hardly stood a chance, and when they finely got to us they where a mixture of fire, water, earth and wind, a nightmare to any commander to try and lead, but that did not matter, the image of so many of our own troops being cut down and breaking ranks greatly boosted the enemy’s morale and subsequent Creed Magic.

  Thus we saw and felt its effects, their fire blazed like an inferno, the wind and water attacks grew in size and shape into vortexes around their weapons, that spun so fast they could cut through our ranks like they were paper, the earth troops weapons grew so much in size and sharpness that they seemed more like the claws and teeth of some ancient monster, than that of mere mortals.

  As what lay before us closed in for the kill, we all felt that we where now hopelessly outmatched and even before the enemy reached our line I saw men break ranks, making our formation becoming even thinner.

  And as the enemy struck us, a whole wall of men and weaponry and least 50 long and ten ranks deep was pushed back!

  Somehow we did not break at contact, but as they continued to push, we felt the ground beneath our feet running away from us as the whole column was pushed back; ‘everything was lost and nothing short of divine intervention could save us’ was the thought going through my head as our formation was starting to fall apart and from one of the gaps the enemy poured trough, but just as that happened a figure ran past me and straight into that herd of xenos monsters and divine help had arrived in the not so surprising form of a priest.

  Corporal D’hrain Jeran.

  Volunian army.

  U.F.O.P section of the supply base.

  9:35 Local time.

  “The Almighty God Jasee is mercy and love incarnate, feel his love!” the short trimmed blond haired, glasses wearing face of Turneissnen gave this as a battle cry while the priest hit and bashed his way through the Imperial ranks, stemming the tide.

  The mighty repeated blows of his weapon not only slayed those before him, but the Imperials where so tightly packed from the charge that the sheer kinetic force unleashed by the club affected the ones that were too close to the attacked soldiers.

  With such a ferocious counter-attack Alexander had not only stopped the Imperials from exploiting the gap in the Federal lines, he was also pushing them back!

  Behind him the Federal troops upon seeing this quickly rallied on his person and plugged the gap making the Federal formation whole again.

  As Turneissnen slashed, parried, weaved and dodged trough his opponents, the whole section he was fighting was actually beginning to fall back.

  “All units push forward, the charge is broken! Push them back!” the priest bellowed out to his allies as he continued to cut his way through the enemy.

  At this the whole flow of the battle changed as Federal fire warriors blazed away, earth warriors shifted the surface of their shields to form spike shieldwalls, that started to spin and move along its surface turning the formation into a shieldwall of humming chainsaw teeth.

  Air troops followed and launched arrows and spears engulfed in miniature vortexes that made them move too fast for the common eye to see, and finally the aqua warriors of the Federation joined in with their spears and maces, their weapons contained water and they made it flow in a pattern all across their weapon’s surface with such a strong flow, that the water turned solid and moved fast enough to cut almost anything in its path.

  They surged forward, extending the reach and flow of their water weapons until they could strike not only the ranks in front of them, but also the second rank behind the first and even the third rank as well.

  “Oh, you poor xenos heathens, did you actually think you could stand against
a holy priest? But don’t be sad, for it is not your fault, you are merely ignorant of the error of your ways! After we win, I will be more than happy to open your eyes and convert you to the proper gospel!” the priest shouted as he lashed out and charged the nearest gathering of Imperial troops, who were on the verge of routing.

  Nothing seemed to stop him, he dodged the swift air arrows, sidestepped the long reaching water spears, deflected the blazing inferno that was the fire warriors and smashed through any stalwart earth warrior that faced him.

  “Flee heathens! The forces of heaven will never be beaten when they fight for their own soil!” Turneissnen bellowed out again, as dust and a cloud of smoke from the fighting began to cover the field, he charged once more, and raised his arm to give another blow at the Imperials, when much to his surprise a fire axe appeared, seemingly out of nowhere and blocked his attack with so much strength that he was forced to jump a foot backwards to ride the force of the blow.

  9:36 Local Planetary time

  “Sorry priest, but you may call the shots in your version of heaven, but you’re too far away from home for that.” the shape of an Imperial Officer came out of the dust cloud.

  “This isn’t heaven, it’s hell and here you don’t rule, I DO!” the officer added and charged Turneissnen.

  A fury of blows, thrusts and parries followed, all of which seemed to fast to be anything less than either two divine or two cursed being clashing blades.

  After a few minutes of relentless fighting, the two opponents broke off their attacks and both of them took two steps backwards to catch their breath.

  “What is your name and which unit do you belong heathen? You do not look like the rest!” Turneissnen said as he took a few deep breath of air to quench the fire in his lungs.

  “Black Beret Corps, 88th brigade, you’ll know us as the kriffing sons and daughters of towngirls that’s going to send your pathetic excuse for soldiers to hell! As for the name, it’s Colonel Werner von Braun!” he replied.

  “That would be quite a feat for you, considering you’re units will be doing it without their heads!” Turneissnen replied to Werner’s taunt.

  At this the Federal troops were unnerved as they realized that a member of the deadly Black Berets was their new opponent, what was even more alarming was the fact that as the dust began to settle, they could see that behind Werner, there were troops who on their arms had the seal of a sword in flames and that each helmet contained a black plumage feather.

  The rest of the Black Berets had arrived on the field!

  “Hellfires, ey? Ha! You’re reputation precedes you and I see it is well merited!” Turneissnen said as he maneuvered the club to his back and jammed it inside what appeared to be the orifice of a very large shield; he then pulled the club with one arm, with the shield now attached to it, revealing that it was in fact a great earth sword and that the club was its handle.

  His body armor then overflowed with magic as he summoned his battle aura and extracted a huge amount of power from his energy crystals which he had on himself and filled his sword with raw energy.

  The edges of the earth sword grew teeth and they started moving rapidly across it surface making into a massive chain blade, it moved so fast that the teeth turned red and it made a buzzing sound of almost hellish nature.

  “Time to stop this warm up and get serious wouldn’t you agree?” the priest challenged him.

  “I agree.” Werner said with a smile on his face and his fire axe whose flames already blazed like a furnace suddenly became a body of fire so intense that it looked like a small piece of the sun was what Werner was wielding, and with these great weapons the battle of two titans resumed.

  The occupied Territories, Maramanakama.

  The party had been going on for a few hours and it was still a jolly time in Ahmaiano’s apartment and considering that the apartment was small, overcrowded with people and thanks to their recent actions against the empire, smelling along with the rest of the street like a latrine that was no small accomplishment!

  “Can I talk with you for a second?” Tubarin said to Ahmaianos, at which he nodded and they both went to a secluded corner, away from the party.

  “What is it?” Ahmaianos asked.

  “I say we get as far away as we can from that ‘Nobody’ clown.”

  “What do you mean, didn’t he helped us?”

  “Oh, come on Ahmaianos, can’t you smell just how fowl the whole thing actually is?”

  “Well, the sewer pipe we blew up is making things rather intolerable.”

  “Not that! I mean what happened today, you know everything is hunky dory, until Mr Trouble comes in to town, and he starts making everything unbearable and no matter what you do you can’t stop him, until finally you scream for all the world to hear ‘ I’ll do anything, follow anyone, juts please help me!’”

  “And then Mr Salvation comes along, and he ask you for this and that and you give him want he wants and more because he stops Mr Trouble, but what you don’t know is that after the whole thing is over and their not in public Mr Trouble and Mr Salvation turn out to be friends and split what they earned fifty-fifty.” Tubarin told him.

  At this Ahmaianos was silent for a moment while he contemplated his answer before replying with:

  “It may very well be a sting operation, I wouldn’t put it past the Empire to be this sadistic, but I’ll be honest with you, there might be a chance that it’s a genuine anti-Imperial group that we had just had contact with, we should be cautious about this, but not all together dismissive.”

  “All right, but I still think it’s too good to be true, though I’m surprise you’re this opened minded!”

  “Well, I know a lot about scams and cons, half of my neighbors from before the war where the best con artists and thieves in Tolina.” Ahmaianos told him.

  “What! Who the hell did you live next door to?”

  “Guess.”

  “Mafia dons, loan sharks and smugglers?”

  “Lawyers and stock brokers.”

  At this, they both shared a laugh which helped to lighten the mood between them.

  “Have you shared your thoughts with any of the others?” Ahmaianos whispered to him as they look at the other members of their small group who were still celebrating.

  “Nah, I may be a jerk but I’m not a big enough jerk to spoil a party, maybe I’ll run it by them tomorrow after they sober up. Besides, we’ve lost so much in these past few years, our country, our pride, our livelihoods, our friends, so much so that we barely have any reason to be happy, so any excuse for a party, even a stupid one is good enough to shut me up!” Tubarin replied with a smile.

  “I’ll remember that!” Ahmaianos teased him, and Tubarin playfully punched him in the chest and they shared another laugh before returning to the party.

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

  “We were the legionaries of Malus, The World Breaker”

  About two days before the battle, I managed to find a small pub within a nearby trading post and on this uncolonised planet it was the only civilian settlements you could find, it’s name was quaintly called the WestCoast, the place seemed to be ok with serving Imperial troops, but in regards to their hospitality I suspect that the big pieces of sharpened steel we carried with us played an important factor.

  I sat there for a few hours, ordering local cuisine until I noticed that it was time to return to the battalion, I was about to get up and join the rest when a certain biological need compelled me to visit the bathroom, so I ventured towards the higher levels of the pub and after finding the restroom and sitting on the toiled in order to relieve my need, I saw that to the wall of the stall I was using there was some kind of talisman or totem attached to it.

  I’m not sure what it was called or what it even was, but it looked appealing so I extended my arm to touch it, and as I did so a strange and not altogether unpleasant sensation washed over me.

  I quickly removed my hand,
and could have just ignored the totem there and then, but curiosity got the better of me so I touched it again.

  I closed my eyes for a few moments and when I opened them what I saw before myself was beyond description, colors flashed and faded, matter appeared and disappeared, before me there was a great void which appeared to be infinity itself, and a great mass which seemed thicker than the black eternity of space, and more thin than the spring sunlight of the most sacred planet.

  But the most strangest and indescribable thing of all was that the sight before me seemed not to change or even remain constant, what it was I could not guess, all I know that it was something I was not suppose to see.

  “It is existence.” a voice said behind me, I wanted to look around and see who did it belong to, but I decided to get my bearings straight first.

  “Existence? Why is it here, why am I hear, why me and who are you?” I asked it.

  “It was never just here, it’s everywhere, this moment and this place is one of the few instances when you can see it. As for you, I’d say that you are here but because you chose this.” the voice replied.

  “I….I chose this?”

  “Yes.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “Well don’t ask me, I can’t explain it and I don’t have time to!”

  “Wait! How did you get here, who and what are you?”

  “My name is Icarius Reign, as to how I got here; well I’ll give you an answer when I find one, until then bye!” the voice replied and that was the last I heard of it.

  With its absence, the sheer incomprehensibility of this place started to get to me.

  I closed my eyes, pressed the palm of my hands to the side of my head in an attempt to block out both the pure madness and untainted sanity which resided in that place, I screamed to the heavens for release and I received it.

  As I opened my eyes, I saw that I had returned to the bathroom and after a few long breaths to calm myself I walked out of the stool and left the pub, there where eyes upon me, with various reactions to what happened in the bathroom or what they thought happened .