by Scott Moon
Jorgo went down under the press of attackers near the center.
Aefel fired his weapons dry, then drew his FALD sword. Still sharp to the atomic level, despite weeks of use, he cut through the Carosn horde. They were dead already, he thought. The violence turned his soul sideways despite his years of war.
“Aefel,” Jorgo grunted as he pushed bodies aside, “have you come to finish this?”
He ran past the giant without a word.
A Grendel of average build stood in the center of the chaos like the god of storms in a hurricane. There was nothing human in his expression. Someone else was driving the body, controlling the Carosn field remotely — probably from inside First Base or high in a mountain cave.
“Who are you?” Aefel demanded.
“Finally,” said the Carosn Host. “This body is inadequate. With you to carry the wrath of our cause, the Commonwealth and all its offshoots are doomed.”
“I found the real Emperor and reunited him with his Strongarms,” Aefel said.
Liquid green energy pulsed in the eyes of the Grendel, reflecting on the bluish woad tattoos on his face. Like the rest of the ruin horde, his flesh wept blood as organs slowly ruptured inside his body. Whoever controlled the man forced down fear. “That doesn’t matter. It is too late to go back to the old way.”
Aefel attacked, knowing if he didn’t kill with the first strike, the Carosn Device would pass to him and damn him.
Jorgo roared as he fought a new press of Grendels.
On the valley floor, the FALD Reavers and their mismatched allies fought back a determined NGO advance. Zero Brigade fought on both sides of the melee. Attack helicopters swooped out of mountain caves and launched surface to ground rockets.
Aefel was aware yet unaware of the larger battle. All of his training, everything he had ever wanted from life, every pleasure and pain he could remember, sharpened the moment.
He lunged, knowing he gripped the sword imperfectly.
His rear foot slipped ever so slightly. In a normal fight, he would never have noticed the loss of drive.
Sunlight flashed from the snow-capped peaks, blinding his left eye completely.
He thought of Fey and wanted to lie down and go to sleep despite the flood of pain and adrenaline.
Sveinn is the Emperor. He lives with his sisters under the protection of his Strong Right Arm. Cindy and Paul and the others are fighting as they were made to fight. I am dying. I am becoming the field of life that fuels the Carosn Device.
The tip of his sword entered the CD Host.
I must not fail. Must survive and resist fate.
Power reached for Aefel’s soul, but he laughed. “You thought I had a soul?”
His weight drove the blade deeper. Moving as though in a dream, two sharp edges expanded the throat of his victim. He hated killing a man who had never chosen to corrupt the galaxy with evil. Perhaps death was a mercy, perhaps not.
Time accelerated as the hilt of his FALD sword slammed home, nearly taking off the CD Host’s head with the thrust.
He heard a voice cutting through the horror of the day.
“Aefel!” Fey screamed.
He turned to her and walked past moaning victims of the Carosn Device.
“Help me,” a sword maiden said.
“I can’t,” Aefel said. He gave her water and bound her external wounds, knowing she was dying inside.
Jorgo knelt near a pile of the people he had killed.
Cindy, Paul, and the other heavy gunner of the FALD Reavers chased away the remains of the NGO force with rivers of glowing tracer rounds. He had seen the aftermath of battles that were ended. The easy familiarity of the scene type drifted across his senses.
He made his way toward Fay and the others, wishing that he could truly become a Grendel and leave his past behind. Above the scene, the stars of the galaxy awaited.
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