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I didn't remember much of my life with my family, only that it had been nice, safe, and comfortable. The orphanage I grew up in was inside one of the many cities and was its own little violent, secluded world. Nobody with a lick of sense ventured beyond the orphanage's walls, and the few who did usually never returned.
Which didn't necessarily mean they were dead; it was possible that they found a much better life, but from all the rumors and glimpses I received later of the city, I didn't think so.
When I left for the Terran Forces at sixteen, an armored truck picked me and twenty other candidates up. From the loud bangs hitting the outside of the truck, I gathered that things were being thrown at the vehicle, it might have even been shot at, as we made our way through the city to Fort Baudier, where we received our three-month-long training. Again, sheltered within massive walls, I didn't get a glimpse of life outside.
Sometimes I wondered if the only functioning parts of society that remained were the orphanages that provided an endless supply of soldiers and any military installments.
When I finished my training at Fort Baudier, I went straight into space, from where I was shipped off to New Atlanta, a planet bordering Traiton territory and where I was tasked with providing security for the few brave settlers who were trying to turn New Atlanta into a new Earth.
Unfortunately, New Atlanta only made it two years before it was deemed a failure and the surviving settlers, and us soldiers, were taken back to a space station.
Between the planet's somewhat hostile environment and attacks from the Traitons, I learned many survival skills, because that was what you did if you didn't want to die.
I never saw the settlers from New Atlanta again. They were probably sent to another planet, while I went back to a training station for another six months before I was shipped off to New Italy, another settlement.
This one flourished rather well, and had a decent chance of making it, thanks to its location being far enough from Traiton territory.
But after I found out about Mike's betrayal, babysitting happy colonists hurt too much, and I asked for reassignment to the Terran Space Forces to fight the Traitons, which was where I seemed to find my true calling in life.
I put my all into my assignments, rose in rank until I was finally captured by the Traitons, and the rest is history.
During all my assignments, though, I never saw a planet as beautiful as Thyre, despite it being wintertime, or the cold season as they called it. I tried to imagine this place in the summer, with leaves on the trees, but failed, because I had no idea if they would be green as I had seen in pictures from Earth, or blue or red or yellow. Still, the pictures in my head, especially around this pond, were pretty.
Since there was no real rush on when we needed to go or get to the FOB, I let Kendryx sleep until he stirred when the first weak rays of the Carmac sun found their way to us through the leafless canopy.
We ate in silence, more to avoid the brewing conflict than anything and walked again until we broke through the forest into a clearing filled with ruins I immediately recognized.
This was where my squad and I were ambushed. I recognized the tall obelisk in the town's center, and even if every town in Vandall territory would have had one prominently displayed, I doubted they would have all shown the same bullet holes as this one or would have stood slightly crooked with a long vertical gash where the stone was slowly splintering in half.
"This is it," I whispered, unsure of how Kendryx had managed to find our way here without a GPS. Hell, he didn't even have a map or compass.
"Kar, this is where Uthar said he took you prisoner." I noticed how Kendryx's eyes scrutinized our surroundings, ever watchful of a drone or any other sign of life.
I understood the need to be vigilant. The chance of Terran Forces patrolling was high, but bad memories sliced through me like sharp claws. I could see myself and my soldiers moving across the long building to our right, guns drawn.
Our mission was to secure this little town after drone footage had deemed this area safe. Still, we were vigilant when we entered and slowly made our way down to the town's center.
An arrow straight through Kevin's head cut his life short and alerted us to the enemy's presence. I ordered full fire straight in the direction where the arrow came from, while we retreated into one of the abandoned houses.
The Vandalls came from all sides, as if they had been waiting for us. Hundreds of them.
In hindsight, I now knew that it was impossible for my superiors not to have known about this massive enemy presence here, but it took talking to Alahna to make me confront the cold hard fact that I had been betrayed and sent into a trap.
On some level, I still held out hope that this was all just one giant misunderstanding. At this point, I would have gladly lived with a giant fuck up, but I worried that all the fears I harbored and confessed to Alahna were true and that I had indeed been betrayed.
We fought hard and took down many Vandalls with our superior firepower, but in the end, my squad was dead, and I was taken prisoner.
I wasn't sure what I had expected a month later, but I was thankful that my soldiers' bodies had been taken away. But darkened remnants of Kevin's blood were still visible by the longhouse.
Tears of rage and loss burned in my eyes, but I refused to let them go, instead I vowed that I would avenge every single one of my squad members. They had been good men and women, and they hadn't deserved to die like this.
It was cold and eerily quiet as Kendryx and I made our way through the village, retracing the steps my squad and I took. At some point, Kendryx took my hand and squeezed it as if he sensed how heavy my heart was. Which, as a warlord, he probably did. He told me all about the campaign he, his khazar, and another warlord had fought against two warlords who had rebelled against their ruler before he arrived at Grymburg.
Kendryx knew loss and regret, the responsibility of leading others into battle knowing many would die. But I doubted that he had ever been betrayed by his khazar the way I was by my superiors. That lent a whole new added flavor of bitterness to the pain.
Iknewthistownheld ghosts for Chrissy, we all carried ghosts with us, but I had never returned to a place of battle the way she was doing now. I took her hand to show she wasn't alone and was glad when she squeezed mine back.
I didn't see what she did, but I looked at the ruins of a once sprawling town and clenched my jaw. It was true that there wasn't any love lost between the Vandalls and me, but I drew the line at hating, let alone killing, kallinies and younglings, who undoubtedly found their ends in this ruined town.
