10 The Dukhym district part 4

10:56 Local Planetary Time.

The rebels all stared eyes wide and mouths open at the carnage that happened before their eyes, but the so called 'silence' which was a word used loosely in its proper meaning since this was a battlefield, was broken by Tubarin.

"Something's up there on the second floor!" he shouted as a shaped appeared from where the first deadly salvo had been launched.

A form emerged from the fog of war, just enough to be made out by those outside of it.

The figure did not seem to be surrounded by smoke and ash from the imperial counter-salvo, but rather they seemed to cling around it, as if the mist itself was a part of its body.

It appeared to be humanoid in appearance, judging from the small flashes of light that the flames raging on the floor provided

The fires started to die down, little by little, making the light that showed the silhouette diminish until it was no more, but even then the fading light seemed not to be lighting the body, rather like the mist before it, the almost twilight like light seemed to cling to this mysterious figure, in a manner that showed that it was part of the being that stood on the pane above them.

The shape retreated back into the mist and disappeared along with the fading fire and ash.

7, 38

"Fire two salvos of several high caliber energy arrows west of your location, with the green building as your intended target, but make sure they are fire and water arrows and launch them in that order." a voice that none of them had ever heard, nor could they identify yet it seemed to be familiar all the same, was heard on their windwaker crystals.

"What? Who the hell is this?"Tubarin angrily shouted into the crystal.

"The one that you were staring at a few seconds ago scholar, now please fire a few salvos west of your location at the green building, lest you lose the opportunity that is before you!" the voice on the other end replied.

What followed was a cacophony of enquiries, questions, and babbling from the rebels in regards to that statement, until a great shout from Ahmaianos silenced the chaos.

"QUIET! Now you said that we would lose an opportunity, opportunity for what?" he asked.

"For victory of course, also you have four minutes left." the voice replied nonchalantly, which made everyone's eyes bug out in amazement.

"Victory!?Victory against the Empire!?"Kalynka said in astonishment, after what happened today the words were now foreign to her.

They were to prevail against that mighty army? That thought was absurd!

Yet the way he said it, so casually and with such certainty, with a tone of a teacher dictating an undisputable fact, one that he had repeated thousands of times before, so much so that he did it now with a bored voice.

It made them start to that maybe, with this mysterious voice on their side, they could succeed.

"Why the hell should we listen to you!?"Tubarin asked suspiciously.

"You should listen since I'm the one who singlehandedly slaughtered a force you couldn't even scratch, and If you continue on your current path you will meet your end in annihilation, but if you do as I say you will win, it's that simple, also you now have three minutes." the voice with the same certain tone, tipped with boredom born of certainty.

And just a hint of exasperation from having to constantly explain himself.

It was too much!

But with the slaughter of their seemingly invincible enemy and with the confident voice which was alien yet familiar, they started to feel that the crazy idea of victory would be a reality if it came from the owner of the voice, was not so crazy after all.

"Who is this guy? What kind of crazy-"

"Start firing!" Tubarin said, but was cut off by Ahmaianos.

"You can't be serious, Ahmaianos!" he said, stunned at their leader's sudden order.

"What choice do we have? You saw what he did, so just do as he says!"

Their leader's tone implied not just the fact that this might be their only chance to defeat the imperial forces, but also that if they did not comply, well.....

Nobody knew exactly how this would end.

But the rebels could guess.

And the ones to slaughter them this day might not be imperials.

Remembering the power and stealth that this unknown force had shown just now, it was excellent motivator for them to comply.

As they all lined their bows and crossbows and fired the respective volleys.

"Now what? We just wasted what little ammunition we had left and made a lot of noise for nothing! That was just-"

"The enemy is moving away from our location!" Tubarin shouted but was stopped by Usanthus, who was looking at the portable farview he was carrying, which depicted the battlefield map.

This course of action surprised everyone; none expected this kind of turn of events.

"But...….but why?" Daiamar said, stunned at what had just happened.

"If you look closely at your position, you will notice that you have just fired over a river, and that the green building shielded any eastern view of your location, that combined with the destruction of the platoon, will make the enemy presume that after smashing it you've moved west because of the energy signature spike that the volley's impact would feed the imperial PULSARS to see."

"And since there is no direct crossing here and the enemy must think we are on the other side, they'll move down town to where the nearest bridge is!"Kalynka added, amazed at what just happened.

"We kept our position hidden, and led the enemy on a wild goose chase by making as much noise as possible!" Ahmaianos, thought to himself surprised at how obvious the answer was.

"There is no time to waste, you in the red battle armor, go to point seven up river and jump at exactly ten minutes from now and not a moment too soon, the rest of you will head to the coordinates I am currently transmitting to your farview, I'll contact you all with further instructions latter on." the voice replied, and ended the transmission.

"Cocky kriffer, isn't he?" Tubarin said in indignation, at the strange voice.

"Should we obey?" Usanthus asked.

"I don't know, I guess he's, she…it…is in charge for now." Daiamar replied.

"Well, if we don't then that means that we would be defying him." Paiamara added and at that a chill went down their spines, they had lived under the Empire's iron grip, and sharp blade on their becks for years now, but this unknown had managed in less than an hour to make them more afraid of him than their oppressors of almost two decades.

"Do as he says." Ahmaianos told them, and from his tone you could tell that he was in no mood to argue, he was after all the leader of their group and for the most part he was a casual and easy going one, but he could be very serious and scary when he wanted to be.

So they all complied and decided to obey their current 'commander', because honestly the empire seemed a lesser danger now.

"So now we are all more afraid of our 'leader' than our enemies. Why we're halfway to becoming a real fighting force already and it's not even lunch time yet!" Ahmaianos thought ruefully, and despite himself, he smiled as he went to take up his new position.

As he and everyone else in the group did so, Kalynka already reached her designated point, which was at the water's edge, right above a very deep part of the river bellow.

"This is deep water and this armor is not calibrated to fight under it, I'll drown if I jump!"

"What are you doing? If you don't jump now, your friends will all die." The voice said all of a sudden, gone was the bored tone, in its place was fire and anger for her disobedience to his directives.

And to that Kalynka snapped to attention, the combination of an authoritarian voice that resonated with power behind it made her unwilling to go against it.

Not out of fear of their 'leader' or of even the empire, thought those two were still present, but rather of the thought of losing what was left of her friends was what made Kalynka loose her hesitation and most of her grasp of basic common sense, and so she prepared to jump.

She hesitated once more, but there was no going back, not for her or her comrades.

They could have walked away from it when he gave them a choice to walk away.

Well, she and everybody else made their decision, now it was time to bear the consequences for it.

"Oh Great Catcher preserve me, let my aim be true, my catch be bountiful, its prize be great!" Kalynka mentally said the ancient prayer of her people and then jumped into the water.

She braced herself for its cold embrace, taking a deep breath of air right before hitting the river's surface, waiting for the water to surround her and try to make its way into her lungs.

That was what she expected. But this was war, and in war nothing goes as you'd expect.

For in another instance, which was against all common sense and logic, instead of drowning she landed on not the muddy riverbed bellow, but on something that stopped her submersion at knee depth only!

"There is something beneath the surface!" she thought to herself, taking a few foot jabs on the body of what she found herself on, and discovering that it was made of metal.

A moment later as she did her river dance, on the river, in full armor, and on a metal surface, Kalynka felt that the ground, or rather the water below her, started to rise and she realized that she was on a submarine.

Once it was done rising from the river enough for a hatch to be topside, its door was opened and a crew member came out of it to see what was happening and he came out with his back turned towards Kalynka

She did not hesitate for a single moment; the submarine's crewmember was slayed, his neck broken in an instant, before he even realized what had just happened.

The armored resistance fighter then grabbed his body and tossed into the river, before proceeding inside.

She ignored the ladder and jumped straight into the submarine

She hit the deck loudly, falling to her knees from the weight of her armor and the height of the jump.

Raising herself up, she saw that before her was the captain of the submarine with two crew members behind him.

The captain upon immediately seeing Kalynka, grabbed his two men and pushed them through a door down the submarine's deck, after he did so, he quickly pulled the door closed.

Seeing this Kalynka dashed forward, she threw her spear right at the captain, impaling him in the right shoulder, the captain gave out a cream in pain as Kalynka grabbed him by the collar hurdled him backwards so she could reach the door, only to look in shock at the now locked door and it's hatch that was now closed and was melted solid.

Turning around in disbelief Kalynka saw the captain, who was trying to get back on his feet, had in his hand a dying fire spell, which he had used to block the door and save what was left of his crew from her.

Anger gripped her as she glared at the mortally wounded sailor, who prevented her from reaching her prey.

Who in turn only grinned and with his still functional left hand drew a simple combat knife that was devoid of any magic.

He gestured with it for Kalynka to come and fight him, she more than happily obliged, taking two steps forward and preparing to strike him down with the knife that she from her hip.

She drew it back in a striking motion, preparing for a stab.

The captain, thought wounded as he was, struck the first blow! One that made Kalynka stop in her tracks and become paralyze from the attack's target.

The captain had jabbed the knife straight into his neck!

Kalynka could only gaze in shock at the one who deprived her of her victory not once, but twice, who now slumped on the deck as his life faded away.

Thus Captain Isandor Barbados lay ended there and then, as he did so, he smiled knowing he saved his crew, prevented the enemy from winning and brought honor to his service.

His last thoughts were of his family that made his life worthwhile, of his friends that now lived and who would toast his memory, his comrades that fallen before him which he would see soon at the table of thunder, and finally of the great hero with red eyes that he had fought alongside many years ago.

During that siege, that seemed like a lifetime ago, he had witnessed the hero's great skill, and after that the man had shook his hand, and deem Isandor worthy of acknowledgment by saying it was an honor, after that the captain would follow Headmaster Metty into hell's gate if he lead the charge.

He was determined that he would be worthy of that gesture, of that praise, worthy to bear the hero's herald, and stand by him as they both did their duty for the empire!

But alas his current wretched self could not now fulfill the promise of standing beside him in battle.

But he gave praise to the heavens that now in his finest hour, with this, he had become worthy of both him and of the god that he told him about.

With his duty fulfilled, his idol and his deity honored, and his enemy glaring pure hatred at him for his defiance, Isandor gripped the wolf-serpent pendant around his neck, closed his eyes in happiness as he used his last breath to whisper one last word, as his heartbeat continued to drop.

"Zamolxes."

Kalynka turned her gaze away from captain that had so bravely, and so nobly, saved his crew and sacrificed himself for his it.

She could not bear to look at him.

For it reminded her so much of Ahmaianos, or Tubarin and of every single face of her brothers and sister in arms that still lived and of the many more who did not survive.

"They are monsters! Nothing more than savages and barbarians." Kalynka thought to herself, reminding her brain that they deserved to die for defiling their country.

She turned away from Captain Isandor, until she could no longer see the man, nor be in his presence, so as to not be reminded of the valiant, honorable and selfless act this man had just done now.

This man...…

It was easier to kill monsters, than men.

"What is this thing doing in the river?" She said over the comm crystal to the mysterious voice, and continued to try and forget the actions that she had just witnessed; she also tried to ignore the sound of the emergency hatch that was used by the submarines crew, who was on the other side of the sealed shut door, to escape her wrath.

"The surrounding area does not have train tracks and the roads are too narrow to properly supply the imperial assault, so they are relying on the river for logistics, your comrades will be joining you shortly, you can consider what's inside the submarine a bonus for our future contract, suit up and after that I will contact you with further orders." the voice said.

"Wait! At least tell me your name; it's kind of odd to just call you the voice." Kalynka almost shouted that request to him.

"Nobody." he replied and ended the transmission just as the status quo would start to change for this corner of the universe.