Balada : When From My Square Of Window Pane I Draw The Curtain To One Side Read online

  The Occupied Territories, Maramanakama.

  The door slammed open and the soldiers Tubarin had mentioned, exited the towngirl house, at the very rear of their group there was Captain Cameron Calley and like any ‘good officer’ he was bringing up the rear guard.

  “Their chariots are parked on the other side of the street and about 100 meters down town; I say we hit them hard and fast, before they can reach them.” Tubarin said as he gently pressed the acceleration and prepared to shift into gear.

  “Shouldn’t we have brought the others for this?” Ahmaianos asked.

  “Thought about it, but with all the ‘Nobody’ stuff that’s been going on, it sort of slipped my mind, I just remembered about these guys an hour ago, when only you and I where left of our group, sorry about that!” Tubarin said a bit embarrassed to have done such an amateurish mistake.

  But he had no time to dwell on that or for Ahmaianos to lecture him, since the soldiers where making their way down the street, thus presenting the perfect target for a drive by shooting.

  Tubarin shifted into gear and started removing his foot from the clutch pedal, when suddenly a fleet of black chariots appeared seemingly out of nowhere and surrounded the soldiers.

  Before they could properly react to what was happening, a group of unidentified men and women exited the vehicles, grabbed the soldiers and shoved them inside and took off.

  Tubarin and Ahmaianos where silent for a moment before Tubarin released the clutch and drove in the direction of the black chariots.

  “What are you doing?” Ahmaianos asked.

  “Following them of course!”

  “But whoever they are, they outnumber us considerably, we can’t ambush them!”

  “So we’ll just watch then, something big is going down and I want to know what!”

  Tubarin replied and they continued to follow the fleet of black chariots, until they reached what looked like the cities river docks for the great Kama River.

  Tubarin being more familiar with the area than the ones he was following, parked a few blocks away from them and with Ahmaianos behind him, the two made their way to a corner of one of the dock’s warehouses, from where they could peak and even hear what was happening.

  “What the hell is going on here? Do any of you know who I am!? I’ll take this outrage up with the governor himself!” Captain Cameron shouted at the men and women who where all dressed in black suit and ties, and all had impassive stone faces, that would have made any poker player give up his left hand for.

  “I’m listening.” a voice was heard from one of the chariots and a figure stepped out of one of the lead vehicle.

  And for once in both of their lives, neither Tubarin nor Ahmaianos had any snappy remark or words of wisdom to impart, for the one who exited the craft was none other than the Imperial Governor himself, Prince Gelios!

  The night’s degree of strangeness and insanity had just reached new levels.

  Valyria’s Fleet, Balisha Breach.

  “We are detecting an energy surge from the outside, we are not certain which enemy fleet is charging up, but we can confirm its presence.” Butz reported to those on the bridge.

  “Anything else?”

  ”Though I doubt things could get any worse than this”

  “Yes sir, we are also detecting what appears to be a warp storm incoming.” Butz replied to Metternich’s inquiry.

  “Oh come on! That was a thought, not a verbal question, it doesn’t count!”

  BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG!!!!!

  A massive blast of energy hit the asteroid from all sides.

  The wave was of such great power and intensity, that even the ships that were not near any part of the meteor’s walls trembled from the shockwave.

  “Report!” Valyria ordered.

  “The enemy has launched a massive volley all across the meteorite’s surface, we are detecting over a hundred dustroof breaches, the gate has been blown off from its hinges and the fleet that are besieging the breach has withdrawn its fighters and is closing in for a charge!”

  “The road through the blackest night is always darkest before the dawn, but that does not make the journey any less terrifying.”

  Guschen Boboruni

 

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  Source of the cover art:

  Horsehead Nebula:

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsehead_Nebula#mediaviewer/File:Hubble_Sees_a_Horsehead_of_a_Different_Color.jpg