[Gunter’s POV]

I stand there looking up at the night sky as weapon fire from our fleet flashes out along with intermittent flashes of light as a ship explodes. My mind seems jumbled as I watch what must be an intense fight happening above me.

‘Is this a civil war? Did someone try to usurp the Emperor?’ These questions and others like them flash through my mind until I’m broken from my daze by someone literally shaking me.

The unknown soldier is screaming into my ear, “snap out of it, we are under attack. Get to your post and await further orders, For the Emperor.” “His will be done.” I automatically respond, the soldier is right nothing else matters right now except the defense of the Empire.

‘I’m near my home town so there should be a military base two miles east of my position.’ I take off running towards the base, my post is with the Shining Sword but I can’t make it there so the base is where I can be the most useful.

I notice with worry that the frequency of our ships fire is becoming less and less as I run towards the base. Suddenly there is no more weapons fire and I see something that stops me in my tracks. Our fleet command, Talon, is burning as it enters the atmosphere, pieces of it are breaking off as it plummets towards the surface.

I watch with horror as the ship, and in all probability it contains the Emperor, breaks in half and impacts on the ground creating a huge plume of dust and smoke that rises from the crash site. There is no chance anything survived such an impact and I fall to my knees and howl at the skies above. The Emperor is dead and my oaths bind me to seek the death of those responsible. The sky slowly fills with unfamiliar ships, they have four prong shaped appendages that they use to balance as they hit the ground.

Of course our military lashed out before they could land and managed to destroy a few of these strange ships but it was a drop in the bucket compared to the total. I was nearly at the base but several ships landed near the town I had just come from.

My rage driving me I ran back towards the town and while not defenseless, everyone has a mandatory military service of 3 years, the towns folk wouldn't be able to defend from such a coordinated attack. It took me nearly 10 minutes to reach the town but the defenders were already hard pressed and even as I arrived I saw one of the aliens spit a spike and hit a defender.

The Longarian stiffened and fell at the sword like feet of the alien and was dragged away from the melee for whatever nefarious purpose the aliens had with him. There were only 200 or so defenders left with about the same amount of aliens.

I smiled, letting the battle lust flow through me and entered the Dance of Attack before hitting them in their rear. They were no match for a sword master in close combat and I blew through them as a scythe cuts through wheat. Many times they would spit their spikes and I would either deflect them with my swords or dodge by the narrowest of margins.

The battle waxed and waned but eventually we emerged victorious as the bodies of our enemies lay dead or dying at our feet. I was gasping for breath as I cut down the last remaining enemy and fell to the ground exhausted from the battle.

The remaining 10 Longarians were in similar or worse shape than I was and now that the rush of combat subsided I was able to truly look upon our enemy. As I saw from before the beasts had four legs that curved like a blade and came to a point at their feet. It also had three claws for fingers and looked insectoid in nature with a purplish color to its exoskeleton.

Catching my breath I made my way to the survivors, one had succumbed to his injuries while I was catching my breath. They were a sorry looking lot, covered in blood both theirs and the enemies, but they seemed to regain their energy as I told them of the death of the Emperor. With rage burning in our hearts we made our way towards where the aliens had been dragging our people, the more heavily injured keeping up as best as they could.

It took a while, and two more succumbed to their injuries, before we found the location of the missing people. The aliens had gathered all of the captured people into one large building and wrapped them in a strange green substance. Spotting one of the cocoons moving we approached and ripped apart the substance that held him.

It was the Longarian that had been hit with the alien spike. His eyes darted around frantically and finally settled upon my swords, they seemed to plead for death but I had no idea why he would want such a thing. Suddenly I noticed a cocoon moving near us and miniature versions of the aliens sprang forth. I motioned for the others to take care of them and looked back upon this unknown male. His eyes confirmed that he had indeed been infected as well as everyone else in a cocoon.

I close my eyes as the rage that had been burning within me soared to new levels, opening my eyes and nodding once, my sword flashed out beheading the man. I slowly turned to look upon the 7 others survivors and the look on their faces matched my own, a burning hatred that knew no bounds.

Moving wordlessly we gathered all the flame accelerant we could find, sealed all the exits, and watched as the flames purified the building. Alien screeches could be faintly heard over the roar of the flames as we watched making sure nothing escaped.

A transport zipped overhead then circled around to land near us, the door opened and a soldier ran towards us. “Every Longarian is being gathered to the cities. We will fortify and they will break upon us like waves upon a cliff. You are called to defend the Empire.”

The 8 of us straighten and salute in synch while shouting, “To the Death.”

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Not going to lie, I'm going to work on the next few chapters but I'm mainly going to reading zombie novels for the rest of the day. There should be a new chapter out by tomorrow.