Trojian Horse

“The probability of victory is small Roue,” Iris said rather casually. “I would suggest evasive manoeuvres.”

“By that you mean run away, don’t you?” Roue asked, staring at the screen ahead of him weaving his way through the vast number of fighter ships that were firing at him desperate to knock him out of the sky. “We don’t run away Iris. These are our friends.”

“That is exactly what evasive manoeuvres means! There comes a time for self-preservation surely, Roue?” Iris asked innocently.

“No, Iris. Just No.”

“Understood. We will keep fighting but the moment we run out of ammunition is just about here. Then all that’s left will be running away. We can’t shoot down every single Dracien fighter and even if we could, they would shoot down and kill every single Vulpeculae ship before we could stop them.”

“I know,” was Roue’s only reply.

“If you insist on staying then we better choose where we make our last stand and go down fighting.”

Roue thought about what Iris said while conducting several high-speed aerial manoeuvres which culminated with him shooting down two Dracien fighters.

“Tell me what’s happening on the ground Iris,” Roue asked.

“The fighting on the ground has stopped.”

“What?!”

“It would seem there is a duel between Hethios and Reeger. Reinon is assisting.”

“Is he crazy? He’s going to get himself killed. How foolish!”

“I agree,” Iris said. “He’s no match for Reeger.”

“What’s he thinking!? Get me down there. Iris, take over the controls. Keep covering the command ship and cover the ground troops whenever you can. I need to go down there to help him.”

The Rogue raced through the air, looping this way and that, blasting down Dracien fighters as it dropped altitude. Eventually the ship reached the edge of the forest, the same position where they had left Hethios earlier. Roue jumped out through the hatch as the ship hovered over the ground, armed with his paccer. The hatch closed and the ship zipped back into the sky.

“Try not to get yourself killed Roue,” Iris said over Roue’s earpiece.

“I’ll try my best,” Roue replied.

He ran as fast as he could toward the plain by the bank where the fighting was taking place.

“Hang on Hethios, I’m almost there,” he murmured to himself.

He made it to the battling crowd gathered by the river bank panting heavily by the time he reached them. He pushed his way through the crowds until he was at the edge of the make-shift arena formed around Reeger, Hethios and Reinon. They were fighting valiantly but Reeger seemed to be enjoying it a bit too much. Whatever blows they landed on him seemed to bounce off his shiny black armour. Reinon seemed tired and devoid of hope as her sword was swung with little to no conviction. Just as he meant to intervene and pull Reinon out of the fight, Reeger deftly stepped back as Reinon sought to land a blow on Reeger’s head then stepped forward so quickly he was almost like a blur swinging his axe as he moved. Reeger’s battle axe cut through Reinon’s abdomen like hot metal through soft flesh before he followed it up with another lightning fast swing that took Reinon’s clean head off.

“Noooo!” yelled Roue.

Gasps erupted from the Vulpeculae in the crowd around the arena. Before Hethios could react, Reeger turned around and in two quick steps he had reached Hethios and knocked him onto his back with his battle axe raised for another fatal blow. A wry smile formed on Hethios lips. Roue whipped out his paccer and turned the settings to ‘disintegrate’ in one swift movement and directed a high-energy blast in Reeger’s direction. The blast knocked Reeger off his feet and forced him to roll down the bank right to the edge of the water. Roue, who had also been knocked back off his feet by the force of the blast, jumped back up and ran over to help Hethios. Hethios was injured, his upper right arm was bleeding from an uncomfortably close encounter with Reeger’s battle axe.

“What were you thinking?” he asked. “You didn’t tell me this was the plan otherwise I would never have let you come down here. You’re no match for him.”

Hethios limped past Reinon’s headless body as Roue provided him with some support. Turo jumped out from the crowd and grabbed the sword from Reinon’s lifeless hand. Roue gave her a disgusted look.

“Reeger can’t get a hold of this sword again. You know this,” she said in reply. She backed off into the crowd.

“I suppose,” Roue said with an equally disgusted look.

“You know they won’t let us leave, right? This doesn’t end here,” Hethios whispered to Roue who glanced around the arena to see a lot of confused dracien soldiers before their faces seemed to relax again.

“I know. If I had known that all it would take was a blast from my paccer at the highest setting, then I would have--”

“Only one of you came close to being a challenge for me, but he’s very dead now,” a voice behind them said. “I will help you meet your champion in death.”

They turned around to see Reeger brandishing his battle axe, the same sadistic smile on his face.