War Pigs

[Arisu Lei]

"Never really sought title or land, but yeah what the hell.. it'll piss him off. And if there's one thing I love more than anything, is sticking it to pigs like him." Arisu said with utter disdain in her voice. "Seriously Tamerale... call this off and there won't be any violence. Either way, no one really wins when you two fight like this. You're just playing into our enemies hands."

[Kahlina Starbreeze]

"I'll not negotiate with the pretender," Tamerale responded. He reigned his drilax and he and his lieutenants trotted back to their lines. Their drilax mounts lashed out with their stingers, but the strikes missed by meters.

Kahlina sighed and slipped her helm on over her head and fumbled with the clasp. She spurred her mount into action, and it's cloven hooves kicked up divots of sod into the air.

"Archers make ready! Infantry, shield wall!" Kahlina shouted as she plowed into their lines. Trumpeters blew their commands and NCOs and officers barked orders as the whole army surged to life. The tension was thick on the wind.

A whistling sound broke the silence, as thousands upon thousands of arrows were sent into the air. The malignant black cloud seemed to hover for a moment at the peak of its arc before plummeting back to the ground. The air was filled with loud cracks as arrows struck shields. There were the occasional pings from strikes with helmets. Then there were the sickening meaty thwacks as arrows found holes and struck flesh.

Screams bellowed from her lines, as her soldiers took wave after wave of arrows. Some sobbed, while others shouted for medics or their mothers.

[Arisu Lei]

Arisu fought back and defended herself using a combination of the Iljuna and her own martial skills, learned over a lifetime of combat. Her kilden and the weapons the she took from the armory cut a line through Tamerale's forces as she charged next to Kahlina. "We really could use some air support." she said as she breathlessly fought off the infantry.

[Kahlina Starbreeze]

"That would be a great idea," Kahlina replied, "The problem is that it violates the Treaty of Govan Prime. After our last civil war we agreed to fight all future internal conflicts using the old ways. To violate that treaty would be to invite biological weapons, murder and killing of civilians and all of the horrors modern war brings. They're preparing to send in their knights." Kahlina observed. "Prepare to receive cavalry!"

Again trumpets blared. The loyalist arrow storm abated, and medics trotted out to the field to collect the dead, while the infantry planted their pikes into the ground to form a wall of bristling, pointed metal.


Their charge was slow at first but they built up speed. The loyalist arrow storm started up again. Arrows bounced off armor, and shields. Occasionally they would find gaps and the knight would come crashing to the ground. Drilaxs fell throwing their riders, but still they bravely came.

The first line of Knights crashed into the Infantry ranks with the splintering of pikes, and Lance's. Men and women screamed in pain or shouted their war cries.

"That's our cue," Kahlina said to Arisu. Leading the charge with her own cavalry they flanked the Tamerale knights. Once Lance's were broken, they had switched to swords as they hacked and fought their way through the knights.

[Arisu Lei]

Arisu fought with every weapon at her disposal, eventually favoring her kilden as the blade didn't offer any resistance when struck by lance or sword, simply cutting through them and their user with ease, in combination with using the Iljuna to shove and push them away. This was the first time in years that she had been in an utter melee like this, she hated the wanton violence but if this is what it took to re-establish peace... then it had to be done, she just hoped that Kahlina would survive this.

"This is so going... kinda wrong... we're losing as many men as they are... stay close to me Starbreeze... you're going to survive this, but we're going to need to end this fast..." Arisu said as she blocked a volley of arrows and shoved a couple of warriors who were on a direct course to Kahlina's mount. "Otherwise no one will consider this a win on either side."

[Kahlina Starbreeze]

A stinger surprised Kahlina, who hadn't had a chance to react. It sent her flying from the back of her own drilax. She hit the ground and rolled.

Scrabbling to her feet with her lungs burning she took inventory. Everything seemed more or less intact. Her sword was gone, and the strap to her shield had snapped making it useless.

Her left vambrace where the drilax stinger had struck, sported a sizable dent, and the sticky, putrid yellow venom still coated the armor peice.

She searched her surroundings, and found a nearby pike from one of the fallen soldiers. She hefted it with her sides feeling like they were falling out. She could taste blood in the back of her mouth. Her wounds from the recent assassination attempt had opened up.

"For Narla! For the Empire!" she shouted rallying her people. "Today is a good day for victory! Akora menos!"

The ranks closed in and the whole army started chanting, "Akora menos" over and over. Kahlina took up a position behind the first rank of Infantry who were still in possession of their shields. Blindly she stabbed and hacked with her pike. Most of her strikes had hit armor or shields, but occasionally the point would find something soft, often accompanied by a scream of pain on the other end.

"Push forward! Keep pushing forward!" She shouted above the roar.

[Arisu Lei]

Arisu stuck close to Starbreeze and used the iljuna to heal her as much as she could, despite avoiding arrows and strikes from lances and swords. "We're going to need to get you to a medic sooner than later... we need to end this battle quickly... " she looked around. "Where's our main target? It's hard to even get a bead on anyone in this melee... we need some high ground."

[Kahlina Starbreeze]

"Tamerale holds the high ground," Kahlina grunted.

Then there was a pause in the action. A body can only fight all out for so long. Foe and friend alike separated breathing heavily. Canteens of water were handed around, as medics drugged the injured off the field. Then as suddenly as the break had developed, the two sides were back at the melee.

Above the battle in the command pavilion Lord Tamerale, and two of his closest aides stared down at the table containing a holographic map of the battle.

"Where the hell is Stabarov!" Tamerale growled. He picked up his goblet of wine and threw it across the tent. Spraying it's contents in all directions, and bouncing with a ping as it struck the ground.

"The Hylon assures us that they are on our side and are marching here as quickly as possible," Lord Belmu replied

Trumpets blared, and the Hylon army finally crested the hill. The heraldic banner of a sable bear over a yellow field fluttered with various others who were a part of of Stabarov's bannermen.

"Excellent!" Tamerale exclaimed. He was practically rubbing his hands together. Lord Stabarov looked to Tamerale, and then to the battle, and back.

He drew his sword and shouted at the top of his lungs, "For Narla! For the Empire!"


Kahlina had seen the arrival of the new army. It wasn't hers. Everyone that had pledged their loyalty to her were already here. "Sound retreat!" She glanced at Arisu, "Now this gets interesting. A running retreat is usually pretty bloody."


Horns blared as the loyalist army started to give up the ground they hard fought so hard to gain.

[Arisu Lei]

"Wait a second..." Arisu fished around under her armor and retrieved a set of small metal balls on a strap. "Admiral Angel makes me pay for these, but... this is worth a paycheck. MIKI balls, holographic soldiers with nano tech weaponry. Same things we used to retake Canada and I used to retake part of California for the Terran Rebellion." she started pulling the balls off the strap and looked around. "Get as many of your people retreating, it'll confuse them." she threw the balls into the battle field where they materialized, as they formed up, she tapped her ear comm. "MIKIs, do not stop until you're either destroyed or you capture Tamerale."

"Aye aye Director." they said in unison and charged into the battle, their holographic forms solidifying and going intangible depending on the foe they faced. Nano plasma weapons burned their way through the lines of troops.

"Let's hope they don't have sophisticated targeting systems, but those balls can take a lot of abuse and still project a useful avatar and weapon system." Arisu said as she took Kahlina in her arm. "C'mon Empress... let's get you somewhere where we can regroup. We won't win with you spilling your guts on the battlefield before we can do a patch job."

[Kahlina Starbreeze]

"No!" Kahlina yelled terror in her voice. "The treaty!"

The Tamerale forces didn't waste a second after seeing the modern technology, and drew their Alliance issued phaser rifles, and started to mow down loyalist forces. A few were able to draw their own phasers, but most threw down their weapons, and hid behind shields or their fallen comrades. Phaser cannons from the hilltop obliterated their archers.

"Strike the banners!" Kahlina shouted. The standard bearers immediately tossed their charges onto the ground, and the Tamerale forces stopped firing. It felt like silence after the battle, but it was anything but. Moans and cries from the wounded filled the air.

The officers and nobles around them stood in shocked silence. "What have I done?" She said under her breath. Desperate she turned to Arisu, panic and terror in her voice. "My family," she pleaded, "Get them off Talaria. Now! You have to."

She fell silent again, and after a moment she spoke still staring across the field, "Golondra... your sword please. I lost mine."

Without hesitation the noblewoman to Kahlina's left drew her sword and handed it to her empress. Kahlina laid a hand on her friend's shoulder, and with one last glance at Arisu, "Get my family."

Without hesitation or another word Kahlina Starbreeze stepped out on the field that separated the two armies, and crossed the distance to be met by Lord Tamerale.

He was a good bit taller than Kahlina, and he looked down at her, "You fought well General, but it was a foolish thing to use the holograms." This was the first time he had shown any respect towards her.

"It was... I made the error in inviting an outsider to this. I shouldn't have."

Tamerale nodded, "That is true."

Kahlina handed the sword to Tamerale who promptly broke the blade over his knee. "I have no terms, only that I ask that you don't punish those that followed me. They are good Narlins fighting for their Empire."

Tamerale nodded, "As long as they swear allegiance to me then they will be unmolested."

"Thank you."

"There is one more thing," Tamerale said with a grin. He drew his Dirk, and in one sweeping motion the blade sliced through Kahlina's neck. She fell face first to the grass. After a few twitches Kahlina the First was no more.