10 years.

10 years of my life spent for this.

I came here with fifty thousand men at my command. Fifty thousand, all for a lope of terrain we couldn’t care for, fighting for a nation that couldn’t care less. We were ordered to establish our camp here, to fortify, to hold this ground against an enemy most of us – myself included – had never even heard of. And those that did fled before we even got here. I remember when we caught one of them while he was trying to escape : no matter how we tried, he never said anything ; he would just look back at us, as if we were marching proudly into an early grave we didn’t know about.

This place was empty when we got here. “Doesn’t matter, I thought to myself when my scouts reported in, in fact it’s a good thing, we have ample room to set everything.” And for a year or so, not much happened, besides the usual messenger from home, giving us all the latest news and orders. Some of my soldiers were starting to ask questions, but I quickly silenced them – this was my first mission of this kind, after all, and I would not have it ruined by some unruly men. I still had trust in my superiors, and so, I assumed this place to be more important than I thought. Despite my misgivings, and the few troubles I gave them, I was still promoted, and believed myself to be the best they could offer. I held the line against the Red Tide, saved my captain from certain death, and even lost an arm for this nation – and I would have gladly given the remaining one as well, if I had to. Our Glorious Emperor, who sits above all, was there that day : he watched from afar as my orders were given, before the entire battalion, and came before me and proclaimed I was the only one who could be entrusted with such a mission. The only one. I can hardly remember what else happened that day, but it didn’t matter then – and it still doesn’t now. Those three words were what kept me going, all those years. I had dedicated my entire life to our banners, and I was now prepared to sacrifice anything for it – just for those words.

And then, they arrived.

We held against these monstrosities for eight years at least, but these years felt long. We could never see them coming – their reflexes were beyond what we faced before. Their long, powerful limbs allowed them to jump at speeds that we were unable to assess, and they kept leaping at us before we had a chance to do anything. We lost half our men during the first month. Fortunately, they were too large to fit in some corridors of our small fortress, so I managed to scramble my remaining defenses inside. We abandoned the walls and great halls quickly, and were able to conserve our remaining food and ammunition inside. It took us a full year, however, to kill one of them – and, by then, lost an additional 500 men. I kept wondering how these things always slaughtered so many of us, despite being stuck in our narrow hallways, until I realized these weren’t the same creatures. Somehow, they got smaller, and smarter too – they always found a way to isolate us, one by one. I stopped counting our dead after 3 years – besides, there must have been at least 100 of us still alive.

But I still held on. We all did. We heard Him that day. The only one, He said to us. We clung onto those words, believing Our Emperor would come to us – and, even if he didn’t, that those beasts we be down to the last of them. We found a way to adapt to them, somehow : even though we could still barely see them, we always managed to lure them out, one by one. We swore that day, that if we perish this day, it would only be on a mountain of their corpses. And lure them out we did. One by one, we caught them, and passed onto the next. It always came at a cost, sure, but at that point, it didn’t matter to us anymore.

After 10 years, the Emperor appeared.

Only 4 of us remained. The leapers – as we called them – were routed out of the fortress, and we were forced to meet them outside, on an open field. So, we stepped out, and there he stood, watching over us from afar, as he did before.

This time, however, he did not come to me. He would not. The words resonated in our minds, as we called to him, be he simply stood there, watching, as the enemy surrounded us. And as they leapt forward for the last time, he turned his back on us.

I held this hill for 10 years, in his name. I sacrificed my whole company for him, and his damn nation. And to thank me for my services, he let me die a useless death.

We stood helpless as he turned his back at us. We died, one by one, torn to shreds by those we swore to destroy, as he looked away and left. And as the leapers were ripping those limbs, I once would have gladly lost for him, I had only his last words to me, as well as one final thought :

How could he do this to me ?

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