The Wars of Zegandaria by Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov (find a book to read .txt) 📕

- 'What have you been up to?,' a voice nearby cut them off. 'If I'm going to die in the morning, at least let me be cheerful and cheerful. Death with a smile is somehow more pleasant perhaps.'

- 'Naive romantic,' the first of the two interlocutors cut him off. 'Life forgives us nothing, absolutely nothing, and you want us not to discuss it.'

- 'Never mind, talk to yourself,' he said half-asleep. 'Believe it or not, in the end everyone ends up tired, lonely and repulsed and their death impresses no one. All in all, his life was pretty meaningless. No two opinions!'

Royan didn't hold back and intervened.

- And do you know where Mom is?

- 'We haven't seen her, my boy ...,' the first interlocutor pronounced strangely kindly. 'But she's certainly not here.'

- 'She wanted to bring me something to eat.,' he murmured timidly.

Hardened as the men were, they remained silent and did not tell him that they had seen her hanging herself a little further down in a dark corner. Even here a minimal amount of conscience deterred them from doing so. He would never see her. The limp woman had long since flown off to a better, or perhaps worse, world, as different religions had different interpretations on the matter.

- 'Take this as your first brush with harsh reality,' one of the three men tossed in.

- But it was a conscious choice and you are not to blame. Accept it!

As if a simple death had changed everything. In reality, the place here was not the same, for it had already been defiled by the basest thing the universe could imagine - suicide. Suicide caused by utter hopelessness. A veritable feast of death. Quantum physics, of course, was of a different opinion. It wasn't just an end of life, it was a simple transformation. For most ordinary people, these two things were somehow contradictory. They were completely incompatible. Well maybe it wasn't implemented in the best possible way. But it was. And that was the thing that mattered.

- Well we're not your parents. And you know it no worse than we do. But you have to take responsibility for your own actions. You have to get your own food. Your mother's gone. What else is there for you to do but fight and survive?

The boy said nothing, but a large tear dropped from his eye and patted his cheek. He guessed what had happened to her. A lump settled on his throat. It clenched its little fists, but quickly released them helplessly.

They were going to die in a few days anyway due to lack of food. These old men were just philosophizing, or maybe not? The water had also been flushing for a long time now, but it was strangely kept quiet about that. It wasn't something that should have been talked about. It wasn't moral. Or so he thought at the time.

It just turned and headed for the other quadrant, where his mother had headed. The darkness swallowed him. He had his own survival to attend to.

^^^

- 'What have we done, Elisandra?,' Spears turned to her. 'We messed this whole mess up. Us and nobody else.'

- 'It's not all our fault,' she called back. 'We're definitely doing everything we can to fight off the attacks. Whether we manage to do so is another matter!'

- 'We've lost too many people. 'The capital is in ruins,' Stockton called back. He was near them.

It had been about two months since they had defended the city. Kenji had been sent to transport the criminals. So, he was the only one who couldn't witness all the bacchanalia. He had left the capital in complete anonymity.

The fighting had been so fierce that they had learned of the deaths of Navarro Gomez and Eohinis Szzadis, who had perished in an extremely ridiculous manner. Some of the defensive lines had been broken and it was only a matter of time before they reached the ‘Gardens of the East’. What was even scarier was that they had to admit their own defeat. They had to admit they were wrong and realize it loud and clear. Clearly their calculations about warfare were not very accurate.

The enemy had more ziruarxs, and not least well-armoured Niranga destroyers, and enough esonium bombs. The proton bombs they tried to respond with were not enough for the simple reason that they did not give much perimeter precision. There were gaps and huge and violent explosions.

Special interceptors accounted for every possible danger and from then on, the ziruarxs had the function of burying themselves in the sand and being undetectable while the smaller combat units tried to find breaches in the defenses and penetrate.

The Destroyer-class combat speeders would do a pretty good job too. They were meant to secure the flanks of the opposing army and neutralize the defensive outposts. They had captured most of Ubunder and would soon finish them off as well. There was no moving! There were too many who vainly believed in some illusory salvation that might never come. It was a battle of life and death.

- 'Do what you can, Elisandra,' sighed Spears. 'Perhaps an old and tired admiral like myself should have retired and someone more worthy take over his duties. Maybe this city-state deserved better. And maybe we definitely had a crappy strategy. We ended up on the losing side. Too bad! Your girl could have changed the outcome of things! Who knows?'

- Don't do that, Jeffrey, you have a real chance to do something with your life. You'll go down in history as a hero!’ she tried to cheer him up. You're only fifty! You have to find the strength to defend the city you love so much. He gave us everything we are!

- 'I don't think so,' replied Spears, almost voicelessly. 'If we're still alive by then. And there's someone to remember us by.'

Stockton only coughed. He did well to remain silent. He didn't want to add fuel to the fire. He knew there was no point. Everything would be resolved in a matter of hours. Not even minutes. His hand consulsively reached for his weapon. It had to be within his reach. It had to be available - just in case. At least he could preserve his dignity in these last moments of his life.

Something unheard of and abnormal was apparent in that moment. Frenzied, green-skinned guerrilla warriors pounced on the enemy army. With their primitive weapons, they would have been powerless, but who knows where they were equipped with advanced plasma rifles and protective nanosuits. Some of them were still riding their heavily armed Groandus. They knew no mercy and were crushing everything in their path.

All three rubbed their eyes, thinking they were dreaming. They would never accept that someone was just doing such a thing. It was a hell of a crush. What were the motives of the mortal enemies of the human race to protect them. It didn't make any sense!

- 'Speak Admiral Jeffrey Spears to all our available forces - give them your support in their intentions to help us. Let's sweep the Elohyn scum away,' he shouted.

The small number of troops massed in various corners of the polis entered into cohesion with their until recently mortal enemies. Brutally ready to destroy and defeat. In the hope of soon deliverance or death. Though they spoke no language, they fought side by side. Just as people who have a common cause do. And believe in an idea.

They had to be careful about one thing though. There was no reason to relax just before the end. That was simply unacceptable. They had to win with all their might. And to overcome the resistance. Inch by inch. Millimeter by millimeter.

The enemy lines began to bend. He was almost defeated. It was only a matter of time before they routed the remnants of the already half-broken but slightly outnumbered Elohyn army.

- 'Yeah, heroes, go forth! No mercy! Fight to the last drop of blood!,' the admiral roared over the radio, inspired by the idea of a possible victory.

- 'You will not give up,' Elizandra joined in. 'They are no better than you. Forward!'

Ubunder seemed to brighten. The green hills, blackened by the many explosions and the rumble of machine gun fire somehow shyly gave way from under the piles of dead warriors. There was smoke everywhere, but many wished they could smell something else. To see if their brother, sister, husband or comrade was still alive. That was far more important.

- 'We can't let the city perish,' Stockton called. 'I will personally go to help with both hands. There may be some still alive among the corpses.'

Stockton rushed out of the safety of the bunker. He took the half-broken elevator to reach the surface. He had to do it to wash his conscience. He needed to be up there among the wounded and the wronged, not safely huddled among the well-protected walls underground. He owed it to them. And a lot of it.

As he fled in a way he didn't even suspect was possible, he became acutely aware of something interesting. It was the brotherly cries of warriors embracing. Was it all over in just a moment? Was this whole story going to end just like that?

With final leaps, he overcame the ghost warriors' resistance to letting him outside without a special protective suit and without guards. He still put on the suit, just in case, and accepted two ghost warriors to accompany him. Climbing the last meters to the surface, however, he felt the wind of change. That sweet spring wind, bringing a light-heartedness. Making everything possible - even love. He wondered where they had gone wrong with their tons of serious calculations and well thought out moves. They had held the positions for weeks. And the battle, and perhaps the war, had been decided in a matter of hours. That was the important thing!

Emerging from the bunker, he looked around and saw the aftermath of Tok Rukh Min's relentless attacks, the brutal Guarron psychopathic assassin who had brought many of Ensarian's finest warriors to their knees. Ironically, the chieftain himself, lay not far from where the bunker connected to the surface. His weathered face still showed deep wounds inflicted by some of Ensarian's finest warriors. There was a whole pile of dead beside him. The remains of their bodies were simply a disgusting sight. Even from beyond the grave, his spirit refused to surrender.

Not far to the northeast, the ruins of the front approaches to Enzok Ra, Ensarian's richest district, could be seen. There had once been the commercial part of the city. Ensarian's wealthy inhabitants indulged in noisy revelry until midnight, and so this district did not have a particularly good reputation. The buildings there had an extraordinarily bizarre and almost surreal shape. But still it was the face, and the most beautiful part of the face at that, of Ensarian. Now it was covered in ruins and thick smoke enveloped it. The Guarron warriors had sacked and burned it, and most likely the entire population had been slaughtered to death by the merciless humanoid creatures.

Farther on was Intok Rul, the second largest district and a veritable paradise for scholars and students. There were the science centers and laboratories. The Guarron had not dared to demean valuable scientific achievements and artifacts they did not understand. It was a great loss to the entire Ensarian civilization that was irreparable.

The situation was most unfortunate at Azak Intul, the oldest district and the closest to the bunker. There the guarron had not even cared to loot because of the unspeakable and savage ferocity of the fighting. It was evident that they had been fought with varying success. Somewhere deep in the bowels of this quarter there was an atmosphere of resentment against the aristocrats and their manners, despite the words of brotherhood and equality already mentioned.