Graceless

Sanghelios burned.

Blue flames writhed and twisted across plains around the riverbed. Smoke from the ruined war machines rose up high overhead to blot out the sun with a dark, hellish cloud punctured only by the squadrons of Vadam Banshees chasing down what pitiful few militia warriors remained. To Shinsu ‘Refum’s eyes, clouded by blood and pain and hate, even the water itself seemed to be on fire.

“With me, Mylu,” he coughed, dragging the younger warrior through the water. “Stay with me. Just a little further and we can rally the others. The battle isn’t lost. Not yet, we can still come together and drive them back.”

Mylu gave no response. That came as no surprise to Shinsu, even as he dragged his subordinate through the river shallows. Why would he? Of course he was dead, dead just like all the others. Shinsu was talking to himself, more empty promises spouted for the corpses lying along the riverbank and floating past him in the current. They were all dead.

A Phantom’s engines throbbed behind him. The enemy was upon him. It had to be the enemy. No friendly craft were left in the skies above. Shinsu did not bother to turn around to face his oncoming killers. He simply dragged Mylu’s corpse through the water like a creature possessed. His fists tightened on his dead friend’s body and his hearts pounded deep in his chest. So this was truly how it ended. Him, alone amongst the corpses of his comrades, without even a weapon to defend himself. His rifle was lost to the water; his sword left burned out besides one of the countless Vadam warriors he’d slain. All it would take was one energy blast to finish him off.

Distantly, he wondered what sort of tale that would make. ''And so fell Shinsu ‘Refum, and all his noble comrades with him. A truly pitiable end for a pitiable creature.''

It wouldn’t make much of a tale. It wasn’t even worth a tale. For all his ambitions and maneuvers, his sacrifices and determination, he’d amounted to nothing in the end. Just a footnote in the bloody history of Vadam’s conquest of Sanghelios.

But no blast from the Phantom came. Instead, Shinsu heard several splashes in the water behind him. Someone barked orders, and the splashing intensified as warriors fanned out beneath their dropship. So they intended to capture him, perhaps parade him before all the keeps and villages as yet another one of Thel ‘Vadam’s conquered enemies. What was one more humiliation amongst all the rest he’d been forced to endure?

A sigh slipped past his mandibles. He let Mylu’s body fall and drift away from him to mingle with all the other corpses floating down the blood-soaked river. Turning, he saw several warriors in Vadam colors. At the sight of the blades glowing in their hands he reached instinctively for his own only to remember that he had none. He tried to quell the gesture, but it was too late. A few of the warriors laughed in derision. One wearing the sash of a section commander stepped forward.

“A scout told me he saw Shinsu ‘Refum wandering through the river,” the officer said, mandibles curled into a smile. “I took him for a liar, yet here you are after all. It seems fortune smiles on me after all.”

Shinsu gave no answer. He wondered how long this pompous fool would drag this out.

“What is it the peasants call you? The Black Knight of Sanghelios? I must say, your reputation was highly exaggerated.” The officer’s eyes hardened as he gestured at the carnage around them. “Well, you young fool. Is this what you set out to accomplish? All these warriors led astray to their deaths, just to feed your own petty lust for revenge? Our kaidon would have granted you amnesty. He would have welcomed the kin of Sesa ‘Refum, perhaps even given him a place among us. Instead… this.”

The officer shook his head. “Such a waste. Now you die here, without even the honor of defending yourself. A far cry from the glory you sought, no?”

So this was how it ended. His mastery of the blade meant nothing here where he stood helpless before the blades of his enemies. His friends and comrades were scattered or dead; no warriors would come leaping to battle at his order. Every source of pride stripped away, leaving him alone here among the bodies of more comrades, the ashes of more dreams.

In the end he was nothing at all.

''But I never wanted glory. Only vengeance.'' He had walked the path of blood this far. Was he really about to simply go meekly too the slaughter now?

The enemy waded towards him. They had splashed down into deeper parts of the banks; their movement would be hindered. They expected him to simply fall beneath their swords. Shinsu looked down at the rocks beneath the water. Most of these were small pebbles, but a few were large enough to hold steady in one hand. Large enough, perhaps, to crush a Sangheili’s skull, if wielded properly.

Shinsu looked back up at the officer and realized there was nothing to fear here. The battle was already lost. His comrades were already dead. The only thing on the line here was his own wretched life. Such a meager prize hardly warranted the fear of failure.

The true struggles were yet to come.

“Alright,” he said, reaching for the stones. “Let’s go.”