Ten Thousand bleed before
Ten Thousand cry behind
A Thousand stand beside
War has destroyed us
The Hikkenite female's voice was soft and pure, wafting through the refit point. It rged with the howl of the cutting bars hacking down trees, the grinders working on vehicles, the shouts of the Terrans as they worked, and the sound of the ad-hoc crews doing what they could.
War has changed us
War has united us
Once he stood alone, called a cheat
Now we stand as one among many
Beside her an immature Welkret female was playing a slow lancholy tune to go with the Hikkenite's singing. She had a little wind instrunt, the end against her mouth, the reed parallel to her face. Her fingers worked as played, strong fingers that I had seen holding down a Terran with a blown off arm as the dics worked on him.
A Herd of a thousand voices
Feral, primitive, Lanaktallan united
We stand with one purpose
To protect those that cannot fight
I sat in the mud, my legs folded underneath , leaning over slightly to rest my shoulder against the expended missile pods. I felt exhausted, like I had been up since the dawn of ti. I checked my chono in my helt and saw I'd been awake for nearly thirty-eight hours. Over twice the recomnded ti for even sleep deprivation training.
Podling, Colt, Filly, it no longer matters
Every voice lost is one too far
Every inch gained is a thousand short
Every machine destroyed is a million too few
My biological eyes closed and I was loathe to open them. The two cybereyes let see anyway, almost with perfect clarity.
I thought about how an old Lanaktallan on the sixty-third floor of the hab-complex I had grown up in had cybereyes and often complained that he could not see things clearly, only shapes and shadows and a slight bit of color.
My eyes felt like they were stuck together when I opened them again at a crash.
Yet we stand
We stand filled with rage
With loss
With the conviction that no more shall die
Another tank had been pulled in by the recovery vehicle and I knew I should get up, go over to it, but I couldn't seem to find the strength of stand up as I listened to the beautiful voice of the young girl singing such a lancholy song.
I saw a Telkan that I recognized from the first days, a Telkan that I had seen bring his family and watch seal them away in the first shelter. He left where he was eating, shoving the rest of his Goody Yum Yum Bar in his mouth as he pulled a paint stick from his pocket.
Boot, Hoof, Talon, or Fin
Fist, Claw, Gauntlet, Blade
Nothing matters more than the lives behind us
I closed my eyes slowly, my cybereyes still watching the doctors working behind the cloth. I could see the two inch thick plates of armor that had been pulled off the Terran woman, hear the beeping of machinery.
Four tis an arc of bright red blood has sprayed across the cloth, arterial spray as the doctor's struggled to save her life.
I could see the monitor where six lines moved steadily. A device to asure brain activity that I knew was connected to the fallen Terran who had led the foundlings out of the ruins, fighting alone, protecting them, calling out her faith to the Digital Omnissiah to give her the strength to save them.
Skies burn
Innocents scream
tal screeches
Rounds explode
The singer's voice was low, soft, as she sang the dirge.
Only one line of the brainscan had a single blip. Every few seconds it would give a little hiccup.
Only one.
I wondered if she was in pain.
I hoped not.
We we will survive
Not Confederacy, not Herd, not Hive or Pod
Our hearts, our peoples
We die so they can live
Into my vision walked three Terran females. Huge, covered in heavy armor, the torches mounted to their armor so they rose up over either soldier burning with a bluish-green fla. The bird of prey on their chests burning harsh white. They moved with the slow looking over-exaggerated movents of soone long used to power armor.
They went by and into the tent. I could see them move to where the doctor was working. Hear the Matron protest and the doctor snap at them.
They can laugh and play
While we toil away
With gun and grenade
Blade and Hoof
One ca out, moving toward . I struggled to get up, failed, and tried again, my joints aching, my muscles unresponsive. I managed to get all the way up, my legs shaking like a newborn colt, but my back straight and my chin lifted as I looked at them with my visor clear.
"You are Most High Ha'almo'or?" one asked.
I nodded. "Nearly," I told her. "What is left of ."
"I am Sister Tiffany Dargetta, the Sisters of Wrath, fighting for the Dark Crusade of Light beneath the hand of the Immortal Osiris of the Warsteel Fla and Joan ntissa," she said.
"I am Assistant Gunner Fifteenth Class Ha'almo'or, of the Great Herd," I told her.
"You have saved our sister from sha. Completed her mission after she fell to her foes," Sister Dargetta said. Her voice was stern, but held a hint of pain I could hear. "However, our sister now faces a choice she cannot make."
I nodded slowly. She motioned to and I followed.
"Her head wound is grevious. Not enough to kill her, not now, not with your dical services treating her," the Joan said. She waited as I stumbled twice.
She did not offer assistance and I did not expect it.
The wind instrunt played solo, the chainswords, the pounding of the sledgehamrs, the yelling and shouts of the civilians and soldiers all providing a background. It was beautiful.
It had no place here. It was too pure.
"However, she has been grievously injured, and because of this, there are only two paths left to her," the Sister of Wrath told . "As you are the one who saved her, you shall be the one to decide her path."
We moved into where the doctor was stepping back. He looked as if he did not approve. The other two were dressing the wounded one in her armor. Her chainsword was on her chest, her hands folded over it.
"What are the paths?" I asked, swallowing.
"Death," the Sister of Wrath said. She moved and made a motion. The other one shifted, and I could see the fallen Sister of Wrath's face.
She had whiskers. Short fur on her face. She had feline ears rising out of her dark hair.
"Or a fall from grace," the sister said. "To embrace what it ans to be Enraged, to embrace what it ans to be Wrath, more than anyone in the universe."
"Choose," they all said, facing . "Choose her path."
I did not know her. I did not know her culture, her struggles, what she might have wanted.
"Choose, Most High Ha'almo'or," the Sisters said. "Will she die, or do you will her to live? You have saved her, thus you must decide."
For us victory or death
Either is fine
We fight as one
So they can live
"Live."
--Excerpt From: We Were the Lanaktallan of the Atomic Hooves, a moir.
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