Gunfire rattled through the air somewhere off in the distance. The constant pop of explosions accompanied that gunfire, together they were a symphony that every battlefield sang. Every once in a while, the loud hum of a dropship delivering supplies and reinforcements would cut out the rest of those sounds. Even more distant still was the low rumbling of capital ships entering the atmosphere to provide fire support. It was a battlefield like any other over the last two hundred and fifty years.
The forward command camp was as busy as it could ever be. The Emperor of the Golden Empire frowned at the dusty hologram table before him. It displayed all of the Empire’s assets on the battlefield, right down to the last man. Field relays set up by scouting teams allowed it to display enemy positions also, though the signal wasn’t too clear. The little holograms representing enemy assets flickered and sometimes disappeared entirely. This made it difficult to plan strikes at times, but thankfully the Emperor and his second were very good tacticians.
The Emperor was what citizens in the Empire called an “Ancient.” That is, he’d been alive to see Earth before it was blown to space dust. Only to Imperial citizens was he the Emperor, to his friends and family he was simply Tyler Arbourne. Everyone within the man’s circle was an Ancient and they were the best warriors the Empire had ever seen even before it had become such a political power. In their prime it was a war on Earth fought between the Golden Legion and the Shadow Walker menace. At the climax of the second war, the conflict had consumed every resource on the planet and the Legion was forced to destroy the planet in the hopes of ending the war.
Humanity settled in a distant system where planets were terraformed and colonized giving rise to the Golden Empire and the people wanted Tyler as their Emperor. Until that day Tyler had refused to take full command of the Legion, he had never imagined himself proper person for the job. As luck would have it, he was actually doing quite well, except for the major fact that they had not, in fact, beaten the Shadow Walkers. Instead their enemy followed them and colonized a planet in a nearby system, quietly, undisturbed. The Walkers waited thirty years to make their first strike, and four years later they were here, engulfed in a new war with the same old enemy.
Tyler had been advised by his, well, advisers, not to set foot on any battlefield behind Walker lines. Everyone seemed to think the Emperor was too important an asset to lose. While they were right in a sense, Tyler knew that the Empire would be in capable hands should he finally be killed. The Emperor, however, was never a man to sit around while there was a war to win, and so he went anyway. It was this attitude that brought he and his brother and second in command Isaac were on an enemy owned planet attempting to take it from them. Both men frowned further as another enemy asset disappeared off of the hologram table.
“You’d think this far into it we would have better relay equipment,” Isaac said, folding his arms across his chest.
“Yeah, I really think we need to up the range on those things. Our field equipment is becoming outdated�" Oh hey an opening!” Tyler said gleefully and moved a hologram of a group of friendly units across the table through an opening in enemy defenses and rested them on a specific target. The table then auto-transmitted orders to that squadron leader’s CDD, or command data display. The CDD was a holographic projector every soldier wore on their wrist as part of their combat armor. Battlefields were so much easier with those in your arsenal. They were highly resistant to projectile damage, though they had problems with laser fire.
Tyler and Isaac could see nearly the entire battlefield from where their command camp was; a higher part of the mountain so that they could see straight down into the battlefield. The two watched the team they’d selected as they made their way to their objective and watching them work was a delight, indeed. The skill of this group was unquestionable as they worked in tandem with one another covering all directions around the squadron efficiently. They killed Shadow Walkers easily and slowed only once they’d reached their target. The objective was to take down the enemy’s primary power pylon. It was a large tower structure that fed power to all of the enemy’s systems. It had been heavily defended but over the past three days the Empire whittled that defense down until this moment.
“How long were their timers set for again? I can never remember.” Isaac asked.
“Thirty seconds, pretty sure.” Tyler replied as the men moved away from the target and worked their way back behind friendly lines. Isaac was audibly counting to thirty.
“Thirty one… thirty two… thirty three. I’m starting to think it’s not going to happen.” Isaac said with a frown.
“Do you think they armed it right? Because I could have sworn it was�"” A bright flash and a loud boom cut Tyler off and a huge eruption of fire and blue energy shot into the air. “�"Ooohh, it was forty five seconds. Sorry.” Tyler said with a laugh.
Isaac was holding his gut, he was laughing so hard. The staff that worked the camp was cheering as the the lights on the enemy side of the battlefield started to go down. Without even having orders issued, Imperial forces advanced on the enemy camp and with little opposition began to secure the area. Tyler almost shed a tear.
“I’m so proud of our little ones, Isaac, they’re growing up. I didn’t even have to issue orders, look at that! Beautiful!” Tyler exclaimed, resting an arm on his brother’s shoulder.
“Well, your highness�"” Isaac started
“You know I hate that�"” Tyler said. Isaac ignored him.
“�"It’s because you’re a great leader, maybe we’d be a little better off if you’d taken command, I don’t know, a hundred and fifty years ago?” Isaac chided. Tyler rolled his eyes.
“I’m sorry! How was I supposed to know I would be good at it? Who else would even know if I’d be good at it or not?” Tyler retorted, folding his arms across his chest and frowning at his brother.
“Uh, no one except EVERYONE!” Isaac waved at all the staff around the camp and motioned to their men on the battlefield. “Well, maybe not the younger ones but you know what I mean!” He finished.
Tyler simply stood there and smiled at his brother as a dropship landed near by and Tyler wife stood in the loading bay with a frown on her face. Once again, Tyler hadn’t told her that he’d be running a battle again and now he was in trouble.
Jenna approached in a huff, hands on her hips. “Your daughter�"”
“Ooohhhh….” Tyler and Isaac said at the same time, interrupting her.
“What?” Jenna barked.
“Nothing… I just thought you were mad at me,” Tyler said with a chuckle.
“Oh not at all, sweetheart, how was the battle?” She replied with a smile.
“I’ll tell you about it in the ship, Isaac lost a bet anyway he’s got clean up, come on.” Tyler said and escorted his wife to the dropship.
Isaac shook his head and sighed returning his attention to the battlefield, noting that the enemy base was completely secured. “I gotta stop making bets with that a*****e…”
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