The Krizians came over the horizon from the south. Their numbers had appeared to have increased to tens of thousands. They’d joined up as the conquests of each new city led their companies to target the same ones. More than that though, a significant amount of what could be seen were the women that they had enslaved in each town. What wasn’t expected was that there were also hundreds of boys with them. The reports had said that all males were to be killed and all boys were to be impaled, but that seemed not to be the case. Jason’s men along the walls breathed a sigh of relief. There was still hope to rescue them they thought. It was only a momentary respite. Soon they saw that the boys were being lead to the front of the lines and then ordered to go forward. Realization ran through the Free Nation’s men who were manning the walls.

The boys resisted their captor at first, but there was only so much they could do. They first refused to walk forward which earned them boots to their backs. They fell forward onto their hands and knees. Standing took another step, but then they planted their feet. Some saw the soldiers on the wall watching and pleaded to be saved.

Inside the city there was a scramble to get to the controls of the defense grid. They had to shut it down before the children crossed the line and activated the defense systems, otherwise the end result would not be pretty. No one had given the order. It was just the natural thing to do. They weren’t thinking of the consequences which is why Jason ordered that the system be left active. If it was shut down it would allow the Krizians to overtake the city walls easily.

“But Sir, they’ll die if we do that,” a soldier protested.

“I know. They’ll also die if we don’t. Sure they’ll make it across, but then what? Do you think that will have earned them anything? We turn off those defenses and the Krizians will storm the walls. At that point we can stay and die or retreat and where do you think those kids will be? Don’t think they’ll be in the city, because the enemy won’t allow that. So then what? They get trampled to death out on the field or they are murdered. All of them are fated to suffer gruesome deaths. All we can do is make them less so and have meaning. Do not turn off that defense grid.”

The cold logic of it surprised his men. They’d never witnessed Jason to be so blunt about the reality of the situation, but then, they’d never been in one that was as one sided as this. There was no amount of trying rage induced hyper aggressive actions that could make any of this anything more than a tragedy. They could only choose what type of tragedy and whether this would be the end of all of them or not. It was clear Jason was choosing to weigh each action and take the one that led to the best outcome for all of his people, even if it meant sacrificing some of them.

The captive boys continued to be kicked and forced forward against pleas to stop. Some of them attempted to rush their captors trying to get around them, escaping into the mass of men. The resistance continued until one of the Krizian officers pulled out a pistol and shot the one directly resisting him. the shot blew through the head of the kid with a blast strong enough to vaporize his head. Silence fell over the crowd. It lasted all of several seconds before the boys all turned and ran directly into the field between the Krizians and the city walls. Turrets popped out of the ground and began their scanning for targets. Jason ordered the gates open with a smile. A few minutes later all of the boys ran through them unharmed. No one else had remembered that the defenses were keyed in to not fire on the Free Nation citizens. No one had changed that in this city so there was never any threat, but the Krizians at large hadn’t known that. They knew that they altered the defenses to attack the Free Nation, but they hadn’t checked how they were configured before they altered them. Meanwhile Jason’s army really didn’t understand how the defenses worked because they never had to deal with them until now. Jason was the only one who knew that the safest thing for the kids was for them to cross while the defenses were active.

The Krizians, on the other hand, thought that the defenses were either on or off. The children were just tests to determine if they were active and now that they had confirmed that they were powered off the Krizians soon followed after the kids. The turrets turned towards the soldiers, scanned them, and designated them as a threat. Hundreds of soldiers fell instantly. Their armor was no more effective in protecting against this system than the Free Nation’s ARMS had been. However, only the first line had charged in. The rest of the army was safely outside of the turrets’ range.

Jason’s men cheered. They had rescued the kids and it looked like they were going to be able to hold this bottle neck against the barbarians before they could get any further into Free Nation territory. Regardless, Jason ordered them to continue evacuating. He knew it was only a matter of time before their enemies would figure a way around the turrets. What he hadn’t expected was how quickly the Krizians would. Several of them had sniper beam rifles and once the turrets had been activated it was simple matter to eliminate them one by one until all of them were wiped out. Jason had hoped that the turrets would hold them back for longer, he thought, at least it held them long enough to get the children loaded on to the ships for evacuation.

Orders went out to man the wall and take up arms. Each of the soldiers on the wall took aim at the Krizians charging across the field. He didn’t like to do it, but he was given no choice. Jason ordered his men to open fire. Krizians fell with each shot fired, but they just kept coming. Of the ARMS weapons that were available to them none were rapid fire guns, so they couldn’t just mow down the invaders, but they could do their best to take out as many as they could before they overran the wall.

Several boats were held in the docks ready to depart the moment that the soldiers were ordered to retreat. They would hold out for as long as possible, but the captains were told to not put anyone else in danger. Fortunately, most of the city had been evacuated and there were a few ships that could devote their services completely to transporting the troops when time came. Jason waited till the moment that the Krizians were at the gate, they’d hold for a bit, but not long, and then he gave the signal. Retreat. Abandon the city. The Free Nation troops all left their positions to make their way to the boats.

At the same time that Jason gave his orders he launched himself over the edge of the wall into the throng of Krizian warriors. It was a long way down, but nothing he hadn’t done before. Quickly approaching the ground and several enemies, Jason drew his silver blade and slashed through them with ease. The ARMS armor of the enemy was still far beneath Jason’s ARMS and posed almost no resistance to his attacks. He landed and went straight into slicing through anyone that was nearby, attempting to draw attention to himself. The problem was that for all of what he could do and the power advantage he held over his enemy he was still only one person in a sea of thousands. Each attack brought down one or more foes, but no matter how fast he moved he couldn’t bring them all down before they brought down the gates or got over the walls.

Several of Jason’s men stayed at their posts and took potshots at the Krizian soldiers, aiding Jason stemming the tide. And though they were just as easy to miss their collective efforts did get noticed. The Krizian forces attacking the harbor city were made up of not one but several companies that had unified on their way to their present location. All of them took notice of the hole in the ranks Jason was creating.

“You seein’ this?” a Krizian captain asked on their comms that were linked between all the captains. He stood at a height of 6’7” with muscles that proved he was no slouch like many of the higher up of the Krizians were. His tanned skin exposed that he was either liked to be tortured or was a massive screw up and the fact that he was a captain seemed to indicate the latter just couldn’t be the case. Unlike those under his command who carried guns and swords, he had a giant Labrys strapped to his back glinting in the noon sun.

“Are you talking about the one cutting our men up?” another of the captains queried. Unlike the first, this one was slender and appeared to have a royal stature about him. Nothing about him said soldier. From head to toe he wore robes and attire that would constrict his movements. All of which were topped off by numerous gems and jewelry.

“Yeah. It must be their leader. What’s his name?”

A third captain shot out across the field towards Jason. She was quick, the fur on her face streamed back as she ran at a speed surpassing anything a Human could do. Her clothes were that of a Krizian soldier, modified to best allow her run and fight while simultaneously being as stealthy as she could be. “He’s mine!”

“Not if I get him first, Sil`phane,” a captain that was in the thick of the ranks already replied. He was hard to spot in the mass of soldiers if one didn’t look closely, but once he was spotted it was near impossible to miss him. A Tok`phane dressed in armor that covered every bit of his body, but the shape of it made it unmistakable what he was. It wasn’t uncommon to see them like that, but what was strange was that instead of the standard sword and shield of most Tok`phane, anywhere that a blade sheath could be placed there was one. From dagger to giant buster swords, he had at least one of every kind on him.

“It would be wiser to engage the enemy together,” the last of captains chimed in, “He has brought many of our brethren low and Lord Kriz himself finds him a formidable enemy. Do you believe you can do that which even our god cannot do?” This captain seemed to emit a cold black aura from beneath a cloak. As they walked it exposed armor beneath, but it too was black as the night. He floated in the skies above looking down at the battlefield, but in a blink he was behind each of the captains, tapping them, before vanishing with them again. When he gathered all of them the next place they were seen was in a circle around Jason. The soldiers that were attacking him suddenly changed direction, avoiding what was to come, instead opting to help breach the gates or climb the walls. It wouldn’t be long till the city fell now, but the captains knew if they felled Jason it would mean the whole of the Free Nation would collapse. No objective was more important and none would be as rewarded than the man who took down Chris’ nemesis.