Petrandra

I woke up with a violent gasp of breath and a sense of urgency to discover my surroundings. I looked around in a panic that blinded my vision as I was engulfed in a darkness that felt unfit for my haste. My memory was absent of where I was or how I got there, but my mind was certain about one thing: I could not stay put. I got onto my knees and scrambled across the rocky, dust covered ground, feeling for anything that I could protect myself with. Despite being within the damp grasp of an enclosed cavern, I felt endlessly exposed. The thought of danger rattled around my brain and the thought of my defenselessness sent shivers through my core. At last, I grasped hold of my rifle and rose to my feet. I quickly activated a light attached to the barrel and swept its beam around me. My vision was restored yet my sense of dread still lingered, adrenaline played a pounding rhythm of alert in my ears.

I was alone in silence. I was alone in darkness. I was alone with nothing but space for my mind to wander. I scrutinized the emptiness thoroughly and decided I must move. I made a guess and marched towards what I hoped to be an exit. I began up an incline and became overcome with calmness. I saw the orange glow of a dim light ahead and heard the sound of dripping water which began to fill the place of silence.

The barrel of my rifle led me through the protests of my aching legs. There was no place to wait, no time to slow down. I found my way to the end of the incline and basked in a dull warmth of sunlight. The sky above me, an inviting gradient of blue, told me the only way to go was up. I connected my rifle to the magnetic slot that held it in place on my back and took a breath to allow my arms a moment to build strength.

I braced myself against the stone wall and came face to face with the source of the dripping sound. Crimson fluid splashed upon my nose. The source that had broken my anxiety through its destruction of silence now brought back the fear I knew I was forgetting. My mind had no time to trace the source of my terror. I needed to climb. My hands held me in place and my trembling legs lifted me upwards.

The brightness I was bombarded with as I approached the end of the climb was blinding. I slowed my pace to give my eyes time to adjust. There was a stillness that persisted in the air which was unfit for what my anxiety told me I would find. Then again, I could not remember what there was to expect. All I had leading me was instinct and a knotting feeling which I knew better than to ignore. I grasped the edge and lifted myself up so that only my eyes were above ground. I scanned the scenery thoroughly once, then twice, then a third time because I could not believe there was no sign of an immediate threat. I hoisted myself up fully and snatched my rifle from its holster, throwing my body into a defensive position.

A gust of wind pummeled my nose with the smell of a battlefield. A tear escaped my eye and screamed of an almost forgotten sorrow as it drifted aimlessly down my cheek. Moments in time, frozen for those who were the subjects, flooded back into my mind.

We had been surrounded. I had sat barricaded behind a plasma shield that had been spread between the backs of the two brave soldiers in front of me. I had frantically activated the comms to report the precarious situation we had found ourselves in but had been prevented from transmitting a single syllable. The soldier to my left had crumpled over in place, compromising the shield. The last thing I had heard was a shrill scream:

‘Captain, look out!’

The explosion had landed too close for me to have had much time to react. I had turned away as quickly as I could and had no choice but to allow myself to be carried by the blast into the depths of a cave.

With the knowledge of my past returned to my mind, I scanned my surroundings once more before looking down the wall I had climbed. I smirked with a sense of pride, only Kentrolian armor could allow one to survive such an explosion and fall. My gaze progressed from the depths of the cave to my boots and the joy of my luck faded. I was standing in a pool of mud and blood. Dread filled me as I noticed that I was contributing to it. Pain rattled through me as I grasped at the open wound on my left side. With no less pride, I wished we could make armor better than ourselves.

I was dwelling on the loss of blood for too long. If I allowed myself to linger in fright, I would surely succumb to my own defeat. I acknowledged my exasperation and became determined to go on. I slowly made my way across the field, which was littered with allies, enemies, and too many people I knew. What I saw was overwhelming and horrific. It was a scene that would be paraded throughout the galaxy and upon each showing would lose a piece of the reality that could only be immortalized in the memories of the fallen. The trepidation that consumed me could be recreated in no other. I alone am consumed in the aftermath, and I alone will be the last to see its true form.

I approached the center of the field and could not go further. I sat upon a stone and gazed out at a plain and uninteresting landscape scarred by the edifice of human nature. Tears filled my eyes as I reflected upon it all. How lucky these soldiers were to end with humility. My end would be nothing more than the slow taunt of time which counted itself by the liters as they flowed from me.

“Captain,” a cheerful voice said.

I knew I was alone and ignored the fabrication created by my mind.

“Captain,” the voice repeated even more pleasantly.

I felt the soft grasp of a hand upon my shoulder and raised my head up to see her. A medic from my division. Her name I could not remember, her voice almost familiar, and her presence a false security of my own creation. I dismissed her as best I could and let my head sink towards my chest.

“Captain,” she said again. “Sit up so that I may tend to your wound.”

“There is no point,” I responded. “My true wound you cannot see, it sinks into my soul. A patch to my body will not heal it.”

“A mark on the soul is hard to diagnose but not uncurable,” she said. “Tell me, Captain, what is it?”

I laughed at myself for a moment debating whether I would entertain my own mind. I recognized that I had no better way to spend my final moments and digressed into conversation.

“I will die here alone, nameless in a field of namelessness. Alone with my thoughts and no heroics to tell myself before my end,” I took a moment to control the sadness that was building inside of me and continued. “Generations of powerful and honest men and women all end with me alone, helpless in a stale battlefield. I’ve lived to bring honor with the confidence and pride of my ancestors, but not long enough to pass that honor on. Now, by the doings of fate, I will not be granted a proper end. No closure to a lineage worthy of the millennia that were before me. I witness those across this battlefield, both my enemies and my friends, in the completeness they brought by their sacrifice. Their ancestry will be glorified, and their dedication eternalized. As for me, I am damaged and victim to the thing that undoes all. It builds nothing and allows nothing to stay built. It is neither corrupt nor pure, neither malevolent nor benevolent. It is nothing but a moment yet forever exists. It is the only thing I could not defeat, and it will bring about my end.”

I collapsed into myself, and tears flowed from me in great volume onto the ground. The medic said nothing. She got up and looked around before kneeling beside me. She scooped up a chunk of mud from the ground and let my tears and my blood fall onto it. She packed the mixture into my side and held her hand comfortingly until it solidified. She stood up and took a few steps backwards. I lifted my eyes to meet hers and she smiled.

“Don’t worry, Captain Devshi,” she said. “You will have time yet to earn your end.”

She left time for no response before she ascended into the air. I watched as she rose higher and higher into the sky before she disappeared with a blinding flash of light inside of the blazing sun. I stared into the sun until I saw no more light within it. I turned around and leaned forward, planting the barrel of my rifle into the ground, and resting my chin upon it. I smiled happily at the solace I granted myself and closed my eyes, allowing my body to be shaped by the hardness that was freed from my soul.

#

A slight breeze was built up as the speeder docked to the platform. As was routine on the tour, the young daughter darted to activate the viewing screen while her mother shouted her advice to slow down. The rest of her family followed closely after. She removed the viewer from its stand, activated it, and zoomed in on the rock that was the reason for this stop. She pressed a button to initiate the monologue of their tour guide. A life size silhouette appeared, and the rest of the family gathered around it.

“Welcome to Petrandra Field,” the silhouette said. “It was on this field that a small band of Kentrolian forces began to push back the Perpoyan invaders in the Battle of Sange. This marks one of the bloodiest battles of the war. The defense of this field was led by the Kentrolon born Captain Devshi. In the center of the field, Captain Devshi himself is said to be immortalized and encapsulated in stone.”

The viewer was removed from the young girl’s possession and levitated into the air, expanding in size so the entire family could see the statue magnified.

“The Perpoyanite forces retreated when their losses grew too great, and it became clear that the Kentrolians would never surrender. Legend has it that after their retreat, Captain Devshi sent his forces to regroup with reinforcements to the north. He transferred command and refused to leave the field. Upon that rock in the heart of the field he sat waiting for his enemy to return, assured they would be back. There he still sits waiting as the Perpoyanites never dared attempt to cross this field again. Captain Devshi is listed as a hero of Kentrolon and claimed as an ancestor by the Third and Sixth Families. For more information about the Battle of Sange, direct your speeder to…”

The family made their way back to the speeder leaving their curious daughter alone with the viewer that had returned itself to her possession. She increased the magnification of the viewer and closely studied the tired yet determined face of Captain Devshi which rested upon the end of his rifle. The daughter released the viewer with a gasp and stood for a moment in motionless confusion.

“Mommy! Mommy!” The daughter yelled.

“Come along sweetie, we have more places to see.”

“Mommy! He moved! I saw him move!”

The girl ran to her mother and tried pulling her by the back of her right leg towards the viewer which she had left suspended in place.

“That’s impossible sweetie, it’s only a statue.”

“I promise mommy I saw it.”

“Wow,” her father said, kneeling and patting her head. “That’s a very special thing to see.”

The family disconnected their speeder from the platform, leaving the recording of the tour guide speaking to no one.

“… It has been said that” the silhouette continued. “Captain Devshi will reemerge from the stone to signify Kentrolon is nearing its final days. He will lead once more an outnumbered force against the enemy that aims to destroy the Kentrolian way of life.”

The silhouette smiled and bowed to the empty space where the family previously stood before withdrawing from the air with a flash of blinding light.