Bloody Thrones

Some things are greater than life. A single action can be more powerful than a thousand words. What we are doing is greater than life itself, and if we win, the world will never be the same.

Since the beginning of our journey, you have been my loyal follower, and I would trust you to hold my beating heart. If anything were to happen to me, I wish for you to take my place and lead our people towards victory.

I will always love you, my beautiful flower.

Merculio



Rosetta read the note repeatedly, her tears slowly soaking the words while she wept over his grave. She could still feel his blood on her hands when she carried his lifeless body back to their camp.

Her mind was tormented by the wails she heard while walking the body to their church. She heard sadness almost every day in the life that she lived, but this was enough to tear her soul apart, but she could not allow that to be. It was now her duty to sit upon the broken throne and find a way to restore its beauty.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this, never ever was it supposed to be like this! It was all their fault; the Molova had acted with no mercy, pouring more blood into a battle they started on their own. By the time Rosetta had sent out a search squad, there was nothing but mutilated bodies for them to find, just adding more and more bodies to the pile of unjustified genocide.

Rosetta wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her day wasting away at Merculio’s grave, but her new crown allowed no such time for grief. Her name was being called more than ever before, being asked questions she didn’t have answers to. It was days until she could answer the most prominent question of them all.

“What is our next move, Mrs. Rosetta?”

“We return the favour.”

“You don’t mean taking down the Molova leader, do you? Merculio never had us be violent in vain before.” Tilla—her new second in command—retorted, leaning in closer to Rosetta. “Must we throw away his dedication to an honourable fight just because you are too trigger happy?”

“I am to lead the Barbakans to victory, and that is what I intend to do. Are you questioning my motives?” Rosetta pushed back, her fists scrunched up in fury.

“I’m questioning your decision. Going lethal at this point in the fight may destroy us and damage our cause.”

“Do you really believe we can win by playing nice? They threw the first strike, and it’s about time we got up and fought back. Make them pray for mercy for all the sins that have committed against us.”

“I still believe for this to be the wrong move, but if Merculio trusted you to lead on, then so do I.” Tilla crossed her arms and huffed while looking down at the territory map, her expression only softening in the slightest. Rosetta didn’t dare to express it, but a weight lifted off her shoulders after hearing those words. “How shall we even plan an attack? Our clan lacks the physical abilities they have. We could never outdo them in a contact fight.”

“We fight to our strengths, use the technology they stole from us against them.” Rosetta pointed to a flight camp just north of the Barbakan and Molova border. She placed a scroll of paper down next to the map and unrolled it for Tilla to see. “I’ve had scouts sent out to infiltrate their northern headquarters, and our translators have discovered that their leader is currently hiding in that base.”

“The northern base?” Tilla squealed, taking the translated document to read the language she was still struggling to learn. “Our technology is nowhere capable enough to overcome the walls of that base. It would be a suicide mission to even attempt it. We have lost too many lives already. We cannot spare anymore lives.”

“We shall not see the light on their faces; I would never be stupid enough to pull such a stunt,” Rosetta muttered, feeling slightly hurt from Tilla’s accusation. “Within a couple days, their leader and his inner council will be leaving for their central base in the southern region. For them so cross, they must fly over our base to avoid the mountains’ high winds.”

“You want to take down their plan while they are in our skies?” Tilla traced the flight patterns with a finger, going from the north Molova camp to the central one. A slight smile appeared in her lips once she tapped her fingers over the tiny speck that represented the Barbakans single base. “What can we do while they are there?”

Rosetta reached under the table and pulled out a small device that looked quite generic compared to a variety of technology the Barbakans had invented. “This is a radio-activated electrical shocker, it connects with the generators on the plane, including the emergency alternator. Once they are within our range, all our surveillance teams have to do is activate it, and their plan will lose all power.”

“Then they won’t have enough time to get the power back on, not enough time to avoid hitting the ground.” Tilla stared off for a moment, her mind stuck in a place of complementation. “How will we get the shockers on the generators? The planes are locked up in the base; we still have no way of infiltrating.”

“That’s what we believed,” Rosetta smirked, grabbing the document stolen from the Molova base and reading the notes from her scouts.” Sixty yards west of the back entrance is a warehouse hidden by Ivy and stone. On the east side is a back door concealed with a passcode; our analytic receiver revealed the combination to be 875116. Two guards stay in the rotation, but only guard the front entrance. Within the building are multiple helicopters and a single large-sized aircraft. Three camera’s located but easily avoided.”

Tilla’s snatched the document back, her nails catching Rosetta’s hand and causing her to hiss, but Tilla was too distracted to care. She read it over and over as if she didn’t believe it. Rosetta rolled her eyes and got herself a bandaid while Tilla took in the truth.

“How can they be this stupid? Leave something so vulnerable out to the open eye. Did they really think the Ivy was going to stop us from finding it?”

“All of that doesn’t matter! This is our window of opportunity. This is how we make them pay. They started this war to steal our technology, so we shall use our technology to end it.” Rosetta looked Tilla dead in the eye and leaned in close. “Are you ready to do with me?”

Tilla looked down while taking a deep breath, scaring Rosetta until she finally looked up and nodded. “I will be by your side. When will we make our first move?”

“Tonight we sent out the scouts with a team of engineers, then tomorrow we have them reconfigure the radio tower to pick up on the shockers signal. From there, we wait for the flight to take place.” Tilla nodded before joining Rosetta at her side to assign the tasks.

“What will happen if this succeeds?” Tilla asked, her voice now not seeming as sure of herself.

“When this succeeds, our world will never be the same again.”