Dance of Time
An old man guards his home with nothing but a crossbow. His home is besieged by bandits in the dead of winter, they come slowly but surely. There are no other defenders his sons are away; sent there by duty and fortune. They seek to return as quickly as possible, but they are far and the bandits near; their old father alone defends their mother, sisters and their ancestral home
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A Father defends his own
Two men stand under the moonlight that shone upon the balcony; they appear tense in the gait of their stances. The lights of an Imperial City loom before them, all the beauty and all the tragedy.
Your Majesty, you must leave the capital. The Telcari and Jin Bo will reach here within days, if you leave now there will still be time to put enough distance between you and them.
No General Lan, I will not abandon my capital. They will take it, over my rotting corpse if need be.
Your Majesty, it is not your safety that I am worried about. It is the continuation of the Dynasty, the continuation of our nation, our culture, our way of life. I did not expect you to leave the capital, to do so would to malign you as a coward; but the Empress and the young Princess?
The Emperor visibly weakened, and turned pale as blood drained from his face; yet that only lasted a short moment before the Emperor returned, the young caring husband and father disappearing. Not cold or detached, but simply shrewd and impersonal.
You are correct, I will arrange for the Empress and the Princess to go to the industrial fortresses in the north. You will accompany them General.
Your Maje-
It is to be done.
Cha! The General slapped his fist towards his left shoulder in the symbol of obedience, bowed and withdrew. He left alone man, a man who was revered by so many millions. The young man did nothing but look out at the horizon, praying for deliverance for the millions that had died and would continue to die.
He prayed for his daughter.
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An Old Man fades into the night
What had he done wrong?
Had he not served His Emperor, Empire and People with courage and dignity?
For more than four decades of his life, he had loyally served in the armies of his nation from the northern tundras to the charred wastelands of the south. He had fought in victories, defeats, advances and retreats. Escaping death many times, it seemed that death had finally gained the upper hand.
The world had been gradually fading and the cold, that indescribable cold advancing throughout his body. He strained to remember what had happened. The Telcari had long been laying siege to the city but the walls had been brought down so quickly by
a new weapon? Yes! Long ranged artillery had blasted the fortifications, weakening them for the general Telcari advance.
They had fought for as long as they could but there were simply too many Telcari, too many enemy soldiers, not enough soldiers to hold the city
They had fought well, very well yet it had not been enough. They had been driven from the walls, pursued across the city and forced to the citadel. They fought from the citadel and were forced from it, to a last stand in the main keep. They were around a hundred of them left; all wounded in some way or form held up as the city burned around them.
So it had come to this. A final, last stand in the defense of their country; there were no young men or conscripts among them anymore, they had all been slain. These were the veterans, the hardened soldiers who had fought from the beginning and were hardly optimistic. A voice shouted from the outside.
Soldiers of Qiankun, General Irminius offer you a most honorable surrender. You have fought well and there is no further need for bloodshed.
You can tell Irminius that as long as Li Fang draws breath, there shall be no surrender! The grizzled veterans nodded in agreement with their general, they had fought too long, seen too many die, to simply surrender now.
If that is your wish, then your wish shall be granted.
There had been little left to do, but prepare for the end, prepare for the embrace of death. He remembered that it had been his plan, to die fighting in the eyes of many and not shut in the wooden building. He knew the Telcari would seek to storm the keep instead of slowly whetting it away through hunger; it came true. In but a quarter of a hour, they could hear the advance of the troops up the narrow causeway.
As they neared and began knocking the door down, he and his soldiers prepared to fight, one last time; there had been a young man who then spoke.
General, it has been the greatest honor of my life to have served and to die with you. Those words did not seem to affect him much; he simply looked around at his soldiers and smiled. As the Telcari charged in and stopped out of confusion; there had been no resistance.
He gripped his sword, sprung out of his concealed place, screamed and charged. He blocked the bayonet of a Telcari, looked into his young green eyes, and stabbed him with the sword. It happened throughout the room; smoke, blood and gore filled the environs. He felt a sudden pang of pain. He looked down and saw that he was bleeding. He fell over and could do naught but see the rest of the battle as his men were slowly but surely cut down.
He felt peace come over him and he embraced the warm embrace of death.
It was all over.
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A General rages in vain
Damn the accursed Telcari! General Zhou Yu was hardly calm. It was more like livid, furious and passionate anger. They had been betrayed! By one of their own people to boot! That wasnt important now. He glared in futility at the scroll that quite stated the Jin Bo and Telcari assaults upon the capital province and the rather polite message wondering what he was doing in the Great Wall region as His Majesty had never ordered him to leave.
Now he could only look at his officers passing around the scroll with looks of shock coming to their faces as they read the message; it would be quite hilarious if not for the serious nature. Like an incoming wave, the shock too soon settled. It was business as normal soon enough and as such, they were waiting for orders.
We will take our New Model Army north and smash all the damn Telcari that stands between us and our beloved Emperor! A brief cheer erupted until the officers present remembered the presence of a representative of Huyue. Zhou Yu, in perhaps an afterthought, looked at the representative army meekly and then smiled apologetically.
I deeply apologize at our inability to help our friends in Huyue but I do hope you, and your country, will understand our own problems. If Luanyi falls, the Yun Empire may effectively be forced out of the war. I know our Emperor; he would never abandon his capital in the face of enemy armies. The Huyue representative did nothing but lowered his head.
These are indeed dark times for our two peoples. I pray to my Gods for the end of the Telcari and the return of our ancestral holy lands General. We understand now that our Gods now test our determination in recovering our holy sanctums by drawing away our allies.
I thank you for your magnanimous understanding of the situation. It is our greatest wish that our nations remain friends through these troubled times.
As do we all, as the world becomes a darker and darker place, it is all the more important to hold on to what friends we possess to rely on; upon such binds of friendship, loyalty and brotherhood is how men grow strong.
The rather genial response of the Huyue to the rather unfortunate news of his country and countrymen returned relative cheer to the small cabal of officers. The regions their army held were worthless, and despite their regret in not taking the opportunity to press onwards to the Telcari homeland, they were unified in their desire to return to the aid of the Capital.
Control of the border territories came and went, they were expendable. But the Imperial Capital was hardly the same.
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A Man faces his fate
He smiled and was bursting with joy. Victory, glorious victory was his! No more would the sly bureaucrats mock the name of Luo Zhongyi! Zhou Shikai was dead and Baoli felt the roar of the Emperors cannons and the might of half a million men. Five hundred thousand soldiers, tigers, lambs no more.
A field of green they were; gone were the ill-equipped conscripts with nothing to wear for protection from the elements. They were well armed with rifles, some produced in Yun factories, others produced in captured Jin Bo ones. Orderly and disciplined, this army, while not on the par of the New Model Army his colleague the General Zhou Yu had trained, was still an excellent army.
He turned around and looked at his officers and received a smile in return from all of them. They had done it. These treacherous Jin Bo sympathizers had done it and had reached Baoli. The uptight officials would have never believed it. He smiled the wicked smile looking forward to the time when he would oh so unsubtly rub the fact into their smug, self-satisfied faces.
To believe in the ideals of the Jin Bo, to sympathize with them, did not make a person a traitor of the Emperor and Empire. They could be, and were just as loyal to the Dragon Throne as those who stood in the way of change and progress. They were firm believers of Republicanism, of equality, of justice; they were simply Qiankun loyalists as well. They simply had chosen not to abandon their identity and now, they fought against their ideological brethren. No more, no more would anyone dare challenge their loyalties or allegiances.
He began to speak:
This is our-
A messenger rushed up and handed him a scroll, he prepared to put it aside but it fell and his eyes caught a few key words and his expression turned from a slight smile to one of resigned dislike.
darkest hour. This is our darkest hour.
The assembly turned eerie quiet waiting for their general to finish reading the letter and inform them of whatever concerning issue was at present. There was no expression on his face but one of serene calmness.
Gentlemen, these are dark times indeed. Luanyi, City of Cities, is under imminent assault by both the Telcari and Jin Bo. The scroll informs of the northern Telcari advance on the city, but it can be easily hypothesized that the rather lackluster resistance of the Jin Bo is due to the fact that they are massing their forces to strike at the capital from the sea. As there is no time to wait for further messages, I will proceed on immediately.
I will take the forty-thousand strong Imperial Cavalry of the army and lead them as quickly as possible to Luanyi and gather more mounted regiments on the way. General Xi Yan will follow taking around one-hundred thousand infantrymen following in my footsteps. The rest of you are instructed to continue the siege of Baoli and retain control of the captured Jin Bo territories as of now. You are dismissed.
As his officers bowed and went their ways, he looked at the city of Baoli one last time. He would not be the one to crack it that would be another one soldiers glory. But he did not serve himself, but others.
So the Doom of our times would be decided on the plains of Luanyi.
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A soldier sees the heart of war
Knock down that door!
I ordered my soldiers to follow through and as they made preparations to knock down the door, the door opened and the man that I had been ordered to arrest appeared quite confused.
Captain Chen Yiming, what is the problem? You seem to have twelve heavily armed soldiers ready to do something. May I inquire what you are planning to do?
I could only look at him in amazement. That man, this soldier, could still have the audacity to lie so blatantly in the face of his fellow soldiers. Im afraid my expression did show quite obviously as the mans smile slowly faded as well.
Major Tai Li, you are under arrest for high treason and espionage. May Heaven have mercy upon your soul, for we shall not.
I gestured and my soldiers rushed forth and seized him. Still, he had the despicably annoying smile. I could not believe that a handsome, charming young officer from a good family like his could traffic with the enemy in such a blatant manner. He had so much to gain, so much more than the rest of us could so easily betray us.
That took you people quite a while to realize that it was I who changed the orders and diverted the New Model Army from their location? Luanyi will burn my dear Yiming, and there is nothing you or General Zhou Yu can do anymore. You cannot possibly reach the city in time. The Telcari and Jin Bo will be victorious and the Empire shall end.
I resisted the urge to slap him and instead looked at him coldly and ordered the soldiers on, ignoring his remarks against what I held so dear. As per orders from General Zhou Yu himself, he would be punished to the utmost.
Bind him and throw him in the coffin before burying him, by the will of the Emperor himself.
That insidious man finally lost his smirk and seemed to fear his death. Strange, I always thought martyrs would die happily, smiling for the world to see. His screams, despite how much he deserved the pain and suffering unnerved me. I prayed for forgiveness.
And some people wonder why I'm so stereotypical 
That was quite a shocker... 
. It gets incrediably annoying after you have it done twice.....
