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I told her that we are those who tend the flame and shepherd the human flock. But the more I look around, I wonder: where have all the shepherds gone? In their place, I see only wolves and sheep.”
Bar
Mars must fall!” I shout it again. “Mars must fall!
Fuck offffff lysander
They frown, not sure who could possibly fit that bill. I lift my fingers in the horns of the Minotaur.
LOLLLLL
“My mother and father send their tidings,” I reply.
TEAAAAAAA
“I’ll send you your new boots. Oranges make fine leather.”
Damn.....
He looks back and forth between us, and then lifts his fingers in the horns.
YESSSSSS
Screwface believed his tormentors’ words a little too much and grew to think if only he was only a little taller, a little more handsome, a little more sophisticated, then maybe he would be worthy of love and respect.
Kill me
We know they’re resourceful. They know where we are. All we can do is make sure Mars is still home when they come back.”
But they’re Darrow’s best, and I know I should at least ask so they don’t get offended that I didn’t. “Who’s fit to fight?” They all raise their hands. Emotion tugs on my heartstrings. And here I thought I couldn’t love them any more.
The enemy has come to finish us, so we gather where it all began. Lykos.
Im only 30% through bro what could possibly happen
They don’t know he’s alive. The thought of his homecoming is like dawn to my heart. It will be a sweet day to see all this faith, all this hope rewarded.
“My son is lost. He will come home. But he is not here today. The enemy is. So today, we are not mothers. We are not fathers. We are not brothers or sons. They come to make us slaves again. So today we are not dreamers. We are not Colors. We are swords. We are wrath. We are reapers.”
CHILLS
It is a small kindness for her to comment on his humanity instead of invoking his name as a talisman for aggression.
Even with her head shaved into the warhawk her husband used to wear to battle and her face painted red, the woman cannot hide a mother’s grief.
But in her is a font of love that glows so hot it burns her from the inside out. For years I did not see that. I saw only her sharp edges. Now I love her and realize she was the sister I never wanted but always needed.
“You’re the bookish one. Was it a man who said ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’?” A lancer brings her gauntlets. “It must have been—to imagine something so petty as scorn to be the utmost misery a woman could suffer. What, I wonder, would he make of a mother who has seen her husband sold like meat and her babe nailed to a tree?” She dons her gauntlets. “Perhaps: wrath, I am thee? They come for our children, Virginia.” She turns to me and cups my face with one hand. “Do not fear for me. Instead, pity them.”
WOW
“He’s with Bellona and Sevro. Put them together and the stupidity tends to be exponential.”
<3
watch with Kavax, Holiday, and my commanders as the enemy armada creeps closer. Thirty minutes becomes twenty. Twenty becomes ten.
My god i am so nervous
“Your intelligence still believes the Lightbringer poses no true tactical threat?” I ask Oro, dubious.
Hehhhhhhhgg
They have no intention of launching an Iron Rain today. Today, they came to kill Victra and eliminate the best ships of our fleet.
Oh god
Shellmen, chug your prep juice and get to the tubes!
They ARE raining
Still, he grimaces as I approach the outsiders in the hangar—my Red Helldiver corps—and doff my cape.
?!?!
They are expendable, so I prepare to spend them.
Damn
She orphaned you. That is unforgivable. Family does not do that to each other. So, we are family now. You and I.
And why do i LOVE THEM!!?
I am Iron. I am Death. I am Gold.
Maybe they thought I had a magic trick up my sleeve. Something that would make my order less monstrous. They are sorely disappointed. It’s not that kind of day.
My moon and Lune’s moonBreaker go at it like two bare-knuckle brawlers tied together, punching and obliterating each other’s delicate features at close range.
The engineer on the line takes an unsteady breath. I can sense they are confirming with their colleagues. “The shields will go online in ten minutes. We will see to it personally.” “Name? Rank?” I ask. “Centurion Murani Legard.” “Thank you, Centurion Legard. I hail your name.” “Hail Lionheart. Legard out.”
I am truly unwell
“I love you, little one. Be brave for Virginia. She has the beans now.”
THIS HURTS SO BAD
Glancing up, I see Phobos’s main shield has come back on, cutting us off from support. My stomach sinks.
FUCK YEA
To defend Phobos, I invest bodies and resources like a Silver portfolio manager. Minimum cost, maximum profit. That is the game.
Fierce and disciplined as the Praetorians are, with Kavax delaying their second wave on the surface, they’re outnumbered nearly everywhere. I’ve managed to mass legions in strategic areas to oppose their progress and swamp their flanks.
Lets fuckimg GO virginia
Gone are the learned moralities that once differentiated me from my father.
I glance at Sophocles and feel as empty as I did the day my mother died.
NO
“Legate Telemanus’s Drachenjäger is on the line!” Relief floods into me. “Put him on.” A handsome, sweat-soaked face fills the Nucleus. Raving red-rimmed eyes too close for comfort stare out. It is not Kavax. It is Apollonius au Valii-Rath.
HEHHHHHHHH
“We are outnumbered. They will close in from all sides, but they are glory hounds out for themselves. They will compete against one another to get me. We are not them. We are a pride. We kill together, we work together, we survive together. They came for a hunt, but they forgot: hic sunt leones.”
Weeping actually
If I lost that, I’d send what was left of my bodyguards to create a distraction so I could slip out by myself. For the Republic. That’s what Adrius would do. Or my father. Not me. Not today.
“Lions, Kavax is captured. He has sensitive information in his head, and he is our friend. Many of you know him. Many of you have attended his namedays. The only way we will get him back is if we have a prisoner of equal worth to trade.
SO SMART!!!!!!
I seize the moment, dive low, like Darrow taught me, razor out, and spear Apollonius in his left knee.
LIKE DARROW TAUGHT ME
“He’s a traitor!” Holiday calls after me. “He may kill you! My Sovereign!”
Whaaaat
Or do you want to look him in the eye as I tell him: Valdir is worth forgiving. Valdir helped protect the Republic, his Sovereign. Valdir may be bald, but he has valor still.”
“She was. She just punched through and dropped her own Rain. Here.”
CMONNNN VICTRA
Apollonius is already barking orders to turn around. Cicero still doesn’t understand the danger.
MOMMY VICTRA SAVING THE DAY
“What if I cut the head off the snake?” Ajax says.
NO
The Obsidians are quite talkative, and seem to think they’re on a grand adventure.
Rhone pings my com. “Dominus, we have a report from Ajax.” I smile at Diomedes and take another bite of the apple. “Go.” Rhone pauses. “You’ll want to hear this in person.”
OH GOD
“Cicero chose to stand and fight instead of being picked apart trying to escape.
Is cicero her inside man?!?
My mouth is dry. “And Ajax. How did he die?” Rhone hesitates and spares Diomedes a look. “I sent him. I should see. Show me.”
WHAT
Then she cuts off his head, stands on his body, beats her chest, and roars.
Holy shit
Rhone watches him a little more closely. “You’ve never met Thraxa.”
Diomedes inside man????
