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Even on the ground, the Ascomanni are caught with their hand in the cookie jar. They thought their Allfather gave them the Garter to be the heart of their new kingdom. Now they stare up at the sky and see it raining golden death.
“Fear not, citizens. House Lune has come. Lysander has come! You are safe.” To the sounds of weeping, we begin to free the lowColors.
“Flex on your dominus again, I will fuck you to death with your own knives.
Wtf
Diomedes nods. “Eventually they will know their plan has gone awry. Why let them know until we’ve made our move?”
Most of all, I fear my own concessions will come back to haunt me. That I will be laid bare before these people as a fraud.
The onrushing man is close enough now to see the color of his flapping cloak and armor.
DIOMEDES!!!!!!
He’s alive. My heart swells with relief and joy.
:-)))))
He falls to his knees and wraps his big arms around the old woman. Together the two weep and I stand there elated, but wondering.
He is not afraid, and that makes me happy. It’s less fun killing people who are afraid.
“No matter who wins, you both lose,” Diomedes says. “The victor will limp home and Atalantia will open her jaws and chew the remains.
“Common ground,” Diomedes says with a sigh. “Good. There it is: we are outplayed…unless we form an arrangement.”
lfg
all Atalantia and Atlas—and those like them—will accept is either subjugation or annihilation.” He leans back. “I do not see a tyrant in either of you. I see two humans who want to leave the worlds a better place than they found them.
YES!
“And if you were born a Red on Mars what would you have done?” Lysander flinches at the question in revulsion, unable to imagine such a thing. “When I was a boy, my father asked me that question. I said ‘rise up’ and he smiled.
“Darrow is not to blame for this war. Gold is. The hierarchy gave humanity the stars, but the decadence and cruelty of our rulers gave us this rebellion. You told me once that we have forgotten who we are, Lysander. You were right. We are not kings. We never were meant to be. We are shepherds. Shepherds do not rule. They guide. They nurture. They protect.
BAR
My stomach sinks when I find a holodrop waiting for me on his captain’s chair. I don’t need to listen to it to know where he’s gone. I rush out of the Archimedes.
NO!!!!!!!!
I really do believe he means my body no harm, so I sit down on one of the leather couches to decide if I mean his any.
Hes gonna bring cassiuss head instead of atlas i bet
I did not know how long I was waiting to hear him apologize until this moment. His words slip past the armor I’ve built around my heart. The emotions of childhood rush back. All the loss, the loneliness, the fear and instability.
“I…I am just a puppet. That’s all I have ever been. A puppet or a prisoner or a pet. Octavia’s, Atalantia’s. Atlas’s. That meeting…Atlas may already know…my
My Praetorians can’t protect me. The ones who came with me on the Dustmaker, they are sociopaths. They kill hundreds of people and keep a running tally. They make bets about it. They serve him. Not me. They worship him. Call him a patriot. Me? I’m just a spoiled Palatine brat. He’ll skin me in front of them and they’ll just salute.”
Wow
“We won’t,” she says. “The three of us together. How can we?”
famous last words
An invisible jamField extends with a pop. He knows. No. He’s careful. Making sure no one records him.
Certain patterns have been broken.”
????
Was there a green tinge on his lips?
????
Barking like a dog, he charges me.
Freak
I spike my razor through the crown of his dragon helmet and into his head three times.
LETS GO LYSANDER!!!!!!!
Cassius’s right hand is gone. He’s fighting with his left. Three deep slashes score his chest plate.
NO MY BB
I shoot Atlas au Raa in the head. Everything above his eyes turns to mist. He teeters, takes a step, and falls. His bored smile remains. Mocking me.
AHHHHHH
The man is quite simply dead. Part of me did not believe he could die. Watching his blood flow around the bits of his fragmented brain, I begin to accept it.
“You used me? For that? For this?” he asks. “To cut your strings and pin it all on me. The Betrayer.”
OHMY FUCKING GOD
“I must. I am Cassius Bellona, son of Tiberius, son of Julia, brother of Darrow, Morning Knight of the Solar Republic, and my honor remains.”
NOOOO CASSIUS
“The Raa prince…Dustwalkers. Find them. Kill them.”
FUCK YOU LYSANDER
She almost smiles at my nobility.
What fucking nobility you freak
All the beauty seems so inconsequential when someone you love is in danger.
I am going to throw up
All my allies, all my people out here will be undone by this woman who is so old she will not live to see the future she steals from them.
The Achilles’ heel of the Core has always been greed, and ours has always been pride. I tire of both, so do the people. Gold has failed. We need order, yes. But not the same order that brought us here.”
I love you with all my heart. But you represent a past that fears the future. I will not accept that. So, if it is true that the young cannot teach the old, and the old must always teach the young: kill me, for I will learn no other way.”
Yea you ancient freak
“I will never agree with you on this course of action. But…maybe that is natural. I am the dusk now. You are the dawn.
“Then we go,” Diomedes says. “And we must trust Lysander and Cassius will meet us at the summit.”
Nooooooo
My beautiful, brave friend hangs like a carcass in a butcher’s freezer.
What the actual fuck
“You say the Slave King has saved you. Very well. Let the Slave King feed you.”
Oh my god. Hes gonna raze the fucking garter
I have faced many bombardments on three separate planets. They are the definition of hell. Far worse than anything else in war because of the helplessness they instill. Yet I have never been caught off guard like this. Like a civilian. No armor. No plan. No resources. No men.
The infrastructure is the target not the civilians.
Youre gonna kill the fucking civilians you idiot
It was bad enough to kill Cassius. I could not bring myself to also destroy his ship. It feels like it is part of him, and if it is destroyed, he will truly be gone.
Fuck you
“I’m not a monster, Pytha. Cassius was an enemy combatant.
Fuck you
“They are mostly Rim-style designs, some decades old, but it looks like the Pandora is the flagship. Very strange.”
IM SCARED
I pick out two cubes, one with the Red sigil, one with the Gold. The only question I have left to ponder is which, were he in my position, Silenius would use first.
I cant fucking believe this
So much balances on the good intentions of dangerous people. It’s enough to give a man gray hair.
“I thought Lune didn’t use any atomics,” Gaia says. “He didn’t need to,” I say. “Then what is that mutant?”
SEVROOOOO
Sevro smells terrible, and like home. He presses his forehead to mine.
“You idiot. What do you think this is? The Middle bloody Ages? The only thing Lunes honor is themselves.
